Cup of Harmony 65 - Everything Thread

[San Jose Guayabal]

3PPO CUTOFF

Have fun!

[San Jose Guayabal]

3PPO SCORE

Szavoda 2-0 Acronius

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Congratulations to both nations by their effor made so far, good luck to Nova Anglicana and Ko-oren in tomorrow's final! Thanks to everybody who made this CoH possible with their rosters and RP's, it was a pleasure to read them all, see you soon! in WC 74 #SanJoseGuayabal #Valladares

[Ko-oren]

Dragonflies of the Union of Ko-oren | Lions of Nova Anglicana

Ko-oren 0–2 New Gelderland          | Nova Anglicana 2–0 Britonisea
Ko-oren 1–0 Fluvique                | Nova Anglicana 2–0 San Llera
Nassau-Hessen 0–1 Ko-oren           | Acronius 3–3 Nova Anglicana

Ko-oren 2–0 Gim                     | Nova Anglicana 2–0 Stvoto Latoli
Ko-oren 3–0 Gregoryisgodistan       | Polaaskan 1–6 Nova Anglicana
Ko-oren 1–0 Szavoda                 | Nova Anglicana 3-2 Acronius

5W 0D 1L                            | 5W 1D 0L
Streak: 5W                          | Streak: 3W
Goal difference: 8-2                | Goal difference: 18-6

Last cycle: WC Group                | Last cycle: CoH 3rd

San Llera's Excitement Rank: 10th   | San Llera's Excitement Rank: 9th

Drives on the right (mostly)        | Drives on the right

0 stray elephants                   | 0 stray elephants

The Lions and the Dragonflies are ready. Both are in their first ever Cup of Harmony final, or any WCC-sanctioned event's final. Nova Anglicana are coming off of a third place in last Cup of Harmony, and Ko-oren are coming off of a longer series of disappointing cycles, but also a series of World Cup qualifications. Nova Anglicana will be playing in the white and red home kit tonight, and Ko-oren will have the well known all green.

Nova Anglicana have an almost flawless run, and only Acronius threw up a barrier in the group stage, scoring three to balance out the Lions' three. The Quarterfinals were a blowout 6-1 victory for them, and in the semis they had a second meeting with Acronius. Again, the Lions scored three, and just as in the first match, the opponents were on the tail of Nova Anglicana the whole time. The defence was just a tad better and it ended 3-2 for a total of 18 goals in six matches in this Cup of Harmony: an awesome three per game.

Ko-oren have a great run after a terrible qualifying campaign, and continued the lackluster streak into the Cup of Harmony group stage with a 2-0 losing opener against New Gelderland. Fluvique and Nassau-Hessen were beat with the most minimal of differences (1-0 each). Gim was beaten 2-0, and the Dragonflies had a massive victory over the very strong Gregoryisgodistan, 3-0. Szavoda was the last thing standing in the way of the finals and Ko-oren reverted to their usual 1-0 victories here, for a total of eight goals scored and just two conceded, both of which were scored in the first match. Ko-oren are on a five match win streak with no goals conceded whatsoever.

Meanwhile, the World Cup was played, and we saw San José Guayabal take third place over Vilita and then Eura winning against Pasarga in the final. The question is: will the neutral fan still tune in for the Cup of Harmony after having already seen the biggest match soccer has to offer?

We will relocate to Muzira'a Ba'aydah in Stvoto Latoli in the Caisleán Luaith, an Irish stadium name in an Arab environment. It will be Lions, Dragonflies, a blue sky and 84,000 devout fans. See you there!

[Nova Anglicana]

Lion's Roar

A SportsWorld Weblog

It's That Moment We've All Been Waiting For
by Alpha Lion



Let's get ready to rumble!

Wait, really? That's the title we're going with? The CoH final? The undercard? The JV game? The game that isn't going to generate half the buzz of the Eura-Pasarga WC final? We've been waiting for this moment?

Aw, who am I kidding? I'm so f*****g pumped right now. After such a heartbreaking qualifying campaign, we need to punctuate it by winning something. Not to mention that this would be the first major championship for the Lions in any sport ever. But, as one might expect, it isn't going to be easy. The Lions are only facing the only team ranked higher then them in the whole tournament, the team that hasn't allowed a goal in over 450 minutes, the one, the only, the Dragonflies of Ko-oren. Let's take a look at our opponent.

WC Qualifying - Group 7

Record: 7-1-4, 22 pts, +6 GD
Highlight: 3-0 win over Ilasia? They beat the teams they were supposed to beat, but it wasn't especially impressive.
Lowlight: A 0-0 draw against Antoletia? They really didn't have a lowlight, they just went 0-0-4 against two good teams in Brenecia and Starblaydia

The Dragonflies kept eight clean sheets in WC qualifying and beat all the teams they were supposed to beat, but they lost twice to Starblaydia (1-0 each time) and Brenecia (1-0 and 3-1) to sink any chance they had of making the WC.

Cup of Harmony

In the CoH, the Dragonflies were shocked 2-0 by upstart New Gelderland in their first group stage match. Instead of crumbling, they beat Fluvique and Nassau-Hessen 1-0 to advance to the playoffs. They then shut out Gim 2-0, whacked Gregoryisgodistan in dominating fashion, 3-0, then took down a plucky Szavoda team 1-0 to advance to the finals. They have not allowed a goal in their last five games and represent a serious challenge for the Lions.

Manager

Furellese national Bogdan Antonescu leads the Ko-orenite side. He is a former Llamanean national team manager (29-17-11) who retired rather than continue with such an up-and-down side and then joined the Ko-orenite team for World Cup 72. He brings a very strong, if predictable, defensive strategy to the Dragonflies. You might have thought Patrick Moran was defensive, but Antonescu and the Dragonflies take it to a new level. They scored only 12 goals and allowed only six in twelve games in qualifying. Antonescu's defense will be hard to break down, but if the Lions get ahead, woe to the Dragonflies.

Key Players

GK Cláudia Macedo
DEF Katherine Davenport
DEF Katanmak Juliasterinthen
MID Timo Arevalo
FOR Audrey Leroux

Any evaluation of Ko-oren has to start with their stalwart keeper Macedo. Macedo is just 24 years old, but she has a lot of talent and wisdom beyond her years. Her tactical awareness and surehandedness have proved invaluable time and time again. Davenport and Juliasterinthen provide strong leadership at the back as well as being some of the best at their job in the multiverse. Arevalo is the premier creative player for this defensive Ko-orenite side; if they have any offense at all, it will flow through this guy. Brendan Cook will have to be on his game to stop this young player. Arevalo will be trying to link up with Audrey Leroux at the front, who will provide most of the goals. Unless she's a transcendent talent like Raphael Baptiste, she'll have a tough time breaking down the defensive duo of Casey Bowman and Aaron Bowen.

Prediction

Ko-oren will clearly be trying to park the bus, but as their 3-0 demolishing of Gregoryisgodistan shows, they can score when they need to. Jake Rhodes and Chris Parker will have to try to draw the Ko-oren fullbacks out of the center so that Jimmy Kelly and Emmanuel Moga can operate. Matt Wells will be helping Parker on the right side, and it wouldn't surprise me to see Cory Henry get the start so that the Lions can get as much offense as possible on the pitch and stretch both flanks. Look for Alec Chapin to roam forward a little bit more as well to break down the Ko-orenite defense. The Lions will have to watch out for the counterattack, though, so Chapin, Moga, Wells, and Henry will have to be box-to-box players so that they can avoid being caught off-guard by the Dragonflies. I think the Lions will have just a little too much offense for the Dragonflies. Give me the Lions 1-0 or 2-1 in AET after a thrilling final.

More from Lion's Roar
IBC 19: Ethane Preview
Emmanuel Moga's not nervous before the CoH final
It's Olympics time!

(OOC: Logo at top shamelessly cribbed from Pride of Detroit, Detroit Lions blog. The opinions expressed above are the opinions of the writer and not necessarily indicative of the opinions of Nova Anglicans or the user behind Nova Anglicana.)

[Stvoto Latoli]

FINAL CUTOFF

Are you as lucky as you think you are?

[Stvoto Latoli]

CUP OF HARMONY 65 FINAL - SCORE!

Ko-oren 1–0 Nova Anglicana