Di Bradini Cup 54/U21WC75 RP And Scores Thread

World Cup 81/82/83/84

© Sporting Times Daily 2023
U21's in must win hole
by Mindy Cartwright, National Soccer Editor

The Commonwealth Under-21 National Team were looking to make a triumphant return to Valanora to defend their DiBradini Cup title won in the 53rd edition, but everything in the Eternal Empire seemed a bit...new, or least very different.

In eleven previous trips here—not including DBC 51 that saw the Junior Bees play their matches in Starblaydia—the team have traveled the width and breadth of the nation, from Longview, to Ibini to Capri and other points in between. They have usually made their base at the facilities of AS Sharala, a club in the fourth tier of the Vanorian pyramid located in convenient part of the country accessible to easy travel to and from whichever cities fixtures were played in.

The U21's came in having won 21 and drawn 14 against 13 defeats in the Eternal Empire, and brought an 11 match unbeaten streak in the tournament dating back to their loss to Lathamford in the group stage of DBC 51 at Silverlands in Corinth, Starblaydia.

When the groups were drawn, Baker Park found themselves matched against TJUN-ia, Ceni and Chromatika, respectively, with all fixtures to be played in Mar Sara, in the southwest part of Valanora.

The opening group stage fixture held at Donna Cathedral versus a TJUN-ia Under-21 team that was returning to the competition presented a chance for a good start to the tournament.

Ninety minutes later, the Junior Bees seemingly have one foot out the door after the Young Jags inflicted a 5-2 defeat on the holders, Claudia Grayson's brace the only bright spot in a match that left zero doubt as to the level of improvement that will be necessary ahead of the match against Ceni, as the U21's will make a first ever visit to Artani, the 74,00 seat home of Mar Sara FC.
There is almost no chance of advancement to the final sixteen without a win against a side which has a significant number of players from the last RTC Under-18 Championship winning team; a faceoff between two nations near the top of youth development in the multiverse should make the fixture one of the highlights of tournament's midway point in group play.

works? · by **Abanhfleft** » Tue Jan 24, 2023 8:42 am

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Gaelic Gamers
Presents...

The Football Fallacies
with The Man from Markovsky

THE SCORELESS GAME THAT SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN

Hello and welcome to The Football Fallacies. Right, well, that scoreline pretty much sums up my reaction to this match once the final whistle had been blown. How in the world did this game end up finishing as a nil-nil? With the number of chances that both teams had, there was simply no way that this game should have finished as a scoreless draw. I know for a fact that the self-proclaimed expected goals “experts” on twii.tur and FaceTube are already losing their minds at the fact that this match went completely against their supposed predictions, and while I really can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I’m actually with those bastards for once! The number of chances that Sven Fahrni alone created for the Young Revolutionaries should have been more than enough for us to get the three points against Koronavia, but I guess everyone else forgot their shooting boots today! For that matter though, so did Sven, because while he was making all of those passes to his teammates even when they were surrounded by five or more bastards in white shirts, when it was his turn to take shots at goal he was also missing the target! That, or he was hitting the goalkeeper square in his chest. Someone should probably go check his optical module for damage or his targeting computer for bugs in the code.

In all fairness to Koronavia though, they went into this game with a clear plan and they executed it almost to perfection. I wouldn’t quite call it Ko-orenite just yet but it was clear that Koronavia wanted to hang on to the ball for as long as possible and keep us from having it, and I guess that’s one way of preventing your opponent from scoring goals. But it’s not the most exciting way of doing that, isn’t it? Sure, it did look at times that there was supposed to be some counterattacking football going on for the side in white (they were the nominal home side so they got to wear their home kit while our Young Revolutionaries had to bring out the dark blue third kit to prevent a clash) but for some reason or another, it just wouldn’t happen for them. Sometimes it was one of our lads (or lasses in the case of Dawn Wheeler and Sara Bryant) who got in the way of what would have been a pass to put the striker clear through, and other times it was just Barawy Munir pulling saves out of his arse. In any case, both the attackers and the defenders of both teams had their part in making sure that this game remained 0-0, much as we fans would have wanted that it wasn’t.

However, now that I’ve said it, let’s take a look at how exactly the rest of the team managed to let down Sven Fahrni by not being able to convert the chances that he was handing to them on a silver platter. I probably sound like a broken fucking record by now but really, it’s not Sven Fahrni’s fault that everyone else can’t keep up with him. The lad’s just built way different to the rest of us! Whereas everyone else has to go through warmups and tune-ups in order to get into shape for the game, Sven just boots up his OS and scans for the latest updates to his football database in order to provide the maximum chance for victory to his side. Of course, all of those updates don’t take into account the fact that everyone else around him is only human and therefore prone to all sorts of failings, meaning that a chance that probably has a 99.97% chance of becoming a goal according to Sven’s CPU ends up going wide because his teammate hit the ball with the top of their foot instead of their shin or the outside of the boot or whatever. Call me biased on behalf of the player from Ludogorets Markovsky but I’m just stating the plain and naked truth here! Maybe if Sven had three options instead of just two in front of him then we wouldn’t even be talking about this match as being a goalless draw in the first place!

I don’t mean to keep slagging on our own players like this when I had just sworn a little oath to myself that I was going to cut back on the criticism this time around, but this team is really turning me into a bloody oathbreaker! Once again I wonder about the appointments that the SFA have made with regards to our national teams because it’s clear that we have the players to take us to the next level, it’s just our managers and their tactics that are letting everyone else down! I’m pretty sure that the last time Sven Fahrni appeared for the Revolutionaries, it was in a fluid 4-2-3-1 formation where the bloody robot had at the very least three runners in front of him to pick and choose. Under Roman Aydarov’s current system, that’s gone down to just two options, and even then, with the relative lack of pace of both Michael Infanta and Kerry Faustino, it’s probably no surprise at all that Sven was looking like he was about to break the first law of robotics near the end of the match. Someone could dump a bloody sandbag in the middle of the penalty area and it would still have more chance of putting the ball in the back of the net than either one of Michael or Kerry! Beth Anderson or Castor Cuenco would have converted that pass from Sven into a goal, and neither one of them are in Valanora right now!

All right, this time I’m done slagging off our own players. I swear! But I will admit that I was more than just a little worried for Iraklis Babalioutas throughout the entire time that he was out there on the pitch. We all know that the lad’s legs are made of dried plywood and cardboard held together by thoughts and prayers, so every time the lad goes to ground and the cameras show him clutching his leg or his knee or whatever, I just can’t help but wince or cringe. Because we all know that the time will come when that injury is no longer something that he’s just faking, and then we’re going to lose the beating heart of this midfield. Okay, maybe that’s just hyperbole on my part but the lad plays a bloody important part in cycling the ball from the defense to attack, although Iraklis wasn’t able to do much of that because it seemed as if he had been selected for death by the Koronavians with the way that they just kept bullying Iraklis off of the ball. And in the moment that Roman Aydarov decided that he had seen enough of that and subbed off Iraklis for Ronald Lagatoc, he might as well have just raised a white flag and told Koronavia “I surrender!” And that was almost exactly what happened when Ludwig Neugebauer nicked the ball from Lagatoc and ran away with the thing, and it was only the offside flag that saved the Young Revolutionaries all from some opening day blushes yet again.

Taking off Iraklis now meant that Sven Fahrni had to do everything by himself, and though he is a fucking footballing robot, he still has his bloody limits! Specifically, he’s an attacking football robot, and things like dropping back deeper in the midfield to collect the ball and advance it hasn’t been coded as a proper subroutine in his software just yet so it’s a difficult thing for him to do. And speaking of Sven Fahrni and limits, he came really close to losing it in the dying minutes of the game. I’ve already mentioned earlier that the frustration of seeing his teammates misplace his inch-perfect passes was beginning to get to Sven and thoughts of breaking the first law of robotics was beginning to creep into his CPU. And something must have been dislodged in his circuitry because Sven slid in behind Viktor Teichmüller and took out the poor center back when Koronavia’s defenders had blocked one too many passes to Sven’s teammates. A red card would have been harsh on the bastard, but a yellow card was just right for Sven’s actions, but that didn’t mean that everyone supporting the Democratic Republic in the Pitch in Turbani (yes, that is literally the stadium’s name, just The Pitch) held their breath when it looked like the robot was off to an early-ish shower. It didn’t happen, thank goodness, but Sven really gave everyone a good old scare with his last minute antics.

So that’s our game against Koronavia done and dusted. The scoreline might say 0-0 but our hearts look like they’ve just been through a literal bloody marathon. And it’s not going to get any better as the other teams in our group are Savojarna and Lisander, and we’ve all had experience watching our team go up against these guys and fail to walk away with any points at all. Whoever said that Group C was the only group in this Di Bradini Cup that wasn’t a group of death must have been on something strong, and I don’t think I want any of that stuff anywhere near me. Anyway, that’s all that there is from me now. If you’ve got any thoughts or comments of your own about our game against Koronavia or predictions against Savojarna then feel free to leave them down below. Until then, I’ve been the Man from Markovsky, hoping but not really expecting at this point that I won’t be disappointed in my country once again.

  KORONAVIA 0 - 0 ABANHFLEFT  
█

by **Mytanija** » Tue Jan 24, 2023 9:20 am

“What was your thought process with that one?” Tadej Roskar sheepishly asked his teammate, Ajdin Mujezinovic. Mujezinovic had headbutted an opponent in response to a particularly hard challenge on Roskar, the two were friendly, but Roskar hadn’t quite expected Ajdin to react in the manner he did.

“You know, mate, I’m not actually sure.” Ajdin grinned, a grin which was just as sheepish as Tadej’s questioning. “I think it was the way that Sorensen responded after the tackle, he was telling you to get up as if he thought you’d dived. He knew how he went into that tackle, it was completely out of order, I’m glad the ref sent him off too. I thought he wasn’t going to for a second, once I headbutted him…”

“Yeah. I can see why he might have lost focus after that. You need to be more careful man, we can’t afford to lose players through suspensions. I appreciate the thought, but we’re all here to win first and foremost, surely?” Tadej asked, somewhat rhetorically. He had been brought up in Nephara, coming through the ranks at Aries Chariots and the Nepharan drive to win showed itself pretty regularly. He didn’t have time for petty squabbles, the Mytanar tendency for passion stepping over to self-destruction was something he wanted to avoid.

“I know, but at least we won. I didn’t know you could head the ball like that!” Ajdin laughed, trying to move away from the sore fact that he would be missing for the next game, a potentially vital encounter versus Poafmersia before the Rushmori derby against Tikariot on match day 3. A win against Poafmersia would almost certainly see the Hoops through to the Second Round, preserving a strong recent record of progression in the Under-21 World Cup.

“I didn’t either,” Tadej allowed himself a small smirk. “Muharem’s crossing is a joke, isn’t it? Once I saw it coming into that area I knew I had to go and challenge for it, thank god it went on target, usually I’d be seeing that go about five yards over the bar or out for a throw or something ridiculous… Definitely not my strong suit, let’s say that.”

“Never would have said that for a second. Looked like you’d been practicing. A young Laze v Tuhinju or something…” Ajdin laughed.

“Haha, I wish.” Tadej replied, smiling. “If I can score half as many headed goals as him then they’ll have come up for a new role for me on Back of the Net Football… Wide Targetman? Aerial Winger? I don’t know, let’s just see if I can get another goal at this tournament first. I don’t mind how it goes in.”

“Do you think the gaffer will go for Pere or Evin against Poafmersia?” Ajdin asked, suddenly serious and contemplative.

“Instead of you?” Tadej asked, scratching his arm. “That’s a tough one. Different players, aren’t they? Pere’s more creative, decent on the ball and Evin’s a lot more box-to-box, a lot more energy and more combative. Think he’d have preferred you to be in there, bit of everything.”

“Yeah, maybe. But who do you reckon he’ll go for? Come on.”

“I’m not a mind reader am I Ajdin?!” Tadej laughed. “Are you worried about your place? Whoever it is, if they play well, you might be in trouble my friend. Who knows if you’ll start another match at the tournament…” He teased.

“Hah, the way we’re going with cards I’ll almost definitely get another opportunity. Six yellows and a red, someone’s going to get suspended in that midfield before the end of the group stage.”

“Yeah, probably.” Tadey mused. “Think we need to crackdown on the discipline a bit though, I remember watching Alen Hrdaljko at an Under-21 World Cup years ago, he was a right bastard in the middle of the pitch and got loads of cards. People were going on about his temperament—”

“Turned out alright for him, though.” Ajdin interjected.

“Sure. But I’m not sure it’s the most helpful thing if you want to win the tournament. Which I do.”

“Early days yet. Lots of games to go.” Ajdin said. “And, I promise I won’t be headbutting anybody again.”

“Thanks.” Tadej laughed. “Probably tell the gaffer that too. He’d appreciate being sure.”

“Not sure how I even start that conversation man…” Ajdin chuckled.

“Yeah, me neither. Good luck though.” Tadej said. “I’d probably go with Evin, though, now I’ve thought about it.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah, think he’s probably got more senior minutes and experience. That’ll be helpful. He’s a bit more physical too, which I think we probably need. And more aware defensively. We are always going to need that with Muharem playing wherever the hell he wants.”

by **Elmyia** » Tue Jan 24, 2023 11:13 am

Coach's diary - Day 1

Football is not an environment where I have found a lot of zen throughout the years. I experienced it personally. So much of my career was dominated by pride, fear and frustration. In football, there is so much you cannot control. So many find this frustrating beyond belief. But I no longer do, for I have found peace. I hope by sharing my own wisdom I can help you as well.

The team seems not to understand this yet. We concede a goal and they seem vexed, depressed, stressed. But there is no need. In football there are bad outcomes, always, for everyone. In an environment of such mirth and schadenfreuder, bad outcomes from events are spun out into narratives. You concede a screamer in the last minute to a team you've dominated? Suddenly you're rubbish. But these are the protestations of the ill-informed and those lacking perspective. So, when we concede, we cannot lose our heads, we need to stay calm and focus.

Against Xanneria we saw the consequences of this. The shifts in mentality and emotion from the players were not encouraging, we must always remain the same, approach things the same. We went 1-0 up in the first half an hour, the bench went wild. When they started excitedly discussing victory I said 'we will wait and see'. Then, not ten minutes later, Ghilcrest nodded home from a corner and the mood immediately soured. The players started to panic. It's ridiculous if you really think about it, if the ball had curved differently, it could've hit the post, Eirini might have kept it an inch off the line rather than behind. Sometimes luck falls a certain way, there is not much you can do about it. What we can do is react to it.

The reaction of panic had more bad outcomes for us. Before half time, Beresford flapped, hauled down the attacker and conceded a penalty. 2-1. There's a lesson here. The first goal unsettles the players, the second goal came because they are unsettled. Warren Neil turned to me on the bench to say we looked stuffed, I said 'we'll see'. I needed to make changes and bail these poor sods out.

Off came Beresford, sent for early meditation, on came Kastrinakis. I also took off Depel, who was spraying shots all over, for William Nicholas, who is much more mindful. The storm was calmed, some good crosses were sent in, eventually Will Cork came on for the fraught Spalding. His calm and presence of mind was such that he weaved through the defence, scoring a long distance effort to put us level. Another unlikrly goal, but yet again, that is football.

Overall, there were many lessons for the players. They must learn patience, they must learn not to let their emotions rule them on the pitch. As the mantra goes, the point of being alive is being alive. Similarly, the point of playing football is playing football. The point is to relax, enjoy the processes. All worrying about outcomes simply blinds us to what action we can take, and what things we cannot change.

by **Cabo Azure** » Tue Jan 24, 2023 6:33 pm

According to legend, football was introduced to Cabo Azure by King Carlos III, father of Adolfo II, who had learned it in a foreign land, likely Nephara, hence the sport’s original name in Azurean, “esférico-rei”, “king’s ball”. The sport started in Portelo and spread from there to each of the other islands. By convention, the first football club in Cabo Azure was CF Cidadela, founded by soldiers at the Portelo barracks in 1871. Matches throughout the nineteenth century were mainly by arrangement, with no formal league tables or schedules until well after 1900.

The first formal league in Cabo Azure was the Liga Aho, founded in 1912 by Iago Silva, a younger son of the Silva dynasty who played for CF Colinas Reales, a precursor to Villa Silva. Iago was also responsible for the codification of the rules, which to that point had been agreed upon prior to each match, as well as introducing formal positions and a standard ball to Azurean football. CF Colinas Reales won the first year of the Liga Aho, but were soon supplanted by CF Natal, which would go on to win almost half of the Liga Aho titles in the league’s century of existence.

The first All-Islands Championship was arranged as a series of exhibitions between island league champions played at Stadio Cidadela in 1924 to mark the wedding of Princess Carmen, Carlos IV’s only daughter, to Prince Alexandre of Quebec. The hastily-arranged wedding was widely rumored to be the result of an unplanned pregnancy, but the tournament was nevertheless a success, and Carmen would continue to be its patron throughout her life, beginning a royal tradition of the football association having a royal patron.

The All-Islands Championship would continue as the highest level of football competition in Cabo Azure for more than eight decades from its foundation, eventually evolving into a home-and-away series that ran throughout the island leagues' individual seasons. During this time, several island leagues came and went, but the three evergreen leagues were the Liga Aho, the Liga Portelo, and the Liga Dulce Muerte, which sometimes included teams from smaller islands surrounding Dulce Muerte. The final All-Island Championship was contested in 2011 and won by CF Portelo.

The next iteration of top-flight Azurean football, called the Liga Hidalgo Primer after its sponsor, premiered in the fall of 2011 and featured twelve of the top clubs from the island leagues. Its second tier, the Liga Hidalgo Segundo, is similarly an all-islands competition, and while there is promotion and relegation from the LHP to the LHS, there is no relegation below the LHS. Statistically, most LHP clubs are treated as continuations of the island league clubs they replaced, though the distinction is often made between "national championships", which includes All-Islands Championships, and "league titles", which does not. Including both Liga Hidalgo and All-Islands Championships, Natal is the winningest club in Azurean history.

by **Valanora** » Tue Jan 24, 2023 6:56 pm

The opening ceremony had gone rather well and then the youth team took the pitch and was able to scrape a way to three points in front of the cheering home crowd to start out the tournament. There was a feeling of optimism that was starting to infect the entirety of the national team program after the hiring of Dan Eastwood from Raynor City United to that of the manager of the senior team, with the manager taking charge of the team with only two weeks to prepare for the ensuing AOCAF. Despite the short amount of preparation time that the Euran manager had with the team, he had been able to forge the team through the tournament and with an undefeated record, only a penalty shootout in the semifinals keeping the Marauders from having a perfect record en route to their sixth regional title. It was a feeling of relief and quite a bit of joy throughout the entire football association as well as the fans, who despite having enjoyed the rebound of missing the World Cup to once again being title challengers, still had a bit of a bitter taste of failing short in the semifinals in two of the last three World Cups. It renewed the belief that the team could still win trophies.

That sort of optimism is quite infectious and it trickles throughout the organization that even the youth team seems to be carrying quite a bit of positivity in their own processes in getting ready for the tournament, despite having to replace the manager after Faeron Soldarian retired from managing at the end of the last Di Bradini Cup with the marriage to the Empress. Kasper Volheim has stepped from the assistant role and as the manager, while former national team striker Thor Møller has been appointed the assistant in his stead, although it is likely only going to be a one cycle appointment with Thor looking to use the position to springboard towards a management job next summer. Volheim was considered a great liaison between Faeron and the players, will that sort of skill set translate way moving from the assistant role to that as the main person in charge? This could be the test as to whether Volheim has the wits about himself to try and launch a managerial career himself or is best suited to being an assistant for the foreseeable future.

As for the team itself, it is widely speculated that Imre Haaland is looking to play themselves into a big transfer following the tournament and the upcoming domestic season. Juavi is reluctant to let the young striker leave with the team having qualified for the IFCF this cycle, but there is a pretty strong belief that the striker is way too good to be having a career where they are likely going to be bouncing back and forth between the Premiership and League One. Regardless, the young striker is one of the bright points of the squad, in addition to Phillipp Kohl and Carissa Mercado in the midfield. It is a good trio to try and build the rest of the squad around, if that is indeed what Volheim looks to be doing, with the latter two being part of the team who made the semifinals during the last tournament. Still, the squad selection did highlight a bit of a shortage of quality young players outside the top end clubs in the Premiership and even those who are playing abroad, which will need to be rectified if the Marauders are going to continue to compete at elite levels for years to come.

by **Independent Athletes from Quebec** » Tue Jan 24, 2023 7:04 pm

Carefully observing the proceedings from one of several dozen private boxes, Hwang Joon-Ho and Laurent Assidon had observed the tournament. Hwang and Laurent had known each other for a decade, partly thanks to Hwang's daughter, Myra, serving as a front office employee for the Olympique de Rimouski, while Laurent's son, Clement, was in the OR's renowned academy setup before receiving his callup the previous year. With Hwang having returned to Quebec after five seasons managing in Savojarna, and him not in a managerial position but rather the tricky position of the Chairman, he wanted to check over few of the national teamers and ask a third-party, who had known some of the players but currently is not part of the RQFA setup, to give back comments.

Assidon wasn't sure on what had allowed Hwang, whose reputation was already in a poor spot following his disastrous tenure in Admiral Storevik, to be comfortably elected to the Chairman position on the election. Being the manager of the OR, who are on a different club standing than with Koreana right now, however, Assidon had assumed that the Board and the fans had wanted a more familiar name who could exercise a clearer vision on the club. Certainly not the kind that Laurent had liked much, partly due to the dangers of such easily falling into the likes of federation-driven intervention ala. what he was going through with Al-Tamazgha, but you make what you will.

Light smoke fume was coming out of Assidon's mouth as he smoked a slim 'Burnton & Hodge's' cigarette inside, suggesting that he himself was nervous enough watching this match. He was perhaps far too invested in it himself - the tournament after all was featuring two of Olympique's most important players for the upcoming season, Grim Reapers' centreback Goh Hak-Seong and Cenian right-winger Sebastian Ellex Mar. Hwang, on the other hand, just stared and observed, the 54-year-old more than happy with how the match itself was turning out for the Quebecois side.

Unlike in his managerial days abroad, Hwang had kept his hair cut short and beard trimmed to the very minimum, and while it was not enough to hide the fact that the elder of two figures were aging by the pale strands of his hair, it had given Laurent impression of Joon-Ho's younger days as a Grim Reapers' and Port Sebastian centreback - that of a calm, commanding presence not often seen in the Quebecois centrebacks (fullbacks are another story, to note). Both men are eight years apart in age, and their career trajectories differed too, but both were observing it from the foreign lens that had added more than just managing the game solely on domestic soil of theirs.

'This is getting ridiculous, Laurent.' Hwang Joon-Ho opened his mouth, watching as Oberon M'bah-Pinho, aided by superior speed, dribbled and sailed halfway across the pitch to assist on Cesar Icardi-Rabiot's goal, as the Grim Reapers increase their lead to three at the 75th minute mark. 'He's a striker? You are kidding me, right? What kind of striker runs like that nowadays? I've not seen this since arguably Zachary Fortin and Leonardo Conavacio.'

'He could play winger, too, so that would be a correct assessment,' Laurent commented, the Olympique manager remembering how difficult it was to contain the 16-year-old rookie. 'He's played like that for entire last season with Kingston, running two up front with Brianne Levine, the Dagan who plays second striker with him. The Reds really got a bargain out of him and so did the Grim Reapers.'

'I could imagine managing l'Olympique against him to be frustrating if anything. That's not just average talent,' Joon-Ho said, as he drank from a glass of gin, before he looked back at Laurent. 'Sorry for asking you to come join me today, Larry. I know you are probably thinking a lot about things, especially with the Olympique having that awful Cup Winners' Cup round, and people wanting your head after a season.'

'Need not bother, we played shit and lost like a wee little shits,' the younger man did not shy away in stating OR's dreadful loss to FC Asurblau Afoln of Tjorl, one that had seen the fans throw cabbages and tomatoes at the players and the coaching staff upon their arrival at the Rimouski Airport. 'The focus is back on the league again, and hopefully a trophy or two to add. Coupe de la Reine's nice, but you know we lucked out because Swangard or Arsenal couldn't keep themselves consistent enough.'

'That's a valid point,' Hwang nodded, a sign that he likely had a bit more confidence about it heading into the position where the club has won their last 26 league matches, and had led the team into the magical Champions' League semifinals run, a historic best by a Quebecois club, just the season ago. 'I like Cesar more - good ball control, he knows how to read the field and closes out the gaps well. Any thoughts on that fella?'

'Not in my chance if I were you,' Laurent shook his head multiple times in clear disagreement, before answering back. He had not exactly remembered that Hwang, having spent six years abroad in Savojarna, had missed a step or two with latest prospects outside of the Academy setup. 'You would not want to get that guy. He has talent - good fundamentals, excellent instinct and is a 190(cm) - so of course you would want him. He's slightly slow, but on a league like the Q-League, positioning matters just as much because you could just use him as a poacher if need be.'

'And?'

The very moment would see Icardi-Rabiot, who took off both his jersey and shorts before giving it to a Grim Reapers' fan, getting red-carded for unsportsmanlike conduct.

'Well, that's one reason why.' Laurent said, his motion on a clear facepalm at the sight of watching a Grim Reapers' prospect getting sent off for something so careless. 'His temper and penchant for trouble are another. Not to mention that he's had some unpleasant rumours floating around him.'

'About what? Literally any Quebecois footballer has had some?' He asked.

'But have you not heard about the one with him and his stepmother?'

'Oh.'

by **Ceni** » Tue Jan 24, 2023 7:13 pm

Nova Ascea in 24 hours — with Eréndira Wallace-Zárate

In partnership with the Cenian Football Association to promote the upcoming Di Bradini Cup domestically, Wanderlust has decided to feature several players' perspectives on their favourite cities in Ceni. In this second installment, we hand over the reins to Eréndira Wallace-Zárate, who plays as an attacking midfielder for the Cenian under 21 team.

I really like Nova Ascea, because it's a multicultural melting pot, filled with people from all the ethnic origins that make Ceni such a unique place to live. Indeed, we're right at the border between the predominantly Terranean-speaking communities and the predominantly Faroleran-speaking communities.

Just like me: I speak both languages fluently, and I credit that to growing up as a mixed-race child in a place that really values being able to fit in within both communities at ease.

To start off the day, let's get brunch at one of my favourite places in the city: Fuego Latino Gastropub. There, you can get things like lomo saltado and eggs (a take on the traditional Euran steak and eggs), dulce de leche pancakes, shrimp and grits but with aji amarillo sauce... the food choices there may not please traditionalists from either camp, but I really like their food, and I would go back there seven times in a day if I could.

Nova Ascea's most well-known attraction is probably the Josué Zambrano Museum of Contemporary Art, located smack-dab in the middle of the city centre with an excellent view of the Afanc Strait from its fourth floor exhibition hall. Although there are numerous pieces there that... really aren't my style, let's say, I did really enjoy the sculptures on that aforementioned fourth floor, and I think the Cenian FA would really do good to include some abstract pieces on our kit designs in the future.

Just kidding, of course.

Nova Ascea is located on a pretty significant hillside, which is in fact the largest hill in Ceni (or so I've been told). To get to our next attraction, there's a pretty steep hiking trail that's popular with the young and fit. But there's also a panoramic cable car that will take you up the hill. I usually prefer taking the trail up (I'm young and fit, after all), but for the sake of taking our readers around the city, let's split the difference: cable car up, trail down.

At the top of Montserrate Hill is a series of buildings that has an attraction for pretty much everyone. Of course, there's a church; there's also the main telescope of the National Cenian Observatory, which I would recommend to anybody interested in science; and, my personal favourite, the Valerio Sapienti Villa. Designed by an eccentric Juven millionaire (who had a role in naming the city Nova Ascea, in fact), it has all sorts of nooks and crannies to explore in. You could easily spend three or four hours exploring the site and its gardens, with plenty of hidden treasures there for everyone to explore.

After descending down Montserrate Hill, let's head back to the gleaming modern business district for my favourite hole-in-the-wall taco spot: Doña Leña's Taco Spot. I know it's a bit of any oxymoron to have a hole-in-the-wall taco spot in a modern financial district, but you can find the darndest things in Ceni sometimes. Anyway, Doña Leña serves the best birria tacos that you can find in Rushmore. Indeed, I've been searching all over Mar Sara for anything comparable, and I haven't been able to find any!

Anyway, I like to close out the night with a trip to the mall in the business district; the Starlight, Star Bright Mall has all the best clothing and jewelry deals out there. Yes, I'm a material girl... but I like to show off my style in Valanora! After all... you can't wear a Cenian NT-issue tracksuit everywhere you go in such a style-conscious country, right?

Thanks for having me on this series, and I'd love for all the readers here to watch us in the Di Bradini Cup. Go Tir Snakes!

by **Huayramarca** » Tue Jan 24, 2023 7:13 pm

One of the most interesting features of life is how it keeps repeating in cycles, without need of external influence or pressure exerted for it, it is a quasi-magic process by the looks of it but it’s so entrenched into our logic that it is taken for granted. National teams aren’t an exception for this cycle to happen, as one generation of players rise and consolidate, be it in glories, the unsavoury taste of “almost” succeeding or plain failure, there’s always a time where a call of action appears, the need of rebuilding.

Huayramarca is in an interesting period as of late, the generation that give birth to football in the nation, the ones who achieve World Cup Qualification three straight times after failing their previous five attempts, are a generation that consolidated itself as entertainers of fans multiverse-wide with solid participations, yet faltering in the crucial instances where glory is at stakes. During the last couple of years, the Huayramarcan Football Federation has pushed hard to work with a grassroots football movement across the nation, choosing the very best the nation has to offer, even extending to the point of scouting abroad or recruiting some naturalised Huayramarcans in a bid.

A project that began by the working hands of Omar Caicedo, who tried to focus the team to a offensive ideal, was able to find a sizeable base of players ready to be used for international competitions, such as the RTC U-18 World CUp and, in the future, the Di Bradini Cup. This was a path to ensure the players earn enough football IQ and maturity; in the process, some training camps were held in strategic places that ensured an environment that would demand to hone certain skills; in the Sierra, resistance and efficiency in the usage of oxygen, force-minded exercises at the Coast, and intelligence-focused training in the Jungle, this to end with the cherry of the cake, a trip to Iqaluit, Québec & Shingoryeo.

Caicedo training had some decent results at the RTC U-18 WC if we consider that first timers were involved into action, then the action was repeated the following year, but under a new manager, and things looked better, as Huayramarca crossed the line of knock-out stages, did the same thing with the Invitational Mihaly Cup where they reached semi-finals. Improving, doing better and Âgínsôgnó made sure to have a stronger offensive vocation, goal production increased and defence seemed to be functional, contrary to popular belief that it’d plummet down. With the time of “maturity” in, it’s the time for this new generation to show off at the biggest test so far, the Di Bradini Cup.

This edition will have Huayramarca in Group A with Khantari, Sylesto, Valanora and the Young Condors. With a satisfying score against Sylestone already, the team is focusing on scoring more and try to outplay the rival as much as possible, the simple Rulandese logic of the manager. Making sure to control the ball, the situations and being able to hit at the right moment will be vital for this team, as they did in the second and third goal vs Sylestone, right at moments where the rival seemed to take some initiative, the team hit and made sure to kill those attempts early.

For the second match, which is of more difficulty against the Elven Legion of Valanora, a traditional powerhouse of football, cradle of legends such as Laborious Hawk among others. With their offensive style, and also stacked roster talent, they will be an interesting challenge for this team that will give some important lessons, be it for improvement or for progressing in a functional idea in case they get those three points. A litmus test in the whole sense of the word, Âgínsôgnó will have to ask the players for some tactical discipline, something they will need, and also be sure that an adequate lecture of the play tempo can be done, so they can take the initiative and perform some attacking.

Let’s be sure of something, Huayramarca will need to be as effective as possible to defeat the Vanorians, they will need to be deadly precise and critical when it comes to attacking. If done, we could stand some chance against the big favourites and hosts.

by **Pasarga** » Tue Jan 24, 2023 7:27 pm

A question that seems to be asked quite a bit from folks outside the dual islands who do take an interest in the football in the nation is why does the majority of the youth talent seem to come from CA Paulinthal? While Paulinthal is a major port in the dual islands, it is also somewhat isolated from a lot of the rest of Pargis and is not part of the heartlands of the nation like Stein-los, Targas, and Torgos are. Most would assume that the latter three would be where most of the youth talent would be concentrated, with it being the hotbed and center of the nation as well as having a plethora of high level clubs who are known for developing talent for their first teams. Yet outside the likes of Baskita and Tani, we do not see young players from these teams often making the Young Wanderers rosters or really developing into players that are up to the SuperLiga quality, perhaps explaining why teams like Fetherdron United, Torgos City, and Stradirù are seen as yo-yo clubs and do not really ever seem to permanently establish themselves in the nation's topflight.

The answer to that comes to knowing your history and we have to travel back nearly elven decades ago, back to 1896 before football had even been first played within the dual islands and the most common sport that was played was something closely akin to "kickball" as it has been called. Like a fusion of baseball and football, this kickball was usually played in large fields where each team fielded seven players with a neutral "catcher". The thrower of each team would roll the ball towards the catcher and the opposing team would have a player there to attempt to kick at the offering. While rare, kicks that exceeded the fence or more often a designated boundary in the field of play would result in a full run, where the player was allowed to round all three bases and touch the score diamond in the kicking area. If a kick is caught without hitting the ground, the kicker was designated as out, as well as if the kicker is tagged with the ball if it traveled across the ground by a field player. Each half inning would allow for four outs with the gaming ending after five full innings or if one team even went up by over ten runs.

However in 1896, mariners and merchants from abroad introduced the port town of Paulinthal to the sport that would later become known as football. These foreigners would often play games in the streets or in the kickball fields and the locals would watch with great entertainment and glee, until such time that a group of the mariners, sailors, and merchants decided to found a football club and endeavored to teach the local populace the rules of the sport. This club was none other than Club Atlético Paulinthal or CA Paulinthal for short, the foreigners taking the name from the Santiguan locals who spoke in a strange tongue compared to most of the other Pasargans in the town. The club would slowly begin to teach a lot of the local populace the game and it would spread across the nation like wildfire, with the foundation of the Pasargan First Division and a second tier with another thirty clubs founded in spring and summer of 1899 before the formation of the league. This does not include Club Stein-los, who was founded in 1896 shortly after the founded of the Hurricane and has been a point of contention between the two clubs ever since as both claim to be the first club founded in the nation.

What the founders instilled into the club was tradition of including multiple different groups of people into the club and training them up to be their very best. Over time this has translated into more open acceptance in the academy of CA Paulinthal as well as a heavy investment in the coaching of those youth players both in the academy and with the youth team proper. As a result, the players who come through the academy are among the most ready to start playing from the moment they officially become professional players at age seventeen. This has seen dozens of youth players who have come from the academy and gone to have a huge impact both at club level and international level, even if it was not with the Hurricane themselves.

by **Valanora** » Tue Jan 24, 2023 7:35 pm

Matchday 2

Group A
Khantari 4–2 Sylestone
Valanora 1–1 Huayramarca

P Group A              Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Huayramarca            2   1  1  0    4   3  +1    4
2 Valanora               2   1  1  0    3   2  +1    4
3 Khantari               2   1  0  1    5   4  +1    3
4 Sylestone              2   0  0  2    4   7  −3    0 E

Group B
HUElavia 2–2 Cabo Azure
Quebec 4–2 Bears Armed

P Group B              Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Quebec                 2   2  0  0    7   2  +5    6 Q
2 Cabo Azure             2   0  2  0    3   3   0    2
3 Bears Armed            2   0  1  1    3   5  −2    1
4 HUElavia               2   0  1  1    2   5  −3    1

Group C
Savojarna 2–5 Abanhfleft
Lisander 0–1 Koronavia

P Group C              Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Abanhfleft             2   1  1  0    5   2  +3    4
2 Koronavia              2   1  1  0    1   0  +1    4
3 Lisander               2   0  1  1    2   3  −1    1
4 Savojarna              2   0  1  1    4   7  −3    1

Group D
Ceni 2–1 Baker Park
Chromatika 2–3 TJUN-ia

P Group D              Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 TJUN-ia                2   2  0  0    8   4  +4    6
2 Ceni                   2   1  1  0    6   5  +1    4
3 Chromatika             2   0  1  1    6   7  −1    1
4 Baker Park             2   0  0  2    3   7  −4    0 E

Group E
Darmen 0–5 Pasarga
Ko-oren 1–0 Tumbra

P Group E              Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Pasarga                2   1  1  0    7   2  +5    4
2 Ko-oren                2   1  0  1    4   4   0    3
3 Darmen                 2   1  0  1    4   8  −4    3
4 Tumbra                 2   0  1  1    2   3  −1    1

Group F
Qasden 0–1 Elmyia
Cassadaigua 2–3 Xanneria

P Group F              Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Xanneria               2   1  1  0    5   4  +1    4
2 Elmyia                 2   1  1  0    3   2  +1    4
3 Cassadaigua            2   0  1  1    2   3  −1    1
4 Qasden                 2   0  1  1    0   1  −1    1

Group G
Tikariot 1–4 Île de Richelieu
Poafmersia 0–3 Mytanija

P Group G              Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Mytanija               2   2  0  0    4   0  +4    6
2 Île de Richelieu       2   1  0  1    4   2  +2    3
3 Poafmersia             2   1  0  1    2   4  −2    3
4 Tikariot               2   0  0  2    2   6  −4    0

Group H
Cardenao 0–1 Græntfjall
Melbergia 0–2 Valladares

P Group H              Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Valladares             2   2  0  0    5   1  +4    6 Q
2 Græntfjall             2   1  0  1    2   3  −1    3
3 Cardenao               2   0  1  1    0   1  −1    1
4 Melbergia              2   0  1  1    0   2  −2    1

by **Khantari** » Tue Jan 24, 2023 8:17 pm

The Young Khan's fighting spirit is proven
by Cedric Palms

Even though The Young Khan was placed as a non-favored or underdog team, they displayed a high fighting spirit. losing 1-2 to the hosts, Valanora, was not the endpoint for their struggle. The important thing is a strong spirit and will, it is necessary to keep fighting, the proof is that they managed to score a 4-2 victory in the second match of the Bradini Cup by defeating a more powerful opponent, Sylestone. The rout of defeat had initially come when the opposition had taken a 2-0 lead through Nicholas Holder's goal in the 12th minute and a beautiful free kick by Jack Lawson in the 40th minute. Regardless of the cursed that Ridley Cometts has thrown in the dressing room, the National youth team looked more focused and organized in the second half, Coach Cometts made a bet by removing prolific striker Gus Inkloser and bringing in replacement striker Kingsley Honeyworth as soon as the second half started.

The national U-21 team's flurry of attacks paid off when they were awarded a penalty in the 51st minute which was easily converted by Honeyworth. Unexpectedly, that night was a lucky night for Honeyworth as he managed to score two more goals in the 69th and 77th, his first hat-trick in the international arena. The Young Khan's offensive mode continued to bear fruit when Tristan Winterhound's header met Justin Windford's pass and hit the net in the 88th minute, making the score 4-2. But towards the end, the national youth team seemed to have run out of energy and only survived in the face of Sylestone's barrage of attacks to get the equalizer. I don't know why, maybe fate is on our side and the decision remains until the end of time, well done The Young Khan

The Fifty-fourth Di Bradini Cup::: Match

Venues ::: The Battleground & Turmondale Grounds

Group A:: MD1 - Valanora vs. Khantari [2-1] - Gus Inkloser min. 71
Group A:: MD2 - Khantari vs. Sylestone [4-2] - Kingsley Honeyworth min. 51 (pen.), 69, 77 & Tristan Winterhound 88
Group A:: MD3 - Huayramarca vs. Khantari

by **Elmyia** » Wed Jan 25, 2023 3:05 am

The Overlap
Something in this zen nonsense?

Elmyian football, at all levels, had been in somewhat of a parlous state coming into the Di Bradini Cup. The u-17s and u-20s had crashed out of their respective Rushmori competitions, the senior side had taken a battering in the Independents' Cup. In steps the Elder Coach of Epvalle.

The Elder Coach of Epvalle is a controversial figure. Everyone knows how he really is, but a superinjunctions means it cannot be printed. Why did he have to pitch such a clunky name? Anyway, he had always been a controversial figure, and his conversion to zen teachings has only extended this further, if in a much more mild-mannered fashion than before. That the under-21s turned to him demonstrates just how desperate things were getting.

It did not aid things that reports out of training camp seemed to be increasingly weird. A total lack of normal training drills, his new program seemed to range from basic meditation to the increasingly esoteric. Though no one has confirmed this yet, the strikers are rumoured to be banned from shooting in training, and the defenders have been forced to practise with blindfolds on.

Despite, or perhaps because of, this, Elmyia seem to be doing well? The performance against Xanneria was not without fault, the mental collapse from the first goal to the second was fairly poor, but his changes seemed to work and they dug out an important draw to open the group stage. The result against Qasden, however, was more impressive.

How many times have we seen an Elmyian side crumble? When tasked with getting a goal themselves for a result, or in defending a lead, Elmyia look nervous, shaky and unsure of themselves on a fairly regular basis. This squad in itself blew a 2-1 lead over Southwest Eastnorth in the Campeonato Rushmori Sub-20, crumbling to a defeat that was as much self-inflicted as it was by the opposition. The senior side have also had their fair share, the 4-2 defeat to Juvencus in the Independents Cup comes to mind, a 10 minute flurry of three goals sending them towards the exit. But here Elmyia finally displayed something resembling mental fortitude and grit.

Qasden held the line for the majority of the game. The team was committed to a defensive playstyle, whilst Elmyia looked to strike a balance between defence and attack. With both sides in a 4-4-2 this really lent itself to one on one battles. Two on two in midfield meant there was little to pick the sides apart here, both engaging in energetic running and tackling to little avail. Down the wings, the wingers and fullbacks chased each other up and down, never able to deal a decisive blow and progress to the byline frequently stalled. If crosses came in the strikers and centre-backs both went up for some fiercely contested headers, but no one was able to put theirs goalward. It truly felt like stalemate, or indeed the sort of game where Elmyia could succumb to a quick counter.

At this point Elmyia would usually make a change. As a footballing culture we truly expect it, you need something to shake up the game. But the coach sat quietly in his dugout with his arms folded. He was changing nothing. The players seemed to take it upon themselves to change things. With 20 minutes left, Depel started to drop somewhat deeper. Suddenly it was 3 on 2 in the midfield and Umstroke seemed unsure whether to follow, or to mark the space. He wisely continued to mark the space, Whittingham and Depel were unable to spin in behind. However, the overload in midfield allowed Spalding to push out wide, towards Rossi, suddenly they were able to work the ball, where before it was 2 on 2, with Beresford, Spaling and Rossi wide they could work in crosses. Whittingham was going 1 on 1 in these, but by getting forward to contest and nodding back she was able to tee up Depel. With just 2 minutes on the clock they had taken the winner.

Such a result puts Elmyia in position to advance, which in itself feels surreal. This would be only the second tournament where Elmyia have achieved this, the previous being the under-18s World Cup, also to much surprise. Maybe, just maybe, with decent coaching we might have a generation that can end the senior side’s glut of disappointment?

by **Mytanija** » Wed Jan 25, 2023 7:33 am

Adem Fejzic hadn’t picked Muharem Hajdarpasic as the captain of the Mytanija under-21s because of his leadership qualities. This was pretty clear to anybody who had watched Hajdarpasic, he wasn’t an old-fashioned leader on the pitch who would encourage and cajole his teammates into line. He liked to shout at referees, assistants and fourth officials; particularly when he was on the end of a bad challenge, which was increasingly often, he’d become a leader in the ‘fouls won’ category in his time at Tekstil and now at West Couno United. Fejzic had picked him as captain to give him a sense of responsibility. He had picked him as captain to keep him on his best behaviour, on the straight and narrow path towards success. The hope was that the responsibility and authority conveyed on him through the captain’s armband would in turn get the best out of him in Mytanija’s hooped shirt.

So far it had worked a treat. Hajdarpasic had a reputation for enjoying hedonistic activities away from football. He liked a drink, he liked to party, he was often pictured falling out of nightclubs with women on his arm. He was 20 years of age, good looking and a footballer with disposable income. Fejzic had explained to him that he couldn’t do any of that whilst representing Mytanija. He could do whatever he liked when the tournament had finished, but whilst he was representing his country he had to focus on the job at hand, which was to progress as far in the tournament as possible. And so far, Muharem had listened. He’d worn the armband admirably, playing for the team, even pressing when required – something Fejzic had thought impossible! He was on the right track. He might never be a captain in the mould of a Jasno Odonelec, both a top player and a real vocal leader, but he could lead a team by example by putting his all into every minute. For now, he was doing exactly that.

An assist for Tadej Roskar’s header in the bad-tempered group opener had got Mytanija on their way. Hajdarpasic was on set-pieces and his delivery, particularly from corners, had been absolutely superb during the first two group games. Fejzic had had to remind him to stay calm from the touchline in that opening game, six Mytanar players ended up with booking and Ajdin Mujezinovic ended up being sent off for a headbutt on Sorensen. Hajdarpasic wasn’t one of those booked, his captain had done him proud, keeping his head as all around him were losing theirs. Fejzic could be pleased with that, even if the eventual rap sheet for his team made for grim reading. Yellows for Slomsek, Kobilcov, Simic, Issoumou, Udovic and Miklavivec after the opening game meant that there were a lot of players only a booking away from a one-game suspension. There would be an amnesty for yellow cards after the quarter final stage, with everybody’s slate effectively being wiped clean at that point, but there was a lot of football to be played up until that point and Fejzic had a lot of players who were close to the edge. Due to his red card offence Mujezinovic was suspended instantly, too.

But as long as Hajdarpasic was playing well, Adem Fejzic felt that his team had a good chance. Without Mujezinovic against Poafmersia in the second group game Mytanija roared to a 3-0 win. Hajdarpasic was at the centre of it once again, his set-piece delivery causing all manner of problems for the Poafmer defenders. One in-swinging corner was met by Ezgjan Kobilcov at the near-post to make it 1-0 to the Hoops. Hajdarpasic was involved in the second too, albeit without the decisive pass for the assist. His clever reverse pass between full-back and centre-half found Tadej Roskar running towards the by-line and Roskar’s cut-back was turned home by Lacina Issoumou. Then another corner, this time an out-swinger was powered home from the head of Filip Mlinarevic. Fejzic hadn’t particularly been known for how well his teams exploited set-pieces during his coaching career, but with Hajdarpasic’s delivery being so good his team had now scored now three goals from just two games from corners. It was a nifty new feature which Fejzic was delighted with and Muharem himself appeared to be delighted at just how big an effect he was having for his team.

“Well played out there today son,” Fejzic said to Hajdarpasic after the game, clapping him on the back. “Your crossing has been so consistent so far. Keep it up.”

“Thanks boss,” Muharem smiled. He was a kid that wanted to be loved, who thrived off praise. “Just trying to do my best. I want to do well because you’ve put a lot of trust in me.” He finished, pointing at the armband still worn on his arm.

“I have. If you can keep playing at that level, then you’re doing exactly that Muharem. Even if the assists aren’t there, as long as I can see you putting in the effort, both in matches and in training, then that’s enough.” Fejzic said, before lowering his voice a little. “The others look up to you, you’re the one who made the big money move to Tumbra. If they can see that you’re working hard then they will as well because they’ll know that that is what they need to do to reach that level. That’s what being a captain is all about, Muharem.”

Muharem smiled again, seemingly trying to take on all the information. He nodded, then walked into the changing room to be with his teammates. Fejzic hoped that he had absorbed what he was saying. Even after all this time as under-21 manager it was difficult to tell if the young lads actually understood the messages that he was trying to get across to them. He shook his head; he couldn’t dwell on it for too long.

Three more yellow cards against Poafmersia meant some selection headaches versus Tikariot. Miha Slomsek, Ezgjan Kobilcov and Ado Simic would all be suspended for the final group game. Evin Miklavivec had deputised for Ajdin Mujezinovic fairly well in midfield, so he'd retain his place, but Fejzic still needed somebody to play the deep-lying midfield role. He wasn’t sure Pere Prosev-Prlicko could play that position, Mujezinovic could but he could hardly bring him back into the team straight away after such a flagrant act of ill-discipline. Ilija Patrnogic was the other option in the squad, at Atletik and clearly talented. He’d probably be accused of Atletik-bias, formerly managing the club, but Patrnogic certainly seemed best suited to the demands of the role.

Replacements for Slomsek and Kobilcov were easier to decide upon. Nermin Pecenica for Slomsek was as near to a like-for-like change as possible, whilst the choice of either Andrija Dasovic or Jakub Plecnik for Kobilcov could easily be a toss-up decision on the day. Dasovic playing alongside Lusamba at club level could be beneficial to easing the former into the starting eleven, though. Fejzic mused on other changes across the pitch, keeping Hajdarpasic, Roskar and Udovic in the starting eleven made sense as their replacements weren’t quite as experienced or hadn’t played as regularly at as high a level. Issoumou had just scored, too, but Fejzic had a number of strikers who all needed games. A start for Stipe Mlinarevic or Alija Sutalo could be just what the doctor ordered to ensure they were all getting minutes.

by **Graintfjall** » Wed Jan 25, 2023 7:59 am

Cardenao 0–1 Græntfjall
Goals: ; Erin 90+9’ (pen.)

Selection of articles from Græntfjaller news media.

Uninspiring offensive showing prompts questions despite win

Gilbert and Sullivan

The animals with myth-ing legs? Ancient cave paintings granted special protected status

Gas guzzling Græntfjall! Soaring demand for LNG ahead of climate talks

₂

News from around the Græntfjaller Commonwealth:

Soaring food inflation sends Verdean protestors onto the streets as Presidente Santángel blames corruption
Emirate seeks debt restructuring as devastating impact of infrastructure damage becomes clear
Mlima Kijani “open” to controversial proposal by Græntfjaller Deputy Minister For Ripping Off RL News Headlines And Crudely Fashioning Them Into RP Subplots to “dump” failed asylum seekers in impoverished rainforest country
Græntfjaller web giant Qardinal hit by anti-trust investigation in Hannasea
Zelenan teams flop in PHL, leading to renewed search for Pavolan franchise owners

by **Cassadaigua** » Wed Jan 25, 2023 9:09 am

Less partying, more soccer, please,
by Caitlyn Dufresne, Concord Heights Times

Following a 3-2 loss to Xanneria, you would have expected the team to be in bad spirits. You would have hoped that manager Hannah Shanley, who is the assistant to Brittany Byers with the senior team, would get the team focused properly on their final match since they still have a chance to make knockouts. She can try to set the rules, and more than likely she probably has. However, leaked pictures of an after game party on social media have fans enraged.

We'll start by saying that not everyone was present at the party, as seen in the photos and videos that were seen in a location that is suspected to be a larger suite within the Longview hotel they were at, but that is not confirmed. While you might just call drinking and a little bit of hanging out to be okay, we saw heavy drinking, an apparent wet t-shirt contest for a group of men that were within the hotel and some notable public displays of affection. The most prominent player in these pictures and videoes, not surprisingly was Lexi McGregor, who is already often criticized for her immaturity. Other players seen were Tiffany Brown, Chrissy Larmer, Alyssa Marlin, Carly Wending, Lacey Sherwood, and Rachel Blasko. Some of those other names, especially like Brown and Marlin will be a lot more shocking to fans, since they have never had any form of a negative reputation.

A sample comments on either Twii'tur showed the outrage:

"What the hell!? You idiots lost! And to Xanneria!" -- @BratGirl_Haley

"Gee, imagine how the party would have been if they won the game!" -- @Lilygreene10

"So sick of Lexi McGregor. I don't care how good she is. She does not symbolize Cassadagan soccer at all." -- @WhiteMountainTammie

"Kick Lexi off the teams. Now! Obviously she is a terrible influence!" -- @JessMartin001

"How does Hannah Shanley not have control of this? How is this shit allowed? That's right, Lexi does whatever she wants because Hannah is also her manager in Starksville. Now others are following her." -- @RutlandRoger

Of course, not everyone was mad:

"Ngl I'd wanna party too. Does it really matter who wins the Di Bradini Cup anyway. #yolo" @KatieB103

"Who won the wet t-shirt contest though? We never got that eventual result?" @ShawnCfromBigC

In the aftermath of all of this, if you were expecting an apology from Lexi McGregor, or anyone else, you will be disappointed. McGregor replied, "I'm 19, not like 30. I think some of you are just jealous that you were not there. We're having fun, and I am not and we are not going to let losses get in the way of having fun. And we're gonna have another party after the next game, win or lose. #dealwithit"

Manager Hannah Shanley, who one the commenters above acknowledged as also being McGregor's domestic manager said, "Lexi likes to have fun. She enjoyed herself during the last season, and was one of the leading scorers in the CSL and led us to the CSL championship on the field. If I felt this was a distraction to her, I would put an end to it, but she still puts the work in."

None of the players who were not present at the party have responded to a request for comment.

by **Xanneria** » Wed Jan 25, 2023 10:15 am

Xannerian NTer named BoF entertainment.
source http://www.xtra.xan/

BoF 80 entertainment - Xannerian defender Colton Boyd-Church

LINEUP LW Alessandro Giovanardi RW Windy Groves ST Amy Gray OM Lia Verne OM Kenni Lukkenian DM Shawna Isley DM Linda Polk RB Trey Dillon CB Jamal Akron LB Maxie DuClaire GK Bobby Watson

MERTAGNE - The Baptism of Fire's 80th edition has a a pre-game entertainment. In a shocking turn of events, Mertagne's BoF event directors have announced Xannerian Country star and Centerback for the National Team, Colton Boyd-Church as the entertainment for the finale for the Baptism of Fire. Boyd-Church has recently released an album called "Wheatfield" and will performs three songs. "Out of Leftfield" is a song about him getting his start in the country music business and contains a metaphor related not towards football but Baseball. "Wheatfield" is the title track of the album and its lead single, the song is a semi-biographical one about a kid from rural Xanneria making it big. Lastly the third song he will sing is "Slaying Dragons that Fly". This song is not a single but it's definitely a hit with the Mertagnian crowd as it has not so subtle references to defeating Ko-Oren in football, something Xannerians and Mertagnians can all agree on.

As for the U21WC, Xanneria took down a sluggish Dagain team. The Cassadaigan team looked promising but a weak performance behind striker Lexi McGregor doomed the kids from Cassadaigua. In fact it was McGregor whose turnover deep in Xannerian territory, that would seal the deal for the baby Maroons. The Dagans was also not helped by the game winning goal being a penalty kick late in the game, thatw as induced by Chrissy Larmer's poor form tackle.

Up next for the Maroons are the Qaden U-21s. They are coming off of a 1-0 to Elmyia and both teams look forward to moving on in the DiBrandi Cup

XANNERIA - 3
Gray 11'
Lukkenian 50' 90+2 (PK)

CASSADAIGUA - 2
Cunningham 21'
Cullen 57'

by **TJUN-ia** » Wed Jan 25, 2023 12:01 pm

After smashing the Young Bees of Baker Park in the 2nd half, the Young Jagaurs of TJUN-ia were back and certainly looking like a team ready to try and make some magic after all this time. We weren't exactly sure what we should be expecting from a team who haven't played together in a long ass time, but what we managed to do to the defending champs at Donna Cathedral was certainly a good thing to take into the contests to come. Philip van Oosterend was certainly happy with what he saw on the first game back but he also knew that there was still a long way to go and in a competition like the 75th U21WC, anything was possible.

It was back to Donna Cathedral for MD2 as we faced the Junior Anomalies from Chromatika, a squad managed by Claude Pare-Achel that always likes to do fairly well in a competition such as this one. We knew that we would be getting a test from a team like this one and in the first half, we certainly got one as they went 2-0 to the good after 35 minutes thanks to Elaine Howard-Dawes and Yasuda Usagi getting past Gao Wu Shi. But the revival would begin with a goal just before the end of the first half, with Paek Un-hui heading the ball past Jill Swanson off a corner from Harlem Baringer-Tahiri. That hope would be carried into the 2nd half where the bench would play a key role in how the rest of this contest played out. Diana Sharafutdinov certainly had the pace and the equaliser would come when she found a cross from Paek Un-hui and slotted it home in the 67th minute. The eventual winner would come in the 78th when Mikela Djé-Djé was given a beautiful ball from Stephanie Barrientos and she would make no mistake from inside the box. Four of the 5 goals tonight were scored by women - and in the end, we won 3-2. What a splendid evening, I must say.

The defending champions, Baker Park, are out already...and we are also confirmed to be in as well, no matter what happens on the final day. Now we must battle Ceni at Artani for the Group D win - a team who is also unbeaten in this group with a 4-4 draw with Chromatika and a 2-1 win over CBP. Someone must win this group...and this one should be a fun one. GO YOUNG JAGS!

SCHEDULE (Group D)
MD1: vs Commonwealth of Baker Park - Donna Cathedral, Mar Sara W 5-2 (1st)
MD2: vs Chromatika - Donna Cathedral, Mar Sara W 3-2 (1st)
MD3: vs Ceni - Artani, Mar Sara

by **Ko-oren** » Wed Jan 25, 2023 2:56 pm

Contrary to popular belief, we're not all about results. At least, not in competitions like the Di Bradini Cup, and for that reason we do not always compete. For our youth players, it's more important to build rapport, confidence, and experience, and results are secondary to that. But when the opportunity presents itself, sure, we'll pick up some results as we go. In the group with Pasarga, Darmen, and Tumbra, there are enough storylines to pick apart but then you realise that none of the players on the pitch have anything to do with those. Pasarga is where our World Cup 89 journey began as the second time we'd win a Round of Sixteen match, and it led us through Cassadaigua, Audioslavia, and the Holy Empire to our first and only world championship. Tumbra was the destination of a few study trips by our government in its wish to restructure the cabinet to something more modern and representative - both words came to mean 'huge' over time. Our current cabinet is partially modelled after the Ko-orenite political tradition - meritocracy, equality, ecology - and partially after that of Tumbra (as well as Eura, and Nova Anglicana) in the sense of naming a lot of cabinet members and dividing up responsibilities neatly. It was only after Tumbra's government got into row after row on its Northlands policies that the inspiration we took came to mean something negative. And Darmen... now, that goes back a long way. A long history of friendlies and occasional meetings in World Cup qualifiers, of Test cricket and rugby (union & league).

In the lead up to the tournament, after the group draw, our players have been asked about their knowledge of these traditions. Most knew that Tumbra had some influence in the current cabinet, as it happened barely a term ago. About half knew about the Darmeni tradition - mostly those from the south, like Haggigana, Scarshell, Pomburgh, Walbuck, and Twickaway. And most had said that they at one point watched the Pasarga - Ko-oren highlights of World Cup 89. They were all alive for it, but they were often barely in (high) school: they must have all watched the match live but they might not have registered how big of a deal it was.

So they enter the group with no notions of rivalries; just as a blank slate, ready to carve out a history for themselves, separate from all that came before. A few of them will go on to represent Ko-oren with the senior team, at which point they'll turn into one point along the long, continuous line of Dragonflies history, and they'll have their performances compared and contrasted with what came before them. The opponents, the results, the individuals. A match versus Pasarga might not matter too much in the vacuum of the Di Bradini Cup, but you can be sure that whenever the senior Dragonflies next play the Wanderers, the team must take notice of that World Cup 89 matchup. The context will weigh heavily, all of a sudden.

This time around, the result will count as well. Having beaten Tumbra 1-0 and having lost to Darmen 4-3 (huh), we need a win over Pasarga to advance. A draw won't cut it: if Tumbra win, they'll improve their goal difference to match ours, and a Darmeni win gives them six points, more than what we can amass with a draw or worse. There's the possibility of a 1-goal Tumbra win paired with us sharing the points with Pasarga, and then we're both on four points with a goal difference of 0, in which case the head to head should save us. Either way, with a loss we're out, and with a draw we're probably out. At that point, we can look back on a fun team that played to win, and played to score (!) putting three past Darmen but also having the all-green strikers put four past Shoshi. The U21 team is playing with a XI that's almost entirely U20 or even U19, so there's an excuse. Shoshi, playing for Advance Alara, has enough experience conceding goals - Alara isn't exactly known for their conservative playstyle - but for Finisterrais and Aedil, who are also already starting for Top League sides (Aminey and Tanques, respectively), conceding more than one is a sin. Dreameath will welcome the high level competition, still playing for 'lowly' Cresthill United FC, and Aotirife as right fullback has her entire career ahead of her, finishing up her degree at the Nordorenfjolluniversitet and likely picking up a professional contract within a week if she wants to. We know that Aedil and Finisterrais are good, and that Kaji is good enough, but Haggigana hasn't exactly impressed in his minutes as a sub, Scarshell is unpredictable and volatile, and Van der Heuvel, yElyseddinion, and Aotirife are way too light so far. Where's the days of Ko-oren's senior team starting 21-year olds for their maturity - or was that just the mythical generation of Benjamin, Van Schelven, and so on?

It might just have been that single generation. They took us to two World Cup finals, after all. We don't want to believe it's just a once-in-a-century thing, but that's just what it might have been.

As far as the U21 midfield goes, we're in for a lot of fun. Tehinnau is solid, Laza is simply entertaining to watch, Harukawa and Masuda are some of the biggest playmakers to come from Ko-oren's east, ever. And the striker duo of Schemerdrecht SVV, Deckere and Twickaway, if given some more time with the struggling northern powerhouse, could grow into our next Shiribeshi-Tokachi duo. Speaking of history, now there's two names the current crop of players must have heard of, but even their dads might not have seen them play.

works? · by **Abanhfleft** » Thu Jan 26, 2023 7:15 am

DISCLAIMER: Gaelic Gamers is an independents sports blogging website created by four cousins with a common liking and passion for sports of all kinds and is in no way or form affiliated with or organized by any official news organization in the Democratic Republic of Abanhfleft. All statements and opinions posted here are our own and not anyone else's.

Gaelic Gamers
Presents...

The Football Fallacies
with The Man from Markovsky

WAITING FOR A SINGLE GOAL IN THE LAST GAME AND NOW FIVE COME ALL AT ONCE

Hello and welcome to The Football Fallacies. Right, so let’s get something straight here before we get into the game between Abanhfleft and Savojarna itself. I think the site must have just had a huge influx of new viewers and subscribers because I’ve seen lots of comments on my posts asking me if Sven Fahrni is really a robot, and I’m just like, what the fuck? Of course he’s not a bloody murder robot, you bastards! I’m the only one who’s calling Sven a bloody robot because the bastard just simply does not get tired across the entire 90 minutes of a game of football. Also, have you seen the guy’s post-match interviews? There’s not a single shred of emotion in the guy at all! If you made him take the Turing test, the bastard would probably fail it, so long as you don’t tell him that it’s a test because you just know that if he finds out that it’s a test, he’ll do everything he can to bloody pass it next time around. Christ above, the moment when Sven Fahrni develops even a single emotion is the moment that Fleftic football is finally doomed. I don’t even know what the fuck I’m talking about now but I just know that Sven discovers what an emotion is, he’ll tear the Fleftic Premier League apart with his passion or his frustration, whichever one Ludogorets makes him feel first. My money’s on the latter if previous history tells us anything.

All right, now that we’ve got the Sven Fahrni issue out of the way (I don’t even know why I had to address it in the first place, but that’s what happens when you get new viewers who aren’t familiar with your own internal lore and such), let’s talk about the match between Abanhfleft and Savojarna. Fresh from the heels of that scoreless draw against Koronavia which frankly shouldn’t have been a scoreless draw in the first place, there was definitely a feeling among the Fleftic fans in Valanora that Roman Aydarov better get his team off the mark this time around or else he’s going to lose the backing of the twelfth man. I mean, us Fleftic fans are a very fickle bunch. If you’re managing one of Abanhfleft’s many national teams, just put together a string of victories and we’re going to be singing your praises to kingdom come, but lose three games in a row, or two, or even just one game, and we’ll all be calling for you to get the sack immediately. Roman Aydarov had to have known that he was on pretty thin ice with that draw against Koronavia, and I don’t know what he could have possibly said to the lads and lasses to inspire them against Savojarna, but Christ above, it bloody worked! Aydarov wanted goals, and the Young Revolutionaries gave it to him! The lads and lasses scored so many goals against Savojarna that now I’m bloody afraid that they won’t have any left for when they face Lisander on the final matchday of the group.

Where do I even bloody start with this bloody game? Right from the start, probably. That’s as good a place as any to start. Anyway, Savojarna versus Abanhfleft. Now this hasn’t been a fixture that’s been played a lot in recent years, but some of the best and worst of the Abanhfleft national football team have been displayed against the Savojars, and there was a short period way back when in which we all thought that Savojarna was going to be our next rival, but that didn’t last long, did it? Now we’re stuck with the likes of HUElavia, Lisander, and Saterun while Savojarna have moved on to bigger prey. Now, having said that, this is probably the first time that we’ve faced the Savojars in the under-21 level, and the thing about youth football is that you don’t really know what to expect from anyone. World rankings don’t really mean a lot at this level, which explains both of our results against Koronavia and Savojarna respectively. Then again, there’s probably no other explanation necessary other than the fact that we’re Abanhfleft. It’s just what we do, right? Beat some teams we don’t expect to beat, get beat by teams we’re supposed to beat, and in the end, we get eliminated by Pasarga in the round of 16. Will someone please change up the script of this football drama for once?

Now, nobody really knew what to expect from this game, but I do know what we didn’t want, and that was a big fat L. Roman Aydarov knew it, the players knew it, the fans knew it. And there was only one way to prevent that from happening, but nobody knew if the football gods would allow us to get a victory or if we were going to nourish them with our salty tears once again. But sometimes you’re just not supposed to let some higher power decide your fate, and it was none other than the robot footballer himself, Sven Fahnri, who took matters into his own hands and conjured a victory when there probably shouldn’t have been one. If there was any person in this team who was probably well suited for going against the will of the football gods then it was the Folsbjorg Terminator himself. I already mentioned before that the guy doesn’t go down easily, but when he does, he usually has a good reason for doing it, and as it turned out, the reason why he went down in the 11th minute of this match was to show us all that Xavier Inda was actually a pretty good free kick taker. So good was that bastard from Metallurgist Beledor at finding the back of the net that nobody even realized it had gone in until Jonas Hilde himself picked it up. Talk about a literal bolt from the blue!

Okay, maybe that goal from Inda was unstoppable no matter what. But what the fuck were Roman Jarmolenko and Kenneth Röysveit thinking when they let themselves get outrun by bloody Michael Infanta for Abanhfleft’s second goal?! A bloody Pridnestrovian T-90 tank stuck in the bog marshes of Ceroat has more mobility than Michael fucking Infanta! And yet both Jarmolenko and Röysveit just let him pass them by like it was a bloody Sunday afternoon stroll! How the fuck did those tow guys get beat by a footballer with worse acceleration than a bloody aircraft carrier? And don’t even get me started on that goal from Boyet fucking Martinez. I don’t even know what the fuck the guy was trying to do; maybe he was going for a cross or a pass into the box, but he ended up putting the ball just underneath the crossbar and into the goal anyway. Even Jonas Hilde himself was surprised that the ball went that way that he didn’t try to save it until it was too bloody late! Even Martinez himself was surprised that the ball decided to go into the back of the net instead of towards one of his teammates in the box, but then again, a goal’s a goal, and you can rest assured that Boyet celebrated it like he just won the bloody World Cup itself for the Democratic Republic.

Now if you were the manager of the Savojar under-21 team, you would know that being 3-0 down to Abanhfleft is not a good look no matter which way you might try to look at it. This might not have been the same team that the Savojar senior team had dismantled in World Cup qualifiers and the Cup of Harmony time and again but still, it’s bloody Abanhfleft! Losing to the perennial underachievers and bottlers of the multiverse never looks good on anyone’s CV, and I’m pretty sure that Ludvig Rensberg let his charges know that, and they must have realized how it would look on their own CVs if Abanhfleft managed to beat them, even if it was just in the Di Bradini Cup, because those Savojars went out there looking like they were ready to kill. I’m not joking! Boris Kajanov could have killed Jaqui Vizcaya with the venom that he put behind his thunder rocket of a shot, and I can’t really blame Jaqui for going for the ball just a little bit too late to make a difference. If she had managed to get a finger on that ball from Kajanov, I’m pretty sure Jaqui would be kissing said finger goodbye!

Thanks to the benefit of hindsight, we can now see that Savojarna scoring that goal was perhaps the biggest mistake that they had ever committed in this game. “Man from Markovsky, how the fuck could you say such a thing?” I hear you all asking your smartphone screens or tablet screens or wherever the fuck you’re reading this tripe of mine. Well, it’s simple, really: Abanhfleft responded to Savojarna scoring a goal by scoring a goal of their own, and it wasn’t just anyone who scored the goal; once again, it was Michael bloody Infanta! Michael Infanta, the bloody striker from Athletic Dorfdifving with less mobility than my Nan on her Stairmaster, has scored not just one but two goals against Savojarna! What the fuck kind of timeline are we living in right now? The one in which Infanta has managed to make himself look like a somewhat half-decent center forward, that’s what! And the bastard didn’t even have to do anything for his second goal of the game; all he had to do was just stand on the penalty spot and wait for Sven Fahrni to loft the ball in from outside the D, and then wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am! Header to the top right corner; 4-1 to Abanhfleft.

Things were just honestly getting really embarrassing for Savojarna at this point. Abanhfleft were beating them in the bloody Di Bradini Cup! Abanhfleft! Someone had to do something to make this not look like the massive blowout that it was rapidly becoming. And that’s exactly what Valtteri Silverberg did. The bastard just shoved his way past Byron Julio and Peyton Villosillo and went for the bottom right corner, and Jaqui Vizcaya couldn’t do anything to stop him! Savojarna might have been beaten but they weren’t going to go quietly into the night if they could help it. And that’s probably why Sven Fahrni had to deliver the killing blow himself to make sure that our opponents weren’t going to get back up from the canvas once again. I told you all, once that kid puts his mind on something, the best thing you could do for yourself is just get out of the way and let him do whatever the fuck he wants to do. Bloody lad’s built like a fucking wrecking ball and was probably cast from one too if his legs and core are anything to go by. Sven just muscled his way past the Savojar defense and passed the ball into the bottom right corner much like how Valterri Silverberg had done the exact same thing just a few minutes ago. The utter cheek and disrespect from the footballing robot to literally copy a move that he had just seen a few minutes previously, and he had the balls to not even celebrate at all! He just stood beside the corner flag and stared at the camera like, “What are you gonna do about it, puny human?”

Okay, now Savojarna is out of the way, but there’s still one team that our Young Revolutionaries have to play before we know for sure if we’re moving on to the Round of 16. Yep, we’ve still got to play Lisander, and though we’ve had the better of them more times than not in previous years, that’s no reason for us to dismiss them like that. This is still bloody Lisander we’re talking about here. They’re willing to take the fight to us if they even sense that we’re right there for the bloody taking. Anyway, that’s all that there is from me now. If you’ve got any thoughts or comments of your own about the game against Savojarna or predictions against Lisander then feel free to leave them down below. Until then, I’ve been the Man from Markovsky, still hoping that I wouldn’t be disappointed in my country once again.

         SAVOJARNA 2 - 5 ABANHFLEFT          
     KAJAROV (54')       INDA (11')
  SILVERBERG (73')       INFANTA (28', 65')
                         MARTINEZ (39')
                         FAHRNI (80')

by **Ile de Richelieu** » Thu Jan 26, 2023 8:49 am

A huge win against Tikariot

Ibini, Valanora - On matchday two, Île de Richelieu played against Tikariot and the Cardinals showed no mercy for them by defeating them 4-1. Francis Boudreau replaced Pierre-Alexandre Sorensen, who had a red card, in the starting XI. Île the Richelieu was the first team on the board when, at the 16th minute, Cassandra Bellerose-Desbois made a cross to Chloé Lambert who heads the ball into the net and the Cardinals are leading 1-0. At the 21st minute, Île de Richelieu had a corner kick. Astrid Kjellberg kicks the ball and Chloé Lambert heads it into the net. 2-0 Île de Richelieu. Tikariot attacked at the 38th minute when Ixtlilxochitl dribbled with the ball and made a short pass to Melisande Covarria who kicks the ball in the net. The score is 2-1 Cardinals at the halftime.

At the 54th minute, Clémence Vigneux dribbles with the ball but Hank Stevenson trips her and it's a free kick for Île de Richelieu just outside the penalty area. Cassandra Bellerose-Desbois kicks the ball and it's a goal, 3-1 Île de Richelieu. At the 83rd minute, Ixtlilxochitl attacks with the ball and Vladimir Gutierrez Salazar tackles him. It was a clean tackle. Mamadou Ndiaye takes the loose ball and dribbles, he crosses the whole field and he kicks the ball from 15 meters. It's a goal! The final score is 4-1.

Vincent Bazinet had a yellow card and because it's his 2nd yellow card in the tournament, he has a one game ban against Poafmersia. Kristin Oftedahl will replace him in the starting XI. Other players having a yellow card are: Laurence Aubé, Vladimir Gutierrez Salazar, Astrid Kjellberg, Clémence Vigneux (all on matchday 1), Francis Boudreau and Chloé Lambert (matchday 2). If one of them get another yellow card before the quarter finals, they'll have a one game suspension. Next game is against Poafmersia and it's a must win for the Cardinals. We could also qualify for the round of 16 with a draw.

Anne-Élisabeth Désormeaux

by **Cardenao** » Thu Jan 26, 2023 4:06 pm

It was late in the day and the sun was setting on the shores of Cardenao in the beautiful fashion it always did. Blue skies gave way to dramatic orange and yellowscapes before a pink moment that bathed the land in pink and purples. On very rare occasions right by the shore, there’s a green flash that can be seen right as the sun sinks beneath the waves but that was a once in a lifetime moment, if one was even that lucky.

Between Gaizka Arrascaeta and Moustir-Yves Almeny 37 years had come and gone and not once had the green flash been observed. It was common during their childhood that the friends would run to the beach, hopefully looking for the flash before the inevitable disappointment and going back to whatever they were doing, which was usually playing football and messing around. The lads were the best of friends since they were kids and were practically inseparable as they grew up. From their first day together the pair shared an obsession with football and spent countless hours kicking a ball between them, many other things came and went as the lads aged into awkward pre-teens and gangly teenagers, but the football stayed.

The pair were prodigious every step of the way, running every facet of their shared team’s play, scoring goals and pulling off tricks, lifting trophies, dribbling through the beautiful cream alleyways of Alegria and fleeing from shopkeepers after stealing a handful of berries, it was a good life. Still, never a green flash though. Not even after the pair willed their youth team, the poorest in the city, to winning the all-city tournament, no flash then. First dates and first kisses? Not a flash to be seen. Managing to pass a test? No flash for you! It seemed like they would never see the flash and that seemed certain one fateful summer when the boy’s paths split and they headed into their own lives.

It was five years ago, a year after Cardenao’s isolation ended by way of the 78th Baptism of Fire. The boys had won the All-Alegria City U-15 championship yet again and the word was officially out about two lads dominating the youth clubs of one of the richest cities in Cardenao. At 14 years of age, Moustir was developing into a very intriguing ‘do-it-all’ player on the left side of the field. He was sharp in attack with very advanced dribbling skills and good final-ball abilities, while also being solid in defense with a specific proficiency in taking on flair-filled wingers and herding them out towards the touchline. That combination of talent and mind is rare in such a young player and the consensus was that this was just the surface level of a deep well of talent, waiting to be tapped. And so, the knocks at the door started to try and recruit the leftback, but he had his eyes set on one location. It was, of course, the national football academy at Escuela Nacíonal De Cardenao Por Football. Thanks to their direct government backing, La Escuela had the vast majority of decently promising Cardenaoan footballers in their ranks at one point or another, a veritable factory of footballing talent underwritten by the Mihaly Administration itself. With the high quality of training, personal care, and big paycheck, it was obvious why Moustir-Yves Almeny would be drawn to the famous La Academia stadium. The same day he signed his youth contract with the team was the same day Gaizka Arrascaeta’s world also changed.

His father, Patrick Arrascaeta, was born and raised in Tikariot, coming to Cardenao in his young adulthood to keep the childish inner-spark residing within every Tikariotian alive for a little while longer yet. Patrick could be serious if he wanted to, but he was young in his 20s and being serious could be a real pain in the ass at that age, so why not go somewhere notoriously chill and go with the flow like Cardenao? And that’s precisely what he did.

It was shortly into his stay, about nine months or so, when Patrick realized his plan had run into a slight problem and he should’ve had a Plan B. A couple nights of passion had led to a pregnant lover, which led to a couple of dates, which led to a genuine tender love forming, which led to his current predicament. He had a son. It was safe to say running away to Cardenao to avoid responsibility was not going according to plan. But Patrick and his loving wife Marta were firm in their relationship and determined to be the best parents they could be.

Patrick worked hard at a local coffee manufacturer, the pay was shite and the conditions were shite-er, but it was honest work and it provided for his little family. As the years progressed, so did he, moving up the ranks thanks to his innovative insights into flavoring water with a bean and by the time his son Gaizka turned ten, Patrick had played a large role in shaping the Cardenao coffee industry. Desiring stability and sensing the potential of his son as a footballer, he kept his family’s way of life mostly the same despite this increased income, and thus Gaizka ran the streets with Moustir and played football with other poor kids and street urchins learning valuable life skills as he did so. On the same day Moustir signed his move to La Escuela, so did Patrick Arrascaeta sign he and his family to a move elsewhere, only they were going abroad.

Cardenao Coffee was big, real big, and it just so happened the people of Tikariot wanted in on the trend. Patrick’s company had been selected by the Mihaly Administration to act as a sort of ‘business bridge’ with the company authorized to sell their product to Tikariot and were allowed to maintain physical locations in Tikariot, though these were almost entirely controlled by the Cardenaoan government. And that’s how the Arrascaeta family found themselves a pawn in President Mihaly’s game of tightly controlled national growth, Patrick was headed home to Tikariot nearly 15 years after he departed.

Fortunately, his family flourished in Tikariot, Gaizka especially so. While it was hard to get over being separated from his best friend Moustir, he was quickly whisked away in the thrills of early teendom. Being from Cardenao made him exotic to his female classmates and, though his own crushing social anxiety meant he didn’t approach them till later on in life, the attention gave him the confidence he needed to get back on track. As he slowly matured, the prospect of professional football became a reality, and so Gaizka did what he did best and started running through the city streets with the ball at his feet and taking part in any competition he could find. After winning a local tournament modeled after the Market Cup of days long past, the offer finally came for Gaizka Arrascaeta.

A fully professional contract from Oriannor Mountaineers FC. It was time and Gaizka was ready. He took the youth leagues by storm, showcasing a sharp eye for goal and moving fluidly like an elite level athlete with the pace to prove it. Having made his talent evident, it wasn’t long after his 17th birthday that he started training with the senior team. It was around this time that he was reunited with his childhood friend Moustir by way of the internet, which was slowly spreading through Cardenao thanks to Mihaly’s modernization plan, and he was delighted to learn that the pair were pretty much on the same track.

Moustir was one year older and had already broken into La Escuela’s starting team, coming close to winning the title only to lose out to Cardonia FC. In the most recent edition of the league, he had secured the starting position and done brilliantly to help fire La Escuela to the league title and thus Moustir had gone from poverty to a league champion in four years. The 19 year old did admirably for his age, showing his natural defensive abilities and his well trained attacking capabilities as he scored and assisted multiple times. Seeing his best friend so successful was inspiring to Gaizka, and the youngster redoubled his efforts and trained more and more, honing his finishing and ability to initiate goal chances from all across the pitch. Indeed, it was on the day of his 18th birthday that the Cardenao/Tikariot dual citizen got his chance.

It was the third matchday of the 107th season in the competitive Tikariot Premier League and the Oriannor Mountaineers were facing off against Dhun Lagarr FC. The Mountaineers were a club steeped in history with seven championship titles to their name and topping the league’s all-time table, 227 points clear of their closest competitor. A team that had never been relegated from the top division, it was an honor to wear the blue and orange kit and to have the Bluebacks roaring your name in the Mountain Fortress, and that was an honor Gaizka Arrascaeta desperately wanted. So when he was named to the bench on just the third game of the season, it wasn’t excitement or elation but a sense of determination he felt. Determination to succeed.

And so Gaizka cheered his teammates on as they scored an early goal and groaned as Dhun Lagarr scored an equalizer before Oriannor scored…before Dhun Lagarr equalized again. And then they took the lead for a bit before the Mountaineers equalized on the stroke of halftime to make it 3-3. The Cardenaoan/Tikakarian youngster took in the heated dressing room, feeling himself inspired and thinking of his buddy Moustir, a league champion. The second half got underway and it wasn’t long before Arrascaeta’s manager, Damon McWawrd, called his name and sent him into the game.

It was honestly a blur for the youngster, for the first 85 seconds Gaizka could hardly see a thing because of his pounding heart. In the 86th second he saw the ball rolling perfectly towards his curling. In the 87th second he saw his right foot take a quick touch to stabilize the ball and saw the open net beyond the keeper in the 88th second. He watched himself whip a shot off in the 89th second and, a second later, he saw the ball hit the back of the net. After that he saw the Blueback Wall and the rest of the game was a blur. A goal a minute and a half into your professional debut, not bad.

That alone was enough to get his name on a very special list, and Gaizka Arrascaeta cried when he got a call that he’d been called up for the Under-21 National Team for the upcoming 54th Di Bradini Cup. Things were happening for him. He had watched with a mixture of jealousy and pride as he watched his childhood friend Moustir-Yves Almeny get called up for the full senior national team and had played brilliantly in the Cardenao Invitational Cup, so getting this call-up to the national team at any level made him even more determined to succeed. When he learned that Moustir was going to be in the Di Bradini Cup squad as well, he immediately rang his old pal and made plans to meet up sometime during the tournament. The 75th U21 World Cup was going poorly for the Cardenaoans, drawing 0-0 with Melbergia in the first matchday and narrowly losing to Graentfjall in the next game. With a do or die final match against Valladares ahead, the duo decided now was the perfect time for a getaway to clear their mind and focus.

Which finally brings us to the present moment, with the sun about to sink beneath the waves. The childhood friends were finally reunited in Alegria at the beach they spent so much time at all those years ago, swimming, playing beach footie, and waiting for a glimpse of the green flash. Much remained to be seen for them, they were both at the beginning of their lives and careers and, though had already accomplished much in their own ways, they had much to achieve in their time. But for now, the sun was setting and the boy’s talk of the Valladares game quieted as the sun began its final descent and the moment of truth drew near.

“What do you think we’ll see?”

“Let’s find out.”

by **Ceni** » Thu Jan 26, 2023 5:01 pm

Dover in 24 hours — with Xek Sunsaber

In partnership with the Cenian Football Association to promote the upcoming Di Bradini Cup domestically, Wanderlust has decided to feature several players' perspectives on their favourite cities in Ceni. In this second installment, we hand over the reins to Xek Sunsaber, who plays as a striker for the Cenian under-21 team.

Most people think of Dover as a quiet seaside town without much excitement — except if you want to people-watch the rich and the famous strutting down the boardwalk.

But I disagree. That's the whole reason I agreed to write this blog post, anyway: to defend my town as a place that anyone can visit, not just a playground for Ceni's rich and powerful.

Of course, you have to start your day at the beach. Yes, it sounds cliche, but that's the place to see and be seen in Dover. To be honest, it's not the most beautiful beach in the world — honestly, I think the beach at Whitehaven is just a tad bit better — but it has a lot less crowds than a lot of other beaches I've been to. Yes, you can take long walks along the beach at sunset with your partner without too many people disturbing you, if that's your style for date night. The water is relatively calm and cool: perfect for swimming. You may even get a chance to see a turtle if you stay for a few hours...

But, of course, you can't stay at the beach all day. That's where the pleasure piers come in: to drag you away from the beach!

Get your minds out of the gutter, though. This is a family publication, after all, and the piers along Dover Beach are family-friendly entertainment. There's a Ferris wheel, carnival games, funnel cake purveyors... Pretty much anything that you can think of to be associated with a carnival. Even though it sometimes feels like it costs an arm and a leg to play some of the games, they're eminently winnable. I'm one of the world's worst shots at darts, yet I've still won plenty a stuffed bear there!

After you're all raggedy from seaside amusements and tired of being in your swimsuit for so long, head to chippy along the boardwalk — they're ubiquitous. Even though they try to create a competition between them, I'll let you guys in on a little secret: Basically, this one Euran immigrant entrepreneur owns the vast majority of the chippies along the Dover seaside here. But it really doesn't matter: they is plenty d**n good fish and chips to go around for everyone.

On the way to the Cliffs of Dover (yes, you read me right), there are a few places you should stop for some fun (and gluttony, of course). First, there's Doc Brown's Olde Soda Shoppe (please don't say the E's there at the end). It's... well, what you might imagine it might be: a soda fountain with malted drinks, ice cream, and a great root beer float. Then, there's the Cola World Extraordinaire, which is a soda fountain in a different sense... for a flat fee, you get to sample soft drinks from all around the world, from local products like Xarkian Spruce from Tikariot (which I don't like personally) to some of the more exotic flavours in the Terembev soft drink portal. Just make sure not to get carried away from all the carbonation!

But the White Cliffs of Dover are certainly the most eye-catching thing to do in Dover. They're certainly the most significant thing here, too: According to what I've learned in school, these white cliffs gave their name to the entire country. As for logistics, on one hand, you can hike up to the top for a view down the cliffs to the ocean itself. On the other hand, there are plenty of boating companies that are happy to take your money to shepherd you around the cliffs on the ocean side. Personally, I like to soak in the cliffs on the ferry from Dover to anywhere in the Isles of Avon... But if you're not going to the Isles of Avon anyway (which I think you should), then there's no need to go out of your way.

For the adventurous, there's one more thing to add to your visit to the Cliffs: Where their scale drops off a bit, you can go cliff diving. But don't just jump off a cliff because your friends told you to.

Assuming that you make it off the cliffs in one piece, I know an amazing spot to watch the sunset and end the day on the right note: Tabatha's Restaurant. The restaurant's specialty is locally grown and foraged produce; the chef, Tabatha Vanian, really makes a good demonstration of how you can come up with a full menu with a focus on Cenian produce. Anyway, with the weather as nice as it was today, I really enjoyed sitting outside on the verandah and getting a view of the cliffs.

Anyway, that's it from me today. Dover really is a great city: It's small enough to be quaint and homey, but large enough (and close enough to the Metropolitan Tetrad) to be relatively cosmopolitan as well.

Even though I play in Kelssek now, Dover will always be home for me.

by **Cabo Azure** » Thu Jan 26, 2023 5:40 pm

Among the single-island leagues that predated the nation-wide Liga Hidalgo Primer in Cabo Azure, the least probable was the Liga Portelo. The tiny island of Portelo is home to the Azurean royal palace, the Azurean National Guard barracks, and Maritime University, the national university of Cabo Azure, as well as a bustling town which services the needs of those three institutions and their employees. A common joke goes that neither a second nor a square meter is ever wasted in Portelo, yet people there found the time and space to hold what was arguably the nation's most competitive football competition for decades.

One unique feature of the Liga Portelo was that all its matches had to be played in a single stadium, the Stadio Cidadela, wedged between the palace complex and the National Guard barracks with a view of the sea. Teams affiliated to the university might practice on the grounds, and teams of soldiers might make use of the drill fields around the barracks, but there was nowhere else to host matches. Fortunately, while the number of teams participating fluctuated from year to year, it never exceeded six, so scheduling was never too much of a chore.

Only two teams played in the Liga Aho every season that it was contested: CF Portelo and CF Cidadela. Portelo was, then as now, the unequivocal team of the "townies", those who lived and worked in Portelo proper with no affiliation to the university, military, or palace, and it was this evergreen base of support that allowed Portelo to return year after year. Cidadela was and is the military's team, consisting of soldiers, sailors, and officers from the Azurean National Guard and Azurean Coast Guard. Besides these two rivals, the rest of the Liga Portelo consisted of a rotating cast of collegiate, military, and unaffiliated teams that changed from year to year.

In the modern era, the fortunes of Cidadela and Portelo have diverged significantly, with Portelo being perennial cup contenders and one of the winningest teams in the short history of the LHP, while Cidadela, being limited to active-duty soldiers and sailors, lasted only a few seasons in the top flight and has struggled to maintain its relevancy in the LHS. The purchase of Portelo by Azurean businessman Joaquin Sequeira, however, has been a significant boon to both sides, as Sequeira has invested in lagging infrastructure that is shared by both teams.

These days the spirit of the Liga Portelo is said to live on in the Liga Portelo de Verão, most commonly referred to by its predecessor's name. Playing an abbreviated season from June to August, during the LHP's offseason, the "new" Liga Portelo features the reserve teams from Cidadela and Portelo as well as a similar revolving cast of ad-hoc teams each summer. All matches are still played at Stadio Cidadela, and with free admission, liga de verão matches are a common diversion on hot summer nights in Portelo.

by **Huayramarca** » Thu Jan 26, 2023 6:12 pm

OOC: This RP features an AI-generated image by Midjourney. The use of it is for illustrative purposes of the RP and shall not be graded as an original creation from the user.

Blâás Âgínsôgnó was talking with the press after Huayramarca drew 1-1 vs Valanora for the second match in the Group Stage of the Di Bradini Cup, with confidence he was replying to the questions he received from the media, some of them were asking things like the following:

Carlos Sierra – Trome Deportes: “Is the team learning the principles you are trying to institute in them?”

B.A: “Rather than learning, they are putting what I ask for into practice… I wouldn’t be satisfied while sitting here if they weren’t able to perform to my standards. For a team that wasn’t working properly until a couple of months ago, we are performing at a competent level.”

Marta Arellano – Radio Huancavélica: “Does this result talk about progress for you?”

B.A: “Absolutely not. With due respect to everybody, this team can perform better, as they are constantly improving. Progress will be for us if we get through the Group Stage.”

Vilma García – Sport Locos Magazine: “Do you think there’s room for improvement in the wings? As in some periods of the match, the wingers weren’t able to come back in time to prevent a counter.”

B.A. “That’s a nice tactical observation indeed. I take that for the first half, as the team wasn’t working as we trained it; but they corrected it after being told of it. We have competent wingers, all-rounders and this shouldn’t be an issue for them; so, consider that there’s room for improvement indeed.”

And this was the match where we all saw the version we expected to see from Lucien Alszeghy, a team leader that motivates the team to turn back things in their favour, a collaborative player that drop some meters back to serve as a pivot for the midfielders to create dangerous plays. Aside of it, a player that can be wise enough to take the ball for his own and be a threat for the defenders, as he could either try to finish or use his interesting sense of placement to pass the ball to a teammate.

Compensating the nice marking that Marcelo Huanca received, Camilo Caicedo emerged as an interesting force to let the midfield be oxygenated. His anticipation sense helped Huanca when he was in trouble, acting like a scapegoat of pressure and also a source of creative freedom for the team; Caicedo took the initiative and launched himself to attack through the wings, then linking up with René Matsabanda with some crossed balls. The Elves were handling the match, but whenever Caicedo appeared, equilibrium was reached and Huayramarca had the opportunity to thrive and create opportunities.

Víctor Mamani wasn’t having one of his best matches, marking some Vanorian top profiles such as Carissa Mercado isn’t an easy task. His excellent pacing wasn’t being enough due to Mercado’s sheer skill, something that made Mamani link up with Rubén Cochachi, similar as Caicedo did with Huanca in the other flank, although Cochachi was more of a support role for supressing Mercado’s creative spark. Markus Karlsen and Imre Haaland were having freedom of movement for most of the match, this making them feel free to gravitate in the area and provoke the chance that caused the goal for the Vanorians; although some fixes were made and Dylan Adame was able to neutralise Haaland through physicality, Julián Arteaga did the same with Karlsen and his technicality.

Huayramarca has some interesting prospects for the next matches, as the team is working better and better (seemingly), with players joining to support themselves and causing some opportunities depending to what they perceive, or consider, as the best course of action; something that will be useful for the match against Khantari, a last matchday decider for the Condors about qualifying for the knockout stages of the DBC. In theory, a draw could be enough for the Condors to qualify, but Âgínsôgnó doesn’t want to take things for granted: “We will play this like a final, every match for us is a final, we should play with enough character and not be comforted with a draw. If you ask this guys to do this, you’ll make them lazy and will create a view that could affect their competitive careers."

With no intentions to cede a centimetre, Âgínsôgnó is pushing forward to create a new identity for Huayramarca, a combative attitude where effort, grit and compromise to achieve victory is not in sale. We will see if that could be enough for to achieve it or not.

The Young Condors celebrating a goal. Left: Carlos Cedeño, centre: Lucien Alszeghy and right: Valentín Mendoza.

Di Bradini Cup 54/U21WC75 RP And Scores Thread

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