Di Bradini Cup 29/U21WC50 RP/Roster/Results Thread

[95X]

95X found its way into the Round of 16, thanks in part to a reinvigorated Floyd Commando and some incredible work from his teammates.

In the final Group G game, 95X thawed out Taeshan 4-2. 95X came out in force early, on two surprise goals from Salvatore West and Commando. Taeshan scored one at the other end before halftime, but the break put the momentum back into the favor of 95X.

Then came Cody Jasper. The six-limbed midfielder (2 arms, 4 legs) got the nod as 95X surprised the opponents with an offensive strategy change, giving the player whose on-field movements resembled something between galloping and dancing some prime opportunities, capitalizing on two of them.

95X 4
West :24
Commando :36
Jasper :52, :75

[Equestrian States]

Round of 16 Results
(Scorinated by Legalese)
Equestrian States 2-4 Felix
at Diamond Park in Stalliongrad

Blouman Empire 0-1 Ko-oren
at Star Stadium in Canterlot

Starblaydia 3-3 Farfadillis
(3-3 AET) (4-1 pen.)
at Sky-High Coliseum in Cloudsdale

Mizuyuki 0-0 Northern Sunrise Islands
(0-0 AET) (3-4 pen.)
at Pony Lands Park in Manechester

Free Republics 2-0 Furellum
at Royal Equestria Stadium in Canterlot

95X 0-0 Mytannion
(0-0 AET) (3-4 pen.)
at Manehattan Industrial Park in Manehattan

Polar Islandstates 1-0 Tynewear
at Estadio Poco Caballo in Maredrid

The Inevitable Syndicate 3-1 Taeshan
at HarmonyLink Field in Seaddle

---

Quarterfinals Schedule

Felix vs. Ko-oren
at Wild Grounds in Everfree

Starblaydia vs. Northern Sunrise Islands
at Estadio Poco Caballo in Maredrid

Free Republics vs. Mytannion
at Elements Stadium in Ponyville

Polar Islandstates vs. The Inevitable Syndicate
at Star Stadium in Canterlot

[The Inevitable Syndicate]

Stories of SHOCK & AWE
Part One: Atomia
Part Two: Mods
Part Three: Special Delivery
Part Four: Vita Ex Machina

"Osarius? No Problem. POW POW PEW PEW POEW PSSHHHH"

While Jim was supposed to be saving the world, he couldn't help but have a little bit of fun with what Dr. Riley had set up for him. Jim had quite the imagination, from years of experience playing an online text-based role-playing game, and so he was thrilled when he saw the 'strike sucessful' pop-up on the command prompt. Everytime an 'X' would pop up on the regional map, he would check which nation it pointed at, saw whether it matched with Riley's scribbles, then clicked fire. It was rather nice to know he was saving the world, after all.

But still, something in the back of his brain itched, and that was the sinking feeling at what this all had cost. What if the missiles weren't very effective? What if everyone outside was dead? The complex was built to survive (or contain) an atomic blast, so if the outside world had been bombed, how would he know? By this time, the news channels were merely showing their emergency pattern, and Jim didn't have time to flick between missile firings.

The phone rang, but nobody was there to answer it. Jim pondered where Riley had gone, but couldn't steer away from his post. Not until the region was free, or the Starblaydi broadcast stopped. Here he was, clicking buttons, deep in the Syndicate's underground. Would he be hailed as a hero? A villain in some areas, for hurling missiles at them?

Just as Jim's questions reached critical mass, the phone rang again. But it wasn't the phone that had rung previously. This was the direct link with the Forum, and on the other end was an Andrew Browne that was a shell of his former self.

"Is everything alright, sir?" Jim asked, before realising that asking such a thing at such a time was very silly indeed.

The Administrator sighed, which was becoming a common occurrence. "Not particularly. I've been waiting to be hit by the Starblaydi for the past two hours, and nothing's happened. What's up on your end? I've seen some missiles crawl across the sky..."

Jim shrugged, which was already a common occurrence. "It's been alright. I've just been sat here, clicking away. Not seen anything from Dr. Riley, he said he was going to find a way to contact the Starblaydi..." he figited in his chair, switching to the other screen and clicking again. The pair heard a resounding 'beep', and continued their conversation.

"Right. I was wondering about that, as we've had our guys doing the same, but nothing's come out of it. I did manage to contact one of our agents in Ahlenfi, who claimed that the place was about the same as it's always been, just with more infected. Cheeky sod, he is... Takes after an agent we used to have..."

Suddenly, there was a crash elsewhere in the facility.

---

It wasn't Jim's facility. Andrew burst through the double doors that welcomed many into his office, to see guards spraying at infected with machine guns. It was chaos. He ran back, reached for a short wave radio, and tuned into the emergency signal. Everywhere was much the same. He looked on in shock as the infected overwhelmed the few guards that had been posted at the bottom of the tower, and also watched as they began to slowly climb the stairs.

The Administrator had to think fast. He also had to block the stairs. Luckily, he spotted a piano on the landing of the top floor, typically used to entertain guests in the waiting room. He slid across the top of it, towards the back, and pushed with all his might. It wouldn't budge. He ran back into the office, scouring the room for anything he could use. It was then he remembered what was in the desk.

---

Jim shouted into the microphone. "Administrator? Administrator? Are you there?" The response was similar to the ambient noise of the room. Silence. There was nothing Jim could do from his post, and he was far to busy clicking once a minute to help out. The phone rang again, but Jim was still too busy to answer it. There were so many things to do, and he needed mobility.

Suddenly, he heard a beep from across the room. It was less than a minute away. And that was when he had his genius idea...

[Ko-oren]

Litegreens survive another round, Felix up next!

The Liteblues have reached the final eight of the Di Bradini Cup! Even the most optimistic fans of the national U-21 team never dared expect any generation of Ko-orenite players to reach this level. And that while Ko-orenite footballers are the ultimate result-driven players, playing to win and little else. Our Dutch-speaking friends up in Othushun's metropolises have a nice word for this: 'resultaatvoetbal' (result football). And actually, their clubs are not even that good at it, with especially Othushun never making it to the Globe Cup spots. Anyhow, we have made a case before that our youth just is not as good as other countries' youth at football, while our 30-year-olds are probably unrivaled. This all has to do with experience and consistency. And apparently our football culture as well.

Still, beating teams like the Blouman Empire might not have been possible during DBC 28 or earlier. Is this group of players really so much better? Are they better prepared for the job? The average age of players in the KNL-1, our national league, has not gone significantly down. And lately players like Storm Enshadilsa have left the KNL to play at bigger clubs in bigger leagues. Could it just be that Ko-orenite football is booming? There are some arguments for this: our national team ranking, reaching the final 16 of the World Cup and losing against the later winner, young players that move to big clubs abroad... On the other hand, the overall level of football is not going up that far. Our league has lost its second Champions' Cup spot after some four seasons, some of the better clubs are struggling to even make the playoffs... Our national football is growing, our club football might be at its worst in five seasons.

The next opponent is Felix. We have not played them, nor Gaveo, in any national team setting. Their team information on the Di Bradini Cup website tells us that they favor 3-4-3 and that they are one of the more attacking sides in the tournament. Then again, we have made the same remark over and over: attacking teams are at a disadvantage against our national teams. Mizuyuki did not make that mistake, but all other teams did (including the Blouman Empire). A 3-4-3 is a daring strategy that might blow up against us like the Bloumany did. Starting out with only three defenders leaves teams valuable to counters, while having four midfielders probably wins you the midfield and the majority of possession, but the Liteblues have shown that possession and having more chances is not a prerequisite to winning. The team consists of mainly 21-year-olds, with the funny exception of 18-year-old Luca Esser in attack.

Felix comes from group B, the same group as Starblaydia was in. A MD5 1-0 win over Filopines gave them enough points to shoot over the Licentian Isles and simultaneously gave them a positive goal difference. The second round had them play the hosts (Equestrian States). This was the most scoring team in the competition... by very, very far. 17 goals in four games was their yield after the group stage, but Felix managed to best them 2-4. This fact alone should warn any team that is about to play this team. Still, the way they beat the hosts was pretty much by fighting fire with fire: attack after attack, and after 90 minutes the Felixians were lucky enough to have outscored Equestrian States.

Other games in the Quarterfinals:
Starblaydia - Northern Sunrise Islands
Free Republics - Mytannion
Polar Islandstates - Inevitable Syndicate

Eight teams left, of which only four were group winners. Polar Islandstates - Inevitable Syndicate is the only quarterfinal match with two group winners, while Felix - Ko-oren is the only quarterfinal match with two runners-up. Groups B and H are the only groups with both their qualifiers still in the tournament (Starblaydia and Felix for B, the Inevitable Syndicate and Mytannion for H). Both these groups were on the low side when it comes to scoring: Group B saw 27 goals, and H saw 24. To compare: our group (D) had only 14(!), A had 49 (!). Other groups: C had 30, E had 39, F had 26 and G had 42. Or, in order:
A: 49
G: 42
E: 39
C: 30
B: 27
F: 26
H: 24
D: 14
Groups G and A have no teams left in the tournament. Wait a second... we can find both of them right at the top of the scoring table. And here are our eight final teams' stats, round of 16 included:

1  Polar Islandstates          5   4  1  0    7   3  +4    13
2  The Inevitable Syndicate    5   4  0  1    8   2  +6    12
3  Ko-oren                     5   4  0  1    4   2  +2    12
4  Mytannion                   5   3  1  1    6   3  +3    10*
5  Felix                       5   3  1  1   10   7  +3    10
6  Free Republics              5   3  1  1   11   8  +3    10
7  Northern Sunrise Islands    5   2  3  0    8   5  +3    9*
8  Starblaydia                 5   2  3  0   10   7  +3    9*

*team advanced on penalties in the Ro16. This match was then counted as a draw.

--Edit (10:03): Our moderation works overtime to remove hateful comments. Please think twice before confirming your post!

--Edit (10:15): Moderation is considering to stop comments for this article altogether. Please consider the contents of your post before conforming your post! (Yes, we are looking at you, Felixians and Free Republicans).

--Edit (10:34): IP-banned Felix and Free Republics users. We expect this matter to be dealt with. Moderation will keep an eye on this article, to be sure. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

--Edit (11:18): To those wondering what was happening: Felix and Free Republics are fierce rivals. Users from both countries kept spamming hateful comments about rape allegations and Trolls (apparently, the capital T is necessary).

[Free Republics]

Sporting World

Felix Trolls stoop to new lows
by: Kyle Bolton

I didn't think those obnoxious Trolls could go any lower, but they have done so. If you regularly subject yourself to their fact-free press, you have probably heard rumors by now that members of our U-21 National Team "raped" the girlfriend of Luca Esser, some nobody who plays for the Felix Trolls. While Felix claims to be a free and capitaliztic nation, they are once again revealing just how Progressive they are with these latest unfounded allegations.

Contrary to whatever false rumors the Felix Trolls and trash such as Sibyla Crouteau may spread, our team is composed of upstanding Republican young men, not the kinds of lower class creeps who rape women. I have personally had consensual relations with a massive number of women over the years. If I had to estimate, I'd say that I've probably banged around 1000 ladies over the past 7 years and it would have been more if I didn't have standards. I'm not going to waste my seed on a fattie or some ugly ho. I only sleep with hotties because low quality women just aren't worth it.

I have talked to my teammates about such matters in the past and the majority of them have similar standards. Indeed, most guys from the FFR have similar standards. While none of my teammates has a notch count even half of mine, probably around half of them are in the triple digits. As we all know, guys that can get just about any chick they want don't go around committing rapes. The rapists are those losers who can't get a chick. They are the pieces of s*** that we athletes played harmless pranks on during our school years. Regardless of what those Progressive idiots say, stuffing some loser in a locker is completely harmless and justified. How else are we supposed to get them to stop acting like losers and start acting like normal guys? That's another reason why I love dodgeball almost as much as I love soccer and pro wrestling.

Besides, have you seen pictures of the chick making the false rape claims? I saw them in News Magazine, a magazine that actually has the decency to publish the names of rape accusers, along with a pic. The Troll girl, whose name is [redacted], (OOC: This wasn't redacted in the pages of Sporting World and was only "redacted" because Felix has yet to name the character, to my knowledge.) has one of the ugliest faces I've ever seen. Just from looking at her, I can tell that she wouldn't be attractive no matter how many beers I drank. Like her nation, she is just simply b*** ugly. What else would you expect from a lying skank from a nation known for trolling everybody on a continual basis?

Personally, I hope Felix makes it to the finals of this year's Di Bradini Cup. I hope they make it because I want to embarrass the Trolls and teach them that they should not make false rape allegations. I want revenge for their endless lies about our Federation. I want revenge for that book of falsehoods by that guy Troll. I want revenge for that Troll chick who repeats the FRA. I want to get revenge on the Trolls for doing one of the most despicable things that anybody can do. Then, when they come to the FFR, we're going to bring a case against them under the Ending False Accusations Act. This time, they won't end up in jail in some rogue Republic. Instead, they'll end up in Federation jail because they just can't learn that they must not tell lies.

Since the Casaran and Baptism of Fire 52 are hot topics at the present time, I also wish to comment about them. As you undoubtedly know by now, we finished 17th in BoF 52, being eliminated. While my Manager, Mr. Theriault, has made it very clear in these pages that he believes the Casaran is a conspiracy against us, I must respectfully disagree with a man whose opinions I greatly respect. I do not think that BoF 52 was a conspiracy against us. In BoF 52, we defeated Brenecia and Albiae. While neither of those are impressive feats, since we were facing Esportivan competition, it is flat out disgraceful that we lost to Nandezia and drew both Qatarus and Mechelen. None of those nations even competed in last year's World Cup. If we had taken care of business against those minnows, maybe we would have been the BoF champions. Regardless, it certainly wasn't a conspiracy against us by Legalese's trademark Casaran system.

As you can probably guess from my previous paragraph, I am a strong proponent of the Saintland and Legalese bid. While I have great respect for Cassadaigua, my respect does not extend to their bidding partner. The Equestrian States is a nation filled with talking animals that compete in soccer despite possessing an utterly unfair advantage by virtue of their being intelligent horses. I simply don't think they should be competing in international sports to begin with, let alone hosting the World Cup. This is why I support the bid by Saintland and Legalese. I don't like, at all, Saintland's strict laws against fornication, but I must admit that Sanctii women are hot and that they are the probably the best wives in the multiverse, so long as they aren't secretly members of Feministvs Sanctvsterra. If I wanted a wife, I admit that I'd be strongly tempted to convert to the Church of Saintland and marry some hottie from Saintland. However, I would prefer to end up in Legalese, where we'd be able to find hot chicks to bang.

Our next opponent in the DBC is Mytannion. Mytannion defeated 95X on penalty kicks. I think we'll probably make short work of Mytannion. Once we've taken care of them, we will face either Polar Islandstates or the Inevitably Eliminated Syndicate. Both of those nations are notorious losers whom we should beat easily. Polar Islandstates have lost 2 consecutive World Cup finals and are the odds-on favorites to lose the World Cup 67 final. Meanwhile, The Syndicate are notorious for never winning anything. The only reason they qualified for the last World Cup was because they were co-hosting it and there is practically no chance that they'll qualify for the next World Cup. In the finals, we'll probably get our hands on those Trolls and when we do, we're going to deliver a Forsaker-style beatdown to those pieces of trash. Then, they will truly be Forsaken. We're on our way to repeating and there is nothing that anybody, and I mean anybody, can do to stop us. We're the best and we're going to prove it again. Even Simeone Di Bradini has nothing on us. We'll see you next year when we go for his history-making third consecutive DBC and I am certain that we will get it and prove once and for all that the FFR is the Greatest Nation in the Multiverse.

Kyle Bolton is the captain of the National Soccer Team for the Federation of Free Republics. Considered one of the best young strikers in the world, Kyle has scored numerous goals for our Federation. He is also a leader within the locker room who continually motivates his teammates to do their best, even when they are facing seemingly impossible odds. Kyle enjoys having fun and has a reputation in the Free Republics as quite the ladies man. According to Girl Magazine, Kyle is the most eligible bachelor in the Free Republics today. Humble to a fault, the ultra-talented striker will likely continue to be one of the biggest names in international soccer.

[Northern Sunrise Islands]

Slow heartbeats. Almost dead silence. The eyes of Katsu Haruto, focused on the very feet of Negolossauro Rex. He could barely believe that all that happened on these very seven years were seemingly catching up only for that. That exact moment, where he, Wagner Lobo, nicknamed Negolossauro Rex by his Daineri friends thanks to his size, would prove that he was what they said, a great one. In fact, for a slight second, he could remember what happened.

---

It was a rainy, awful weather day as a group of about fourty children trained, displaying their skills to a group of scouts from Adda, a Daineri team. The team, knowing of the prospect that the union of the Republics that generated the Northern Sunrise Islands, jumped at their chance and organized a little scouting at Carnival Island, gathering those young rookies. Among them, however; a giant, named Wagner, shown his skill, making cuts all over the nets with his kicks. Seemed like a dark-skinned Chikage Kazama Sr., but instead of kicking baddies; kicking balls to the goal.

At the end of the scouting trip, however, Wagner seen it. The head scout of Adda, Manchorras Biul, showing him the black shirt with the winged A. It was in, Wagner was the first Sunrisian signed to the Adda's youth team.

---

The whistle warned. It was the moment for the kick. Wagner took a quick breath and used all his strength, even closing his eyes, praying for the best.

By the time he opened his eyes, he could only see his teammates celebrating together; the Sunrise was in: 4-3 at the Penatly Shootout, with the last goal being Wagner's goal. Negolossauro Rex, the savior.

[Felix]

(Note to Saint, I did give out the name of Luca's GF. It's Marina Collier. )

U-21 World Cup: And We Move On.
By: Liselotte Moser

So Felix defeats a exciting and hungry Equestrian States team in a match that many experts expected the score would be reversed with the likes of budding super star, Apple Cobbler, leading the charge, no pun intended. With that Felix moves on to the Quarterfinals to face off against Ko-oren, they beat the Blouman Empire, 1-0 in a tightly contested match. So now we move on, can Felix continue this ever increasing momentum and beat out everyone and win the cup? We will discus that later, but before I review the match I want to say some words about this ever going conflict between the players and coaches of the Felixian national team and the players and coach of the Free Republican national team.

In my reports, I like to not give away my option or my way of thinking due to the fact I might display bias, and as a journalist, I try not to do that. Instead, I try and get the whole side of the story without an agenda behind it. But for the first time in my 10 year career as a journalist I have to speak up and state my option. In the recent issue of Sporting World, Free Republican player, Kyle Bolton does a guest appearance. He writes about us Felixians, or as they call us in his country, The Trolls, and how we went really low this time. In his introductory paragraph he mentions the sad story of a Felixian player's girlfriend being raped. He says that we in Felix lie about it but even the local police have reported the rape to be alive and real. And most certainly real, for the victim, Marina Collier.

In the next paragraph Bolton proceeds to fellate his own ego by saying, and I quote, "banged around 1000 ladies over the past 7 years..." Now, in order to do that, wouldn't Kyle Bolton not go to practice? Because that is a lot of women, even in a 7 year period. Or is that he isn't that effective at "banging it" and quickly moves on to his next lady. Or is, and this one is the most likely of them all, he lied. He lied to make himself seem like the bigger man. But instead, unfortunately for him, made him seem like a total loser. Hell, he even sounded like one of those kids you hear while playing Ringtone of Duty in multiplayer and how they say they did your mum.

Crazy stuff there, but it gets worse. He then proceeds to say this wonderful and cheery quote, "I'm not going to waste my seed on a fattie or some ugly ho." Now I found this comment as the least disgusting of them all, surprised? Yeah, I thought you would because the whole article is just plain awful to read. I cringed multiple times over the article that was written by a patriarchal, masochistic, buffoon. And I hated the language he used, for example this what he said about the rape victim, "[She] has one of the ugliest faces I've ever seen. Just from looking at her, I can tell that she wouldn't be attractive no matter how many beers I drank. Like her nation, she is just simply b*** ugly. What else would you expect from a lying skank from a nation known for trolling everybody on a continual basis?" What kind of man is he to say that to a woman? Does he not know the basic rules of etiquette? Does he not know how to be a gentleman?

What I found out from this disgusting report is that the environment that he is in is poisoned with filth in place that seemingly degrades women and that the moral compass of "being nice" and "treating people they way you would want to be treated" all but gone. So his case to make him seem innocent has instead backfired and made him seem like he was in fact, the rapist. I hope that God forgives him for what he said, because that type of language only sends people to hell. I hope that the international news sees this report made by Bolton and demands he leaves or is prevented from playing national team football. Going back to the article he finishes his terrible report by trashing the great host of this tournament and the potential World Cup host, Equestrian States. Using the same words as Mr. Rule Theriault. I hope that this Bolton punk, never writes again because what that report just about made Sporting World lose all their creditability as a trustworthy source for sport news.

Now, lets talk about the match. Felix and the Equestrian States met at Diamond Park in Stalliongrad, the national anthems played and the teams went off to play. In the stadium the Felixian side could be seen as they burnt numerous flags from the Free Republics and they chanted, "Arrest the pig! Bolton the pig! Fuck the Free Republics! Ra, ra, ra!" the whole match only stopping when Felix scored a goal. The first half was tight one with both teams firing away against each other. Eventually, a well placed shot by Luca Esser put Felix on top first, 1-0 in the 24th minute. But the Equestrians soon responded back with a wicked shot by Rosewing in the 27th minute, 1-1. The Equestrians soon got the lead with a shot by Apple Cobbler in the 37th minute from a free kick and the goal crazy Equestrian States were in the lead, 2-1. But just before the halftime whistle was called Sabrina Köhler scored a screamer kick from just outside the box. Great first half of play.

The second half was just as great the first but with Felix holding on the slight edge over the Equestrian opponents. Felix regained the lead for the first time since the 26th minute with a shot by Nickolaus Dürr in the 50th minute off the assist by Luca Esser. Dürr then proceeded to take off his shirt and show a white undershirt saying, "We Love You Marina." with a picture of her on it. Surprisingly, Dürr wasn't carded for that. The match continued with the 3-2 scoreline until a switch off from Luca to Noé gave the opportunity for goal. Noé Fierro soon entered and scored the 4th goal that sealed the fate for the Equestrians in Stalliongrad in the 83rd minute. Felix had control of the rest of the match and won the game. Felix won it out, 4-2.

Now Felix won a emotionally charged match that was dedicated to a friend and his girlfriend. The Felixians hope to carry that on to throughout the tournament, if they can't, they can't. But I have a feeling that these lads and lasses will and they will do it for the people they love and care about. That is all this week from us in The National, until next time! Goodbye.

Remember who Marina Collier is. She isn't ugly and isn't what Bolton says she is.

-----

Luca Esser was going through a lot of stuff and the last thing on his mind was writing so he just left his journal in a safe place. Or so he thought. He actually left in a local café visited by a lot of football players. He did not care for it now, but when he did final get the mood to write he couldn't find it. It was gone. He was panicking looking left and right. His girlfriend told him not to worry about the journal, he can always get a new one. While he did calm down a little bit it wasn't enough as he had the chilling thought that someone picked it up and was reading it, finding his secrets and his feelings towards the world. He didn't sleep for days.

[Polar Islandstates]

It was nice to be scoring goals. Of course it was. There was never any doubt about that. Sending a wicked cross along the six yard box and seeing Akerhausen backheel it in as he fell over was tremendously satisfying. But a winning team was built upon solid foundations, and that meant defence. "Score more than the other team" only lasted for as long as the other side hadn't worked out how to stop you playing your game. Eventually, all attacking sides are found out, and if you've not been focusing on your defence when that happens then you're in some serious trouble. Which is why it was so satisfying to be keeping another clean sheet. Strictly speaking, as a defender, that should have been Bjerregaard's first concern anyway. Tynewear were no pushovers, but Bjerregaard had experience in a World Cup final, and that just gave him the edge he needed at just the right time.

With the Chicks through to the quarter-finals, the press had picked up somewhat. This, coupled with van der Riise going off to hospital for what were being "routine check-ups", as well as the Copa Rushmori squad announcement putting both Bjerregaard and Holzhauser on the plane to Charruterra, in addition to the little scrum that was focusing on the race between FC Axel Heiburg and SK Franz Josef City to sign that Furellum right-back Sorin Vladimerecu... et cetera. All in all, there was plenty of media attention on the side for the moment.

Not that Moses didn't know how to deal with it, of course. He'd been all anyone could talk about for a week or so earlier in the year when he'd signed for Royal Rumiatzi as a teenager, and he'd managed to escape anything too serious there. Ever since his brother had died, he'd managed to keep work and family very separate, and the press had so far respected that. He'd been the youngest player to receive a call-up to the Terns since Alexsandr van Sorensen, he'd reached a World Cup final, he'd done this, he'd done that, and he'd coped. And yet.

And yet, those two texts still threw him off his guard somewhat.

The first one was entirely pleasant. Just as he returned to his room to pick up his stuff to go to training.

Hey Moses,
Keep it up, you're doing well. Keep going, and get your hands on that trophy.
Alexsandr.

Good wishes from the former national team captain, and a hero of Moses'. He was touched, and he bounced down the stairs towards the the foyer with an extra spring in his step, ready to train well and then go and beat The Inevitable Syndicate in the quarter final. It was bound to be a tough match between the two teams that had performed best in the tournament so far, if the statisticians from Ko-oren are to be believed; which they usually are. But with the support of his hero, and friend, he was full of determination.

And then the second text stopped him in his tracks. It was from the team secretary.

Anders and Moses,
Tell van Jendrisen to turn his phone on, I can't get through to him and need to call him.
Gregorz's scan threw up some bad results, we're taking the next flight back to FJC. Ole will have to run training.
Gabriella.

He reached the foyer of the hotel as the last one down. Blank faces looked back at him. It was subdued. Clearly, they'd heard the news. The teams filed silently out of the main doors and onto the team coach. Captain, Anders Holzhauser waited behind for Moses, the two more senior players in the squad being the ones upon whom much would now rest as far as morale was concerned.

"Come on, my friend," said Anders, holding his arm around Moses' shoulder as they left the hotel, "come on. I reckon our whole motivational job just got a whole lot easier."

[Mytannion]

The phone call finally came.

Trofim and Leo had been waiting eagerly for the phone call, they had been ordered to ring Meyer within two days, something they had made sure they did. They didn't want any trouble from this man, the five henchmen that he'd brought with him were reason enough for that. He was a man who had a lot of people working for him - and some of these people were quite nasty. They could easily cause you some severe pain. Leo was particularly scared of pain, Trofim was less bothered about it and less bothered about these men and this Meyer. But his cousin was scared of these guys and for Trofim that was nearly enough, he'd have to help him and get him out of the situation he was in. Why and how Leo had managed to get in the situation were certainly of interest to Trofim, but that would come later, Leo was definitely avoiding the answers where he could.

Leo picked up the phone and hit the loudspeaker.

"Ah Mr. Konovalov, hello..." Crackled Meyer's voice on the other end of the line. "I said that I would ring now and I am a man of my word, am I not?" He asked, chuckling. In the previous phone call he had indeed said that he'd ring today, at around eleven in the morning. Trofim glanced at the clock and saw that it was exactly eleven. It was strange, you normally expected criminals to be horrible men with no honour and who did what they wanted for the most part. But this Meyer, he honoured his every word, if he said something, he meant it. If he said he was going to do something, he did it and he did it in the exact manner he said he was going to do it.

"Er, yes. Me and Trofim are here, Meyer," said Leo.

"Ah good, I'm glad your delightful cousin is there, he has something about him. I'm not sure what it is. He could be very useful to me, if he plays his cards right of course." Meyer said. Trofim wasn't sure how to take that, but Leo scowled at him and didn't seem to take it too well. Trofim could understand why, he was seemingly being praised whilst his cousin was speaking to a guy that would probably have him killed within seconds if he didn't win a game of snap, or something.

"Nice, anyway, Meyer, what do you want me to do?" Leo asked, trying his best not to sound nervous but not managing it very well. His voice shook every single time he spoke, quavering in fear as he spoke to this man who was a gangland overlord. Trofim hated to see it and didn't like the idea of working for this man - even if it were to pay his cousin's debts - but he realised that his cousin had gotten himself into this situation. It was his own fault and it could even be said that he deserved the repercussions that were now coming back on him. Leo had always managed to get himself into scrapes and it was often Trofim that had to get him out of them, despite being younger. This man, Meyer, he was actually offering them some good opportunities. Trofim hadn't always approved of crime, but he needed money right now for his cousin and he was sure he'd need it in the future as well, even for himself. He had a chance.

"Well, I was telling you about the Charmunnry Mob wasn't I. They've come over here and tried to move in on our turf, we're dealing in Ebor, extorting from businesses, rigging all the gambling and whatever else and they've come in on and moved in on our business. We wouldn't be so bothered if they had the decency to stay out of the areas we are doing it in, but they haven't. They're bigger than you and you both need teaching a lesson. That is, don't fuck with me, Meyer."

"Okay..." Said Leo, not knowing how to respond. "So...?"

"Calm down, all will become clear if you just let me speak." Meyer said, with a hint of annoyance in his voice, Trofim gave Leo a nudge in warning. "Basically, these Hegartys have been trying to produce different drugs at a warehouse on the dockyard. MDMA, heroin, meth, absolutely all sorts. We've been doing this for years and supplying it to the party goers of Ebor. It's very profitable for us. We need to get the competition out of the trade so that we can continue making these profits. We're giving you the job of going and smashing this place up for us, you will be given a gun and will use that to either kill or scare anyone who gives you any jip and you will burn the place to the ground."

Trofim looked at Leo. Leo was wide mouthed, Trofim didn't understand why, he had half expected something like this to be what Meyer suggested to them. He had heard all the stories of criminality in the cities and it sounded horrendous, he had understood that it'd be something tough that they would have to do. Maybe not this, murdering another human wasn't something Trofim wanted to do, but he knew as soon as another gang were mentioned it'd be something where they could potentially be killed themselves. Leo was shocked and didn't reply for a while, so Trofim spoke for him.

"Okay, where do we need to go?" He asked.

"Ah, Trofim! There you are my man. Well, we want you to go down to the docks, Leo will know where to head. You need to wait there, some of my men will meet you and provide you with the equipment you need. You should blend in, the Hegartys use their own, but they also employ some local Mytanars. You should get in fine - and with the equipment you'll be carrying it'll look like you're just taking more ingredients for the drugs they're cutting there. It's a fairly simple plan and one that should work easily enough, you'll get some information from my man at the docks on what to do when you're actually there. The hardest part will be escaping, once they've cottoned on to the fact you're new faces they may give you some heat and you'll have to deal with that. If you get away you can ring me the day after and I'll get it set-up for you."

"That sounds good, we'll get it done for you." Trofim said.

"See, this is what I like Trofim, you get things done and you know that you'll do it. I shall speak to you later."

"Okay, thanks Meyer." Trofim said and then paused, "Just one thing though, don't mess us about, we're going to carry out what you've said you wanted here, don't go changing the instructions later."

"I'm a man of my word Trofim, what do you take me for?"

"A criminal my friend. I know your type and I know what you're going to do, is there anything else you want us to do?"

Meyer laughed, "Yes. You're going to be an important part of the organisation for me in the future, I can tell. You can see through people." Meyer paused. "If you're on loudspeaker put it off for a second, I'm not sure our friend Leonid could take this." Trofim looked across at Leo, who nodded. He was on edge and didn't want to hear anything that would knock him off balance even further, he hadn't wanted to be involved in this sort of thing, but now he was - he'd let Trofim deal with it. Trofim clicked the button on the phone and it went quiet.

"Okay, you're talking to me now." Trofim said.

"Alright. Well, there is something else I want you to do and this is where the money will be made back for your cousin. I want you to try and steal some of their stash, so we can sell it on ourselves and make easy money. You'll get a cut of the profits of course, I'm a fair man. I was originally going to get my man at the docks to tell you and then if you didn't do it let you off, but now you have no excuses. I like you Trofim, but I need my money paying back to me and your cousin will be the one that has to pay for it if this doesn't get pulled off." Meyer said.

"Alright. I'll speak to you when the job is done." Trofim replied.

"Good man. Speak to you later, Trofim." Meyer replied and then with a final crackle, the phone call ended.

Trofim got up, he had a job to do.

...

Trofim sat nervously. He was on edge as well now, Leo had actually settled a little more, he had realised that this was what he had to do. He didn't know what Trofim had to do. Trofim hadn't told his cousin what he had been ordered to do. He didn't want to worry him any further and didn't want the job to go badly. Leo would be worried about it all and it would go wrong somewhere along the line, he'd get flustered and act stupid. All he had to do was carry out the wrecking job, Trofim would do the other part and he'd be told by Meyer's man in the dockyards exactly where he had to go.

"How you doing Trofim?" Leo asked.

"Not well, I have no idea how you got into this situation."

"It just happened man, I met people, they were into certain things and it just happened this way. I didn't think it'd end up like this, but it has, and we need to deal with it. I'm sorry for getting you involved in the situation, I didn't want you to, it just happened."

"It's ridiculous Leo. There's no need to get involved in the stuff you have got involved in. I don't even mind Meyer and his organisation and I welcome it, it's a good way to make money. The whole dream of living in the city and getting a better life is accessed through this, you could have your several cars this way," Trofim chuckled.

"I'm sorry man. I just want this over and done with, I suggest you do the same."

The two descended into silence again and waited. Apparently a man would approach them and give them the equipment they needed in order to carry out the task. They would then be directed to the warehouse they were using to produce the drugs and then they'd carry out their orders. Trofim would take whatever equipment he was given and go to wherever the drugs stash was and try and steal it - he'd tell Leo to go to wherever the main area to set-up a fire was and set the place alight as quickly as possible. Then they'd have to run and escape. It wouldn't be easy by any means.

A car pulled up across the road and the man inside looked directly towards them. Trofim knew straight away that this was Meyer's 'man at the docks' and he knew that it would only be a few minutes before they would potentially be under fire and potentially be dead as well. It would be tougher for him and he wondered why he was letting Leo do the easy part. Trofim was younger and had more ahead of him, he knew it wouldn't happen though, Leo wouldn't be able to carry through the orders that were now necessary to fulfill. Trofim knew he simply had to do it and get it done so his cousin didn't get hurt. A noble enough cause.

The man got out of the car and approached them.

Leo rolled down the car window and waited for the man to reach the door so they could communicate. Trofim could see the man was tall and stocky, he was well built and undoubtedly this was an actual docker that was working for Meyer. Probably giving inside information on shipping and whatever, so his men could seize potentially valuable cargo. This docker would be a rich man, he'd get paid good money for tipping a crime lord off and he'd live well on it. It wasn't a bad job, was it? He had obviously been given some equipment with which the cousins were to destroy the place, he would probably be equally as nervous as they were. This probably wasn't his usual job description.

As the man got closer Trofim could pick out more features. He had a crooked nose, it had been broken a few times through the man's life. Dockers always were the best fighters, weren't they. He wore a black woolen hat that came down to his eyebrows, used to keep off the chill that they all felt when working out here. He had brown hair underneath this, his sideburns and beard visible. He had small eyes, there was something about them though, cold and dark, tough. This wasn't a man to be messed with, he was probably another of Meyer's favourites, he instantly had an air of someone who liked to get the job done.

He came up to the window and leaned in close.

"Get out of the motor." He said. Trofim immediately swung the door open and walked around to the other side of the car as the man stepped away from the door waiting for Leo to fumble with the car window and get out. Leo stepped out as Trofim and the docker waited and locked the door. The nerves had evidently kicked in once again for him as he dropped the keys and quickly grabbed them up off the ground. Trofim didn't feel nervous now though, he had a buzzing noise in his ears and did feel on edge, but he felt alive. Adrenaline pumped through him and he felt like he was ready for this, ready to do the job at hand. Saving his cousin's backside.

The docker started walking back towards his car and the cousins followed. Every step was loud on the concrete and it was eerily quiet, there was nobody else about and the street lamps were the only light afforded to them. This would be an interesting job to carry through and Trofim wondered if anybody would actually be at the warehouse. He thought that anyone there actively guarding it would surely attract the attention of the police and others working on the docks, what did they have in there that needed to be guarded? But maybe there would be people inside protecting the drugs that were just all too valuable to the Hegartys.

Trofim was snapped out of his thoughts by reaching the docker's car. The trio went around to the back of the car and opened the boot. Leo gasped at the sight that was laid out before him.

Two guns were there, pistols. They would be loaded and would be ready to use, Trofim knew that much. There were also three petrol cans and various other weapons in there. Trofim didn't believe that anything other than the two guns and the petrol would be for them, after all, that was all that Meyer had said they would need on the phone and he wasn't one to lie when it suited him.

"Take the pistols and take the jerry cans. The warehouse is the big white one at the end, I suggest you climb the fence here and then walk all the way down there," the docker spoke, pointing in the opposite direction from where they had just walked from, all they needed to do was carry on walking straight on and they'd reach the warehouse. "You'll know which one I mean when you reach it, can't miss it. There's a big generator at the back of the warehouse and it runs on gas, start a fire there and the whole place will go up in flames. There's a side door that's located next to where they keep the drugs that have been prepared and are ready to go, it's on the left side of the building. The generator is right next to the edge of the docks, there'll be boats there, it'll be easy enough to find."

"On the left side? Just as we walk in or are there various rooms?" Trofim asked.

"That's there main store room, I've been watching them and their cars and dealers come up to there and get the boot of their motors filled with whatever they sell. I'm not sure if they'll have people protecting the place over night but my money is on that being the case. Be careful."

"Cheers. Anything else we should know?"

"No, I think that's it. One last thing though," the docker said, "Take this." He finished, handing Trofim a large bag. It was like a bin liner, a plastic bag, but it was bigger. "Fill that with as much of the stuff you take as possible and then run, they have it prepared in little bags, weighed out and whatever already, it should be easy enough to scoop as many bags as you can in there."

"Great, right, we'll go." Trofim said, taking the bag and turning around. Leo was a little slower, not understanding fully what was happening here. He didn't understand the part about taking the drugs and to his credit he hadn't piped up with anything. That could have caused some issues, he'd come and pester Trofim for answers now but he'd have to deal with half-truths until they got back to his apartment. There was a roar of an engine behind them and Trofim turned to look, all that could be seen of the docker's car was two red lights burnt on Trofim's retinas as it went off into the distance.

"Right... Come on." Trofim said and continued to walk down the street.

...

They had scaled the fence fairly easily, the docks were closed and nothing was going on. There'd be cameras and security, but Trofim had a funny feeling that the cameras would have been disabled long ago and that the security would be lax. The two were silent now, Leo had tried to pester him with questions but Trofim had just said he'd explain later and that they had a job to get on with. Trofim tried to work out how he was going to access the store room, he had nothing with which to break the door down and he imagined he'd just have to shoot the lock off with the pistol. He didn't really want to use too many bullets, he didn't know how many had and he didn't want to check. He imagined that the nerves would return fairly quickly if he actually knew. He'd have to work on the basis of trying to conserve them.

They crept towards the white warehouse and though it was in sight and they could quite easily get around the building quickly if they walked faster, they didn't want to risk it. Their footsteps would echo and possibly alert anyone inside to their presence. They reached the corner of the building and that was where they diverged, bidding farewell to one another with nothing more than a nod. They would hopefully see one another very soon, Trofim knew that Leo's job was simple, all he had to do was start a fire that would hopefully end up with the generator erupting and setting the whole warehouse alight, hopefully razing it to the ground. Trofim had to work out how to actually get in and steal the drugs, without alerting too many people inside and getting out before the fire took hold.

It would be difficult enough. But it was a task that Trofim felt strangely prepared for. He had done stuff like this before, not on the same scale and not for drugs, but stealing things in a short space of time. It wasn't new to him. What was new was the stakes, normally he was stealing from docile people in the countryside who didn't have access to guns or other weapons that could end his life. The stakes were at an all-time high and he had to do this without getting shot in order to save his cousin's skin. Trofim was feeling the pressure a little, but that was good, that meant he understood what he had to do.

Trofim stalked around the corner of the building and could immediately see the steel side door that the docker had mentioned. He couldn't work out any details yet but this whole side of the building was windowless and as far as he could see there were no CCTV cameras, this seemed a little too easy. All he'd have to do at this rate is shoot the lock off, steal the drugs, hope that a big enough distraction was created with the fire and then run and hopefully escape in all the confusion. He hoped there were no sneaky cameras linked up to a television inside that revealed his position to anyone guarding the interior of the building, that'd be awful.

He approached the steel door slowly and could see a large handle on the door. There was a space for a key but obviously, Trofim didn't have one, he wondered why he hadn't been given a skeleton key - that would make the job a whole lot easier. He stepped back and pointed the pistol at the lock and then he pulled the trigger.

The bullet smashed into the handle and blew it into smithereens, that whole section of the door was reduced to nothing other than a big open hole and to his delight the door simply swung open. He hoped his cousin's job was just as easy. Trofim stepped inside slowly and used his phone to shine some light around the room, it was a large store room and there were shelves full of bags. He could make out little pills in some and powder in others and it really would have been a junkie's paradise. Trofim knew that the gunshot would have alerted people to a presence and would probably have sent his cousin into a nervous breakdown, but he had to get on with it and hope that Leo did the same.

Immediately he started scooping up the little bags on the shelves into the large black bag and started filling it with everything he could get, it was filling up quite quickly and within about half a minute the bag must have been half full. Trofim was conscious that he could hear movements in the building now and he was sure he could hear footsteps from upstairs. He hoped that nobody was coming too quickly, he still had a job to do. Soon enough, the bag was full and Trofim started looking around the room for anything he could smash the place up with. There was sadly nothing. So instead he used the petrol can that he had carried from the docker's car and started dousing everything in sight, including the remaining little packets, with petrol. He dropped the can when it was empty and could feel the floor slick under his feet, he walked towards the door and felt his jacket for the lighter.

The door behind him burst open.

Trofim turned lightning quick, pointing the gun. A man with fair skin and ginger hair stood opposite him and shouted something in a foreign language with some strange accent. Trofim started backing towards the steel door that led to the exterior of the warehouse and the dockyards beyond. He pointed towards the petrol can and then gesticulated with the lighter and grinned. The foreign man suddenly had a look of fear on his face. Trofim lit up, the flame flickered and then he threw it to the ground, turning to run from the building as soon as it left his hand. He was outside when he heard the satisfying roar of flames behind him and a few screams and then he was running back towards the fence. He took one look as he reached it and saw with satisfaction that most of the building was alight, including the back end where Leo had been doing his job.

Trofim threw the bag full of little packets of different drugs over the fence and then began scaling it himself. He reached the top when he heard a whistling sound pass by him, it was very close and then when he saw the flash of a muzzle from one of the upstairs windows from the warehouse, he realised what was going on. He was being shot at, he dropped off the top of the fence and ran back towards where the car was located. He saw two headlights up in the distance and realised that Leo had returned to the car before him, he was racing up towards him to try and pick up but Trofim was unsure he would reach it without being hit, he zigzagged all over the road and felt more bullets whiz past his head.

The car was level with him now and Leo skidded to a halt. Trofim went to the back door and pulled it open, throwing the bag in and jumping in himself.

"Drive!" He shouted and Leo put his foot on the accelerator as men began to run from the warehouse and fire on the car. Trofim wound the window down and leaned out himself, taking aim with his pistol. He knew it would be ineffective from range but it made him feel like he was doing something about their fate. He fired the gun and saw one of the men from the warehouse fall, he'd actually hit one of them!

Leo whooped as they began to get away. But then they saw two headlamps light up behind them and they knew the chase was on. Trofim leaned out the window and tried to take aim on the car but to no avail and they obviously had a quicker vehicle as they were soon right up behind them. They obviously had weapons too as gun shots were going off behind them now and it couldn't be the people from the warehouse.

Trofim muttered a silent prayer, hoping they'd manage to escape.

[Starblaydi WA Mission]

Part One: Outbreak
Part Two: Revealed
Part Three: Dramatised

Beep. Click.

This was not the job Jan Nowak expected to be doing. Here he was, the personal assistant to Starblaydi WA Ambassador Richard Mochrie, expecting to live the high life at the WA Building on a diplomatic passport by seeking out representatives of new, prospering nations and try to chat up the pretty ones but, instead, he was clicking a mouse every twenty seconds. For the whole day.

Just 8 more seconds, Jan...

He told himself that this was a vitally important duty. He told himself that the fate of millions, quite literally, rested on his index finger, that when the computer beeped and gave him the numbers he had to manually click 'Fire' and somewhere, soon, millions of people would be hit by the concoction that Starblaydi scientists had come up with.

Beep. Click.

What he really wanted to do was watch Starblaydia versus Farfadillis in the Di Bradini Cup, over in Equestrian States for reasons the Starblaydi FA didn't explain. They never explained, after all, when the jewel in Starblaydia's sports hosting crown kept disappearing off to places he'd never been to, never heard of and never assumed they even played football anyway.

No, instead, he was launching missiles from the roof of the WA building. It hadn't been that difficult to get the permission, at least, people carried weapons of mass destruction around the WA premises like they were packets of sweets, so a set of super-long-range missiles designed to air-burst and actually cure people from that strange infection that was leaving them as mindless flesh-devouring-

Beep.

Oh, yeah.

Click.

Thankfully, the Starblaydi WA Mission - he never understood why it was a 'mission', the term 'office' would have done at least as accurately. Perhaps it was something to do with looking impressive to the hot foreign diplomatic secretaries - was equipped with a state of the art Virtual Private Network. All he had to do was press a button, and the already-quite-seedy world of the internet that you could access from a WA Building IP exploded into the completely seedy world of high-class artistic expression masquerading as hardcore pornography.

Jan didn't use those sites, of course, 'quite-seedy' was already enough for him. What he used the VPN for was live feeds of Starblaydia matches. For any and every form of international football Starblaydia competed in, Jan wanted to watch it. He had known from a young age that he was never going to be a footballer. When the time had come for him to be looked at by the omnipresent football scouting network that attended Starblaydi schools, parks and organised youth leagues, he was the guy who stepped on the ball, tripped over his own laces that had mysteriously come undone, or missed an open goal from three yards. Not that he was ever allowed to play up front, you understand, but had he been allowed to be the striker for even a few minutes, that's probably what would have happened.

Beep. Click.

Having the window with the live feed open in a small corner of his desktop would have to do. It was, actually, a rather enthralling game. Finishing 3-3 in normal time, the period of Extra Time was a tense, nerve-wracking affair that he could barely take his eyes off. Except for, of course, the beeping and clicking.

Beep. Click.

The fact that some beeps seemed to come much quicker than others was, Jan supposed, an example of that 'fluid time' people kept going on about. He must have gone through nearly a hundred more beep-clicks without even noticing it, as Farfadillis' excellent midfield tussled with Starblaydia's equally well-performing central diamond. It was a real nail-biter, if Jan's weren't so perfectly manicured already. But, neither team could make the breakthrough as although if you can score in Extra Time you're likely to win the match, if you go too far forward and get caught out, you've probably lost it. And, so, it was penalties to decide who would go through to the Quarter-Finals.

Beep. Click.

Starblaydia won the coin toss and chose to go first. Jeremy Anselm, the Widdrington Wolves tough guy, stepped up. He slotted it past Fabrifé Lastá seemingly without a care in the world, making it 1-0 to Starblaydia. Then came Lorenzo Fuego for Farfadillis, setting the ball down, taking a few steps back, waiting for the whistle from the ref..

Beep. Click.

The very Starblaydi-sounding roar from his low-quality desktop speakers told him that Fuego had missed, or at least not scored. Replays showed that he just hit it a few yards higher than the crossbar, evidently aiming for the top-right corner. Already it was Ffion McAllister's turn. The pacy midfielder had been one of Starblaydia's stand-out players of the matches so far, and it was no surprise when she drilled the ball straight into the bottom-left corner. Then came Çis Dragãozý (the Starblaydi commentator had yet to pronounce his surname the same way twice) who, cool as you like, dinked it down the middle of the goal as Musandan dived to his left to make it 2-1 after two kicks each.

"You cheeky bloody-" Jan blurted out at the screen.

Click.

MISFIRE! MISFIRE!

"Oops."

Jan hadn't listened to the technical reasons why he had to wait for the beep. The targeting co-ordinates were entered for the next missile almost immediately upon firing the last. What he was having to wait for, in fact, was the lone missile launcher on the roof to get ready. The missile was auto-loaded, and fired with a combination of steam-powered catapult and solid fuel booster. It was this booster that took the time to warm up. When Jan pressed the button too early, the catapult flung the missile out into the air, but there was no booster to shoot it off to its destination. Tumbling nose over tip down the side of the WA building, the rocket fell thirty stories before finally igniting. It shot past the remaining floors, straight to the ground, embedding itself in the concrete base of the building with a combination of 'Crash' and 'Thump'. It sat there patiently for around four seconds before detonating, shattering windows and removing chunks of concrete from their rightful, architecturally-required places and depositing them several hundred yards away.

Anyone not killed by the blast, shattered glass or the airborne masonry would at least have the infection for the cure in their system, if not perhaps their eardrums.

Jan stared at the 'Misfire' text as the countdown began again. In that time, Starblaydi captain Thomas Wilson had scored and Fôx had his shot saved. Starblaydia were three-one up with three penalties taken. All they needed was for substitute striker Stephen Landsberg to score, make it 4-1 and they'd win the game and progress to the next round.

The seventeen year old, wearing number seventeen, stepped up.

Beep.

He struck the ball as best he could. It flew off to his right, the goalkeeper's left. It was at a comfortable saving height, but much wider than Lastá's despairing fingertips could reach. It hit the inside of the post and bounced into the back of the net. Starblaydi fans went wild. The commentators went wild. Jan Nowak threw up his hands and cried out "Yes!", punching the air a couple of times. Starblaydia were through to the next round, to face the Northern Sunrise Islands for a place in the Semi-Finals. Back to business.

Click.

[Equestrian States]

Quarterfinals Results

Felix 0-1 Ko-oren
at Wild Grounds in Everfree

Starblaydia 0-1 Northern Sunrise Islands
at Estadio Poco Caballo in Maredrid

Free Republics 2-1 Mytannion
at Elements Stadium in Ponyville

Polar Islandstates 0-0 The Inevitable Syndicate
(0–0 AET) (4–3 pen.)
at Star Stadium in Canterlot

---

Semifinals Schedule

Ko-oren vs. Northern Sunrise Islands
at Elements Stadium in Ponyville

Free Republics vs. Polar Islandstates
at Wild Grounds in Everfree

[Ko-oren]

Only four teams left, we're still in!

Aumark scored his first goal of the tournament after 76 minutes against Felix. A free kick by Ishoren from 30 yards bounced off the wall and was kicked away. Though in all the confusion, the ball ended up right in front of Aumark's dominant foot, his right. He did not even have time to think. If he had thought about it, he might have passed it back to Blanke who was safely on his own half, keeping possession. But he didn't. And actually, throughout the Felix game, the Ko-orenite players were struck by moments like these: where otherwise they could have chosen a safe route, a harmless pass to the defenders, or waiting for a few seconds to look for a better option, they seemed to like to be in possession. To make a quick decision and go with it. It sure made the game a lot more interesting from a Ko-orenite point of view. But it also made the victory that much more fragile. Normally, a 1-0 for us means the game's in the bag. This goes for the +21 team as well as the U21 team. But only one goal more than the opposition while you try to make the game look nice? Only one bad decision, one bad pass triggers a counterattack, or a penalty to Felix. And that could have been very dangerous. But all of Felix' players missed their chances. And the Litegreens gave away a few of them. More than during other games, at least. And still, the Liteblues have only conceded two goals in the entire campaign, both of which were against Mizuyuki (0-2 loss). Aumark was the epitome of the new opportunism in the 76th minute, when he just tried a shot. And through a jungle of defenders, it went in. The next entire minute was dedicated to Aumark's lucky goal. But it was a goal. And that is what counts, especially to the Ko-orenite school of football. No matter how beautiful or horrible it was.

The entire round was full of meager wins: 1-0 for Northern Sunrise Islands, 2-1 for Free Republics, a 4-3 win on penalties for Polar Islandstates. Could our football finally have influenced other teams?

The Wild Grounds, or Ko-oren's Quarterfinal stadium, now will be the stadium for Free Republics and Polar Islandstates. Meanwhile, Ko-oren and Northern Sunrise Islands will play in the Elements Stadium (where Free Republics won their quarterfinal match).

Then on to the Northern Sunrise Islands. Not that our teams and their teams have met each other a lot, but the two have something in common. Both countries are archipelagos. Both play in Vulpine kits. Well... usually play in Vulpine kits, which is a Northern Sunrise Islands company. But the U21 team that could wear a 'native' kit have chosen Kirola.

The Vaporeons are currently led by Val Kylx, which makes the leadership with the team a little bit dysfunctional. Their assistant coaches are most responsible for the strategy, and somehow it has taken them far into the DBC. As far as their strategy goes, they are not really into attacking or defending, and tend to go with the pace of the other team. And that flexibility might be exactly what has taken them through the Cup. As we have seen, the Liteblues have faced attacking teams a lot, and all of them bowed to our U21 team in the end. But now, a more adaptive opponent like the Northern Sunrise Islands? And another factor could be that 9 out of 11 starters play for foreign teams. Not a bad way to let players get used to foreign/exotic styles.

The players of the Vaporeons (or the Vaporeons themselves, if you want) are not all rumored for their quality. Goalkeeper Felipe is a solid choice, but not an outstanding one. The Kinsington brothers in central defense are probably worse than any defender on the Ko-orenite roster. Didi, the left back, is a dangerous rusher but defensively not superb. Milena is the right back because she lacks the physical power of the Kinsington brothers, but she is easily their best defender, which means that any counterattack we are going to launch is going over our right wing/their left wing. The defensive midfielder is responsible for the lack of defensive problems for the Vaporeons: she can take out a few attackers. She also plays this tournament in the country she plays her club football in. This is probably as much as a home advantage as you can get. Marina and Café are in midfield as well, two good players that could rival our Ishoren and Rakoren. Café is also likely to end up in all kinds of other positions throughout the game, for good and for bad. And then there is Rex, probably the most impressive player on their side. Norilyin will be responsible for him in the semifinals. The two strikers are both 15 years old and some 30-40 centimeters smaller than our central defense, but they are there for a reason: they are seen as the most promising players in Northern Sunrise Islands at this point. They have a lot to learn though.

1  Ko-oren                     6   5  0  1    5   2  +3    15
2  Polar Islandstates          6   4  2  0    7   3  +4    14^
3  The Inevitable Syndicate    6   4  1  1    8   2  +6    12
4  Northern Sunrise Islands    6   3  3  0    9   5  +4    12*
5  Free Republics              6   4  1  1   13   9  +4    10
6  Mytannion                   6   3  1  2    7   5  +2    10*
7  Felix                       6   3  1  2   10   8  +2    10
8  Starblaydia                 6   2  3  1   10   8  +2    9*

*team advanced on penalties in the Ro16. This match was then counted as a draw.
^ team advanced on penalties in QF. This match was then counted as a draw.
Teams greyed out are eliminated.

Starblaydia suffered their first loss in the campaign and were eliminated by our next opponents Northern Sunrise Islands. They have just as many wins as draws! Two teams are still unbeaten: the Polar Islandstates and Northern Sunrise Islands. Though, because Ko-oren has won 5 and lost 1, and no draws at any point in the campaign, they are first on points. The Inevitable Syndicate is the best eliminated team, with four wins, one draw and one loss. Their eventual loss against Polar Islandstates was counted as a draw: they lost after extra time on penalties.

---

The starting team for the NSI game:

Goal: Byrne, who has had an astounding tournament. Conceding 2 goals in six games, keeping 5 clean sheets, he might already be our keeper of the tournament. Good judgment around set pieces, though maybe a little slow to leave his goal line.

Defense: Idrasil, Konno, Blanke, Pergaluithen: three out of four played almost the entire tournament. The 18-year olds in central defense that received a lot of criticism before the first match day even kicked off just based on their age (aka not being 20-21), together with Idrasil who has the best long ball. Pergaluithen replaced Ob throughout the DBC, and eventually turned into a starter for the quarterfinal match. He is almost two entire years older than Ob, and it shows in stamina and power, mainly.

Midfield: Norilyin, Rakoren, Ishoren, Aumark: the four midfielders that managed themselves through the Cup. Norilyin and Aumark play on the far sides basically to prevent counterattacks over the wing, but also appear in front of the goal from time to time. The game the U21 team plays is not based on attacks over the wing, after all. Rakoren and Ishoren are both defensive midfielders and playmakers, and both have a good pass. Some communication errors, especially in the Mizuyuki game, give the defense something to do over the course of a match.

Attack: Zhukov and Sisribun. The brave duo that try to best defenses with just the two of them. They receive a lot of long balls, and hardly any support from the midfield. Only if an opponent is already on their own half, the other 9 players dare to do something that could help them. Zhukov is the better finisher, Sisribun sometimes does unexpected things to embarrass defenders. Together they are responsible for all five goals by the Ko-orenite team, even if some of those goals were eventually finished by other players (such as Aumark in the quarterfinals).

On standby for the next match:
Goal: Haun. Older than third goalie Gargarithen, Haun is the best Ko-orenite goalkeeper of his age. Byrne is still considered slightly better though, and he has done the entire tournament already. Ko-oren does have a surplus of good goalkeepers though, especially in the 21-26 age range.

Defense: Liu and Ob. Two 19-year-olds that have been replaced at the last moment (Liu just weeks before the DBC, Ob during the knock-out phase). They seem like they do not want to take revenge for anything, but we can expect them to be there when the team needs them.

Midfield: Linderman. The coach took three extra midfielders, all of which are considered too young to Ko-orenite standards. Linderman is 18, but not an exceptional talent. It's just a stroke of luck that the Liteblues did not need a replacement on midfield yet. Otherwise, even the substitute defenders could be brought on for the midfielders.

Attack: Xiaowen. A fantastic talent, but just a little bit too frivolous to fit in the strategy the Litegreens use. He is agile and has good control over the ball and sometimes the defenders as well, but sometimes forgets he is there to score goals.

[Free Republics]

OOC: Of course, like my other RPs addressing the topic of World Cup 67, this should be interpreted as the IC views of the specific individuals in the Free Republics and certainly not interpreted as reflective of my actual OOC views regarding either bid.

Sporting World

Ban the Casaran
by: Nova Hellstrom

I know I haven't written for Sporting World in a long time, but Mr. Chuter, the editor of Sporting World, called me up on my cell phone yesterday and asked me to write an article expressing my thoughts. Since I had inside access to the Republican National Team for the better part of a year, I have a special insight that nobody else can provide.

First, however, I want to take a moment to celebrate the elimination of the Felix Trolls from the Di Bradini Cup. I'm as disgusted as everybody else by the false rape accusation against Kyle Bolton by some Troll. I knew Kyle Bolton and I know for a fact that he is a perfect gentleman and the kind of man women dream about. He's one of the nicest young men I've ever met and certainly would never violate a woman in that way. In fact, somebody must have forgotten to inform the Trolls that the Federation Government has been getting tough on false accusations in the last few years. For centuries, there has been a false accusation epidemic, an epidemic that ruins the reputations and often lives of the victims of these unfounded allegations. Recently, we at the Republican Wrestling Conglomerate have decided to start running a series of public service announcements against this horrific crime and I am strongly in favor of it.

I have never revealed this publicly before, but my younger brother was falsely accused of rape last year. After living in fear for several months and being abandoned by his friends, he was finally found innocent in a court of law. Unfortunately, the local press had already slandered him and all the "Progressive" idiots in our area had already decided that he was guilty and just "got away with it," just like they think everybody who shoots a gun in self-defense is "getting away with" murder. In the past, I was pretty much apolitical and may even have contributed to the pervasive culture of victim-blaming in our Federation, but these days I'm outspoken in my support for false accusation victims. In my opinion, we can't make the penalties harsh enough for those cowards that think they have the right to ruin some innocent man's life. By making these ridiculous and unfounded allegations against a true gentleman like Kyle Bolton, the Felix Trolls truly have stooped to a new low.

With that out of the way, I want to address the job that Massimiliano Abdullahi has done at the current Di Bradini Cup. I admit that I've been a critic of the assistant in the past. Mr. Abdullahi's teams did not perform at the Beach Cup or the U-15 World Cup at the standard that we have become accustomed to. However, I understood when Rule Theriault decided not to visit the Equestrian States, a country filled with a bunch of dumb farm animals. I am absolutely stunned that Mr. Abdullahi has been able to make it to the semi-finals in such a hostile environment. Yes, he could have done better in the Group Stage, but just making it out of the Group of Death, a group that lived up to its moniker by seemingly killing off the accomplished nation of Wight (World Cup champions 2 years ago and co-hosts of the World Cup 3 years ago). Mr. Abdullahi was very lucky just to advance in a group that also included Welsh Cowboy and this year's odds-on BoF favorites Tynewear. To do so in a hostile environment is even more impressive. I am very confident in the ability of the Republican U-21 National Team to defeat perennial losers Polar Islandstates in the semis and in their ability to defeat Ko-oren in the finals. We all know that those nobodies from the backwater region of Esportiva won't make it to the finals. No Esportivan nation has ever been a DBC finalist, just like no Esportivan nation qualified for last year's World Cup. They simply are a sporting backwater that will never win anything of significance.

With that out of the way, I can discuss the subject that is on my mind at the moment. I am speaking of the bids for World Cup 67. Personally, I strongly oppose both bids. Although I have a soft spot in my heart for the nation of Cassadaigua, I cannot in good conscience support any bid involving a bunch of talking horses. We all know that horses are less honest than humans and I just know that they'll come up with some way to deny the FFR our rightful place in the World Cup. If it were my say, I would vote to re-open bids before I'd vote for the Equestrian States. Right now, they are on their best behavior in the DBC because they want to fool the WCC voters, but I know that they will begin thinking up ways to stick it to us, if they get elected as host.

Unfortunately, the only other bid for this year's World Cup is by Saintland and Legalese. This bid is the return of the Casaran, a corrupt format where the schedule is not announced until the last minute. During BoF 52, I saw firsthand how this format interfered with Mr. Theriault's preparation, leaving the Republican National Team at a severe disadvantage. This led to their disappointing performance in that tournament. Based on my experience, I believe that the Casaran should not be used for international sports events.

Yes, there is the option to vote against a Casaran bid, but voting against this Casaran bid means voting for the Equestrian States, which is no more of a viable option for our Federation. Therefore, I have come to believe that the WCC should ban the Casaran by amending its Constitution to prohibit future bids containing a Casaran format. If the Casaran were banned, I would be able to strongly endorse the bid by the Sanctii, but since it uses a Casaran, I can only hope that Rule Theriault will vote to re-open bids.

Come to think of it, Mr. Theriault would be a much better WCC President than whichever talking bear from the Polar Islandstates is currently the WCC President. The Polar Islandstates are a nation of talking polar bears, right? Sometimes, I can't remember which of those inferior foreigners are which. Regardless, under the current WCC President's watch, the wrong schedule has been sent out twice for World Cups prior to the first matchday. The WCC's failure to ban non-humans from participating in international soccer matches and their inability to send out accurate schedules to the nations actually competing in the World Cup are both signs of the utter incompetence of the current leadership of the WCC. Another sign of their incompetence is their failure to ban the Casaran, a corrupt and unfair format designed to deny the FFR our rightful place in the World Cup, just as it denied us our BoF title at BoF 52. Instead, international audiences were subjected to a snoozefest between the Felix Trolls and some minnow called Aels that didn't even get an invite to last year's Cup of Harmony. It is flat out wrong that those nations competed in a BoF final while we didn't. Even the Taiyouese are better soccer players than either of them.

Before I finish my article and go back to playing Grand Theft Surveillance Online with Kyle Bolton, I want to encourage everybody to come out to this year's Wrestlecade. Wrestlecade will be held in Republica this year, at Gem of the Oceans Stadium. I promise to give it everything I have. I want to top last year's match against Olivia and I think I'll be able to do that. Its going to be alot of fun for me, even if I'll probably wake up sore the following morning. I hope my fans are as excited as I am for this year's edition of the biggest spectacle in sports and entertainment. When the FFR repeats as DBC champions, I want the entire team to be there to cheer me on as I defend my title on the biggest stage of them all. When Mr. Abdullahi's team steps on the field for their remaining matches in the DBC, their banners will, once again, make tyranny tremble when borne by the Blue and the White.

Nova Hellstrom is a former international soccer correspondent for Sporting World. She got her start covering high school soccer for the Petrograd Times before working for Sporting World. At one time, she played girls soccer for Petrograd Christian School. She was Sporting World's correspondent at the 27th Di Bradini Cup, the 52nd Baptism of Fire and during qualifying for the 65th World Cup. She has since transitioned into a successful career as a professional wrestler, where she is currently the World Ladies Champion in the premier wrestling organization in the multiverse.

[The Inevitable Syndicate]

Stories of SHOCK & AWE
Part One: Atomia
Part Two: Mods
Part Three: Special Delivery
Part Four: Vita Ex Machina
Part Five: Nukie Clicker

Jim's EyeGlass had just finished charging, and with a little luck, he could port the program over to it and click from there, giving him access to the facility. He dashed over to the table, grabbed a cable, and stuck it in the machine. In between clicks, he fumbled around trying to transfer the program.

And the phone was still ringing.

Jim could hear noises coming from the bowels of the facility. It sounded like a low rumble, and he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. He span round in his chair as the program slowly transferred itself over to a more portable format. Grabbing it just seconds after the popup came up to claim that it was done, he dashed for the phone.

It stopped as he got there.

He would soon find out why.

---

Andrew Browne had failed in pushing the piano, but the chips weren't down yet - looking back to his computer, he only had to last half an hour, after which the Starblaydi would hopefully be raining down curing hellfire on the nation. Grabbing the firearm which was stored in the back of the desk, he grabbed an end table, a plant pot, and a bookshelf, and barricaded his doors.

Hah! I'd love to see them try and get me now! he thought, as he dragged the bookcase across the cold hard floor. He could hear banging and the off-key sound of hand slapping against a piano outside, and hoped that it'd all be over soon.

---

Jim heard them pour in as soon as he got to the phone. It was lucky he'd got there when he did, as the infected burst in right by Monitor 001. Freaking out, Jim ran for his life. He threw his EyeGlass to the ground and escaped to the bowels of the facility. He had to get out. It was the only things he could do now. But first - weapons. Jim looked around, for anything that he could use to fight his way out of the facility. There was nothing. He ran down another corridor. Also nothing. Another. Nothing. Jim searched high and low, panting all the way, until he came to a broom closet.

Inside the broom closet was a phone, left dangling from it's cord, and a note in a familiar scrawl:

Jim,

I'm afraid to say that if you're reading this, I might be infected. I want to try and find a way to contact the outside world, but found that the infected had breached the facility. I've tried to hold them back, but they have me pinned in here. I'm fighting for my life now, and I'm so, so scared. Listen, about the whole time travelling sports broadcast earlier - I hope you realise that one was a joke. You're not too into football, are you?

Please don't kill me if you find me

Riley

Jim's heart sunk a little as he tucked the notepad into his pocket. He picked up the crowbar that was already stained with blood, and walked towards the exit, after taking his bearings using a map printed on the wall. As he approached the now open doors, he heard a cacophony of groaning behind him.

Jim spun around. Heading the pack was the infected Riley, who looked right past Jim with his cold eyes. At first, Jim assumed it was merely because he was infected, but shortly after he noticed the flash of light in the sky, followed by an intense shower of rain.

The rain that would put an end to this once and for all.

[Northern Sunrise Islands]

"I believe none of you has ever experienced this moment." said James Byrd Jr., to his teammates as he walked on front of them. "A Di Bradini Cup semi-final." Panther rose his arm up, on entire oblivion about why Byrd was suddenly the guy to give them the encouragement talk. "All right, I'm wrong, almost none of you has ever experienced this moment. But what happens is, this isn't the first, nor the last time, hopefully, that our country gets to a Di Bradini semi-final. Now, do you know what we have that makes this team better than last time's team?"

"...No Hokuto to beat us up before match?" replied Panther. "...Well, aside from that." said Byrd Jr., asking the question again. "We wear Kirola now?" answered Cervantes, looking at his blue shirt with the logo of Vulpine's rival company and the common NSIFC logo, resembling a Vaporeon's head. "Not that." answered Byrd Jr. "Anyone else?". While the rest of the locker-room was silent, the always annoying voice of Kylx decided to pronunciate, getting up from the bench with crutches. "Of course, young kid. At last, your Pokémon-filled, Saint-ruled, Zaibatsu-worried, Soul Calibur-hider, Pro Skater commoner, Starfox-guarded land has finally received the touch of all gods combined in one. The touch of the best manager ever. Mister Val "The King of Esportiva, the Four-Second Scorer, the Legend among all legends" Kylx."

"Quite a bloody exposition, huh?" asked O'Haile, before kicking Kylx off on his screwed up leg, making him fall and cry. "All right, since none of you want to answer seriously, I shall." said Byrd Jr., before sitting at a bench, on front of the rest of the players. "We are becoming the common faces. Slowly becoming something that is not an Esportivan Underdog, slowly becoming a face that the world will have to deal with, regardless if they like it or not. We're Northern Sunrise Islands, the land that Arceus protects, the land where nearly everything can coexist, from pits of geniality such as Einstein II to idiots like Kylx!"

"Hey, I take offense to that!" said Kylx, trying to get up from the floor. "Nah, you don't." replied O'Haile, before kicking the crutch he was using to get up from the floor.

"Now, I respect Ko-oren. They are a good team and we all know it. They made in the World Cup, something any Vaporeon remain to do. And if their main team made it, their young bloods ain't anything near of bad. We surpassed Starblaydia, ladies and gents. We surpassed Mizuyuki!" continued James Byrd Jr., before being stopped by Panther. "Aaaah... Mizuyuki...That was the best night ever."

"Get a grip on your head, Rosso." said James, before continuing with his speech. "The truth is, we can't back down now. Regardless of which Island we are from. Regardless of where we play, what we do, our hobbies, our names... We need to act as one. A giant that can't be stopped. No Ko-oren, no Polar Islandstates, no Free Republics. This is the Sunrise! They'll know our names until they die and we're making that damn straight tomorrow! And then, after tomorrow, when we kick whoever is in the final out from their little top to claim our trophy. Ain't that right, Café? Café?"

The midfielder couldn't answer, he was too focused remembering of the goal he scored and... that moment.

---

"PASS IT!", yelled Café, as Marina dribbled over Jinalii before finally passing to him. He could now see Hong Myung Bo doing a sliding tackle to take the ball away from the Sunrisian. As he jumped with the ball between his feet, he could see the gap between the defenders, and as he moved towards it, he felt something weird. A flash on his eyes and suddenly a blackout.

Café fell, heading the ball on the direction of the goal, while the goalie of Starblaydia didn't make an effort to defend, instead paying attention to Leena Marticrant making funny faces on his direction. The ball found its way on the net slowly, as Café stayed laid down. A flash of his quick life passed by, but before he would finally find the light, he felt someone taking him away from it. It seemed like Arceus, blurry, took him away from it. But as his mind returned back to place, he could see it was just Negolossauro Rex grabbing him up from the pitch to celebrate.

---

"Café?" asked Xaveco, "Ya there, man?"

"...Yes, yes. Yes, let's beat Ko-oren." answered Café, confused.

With that the rest of the team answered positively and slowly returned to the bus, on their way to the hotel. Next stop, Elements Stadium and Ko-oren. Will it be the Vaporeon's chance?

[Equestrian States]

Semifinals Results

Ko-oren 0-1 Northern Sunrise Islands
at Elements Stadium in Ponyville

Free Republics 2-2 Polar Islandstates
(2-2 AET) (2-4 pen.)
at Wild Grounds in Everfree

---

29th Di Bradini Cup Final

Northern Sunrise Islands vs. Polar Islandstates
at Royal Equestria Stadium in Canterlot

Third Place Playoff

Ko-oren vs. Free Republics
at Diamond Park in Stalliongrad

[Ko-oren]

Third place playoff is all that's left

Ko-oren was eliminated in the semifinals of the Di Bradini Cup last night against the Northern Sunrise Islands. But we should not have to tell you, because probably you were watching the game for yourself. A lot has changed in just the space between DBC 27 and 29, with the Liteblues going from a necessary evil in the KFA (Ko-orenite Football Association) as a horrible rip off of the actually successful national team, to a respected team that reached the final four of the tournament. Before this Cup, the U21 never made it out of the group stage altogether. And now they have lost against Northern Sunrise Islands: you cannot have your cake and eat it too, especially not in one cycle. The other semifinal was a win on penalties for the Polar Islandstates, eliminating the Free Republics 4-2 on penalties after the 2-2 after 120 minutes.

On one day, the U21 team was beaten in a crucial phase in the DBC, the national team was eliminated from the AOCAF in the second round, and even the national handball team lost - again - and still has to win even one game after five match days. Not a very good day, but if you had told any football fan that the U21 team would make it out of the group stage of the DBC and the national team would get more than 3 points in AOCAF, he would probably have called you crazy and he would get on with his day, chuckling to himself for a good 30-40 minutes. But it still happened.

1  Northern Sunrise Islands    7   4  3  0   10   5  +5    15*
2  Polar Islandstates          7   4  3  0    9   5  +4    15^>
3  Ko-oren                     7   5  0  2    5   3  +2    15
4  Free Republics              7   4  2  1   15  11  +4    14
5  The Inevitable Syndicate    6   4  1  1    8   2  +6    12
6  Mytannion                   6   3  1  2    7   5  +2    10*
7  Felix                       6   3  1  2   10   8  +2    10
8  Starblaydia                 6   2  3  1   10   8  +2    9*

*team advanced on penalties in the Ro16. This match was then counted as a draw.
^ team advanced on penalties in QF. This match was then counted as a draw.
> team advanced on penalties in SF. This match was then counted as a draw.
Teams greyed out are eliminated.
Red teams in TPPO

The two finalists made it to the finals unbeaten, with four wins and three draws. Ko-oren, with 5 victories, is also in first place, but lost twice during the tournament. The Free Republics tied two and lost one, making them the statistically worst of the last four. But then again, most of the points dropped by these four teams were in the group stage anyway. The picture that these statistics paint for the Litegreens is that the team has matured and could even teach something to the national team, turning ties into wins. On the other hand, only one team in the final four lost two out of seven games. The two successful finalists both made it through one or more rounds on penalties, so that is something to work on. It is not bad if a game eventually turns to penalties, but at least make sure you win them. The Polar Islandstates were extremely successful at this, winning 2 penalty shoot-outs (and this should make NSI very, very nervous). Lastly, compare the 'W' column to the 'GA' column. The Liteblues had 5 goals, 5 games won. That's some efficiency. As long as the team even scored, they won. On the other hand, any conceded goal was a loss (among them a 0-2 loss). That is a total of 7 goals in 7 Litegreen games, and compare that to our next opponents, the Free Republics, with 15-11: 26 goals total in their 7 games. Which way will the TPPO go?

From Canterlot, to Everfree, to Ponyville, to Stalliongrad. Not even a duplicate stadium in the Liteblues' tour of Equestrian States. Interesting, because these four stadiums are the last four stadiums used in the DBC. Already from the Round of 16, the Litegreens have been used to these kinds of stadiums (though it has to be mentioned that the Canterlot one was in the secondary stadium of Canterlot). The Free Republics went from Canterlot (the actual stadium for the final), to Ponyville, Everfree and Stalliongrad. That's interesting as well. The two finalists at least played their Round of 16 games in places like Maredrid and Manechester.

---

The starting team for the TPPO:

Byrne
Idrasil, Konno, Blanke, Pergaluithen
Norilyin, Rakoren, Ishoren, Aumark
Zhukov and Sisribun

Which makes this team the exact same as the semifinal line-up.

[Northern Sunrise Islands]

It seemed that the match was going to a draw. Both teams, equally-matched, were now trying to get the spot at the finals, but it seemed like it would go to Extra-Time. Then a crash. Xaveco, subbing in a disappeared Café, who went missing ever since the morning of the game, got tackled strongly by Ejik Ob, who ended up without a card as a possible punishment, with Xaveco walking the possible pain off, almost like if he didn't even fall down. Anyways, it was still a foul, and Cervantes seen that as a chance to finally score.

As Cervantes slowly walked his way to shoot, the defense was ready to protect the goal and... they did. The ball Cervantes kicked hit the head of Liu, one of the players that made part of the barrier, until a big yell was heard.

"AVANTE!" yelled Xaveco, literally throwing himself on the way to the goal, hitting the ball with his head until finally landing with his stomach at one of the bars. As he fell comically, his header managed to find the net. Laughter broke down the crowds, but it was done. Ko-oren lost, the Sunrise was in. The Esportivan survivor took down the expectations of a certain pro wrestler (who may or may not get a call of the Sunrise Wrestling Federation on their hopes of becoming internationally strong) and many, many others. The Ragdoll scored.

But... where was Café?

---

A strange man walked around the city, on a huge white robe, mostly detailed with drawings of the mighty Arceus, the god of Arceusism. Calm, he seemed to scare most ponies of Ponyville, until finally finding out that the Sunrise won. He gave a small grin.

"...Maybe a good way to prove my loyalty to the Great Arceus... I could do my part at it." He thought to himself, before leaving as he headed to the hotel.

"...Café?"

[Polar Islandstates]

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"The score! For the love of Thor, help an old man out, here."

"Oh, right, of course. Let me check, one second."

"I don't see why you won't just let me watch it. I'm not due in theatre just yet."

"Because, Dad, you're literally just about to have triple heart bypass surgery, and I'd like to keep you as calm as possible, lest you need a new one before they can get in to to fix the one that's got all clogged up."

"Yes, but I'm so tense just sat here knowing that they're playing without knowing the score. I actually think I'm getting a hernia."

"You're not getting a hernia."

"I might be."

"You're not."

"I didn't know I was due for a heart attack until they told me. Who knows what else is wrong with me?"

"The doctors do. You're not getting a hernia."

"Well, I feel tense, anyway. What's the score? Can't we just watch the last few minutes?"

"Let me see..."

Reluctantly, just to get his father to quit his whining, Henning van der Riise got his smartphone out of his pocket and looked for the u-21s' score in the semi-final against Free Republics. His eyes widened as the score loaded, and he puffed out his cheeks with the shock.

"Pfft. No chance, Dad."

"What, they've lost?"

"Nope."

"They won?!"

"Nope."

"Then what? Oh. Penalties again?"

"Penalties again," confirmed Henning.

"I don't suppose there's any cha-..."

"Not even a little one."

Gregorz pouted and sat up in his hospital bed. If there was no way he'd be allowed to see the shoot-out, he'd have to imagine it. He shot a petulant sulk of a look in his son's direction, and then proceeded to think up the order in which his players would be taking the kicks.

Anders would be up first. No question. He'd smashed his penalty in in the quarter-final, and he'd likely do the same here.

Ordinarily, van der Riise thought, this would be the spot where Larsen would go. But Larsen missed his kick in the semi-finals, and he dind't know if van Jendrisen would allow him the chance to atone for his mistakes, or whether he wouldn't be risked. IT probably would come down to how he'd be playing up until that moment. Assuming for the moment that Larsen isn't to take a penalty, he thought, let's skip him and go straight to Bjerregaard.

With a keen eye and the kind of nerve that even a World Cup final couldn't hassle, Bjerregaard would at the very least make the goalkeeper do his job. van der Riise smiled. That was two goals already. All Toft has to do is keep a couple of them out at the other end or put them off just enough to miss, and the Chicks would be well on their way. Akerhausen, Nilsson, Konigstein, and if necessary Kuetari, Hedegaard, Navarro, all had a good kick on them, and some kind of combination would be needed to reach the final.

A warmth spread through van der Riise. He made a quick check to rule out anything that certain muscle relaxants he was hooked up to would have allowed to happen under the sheets, and then with the clean bill down there, he realised it was pride. Pride at having coaching another squad of talented youngsters into the final stages of the DBC.

He opened his mouth to try and persuade his son to let him see the shoot-out via some shady foreign Mytanar website, but was interrupted by the arrival of a nurse, here to take Gregorz into preparation for theatre.

A whirlwind of brightly lit rooms and the smell of disinfectant followed. Gregroz heard commotion in a couple of the rooms as he was wheeled around. He longed to know the score, but at the behest of the nurses, his son was keeping his lips tight shut on what had happened, or indeed, was happening right then.

"Okay then, son. I'll see you on the other side of these doors, I suppose." said Gregorz, finally about to be wheeled into the anaesthetist.

"Yeah," smiled Henning, weakly, "you come out fighting from those doors in a bit, and I'll tell you the result."

"Right," smiled Gregorz, "it's a deal. Unless, I get a hint?"

"No hints." smirked Henning as his father was wheeled through the doors where he couldn't follow.

He watched through the window in the door as his ageing father exchanged words with the anaesthetist, with the latter beginning to push through the soporific fluids. Henning felt his own heart swelling with a mixture of pride, love, and anxiety, and against his better judgement, he tapped on the window. His father's sleepy eyes just about caught him at the door, where Henning held up two fingers, then four fingers, then a thumbs-up.

A weak smile from Gregorz, and his head rolled back into unconsciousness. The final would have to be dealt with after the surgery.

[Equestrian States]

Third Place Playoff

Ko-oren 1-2 Free Republics
at Diamond Park in Stalliongrad

29th Di Bradini Cup Final

Northern Sunrise Islands 2-2 Polar Islandstates
(3-2 AET)
at Royal Equestria Stadium in Canterlot

Congratulations to Northern Sunrise Islands for winning the 29th Di Bradini Cup and being crowned the champion at the Golden Jubilee of the Under-21 World Cup! And thanks to everyone who participated for making my job as host an enjoyable one.