Despite the 1:0 win over Ukraine in Game 2 of the World Cup 2010 playoff yesterday, Bayer Leverkusen’s Greece international Fanis Gekas still witnessed a near collapse of his FTBL score (a drop of 52.72 rating points) to 62.58, which nonetheless still puts him in 4th place in our ranking of Greek forwards.

The drop in Gekas’s score is not entirely a reflection of his poor performance in a game in which he played just 30 minutes, but rather flows from the fact that the game in Ukraine “replaced” from his “Last Five” Greece’s historic win over Latvia in which Gekas scored 4 goals and earned more than 60 rating points in our system. His fate is further proof that success in the FTBL ranking depends on how well players today justify (or confirm) their past achievements.

Today’s game in the Busdesliga might again spur memories of past achievements: Leverkusen will take on Bayern Munich, and Gekas’s plank to beat in the game will be a daunting 26.48 rating points. Given he is mostly confined to the bench at Leverkusen, it is unrealistic to even contemplate clearing such a high plank. The more likely scenario here is a drop to the 45-point mark, or even lower.