Fourth Time the Charm? What a match. We're through to the semifinals for the fourth time, are we supposed to have broken the curse by now? Let's give it another shot!
The knock-out stage has been a tough path so far. We've taken out ten World Cup trophies so far. Led by Terán, Dandalleion, Mêndêlöíndçêl, Tuzzio and Kâí up front, neither the defense of the Starblaydis nor the defense of the Vanorians could cope with our offense. Sure, the Vanorians may have lacked some of their best players - Hawk, Fresco and Soldarian being key players, after all -, but their defense was almost untouched, with just the goalkeeper going down with flu.
The match against Starblaydia was truly exciting, with the Starblaydis managing to make us incredibly nervous in the last few minutes. On the first half, Tuzzio got to volley the ball from the edge of the box, after Kâí crossed to him perfectly. The shot was not particularly precise, but still too powerful for the goalkeeper to stop.
On the second half, when it had just begun, we got to widen the score. Dandalleion got the ball on the flank, dribbled Morton and cut in. He was in a perfect position for one of his bending shots to the right post. However, he saw Tuzzio on the run and connected a through pass that barely avoided Robinson. Tuzzio got to the ball just before Cable, the Starblaydi goalkeeper, and softly touched the ball, chipping it.
A third goal would arrive, scored by Alaminos. Terán crossed from a corner kick. Tenian rose above all and headed to the right post. However, Cable managed to dive wonderfully to stop the goal. Alaminos, however, had other plans and, fueled by his majestic reflexes, poached the third goal.
All looked fine, with just twenty minutes to go we were even thrashing Starblaydia, who were by no means a walkover. However, Ffion McAllister had other plans, and she would let us know in the eighty-fifth minute, when she got fouled inside the box by Faró. She then chipped the ball with Lisdiren diving to the right post. She then quickly ran to the goal, picked up the ball and started sprinting towards the center. It was alright, we were still winning by two goals.
However, she'd score again just before injury time, when she got the ball outside the box, dribbled Alaminos, dribbled Faró and sent a creeping shot to the left post. Lisdiren dived, but it was no use; the shot had been stunningly fast.
And then the two minutes of injury time. Agonizing, but we survived them and got through. And we had to face... Valanora. A tough road forges the champion, I guess.
But we had a stroke of luck! Although it did stripe us of some of our merit. Some of the Vanorian players got flu. Some were not really important, but not having to face Hawk, Soldarian, Fresco or Durosa sure was relieving. Basically, most of the Vanorian midfield was replaced, with the exception of va Drake, who somehow did not go down with the flu. The other player from the starting line-up who got that flu was the goalkeeper, as I previously mentioned.
But don't let that fool us. Even though the Vanorian side was lacking in their best stars, our team more than utterly tore apart their defense. va Drake was obviously threatening, however. Rossizzo decided to swap Frêndê and Alaminos, relegating the latter to a defensive role that not many defenders would like: having to mark one of the best players in the world. However, when you're helped by Mêndêlöíndçêl in that task, it does not matter all that much. Oh, yes, Mêndêlöíndçêl had to take a more defensive approach as well.
The game started terribly for us, though. va Drake easily escaped from Alaminos in just the fifth minute, dribbled Faró, then Frêndê and curled the ball to the left post. Just like that. Truly disappointing, but the Vanorian player is renowned everywhere for a reason. Anyway, the team stayed focused, and the best was about to come.
Soon, the offense started wreaking havoc. As good as va Drake may be on the attack, he could not cope with Kâí on the defense, and neither could Haelinde. Rossizzo quickly noticed that Risko was in great
Risko Kâí with the ball, right after
dribbling Haelinde for the third time.
form for that match, and started to order the team to pass the ball to him more often. Soon, the devastating left midfielder, or winger, whatever you'd like to call the hybrid position he plays, got into the box and started threatening the opposition. Inevitably, the Vanorians started to mark him with more and more players, though he did not care all that much about it. Whether it was Haelinde, Tinueme, Narbrinsyr, va Drake or Cularin that was marking him, he just dribbled back and forth, provoking them. They even got to marking him with three players in the twentieth minute, and that's when everything changed.
The Vanorians, who seemingly had forgotten they were winning, went crazy on the agile midfielder, and soon attempted to stripe him off the ball in a violent way. But he was having none of it. He nutmegged Cularin, confused va Drake with a double step over, avoided his aggressive kick, then avoided Cularin's aggressive attempt at harming him while he was chasing him and, with a big deal of the Vanorian defense out of place, sent a great frontal cross to Dandalleion, who headed the cross upwards at the edge of the box. Tenian, who was already in the box, managed to head it once again and change its direction, confusing Galadirdren, the substitute goalkeeper. It was a surprising and sudden change of direction that meant the Farves were back in the game. The environment was now very tense, however. Risko Kâí was being a bit too sassy with the Vanorian defense.
Indeed, he got kicked here and there, some elbows, a few punches in the kidney when the referee wasn't watching, and yet he attempted a rainbow flick when Cularin tried to pull off a good sliding tackle in the center of the midfield. The very humiliating trick left Cularin more than angry, and he could not resist the temptation of sliding again, only to harm the sneaky Rulandese footballer. It got him just a yellow, because he missed his objective a bit. However, it was a very comfortable frontal free kick. Tuzzio would take it. He took five steps, started sprinting towards the ball and connected a thunderous straight shot, which barely avoided the left post, and the wall as well. Later on he told a journalist that he had seen the wall misplaced and had no second thoughts about it. Anyway, it was a goal. A great one.
As it had been just before half time, we ended the first forty-five minutes in the middle of great momentum. We had turned the tables around, somehow. We were playing great football, while the Vanorians had had just a few chances, of which one was that magical goal by va Drake, who was pretty much absent afterwards, as Alaminos seemed to get the hang of him, with a bit of help from Mêndêlöíndçêl, who took over when needed.
The second half saw Mata being substituted by Mêrí, who would now take the role of striker, with Tenian becoming the left midfielder and kâí becoming the right midfielder. Celetholtinu was replaced by Mithlithelen on the Vanorian side. They were apparently looking for a more efficient striker to partner with Gwaval.
The Vanorians soon gave us a scare (which we countered flawlessly), when va Drake managed to surprise Alaminos with a few tricks. He ran down our left flank and waited for an incoming Mithlithelen. The substitute, just two metres from the goal, one-touch massacred the ball with his right foot. However, Lisdiren's fast reflexes were somewhat underestimated, as the Farf goalkeeper managed to guess where the striker would shoot, and dive there just in time to make the ball bounce off his chest. The rebound went straight to Faró, who chested down the ball, dribbled Gwaval and started a swift counterattack. And very swift it would be.
He sent a long through pass to Kâí, who managed to get to the ball at the same time as Norovathar, of a pauper performance. Both hit the ball at the same time, and so the ball rocketed upwards defying all logic. Mêndêlöíndçêl and Dandalleion started sprinting for the ball, with the former getting to it first and chesting it down, as he was already pretty close to it. Dandalleion started running towards the goal. Tinueme got to Mêndêlöíndçêl almost as quickly as the ball hit the floor after being chested down. The Rulandese midfielder then, without looking, sent a quick through pass to Dandalleion, who was just barely
Mêndêlöíndçêl on the run for the ball, always.
in a legal position to avoid the off-side law. He got to the ball quickly, stopped it, and looked at the goalkeeper. The goalkeeper started rushing towards him while Tinueme, Narbrinsyr, Haelinde and, luckily, Mêndêlöíndçêl. He then sent a soft through pass to Mêndêlöíndçêl, with all the Vanorian defenders left in an awkward position, as the pass was going at just about the perfect speed. The Rulandese midfielder, who is also the captain, let's not forget that, got to the ball and shot towards the goal. Another one for us!
Now it was already somewhat defined. The Vanorians were not going to take the ever-elusive AOCAF Cup trophy, it was just obvious. Their defense was just not up to the task of taking care of Dandalleion, Tuzzio or Kâí. Terán was not easy for them either.
Indeed, he was not even close to easy. In the eightieth minute, when the game was already dying and the Farf side had already monopolized the game, we got another goal that came from his fanned right foot. Kâí got the ball close to the box, dribbled Narbrinsyr and cut in. He then passed the ball to Terán, who was right on the D. The Faroleran number three then stopped the ball and waited for Cularin to get to him. He then dribbled the terrible defensive midfielder and feinted a shot, which confused the Vanorian goalkeeper. Just in time, he managed to get to the touch the ball, making it go straight to the lower-right corner. As terrible as Norovathar may have been, she cannot be blamed for not getting to stop that shot. I still cannot believe how fast Terán managed to move his right leg in that goal. Anyway, four-one it was. It was all over for the Marauders. They were not going to be the best of the region. And Farfadillis had had its revenge, making the record one-one.
We then went on to control the entire game. va Drake probably knew that everything was over now. So did the manager, replacing him just in case he got an unexpected injury. As expected, the game ended like that. Farfadillis had thrashed one of the two best football teams in football history, right after having beaten the other one.
Aaaaaanyway. We're now facing Vilita and Turori. I know our record as underdogs against them is great and all, but we're obviously underdogs again. I mean, they are still better than us, after all. But let's be grateful that the team is still rising and rising, and we've already reached our fourth AOCAF Cup semifinal. 38, 39, 41 and now 42. That's just great!