WORLD CUP 73
Kike and the Makeshifts smack Band of Brothers: USI 1-0 Kaboomlandia
The trip down memory lane saw Unified Sunrise Islands' reserves squeezing a win over Kaboomlandia's soldier squad. Certainly, a squad with players like Rolando or Allejo would tear their opponents, but Chiyo went with a more reserved strategy: one that saw the starter eleven consist of Endicott; Al-Yossei, Dramini, Biskara, Fábio Santos; Cosme, Boneless, von Kraus, Shizuka; Ana Carolina and Kike. Not a bad team at all, but certainly a good sign that the Sunrisians were not expecting to be challenged by the Europeians. And good lord, was that nearly their downfall. But thankfully, oversight from their opponents would eventually see a goal to the back of the net.
The first half was mostly a struggle. The 1-8-1 tactic certainly took its' toll: it was notoriously hard for the Sunrisians to get a good shot at the goal early, leaving their offense mostly to shots far and wide, barely enough to give McEachern trouble. On the other side of the spectrum, Dramini is still playing his best after the Sunrisian Championship's title win. Also part of this impressive defence was Waseem Biskara, a Northeastern Sunrisian currently defending Adjurgen; who made sure Rene Allard was neutered on the pitch.
Finally, however, the second half arrived and Kike, already fed up with their catch the flag style of play, did the least expected: he dribbled over Bradbury and Epone, before having no problem against Marco Ciliano, widely dodging him and scoring with a nice-placed shot. All left for both sides was wait the remaining twenty minutes, the additional time and that was all. Unified Sunrise 1; Kaboomlandia 0. Sunrisians now rest for their last match on the round: Zackalantis. Of Quidditch fame, of course.
SPECIAL FEATURE
Tough Game (to watch): Campionat de la Colònia - Divisiò B, Maraudet 1 - 1 Real Valein
It's no mystery that football is, by far, the biggest sport around. The World Cup sees giants and minnows scrape for a sacred spot that may or may not be something to hold on high regard after heavy discussion on what type of ball to use, why that one place figured out it'd be a great idea to just shoot people at random or why that one team assumed people wanted to see them as they were birthed. That, mostly, extends to national level as well, case of point being the Unified Sunrise Islands, home of the biggest football system around. Big clearly not meaning best as for the one eventual Selyne Athenians or Son Vasco or Matthew Rangers, there are at least twenty Ballinamult Town or Matalazcayán Monteros or Towering Butternut. They might be all fine and dandy as far as sympathy goes, there is certainly a lot of charm in travelling down the subway to leave the home of a big team like Mardi Lopunnies to see how the East Mardi Town is doing but these guys ain't doing much anywhere.
So, as I write this little text, you might be imagining how much I'm displeased about how my assignment of watching games that might be very, very poor in quality are "the best way to find upcoming talent". For you that aren't from the Sunrise, tip of the century here: if it's not from USICA, Youth League, Street League or from a team that is renowned for raising players on its' own, like Kike's old team URT; it's probably not going to be worth your time. And don't pretend like this is me being mean with a bunch of toddlers just due to myself having to take a trip from Esportiva to Futurnia just so I could reach the somewhat populated town of Maraudet for this little encounter, because not only it was a nice plane ride from Mardi to Sant Jordi, this small town is actually very nice to journalists. And besides, considering there was literally only one player that I should legitimately care about as he happened to be a loaned goalkeeper from Sant Jordi CF, the rest of the teams were mostly poor, pre-reagement and post as well. At first, I thought this was the preliminary match before the encounter but this wasn't the case at all. Turns out their preliminary was a match between what would be their youth sides... which so happen to be a bunch of children against another bunch of children that wouldn't feel out of place from Class Silver of the Hatcher League (hopefully, that's not where I'll have to cover next).
Now, as I arrived at the town's inter-municipal bus station, Maraudet's president happened to be waiting for me. I got to be honest, Mr. Joan Sabreu looks like a drunkard. Either that or some people speak their English by simply sprouting words with random tone while sliding slightly to one side... and I'm pretty sure Sant Jordi doesn't work like that. From what I could understand, Maraudet was trying to be a fine example of "small town football". Saying that seems like a pretty standard thing, if Maraudet wasn't currently sitting in the middle of the Second Division of Sant Jordi's "State" Championship, known as the Campionat de la Colònia, pretty much their major point in the season as while the big (or just solid) teams play at the Sunrisian system, teams like Maraudet try their best at small, separate and somewhat respected... State Championships. Go figure.
CAMPIONAT DE LA COLÒNIA - DIVISIÒ B Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
01 Villasol 15 10 5 0 26 9 +17 35
02 Conquestra Atlético 15 10 2 3 27 15 +12 32
03 Les Saints 15 8 4 3 18 14 +4 28
(...)
08 Real Valein 15 5 4 6 17 22 −5 19
09 Balloria 15 4 6 5 10 11 −1 18
10 Jers 15 4 6 5 20 23 −3 18
11 Maraudet 15 4 6 5 15 20 −5 18
12 Jabalaera 15 3 8 4 15 16 −1 17
(...)
18 Daler 15 1 7 7 17 28 −11 10
He'd also go on to say that, while the team was on the eleventh place, it was all going to change as soon as their squad got a win over their opponents on the day, a "Real something". The opponents Maraudet were to face are popularly known as Real Valein. That team has slightly more history over their opponents, but that's just a small inch of advantage. Real Valein was one of the last teams to come under the Monarchist banner, from the days that both Sant Jordi and Son Vasco answered to the same flag. When Sant Jordi got independence as Catalaterra, Real Valein was allowed to stay put, but they ended up falling from the major league at the time, just like Maraudet did, but unlike the home team it didn't have to do with money. Real just had a very terrible squad and no interest in spending money as their previous owner didn't have much ambition. The new one doesn't have it either, but the team did get somewhat better. Hell, before match, the Royal Greens had a two-win streak and could, maybe, figure on the Divisiò A soon enough.
Game time as I finally got to seat at the white-and-black seats crowd. Not the Union Stadium, it was... there were, maybe, 4500 seats. And that's being nice with this stadium. Both teams stood on the pitch, positioned for the Northern Sunrisian anthem and the Sant Jordian anthem. It did have the nice touch of having an orchestra, but that still doesn't excuse the completely bored look of both squads. Sure, there was some respect about the anthems, but it still felt like they'd rather be sleeping by now.
MARAUDET - Basilio; Tian, Michel Luz, Partí; Luca, Gianata (C), Elena, Martí Guna, Martí Alazar; Juno, Yan
REAL VALEIN - Vespa; Juanlu, Matias, Azevedo, Caballero (c); Martína, Elís Rojas, Paredes, Cuadrado; Rivalua, Marchestre
First half was... eh, nothing to really talk about. Now while I agree that some of these players might have some potential if they actually consider moving to bigger teams. Tian wasn't a terrible player, she was simply being the ferocious half-Sunricean under a coach that doesn't know how to play one. Caballero was playing well his role as a captain, though as a right-back he left a good bunch to desire. I also enjoyed Rivalua's first half. I like a good striker that can also be somewhat of an eye candy and that's mostly what she did. Though at some points it seemed she was trying to steal my soul by staring very empty at me all of a sudden, but still, could be a good talent. Everyone else was decent or just boring, but just kicking the ball around isn't going to be entertaining at any rate.
I'd love to say the second half would be responsible for turning this match upside-down, but that's not the case. Rivalua would finally score after finally giving a hard shot for Basilio, who failed to block after clearly not jumping far enough. It wouldn't take long for Maraudet to pay back with a good strike by Juno, catching Vespa on a blind spot but that was pretty much it. The game returned to its' dull state and that was it. See, these teams have potential, but that's something nearly everyone does. But aside from being the eventual kind-hearted squadron to an eventual big side if they ever have the chance of playing Sant Jordi, that's about it.
Though for a place with so little quality on football, they do have a fantastic bar near the stadium. No wonders the president of Maraudet CE is always drunk.