World Cup 73 - RPing Thread

by **Zenic** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 4:46 pm

What a day in association football! Playing at the Philosophia Colosseum in Manascus in front of a sold out home crowd of 106,225, Zenic started off the World Cup Qualifying campaign with an exciting 4-4 draw against Kirisaki. It was quite a feat for the squad as Kirisaki is ranked 27th in the world and made it to the group stages of World Cup 72. Not to forget we now have two former national squad players managing the team in their first WCC-sanctioned event so everything seemed stacked against us.

The game got off to a fast start as it generally does with two offensive minded teams. Seok Kun-woo converted a free kick into a goal from 26 meters out after 17 minutes of play to get the first score of the game. Unfortunately, Miki Kurugaya slotted the ball into the lower left corner of the goal after receiving a stunning throughball from Mikoto Tsuchimikado to level the score after 24 minutes. Three minutes later, Tsuchimikado would get herself a goal: Sagan blocked a header from Miki Kurugaya which rebounded to the edge of the box where Tsuchimikado was waiting and who proceeded to score, giving Kirisaki the 2-1 lead. That's how it remained until the second half.

Zenic was determined to tie the game up at 2 goals apiece from the moment the whistle blew: Ayaode scored a header off of a Daniel O. Barnsley cross 2 minutes into the second half. From that point on, it was an exchange of goals between the two sides. Kirisaki got another goal from Kurugaya in the 54th minute and one from Mika Isshiki in the 81st minute. For the home squad, Sroel Cavan somehow got the ball in the box on a corner and put it past Kiyoko Takanashi for Zenic's 3rd goal in the 63rd minute and another header from Ayaode in the 86th minute off a Kun-woo free kick. It was a rather civil game with only two yellows handed out: one for Ruiko Saten, which lead to Zenic's 4th goal and one to Yasif for a hard tackle on Uryu in stopppage time of the first half.

Zenic can walk away from this match with their heads held up high, playing on the same level as a top 30 squad without resorting to dirty playing or having to change up their style. Now, they need to continue the momentum against their next 3 qualifiers: at The Lee Islands, against Lons and at Khaldor. It was an issue during Sanders tenure where the squad would lose some winnable games against incredibly lower ranked teams. We will all be watching to see if Killian and Paredes can correct this issue.

But for now, it is a wonderful start on this road to World Cup 73 for Zenic. Let there be many more glorious days ahead.

-- Xavier Magnussen

Xavier Magnusson is one of the oldest and most respected sports writers at the Leinz Herald. Having 32 years of award-winning journalism and experience covering both domestic and international association football competitions, it is only appropriate that he would be the one to cover the Empire’s first ever international tournament.

by **Kaboomlandia** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 4:52 pm

Phoenix Drop WC73 Opener 3-2

The Phoenix fought valiantly, but couldn't defeat Armeia in their World Cup 73 opener. The Phoenix were quite happy to sit back in their offside trap and play their game, while the offensive Super Dragons were turned back time and again by offside calls. Rene Allard scored both goals for the Phoenix, while each of the Armeian strikers got a goal in a game peppered with whistles. The game featured a rare nine-minute stoppage time because of all the offsides, in which the Armeians put the dagger through the heart six minutes into stoppage time:

"Armeians bringing the ball up, but turned away by the Phoenix 1-8-1 trap. Zoran Michel puts the ball up in the air, Edi Dragic now with the ball just staying onside. Still two-two between the Super Dragons and Phoenix, but Dragic still with it, finds Christa Cruz on the right side, dribbling it in the clear, she gets some space, shoots, GOAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL! Christa Cruz puts the dagger through the heart! Armeia 3-2!"

Duncan McEachern, the Phoenix star goalie, just wasn't that good, allowing three goals on seven shots. He'll need to be better next time out.

by **Krytenia** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 5:18 pm

The Sameba But Different
by Trevor O'Carroll in Simpson

ONCE again World Cup fever is upon us. With the added carrot of Krytenia's one thousandth game on the horizon, the Aces have been drawn into a very open Group Six. Opponents will include Schottia, up-and-comers who impressed at the Cup of Harmony last time out; our always-dangerous northern neighbours of Mertagne (née The Inevitable Syndicate); and our own little slice of Esportiva, the nation of Keyne Island.

First up, though, are Sameba. They are to Eura as Keyne Island are to us, and are the fourth-ranked "could do anything" side in the group. Much will be expected of playmaker Huele, who somehow isn't Cafundulense (and was originally Sunrisian), whilst the rest of the team is expected to include at least a few players making their living in the Euran motherland. That's not to say, of course, that they're not beatable. For Huele, read Armando Ortega. The sixteen-year-old has already got pundits and fans spewing plaudits like sweets from a piñata, and he'll make his debut here at Walton Gardens to what we hope is a fine performance and three points.

It's likely to be between us, Mertagne, and Schottia for the number one spot. With both sides in very winnable games, Krytenia will need to get a good start on things to avoid being on the back foot, especially with a rested and fired-up Keyne Island lying in wait to drop bananas on Matchday Two. Let's hope that Sameba's resistance is no more than a token.

by **Nova Anglicana** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 6:22 pm

Nova Anglicana World Cup 73 Preview

Schedule (Group 1)

The Nova Anglican national team is embarking on its seventh World Cup qualification campaign, having reached the group stage in the two of the last three World Cups. They defeated Kalumba twice (8-3 aggregate) in a playoff to reach World Cup 70, where they were drawn in a group with Valladares, Farfadillis, and Polar Islandstates. They lost a close match to the Farves, shocked the Valladars, and were thoroughly defeated by the Polarians. Last WC cycle, they eked by San José Guayabal on the away goals rule, defeating them 2-1 at home and losing 4-3 on the road. Their groupmates included Polar Islandstates (again), Vilita, and the Royal Kingdom of Quebec. They gave the Polarians a much better battle but still fell short, lost a goal-fest to the Quebeçois, and lost 3-1 to Vilita, completing a disappointing campaign. After failing to make the World Cup for the third time in a row, losing in a playoff to Yttribia, the Lions headed to the Cup of Harmony. There, they defeated Matthewsiana and Garifunya while drawing Electrum. They routed Schottia 7-1 in the Ro16, then vanquished Star United States 3-1 before losing to Cosumar 1-0 in the semis and crushing a dispassionate Barunia squad 4-0 in the 3rd place game.

This time around, the Lions are looking to return to the World Cup. They'd love to avoid a playoff, but they drew third-ranked Nephara, which all but guarantees their failure to finish first. The Cormorants made it to the quarterfinals of WC73 and the finals of CEXIII. They are a formidable opponent. Michael Kellard, Derrick Cole's Emberton Reds teammate, is a bully up front whose ability will challenge the Lions' defenders. Vice captain Elaine Ashdown is a strong playmaker in the midfield, and it will be up to Cesar Mártinez to corral her. A win and a loss against Audioslavia barely kept the Lions afloat last time. Their performance against the top team will loom large in the qualification process.

The team closest to the Lions in terms of rank is third-seeded and 67th-ranked Timbermunich. Great One-Arm Willy and Great Dagger Dan will look to dominate the Lions' smaller defenders. Casey Bowman and Aaron Bowen will have their work cut out for them. Alec Chapin's ability to both track back to help defend and head forward on the counter will be key to the Lions' success. A win at home is imperative, and a win away would show the Lions' strength. A draw away is more likely, but a loss would be catastrophic.

Fourth-seeded San Llera is a middling side at best. They managed a mere fourteen points in World Cup qualifying last time around, but qualified for the 3rd-tier tournament called the Runner Cup. The Lions once participated in that, but ended up letting the U20s finish it out to go play in the Campionato Esportiva. San Llera finished third at the Runner Cup, but until they prove they can hang with the big boys, they can't be taken too seriously. Two wins are a must here.

Not much is known about fifth seed Maretta, who have yet to release a roster. They shared the Lions' qualifying group in World Cup 72 as well, and were one of the few teams the Lions could actually beat. The Lions won 2-1 away and crushed their 135th-ranked opponents 5-0 in the climactic final game of the qualifiers. They will be a team that could trip the Lions up, but there shouldn't be any surprises here. Two wins.

There's a big jump from Maretta to Shtiar Bakal, going from 132nd to 258th. This tiny Rushmori nation made its debut in the most recent Baptism of Fire, BoF 60. They did all right, finishing 1-1-1 for 4 points. Their roster has not been released yet, but the Lions have good reason to be wary of them. Last qualifiers, it was 257th-ranked Prusy Krolewskie that held the Lions to a draw and then defeated them. The Lions should be able to handle this team without too much trouble, but you never know. They should come away with a win both times.

The seventh seed and the opponent that the Lions finish up against is unranked Mangetsujima. They opted to skip the BoF and go straight into qualifiers, not usually a good strategy. One might think that an unranked team would be easy pickings, but the Lions lost to unranked Arcantova in the last qualifiers. The Lions play them the game after Nephara, so they will have to avoid a letdown. Two wins are a must, because losing to Arcantova was unacceptable and they don't want to have that happen again.

Lastly, the Lions of Nova Anglicana check in as the second seed. They have tread water more or less, moving from 39th to 34th in the rankings since the qualification stages of WC 72. They nonetheless have high hopes of returning to the World Cup, and they are in a good position to do that. The team is largely the same, but some new players will step into starting roles. Firstly, Matt Wells replaces longtime starter at right back Bradley Lancaster. The Lions finally have a back line that represents the present and future, as no starter is older than 30. For Wells, this is his second World Cup and first as a starter. He plays in a tough Taeshani league, but who knows if he'll be able to hold up against top-class internationals?

In the midfield, Kyle Fleming is moving to the bench in favor of Chapin. Chapin is going to have to be a box-to-box player and will serve as a key link through the middle to Emmanuel Moga. On the wing is Jake Rhodes. Rhodes will add to the scoring punch of the Lions, but his still-developing distribution skills mean that Chris Parker on the other wing is going to have to pick up the slack. Rhodes has great speed, but it remains to be seen how that will play on defense. If he struggles, the Lions could replace him with Brendan McBride, who is champing at the bit to get some playing time. Martinez is expected to hold the line in front of the defenders, but he is getting a bit older and could be replaced by Brendan Cook, an underrated talent. Moga remains a creative force at attacking mid.

The lone striker up top is Jimmy Kelly, who stole the position from Chris Hodges during the Cup of Harmony due to a lack of success. The Mallox man wants to solidify his role at the top and enjoy his fifteen minutes in the spotlight, because Rolf Pitre and Mathieu Garçon look ready to play at the highest level. If the Lions' offense struggles, as it did last cycle, then manager Sook Jin Lee might elect to take off Martinez for another striker and play a flatter 4-4-2. Heck, he could even move Jake Rhodes up to outside forward and play a 4-3-3 with McBride replacing Rhodes out on the wing and Chapin taking a seat on the bench. 3-4-1-2 or 4-3-1-2 when the Lions are trailing or Lee thinks they need a little extra kick is not out of the question.

All in all, the Lions look well set up to return to the playoffs. This second seed should finish second, but they need to avoid the mistakes of the last cycle; if they don't beat the weak teams this time, Timbermunich or San Llera will take advantage.

by **Super-Llamaland** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 7:16 pm

THE OUTSIDER

A long struggle to make the Tigers has finally ended, and Stefan Bogusevic finds himself playing a key role in the Llamanean squad. Now, on the brink of qualifiers, he begins to reflect on his journey here.

ALCIDAE CITY-- Most casual fans of Tigers football know Alcidae City as the club where Lily Stanton broke out for, scoring about a goal a game before making first the national team, then LigAnaia (one of the first Llamaneans to do so, following in Peter Masters' footsteps). Most remain unaware that this is the city in which Stefan Bogusevic, Tigers midfielder, grew up.

"Alcidae isn't much in the way of football, at least not when I grew up there," Bogusevic reflected. "As a young kid, I didn't really get much technical training. I just ran about the pitch. Nowadays you have Stanton there and a growing youth academy...this is a different Alcidae from a few years ago."

Bogusevic joined the Alcidae City youth program at a young age, and soon was an academy mainstay. But his background wasn't in the sport, and it showed badly.

"I used to be a runner, following in the footsteps of my parents [distance runners Karl Bogusevic and Emma Rasmussen]. I switched to football fairly late, later than most. That combined with the fact that, frankly, Alcidae's program left a lot to be desired back then...I never developed technique." When questioned, Alcidae City officials admitted that their youth program had grown a lot, but also remembered Bogusevic as often distracted but always ready to play, perhaps because of the ADD he had as a young child (which Bogusevic declined to comment on).

But a string of freak injuries forced Alcidae to bring Bogusevic in at just sixteen (and not particularly mature). His play was strong, and Adam Castronova liked what he saw. Bogusevic received an invitational to the U21 team, although the results were mixed and he felt that he was in the wrong system. Castronova, when requested to speak, noted that "Stefan's work ethic was unparalleled - but bringing him on wasn't my best choice. He didn't seem to fit into my system, but it seemed tailored to him on the outside. I don't think we can just call Stefan 'pacy but unskilled' and leave it at that - there's an intelligence to his playstyle that I strongly admire."

Then came the struggle. After a poor U21, Bogusevic returned to Alcidae City - but he wanted more. And, after Alcidae City finished in seventh of eight teams in the third tier of Llamanean football, he was entirely justified. But it wasn't easy, as he was dealing with the loss of one of his coaches, and leaving for a better league immediately after would send a mixed message inside and out. So he stayed with Alcidae City. Bogusevic feels this was the right choice - he led the team to shocking advancement to the Group Stage of the Llamanean Challenge Cup the next year, at one point defeating FC Vargas two-one, one-nil. From a field of eleven first-division clubs and four second-division clubs, Alcidae proceeded to win their group and advance to the quarterfinals.

After the magical season, Bogusevic left. But he admits the timing was poor.

"I couldn't leave right after what had happened, and I ended up helping in a fantastic run. But I was already starting to outgrow the league-that sounds arrogant, but I felt like I needed more of a challenge to step it up." And he left to the X Island Marauders, overseas. Some would say it was too much of a new challenge. Bogusevic was confident in his abilities. But in a new season, occasionally in an unfamiliar role, he struggled. And his dream of playing for the Tigers - not just the Royals - went unfulfilled.

"It's difficult," Bogusevic said. "I was homesick constantly, lonely too - and nothing was happening. I was struggling in a higher league - the team stuck with me, but many thought they shouldn't have - and still I wasn't even close."

He was never placed on the shortlist. Many teammates attest that he was frustrated. He struggled with injury problems for numerous seasons, never wanting to leave the pitch but ending up forced to numerous times. His play suffered. Adam Castronova unabashedly admitted to "forgetting his candidacy" when selecting a WC72 shortlist of almost forty players, none of which was named Stefan Bogusevic. Bogusevic couldn't fault him - his play was abysmal, injuries were hobbling him. He'd had one dream - it was what guided all of his other pursuits. He didn't want to play abroad, but he still played with passion. He wanted to be a Tiger. Years passed, and finally everything came to a head.

He was in the doctor's office. "It was just a few months ago," he said when I interviewed him, seeming dazed and confused that just a few months had turned the ultimate low into the ultimate high. "Just a few months," he repeated, then recovered, animatedly launching into the story and telling me -

"I was running hard in a match. It was rainy and I slipped. Nothing major. I continued to play. Things hadn't gotten better, but I felt like I'd at least settled into a rhythm. Things were starting to look up, and I thought I might easily play myself back in. I was having a good match. too. After the game I felt immense pain in my ankle. They had the team trainer look at it. I had some sort of muscle issue in it, one that might stop me from running."

"We can operate, and it might impact your speed and more ankle issues could potentially pop up. Or we can try to treat it otherwise - you might never run at anywhere close to full strength again, but it'll leave you at full strength if all goes well."

Bogusevic's choice was obvious. He said so, and all went well. With his nagging ankle issues solved, he found that his poor performance before wasn't all his fault.

"It was night and day," he said quietly. "Night and day."

His play improved exponentially. Now he's about to suit up for the Tigers.

"It's magical," was all he had to say. Stefan Bogusevic shook my hand and ran back to the tunnel.

As you might expect him to.

by **Chiata** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 7:59 pm

Chiata Times
Qualifying Preview

The Suns have been in World Cup Qualifying a few times, this being the ninth try at the World Cup Proper. Needles to say, Chiata has had... limited success at that. By some, what must be presumed, miracle, Chiata qualified directly and without a playoff to World Cup 69. Even more so, the now mythical run ended in the Round of 16. That seems to be a very long time ago. For some younger fans, it's even difficult to believe that story.
Once more, the cycle continues and the Chiata Suns are once more on the dusty road. But what will it lead to? Will Apox and The Royal Kingdom of Quebec be the destination after a hard fight, or will it be back to the Cup of Harmony in San Jose Guayabal and Svoto Latoli, or even nothing at all? The pots have been made and the groups drawn. How does Chiata stack up against their now group mates?

As they have been for what seems like eternity, Chiata was a mid-pot 2 side at 37th. Chiata got their name called in early, into Group 3. Chiata's first matchday will be an almost useless BYE. Chiata will have a difficult real start when they square up against Audioslavia. Audioslavia had just won back to back World Cups when Chiata entered international football in World Cup 65. The Bulls would never return to world champions since then, but their national team still is full of talent. Ranked 8th in the world, Audioslavia is by far the best nation in the group. Already, it is quite obvious that Audioslavia will take the group by storm, along with garnering six points from Chiata.

The next matchday will be against Nassau-Hessen. Last Qualifying, Nassau was a bubble team and came within inches of a playoff position, only to be cut short. They shouldn't be too hard to handle, and the Suns are fully capable of getting six points here, but Nassau-Hessen will likely find a way for an upset in one of the legs. After them will be Nui-ta. Absolutely nothing is known about this nation except they are unranked. It is fairly safe to say that Chiata will get six points here and any nation in the group that drops points to Nui-ta will be severely disappointed.

Moving down the line, Chiata's next opponent would be Eastfield Lodge. Eastfield Lodge have been in Qualifying for a long time and have little to show for it, so basically like us. However, this is a very good draw for Chiata. Eastfield Lodge, 65th, is fairly far removed from Chiata's position in the rankings. This buffer zone will hopefully be great enough for Chiata to comfortably finish second. Chiata should win at home in this matchup, but Easfield Lodge will either win or draw in their house. Emerite of Akbarstan is the second to last opponent in the schedule. They are new nation, fresh out of the Baptism of Fire. Given the vast difference in experience and squad quality, Chiata should get six points.

Lastly, Chiata will play Fluvique for the 7th and 14th matchday. Fluvique finished second in the Baptism of Fire and quickly gained international attention. Barunia press said that the matches between Audioslavia and Fluvique would be the most interesting. In our humble opinion, it will likely be a blow out between a world class nation and an overhyped nation. Saintland press even predicted Fluvique would finish second in Group 3, surpassing Chiata. As evidence, they said "the Chiata suns have been notable for their mediocrity over the years." If mediocrity is making it to the playoff round for two straight Qualifying campaigns and playing in three straight Cup of Harmony Quarter Finals, than the Chiata Suns would mediocre. This is a classic example new nations that finished strong in the Baptism of Fire being, if we may, overrated. Fluvique finished second, not even first, and people think they are going to go toe-to-toe with Audioslavia. Ever hear of Aels anymore? They were the Baptism of Fire 52 Champions, the same class as Chiata. What seems to be forgotten is that the Baptism of Fire has far weaker opposition than World Cup Qualifying grounds. The Baptism of Fire is not the proving ground, it's the kitty pool.

Ranting aside, Chiata has a legitimate chance at making the Proper. If all goes well in Qualifying, Chiata will skip happily to second place and the playoff spot. If Chiata gets a favorable draw, we might very well see, at long last, the Chiata Suns in the World Cup.

works? · by **Abanhfleft** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 8:06 pm

The Saga of All-Inclusive Haranguer F.C., Part Two

It was only a few days after Tom Mereilles and Janine Fuller had been confirmed by All-Inclusive Haranguer as their new co-managers after the former manager, Alfred Wisselstein, had been sacked following Haranguer's 1-0 extra-time defeat to Athletic Dorfdifving in the Unang Liga promotion playoffs final. Having come so close to promotion to the Fleftic Premier League for the first time in the club's history, the board and the fans (which was basically the same thing, since the team was a fan-run organization) had given Wisselstein the sack after three consecutive attempts at promotion through the playoffs had all ended in defeat. The former manager had promised promotion within three years, and those three years had gone and still no promotion, so Wisselstein was duly sacked. Now, the objectives given to the co-managers had been very simple: achieve promotion at all costs, whether automatically and through the playoffs. There were no cup objectives for them at the moment; the focus was purely on going up to the Premier League.

To help the co-managers in their quest for promotion, the board had given them a transfer budget of 35 million new penenks, equivalent to 10 million NS dollars. It was a comparatively pitifully tiny budget for a team aiming for promotion, but it wasn't unheard of. Rodrigues FC had managed to achieve promotion with only 5 million NS dollars, never mind that they went back down to Unang Liga the season after. Still, it was hard to find players that could help them achieve promotion that was affordable and within the budget limits. And that wasn't taking into account the other teams and how they would go about strengthening themselves for their own league campaigns.

Tom Mereilles was taking care of analyzing their current opposition for the coming season. Knowing who would be able and willing to mount a promotion challenge against them would help them a lot in determining which teams were going to be the most competitive for the coming season. This was the league table for the coming season.

All-Inclusive will begin the season at the top of the table, but only because they were first alphabetically. That would soon change with the results from the first matchday, which was still a few months away but still weighing down on both managers' minds. As for promotion challengers, recently relegated Sarvusdalamoive and Bananas were high on the list. Sarvusdalamoive looked most likely to make the climb back up, since they had a loaded roster and was relegated only because a draw against Sporting Ceneisis had not been enough to keep the Pinks up thanks to Admiral Porcusces winning 7-0 against Paulsen. Bananas were also another strong side, but whether they would promoted back to the Premier League this season was still up in the air. Mannerheim and Real Mikkaleth were other teams that were looking to get some Premier League action once again, but the big question mark for this league was Thereisnogodistan. The club from the Fhulghamous Peninsula had used their experience in the Multiverse Premier League to achieve back-to-back promotions in Liga Ikatlo and Liga Ikalawa, and they were pegged by many football analysts in the country as being able to sustain yet another promotion challenge.

If anything, Unang Liga was looking like a six-horse race at the moment, and the season hadn't even started yet.

Meanwhile, Janine Fuller was in charge of transfers. The husband-and-wife team had already created a shortlist of players they were looking to bring into the squad for their promotion challenge, and it was indeed a short list: only four players were on it for the moment, and they were not sure which of those players would join Haranguer.

They made their approaches quietly, discreetly, even though eventually someone would always find out and their transfer targets would be added to the daily gossip columns on CNN Sports hours after it had been found out. The first player on their list was also the first player to join All-Inclusive Haranguer for the 2015-16 season. Sutalen Desoka, "The Beast of Copper Cuprum," so called because of his big musclebound body and propensity for high-fat food, had once been a vital part of the central midfield setup of Sheriff Tiraspol, the Pridnestrovian capital club and one of the most successful teams in the Pridnestrovian Super League, but in recent years he had been edged out in favor of newer and younger, albeit not as bulky, talent. Desoka had requested for a transfer from his club, but so far only Haranguer had offered him a way out of the Sheriff bench. And soon, for a N$2 million fee, Sutalen Desoka became All-Inclusive Haranguer's first signing of the season.

"The team is on the cutting edge of modern football," he said in the press conference that unveiled him as an All-Inclusive player. "Already we have seen teams made of both men and women compete regularly in World Cup football, and I hope that contributing to the success of All-Inclusive Haranguer will give the people who believe in mixed-gender sports hope that we can achieve great things together."

CRESCENT NEWS NETWORK
SPORTS CHANNEL - OFFICIAL WEBSITE
ABANHFLEFT • PRIDNESTROVIA • OONTAZ DERT LI NG • COPPER CUPRUM • TRENDSTART • FHULGHAMOUS PENINSULA

WORLD CUP 73 QUALIFIERS: CUBONELAND VS ABANHFLEFT
By Malik Qazizadah

Kevin Kelvin celebrates his second goal in the game against Cuboneland. Despite initial worries about the host nation's mounting instability, Abanhfleft won 3-2 against the hosts with goals from Kelvin and Gustavo Potter. (Courtesy of Crescent News Network Sports Channel/Andros Tasasa)

CUBONELAND - The players of Abanhfleft did not mind the mounting instability threatening to engulf host nation Cuboneland in the two nations' first game of the World Cup 73 qualifiers and came away with a 3-2 win that belies the visitor's utter dominance of the game.

Gustavo Potter opened the scoring in the seventh minute with a sublime goal that stretched the Cuboneland keeper to his maximum even as the shot nestled into the right-hand corner of the net.

Kevin Kelvin slotted in his first just five minutes from the break. A Cuboneland forward managed to score one against Maksim Varamoninov in the opening minutes of the second half to give the impression of a close game, but Kelvin's second goal, a beautiful rocket from 30 yards, sealed the game in Abanhfleft's favor.

Another Cuboneland player, this one wearing no. 8, pulled a second goal back for his country, but Cuboneland never looked to threaten with an equalizer as Abanhfleft imposed a stranglehold on the last fifteen minutes of the match.

Abanhfleft had more opportunities to increase their lead over Cuboneland, with Rory Edwards hitting the bar at the hour mark and Abdullah Musa sending a shot from 16 yards just wide of the post.

Abanhfleft manager Kasper Molak: Team worked hard for the win.

Abanhfleft manager Kasper Molak: "Once again our players showed great character, intensity and hard work. We worked for the win, and we got it.

"Kevin [Kelvin] and Gustavo [Potter] were absolutely outstanding out on the field today. They worked hard for the win, their goals, and they gave us three points.

"It's a shame we couldn't keep the clean sheet, but it's still a win, and we move on to the next game."

Abanhfleft's next World Cup qualifier will be against Saintland, ranked 14 in multiverse football. The game will be held in the May 26 Revolution Memorial Stadium in Riuwiee.

   CUBONELAND 2 - 3 ABANHFLEFT
FORWARD (46')       POTTER (10')
  NO. 8 (74')       KELVIN (40', 61')

ABANHFLEFT
GK: 01 Varamoninov
RB: 05 Amoroso █ (Cervantes - 69')
RCB: 04 L. Edwards
LCB: 04 Mikkelsen
LB: 02 Samonte
RM: 08 Turpentine (Lovren - 86')
CM: 19 Zolnerov
LM: 06 Musa
CAM: 20 R. Edwards
RS: 11 Kelvin
LS: 10 Potter

MATCH STATISTICS
Possession
Cuboneland: 40%
Abanhfleft: 60%
Shots
Cuboneland: 5 (2 on target)
Abanhfleft: 12 (7 on target)
Corners
Cuboneland: 4
Abanhfleft: 13
Fouls
Cuboneland: 10
Abanhfleft: 5

by **Associated Godlands** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 10:08 pm

GodHatesYou.God
The official blog of Shirley Phelps-Roper

OK followers, I've decided that GodHatesYou.God should be the primary news source in this country, so now it is. Unfortunately I can't do too much reporting because of my duties as a Queen and the head coach. Oh well. But I did (obviously) watch the game vs Aeqamustopia, and I'll present you my thoughts.

Leading up to the game, I decided to learn a bit more about this "Aeqamustopia". I've learned many things, such as what their flag looks like. God definitely hates that flag. I've also learned that they are a nation made up of heathen garbage. So when the game kicked off and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ scored a goal within five minutes, it was no surprise.

As said previously, the game kicked off, and sure enough, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ struck four minutes in with a beautiful curling effort. Associated Godlands immediately jumped to a 1-0 lead. Then, God continued to show his disdain for the heathen peoples of Aeqamustopia by allowing the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to score again at the 32nd minute mark, this time after being tripped in the box. The Alphean referee Antonio Martins awarded the penalty, which the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ promptly converted. The half ended like this, Associated Godlands up 2-0.

Quick observation: Martin Luther was very disappointing in that game. I expected him to surge forward and cause a lot of problems, but he was instead invisible, defensively and offensively. I might experiment with Joel Osteen in his role next time around.

Then the second half began. Martin Luther still was nowhere to be found, but the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ wasn't. He scored again in the 65th minute, and then in the 80th for four tallies on the day. These were Associated Godlands's only goals, and they won 4-0.

It was a pretty solid performance from the Obeyers. It could have been more than four against such lowly competition, but I'll take a W. The inaugural Shirley Phelps-Roper game MVP award goes to the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His four goals gave us the win today; he now has 37 for his country, in 19 caps. Pretty impressive.

And that's it. It was a good day for Associated Godlands today, taking another team of heathens down a notch. Shirley Phelps-Roper out.

by **Stvoto Latoli** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 11:36 pm

Groups 1-10 Matchday 1 Cutoff

Will Margaret Give You Something Good? Now Accepting Tributes In Form Of Obliterated Rubber Chickens In Pressurized Hot Sauce Packets.

SCORES

by **Brenecia** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 3:39 am

"- and that's why the future is important."
Thunderous applause as Felicity Cutliff dashed into a packed hall. Fuck. Late.
A familiar face emerged from the crowd. "You haven't missed much."
"Hey, Bryan." The two shook hands - Bryan Tomican had been a boyfriend, briefly, in high school. But they'd been friends since an amicable breakup, and both gone into the same career. Football. Both had the passion, neither was very good - even if Tomican had played precisely six D-League games before drifting back into the state leagues - and both were now trying to turn semi-professional playing careers into professional coaching ones. Both were 25 years old. And both were disciples of Bardsley and Bale, the pioneers of Brenecian management.
It was Sasha Bale, currently manager of the Brenecian national team, up on the stage right now. When Cutliff and Tomican had heard Bale was speaking in their modest little city of Falkner, well, they had to be there, didn't they?
"This isn't a big country," Bale continued. "A shade under six million people, thirty-five full-time professional clubs." She sized up her audience. This was United territory. "And one of those is Lotus Park, which doesn't exactly count for much."
Oh, the audience loved that.
"But my point is," said Bale, after the laughter and applause had died down, "that we need to make the best of what we have. And we haven't, yet. Five point nine million people and thirty-five clubs got us to thirty-eighth, but the simple fact is that we can do better. We don't nurture talent enough! Our young boys and girls are thrown onto full-size pitches too early, and that just makes runners, not players. The A-League's made a lot of strides lately, but I don't think anyone's denying it's a physical league full of physical players who run fast and hard, and are powerful. Are we producing enough players of genuine international class? Playmakers? World-class centreforwards?"
"No," a few brave voices shouted. One heckler added, helpfully, 'Ramsey and Danmark are shit and gonna get found out!"
Bale ignored that. They were, after all, her picks for the national team. "Right. So what do we do about it?"
Naturally, Bale had answers in convenient bullet-point form. 1 - smaller-scale matches for developing players, to get them in possession more often and learning better. 2 - a consistent belief in attacking football from head to toe, at every age group. This, as the lone journalist present noted, put her in direct contrast with the current U-18 manager. Conrad Keane had favoured a direct approach to attack and defence as the first priority. He was on record multiple times as, in fact, favouring physical development over nurturing more technical players. This was conflict.
"Finally, ladies and gentlemen, I need people like you."
Well, that had them hooked. "Here it comes," breathed Tomican.
"Shut up!" Cutliff hissed. "I'm trying to listen, and we're too fucking far up the back!"
"People who are part of a new breed, willing to adapt, change, improve. A new set of coaches and managers to come into the game at all levels and age groups, to teach a new style that's about more than just kicking and rushing on a pitch full of divots, right? There's a lot of dinosaur coaches out there who just want it to be about defenders hoofing it as far up the field as possible and everyone running up after it." She inhaled, exhaled and namedropped. "A lot of Clint Hemingways. And I think we all remembered how that went."
The vocal crowd reaction signalled that, yes, they did.
"I think you take my point." Bale smiled. "God knows where we'd be now if that mentality had robbed us of Catherine Purrington. Thanks for having me."
The applause was raucous. Bale had just held a hall of two or three hundred entirely in her sway, and soon she'd be off to capture a few more. She'd already taken to calling them her 'disciples' in private.
Still, this would be the last, for now. The proselyting would have to wait. She had a national team to run.

by **Nephara** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 4:41 am

Lind Stefan Pressinger still wasn't sure what he was doing here.
Wasn't so long ago he'd been warming the bench for Sabrefell Athletic. Admittedly, this was a good place to be, but it was a frustrating wait for his first real chance. He waited, waited, waited... knowing that, first chance he got, he'd make the best of it.
And he had. So here he was now, a year or so later. Athletic's established first-choice goalkeeper, fresh off suiting up for the Cormorants in the Trindl Cup third-place playoff - which, okay, not the most memorable match, but it was for him, okay? And now he was very much in the running to be the next number 1 after Ballard.
He'd learned a lot from Ballard in a short time - Caravella, too. And assistant manager Portia Thrift, who was, of course, a long-standing international. And goalkeeping coach Phoebe Baudler. Plenty of rolemodels, and young, brash Steed Corren pretty much directly competing with him.
Most of the coaches had been focusing a lot on the side's defence, and Pressinger would be the first to admit he didn't know the first thing about that kind of thing. Or even really about the Maretta national team, for that matter. But even he could tell something seemed different about the side, the beginnings of which had tried to assert themselves during the Trindl Cup and, ideally, would come to fruition in the World Cup itself.
Nephara had leaked goals for a while, occasionally haemorrhaging even to minnows, and that had been Riether's one genuine headache coming into the tournament. An earlier attempt to get the Cormorants to sit back more and be unafraid to let opponents come at them had, well, only invited pressure. So it looked like Riether was headed straight for the opposite.
Pressinger marvelled. Whenever a Marettan had the ball, they would be swarmed by the closest player as others moved to cut off his mates. When the ball was won, the ball got forward as quickly as possible, the Cormorants tried to find and exploit a gap, and hopefully test the goalkeeper. It wasn't quite there, at first. Touches were a little heavy, the urgency wasn't quite there even in front of fifty-something thousand at Godswatch.
And occasionally there were heart attacks. A ball lofted over the top saw a Marettan winger streak onto it, but mercifully Katskalidis - bless her - took him out. That was a booking well won. Another time it was lofted over but Ballard was there to smash it upfield again, Cawdor finding it and hitting the side netting with a shot on the break.
It was, however, a relief when the goal finally came. Kellard hadn't impressed in front of goal and Covenant had struggled to assert herself, so it wasn't much of a surprise that this came from the captain. The goalkeeper threw the ball to their leftback who was immediately swept upon by Brendan Rivers. Under pressure, he managed a pass to a midfielder, who promptly had his pocket picked by Elaine Ashdown... now pretty much with a free reign just outside the box. She picked her place, let fly, and, well, Nephara were 1-0 up, another notch in Ashdown's growing legend.
There were still plenty of growing pains, and occasional moments where players didn't really seem to know what they were meant to be doing. But it was something. And maybe, unlike the last four years it Had Been Nephara's Year, maybe it really was this time...

by **Thaldor** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 5:14 am

Thaldor 3 - Lee Islands 0 Dragons are flying again

Sarah Lund for Soccermania.th
Last night the grand central stadium of Miliano was host to a grand football match.
In front of a sold out stadium the Thaldorian National Team nicknamed 'the dragons' played their first qualifier match against the Lee Island National team. In the end it was more of a training session then a test of skill. Still Lee Island played well enough with a defensive strategy for more than 30 minutes until Cassionetta managed to break the ice with a wonderful solo scoring the first goal of the evening.
To the joy of the home tribune, including over 50 000 Thaldorians of all ranks including her majesty High Queen Susan III herself Thaldor came with a determined goal into the second half. Svobodas Goals in Minute 50 and 69 were only the icing of the cake, 80 % ball possession and 75 % duels in favor of the Dragons showed the promise of this team. The self confidence of the Baptism of Fire tourney seems to be there again and the party went for most of the night. (link for the newest gossip.)
The next opponent seems to be a bit more equal.
The national team from the Humble People's Republic of Lons (101 in the world ranking.) The match will be played in the Peoples Republic and the ticket contingent for Thaldor is allready sold out. The grey market price is varying from 100 to 800 NS Dollar right now. Anyone who don't want to stay in the wrong block (here is a list of all public viewing events, including live streams for the Olympic Stadium of Londra, the grand central stadium in Milano and the Al Bashir Stadium in Alexandria.
Otherwise, grab a bag of nachos, a few friends and the biggest TV available, the whole game will be broadcast by channel 1 again, with a addtional Radio Reportage on Channel 4 and a Internet Live-Stream on this page (sponsored by channel 1.)

by **Jeruselem** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 5:34 am

Princess Laura and a pretty head Michelle Huniker in a foreign setting

Laura: This is Princess Laura Virginia Dallas for Naked News Jeruselem. Yes, it's World Cup time ... editon 73. We're not at home, we're in San Jose Guayabal! That's why all the signs are in Spanish. Anyway. I'm with a new member of the team, Michelle Huniker. A brilliant midfield player, some say better than ... Dazza Dallas herself.

Michelle: Hi everyone. I'm nowhere near as good as Dazza, there's no comparison.

Laura: Just a reminder of our group. Group 16. We have that annoying Gregoryisgodistan team, 36th seed. Then we have those unusual people from a country called The Sword Bloke, you know that place. Seed 82. So far two teams we know! Associated Godlands, low ranked team at 161 but we've also played them before. 22nd seed, San Jose Guayabal - the top seed. Then we have us Jeruselem, seeded at 69. Yes, 69! Some will find some sexual innuedo in that. Last two are teams we have no idea about Aeqamustopia seeded 303 and Natanians and Nosts at 209. Our rivals are that Greg team, San Jose Guayabal and The Sword Bloke. Why we have 2 God teams in our group, we have no idea.

Michelle: I think given our group, it's far from the hardest one given the top seed is 22nd.

Laura: We are in San Jose Guayabal, and we took on the favourite to take this group at their home. Something most teams would want to avoid in the first game. Yes, lucky us got them. It's better than playing in Gregoryisgodistan anyway.

Michelle: Yes, I dread going to Gregoryisgodistan.

Laura: Results. The Sword Bloke beat Natanians and Nosts 1-0. Associated Godlands thrashed a hapless Aeqamustopia 4-0. Gregoryisgodistan had the bye. And there's our game. Well, an upset! Jeruselem beat the home team 2-1

Michelle: Pretty good considering we didn't play any friendlies at all.

Laura: That's because the clubs released players so late, we couldn't schedule a friendly hey

Michelle: It was pretty tight scheduling with the club games this year.

Laura: I was pretty impressed with our first up effort. Beating the top seed at their home isn't an easy task.

Michelle: I think we've got a good team. Hopefully we can make finals this time round.

Laura: We finished 3rd in our group last cup but that's not really good enough.

Michelle: We can improve still. We're a bit rusty in some areas.

Laura: San Jose Guayabal were probably the same, they didn't play the best football either.

Michelle: It's a pretty good start. Hopefully we can build on this.

Laura: I can criticize a few things about today's performance but I really can't complain about the effort today. It was our first big hitout proper.

Michelle: Pretty good for the first game, beating the group favourite.

Laura: You continue the Jeruselem tradition of having redheads in the team.

Michelle: Yes, I am a real redhead. How come you're blonde, your Mum is a redhead.

Laura: Yes, well that genetics for you.

Michelle: When it comes to attractive girls, you cannot beat the Jeruselem team.

Laura: Yes, but the World Cup isn't beauty contest otherwise we'd win a few.

Michelle: Still we're not here for our good looks alone

Laura: Well, that's it from us. Satellite time is very expensive. Especially video streaming at HD standard video!

Michelle: See you all later.

by **Krytenia** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 5:36 am

K1K: The Game Of History

MATCH #637: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Khytenna 1-7 Krytenia, World Cup 53 Qualifying
Central City, Khytenna, 5 September 2144

Eight goals in a World Cup Qualifying opener? Yep, we've done that before!

THE BUILD-UP
Krytenia's World Cup LII campaign had, in the end, been a bit of a disappointment. True, qualification had been easy (if a little long-winded at twenty-two games), but once they got to the finals all the wind went out of their sails. Beaten by Nethertopia in their opener, they rallied against the Yaforites and Septentrionia, but Cassadaigua were more than a match for them and the Aces exited the competition in the round of sixteen. AOCAF XXX provided at least a little succour, but this being Krytenia we're talking about there came the inevitable semi-final defeat; this time to a Pacitalia side who were to become the dominant force in the regional competition.

The Aces warmed up for the competition, as was the custom at the time, with a game in the Mike Sarzo Memorial Trophy. The MSMT, a charity friendly tournament that was organised by the long-disappeared Sarzonians, and fiercely contested. Especially as the warm-up game in question was against the old enemy: Starblaydia. A four-two victory in Jhanna was a nice confidence boost going into the qualifiers...first up: Khytenna.

THE MATCH
Khytenna, though relative newcomers, were not expected to be sacrificial lambs. They were the international equivalent of a mid-table side, happy to beat the true minnows and occasionally scare the living daylights out of the big boys. Playing in a group with the likes of Andossa Se Mitrin Vega and - them again - Starblaydia, they'd have that chance. First up, though, were the men in cyan, travelling to Central City hoping to get a win without too many issues.

That's exactly what happened. And how!

Khytenna, in their black kits, immediately found themselves on the back foot. The Aces, led by the mercurial manager Marc Olic and with greats such as Ricky Sexton, Damon Parker, and Warren Kennedy-Worthington to call upon, were simply in an unstoppable mood. It was, though, the oft-forgotten Zachariel Kennedy who proved to be the catalyst for Khytenna's downfall. His blazing run into the box was cruelly ended by a cynical foul from defender Max Showman, and the referee had no hesitation in giving th Central FC man his marching orders. Kennedy himself converted the penalty, and within ten minutes the home side found themselves a man and a goal in arrears.

It wasn't about to get any better. With Sexton, Kevin Ireland, and the two strikers finding themselves with extra room to manoeuvre in the middle of the park, the Khytennan house of cards collapsed. Kennedy added a second a scant three minutes later, latching onto an Ireland pass and firing home, before Parker got in on the act, nodding home a simple header from a Kennedy-Worthington corner. This, by the way, all in the first twenty minutes of the match. To be fair to the Khytennans, they weren't just lying down and taking it; Allan Syd gave them a degree of respectability with a fine strike that left Robert Venus no chance to make it three-one.

That, though, was as good as it got for the home side. The Aces smelt blood, and rained chances down upon poor Tim Gatton in the Khytennan goal. He did have the chance to save a few, notably a Kevin Ireland strike from point-blank range that Gatton deflected away with his legs, but there was absolutely nothing he could do for the fourth goal as Parker unleashed a belter from fully thirty yards out that just squeaked past the 'keeper's fingers before rippling the net.

With all hope lost of gaining a point, it was up to the men in black to at least make the goal difference respectable in the second half. Krytenia, though, were not to be denied. Parker completed his treble with another header, this time from a swirling cross courtesy of Tom Scarborough; nine minutes later, Kennedy finished off a fine passing move to complete his hat-trick. Finally, just to compound the misery, captain Sexton put the cherry on top, slamming the ball home from a half-cleared corner. The final whistle was blessed relief for the home side, though many of the home fans were not there to see it, many of them pouring out somewhere between goals five and seven.

THE AFTERMATH
Qualifying for World Cup LIII was a roller-coaster to say the least. Defeats to ASMV and our own southern provinces - Nova Mercia competing separately at this point in time - were followed by a far from convincing win against Windows Vista Business, competing in their only World Cup, and a dull nil-nil against the Men In Mauve. It was the home return against Khytenna that got the Krytenians firing once again; a five-two thrashing of the Starblaydis helped things along before the Aces secured their place in the finals by making apple crumble out of Cotdelapoms.

Sadly, though, that was as good as it got for the Aces, a hammering at the hands of another rival, Valanora, assisting in their group stage exit. Good things were to come, though; just not for this generation.

#1: It Haperd One Night
#89: You Beat Us, We're Still Better

by **Saintland** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 5:39 am

World Cup 73 Qualifying: Preview (Continued)

(SP) You saw our predictions for the first 10 groups, but what did we predict for the other 10 groups? Its time for us to reveal our predictions, which were written prior to the kickoff of any World Cup 73 matches.

Group 11

The eleventh group this time around is headlined by The Holy Empire, which is currently holding a competition to choose their new kits. One of the options was, apparently, "stolen" from Kernansquillec, a nation that apparently believes in the form of legalized theft referred to as "intellectual property." At the Saintland Press, we stand with our schismatic brethren in their legal battle against Kernansquillec. In terms of picking a winner for this group, well, I don't think anybody can argue that The Holy Empire are far and away the best team in this group and that they should win it easily. The Blouman Empire, formerly famous for their mediocrity in the World Cup finals, seem to no longer be good enough to even make it that far but Patistan, New West Guiana, Skarosbrekka and the other minnows in this group aren't going to seriously challenge them for second place. We're picking the Holy Empire to finish first and the Blouman Empire to finish second in a group that, aside from its top seed, is flat out laughable.

Group 12

Group 12 is a much stronger group than Group 11. Yes, we know that isn't exactly saying much, but its true. The Polar Islandstates, ranked 4th in the multiverse, are the top seed in this group. Although the WCC President is no longer a Polarian, we don't expect them to miss a beat in this cycle because they remain a good soccer team with all of the pieces to finish second yet again in the World Cup Finals. It would be insane to pick them to finish anywhere other than first in this group. The battle for second place, however, will be intense. Estenia probably think that they will finish second in the group, just like they thought they were going to win their BoF back in the day, but this isn't Group 11. The strongest contenders for that spot are Semarland, a promising up and coming side that just haven't been able to make a breakthrough yet, and Bears Armed. The Bears were, at one point, every bit as much of a fixture in the World Cup Finals as Valanora but those days have passed. They've been mediocre for so long now that even the memory of their former greatness is starting to fade. Yet, we think this cycle will be the one where they finally turn it around and make it back to the playoffs. So, we're picking the Polarians to win this group and the Bears to finish second.

Group 13

It has been said that whenever 13 dine together, the first to rise shall be the first to die. Indeed, that is how it was at the Last Supper of our Lord and Savior Iesus Christus. The number 13 is simply bad luck, so it is fitting that the top seed in this group is a team ever so deserving of bad luck. We are speaking, of course, of the Equestrian States, home to the multiverse's dirtiest gridiron team and a wretched hive of talking animals that refuse to serve humanity, as God demands of their kind. They are due for a great fall and we see that coming in this very World Cup cycle! Kandorith always seems to make it to the World Cup Finals somehow and we think they'll win this group narrowly and unimpressively, as is befitting of them. The big question, though, is who will finish second in the group. We can rule out Boring Paradise because they're about as good at World Cup Qualifying as Eastfield Lodge but Stvoto Latoli and Augusticinia are both strong contenders. We're going to go with Stvoto Latoli to make the playoffs, but Augusticinia will finish third and Boring Paradise fourth, relegating the talking horses to fifth place in a 7 team group.

Group 14

Group 14 is led by the Glorious United Federation of Eura, which saved our Kingdom from Andreas the Usurper and restored our Rightful King, Petrus the Twentieth, the Greatest Quarterback in the History of the World Bowl. The least we can do, to return the favor, is to pick Eura to win Group 14 and make it back to the World Cup for yet another shot at their second World Cup Title. As for who will finish second, that's anybody's guess as Sandwich Territories, Polkopia and Szavoda are all promising teams. If this were a singing competition, we'd pick Polkopia to win but this is soccer and we're going to go with Szavoda to barely edge out the other two for a playoff berth.

Group 15

The fifteenth group at this World Cup is headlined by Valladares and Kirisaki. Zenic, a former Baptism of Fire champion, is also a particularly strong team. Valladares have slipped in the rankings of late and will probably struggle to put this group away as easily as they would like to. Kirisaki, formerly called Mizuyuki, is just not able to take that step into the elite of international soccer and we don't see this team as particularly promising to do so. Therefore, we're going to pick Zenic to finally realize the potential that they once flashed in the BoF and win this group outright. The battle for second will come down to the wire, but the Valladars will edge out a Kirisaki team that just isn't good enough to beat the best that the multiverse has to offer on a consistent basis.

Group 16

While it seems a foregone conclusion that San Jose Guayabal and Gregoryisogodistan will finish 1-2 in this group, this group will nonetheless be particularly entertaining to watch, given the inclusion of The Sword Bloke, Jeruselem and Associated Godlands in the group, providing plenty of excuses for fireworks involving the self-proclaimed deity with the infamously short temper and the numerous Enemies List nations in this group. Foremost among those is San Jose Guayabal, which actually fought a war against them not too long ago. The Guayabalense front of the Great War ended in a stalemate and both sides still hate one another with just as much intensity as they did before. While it'll be entertaining to see all of the death and devastation that they visit upon one another, it is a foregone conclusion that San Jose Guayabal will finish first and Gregoryisgodistan second. The rest simply aren't good enough to even give them much of a challenge.

Group 17

Group 17 is a rather interesting group, headlined by Osarius. Osarius won World Cups 70 and 71 but crashed and burned hard in the World Cup 72 Finals. The big question, coming into this cycle, is whether they can bounce back from that. We don't think so. The second seed in this group, the Unified Sunrise Islands, also seem to be less than promising at the moment but Omerica is a team on the rise who will, we believe, win this group. While we aren't confident in West Angola's ability to bounce back to the form they showed 10 World Cups or so ago, we think that Armeia has what it takes to make the playoffs straight out of the BoF. If you doubt this, just look at their performance in recent youth competitions. They're one of the most promising new sides to come around in a long time and we think they have what it takes to be among the elite someday. Osarius finishes third and doesn't even get an invite to the Cup of Harmony.

Group 18

While the official fixture listing says that Saintland will be competing in Group 18, this is not the Saintland team that has repeatedly lost in the Round of 16 in past World Cup Finals. After the failure of the team to perform up to expectations on home soil at the Copa Rushmori, King Petrus XX has agreed to permit Feministvs Sanctvsterra to represent our Kingdom in the World Cup. Unfortunately, we just don't think those ladies are as good on the pitch as they are at staging pitch invasions and prancing around the streets of the Free Republics as the Lord made them. This isn't a particularly easy group either. Other teams in the group include Abanhfleft, the United States of Devonta, Maklohi Vai, New Gelderland (champions of the 60th BoF) and Witty Penguins. All of these teams have shown promise in the past. We think that Abanhfleft is the best team in this group and are picking them to finish first. As for second place, we expect New Gelderland to put up quite a fight, but Devonta will edge them out in the end.

Group 19

Group 19 is another weak group. Turori, always in the shadow of Vilita, are the strongest team in this group by far. Second best is clearly the Star United States. We're going with the Star United States to pull off an upset and finish first, with Turori second. The other 5 teams in this group are not serious contenders.

Group 20

Group 20 is a very interesting group. Headlined by the once-dominant Valanora, who put up their best performance since World Cup 67 at home last time around, Group 20 also features the reigning Cup of Harmony champions and the reigning Copa Rushmori champions. Cosumar had an extremely unlucky World Cup Qualification attempt last time around, repeatedly performing better on the pitch than their results would indicate. This finally showed in their dominant performance at the Cup of Harmony, capped off by a victory over The Sarian in the finals of the tournament. Meanwhile, the Purple Knights of Taeshan shocked the soccer world by beating several more highly regarded sides to win a Copa Rushmori title right here in Saintland. The fourth seed in this group, The Fallenmark Islands, are a former BoF runner up who appear to be a team on the rise. This is the opportunity for Valanora to prove that their performance at World Cup 72 was for real and not just a fluke caused by home field advantage. It is also an opportunity for Taeshan to prove that they are for real. But the team in this group that has shown the most promise is Cosumar, so we are picking them to win the group. We think, ultimately, that Valanora will finish second and win a playoff, but we have our doubts about whether the Vanorians are truly ready to return to their former greatness.

There you have it. We have analyzed all 20 groups and picked whom we think will win. Be sure to tell us what you think about our picks in our new comments section!

by **Electrum** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 6:10 am

OOC: Pretend this is written before Matchday 1

Centralis Herald - Stewart Faraday

Our chances for World Cup 73

Imagine the groans in the Electrum change room as they completed their training session -- the Quebecois and the Apoxians eagerly drawing names out of a hat... Just who in Pot 2 would join Legalese...? Electrum. Again. Minds would have immediately flicked back to World Cup 71.. where Electrum would fail to qualify by the barest of margins, just two points -- a win instead of a draw against those lowly sides would have seen Electrum go through to its dream debut. Instead what would happen is a date with The Sarian where they thoroughly demolished us into little pieces. We would never pick ourselves up in World Cup 72, not even coming close to getting to the top two, which makes this campaign all the more important.

It's validation that the team is on the right track, and that they're not going to choke. But more importantly, now that national attention is focused somewhere else -- namely the Olympic bid, there's less pressure on the team to do well. In fact, now that the dark cloud of reaching 'three consecutive playoffs' is now out of the picture this is the time for the team to seize the opportunity. It's their carpe diem. The Electrumites have an interesting group too - with Banguela, Lymantatia, Acronius, Transpadana and Port Christopher also making up this group of seven.

This edition's Baptism of Fire entrants - Banguela and Transpadana
Two nations that Electrumites probably don't recognise are Banguela and Transpadana. Transpadana are just cellar dwellers, having lots all of their games in their debut competition. If they can't even do well in the Baptism of Fire, then what hope do they have in the Qualifiers? Just watch me jynx the Electrumite team as they either draw or lose to the Transpadananananans. Banguela on the other hand have made it far, to the quarterfinals. They look like a promising upstart team whose interesting formation means that they play a kind of new brand of football -- trying to shut down those passes which so often provide oxygen for the opposing team in the form of attacking opportunities.

Middle-tier teams - Port Christopher and Acronius
There is much room for improvement for these teams, who have little hope of qualifying, but will be looking for that Electrum experience in finding that breakout cycle. Port Christopher is actually a territory of Schottia, but many will still rule them out. I think they're in with a shot, granted, it's a small one if they can focus some of their energy away from trying to score goals into back-to-basics defence. Acronius are an even bigger threat -- they are a team on the move up the rankings, and have made significant gains in progress -- though recent form has been lacking, with their star striker on leave due to studies and a recent change in management threaten to put that progress on hold. They have come up with a rather ridiculous plan to field four different separate teams that will play on different days of the competition -- so Electrum will face two different teams. It's so crazy it might just work. Electrum will face different players, different teams, and more importantly different strategies. It's going to be very confusing.

You know... Lymantatia
Lymantatia is certainly a team Electrum would like to get revenge on. We've had a shocking record against the Lymantatians in our very first two World Cups, WC68 and 69. In fact, our World Cup debut was an unmitigated disaster -- a 7-1 drubbing by Lymantatia, a fact that Electrumite fans have never been able to live down. They would then lose 1-2 at home in Centralis as well. Following on, in World Cup 69, we yet again lost 1-3 at home to the Lymans and drew them away 2-2. Now with the new and improved team, it's time to shift the 0-1-3 record towards positive and make good with ourselves. For our sanity. And for the sanity for the Electrumite fans everywhere. Let's try and beat them, and wipe a smile off Jacques Bressler's s***-eating grin.

Legalese
We already told you what happened in the introduction. Well... we did draw with them at home 2-2, and then beat them at their own turf 2-1! The problem in that cycle two editions ago was that they were psyched up to jump into the World Cup, and it's that kind of arrogance which is fatal to the team. Although they had a good run against Legalese in that cycle, wasted points against no-name nations such as El Gregoria meant that we couldn't get the automatic qualifier spot that Legalese had. Only time will tell whether or not this will happen this cycle again, but one thing's clear: Electrum needs to build its points as quickly as possible, especially getting those three points over the debuting nations and forcing a couple of draws with Legalese and Lymantatia. Then, and only then we could have a chance to get the automatic qualifier spot.

There's just no way they can go through a third spin through the playoffs. Twice over have our hopes been dashed by the playoff format. We always seem to get drawn with sides which are just too good. The only way we will ever qualify is if we are on top. That's the key. Brunet has a lot riding on this campaign -- let's hope he can make it count.

by **Banguela** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 6:17 am

”I’m so happy you got here so quickly, Joao.”

That. Exactly, pinpoint that second. In hindsight, that should have been the moment where I smelled that there was something fishy going on. The tone of his voice, the ridiculously broad smile on his face, the phlegmatic swoosh of his desk chair as he turned to me… Red alarm lights should have on, sirens resonating my eardrums, … Instead, I got flattered by his honey-taste words and generous brandy. The suave moves of an old fox, a snow fox judged by the patches of white hair that start to build up around his ears. Tiago da Mata Flores is the kind of man that will not hesitate to use every trick in the book, sly enough to know when to use the softer methods, harsh enough to use other means when necessary. It had gotten him a major construction company, specialised in over subsidised governmental towers and when he got tired of making truckloads of cash, he turned his attention to the sports. Being a man who gets what he wants, he got the spot of president of the national FA after a few months and a few more bribes.

”You have evidently heard about Marco Freite… An unfortunate situation.”

He could bend his voice so it sounded a little disappointed in Marco. Just a few minutes ago, I had heard from Flores’ secretary that he had signed a contract with Associacao after ending his time at the national team in, as that is called, consultation with the FA president. What had seemed like a slip of the tongue back then, was a careful leak planted by Flores now. Instead of asking questions at this remarkable turn of events, I nodded like the village idiot.

”I have heard, very unfortunate.”

His gamble was the right one. As my brain only had had a handful of seconds to process, I was still bathing in my ambition instead of looking over the edges. Why on earth would Marco Freite leave the team, as it seemed that the players had finally come to terms with him? An enigma that only struck me once I discovered the answer the hard way.

”Yes… It will be a blow to the image of the national team. The feelings after the Baptism of Fire were mixed and this… incident can turn the comments in the press at once negative. I mean, if the manager himself even has lost his confidence in the project, why would the journalists? And if the public no longer backs Os Gnus… It could be the end of all this. Unless…”

He turned his chair to the window behind him which overlooked the skyline of Mpulo. Skyline was a slightly preposterous word as the few skyscrapers formed solitary middle fingers in a sea of, at best, three-storey blocks or, at the outskirts, a depressive overgrowth of cardboard shacks huddled against their more stone-like brethren. He brought his gigantic hand with the little fat sausage fingers to his head, as if he had to push all the words in the right order. The bastard had probably rehearsed it all, move included.

”Unless?” I startled.
”The media are going to sniff blood”, he ignored my notice, ”that bloody Marco Freite is tossing it on the street, as if he should be proud of what he did. They will be storming my office any minute now. What can I say? If only…”

Stupid son of a… Me, I mean with that. I looked at him like a dog to a bone, trickles of saliva dropping to the floor. Smiling.

”If only I could announce them a new national manager at once. Put the focus elsewhere. Someone who knows the project.”

Never before it had been named a project and never again it would be. With all I know now, he even had brought me so far to beg.

”I would accept,” I had replied, unable to keep my dreams and hopes confined, ”I really would.”

I’m quite sure he imitates those lines at one of his dinner parties, with that high-pitched voice people use when mocking someone. If only that was the only thing he could mock me with. After the announcement, the photographers catching us shaking hands with a big smile in front of the national FA emblem and his personal pen pals announcing it as if it were the last big frontier before qualifying for the World Cup, he invited me over one last time. Tiago da Mata Flores let me wait over half an hour for a conversation of nearly half a minute. Well, conversation.

”Joao, I am going to give it straight to you. The Baptism of Fire trip drained our funds and with six long trips ahead of us. There is very little wiggle room right now,” he explained with a sad voice, twirling with his pen with golden embroidery, ”we cannot afford any assistant.”

And so I get to pick up my own players from the airport. Put up the cones myself in the early morning. And view the videotape of how Port Christopher amazed the footballing world with a spectacular draw in and against Legalese myself a few times. My conclusion? We would meet an angered opponent that would not fall for such a ploy again. Kudos to Jimmy Mitchell and his Seals, I guess, but they did not make our task easier.

”I’m sorry. I’m very, very sorry. But good luck nonetheless,” da Mata Flores repeated before pointing me to the exit.

I did not get a brandy this time, in case you wondered.

by **Damukuni** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 6:39 am

<< All Story Arcs | Next Post >>

THE LXXIII WORLD CUP
APOX · ROYAL KINGDOM OF QUÉBEC
on

Qualifying Stage
Group 5 | Qualifier 1 | 15 Oct 2015
(229)

DKI 0 - 3 GWA

(59)
University of Damushuto Stadium, University City, F.D., Damukuni

MATCH TIMELINE
presented by Supercel®DKI PLAYER TIME EVENT GWA
0 -- ---- 00:00 Start of Match 0
-- ---- 14:26 GOAL 1
YC 21 Tracey 43:02 BOOKING 
-- ---- 64:03 GOAL 2
YC 89 Matsushita 70:35 BOOKING 
-- ---- 81:26 GOAL 3
0 -- ---- 90:00 Full Time 3

試合レポート | MATCH REPORT

The Greater Watford national team dropped three goals into the nets of one of Damukuni's premier stadiums to beat out the Damukuni FA team three to nil in the Group 5 opener of the 73rd World Cup qualifiers.

The Damukunian defencive line held off most of the Greater Watford attack, with the exception of a goal scored early on in the game, but it collapsed in the second half, with two more goals being scored. Captain Wisdom Tracey and striker Kyōsuke Matsushita were each booked on improper sliding challenges during the second half, marking the former's first booking in international competition.

Damukuni (0-1) will play No. 86 Flardania (Kirishima) (0-0) at Aincrad Stadium in Akihabara in Flardania (Kirishima) on Friday.

OTHER ARTICLES
Winter States to begin 1 November >>

by **Kyrjasmark** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 7:30 am

Dagmar the Ninth, Empress of the Kyrjasmark, Queen of Great Valheim and bearer of a dozen other titles, looked up from the altar at the creaking open of the door. Her maid, if that was really the right term in this modern age, walked into the room. Many would have courtseyed, but Olga had been with the queen many years, and knew her well enough to dispense with the formalities. In a way, the two were close friends. So Olga had no hesitation in speaking to the queen without restraint. "Sorry to interrupt your majesty, I didn't realise you were praying." Eyeing the altar the queen had been praying at, she raised an eyebrow. It was an altar to the goddess of love. "Lofna, is it? Who's caught your eye. Not the Maalvian king?"
Dagmar nodded. "Yes. So, Olga, do you approve of my choice."
Chuckling, Olga replied, "How could I not, majesty? He is a king after all, and though that's no great thing when you're an empress, eligible young monarchs are as rare as a snowstorm in Muspell. Still, are you sure you actually love him?"
"Why else would I marry him?"
"Well, rich young rulers such as yourself are expected to marry rich young rulers. Are there any young fishermen from Barjie you would rather we if you could."
"Olga! Why, a fisherman, really! No, I really do want to marry King Vladimir, more than anyone else."

by **Carialus** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 7:32 am

Carialus Clairon
Off to a Great Start

Carialus has endured eight cycles of Qualifying and has never made the World Cup. The Comrades have only participated in the Cup of Harmony a single time. However, in recent cycles, Carialus has come ever closer to qualifying. In World Cup 68, Carialus missed the expanded third place playoff position by only two goal differentials. The nation above them, The Inevitable Syndicate, had been defeated by the Comrades in both legs. It was only a huge loss to the Royal Barangay that dashed Carialus' hopes. The next cycle, Carialus would once more miss second place only by goal difference. However, in World Cup 71, Carialus would have their luck. Towards the end of qualifying, the Comrades were leading Group 6. Sadly, they would lose the final matchday against Farfadillis. Still, Carialus had secured a playoff position, a playoff in which they drew the Royal Barangay, of all nations. Carialus would go 0-0-2 in that playoff. In World Cup 72 Qualifying, Carialus would scrape their way into the playoffs. Although only two points away from the group leader, it took a Blouman Empire loss to get the Comrades through. Carialus would draw high ranked Vilita, so it was another 0-0-2 sweep. Despite poor late form, Carialus seems to have been making headway, and many hopeful fans look for the Comrades to make their break into the World Cup Proper.

To do such a task, of navigating through qualifying, winning games against weaker sides, and usurping second place, Carialus will need to be in their best forms. It all starts on Matchday One, where Carialus will play, well now, played Star United States.

The Comrades gladly started their campaign at home in Capitale Field. The national team was full of new players and even had a new manager. Many fans were in doubt of Carialus' chances against Star United States. Somehow, the Comrades pulled through. Compared to past cycles, Carialus' play was much more conservative, much more defensive. However, in comparison to other teams, Carialus had an even play style. This type of play stems from the fact that Carialus now plays in the traditional 4-4-2. Apparently, Star United States was expecting the attack, attack, attack Carialus from years past, and they were caught off guard. The fellow Esportivans had drilled on how to strike against Carialus using swift counter attacks, something the old system was quite vulnerable too. When Carialus started out in a 4-4-2, the Starian manager looked very surprised on the big screen. The name of the manager, and also players, of the Starian squad is unknown because they did not provide a roster.

Carialus would be the first side to find the net. The Comrades balanced demeanor and possession based play surprised even the home fans. Luckily, it paid off. Clad in their new dark blue kits with a white cross across their chest, the Comrades worked their way across the pitch. Central Midfielder Cing-Mars*, which actually is his date of birth, struck the ball at the edge of the box. The ball has some spin on it and it curved out of the reach of the keeper and sailed into the net. The half would end at that 1-0.

Carialus came out of the break as calm and balanced as before. Star United States, on the other hand, grew desperate to at least make the game a draw. In hindsight, it probably would have been better for the Starians to stick with their game plan. Instead, they drove for hopeless attacks that had few reinforcements. Ironically, Carialus would be the ones to catch Star United States in transition. Center Back Courtemanche intercepted pass and threw out a long ball to Left Winger Echeverri. Echeverri, who had evaded his defender, ran down the sideline. Only one defender was there to meet him, and they came crashing in. Echeverri dribbled to the opposite side of the defender's momentum and rushed past. Now, only the goalkeeper remained. Echeverri charged forward and so did the keeper. At the last second, Echeverri tapped the ball back to Striker Masson, who was alone in the box and walked in the second goal. It was all over for Star United States. A goal in the dying minutes of the match only saved a little face while Carialus collected their three points. It was a hard fought win with good form coming from the Comrades. Defeating the very nation whom Carialus is trying to hop over in group position can only mean good things for the Comerades.

*fifth of march

by **United States of Devonta** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 7:36 am

A Holy Thrashing
_{Devontans receive one of their worst defeats yet to a vetted Sanctii team}

United States of Devonta 0-4 Saintland

United States of Devonta (4-4-2 Diamond): Cooper, Brooks, Benton, Kindred, Liam, Russell, Abdullah, Edwards, Owens, Johansen, Adams
Saintland (6-3-1): Seius, Junius, Tanicius, Nonius, Maximius, Dossenius, Vesuius, Epidius, Nasennius, Allectus, Florius

Quick Stats:
31% Possessions, 4 Shots, 1 on goal
69% Possessions, 12 Shots, 8 on goal

Goals:
--NONE--
Florius (9', 27'), Nonius (69' - PK), Nasennius (81')

CAUTIONED: Edwards (69')
EJECTED: --NONE--

Table: N/A

Schedule:
MD1: United States of Devonta 0-4 Saintland
MD2: United States of Devonta Vs. New Gelderland
MD3: United States of Devonta Vs. Witty Penguins
MD4: BYE
MD5: United States of Devonta Vs. Abanhfleft
MD6: United States of Devonta Vs. Maklohi Vai
MD7: United States of Devonta Vs. Cuboneland
RD: BYE
MD8: United States of Devonta Vs. Saintland
MD9: United States of Devonta Vs. New Gelderland
MD10: United States of Devonta Vs. Witty Penguins
MD11: BYE
MD12: United States of Devonta Vs. Abanhfleft
MD13: United States of Devonta Vs. Maklohi Vai
MD14: United States of Devonta Vs. Cuboneland

Other Group 18 Games:
Cuboneland 2-3 Abanhfleft
New Gelderland 0-0 Witty Penguins

----MATCHDAY ONE----

Matchday One | Saintland | 14th Ranked | @Capitol Stadium, Devonta City, United States of Devonta | 81,685 attendance | Ref. John Prado
WIP

by **Estelar** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 8:28 am

Unpromising start prepares supporters for even worse times; Planets unavailable to give interviews
news brought to you by the Daily Predictor, in association with Astrology Today/Past/Forever

Horoscope of the day - Virgo: "Time to prioritize responsibilities and being objective. Moon, Saturn and Mercury combine themselves during the day, so take advantage of this to talk to whomever you need to and to put forward your ventures. But, during the night, Moon, Venus and Netune indicate nebulosity, so take care to not be deceived by something or someone. Distrust people who promise too much."

Comment of the Virgo player - Augusta Dreher: "Things are not going so well right now, with the team passing through a period of a lot of instability and broken expectations and promises, so I can see some interesting things in this horoscope. You can see that the movement of the stars alternate periods that seem favourable, like the conjunction in Virgo which looked really interesting for me, with other moments that are tricky, and we can even consider that the planets themselves can deceive us from a moment to another if we don't look at them closely. So I see it is time for our group to keep united, we need to talk more to each other and understand our responsibilities within the team, only by reaching this level of compromise we can put Estelar in the path of victories, something that hasn't happened so far... well, less time to drink, I guess."

The previous international match of Estelar wasn't this one. This one is the current one. But we forgive you if you got confused. After all, the last match of the Stargazers during the Baptism of Fire was against Googolsia, a 2x2 draw. This match was also a 2x2 draw... against Googolsia. Vesta scored on both matches. Dani was also suspended in that game as well. Of course, not everything happened just the same, but the level of coincidence is pretty big... but of course we don't believe in coincidences. It is the stars' way of sending us a message, a message that Estelar has to change if the team wants to reach another level of performance and different results. If things remain the same, this sign shows us, the results will also be the same. April Orion, the reserve of the National Team famous for trying some prediction of her own based on the positioning of the planets in the zodiac signs, commented about this moment: "This is a period of reorganization. We have several planets located at the same sign, and now the moon is coming to Sagittarius." We asked her what does that meant, but then she suddenly stopped talking about the issue and changed the subject to a lighter one: "Hey, have you seen the last episode of the soap opera? It was really a touching moment." We haven't seen it, so we had no idea about the scene she was taking about, but this is irrelevant here since we're in a football column, and we also couldn't reach the planets themselves in order to get some comments to them about why they are getting together and the reasons of the meeting in Virgo. The result disappointed a lot the Estelarians, who got reunited in several bars, clubs, homes, parks, observatories, universities, drugstores and police offices, for example, to watch the game and now are worried about the next matches of the Stargazers, since the next opponents have higher ranks, and obviously more experience.

So, to the match, and how it was different from the previous one. This time Estelar didn't allow many spaces on the left wing, and Nicole looked much more solid in defending her position, not giving Googolsia the early led in the first half that destroyed Estelar's chances last time. The supporters' confidence grew high when, close to halfway of the first half, Imogene took a free kick and sent the ball to the post. Approximately twenty percent of the supporters shouted "Goal!" at that moment and had to look around after that embarassed when they noticed that the Stargazers' didn't score. But minutes later they'd have a chance to get it right. Once again Imogene had a good free kick chance, but this time she sent the ball to the area, and thanks to a mistake of the opponents' defence Beatrix could control the ball alone, dribbling Messmann and scoring with a really well placed shot. Tschida didn't even move. With the goal, Estelar tried to press even more wanting a better advantage, but maybe it was too overconfident of the team to attack even more instead of managing the positive result. Éris missed a pass and this generated a very fast counterattack by Googolsia, which ended with Ignácz invading the area and defeating Vênus with a low finish. Before the first half could end with this draw, the same Éris tried to make up for her error, but she was clearly angry and altered, hitting Müller with an ugly kick for which she was lucky to only receive a yellow card. Due to this, the coldblooded Colleen entered for her place in the second half, and Estelar returned to the match back with a balanced strategy. Didn't work too. Ignácz once again was able to beat opposition, with Vênus now ready to block his path to the goal. He then attempted to lob the keeper. Leona was able to intercept the attempt and headed the ball to outside the area, but Horn got the rebound and shot to the keeperless goal to score.

Now losing the game at home, the team was under heavy pressure. Coach Jupiter Lynx was seen with her head down thinking of what to do several times, and some supporters even wrote down suggestions on pieces of paper or food packages and tried to give them to the coach, but they weren't allowed to do so by the fourth official. Jupiter called the official astrologer of the squad in order to receive some mystic advice, and after some consultation decided to include Gia in the match, a decision that divided the supporters, since it was the last substitution Estelar was allowed to do after putting Vlindmann in the match to substitute Chrissie, who was unremarkable during the entire game. At first things didn't seem to work well: Gia is known as a self-centered player, who prefers to try an extra dribble instead of passing the ball to a teammate, and she was tackled many times during these attempts. People were awaiting for a glimpse of talent, as she is a talented player, waiting for the stars to shine on her. And it finally happened. Beatrix, who was probably the woman of the match due to her huge determination and practically omnipresence on the pitch participating in both offence and defence, got the ball on the defensive midfield and ran to the attack. Saw Gia unmarked and passed the ball to her. She dribbled Antal, entered the area, was challenged and... passed the ball to Vesta, who then scored the goal. Her first pass in the entire match, and the only one, helped Estelar to avoid an embarassing loss in their first international game at home. Thanks to this, the supporters had at least something to give them more excitement for the night that was just beginning, and soon the nightclubs were full of drunk and... slightly happy people. They could be more happy, of course.

ESTELAR - 2						GOOGOLSIA - 2

12- Vênus Camacho					GK- Sascho Tschida
2-  Sidonie Belini               			RB- Hristofor Antal
6-  Nicole Luna (yellow card 86')                      	LB- Udo Brandt
3-  Leona Ferran					CB- Oliver Messmann
4-  Ariana Pacheco					CB- Raimondas Messner (yellow card 65')
7-  Chrissie Hacker (subbed out 63')			RM- Engel Kárpáthy (subbed out 77')
5-  Éris Dezon (yellow card 41'/subbed out 45')		LM- Filip Sovány
10- Beatrix July (GOAL 24')				CM- Lammert Müller (subbed out 83')
9-  Augusta Dreher (subbed out 69')			CM- Johan Horn (GOAL 59')
11- Imogene Gallacher					FW- Albertas Ignácz (GOAL 31')
8-  Vesta Robles (GOAL 81')	       			FW- Gerard Zoltánfi (subbed out 62')

Subs:							Subs:

15- Colleen Winter (subbed in 45')			FW- Cord Pasternack (subbed in 62')
17- Ceres Vlindmann (subbed in 63')			RM- Cibor Jäger (subbed in 77'/yellow card 83')
18- Gia Cruzeiro (subbed in 69')			CM- Eberhard Kijek (subbed in 83')

Coach: Jupiter Lynx					Coach: Elias Schult

THE DANI GUIDES FOR ESTELAR - PART 2 - NIGHTCLUBS

Well, since I am still suspended and Estelar didn't even win the game so I could improve my humor, I decided that it would be more fun if I continued with my guides for foreigners, and maybe compile all of them in the end in order to sell them in a book... that would be interesting, at least this way I could guarantee that one or another tourist would read it and then I would feel proud that people are following my advices. Since I talk about drinks last time, I wanted to do something related, so someone reading the first part would be in the mood of the second part and so on. As you may already know, Estelar is a country in which there are neverending parties. People love to party and the number of places in which you can go to dance and have some fun is ample. Some are more focused on dancing, while others still keep a more bar feeling, and some have specific attendants or styles, so let's check some of my favourites:

1- Planetário #1: actually, Planetário is a brand of nightclubs in Estelar, which is even attempting to reach places abroad, and I am sure that people will love the athmosphere in other countries. Here in Observatório, Planetário is the biggest, most popular and most eclectic, bringing people from different background and with different styles. Famous for tourists as well since it isn't as focused on the gay and lesbian community as other ones. It usually plays more pop music than other styles, but there is plenty of time for electronic or rock. The ceiling is open, so you can see the stars, and there are even rooms with telescopes so you can take a break from dancing and spend some time relaxing and looking at the universe. When it rains, of course the ceiling closes, but there are several projections which reflect the same ambient, although they tend to alternate still images of the sky with some psychedelic changes that are always fun to watch. But beware, drinks are expensive... well, everything is expensive there, is an elite club.

2- A Geminiana: the main lesbian nightclub of Observatório and perhaps the most famous in Estelar, which is at the side of a famous lesbian bar owned by the same owners called A Sagitariana. While A Sagitariana has a pretty normal decoration, with bright lights and a cute garden in which people go to smoke, A Geminiana has a very different style: coloured lights all around, and photos of famous visitors or just random people who went to the parties fill the walls, leaving not a single blank space. The motto of the club is to have a different party everyday, as the name of the club indicates the Gemini intention of constant change, so you can have all kinds of thematic parties, changing the music styles depending on the day, having costume parties every friday, and each night also has a specific special drink with a discount. My personal favourite, I must say, and maybe I can meet you there!

3- Dunas do Norte: a thematic bar, which is more famous for its food than for the drinks or the parties. Observatório is located on the southern seaside of Estelar, and the northern area of the country is composed of areas filled with dunes, and Dunas do Norte is owned by people from that region who wanted to bring the local culinary to the capital. And they made a huge success. It is a nice place to go drinking with friends or even having a romantic date, remember this hint. On one of the floors you have to take off your shoes since you step on sand, and the decoration makes the entire place seem hotter, but it is full of local pieces of art. Remember to try a lot of dishes there. There are parties, as I said, and it is always fun to party thinking that you are on the beach by stepping on sand, and the public is very diverse, so it is not an option to discard even though it is not as full as other places.

4- Ascendente: not one that I visit too much, but it is another popular club that I thought I should mention here. Located in a huge park surrounded by theatres and places for skating, ends being a destination for all these people that leave the shows. It is also close to the football arena. There is no bar area in that one: you go there if you want to dance all night. Things can get crazy in there, so if you want to have a different experience it is a nice bet to go to Ascendente. It has its own drugstore inside, so expect heavy parties in this one. But sometimes the parties and the raves give place to music shows, and the most famous artists in the multiverse usually have presentations in Ascendente, as it is the biggest place around apart from the stadium.

5- Club Fanchástica: located in an abandoned factory, it is a beautiful place to visit only for the architecture, but there is far more in it than just the design and decoration, based on famous movies, on sports and a more erotic one, depending on the floor. It is another place focused on women, more alternative than A Geminiana for lesbians but just as full. And more than the dance floors and the bar on the lowest floor, there are also floors dedicated to games: yay, yes! You can play table football, bowling and even arcade games are available for the visitors. It is quite common for you to see people laughing, drunk and having fun with all these games. Of course we can't forget the pool tables: some championships happen there, and most of us members of the Estelarian football team participate in them. Just be cautious when playing the darts, you'll be held responsible if you hit someone.

by **Copper Cuprum** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 8:55 am

From the diary of Prince Deg

10 October 2015
The Baptism of Fire ends for us today. The Gimians proved too strong for us today. Even despite my great skill, we have been defeated in extra time. My memory of the events have already gone quite blurry, and even now I cannot remember if it was Opatop or Tyrone Zudazet that scored the first and only goal for us valiant Copperites. We might still be all affected by the Burthnasian grape juice, but still, surely that is not enough to explain why the Beast, Sutalen Desoka, walked right into the pockets of the Gimian defenders? And then they had the gall to call us all fat! Only Desoka is the player I know to have quite the big body that could be called "fat." I consider myself a bit on the thin side actually. Onwards to the World Cup!

1 November 2015
A shameful display. I am ashamed of my team. I am ashamed of my players. I am ashamed of myself. I cannot bring myself to write any more than is necessary. (For context, Copper Cuprum was thrashed 6-1 by Equestrian States)

CRESCENT NEWS NETWORK
SPORTS CHANNEL - OFFICIAL WEBSITE
ABANHFLEFT • PRIDNESTROVIA • OONTAZ DERT LI NG • COPPER CUPRUM • TRENDSTART • FHULGHAMOUS PENINSULA

WORLD CUP 73 QUALIFIERS: EQUESTRIAN STATES VS COPPER CUPRUM
By Malik Qazizadah

Equestrian States players celebrate after the final whistle. Copper Cuprum were absolutely demolished by the Talking Ponies in a 6-1 drubbing at the Equestrian home. (Courtesy of Crescent News Network Sports Channel/Andros Tasasa)

EQUESTRIAN STATES - Copper Cuprum were thoroughly outclassed by Equestrian States as the Talking Ponies walked away with a 6-1 drubbing of the Fleftic client state at the Equestrians' home.

An Equestrian player netted a hattrick, while another one scored a brace and a third netted a goal of his own; while Prince Deg of Copper Cuprum scored the only goal for his country.

      EQUESTRIAN STATES 6 - 1 COPPER CUPRUM
FORWARD (13', 22', 59')       PRINCE DEG (71')
      FALSE 9 (7', 49')
         DEFENDER (84')

by **Dreamplanet** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 9:01 am

Kernasquillec 4-2 Dreamplanet

After Dreamplanet lose, things get even worse, will Dreamplanet ever find winning ways again?

"Well... Shit..." Says the (now fired) Dreamplanet Manager, Rodrigo Vaz, "We didn't do our best, we let it slip..."
"Well, get on your bike..." Igor Silva the Dreamplanet FA President swiftly replied, "You aren't your manager anymore, your record is appauling, 2 wins and 3 losses in 5 games."

Captain Luis Silva came quickly into the room, "We're not really that happy either, but things are not well in the dressing room-"
Filipe Vaz pushed Luis Silva out of the way and angrily shouted to Igor Silva, "What? Are you gonna fire me aswell because i can't keep a clean sheet?
"What? No! That's the manager's choice... But you haven't been great aswell."
"Oh really! How about you go be goalkeeper for a change!"
"Calm down guys!" Luis Silva interrupted before things got worse between Igor and Filipe, "You guys know that if we want to go well we gotta keep it calm and happy between the squad, i'm afraid we'll be the worst team to play against."
"So what?" Said the enraged Filipe Vaz, "I couldn't care less if our disciplinary record was bad, Dreamplanetian football is already hard the way it is, the FC Libon vs Sporting CD derby had a major fight. It's just how we do our football that matters."
"Filipe, you almost got sent of against Eshan!"
"Well, i got clowned for the 2nd time and this time in a even bigger stage. Why always me?!"
"Well, I have to admit none of us were ok in the match against Eshan" said a calm Luis Silva, "Aaron Hungar made Dreamplanet... And probably worldwide headlines for his famous reactions when he found out that Dreamplanet were knocked out, but you certainly pushed over the bar with your reactions-"
"Unlike your saves!" Jorge Cardozo shouted from the dressing room. After that came a bunch of the comments similar to "It wasn't really his fault now was it?"

As Filipe Vaz and Luis Silva went to the changing rooms to talk with Jorge, it left only the manager and the FA Owner.
"But you know, you did try your best, you got us out of the tough group behind Damukuni, which was our first ever international game, but you know, thanks for trying and good luck with (FC) Libon."
"I guess i gotta announce it to the lads..." A visibly upset Rodrigo Vaz went to the changing rooms to announce it to the players.

"I know that times aren't the best, but there's something that you should know..."Rodrigo Vaz sighed and became even more upset as he went to say his goodbyes "We all tried to work together here, but tomorrow in the game against Britonisea i will not be your manager, instead, Sporting CD Manager, João Pedro will be your manager. It is all sad to say our goodbyes in a game that we didn't deserve to lose, but instead of the whole squad losing i think i was already going to be fired no matter what result this was going to be, we scored the first goal at around 13 minutes and i felt that we could really make a shock, they backfired again in the 17th minute and then took the lead in the 23rd minute thanks to a penalty which was more of a dive, i'd say, but you know, thankfully all the other results were draws which aren't too bad for us, but let's go play ball tomorrow, i hope you all do well."
Rodrigo was given cheers aswell as a kit with his name on it, but Aaron Hungar had a message to give.

"I am saying this in behalf of the players, we do not think we can keep our behaviour calm and composed-"
"Well, you don't need to, go ahead and play arrogant if you want, Intimidation is always good"
"Oh, anyway second point is that we are happy that we had you as a manager and helped us out in times of need against The Lee Islands where we got our first ever clean sheet, and our only" The whole squad laughed as Filipe Vaz got angry. "Anyway, thanks for being our manager and we believe that we can do it at home."

"That's what i wanted to hear, good luck lads!" Spoke a heartbroken but reasonably happy Rodrigo Vaz, "And let's kick off our victories".

So far the group 2 table looks a bit like this:

1-Kernasquillec Points:3
2-Barunia Points:1
3-RealSquad Points:1
4-Britonisea Points:1
5-The Sarian Points:1
6-Dreamplanet Points:0

by **Eura** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 9:46 am

As the rain began to settle down outside, the cameras drew level with the hosts. The crew prepared to broadcast live and counted them in, after Eura had dealt out an easy 5-0 beating to Minecraft Miners. Right in the glare of the light as the stage manager counted them in was the Euran legend Lee Sharp, neatly dressed in his suit in the panel chairs between his former Euran manager Ben Randall and Directus manager Tom Benedict. The host, Euran national treasure and television icon Stanley Barrett, smiled at the camera with that wised up old smug look of his as the broadcast began. 'Hello there, and welcome back from that short break for the news to the EBC Sport Centre, here at the stadium of Minecraft Miners, yet another entry in the litany of oddly named nations Eura have played over the years. I'm joined by three legends of ours here in Lee, Ben and Tom, and we're going to reflect on Eura's successful beginning to qualifying tonight with a 5-0 win. I guess the first question is about the result - par for the course or not?' Ben Randall chipped in first, the oldest member of the panel and the only one to have managed Eura. 'I think that's about right, yeah, it was pretty easy and that was to be expected against debut opposition. I know what its like to have taken the reigns with us for our Baptism of Fire and qualifying, and it isn't easy for most. This lot have found this out today, but they won't be too fussed about losing 5-0 to us.'

Randall handed over the question to Benedict. 'I thought it was actually maybe better than par really, there's a lot of expectations on the boys coming out of the previous campaigns they've had and its never easy to play away first in these things. But they've done the job professionally tonight and have a few goals to show for it, all of which were well worked.' Barrett took over again to ask Sharp a slightly different question. 'Well Lee, I mean firstly do you agree with their conclusion, but on another note, what did you think of the goals tonight? After all, if anyone here is an authority on scoring its you.'
'I don't know, I scored a few crackers back in my day!' chirped Randall, which was met with some laughter from the panel. Lee took a moment and responded. 'I mean, well, first thing I'd say is you were good Ben but mine back when you were gaffer were pretty good too! Seriously though I thought they did a good job tonight, I'm more in line with Ben than Tom here though because I really think we should be expecting to beat sides like this comfortably.'
'And the goals?'
'Well, the goals are very good bar the last one which was a bit of a fluke I think, but I guess you create your own luck. I'd like to focus on Kris Campbell up front actually.' The television view switched to the highlights at different angles and speeds of the goal, complete with overlaying analysis.

'So we went full strength today, which I thought was the right choice for the first game whoever you're playing, and it was clear from the start that the trio of Hughes, Sinclair and Sutton works really well as a unit. They were passing in and through the defence really well and this early chance, if you can see, is a great move, but maybe Sutton should be doing better with the finish.'
'This Miners lot could be doing a lot better defensively too, terrible, no positioning discipline!' Benedict interjected.
'Exactly yeah, but it was the pace and creativity of our attacking midfield that had them buckling early, and importantly I think they were quite intelligent too in how they went about it - they didn't try to overwhelm the opposition all over hoping something would get through, which it probably might have done after a while, they just found a route that worked and penetrated twice in a few minutes, they were really clinical, and this is where Kris comes in. With the first goal and it is really very simple stuff with Sutton forcing the fullback wide while Watson follows him up, he holds it up because he knows the right back is actually left footed, and then he rolls it back to Watson. Watson's ball across to Hughes is excellent and all he has to do is knock it out to Sinclair and suddenly they're not quick enough to shift the centrebacks across the pitch. Their formation is their weakness here I think because they have two centres and a sweeper, and they try to push up the centres to pressure Hughes and then Sinclair off the ball but they have to accept these are high quality players and they should stand off a bit rather than get drawn into being done. That's exactly what happens, Sinclair makes a mockery of the centreback who is facing right not left and then just has to pass across the sweeper that's playing Campbell on so he can finish.'

'The second goal is pretty much more of the same. Just look at that!' Sharp took a sip as the clip of Campbell's second goal played, while the other two pundits added their comments. There was little to analyse about the third goal as Randall pointed out. 'Its just a corker isn't it? What a shot. Spartan's got too much space, sure, but its just amazing how every time he hits it from twenty or maybe twenty five yards, its dead accurate and either too low to get down to or right in one of the top corners. He's got so much power but so much technique too and maybe more shooting control than Tommo ever had, as good as he was. Brilliant goal.' The group then tackled the fourth goal. 'I think this is the backup strategy Tommo talked about and we are finally seeing it here as he brings Adams on for Sutton, a much better crosser, and Jones on for Hughes. It is very simple stuff really. Adams cross in, Jones, that big lad Jones, he's dominated the air so much that the defenders gang up on him and he doesn't even go for goal, he flicks it across the six yard box, makes sure to head it down too so its at the right level. Kris is just waiting there to poach that, perfect volleyed finish wouldn't you say Lee?'
'Oh, no doubt, I would have been proud of that, even if it was pretty close range, you've still got to get the technique right or you can skew it and then you've made an embarrasing miss.' Barret noted that such an embarrasing hypothetical miss was only just more embarrasing than the fifth goal for Minecraft Miners had been. Benedict was scathing. 'I know they're not a big team, but come on, that's atrocious. A centreback should not be laying it back to the sweeper with a striker like Kris lurking between them. Its so easy, he's taken the ball and he could've gone for the fourth but he's thought "you know what, I've got the match ball already", and he's laid it off for Blackthorn to finish the opportunity and the game is over five minutes later. So, so easy, and a decent result.'

World Cup 73 - RPing Thread

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DKI	PLAYER	TIME	EVENT	GWA
0	-- ----	00:00	Start of Match	0
	-- ----	14:26	GOAL	1
YC	21 Tracey	43:02	BOOKING
	-- ----	64:03	GOAL	2
YC	89 Matsushita	70:35	BOOKING
	-- ----	81:26	GOAL	3
0	-- ----	90:00	Full Time	3