37th AOCAF Championship :: RP/SCORES

[Wight]

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[Geisenfried]

Third-Place Playoff:
Wight [2] - [1] New Montreal States

[Audioslavia]

"Just because I allowed you to leave the proverbial 'wagon', Rubio...", said a familiar voice from behind the Krytenian, "doesn't mean you should be jumping from it straight into a pool full of gin." The surprise made Rubio spill his gin and tonic over the bar, prompting a tut from the barmaid and a dry cloth thrown in Rubio's direction. Rubio blushed, apologised, and commenced the small clean up operation, giving the speaker an accusatory glance as he did so. "Since when did you drink gin and tonics, anyway?" asked Jeremy, taking a seat beside his friend.
"Sue got me into them. Not that she's drinking any more, of course" said Rubio, leaving the gin-sodden cloth draped over a nearby empty glass.
"Ah, yes. I must remember to congratulate her. How are... 'things'?"
"Awkward. I'm being supportive but not too... clingy. We're both freaked out. She's keeping it, and I love her, and I think she quite likes me sometimes so, y'know..."
"Rubio: Father. It's got quite the ring to it. You'll get used to it."
"I hope so. She's being a professional first and an expectant mother second, for now, she's out collating some info on the final. Has been every since Audioslavia won the semi with Wight. She was like a woman posessed"
"I wouldn't use that phrase around her" said Jeremy. Rubio thought for a moment.
"Oh... yeah." Sue probably should have died, four years ago, when the 'Wight Event Horizon" hit he coast of Kjeligsted. Only a miracle, a fluke of super-nature, saved her, but at the cost of having to spend a few weeks being posessed by a vague, numbing sense of ennui. Trapped in a secondary emotion vortex. It had taken a while to recover.

As a result, Sue had enjoyed Audioslavia's victory of Wight more than she really should have. "Take that you shady c**t nuggets" had been a particular highlight, and that had been when she was supposed to be on neutral, journo duty. She'd hollered her approval as Audioslavia took the lead, scowled for ten minute straight after Wight's easier, and bounced all over the press box after Audioslavia's second-half winner. The Bulls had gone some way to healing the mental scarring caused by the post 'great remove' fallout and, from a more global viewpoint, had gained something of a healthy sporting rivalry with a nearby nation.

Anyway, what are you doing here? I thought you weren't bothering with the AOCAF this year?" said Rubio to Jeremy.
"We're in the final. Thought it'd be worth the trip."
"Where were you?"
"Never you mind"

[Audioslavia]

From the pages of the Cathair Tribune

Bulls on the Brink
Sporadic Ponders Pacitalia Payback
by Sue Dysos

Of the eleven Bulls who will line up against the Blue Foxes tonight, seven of them will feel a pang of de-ja vu. All of twelve years ago, Eleven young, inexperienced boys lined up against the crack Pacitalian outfit in the final of the 34th AOCAF. Weverton Sporadic, Andre-Luis Partico, Calaexa Jeroen, Mantzio Janssens, Marc Vauvenargues, Torsten Ibsen and Delain Colgan are all older, wiser and, most importantly, better, now. The fact that these seven players have lasted the duration of those twelve years is a testament to their talent. New manager Txo Morea was supposed to have left championship-winning AC Izotz Zubia to change the national team for the better, ousting the old guard and blooding new, younger, Audioslavian-born players, that he hasn't done so yet is the reason the Bulls are here.

Star-man Weverton Sporadic, in an interview for local television last night, remarked upon the futility of that AOCAF34, played on a balmy night in Legalese. Audioslavia, as they did in the early days, were forced onto the back foot and made to defend in numbers. Sporadic himself was expected to be the man to co-ordinate the counter attacks. "There was no getting the ball off them" said Weverton, shaking his head at the memory, "and when we finally got posession we were hounded off the ball as quickly as we'd taken it." Indeed, those who remember the game will possibly recall that 2-0 was hardly a flattering scoreline for the pale-blue Pacitalians.

Four years later, for the 35th installation of the AOCAF, Audioslavia's motto for yet another final reached was 'This time, it's feasible". They had, indeed, expected to be up against the Pacitalians again, but found the blue-foxes upset by a shaky ASMV side in the semis, a side that even the fresh-faced Audioslavians managed to beat in the final, further ushering in the new era of Audioslavian football.

This final, eight years on, cannot be said to be anywhere near as that first, all important, maiden win. A victory in the tournament would be a fine way to send off these seven Audioslavian stalwarts before World Cup qualifying kicks off in earnest next autumn, but after the fiasco of the last AOCAF, the disappointing showings in World Cup Qualifying and the Cup of Harmony, just reaching the final again and proving to the world that Audioslavia's new-found success is more than just a flash in the pan, will be a good enough start for the new manager. Not that he's likely to admit it...

[Pacitalia]

Football > AOCAF Cup 37
Saturday 29th September 2012

Demi Santos celebrates his 12th goal of AOCAF Cup 37 in Saturday's semifinal against New Montreal States (APR)


Demi's dazzling double dozen
Nets 12 for second Cup in a row, setting up Bulls-Foxes re-match

Constantin Tiervancu
Heimüller, Geisenfried


Demi Santos had said, coming into AOCAF Cup 37, that he wanted to match or better his Golden Boot-winning haul of 12 goals from the previous Cup. It's largely due to his success at reaching his goal that the Blue Foxes have another date booked in the championship final.

This time it's a re-match with Audioslavia, after the Bulls and Blue Foxes both pulled out hard-fought 2-1 victories against their respective opponents to reach the final of this action-packed AOCAF Cup in Geisenfried.

Group B, unexpectedly, turned out to be the strongest of the eight, contributing two of the four semifinalists in the Bulls and Paladins.

Demi's 24th-minute header past Édgar Thibault lifted the Blue Foxes to a lead they would not relinquish for the rest of the match — even with a late response by the Paladins' Hugo Leclercq on 86 minutes to crush Ander Bera's hopes of a clean sheet.

Fernando Nero earned his second goal of the tournament at the hour mark in a match the Pacitalians owned almost from end to end. The Paladins squad that had confidently and triumphantly swept aside Thatius and Osarius on their way to the final four looked weak and lacking composure against the Foxes. The final scoreline, even without the Leclercq tally, flattered them greatly.

With Sol Kirkkegaard sidelined by a severe case of food poisoning after eating a funny schnitzel, it was left up to attacking coach André Vaillancourt-Bosquet to corral the troops and attempt to push the Paladins through to their first AOCAF Cup final appearance. But a lack of preparation time and several miscommunications and miscues helped do New Montreal States in early, and they were lucky to escape down the tunnel at halftime behind by just a goal.

Demi's goal, his 12th of this campaign, came on the Blue Foxes' fifth — yes, that's right, fifth — corner in a span of just two and a half minutes, and their eighth corner up to that point in the match. Fenicio Samatini's high lob from the far corner found the waiting head of Demi, who redirected the ball to ground and past a bewildered Thibault.

Cadi Herrera nearly doubled the score on 30 minutes, playing a cute little give-and-go with Michelangelo Mascagnano before sending his shot just a hair past the left post. A second attack two minutes later, this time involving Nero, found twine — just not the inside of it.

The young Nero would himself strike gold in the 60th minute with a gorgeous one-touch volley that knocked Thibault clean on his back as the Paladin keeper attempted to whack it away from goal. Feeling quite assured by this point of a ticket to the final, Nero waved his finger cheekily at the Paladins supporters to earn himself a chorus of boos.

Foxes captain Mascagnano almost scored a third on 76 minutes to fully put the match out of reach, but, as has frequently been the case in this tournament, the officiating staff had other plans for what was just narrowly an offside play.

Bera, and the rest of the eleven on the pitch, were left wishing that third goal had been converted, if only for insurance purposes, after Leclercq's volley from out of nowhere chopped the Pacitalian lead in half. But it was as close as the Paladins would come on a crisp Saturday evening at the Küstenkolosseum, with the referee whistling for time only five minutes later.

And now, the final is set — a match-up of the last two champions, the title-holding Foxes against the side from which they wrested the title back (and who, in turn, snatched the title from the Foxes. Confused?) The match will surely be an exclamation point on what has so far been a wonderful championship tournament, and on its face, a title bout between the two teams who, arguably, most deserve to be there this time around.

Foxes manager Narciso Pennachetti couldn't help but smirk when asked what his side's game plan was.

"Every time I hear this question I wonder why it's even asked," he said. "We're going to do what we always do, or at least try to. Teams that can't get the ball away from us will have a very hard time winning, and that's why we play the game the way we do. We don't plan to do anything differently."

We are about to witness a title match between the two countries who have, between them, captured the last three successive Cups. The symphony of great names whose feet will grace the pitch at Königskronestadion — Vauvenargues, Sporadic, Ibsen, Colgan, Mascagnano, Demi, Adiarche and Bera among them — will surely be the cherry on top at AOCAF Cup 37.


Audioslavia's route to the final: won 2-0 vs Leorudo, lost 0-4 vs New Montreal States, won 1-0 vs Blouman Empire, qualified as runner-up in Group B. Won round of sixteen match 1-0 vs Geisenfried; won quarterfinal match 9-0 vs Kiryu-shi; won semifinal match 2-1 vs Wight.

Pacitalia's route to the final: won 7-0 vs Hutt River, won 3-0 vs Austenersey, won 4-2 vs Falcania, won Group F. Won round of sixteen match 2-0 vs Carpathia and Ruthenia; won quarterfinal match 1-1 (1-1 AET, 2-1 PK) vs Andossa Se Mitrin Vega; won semifinal match 2-1 vs New Montreal States.

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Copyright © 2012 Extra, the Pacitalian sport network
http://www.extra.pc/football/nr.gspx?sd=802654&ad=en

[Geisenfried]

Finals:
Audioslavia [0] - [2] Pacitalia

AOCAF XXXVII Champions:


Pacitalia

AOCAF XXXVII Runners-up:

Audioslavia

AOCAF XXXVII Third Place:

Wight

[Audioslavia]

De-ja-sky-blue
Audioslavia overcome by Pacitalia in AOCAF final, yet again

As the dust settled on the second Bulls/Foxes encounter in the AOCAF final, the scoreline showed a duplication of the first result between the two sides - Pacitalia 2, Audioslavia 0.

Around half the 22 players on the field had been part of that AOCAF34 showdown. For Audioslavia, Weverton Sporadic and Marc Vauvenargues had formed the Bulls' forward line, backed up by a midfield of Ibsen, Jeroen and Janssens and some more familiar faces in defence. For Pacitalia, Cadi Herrera was handed the chance to make up for a shoddy performance in that AOCAF34 final by terrorising the Audioslavia defence this time out, while mainstays Sema and Santos were looking to add their third regional title in four attempts.

Pacitalia's victory, this time out, wasn't nearly as clear-cut as it had been twelve years ago, but there was no doubting which of the two teams was the better, here. The Blue Foxes, ranked #1 in the region, raced into the lead early thanks to a far-post header from Cadi Herrera, and stayed on top throughout the game, save for a couple of periods of pressure and posession for the Audioslavians nearer the end of the game. At that point, however, Herrera's second goal - mimicking Giurimano's feat of scoring twice against the Bulls in a major final - had put the game beyond an Audioslavia team who looked devoid of an response to the clever passing play of their opposition.

And so, another chance at a major bauble goes begging for Audioslavia, who are currently 2-6 in major tournament finals. The future for the Bulls is a hazy. And bright. A sort of bright haze. Some of the established players are reaching retirement age, and new manager Txo Morea will have to blood some younglings for the coming World Cup if he wants the side to have a serious chance at making the finals. The current crop may have added to Audioslavia's trophy cabinet, but have proved beyond doubt that they come up a little short when it comes to qualifying for major tournaments.

[Wight]

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