Cup of Harmony 79: Everything Thread

[Northwest Kalactin]

Cutoff for the Quarterfinals!

Sargossa 0–2 Huayramarca
Mriin 5–1 Electrum

Semifinals
Huayramarca v. Mriin

[Newmanistan]

THE ROCKET REPORT

ROCKETS WIN CYAN BATTLE

By Taylor Larson,

If you look back at the history of Newmanistan and Krytenia over the years, you will see a lot of games ending up as draws. Not sure why that is the case, exactly, but the two nations who bleed sky blue have not often seen a winner in head to head matching in WCC sanctioned games. So, it really should not have been a surprise that the quarterfinal (or Northwest Kalactin Semifinal) match between the countries at Ballina Stadium needed extra time to determine a winner. Thankfully for Michael Starre and the Rockets, Parnell Addington scored the game winner, just his second of the Cup of Harmony, in the 111th minute to secure the 3-2 win. This will mean a showdown in the real semifinal against Eura. Perhaps unfortunately, no one else could take care of upsetting them, and the showdown that we all saw possible is now coming to fruition.

Let’s talk about this game, and Ballina Stadium was a sea of cyan for the match. Krytenia has played more games here, so their fans had some of the better seats in the house, but that did not mean the Newmanistanians were not able to get their hands on good seats as well. As the better seed (listed on the left, anyway), Newmanistan was the team that was able to wear cyan for the match, and they hoped that could continue to give them the upper hand for the match. The game itself was very entertaining to start off with, as both teams had quality scoring chances that were either stymied last minute by the defense, or by the goalkeeper. It would take 26 minutes before one of the shots would find the back of the net, as the captain, Cormac O’Neill set up Alun Belmwr beautifully, and the short on vowels, long on talent forward would capitalize to make it 1-0. It would stay that way for eight minutes, when the Rockets scored in a pretty similar fashion. Paul Lombardi set up Allister Levy for a header, which was placed just under the crossbar to make it all level at a goal apiece.

The second half started out much like the first half did, with the teams getting their chances, but the last lines of defense holding up and getting the job done. The game started to get physical, but not in a chippy way as both teams knew that the next goal could be the game winner. In the 68th minute, Madison Desalvo made a great run along right wing, then delivered a cross to Garrett Sarniak, and the young Loudon Leopard collected the pass and put it inside the left post, against the momentum of veteran keeper Damien Carpenter to make it 2-1 in favor of the Rockets. Was that going to be it? Well, of course not. The Dragons fought hard, as expected, and they were rewarded for that by controlling the play in the later stages. On a corner in the 83rd minute, Ben Foyle shot home the equalizer, and this game was tied. After 90 minutes and three for injury time, Newmanistan and Krytenia had once again gone full time all level.

In extra time, Newmanistan was able to withstand some early Krytenian chances, and started to get a few of their home, and the first fifteen minutes seemed to go very quickly as it was not without its dramatics. Finally, in the 111th, Parnell Addington and the fresh legs of Kenzie Miller worked a give and go, and the Dragons seemed sure that Miller would take the shot or pass to Sarniak, but instead, she went back to Addington. Carpenter read it well for Krytenia, but he was beaten on the play despite his best efforts. The Rockets would close the deal, but it would not be Curtis Sunday’s day, as the best chance for Krytenia to tie it back up was stopped by Matthew Costner, as he just barely got his fingertips to the ball to knock it over the bar. Newmanistan cleaned the ensuing corner effectively, and held on to the 3-2 win.

This will set up that meeting with Eura, a nation that has come to the Cup of Harmony with something to salvage, and they have not let down their fans. Neither us, nor them saw a Cup of Harmony title as our goal for this cycle, but as only four teams remain, it’s as good as any World Cup trophy now. Not exactly the same, but very much good enough.

[Eura]

Life in the Seventh Star

Part Fifteen

The car pulled up just short of Mateo’s house on his request. ‘Are you sure you don’t want us to come in with you?’
‘I’ll be fine. This is something I need to do myself. Thanks for everything.’
‘I’m coming with you.’ Arabella grabbed his arm and insistently pulled him towards the door. ‘But Mum, Dad, you can take off. I’ll be fine, could you pick me up later?’ Ryan and Monica shared a knowing glance. ‘Ok, but you text us if you’re going out anywhere again ok?’ The kids got out and walked up to the house, and when Mateo opened the door, he took a deep breath to prepare himself for his mother and his uncle. Instead, he was greeted by Rossana with relief in the living room. He told her everything this time; she cursed the police and the Eurans and her daughter for good measure for getting Mateo involved, but when he asked where Natalie was, Rossana went silent. Natalie had never come home.

Medoro turned up with Penelope not long after Mateo had got there. Rossana impatiently quizzed him the moment he was through the door. ‘Did you find her? Mateo is back. The bastards locked him up for goodness sake!’ The normally mild mannered Medoro was similarly fiery. ‘I know, I was on my way over when Arabella’s Dad bailed him out. But no, I can’t find…’
Natalie strode into the front room where they had all gathered, with Prisco close behind. Prisco had bruises all over his face, while Natalie appeared unhurt but exhausted. Rossana was so tense her fists tightened at the sight of them. ‘You…you…idiots. Selfish, bloody idiots!’
‘Mother, spare us the meltdown please. We have to get something done.’ Natalie moved to march past Rossana, only for her mother to step sideways and block her from going to the stairs.

‘You are not leaving this house, you stupid child. What the hell do you think you’re doing, dragging your younger brother into your self-destructive behaviour? He could have been in the morgue this morning!’ Mateo hadn’t been fully aware of how much danger he had been in until he looked at the news once he got home, seeing that a number of people had been seriously injured and two killed in last night’s disorder.
‘Don’t make this any harder than it already is mother. I’ve had enough of bowing down to these fucking people.’
‘You’ll spend the rest of your life bowing down to them from behind bars if you continue down this path. And what happened to him?’ She pointed at Prisco’s mauled face. He was whining quietly in the corner, a lot less tough looking now he’d had the shit beaten out of him. Natalie shrugged. ‘He was the one who put Mateo up to it, when I said he shouldn’t, and then we had another argument and he tried to impress me by fighting some cops. Didn’t go too well. Move!’

Rossana refused to budge, but to her surprise Natalie was willing to push her mother forcefully out of the way and march towards the stairs. ‘Natalie Piroz, get back here this instant!’ Medoro rushed up the stairs following her. He couldn’t keep up; his limp held him back, allowing the teenager to race away. ‘Natalie! Fuck…’ They were forced to wait for her to come back downstairs on her own terms minutes later, with a backpack and a change of clothes. ‘Look after Prisco for me will you? I’m going out.’ She expected resistance. Instead, Rossana and Medoro said nothing, not until Natalie had moved on and reached the doorway. ‘Natalie, you are my daughter. I love you. But you are jeopardising everything with this behaviour. Please don’t go.’ Natalie stopped for a moment as if to reconsider. ‘Sorry, I have to. I’ll be back in a few hours.’ Natalie left the family home as quickly as she had entered.

Mateo had decided already; he was going to follow her, and find out what his sister was planning. ‘Mum, I’m sorry for what I did. I promise I won’t do anything like that again. We can’t let Natalie do something stupid though – I’m going to go after her and make sure.’
‘No, Matty’, said Medoro, ‘you’ve got to let her make her own mistakes. She’s just angry about what they did to Prisco and to you.’ Mateo didn’t accept that explanation one bit. Natalie had been so cold during her brief return – she didn’t even stop to check he was ok or where he had been. He thought back to how she’d been talked into letting Mateo get involved by Prisco, and it occurred to him that her main objection seemed to be Rossana punishing her more than anything else. Then again, maybe she was just so determined that she was hiding the true extent of her emotions. It didn’t matter; her anger was going to get her in serious trouble with the law or worse, and Mateo had to at least know what she was going to do before she could do it.

[Cassadaigua]

Cup of Harmony 79- Semifinal, Groups A-H

@ The Harbour Coliseum, Coffs
Eura 4–4 Newmanistan (4–4 AET) (4–3 pen.)

FINAL/3rd Place:
CoH 79 Final (WEDNESDAY, at CDG Cutoff time)- Eura vs TBD @ Dagan Airways Stadium, Concord Heights, Cassadaigua

Third Place (TUESDAY at NWK Cutoff time)- Newmanistan vs TBD @ Gold Coast International Stadium, Gold Coast, Northwest Kalactin

[Huayramarca]

If you search, you will find.

Written by: Jazmin Catrillanca
08/07/1982 – 9:27 P.M.

Once again, the Condors have showed us and the entire football community across the multiverse that team chemistry is a big factor for success, trying to build long-lasting relationships of friendship and partnership in the squad will always help for understanding, comprehension of every situation that might pop up in the game. Huayramarca did a huge display of that factor during the Quarterfinal match against the Sargossan Corsairs, a well-known foe from the last Cup of Harmony and the last World Cup Qualifier, Sargossa had an even record against Huayramarca, 1 win, one draw, one defeat; that accounted for six goals in their favor and six against, a series that if looked by the rankings point of view, Sargossa had to edge Huayramarca with some ease this time and break out parity.

After studying a lot their rival during the off days, specially that 4-4 match on Guayaquil that costed out straight qualification hopes for the Condors, Omar Caicedo and his pupils were aware about what they had to do for said match. The initial line-up showed off that Huayramarca wasn’t going to attack as they usually do, instead, they would try to strangle the Sargossan midfield and turn that game into a physical one. Meanwhile, the rivals were expecting to create chances with fast movements in order to feed their wingers and lone striker in order to harm the Huayramarcan defensive zone.

It would be a tactical match, for sure, there was a lot in fight for it, a berth for Semifinals at stake and perhaps a lot of chances for the winner to profile themselves as a solid contender for World Cup Qualification in the next iteration of the Qualifiers. Caicedo told his pupils that “Glory is achievable for those who doesn’t hide for crunch time” and then asked his players to “Fight for it!” This group of young players that came from slums and poor neighborhoods from all Huayramarca had strong desires to win, in order to put themselves into the sight of scouts from all over the multiverse and provide better income for their families, also, in order to put our beautiful bicolor flag above everyone else, proudly waving in the Cassadaiguan skies.

The referee started the match and Sargossa had the ball possession since the very beginning, meanwhile Nicolás Allauca, Orlando Mina and Ian Mamani were trying to incommode the Sargossan midfield with constant pressure that wasn’t working at all, since they were feeding successfully but Kevin Quispe and Santiago Chumacero were moving forward in order to cut those passing circuits, often recovering the ball or simply kicking it out of the field. The Sargossans had a clear mindset focused in scoring and putting the Condors into troubles, that was noticeable by seeing their wingers trying to spearhead the defense, Vilca was overflowed by them, that led the Corsairs to cross the ball right into the area for a couple of times, forcing Juan Mamani to intercept said balls in the air. Huayramarca had its first danger chance at the 17th minute with a long range effort from Ian Mamani, he saw the Sargossan keeper out from the box, but he was able to sent the ball right into the corner rather than putting himself into troubles to control the ball; said corner wasn’t relevant for the outcome of the match, Mendoza kicked it right into the Sargossan keeper hands.

The following minutes were a mixture of difficulties for both teams, since both struggled to earn the ball possession, but that caused a lot of foul play in the midfield, fortunately nobody was yellow carded but the referee was forced to issue some warnings to the players if they continued playing so harsh. Omar Caicedo told his players to take the revolutions down and instead, turn their aggressiveness into the game, that’s how Huayramarca took advantage of some chances at the 35th minute, Ian Mamani filtered a pass to Abraham Mendoza, the winger crossed the ball to Bryan Tello, who tried to rotate 90° in order to shot, instead, passed the ball to Ian Mamani who was coming and had a better chance to score, the captain sent it right into the hands of the Corsair goalkeeper.

Huayramarca hadn’t had any action in the remaining minutes nor Sargossa did, it was a stalemate that had to be solved as soon as possible, it seemed that no one wanted the match to last more than ninety minutes, that’s why Omar Caicedo asked Benjamín Carhuanina to warm up meanwhile an intermittent Abraham Mendoza wasn’t having the best of his days. The winger was running and touching the ball with his bench-mates while the second half started, it was matter of five minutes when Mendoza asked for substitution and walked with a painful face, the doctor confirmed, later, that it was only a matter of muscular overload; Carhuanina entered to the field and proved to be a decisive moment for the Huayramarcan squad.

Fifty-five minutes into the match, Carhuanina coupled himself with Carlos Vilca, both wingers passed consecutive balls while moving forward, then filtered a pass to Bryan Tello who was well positioned into the box, controlled the ball and then slammed the ball deep into the right side of the goal, scoring the first goal of the match. The Huayramarcan squad jumped from the bench and hugged themselves to celebrate a key goal, a confidence boost for the squad when they needed it the most.

The Sargossan manager asked his team to focus more into the match, trying to gain balls while Mamani and Allauca would try to connect themselves for plays, meanwhile Caicedo urged the players to keep their head level and focused on the goal. The clock continued moving forward, Sargossa was trying to push harder and Juan Mamani was being forced to kill some seconds in every intervention possible, or even when his teammates passed him the ball, Caicedo noted that the players were a bit tired, hence, Nicolás Allauca had to go out and Joshua Quispe had to enter to the field. Quispe’s entry was able to provide some fresh oxygen to the Huayramarcan midfield, the team was now able to hold the ball for longer and cause some dangerous plays, such as the one they caused at the 70th minute, Quispe protected Mamani while he was moving forward, the captain passed the ball to Joshua, the midfielder ran through the wing and passed the ball to a quite inactive Gabriel Sayritupac, the winger was being blocked nicely by the Sargossan defensive scheme, Quispe accompanied Sayritupac as he entered on the box and served the ball to Tello, who sent the ball far away from the Goalkeeper.

Time was moving forward, Huayramarca was seeking for another goal, Tello was already exhausted and there was a need to do some adjustments into the claws of the Condor, Saúl Castillo entered for Bryan Tello at the 80th minute. That substitution didn’t work at all at the beginning, Castillo decided to move back some meters in order to support the defense of the Condors, but Caicedo insisted screaming “Move forward, Saúl, go forward!” Castillo decided to ignore, for a while, what the manager was screaming. Sargossa was attacking heavily, dropping a lot of crosses to their striker in order to either nod or kick deep into the goal of Juan Mamani. They had a chance at the 91st minute, their goalkeeper went to attack for a corner, the Corsair player kicked the ball and found the keeper, who nodded but the ball found Juan Mamani’s hands.

Mamani sent the ball forward to Castillo but a Sargossan defender sent the ball to the throw-in line. Felipe Fernández took the ball and passed it to Saúl Castillo, the striker gave himself a large pass in order to avoid the pressure from a Sargossan defender, he did it successfully while the goalkeeper was returning to the goal, once again, Castillo dribbled a defender and entered into the box, he accommodated himself in order to kick, Castillo sent the ball into the top left corner of the goal and scored the winning goal at the 92nd minute, a goal that every Huayramarcan celebrated madly while the Huayramarcan bench players invaded the pitch to celebrate.

In press conference, a confident Omar Caicedo was seen, he took a deep breath and sighed, answered some media questions before attending a Huayramarcan journalist who gladly asked “Are you going to do your job for the semifinals?” Caicedo, with peace and confidence nodded calmly while sipping more water, he took the microphone and answered “We will do our job, for sure”.

[Mriin]

Breaking News! Electrum National Football Team Seizes Decisive Victory Over Mrii Scallywags
Bræden Karleil - Brattleboro, Cassadaigua

That’s right, folks. Those dastardly self-styled “Reavers” who had the gall to call my storied works a “filthy tabloid rag” have finally received their long-deserved comeuppance.

Of course, any of our faithful readers will know that Electrum are a top-class footballing power and have been for over a decade now. Their legendary World Cup 78 team captured the hearts and minds of the multiverse by putting the Eurans in their place, a prophetic occurrence that foretold the fall of the Euran footballing juggernaut that we saw come to pass this cycle. And we, as all quality journalists do, remind you of their greatest at every possible opportunity.

I see no greater way to celebrate the pending re-enactment of that fateful World Cup final than to recount to you all the goals the Mrii definitely did not score in their futile attempt to upset the natural order.

Not-goal #1: 2’
It would be extremely unbecoming for a member of the sport’s elite, such as Electrum, to give up a goal within minutes of the match starting. So of course they didn’t. Shiida Roesler’s attempt a mere hundred-or-so seconds in was a brazenly disrespectful test of the indomitable Ralph Mills, who shrugged off the shot’s fearsome power to collect it with ease and definitely did not have it bounce off his hands and into the corner of the net.

Not-goal #2: 8’
While Electrum were not losing, I’d like to make the unrelated observation that damage control is obviously a very important skill for any team that finds themselves behind extremely early into a match. That’s why Electrum’s defense in the eighth minute of this quarterfinal was so good—had it been a situation where they were losing, it’d be the perfect situation for Bayden Forest’s excellent coverage of Äzyr Fæwin dramatic run up the middle. They sufficiently pressured the satyr such that her shot was easily handled by Mills, thus keeping the match level at zero goals.

Not-goal #3: 34’
A somewhat tense moment that felt like it came out of nowhere in this very boring, drab, thusfar goalless game. Istria Saara, a bumbling oaf who once personally threw me out of the Mrii locker room despite my press pass only being a week expired, received a long-range forward punt from Filia Draaken. And while Istria admittedly showed great skill in how she corralled the fast-moving ball with her horns in such a fashion that it fell to the ground in a controllable fashion before lashing it past a still full-confidence Mills, she was very definitely offsides during the whole matter. The referees were disappointingly slow and quiet about the matter—come on, you’re on the big stage, you can’t just let the audience make the calls for themselves even if they’re blatantly obvious!—but yes, this minor moment of excitement came and went with the scoreboard still resembling an egg carton.

Actual goal! 43’
Spoiler alert! This would be the only goal actually scored this game. But not by the Mrii, oh no! This was a good ol’ Terranean goal, fresh caught from the waters just past the Agri river delta. Julius van Buren played a beautiful through-ball to the enigmatic Sentient Energy Ball, whose physical machinations are an enigma to us dullard Oceanians. Dun Mekeus likely didn’t even know how such a creature could shoot a football, and thus was highly unprepared for the shot that was to come! It’s a classic Electrumite maneuver, and one that would be sufficient for them to walk away from this pivotal knockout game with a W in the bag.

Not-goal #4: 69’
Nice.

Not-goal #5: 90+2’
Both sides were very definitely trying their absolute hardest as the referees signalled for four minutes of added time. While Electrum had been dominating play for the preceding ninety minutes, they did only have a one-goal lead to show for it which means that one slip could cause disaster. That’s why Christine Bayer, one of the youngest players on their squad brought on to revitalize them with youthful vigour, went in with such tenacity as they tackled Alkrÿ Bren on the edge of the penalty box. It was perhaps a bit too vigorous, but you just can’t blame the scamp-like energy Christine brings to lighten the mood of any match. It would work out fine, because of course it was Mills—in the middle of having a career day—handled Alkrÿ’s self-taken penalty with a mind-readingly accurate guess.

And that’s all the goals Mriin absolutely failed to score, thus providing the more deserving team a date with Huayramarca in the semifinals of this prestigious tournament. It’s a bit of a shame, really; had the Reavers managed to prevail against all odds, a battle between them and the Huayramarcans would be a humorous group-stage rematch between Group J adversaries. And having seen Mriin triumph over their northern AO rivals in that matchday one meeting, one might have thought they’d be the favorite to do the double and move on the final.

Alas, it was not meant to be. Instead it’s now up to the Huayramarcans to heroically throw the match so that the Electrumites may fulfill their destiny of beating Eura at everything, something their peoples have done at all times in all walks of life throughout history.

[Northwest Kalactin]

Cutoff!

Semifinal
Huayramarca 2–3 Mriin

FINAL/3rd Place:
CoH 79 Final (WEDNESDAY, at CDG Cutoff time)- Eura vs Mriin @ Dagan Airways Stadium, Concord Heights, Cassadaigua

Third Place (TUESDAY at NWK Cutoff time)- Newmanistan vs Huayramarca @ Gold Coast International Stadium, Gold Coast, Northwest Kalactin

[Newmanistan]

THE ROCKET REPORT

ENTERTAINING, BUT NO WIN

By Taylor Larson,

The Rockets put it all out there in their semifinal matchup against Eura, and for that we should be happy. It is hard to know that the dream of winning the Cup of Harmony is over as we looked to salvage not qualifying for the World Cup, but we will have to settle for losing on penalties. It is an effort that makes this cycle adequately successful, considering that we are in the Group of Death during qualifying, and only failed to get to the playoff because of losing a tiebreaker to Tikariot. The team went 3-0-0 here in the Cup of Harmony, and took care of three quality sides before falling to Eura. We can tip our caps to the team, and to manager Michael Starre, who will be back for World Cup 88.

This team showed nice resiliency, falling behind 2-0 (Isaac Tomlinson, 11’, Monica Rowland 29’), but hanging tough. A late first half goal by Madison Desalvo in the 43rd sent the team hoping for momentum to begin the second half, and they would get it, with two early goals after the break. (Allister Levy 49’, Vinny Donaldson 55’). They could not keep that momentum, as Brian Bond scored in each of the 68th and 76th to put Eura back up 4-3. Newmanistan had done a great job containing the top scorer of the Expats up until that point, but Bond showed why has scored over 100 goals for the national team to get his team back the advantage. With time running out, Newmanistan got an 87th minute equalizer from Allister Levy to energize the hopes of everyone associated with the team and all of our great fans.

Both teams played well in extra time, and ultimately, we had to decide the game with a skills competition. Err, on penalties. It wasn’t meant to be. There is still one more game, the third place encounter with Huayramarca. If there is a silver lining, it is that they, and not us, have to travel for the game.

[Huayramarca]

Heroes!

Written by: Xavier Dañín
11/07/1982 – 10:42 P.M.

The Condors gave it all during the semifinals, Omar Caicedo and his pupils proved out that Huayramarca has talent during the entire competition, also, that there’s a lot of potential for the upcoming cycles as the team continues to grow up and is earning now a consolidated position among the best 100 teams in the multiverse.

The dream to achieve the Final was there, the players demonstrated it since early minutes of the match, they attacked fiercely the Mrii defense, at the third minute of the match, Bryan Tello was able to receive a ball from Abraham Mendoza, the winger crossed it and Tello had to jump and nod the ball right into the goal, the Condors placed themselves with a stunning lead in the match that put everybody in Huayramarca to dream with the qualification for the Championship Final duel. Although, football has proven to this team that might be somewhat cruel, that there wasn’t a reason to sing victory chants, there were 87 minutes of match left (Or more?)

Huayramarca was handling the frying pan, they took impulse by said goal and tried to score another one as early as possible, the Mrii defense had to struggle with the speed from Mendoza and Gabriel Sayritupac, who were overflowing the wings with crosses right to Tello, who wasn’t able to hold the ball as comfortably as he love to do due to the pressure made by the Mrii defenders. Tello had some chances before the fifteen minute mark, including another header that was deflected by Dun Mekeus, after that, Mekeus asked Filia Draaken and Karii Bruun to move forward and help into attacking duties, something that was going to proven effective; Mekeus kicked the ball and took advantage on how tall are the Mrii players in average, keeping the ball high with headers as passes that moved from Idi Mboge, Istria Saara and then landing on Äzyr Faewin’s leg, she controlled the ball with dexterity and dribbled Chumacero nicely, then placed the ball with a strong kick on the right side of the goal that wasn’t defended by Juan Mamani, he hadn’t a chance to save the Mrii equalizer.

Huayramarca was like a cards castle at the moment, everything went down in terms of morale and the Mrii took advantage with their aerial game, even more if we consider that your average Huayramarcan is short in stature. A foul made by Orlando Mina, the tallest player of the squad, against Shiida Roesler caused a set-piece made by Faewin, the Mrii striker sent the ball right into the box with a cross and found Otalia Kasmiir’s horn, the Mrii was able to nod the ball with decent power enough to beat Juan Mamani once again and sent Huayramarca to the half time with an adverse score. Omar Caicedo tried to motivate his players in order to recover some terrain and try to equalize the match, that was the number one priority for the second half, equalize and then the team would decide on what they could do better after it. The Huayramarcan wingers noted something during the match, it was the fact that Abraham Mendoza could run below the legs of the Mrii defenders, that was going to be a pivotal point for the Condors during the second half.

The match started and Mriin had ball possession, aerial game was their stronghold, but Orlando Mina was crucial for recovering efforts, his strong legs helped him to rival Mrii players while passing while jumping, some of those interceptions were the origin of dangerous chances made by Mendoza, who was able to speed below the Mrii defense and serve balls to Bryan Tello, who also was able to rival the Mrii side on aerial game, the Condors’ striker won a ball in the air and tried to do a bicycle kick, Tello smashed the ball against the crossbar while Mendoza appeared underneath Mekeus and Draaken to grab the ball and score the Huayramarcan equalizer. Omar Caicedo and pupils wanted to earn momentum with that kind of plays, Mendoza ran fast through the wings but was fearful of getting stomped by the defenders, hence, that caused him to cross balls without a clear positioning sense.

The Reavers would do some strides in order to put the Huayramarcan defenders into panic, their runs were dangerous, they often forced with high pressure our defense, causing the players to make wrong passes. At the 76th minute, Yva Tuuvyr (who entered as substitute of Idi Mboge) fed Istria Saara with a filtered pass, Saara was able to stomp Felipe Fernández, but Orlando Mina swept her in order to avoid a potential goal risk against the Condors, said attempt didn’t turned out into a penalty nor an injury against the Mrii attacker.

As said earlier, football might be cruel for us, and this time wasn’t an exception… Roesler passed the ball to Faewin, the striker was able to control the ball and slam it into the goal of Juan Mamani, said goal sent Mriin right into the Cup of Harmony Final, Huayramarca has to play the Third Place Playoff match against Newmanistan.

In the end, the Condors might be for us, Huayramarcans, moral champions. We didn’t expected to see them so far in a tournament, specially in one where we had to face three teams ranked higher than us, this is good since Omar Caicedo’s so mentioned “Lessons” are already giving some fruits, we now see a Huayramarcan squad capable to play under pressure and thirsty of glory, a team that has already consolidated themselves into potential Qualifiers for the next edition of the World Cup, this team has a long path ahead, one of opportunities and victories, since football owes us a chance after suffering against Tikariot and now having to face this elimination.

[Northwest Kalactin]

This is your third place game cutoff!

Huayramarca 1–4 Newmanistan

Congratulations to the winner, and commiserations to the loser, thanks for coming to Northwest Kalactin for the 79th a Cup of Harmony!

[Mriin]

aroundthehorn.mrn

Road to the Final

The way stadia were managed in this Cup of Harmony is a distinguishing factor I’ve seen many a news outlet make mention of. How both games in each group played in the same stadium each matchday, and everyone moved cities between matchdays. It was a unique setup without a doubt and had me thinking more about the physical spaces the teams were moving through… enough so that I decided to ruin a perfectly good map.

Mriin’s travels through Cassadaigua can be found in blue on the left, while Huayramarca’s are in red on the right.

If you can’t make heads or tails of these images, don’t worry. It just goes to show how terrible I am at mocking up diagrams. The most important thing to note is that chronological order is largely told by which arrows grow out of other arrows; for example, both teams have a Grande Mountain->Brattleboro arrow, which then has a Brattleboro->Rutland arrow attached to it. That’s naturally because they shared a schedule in Group J. It was that first day in Grande Mountain that featured the first clash between the sides in their histories: a one-oh victory for the Reavers. To the surprise of everyone, they’d have a second-ever match in the same tournament: the Reavers triumphing once more, this time three-two in Brattleboro.

And that’s when I noticed something else with these images: the Dagans didn’t seem to try particularly hard in spreading the matches around their country. I’m quite used to the tact that the MNL (rip) had taken when hosting World Cup 85, that providing the grandest stage to be watched by billions across the multiverse means you want to spread the love around. Get all the tourism boards indebted to you by showing off their cities at their shiniest with a massive guaranteed audience. Of course, that’s not necessary by any means. There’s a strong argument to be had that matches as important as knockout round football should always be played in the best stadia for the job. If that means that Five Star Mobile Stadium and Dagan Airways Stadium (lord do these corporate-sponsored names not roll off the tongue) host a match every single round, so be it.

But that does bring up some interesting questions, such as if the Reavers had an edge in the match because they didn’t need to travel beforehand. After all, their historic blasting of Electrum in the quarterfinals was also held in Brattleboro. Compare that to the Huayramarcans, who were ping-ponging between Brattleboro and Concord Heights: the earlier for the eighthfinals, the latter for the quarterfinals, and the earlier again for the semifinals. I’m sure they’re tired of that particular train ride… though catching a flight out to Northwest Kalactin probably isn’t much better. Eh, at least it’ll be a shorter trip home after they duke it out with Newmanistan for bronze.

I won’t be able to provide a map for Eura’s trek through Northwest Kalactin (henceforth NWK), as my internet-fu wasn’t able to turn up a map updated after their arrival to Atlantian Oceania. It wouldn’t be a particularly informative one, anyway—aside from the “interesting” decision the WCC made in letting a nation currently in an active state of anarchy host a major tournament, NWK also only sports four stadia of appropriate size and quality to host matches at this level. And across the seven games the Eurans played they only visited two of them. All three group stage games in Kempsey, the Round of 32 also in Kempsey, and then all of the eighth/quarter/semifinals in Coffs. If they wanted to see Gold Coast or Ballina they’ll need to do it on vacation—probably routing through their nearby overseas territories.

This whole journey will culminate with one more match in Concord Heights. Travel-wise it would certainly favor the Reavers: they’ve been in the city recently, played at that stadium recently, and the ride from Brattleboro will be significantly shorter and more relaxing than the flight in from NWK. But locale-wise it’s certainly in the Eurans’ favor; while I’m not up to date on the geopolitical relationship between Cassadaigua and Eura, they’re still both Rushmoris who can come together in the arena of sport against the common enemy of an Oceanian invader.

Had the match happened in NWK instead, it would have been an odd tension: the Mrii homeland is just across the Crystilakere Channel, but NWK shares a (very small) land border with the Euran Overseas Territories. Would Euran colonists and ex-Syndicatians turn up in force to cheer on the Euran Mainland side? Would it be more or less likely considering the fact that their own Expats side went out earlier in this same tournament? It’s an interesting parallel reality to ponder, but of course won’t be having any bearing on the actual match set to be played.

Yes, I’m beating around the bush of this possibly being the last match the Mrii national team ever gets to play. It’s all everyone’s talking about. I don’t want to dwell on it.

[Eura]

Life in the Seventh Star

Part Sixteen

Pools of rainwater stood between Mateo and his destination. He was not alone; Medoro could only be persuaded to let his nephew leave the house again if he came with him. Unfortunately, that held them up by at least half an hour, and at the moment time wasn’t a luxury they had to spare. Maybe she isn’t even here, Mateo thought, as he took a hop and skip over the puddles while Medoro more cautiously stepped between them. Their destination was a grim flat block close to the city centre, huddled tight between two others and a recycling plant, and difficult to find. Mateo entered the reception area and proceeded straight to the floor guide, quickly locating where he needed to be. ‘Uncle! I’ve found it, 190B.’ 190B was Prisco’s flat. Natalie’s boyfriend was at their house, but this was still the obvious place for her to go.
‘Good lad, I’ll come up with you.’
‘You can wait outside Uncle, I’ll find it just fine.’
‘If you think I’m standing out there in the rain while you head into the unknown, you’re mistaken.’
‘Wait inside then?’
‘No.. I’m coming with you.’

They stepped into the lift and were made to wait as it creaked into life. Like most urban flat blocks in Sameba’s major cities, this one was decades old, and had a peculiar, easily identifiable smell of unsafe chemical cleaning products and permanent damp. When they reached the correct floor Medoro stepped out first to check the coast was clear. ‘No-one here. I can’t bloody see anything.’ The corridor was almost pitch black – another feature of these buildings was the awful lighting. ‘Its ok, I’ve come prepared!’ Mateo flicked on a powerful torch, its beam illuminating the corridor. Medoro gave his nephew a grateful pat on the back, and together they approached the door of 190B. Mateo knocked and waited to see if there was a response. He had to wait a while.
‘Maybe she isn’t here.’
‘Where else would she be going to get gear for whatever she’s got in mind? Unless you’ve got any better ideas?’ Unexpectedly, the door swung open.

Standing before them was a ragged looking fellow. Tall but thin, dressed in a hoodie and some shorts, with a bottle of tequila in one hand and a games controller in another. ‘Yeah?’
‘Uh, hi, who are you?’
‘Who am I…what…mate. Who are you? And who’s the old dude?’ Mateo puffed his chest out a bit, squaring up as if he was prepared for it to get ugly. Medoro shook his head and pulled him back from the breach, and took over. ‘I’m Medoro, this is Mateo. We’re relatives of Prisco’s girlfriend. He lives here right?’ The man in the door said nothing. ‘Sorry to bother you and everything. It is important though. Have you seen her by any chance?’ The man took a swig from his bottle. ‘She’s not here.’ He then swung the door closed like no-one was there.

Mateo wasn’t going to be treated like that. He hammered his fist on the door, more urgently this time. The man came back. ‘Just fuck off little dude, seriously, go play with your dick or whatever you do all day.‘ Mateo lost his patience – he shoulder barged his way through and rushed into the flat. ‘Hey! Get the fuck back here! I’m calling the police.’ Mateo came back holding a sizeable bag of weed and wiggled it about as if he were taunting Prisco’s infuriated flatmate. ‘Oh yeah?’
‘…ok, why don’t you put that back?’
‘Uncle, didn’t you say this is legal in Eura?’ Medoro followed his nephew in and took the bag off him. ‘Of course it is. Not here though, under the Provisional Government. No, the Eurans have kept that old Republic law around for safe keeping…’ He turned to the flatmate and pinned the bag to his chest with his palm. ‘Listen sonny, you can call them if you want. Do you really want them getting their curious fingers all over this place though? I’m betting this isn't the only thing you have here that you shouldn’t.’

The flatmate, defeated, took his hand out of his pocket and away from his phone. ‘Ok, I get you guys are worried about her, so I’ll tell you that she was here. But no more – I promised her I’d say nothing if anyone came calling. Trust me when I say that she’s fine and she knows what she is doing.’
‘And what might she be “doing”, exactly?’
‘Scoring a point for the cause. This kid is her brother right?’ He looked Mateo up and down and laughed. ‘Man, I know she said you were young but not a fucking infant. You should still be in school. Seriously. What did Prisco think he was doing putting you up to the flag trick?’
‘Leave him alone, and answer my bloody questions’ Medoro demanded, overcoming the apparent disparity in size and strength by pushing the half-drunk flatmate off balance. He staggered backwards and crashed into his sideboard, almost knocking over a carefully assembled collection of Republic paraphernalia. ‘Where is she? What is she going to do?’ For good measure he took Mateo’s torch and struck the man in the side, sending him crumpling to the floor.

‘Fuuuuuck! What the hell is wrong with you?’
‘I’ll tell you what is wrong with me. I should be at home, feet up, listening to the radio and eating my dinner with our whole family. And here I am, sentimental old fool that I am, chasing after my daft niece and her misguided attempts to change a world that won’t budge, because oddly, I rather like having her at home rather than dead or in jail.’
‘That’s not my…shit…its not my problem. Why did you have to knock all my shit over-‘ Medoro hit him again. ‘Tell us where she fucking is!’
‘Shit, ok! She’s gone down to the Dellaro, alright?’
‘Another march?’
‘Yeah, she’s not going to march though. She’s going to fight.’
‘Uncle?’ Medoro shifted his gaze away from the wretch in front of him to Mateo, who had ignored his uncle’s uncharacteristic aggression to go and search the next room. He held in his hands a worrying sight; an empty petrol can. The smell of oil was fresh and searing on the nose, and persuaded the two visitors that they needed to leave sooner rather than later.

----------

‘How big of a commitment are you talking about here?’
‘Five thousand infantry, ma’am. Army Corps Sameba East has many more than that in barracks outside the city. We would bus them in, set up shop around the stadium, and lock it down for the duration.’
‘The “duration” of this could be a lot longer than planned. Count on it. Get it done.’
‘Yes, Prime Minister.’ Amy Yarley was tense, gripping her chair like she’d sink into the ground if she let go. A group of military, police and intelligence officials had just left the conference room at the Prime Minister’s residence. Yarley sat alone. Loneliness had become all too familiar a feeling recently. ‘Prime Minister?’ However, that did not mean she wanted to be disturbed.
‘Pearson, can you please give me five minutes between meetings? It’s all I ask, and I have asked frequently!’
‘Sorry Prime Minister, this one isn’t in the schedule – it’s the Foreign Secretary.’
‘Oh good, what does that twat want?’ Uninvited, the Foreign Secretary entered the room, leaving Pearson red faced.

Yarley got out of her seat and gave her cabinet colleague an icy stare. ‘Ian.’
‘Amy.’ Pearson took this as his cue to get out of the room before knives were drawn. Ian Smith was a man as dull in character as his unexciting name suggested. He was all suit and stability with no charisma. However, that made him a threat to Yarley in the current climate, where her bold leadership style had begun to come into question now that the war had been over for years, and the honeymoon period of Common Rushmori Community membership had worn off. The opposition Social Party had Harry Barnham who ticked similar boxes – plenty of Liberal MP’s and members were starting to wonder if they needed to fight fire with fire. Smith knew this and was manoeuvring for a leadership challenge just a year after they had won an election.

There were many ways of describing Smith. Yarley might normally have described him as an annoyance. In her book however, the word didn’t do him justice. Nor did something more pointed; he was not a snake or a player. Yarley was both those things, and she had no issue with a rival “playing the game”. No, it was his disloyalty that she resented. His political career was a product of her success and nothing more. That made him one thing only – a traitor. In the Yarley playbook, the only way to deal with such a figure was to crush them utterly. ‘How was your trip to Harther? Winning over all those inner city voters to keep Barnham off our back, I hope.’
‘It was a big success thanks – lots of friendly faces, some good pictures, and plenty of airtime. Do you remember what that’s like? I figured you might have forgotten, hidden away in Blackhall like you are.’
‘Oh, Ian. They got you but they will have turned up expecting me. Go back again and enjoy the tumbleweed bouncing by.’ Ian let out a belly laugh, a mightily fake one.

He sat opposite Yarley and laid his hands on the table as if to start a formal meeting. ‘Now, Amy, I understand it’s a difficult period for us at the moment. I must protest though at you meeting the chiefs of staff without me.’ Yarley couldn’t believe the gall of this prick. He was late back from his thinly veiled campaign trip to grateful backbench MPs clinging on for their life in Harther, and was complaining that he had missed a meeting as a result? Tough shit, she thought, when I find a way to put you on the backbenches you will get used to it. Externally, she remained as calm as ever. ‘I’m sorry Ian, but there was no time to get you here from the airport. It was a critical matter of national security at hand and I had to deal with it. The Minister for Defence was here.’
‘Yes, Nick told me. We had lunch last week actually where we talked about the general picture at the moment, do you remember?’ She did remember Nick at defence and his performance, vividly recalling his sucking up to the potential challenger. He was another who would have to go in time.

‘Anyway, I just want to understand what’s going on at the moment.’
‘You’re the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Eura. You should be in the loop, always and without exception.’
‘Exactly! And that is why it baffles me that you wouldn’t simply wait for my return.’
‘Precisely because of how you are acting now.’ Yarley snapped, her frustration finally seeping through. It was a rare crack in her persona that gave Smith cause to smile with self-satisfaction.
‘Come now, Amy, there’s no need to be like that. At least update me. I hear there’s a situation in Aspel?’
‘Here is your fucking update; while you were pissing about on tour, there was a violent protest at the old Sameban national football stadium. Three deaths, plenty more serious injuries.’
‘So? The Samebans have been kicking the shit out of each other, and our boys and girls now and then, ever since we won. What’s a few more to add to the tally?’
‘This is different. It’s a problem for us.’
‘How so?’ Yarley rose from her seat and picked up a file from the table, throwing it across to Smith to read.

‘That stadium has been a thorn in our side ever since the armistice. We wanted to replace it with a new stadium, a symbol of the new era of peace and reconciliation. Then the right here and the nationalists up there kicked off and we couldn’t do it. We tried appeasing the nationalists by just renovating it and got nowhere, probably because they think it should still be used for killing dissidents publicly. We sought to appease the right wingers and they just wanted it to be a full on “isn’t Sameba shit” grave dig of the past. No-one has co-operated with us, and its just sat there for years like a burning itch. What do you do when you have a normal itch, Ian?’
‘…I don’t know, I’m not a doctor am I. Put on some cream?’
‘No, you scratch it.’
‘I don’t get it.’
‘You don’t get a lot – point is, you scratch it, it goes away most of the time. This one isn’t normal. It keeps coming back. So this is my plan to deal with it.’ She opened up the file to its final pages, a set of plans labelled “top secret.”

He studied the plans for a minute or so. Yarley waited for his thoughts, pacing around the room slowly. He then finished reading, leaning back in his chair and exhaling. ‘It is…’
‘Mad?’
‘No, absolutely not. I know we don’t always get on, fine, but this is a good idea.’
‘It’s a clean break. It will piss off a few people, probably cause another riot, and what? We’re supposed to be moving on.’
‘I totally agree. When will it happen?’
‘Tonight.’ Smith froze, as if she had unintentionally dropped a bombshell.
‘Are you sure that’s wise Amy?’
‘Yes. The press have spent the last couple of days ratcheting up the pressure on us to do something drastic, so let’s do what we have done best in the past. Give them what they want. The polling suggests it will play well. We need to do this now and capture the lightning in the bottle.’ Smith did the political maths in his head. It couldn’t do him any harm if this went to plan, as long as he was quiet in his support. If it backfired, he could use this to his own ends. Yarley had taught him before not to interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake, and he had taken it to heart. ‘You’re right. Mind if I join you at the operations centre?’
‘Sure. For once Ian, I think I might be pleased to see your face.’ The decision was made. They were going to demolish the Aspel Dellaro, and if anyone tried to stop it, the Euran Army would be ready.

[Cassadaigua]

Cup of Harmony 79- Championship

@ Dagan Airways Stadium, Concord Heights

Eura 2-3 Mriin

On behalf of my co-host Northwest Kalactin, I would like to thank everyone for their contributions in an incredible CoH. We invited 64, and the roleplay was excellent all around.