It was an unpredictable tournament stemming from an unpredictable period in footballing history. Talent was on full display but it proved cohesiveness and familiarity ended up being the deciding factor in determining a European champion. In terms of the Pick One, I felt the competition was a fairly successful test as to the viability of the format with the sport, whether it be in a tournament or over the course of a lengthy domestic campaign. Mike Tavares took home the first ever proper Pick One Challenge crown going away so let's see how the tournament broke down on the whole for a bit of fun!
BEST INDIVIDUAL RATING- Kevin De Bruyne, 8.9 (Belgium vs Denmark, 6/17/2021) KDB had both the top and joint-second top scores in the tournament in the group stages but was significantly stifled in the knockout rounds against Portugal and Italy. Against Denmark, he came on at halftime and immediately assisted on the equalizer and later scored the winner. He was part of the nation I picked to win it all and that didn't go well, so at least he got Greg some points on this day and for our eventual champion the match after. |
WORST INDIVIDUAL RATING- Lyndon Dykes, 6.0 (Scotland vs Czech Republic, 6/14/2021) The Scottish striker was an unknown commodity to most coming into the tournament plying his trade with Queens Park Rangers in the English Championship. He struggled to raise his profile alongside Ryan Christie and Che Adams up front for the Scots, worst of all in the opening contest against the Czech Republic. Getting just one shot on target, completing 37% of your passes, and losing nearly double the duels you won before getting subbed off was a recipe for ratings disaster for Dykes. |
PICK ONE GOLDEN BOOT- Cristiano Ronaldo, 4 goals (Portugal) He may have won the Golden Boot with some help from assists in the actual tournament, but CR7 won the Pick One version with four goals during selections. He was selected on three separate matchdays and scored two goals in the first two before blanking in the goal column in Portugal's defeat against Belgium. Xherdan Shaqiri took the Silver Boot with three goals in three matchday selections while there was a host of others including Robert Lewandowski, Patrik Schick, and Harry Kane with two. |
| MOST SELECTED- Harry Kane & Raheem Sterling, 5 Selections (England) I could have made either of these gentlemen the only completely picked out player of the Challenge but instead went with Federico Chiesa in the final leaving these two to stay tied at the top with five selections apiece. Sterling may have made UEFA's Team of the Tournament, but Kane was the more valuable asset in the Pick One as his three selections on the day he went for 7.5 upped his average to 7.1 which beats Sterling's average by 0.2. |
| 23rd (TIE)- Hungary & North Macedonia (0 selections) The sacrificial lambs of the Group of Death and one of the two spirited debutantes of the European Championships were the only two teams to go without a pick in the Challenge. That's not to say there were nothing but bad scores to be had from these two nations. Freiburg standout Roland Sallai produced the same average over three matches for the Hungarians including assists in both of their draws against France and Germany. Levante midfielder Enis Bardhi averaged a 7.17 for North Macedonia over three games. |
| 20th (TIE)- Finland, Russia, Slovakia (1 selection) It was going to be a rough go for three teams that were expected to have trouble scoring. However, the three selections across the three nations were all attackers. That wasn't entirely prudent for a trio that scored 9 combined goals over 9 matches but the three men selected, despite a dearth of goals, each netted a 7.1 rating. Teemu Pukki was the representative from Finland, Artem Dzyuba the Russian delegate, and Marek Hamsik the Slovakian selection. |
| 17th (TIE)- Austria, Turkey, Ukraine (2 selections) Austria has the distinction of being the only country in the tournament in which both of their selections (David Alaba, Marcel Sabitzer) scored a rating of at least 8.0. Past the opening match against Italy, Turkey rightfully saw no usage as they were one of the most disappointing sides participating. Ukraine's selections were in line with their tournament performance with both sneakily good (Ruslan Malinovskyi's 7.9 against North Macedonia) and objectively dreadful (Roman Yaremchuk's 6.4 in a 4-0 quarterfinal loss to England) showings. |
| 13th (TIE)- Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden (3 selections) Croatia only saw usage in the group stages (Andrej Kramaric, Luka Modric twice) which proved brilliant as they Croatians had some of the worst showings of the tournament in their 5-3 round of 16 loss to Spain. Patrik Schick claimed a share of the Golden Boot (assists notwithstanding) for the Czechs and scored two of his five goals during selections. All of three Poland's selections were Robert Lewandowski but were on two separate matchdays, neither being the nation's lone draw in the competition. Sweden was the best balanced selection pool of this trio with a player in attack (Marcus Berg), midfield (Emil Forsberg), and defense (Victor Lindelof) all taken. Forsberg's 8.2 against Ukraine was third-highest among knockout stage selections. |
12th- Scotland (4 selections) Our participants pumped the brakes on the Scottish National Team really quick. After three picks in their opening match loss to the Czech Republic, there would only be one more selection made from them in the next two contests. Scott McTominay was the only player to be picked twice from Scotland but was the only one that didn't make an "impact". Andy Robertson was the top scorer of the day in that first match with a 7.9 while striker Lyndon Dykes registered the lowest score of the tournament with a 6.0. |
| 8th (TIE)- Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland (6 selections) Two Cinderellas and two pumpkins make up this quartet and it's fairly simple to discern which nations fall into which category. This tournament introduced the world to Denmark's Mikkel Damsgaard in Christian Eriksen's absence and he led them all the way to the semi-finals. It showed that Switzerland's Xherdan Shaqiri still had a lot left in the tank, most notably in a 8.8 day against Turkey in the group stage. Conversely, we saw the slow burn of a new era ushering from the Germans while the Dutch couldn't quite get their new crop formatted properly before an untimely exit of their own. |
7th- France (7 selections) The defending World Cup champions and European runners-up disappointed generally, losing in the Round of 16 to Switzerland. However, in the Pick One the French weren't that bad despite that being incredibly painful for me to write. They tied for the second-most top scores with England (3) despite going out early. Karim Benzema's two goals in that aforementioned Swiss defeat put him in the lengthy Bronze Boot field. Paul Pogba was top scorer both times he was selected. |
| 5th (TIE)- Portugal, Wales (8 selections) With Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, and a stout defense, it was surprising that Portugal didn't have more usage in the tournament. CR7 was the Pick One Golden Boot winner despite coming up empty against Belgium in the Round of 16. Conversely, outside of Gareth Bale, there was little expectation of Wales being this high in the usage chart. However, Aaron Ramsey had the same number of top scores as Ronaldo so the Juventus teammates at least have that to talk about. |
4th- Spain (9 selections) It took all the way to La Furia Roja's semi-final loss to Italy to earn a top score. Selectors of Spanish players were just as much victims of missed opportunities as the team was themselves. In fact, during the group stages no Spanish selection broke a 7.0 despite scoring 5 goals in two separate matches. It took Koke netting a 7.3 in the quarter-final and the alluded to 7.4 top score from Dani Olmo in the semi-final for anything resembling a breakthrough. |
3rd- Belgium (13 selections) The Red Devils were my pick to win the whole thing going in so seeing them exit in the quarter-finals was disappointing. However, those who backed Belgians over the course of the competition were anything but. Kevin De Bruyne earned the top single match score of the tournament with a 8.9 against Denmark and tied for second-best with an 8.8 against Finland. Romelu Lukaku and Thorgan Hazard each also had their days in the sun leaving them tied with eventual champions Italy with the most top scores with four. |
| 1st (TIE)- England, Italy (19 selections) It was to be expected that the two teams that made the final would be in the top two of the selection chart but it feels extra poetic that a final that ended in a regulation time draw ended as such in the standings. For England, Luke Shaw was one of three defenders to take home a top score honor and he did so in the quarter-final. Italy boasted the lone goalkeeper to do so with Gianluigi Donnarumma and had Lorenzo Insigne as one of the tournament's three two-time top scorers. |
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