Written by: Chad "klownz" Anderson

Yfran “Eafra” Garcia is the newest member to the Chicago Chimera. In his first season in the CGS Eafra posted a 9-3 record and gained an invitation to the CGS Individual finals for FIFA 08. His dedication and work ethic brought him this far and now it is up to him to represent the U.S and the Chicago Chimera by beating the best in the world.

“I leave early on Friday morning for the individual FIFA division. I have been training, well, trying to train but it just hasn’t been going well at all. The difference between training at the Oakwoods and training at home is that I always had a training partner. Not to mention, we practiced on LAN. I think I perform best when I play for hours against an opponent the night before in the practice rooms. Unfortunately, here at my house in New York, I don’t have this luxury. I am forced to play with the Europeans which involves quite a bit of delay. Passes are off as well as my defense simply because it takes a second to respond to the button action. It is really frustrating and I always seem to lose confidence in my play, even though the same play ultimately works on LAN. So that’s how training has been going.

As far as opponents go, I don’t know much about any of them, but then again I didn’t know much about what formations and styles the players would use in Region 1. One time in a soccer game my coach was unconfident about a team that we had to play. He thought that the team was better than us on paper, so he altered our formation so that we were better prepared for the match. I was strongly against this as we went on to lose the match horribly. The lesson I learned here was not to change your game for anyone. I keep this in mind for FIFA. I play the best when I am using my formation, so I am not going to change anything at individuals. With that said, I am certain that I will get the scoring opportunities needed to secure the wins.”

Eafra was one of the only bright spot throughout the season for the Chicago Chimera. And now that he has won the Individual Championship he is by far the biggest stand-out Chicago has going into next season. The Individual Finals performance that Eafra displayed was the same that he had played with all season. Now, let's see how Yfran, himself, feels about his performance and his opponents at the Finals.

First off, I’d like to congratulate you on your accomplishment. In your first season in the CGS you’ve done so much; from earning a record of 9-3 to defeating the best in the world. I would like to hear your thoughts on your experience at the Individual Finals, so let’s begin!

Leading up to the Individual’s you didn’t seem confident in yourself, why was that?
I wasn’t confident because nothing was in my favor. For example, the CGS decided to send me home for 10 days. I live in New York, which is obviously not on the west coast. For the next few days at home I had no one to train with. The only practice I could get was playing online against the Euro’s which caused a great deal of delay, making it fairly impossible to play my game. This caused me to worry whether or not my performance was going to be on-point for Individuals.

Then, I took my 6 hour flight back to LA the day before the tournament. I got to my hotel at 10:40AM and was extremely tired. I fell asleep until 4PM before I got up, showered, and walked over to the Player’s Village. Once I arrived there, the room was absolutely packed as one of the GM’s told me that the FIFA players had just arrived before me and it was going to take 2 hours before I could play. Needless to say, that night I played two FIFA matches only. I went to Subway after that and headed back to my hotel for an early sleep.

No one would feel confident after all of this.

How did the online playing you did before the finals impact your playing at the finals?
It impacted it a great deal. I started off very slow. The FIFA players had a little warm up before their matches but surely that wasn’t enough to prepare me for my matches against Manyna and Patan. I was still in delay mode (online play). I was scared to make passes or attack because online you could easily get countered on with that lag. To be honest, I never really got it going on the day.

Is it now safe to say that if it comes down to penalty kicks your opponent should just give you the win!?
Hahaha. If it is a player that I have never played against (Manyna and Patan are perfect examples of that), then I think they should give me the win. The players in Region 1 are catching on to my PK techniques so it is a little bit harder in matches against those players.

Against Manyna you tied in regulation, 1-1, what kept you from winning it there? Was it a tough defensive arrangement or was your offense just a tad off?
It was both. As I said before, I never got it going and I really didn’t deserve to win. Also, my motivation just wasn’t there. I was really really tired and at one point during the match I thought about the long flight I would have to take back to New York. It wasn’t the same atmosphere as playing a season game for my team. People would say that $5,000 is the motivation! But nothing can motivate me more than team motivation – In the season it was all about winning for the team and that’s what motivates me to get the win. I just could not find the same motivation. I was just going through the motions and somehow by God’s hand, I got the win.

After the Semi-Finals match against Manyna did your confidence return in full?
No. I won the match, did the interview and sat back in the lobby, ready to take a nap or eat a snack. I was extremely unconfident if that makes sense to people. After such a dismal performance in my first match, I was worried that I would play the same way in my second match, which I ultimately did.

What were you thinking leading up to the Finals match against Patan?
I wasn’t thinking much. Actually I remember asking God for a lot of help because I would surely lose it on my own. God heard my cry and took over the game. Every chance Patan got he missed. I would have scored every single one of those chances is what I kept on saying to myself. I looked at him and kept saying things like “Oh just a little less power on that...” or “Oh man nice shot, very unlucky…” I look back on it and no one would have said that to me if I missed except for Brian who obviously wasn’t there. So you see I was playing the game like I was helping him or something. I played the match like there was nothing on the line and I guess that’s what helped me stay cool in front of the net. Very weird stuff in my opinion ;)

Did you do anything different than when you played Manyna to give you an edge?
Yes. I prayed to God in my second match. I didn’t do that in my first one.

What were you feeling when you won 2-0 against the best the world had to offer?
Relieved. Very relieved. It just goes to show that even on my worse days I can take down World powerhouses. That is definitely a great feeling.

Now it’s the offseason, any special plans or are you attending any tournaments?
I don’t have any plans as of now. I want to continue to work on my new T-shirt business which I think has a lot of promise. I will take a break for two months and then get back to training with FIFA 09. I wanted to go to the eSports Festival in Belgium but I won’t have the finances to compete. So right now I am officially done with 08 unless something else comes up.

Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk with us, I hope you continue your success into future tournaments and next season, any shout-outs before we go?
I would just like to give a shout-out to Brian and the Chicago Chimera for giving me the chance to play for such a highly supported organization. Also to the great people on IRC who always support me no matter what. You guys are great and I really appreciate it.