Thanks to Kevin and few shiny new copies of FIFA 2005 straight from EA, we held our second annual SMFA Cup competition in LA last weekend. The competition began at 9pm Saturday evening in Matthew's living room in LA, while the ladies (Veronica, Michelle, and Dionne headed out for a movie and dessert. Matthew (Middlesbrough) and i (Chelsea, of course) had returned from a day of ocean fishing, sunburned and empty handed, at 5pm. Gary (Manchester City) arrived shortly thereafter, and Sean (Manchester United) not long after that. We watched a tape of the earlier 1-nil victory of Chelsea (Gary with many comments about Chelsea's "Portuguese mafia", me worried about the continued inability of our team to gel, and Matthew incessantly reminding me how many goals JFH has scored for Boro this season). We then launched into the cup, taking advantage of FIFA 2005's new customizable tournament features.

After completing the league portion of the tourney around 1am, the table shaped up like this:

		OVERALL							HOME						AWAY
		P	W	L	D	F	A		W	L	D	F	A		W	L	D	F	A		Pts		GD
Chelsea		6	4	1	1	12	4		2	1	0	6	2		2	0	1	6	2		13		8
Manchester United		6	3	2	1	9	7		0	1	2	3	4		3	0	0	6	3		11		2
Middlesbrough		6	1	2	3	8	8		0	2	1	2	4		1	1	1	6	4		8		0
Manchester City		6	1	1	4	6	16		0	3	0	3	11		1	1	1	3	5		6		-10

Jimmy Floyd of Boro finished in the lead for the golden boot with 7 goals, thanks in large part to a 5 goal performance against Gary and City. He was followed by former Chelsea strike partner Eidur Gudjohnsen with 6, new Chelsea hitman Didier Drogba and United poacher Ruud van Nistelrooy with 5 apiece, and City's French dynamo Nicolas Anelka with 4. Interestingly Frank Lampard was the only non-striker to get on the scoresheet, with a free kick strike against Boro.

The stage for the knockout round was set, and the bracket wound up as:

Chelsea (1)	5						2	Manchester United (2)
		Chelsea (1)	1		2	Middlesbrough (3)
Manchester City (4)	0						3	Middlesbrough (3)

Yup, Matthew earned the honors: the original plastic/tin foil SMFA Cup, the ceramic soccer ball cup obtained by Gary in Mexico (now inscribed with the first two winners of the cup), an EA t-shirt and frisbee, and two "SMFA Champ: Best of the Best" license plate holders made by Dionne's brother. With a two goal performance in the semifinal and a late consolation goal in the final, Eidur Gudjohnsen wound up with the consolation prize of the golden boot with 9 goals. JFH and Ruud shared second place with 8 goals, and Didier Drogba ended in fourth with 7. Sean won the third place match, held just before the final while Matthew and i fought sleep, with a 3-1 victory over Gary and City.

Call me USA Basketball ... the competition is getting tougher and this year i just didn't step up.