It’s been a long old hike so far but with just five games to go it’s got to the stage where a certain ‘Q’ word gets banded about. If you’re lucky to live in one of those sporting powerhouses that breezes through qualification campaigns like hot butter through a cold knife then the problem of actually qualifying for the damn thing is not really much of an issue. For the rest of us it’s a bloody, brutal, uphill battle as ten nations attempt to cram themselves into that one single World Cup place behind the group’s inevitable runaway leader.
Now we’re at that time when the contenders start to thin out as the ‘red death’, or the strangely pleasant ‘orange disappointment’, begins to sweep across the group tables. Here in Group 11 Royalsoldiers, already out of the running, were joined by three other nations. A heavy home defeat for Mantwenic saw their slim hopes exit stage left while even a rare win for San Giorgia a Cremano couldn’t prevent the group’s most exotically named side joining the also-rans and our own Corsairs did for Die Adler.
The comfortable win in Die Adler was in stark contrast to the performance before it, a crushingly awful home defeat to Glynorhan. Away from home Cassa’s side play with a freedom that has seen them rack up three solid away wins since the halfway point of the campaign, a 3 – 0 victory over The Macabees being particularly impressive. In stark contrast, the atmosphere at Soluca’s ediraf Arena is becoming increasingly poisonous. Their were rumblings during the friendly draw with Queer Poco el Mono Ara which graduated into booing, jeering and other unpleasantness in the goalless stalemate with unranked Sel Appa. Against Glynorhan the scenes got really ugly as players from both sides were pelted from the stands and scuffles broke out between home fans and Sargossan security personnel.
Which is more than a little embarrassing for the FFS who moved all qualification games to the capitol after several incidents during the last campaign. Arrests were made after matches in Cordova and Goza two years ago and a qualifier at the Estadio José Romero developed into a full-blown riot, which spilt out into the streets of Durgos, prompting the Federation to move all future games to Soluca until the provinces learnt how to behave themselves. Solutions, thus far, are not really presenting themselves. Playing the reminder of home games behind closed doors would not please the bank balance so we’re as sure as hell not doing that while switching venue to another Sargossan city, Maturín’s Ciudad Deportiva being the most likely candidate, would be seen as an embarrassing climb down. So while those in power argue about it we’ll just keep plodding along.
And that plodding alone will bring runaway group leaders, and already qualified, Dancougar to the mighty ediraf in the Sargossan capitol. And you can beat your life that a win over the, hopefully not interested as they're already qualified, Black Wings will dispel the evil atmosphere as though it were never even there. Fans will certainly be praying for something from the game as we’re getting to the stage where the margin for error is getting rather on the small side. Sargossa currently sit in fourth place in Group 11, a point behind The Macabees and two points off Cueto’s damn kids in second. With a tough trip to fifth placed Valladares in the offing following the crucial visit of Schiavonia to the Archipelago (or possibly somewhere else) it’s all starting to get a little tense.
not gonna touch that one with a 10-foot-pole)
