Di Bradini Cup 54/U21WC75 RP And Scores Thread

by **Ile de Richelieu** » Tue Jan 31, 2023 2:03 am

Île de Richelieu lost in quarterfinals

Raynor City, Valanora - It's time for a recap of Île de Richelieu's final 3 games. On matchday 3, the Cardinals beat Poafmersia, thanks to a goal by Astrid Kjellberg at the 64th minute. Laurence Aubé and Astrid Kjellberg both had their 2nd yellow card of the group stage and missed the round of 16.

Against Xanneria in the round of 16, Lotte Berger replaced Aubé while Clémence Vigneux moved to central midfielder to take Kjellberg's spot and Kristin Oftedahl remained in the starting XI to play right side midfielder. Kevin Bazinet was back in the starting XI at left side midfielder. Oftedahl played well in his absence. Audrey Winter scored a header goal on a cross by Oftedahl at the 18th minute. Then, at the 35th minute, Chloé Lambert scored on a penalty. At the 83rd minute, when the score was already 2-1 Île de Richelieu, Élisabeth Mathurin scored on a counter attack. The final score was 3-1.

In the quarterfinal, Île de Richelieu lost 3-1. Clémence Vigneux scored the lone Cardinal goal.

Anne-Élisabeth Désormeaux

by **Independent Athletes from Quebec** » Wed Feb 01, 2023 12:44 am

Eric Varsteeg, and Erin Namur-Jaures

Similar, and yet so different. That's one of the first things that came up when Eric Varsteeg and his assistant, former Grim Reaper and Crystopolis City midfielder Erin Namur-Jaures were contemplating over. By this point they had worked together for four years, mostly overseeing the Grim Reapers' Under-21 and -18 sides after Tahmid James, a Poafmer wise man in his seventies, had retired off to the sunset.

They knew that figuring out this Huayramarcan side, with who they had relative familiarity due to the geographic proximity between the two nations, not to mention a comparable (though not exact) style of uptempo football, was difficult. It was clear to them, as they have watched the Junior Condors outclass their opposition in what was a tough Group A of the group stage, before outlasting Ceni on a thrilling second-round showdown, that they had a peculiar approach to the game. One that inched closer to the older style of the Grim Reapers from decades back.

There's a sense of throwback to it, Eric Varsteeg would think to himself, as they would watch the Condors play for hours and hours at the video room of Team Quebec's hotel in Mar Sara. He knew from the experience, both as a manager within the RQFA network of senior-level coaches and also as a former professional manager for Perce Town, that Grim Reapers weren't the best against offensive sides. Farfadillis, Huayramarca, Krytenia, you name them - bogies. Of course, there's also the added stakes that would affect both sides, with Huayamarca and Quebec never making it past the group stage, let alone the quarterfinals. So whatever would come out of the matchup, win or lose, could provide more for the years to come. With that in mind, Eric and Erin wrote down the following:

1. How to contain the wingers?
2. Build-up via flank or centre?
3. Sinisa or Gio?

Those three were just a part of the questions that had popped up inside their head that session, and would be discussed on a later session, this time preparing the players on the training pitch.

Questions number one and three were somewhat tied towards one another, especially as this involved the Berhalter brothers. Two sons of a Huayramarcan father, a football coach, and a Cardenaoan mother, the boys grew up two years apart in northern suburbs of Metropolis and had played for the Metropolis Alligators' academy. But their dreams of playing together for the Alligators, where Brian Tello was their talismanic striker, was not meant to be with Giovanni-Jurgen 'Gio' being released from scholarship contract due to off-field allegations, and Tathan-Antony 'Tata' heading on a two-season loan to Perce Town.

With the brothers heading separate ways, so would their allegiances, as their parents' failure to pass the Valladar citizenship examination would come to affect their citizenship status. Gio, who was able to secure a full-ride scholarship to powerhouse Mount Ester University, would quickly accept an offer by the RQFA to represent the Grim Reapers on Under-21 and possibly senior level, while Tata's had discussions with Huayramarcan officials and were destined to head that way as well, but was yet to be selected to the senior side. Words were that Tata was still figuring out the final steps of obtaining Valladar citizenship, which he had recently passed the examination, and that he wanted to wait until either nation would call him up for a senior cap. In any case, there would be a no sibling matchup this time around.

Why Gio had come up all over again, however, was his ability to provide man-to-man coverage with the 196cm centreback having enough on his body frame to provide an aerial advantage. This was something that Eric and Erin would debate over as the merits of starting Giovanni over Sinisa Salihamidzic, a more all-arounded, commandeering centreback coming out of his old club setup in Perce, were discussed. They both knew that Salihamidzic, while a very good centreback, was still better suited for a three-back formation, one that the P-Diddy would use back in the Q-League with his uncle P.K. Varsteeg, than the two-back formation, and wanted a clearer option to stop Lucien Alszeghy. From their perspective Alszeghy was an all-arounded goalscorer, even though seventeen years of age suggested relative lack of age of body frame built up compared to a much older squad he ran, and clear-cut man marking was going to be needed to deal with a highly-effective crossing game the Huayramarcan wingers would have on arsenal.

'Faster backs, or more defensively-oriented ones?' asked Eric, as they were discussing ways to possibly face the wingers of Rene Matsabanda and Valentin Mendoza. They weren't as worried about the three-midfielders they had ran as much, considering the relative strength the Grim Reapers held on midfields by the virtue of age, but what were they going to do about the wingers were going to be important, especially considering the Quebecois emphasis on having a wide range of wingbacks ready.

'Let's push Yabusele up forward, he's much ahead of everybody else there and should be able to feed Chae-Young (Kim) and Oberon (M'bah-Pinho),' suggested Erin. 'Have Brie (Tannenbaum) double as holding midfielder - she doubles it up with Rovers and knows how to build up - and then let Hak-Seong (Goh) play a bit too. Gio could stay at the back, while Gaston (Chenier) will join Gio. So just consider it as swapping roles.'

'Alright, so you think that Yabu could shut down the flank, and we could just roll it with numbers for the left flank?' Eric asked again. 'We are noticeably weaker on left than right.'

'Exactly. Still, Brie's not the fastest so if we are running short on speed, we add Alain (Delisle) instead to compensate for it. Outrunning the Huayramarcans is less of an issue in my book, because it's not about the speed, but rather the ability to just dog it out. It's a bloody dogfight - they literally have Hazel van Robben on the sideline to facilitate this, Eric.'

'I suppose so.'

In the end, the starting lineup for said quarterfinal match ended up being straightforward as they had come to a conclusion at 1 in the morning:

Line-up (2-3-1-2-2): Yeong-Rok; Hak-Seong - Berhalter; Tannenbaum - Chenier - Yabusele; Oh-Chainey; Kim-Michel; Icardi-Rabiot - M'bah-Pinho; Kim

works? · by **Abanhfleft** » Wed Feb 01, 2023 9:26 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

NO TIME TO REST, BOYS AND GIRLS; THERE'S STILL A LOT LEFT TO DO

Hello and welcome to The Football Fallacies. Right, so uh, that happened. I really don't know how the fuck I'm supposed to react to this now. I was most certainly not expecting us to get any sort of positive result against Valanora at all considering our history with them, but yeah. That just happened. Abanhfleft finally beat Valanora in the Di Bradini Cup! What kind of nonsense and sorcery is this?! What in the world are the football gods cooking up in their devilish and fiendish minds in order to extract the maximum salt from Fleftic fans' tears? I don't trust those bastards to not lead us on this far before snatching the cup from right beneath our noses! There's got to be something else to this. No way that the football gods just allowed us to come this far in the Di Bradini Cup. There has to be the rotting corpse of a skunk hidden in the supposed pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! There's no way in hell that Valanora just bloody capitulated like that against us. Against us! Bloody Abanhfleft! The Marauders always turn up against us, and that's as much a fact of life as death and bloody taxes. And now I'm somehow being told to believe that our Young Revolutionaries somehow got one of the most important victories in all of their football careers?! Get out of here with that nonsense!

I'm telling you all, this match started exactly as you would imagine a meeting between both Abanhfleft and Valanora was going to go down. The Marauders stormed to a two-goal lead in the first half courtesy of Imre Haaland and Caspian Garberg, and for much of the second half, Valanora really looked like they were going to be the ones to move on to the semifinals! But oh my god, what a bloody bastard of a comeback from the Young Revolutionaries! And it wasn't even Sven Fahrni or one of the usual starters that dug us out of the hole that we found ourselves in; Roman Aydarov had to reach into his reserves to find the two goals that would end up giving us a fighting chance against the hosts. And they probably weren't even the ones whom you would have thought would have been the ones to save us. Admit it, who here had either one of Gale Agbisit or Ramon McClean to score in the Di Bradini Cup, let alone the quarterfinals? I know I didn't! But I heard that there was some bloke in Sebet who bet on both Agbisit and McClean scoring and Abanhfleft advancing to the semis on penalties, and now apparently he's 70 thousand nups richer. Maybe I should try sports betting instead of writing this blog. Then again, I could end up just developing a gambling addiction like I've developed a pain and humiliation addiction when I started supporting Abanhfleft.

It really did seem like the odds were not going to be in our favor after it was revealed that Quinn Vega had injured themselves in training, and Roman Aydarov now had to find someone from the bench to fill the gap. The guy chose Ramon McClean, and while it's definitely a choice that I understand and also the one that I would have made, being the armchair manager that I am, it's a definite drop in quality in our backline, I can tell you that much! And because he hasn't been spending much time training with the first team, McClean was rustier than those "slightly used" cars and pickup trucks on that lot owned by the car dealer who looks like he might actually be the leader of a multinational drug cartel! So it wasn't really a surprise to anyone in the [STADIUM] that when McClean tried to stop Imre Haaland from running past him, he completely botched the tackle and took out both of Imre's legs instead! And since it was inside the box, it was a bloody clear-cut penalty, and Haaland himself stepped up and took his own spot kick. Jaqueline Vizcaya tried some... funky dance moves on her line to distract the Vanorian forward, but Imre already had a target in mind and he wasn't going to miss that no matter what!

Shit was about to get even worse for us deeper in the first half. Now I don't know exactly what kind of role Caspian Granberg has in this Valanora team, so I'm not even going to bother trying. Looks like he's some sort of central attacking midfielder or a deep-lying second striker, and he was causing all sorts of problems for both our midfield and defense. And with Ramon McClean already operating at a reduced capacity because of his earlier penalty incident, the Marauders had begun targeting him, sticking close to poor Ramon and basically forcing him to make all these hard defensive choices on the fly without giving him any time to think about it. Eventually, Ramon just decided to say "fuck it" and backed away from anything remotely resembling a possible challenge on an opposing player, which of course forced his teammates to occupy the space he was supposed, leaving wide bloody gaps just begging to be exploited. How wide were these gaps, I hear you asking? Wider than the unmentionables of that lot lizard I saw in that road stop on the highway between Markovsky and Bytuch Feld, that's for sure! And Caspian Granberg saw that that was happening, and he went straight for the jugular with a thunderbolt into the top right corner. 2-0 to the hosts, and it wasn't even thirty minutes on the clock yet.

Now what in the world was Abanhfleft supposed to do in order to get back in the game? Some Vanorian must have managed to hack Sven Fahrni because the guy was, for lack of a better word, just off his game. I think our opponents may have finally gotten wise to the seemingly impossible ability of both Michael Infanta and Kerry Faustino to break the offside trap by not having one in the first place. After all, you can't really break an offside trap if there wasn't one in the first place, right? That's what I call bloody advanced thinking! Roman Aydarov tried to do some advanced thinking of his own, and I have this to say about his substitutions: I think he literally pulled the solution out of thin air! I mean, I've already said it before that nobody would have imagined that Gale Agbisit would finally score his first goal for the Young Revolutionaries in such a crucial match, but that's exactly what he did! The bloke is only marginally pacier and more athletic than Michael Infanta, the guy he was subbing for, but combine that and his fresh legs and you've got the recipe for perhaps the most incredible and unbelievable comeback in the history of the Di Bradini Cup! The guy just waited for someone (in this case the Forsbjorg Terminator himself) to float the ball into the box and boom! Scorpion kick goal for Gale Agbisit. You love to see it.

Of course, it's all going to mean diddly squat if we couldn't find the equalizing goal with only fifteen minutes or so left on the bastard clock. I don't know if it was the mounting pressure of the situation that finally knocked him out of his funk or if the hacker finally got locked out of his core system, but Sven Fahrni finally started playing like he had been playing for most of this tounament, pinging passes left and right for his teammates to try to make something out of. This also meant that the number of set pieces that we were getting out of this increased as well, and thanks to Roman Aydarov, I now actually believe that one of these free kicks or corners is eventually going to result in a goal. Enter the bastard substitute center back himself, Ramon bloody McClean. After looking like an absolute nervous wreck out there for the first 75 minutes of this game, McClean suddenly became as reinvigorated as Sven Fahrni and looked a thousand times more than the defender he started this game as. He was also taking part in more and more set pieces as you would expect from a team chasing down a one-goal lead, and after a pair of near-misses, the bastard finally completed his redemption arc literally in the 90th minute.

But then McClean almost made himself the villain of the story once again in extra time after he clattered into the back of another Vanorian player once again. This time it was Carmen Helland who fell victim to another one of Ramon's ill-timed tackles, and at first glance it really did look like McClean had just conceded yet another penalty. But now I think Ramon should go buy a lottery ticket or three because, despite his earlier penalty, the guy's actually been lucky. He was lucky not to get a card of any color after his first tackle on Imre Haaland and now, not only was he not going to get a card for his challenge against Helland (try not to confuse the names of these Marauders), but the VAR had also decided that it was a clean tackle in the end! But nobody had much time to dwell on that because soon we were on to the dreaded penalty shootout. We won the toss and chose to kick first, and while our first four kickers all made their penalties, so did Valanora's. And then Boyet Martinez sent his penalty way wide of the right post, and you can feel the air getting sucked out of that place almost immediately. This was going to be how Abanhfleft bows out against Valanora this time around, wasn't it?

Hold on, wait a minute, the fight's not over yet! Valanora still had to score their fifth penalty to put us away. We knew that, Valanora knew that, and we knew that Valanora knew that. And now here we have Jaqui Vizcaya making an absolute fool of herself in an effort to distract the fifth Vanorian taker. Better make the most of it, Jaqui, because last I heard, the football powers that be intend to crack down hard on goalkeepers distracting their opponents during penalty kicks whether it's in a shootout or during open play. And you can clearly see why because the fifth Vanorian taker slammed the ball straight into the crossbar, forcing sudden death. Now everything was on the shoulders of Buchheim Khanchil. His penalty was going to make or break this campaign no matter the result, and surely such a weight would be incredibly heavy on his shoulders. But the guy just didn't give a single fuck. He planted that ball into the bottom right corner like it was just Sunday training. The sixth Vanorian now had to score to keep the shootout but once again, Jaqui Vizcaya's antics got to them and they fired straight into her hands, and we had finally done the bloody impossible.

Unfortunately for us, the job is still not yet done. We may be through to the semifinals of the Di Bradini Cup but we still have to beat a certain team from Quebec before we can even begin thinking about moving forward to the final. Now I am actually worried about this game because unlike HUElavia and Valanora, we don't have as big of a history with Quebec as we have with those other teams. I don't want to think about what could possibly be going through the minds of Roman Aydarov and his young charges right now. Oh, please don't get overconfident to the point that the Quebecois thump us hard in the semis! They're fresh from a seven-goal thriller of a match against Huayramarca so they might still have an irrational desire to score some more goals, or on the other hand they might have just used up their supply. I'm hoping for the latter personally but, knowing my luck, I'm not gonna get my bloody wish. Anyway, that's all that there is from me now. If you've got any thoughts or comments of your own about the match against Valanora or predictions against Quebec in the semifinals then feel free to leave them down below. Until then, I've been the Man from Markovsky, hoping that I really wouldn't be disappointed in my country this time once again.

    ABANHFLEFT 2 - 2 VALANORA            
  AGBISIT (72')       HAALAND (9' pen)
  McCLEAN (90')       GARBERG (28')

Abanhfleft won 5-4 on penalties

by **Elmyia** » Wed Feb 01, 2023 9:32 am

The Overlap
Vibes?

It is always tempting for me to assume tactics wins matches. I always like to put emphasis on teams' structure, changes in formation, how teams press, what instructions players are given, when talking about who won and why. But what if this is just vanity on my part? As a pale, thin nerd it would be tempting to think that football can be won with strategy and thought. To make it sound like a game of chess, coaches moving their pieces around the pitch to find the advantage. That might just ignore the sheer power of vibes, something Elmyia seem to be riding on into the Di Bradini Cup Semi-Finals.

Vibes are easy to underrate, but they might explain more than I'm willing to admit. Do people always vote for who they believe to possess the best policy platform? Or are people swayed more by leaders' vibes? Do we marry the person best suited to us in a rational way? Or do we just Or will we go for the person with the good vibes? Do teams that dominate the league do it because of their strategic genius, or does the team with good vibes behind them often triumph? So often it's the vibes, the sense of confidence, the aura of inevitability, that decides important things.

Knockout tournaments on the international level seems the best venue for putting forward an approach centred more on the vibes than on the technical detail. Coaches are given limited time with a squad to decide and drill their approach, plus any poor result can't be analysed and learnt from, there simply isn't time. Teams require that sheer confidence to push through, often requiring some luck along the way. Those with the vibes on their side seem to benefit from luck more than most. The elder coach seems to have centred vibes above all. His zen approach seems to have instilled a supreme calm, and unshakeable confidence, in his charges. They play with simple purpose, controlled, they also seem impervious to pressure, stresses and setbacks. They go about their business as they mean to, the coach has talked often about focusing on process, not on outcomes, and that seems clear enough in their approach. In several games they have played well, but struggled to score, yet in each they've rounded out 1-0 wins over more illustrious opposition, continuing to do their jobs unchanged by circumstances.

It's clear the coach has achieved this without much in the way of tactical sophistication. It's 4-4-2. It's very simple, the players' roles contain little complexity. At the back the defenders defend, centre-backs dominating their aerial duels and defending the space, the full-backs winning their battles with wingers and getting forward to cross. In the middle, Spalding and McLoughlin tackle opponents and make simple passes; they lack the more specialist roles common to the modern game. On the wings, Hightower and Rossi are expected to go at the opposition full-backs, to put in crosses and get in the box to score. Upfront, Depel sits in the hole, finds the space and sprays passes, Whittingham sits on the backline and scores goals. It's simple, but they all just do their jobs really, really well. And it works! With so little to focus on, they seem liberated to put in performances we scarcely thought them capable of.

Their performances in this tournament have been chalk and cheese compared with the Campeonato Rushmori Juvenil. In that tournament they looked nervous, uncertain and unhappy. The collapse against Southweast Eastnorth was emblematic, going from 2-1 up to 3-2 down as they collapsed mentally. Now, they just seem to possess a steeliness.

One player who seems to have benefited is Nico Spalding. He's frequently been criticised in these pages, primarily for looking like a headless chicken. In the Rushmori tournament, and indeed for Scolastico at points, he would frequently drift all over the pitch, making ill-advised tackles and rushing his passing. Yet, against Valladares he was player of the match. He still covered endless ground, but with much more purpose. He tackled his opponents at the right times and executed simple passes to keep things ticking along. One thing’s for certain, he seemed to ruin Carlos Sierra's day. This seemed crucial, the supply to the forwards was cut and it prevented Valladares from having any long spell where they could start to turn the screws.

The whole team seemed to find an extra level of grit. With the attack struggling to move through the gears, the defenders and midfielders continued to battle, keeping it scrappy and stopping their opponents from exploiting their struggles. The substitutions also seemed to go with the vibes based approach. Depel struggled to find the ball in space and pay the passes he would've hoped to, but he seemed to never lose his cool and was kept on for the duration. Whittingham, meanwhile, started to cut a frustrated figure and was hooked for William Nicholas, who did much of the same, but was eventually rewarded. Salinas made an uncharacteristic error in the 77^th minute, leaving his arm hanging out which Nicholas duly thudded the ball into. He won the penalty, and buried it, without fuss, into the top right corner for his first goal in the national setup.

So, with another round navigated, questions turn to just how far can this vibes based approach take Elmyia? Next up they face the behemoth that is Græntfjall. Græntfjall came off a second place finish in the Rushmori sub-20, but they started slowly in Valanora. They were dismantled by Valladares in matchday 1, before eking out a 1-0 win against Cardenao, before dispatching Melbergia to stumble through. In their knockout games, however, they surged, pummeling Darmen 5-2 then dispatching Île de Richelieu 3-1. They're quite possibly favourites to win the tournament at this point. Elmyia, however, will come into the game confident, because that's how they enter every game now.

It remains to be seen if this is the end of the road or not, but surely this new found zen these players have had will be a bonus for the national team moving forwards.

by **Graintfjall** » Wed Feb 01, 2023 12:49 pm

Græntfjall 3–1 Île de Richelieu
Goals: Benjamín 34’, Járngrímur 71’ (pen.), Tóbías 87’; Vigneux 84’

Selection of articles from Græntfjaller news media.

Snow Pups through to final four

Thor to attend semifinal as eyes move on to World Cup qualifying selection

Azurean appointed as external representative on GCB committee

News from around the Græntfjaller Commonwealth:

Presidente Santángel downplays massive oil find in Montaña Verde: "Please don't tell the Græntfjallers"
Verdean indigenous people's assembly first of its kind, passes resolution on slavery reparations
LGB Ambassador condemns Kijani anti-gay persecutions
Ha'Yarok weighing "balance of options" in response to recent terrorist atrocity
Græntfjall "monitoring" status of "unauthorized" Sabzian nuclear program, urges respect for sanctions regime

by **Valanora** » Wed Feb 01, 2023 7:30 pm

Semifinal
Quebec 2–2(3–4 AET) Abanhfleft
Græntfjall 1–4 Elmyia

3PPo
Quebec vs Græntfjall @ The White Fortress, Gladerial

Final
Abanhfleft vs Elmyia @ The Battleground, Raynor City

by **Elmyia** » Thu Feb 02, 2023 11:30 am

The Overlap
Young Starlets Must Block Transfer Speculation Ahead of Abanhfleft Clash

And then there were two... Who would've thought at the outset, coming in on dire form, with a coach coming off a 30 year career break, that Elmyia would've been one of them? This group of players has performed well above expectation, taking down a series of more fancied opponents to be the first Elmyian side in any sport to win a final. But, they have one more test of their resolve and methods against Abanhfleft. With the rumour mill chugging into action, these players will have the zen they've found tested like never before.

In taking on Græntfjall they faced a stern test. A side that had reached the final of the Rushmori competition, that had put established nations like Darmen on route, a side that most certainly expected to come out the better of this fixture. Well, clearly being underdogs helped as Elmyia put in their single most convincing performance yet. Who would've thought it of a team that had won every game so far by virtue of a single goal? But when a game of tight margins was expected, Elmyia seemed to find a ruthless streak to tear through their opponents and run out convincing 4-1 winners.

Even in the game, it hadn't looked a guarantee. The snow pups dominated early proceedings, a string of chances in the first twenty minutes and a spell of pressure that took a lot of discipline to ride out. Jardine managed to look particularly imperious, drawing favourable comparisons to a block of concrete with his powerful defending. A goal came on the break, Hightower and Rossi again combining in devastating fashion for the goal and the assist, but this was quickly cancelled out as Benjamin carved out a pass for Járngrímur in a congested penalty area. Elmyia then spent a spell under the cosh just after half-time, again digging in effectively as they have done throughout the tournament.

Whittingham, eventually, bagged her goal. A corner won in the 60^th minute put in the mixer, Whittingham getting the better of her marker to carve out the space required to finish. From here you might have expected Elmyia's pattern of the tournament to continue, battling away and holding on for a 1 goal victory. The goal, however, seemed to unsettle the snow pups, coupled with a suspected concussion to Erin Marshlily. Whilst it ended up not being severe as it initially looked, this seemed to spook the young side somewhat, and saw a trade down to Hámundur in the screening role. From here, Elmyia ran riot. Depel carving out two excellent assists, curving balls into the box from the channel, finished off by Whittingham and an onrushing Beresford respectively. 4-1 and game over.

It would be an odd time to start doubting such a team, and I won't in these pages, but they have one more fixture in which they need to demonstrate their bottle. There are two factors that come into play here. Firstly, it's completely uncharted territory, no Elmyian side has ever made a final. Albeit, that was true for Semi-Finals as well, but still there could be a factor of 'nice to be here' creeping in. The team has been dedicated to winning each of its matches as best it can, but with the plaudits already flowing in, maybe there's a risk they become complacent? This leads me onto point 2, the fact that transfer speculation is raining down thick and heavy on this group.

For some players, there were already murmurings before a ball had been kicked. Gina Whittingham had come off some devastating form last season, netting 15 times for Scolastico, it was known that Italia and Albion were monitoring her situation. Andrew Awfield had also been mooted for a move abroad, and Marakakis and Cork were certainly known to have their admirers at the big two. Now, however, the entire team has been put in the spotlight and people like what they see. Players like Nico Spalding and Pierre Jardine would've had a snowball’s chance in a microwave of a move away before all of this. Now they already know they will leave this tournament with their reputations furnished and their wages swollen. Do they have it in them to maintain their red-hot form for just one more match?

Regardless, this side have treated us to some excellent displays so far. Purposeful passing, crisp tackling and the odd thunderbastard have warmed our hearts. There remains hope they can go one further against Abanhfleft, another team that has surprised some by making a run to the final. Whilst they have a much longer history in the competition than us, they have won it the same number of times. The pressure will be on both sides to deliver. They play a 4-3-1-2, which has some similarities to our system again, but with a midfielder rather than a striker dropping into the hole between midfield and attack. Græntfjall's 4-4-2 lent itself, in this fixture, to the one on one battles that Elmyia relish, so perhaps a different shape, moving more players forward, will help to overwhelm them in certain areas.

In the final I will be watching the wings, however. Abanhfleft's midfielders appear to sit fairly narrow with the more withdrawn three, so its up to the strikers and the full backs to provide the width in the system. Whilst I'm aware the Elmyian coaching staff will be ignoring this, playing their own way and focusing on their process, it's still interesting to note that they might be able to take an advantage here. There's no certainty of victory, but if Elmyia do win, fully expect Rossi, and Beresford to give Sara Bryant the worst day of her life, and for Hightower and Awfield to give Dawn Wheeler hers.

by **Graintfjall** » Thu Feb 02, 2023 7:33 pm

Græntfjall 1–4 Elmyia
Goals: Járngrímur 37’; Hightower 31’, Whittingham 60’, 72’, Beresford 84’

Tournament ratings:

Samuel Hui - 7.5/10
Conceded 11 goals in 6 games, though perhaps at fault for only 1. An undemonstrative captain but one clearly respected by his peers.

Hermione Hui - 7.5/10
Prone to attention lapses, almost like she was competing in another tournament at the same time. Provided a couple of key assists.

Glóa Karvelsdóttir - 3/10
Missed the first game suspended, perhaps should have missed the rest. Lost her marker to concede in the semifinal. Poor tournament.

Hrútur Melkíorsson - 7/10
Despite an off-field discipline issue, looked otherwise strong and fit. Needs to improve his passing game.

Sæi Adríansson - 5/10
Was just about OK without adding much spark down the left. Impressive endurance late in the games. Weak throw-ins.

Erin Marshlily - 9/10
The team's heart and soul and, when she went down concussed, it seemed to trigger a capitulation.

Arnar Heikisson - 8/10
Had a fine tournament after a shocking start. Being dropped shook him up and he responded well, and was near the best player on the field in every subsequent game.

Varða Vígsteinsdóttir - 5/10
Pretty invisible after being so hyped out of Tikariot. Perhaps beset by injury issues that ended up with her missing the semifinal.

Rebekka Kajsdóttir - 7.5/10
Another big name who fell a little flat, though she still led the team in assists. Looks potent from set-pieces and crosses. Needs to add physicality.

Járngrímur Náttúlfsson - 8/10
Damp squib in the group stages though not for lack of trying. Proved his class in the playoffs. But gets frustrated by bad service too easily, needs to help himself more.

Benjamín Ísarsson - 7/10
Uninspiring first games from the big scoring threat though by tournament's end he got his goals and formed an effective partnership.

works? · by **Abanhfleft** » Fri Feb 03, 2023 6:07 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

WE'RE IN THE FINAL. WTF?!

Hello and welcome to The Football Fallacies. Right, so even I don't know what the fuck is going on in the Di Bradini Cup now! I don't even know how we managed to get to the final of the Cup after everything that we've been through, but I'll be damned if I didn't say that we deserved it! How many times have we been taking part in the Di Bradini Cup, and how many times have made it all the way to the final? Well, I'll tell you what, this is only the third time we've ever made it to the final! And here's an even more depressing fact for you all: in the two times that we've been here before, we lost both times! And how am I supposed to know if this game is going to be any different today? I'm not a bloody fucking clairvoyant! And if we were really trying to win the Di Bradini Cup now then we went on the very long cut to do just that! We've just barely survived against Valanora in the quarterfinals, and we just barely squeezed past them on penalties! Meanwhile, I'm not really sure if Elmyia had ever gone past the 90 minutes in this playoffs so they must be very good at closing out these games, you might think. Now normally this is the point where I say that we won't stand a chance against these bastards simply because we're Abanhfleft, but after all the shit we just saw happen over the past few days, I don't think I'm ready to count anything out now.

I wouldn't say that this was a game of two halves, but I would say that there was certainly a turning of the tables after the 90 minutes. Quebec had the better chances in the first 90 but couldn't really convert all of them, while Abanhfleft was a bit more clinical despite the fact (or maybe because of it) that we didn't have as many chances in front of goal. Oberon M'Bah-Pinho and Neil Youngblood scored the first two Quebecois goals while Sven Fahrni was directly responsible for both of Abanhfleft's equalizers. Yeah, after disappearing for a little bit in the playoffs, the Forsbjorg Terminator is back, and those two goals he scored in regulation just showed us all how much he missed being back in the big time. That second equalizer of his might also be the most important goal he's scored yet as it gave the Young Revolutionaries a fighting chance to actually win the semifinal, and they've only gone and bloody done it as well! In the 30 minutes of extra time, Abanhfleft finally took the lead for the first time through Buchheim Khanchil before Ronald Lagatoc finally won the game in 120 minutes. No more penalty shootouts for this team, hopefully. Now if we can just perform like this one more time...

Quebec went into the first half absolutely looking to put us away. I think they felt that they deserved it after they had gone toe to toe against Huayramarca. Personally, I thought we deserved a shot at the title as well after we knocked Valanora out on penalties, but what do I know? Also, the Quebecois weren't letting us have the ball so it's all moot anyway. And the Junior Grim Reapers or whatever they're supposed to be called were basically bombarding our goal, so it's really no wonder that despite Florian Rusinek's heroics, Oberon M'Bah-Pinho finally managed to punt it in from close range. Then again, it's probably more a testament to Florian's command of his area that it took Quebec that long to finally find the breakthrough. Now, in most other cases, the other side scoring a goal usually means the death knell of Abanhfleft's thoughts of winning the game but under Roman Aydarov, we finally look like we have plans when we don't have the lion's share of possession in a game. First it was taking advantage of set pieces, and now it's switching to out-and-out counterattacking football. It doesn't look like it's a tactic that's supposed to work with the players at our disposal (Michael Infanta and Kerry Faustino's lack of line-breaking pace come to mind), but who needs pacey forwards when you've got Sven bloody Fahrni in your team? He doesn't even need to get the ball to a teammate; even when a Queb defender intercepted the ball, Sven just nicked it off of him and went for goal himself.

The second half was no less frenetic, for our side or for the Quebs. Everyone on the pitch really wanted to get to the final, but they all knew that only one team was going to make it so they did all that they could to make sure that they were going to be that team. Once again, Quebec weren't really giving us much of a chance to make a statement of our own as they were pretty much hogging the ball for as long as they could. At least their possession actually had an endgame, unlike some other teams that shall remain unmentioned. The likes of Camille Oh-Chainey, Cesar Icardi-Rabiot, and even the freaking right back Federic Yabusele got chances to restore Quebec's lead, but unfortunately for them and fortunately for us, Florian Rusinek was at the top of his game for most of this match. The only problem with Florian is that he can't do this for the whole 90 minutes to save his life, and all Quebec really had to do was wait for that one moment when Florian became a headless chicken between the sticks to strike, and that's exactly what substitute Neil Youngblood did. It didn't even matter what Neil actually did to score; it was just a matter of doing it when Florian was off his best, and it turned out that a shot from almost 30 yards away was going to do the trick. Not to be outdone, Sven Fahrni took charge on a 32-yard free kick and swung it into the far corner for a quick equalizer and setting up 30 additional minutes. I'm telling you all, when this man is on a mission, Sven Fahrni is just plain unstoppable.

I don't know if I should have any right to say it, but there was definitely a momentum shift that happened when the game went into extra time. I'm not sure if they were prepared to go the distance or not, but one thing is for sure for me: our boys and girls had been in this situation before just a few days earlier so they probably had a little leg up over their opponents tonight. Our guys were definitely sharper in these 30 minutes than they had in the previous 90. That's about the only explanation that I can give for Buchheim Khanchil moving faster than the speed of sound to get away from his marker and ghost towards the far post for the easy header from a corner. Now it was Quebec who was chasing the lead from Abanhfleft and not the other way around. I don't know what the players themselves were feeling in this situation but it must have been a good one because Quebec equalized just eight minutes later! Typical of Abanhfleft to score their first leading goal after 90-plus minutes only to concede a few minutes later because apparently, that's what we do best! Thanks a lot, Clyde Han! But there was still some time left for someone, anyone, to become a hero for their team, if only they could find it in themselves to push themselves beyond their limits just one more time to score the winning goal. And, to the surprise of literally everyone in the stadium, it was Ronald Lagatoc who, to use a baseball term (shoutout to Ibrahim Ahmadinejad and Musings of an Armored Dinner Jacket), stepped up to the plate and swung for the fences, and he actually got the home run.

Now it's time for the final match of the Di Bradini Cup, and it's going to be Abanhfleft versus Elmyia. Elmyia have only been on the scene for a short while but here they are now, about to challenge for the biggest prize in youth football. Meanwhile, how long did it take us to even get to the final of the DBC? Honestly, it's been so long that I can't even remember it anymore. Anyway, Elmyia just swept aside Graintfjall 4-1 while we were busy taking Quebec to the full 120. I don't know what kind of effect this will have on both teams, but in the end I just want us to win. The football gods are clearly not paying attention to the Di Bradini Cup at the moment. Now's our chance to finally claim the damn trophy while they're distracted! Now let's hope that they don't remember that the DBC is happening until it's too late for them and we've already won the bloody thing. Although, now that I've said that, I've just cursed us again, haven't I? Me and my big fat mouth! Why can't I just shut up and leave everything alone? If an angry mob pops up at my doorstep, at least now I know the reason why! 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 Quebec or predictions against Elmyia then feel free to leave them down below. Until then, I've been the Man from Markovsky, hoping that I won't be disappointed in my country once again on the grandest stage of all of youth football.

       I. A. QUEBEC 3 - 4 ABANHFLEFT         
                    (aet)
  M'BAH-PINHO (20')       FAHRNI (38', 90')
   YOUNGBLOOD (79')       KHANCHIL (95')
      C. HAN (103')       LAGATOC (114')

by **Valanora** » Fri Feb 03, 2023 9:38 pm

3PPo
Quebec 3–6 Græntfjall

Final
Abanhfleft 3–5 Elmyia

Di Bradini Cup 54/U21WC75 RP And Scores Thread

Who is online