Campionato Esportiva XXV- Everything Thread

[Brenecia]

Brenecia 3 - 0 Damukuni
(4-3-3) 1 - Farrell; 2 - Broxham, 5 - Horgan, 6 - Mathers, 3 - Quill (c); 8 - Matheson, 4 - Locke, 13 - Wheeler (21 - Parker 66'); 7 - Cheney, 10 - Ciogach (14 - Lindauer 66'), 16 - Fletcher
Goals: Fletcher 12', Matheson 35', Lindauer 79'

Creidne Lindauer had spent her entire life, it felt, as a backup plan.
She was the second daughter of a pair, which was handy when the first died of a sickness that Lindauer prayed every day would not make its way to her. Her Celtic given name was an overcompensation, perhaps, for a patriotic family burdened by a tainted Teutonic surname. There were many family curses, not least their stubborn insistence on clinging to Rozelle despite the rents, barely scraping together a living.
Lindauer could have done more to help them, but there's a point at which one has to move on and look after oneself. Football had been her sole passion, but her talent had taken a lot of hard work to surface. Maybe in some clubs, just scoring buckets of goals at youth level would have been enough, but Lindauer was blessed by coaches who kept asking for more of her. Eventually, her coach at Rozelle United's under-15s was sniped by Kingsgrove - most of the big talents in Rozelle go to one of the two big clubs - and at that coach's insistence, they poached Lindauer as well. That coach had been far more a mother to her than her, well, biological mother.
Really, becoming a professional footballer at all is the victory, let alone being a good one. But that's a perspective it was hard to have when her initial promotion in Kingsgrove's ranks had been deeply unpopular with the fans - an unglamorous homegrown fullback, sure, great, but a striker? And yet, she still kept scoring goals. It had taken her to the national team, too - to its bench, at least. Outflanked by Ciogach in the present and White in the future. BUt it didn't matter. Lindauer had had to put up with being dismissed her entire career, but here, but now, she-
Lindauer jolted with the firm hand on her shoulder. "Linds. Hey."
Irritation flashed across the striker's face, papered over by an insincere smile. "Excuse me, my friend needs me-"
The woman opposite her barely flickered. "Mm."
Lindauer rose to join her friend, companion and teammate, Riona Parker. From the same part of Rozelle, they'd been friends since they were teenagers. Her call-up had been a pleasant surprise for them both. Still, her tone was strangled. "Yes?"
"Linds. Literally nobody gives a fuck about your life story."
"Huh?"
"She's not here for your life story. I mean, in fairness, are you here for hers?"
Lindauer's brow furrowed. "I mean, if she-"
"Oh, you're hopeless!" Parker threw up her hands in frustration. "Look! Look at her, now!"
She looked. "She's... gone."
"Damn right she's gone! She's gone because you droned on about ~ohhh pooor Creidne who God shits on every day clawing her way to victory~, nobody gives a fuck, Creidne!"
"So, what, just skip to the good part?" Lindauer rolled her eyes. "Just say something like... 'hey, I scored a goal in the Campionato the other day?'"
"Yes! Exactly that!"
By the end of the night, Parker could lay claim to a second assist. Much to Lindauer's chagrin, it was a joke she repeated time and again in the dressing room. Just another way the Kingsgrove striker was God's cosmic plaything. But, hey; now she knew not to bitch about it to prospective partners.

[Newmanistan]

Semifinal:
Xanneria 2–2 Apox (2–2 AET) (4–3 pen.)


Championship (Scorinated Saturday)
Xanneria vs TBD @ Tundra Falls Proving Grounds, Tundra Falls, Newmanistan

[Xanneria]

Semifinal:
Brenecia 1–1 Kita-Hinode (2–2 AET) (3–2 pen.)


3rd Place Game
Kita-Hinode vs Apox @ XanAir National Stadium II, Dominica City, Xanneria

Championship Game
Xanneria vs Brenecia @ Tundra Falls Proving Grounds, Tundra Falls, Newmanistan

[Brenecia]

Brenecia 1 - 1 Kita-Hinode (2-2 AET, 3-2 pens)
(4-3-3) 1 - Farrell; 2 - Broxham (17 - Weaver 62'), 5 - Horgan, 22 - Beath, 3 - Quill (c); 8 - Matheson (14 - Ruskin 78'), 4 - Locke, 13 - Wheeler; 7 - Cheney (15 - Garrard 76'), 10 - Ciogach, 16 - Fletcher
Goals: Wheeler 57', Quill 97'

Horgan ✔ Ciogach X Quill X Locke ✔ Ruskin ✔
Ichibonji X Hattunen ✔ Katsura ✔ Iperkova X A Tachibana X

Five. The magic number was five.
The most successful nation in the history of the Campionato Esportiva hadn't even competed for the last seven editions, or for that matter the first five. They'd won their first and their last. 6 and 18. Three in between. Five wins, thirteen attempts. Of course it was Nephara, the arrogant shits from across the Greater Brine or the North Andorica, depending on where you hailed from. So far, nobody had managed to knock them off their perch.
Brenecia were on four. They'd come close, so close, to going one better - a 2-1 defeat to Mattijana four years back still stung - but there was a sense of inevitably. They'd get it. Eventually. Right?
Even this Brenecian side, some years past their best. And for all they were a side past their best they still had the luxury of wheeling out a World Cup champion in Beath when Mathers had fallen victim to repeatedly-getting-cautioned-itis. He wasn't the future, but he could still be the present. For a time. And the manager was well-liked and, more importantly, respected. They could provide the victory that the nation was crying out for, one that inner-city Rozelle trendies, hard-bitten northern battlers, parochial Rathian farmers and desperate outlaws from the southeast could all rally around.
One had come in the process of denying Nephara their fourth, a frantic flurry of goals in extra time. Their second denied Nephara their fifth, though that would come in the next edition regardless, their dramatic swansong. The third came against Red Blackiland, a nation who had made Brenecia's government look liberal and even-handed. The fourth had come against Mattijana, two years before the reverse.
So, five was the number. It would mean so much to knock them off their perch.

Standing in their way was Kita-Hinode, or more accurately the Kita-Hinode U21s. There couldn't be many nations in the world with more talent to draw on at that age level, but it was still galling to be second-best to them in the opening hour. Eleanor Lingard, a Brenecian herself, was letting her team play with the freedom allowed by their pace, and the handy thing about young players is they're hard to gash with pace. And gashing teams with pace was what Brenecia did best. By a distance.
It seemed for all the world like the Hinodejin were content to just cut the life out of the game. Passing short and conservative, with uncanny accuracy. Building up attacks with short, sharp punches, one of which had been lashed home from the corner of the box by the excellent Kotaro Katsura. Nephara-based. Of fucking course.
Brenecia's leveller was absolutely undeserved. But a player like Corby Wheeler, though no world-beater, could always conjure something up from nothing. It was probably the right call for Matsumono-Gide to haul down Fletcher when the young winger whipped past on his inside track. Wheeler had a fairly acute angle blocked by a wall of meet and, in Namezono, a capable goalkeeper to beat. All she could do was go for the top corner... and she duly found it.
That galvanised the Patriots, and Hinodejin heads dropped. Suddenly, the game was equal not only through scoreline but in the performances of each team. But neither team stopped running. Extra time was inevitable. Claire Ruskin added some experience and treachery to the Brenecian midfield, restoring some calm, before Fletcher laid on a masterful assist for Quill. Salonen, who had been brought on just minutes prior to break some heads in midfield, wound up laying on the assist for Hattunen, a ball lumped forth optimistically and smashed expertly into the bottom corner.

So then to penalties. Ultimate test of nerves for the victors, lottery for the losers. Myozan Namezono in the all-black. Cass Farrell in the pink and yellow abomination.
It was... well, it was a farce.
It started promisingly enough. Garrett Horgan, the centre-half given the brief of the first penalty, hammered his strike into the ceiling past a shell-shocked Namezono. The substitute Ichibonji went along the same lines, power over placement. The ball is projected to land on the Cosumarite colony of Fevelo in about two weeks' time.
The fatigued Ciogach stepped up to give Brenecia a massive advantage and screwed her strike horribly wide, and Hattunen sent Farrell the wrong way to level the scores.
Quill, a goalscorer in normal time. A leftback. With a defender's finish. On target, but at a comfortable height - nobody would have looked at it twice had Namezono not leapt balletically the right way to claw it away. Katsura, also a goalscorer in normal time. Farrell also went the right way - but this was tucked into the corner, despite her scrabbling fingertips.
Locke went for placement, low and hard, and got it. Iperkova, another defender, presumably brought forward for a steadiness and confidence. Too much confidence. A panenka. Farrell wavered before righting herself in time to punch it clear with both fists.
Claire Ruskin had won a World Cup. Her penalty was nerveless. It was deeply unfair that Tachibana of Wofford, who had been arguably the best player on the pitch during the actual match, would be the villain. A decent penalty, but too close to the centre - Farrell swept it away with her legs as she dove left, and sealed the win.
Not an epic, nor quite a thriller. Brenecia was hardly in peak form, Kita-Hinode had fielded a youth team. But even while playing terribly for an hour, the Patriots had shown they could gut out a win. The very skill their rivals had depended on, time and again.
Xanneria loomed, playing on neutral ground for the first time. Brenecians were quietly confident... just as they'd been against Mattijana. Still. If they could do this... that would be it, the albatross lifted, Brenecia's mandate as the supreme regional power clear. It didn't matter that the Golden Age was over. They'd have the World Cup, and they'd have this, and nobody could take either away.
And then the new magic number would be six.

[Xanneria]

Apox 1–2 Kita-Hinode
Played at XanAir National Stadium II. Dominica City, Xanneria

[Newmanistan]

Championship Match @ Tundra Falls Proving Grounds, Newmanistan

Xanneria

1

-

3

Brenecia

Congratulations to the winners!