Developers World Championship: Match Report - Russia v Holland (Group E)

RUSSIA Texas Poker (Kama Games)

VS HOLLAND Air Traffic Controller 4.0 (Lunaforte)

If only the French had a word for that déjà vu feeling...

Last night from Pocket Gamer’s 1,000,000 capacity iStadium, my erstwhile frog-loving colleagues and I reported on Flight Control’s epic 3-3 draw with Golman. The second half performance from Serbia exceeded even that of a Gerrard-inspired Liverpool in 2005, since that gifted AC Milan were no match for the veritable Aussie Pelé of the iPhone world.

Fast forward 24 hours and here we were; Jean, Pierre, Marcel, and I frantically scribbling notes on the final lineups this evening, only to discover we had another airspace management title on our hands.

This time around, however, Holland’s Air Traffic Controller 4.0 was less concerned with line drawing and more centred on nervous finger tapping. To ensure qualification to the next round, Lunaforte’s pushing tin sim. would need to post a victory this evening and pray that Japan didn’t capitulate at the hands of Denmark.

Russia was, to all intents and purposes, already eliminated, even if Carol Vorderman begged to differ. That said, a 3-0 win for Kama Games' Texas Poker might make things interesting...

Kick Off: 7.30pm, 24th June

The critical view: The Dutch team launched into the game, as if their lives depended on every one of the subsequent 90 minutes. Rightly so, for, as one marginally famous manager once remarked, ‘Football isn’t a matter of life and death...it is much, much more important than that.’

Pressing home the initiative on its onboard computer, ATC 4.0’s six runways caused pandemonium in the opposition’s final third, their flight paths crossing regularly before the Dutch flyer rose highest at the back stick and nodded in from an acute angle (of decline).

Seeking parity immediately, the Russki captain gestured to the manager for some in-game chat. Having delayed the match for longer than was truly necessary, the skipper promptly went into the book for time wasting and was given some further haptic feedback from the insistent ref. 'Stick it and then twist' was mumbled under the disgruntled Russian's breath.

As the weather deteriorated in Bath, Lunagames' boys proved unfazed, reacting with strategic and balletic ease to all conditions as well as an unexpected range of flying machines directly overhead.

In the dying embers of the first half, the Oranje Army’s unheralded coach quietly lifted the lid off the team’s mobile trophy cabinet (which, until last season, was exclusively home to one Euro ’88 championship) and unveiled their Pocket Gamer Bronze Award.

This prestigious, and quite shiny, trinket blinded the Texas Poker croupier just long enough for the lethal Dutch marksman Air-on Winter to double his side's money and land a deft chip over the keeper and into the net.

Half time: Russia 0 – 2 Holland The Fans’ 45: The Russian Federation's slim chances were fading faster than Lindsay Lohan's limbs. Despite being officially the largest nation on Earth, the streets of Moscow clearly weren't too enamoured by their lads' performance hitherto.

The paucity of support wasn't limited to the Russians, though, for the normally-fervent Dutch faithful shied away from this encounter, perhaps confident that their boys could be successful without them.

To be fair to Kama Games' chaps, they certainly didn't hold back, gambling regularly by committing extra men into the box. Sadly, not even the addition of Facebook could Connect the texas poker community with its iPhone app representative today, and despite going all-in for a final flurry, the Cold War veterans ultimately flopped and were left to return home pointless (and shirtless).

A euphoric Holland, meanwhile, were almost cleared for take-off into the Last 16, provided of course the Danes hadn't managed to pull off a shock thrashing of the Japanese...

Full time: Russia 0 – 2 Holland Latest Group Tables - Fixtures & Voting - Squads

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