Belated Weekend Quiz Answers: Those Six Degrees of Obsession

By: Laurie | June 24th, 2009

Okay, so I promised this Sunday. Then…Monday. It’s now Wednesday.

(What can I say? Time is a relative concept in my world.)

First off, if you didn’t take our Weekend Quiz, stop by this post and try your luck. And if you did… Wow. Respect for your guts and tenacity. Because this quiz was a tough one! (Can I be honest here? I didn’t even mentally attempt most of them myself, except players I knew well.)

As I’ve said before, I’m testing out various quiz formats to see which work best. (Again, if you have feedback or ideas, email me at laurie[at]theoffside[dot]com. I probably won’t do another quiz exactly like this one due to the time and difficulty factor, but the idea was fun. (At least for me.) I may include a question or two of this type in future quizzes. For reference purposes, as commenter june16_1904 (Joyce fan?) pointed out, one of the keys to these is national teams. In the future I may do these questions with two longtime NT players (different teams, of course!) to make it easier.

(Note that #12, with Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Thierry Henry, got a lot of responses.)

Some scoring rules: Because this was so tough, I did count answers that listed players who played for the same team but different years, and let you get a little creative with connections. Even so, I can tell it was very difficult to come up with any answers at all. Well done to everybody who made the attempt!

Weekend Quiz Awards

Gold

Shazback. Dude. You amaze. All 12 questions answers, minus a couple for duplicates on 7 and 9, but PLUS a random bonus Laurie Point for mentioning Zidane in #5. (Yes, of course I can do that. Who said this was objective?) Total points: An incredible 11

Silver

Cromlein with correct answers for #7,8,9 and 12.
Weston with correct asnwers for #6,9 and 10, plus a bonus creativity point.
Total points: 4 apiece Cromlein edges Weston for having no more that two degrees of separation between any of his players, but I’m feeling generous and awarding two silvers. Congrats to both.

Bronze

Colin S L

Well done, Colin!

Point total: 3

Creativity Points to:

Dan, for this answer:

12. Blanco is a dick, and so is Henry.

and Weston, for this one:

6. zlatan looks like a horse, horses are related to bulls, jozy used to play for the new york red bulls?

Honorable mentions to everyone else who answered any questions:

june16_1904
alessio
g
ebrahim

Listed answers, by question:

1. Abel Xavier –> Konstantin Zyryanov

Colin S L
Abel Xavier played with Gareth Soutgate at Middlesbrough,
who managed Lee Dong Gook at Middlesbrough,
who played with Kim Dong Jin in the South Korean National team,
and now plays with Konstantin Zyryanov at Zenit.

Shazback
Abel Xavier was brought in to PSV by manager Dick Advocaat barely days before he left to join Rangers.
Dick Advocaat is now the manager of Zenit St Petersburg, where Konstantin Zyryanov plays.

2. Osvaldo Sanchez –> Marcos Senna

g
Sanchez-Omar Bravo @ Chivas
Omar Bravo-Manuel Pablo @ Deportivo
Manuel Pablo-Joan Capdevila @ Deportivo
Joan Capdevila-Marcos Senna @Villareal

Shazback:
Sanchez played at America (MEX) with Cauhuatemoc Blanco
Blanco played in Villadolid with Gabriel Heinze
Heinze played at Manchester United with Giuseppe Rossi
Rossi plays at Villareal with Marcos Senna

june16_1904
Osvaldo Sanchez plays with Guillermo Franco on the Mexican national team,
Guillermo Franco has played with Marcos Senna at Villareal.

3. Nicolas Anelka –> Maykel Galindo

Shazback
Anelka played with Martin Keown at Arsenal
Keown played with Preki at Everton
Preki manages Galindo at Chivas

4. Claude Makélélé –> Jonathan de Guzmán

Alessio
Claude Makelele played with William Gallas at Chelsea.
Gallas plays with Van Persie at Arsenal
Van Persie played alongside Jonathan de Guzmán at Feyenoord

Shazback
Makelele played at Chelsea with Salomon Kalou
Kalou played at Feyenoord with Guzman

5. Raul (Raúl González Blanco) –> Benoît Trémoulinas

Colin S L
Raul played with Ronaldo (fat) at Real Madrid,
who played with Gourcuff at Milan
who now plays with Trémoulinas at Bordeaux.

Shazback
Raul played with Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid
Zidane played with Dugarry at Bordeaux
During his second stint with Bordeaux, Dugarry played with Tremoulinas (if youth teams don’t count, then he played with Ulrich Rame, who plays with Tremoulinas)

6. Zlatan Ibrahimovic –> Jozy Altidore

Weston
zlatan plays at inter with vieira /
who was on the french national team like pires /
who plays at villareal like altidore does/did/is on loan from

Shazback
Ibrahimovic played with Lilian Thuram at Juventus
Thuram played at Monaco with Stephane Porato
Porato trained at Xeres with Altidore when Altidore was on loan

7. Freddie Ljungberg –> Giuseppe Rossi

Cromlein
Ljungberg played for Arsenal with Robert Pires
who plays for Villareal with Rossi

Shazback
Ljungberg played at Arsenal with Robert Pires
Pires plays at Villareal with Rossi

8. Andriy Shevchenko –> Jeremy Clement

Cromlein
Shevchenko played for Chelsea with Claude Makalele
who plays for PSG with Clement

Shazback
Shevchenko played at AC Milan with Gennaro Gattuso
Gattuso played at Rangers with Barry Ferguson
Ferguson played at Rangers with Clement

9. Juan Sebastián Verón –> Philip Jagielka

Cromlein
Veron played for ManUtd with Phil Neville
who plays for Everton with Jagielka

Weston
veron played at manUre,
so did howard,
howard plays at everton w/ jagielka.

Shazback
Veron played at Manchester United with Phil Neville
Neville plays at Everton with Jagielka

10. Pável Pardo –> Hulk (Givanildo Vieira de Souza)

Weston
pardo played with marquez on the mexico team,
marquez plays for barcelona like deco used to,
deco once played for porto like hulk.

Shazback
Pardo played at America (MEX) with Ivan Zamorano
Zamorano played at Inter Milan with Vampeta
Vampeta played at Vitoria (BRA) with Hulk

11. Hossam Hassan –> Theo Walcott

Colin S L
Hossam Hassan played for Egypt National team with Mohammed Shawky,
who plays with Jeremie Aliadiere now,
who used to play with Arsenal where Theo Walcott plays now.

Shazback:
Hassan played at PAOK with Giorgos Toursoudinis
Toursoudinis played at PAOK with Mike Small
Small played at West Ham with Ludek Miklosko
Miklosko played at Queens Park Rangers (ENG) with Peter Crouch
Crouch played at Southampton with Walcott
(Laurie says: WHEW!)

12. Cuauhtémoc Blanco –> Thierry Henry

Cromlein
Blanco played for Mexico with Rafael Marquez
who plays for Barcelona with Henry

Alessio
Blanco plays with Brian McBride at Chicago
Brian McBride played at Fulham with Brede Hangeland
Brede Hangeland currently plays at Arsenal…where Henry used to be. (weak, i know)

Ebrahim
Blanco – McBride (chicago)
McBride – Danny Murphy (Fulham)
Danny Murphy – Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
Gerrard – Peter Crouch (Liverpool)
Peter Crouch – Nwankwo Kanu (Portsmouth)
Kanu – Thierry Henry (Arsenal)

Shazback
Blanco played at Valladolid with Gabriel Heinze
Heinze played at Paris Saint Germain with Ronaldinho Gaucho
Ronaldinho played at Barcelona with Henry

Nicely done, folks. Tune in Saturday for more quiz fun!