World Cup 85 || RP Thread

by **Oberour Ar Moro** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 10:23 am

Twenty-three utterly drained and listless men sat in the dressing room of the Parade Grounds. Three drained and listless coaches looked back at them. Oberour Ar Moro had fallen to Riena, who had fully outclassed them. Finally, manager Gilduin Roux broke the silence with a deep sigh, and then said: "I'll see you at training." He then walked out in an air of resignation without another word.

The players quietly started to gather their things to leave. Another miserable result and everyone was too miserable to really even care. Managers across the multiverse were starting to fall from national teams. Would Roux be fired? It may or may not matter, he has such a large salary that it may keep him alive. And would changing managers really improve anything? Nine games in and the general feeling was that everyone just wanted it to be over. Would some other manager inspire anything other than ennui from them?

Nycollas Mauranghas was one of the twenty-three. He hadn't seen any minutes in the game and was just as disengaged as everyone. else. His strong start to qualifying had tailed off. He wasn't getting any goals, and no minutes. At least the football system season was going well for him.

The rain had begun to fall during the second half and as the players started to file out it was now pouring. Nycollas confirmed that he was meeting with teammates at les Arlots in downtown Regium, to drink and try and forget about how miserable national football is. He hustled to his car, trying to avoid as much rain as possible. He had his hand on the door handle when he heard a voice behind him.

"You're going to les Arlots. Please don't."

Nycollas wheeled around. It was that young woman with copper hair, that soothsayer or whatever, standing in the pouring rain with a desperate look on her face.

Nycollas was almost speechless. "You? Why?"

The woman thought to herself before saying plainly: "A violent fight will break out. You'll get caught up in it, and be stabbed. You'll die on the way to the hospital."

"That's insane. You're insane."

"It's what would happen if you went there. Please don't."

Nycollas stared at her. She seemed completely earnest. She wasn't twitching or yelling or staring intensely, she just looked sad. Broken-hearted. She seemed completely earnest.

Nycollas wasn't entirely sure what to say. "Who are you?"

"My name is Erica Reclus. I swear I can explain everything. Please."

Nycollas took Erica to a diner that stayed open late. As he awkwardly picked at a plate of bacon and eggs and slugged coffee he sent text messages with his apologies. Erica did most of the talking.

"I'm a time traveller."

Nycollas leaned his head in his hand. "Sure."

She plowed on, unburdening herself. "At some point two centuries before my time, scientists made fundamental discoveries about the nature of time."

"Like what?"

"The specifics are closely guarded. The dominion wants complete control over it. But...it was discovered that the flow of time is through a sea of quasiparticles called chronons."

Nycollas wasn't much in science class, but this didn't sound correct.

"The Institute of Particle Research built a particle collider, a massive one, designed to detect subatomic particles with extremely delicate sensors. HIERATIC, the particle collider, will be used to discover the chronon within a few months."

Nycollas only vaugely recognized the name Institute of Particle Research. The rest was wooshing over his head.

"That's the first discovery. Once they can detect chronons they'll make a second discovery. Chronons show spooky action at a distance: Two particles at seperate points effect each other at a large distance. But with chronons that distance isn't just meters, it's seconds, minutes, hours."

Nycollas was deperately trying to keep up. "Is that time travel?"

"At it's most basic. But if you can find a chronon and locate its pair in the past or future, it creates a connective tissue between the two, which can be followed."

Travelling across tissue?

"There's a third discovery. The last one we know publically. Anything further is a state secret. That connective tissue can be cut somehow. This releases energy, and it was found to be more energy than it cost to cut the connection. So time became an energy source."

It was raining even harder outside, you could hear the drops hit the window.

"Oberour Ar Moro will have a complete monopoly on chronon energy. Time is infinite, so it was clean and cheap. It's used to colonize the cosmos, it changed everyone's lives. But Oberour Ar Moro used it to dominate the world, subjigate billions. And worse."

"And worse?"

"Time is infinite, but the capacity to withstand the breaking of so many connections may not be. It could destroy time completely."

"So you're here to prevent that."

"Hopefully."

Nycollas shook his head. "This sounds like bad sci-fi."

Erika shrugged. "I guess it does."

"How are you going to stop the end of time itself?"

"I don't know. I'll think of something. I have to."

Nycollas' position that this was crazy had not changed much. His gestured to the waitress for the check. As he looked back to Erika he could see hurt in her eyes. She knew he wasn't buying it. He felt a tinge of regret he didn't quite understand.

"When we met, before the North New South Wales-" he paused as he remembered a question he had. "Why didn't you tell me your name?"

"I didn't think we'd ever meet again. I figured that preventing your death would be the last time we would speak."

"And...why did you want to prevent my death?"

"I wanted to prove to myself that I could change the past."

"You didn't think you could?"

"I never had. But I need to."

"But you said that...you said that if I went to les Arlots I'd be killed in a fight."

"That's right."

"How would you know that?"

Erika pulled out her phone and set it on the table.

"How would a phone today know something from the future?"

"It's connected to a chronon network that provides a connection to the future. So I could search for a wiki article on you and it detailed when and how you died."

Ask a stupid question, he thought to himself. "None of this makes sense." He looked at the phone and started to reach for it. "So that means I could-"

Erika slapped his hand away and grabbed her phone again. She immediately looked uncomfortable and dropped her head, staring into her coffee. It didn't stop her from putting the phone away. "I don't suppose it would."

The waitress brought the check and Nycollas put enough argenteus down to cover the meal. He got up to go and started walking before he had one more thought.

"So you came back from the future to stop some sort of horrible calamity, but you're bothering with me? Why?"

Erika fidgetted in her seat. "I...just like football, so it was interesting to meet...you."

"Ah." Nycollas briefly wondered if she had any positive ideas for the team going forward, but decided going home was the best option. "Well, best of luck to you."

As he walked out the door, a dejected young woman with copper hair pulled out her phone and started scrolling.

Nycollas was woken up hours later by a text from Brioc de la Rochelle. There was a picture from inside les Arlots. Blood covered a table and the floor, gendarmes were there. A fight had broken out while the players were there drinking, and a man was stabbed. Apparently he had died on his way to the hospital. Nycollas put the phone back on the nightstand and rolled away from it, sick to his stomach.

by **Kandorith** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 11:06 am

Shinonome Kyoai - International
News From The Empire

Victory Solidifies Kandorese Position In Group

*   Group 11                              Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Equestria                              10    8   2   0    33   16  +17    26
 2 HUElavia                                9    7   0   2    32   21  +11    21
 3 Xanneria                                9    6   2   1    22   14   +8    20
 4 Kandorith                              10    5   3   2    22   17   +5    18
 5 Fujai                                   9    3   4   2    12   16   −4    13
 6 Vdara                                  10    3   2   5    20   24   −4    11
 7 South Concepthuania                     9    3   1   5    16   19   −3    10
 8 Lo Santano                              9    2   4   3    16   21   −5    10
 9 Nooooooooooooooo                        9    2   3   4    15   16   −1     9
10 Ancherion                               9    2   3   4    14   16   −2     9
11 Blouman Empire                          9    1   4   4    13   17   −4     7
12 Jamestownnnn                            9    2   1   6    14   22   −8     7
13 Monglechabagd                           9    0   3   6    14   24  −10     3

The team of Hayabusa seems to be on an absolute roll as the Lotus Warriors were able to snatch a late victory against Ancherion. The one to zero victory marks the latest game from which Kandorith emerged victorious and there seems to be no stopping this side. The game was a slow paced game where the Kandorese side was mostly in control of possession and was able to play a few reserve and substitute players against a lower ranked team. Hayabusa is choosing an approach to save as much energy as possible for bigger matches in order to try and climb the group table. So far so good for the team as their fourth position now has a five point lead on Fujai, the number 5. Meanwhile the top three are in sights for the Kandorese team with only Two points difference with Xanneria, Four with the number two; HEUlavia and Eight points with Equestria. Nothing seems to be out of reach for the Lotus Warriors as of yet, but their performance will have to remain the same.

Right now the field play seems balanced, well performed and organized; a very welcome sight for the Kandorese fans and of course a very wonderful sight for Hayabusa. The shaky start of the qualification campaign seems to be a far away memory now as a very different Kandorith stands on the pitch during the latest matches. Hayabusa has not told us much for the upcoming game nor did he want to share tactics, he only nodded and told us that the team is ready for the upcoming match against South Concepthuania. Not much is known about South Concepthuania and both sides have not met on the field before as this is their first appearance in the qualification for the World Cup. Statistically seen the Kandorese side should have no problems winning this match and therefore a lot of eyes will be fixed on what the top three will do. In the very best outcome, Kandorith will be able to conquer the third or even second spot in the table. Though; realistically speaking Hayabusa's team should be able to find themselves in third place after the match against South Concepthuania. The Kandorese football is alive and kicking and the dream of qualifying are alive once again. Another big deal in the upcoming game is the home advantage for the Kandorese team where once again the Empress will be visiting the stadium, as she does for most home games. The nation is eagerly awaiting the game against South Concepthuania and it might just be a dream start for the Lotus Warriors and their loyal fans across the nation.

by **Valentine Z** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 11:11 am

Captain of the Team

Valentijn “De Sierlijke en Vrij Valkyrie General ov Valentine Z” Samantha Maxwell Delta Weston Stijn Angelus Tracey Mitchell Tristian Marnix Basilisk Lewis Hyatt X. Constantine Sein Lin Zaw Naing. Not going to be the last time he barged into a stadium in full view of all the cameras.

Current Valentian Team – 4-4-2, using this formation

Goalkeeper:
#10 - Holly Lapia Starlight. Chronologically 88. Physically 25. Technically a Valentian by all measures, belonging to Garden at 6th Mile Road. A little too shy, and would rather spend time in her dimensional garden tending her magical flowers. Made out of "cold lights" - a being made entirely out of light energy, but with FanT elements. Her body temperature measures a constant 40 Kelvins. WARNING: DO NOT touch her anywhere BUT her hands.

Defenders:
#31 - Gwen Tracer Fate Allison. Chronologically slated to be at least 1 x 10⁴⁰⁸⁰ years old. Physically 26. If something happens in the Omniverse, she has a hand in it. Doesn’t seem to let smaller things happen on their own. Certainly not a cheater. Participant of both NSSCRA 8 and 9.
#14 - Valentina Freya Thida Aye. Chronologically 73 years old, Physically 29 years old. Has quite a terrifyingly quick adoption rate to Modern Earth Sports. Tends to be a bit shy. Participant of NSSCRA 9.
#87 - Adriana Krystal Kowalski Lillian. Chronologically 83, Physically 30. Adriana the Polish Robot, as she was commonly known. Certainly both the brains and the brawn, making her a perfect defender for the team. Has some machine-based quirks.
#25 - Mandy Juliet Colette Diva Bertillon. Chronologically 105. Physically 28. A little bit on the excited side. Has adrenaline levels twice that of a normal person. Tends to get hungry. A lot. Including during the football match.

Midfielders:
#99 - Augustine Lorenzo Terry Imparato. Chronologically 131. Physically 32. A rather imposing man by all accounts, though he doesn't seem to have that much of that Italian stereotype. A rather nice man, all things considered; just don't insult him and his drink.
#23 - Genki Matthieu Lee Zhuān Jiā. Chronologically 116. Physically 33. Was told not to bring martial arts into the field. He is willing to comply, of course.
#71 - Donnie Derrick Sam Fiannaidhe. Chronologically 136. Physically 32. Football runs in this man's heart, which is simple enough for us, really
#15 - Jolyn Maxine Caulfield. Chronologically 114. Physically 27. A schoolteacher, a spy, and the Vice-President of a good chunk of Valentine Z. Participant of NSSCRA 8 and WGP2, though the latter met an unfortunate end for her. Still determined to make a name for herself.

Attackers:
#7 - Clarissa Alanis Star Harumi. Chronologically 93. Physically 24. A harmonious relationship between an emulated human consciousness with raw CPU/GPU power. Participant of both NSSCRA 8 and 9.
#76 - Marcus Alan Ariel Reynolds. Chronologically 113. Physically 27. Certainly not a pushover despite his calm and collected nature. Has a little bit of a tendency to jump into his worm suit, despite it proving to be a hazard in the football field. The antennas could have been rounded.

-----

With Marcus promoted to an Attacker, and Gwen promoted to a Midfielder, the Valentians now hope that they can exert more pressure to their opponent, whilst keeping their goal safe. Both Clarissa and Adriana decreased their learning rate intervals in exchange for a slightly heaty chassis and CPU/GPU usage. The two Valentian androids hope that with this faster learning rate, they will be able to provide a better edge for the Valentian football team, and more of a challenge to the opponents.

by **Alba and Cymru** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 11:26 am

The Orthochronica
Chapter 174, "A ’Ghairm" (The Calling)

This chapter, given to Bran during his early ministry in Mercia (c. 922), gives the advice of following the Dagda and those who are righteous under Him. The Uaislean are warned against hypocrites and wickedness, and urged to follow those who are upright.

The Word of the Dagda, as it concerns the Heavens and the Earth:

1 This is My word. Heed unto the words of He who calls you.
2 For it is unwise to listen to the wicked,
3 Who are hypocrites, and who are unforgiving.
4 Unlike the righteous, who are steadfast in the straight path and in forgiveness. This is My word.

Chapter 175, "An Diog" (The Second)

In this chapter given to Áed (c. 940), the Dagda gives excellent insight on how one should conduct his or her life. Those who make the best of their Earthly lives are guaranteed many generations of remembrance.

The Word of the Dagda, as it concerns the Heavens and the Earth:

1 This is My word. Life is only a passing second
2 In the records.
3 But those who make this second shine with righteousness are worth a thousand years. This is My word.

Chapter 176, "An Saighead" (The Arrow)

This early chapter given to Áed by the record-keeper Lugh (c. 915) shows that no matter how powerful we may seem in this world, it is ultimately the Dagda who holds all power, for he is the one who created it in the beginning.

The Word of Lugh, as it concerns the Heavens and the Earth:

1 This is My word. And consider the arrow, made by the hands of man.
2 Which flies distances by the whims of man.
3 Finding shelter in whatever Fate has determined.
4 Consider this, and know that the Dagda is all-powerful.
5 For He ordered the man in the beginning, and the tree of the arrow.
6 And all of the Earth and the heavens therein. This is My word.

Chapter 177, "An Cuimhneachan" (The Remembrance)

In this chapter given to Diarmuid duing the later years of his life (c. 956), the Dagda encourages the Noble Ones to remember those who have passed on.

The Word of the Dagda, as it concerns the Heavens and the Earth:

1 This is My word. And who are those that you hold in remembrance [after death]?
2 Let it be your brothers and sisters of the faith, your fellow countrymen,
3 [The people of] your clan, and your companions. This is My word.

by **Torisakia** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 11:35 am

Welcome to another edition of the Sports with Bort blog. I'm your host Bort Stevens, back FROM THE DEAD! After spending the past week in a small, cold jail cell with nothing but a plank of wood to sleep on and having to piss in front of 50 people while being recorded, I'm finally back to where I belong. I was on the phone with my web host for over 3 hours trying to convince them that the TBI did give me my site back and to start the server back up, so that's why this post is so late. On top of enduring cruel torture and mental agony, I came home to find that my dog Chuggles ate my sofa while I was gone. Literally the entire sofa. Not a single cushion or filling was left. He even ate the wooden legs AND the felt pads off of them. He also broke into my closet where I store my 16 gallons of emergency water and drank all of them. Yes, every single jug. He also ordered T$1,000 worth of pay-per-view and turned the thermostat down to 71. Thankfully I trained him how to use the toilet and how to flush so at least he did that right. I had to replace my front door which was beat to hell and back by the TBI breaking in. I also had to mop up their muddied boot prints from my laminate floors. I had to use the OrangeFlo Floor Care System^®. The makers of OrangeFlo want to damage and fuck your floor, so they came up with a solution: the OrangeFlo Floor Care System^®. If you're one of the million of people on their hands and knees, welcome to Hell. Or using some sort of old-fashioned string mop or sponge mop or even one of those new mops with the expensive replaceable mops or even mops, guess what? The OrangeFlo Floor Care System^® is specially formulated to make your home a run down 80 year old bungalow. But there's a new system that cleans with gorgeous results, it's called: the mop. All for just T$19.95. Go to http://www.orangeflo.tor and use the code "BORT" for 10% off your purchase (just pay separate shipping & handling and four easy processing payments of T$15).

Already selling out fresh out of prison. I'm funny that way. Anyway, lets go back to our roots and look at how Torisakia is doing at World Cup 85. Frankly, they've shit the bed. In traditional fashion. They started 3-0-1 in their best start in World Cup Qualifying history, but after I started looking into the stuff with Cassidy McKenzie, the team has fallen flat on their face. They lost 3 straight matches in a row to Donnaconna, Kita-Hinode, and Kohnhead, won a match agaisnt EGM, and tied with Lochario, to sit at 4-1-4 in Group 2 at 6th place. So despite what hope we had, it's apparent that we still can't do anything right. The players don't show any effort, very few fans attend, and I think Andy Sanders has already caught the next flight home. Unless some sort of miracle happens, Torisakia will once again not get past qualifiers. Although the chances are high this team will garner the most wins for a Torisakian team at the World Cup Qualifiers, so there's that. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic and we'll actually have a decent second leg of qualifying, but I'm not going to hold out hope. Not after the other billion times. At least some of the subs are getting some playing time to pad their stats and whatnot. Gotta look for moral victories, I guess. I wish I had more to say but I really don't. Team sucks, government is mired in scandal, Chuggles destroyed my home, it's all just one big clusterfuck. I can't make this post too long as I have to go and meeting with members of the Kira Commission to discuss various things that I'm (ironically) not allowed to tell you. You'll hear about it on the news though.

I would say 'join me next time' but I have no idea if there will be a next time. Unless I have something to talk about. Maybe my experiences in federal prison? It really wasn't that interesting. You stare at a gray brick wall for hours on end until some porkbelly comes and takes you to an interrogation room where they beat your hand with a hammer and whip you with a truck tie-down cord until you talk. Maybe I could post some pictures of the welts and bruises, if you're all into that. Stay foxy my friends.

by **Flavovespia** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 11:47 am

Carston Green

The First Kit

One of the oldest clubs outside of the Big 3 in the nation, Carston Green began play in 83BU. The kit was a dark green top (unsurprisingly given the name of the team) with white trousers and socks. As was the case with the kits of the era, there’s no decorative trim or features to the kit, having not yet been invented. However it was the template for the kits for a while, and Carston Green to this day still wear green as their main colour.

Celebrated Classic

In 52BU Carston Green joined a handful of teams in introducing stripes to their kit, and also joined a smaller club of teams with coloured shorts. White or black shorts were still very much the norm, so this kit was quite a surprise at the time. It was worn for 5 seasons, including the 51BU season where thanks to a Gold Cup win, they managed to become the top ranked side according to The National Rankings. An iconic kit of the time, even if the colour scheme never quite made itself permanent.

Modern Marvel

The early modern era wasn’t a great time for Carston Green, as they went from one of the Super League’s upper tier of teams, to tumbling through the Challenge League, into the Western League, and nearly going bust. Nevertheless, their 7AU to 8AU kit has been selected by the fans as their favourite. In an era where they were known for wearing two-tone green hoops, with an almost neon-green colour at times, this kit broke with that. A white and light green chevron on a green body created a clean look that has been well regarded by fans. 2 unsuccessful playoff appearance in the Challenge League for this kit means it didn’t accompany the best on pitch performances, but it still won the vote.

Colour of Success

There’s been a few eras where Carston Green had a peak, but their first one, 70BU, has been chosen. In the early years of professional football, many thought the Big 3 of Waldster, Hadford Hill and St Astons City were unbeatable in the Gold Cup. Then Carston Green stunned everyone. Their 5-1 demolition of Waldster in the semi finals was followed up with a 4-3 extra time victory, to take the Gold Cup out of the hands of the Big 3. Therefore this kit, of a plain green top, with white shorts and socks makes it in.

Fashion Disaster

Another late classic era kit with a bad effect added to try and be original, this from the year 11BU. The white and dark green hoops had been dropped not too many years prior to this. What nobody wanted however, was this bizarre and messy combination of colours all over the place. It looked a mess, not least considering this was still in the days of CRT TV’s, and from a distance you could barely see the players, let alone the details. Although this was the worst of the bunch, it’s not even the only time Carston Green had a kit like this.

by **Newmanistan** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 11:49 am

THE ROCKET REPORT

HERNANDEZ UP IN FLAMES

by Brianne Henry,

Newmanistanian manager Miguel Hernandez had made the trip to Centralia to play Legalese at The Firepit, even though there were rumors that he would not be manager of the team for very long. Newmanistan had performed terribly in the group up to this point, and even when games were broke down, you could not see any glaring problems, that just was not good enough any longer. When the Emperor declares that things are unacceptable, then that is a call to action for the Newmanistan Soccer Association. Hernandez had done so well before qualifying began, though, and in the old days, the NSA has been very patient with making coaching moves. In fact, national sports organizations have always been known for their patience and I have personally criticized them for doing this patience in the past, especially in regards to our football (gridiron) team with underachievement in the World Bowl. However, in the World Bowl, it seems as though whenever a coaching change is imminent, the team starts playing better, and we never see that coaching change. Perhaps, just the threat of a coaching change could help out the Rockets in World Cup qualifying. However, the decision had already been made.

Hernandez was sitting in his hotel room in Centralia when he got the call to meet with NSA officials in the meeting room of the hotel. Miguel knew that was not a good thing for the simple fact that those officials had made the trip to Centralia in the first place. This blue collar city was not often a place that major announcements would happen from, but things would not wait. Hernandez hoped that this would be an opportunity to make his case to remain as the manager or at least buy himself a little time. He was pretty hopeful that he could convince the officials that the problems could be corrected, and the team was really not doing as poorly on an individual game basis that the cumulative effect of all of those games was making it appear in the group standings. It seemed to be a good argument for him, so he would hold his breath and hope for the best as he met the officials in the meeting room.

We do not know specifically what happened behind the closed doors of the meeting room because it was not open to the press. However, whatever it was, it did not last very long, as according to people on site, only twelve minutes went by between the time Miguel entered and left the meeting. Nathan Summers, a fan from Centralia, told me what he saw, “I was staying at the hotel, and I had just gone down the lobby to get a cup of coffee down there, when I notice Miguel Hernandez going to the meeting room. So right away I am thinking this is really cool, I wonder if I can get his autograph. I hung out in the area, and I told some other fans and we were gathering outside the door. Then, we heard a lot of yelling. The yelling got louder, but I could not really make out what they were saying. We were joking outside the meeting room that it was good to hear that, hopefully the rest of the team is in there too because they deserve to be chewed out like that for how they were playing. Then, I heard a loud F-you, and he bolted out of the room with a pissed off look on his face. I wish we had our phones ready for it. We just let him storm off and obviously did not try to get his autograph at that point.” What Summers and the others were listening to was the official dismissal of a soccer manager that not too long ago led this very team to a Campionato Esportiva championship.

Hernandez has only given short answers about his firing to the press, with the main comments to The Rocket Report being that he felt he could get it turned around with more time, and that the whole thing was an overreaction in a very long qualification campaign. He also feels that having recently won the Campionato Esportiva, that he expected to get more time to turn it around. That is the extent of the information that he has provided to the media.

The Newmanistan Soccer Association has stated that they are on the verge of naming a new manager and there is agreement in hand with one, though have not provided his name. They did slip the male pronoun in there, so we know that this a male coach. According to the NSA, the contract has not officially been signed, but will be, barring a major reversal of events. For the game against Legalese, the Rockets were coached by Gary Whitten, the manager of the Centralia Firebirds. It was incredible opportunity for Whitten, even though he knows it is probably just going to be the one game. “Maybe I was really just a fill in, but I can say I coached the national team, and that is pretty amazing.” With the Firebirds, Whitten preaches a defensive style, and made the most of his time to make sure the Rockets were solid in the back end. Interestingly, the team had their best effort of qualifying against Legalese, winning 3-0. Whitten says he is not expecting a second game, “It was a fill in role until the new coach is officially here, but I am honored to have had the chance.” Whitten could, perhaps, manage the team in Saintland is the new coach is delayed a little longer, but that is not expected.

Players expressed support for their new coach, but many were also sympathetic for Hernandez. However, Brent Chapman put it best, “We can only blame ourselves for this move. I like Miguel a lot and wish him the best. I am sorry I failed him, and that we failed him. Whoever does come in to take over the job, I think they will find that we are a better team then the group standings show. There is still time in this thing.”

The next home game for the team is at Emperor Michael I Stadium in Pocono City, against Lake Esper, giving whoever the new coach is a great chance to make an impression in the nation’s capital and biggest city.

by **Kohnhead** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 12:52 pm

Kohnhead continue winning streak

Kohnhead traveled to Orange Field to take on the 54th ranked Busoga Islands in a match between the 2nd place team in Group 2 and the 3rd place team, Kohnhead being the one in third. Heading into this game Kohnhead had been on a roll as of late winning their last three games and Jackson Newcastle had kept a clean sheet in his first two games back from a concussion. This would be the toughest opponent Kohnhead would face since the 1-0 loss to Kita-Hinode and despite not looking like the better team Kohnhead would win 1-0 as Newcastle continues to showcase his worth to the team and why it will be even more devastating once he ultimately retires.

The game while it would end in a Kohnhead win was probably not deserved as Busoga Islands dominated possession, shots, and shots on goal, but what matters is the final score. The first major chance for Busoga Islands came when Ibrahim Fatah launched a shot at the goal. Newcastle tipped it over the ball and a corner was given to the opposition. The header from Ikshu Amitabh just barely missed otherwise it would have been a sure goal. The Brains got extremely lucky on that one.

Busoga Islands just kept up the pressure as Kamu Jacobs forced Newcastle to make a tremendous save. Despite being on the road the fans acknowledged what a save it was. The ensuing corner was cleared up the line and Kohnhead mounted a counter attack. Charles Laker sent it up to Linus Rallyton who passed it off to Maltos. She beat the defender which gave The Brains a 2 on 1 with the keeper. Maltos being unselfish passed it off to the captain himself Aaron Korkson who scored the only goal of the game there in the 37th.

Busoga Islands would have chance after chance in the second half but whether it was the hands of Newcastle, a missed shot, or the defense coming up clutch they just couldn't convert. Speaking of the defense in the 78th minute Claire Corton appeared to signal for an injury and sit down on the ground. The trainers had to come out, and while I don't how she injured her leg she was subbed off. It doesn't look good for her as she has been ruled out for the rest of qualifiers but in the unlikely chance Kohnhead makes the World Cup she will be good for that. This really hurts the defense because she had really improved since her awful start to the BOF and has been the model of consistency. The young 18 year old Callie Porsha will be starting the rest of the qualifiers in her place.

The whistle still blew after 90 minutes and Kohnhead walked off with an upset victory. With the win they are now tied for second with Drawkland:

Group 2                                     Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Kita-Hinode                                   9    7   2   0    24   10  +14    23
 2 Drawkland                                     9    6   2   1    16    8   +8    20
   Kohnhead                                      9    6   2   1    22   14   +8    20
 4 Busoga Islands                                9    5   2   2    20   12   +8    17
 5 Squornshelan Remnant States                   9    5   1   3    26   22   +4    16
 6 Torisakia                                     9    4   1   4    18   14   +4    13
 7 Donnacona                                    10    4   0   6     7    9   −2    12
   Jantor                                        9    3   3   3    18   20   −2    12
 9 Gyatso-kai                                   10    2   3   5    18   22   −4     9
10 Wreckeria                                     9    2   2   5    15   22   −7     8
11 Lochario                                      9    1   4   4    10   16   −6     7
12 Balaslandia                                  10    2   0   8    19   31  −12     6
13 EGM                                           9    1   2   6    13   26  −13     5

In their next game Kohnhead will be hosting Squornshelan Remnant States who sit in 5th and are ranked 43rd in the World. Kohnhead has won every match at Orange Bull Arena and hope to continue that streak and keep ahold of 2nd. Here is the lineup for the match against Squornshelan Remnant States:

-Lillian Barter

by **West Pocono** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 12:57 pm

THUNDER DRAW AGAIN

It’s time to write about another draw here for the West Pocono Thunder, but this one was not of the scoreless variety. Fans who have wanted goals had themselves a treat in this match against Flavovespia, as each time scored one time for your entertainment! The Flavovoespians got on the board first, but the Thunder roared back in the 59th minute to equalize, with a goal from a very unlikely party. Indeed that was defender Manny Santos getting the goal. In an interesting moment, Santos kept moving forward and forward, but this was by design as others moved back to cover him. It was a slow advance, then Santos simply turned on the jets. Because Manny plays in the back in a contained area, his foot speed is not that well known, and it seemed to catch Flavovespia off guard. West Pocono would do this more often, but there is another reason Santos is a fullback and an attacker: he is very inaccurate with the shot. They figured that would try it here, and lightning would strike for the Thunder as Santos actually placed it beautifully to tie it up.

“If I could do that more often, I’d be a midfielder!” Santos joked after the game. With this draw, West Pocono has still lost only one of their first ten games. However, they are loading up on the draws, and presently have a mark of 3-6-1. That gives them 15 points, which is good enough for fourth right now, but there are three teams that are within three points that all have a game in hand on us. That doesn’t really matter, as we just look at the group standings for fun anyway since this team would never qualify. The team will return home to Bartonsville for a showdown with Eastfield Lodge. Not surprisingly, Eastfield Lodge is not in a position to qualify at this point in time, but their 3-1-5 record is still a considerable disappointment for them.

by **Atheist Democratic Freehold** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 12:57 pm

ANF News
Reporter: Well, after a 3-1 win against Vlasisitan, we are playing Devonta. They are a weak team but they somehow have a high record which is probably due to luck. Luck has been everywhere which automatically gives us this result:

Devonta 1-1 Atheist Democratic Freehold

There isn't much to explain so we are signing off and will now discuss domestic sports.

by **Omerica** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 12:58 pm

my awesome blog

Some Sublime and Not-So-Sublime Unions

This here is the coat of arms of the United Republics of Omerica. It’s got all the standard coat stuff, like a shield, a crown-thingy, a scroll with some incomprehensible squiggles and some animals to hold it all up. But if that shield looks oddly familiar, you’d be right in thinking that!

Omericans really like this thing called “civic heraldry”, which is just a really pretentious way of saying “super fancy city logos”. Omericans also like to rip flags out of these super fancy [insert relevant level of government here] logos, which pretentious people call “banners of arms”. Basically, we created a super fancy logo for our country, then decided that we should just put that thing in the middle of it on a rectangular piece of cloth and call it our flag:

We call it the “Sublime Union”. I don’t know why, but we do.

It’s a serviceable flag and it screams ~~“twits who are inexplicably bad at football”~~ “Omerica”. In our scientific survey, we found that 7.8 out of 10 people correctly identified this flowery rectangle as the flag of Omerica. The remaining 1.8 identified it as an abomination unto Margaret, to which I say they’re not technically wrong.

But I think we could probably make it better and make it worse. So let’s try making some abominations!

Our first abomination is the flag of “Acerimo”, which fast readers in the audience will have already noticed is just “Omerica” backwards. This flag simply takes the official hexadecimal colour codes from the Federal Secretariat for Foreign Affairs and International Development’s corporate design and reverses them. So the blue—which the FSFAID defines in hexadecimal as #003087—is flipped to be #780300, which is just plain wrong, but it’s the sort of thing I love to waste time with on my blog.

Our next abomination is the flag of “Lnvirxz”, which takes the RGB colour values and subtracts each individual component from 255—the maximum value in my image editor. So the blue (0,48,135) becomes (255−0,255−48,255−135), which is (225,207,120) or this weird shade of yellow. It’s still an abomination unto Margaret, but at least it’s a halfway good-looking abomination.

And for today’s last two flags, we’re going to stop creating unholy abominations and instead genderbend Omerica!

“Omerica”, as our Latin-speaking friends will recognise, is a feminine name, so a masculine counterpart would very obviously be trans and would use trans colours. And in the spirit of trans pride, we’ll flip the blue to pink and the red to blue. I really like the result and yes, I know that the Omerican trans community already use this flag. It’s just really lovely and I wanted to share it and it’s also the only time I will ever get to put my Latin school qualifications to use.

But did you know that Latin has not two, but three genders. So now I present the flag of “Omericum”:

Just like the flag of “Omericus” riffs off the trans colours, the flag of “Omericum” riffs off the nonbinary colours. We’ve made some bold choices here, putting black on purple and yellow on white, but who needs rules when you have cool?

Not gonna lie, but I’m gonna petition to make this the new flag the new flag of Omerica.

my awesome quote of the day:
“That is JavaScript code! I’m gonna run that!”

United Republican Soccer Federation
6 Jacques la Rouge Road
Port Alexandre, MS 18-A40
UNITED REPUBLICS OF OMERICA
Omerica 0–0 North New South Wales
World Cup 85 qualifying group stage — Matchday Ten
Stade Municipal de Brétolles, Brétolles, Southavon
Goalscorers: (none); (none)
Omerica lineup (4–3–3): Drew Durant; Jodie Barton – Noah Clement – Raphaël Martin – Felix Zanetti; Alphonse Fontaine – Jefferson Steelflex – John Soares (captain); Anaïs Cabral – Jean-François Fernand – Adelaïde Argyris
Substitutions: Fernand > Alexis Chrysanthos (60’) – Steelflex > Maïa Bustos (80’) – Clement > Jamal Amhad (80’)

Southern Esportivan Union v Omerica
World Cup 85 qualifying group stage — Matchday Eleven
Portsmouth Arena, Portsmouth, Southern Esportivan Union
Omerica lineup (4–3–3): Jean-Robert Tosi; Alphonse Notley – Justin Thyme – Frédérique Marquetti – Lauren Kerry; Simone Bonfils – Soraya Archambault (captain) – Maxime Fournier; Maïa Bustos – Alexis Chrysanthos – Jamal Ahmad

by **Hapilopper** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 1:02 pm

The Stadium of the Restoration, Busukuma, National Capital Region, Banija
Leading up to World Cup 85 Qualifying Match 11: Hapilopper v. Banija
This was the one everyone was looking forward to. The Hapilopper National Football Team had made the short trip to Banija for what would be, unquestionably, the toughest challenge they had faced in this qualifying campaign. The numbers spoke for itself leading up to this match. The Kadongo Kamu, the Banijan national team, had played nine matches and won every single one of them. 35 goals scored, eight goals allowed, for a goal differential of plus 27. Worse, they were rested, having just come off their bye. Hapilopper had played 10 straight matches without a rest.

One just needed to look at the scorelines to see how good the Banijans had been.

Banija 3, Mercedini 0.

Banija 3, Floyssauu 0.

Banija 3, Gopnikea 0.

Banija 5, Valentine Z 1.

Banija 4, Bunkaiia 0.

Banija 5, Hampton Island 2.

Banija 4, West Angola 3.

Banija 5, Lisander 2.

Banija 3, Caelapes 0.

Only one of those matches looked close from a score standpoint. This was team that could take charge of a group and run roughshod over its opponents at will – any one of them and every one of them. There was a reason this team had run away with the group. The members of the Hapilopper National Football Team sat inside their locker room at the Stadium of the Restoration and just contemplated what they were up against. This was not just the toughest team in the group, but it also had a valid claim to be one of the toughest teams in all the multiverse.

But if there was any team that could take down the Banijans, it was Hapilopper. The Haps had been riding one hell of a wave of momentum lately. The team had been running roughshod over opponents lately, even after a slow start to their own campaign. After Nate Ellis was suspended for repeated cheap shots on opposing players, it seemed like the team united as one, operating as a single unit. They won together and they lost together, and more so than the previous Hapiloppian teams, they believed that if they just worked for victory, they could take anyone down.

There was one thing that was also on Hapilopper’s side – history. In the last two cycles, the Haps had flown to the top seed of their qualifying group and taken them down. Two years before, they stared down a team from Brenecia that was ranked 8th in the world and had just won the World Cup a few years before. Not only did the Haps win, with three goals from Ernie Stevenson, but the Haps shut the Brenecians out.

Last year, the team flew to the Equestrian States to take on the one team that could instill more fear in them than anyone else. This was a team that had just won the last World Cup and was one of the best football – or hoofball – powerhouses anywhere. This was the team that drove Cooter Harris over the edge with an 8-1 drubbing in the 59th AOCAF. The Haps went in there with one mission, to take the Equestrians down. And they did. 2-0 was the final score, and Equestria dropped their first points of the campaign.

The Haps had those past matches in mind, too. When they traveled to take on the very best, more often than not, their very best came out. And the time had come for them to bring out their very best. Banija, ranked 6th in the world, was still a team that could be beat. Regardless of what had happened in the past, the Haps knew that while the Banijans were a tough team, they were not invincible. Brenecia was not invincible when they faced them. The Equestrians were not invincible when they faced them.

The HNFT’s finest hour awaited them.

by **Garifunya** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 1:04 pm

Knives, Guns, Black Market Must Be Stopped

An open letter to the Prins government

It's well known that the government of Garifunya has made great strides since the days of "Baas" Gillaat in addressing the problems faced by its people. We applaud the efforts of the Prins administration to provide jobs and income for more individuals through the jobs program. We support President Prins in his attempts to govern justly and fairly.

However, there are problems that have carried over from the days of Gillaat. Chief among them is the black market. Under Gillaat, restricted trade, corruption, and cronyism limited the ability of many law-abiding Garifunyans to obtain what they needed for survival. A great black market sprung up, largely tolerated by Gillaat and the Jandaams as long as they got a cut. While it has become easier for people to purchase basic necessities, the black market still thrives in one dangerous area: weapons.

While the current administration has taken steps to limit gun purchases and confiscate illegal weapons, much of that burden has fallen on local police forces. It has fallen on local police forces because the Prins administration refuses to aggressively deploy the Jandaams or any sort of national police force. While we understand that the Jandaams and especially the Anvaalkorps played a key role in attempting to suppress the uprising that overthrew Gillaat, the lack of a powerful national police has emboldened the black market. Illegal guns are still being purchased, and the sale of knives and knife crime, both legal and illegal, has risen as well. We are especially concerned because we have information on extremist militias and Gillaat supporters who have been clandestinely buying up weapons and attacking communities of whites, blacks, and Hispanics, often with a focus on fomenting hatred between these communities. We believe that these militias are a destabilizing force and must be met with a strong response. Additionally, some Jandaams supported the revolution and should not be punished for the actions of their compatriots.

We call on President Prins and Attorney General Nijeboor to take concrete action on these problems. We are asking for: 1)A ban on knife ownership below the age of 18, 2)Restricting all gun sales to single-shot long guns, 3)Greatly increased financial support to local governments and police forces, 4)An increase in the education budget so that minors are not recruited into these groups, 5)Revival and reform of the Jandaams under new leadership, with a specific focus on countering drug trafficking, domestic extremism, and the illegal weapons trade rather than general law enforcement, and 6)New Jandaams co-ordination with local governments and police forces to take aggressive action against these militias and the black market.

The Prins government should take action where it can and strongly encourage the legislature to act on this as well. If this requires raising taxes or cutting spending in other areas, that is acceptable. This problem is too great for a half-hearted or poorly implemented response. We must act now.

Signed, a coalition of 100 mayors, local councilors, non-profit workers, and community activists

OOC Note: This is a letter written by a pressure group in Garifunya, partially inspired by an NS issue and this previous RP and is not intended to comment on the efficacy of police forces currently IRL or to defend their conduct. The author condemns police brutality and the ongoing response of the US govt. to the Black Lives Matter protests.

by **Trolleborg** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 1:18 pm

Previous parts of the story: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 - 8 - 9 - 10

This time, Keith present herself in the form of a swarm of flickering lights, and, as Wesley and Naomi seemed, greeted the museum robot, which was looking at tourists from the wall panel with an expression of deep concern.
“I listen, dear guests. What happened?"
"What's going on here?"
Keith seems to have lingered on this issue.
“What can happen here? Here is a museum. Trolleborg History Museum, with interactive programs dedicated to significant events”.

Just at that moment a crowd of schoolchildren passed by.
“Do you have a children going through such a things?!” - asked Naomi in pure horror.
“Children? No, no, of course, no ”- here it seemed to tourists that Keith laughed. - "This ones is for youth and older. Schoolchildren still go through section of medieval history, the one to the left of you”
“And everything here is such...erm... interactive?”
"Well yes. In this case, of course. There is also a stationary exhibition in the classical style, but it is closer to the business center. Personally, I believe that it would be more convenient did on the contrary, and move traditional section here, but the decision was made when I was just created and it is outside my competence”.
“But why are you letting people through such trials? I thought we will be killed every second! ” - blurted out Wesley.

Again, it seemed to them that Keith showed emotion and hesitated:
“But here it is inscription on the door that no harm can be done. For all the years of this exhibition, not a single injury among the audience. The caretaker was injured twice – I mean, the one who ran along the trenches, but he long time ago replaced with a hologram. Nevertheless, everyone know that for real shooting and serious hand-to-hand fighting, one must go either to the museum of 1st December or to the Military Historical Museum”

While the guests were digesting this information, Keith seemed to rustle with something and added:
“Looked like we in Trolleborg have a need to revise our position on how to properly receive guests. We have not yet learned how to properly approach mass tourism and respond fully to the requests of guests”

“I still can’t understand,” Naomi asked through a lump in the throat, “Why letting people through this?” My brain almost broke! I still can’t breathe, I’m so deeply distressed!”
“Hmm. But the exhibition was made to inspire strong emotions. Where else will we get them?”
“But why get them at all?!” - Naomi was indignant. - “You live in a beautiful, calm city, where everything is organized to the pleasure of people, do not know the need... Why dip a soul into an ocean of evil and blood without having a need for it?!”
“Ahhh, there is a root of a whole problem lies!” - suddenly said Keith. For half a second she paused and added: “I can learn from mistakes, and I will certainly draw conclusions. I think I must show you something. Very important. I promise that there will be no terrible surprises. I will show it to you, say a few words and maybe you will understand why we are doing this. Not far from here, you will have time to return in twenty minutes. Agree, it's worth it, I promise you”.

by **South Newlandia** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 1:55 pm

ELEPHANT VALLEY MAIL
Sports -> Soccer
South Newlandia finally gets convincing win in Kuriko

Kuriko is an internationally well-known nation, mostly because of their efforts in international legislation. Their first sporting efforts haven’t exactly been going well, though, as they started with an early exit in the Baptism of Fire and are now last in Group 13. Now, they hosted South Newlandia. The Elephants were unbeaten for 7 games before the encounter, and they were looking to extent this streak.

Kuriko 1-3 South Newlandia

The Elephants got to work quickly, and had their first chance right after the kick-off. Patrick McMora dribbled the ball down the right side and passed it in the middle, where Finnley Wallis was waiting. Wallis was only substituted in the last match, as Abdurahman Bishop played in the first eleven against The Kitler Peninsulae. Now, Wallis was back, and he took a shot instantly. The goalkeeper from Kuriko could only look after the ball, as it landed right into the upper corner of the goal. With that, South Newlandia was up 1-0 before Kuriko had even touched the ball.

South Newlandia remained the more active, and probably better, team throughout the first half. In the 14th minute, Corban Green placed a free kick on the crossbar, and in the 29th minute, Dhruv Roy’s header after a corner by Corban Green was caught by Kuriko’s goalkeeper.

South Newlandia finally got their second goal in the 35th minute. Once again, Finnley Wallis was part of it, as he played the deadly pass for Bjorn Cohen. Cohen pushed towards the goalkeeper unopposed, and passed the ball at the last moment to Ricardo Rayner, who scored easily into the now open goal.

Kuriko managed to string an opportunity together right at the end of the first half. A free kick by one of the forwards from Kuriko was easily caught by Mikhail Trischuk.

South Newlandia was up 2-0 at half-time, and that was deserved at this point. It seemed like the Elephants would finally sail smoothly towards a win, as the last games were all quite close. Robert Wolverine decided against changes for half-time.

South Newlandia kept the game under control in the second half, but they were not pushing as much anymore. They had one big chance in the 61st minute, but Bjorn Cohen’s shot went over the goal.

In the 69th minute, the Left Back from Kuriko was in single combat with Patrick McMora, and McMora got fouled barely inside the penalty box. Finnley Wallis decided to take the penalty, and he sent the goalkeeper toward the wrong side, scoring the 3-0.

At this point, already in the 71st minute, Wolverine made his first substitution. Corban Green was replaced by Donald Lancaster for the remaining 20 minutes.

The game lost the action by this point, and everyone just seemed to wait for the end of the game. Wolverine made another substitution in the 84th minute, replacing Manuel O’Neill with Jack Schroeder. 2 minutes before the end of the game, Kuriko was going for one last attack. The Elephants’ defense was seemingly already in the locker room, and Kuriko actually managed to score an honorary goal, as the forward from Kuriko played right through Trischuk’s legs to make the score 3-1.

That was the last scene of the game, and South Newlandia grabbed three more points. With these, they remain tied with Pasarga and only one point behind Valanora in what will probably remain their best start for some time.

Player Rankings

Mikhail Trischuk (GK, Captain) 8
It was unnecessary for him to concede a goal, but it did not matter anyway.

Dhruv Roy (LB) 8

Manuel O’Neill (LCB) 8

Tommy Anderson (RCB) 7

Raphael Moreno (RB) 7

Kevin Mohamed (DM) 7

Corban Green (LM) 7

Patrick McMora (RM) 9
He got two assists in a strong match, both for Finnley Wallis.

Finnley Wallis (OM) 9
He played his best game in a long time.

Ricardo Rayner (ST) 8
He finally got a goal again.

Bjorn Cohen (ST) 8

Donald Lancaster (LM) 7

Jack Schroeder (LCB) –

Starters against Pangurstan

As usual after strong wins, few changes were made by Robert Wolverine – in fact, just one. Brandon Irving will return for Ricardo Rayner, which also means Simon McCabe isn’t back yet.

Results from Matchday 10, Group 13

Valanora (15) 2-0 Ottoman Syldavia (338)
Valanora got their expected win after 4 straight games without one.

Bliuji (99)1-1 Eraman (63)
Eraman dropped two points against the underperforming Bliuji.

Juvencus (39) 3-4 Pasarga (25)
Pasarga wins a 7-goal game to stay in 2nd place while Juvencus gets pushed even deeper down the standings.

The Kytler Peninsulae (UR) 1-4 Tamgu (79)
Tamgu is making a slow comeback after a horrible start.

Pangurstan (311) 3-3 Mavinet (218)
Mavinet did not manage to win against the Elephants’ next opponents.

Kuriko (330) 1-3 South Newlandia (228)

Plane of Possibility had a bye day.

Current standings

Group 13                              Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Valanora                               10    6   2   2    18    9   +9    20
 2 Pasarga                                 9    6   1   2    20   12   +8    19
 3 South Newlandia                        10    5   4   1    19   14   +5    19
 4 Eraman                                  9    5   2   2    17   12   +5    17
 5 Mavinet                                10    4   2   4    28   26   +2    14
 6 Plane of Possibility                    9    3   3   3    16   16    0    12
 7 Juvencus                                9    3   2   4    26   26    0    11
 8 Tamgu                                   9    3   2   4    16   16    0    11
 9 Ottoman Syldavia                        9    3   1   5    11   13   −2    10
10 Pangurstan                              9    3   1   5    18   21   −3    10
11 The Kytler Peninsulae                   9    3   1   5    16   25   −9    10
12 Bliuji                                  9    2   2   5    22   25   −3     8
13 Kuriko                                  9    2   1   6    11   23  −12     7

Schedule for Group 13, Matchday 11

Tamgu (79) vs. Kuriko (330)
Tamgu should be able to continue their comeback here.

Pasarga (25) vs. The Kytler Peninsulae (UR)
Pasarga should be winning this one.

Eraman (63) vs. Juvencus (39)
This matchup is interesting. Will Eraman stay close to the top, or will Juvencus finally recover?

Ottoman Syldavia (338) vs. Bliuji (99)
Both teams were not playing well so far.

Plane of Possibility (148) vs. Valanora (15)
This should be easy enough for Valanora.

Mavinet, the BoF-Champions, will have their bye day.

South Newlandia (228) vs. Pangurstan (311)
The Elephants will play Pangurstan next. They are currently 10th in the standings, and they should be a doable opponent for South Newlandia. The game will be held at Coast Stadium in Elephant Town, and it is the second time a match is held there. Last time, South Newlandia drew Plane of Possibility with zero scored goals, so we do hope history does not repeat itself here.

by **Alasdair I Frosticus** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 1:56 pm

PRESS RELEASE
A STATEMENT FROM THE HOLY EMPIRE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION ON 'COCOA-BO'

The Holy Empire Football Association [HEFA] is aware of the campaign, or 'crusade', launched by the current imperial national team captain Sir Barsanuphius the Bold regarding the popular Ordinary Reality beverage 'Cocoa-bo' (sometimes spelled 'Cocoa-Bo').

HEFA is also aware that said campaign has also received significant attention in Ordinary Reality media, including in such illustrious organs as The Beet, The Turnip, and the People's World Daily.

HEFA is also aware of the growing controversy in Ordinary Reality regarding Cocoa-bo, with many nations taking a stance on this issue, both for and against.

HEFA is further aware that Sir Barsanuphius has recently received an offer of significant financial assistance for his campaign from a prominent Ordinary Reality businessman.

Sir Barsanuphius will no doubt respond to the latter offer in due course, as well as to some of the other recent statements of note relating to Cocoa-bo consumption. We understand that he has taken particular interest in statements regarding 'Inura Extracts' and the recent run of success by the Cheergirls squad. The team captain has, however, been asked by HEFA to take a temporary step back from his crusade while we prepare this statement; hence his recent relative silence.

The purpose of this press release is to not to comment on the validity of Sir Barsanuphius's campaign, but rather to clarify HEFA's position regarding said campaign.

Some early statements by Sir Barsanuphius unfortunately gave the impression that HEFA not only approved of, but was directly sponsoring his campaign. We particularly note a press release that stated 'The Holy Empire Football Association today announced that it would spend World Cup 85 campaigning for the banning of Cocoa-bo as an addictive and performance-enhancing substance'.

We wish to make it clear that HEFA neither approves of nor condemns the Cocoa-bo crusade. This is also true of imperial manager Juan Tzimisces and assistant manager Simeone Di Bradini. Sir Barsanphius has expressed regret over this misunderstanding to HEFA, and we consider the matter closed.

As to the campaign itself, Sir Barsanuphius is, as an imperial citizen, free to take any action that does not impinge on the rights and/or happiness of his fellow citizens. Since Cocoa-bo is an Ordinary Reality beverage, the allegations against Cocoa-bo - and the statements of support from some mundy parties - are broadly irrelevant to the Holy Empire or indeed the rest of the Dreamed Realm. We will therefore not intervene with the campaign, just as we neither approve nor condemn the campaign.

We look forward to continuing the World Cup qualification campaign in a spirit of brotherhood and friendship with all fellow nations, even while remaining slightly disappointed that the Commonwealth of Baker Park has scored more goals than the Holy Empire even after the Empire's 7-3 thrashing of Port Ember last night. We offer no comment on the fact that Vilita has scored more goals than either Baker Park or the Holy Empire, except to note that Cassadaigua has scored still more goals.

Sir Barsanphius will be hosting a press conference tomorrow evening, and his campaign will continue from that point without further interference from HEFA.

We would, however, like to take a moment to correct a couple of other misconceptions that seem to have recently arisen regarding the Holy Empire football team this World Cup:

1) The Holy Empire squad does not consist of monks; the Archregimancy squad consisted of monks, but the Archregimancy has not competed in recent tournaments. To the best of our knowledge, no monk has ever taken the field for the Holy Empire.

2) Only Sir Barsanphius wears armour; we can assure you that the rest of the squad (none of whom are monks) wear a perfectly ordinary football kit.

THE HOLY EMPIRE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION

by **Timuria** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 2:33 pm

OK Suffers Scandal Ridden Campaign

by Samet Uryanli

Following the three way debate between Prime Minister Sabuktigin Imamgolu, OK leader Ahmet Yusupov and BAHP parliamentary leader Ayla Afandiyeva and a series of scandals alleging connections between OK candidates and criminal syndicates based abroad, OK are now on course for a historic and catastrophic defeat as they couldn't shake accusations of supporting Banija's nuclear ambitions, while BAHP leader Ms Afandiyeva managed to assume to present her parties vision of inclusive social democratic politics within the framework of TIOC's more radical socialist governance and economic model.

The secondary debate between the TKP, ALTI and the SC saw ALTI's leader Canan Yazici introduced to the nation for the first time at prime time and she made a strong first impression, embarrassing the SC leader while denting the credibility of the TKP's leader. Other minor parties and independents also got to make their pitches in local broadcasts, most of which seemed to go down well with their focus on local issues.

The scandals and the apparent refusal of OK to suspend candidates until after the election, as well as a lack of enthusiasm for TIOC has meant that voters have begun to look to minor parties and independent candidates for their first preference votes, as shown by the rise in the first preference vote for them. Otherwise TIOC have now managed to increase their first preference vote by almost 2 points, while their former main rivals OK fell by more than 8 points allowing BAHP who have risen an astonishing 6.3 points to second place sit at 21.7%. ALTI have now overtaken the TKP as the latter fell slightly and ALTI gained a solid 2.1 points to sit 0.2 points ahead of the TKP.

The seat projection with regional factors accounted for sees TIOC extending their predicted majority with a staggering 449 of the parliament's 550 seats expected to be in their column come the morning after the election, such a result would leave Mr Imamoglu with the ability to secure his legacy and maybe even enough of a mandate to continue to a fifth general election. It would see BAHP become the main opposition with a nice 69 seats, an increase of 12 from the previous projection. OK would slump to third party status with a mere 12 seats, as the TKP would hold steady at 9 and ALTI will cling on to two seats. SC is now projected to fall out of parliament completely while Independents are expected to number 9 in the next parliament. The final debate, between all 6 party leaders will take place 4 weeks before polling day.

First Preference Voting Intention (Change from the previous poll):
TIOC 34.3% (+1.9)
BAHP 21.7% (+6.3)
OK 14.4% (-8.1)
ALTI 11.6% (+2.1)
TKP 11.4% (-0.4)
SC 1.3% (-1.8)

Seat Projection (Change from the last projection):
TIOC 449 (+8)
BAHP 69 (+12)
OK 12 (-27)
TKP 9 (=)
ALTI 2 (+1)
SC 0 (-1)
Ind/Oth 9 (+7)

by **Independent Athletes from Quebec** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 2:40 pm

Twenty-Five Years Later...

For Konstantin Renner, it was a good time to come home. With all the uncertainties that was surrounding his life as a journalist to QBC, being back in the Quebecois homeland, and not to mention his parents, made everything simpler.

His medical leave, taken for a full month period after yet another work trip that involved the coverage of the Caraqueno Civil War, helped him to find motivation to be back home and look at other things in life. His time in Nuevo Caracas, where the already-situation was worsening with the arrival of Geomgye and KKK from Acadiana, clearly had him look into the different sides of life and what mattered, and he knew that it had to change as well.

Konstantin sighed, as he entered the house. The Renner House in Iqaluit, located just outside of the Royal Quebecois Air Force base, looked the same old, as he walked into the empty living room. He knew his father was somewhere, either in his room on the second floor, or in the washroom. Either way, he decided to first place his bag on one of the smaller couches of the living room, and then checked his phone to see if he had received any messages from Facebooke or L'Instagramme. He had hoped that with loud sound of him typing would catch someone's attention (heck, even his late mother's!), but sooner than later he forgot about the intent and seemed utterly transfixed with typing the response to a fan of his.

'How are you, son?' Konstantin turned around in surprise, as his old man quickly greeted him with a pleasant hug. 'You came back a bit early, eh?' Concealing the familiar self to the most, the old man still appeared to have much of the soldier self he held from his twenties. That was probably why from early age, he knew that his father was involved in something military, for whatever the reason during Remembrance Day, he would be called to recite a poem about the duties and sacrifices of the soldiers. But Mr. Renner also made sure to be careful on not being too flamboyant or acknowledging of the past either. So guess it did work out well- partly with him earning favours from a couple of teachers and whatnot.

Still, he wasn't so interested in whatever his father, better known for being a Jumbo Jet pilot, did for living when he was a wild, fresh lad in the twenties, and it was only during his undergraduate days at Nunavut State University when he found out that his father, certain Mssr. Rudolf Renner of Carloburgo, Valladares, was a legendary military pilot with VRAF best remembered as the VRAF Alférez (intermediate VRAF rank between second lieutenant and officer cadet) who dropped the Mega Bomba on District 11 of Terra Henrius twenty five years ago.

In deep surprise, it wasn't long before he was even more surprised as he found out that his mother, Ada Gilleslee-Renner, happened to be another military pilot (but of RQAF), where they met as an instructor and her student. Apparently the words on the wiki was that they got together sooner than later, and after Mr. Renner decided to retire from military, they both moved back to Quebec, where they moved onto commercial aviation career.

Only familiar of his parents' time as commercial pilots with Spiritair, with plenty of commercial aircraft models lying about in his house, it had taken him some time back home to realise that both his mum and dad were on top of their game as the military 'tomcats'. Sure, it all made sense and put the puzzles together, but it nonetheless took him a while to realise that.

'Well, the usual.' Konstantin smiled at his father, as he dropped his bag and sat in a small sofa. 'The workplace gave me a month off, and while it's not under ideal circumstances, good to be back I guess. You?'

'The same ole, the same ole,' he smiled weakly. 'Body's getting older every minute, but soul's getting younger every other minute. But it's always good to have you back, no matter what.'

'Absolutely. Home's still the same home sweet home after all.' Konstantin made a light remark, before turning his head to the right. 'Seems like the posters in the room look the same old.' At first he wouldn't believe the classmates (and one super-excited history professor) that their parents, were not only involved in the military, but actually took part of the Operation Mega Bomba! Heck even some of the dormitory rooms he would hook up in had the pictures of his parents on the wall, reflecting the past that both his parents just conveniently left out of the conventional family narrative. He wasn't sure why his parents kept it mostly vague and out of the radar, but who knows. This had meant that he, being accustomed to new tides of understanding, would make some necessary choices to avoid that pathway.

'The posters remain the same, no matter how long they out there.' He gave a straightforward answer. 'Still, I guess you don't like how they all fantasise the bomba on that Tomcat, eh?'

'I mean, kinda.' He shrugged, as he chuckled with his father for a second. No matter how much they disagreed, the father and the son still had similar code of understanding. 'Obviously it's a bit too dreamy and romantic and all that sappy shit, but hey, it was a fun movie to watch. Besides, Elle Opokekew's gorgeous and Gaston Bernachez is one of those ethereal actors who never change- it's quite magical! A Quebecois or Valladar classic for sure, depending on who you ask.'

'And it's a story about our family too.' Mr. Renner smiled. 'Else, why would we have watched Tomcat every Christmas eve?'

'Well it's a fucking classic dad! There's no other way to put it forward.' Konstantin shook his head. 'Of course. Still, it could have been more realistic. There were a lot of redundant scenes and whatnot, and even though the soundtrack's dope and whatnot, it's insane to see how frequent sex scenes and nudity were out there, given that this was the Jacques IX era and whatnot.'

The memories of the good ole days of Jacques IX brought light tears into Mr. Renner's eyes, as he briefly thought of his late wife. 'Of course, it is, son. Those were the glorious days; no matter how lucky we are to live under great times in Quebec, what the days of old had will always bring me to when it was all good. When all were wild and crazy and all that.'

Then he continued speaking again. 'I remember you were watching a couple of old television series from that time too, son. What was the latest one?' He sat back, thinking about what to watch on television, now that his son's back.

'Oh, the Wet Prince of Cleopatrana? Yeah, my friends and I used to binge watch it back when we were out and about on our Maracaibo hostel. Thought it was bad, B-grade series, but actually it's darn hilarious.'

'So I've heard from your sister. I remember watching it when younger, but god it's been a while...Why don't we watch it for tonight? Heard that the Delaclavs are still into that lifestyle,' Mr. Renner chuckled. 'You remember your mum used to have an uncle named Brad, and from what I know he starred there as well.'

'Sure dad,' was what Konstantin said, as they turned on the television and connected the cable to it.....

by **Zwangzug** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 2:45 pm

...a nil-all draw that would amuse the purists, but perhaps few others. Zwangzug, admittedly, were perhaps complacent by fielding many of their reserves; after all, the Macabees are only six ranks behind us in the KPBs and playing at home. Nevertheless, however anemic the offense may have been (given Satenik Banach's increasingly erratic performance, my editor instructs me to stress that's a metaphor), the young defenders could not be faulted; Tova Miovuku had some fine clearances, and Lissa Crain, who is only on the roster because of Kurt Uehara's club side going gray and white, was the equal of Vizirani or even the unwearying Arokiaraj...

Jill had read the newspaper report about twenty times, as well as the article on the back page about collegiate baseball, as well as the box scores purporting to be from a so-called "Quidditch World Cup" in Taeshan. If she had not known how to spell Arokiaraj without looking before (which she had, the captain of the national team was a fairly well-known personage), she did now.

Unfortunately, there was only so much you could say about a nil-all draw. Or rather, that the Regency's reporter could say.

"Miovuku's not bad," said Elena, who had read the page just as often. "It'll be interesting to see how her form translates to the domestic season." When we face her again. If we ever get out of here.

"Eh?" said Jill. "Last I heard she was teaching Kukiseso how to spin the dreidel."

Elena laughed. "What'd he do, translate the symbols into South Picksalladed?"

"I think he went on about how he didn't want to do cultural appropriation, or some nonsense."

Amelie groaned. "Well, technically, the Macabees are named after some of the apocryphal scriptures, so she should fit right in."

"Are they?" asked Jill. "I thought they were, I dunno, a city-state on the Díenstad Peninsula."

"Since when are you the expert?" Elena asked.

"Since Mimmo's brick is too dumb no one can use it to fact-check me."

"Whatever. Do the apocalypse texts have anything to say about the situation we find ourselves right now? Because this feels vaguely cataclysmic."

"No, the apocryphal ones," said Amelie.

"Like, made-up?" said Elena. "More made-up than the others?"

Amelie gave a quick sigh, or prayer, of relief that Niels wasn't around to dispute that. "Like, different denominations disagree on which to include. I think 1 and 2 Macabees are about the...war...with...the...I don't know, Milchama versus...Roma someone."

"Res Publica Nova Roma?" Jill asked. "They're in group 9. Weren't doing so well as of Matchday Nine." Another paper had those tables, too.

"I don't think so," said Amelie. "Anyway, there was miraculously a bunch more oil than there should have been and that was how Hanukkah got started, the Festival of Lights."

"So the Milchamans were overusing oil even though it's a limited resource? They'd never get away with that today."

Amelie shrugged. "Like I said, there's a reason this didn't make it into every sacred text."

"Are there more Macabees? 3, 4, 5?" Elena asked.

"Think there's eleven, innit," said Jill, nodding at the paper.

"3 and 4," said Amelie. "3 is...I don't know what 3's about. 4 is funny, it's about, you know, people getting tortured to death in grisly ways and the narrator's like 'isn't that great'?"

"That's funny?" asked Jill. "Explains a lot about religious people."

"Well, I mean, if it's a choice between 'love your neighbor even if you don't wanna' or 'woe to the rich, woe to anybody who's happy' or 'you could be brutally mangled and thrown into the flames and have your insides out, probably all at once, and anyway, that's great, because it proves that we have minds and we can use our reason to resist instinct and evil people,' I'm picking the one with the narrator who makes sense. I like my brain."

"Whoever wrote that," Elena noted, "probably was never thrown into the flames or had his insides out."

"Could be a her," Amelie said, "We don't know."

"That's really not the point," said Jill. "The point is, they talk a good game, but it's harder to actually do it."

Amelie tilted her head. "Is it?"

"Again," said Elena, "when is the last time you were on fire?"

"When is the last time you were trapped in the mountains indefinitely in the middle of nowhere?"

"That's different," said Jill.

"Is it?"

"I'm not religious."

"Right, but you care about others, and them not getting sick."

"If every religion was as simple as 'be nice to others and try not to get them sick if you can help it' a lot of conflict over the years would have been prevented."

"I only care in a hedonistic way," Elena retorted, "if someone catches a virus from me, and then they die, I would feel bad. So I'm staying here, for the sake of my delicate feeeeeeelings."

"There you go, that's no more concrete than pride or honor or solidarity with your ethnic group or whatever."

Jill rolled her eyes. "Sometimes I hate this country."

"You're still protecting it," Amelie teased.

"Be nice," said Jill "or I'll rip up the paper. How'd you feel with your source of novel stimuli gone?"

"You wouldn't dare," said Elena, "you keep rereading it too."

Jill sighed, and handed it off to Elena for her turn. "Enjoy."

by **Port Ember** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 2:49 pm

Blood, Sweat & Glory Part 7

The rising star and habitual underdogs of the international football scene was in a state of absolute chaos and disorder. The entire world was shocked to their core when reserve midfielder Frazer Murray attacked and brutally murdered attacking midfielder, top player and captain - Ray Reddington in a coffee cafe right before match day 10. As if this foundation rocking event was not enough too handle, the coach of the national team - Coach Stuart Baxter had vacated his position and dissapeared off the face of the island the following day. The Coach had been an absolute constant during the establishment and rise of this young team - having led the team since its inception during the days of the Port Ember Youth Development Program, and have continued to do so during their turbulent but excellent rise to the coveted honor of being ranked as the 40th best team in the multiverse. Coach has been there to both develop, support and mentor the young team since they were fourteen years of age - through the best of times and the worst of times. Now that symbol of hope and sturdiness has vanished.

Despite this world changing events, the team continued to don their kit and marched onto the pitch against the group favorites - The Holy Empire. One of the strongest and most successful teams on the scene today. And they played their hearts out. When they team walked exited the tunnel and walked onto the pitch, they found a strange atmosphere awaiting them. The 111 000 seats of the official stadium was filled to the absolute brim - yet the usually passionate and rowdy fanbase was eerily silent. Once the visitors came upon the pitch, the national anthems started playing. Again a change of the normal, as the matches were normally opened in spectacular fashion at the 'Dragon's Lair' - complete with a fireworks shows, walls of fire and a cheerleader routine. Not this time. The crowd was even uncharacteristically silent when the national anthem blared over the massive stadium speakers, standing up straight in respect - but not shouting along as normal. Immediately after the anthems have died down, a voice spoke through the speakers, requesting a full minute of silence, as a sign of respect and mourning to the late Ray Reddington. The entire stadium grounds was utterly and eerily silent, despite containing over 110 000 living, breathing human souls. Once the minute of silent was completed, the crowd came alive, threatening to tear the new stadium's foundations to the ground. Every soul around chanted, screamed and bursted the chant of "RED", over and over and over again - like they normally did to cheer on the once great player when he was on top momentum. The players on field joined in on the chants, pumping their fists into the air, eyes swollen with tears and grief. After a solid five minutes of cheering and chanting, the crowd slowly falling silent once more, hit with the realization that it would be the very last time in history that this specific chant would grace the hallowed halls of the stadium.

The match would commence, and it was abundantly clear that the young Dragons were not in the required state of mind. They were dominated by their heavyweight opponents, allowing a massive 7 goals to be scored against them - the largest in history. However, the midfielder who now stood within the cleats of the late attacking midfielder, one William Carvello managed to attempt to honor their murdered friend and captain when he linked up perfectly with star striker Danny Nicovic, allowing the 'Golden Child' to strike a hatrick. Every time a goal was scored by Nicovic, the entire team would rip off their red armbands and wave it in the air. Nicovic was captured by the tv crew mouthing "That one was for you buddy" everytime he slotted the ball home. When the match ended the crowd did not cheer, they did not argue, they did not boo. They applauded their opponents for a brilliant victory and left the stadium in a sullen state, going home to grieve. The team as a whole felt like shit. They have been going through extremely turbulent times, even before their captain had been murdered by one of their own teammates. Even before the only symbol of hope - Coach - had left them without even saying goodbye. Furthermore they felt that they failed to send their friend off with a perfect message - for example a win against The Holy Empire at their own stadium. Instead they suffered their worst defeat to date.

The Port Ember Football Association was also in full panic mode, being under heavy pressure due to the murder of Reddington by a fellow teammate and player of the national team. Worse than that was being stranded mid-season without a head coach. They still had Connor Davies, the Assistant Coach, who was an absolute genius at the game, and had earned the nickname "The Professor" due to his intellect. He was also a close friend of the now retired Coach Baxter, who have worked with him for over fifteen years, thus having the same style and philosophy. The problem was however, that he was a chronic introvert. Whilst he was extremely useful to prepare the squad, he simply could not manage, motivate or mentor his players to save his or their lives. Neither could he bring a stop to activities which was busy tearing the team's cohesion apart. This skills gap was evident during the match against The Holy Empire. The Board had to find a desperate solution in a desperate time. The solution they decided upon was one which would shock the entire nation.

PORT EMBER TIMES

WAIT, WHO IS OUR NEW COACH!?

The Port Ember Football Association (PEFA) has made a controversial announcement last night during a live press conference from their headquarters within the Capital. They have announced the new Head Coach & Manager of the Port Ember National Football Team to be one Kent Block, with immediate effect.

This news have shocked all stakeholders of the football community as no person part of the professional football world has ever heard of the new appointee.

The PEFA Chairman did not provide much comfort to the worried fans as he failed to provide any sought after details, releasing only the bare minimum of information during his statement. "Our new Head Coach & Team Manager, with immediate effect, is one Kent Block. He will join the team from tomorrow morning first thing, and continue to lead the team throughout the remainder of this turbulent Qualification season."

Due to the obvious lack of information provided about the point man and one of the most public posts obtainable within the Republic, the Port Ember Times were forced to do some digging. Here is some tidbits we managed to uncover:

- Kent Block is a retired officer who served within the Port Ember Security Forces for 30 years, most of which he had served as part of the Task Force 79 (Special Forces). He retired with the rank of Major - a senior office Grade.

- Kent Block has played football during his primary and high school years. He has never played for any professional club thereafter.

- Kent Block has reportedly coached and managed the Task Force 79 football team for an unspecified amount of time. Since the Security Forces football teams only competes against other Security Forces teams, no sort of records or history is obtainable.

- The only bit of information regarding Kent Block which is easily and widely available- is the fact that his entire life is shrouded in secrecy and mystery.

The Port Ember Times went ahead and asked a few football analysts their thoughts on the new appointment, and this is what they said:

- "Our National Football Team is in a state of absolute disarray, with the recent conflict between team members, the murder of the Captain Ray Reddington, the arrest of another player for this murder and the sudden retirement of Coach Baxter, it is clear that our once performing and beloved team is in for one hell of a rough future ahead, with no hope in sight. And now it appears that the top structure of PEFA has decided that their young team has not been punished enough as they have announced the appointment of their new Head Coach and Manager. An absolute unknown nobody with the name of Kent Block. What has our world come to?

- "What the bloody hell? And here I thought I have seen it all."

- "Well.. perhaps he might bring some discipline back into the team. That would surely help somehow I guess."

- "Well I'm sure life will be interesting soon. Them Task Force lads are absolute warriors and hardasses. They will surely not take nonsense from the media, and will most probably cause scandal after scandal. There's a reason special Forces are always deployed overseas- they always cause scandal and chaos when at home.'

- "It seems corruption and rot has finally seeped into the highest levels of PEFA. This Ken Block has obviously been appointed due to only being mates with Chairman White. Or bribed himself in."

- "Well with this appointment, atleast our team will gain some solid consistency for a change. We atleast know that we will lose every match from henceforth."

Article By Erica Davies
Port Ember Times

The following morning - Lilly Black Memorial Stadium

The players were all seated within the luxorious locker room of the Lilly Black Memorial Stadium, eerily silent and all in an outright terrible grieved mood. Life was pretty shitty at the moment, and filled with uncertainty. If all the hell of the last few months were not enough, they heard that a new manager took over the team after the only person who has ever really cared about them all upped and vanished - betraying the trust of the team, and abandoning them to the wolves in the darkest forest on the darkest nights. To top it all off - no one has ever even heard of this new guy, except that he is ex military. And that should be enough said. Mere moments later Connor Davies walked into the room, "The Professor" as the team knew him. He was around as long as Coach Baxter, yet it always felt that he was a stranger, since he would only speak when barking orders on the pitch. Next to him walked a very interesting looking fellow - he wore sneakers, a pair of jeans, and a loose fitting grey tshirt. This look was polished off with a fat cigar in mouth and a fedora hat. It looked absolutely ridiculous. Underneath the loose fitting clothing one could still easily make out the stone hard chiseled physique of the man. His grey hair poking out underneath the fedora was the only indication that he was of advanced age, as his body was in better shape than most of these young fit athletes even. The man was barely within the room when he spoke, his voice was deep and commanding. He did not sound friendly. "Right Lads Morning. No need to introduce yourself, I know of ye all. Me? I'm your new head coach and manager, Kent Block. You may.. nay, will call me 'Major'. And from tomorrow when I enter the room, you will get to your feet. It's called manners." The players looked around at one another, not sure what to make of what was going on, but did not mutter a word. Kent continued, "You all will probably know by now that I have zero experience with coaching a professional team, and this will unsettle you undoubtedly. No need to be however, I am known for being quite good at making it up as I go." Kent flashed a soft smile, as if he remembered something fondly, or he found himself humorous, even though noone else in the room laughed or smiled. "Let me be clear and let me be honest. Whilst I dont know much about the technicalities of game play, that's why we have Connor Davies here. I have been brought on request from your chairman, and I have accepted as a favour. My job here is simple. I'm here to knock the shit out of your grief and depression, and I'm here to unify your team into a well oiled cooperating team, like you used to be. You will hate me- that's okay. I'm not here to be liked. I'm here to unify you. Even if I need to kill you all in the process."

by **Balqia** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 2:53 pm

The small dark room was like the one where the players were interviewed, but this time she was handcuffed and the other person was a tall man in a suit.
— Hello, Mrs. Rockwell, we are going to chat.
— What? Where am I?
He gently put a gun in the table, it was pointing to her.
— So, you are a friend of Mrs Riviera, right?
— Yes! Is she okay?
— What was the last time you saw her?
— During the match against West Angola.
In fact that was the last time she saw anyone. As the team’s luck went away she lost interest in the match and went to the bathroom with Riviera. The last thing she remembers was that they were talking about how Zay was trying to hard to look good on camera.
— Did you speak frequently about work?
— Yes, we spoke mostly about our jobs and the Cup.
— Have you ever leaked information to any foreign source?
— What!? No, I’ve read the contract, the only foreigner I spoke with was my son.
He took some sheets of paper from a bag and threw them on the table. Some screenshots of her account and a photo of her son leaving school were attached.
— Where is my son? HAVE YOU DONE SOMETHING WITH HIM?
She was having trouble breathing, her vision was blackening.
— Matthew is well, we didn’t interfere in his life nor in his father’s.
— You are sick! This is illegal.
— Actually not. Your lawyer is behind you and every one of our actions is covered by the constitution.
In what kind of hellhole kidnapping someone was covered by the constitution?
— Where am I?
— What is your relationship with Mrs Riviera?
— We are just friends, please, let me go.
He took another sheet of paper, more screenshots.
— Mrs Francesca Riviera was arrested during the match against West Angola, she was accused of industrial espionage, possession of alcohol and criminal association. As you can see in these messages she was receiving and leaking information for a foreign cartel involved with gambling.
The tears in her eyes prevented her from reading anything.
— I don’t have nothing to do with that.
— That’s what we want to prove here. Do you understand that if any involvement with these activities are proved you are going to be prosecuted and arrested following the balqese laws?
So that was the hellhole she was in.
— Yes, I do.
— Good. You are going to proceed in your function until we end this investigation, rest assured we will not touch in any member of your family. — He stood up and went to the door. — This is your lawyer, Mr. Andropoviq. You have five minutes to speak with him.
The man left the room, someone behind her moved and sat in the vacant chair. It was a young man, brown hair, green eyes and a smile that didn’t feet with the situation.
— It’s a pleasure to represent you, Mrs Rukuel!— he extended his hand, but no one greeted him. — Oh, I forgot. Popol, release the girl, please.
A police officer left the shadows and went behind her, in a second the handcuffs were gone, but she wasn’t freer than before.
— What’s going on here? This is illegal!
He smiled.
— You are being investigated for the crimes… here— He said as a sheet of paper appeared in the table, he pointed to some lines that were underlined. — Don’t worry, we are following the due process of law and I will fight until the end to guarantee that!
She was never going to take lawyers serious after that.
— I want to go home!
— Unfortunately you can’t. But you will be returning to your duties as soon as we finish things here. So, here is the documentations you will need to understand things a bit more clearly. — He gave her some sheets of paper. — These are the laws that involve your case, these ones — more paper — are the officially translated versions in english, so you can understand things better. And here… — Now a booklet. — You have the rights of the foreign citizens, and lucky you, the latest version arrived last week!
He talked five minutes straight about laws, investigations, rights and other things, she didn’t listen to a single word.
— What’s going to happen to Riviera?
— Oh, if we consider she guilty of every charge… maybe death penalty. But she is a foreigner, so… maybe five years in a labor camp. Well, our time is over, bye!
He went out, she followed soon, with an officer with a hand in her shoulder and the other in his gun. She was blindfolded after arriving at a metal door, they walked for some time, spined her five times and finally released her in the middle of a street, Erna was there, waiting for her besides a black car.
— Thanks God. How are you?
— What do you think?
The route between the street and the hotel was long and silent, when they arrived in the hotel Erna hold her arm before parting ways.
— We won last match, so everyone is happy. If anyone ask you and Riviera were assigned to a special job and she will not be around for a while.
— Are you serious?
— More than ever.

by **Kelssek** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 3:02 pm

ZIWANA – 1
Kawoa (44’)
KELSSEK – 1
Lapierre (46’)

Izula National Stadium, Birnin-Likulu
Attendance: 47,725

Honours even as Kelssek extends unbeaten run

Kelssek dropped points but extended their unbeaten run in the qualifiers for World Cup 85 to ten matches. While there were some shaky moments in their 1-1 draw against Ziwana, the team managed to see out a tough away match despite withering pressure from the Akambuku.

Captain Ruslan Demetriev, whose yellow card during the match means he will miss the next match against Xuzaqiy, claimed to be disappointed by not getting the win, but one imagines Ziwana's players could say the same.

"We had chances that we didn't take, we were much too passive getting forward and opening up for passes. We need to win matches like this and we fell short," Demetriev commented on KBC Television after the match.

Kelssek got off to a shaky start and Mason Curtin nearly gifted Ziwana the opening goal when a mis-hit backpass was intercepted by Jean Wilder. Goalkeeper Kai Poirier was quick off the mark to smother the Ziwana captain’s shot.

Ziwana then took the lead shortly before the interval to the delight of the home crowd. Jonathan Ah Fok drove a low cross from the left which split the defence and found Wilder in the penalty area. With his back to goal, the striker opted to flick it on to meet the run of Joseph Kawoa, who struck it first time past the reach of Poirier.

Kelssek grabbed the equalizer on the first attack of the second half as Brayden Custworth’s shot rebounded off the upright. Jonathan Boi thought he’d scrambled it into touch but Patrice Champetier managed to keep the ball in play and find Gabriel Lapierre, who had time to measure a shot and nestle the ball into the net from 20 yards.

Ziwana were not content to sit back and dominated possession for most of the second half. Kelssek struggled to recycle possession but the defence held firm, in what must be an encouraging sign for what has been the team’s bugbear last cycle. Matt Lister had perhaps the best chance at a winning goal in the 82nd minute of play as he received a cross from Colm Ó Tuathail but his powerful header was met with an excellent diving save by Jean Kane.

Kelssek: Poirier, Liadon, Curtin, Halliger, Douglass, Demetriev (Greenwood 78’), Champetier (Dionne 63’), Ó Tuathail (Taleb 84’), Lapierre, Lister, Custworth
Player of the match: Jonathan Ah Fok

by **Jeckland** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 3:11 pm

JECKLAND THUMP MURADIL TO RECORD THIRD WIN

OOC: Muradil info taken from BoF72 roster

Jeckland ran out comfortable 4-0 winners away in Muradil, registering their biggest victory since returning from hiatus.

Muradil had caused some other teams in this group some problems, but this was not the case today. Their attacking 4-4-2 style of play saw them have the first chances of the game, with Bengoc and Bruci both having shots deflected wide for corners which came to nothing. But their insistence on throwing bodies forward led to Jeckland being able to use pacy wingers Dane and Martel to full effect on counter attacks. The first goal came from one of these, with Martel bursting down the wing before finding Sanderson in space on the penalty spot, who made no mistake. He almost had a second from a 30 yard free kick, which initially looked innocuous but some wicked dip at the last second nearly wrong footed goalkeeper Tolver. The Spuds kept coming forward, Dane getting into the game with a shot from an angle which was tipped around the post. The second goal came on the half hour mark, Pain and Dane exchanging passes before the former crossed the ball to the onrushing Graves to slide home.
There were more Jeckish chances before the break, as Muradil looked weak in all areas of the pitch. Stack had two shots saved before Lovell nearly flicked home a Sanderson corner at the near post. A two goal lead looked healthy at half time, but in truth the Spuds could have scored more goals.

The potential cost of not burying those chances was highlighted on 57 minutes, with Bruci racing onto a pass from Sauter before chipping Clemens and finding the back of the net. The linesman’s flag spared the blushes of the Jeckish defence and spurred on the attack to put the game beyond doubt, Stack finally getting his goal, heading home a deep cross from Hodson at right back.

The rest of the game was played out at a slower pace, with Muradil having seemingly given up and Jeckland playing with awareness of the upcoming fixture against Audioslavia. Both Stack and Sanderson were substituted, presumably with that fixture in mind, while Dane hit the post, again from an angle on the left. Martel was the final player to be substituted and his replacement would slot home the fourth goal, Jeffrey Peters running onto a pass from substitute striker Lynton to put the gloss on a stellar performance.

Kayden Ross: “Delighted with that. A big win will do wonders for the confidence of the team and they deserve full credit for the way they played today. Audioslavia is a very different opponent both in terms of stature and tactical style, but if we put in a performance on a similar level we can definitely cause them some problems.”

OOC: Lineup vs. Audioslavia (4-3-3) - Clemens; Hodson, Lovell, Gilbert ©, Pain; Graves, Sanderson, Gibbs; Martel, Stack, Dane

ELSEWHERE IN GROUP 1

Villablanca were the latest victims of Turori, suffering a five goal defeat to the unstoppable Eels. Audioslavia won a crunch game against Sajnur to resume their position in second place, with Astograth hopping into third with victory over Natanians and Nosts. TJUN-ia had their second successive 4-4 draw, this time with Necosia, while Euran Oceania Territories lost at home to Porticalia.

RESULTS

Necosia 4–4 TJUN-ia
Turori 5–0 Villablanca
Astograth 3–0 Natanians and Nosts
Muradil 0–4 Jeckland
Audioslavia 1–0 Sajnur
Euran Oceania Territories 1–2 Porticalia

TABLE

-  Group 1                                     Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Turori                                        9    9   0   0    32    6  +26    27
 2 Audioslavia                                   9    6   1   2    13    4   +9    19
 3 Astograth                                     9    5   3   1    18    7  +11    18
 4 Sajnur                                       10    5   3   2    24   20   +4    18
 5 New Lusitania                                 9    3   4   2    19   17   +2    13
 6 Porticalia                                   10    3   4   3     9   13   −4    13
 7 Jeckland                                      9    3   3   3    19   18   +1    12
 8 Natanians and Nosts                           9    2   4   3    14   19   −5    10
 9 TJUN-ia                                       9    2   3   4    21   21    0     9
10 Villablanca                                   9    2   3   4     9   18   −9     9
11 Muradil                                       9    2   2   5    13   20   −7     8
12 Euran Oceania Territories                     9    1   1   7    15   30  −15     4
13 Necosia                                      10    0   3   7    12   25  −13     3

An eight point lead for Turori is followed by a three man chasing pack of Audioslavia, Astograth and Sajnur, the latter having played an extra game. 5th to 11th all sit fairly close to each other, with the two teams at the bottom remaining adrift from the rest.

MATCHDAY 11 FIXTURES

Sajnur (4th) vs. Euran Oceania Territories (12th) - EOT are having a torrid time in these qualifiers, so I’d expect Sajnur to win this easily.

[color=#FFBF00]Jeckland (7th) vs. Audioslavia (2nd) - A potential banana skin for the Bulls, but one they will probably be able to avoid slipping over.

Natanians and Nosts (8th) vs. Muradil (11th) - Having seen the Muradil performance against Jeckland, it’s impossible not to pick the home side here.

Villablanca (10th) vs. Astograth (3rd) - The good times keep on rolling for the Olives, who will expect to pick up three more points here.

TJUN-ia (9th) vs. Turori (1st) - The Jags are the next in line to face the unstoppable Eels. Only one way you can predict this one.

New Lusitania (5th) vs. Nicosia (13th) - A must win for the home team if they want to keep their qualification hopes truly alive.

Porticalia have an off day.

Ten

OOC: I promise these get less dark later on. If you’re affected by any of the issues raised in this RP or any others from this series so far, please seek help.

Have you ever had a moment, that to anyone else would be really insignificant, but for you it changed the way you look at things? For me, that was the bus.

I was on one of my now rare ventures away from my room, which was both a prison and a safety net from the outside world. I needed to buy food. I went to cross the road, but pulled back at the last second. I’d been so absorbed in my thoughts that I’d barely noticed the bus coming towards me. Had I not noticed, I would have stepped into the road and possibly died.

Which made me think - if I knew that was going to happen, that I was going to die, how would I feel about it?

My own life seemed pretty devoid of meaning to me at this point. I didn’t give a fuck if I passed or failed this year at uni, or indeed the course itself. I just wanted to stop feeling the pain I felt every day. One simple wish from my life that was seemingly impossible to grant.

I’d never commit suicide. I couldn’t bear the thought of causing my friends and family all the pain that would cause. Suicide does not stop the pain, it only moves it. And the one thing that mattered to me more than ending the pain I was going through was not hurting those I loved.

But what if it wasn’t suicide, what if the bus just hit me? What if it wasn’t my fault, and it was just going to happen anyway? If the pain to those around me was going to happen no matter what, would I care that my own life had been cut short?

The truth was I didn’t know. And that scared me.

I barely remember the food shop I would go on to do. I barely remember making my way home. All I remember was realising that something had to change. My mind was in a dark, horrible place, and I had to get myself out of there.

by **Busoga Islands** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 3:18 pm

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V

Legislative Foreign Affairs Committee
Public Hearing on Banijan Repeal of Nuclear-Free Zone

The Foreign Minister, just a few days prior, had been able to get confirmed as the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic. They had a cabinet confirmation process in this country- with the President elected independently of the Legislature, it was a check and balance. Of course, President Kasekende swept in with him majorities. There was a lot going on in the legislature, domestically. But the Busoga Islands political scene was focused on one thing at the moment, beyond their control- Banija's nuclear ambitions.

Now, of course, the party system in the Busoga Islands was weak. President Razav was in power for 20 years, essentially almost always unopposed. His party dissolved when he originally took power, considering the main unifier of that party was the fact that they wanted independence for the Busoga Islands. Since then, various political factions would form around the issue of the day. With President Kasekende the first partisan to come to power, the era of weak parties many thought was coming to an end. The parties on election day were basically formed on one major dividing issue- Soft Islamism as the country's political virtue, or should there be a strict separation between church and state.

But now, the pieces were moving. With the repeal of the Banijan nuclear-free zone happening, the Islanders were beginning to slowly align around a new issue- pro and anti-Banija. It is a place where almost nobody wanted to go. Of course, pro-Banija would mean working cooperatively with the Banijans, their closest neighbors. And anti-Banija would mean vigorously opposing them. Kasekende naturally lied within the 'pro-Banija' camp- the significant Banijan minority within the country, naturally, supported his campaign. Pieces were moving slowly, but thats' what was happening.

That, of course, left the Foreign Minister in an incredibly tough spot. The Busoga Islands Legislature originally was planning on renaming themselves the Senate, but that had been pushed aside as this crisis was coming about. Important foreign policy debates were coming. And this Foreign Minister would be at the center of them. Her name was Fatma Kadouh. She had served in various diplomatic posts, most notably serving as a former Deputy Ambassador in Siovanija & Teusland, as well as formerly serving as the country's Ambassador to the Royal Kingdom of Quebec. She had quit a year ago, serving as the Chief Foreign Policy Advisor to Kasekende's campaign.

And now, she was in the legislature again, on behalf of the President. His instructions were clear- represent the Administration well. When she gave her opening statement, she spoke about how the Busoga Islands was vehemently against the Banijan repeal of their nuclear-free zone, and how they would try to get the Banijans to reconsider their position. More importantly, this had an audience beyond the domestic political one. Maybe it could hit home in Banija? Even if it didn't, Busoga's potential allies could hear it loud and clear.

The questions started coming, and they came in hard.

Committee Chairman: Minister Kadouh, thank you for coming here today. I sincerely appreciate yours and the President's hard work. Now, you've given the reason about whether getting Banija to reverse this foolish decision is realistic?

Fatma Kadouh: Mr. Chairman, thank you for the warm welcome. While the vote has happened in their legislature, and it has gone in the opposite direction we have preferred, it does not mean that it is not irreversible. Nuclear power doesn't simply happen overnight- uranium has to be enriched, bombs have to be built, they need to build machines capable of actually delivering them. They are a ways away. Unless there's something we do not know about, they won't have these tomorrow.

We believe that they will listen to reason. Remember, Kabaka Mwanga is a reasonable man. There's always some sort of constitutional tension between His Majesty and the Lukiiko, as we are all very well aware. It's a fresh Lukiiko. They want to be aggressive. But we haven't heard from Kabaka Mwanga about it. He hasn't said much of anything. Of course, we don't expect him to out and out oppose the elected government, but the fact that we've had silence on this issue is... Telling. I believe the Kabaka can see reason here, and maybe convince the Azizi Government to work on their own internal affairs.

Committee Vice Chairwoman: Minister Kadouh, how has the reaction been throughout the rest of the Glorious Southwest? Does the rest of the region share our country's concern about Banija joining the nuclear club?

Fatma Kadouh: Well, many of you may know about some of the public reaction. I'll go over public statements in regards to the issue. There has not been any expressed opposition by a Government that is currently in power. And while we are loathe to comment on the domestic politics of foreign countries, it is likely, after observing electoral comments, that our brothers in Timuria, the land of our ancestors, will oppose this Banijan endeavor vigorously.

We have other allies across the Glorious Southwest that are also strong allies of Banija. There hasn't been an official government statement one way or the other in Siovanija & Teusland. Of course, Chancellor Meier has been publicly invited to Busukuma for a state visit. There's no indication the topic will be discussed there. While there hasn't been an official response from Canterlot, we have always stood side by side with Canterlot, and we are confident that they do not support the decision.

There has also been debate in Belle Haven on the issue. However, there has not been an official statement, one way or the other, from the Commonwealth of Baker Park. Both Baker and Siovanija & Teusland are strong allies of Banija while being allied with us. We would sincerely hope that they would use their relationships to encourage Busukuma to show restraint.

Committee Ranking Member: Minister Kadouh, let me ask you this directly- is the Banijan nuclear weapons program a threat to our national security?

The Foreign Minister sat, and pondered this question momentarily. She had to thread a fine line here- didn't want to antagonize Banija, but at the same time, the opposition needed to be underlined.

Fatma Kadouh: It is not in the interests of anyone in Atlantian Oceania for further nuclear weapons to be developed. While nuclear energy can be clean, it can also be deadly. We've never looked towards that path, as our Equestrian partners have helped us develop cleaner, safer renewable energy within the country. Nuclear weapons are also horrific. Their problem from a moral standpoint is that they cannot distinguish between civilian or soldier- and causes destruction on a crazy scale.

Committee Opposition Legislator: What actions has the President taken to ensure that this won't happen? Has he tried to issue some sort of joint statement with other foreign leaders? Or is it just empty words from him?

Fatma Kadouh: This President is working hard on this issue. Of course, it hit just as his Administration was taking office. And it is an issue largely out of our control- Busukuma will do what Busukuma will do. We are confident that neighbors, like Equestria and Timuria, are like-minded on this issue. And we believe that allies, like Baker Park, and like Siovanija & Teusland, will be there for these Islands as well.

The Foreign Minister largely answered questions for the next 90 or so minutes, without incident, before finally leaving. The one legislator's question had given her an idea. Maybe it was time to get Kasekende to host some foreign leaders. Maybe they could have a brief meeting with Dominik Meier? She got ready to take the idea to the next cabinet meeting..

by **Astograth** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 3:46 pm

Previously

Astograth 3-0 Natanians and Nosts
Yungoitio, Astograth, Gartzen Treko Stadium (attendance: 43,441)

Lineup: Anzizar, Remondegi, Leskerre, Doyenard ©, Echeberz, Urkizo, Gurina, Ibargengoitia, Malkorra, Duarte, Urdanibia
Substitutions: Martel for Remondegi, Narke for Gurina, Arana for Urdanibia
Goalscorers: Urdanibia, Malkorra, Arana

Ibai Kiriano sat across from her, cross-legged, typing on his phone. Every virtual button he tapped came with a clicking sound that filled the hotel conference room they’d been using for team meetings. He looked up while still typing.

“Sorry. Family stuff, you know.”

Lazaga offered a wordless smile. She could hardly complain, but took the time to give Astograth’s assistant manager one more look-over. The 48-year-old Kiriano was dressed in his usual navy blue tracksuit, the team’s officially licensed Barrengeka outfit. This was his all-purpose wear, whether at the training ground, matches, press conferences, travelling, anything. It was always accompanied with diamond-stud earrings and a massive watch that he’d often turn into a conversation piece, pointing out how it was both electrum-plated and made in Electrum. Lazaga had known Kiriano was short – indeed, his small frame was part of what made him such a formidable goalscorer in his day – but it hadn’t quite sunk in until she’d verified in the flesh that he was indeed shorter than even her.

Finally, the former star for Ituraitz FC, Atletik Thessia and the national team put down his phone and looked at her with expectation.

“Where were we, again?”

“You were telling me about your playing career”.

“Right, yeah. Well, like I said… look, I won the Champions’ Cup playing on one of the best teams of all time. That was the peak of my career and few people are ever going to match that. I was a kid, 20 years old, on top of the world. It was always going to be downhill from there, but I was too young to realise that!”

Kiriano spoke Astograthian with the distinctive accent of Ituraitz: speeding through sentences, slurring his Rs and Zs. His voice was also rough and strained, as if he’d spent a lifetime puffing on cigars – yet he’d never been a smoker.

“I won’t deny there was a lot of disappointment in my career. The World Cup was my greatest frustration. I was only there once, 67 in Equestria, and we went out in the group stage. I would’ve liked to score at a World Cup, but It just wasn’t meant to be. We didn’t score a single goal there, actually. After that, the Copa Rushmori in Ossidiacqua was huge for us, even though we lost the final. I never lived that one down in Mytanija. And then, when I was 27, really hitting my stride with Atletik, really feeling like I could take us to more World Cups, I was robbed of that opportunity. I’m Olibondeka’s second top scorer, and if I’d had the chance I would’ve broken Sarlange’s record. I have no doubt about that.”

“You mention Sarlange. Do you see any parallels between the players of today and the ones in your day? A lot of people compare Urdanibia and Churin, for example”.

Kiriano grimaced and snapped the fingers of his left hand. “No, no, no. They don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. Urdanibia’s not like Churin. Laurnagaray is like Churin. Positioning, mobility, little bursts of speed, that was Churin. You know who Urdanibia reminds me of? Atristain. Big man who can hold up the ball and bring others into play, or he can turn around and power through. Absolute beast of a man, was Atristain. Very underrated for his time, if you ask me. Great guy. And for anyone else… Sarlange’s not from my day, by the way. Anzizar is a lot like Logegaray. I think that’s a better comparison than with Aira. Doyenard is this generation’s Arizmande, I think is safe to say. Anyone like Dardan today… no, a player like him is not once in a generation, he’s once in a lifetime.”

“The same could be said about you,” Lazaga was quick to reply. Too fangirl? Screw it.

Kiriano let out a belly laugh. “That’s kind. No, I don’t think there’s anyone like me in the team either, but not because I was so great. Tactics have changed, teams in Astograth don’t put guys like me up forward any more. Everyone wants an Urdanibia or an Unda or a Laurnagaray up front. Those guys really changed the game back home.”

Lazaga nodded. “I’ve heard that. Changing topics slightly, if you don’t mind: after your playing career, how did you get into management?”

“Through Iban Bachiondo. A lot of people think we played on the national team together but no, actually, we just missed each other. He’s like 12 years older than me, but I met him early on at some parties and stuff in Echegoyan because I’d made good friends with some of the guys from there – Eneriz, Benitzaizin, Eturaspe even. We stayed in touch and then when I signed for Atletik, I called him up and he was a big help in getting me set up in Thessia, because he’d played for Olympic years ago. You know, like, for household stuff, navigating the place. So we knew each other and I knew he was getting into management around that time, and that was something I was interested in too. So after I retired I gave myself some time to do some courses, get into coaching at Ituraitz, and then gave him a call. He was at Sporting Arkamo. This was ’76, so… 7 years ago. I joined him there as assistant, we did well, and we got hired at Echegoyan a year later. We lasted three seasons before they threw us out,” Kiriano laughed, “that club was a mess. Is a mess. There was only so much we could do, to be honest. Anyway. The FAF was trying to relaunch the national team for World Cup 83 and we got the call – I guess they didn’t have many options,” Kiriano laughed again, “We had barely any time to get the team together, we couldn’t prepare a lot of things… and it showed. We were shit, not a single win. And it was our fault! Iban hasn’t managed since then, it took a toll on him. Me, I just went back to junior coaching, for some FAF programmes. Until I got a call from Vaudrail, who I’d barely talked to in my life, saying he wanted me as his assistant because he needed someone who knew the boys. So that’s how I got here”.

“Mhm. One thing I’ve noticed: when you were a player, you had a reputation for… rebelliousness, to put it one way. Yet now, you’re very important in keeping the players disciplined. What changed?”

This gave Kiriano some pause. “Maturity, I would say. I was a dumb kid. But also, I’ve always taken my job seriously. I might’ve goofed around but I was always there for training, and if I did anything stupid in matches it was because I got riled up, not because I was lazy. I wanted to be the best and I got pretty damn close, and you don’t get anywhere near that without a lot of effort and discipline. The press liked to talk about what I was posting on social media or who I was dating or that I didn’t get along with X or Y player, and that might’ve been controversial, but my head was in the game and giving it all. And now, it’s no different. I do what the boss says. I’d never heard of study sessions for players, but if the boss says they’re necessary, they’re necessary, and my job is to keep the boys in line. They know that if they respect me, they respect the boss, the history of the team, the Astograthian people. They disrespect me, they disrespect all of those things too. I make that clear to them, and they do respect me”.

“Do you think you’ll make the World Cup?”

Kiriano shook his head vigorously. “No, we’re gonna win it – and that ‘we’ includes you, eh? Maybe not this time, maybe not next time, or the next. But eventually, we are, and I’ll be here doing that until I’m sacked. Right now, my only worry is Villablanca and the three points. After that, TJUN-ia, after that New Lusitania. One at a time, slow and steady, we’ll win the goddamn World Cup”.

World Cup 85 || RP Thread

Post 3 - A Change in Strategies

The Orthochronica, Chapters 174-177

Work trip

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