Developers World Championship: Match Report - Italy v Scotland (Group F)

ITALY iScopa (Doclouisjones.com)

VS SCOTLAND Bloons TD (Digital Goldfish)

The state-of-the-art iStadium here in glorious Bath, England, played host this evening to soccer royalty. No, Scottish fans, I’m not referring to Dalglish, Souness or Gemmill.

Italy may well be the Gods of the footballing world (well, for four more weeks, anyway), but the nation's record in the iPhone gaming community is rather less formidable.

Perhaps sensing the uncertainty among the Azzurri camp, the Italian coach decided to play a strong hand in the opening game. iScopa, a reworking by Doclouisjones.com of one of the nation’s most famous card games, took to the field then face down to avoid the intimidatory stares from the opposition.

In the other, slightly darker, blue corner stood Bloons TD from the prolific Digital Goldfish, defending its territory pre-game as staunchly and bravely as William Wallace.

Though this Flash sensation had time and again shown its mettle on the immensely competitive worldwide web circuit, the Developers World Championship was an altogether different ball game.

Aye, the tension was palpable. A surefire slobberknocker awaited.

Kick Off: 7.30pm, 14th June The critical view: It was abundantly clear from the opening whistle that Scotland had done its homework for this encounter. Laying an army of traps and monkeys along the turf, Bloons Tower Defence was forcing its opponent into compromising and oft inescapable positions.

Before too long, the adorable graphics supplied by the Scots had served to distract the goalkeeper sufficiently for the wee frontman to dart in for an unopposed diving header.

Rocking on its heels, Italy needed to fight back quickly, lest the contest slip away permanently. Multiplayer over Bluetooth and local wi-fi provided the impetus for iScopa's equaliser, a strangely motionless and offline-only back four was easily-pierced by the Mediterranean-born sweeper.

Banter flowed freely between the sides from the 30 minute mark onwards, a mutual respect seemingly developing among the lineups, as the 11 traditional card sets available in iScopa were matched step-for-step by Bloons TD’s 15 tracks.

Right on cue, the ref blew up for the break.

Half time: Italy 1 – 1 Scotland The Fans’ 45: Thanks to Scotland's obvious close proximity to the Pocket Gamer iStadium, fans from north of the border poured into Bath for this prestigious occasion.

And, my, did they stun the Italians throughout the second period with a sustained and deafening cacophony of bagpipes, horns, and OpenFeint achievements.

The power of fan voting in this iPhone Game Developers World Championship was abundantly demonstrated as goal after wonder goal was literally sucked into the Italian's net, the iScopa defence collapsing like a house of cards.

The first rout of the competition was well and truly on, Bloons TD mercilessly racking up a cricket score until father time came to Italy's rescue.

Full time: Italy 1 – 5 Scotland Latest Group Tables - Fixtures & Voting - Squads

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