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Dagh Nielsen (Denmark)
Rank:01
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This was Dagh's third world cup
appearance, and once again he made it to the final. Once again, he only lost a
single game and once again, he won the top scorer trophy - this time he took
back home the best defense one, too. However, this competition was different
than the ones in Athens and Duesseldorf as it was considerably harder. I know
that people were considered invincible before and that changed, but when someone
scores a double figure average in the hardest competition in the history of the
game, it begs the question: Can he even be stopped? |

Gianluca Troiano (Italy)
Rank:02
|
Milan 2012 signified the
return of the Italian Stallion. The Kick Off 2 legend of the 98 consecutive
undefeated matches, the only one with three consecutive world cup titles, the
man with a 22% clean sheet record who leads the world cup and overall KOA
defense average. Gianluca had little more to prove, except that he's still got
it; he did that in the most emphatic way. Always ready to adapt his style of
play according to the circumstances, this time he even willingly played with PBD
on. |

Gianni Torchio (Italy)
Rank:03
|
If Gianni suffered from organizer's
syndrome during the weekend, he certainly didn't show it. He arrived at his 8th
consecutive semi-final undefeated, with just a couple of draws. Gianluca's
defense worked well against him stopping him at six goals over two legs, an
all-time low for him in a world cup semi-final. Still, a single defeat by one
goal scored 30 seconds to the end in this particular competition was nothing
short of a great achievement, even for him. He had the third offense in Milan;
it had been 7 years since the last time he was not among the top two
scorers. |

Andy Gregoris (England)
Rank:04
|
It was said that the fourth player of
this competition would in fact be the best "human' competitor. Andy
qualified to the semi-finals rather comfortably, after finishing second in both
rounds and defeating Mario twice in the quarter finals. He fought against the
giants as equal and lost the bronze medal in overtime. The only time he blacked
out was the rematch against Dagh, in which he could not score, the only time
that happed to him in his 129 KOA matches. |

Fabio Fichera (Italy)
Rank:05
|
Fabio somehow managed to return to
world cups even stronger than he already was three years ago in Austria. His
constant tactics switching allow his players to be untroubled by their
opponents, and as a result he was the second scorer of the competition with an
8.9 average. Unfortunately for him, Gianluca adapted to his style of play after
the first day and beat him twice in the knockouts. |

Mario Fichera (Italy)
Rank:06
|
Mario had stayed away from world cups
even longer than his brother, as his last one was in 2007 in Rome, when he had
finished 5th. He remains a clinical scorer, finishing with a 6.87 average. He
made it to the knockouts after surviving a very difficult group, thanks to his
victory against Alkis. He had the 6th best goal average. |

Alkis Polyrakis (Greece)
Rank:07
|
Italy simply does not suit Alkis. This
is his second world cup in this country, and the second time he finishes in the
lowest position ever for him. Out of the 7 matches he lost, 6 were to Italians.
He came very close to being out of the playoffs for the first time in 11 world
cups, but he shaped up just in time to beat Lorenzo. He had the 5th best goal
average in Milan, but for the first time the player who had won three best
defense trophies in the past was not among the world's top 8 defenders. |

Oliver Stender (Germany)
Rank:08
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After a ridiculously difficult Round 1
group that had Gianni, Lorenzo Ceselli and Mario in it, Oliver managed to
survive another lion's pit in the second round. Although his Sunday began with a
potentially disastrous defeat to Panayotis, his victories versus Luigi and
Alessandro gave him the advantage when the three players finished tied at 9
points. Just like two years ago in Duesseldorf, he could only keep up with Dagh
in one of the two quarter final legs. |

Lorenzo Ceselli (Italy)
Rank:09
|
Lorenzo was at least as good as the
year before in Birmingham, when he had finished 4th. However, he found himself
in one of the toughest world cup groups ever, with no less than three ex world
champions in it. He managed to beat Gianluca, but his defeat to Alkis combined
with Mario's excellent results meant his disqualification. With the 4th defense
of the tournament, he is still semi-finals material. |

Panayotis Pantazis (Greece)
Rank:10
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It's been four years since his 4th
place in Athens, an achievement that Panayotis could not repeat in Italy. His
performance on the second day was sub par, as he lost 5 out of his 7 matches and
therefore was out of the quarter finals for the first time in his four world cup
appearances. However, he will remember this competition as he became the third
player who ever beat Dagh during a world cup. |

Ektoras Kapsoulis
(Greece)
Rank:11
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This is actually a familiar place for
Ektoras, as with the exception of the bronze medal in Duesseldorf he always
places in positions 9-11. Despite his epic victory against Gianluca on Saturday,
he lost all his games but one in the second round. He is now in the Top 10 of
total points earned in world cup history. |

Michael Malli (Austria)
Rank:12
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Michael continues to improve his
skills, and he is now considered as one of the strong Kick Off 2 players. He
rarely lets a game get out of hand any more; beating and finishing above the
likes of Luigi and Alessandro is no small accomplishment. He lost all of his
Round 2 matches, but that could have happened to the vast majority of the KOA
against such opposition. |

Luigi Freguglia (Italy)
Rank:13
|
It's been a long time since the 2004
finalist joined a world cup, and the KOA has improved a lot since then. With
only two tournament appearances in the past three years, Luigi just couldn't get
enough form to compete against such strong opposition even though his skill are
undisputable. He was 7th in both attack and defense averages. |

Alessandro Verrani (Italy)
Rank:14
|
A good world overall for Alessandro,
who still needs some improvement in converting his chances in front of the goal.
He actually came really close to making it to the quarter finals, finishing with
the same points as Oliver and Luigi in Round 2 but their in between results did
not favor him. |

Frank Fuhrmann (Germany)
Rank:15
|
After a comfortable qualification from
Round 1, Frank suffered some heavy defeats in the second round, including a
whooping 16-1 to Dagh. He is usually a very reliable scorer, but his offensive
skills seem to abandon him sometimes. Quality win against Ektoras, against whom
he remains undefeated after their two draws in Voitsberg. |

Steve Camber (England)
Rank:16
|
Same placement as last
year for the only man who has never missed a world cup, and although this was a
much tougher competition we do know he is capable for more. It still needs to be
said that he has managed to make it to the top 16 in all 12 world cups. |

Mark Williams (England)
Rank:17
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One of the first KOA members, Mark
added the Silver Cup trophy to his collection just three years after collecting
the Bronze Cup in Voitsberg. He is the first person to ever manage this
achievement, and to do that he had to beat Lorenzo twice after losing to him
twice in the first round! |

Lorenzo Lozito (Italy)
Rank:18
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After a brief break in Birmingham,
Lorenzo returned to the Silver Cup final, a title he had managed to win in the
2010 competition. Although this time he did not succeed, he still had the second
best defensive average in the world cup conceding only 2.67 goals per game. |

George Kakaletris (Greece)
Rank:19
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George returned to the Silver Cup
after competing in the top 16 for three consecutive years. After he topped his
Sunday group and eliminated Rodolfo he looked like he could go all the way, but
Mark blocked his way to the final. He had the 8th best defense average. |

Klaus Lederer (Austria)
Rank:20
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This was a fairly good performance by
Klaus, who made it to his first Silver Cup semi-final before succumbing to
Lorenzo's superior skills. He should aim for the Top 16 in the next competition,
an achievement he came very close to reaching in Germany. |

Rodolfo Martin (Spain)
Rank:21
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Once again, Rodolfo's 4-4-2 formation
made him the top scorer among the
Silver Cup competitors, but this wasn't enough. This was potentially his worst
performance since finishing in 30th place in Rickmansworth, but he has the
experience and the skills to bounce back. |

Kostas Kakaletris (Greece)
Rank:22
|
A typical performance by Kostas, who
never ventures far from the 25th position of a world cup. He got his biggest
victory ever in a world cup when he beat Cornelius 7-2, however he scored less
than anyone who finished in the Top 30. |

Jorn Flagtvedt (Norway)
Rank:23
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Luck was not on the side of the 2011
Silver Cup finalist, as he lost to Mark on overtime in the quarter finals stage.
His scoring average gets a little bit better with every year that goes by. |

Cornelius Henze (Germany)
Rank:24
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Although Cornelius plays in official
Kick Off tournaments more often than most, he hasn't managed to show any
considerable improvement in world cups yet. Having said that, 24th is the
highest position he's ever been at. I still think he is capable of going higher
than that. |

Thorsten Butschke (Germany)
Rank:25
|
Thorsten appeared to be having a very
off day in the Silver Cup, as he ended up being last in his group with five
defeats. However, he managed to disqualify the fifth of the other group, Flavio,
and end up finishing in a respectable position even though he had the second
worse offense in the SC. |

Helmut Hausmann (Austria)
Rank:26
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To his surprise, Helmut brought back a
trophy (David Vs Goliath) to Vienna thanks to his draw against the legend
Gianluca! Although it didn't change anything for him in the competition, it is
still the highlight of his career so far. |

Jorg Panhorst (Germany)
Rank:27
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10 positions below the year before,
when he'd won the Silver Cup in England, Jorg just wasn't himself in Milan.
Things could have been different for him on Sunday if he had managed to beat
Cornelius in the group stage, which he didn't manage even though he was
undefeated to him before that weekend. This was his 10th Kick Off 2 World Cup! |

Peter Sommer (Germany)
Rank:28
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This is the first time in eight world
cups that Peter manages to enter the world's Top 30. A victory against George is
probably his best result ever in the KOA. |

Michele Lorenzetti (Italy)
Rank:29
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Michele was the rookie of the year;
after all, not many people started in the KOA by beating Jorn 5-1! That was not
his only good result of the weekend either, as he also beat Jorg and Flavio.
Dare I say that we have another future Italian superplayer in sight? Afer all,
Fabio and Sandro played much worse in their first world cups. |

Flavio Zurla (Italy)
Rank:30
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Two draws against Frank are the best
results that Flavio will remember from this competition. He could have made it
to the Silver Cup's quarter finals if he had won one of his two draws against
Helmut and Rodolfo. |

Fabio Ragionieri (Italy)
Rank:31
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Making it to the Silver Cup in your
first world cup is an achievement on its own, so Fabio should be pleased. It was
his two victories against Klaus that helped him to that end. |

Dino Dini (England)
Rank:32
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There is no way I can describe what it
felt to finally have Dino Dini among us during a world cup weekend. It was a
privilege that we've been dreaming of for more than 20 years. Dino was
exceptionally friendly and patient while 40 people wanted a word or a match with
him. I sincerely hope that he enjoyed himself, that he felt how much his
creation meant to us all and that he will attend some more in the future. |

Wolf Heyer
(Germany)
Rank:33
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After many years of battling to avoid
the Game of Shame, and not always successfully, Wolf apparently decided that
enough was enough! First he did his job to make it to the Silver Cup by gaining
8 points in his games against Fabio and Marco, but in the end he was in the
Bronze again due to Fabio's wins against Klaus. That suited him just fine, as he
brought back the title and became the second player with both a Shirt of Shame
and a Bronze Cup trophy in his possession after Thorsten. Such was his
improvement, that only six players in the past managed to earn more Ranking
points in a world cup than he did. |

Thomas Niekamp (Germany)
Rank:34
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As if he is always destined to follow
Wolf closely, after beating him in the Game of Shame the year before Thomas this
time was below Wolf after finishing second in the Bronze. Even the title was
within his reach, but he lost it by getting only one point from his two matches
against Marco Mazzaglia. Just like Wolf, he made it to the Top 10 in the 'Most
Ranking Points Gained in a WC' category. |

Marco Mazzaglia (Italy)
Rank:35 |
Marco is one of these players that you
just know he's got what it takes to improve if he joins a few tournaments. He
had some good results against Silver Cup players such as Kostas and Michele. The
funny thing is that he had also played in the first Milan tournament in 2003,
the only one Dino Dini had attended before this year! So it seems that he only
comes when Dino is around. |

Massimo Marcosignori (Italy)
Rank:36 |
Massimo seemed to do well against
other Italian newbies. He managed to beat Andrea, Gianluca P, Denny and Marco
Butini. |

Marco Butini (Italy)
Rank:37 |
Marco went home with five victories
against other Italian newbies. He also had three draws (!) against Wolf! |

Andrea Rosso (Italy)
Rank:38 |
Andrea also had five victories in this
world cup, but that was mostly because he got to play against Gianluca Panareo
four times. At least he will remember playing (and beating) the great Dino Dini. |

Gianluca Panareo (Italy)
Rank:39 |
With only three goals scored and 194
conceded, Gianluca was the unofficial shirt of shame winner this year. His 20-0
defeat to Dagh was a record, but he appeared to enjoy himself during the weekend
nevertheless. |

Denny Menato (Italy)
Rank:40 |
There isn't much one can write about
someone who did not show up on the second day of the tournament. It would have
been interesting to see if he could beat Gianluca in the Game of Shame, but that
wasn't meant to happen. |
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