NationStates

---

Welcome

Welcome to the sixty-fourth edition of the Baptism of Fire, hosted by Bonesea & Mercedini. This tournament marks the beginning of the seventy-seventh cycle of the NationStates World Cup, where we will be welcoming 32 nations that are about to compete in their first WCC competition.

This prestigious competition is one of three competitions making up the World Cup cycle, along with the World Cup and the Cup of Harmony (an invitational tournament for nations that fail to qualify for the World Cup finals), and entry into it is reserved to teams that have not entered the World Cup before, and as such, do not have a KPB ranking (i.e. NS Sports equivalent of the FIFA rankings). This competition is where those teams gain their first KPB points and begin their long road to World Cup success, making the BoF an important gateway to the World Cup.

Given the unique nature of the Baptism of Fire, being the only WCC competition with all entrants lacking any rank points, all 32 teams competing will start on an equal footing and therefore will have the same odds to go on to win the competition. However, there are two determining factors that will help you fulfil that goal: the first one is called roleplay (or RP). RP well and RP often and your chances to win will certainly increase. The other one is none other than luck, because in NS Sports things won't always go your way, and Margaret, NS Sports' "official" Goddess of Randomness will be constantly visiting us looking for people to reward or punish (yes, that too) as she deems appropriate.

This thread will be the place where you should post everything in-character (IC) related to the tournament, that is, your rosters and roleplays, and also the place where the hosts will be posting their nation info, stadiums, and of course, the results. Out-of-character notes, comments, observations, etc (including tags and placeholders of any sort) should not be posted here. OOC messages should instead go to the World Cup Discussion Thread (linked above) or to the hosts via telegram.

---

Group Draw
*Cosneolta automatically placed in the Bonesea half as a puppet of Mercedini.

Mercedini

Group A
Cetheque
Willinois
Kosovakia
Mriin

Group B
Ibixa
Verceola
Socialist Northern Islands
Ndaku

Group C
Turkmenbasyn
Drawkland
Kernovi
Amnarei-asud

Group D
Averyickan City
Verukt
Coldfield
Juvencus

Bonesea

Group E
Cosneolta*
Divadland
Rebuild the Wall
Kinzenland

Group F
Abristan
The Andromeda Archipelago
Savojarna
EEC

Group G
Zambanana
Nume *replacing Raschastan
Hernton
Great Caledonia and North Hybernia

Group H
The Mercenary Islands
Nagore
Nordernious
Freyhill

---

Format & Schedule
*Delayed by two days due to Raschastan CTE

Group Matches
16 JAN1 vs 4, 2 vs 3
18 JAN4 vs 3, 1 vs 2
20 JAN2 vs 4, 3 vs 1

21 JANTie-Breaker Matches (if required)

22 JANRound of Sixteen
R1Winner A vs Runner-Up D
R2Winner B vs Runner-Up C
R3Winner C vs Runner-Up B
R4Winner D vs Runner-Up A
R5Winner E vs Runner-Up H
R6Winner F vs Runner-Up G
R7Winner G vs Runner-Up F
R8Winner H vs Runner-Up E

24 JANQuarter-finals
Q1Winners R1 vs R2
Q1Winners R3 vs R4
Q1Winners R5 vs R6
Q1Winners R7 vs R8

26 JANSemi-finals
S1Winners Q1 vs Q2
S2Winners Q3 vs Q4

28 JANFinal & Third Place Play-Off

Cut-off time is likely to be 20:00-21:00 UTC in the Mercedini half; 22:00-24:00 UTC in the Bonesea half.

The tournament will be scorinated by way of xkoranate 0.3.3 SQIS formula using XK additive style modifiers. There will be generous RP bonuses emphasising quality over quantity and beginning with the initial roster post. Extra challenges and RP fodder provided for tournament participants (see below) are not requirements of RP and participants can choose to ignore them without penalty.

Group tie-breakers will be as follows;

1. Points
2. Overall GD
3. H2H Points
4. H2H GD
5. Tie-Breaker Match

---

Quickstart RP Guide

Fair attribution: This excellent guide was produced by Eura & Valladares for the 60th edition of the Baptism of Fire, and is well worth studying if you are new to sports RP.

New to NS Sports? Here are some tips for you.

First of all, if you are new to the NS Sports forum, you really should read the Guide to Sports Roleplaying. This guide presents you a general idea on what to do and how tournaments in NS Sports work. In case you have any additional questions, feel free to ask on the Discussion Thread (again, linked above) or send one of the hosts a telegram.

Now that you have already taken that step, you should start thinking in a roster for your team. A roster is -in its simplest form- a list of the 11 players in your starting lineup, their positions, manager/head coach, and also the players in your bench or reserves. Some participants often include some other information aimed at enriching the RPing experience and opportunities, for example, additional information on their players, coaching staff, their backgrounds, clubs, style of play, strengths and weaknesses and anything else deemed to be of interest or anything you want others to know about your team. There is no limit regarding the number of players you can include in your roster, and there's no gender- or species-based restriction of any sort, either, with several past World Cup champions and other established nations currently competing or having competed with all-male, all-female, mixed-gender teams, teams comprised by monks, and also teams made up of elves, sentient bears and ponies, among several others.

Next up, you may want to include a style modifier for your team in your roster. A style modifier is a number ranging from -5 to +5 which will be inputted into the scorinator and will also serve to give others an idea of your style of play. Teams with negative style modifiers tend to be more defence-focused and will concede (on average) fewer goals at the cost of having more trouble at scoring goals. On the other hand, if your team is more offence-focused, then you should choose a positive style mod. Teams that play offensively tend to score more goals on average...but also tend to concede more goals in return. For those of you who would rather a more balanced style, a neutral style mod of 0 is also available. Teams will also be assigned a style mod of 0 if they don't state a style modifier.

Okay, so you already have a list of players and have chosen a style mod for your team. Good. Now pay attention to this part, because this is one of the most important things to include in your roster as it will have an effect on your opponents' RPs. Ladies and gentlemen, now we present to you the RP Permissions Box:

My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my goalscorers: Yes/No
Godmod scoring events: Yes/No
RP injuries to my players: Yes/No
Godmod injuries to my players: Yes/No
Hand out yellow cards to my players: Yes/No
Hand out red cards to my players: Yes/No
Godmod other events: Yes/No

The box above will be the tool enabling you to tell your opponents what you are willing to allow them to do, as well as what you are not allowing them to do. Please copy and paste it somewhere into your roster indicating your preferences as well as any restrictions for every option. Now let's review the meaning of each of these options:

Choose my goalscorers allows your opponents to choose which player(s) score your team's goal(s), should they RP the match before you do. Almost everyone allows this option since the most common form of roleplay in this forum is the traditional match summary/report, and it would be really difficult to write one of those without identifying the goalscorers. Godmod scoring events enables your opponents to RP goals that are scored in an unrealistic way or not likely to happen in reality.

The RP injuries to my players option is pretty self-explanatory: it allows your opponents to injure your players. However, most participants who allow others to injure their players will also set restrictions on the severity and causes of those injuries, thus retaining some extent of control on how badly injured their player is and future consequences and impacts of that injury on their teams. Just like "Godmod scoring events" for unlikely/unrealistic goals, Godmod injuries to my players refers to your opponents RPing injuries on your players but caused in less common and/or unrealistic ways. This option is generally used for more drastic injuries than those of the standard injury option, ranging from rendering your players unable to play the remainder of the tournament, ending their careers, or even killing them. That causes this option to be restricted by most players.

Yellow cards and red cards are an important part of the game, as yellow cards are handed out to players who aren't following the rules of the game as a warning, with red cards being handed out either after a second yellow card or as a result of a particularly severe violation of the rules or unsportsmanlike behaviour. Those players that are shown a red card are sent off the field, forcing their team to continue the remainder of the match with less players. Basically, if you choose "yes" to any or both of those options, you are allowing your opponents to enact such disciplinary actions against your players in their RPs. However, you can also set limits on the number of those cards if your players are less prone to carrying out actions that cause them to be booked and/or sent off.

Finally, Godmod other events refers to other unrealistic and/or unlikely events not related with goals or injuries. This can include from severe weather conditions, events by fans in the stands, to the opening of a portal to another dimension at the center of the pitch in the middle of the match. There are several things that can fall into this option, therefore you might deem it appropriate to set some limits for your opponents.

In order to help inspire your journey through this tournament, the hosts will provide a range of useful snippets you may be able to use in your RPs. This includes the detailed nation & stadium guides in the following two posts; links to referee profiles for match officials; and some daily updates on the goings-on in the countries that you are visiting. You do not have to use any of this material, but it might give you an idea or two to help you along.

Can't find what you need? Have we neglected to name the brewery in an isolated village up in the mountains where your legendary rogue midfielder mysteriously disappeared before a crucial match? Want to know what the nation's favourite candy bar/hot drink/takeaway dish is? Or the name of the local patrol officer who seems to appear a little too frequently at the team hotel? As hosts it is our job to make your participation a rewarding experience, and we are here to help. Always feel free to TG Mercedini or Bonesea if you need any extra in-character information on any aspect of the tournament or the countries you are visiting.

And here's a little extra incentive for keen RPers...

---

Goal of The Tournament

Your hosts will be closely following all the RP lines throughout the tournament of course, making copious notes, replaying all the highlights in detail, and swapping observations on sublime and ridiculous moments at this prestigious tournament. And we'll be shortlisting for the 'Goal of The Tournament'; which will be voted on by the community. Will your star striker win this important extra medal that could add a couple million to his international transfer value? Or will the team mascot, which may or may not be a couple of leprechauns dressed up in a sheep costume, accidentally hit a winning goal during an unlikley pitch invasion missed by the half-blind referee? In NS Sports almost anything is possible, and we will be looking for the best described goal through the competition. It may well be the best goal ever seen, but it will only get a nomination if it's well RPed. It might be the worst imaginable own-goal; if it is brilliantly described, it could still be in with a chance of winning. We appreciate all forms of RP, from dedicated serious sports journalism, to the weird, the wonderful and the hilariously wicked.

We the hosts will nominate a short-list of the best described goals at the end of the tournament, and then like any public goal of the month tv vote, we will put it to the World Cup Community to vote on the best one. The winning goalscorer will receive a fabulous in-character prize, while the user who wrote the winning entry will forever have the prestige of being Baptism of Fire 64 Goal of The Tournament Winner. And no-one else in the entire world of RL or the multiverse of NS will be able to claim that.

---

Closing Notes

Have fun... be sure to follow your opponents RP permissions, and then anything else goes. With a bit of luck and some dedicated RPing, you could be a champion by the end of the month.

.

Mercedini is a large and well-connected island nation located in the South Novapax Ocean in the region of Novapax. It's borders consist of one large landmass (Greater Mercedini) as well as a plethora of small landmasses and archipelagos located to the east, almost half hold and sustain populations (the most notable being Exton, Darlaston and the Kingfisher Islands)

Climate & Weather

Geologically, Mercedini has long existed as a single solid landmass before erosion and rising sea levels created the Sebrami peninsula, separating the aforementioned islands from the mainland. In the present day, Mercedini is geologically unextrordinary with no active volcanoes and only two mountain ranges in the nation: the Irst Highlands located in the North and the Yikulf Mountain Range in the south-west. Forests are plentiful in the nation with rural walks and hiking considered a national pastime due to the sheer number of forests and hiking paths scattered throughout the nation.

The climate of Mercedini is extremely varied and depends on where you are situated. In the south of the nation (including the major cities of Zoloroni and Langtree), the climate is warm with the average temperature reaching 20°C with warm winds originating from the Dovani peninsula (which the city looks into). Moving further inland and towards the central cities of Orga & Acoflosa, tempratures reach approximately 10°C with summers being warmer and winters barely reaching above zero. Finally, the northern cities of Hoventon & Shebchetsik are the coldest parts of the nation, with temperatures averaging around 5°C with winters rarely exceeding zero. Shebchetsik, the nation's northern most city, rarely reaches above zero on average, with summers being between 5-10°C on average.
As the Baptism of Fire takes place in the Mercedinian Winter & Spring, expect temperatures ranging from 20°C in the south and 5°C in the north!

Travel

Mercedini is a very accessible and is the main route into the region of Novapax should you want to visit or stay anywhere else, all metropolitan cities (Zoloroni, Langtree, Orga & Acoflosa) all have large scale, big capacity airports with accompanying transport hubs, which means teams and fans can get around the country with ease via Mercedini's extensive transport network.
It's likely that you will enter the country via Zoloroni or Acoflosa International Airport, then take a connecting flight to minor cities or towns. Also, Cross-Country Trains are plentiful and can get you from anywhere to anywhere in the country. The length of international flights will depend on where you're coming from but single domestic flights will not take longer than four hours (not including connections, which will obviously inflate your travel times), the longest domestic flight in Mercedini is Exton-Shebchetsik which takes approximately 3 hours and 25 minutes, domestic flights are plentiful and are operated by QuantumAir and VolareMercedini, the nation's two largest airlines. Cheaper alternatives to get around the country include the previously mentioned Mercedinian Rail Service (MRS), which takes longer to travel to destinations due to frequent station stops but will ultimately cost less and travellers experience just as much comfort and safety on a Mercedinian train as on a plane. Special offers during the Baptism of Fire mean that players and fans who possess a Baptism of Fire match ticket can get a third off their train fare!
Mercedini is welcoming it's new visitors with open arms and hopes every tourist has a great experience in our nation.

Language

Mercedini has two national languages and both are universally spoken in the nation as children are taught both at a young age. Mercedinian is the native language of all citizens and is based around the Italian language, knowing the language isn't paramount to a tourist's experience but Mercedinians always appreciate a foreigner attempting to communicate in the Mercedinian language. If learning a foreign language isn't your thing then English is also universally spoken throughout the nation (especially in cities and other metropolitan areas as it is considered the language of business and commerce). It is common for Mercedinians to speak more than one language, however Google Translate is only a couple of clicks away if you need it.

Currency

Mercedini's national currency is the Yvroni (¥) and is used universally for the nation's transactions. Currently, the Yvroni is a strong and reliable currency with 1.56 NationStates Dollars equalling 1 Yvroni (¥0.64 = 1 NS$). Goods & Services in Mercedini are comparably cheap thanks to low operating costs, free-trade deals and low import tariffs for foreign goods. Citizens of Mercedini are extremely rich with average incomes topping ¥145,000 (226,822 NS$) which means luxury goods & services are as much a part of Mercedinian shopping-culture as the bargains.

Laws

In terms of alignment, Mercedini is economically conservative while being socially and culturally liberal. Here is a brief table listing some of the laws in Mercedini:

Recreational Drugs: Legal to consume in public, however sellers require a licence if they want to sell drugs in shops and on the street. Selling drugs in public without a licence will trigger an on-the-spot fine of ¥750 & confiscation of any drug related material.
Hard Drugs: Illegal to consume and sell in public. However, if people want to run their lives in private, they can.
Prostitution: Legal during allotted times and in permitted areas.
Pornography: Legal, with the exception of child pornography (16 years or younger)
Legal Smoking Age: 18 for Cigars, Cigarettes & Hard Drugs, 16 for E-Cigs & Recreational Drugs
Legal Drinking Age: 16
Legal Age for Sex & Marriage: 16 with parental consent, 18 without parental consent
Maximum BAC to drive: 0.04
Drives on the: Left

If you have any queries about the laws listed above or any other law not listed, feel free to send a TG

Religion

When it comes to religion, Mercedini is a mixed bag with the nation considered a melting pot of all different types of cultures and religions, which has then trickled down into general day-to-day life. Although no religion has a majority, believers of the Christian faith have the plurality with just over 47% of the population following the religion, after that, agnostics or non-aligned represent 24%, Atheists 13%, Jews 7%, Muslims 4%, Sikhs 3% and other religions hold the final 2%. Despite having a very diverse population when it comes to religion, every religion has integrated into Mercedinian society meaning that tolerance of others' beliefs is at the forefront of religious teachings & Mercedinian values.

Cuisine

Food & Drink is considered a pillar of Mercedinian culture, which means visitors are literally in for a treat when they visit one of the nations many cafes, restaurants, bars or pubs. As previously mentioned, integration has played a large part in the cuisine, but ultimately Mercedinian cuisine has stayed largely close to it's roots. Mercedinian cuisine, like the language, is based on Italian cuisine, with flavourful pasta and rice dishes on offer, along with pizzas and stuffed flatbreads perfect for carnivores and vegetarians. For the tourists, dishes from their home nation will always be on offer which means that visitors can always have a taste of home while enjoying the action in Mercedini.

---

GROUP A - Zoloroni

Stadia:
Zoloroni Sports City Stadium, Zoloroni Sports City (61,000) | Inside | Outside |
Snowflake Stadium, Zoloroni (29,000) | Inside | Outside |

Being the official capital city of Mercedini as well as the commercial hub of the nation, Zoloroni is large bustling city littered with modern skyscrapers and office buildings. Zoloroni will be at the centre of the action, holding the largest stadium as well as hosting most of the pre-tournament events that will happen in Mercedini. Visitors will not be disappointed as Zoloroni has restaurants, shops and sightseeing trips in abundance, meaning that teams who play in Zoloroni have plenty of activities waiting for them on their off-days. Zoloroni's main attraction is the Sports City located just a small journey away from the city centre. In the Sports City, there are plenty of arenas and stadiums, some of which are open to the general public, which house the capital's sports teams, which means that there is plenty of action even when the matches from the Baptism of Fire have concluded.

Since Zoloroni is a two-team city, the two largest stadiums in the capital will host the matches held in Group A. The Zoloroni Sports City Stadium is the largest stadium in Mercedini and hosts both the national team and Zoloroni City FC. Located in Zoloroni Sports City, the stadium holds up to 61,000 people and has plenty of amenities around the stadium to hold that number plus many more who don't have tickets and decide to stay in the FanZone in Zoloroni Park.
Snowflake Stadium hosts the city's second largest team and will hold the rest of the matches held in Group A. It is located in the main portion of the city which means teams and fans are within walking distance from their hotel rooms and lodgings. Although the stadium has the amenities to cope with the number of people who are descending on the city, there will be a plethora of bars and pubs which will be open for fans to drown their sorrows after a loss or to party the night away after a win. Zoloroni is a city for everybody, so the teams playing in this city have a real treat when they fly to Mercedini's capital.

Cetheque
Willinois
Kosovakia
Mriin

GROUP FIXTURES

Matchday 1
Cetheque vs. Mriin @ Zoloroni Sports City Stadium
Willinois vs. Kosovakia @ Snowflake Stadium

Matchday 2
Mriin vs. Kosovakia @ Zoloroni Sports City Stadium
Cetheque vs. Willinois @ Snowflake Stadium

Matchday 3
Willinois vs. Mriin @ Snowflake Stadium
Kosovakia vs. Cetheque @ Zoloroni Sports City Stadium

GROUP B - Langtree

---

Stadia:
FLR Stadium, Langtree (27,000) | Inside | Outside |
Langtree Metropolitan Stadium, Langtree (45,000) | Inside | Outside |

Langtree is the second largest city in the nation and is widely viewed as the cultural capital of Mercedini. Throughout the city, visitors will find many old buildings that are still functioning, either as office buildings, apartments or as one of the many concert halls sprinkled throughout the city. Since being announced, Langtree has seen a large scale government renovation scheme which has meant the more dilapidated areas of Langtree have been renovated including the addition of parks, recreation centres and the improvement of the city centre, it has also been involved with the erection of a new stadium which will host some of the group matches at the tournament. There are many things to do in Langtree when not involved in BoF action, including: all types of music held on one of the city's many concert halls & auditoriums, chilling in Havini Park to watch the day go by or even travelling to the newly installed temporary sports pitch in the city centre so visitors can show off their silky skills, the city has put on a show for visitors to try and accommodate as many people as it can.

Since Langtree is another duel-team city, it has the capacity to host a group on it's own using the two largest stadiums in the city, currently housing the two MPL teams; AFC Langtree & Langtree United.
The FLR Stadium is a new stadium which was built especially for the Baptism of Fire, however it's new tenants will move in after the conclusion of the Baptism of Fire. As it is a new stadium for a large tournament, it already has the amenities around the stadium to hold a capacity crowd. The design of the stadium means that the noise generated by the crowd will reverberate around the entire arena, meaning the atmosphere will be immense even if a capacity crowd isn't achieved.
The Langtree Metropolitan Stadium is a giant behemoth of a stadium and is the second largest stadium in the Baptism of Fire after the Zoloroni Sports City Stadium. Despite having an athletics track around the outside of the pitch, the designers of the stadium have ensured that every seat feels like the best seat in the house. Visiting fans can enjoy the football while the people who we're dragged along and aren't proper football fans can enjoy free WiFi throughout the stadium and moan about how much they don't want to be there. It's a stadium for everyone!

Ibixa
Verceola
Socialist Northern Islands
Ndaku

GROUP FIXTURES

Matchday 1
Ibixa vs. Ndaku @ FLR Stadium
Verceola vs. Socialist Northern Islands @ Langtree Metropolitan Stadium

Matchday 2
Ndaku vs. Socialist Northern Islands @ Langtree Metropolitan Stadium
Ibixa vs. Verceola @ FLR Stadium

Matchday 3
Verceola vs. Ndaku @ FLR Stadium
Socialist Northern Islands vs. Ibixa @ Langtree Metropolitan Stadium

GROUP C - Orga & Zholvi

---

Stadia:
Partush Arena, Orga (32,500) | Inside | Outside |
ezMART Stadium, Zholvi (24,000) | Inside | Outside |

Orga & Zholvi take the reigns for Group C, they we're selected as the dual hosts of Group C as the two locations are only 30 miles apart, meaning a short drive or train journey should get you there in no time. Both locations are heavily influenced by the booming industrial sector in both cities.
Orga is the fourth largest city in the nation and is a mix of old and new. As the industrial sector is local to the city, plenty of projects have been started and finished in the city, so don't be surprised if you see luxurious restaurants inside what looks like a rundown factory. There are plenty of things to do in Orga, including: visiting one of the nation's iron factories to create your own replica of the Baptism of Fire trophy, the cable car where you can take in the sights while travelling from one side of the city to the other, and finally the OrGardens where you can witness nature's beauty in the centre of an industrialised city. The Partush Arena was built in part by the city's iron companies and some say it sums up the functional yet gritty nature of the city. The stadium consists of two small stands for neutral and casual fans while the other stand is huge and is built for the hard core fans of both teams to face off during the big game.
As stated before Zholvi is located a small drive or train journey away from the city of Orga and while the large town is less developed than the cities, it's main propose is to host football matches and Zholvi can do that very well. It's stadium has been vastly updated to hold more fans than ever and investment from the government has meant that the public areas of Zholvi are updated and better suited to greet international audiences. The stadium consists of two tiers and was designed so every fan can feel like they at within touching distance of their favourite players.

Turkmenbasyn
Drawkland
Kernovi
Amnarei-asud

GROUP FIXTURES

Matchday 1
Turkmenbasyn vs. Amnarei-Asud @ Partush Arena
Drawkland vs. Kernovi @ ezMART Stadium

Matchday 2
Amnarei-asud vs. Kernovi @ Partush Arena
Turkmenbasyn vs. Drawkland @ ezMART Stadium

Matchday 3
Drawkland vs. Amnarei-asud @ ezMART Stadium
Kernovi vs. Turkmenbasyn @ Partush Arena

GROUP D - Acoflosa & Carvi

---

Stadia:
Coma Tudo Stadium, Acoflosa (42,000) | Inside | Outside |
Arèna di Carvi, Carvi (14,500) | Inside | Outside |

The final group in the Mercedinian half of the Baptism of Fire will take place in the city of Acoflosa and the town of Carvi. Acoflosa is the third largest city in Mercedini and with an economy based around finance and services, meaning it's citizens are welcoming of any visitor who comes to their city. Acoflosa is home to the nation's largest airport which is connected to the Transit Hub, where you can get a bullet train to any of the metropolitan areas (Zoloroni, Langtree & Orga), making it one of the most well connected cities in the nation. Due to the city's advanced services sector there are restaurants and cafes are sprinkled throughout the city, meaning you are always accompanied by a friendly face whether you're having a meal or need directions to an important landmark.
The Coma Tudo Stadium was already a large stadium is the centre of Acoflosa, however a large roof was required to shield the fans from the elements. The stadium is surrounded by pubs and bars so there are plenty of places to head to before or after a match.
Carvi is the smallest location in Mercedini that is hosting a match in the Baptism of Fire. It's located just a 25-minute drive away from Acoflosa. The town will be able to host their matches with ease as the town is well-spread out with plenty of available space for parking. The train and bus stations have also been upgraded to allow for the larger flow of passengers on match days, which means the town is more than fit to host it's matched for the 62nd Baptism of Fire. Carvi has a booming pottery sector in the town, so why don't you pop over and get yourself a beautifully designed vase, figurine or bowl.

Averyickan City
Verukt
Coldfield
Juvencus

GROUP FIXTURES

Matchday 1
Averyickan City vs. Juvencus @ Coma Tudo Stadium
Verukt vs. Coldfield @ Arèna di Carvi

Matchday 2
Juvencus vs. Coldfield @ Coma Tudo Stadium
Averyickan City vs. Verukt @ Arèna di Carvi

Matchday 3
Verukt vs. Juvencus @ Arèna di Carvi
Coldfield vs. Averyickan City @ Coma Tudo Stadium

---

Knock-Out Stages

Round of 16
1A vs. 2D | @ FLR Stadium, Langtree
1B vs. 2C | @ Snowflake Stadium, Zoloroni
1C vs. 2B | @ ezMART Stadium, Zholvi
1D vs. 2A | @ Arèna di Carvi, Carvi

Quarter-Finals
Winner of R1 vs. Winner of R2 | @ Partush Arena, Orga
Winner of R3 vs. Winner of R4 | @ Coma Tudo Stadium, Acoflosa

Mercedinian Semi-Final
Winner of Q1 vs. Winner of Q2 | @ Langtree Metropolitan Stadium, Langtree

Baptism of Fire Final
Winner of Mercedinian Semi-Final vs. Winner of Bonesean Semi-Final | @ Zoloroni Sports City Stadium, Zoloroni

The Team:

Format: Number Name Age (Team) - Underlined players are starters|Players in italic are in the bench

Goalkeepers
#1- Brenton Pilkvist, 29 y/o, (Waterville)
#12- Lenny Lester, 34 y/o, (Crown Fighters)
#24- David Green, 20 y/o, (Greenock)

Defenders
#2-RB: Dick Lowe, 27 y/o, (Scarborough)
#5-CB: Phil Cockburn, 26 y/o, (Crown Fighters)
#4-CB: Gerhard Ewart, 29 y/o, (Ridgewell Club)
#3-LB: Carl Fisker, 23 y/o, (Davishill)
#13-RB: Douglas Derby, 25 y/o, (Franktown South)
#14-CB: Randy Bianchi, 31 y/o, (Blackrocks)
#15-LB: Marcus Strand, 30 y/o, (Crownsville Central)

Midfielders
#6-DM: Keith Rodgers, 23 y/o, (Woodnear F.A.)
#8-CM: Derrick Sydney, 24 y/o, (Orangefish)
#9-CM: Robert Simmons, 30 y/o, (Majestic)
#7-RW: Gerald Klein, 32 y/o, (Crownsville Central)
#10-LW: Steven Chamberlain, 29 y/o, (Sheepville)
#19-DM: Andrew Herceg, 27 y/o, (Woodbridge Warriors)
#16-CM: Charles Bertrand, 28 y/o, (Waterville)
#17-RW: Ross Ferguson, 26 y/o, (Oldmarket Spartans)
#20-LW: Adam Harris, 23 y/o, (Franktown South)

Attackers
#11-ST: Nathaniel Balogh, 22 y/o, (Crownsville Central)
#18-ST: Scott Lund, 26 y/o, (Scarborough)

The Staff:

Head Coach Everett Matthews, 53
Assistant Coach Aaron Lewis, 49
Goalkeeper Coach Travis Cannon, 40
Defensive Coach Trevor Riggs, 45
Attack Coach Louis Palmer, 42
Fitness Coach Henry Allen, 37
Doctor Harrison Wilkinson, 44

Additional Info:

Captain: Steven Chamberlain
Reserve Captain: Robert Simmons
Corners: Phil Cockburn
Free kicks: Steven Chamberlain
Penalties: Nathaniel Balogh

My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my goalscorers: Yes
Godmod scoring events: Yes
RP injuries to my players: Yes
Godmod injuries to my players: No
Hand out yellow cards to my players: Yes
Hand out red cards to my players: Yes
Godmod other events: Yes

RP NOTE:
The Hood is a mysterious character, who I'd rather you didn't interact with thanks. He leaves the actual running of the squad to Sato, and only chips in from the sidelines when he has a suggestion or a plot device. He won't do press conferences, appear in well-lit areas, and you will never, ever, ever, see under his hood. This is important for the long term RP aims of this squad. Thanks.

My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my goalscorers: Yes
Godmod scoring events: Yes
RP injuries to my players: Yes, but not to Saab and no deaths to anyone
Godmod injuries to my players: Yes, but not to Saab and no deaths to anyone
Hand out yellow cards to my players: Yes
Hand out red cards to my players: Yes 
Godmod other events: Yes, but not to Saab, no deaths to anyone, and consider the RP Note above RE: The Hood

The Herntonese National Team also know as "The Pack" has be reformed for the first time in thirty years after the failure of the professional league in Hernton. Currently there is no professional league in Hernton however a draft will be held by twelve teams a few months after the completion of the World Cup. The whole nation of Hernton is behind their new team and will be traveling all over the multiverse to watch The Pack succeed in BoF and WC.

---

## Name Age Position(Reserve)
00 Celyn Jenkins 35 Goalkeeper
01 Lleu Lace 18 Goalkeeper(Reserve)
02 Iau Gwen 23 Right Defender
03 Wil Pendry 45 Center Defender
04 Medwyn Tudor 20 Left Defender
05 Bevan Fithen 27 Right Midfielder
06 Cadwy Oliver 16 Central Midfielder
07 Cadfael James 29 Central Midfielder
08 Arthwr Yale 30 Central Midfielder (Captain)
09 Ninian David 26 Left Midfielder
10 Bjorn Stel 18 Striker
11 Owain Belling 25 Striker
12 Astin Stel 18 Striker
13 Tristram Dey 17 Defender (Reserve)
14 Jesstin Gower 21 Defender (Reserve)
15 Madog Pugh 19 Midfielder (Reserve)
16 Samlet Humphreys 18 Midfielder (Reserve)
17 Seith Goff 38 Midfielder (Reserve)
18 Owein Lewison 17 Striker (Reserve)

---

Manager: Aidan Brickell
Formation: 3-5-3
Style: +2

---

My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my goalscorers: Yes
Godmod scoring events: Yes
RP injuries to my players: Yes, but nothing more than rest of game unless TG'ed
Godmod injuries to my players: No
Hand out yellow cards to my players: Yes
Hand out red cards to my players: Yes
Godmod other events: Yes

This marks the former Tumbran colony's first foray into the world of international football - widely denounced as a publicity manoeuvre by President Joseph Mbukane in the midst of a failing economy and internal strife brought on by the Zambananan Freedom Army seeking to put an end to Mbukane's thirty-six year reign.

Externally, President Mbukane is planning to launch an attack on the nation of Zuidafrikaanerstaats - which he has already made offensive overtures to. Will it succeed?

Manager - John Dja Djedje
 
Formation: 4-5-1, -3
 
GK - Joseph "Jimbu" Yandobama (32 y/o) - Vice Captain
LB - Kobina Arendse (24 y/o)
CB - William Taonga (28 y/o)
CB - Kwame Olumji (31 y/o)
RB - Amy Faraji (23 y/o)
LM - Melissa Olabode (28 y/o)
DM - Gabriel Chidike (29 y/o)
CM - John Ihejirika (27 y/o) - Captain
DM - Philip Tumelo (22 y/o)
RM - Sophie Manyara (29 y/o)
ST - Morgan Afolayan (28 y/o)
 
GK - Abel Tekere (26 y/o)
GK - Matthew Zimunya (28 y/o)
LB - Sabina Mudzengi (26 y/o)
CB - Jacob Mudenda (32 y/o)
CB - Amanda Ntuli (25 y/o)
RB - Ernest Kadungure (21 y/o)
LM - Stephen Nkomo (27 y/o)
CM - Sydney Telenge (19 y/o)
AM - Edward Mazani (26 y/o)
RM - Oliver Chirume (27 y/o)
ST - Nicholas Goche (23 y/o)
ST - Bernice Kanengoni (24 y/o)

I Give My Opponent Permission To:
=================================
Choose My Goalscorers: Y
Godmod Goalscoring Events: Y
Injure Players: Y1
Godmod Injury Events: Y
Red Card Players: Y (1 red/match, any more must be matched)
Yellow Card Players: Y (3 yellow/match, any more must be matched) 
Godmod Other Events: Y
=================================
Style Modifier: -3

1: (Not for too long - maximum until end of tournament. No killings or career-ending injuries. A terrorist attack that kills supporters is fine, however - just not the President)

This is Abristans first major appearance on any international scene, let alone a sporting one. They are not trying to hide the fact their team is inexperienced, but are hoping the large football street culture will help them get some results against more experienced sides. The multicultural nature of Abristans team has caused divisions in training and they will need to work through these issues if they are to put in a coherent performance.One controversial talking point that has caused some Abristanis to boycott the tournament is that the President's son Nicholas Rijnder made the squad as a relative outsider to top-flight football. The government has spent a lot of money to get the team here and demands a result.

Teamsheet

Manager - Matthew Harris
GK - Jamal Byala-Dwyer
LB - Jackson Twente
CB - Ahmed Rustam
CB - Conor De Vries
RB - Seri Ngundo
LM - Muhamad Del
CM - Jason Welshire
CM - Jaginho
RM - Nasser Al Patrani
ST - LeMoyen Turka
ST - Saabiq El Abassi

Substitutes

GK - Isamu Dali
GK - Fernando Sorg
LB - Channing Ewart
CB - Mayamiko Tsuong
CB - Shahrukh Georgiev
LM - Muhsin Ortiz
CM - Winfrith Gagne
RM - Hagob Szweda
ST - Nicholas Rijnder
ST - Ismel Al Faucher
CM - Gorou Vancura
CB - Salomon Casca

Team Information

Formation: 4-4-2
Style Modifier: +3

My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my goalscorers: Yes
Godmod scoring events: Yes
RP injuries to my players: Yes, but not injuries that last more than the tournament
Godmod injuries to my players: No
Hand out yellow cards to my players: Yes
Hand out red cards to my players: Yes
Godmod other events: Yes

Kits

(OOC: sorry about the appearance - I am new to NationStates and am not used to BBCode)

GOALKEEPERS   Name                    	   Age	          Club	
GK            Leonas Ozolinsh               26             Plympton Town 
GK            Andris Astrauskas             31               Dynum City Wanderers
GK            Kalev Simoneit                20             East Kilbride United
DEFENDERS	
LB            Alfredas Valdis               23             Brampton United
LB            Artur Simonis                 25             Elspachia
CB            Paulius Takala                28               Dynum City Wanderers
CB            Dawid Maslanka                26             Hoventon & Corlington Town
CB            Walerian Rudaski              30               Dynum City Wanderers
RB            Juuso Jagoda                  20             Orga City
RB            Anton Dujaski                 17             Plympton Town

MIDFIELDERS 
CM            Metodi Kijek                  27             Zholvi Athletic
CM            Juri Kozlow                   24             Alice Madness
CM            Jyrki Zima                    32             TOPS HQ
CM            Saulius Laukkanen             22             Mercedini Armed Forces FC
CM            Blazej Wojewodski             29             Elspachia
CM            Erik Malinowski               19             Carvi Albion

STRIKERS 
ST            Seppo Korhonen                20             Stilwater City
ST            Nooa Simonis                  30               Dynum City Wanderers
ST            Dominik Bartosz               25             Alton Swifts
ST            Danil Kowalczyk               23             East Kilbride United
ST            Remigiusz Jokinen             22             Zholvi Athletic

My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my goalscorers: Yes
Godmod scoring events: Yes
Injuries to my players: Yes (No more than one match)
Godmod injuries to my players: No
Hand out yellow cards to my players: Yes
Hand out red cards to my players: Yes (No more than one)
Godmod other events: Yes

STYLE: +1

Mercedini

Group A			Group B				Group C					Group D
Cetheque		Ibixa				Turkmenbasyn				Averyickan City
Willinois		Verceola			Drawkland				Verukt
Kosovakia		Socialist Northern Islands	Kernovi					Coldfield
Mriin			Ndaku				Amnarei-asud				Juvencus

Bonesea

Group E			Group F				Group G					Group H
Cosneolta		Abristan			Zambanana				The Mercenary Islands
Divadland		The Andromeda Archipelago	Raschastan				Nagore				
Rebuild the Wall	Savojarna			Hernton					Nordernious
Kinzenland		EEC				Great Caledonia and North Hybernia	Freyhill

Full fixture list is provided in the opening posts.

Nation: Great Caledonia and North Hybernia
Demonym: Caledonian
Nickname: Caledonians, Celts
Team colors: blue and white shirt with white shorts (home) and orange and black shirt with black shorts (away). The GK has a green shirt with black shorts.
Formation: 4-5-1
Style modifier: -1

About Great Caledonia and North Hybernia

Great Caledonia and North Hybernia is located in North Eurasia north west of Prusy Krolewskie and west of Pays d'en Haut. It consists of 5 countries: Britannia, Caledonia, Cambria, Hollandia, and Hybernia. The capital city is Roxburgh (Rosbrog) but the most populous city is Linlithgow (Gleann lucha). Football has been played for over a century in Great Caledonia and North Hybernia but we haven't played internationally until recently. We made our debut in the Global Cup of Soccer I, a non-WCC sanctionned event.

Football History

Global Cup of Soccer I: We finished first in our group with 3 wins in 3 games and won in the round of 16 and quarter finals. The semi final was played against Drawkland and it was our greatest game ever. It was a 2-2 tie after the regular time and we went in extra time and no one scored. Penalty kicks were required and we won! We won 2-2 (2-2 AET) [3-1 PKs] then we played the final against Kitsunia-Deesse but we lost 2-1. So our 2nd place in the Global Cup of Soccer I was our biggest (and only) achievement so far.

Stadiums

Stadium information will be available before the World Cup qualifications but what about games in Inbox Stadium in Linlithgow or Christmas Road in the capital city or Beverage Road, home of Twyford F.C.? The national team is still in talks with the clubs owning these stadiums.

Staff

Head Coach: Walter Madden
Assistant Coach: Raghnaid McCulloch (f)
Assistant Coach: Fred Groenendijk

Roles:

Captain: Anton
Penalty Taker: Cristiano Fernando
Corners (left): Doireann O'Donnghaile
Corner (right): Saundra Dunlop
Free Kicks: Anton
Direct free kicks: Cristiano Fernando

Penalty Kicks when the game is still tied after the extra time:

1. Cristiano Fernando
2. Anton
3. Kevin O'Maoilsheachlainn
4. Doireann O'Donnghaile
5. Saundra Dunlop

Formation:

S----------------------O'MAOILSHEACHLAINN----------------------
ACM-------------ANTON-------------------FERNANDO-------------
SM-----McGIVERN------------------------------------DUNLOP-----
DCM------------------------O'DONNGHAILE------------------------
SD-----JONHSTONE---------------------------------McQUEEN-----
CD---------MacEACHTHIGHEARNA--WINCHESTER---------------
GK-----------------------------O'BYRNE-----------------------------


Team Roster (starters in bold):

#       Pos     Name                    Age     Birthplace                      Team
1	GK	Jennifer O'Byrne	24	Castletown-Bearhaven, HY	VfL Schloßböckelheim (PKR)
12	GK	Josh Griffiths	        29	Cwmrhydyceirw, CA	        Twyford F.C.
22	GK	Maud De Wilde	        26	Steendam, HO	                SFC Ajax
 
3	SD	Elizabeth McQueen	25	Roxburgh, GC	                Celtic F.C. 
5	SD	Maggie Johnstone	28	Kinlocharkaig, GC	        Pogon Miedzyzdroje (PKR)
13	SD	Ashley Holloway (m)	28	Okehampton, BR	                Okehampton F.C. 
16	SD	Donnchadh Reilly (m)	27	Aughernagalliagh, HY	        VfL Schloßböckelheim (PKR)

2	CD	Tearlach MacEachthighearna (m)	25	Achnacloich, GC	        Glengarnock Morton F.C. 
4	CD	Gareth Davies	        32	Cwmffrwd, CA	                Free Agent 
6	CD	Kees ten Voorde (m)	27	Doornspijk, HO	                Ice Palace F.C. 
26	CD	Connor O'Shea	        25	Ballingarry, HY	                Rangers F.C. 
33	CD	Nicky van Beers	        30	Noorddijk, HO	                Widzew Pruszcz Ozorkowski (PKR)
55	CD	Brittany Winchester	26	Crackington Haven, BR	        Winchelsea F.C.

8	SM	Saundra Dunlop	        25	Gargunnock, GC	                Caledonian F.C.
18	SM	Callum McGivern	        31	Wildboarclough, BR	        Wroxham United F.C. 
20	SM	Lotte Heemskerk (f)	28	Kooiwijk, HO	                F.C. Den Hoek
21	SM	Winnifred Owens (f)	23	Abergwyngregyn, CA	        Cwmffrwd City A.F.C.  

7	CM	Cristiano Fernando	25	Foz do Arelho, POR	        Twyford F.C.
11	CM	Doireann O'Donnghaile (f) 26	Claddaghduff, HY	        Shamrock Rovers F.C. 
15	CM	Melanie Kirk	        32	Hollywood, BR	                Free Agent 
28	CM	Shaun Donaldson	        30	Kilmarie, GC	                Gornik Ozorkow (PKR)
66	CM	Virgil van Weerdenburg	23	Oosterwijtwerd, HO	        SFC Ajax 
88	CM	Przemyslaw McKenna	29	Szczebrzeszyn, PKR	        Kilbride F.C. 
99	CM	Anton 	                29	Llanfair, CA	                Puszcza Puszczykowo (PKR)

9	S	Kieran Ferguson	        29	Inverkirkaig, GC	        Celtic F.C. 
10	S	Kevin O'Maoilsheachlainn 24	Knockskeagh, HY	                Rangers F.C. 
14	S	Dwynwen Sherwood(f)	27	Swffryd, CA	                Shoreham Hotspur F.C.

BR = Britannia                HY = Hybernia
CA = Cambria                  PKR = Prusy Krolewskie
GC = Great Caledonia          POR = Portugal
HO = Hollandia

Cristiano Fernando was born in Castilla y Catalunya (Portugal province) and recently has acquired the Caledonian citizenship.
Przemyslaw McKenna was born in Prusy Krolewskie from a prussian mother and a caledonian father.
Anton's full name is Anton Lloyd Chatham and he was born in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Cambria.

I Give My Opponent Permission To:
=================================
Choose My Goalscorers: Yes
Godmod Goalscoring Events: Yes
Injure Players: Yes
Godmod Injury Events: No
Red Card Players: Yes
Yellow Card Players: Yes
Godmod Other Events: Yes
=================================

One month before the Baptism of Fire...

***

With a start, he woke up. He rolled over to protect his face from the mist and sand that was being blown into his face by the relentless wind. Salt tanged the air and crusted his hair. He felt simultaneously damp and desperately thirsty. Where was he?

He looked around and hauled himself up off the sand. A beach lay either side of him as far as he could see in the limited visibility provided by the brisk hot wind. Mist rolled off the sea, spray and foam being blown off the choppy waves by the swirling air, billowing over the sands in visible clouds and picking up dust and particles as it went. Abruptly, the air was pushed up into the air by the line of steep dunes that rose out in front of him. He dusted himself down and gazed up the dunes. Up. He didn't know where he was, or how he got there, though the salt water dripping from his dark cloak provided a clue. But he did know one thing. With the assured air of a baby bird flapping it's wings and looking instinctively into the air, he climbed the dunes, driven by some deep primal memory.

***

The lights shone down from three sides of the stadium at the top of the stands. From the fourth, a sheer wall of terraces rose straight up out of the rock. A steady flow of locals dressed head to toe in red and white was starting to turn into a flood, and the noise was increasing quickly. The first match at The Rock was fast approaching.

Aslan Sato, the newly appointed manager of the Amnarei-asud national team looked around at his team warming up on the pitch, fully aware of the menacing presence of President Sheikh Suleyman Honda in the stand above him. Grimacing slightly, the leader of the nation sneered as he surveyed the Bonesea players doing their own warm-ups below, a small pocket of foreign supporters were situated high up in the very top corner of the sheer rock terraces, closely watched and segregated by a double layer of stewards and armed paramilitary police. He'd been persuaded by his advisers to open the borders in the name of the new football team having something to do. He didn't like the idea of foreigners being inside the Glorious Emirate for something other than closely monitored trade anymore than he trusted the idea of Asud going abroad, but unfortunately this was one of the necessary requirements for having a national football team. He didn't like it, but as a means for getting the name of the Glorious Emirate out there in the international community, he was going along with it. So long as the team did well.

As Sato called the players in for their final preparations before kick-off, the chairman of the FAAa squirmed a little in his seat. Instrumental in the drive to start the national team up, Kerim Al-Tanaka had used his position of relative power to successfully lobby the Sheikh and his advisers over the past couple of years. Not because he seriously wanted a team, but because he knew it would act as a beacon. Because he knew, below the surface, something wasn't right. Because he knew there was something else out there, someone else out there. Someone important. Someone who could change the future, alter the past, and affect the fabric of the world. He just didn't know where from, who, or how. It was like the distant longing for a place he'd never been to, or a song he'd never heard before. He was hoping for something intangible.

Guiltily, he looked at Sato walking back into the tunnel, aware that in his position at the FAAa he'd chosen Sato just to fill the gap. Hoping beyond reasonable hope that this would spring the missing piece into action. An entire national security issue had been adapted just to create this catalyst, and if Honda or his team ever found out, Al-Tanaka was a dead man walking. He'd spent years trying to uncover stones, unaware of what he was really hoping to find, but simply aware that there was something out there. There had to be.

For a while he'd thought there was something special about one of the players in the league - Abdul-Rahman Saab, an attacking midfielder for ASEC Carthage. So, using his position, Al-Tanaka had 'interfered'. He'd used his influence to lean on his continued selection for Carthage, despite the midfielder reaching the age of thirty-eight just this last month. For years he'd watched him closely, not quite knowing what he was expecting to happen, but aware that there was something about the midfielder that he couldn't quite put his finger on. He'd even put pressure on Sato to make him a shock selection for the national team. There was no question over his ability, he was just old, and therefore represented something of an unpredicted choice for back-up attacking midfielder. This was Al-Tanaka's last roll of the dice, in a way. If this didn't work, he didn't know what he'd do.

Even if he didn't know what he was even hoping to happen.

"This had better work out well, Kerim," said Honda testily, turning impatiently in his seat as he waited for the game to start.

"It will, Your Excellence, it will," replied Al-Tanaka, hoping his face didn't betray the fact that he was thinking the exact same thing.

***

Reaching the top of the sand dune, he looked around. Where was he? He surveyed the scene. On two sides, dunes stretched out before him until they became the foothills of a dusty mountain range in the distance. One one side behind him, the angry ocean swept away to the horizon. On the right, however, the spray and mist whipping up the dunes off the sea caught the distant lights of a big city, just starting to illuminate itself in the growing dusk. The final waves of heat rising from the sand distorted the image with their waves, but not enough to disguise the deep trail of darkness left in the landscape by what must have been a river. With a fuzz of dark vegetation obscuring its edges slightly, the line snaked its way out of the city and into the landscape, where before it disappeared into a canyon it ran past an angular point of light. Three beams of light seemed to pulse their way out of the very rock itself, and he could feel his heartbeat pumping loudly in his ears.

Leaving the lights of the big city on his right hand side, he struck out down the next dune in search of the riverbank that would lead him towards the light in the desert.

***

It wasn't going well in the stadium. Goals from Jones and Grayse-Lennox had put Bonesea into a commanding two-nil lead after only thirteen minutes, and the beads of sweat were beginning to jewel and run down Sato's face despite the advancing chill of the evening air. He swore as Takahashi miscontrolled another pass and allowed the ball to bounce out for a Bonesea corner. Allowing himself a quick glance up at the President's box, he saw a conspicuously empty seat where Honda should have been sitting. He can't have given up on the idea already, could he?

Up in the stands, Al-Tanaka winced as Bonesea's Cottle almost scored from the corner, heading just over. This certainly wasn't going to plan so far. The stadium had sounded incredible before the kick-off, with the supporters singing the national anthem with a patriotic zeal that any dictatorship would be happy with, but they'd been silenced after just three minutes, leaving only the few Bonesea supporters that had braved the trip to make any noise. Even that didn't last though, and when the second goal went in they'd been intimidated into near silence, leaving the game to be played in an eerie atmosphere of near silence that had lasted from the thirteenth minute to now - just before half time.

Waving his players up the pitch, Sato instructed Petrosyan to go route one, and the goalkeeper launched the ball through the air into the path of striker Ghufran El-Amin. Almost without looking, the strong forward chested the ball down and laid it back into the rapidly advancing figure of Usama Boulos, the youthful and athletic playmaker taking the ball in his stride and forcing a good save from Bonesea keeper Dunbar as he volleyed the ball from the edge of the area.

Finally! Some noise! And Honda had even returned to his seat to watch the corner.

Sato waved his arms enthusiastically at the crowd in an effort to get them singing, and mentally made a note that that combination of players had worked well. It was no surprise to him therefore that they all played for Atlas, the seven-time and only winners of the national league. Boulos in particular was a crowd favourite. Youthful, exuberant, and one for the future, his touch had the ability to light up any football match, and his latest season for Atlas had made him almost the first name on the team sheet after El-Amin and Abdulrashid - the Atlas spine on the national side would serve him well, he hoped. Even if a defeat here against a much more experienced side may not be the best way to launch the side under the watchful eyes of the President Sheikh, it was good practice for the coming Baptism of Fire. And for Boulos, for whom the crowd went silent with pregnant anticipation every time he touched the ball, it could be the making of the young man.

Or at least, that was the plan. The corner came to nothing, and Bonesea had a break on. With two, three, four devastating passes, they put Napoleon through on goal.

Three-nil, and the half-time whistle. Boulos hit the ground with both hands in frustration.

Sato went straight down the tunnel. Honda left the stadium. Al-Tanaka scratched his chin thoughtfully.

***

As he approached the break in the cliff, he realised it was a football stadium. Fighting gently through the undergrowth, he decided that he'd known this all along, and that this visual confirmation was just that. Groans of displeasure poured from the gaps between the stands. Whoever the home side were, they weren't doing well. A shrill whistle carried on the wind towards him, and his heartbeat intensified in his ears. The discs of light illuminating the pitch squeezed their lights out into the night, burning images into his retinas that led him like a moth towards their flame.

There was a rustle in the vegetation before him, and a great crocodile reared its head, angry at being disturbed by the man's nocturnal expedition. Opening its mouth threateningly, both sets of beady eyes watched each other for a second, before the crocodile waddled off, snaking its way through the reeds and scrub towards the water's edge below. The land was slightly swampier here, before rising into the rockier cliffs that formed the bulk of the stadium's structure, and the crocodile moved slowly, paddling its ancient body stoically through the bush, as if its prehistoric form had been dragged reluctantly from the distant primal past into the present day, leaving it now with no choice but to try and make a success of life in an epoch that wasn't designed for him.

Blinking thoughtfully, the man empathised with the crocodile's plight, and then pushed on towards the break between two stands he could see in front of him.

***

'Give everything to Boulos.' It was a simple tactic, but one that Sato had faith in. The young lad was the only person playing with any sort of spark out there for the Fennecs, and he visibly lifted his teammates when he had the ball. He was a one-man catalyst, and he was their only hope of getting something, anything, from this game.

Bonesea were a canny opponent however, and attack after attack broke on their experienced defence. It was, in truth, far too easy for them. Sure, Boulos was running around and making a nuisance of himself, but he was always attempting one stepover too many, or attempting a one-two with players who weren't quite on the same wavelength as he was. Even on the few occasions he and El-Amin managed to conjure up an understanding and find some space, his shooting wasn't accurate or powerful enough to properly test Dunbar.

Finally, on the turn of the hour mark, there was an opportunity. A real opportunity. Al-Tanaka watched from the stands above as Sato got more and more excited, encroaching further and further onto the pitch. A one-two between Boulos and Abdulrashid provided space for the overlap from Karim on the right hand side. Reaching the bye-line, he pulled it back for Khoroushi, who chipped a delightful ball into El-Amin, who in turn headed it first time into space on the edge of the area for Boulos.

He had yards of space. Acres of space. Surely, now, we'd see Boulos' right foot pull back and hammer home a goal for the home side?

No.

His first touch was heavy and bouncing, and he rushed the half-volley with defenders scrambling back from all sides. Harmlessly, the ball bounced into the grateful arms of Dunbar.

The crowd may have been entertained, and getting louder, but the scoreline was stubbornly unrelenting. It remained three-nil to Bonesea. But maybe, just maybe, there were signs of something beginning to happen for the Asud.

***

Far too easily, he approached the stands through the gap where security should have been standing. Instead, spotting that they were enjoying the game, he snuck past and into the stadium, keen to see what it was that had been pulling on his subconscious. A football game. Yeah? But so what? He'd seen those before, he knew what they were. Where, he couldn't remember, but he could. It was a statement as undeniable as the fact he had two legs. Nobody had ever explicitly told him so, but when he woke up on that beach it was simply a fact of the universe not worth disputing. He had two legs, and he understood football.

Leaning against the supporting wall of the stand, he surveyed the scene. The team in red were at home, and they were three-nil down. He looked at the benches to see if he recognised either team, hoping for a name, badge, flag, or colour-scheme that would give him some answers. He didn't know where he was, or why he was there. Perhaps there would be something that triggered him. In vain, he looked around. Nothing. No answers at all. 'Amnarei-asud'. Nothing.

And yet, there it was. Something that made him look twice.

One of the players on the bench.

He squinted, looking closer. He definitely didn't know the man, but there was... something about him. Something that caught the eye. Something that made you look twice and think 'hey, don't I know you from somewhere?' With no memory, he couldn't be sure he didn't. But he resolved to get closer and find out.

And then he spotted himself. He'd barely walked three paces around the outside of the pitch when, reflected in a pool of water that lay there from the pitch irrigation system, he caught sight of his own face. He paused for breath. Suddenly, in that brief second, it came flying back. Like a thunderbolt. Like a great stream of information passed down from above. The shock of it dragged him to his knees and sent his hands flying up to his temples and he tried to fight off the headache that had suddenly engulfed him. He looked at the sky and was unable to discern anything beyond the great sheet of illumination thrown out by the floodlights, but he understood. He realised what he was doing there, he realised why he was there, he guessed at what he had to do, he figured out who that was on the bench, he knew instantly that he had to figure out how to do it, and he realised that he had to stay hidden in plain sight.

He understood.

As fans in the stand began to notice his presence and point at him, stricken and kneeling desperately on the ground, he quickly pulled up the hood on his robes.

"Okay, sunshine," said the first steward, grabbing him roughly by the shoulder, "had a bit too much have we? Let's get you to the medical centre."

"Up you get, let's go," said the second, rather more briskly.

Allowing himself to be led by the pair, he followed them round one and half sides of the pitch towards the benches, and he waited for an opportunity.

***

Another Boulos through-ball, another shot saved by Dunbar from El-Amin. The game had fallen into a repetitive pattern of Bonesea soaking up the Asud pressure and then having a half chance of their own, and Sato was all out of ideas. There were twelve minutes left, and he'd used two of his three substitutions to no effect. Still nothing was coming off for any of his players, and the fans were losing patience. None of them had seriously expected to win, none but the most zealous blinkered patriots, anyway, but they'd hoped at least for a goal. Particularly with the strong attacking formation they'd seen the manager put out.

Nonetheless, when another chance for Yamaguchi broke down and Bonesea went on the break, Sato sat down in frustration, all too aware of the predictability of the next few moments.

Sure enough, Napoleon executed a delicate chip over Petrosyan, and the humiliation was confirmed with ten minutes left for it to still get worse.

In the stands above, Al-Tanaka winced, and slumped back in his own seat, uncomfortable in the knowledge that whatever it was that he'd been hoping to happen, didn't look like it was going to.

***

With the discontented hubbub that erupted in the moments after the fourth goal, and much of the attention of the stewards focused on observing the pocket of Bonesea supporters in the top corner of the stadium lest any of them dare celebrating too wildly, he saw his chance. As three paramilitaries brushed past them with some FAAa officials in quick pursuit, he ducked under the grip of the stewards accompanying him and quickly lost them in the crowd.

Taking three quick strides with his long legs, he made sure his hood was firmly up and leaned against the side of the home dugout.

"Put number fourteen on," he whispered hoarsely.

"What? Who said that?" said Sato, standing up and looking around for the source of the voice. "Who's there?"

"Nevermind that," he said, "just do it. Put number fourteen on in place of number nineteen."

"Number ninete- Boulos? Are you quite mad?" said Sato, spotting the figure leaning on his dugout and walking towards him, forcing the mystery figure to retreat slightly into the shadow. "He's the only one doing anything out there! He's the shining light!"

"Even so, just trust me," said the figure calmly, "I know football. Trust me."

"Trust you?! Who the hell are you?"

"Nevermind who I am, just do what I suggest. Put number fourteen on."

"Fourteen? Saab? Take off Boulos for Saab?" said Sato incredulously, completely ignoring the fact that the game had kicked off again behind him. "You're insane. Go away. In fact, I'll get the police to do that for me. How did you even get down here?"

But then, something made him stop. Al-Tanaka. He'd heard about the quite ridiculous pressure Al-Tanaka put on the coaching staff at ASEC Carthage to keep Saab in the starting line-up, and he'd experienced it first hand when he'd heavily leaned on Sato to include the ageing midfielder in the Fennecs. It's not that he was a bad player, Carthage had had a good season and he'd been at the heart of it. But he was thirty-eight! Nonetheless, Al-Tanaka had given Sato the job, and he'd eventually caved into the pressure, but had seen nothing in training to suggest the wily old character had anything on the youthful talent of Boulos.

He even thought back to the angry look Al-Tanaka had shot him when he'd informed him that Saab wouldn't be starting today. Despite persuasion, he'd stuck to his guns then, and had in fact been quite angry about the whole thing during the warm-up. The head of the FAAa influencing the tactical decisions of the manager? It couldn't be allowed to happen. The man was practically a politician!

And now, this man in the shadows, all dressed in black. This was part of it. Part of whatever Al-Tanaka's deal with Saab was. Well, not today. This was it. A defiant look transformed Sato's face into one of triumph, and he smugly turned back to the figure.

"Actually, you know what? I will. Just to shut you and Al-Tanaka up," he said.

"Al-Tanaka?" questioned the figure.

"He sent you, did he? To intimidate me into putting him on the pitch? Well, have it your way. Here he comes," and with a hand signal to one of his coaching staff, Sato arranged the substitution at the next stoppage in play, "Boulos for Saab. Al-Tanaka's precious Saab. Maybe when nothing happens for us at all in the final few minutes, Mr Al-Tanaka up there might finally see that he's backing the wrong horse and I can drop him at last!"

With a wild clearance booted up into the stands, the play stopped, and the fourth official held up the sign. Fourteen in green. Nineteen in red. Boulos saw his number come up, and with a stunned look of disbelief, trudged towards the sidelines. The crowd booed. Boulos shot a look of innocence at his manager, which Sato recognised. Walking towards the edge of the pitch, he looked all four sides of the stadium up and down, milking their disapproval, and then shrugged. Gesturing, he pointed at the man in the shadows, and then up to the stands were Al-Tanaka was sitting. He crossed his wrists in the air above him, and then sat back down in the dugout, folding his arms aggressively. Boulos reached the edge of the pitch and refused the handshake of Saab, angrily shooting him a look of rebellious incredulity instead.

'Now we'll see,' thought Sato, 'we'll expose Al-Tanaka and all his meddling. I only wish the Sheikh was here to see it.'

Leaning forwards in his seat with a quizzical frown on his face, Al-Tanaka watched as Saab ran sheepishly onto the pitch, replacing his more energetic team-mate. Two rows down, he could see the chairman of Atlas, Simeone Al-Owairan, gesturing angrily at Sato, demanding to know why his club's star player had been taken off. And, despite his absolute confidence in there being 'something' about Saab, he found himself agreeing. Just what was Sato doing? It was clear to anyone that Boulos had been running the show. The last goal for Bonesea could even have been described as being fully against the run of play. And just who was that other person Sato had been gesturing at? He craned his neck to see, but was interrupted by a sudden rush of whispers around the crowd.

Saab had turned a Bonesea player magnificently, and, making up for his relative lack of pace, had taken two touches into space before laying a perfect through-ball into space for El-Amin to run onto. His shot crashed against the bar, but the power of it brought the ball back to Saab once again. With the ball seemingly stuck to his feet with the confidence only a lifetime in the game can bring, Saab chipped the ball gingerly over one tackle, and placed his shot calmly into the top corner of the goal with virtually no drag-back in his legs whatsoever.

After eighty-eight minutes of gung-ho running around from Boulos, two minutes of calm ball control from Saab had scored a delightful consolation goal for the Fennecs.

Sato's jaw hung open as his players and the fans around him celebrated Amnarei-asud's first ever goal in international football. He looked around for the figure who'd told him to make the substitution and saw nothing but empty space. From further back in the shadows, the figure smiled.

***

The game had finished four-one to Bonesea, and an exhaustive series of interviews and debriefs with the state press and officials had occupied much of the players. With the last fans and stewards trickling out of the stadium into the deepening indigo of the Asud night, and only the Bonesea supporters awaiting their escorts back to the airport, Sato grabbed Al-Tanaka and pulled him to one side.

"Who was that?" he hissed angrily.

"Who was who?" asked Al-Tanaka, bewildered.

"That man, the one in the robes you sent to intimidate me into playing Saab."

"I can assure you I sent nobody of the sort," stated Al-Tanaka bluntly, "I assume that that was who you were pointing at during your little performance down there?"

"Of course it was," snapped Sato, hurt, "you and he made me look like a goddamned fool out there. I never wanted to play him, and then you forced me to, and now I can't even take credit for the goal because I very publicly made it be known that it wasn't my decision!"

"Well, you have my limited sympathies there, Aslan," replied Al-Tanaka, "but I promise you, I sent nobody."

"Oh come off it, Kerim," said Sato acidically, as he pulled them both out of earshot of a reporter and round a corner into a dead-end corridor, "we both know you've been pressuring Carthage to inclu..."

There was a cough from further down the corridor.

"Excuse me," said the figure, stepping out of the shadows, "but I believe you may be talking about me."

Speechless, both men stared at him. Sensing the need for an explanation, and realising he had none to offer, the figure simply raised his arms out to the side in a gesture of harmlessness.

Peering under the hood of the man as best he could, Sato blinked, "so, who are you?"

"I don't know. Not for certain," replied the figure, with something approaching honesty, "or rather, you can't know even if I could explain it."

"So, where did you come from?" asked Al-Tanaka.

"I woke up on the beach a couple of hours ago," continued the figure, "I can't explain it. I just knew I had to come here."

"To offer me tactical advice?!" said Sato incredulously, "You wake up on a beach with no memory and your first decision is to come and interfere with the Fennecs' first ever football match?!"

"What can I say?" shrugged the figure, "It was like the call that pulls a baby animal to the same watering holes its long-dead ancestors used. A cultural memory. A primal drive for migration that pulled me towards the football stadium."

Sato and Al-Tanaka exchanged a glance. Every logical fibre in their bodies was screaming at them to retreat and call over some paramilitaries, get this stranger interrogated properly by the Palace's finest and find out what was really going on. Despite this, they remained rooted to the spot. They couldn't bring themselves to tear their eyes of this enigmatic robe stood before them. Like an all-pervading charismatic entity that occupied their muscles, he kept them stood right where they were, eyeing him nervously. A stray thought crossed Al-Tanaka's mind, but was gone before he could offer it any time.

"So, Saab?" said Sato, testing the man in front of him for more answers.

"Instinct," replied the figure with a matter-of-fact tone that implied pity on the part of any who didn't share this instinct, "I could just see that he could do something about what was happening on the pitch. His style was better suited to pierce the opposition."

"You have no memory! You didn't even know his name!" yelled Sato, "How could you possibly know what his style would do to Bonesea?!"

"I guess," continued the figure, "there was just something about him."

"Well," Sato scoffed, "now you're just sounding like Kerim here."

Al-Tanaka looked harder at the figure, the similarity in the way he spoke about Saab could just have been a coincidence, but maybe it wasn't. He studied the shadow under the hood, searching for any facial feature he could recognise, but in the dim light of the corridor, he saw nothing. Nevertheless, he could tell when the figure was looking at him, and then, just for a brief split second, the whites of the figure's eyes were visible. Quicker than the blink of an eye they'd disappeared back into the gloom, but it had been enough.

A flicker of recognition passed over Al-Tanaka's face, and then was gone again. He glanced down at his own hands, and took two steps back in shock. The figure smiled beneath his hood, recognising the same revelation he'd had mere minutes earlier.

"Kerim?" said Sato, concerned and holding out an arm to steady the chairman.

"I'm fine," stammered Al-Tanaka, though an idea was forming quickly in his head. Faster than he could control it, it ranaway from him and circled his brain playfully. With his mind otherwise occupied with the sudden realisation he now shared with the figure, he lacked the processing power of clarity of thought to give it enough time to develop fully, and before he even knew himself what he was doing, he opened his mouth again, "but, Aslan, how would you feel about being this man's backup?"

"WHAT?!" shouted Sato, shocked at the very thought of it.

"He clearly knows what he's doing, just let him head up th..."

"Absolutely not," said Sato firmly, "you appointed me with the full backing of the FAAa, you can't just waltz in now and given some stranger with no face the job over me! This is absurd! And why?! We know nothing about him!"

"We know there's something about him," Al-Tanaka started, and then paused and looked at the figure again. Perhaps this was true. Nobody would even go along with it. "Okay then," he offered, "how about he joins the team. Parallel to you. You're still the head coach, you know, but you just... listen. When he has an idea. He did just mastermind the first ever goal for the Fennecs, after all, something you couldn't do despite months of training and interaction with the players."

Sato opened his mouth to protest again, and then thought back to his little show of petulance on the sideline earlier. He'd made a point of attributing the tactical decision to the figure, and to Al-Tanaka. In a way, he'd undermined his own position. To refuse to accept their further help now would just make him look all the more foolish. Clearly, these two seemed to understand something he didn't, and the last thing he wanted to do was appear stupid.

"...okay," said Sato, finally, "we'll take him on for the time between now and the Baptism of Fire starting. He can join the coaching team. If it goes well, he can be 'manager', or whatever position you call it. So long as I retain the head coach powers and day-to-day running of the team. This is still my show to run." He finished, jabbing his stubby finger at his chest.

"Fine," said Al-Tanaka graciously, "you can be as officious as you want."

"And anyway, oh gracious and mysterious saviour," said Sato with disguised venom, "just what are we supposed to call you?"

"Call me," the figure said slowly, considering his response, "The Hood..."

Al-Tanaka smiled nervously; something had happened after all...

Willinois National Football Association Announces Roster for Baptism of Fire Tournament

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CHICAGO - The Willinois National FA has announced the roster that will be competing in the 64th Baptism of Fire tournament. The national team, known locally as the Bucks, will begin play in group A of the tournament.

The Bucks will play in a conventional 4-4-2 formation, with an emphasis on a balanced attack and team speed. "We feel that if we can wear down our competition, with our superior conditioning we will be successful and bring home some hardware," said team manager Brian Davis. "We have selected the cream of the crop and are looking forward to demonstrating a superior brand of football to the world."

The team roster has athletes from all corners of the nation and hopes to be a source of pride that can rally all Willinoisans behind a common product. Although the team comes in as underdogs, they are hoping to shock the world en route to becoming the next football powerhouse in the world.

Roster:

Number Name Position Hometown
1 Franklin, Robert G LaCrosse
2 Jefferies, Brad G Chicago
4 Valicari, Pete S Green Bay
5 Guerrero, Jorge D Chicago
6 Jackson, DeMarcus D Milwaukee
7 Smith, Chris M Madison
8 Johnson, Greg D Peoria
12 Lundegaard, Tim S Milwaukee
13 Paulsen, Fred D Springfield
14 Jones, Carl M Rockford
15 Gregory, Richard D Fond du Lac
17 Addison, Clark D Paletine
20 King, Jackson M Champaign
23 Monroe, Mike M Chicago
25 Washington, Lemont M Racine
27 Jefferson, William S Milwaukee
30 Scalabrini, Frank M Chicago
32 Gomez, Rodrigo S Kenosha

Team Colors: Royal Blue, Gold

My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my goalscorers: Yes
Godmod scoring events: Yes
RP injuries to my players: Yes
Godmod injuries to my players: Yes
Hand out yellow cards to my players: Yes
Hand out red cards to my players: Yes
Godmod other events: Yes

TEAM

STAFF
Coach: Mikkel Pedersen (47)
Assistant Coach: Hans Lindberg (40), Dmitri Simunov (28)
Goalkeeper Coach: Valtteri Andersson (38)
Doctor: Dr. Christer Ljungberg (44)

STYLE: -2.5

LINEUP
http://lineupbuilder.com/?sk=d7wy5

STARTING XI:
GK #1 Anders Jarnström (27, 192 cm) - Dynamo Sjoedrhavn
CB #2 Petter Samuelsson (31, 186 cm) - Transport Hovikkära
LB #3 Matias Rickardsson (23, 183 cm) - Energie Thorsborg
RB #4 Kirill Skvortsov (29, 177 cm) - Akademiker Savojagrad
CB #5 Denis Metanov (26, 188 cm) - Lokomotive Jarnstad
CM #6 Niklas Hoyberg (20, 194 cm) - Dynamo Sjoedrhavn
LM #7 Patrik Andersen (29, 174 cm) - Savojars Vinge Virkaja
CM #8 Nikolai Orlov (32, 180 cm) - SK Torpedo Pawlograd
ST #11 Dominik Ryberg (24, 198 cm) - ASK Landsmark
RM #15 Ville Mertonen (26, 184 cm) - Dynamo Novaya Russica
ST #18 Perttu Karjanen (25, 176 cm) - Partisan Sjoedrhavn - C

BENCH
ST #9 Antoni Yoravchuk (19, 188 cm) - Traktor St. Andrei
OM #10 Marcus Nyborg (26, 179 cm) - CASK Thorsborg
GK #12 Boris Khabarov (30, 184 cm) - RLSK Pawlograd
CB #13 Stefan Johansson (18, 181 cm) - Landsmarks Industrie
LM #14 Erik Gustafsson (23, 183 cm) - Admiral Storevik
CM #16 Petteri Hytönen (27, 186 cm) - CASK Thorsborg
LB #17 Bjarne Thorvaldsson (18, 194 cm) - Partisan Sjoedrhavn
RM #19 Jacob Mortensson (33, 182 cm) - Metall Jarnstad
CB #20 Pyotr Nemanyev (27, 185 cm) - Libertas Bergheim
RB #21 Alexey Nurkanen (20, 180 cm) - Metsuri Virkaja
CM #22 Nils Kristensen (23, 176 cm) - Dynamo Sjoedrhavn
GK #23 Fridtjof Rolfrsson (19, 184 cm) - ESK Storevik

PLAYSTYLE
The Savojar team plays a defensive game, relying on its size, strength and speed to score. It tries to trap the opponent and counters quickly. Set balls are a strength of the team, as are games against quick, technical opponents. Weaknesses of the team are making the game and getting through an organised defense.

RP PERMISSIONS
Choose Goalscorers: Y
Godmod Scoring: N
Injure Players: Y (no longer than the rest of the tournament, if it is more than on TG me)
Godmod Injuries: N
Yellow Cards: Y
Red Cards: Y - not more than one
Godmod other events: ask for permission

IMPORTANT: If you want to injure Savojar fans, journalists etc., or stage a large scale brawl (also among players) or wage war on us, I am up for that IF you send me a TG first. I will consider my permissions broken if you don't though, and not accept the act (from Savojarna's POV, it never happened - it is up to you whether it actually didn't happen or if the Savojars are lying...)

The Nordernious National Kickball Team

Formation: 6-3-1
Style Modifier: -5
Demonym: Nordernian
Manager: Rule Theriault
Assistant: Niklas Reinhard
Assistant: Kris Pfeffer
Assistant: Chris Baum

Roster

Starting Lineup

GK: #1 Jürgen Wolf (33)
RB: #2 Kevin Freytag (30)
CB: #3 Jan Hartmann (28)
CB: #4 Stephan Eichmann (31) [C]
CB: #5 Dirk Schultheiss (24)
CB: #6 Robert Hoch (33)
LB: #7 Tom Hofmann (21)
RM: #8 Lucas Abendroth (24)
CM: #9 Max Klein (32)
LM: #10 Benjamin Scherer (35)
ST: #11 Philipp Schweitzer (23)

Bench

GK: #12 Stephan Schroeder (21)
GK: #13 Maximilian Koertig (28)
DEF: #14 Maik Ackerman (26)
DEF: #15 Leon Faber (21)
DEF: #16 Matthias Hueber (27)
DEF: #17 Stephan Klein (24)
DEF: #18 Swen Eberhart (21)
DEF: #19 Martin Jaeger (23)
MID: #20 Niklas Neustadt (25)
MID: #21 Marco Farber (22)
MID: #22 René Fleischer (21)
MID: #23 Paul Fischer (27)
ST: #24 Sven Ackermann (23)
ST: #25 Dennis Hertz (23)

Notes

After their kickball team lost every single match at the Independent Associations Championship, the Nordernian government searched for a foreign manager with a proven record. For the longest time, they had no luck but at the eleventh hour, right as they were about to announce their roster for the Baptism of Fire, Rule Theriault contacted them and accepted their offer. While Theriault attained success as the manager of the Free Republics, building that team into a contender that came very close to winning World Cup 68, Theriault's record in recent cycles has been less than promising and the coach found himself without a job after the Ilysee team disappointed in the 76th World Cup cycle, causing their gods to withdraw their assent for Ilyseum to field a soccer team in interdimensional competition. Theriault also has an unsuccessful run as the Sanctii manager where he was a total disaster, leading Saintland to their worst World Cup qualifying performance in history. While he retained his job for a Cup of Harmony because he had the support of King Petrus XX, he was fired as soon as his own team's star player King Andreas seized the Sanctii throne with the assistance of the Kulseth regime in the Free Republics. Theriault had hoped to return as West Sanctii manager this cycle but with the entire island of Saintland suddenly being blocked by an invisible wall, their participation in the upcoming World Cup is uncertain at this time (OOC: In fact, Saintland is currently undergoing a time warp and nobody is able to get in or out of the island or the waters surrounding it for a radius of 100 knots. The western half will participate in the upcoming World Cup.). Theriault also applied for the Guayabalense managerial job, but did not get the job, so he chose Nordernious as a last resort to stay relevant on the international scene.

One of the conditions of his hiring was that Theriault would be required to utilize Nordernian assistants and that he would be expected to coach using a defensive-oriented philosophy. As he's always been a defensive-minded manager anyways and as his assistants spent most of BoF 63 and WCQ 76 feuding with one another, Theriault did not object to these conditions. In Nordernious, he could achieve a fresh start. The Nordernian philosophy of kickball (as they call the sport) is very defensive-oriented and the Nordernian domestic league still uses 2 points for a win (not 3) and goal average (rather than goal difference) as the top tiebreaker in order to reward defensive play. Nordernian teams consider allowing a goal to be extremely humiliating and thus place first priority on keeping the ball out of their own net. A Nordernian keeper who allows 2 goals in a match is likely to be pulled from the match and replaced by a substitute and players who make mistakes that lead to goals are often benched for the following game. The Nordernian emphasis on defense is so all-encompassing that their most physically gifted players are usually defenders.

One concern for the Nordernian government, given Theriault's past, is that he will fail to adequately control the team and players will wonder off to commit various kinds of vices in other nations that they visit. While Nordernious is officially known as the Democratic States of Nordernious, their political system is actually run by an unelected technocratic elite which makes decisions about what is best based upon scientific evidence and strict utilitarian philosophy, with an aim toward maximizing the utility of the nation as a whole. The appearance of a democratic society is put forward to the citizens in order to reduce resistance but no actual opposition party is permitted to get anywhere near political power and social movements that promote divisiveness or disunity are ruthlessly suppressed. Generally though, this is not necessary as the education system is very effective at indoctrinating the young into the core values of the nation which includes plenty of education on the evils and "absurdity" of both liberty (called "license") and equality. Should Nordernian players engage in the kind of off-the-pitch misconduct that Republican players famously engaged in or should Theriault run down opposing teams and/or give them disrespectful nicknames, the Nordernian government would fire him in a heartbeat.

Kits (Made with Smart Shirt Designer 2)

Preferred



Alternate



RP Permissions

I give my opponent permission to:
Choose my goalscorers: Y
Godmod scoring events: Y
Give my players yellow cards: Y
Give my players red cards: Y
Give injuries to my players: Y
Godmod injuries to my players: Y
Godmod other events: Y
Other Restrictions: Y

EECity, EEC – EEC Headquarters - Boardroom

The room was fairly cold, most executives were panicking on how to astroturf the latest scandal on finding traces of lead in baby food and how to keep the export numbers from falling after numerous sanctions being taken after dodgy dealings involving nuclear weapons, after hours of frustration on the issue, the chairman of the board, Lucio Inoue put the issue on hold and asked if there was any other issues and proposals. Cosmo Jernigan, a young marketing executing quickly took the opportunity.

'In the last decade, professional sports have been effectively used in marketing and expanding the entertainment portfolio of many companies, with these companies being radically diverse as most successful examples come from energy drink and airline companies. Taking a constant place in the sports page as a team and the athletes associated with the team appearing in the media gives brand-awareness that is incomparable to any advertising campaign with the added bonus of being able to generate a profit through merchandising and cable TV deals, which both bolster the brand-awareness of the company, leading to an endless cycle of marketing and profit.

In order to dissipate the fear of being left behind in the sports entertainment industry, we should take steps to form an association football team first, as it's the most popular sport in the world then form and a subsidiary for sports teams, equipment, merchandising and drinks.'

'EEC has a special advantage compared to most other companies and is going to use this advantage, the advantage is national sovereignty. This unique advantage allows EEC to compete in the biggest association football tournament of them all, the World Cup. The World Cup only has been used by marketing through becoming a sponsor of the cup, which would then allow the company to use World Cup imagery in their advertising and be a part of the 'trends'. EEC being a team in this competition gives us the right to use the trademarks for only the cost of participating in the cup as well as getting the brand getting reverberated through other advertisement campaigns as EEC is part of the World Cup as a team, rather than a sponsor. We would be foolish not to take advantage of this nature of EEC, besides it will get the media off from our latest controversies'

Union leader of the Retail Workers, Aiden Albronda was getting anxious ' How do you plan to integrate football superstars into the pay-system? I am unwilling to make concessions on letting in more employees using the Exceptional-Talent clause and cheapening the company's '5 to 1' policy', Cosmo Jernigan was prepared to answer long before 'We might actually be able to sign players to the National team by putting them into the AA1-scale, as most players don't expect ground breaking pay to play internationally and in most cases, don't expect pay at all. Considering this we should be able to get decent talent from old legends looking to get back on to the pitch to youngsters wanting their international debut for nothing more than a sign-on fee. In addition, we will likely be required to play 'native EEC citizens', which in other words means that we will be required to play employees that have been with the company for more than 5 years. In order to the circumvent this until we have a stable youth system, I plan to field some of our employees with an athletic background who are currently playing in the recreational leagues. They will be compensated for their efforts through extra paid vacations'

Lucio Inoue was quite anxious to finish the meeting, rushing to say 'With no other objections, the creation of the 'Sports Entertainment' department will be created, Cosmo Jernigan will be placed as an intern head of the department until a suitable cannidate is found, I call this meeting adjurned'.

BAPTISM OF FIRE 64
Written By: Ellen Bolabore and Travis Plant

---

Welcome to another set of Drawkland National Sports Network articles! This time we'll be tackling¹²³ the Baptism of Fire's 64th edition, which our very own Drawkland will be participating in! I'm so excited I've used exclamation points for every sentence in this paragraph! Woo!

Down to business then. After small forays in international soccer, the Drawkland Kick Corps is off to the real deal, the World Cup Cycle, starting with their one and only Baptism of Fire. This is an intense deal, basically, and it's a huge honor to do well in it. Or something like that. So, without further ado, let's summarize what the newest Corps has been up to so far.

INDEPENDENTS CUP
After the relative disappointment that was the Global Cup of Soccer (at least the last two games), the Corps signed on for another tournament in its first edition, the Independents Cup. With tougher competition from around the multiverse present, it wasn't the best of tournaments for the Corps, at least, compared to the one other tournament they'd done.

Their first match was against the recent Cup of Harmony runners-up, Schottia, which was basically expected to be a blowout. And so it was. Many think that this expectation may have actually affected the team's psyche and leaked into their performance, making the loss bigger than it had to be. The team defense did at least make some sort of difference, as they managed to keep the match scoreless for 30 minutes, but Schottia’s Gareth Souter managed to tap one in to make it 1-0. This truly opened up the floodgates, as Martel-Burns and Killanen got goals in before the half, keeping the Corps 3 down going to the locker room. Despite this, even the Schottian press would later admit that the scoreline wasn't the most accurate indicator of whose favor the game was in. Even lagging by 3 goals, the Drawkian team still gave the Schottians hell for the course of the match, making several shots on the goal, the hardest one by Jackie Crawford, but ultimately not getting past the robust defense or keeper McNott. A hard assist goal by the Schottians truly sealed the deal, and the match ended 4-0 against Drawkland.

Despite the loss, the Kick Corps kept plugging at it, their next match against Greater Vakolicci Haven ultimately being instrumental in the Corps' advancement. An early strike on the Havenses by Katie Madison in the 11th minute kept the opposing team on their heels. Their star striker scored about 9 minutes before the half, which made the halftime scoreline of 1-1 arguably the most tense of the tournament, at least at that moment. However, a faithful goal by Ellzidan to begin the second half, and a 76' goal by Jackie Crawford, all contributed for the Corps to snag the win in the end.

However, the same feelings of a dominant 3-1 scoreline were reversed the next Matchday against Revolutionary Nordskania, as the Corps suffered their second loss of the tournament and their 4th loss of their history. Luckily, a goal in the 80th minute from Ellzidan kept the Corps' playoff hoped alive, but a goal from Yoshida in both halves and a Vlasenko goal seconds before the first half closed were the ones which made the match fall through the ladies' hands.

In the Round of 16, facing the relatively powerful Flardania, the Corps wrote up their 5th loss, officially giving the Kick Corps an all-time losing record.⁴ Renée Guidice was the one that broke the 0-0 tie that lasted over an hour, a 64' minute goal⁵ being the one to break the silence of the scoreline and to put the Corps Ladies trailing on their toes trying to get the match at least into extra time. 4 shots on the goal in the last 5 minutes plus added time of the match amounted to nothing past the stout Kirishima defenders, and the Corps went home with a slightly sour taste in their mouth.

At least they made it to the playoffs, though, which many would wish to be in. And who knows, perhaps they may to even further next time, but first, they must focus on the Baptism of Fire.

KICK CORPS
For now though, the Kick Corps is headed to Mercedini for the BoF, staying in the city of Orga, and all their games being played in Zholvi, a 30 minute drive between their hotel and stadium.⁶ Through pure luck of the draw, all of the games Drawkland is set to play are being held in ezMART Stadium, one of 24,000 capacity. Orga is slightly larger and more good-looking than Zholvi, so that's why the Corps is travelling to all their games despite the logistic issues involved. That's what DISC⁸ says anyway. If you currently don't have plans for the next month or so, we suggest you take a short vacation to Novapax and fly in to Mercedini to support the Corps! We'll need all the help we can get.⁷

There hasn't been many changes at all to the Kick Corps lineup, besides the fact that some players have moved to other teams outside of Drawkland. Specifically, Iana Synder, Rebecca Talla, and Seon-Yann Slater, going to clubs from Schottia (the first two) and Port Christopher (the latter). You may call then traitors, but Michael Starre, Metropolon Lights and Kick Corps manager, was quoted as saying this:
"We don't have qualms against Schottia. They outplayed us, and I fully support the decision of these girls to go abroad to improve their careers. Also, we're not looking to create rivalries against respectful teams who are clearly way better than us."

Put that in your pipe and eat it.

Who knows though? A lot of the players were heard saying they were eager to play, and maybe all those emotions will end in a rivalry. And hell, one of the teams already here we already lowkey hate.⁹ But we're not the Kick Corps officially, we're a "news" site, so we can say that.

GROUP DRAW
The most highly anticipated part of the Baptism of Fire was of course the Group Draw, for obvious reasons. Fans of soccer in Drawkland had been waiting for ages to find out who we'd be playing against, how good our chances of advancing were. Of course, this is the beginning tournament, so it's no surprise that we don't have too much information on every team, nor do we know how they'll fare against each other and against us. The group draw and match fixtures for Group C are on the graphic to the right, as you can see. We're gonna give a little bit of information about all of the teams in the group¹⁰ so that it's a little bit easier to tell them all apart.

First in the listing is Turkmenbasyn, who we play second in the group stage. We can't find much about them, but we do know they were an integral part of the Silk Road (apparently that was a big deal from wherever they're located) in its early history, and eventually went on to be ruled by a President-for-Life who named a lot of stuff after himself.¹¹ Also, they have lots of melons. I can't complain. Melons are damn good. Maybe they'll sell them in the stadiums. How cool and thematic would that be?

Second on the listing is us! Woo! We'll be playing in all 3 of our own group stage matches. Because they're us. Anyway, some quick facts about us for those who don't know us but read our articles. We're a nation of very tall people (we're all over 7 feet tall, apparently that's not normal in the rest of the multiverse) who live on another planet known as Sonnel. We are an economic and military powerhouse where we're from, and apparently our people our rude, even though what most people think is 'rude' is really just being 'honest' in our own eyes. We're also sports-lovers in general (although I might be biased because I work for a sports news company), and love seeing the best in sport battle it out. If you need to contact us to find more information, check your local library or maybe give us a call.
Oh yes, and most importantly, we not only have the best soccer team ever, but we also have the best Elf, the best Madison, and the best Arrowsword.¹²

Third on the list is Kernovi (who will be our first group stage opponent), another nation which we couldn't find a lot of information about. We've yet to find their roster, but we did find some things on the internet about them. We found a lot of stuff about their political system, in fact, we found that they are currently in the running for a new president. But that doesn't pertain to sports so much so we glossed over it. As far as we can tell, their best domestic clubs are the Layton City Rangers and Memur Beach, although there's some business going on with their league reforming, we think, so we can't be sure.

And last in Group C is Amnarei-Asud. We did find some information about them too. They, like Turkmenbasyn, are active on the international markets, but instead of selling melons, they're selling ... sand. A sh*t ton of sand. Actually all of their sand that they can sell, I'd imagine. But through this economic foray we found out the 6 specialties of the nation which we're playing last in the group stage (and may end up locked in a qualification battle with): "Sand, presidential palaces, iron deposits, sacred white palms, and an army. Those are [their] five specialities. And blistering sun. Six specialities." That might be the funniest thing I've read all day, and I read an article today that suggested Ethane might win the World Baseball Classic!¹³ Anyway, soccer. They played Bonesea in a pre-tournament friendly about a month or so ago and they lost, 1-3 at home. Pretty brutal to a backwater dictatorship island nation. They probably executed 7 people after that. But hey, they appear to play really good ball so we'll see how this all turns out.

OTHER GROUPS
We were originally going to do the above section for every group, but ... nahh. We'll talk about some of the nations we know about in each one.

Group A features Cetheque, Willinois, Kosovakia, and Mriin. Those of you who followed the Global Cup of Soccer recognize one of those names! That's right, Kosovakia, the team Drawkland defeated in the GCoS Quarterfinals 1-0 AET, are here in Mercedini for the Baptism of Fire as well. The other nations look like they'll also be good at the sport, so we're expecting a semi-challenging group out of these guys.

Group B features Ibixa, Verceola, Socialist Northern Islands, and Ndaku. All of these names sound vaguely familiar, but you can't put your finger on it, right? Right. That's what we thought too. Who knows what will happen here? Ndaku is the predicted group powerhouse.

Group C is our group, woo!

Group D features Averyickan City, Verukt, Coldfield, and Juvencus. Coldfield is another vaguely familiar one. Averyickan City was the first team the Kick Corps ever played (it was a 3-3 draw)! They may or may not do well. Then there's Juvencus, which you probably know because they live a bit Southwest of us on Sonnel! We're pulling for them of course. Let's see how far our planetmates get.

Group E is the first one to participate in Bonesea rather than Mercedini. Cosneolta, Divadland, Rebuild the Wall, and Kinzenland populate it. Cosneolta was at the Global Cup of Soccer, didn't do too well, but they looked like a real challenge. We don't know what's happening with the other two, but Kinzenland is semi-familiar, as they both defeated us in the Round of 16 of the World Baseball Classic¹⁴ and fielded a team of convicts, rather than actual baseball players, for amusement. Maybe they should do that here, too. They'll probably make it to the Quarterfinals.

Group F has Abristan, The Andromeda Archipelago, Savojarna, and EEC. The first we don't know about but they look to have a good squad, the second is probably nearby to The Andromeda Islands, the basketball ex-powerhouses, the third is a new nordic nation (who ISN'T nordic these days?), and the last one is ... some sort of multinational industry conglomerate. Not sure how they qualified as a nation but hey, they're fielding a team, and they might end up being good. This group seems to be tough.

Group G has Zambanana, Raschastan, Hernton, and Great Caledonia and North Hybernia.¹⁵ The middle two are unknowns to us but may end up holding their own, Zambanana definitely has a shot, despite being like a third-world nation, and GC&NH deserves actual death. Destroy them. They will finish last in their group with an 0-0-3 record, I'm sure of it. At least that's what they deserve.

Group H has Mercenary Islands, Nagore, Nordernius, and Freyhill. We dunno about 3 of these, but Nordernius apparently has close ties to Saintland and all that other hubbub, so they're likely to do quite well. We might even meet them in the Final, once we make it there, right?

PROJECTIONS
It's too early to predict things. I'm not even sure why I even included this section, to be honest with you.¹⁶

In any case, go Kick Corps! Do your nation proud. Be as awesome as our other national teams sometimes are. On Corps!

OOC: This would've been much more detailed if it weren't for my broken keyboard.


Starting XI
GK: Naldo Zappa (AC Serone) (Captain)
CB: Vincenzo Righi (AC Pomena)
CB: Valerio Scarpa (U.S Scudelli)
RB: Nicolò Bassi (AC Serone)
LB: Adamo Brunetti (U.S Remeno)
CDM: Nino Russo (AC Pomena)
CM: Leopoldo Morani (S.S.C Tipoli)
RM: Sansone Barsotti (AC Serone)
LM: Angelino Alberighi (U.S Scudelli)
CAM: Cesare Ajello (AC Serone)
CF: Rodolfo Gallo (Picgliara Calcio)

Substitutions
GK: Taddeo Bulgari (Picgliara Calcio)
CB: Dudu Medeiros (USC Toro)
CB: Artur Bernat (AC Serone)
RB: Dante Leone (Internazionale Serone)
LB: Filipe Rodrigues (S.S.C Vilan)
CDM: Celestino Vela (S.S.C Vilan)
CDM: Elio Provenzano (U.S Scudelli)
CM: Biaggio Angioli (Toro Calcio)
RM: Hugo Grec (AC Serone)
LM: Ugo Nenci (FC Piluzzi)
CAM: Amando Landi (Herona Calcio)
CAM: Gian Landi (AC Herona)
CF: Oriol Vives (AC Pomena)

Coaching staff:
Main Coach: August Toset
Assistant Coach: Desiderio Bellincioni
Assistant Coach: Pau Porras
Team doctor: Carlo Micheli

Can't put the message in the spoiler somehow, that's alright I can do it above them. Since the images for my shirts are a bit too big, I can't post them


Team description:
The Juven national team or "The team of the young" is a relatively newly formed national team in the empire of Juvencus, a mostly isolated nation with its own regional conflicts inside of Sonnel. The football league of Juvencus consists of mostly defensive teams, which explains the team's defensive style (Style modifier: -3). As a preparation for the baptism of fire, the squad of Juvencus faced Qasden in an away bout managing a surprise 1-1 tie which has lifted up the spirits of the young Juvencus team. The coaching staff were elected by the Juven FA, deemed by the council as the best of their kind nationwide and they will try leading Juvencus to championship gold.

A look in Internazionale Serone's fall.

Internazionale Serone is a club to be feared, journalists said, pre-season 2016. The club's players seemed quite strong, the club is the 2nd richest in Juven football, after USC Toro. Both of the teams crumbled under pressure though. Internazionale Serone had a great pre-season facing local teams as well as teams from the autonomous areas. They were on fire, with players bad mid-season transfer move from Internazionale Serone to AC Pomena move of Oriol Vives. He was their most important striker and quite frankly, the reason the club was on fire until July. Internazionale Serone had a 4 game winning streak, despite barely beating their opponents USC Toro, Picgliara Calcio, S.S.C Vilan and AC Pomena with 1-0, 1-2, 2-1 and 1-0 each. The goalscorer in 4 out of the 6 situations was Oriol Vives, whom participated in all of these goals providing 2 assists as well. The club was sitting comfortably at the top and the only club that could reach them was AC Serone, city rivals, sitting just 4 points below them.

Their first encounter came April 3rd, 2016 at AC Serone's stadium, Stadio del popolo, the stadium of the people. The 2 clubs would face each other in a titanomachy which could probably secure an early league winner, if Internazionale Serone won. The first chance was made by Internazionale Serone's Oriol Vives, an one on one encounter which Naldo Zappa would eventually fall on the right side where Oriol Vives was shooting, catching the ball. AC Serone would counter with a shot from their superstar player, Cesare Ajello, whom shot the ball on the top post and Sansone Barsotti, being the fastest player in the league would actually get the ball crossing it in on Callisto Bazzoli's head, he could strike it in making the score 1-0 to AC Serone's favour.

The second half had more chances and Oriol Vives would score a magnificent goal with his weak left foot on the exact corner of the goal, making it 1-1. Sadly for Internazionale, Bazzoli would score a second goal in the 93rd minute making 2-1 and decreasing the difference between the two clubs. After that defeat, the club went into bottom form with 6 matches in a row without a win and 3 matches in a row without a single point taken. Oriol Vives was then sold which ultimately lead to the club's leader being gone. Which meant that the club would go off form. Despite all that, the club returned on form here and there, picking a couple of games before losing or tying again. In the last week of the season, Internazionale were facing AC Pomena, where Oriol Vives was sold.

Truth to be told, nobody expected Internazionale winning, especially against their own former best player. The match had very few chances and it was mostly a game of possession. Each side would keep the ball for long amounts of time before crossing it in front. Oriol Vives lost the 2 chances AC Pomena had in the game. Internazionale attacked in the 91st minute and the ball was sent corner by the fists of Taddeo Rossi, the keeper of AC Pomena. The corner was kicked, the ball was headed out but Dante Leone, the right back controlled the ball his chest, he turned right and shot a lightning bolt that would bounce on the ground and a bit above the goalkeeper's hands, making it 0-1. Internazionale had won an extremely hard bout, but they had finished 8th in the league and nobody was feared of them anymore.

3rd January
Greenock Field, Greenock vs. Flowerville
Young, narcissistic and self-centered

The breeze from the icy winter air hit David's unprotected face - the young prodigy, according to his coach, mister Lawson. Young and a member of a national second division team, he was not experienced as his fellow countrymen of the recently forged national soccer team. At the age of 20, he had shown potential, but according to Coach Lawson, he should show to the world that he can deal with the pressures of a real challenge. Now he was in the middle of a soccer field on a freezing winter morning. Second division match - Greenock, his team, against their biggest rival Flowerville. A difficult and tiring game like all the others. However, that match was being exceptionally difficult.

"Flowerville advances throughout the left lane - Redlake crosses ...." the ball cut the winter air, going straight to the head of the main header of the rival club in the middle of the box.
In an instant, the world seemed to be stopping slowly for David, who jumped and with a punch in the ball prevented the goal of the opponent, falling to the ground.
"David Green clears the ball!"
But his achievement had an almost disastrous consequence.

"Redlake picked up the ball, he dribbles one rival defender ... and he shoots ... it's on the bar! All while Greenock's goalkeeper was still down."
Shortly after feeling the vibe of the crossbar, David Green rose quickly with a jump - "oh no"
"It's another chance for Flowerville ... Blackhead run among the players ... beautiful, beautiful dribbling demonstration!"
David was preparing for Blackhead's kick, but it was not necessary.
"Blackhead stumbled on the ball! Possession is lost!"
Typical second division game - had thought David, who couldn't wait to leave Greenock and play in the national soccer team for the first international game of Coldfield.
He could hear the few laughter from the Greenock crowd - the stadium was practically empty. Only fanatical fans were present.

In the swift counterattack, Moore, the captain of David's club, advanced through the right lane, avoiding most of the opposing players who were amateurishly focused only on attacking and on the left flank of the field. Moore crossed the ball towards the Greenock center forward, whom almost scored a goal - however, he was deliberately knocked over by a Flowerville defender.

"The whistle of the referee marks a penalty! It's a penalty for Greenock! The referee runs up to the defender and shows him a yellow card - he was now suspended from the next match for having accumulated three yellow cards! Flowerville's shirt 14 is suspended from the next match."
Settling on the penalty spot, Moore did not bother to miss the goal. It was his last year in his career, but he did not let go of his calm and old-fashioned mastery. The Greenock captain was on the ball. The ball looked to have taken a deflection on the way in, but he's claiming it! David watched from far away.
"Moore is walking calmly to the ball ...."
The kick is not strong, but deadly.
"Goalkeeper on one side and ball on the other! Greenock scores!"
The tiny crowd made the whole old stadium vibrate. Flowerville's goalkeeper, infuriated with the opposing team, picked up the ball with which Moore scored the goal and kicks it out of the small stadium - he could not hear the noise from the door of one of the cars in the parking lot being hit by this ball, but earlier or later he would be discovered and consequently pay for the damage.

David Green celebrated the goal in silence and sat on the field, near to the crossbar - he was extremely tired by the 40th minute of the second half after so many "Incredible" saves - according to himself.

SavojarSports.sj - inside reports from all Savojarna
The Multiverse Guide to the SFS: FK Torpedo Pawlograd

FK Torpedo is the second Navy team of Savojarna. Unlike other "secondary" teams, such as ASK Landsmark and Dynamo Novaya Russica, they were founded completely equally and originally independently from its sister team, Admiral Storevik. Both Torpedo and Admiral were founded in 1916 for an intra-military tournament together with CASK and Spartak Sjoedrhavn. They also were a founding member, together with the three opponents from that 1916 tournament, Dynamo Sjoedrhavn, Jarnstad Union and Transport Hovikkära. They lost the first League in a close call to Admiral, but then managed to win the fourth season in 1926. Like all other existing state teams, they were never relegated, making them one of four teams to have been in the highest Savojar League constantly since 1922. They did rise to glory in 1928, when the team somewhat surprisingly won the inaugurational Savojar Cup. Throughout the 30s, the Pawlograd navy team did somewhat suffer from Pettersson's commitment to Admiral Storevik. This lead to many naval players being moved to the Storevik base, while Pawlograd was left to fend for themselves. They couldn't contend for the victory in those times, but also managed to not fall completely out of the league. The League, which was expanded to ten teams by 1930, usually saw Torpedo between fourth and seventh in these times. An exception was 1936, when they managed to come second. This would be a pointer to their future after Pettersson's retreat, when the team was finally allowed to rebuild. But nevertheless, it took them a few more years and two more second places in order to win the club's second title in 1942.

While the team seemed like it had the future in front of itself and showed a solid game with a young team, they were - as so many great sides of the early 1940s - effectively barred from success in the time when the CASK dynasty ruled staunchly over Savojarna's footballing scene. There was no question over the Savojar title in the time, but the road to the cup was relatively open due to CASK's relatively clear focus on the Championship. 1947, Torpedo was facing the time's dominator in quarterfinals three weeks after having lost 0-4 at home against the Thorsborg team. But the CASK side had replaced multiple players for the cup match, let reserve keeper Jonas Nilsson play and saved Artyom Revalov. Their flow was broken by the defense of Torpedo, who didn't let them have chances. A mistake by Nilsson gave FK Torpedo the Golden Goal to move on to semifinals, where they killed off their sister team 4-2 in Storevik, and then proceeded to win the final 2-0 over Partisan Sjoedrhavn, winning the second victory in the Cup. For this unlucky generation, it would be the only title they could lift despite their obvious talent. Nevertheless, it was a title - something Torpedo could barely dream of in the next few years. Their occasional shots at cups (usually ending in semifinals) or titles (ending in second places 1951 and '55, and third in '56) remained mostly exceptions after the 1947 cup winner team fell apart to other teams or to retirement.

However, then they found a true gem on the bench in Juri Simunov. Simunov pulled the team together and imposed a strict, clever system that played on the physical strength of the late 1950s Torpedo squad. They played over the sides a lot, putting together a strict defense that focused on long balls up the wings that would be fed to the tall strikers. Fyodor Kalinin became the nation's first striker that got famous for his deadly headers. After the - admittedly declining - CASK was destroyed 3-0 in Pawlograd, followed by an impressive away victory over the defending champion, Admiral. This showed everyone that Torpedo had to be reckoned with in this season, and they proved everyone to be right when three rounds before the end, FK Torpedo Pawlograd could celebrate their third championship. It looked as if Kalinin and Simunov would be able to finally form a dynasty bringing titles to Pawlograd that could match the success of CASK, Dynamo or Admiral. But with the rise of Partisan and Aviator's ping-pong, also involving Dynamo Sjoedrhavn, in the 60s, Torpedo was stuck in third to fifth place again. Nevertheless, the decade was one of the rather successful ones for Torpedo, who still benefitted from the huge advantages of being a military team. 1962, a memorable final between Torpedo and ESK Storevik ended with a 3-1 victory, with two header goals by Kalinin. This was the third, and until today last, victory in the Cup for Torpedo, who remained rather unlucky in KO games from that point on. But the management remained trustful in Simunov, and while the team was almost entirely replaced by 1967 (only three players that lifted the cup in '62 were still around, and only one of them actually played in the starting formation of both teams), the coach and - to some point - the strategy remained. And it did serve them well, as a rather dramatic last-minute victory in the second last round over Dynamo Novaya Russica put them on par with leader Aviator Virkaja, who they went on to beat in the last match and win their fourth title.

Following that title, Torpedo had again lost many of their players. Part of their problem was that RLSK Pawlograd, while not being very successful for many of its time, did attract larger crowds thanks to the team being a symbol of Russica, rather than a team of the Navy which was always more popular in the North. Torpedo did not exactly help the reservation against their affiliation, when they proceeded to sign an All-Savojarna team rather than RLSK's mostly Russian squad that presented itself as a mainland selection that attracted most of the best talent of the region. The team was considering relocating to Hovikkära, but the Navy considered the tradition of FK Torpedo more important than the higher chance of success in southern Sumanen, as moving the team would have meant to not have military teams on all four main parts of the country anymore, as it always had been tradition in all sports. Throughout most of the 70s and the 80s, the team was almost entirely meaningless. The old stadium was not filled, the team enjoyed little support and while never being relegated, it was entirely lost in the hell of mediocrity. Torpedo lost almost all chance at any silverware when the Navy got some chance at success in Storevik in the 80s, and then proceeded to buy out players from Torpedo (and other teams) to entertain their success. In those times, FK Torpedo's attendance numbers dropped from an average of 49'000 around 1970 to a mere 20'000 in the mid-80s. They somewhat recovered in the 90s, when Storevik lost its success as well and the Navy stopped interfering again.

The biggest boost for the team came in 1999, when the Navy decided that it needed to boost its image in the nation generally, and in Russica specifically. They decided to bring back a Russian identity to Torpedo when they signed coach Evgeni Andropov and popular stars Vyacheslav Novarov and Kirill Yuzhni. Along with these transfers, the Navy also built a new stadium for 34'000 people, deciding that it would be better to have a sold out arena rather than a record attendance in absolute numbers. This was a decision that proved absolutely right, and the stadium quickly filled again. This proved so successful that the club very quickly became competitive in the sports department again, and with the signing of young leader Nikolai Turanyev in defensive midfield, a strong axis could be built that lead to the 2003 Championship. While the 2000s were a period of recovery for many teams, Torpedo stayed relevant but couldn't repeat their 2003 success. Nevertheless, Pawlograd's navy team could keep its solid attendance and popularity, even though RSLK remained more popular. But the crisis from the 1980s is far from being repeated, and Torpedo is on its way back to the top under the new coach Antoni Partyanov, part of the 2003 team as a player, and the leadership of the experienced Nikolai Orlov.