England cricket sensation Jofra Archer represented Manchester United again today in the second edition of this year’s ePremier League tournament.
On Tuesday, Archer was victorious in the first round — beating Newcastle’s Rolando Aaarons 4-1.
He faced Sheffield United’s John Egan in the last 16.
The reason for Manchester United not having a professional player in Archer’s place is because the club has a contract with EA SPORT’s FIFA competitor Pro Evolution Soccer.
You can see by watching the build-up to these ePremier League that the presenters aren’t overly confident in their role and the footballers in question — most notably Burnley’s Charlie Taylor — who looked awkward answering questions on a video game.
They need to find a middle ground between sounding exciting and realising they don’t need to come across like proper football pundits. A knowledge of how the eSports industry works is really key for the presenter.
Jofra constantly praises his players whilst playing FIFA which makes for good viewing. It’s only a bit of fun and it helps give publicity to the government’s instructions to stay indoors during this pandemic.
He opened the scoring after two minutes thanks to a cracking goal by Paul Pogba.
A great finish by Mousset saw the sides level after 10 minutes of FIFA time.
Then the Premier League’s stream started to buffer and load, and buffer and load some more. We lost commentary and the game feed started lagging.
These are the complications that are bound to happen with such an event — but it’s good to see some interactive content nonetheless. Especially now when there is no football.
Egen, with an undeniable Irish accent, was heard shouting for the referee (yes, whilst playing a video game) when the sound came back. That was shortly before Sheffield United took the lead with a David McGoldrick goal.
There was a good chance for United to equalise before the interval as Egan said “I’m never this nervous for a normal game.”
Back underway for the second half, Jofra had an uphill climb on his hands and Egan was more than happy to close the game out for a 2-1 win. Sheffield United were defensively solid.
Asked by Jofra what was happening to Egan’s control, the Irishman brilliantly responded “Clicked out of the f**king thing,” before the commentators were made apologise for bad language. That was without question the best thing about this live stream.
Jofra got the equalising goal he needed through Anthony Martial to bring United back into the game. Then in quick succession Bruno Fernandes made it 3-2.
Ex-United midfielder Oliver Norwood found the back of the net with an equaliser at 3-3. Egan won it at the very end with a winner from McGoldrick.
Tom Grennan, who represented United in the last ePremier League tournament, lost at this stage of the tournament last time out. It would have been great to have progressed under Archer.
Jofra was visibly disappointed at full-time.
READ MORE: The suspicions behind reports Man Utd will abandon Jadon Sancho pursuit
