THE WIZARDY OF OZ!
15 Oct 04 - 8:18
EUROPEAN PES3 CHAMPIONSHIP REPORT
Femi Paul was crest-fallen at the European PES3 Championship, but his countryman and best buddy Oz Idris was crowned the people's champ! It was to be an evening of untold drama after a day of savouring the sun, sea and sand in the South of France. Nice.
Obviously Konami had planned it this way: drive 16 hyper-excited PES-mad lads to the beach for the day, wear them out, feed them well, then when there's absolutely no more spunk left in them to spark a row, get everyone down to the business of playing PES. For some of the guys involved the timing could have been better, past some players' bedtimes if 15-year-old Sergio Blasquez was anything to go by. However the location was better than perfect. That is, the hotel suite in which the championship took place, the giant presentation screen and overall layout was perfect. But on top of that, you had the atmosphere. And what an atmosphere!
ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL
Host Bobby Dee, or just plain Bob if you preferred, started the proceedings by first having all 16 players applaud themselves for getting this far. "Tonight we have 16 Champions," boomed Bob. "But there can be only one Champion!" he concluded, confusing me, I don't know about you. However when Bob roared, "Let's get ready to rumble!" it was clear the championship had begun. While the DJ queued up the first few tracks to provide the background music, Bob and a bunch of cheerleaders - yay, cheerleaders and nice ones too - announced the four groups of four that would play in the first leg. Everyone would play the others in the group twice, and only the top two would go through to the next round. Well the drama started right here, as you will soon see.
TICK... TICK... TICK... BANG!
Reigning UK Champion, Femi Paul, somehow got drawn into a timebomb of a group with a few very short fuses. With Femi in Group 2, there was 15 year-old Sergio Blazquez from Spain, all puppy-dog smiles and nervous energy; Antonio Lo-Re from Germany, who seemed to have spent the last 10 years of his life sitting on some frustration and chose tonight, of all nights, to let it go. Then there was Yann Atoulou, aka NEGATIF, of France who committed social suicide so spectacularly that he may yet get the fame he obviously thinks he deserves. More on that later.
OZ'S HORS D'OEUVRES
By comparison, Osman (Ozzy, Oz) Idris, winner of this year's North v South Derby, was pitched against gentle giant M Schmidt of Switzerland, Massimo Pagnon of Italy, also quiet, and Dany Jacinto from Portugal. Daniel was very serious, but his frown was only through concentration - he was a sporting feller as it turned out. Had to be. Oz had been meditating on three words since boarding the plane from the UK: Show No Mercy.
We'll get back to Femi, but let's start with Oz in Group 3. He progressed through his match-ups mostly according to plan. He proclaimed Schmidt to be, "a great finisher" after putting him away 4-1 in the opening game, but losing 5-3 in the return leg (although Oz conceded an own goal and hit the post a few times). The games against Dany were less productive but arguably more thrilling as it became obvious both players were evenly matched. The first game ended 0-0, and involved several strategic about-turns on both sides, lots of substitutions and formation tweaks. There were more goals in the return leg. It ended up 3-2 in Oz's favour, including a long-range half volley from Oz's Henry that sped diagonally across field from the top right corner of the box into the top left corner of the net. This was the game that Oz mentally woke up to the task ahead, and he clearly gained a lot of confidence from it.
It looked as though Oz would go to beat Massimo Pagnon on the bounce, in a game that stayed at 1-0 until the last 10 minutes. Instead it finished 1-1. However Oz got to prove his champion quality in the follow-up match - a savage 4-0 beating for Massimo to take back home with him to Italy. It probably didn't help his concentration that Oz was dancing on his chair the whole time. Well, sorta anyway - rolling his shoulders around and bobbing his head like he meant business all along.
FEMI'S JUST DESERTS...?
By comparison, Femi's games were not being taken lightly at all. Sergio Blazquez took his seat alongside Femi for the opening contests. Both chose France, and both worked the wings constantly to wait for their chances to cross the ball and find a well-timed header, volley, or spectacular bicycle kick. Femi had confided in us beforehand that he was relying on consistency to win, but a relaxed state of mind would also be key to any victories. "I like to take things easy," Femi mentioned while staring off into the distance, "especially when it comes to PES" he asserted. Banking on the high levels of stress sure to be in evidence, Femi admitted, "I hope somebody panics - if they don't... I'm screwed!"
Well, we have to say it must'a been hard concentrating with Sergio's supporters screaming "Vamos! Vamos!" the whole time. Even without that, we think Femi was struggling to contain Sergio's miraculous skills with Pires. He would go on to terrorise opponents with his joyful on-the-ball control all night. Anyhow, their first game ground to a halt at 2-1, Femi lost but just about got himself onto the scoresheet. Their second was a draw, 1-1. Compared to Oz, sitting just across the way, Femi wasn't living up to his champion status. A Konami UK rep gave Femi hassle for not practicing PES3 enough. Femi just smiled and said, "I can't be bothered! I've got a girlfriend for Chris'sake!"
We could hear the shouts coming from the Femi v NEGATIF games all the way down the far end of the room. When they were through, Femi confided that his opponent was kind of weird. It was during Femi's initial game with Lo-Re that we got to know the extent of NEGATIF's namesake. Nevertheless, it was NEGATIF who exposed the weakness in Femi's gameplan - Femi's over reliance on the left and right channels creating wide-open space for a competent midfield to advance unchallenged. It was 3-0 to NEGATIF in the opener, and 2-1 to Femi's shame the second time around. "NEGATIF was all over Femi," said close friend Courtney who had travelled to Nice to cheer him on.
WHEN PES PLAYERS GET MAD!
Femi had everything under control it seemed for his opening game against Lo-Re. Femi's France versus Lo-Re's PES3-tastic English squad. It was 1-0 to Femi right up until a commotion kicked off on a table nearby... NEGATIF versus little Sergio, the Frenchman growling and shoving the poor Spanish kid into such a state of nervous despair that Sergio stood up, removed his controller and walked away from the game. Play was only resumed after officials made s special arrangement, placing Sergio and NEGATIF on opposite sides of their table, with a monitor each, so that they would not have to sit next to each other. The kid lost. NEGATIF leapt off his chair like he'd won the a freshly ironed designer shirt every day for the rest of his life, and an endless supply of emery boards for his nails.
All this commotion drew the third biggest crowd of the evening, partly assisted by the presence of Sergio's entire family who'd also made it along. Bob needed to remind everyone that there were other matches being played, but the general feeling was, 'not like this one!!' So the crowd remained to see it through.
IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE
Anyway, back to Femi v Lo-Re. Somehow this had ended 2-1 in the German's favour! The replays revealed how Michael Owen scored twice in the closing minutes, one from a delicious Beckham through ball, and another almost immediately afterwards from a dazzling display of dribbling into the area.
FEMI PLAYS FAIR
Femi was officially out of the tournament at this stage, having performed so uncharacteristically without much fight... until now. Group 2 was poised to see your enemy and mine NEGATIF go top, and either Lo-Re or Sergio in second place. The thing was, it all depended on Femi. We rejoined Femi's table, the ridiculous naughty-boys' arrangement recently abandoned by NEG' and Serg', to find more commotion: Lo-Re pleading with Femi to throw the game and help him through. You'll be proud to know that Femi was having none of this, and played to win. Sergio couldn't help himself - he pulled up a chair and prayed to Santa Maria for a soccer saviour in the form of
Saint (Femi) Paul.
You could see the fury welling up in Lo-Re, as Femi proceeded to waste a bit of time having just gone 2-0 up after half time. Lo-Re committed the cardinal sin of pausing the game, in order to stand up and shout his displeasure. Femi was cool as ice, gently laying down his controller and shrugging it all off. All of this was kicking off under Bobby Dee's nose, and he came rolling over to calm things down. "Boys," Bobby begged, "this is just a game." Not good. "To YOU it is!" screamed the hurting Lo-Re, beyond reconciliation. Well there was to be no more messing around anyway, because Lo-Re's anger got him a goal in the 67th minute. However it ended up with Femi the victor, which meant that Sergio could take his Pires circus to the quarter-finals. Lo-Re was officially the most annoyed person the South of France had seen all year, and marched out of the room without shaking hands or looking back. He probably would have barged his way if there were anyone trying to stop him. Bobby Dee took Femi's hand in both of his instead and said, "Thank you."
BOO TO YOU TOO: THE QUARTER FINAL
NEGATIF had managed to upset everyone when it came to the quarters. Fate decided that the tournaments least popular guy would face the most friendly and charismatic - our very own Ozzy Idris. And so, for a place in the semi-final, Oz took his seat next to NEGATIF. His France versus NEGATIF's Holland. It was approaching midnight by now, and most of the merrymakers who'd taken a passing interest in matches had joined the mass of bodies peering over Oz and NEG's shoulders to watch the drama unfold. A real life battle of good versus evil right before our very eyes!
Before kick off, the benevolent Bobby Dee encouraged us all to give another round of applause for the players, and generally get rid of some bad feeling in the air. Everybody cheered and clapped, apart from you know who. Clapping would damage his nails.
Oz scored after only eight minutes, and went on to play the game of his life: incredible fast passing, and decisive defending. It wasn't all Oz, to be fair on NEGATIF, and the action was end to end, requiring a couple of cynical fouls from Oz just to make sure he wasn't going to lose this. It was tense right up until the final whistle, as NEGATIF missed a sitter. But Oz won, and everyone, including the cheerleaders, surrounded Oz, patting his braided bonce and acting as though he'd won the tournament.
NEGATIF went to sit outside alone. Perhaps waiting for a dance?
OZ SHOWS HIS INTENT: THE SEMI FINAL
The semi-finals took place on the main stage, with commentary from Bob switching between the two as action was beamed onto the huge bank of monitors stage left. Naturally Bob made a drama of the countdown, from five to "Go!" and Oz cheekily rocked his shoulders in time to Bob's voice. Valentino of Italy was rigid with what we all decided must've been fear. The semi wasn't a pretty match to behold. Both Oz and Valentino didn't shy away from hacking down any bothersome players on each other's French squads. Oz was subsequently awarded a penalty midway through the first half, but had it saved! He flunked another great opportunity just before half time with Henry almost from the spot.
In the second half, Valentino looked the most likely to make a fist of it. Oz on the back foot for a good five minutes. Then Ozzy broke the tension by scoring an absolute screamer, which must've made Valentino sick to his stomach. After that it was all Ozzy Idris, playing his game the way he likes to play it. Cocky shots from distance, hoping to lob Bartez; dribbling players close to goal but waiting until the perfect moment to pull the trigger, and all the while boogieing on his chair. If only this had been the final.
THE GRAND FINAL... NUFF SAID
Bobby Dee, centre stage, after rapping solidly through the match for third-place, outdid himself with what came next. Bearing in mind that the atmosphere inside the room was perilously close to nuclear meltdown, ol' Bob decided to sing 'What a Wonderful World' - the whole thing. Bobby crooned, the cheerleaders swayed, there were some tears in the eyes of onlookers... and above it all, Femi could be heard shouting to Oz, "stop p***ing around in your own area! You spend too much time p***ing around!" It was truly special.
Friendly advice and life reassuring songs over and done with, the UK's Osman Idris and France's Sebou took the stage. Femi tried to calm all the nail biters by telling everyone, "Ozzy lives this game, he just lives Pro3. He doesn't know anything about Pro4 yet because he's hardly played it."
REMEMBER THE NAME
The UK contingent, together with assorted well-wishers who'd tracked Ozzy's progress that evening, all stood together, throbbing the air with a rousing 'Ozzy! Ozzy! Ozzy! Oz! Oz! Oz!' and 'Oz army! (Oz army!)' plus a lot of plain old, 'Oz! Oz! Oz! Oz! ...' NEGATIF was back in the room, wanting at least his team mate to win.
Either the final was played at speeds unimaginable, or we were all just suffering from exhaustion and existing in slo-mo. Whatever, Oz and Sebou went to it with 100% commitment and the opening 40 minutes was a match that could have gone either way. Oz showing phenomenal skills with his favoured magician Wiltord, and Sebou making Zidane perform like his real life counterpart. Sebou's first goal came at a harsh time, just before half time. It was an unstoppable shot from inside Oz's six yard box. Femi rolled his eyes... what did he just tell him!
Sebou was straight in with another shocker soon into the second half. Oz was having trouble containing the Frenchman's midfield, with Zidane the driving force. It really did look as though Oz was on the ropes, until the 73rd minute when Oz scored the goal of the tournament - volleyed shot which soared half the length of the pitch, stunning the French supporters into temporary silence.
We've seen Oz play enough times to know that he could have brought this game back from the dead. But then it happened: Oz made the single biggest mistake of his entire season, accidentally lofting a huge pass back toward his area when he clearly intended a short pass for the overlap on the wing. Sebou, a boy possessed by the occasion and now loudly encouraged by his supporters, pounced on the wayward ball and took it all the way into the back of Oz's net.
THE PEOPLE'S CHAMP
And so our Oz only narrowly missed out on collecting the trophy, to go along with his commemorative plaque and copy of PES4 for coming in second. Everyone who took part was invited onstage to join the two finalists, Bobby Dee, the cheerleaders and guests of honour the PES4 development team. It was a real honour for everyone to have their awards presented by the Producer Mr 'Seabass' Takatsuka and his team. And while Queen's 'We Are The Champions' blasted out over the PA, both Oz and Sebou could hardly make it off the stage due to being mobbed by so many people eager to congratulate. "Everybody is a winner with Konami," Bob signed off. Looking around at so many faces, showing such emotion, there was no doubt that something big took place that night in Nice.
AND FINALLY...
"I had to choose the last game of the tournament to play badly," moaned Oz although not without his trademark mischievous smile. "I never pass back!" it was almost a plea. But Femi came through with the truest words to be spoken all night, saying, "Yeah, but you were the people's favourite, and that's what matters. Everybody loved you in there. You're the people's champ Oz!" And the three of us had to agree. I mean, of course Oz was going to agree with that!
Femi and Osman are friends of mine and I'd like to congratulate them on doing so well.
Pictures and details on the pesleague over at http://www.pesleague.co.uk/pes/news_story.php?id=497
