Despite knowing less about football than you do, I’ve joined one of those online fantasy football games for the World Cup.

The idea is you pick a team of 11 (there are always 11, right?) men (they are always men, right?) from across all the teams competing in the championship. Then, as the matches play out in real life over the next few weeks, each of the chosen players earns points for how

they’ve performed in their games. Finally all the points your individual players have earned are aggregated to make up your team’s total score. The team in your league with the most points wins. Simple.

My friends all know loads about football and were trash-talking before the tournament started – boasting of how their 4-4-2 formation will trounce my 3-4-3 and basically I’ll be lucky to not die of embarrassment because there is literally no way someone that can’t tell his Trinidad from his Tobago could ever do well at something like this.

So, anyway, I’m in first place now, obviously. And I let the computer pick my team. Admittedly, some of the strips like Brazil and England I recognise but lots I don’t. But the reason I’m winning is because just picking the highest goal scorers from the biggest name teams doesn’t always lead to victory: it’s all the other things the players do that swing the win and clinch the tournament.

You can read the rest at Pocketgamer.co.uk here

You can buy this game here: