CMFA Melayu Archipelago Cup 8 (IC Thread)

[Sendhang]

SEMIFINAL

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SF-1
Persekutuan Stadium, Kiambang

Island of the Lost 1-1 Sharktail
(5-4 pen.)

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SF-2
Persekutuan Stadium, Kiambang

Trolleborg 1-0 Pemecutan

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THIRD PLACE FINAL
@Persekutuan Stadium, Kiambang

Sharktail vs Pemecutan

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FINAL
@Persekutuan Stadium, Kiambang

Island of the Lost vs Trolleborg

[Trolleborg]

Greetings, compatriots!
It’s TTV from Sendhang, where our national team played in the semifinals of the Melayu Cup.

Our team were in the semifinals of whatever last time four long years ago, in the Pan-Pacific Cup. Lads then demonstrated an excellent attacking game, scored four victories in five matches, and got as opponents debutant of international competitions, a team from the small island state of Anserisa. Probably, many players already saw themselves in the final, and maybe even with the cup in their hands, but it all ended with an unexpected defeat, even more painful due to the fact that the score was 1:4. Having lost their breath, tteam then lost the match for third place, having no medals at all.

Since then, our lads have never reached those those stages in which the fate of medals in various tournaments was decided, usually showing good game and poor results. And here the opponents are Pemecutan, one of the strongest teams in the region, and undoubtedly included in the list of the most likely candidates for victory in the tournament.

With this in mind, we all, of course, expected the game with caution. Will there be some kind of psychological pothole?

The game of our team looked very attractive, the players demonstrated their best qualities. Let us recall only the most striking episodes in which this affected: they competently deployed the attack, misleading the defenders, but the goalkeeper rescued Pemecutan after Kerr's powerful blow

Here's another set of passes and passes next to the box, and a mighty shot ends the whole thing - but again the goalkeeper has done it.

At the end of the half, the change of pace brought success - Pemecutan moved forward a bit, followed by a quick attack, an excellent pass to the exit and an accurate shot by Kerr past the goalkeeper

In general, the first half should be attributed to the best episodes of our football, all the lines worked very well. But, it should be noted, and in that memorable match with Anserisa, our footballers also played excellently and even took the lead, so all of us, were waiting for what would happen after the break not without worries. But this time our players competently brought the game to victory - they acted with due accuracy in front, reliably and attentively at the back.

Now our lads will play in the final, in which they have to fight with Island of the Lost, who have earned the well-deserved fame of the overthrowing authorities in the tournament, knocking out of saddles such a giants as the well-known to us Ziwana and Sharktail.

All in all, it will not be easy game.

[Island of the Lost]

8TH MELAYU ARCHIPELAGO CUP SEMIFINALS
ISLAND OF THE LOST - 1
William Esteve (56')

SHARKTAIL - 1
Mayer Warren (70' own goal)

Island of the Lost advance 5-4 on penalties

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I went through the rest of the Saturday in a daze. I had heard that staring death right in the face tends to do that to people, and now here I was experiencing it firsthand. When I woke up to do my morning jog before the first match of the new season, I never imagined that I would come within a hair's breadth of dying, and at the hands of someone whom I had always thought of as a friend to boot! I never imagined that my death would come by way of a gunshot, and I never thought that it would be Mary nic Collum who would be pulling the trigger.

My adoptive father Joseph Saint-Marie was just on his way out to the hospital when I got back from my jog, and he was very much surprised when I suddenly ran towards him and embraced him as tightly as I could. Seeing his face broke through my numbness, and I finally broke down and cried. This was the first time that I had cried this much since the moment when my decision to retire to preserve the health of my legs struck me and I finally realized what I had done. "Oh my god, Dad! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" I shouted.

"Hey, hey, Helen, slow down! Calm down," Joseph told me. "It's okay, it's okay. I'm here. I'm right here," he muttered as he began stroking my hair. "What happened to you?" he asked me.

"I was just jogging down the abandoned beachfront, Dad," I said. "I saw this car parked on the side of the road and it turned out it was my friend Mary from the orphanage, and I tried to help her but it turned out she had these guns in her car and she tried to kill me because I saw her guns, but Mary couldn't go ahead with it so she let me go, and now I'm here and I'm just happy that I'm still alive, and I want to tell you that I love you and I am so lucky to have you as my father!"

"Whoa there, Helen, slow down," Joseph said. "Now tell me everything once again, but this time slowly. I'm having trouble keeping up with you when you're talking that fast."

So I repeated my tale to Joseph, but slowly this time just like he requested. I was finally eventually able to tell him everything that had happened, and after that we just spent some time sitting on the porch in front of my place just staring at the sunrise over the beach. Eventually, Joseph turned to me and asked me, "Mary from the orphanage tried to shoot you because you saw that she had guns in her car?"

I nodded. "Are you sure that it was Mary from the orphanage?" Joseph asked me again.

"I'm sure that it was Mary, Dad!" I insisted. "It couldn't be anyone else. I know of nobody else who has bright orange hair like she does."

"And did you say that she now goes by the name Mary nic Collum?"

"Yeah, why?" I turned to Joseph and asked him, "You're not thinking of going to the police about this, are you?"

"Why shouldn't I?" Joseph asked me back. "You said it yourself, Helen. Mary almost shot and killed you because you saw her doing something illegal!"

"Dad, you don't have to do this!" I said. "Just forget about it. Mary couldn't do it. She let me go!"

"But what if she decides to come after you again?" Joseph asked. "You can't just ignore this because she was your friend! She threatened you, Helen! She threatened your life! All right, I understand if you don't want to go to the cops for this alone. Which is why I'm going to come with you. If you don't want to go to the cops alone, I'm going to come with you."

"No, it's not that! We won't go to the cops! I won't go to the cops!" I insisted. "We can't go to the cops."

"What do you mean, we can't?" Joseph asked me.

"I saw the tattoos on Mary's hand, Joseph," I said. "She had shamrocks on her fingers and four-leaf clovers on the back of her hand. She's a Cliffie, Dad. Mary is a Cliffie."

Only then did Joseph seem to realize the gravity of the situation. "A Cliffie, you say?" he asked me. "What are the Cliffies doing here in Cote de Facilier?"

"I don't know, Dad, but they're here, and Mary's one of them," I replied.

"Merde," Joseph spat out. "The fucking Cliffies. They're really trying to get their slimy little fingers into every single nook and cranny on this goddamned island!"

"So you know why I don't want to go to the cops about this now," I said.

"Yes, Helen, now I understand," Joseph nodded as he stood up. "I understand why you don't want to go to them about this, and that is why I am going to do it myself."

"What? Dad, no!" I said, standing up in my own surprise. "I just said that Mary's with the Cliffies! You still want to go to the cops about this?"

"Yes, I do," Joseph nodded.

"Dad, you know what the Cliffies do to anyone who tries to get in their way, right?" I asked.

"Yes, Helen, I am well aware of the Cliffies' reputation," Joseph nodded. "And frankly, I have had enough of them! The Cliffies have been worming their way across the Island, and nobody's trying to stop them because they're afraid of the Cliffies. Not me though. I am not going to let the Cliffies get into La Cote, not if I can help it."

"Dad, it's the Cliffies," I muttered.

"I know," Joseph said. "You've told me that at least a hundred times already."

I ran over to Joseph and hugged him again. "I love you, Dad," I said again.

"And I love you too, Helen," Joseph said back. "Now, come on! You've got a game to go to later today, right?"

"What? Oh, yeah, right," I said. Through all that had happened in the past few hours, I had completely forgotten about the game later in the afternoon. "Yeah, I think I should get myself fixed up," I said with a laugh.

"That's my girl," Joseph said with a smile as he playfully ruffled my hair.

~ Chapter Eleven in the story of Helen Josephus

[Pemecutan]

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Friday, 23 July 2021 (Sukra Kliwon Wuku Bala, Pawukon 1781)

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The Curse Strikes Back

Kiambang - The football fans of Pemecutan are in an uproar after a closed loss in the semifinal match of 8th edition Melayu Archipelago Cup. This result ended their chance to catch the trophy again. The curse is really shine brightly that this time they even lost in semifinal. Not just the fans, but the officials and the players are also upset with the result that they get. But all in all, Pemecutan is still one of the best performing nation in the competition. Joined for the first time in the 3rd edition, the nation always went through the semifinal in all of their participation. Twice as Third Placement and twice as Runner-Up. The one that they are always miss is the trophy itself.

It is an unfortunate that we lost in Semifinal with only 1 goal. But I can see both teams are playing greatly. This result will also become the evaluation process of what and how will the team will be in the future. As I said before, this might be the last performance of this squad as I will definitely make a review after 1 year performance in coincidence with the domestic league performance of each players. The new squad composition will be announce shortly and they might be do their first bidding in the Olympic which is the next big tournament that we will joined.

--- Agung Suryanantha, PFA Senior Team Manager

There is also a rumor that the Head Coach, Surya Agung Pramana is going to resign after their last match. Citing the lost that he bring which become the downturn of the team performance after their great WC Cycle. Most of the football fans however regret if the rumor is true. They are still regards Coach Pramana as one of the best coach for the national team. Most of them commenting a twit about the rumor which was posted on the PFA twitter account which hoping that the rumor is not true.

I think its all about the fatigue. Our players have played in many competition this year that their schedule is very tight. This can resulted in their overall condition. They are unable to perform in their prime condition as all the fatigue comes down to this tournament as the final tournament that is held this year.

--- Arya Prabangsa, sports critics

Arya Prabangsa is also commenting a possibility to reduce the number of tournaments that the team joined in. Or maybe put a different set of team for some tournament so the players can recover from their fatigue of the previous tournament before entering the other. While PFA spoke person says that all decision regarding the national team is in the hand of their manager, the association will only supervise and give all the support that they need. At the end, Pemecutan will play in their last match of Melayu Archipelago Cup against Sharktail for the third place title. This will be a rematch of the 6th edition final where Sharktail was won at the time. Could Pemecutan turn the table this time?

[Sendhang]

FINAL

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THIRD PLACE FINAL
Persekutuan Stadium, Kiambang

Sharktail 1-2 (a.e.t) Pemecutan

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FINAL
Persekutuan Stadium, Kiambang

Island of the Lost 1-2 Trolleborg

[Trolleborg]

Greeeeeeeeetiiiiingssssss, coooooompatriooooootsssss!
It’s TTV from Sendhang and now we together with you savor events of the Melayu Cup final game.
Four times our team went to the start of this tournament, suffered undeserved defeats, never being able to reach at least the playoffs. And now, finally, they were able to pull themselves together despite the difficulties in the group stage, and brought to our country the second football trophy in its history.

We all, of course, feared that the team might be overwhelmed by arrogance, or another psychological breakdown would happen, which would not allow making the last, most necessary, step forward in this tournament. But our lads played as they should - confidently, calmly, pragmatically. And sometimes they showed brilliant combinations, like this one, almost crowned with a goal

The main events unfolded in the second half. Our lads opened the scoring in the 55th minute thanks to the individual skill and scoring instinct of our playmaker Troll, who received the ball after a long pass from Troger, who bring it from our own half of the field. Our midfielder made an incredible run, beat every defender on the way, then goalkeeper, and put ball into the net

But the holiday lasted only a few minutes, the opponents earned a free kick right in front of the goal - and put the ball into the net with an excellent shot. Perhaps Kotsson should have acted more prudently, but given his merits, no one dares to wronged him for this goal.

However, a few minutes later, already encouraged by such a turn of the events, Island of the Lost running forward in the hope of consolidating its success, but being punished by Troll again. He got the ball (again) after a long pass, and somehow managed to figure out how to send it such a way that the defenders, who seemed to reliably block the path to the goal, were out of picture, and made a clever pass. Gulbranden, who was right in front of the goal, suddenly played with his foot, and not with his head, as everyone expected of him - including the goalkeeper, who seemed to reliably close the opportunity to shoot. The ball flies into the far corner, and we are ahead again.

In the remaining time, the teams managed to create two dangerous scoring chances, but our defenders and the goalkeeper coped with all threats.

When the final whistle sounded, even Morten Troghil, who at the helm of national team had built a reputation for himself as a stern and emotionless coach, was seen rejoiced from the bottom of his heart. A long chain of difficult and difficult tournaments, when our players constantly lacked some little thing, fortunately, was interrupted. Our footballers play at a good level, and, as it seems to us, they brought football fans of all around the world a lot of pleasant minutes with their play. The Melayu Cup is arriving in Trolleborg tomorrow and we will be covering the event in detail.

[Trolleborg]

Greetings, compatriots!
It’s TTV from the Sendhang and Trolleborg, with a report about how victory of Melayu Cup celebrated from the last whistle of game right to the tumultous welcome near the center of Troleborg City.

The sincere delight of our fans who made their way to the distant Melayu Archipelago to support their football team in the fight for the right to raise the regional cup over their heads cannot be expressed in words. Look yourself

The players celebrated the long-awaited victory first together with those who were in the stands on this momentous evening

And then they were greeted by an admiring crowd in their capital. Crowds of citizens lined up from the airport to the city center, many occupying their places five hours before the arrival of the plane with the heroes of the day. Many of the participants in the meeting came from the far reaches of the country, although it is known that the cup, won later and with great difficulty, will be taken to all large cities.

After a long and difficult period, the Trolleborg footballers were able to add second trophy to the list of our country victories. So now we have a line of trophies – albeit counted only two things at all.

We already know about the start of filming a feature film dedicated to the events of the last Melayu Cup, and a mini-series about all the trips of our team to this tournament. Also building of the proper annex to the Sports Museum of Trolleborg is already begin.

Congratulations to all residents of Trolleborg on the victory of our footballers and we cherish a timid hope that it will not be the last!