Di Bradini Cup 40/U21WC61 (Everything Thread)

[Qasden]

Qasden
Athletic News

Hofmann woes as Vans tackle Anthorian foes

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Aaaaaand we're off!

The Di Bradini Cup has reached its fortieth edition under its new alias, and already three cups deep, the Qads are eager to become one of the youngest teams to win a purple star. Having been villainized by several before even the group draw, TQ find themselves in an awkward situation as they close the draw in Group H. In their position, the Blue-Reds will have to endure an ambitious Anthor team, a sly Osarius squad, and a colorful Chromatika clique, all within the Duran Palace of Valanari.

First up in the ring is Anthor. The, um, let's just call them eagles for ease, are led by their cunning captain, Jack McCourt, as well as their manager, Vin Thurstan. While the "eagles" have projected themselves as high-end favorites, Drucati made sure they weren't so sure.

"While I commend the willpower and determination of Thurstan's team, we need to assure their media that our young team is much more experienced than they think. I've managed this squad into two editions of DBC playoffs, I've managed a renowned club in Mercedini, and I will be managing this team into the Olympics. I'm not saying Vin can defeat my club, I'm just saying that it's gonna be a lot harder than their poll said.".

Days later, it was finally showtime at the palace. The sky reflected itself off of the brim-filled stadium, swarmed in Anthorian, Qad, and Vanorian fans. As the Anthorian forward came up to the ball, the whistle blew and the game commenced. In the starting drive down the field, it only took a matter of minutes before the first shot on goal was made, just tapping Pahlke's gloves. 20 more minutes of gameplay, and yet there are still no goals. 37 minutes in, Ottoline Nosek makes a hard pass to Ulysses Fairbairn who makes a hard post hit. Next thing you know, halftime arrives at a 0-0 score.

"Alright, Vans huddle up. Now listen, we cannot afford to lose this game, especially in Valanari. We are gonna have to switch out some of the formats and we are gonna need to make plays out there people!".

The second half commenced slowly, but adrenalized 9 minutes later, with Sisu Cassidy and Énna Bonner pairing to pull a quick one under the keeper, neutralizing the draw. 5 more minutes went on before the Anthorian offense ravaged the Blue-Red side. 72 minutes, a goal called offsides occurred that nearly shattered Pahlke's initial hopes in the tournament. Luckily, thanks to a few bad calls every here and there and a strong Valentina Fairbairn, the Vans were able to stay on top for the remainder of the half, ending the game on a narrowly clean 1-0 victory.

The win secured the Qads 3 very needed points and a confident position in the group. Meanwhile, in Gladerial, the firebirds of Osarius nudged a high scoring game, beating the Chromatiks 4-3. Match day 2 will allow Boulevard's team to recoup before facing the Phoenix themselves back at the palace, with three more points and the overall lead at stake. If the Qads win over Osarius, and Anthor picks off Chromatika, TQ will be assured at least second place in the group. Otherwise, the final game day in Gladerial will become ten times more important for the UnderVans.

"I'm aware that we've been villainized by many associations out here after Anthor. That's cool, because that's how the game works. While they hate, we build, recoup, and thrive into the next round. After today, I do give my respects to manager Thurstan, as i cannot deny he and his team have proven to be a worthy adversary. I wish them the best luck against Chromatika, and can't wait to see where they end up.".

Can TQ slay the Phoenix? Will the Firebirds tackle the Vans? Only one news story is going to be reported, so stay tuned, stay updated, and stay alert for our next report, fished from the rivers and creeks of Valanora!

[Chromatika]

A barn burner of a match - which Lightning, Aide, and Kaytlyn dazzling with goals - was outdone by Mia Ria and the defense letting in four goals. Bryant, Udowu, Caraballo, Duane, McIntosh, and Ford dictated the match, and it was a minor miracle that the team did score three goals. Mia took it upon herself pretty hard at the end of the match:

"I should've been much better... It was because of me that we lost... Valence, Lina, and Cierra all played well and I should've done better. Especially with heading to a big club like Myrmidon, I need to prove that I can handle success and a big club... I will do better, or I'll ask for my Manager to start Pietr instead."

To this, Manager Jankovich said this:

"Mia is taking the loss hard. It's her pursuit of excellence that sets her apart, but this loss was not her fault. It was a team loss, there were faults all over the board. The defense didn't mark their men, the midfield fell behind the Osarians in pace, the the offense wasn't able to capitalize in enough chances. Yes, we had more chances to perhaps win the match, even with letting in four goals - that is what our system is supposed to do. That being said, thankfully it was only the first game. With games against Qasden and Anthor, it's still possible to go through, but we need to really step up our game."

Said Kaytlyn Victoriane, labeled player of the match from the Chromatik side with a goal and an assist on another to Lightning:

"We had six other great shots on goal that should have been converted. Yes, the Osarian keeper Henderson played well and stopped a few shots, but we are supposed to be the best of Chromatika U-21. There are opportunities where we have to score, and we didn't convert enough."

The next match might be the last of the U-21 under Jankovich and Anderson...

[Schottia]

Corinne Martel-Burns

Whitehaven, Ceni

Connie sat perched on the railings. The normally pleasant wind blowing in from the Endemien Ocean was getting colder as day began to wane, and was now distinctly chilly. It was high tide, and the waves lapped at the edges of the promenade beneath her feet, concealing the famous Whitehaven beeches under dark water and whisps of foam. Connie didn't know Ceni well, and knew Whitehaven even less, but that had been one of the plus points in coming here. Her life had been becoming increasingly suffocating in St Johns, and at least here she felt like she could breath. All her life she'd had that constant feeling of the walls closing in around her, like one of those movies where the hero springs a booby-trap and has to make their escape as the spikes draw nearer.

Polaris was her great escape, her fresh start. It always took the pressure off for a while, the newness creating the feeling of being in the open, before she would feel the urge to move again. Handon United to Kirk Preston -- Kirk Preston to St Johns Arsenal -- Arsenal to Polaris. Connie liked to make sure she was at least a moving target. Football in RKQ had kind of stood still since the move away from the LigAnaia and last season's early exit from UICA football had been a particularly painful blow.

Polaris felt like a good move, a grown up move. At Arsenal there were always comparisons to Hazel van Robben; and the "by the seat of your pants" style football over there brought with it an incentive to play up to the cameras. That was further incentive she certainly didn't need. This was about striking out on her own, trying to create her own traditions and her own story. If she were going to be the best, she had to break the mould and stop being "CMB," or that madcap Quebecois girl that pulled on a Schottia top. She needed to concentrate on being Corinne Martel-Burns, and no one else. The Terranean League was going to see the best of her in her time here, of that much, she was certain.

Connie turned back round, and slid from the railing onto the promenade. Wearing just a loose fitting vest top and an old pair of black jeans, the parts of her arms, visible alongside the growing number of tattoos, were starting to turn blue in the evening breeze. The waterfront in Whitehaven had a shiny newness to it, similar to her impression of the entire country. It was now past nine in the evening, and those vacating the beaches had descended upon the promenade's bars and restaurants. It was getting harder and harder to enter those sorts of establishments and enjoy a drink. Somehow everybody that came up to you thought they were the first person that'd ever thought it was a good idea. "Oh, sorry to bother you, but you don't happen to be..." Long gone were the days where Connie could sink into the corner of grimy bar, and drink herself under the table in peace and quiet.

. . .

"But that's a good thing? No?" Dr Durí had asked, during their last session back in Handon. Connie hadn't been so sure, but think about it now, the therapist had probably been right. Any barrier between her and her vices was probably beneficial. It wasn't like she needed to put herself in more situations where alcohol and misunderstandings had the potential to light her already dangerously short fuse.

"And I think you're making the right decision." Durí had offered, in a confident tone. "We talked about how important football was for you - or more specifically, keeping busy - you're too young to be sitting around doing nothing. Keep yourself fit, keep yourself active, focus on the positive things in life. And if that means making a sideways step right now, for the sake of where your career is going to be in two or three years time, then you should take it. I agree with you, I think you should pick Polaris." Maybe Durí should have gotten a job as a football agent, or at least some advisory role - because by the time Connie had left that final session, she was feeling much more positive. What had been a somewhat a flippant and random choice when she had made it, now felt like a more measured response.

. . .

It was a substantial walk back up to her new flat, but she didn't mind. Connie spent a lot of time crisscrossing cities like this, it was nothing new, she'd been doing it since she was a kid. Like some sinister work of Psychogeography, she seemed to weave her way between the city's dark places, the parts that people normally avoided. By the age of fourteen she could have drawn a map of all Handon's dark, windowless alleyways. All the rundown housing estates, and the undersides of railway bridges, stinking of tramps' piss. For her, it went part and parcel with not sleeping - with the insomnia, which kept her awake at all hours, as the quietening of world around her meant that the voices in her head grew in volume. Sometimes the noise could be deafening, a tinniticil screaming. But other times, it could be the only way to get some good conversation. It was during the small oases of calm that the vast majority of her life decisions were arrived upon. It was these beacons, these rays of clarity, which she sought out while pounding the streets in the moonlight.

After missing the run to the Independents Cup final, Connie had been able to fly straight out Ceni once the court case had concluded. To not have those assault charges hanging over her anymore was a weight off her mind. It also meant that she was champing at the bit to get going again; to score goals and to win matches. The move to Polaris had taken her a step back from the precipice, this was going to be her chance to make a name for herself, while she still clinging to her sanity by her fingernails.

Connie had been chewing the inside of her lip again, it was a habit she really needed to stop, and her mouth had that salty metallic taste. Through the windows of the shorefront bars and restaurants she could see couples and families taking their seats, ordering food, laughing and joking with friends. It was a world she somehow longed to be a part of, but knew she never could.

. . .

"One last thing..." Dr Durí added, as Connie had gotten up to leave. "There's a lot of people with your condition who couldn't do what you do. Don't be so hard on yourself. You're stronger than you think."

[Abanhfleft]

Young Guns, Part Eight

“Not now,” Kelly McGinnis muttered as she heard her cellphone vibrating on her bedside desk. She was very much busy as she was in the middle of packing her bags for the journey from the Fhulghamous Peninsula to Mercedini, where Kelly’s new club (at least for the next season) was waiting for her. Her gamble for the Sporting World Cup had finally paid off, although not in the way that Kelly honestly expected it to pan out. She had expected to be picked up by one of the bigger footballing countries out there like Nephara, Cosumar, Semarland, Schottia, or others of that kind. But instead she was going to a place called Hoventon and Corlington Town in Mercedini. Mercedini. It wasn’t exactly the first place that comes to mind when one mentions “great places for someone to develop good youth players.” Still, it was a place not within Abanhfleft, Pridnestrovia, Oontaz, or even freaking Copper Cuprum, and that was why Kelly had accepted the move. It was a season-long loan, sure, but if she really impressed with her new team, then H and C (that was how she was already beginning to think about them; Fleftics loved their abbreviations to make their lives easier) had an option to make her move a permanent one. It was too much to think about scoring almost every game for her new team, but still, a girl could dream, right?

Kelly sighed. The phone won’t stop ringing and probably wouldn’t anytime soon. She knew of only one person who would persist in calling her after so many times. She set aside one of her bags, walked over to her phone, picked it up, and said, “Yeah, Gareth, what do you want from me now?”

“Why do you always have to act so hostile around me, Kelly?” Gareth Williamson asked in reply. “Why can you never answer one of my calls with ‘Hello, this is Kelly speaking, how may I help you today?’”

“What am I, a call-center agent?” Kelly asked back. “Why should I be obligated to greet you in a chipper tone when I’m so obviously busy packing my things before my flight to Mercedini?”

“Ah, so your flight’s now?”

“Not really, I just like packing things very early so I don’t have to rush when the day finally comes. Of course it’s now, Gareth! Why else would I be trying to do two things at the same time?”

“Hey, you don’t have to bite my head off just like that,” Gareth said, sounding convincingly hurt. “Anyway, Kel, I just wanted to call you both to wish you luck in Mercedini and also to tell you that I think we may have just gone down the same path.”

“Huh? What the hell are you talking about?” Kelly asked, genuinely curious.

“Look, I’m not like you, Kelly, I’ll admit that,” Gareth replied. “I’m not one to go looking for a move abroad when I’m so clearly going to do well in Ceneisis—“

Kelly snorted at that statement. Good as Gareth had been at his level, he was still definitely a long way away from breaking into the first team of Sporting Ceneisis even though Tullio Zorzalo had a reputation for blooding young players right into the first team if need be.

“—but enough about me comparing myself to you, Kel,” Gareth continued. “What I meant to say is that we both look like we’re going abroad.”

“Huh?” Kelly blurted out. “Really?”

“Apparently, Olympic Nassau Bay from New Gelderland is very interested in me after the performances I put in for the Sporting World Cup,” Gareth said. “Now I’m on my way to Nassau because of it.”

“Well, that’s good news, right?” Kelly said.

“Not exactly,” Gareth replied. “I mean, understand it from my point of view, Kel. I’m not looking to move away from Ceneisis. I’m comfortable over there. When I close my eyes and think of my future, I see myself as wearing the blue shirt of Sporting Club de Ceneisis, no matter the sponsor on the front of the shirt. I never imagined that my dream would take a little detour to New Gelderland on the way to me finally wearing that blue shirt.”

“Look, I’m sure it’s not all bad,” Kelly said. “I mean, surely you’re just going out on loan too, aren’t you?”

“I don’t think so,” Gareth admitted. “I mean, by the way Tullio and Finn Jameson and the rest of the staff are talking to me, I’m pretty convinced that my move to Nassau is permanent.”

“Well, what’s wrong with that? You can tear up the league in New Gelderland and find yourself back in Ceneisis, especially if you’ve got a buy-back.” A buy-back clause was an agreement in which the selling club gets first rights to bring back one of their players whom they sell on for any reason.

“Yeah, let’s see, what are the chances of me doing that? I’d say very slim to nonexistent.”

“Well, you can’t always be stuck with one particular team,” Kelly said. “Of course, there are exceptions like Rocko Stubbs and Raisa Korovina, but they’re exceptions. The average footballer is expected to embark on a journey of at least three clubs before they finally settle down somewhere and become either a star of a bit player or a journeyman. But honestly though, if you just keep your head down and play your cards right, I think you’ll do well in Nassau.”

“Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Kel,” Gareth muttered. “Anyway, I should be going. I’m just stalling my own packing up.”

“Good luck to you, Gareth,” Kelly said sincerely. “You’re going to need it.”

“Thanks, Kelly,” Gareth replied. “Good luck to you too.”

“Yeah.” Kelly closed the connection, sighed, and then she got back to packing her bags. Everyone seemed to be on the move. First her, and then Gareth, and then there were already rumors that at least two of the girls, Alma Walker and Sonia Davidson, were on their way abroad as well. Well, looks like she got the ball rolling on Fleftic youngsters being hot stuff for foreign markets. It was nice to be a trendsetter, but it would be nicer to actually do something worthwhile with her time in Mercedini.

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DI BRADINI CUP 40: ETHANE VS ABANHFLEFT
By Malik Qazizadah


Abanhfleft's Arthur MacAlistair acknowledges the traveling support in the game against Ethane. (Courtesy of Crescent News Network Sports Channel/Andros Tasasa)

WEXAX, VALANORA - Abanhfleft dropped two points in their opening match of the 40th Di Bradini Cup following a late goal from Alexis Bendez neutralized a lead established almost half an hour before the end of the game.

In a match fraught with numerous controversies, chief among them the inclusion of ineligible players in Ethane's lineup such as Wilmer Jaurequi, Samuel Mitchell, and Nelson Delamora, Abanhfleft were definitely the better side but were not able to show that in the statistic which mattered most: goals scored.

Over seven players in Ethane's final Di Bradini roster were discovered by Fleftic authorities to be over the age of 21, and with the Di Bradini Cup considered as the successor of the old Under-21 World Cup, the Fleftic authorities immediately raised the matter to their Vanorian hosts, who immediately promised to look into the matter, but by the day of the game, the Vanorian authorities had still not yet dealt with the problem accordingly.

Another controversy arose on the day of the game itself as Ethane submitted a 10-man roster utilizing a new and supposedly "revolutionary" 4-2-3 system with four defenders, two midfielders, and three strikers; nevertheless, despite the man advantage right at the start of the game, it took the Young Revolutionaries time to impose themselves upon the game the way that they wanted.

It was Annamarie Sabado of Abanhfleft who finally broke the deadlock after 18 minutes with a calm, composed, and calculated strike to the far post after some passing play down the flanks and a good solo run from Sabado.

A heavy tackle by Alexis Bendez on Kelly McGinnis, recently of the 3rd Sporting World Cup, then saw Ethane concede a penalty after a half hour, and young McGinnis calmly slotted home the penalty despite distraction tactics from the Ethanese keeper.

Wilmer Jaurequi, one of the overage players supposed to be ineligible for this tournament, then handed Ethane a lifeline back into the game after he nodded home a free kick from Graham Deloite to make sure that the Red Kites didn't go into half-time without a goal to their name.

Ethane then came hottest out of the gates at the start of the second half and clawed their way back to level terms with Abanhfleft with Samuel Mitchell, another supposedly ineligible player, scoring the Red Kites' second with a bullet header from Graham Deloite's cross.

Arthur MacAlistair's thundering effort from outside the box appeared to have decided the contest in the Young Revolutionaries' favor in the 65th minute though, and Abanhfleft were actually threatening to score a deciding fourth goal before Ethane took advantage of this fact by launching a counterattack which ended with Alexis Bendez sweeping past Brook Arzate and finding the back of the net after an impressive solo run to put the Red Kites on level terms yet again and eventually deny two points to Abanhfleft.

Abanhfleft national under-21 team manager Celerino delos Reyes: "I don't know what to talk about first, the result or the fact that this game shouldn't have happened in the first place. The Vanorians assured us that they would investigate the matter of Ethane's ineligible players but here we are, having played them and dropped two points as a result. I could go on and on about how we dropped massive points in this game but I will not do that. Instead, I will draw attention to the fact that Ethane has most probably ineligible players. It is clearly stated that the Di Bradini Cup is the continuation of the Under-21 World Cup. Therefore we have taken that as a rule that only under-21 players are allowed to compete here. Now, unless there has been a change in the rules, a lot of Ethane's players, and two of their goalscorers at least, should not have been able to play. And don't get me started on the ten-man formation. It is simply a very strange decision and despite the man advantage, we couldn't take advantage of it. It is a bad game in every sense of the word."

Abanhfleft will face Nephara at the Castle de Mot in the second match day of the group stage of the 40th Di Bradini Cup. It is expected to a be a tough matchup with the traveling fans hoping that the Young Revolutionaries don't have the bad luck usually associated with Nephara and the Fleftic senior national teams in recent years.

        ETHANE 3 - 3 ABANHFLEFT
JAUREQUI (39')       SABADO (18')
MITCHELL (48')       McGINNIS (30' pen)
  BENDEZ (89')       MacALISTAIR (65')

ABANHFLEFT
GK: 1 Arzate
RB: 2 Onyu (Walker - 80')
RCB: 4 Khaled
LCB: 5 Sullins
LB: 3 Wayne
CDM: 6 Magnanelli █
RM: 7 Datta (Rozier - 63')
CAM: 10 Pratt
LM: 11 MacAlistair
RS: 8 McGinnis
LS: 9 Sabado

ETHANE
GK: 1 Delamora
RB: 2 Thames (Campbell - 83')
RCB: 4 Daniels (Rebb - 60')
LCB: 5 Welder
LB: 3 Walker
RM: 6 Bendez █
LM: 8 Fickley
RS: 11 Jaurequi
ST: 7 Mitchell
LS: 9 Deloite

MATCH STATISTICS
Possession
Ethane: 50%
Abanhfleft: 50%
Shots
Ethane: 17 (9 on target)
Abanhfleft: 22 (10 on target)
Corners
Ethane: 6
Abanhfleft: 8
Fouls
Ethane: 17
Abanhfleft: 14

[Super-Llamaland]

DINAMO: How an Arondic Team is Changing Llamanean Football

Ten years ago, Dinamo Visånd was on the edge. Despite the recent appointment of relegation battler Michael Lundqvist, Dinamo were fifteenth of sixteen teams in the Arondic GuldLiga, and five points from safety with three matches to play. Although fourteenth-place Asburgen Town had been on poor form recently, they had an easy schedule coming up - and Dinamo would need all the points they could get before they went down for good. With financial troubles plaguing the team, there was little doubt that with the loss of revenue a move to second-tier SølvLiga would bring, financially-challenged Dinamo's days would be numbered. Their match against Asburgen was basically their final chance. A three-one defeat at home later, they were relegated. Lundqvist was sacked, a number of board members resigned, and Dinamo plunged into the second tier after seventeen years in the top flight.

Current manager Einar Sjögren was one of Lundqvist's assistants then. "After our relegation, there was a lot of pessimism around the club. There was speculation that we would have to fold entirely, even though we were never that close. Still, there was no way we were going to have the money to seriously compete for promotion right away. Everyone knew that change would have to come."

And under new manager Herlek Wernbloom, change indeed came. Out of financial desperation, Wernbloom was forced to sell most of his veteran players. To replace them, Sjögren and then-advance scout Magnus Walquist (who later left to manage SølvLiga's Nordsjisvand) searched far and wide for replacements. A number of them were considered too expensive, however, and in the end, only the cheapest youth players they had unearthed could come. Still, Wernbloom was a relevation - despite the team's obvious inexperience, Wernbloom coached a fifth-place finish, then a third-place finish. Young players like Reid Adrian (who now features on the Llamanean national team) and Edin Saviç became some of the league's brightest stars. And three years after the shock relegation, Dinamo Visånd were back up - even if without Wernbloom, who had retired after securing promotion.

The team's finances had improved markedly, and when Sjögren took over, he found that he now had the money to buy all those players Dinamo hadn't been able to afford. "But instead," the manager notes, "I took another route. We began building up youth academies, arguably the best in the nation." Visånd were laughed at for building youth academies when their GuldLiga survival was unclear. "But if we wanted long-term relevance, this was the only way to do it." Sure enough, the youth academy was a success in its first season, and Sjögren easily kept Visånd up. The team bounced around mid-table for a few years - a number of star players (including both Adrian and Saviç) had left, but Sjögren was able to fill the gaps with new recruits and youth players.

"We continued to bring in revenue for those few years," he recounts, "and I decided to take it to the next step - we wanted to start buying up talent." Pillaging other academies and luring in their top prospects with the hope of first-team football, Sjögren brought in a number of key recruits - chief among them Elias Möller, a then seventeen-year-old who was thrown in on right wing and excelled for Visånd and the Llamanean national team. The team continued to gradually improve despite constant turnover, and three seasons ago, a fourth-place finish gave them their first-ever Globe Cup appearance. Now, they're on track to comfortably win their first title - a completely different club than the Dinamo that were relegated a decade ago.

"We're very proud of what we've done. This is sustainable success, a model that we can keep building on. Maybe Dinamo surpass Öslerholm and Niesburg one day - we've certainly built up one of the best collections of young talent in the nation, " Sjögren noted. And it's true - an overwhelming majority of the players on the title-winning squad will be under twenty-five, and the youth academy continues to churn out new players. Visånd may not be the biggest market, but Dinamo are making it work.

Now, Llamanean teams seem to be looking to Visånd as well. Harmony's youth academies are widely regarded as the best in the nation, but they pale in comparison to Dinamo - and Emerald City have taken note, bringing in none other than former Dinamo advance scout Magnus Walquist to find them talent. Harmony are trying to refine Dinamo's model, selling their established stars (Johannes Sindelaar and Anglatian Marco Saint Paul went for a combined $19m) and using it to ravage other teams of their talent (and occasionally splurge on Mursill Lubiflors) to create a sustainable giant in the SuperLleague. Cash-strapped but improbably successful AFC Ruby are following as well, spending what's left of their money on youth development. And even recently-promoted BSC Vargas have increased youth spending while signing very few new players.

Who knows - maybe Super-Llamaland can have their own Dinamo story. In a league with only a handful of title contenders every year - Stars and Capitals rising above everyone else financially, with Harmony managing to stay in through excellent management - the future could be bright for SuperLleague teams like Dinamo ten years ago.

MD2 Lineup: 12 - Lin; 2 - Gustav, 3 - Calderón, 15 - Fleming, 14 - A. Myers-Briggs; 6 - Bao, 10 - Möller, 18 - Ziegler; 7 - Frazier, 20 - Shi, 11 - De Los Santos
Substitutes chosen from: Santana, Kuznetsov, Lundin, McAllister, Håkansson, Cantor

A few significant changes made. Isabella Shi scored the game-winner and generally looked very impressive against Damukuni, so she'll be given a shot at starting tomorrow. Sergey Kuznetsov, though, looked unconfident and made a number of mistakes, so it's the more experienced Achilleos Myers-Briggs to take over. And Kris Ziegler finds his way into the starting lineup as Ryan Reagan goes for Ziegler's ball-winning skills and strength over the playmaking of Håkansson, who finds herself a substitute.

[The Valhallan Union]

Otto Nilsson had always just been 'good' at stuff. It came naturally to him, this football thing. He'd discovered from an early age that his ability to run onto a ball at speed, jink around an opponent untouched, and then lay the ball perfectly into the path of a teammate marked him out as a special player. Even when his youth coaches were doing their rotation, picking different players in different positions just to keep them on their toes, he always seemed to end up back in the attacking midfield, playing the passes that nobody else could.

He didn't particularly enjoy the sport, you understand, but being picked first by his peers every lunchtime felt good. It made him useful. It made him popular. But his heart was never really in it. Long-term, he saw his future in politics, but for now he reasoned that football would be a pretty neat way to make a bit of steady money and get his name out there at an early stage. So long as he could avoid alienating large portions of the population.

To that end, he made sure that penalties were one of the things he practised most. Mostly, though, he was the first off the training ground. He had more important things to do. Like reading. Or listening to music. Or hanging out with friends. He'd go as far as his natural talent took him, and that was enough.

Or, so he thought.

The revelation that The Fallenmark Islands would be joining the rest of The Valhallan Union in the u-21s combined team had awoken something inside him. All of a sudden, if that Polarian Borzakovsky - two years his senior - was going to practise free kicks until late, so was Nilsson. If Borzakovsky was sprinting harder in the drills, so was Nilsson. If Borzakovsky wanted to keep his fitness up with an extra lap of the training pitch, so did Nilsson. If Borzakovsky was hitting the target more often in his passing exercises, Nilsson was trying three times as hard as usual to pick the right places and improve his game.

It couldn't have been a coincidence that Borzakovsky had been the Yoons best performer in the heavy defeat by The Mytanar Region, then. The team as a whole had been picked apart, sure, but so desperate was Borzakovsky to stay ahead of this apparently ultra-keen kid from Fallenmark that he'd tried extra hard on the training pitch, and it had paid off on the day. Zelic and Ziegenhagen had missed their chances, of course, but he'd done enough to make sure he stayed on for the full ninety minutes, and was voted the Yoons' best performer on the night. Much to Nilsson's annoyance.

Ole van Jendrisen noted all of this, of course, and he smiled a little smirk to himself the next day at training when, after he'd led the squad on a recovery run, it had been Borzakovsky and Nilsson who'd come up to him and asked for permission to get the balls out for some passing practise. If this exercise was all about promoting the way the team played over actual medal-winning, then this wasn't exactly a bad problem to have.

Besides, maybe Ceni would be caught unaware when he played the pair of them together in the second half of their coming tie...

[Ceni]

A response to an editorial Electrum wrote in the last World Cup.

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The Electrumite commentator Miranda Lawrence recently wrote an editorial in the Centralis Herald celebrating the impending construction of the Electrumite border wall with Electrum. However, we should not be celebrating its construction - we should be denouncing it, and rejecting the hate that far-right demagogues such as Ms. Lawrence preach. That's why I must ask - Electrum, what has gotten into you? Why are you pursuing such self-destructive policies, policies that only seem to cut off your nose to spite your face? Electrum, I implore you to see some sense and reverse track on your current road before it is too late.

This wall, for example, will have a host of negative effects on Electrum itself and the regional stability as well. First of all, a wall will damage Electrum's international credibility within the region - a nation that shuns refugees in order to whip up nationalistic fervor is not going to be taken kindly by other nations, who are not going to work with the nation on other issues. Secondly, the wall will have a large amount of ecological damage, with the edifice disrupting migratory patterns of land-dwelling animals in the era. Finally, the wall will cost Electrum billions of dollars to build, money that could be going to housing refugees and actually living up to Electrum's humanitarian duty! What Lawrence ignores the most, though, is the fact that a wall will not stop Euran immigration; the push and pull factors will still exist. The war with Sameba will keep going, the high incomes and standards of living of Electrumites will still exist, and the geographical proximity of the two will not simply vanish with a wall. If people want to escape war and suffering, they will find a way. If people want to cross over the wall, they will find a way. So Lawrence and her supporters will not even access the benefits of a wall, while incurring costs - both monetarily and otherwise - that are much higher than the limited, if any, benefits. This wall is simply not a credible policy option.

When Ms. Lawrence claims that Electrum does not have a moral duty to take in Euran refugees, she could not be further from the truth. It is the duty of all humanity to look after our brothers and sisters who do not have what we have - Electrum's leaders should understand that. We cannot, with clean consciences, wipe the blood of the dead and dying from our hands and sit here and let people die; we cannot let Eurans sit through such suffering and pain in order to reach the Electrumite border, only to be turned away by a heartless and inhumane wall. Every human life has a value, and Lawrence seems to assign different lives different values based on their national origin. That's called discrimination, folks, and it's something that we, as a society, thought we had gotten over, yet Ms. Lawrence is taking back her nation decades. If Electrum will not take in Euran refugees, Ceni will - and we'll show Ms. Lawrence why her argument is wrong. We'll show her that taking in refugees will not increase crime in Ceni - in fact, we'll show her that we'll come out the better for fulfilling our humanitarian duty as a nation.

Lawrence's entire argument, in fact, does not have a single shred of logical evidence or facts within it. She relies on logical fallacies the entire way through her piece. She starts off her piece by arguing that most Eurans are "robbers, they are murderers, [or] drug dealers" and claims, erroneously, that many Eurans will "just throw away their identification, in the hopes of starting their new criminal life in Electrum," with the classic example of scare tactics and hasty generalizations - with not even a specific concrete example or statistic to back it up. Instead, her entire piece consists of unsubstantiated assertion. She continues her editorial with the textbook example of the slippery slope fallacy, claiming that "if we start to even let one person in, all the others will want to go in too." All of them, really? This simply does not hold up to logic or facts. Finally, she resorts to an ad hominem attack to dismiss a Damukunian publication, writing that it has "have no clue about what is going on" and calls their piece "misinformed nonsense." She never actually addresses their arguments and totally ducks the issue. In fact, I'm sorry to report that Lawrence is the one simply misinformed in this case, and her piece is riddled with both logical and factual errors.

What worries me most about Lawrence's rhetoric, however, is the impact it will have on Ceni's relationship with Electrum, and on regional stability in general. In her piece, she tells other nations to stop "being nosey," and she wants other nations to stop even "reporting" on other nations issues, which is simply ridiculous in the first place. But this had me wondering - will this nationalistic fervor eventually spread to other countries, like Ceni? Do they want us to care about our #2 trading partner and biggest international ally, or do they want us to abandon them into the sands of time? Since Electrum and Ceni are so close together, both in distance and in attitude, our relationship has been special, and I fear that Lawrence and her rhetoric will lead to and end to this special relationship. On a larger scale, Lawrence also argues that Electrum shouldn't even give two cents about the conflict going on between Eura and Sameba, claiming that it isn't Electrum's business. Well, Ms. Lawrence, I have news for you: this conflict is everyone's business. We should care about this conflict because it could very well have the potential to spill over into countries like Electrum, Ceni, and Nephara; if Sameba prevails against Eura, the mightiest of powers in the region, then it will be emboldened against smaller, less prepared nations in the immediate vicinity. Furthermore, if the Electrumites were truly serious about stopping refugees from coming into their country, then they should be concerned about stopping this war, which is causing the refugee crisis in the first place! This is why Ms. Lawrence's professed lack of interest in the problems of her neighbor puzzles and perplexes me - anything in Eura will affect Electrum, so that nation should care, and must care.

So, I ask again, my dear friends in Electrum - what has gotten into you? Why have you vacated your common sense and begun to build this wall? If you continue on this misguided crusade against a phantom enemy, then I assure you, you will be less welcomed into the club of nations, and your nation that you care so much about will only suffer - both in terms of money and prestige. So I urge you to reverse course before it is too late and such right-wing extremism takes over your entire country.

Toros Navarian (G-City Centre) is the current Cenian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

[Nephara]

THE BRINEMOUTH HERALD
REFERENDUM RESULTS: CORVISTONE DECLARED NEW CAPITAL
Catheline Aspenwood

The people of Nephara has spoken, and with a majority of 62% of the votes and six of the eight states, Corvistone will become the new capital of Nephara.

In truth, the result was never in doubt since the question came up, and neither side particularly bothered to spend high on its campaign. The change is not immediate, as Corvistone remains underdeveloped for the purpose, but will take five years of work to get up to scratch.

Somewhat behind schedule due to the Sameban war, the promise of a Corvistone referendum is one of the factors that has lead to the Nationals' recent successes, though the election was contested far more on geographic than political lines. The two dissenting states were firmly Progressive Democrat Aries (containing the current capital, Sabrefell) and the firmly National Lazuli Coast.

Supporters of the bill felt that a new capital was the final step in completing Nephara's journey from fractious collection of city-states to a proper, unified, first-world nation. Sceptics focused on Corvistone's lack of existing infrastructure and population, though there have been strong efforts made to kick-start the new city.

One possibility, though it might strike some as opportunistic, is to present Corvistone as the natural destination for the influx of Euran refugees fleeing south from the war. Euran migration has proven a hot-button issue in Terranean politics of late, and tensions between Electrum and Eura (and, indirectly, Ceni and Electrum) have flared as a result.

Nephara's need for population, skilled migrants especially, could lead to something of an elegant solution to the crisis and hopefully further cement Nephara's tenuous place in Terranean politics.

In any case, life in Nephara will continue much as it had done pre-referendum. Extensive work behind the scenes will ensue to try and ensure that the patchwork new capital blossoms into a site worthy of the name on schedule.

[Mytanar Region]

OCOKOLJIC AND COMPANY DOWN YOONS

by Aca Šaponjić

Jezdimir Ocokoljic is probably the best known player in this Mytanar under-21 squad and boy did he put in one hell of a performance in their opening game in the Di Bradini Cup to justify that reputation. A brace of goals and an assist against the Valhallan Union got the team off to the best start that they could possibly have hoped for, against a team that they may have expected a bigger challenge from. The Valhallan Union is a squad that is representative of all of those freezing cold far northern Rushmori states: Bleak Rock, Cairnskillen, East Kulmsaar, the Fallenmark Islands, Sint Karbijn and of course our old rivals Polar Islandstates. The squad is naturally dominated by Polarian players and it is that that may have worried the coaching staff pre-tournament. However, what we witnessed in The Tar Pit was nothing short of a thorough demolition job and it bodes well for the future, that’s for sure.

The team was excellent both going forward and defensively, with players across the pitch giving good accounts of themselves. Ocokoljic will undoubtedly get the plaudits but Alen Hrdaljko was just as impressive in a different way. Hrdaljko was a cool presence on the ball in the middle of the park, never seeming to have to sprint to evade the opposition whilst always presenting himself as an outlet for his team mates. Mojmir Anac martialled the defence expertly at the back. The Andrijasevic twins were seemingly on a wavelength too, Zlatan popping up with the team’s third goal of the game.

The Valhallan side were slightly disappointing and seemed to be overmatched completely by a more-organised and higher quality team. Indeed, the only real bright spark for our opponents was Sani Borzakovsky. The East Franz Athletic playmaker tried in earnest to create chances for his hapless team mates but they really did have a bad day at the office, squandering the few chances they did have and failing to position themselves well enough to get onto Borzakovsky’s well-made opportunities. It would be difficult to call it anything other than a terrible day at the office. As always with Polarians in particular, they’ll be back at some point and they’ll probably beat us.

In the stands it was a well anticipated return of Mytanar ultras to the international scene, although there wasn’t the unity of the support that foreign fans have come to fear. Many ultras groups had their own banners on display and there was even talk of in-fighting between Mytanar groups in the stands in Valanora during the game. The fierce regionalism that this country suffers from is a well-known issue, but football couldn’t be the uniting factor that even manager Robin Hjik had hoped it would be – whether that will change as the tournament goes on remains to be seen.

Jezdimir Ocokoljic opened the goal scoring as early as the 9th minute as he got on the end of a beautifully weighted ball by Alen Hrdaljko. Ocokoljic waited for the defence to shift across the field as the play moved to one side of the pitch and when Vukovic played the ball inside to Hrdaljko, Ocokoljic had the space he needed. He started his run in order to break the offside trap at the far post, Hrdaljko dinked an excellent pass into that space and Ocokoljic hit the ball first time beyond Valter Leimbach.

Mytannion’s second would come only fifteen minutes later. Ocokoljic would again be the scorer, except this time he received the ball into his feet from Miodrag Andrijasevic. Ocokoljic – with his back to goal and Valtteri Kirschberg attempting to drag him to the ground – deftly moved the ball out of his feet with his right foot, spinning out of the grasps of the defender and coolly curling the ball beyond Leimbach for a second time from all of 20 yards. It was a great finish and the work before it to create the opportunity made it deserving of putting the side 2-0 up.

The Valhallan combined side would have chances of their own, before half-time Borzakovsky sent Zelic scampering through but the striker couldn’t find a way beyond Kasun – whose imposing presence rushing out was more than enough to prevent a blot on the team’s clean sheet. After the interval it was Borzakovsky again creating an opportunity, a floated cross to the back post and good forward play by Ziegenhagen to push off Rudi Prosenik to create space meant the striker had a free header on goal. He spurned the opportunity, though, with a weak header back across goal which Kasun calmly caught. Borzakovsky was the stand-out performer for the losing side here, his creativity was really something to be admired and the only times Mojmir Anac’s defence looked tested was when Borzakovsky had been involved in the play.

The third goal for the Hoops came in the 75th minute. A great run from Dalibor Vlahovic – who had come on for Ermin Drzic, who had been slightly quiet compared to his colleagues – down the left-hand side got the side into a dangerous area. Vlahovic then motioned to cross but instead turned the ball back to the edge of the box for Alen Hrdaljko. The diminutive midfielder stabbed an intelligent pass to Ocokoljic who broke the offside trap again, he took the ball under control before dribbling to the left-corner of the six yard box. He then slid a ball across the area for Zlatan Andrijasevic to poke into the back of the net with aplomb. The entire team ran over to celebrate a well-worked goal, with much hugging and back-slapping ensuing.

Robin Hjik and Lev Repin embraced on the touchline (notably, a Thessian man and a Rauchik man), with the goal being almost representative of all the hard work they’ve put in on the training ground to make sure this squad function as an actual team and regional differences are set aside. The fresh-faced group of players don’t seem to see each other as people from different regions or ethnic groups anyway, on the field they were exemplary team mates and they all seem to get along as well. All of this bodes well for the future and is very exciting even right now. If only the older generations could put aside small differences like the youngsters are seemingly able to. If this squad is representative of Mytanar youth as a whole then the problems of the past may get solved – old wounds may start to heal.

[Pasarga]

"So the Polarians are now part of some weird confederacy of northern nations or something, is that right?"

"Well, more or less, the operate a bit like Valanora or Paripana does, where there is multiple nations under a single banner, at least it seems so far as sport might go. At least they seem to be avoiding the regional breakdowns like what has happened in The Mytanar Region, did you see the disgusting behavior of their fans during their match? I am surprised that the Vanorians did not kick them out of the stadium and send them on the first ship or plane out of the nation."

"Perhaps the elves are being more tolerant of those behaviors they do not condone with the hosting event? I mean, this is one of those events where cultures from across the world come and meld together in a big pot, though they did not always meld quite in harmony but in an oil discourse, like we saw with those from Mytannion."

"Is it Mytannion or The Mytanar Region?!!!"

"Goodness knows, I mean you have talked about their regionalism but they are still a nation of Mytannion, are they not? They are the same people from the same area just with ... a bit of a different perspective, so I think that would qualify them as a continuation of Mytannion, unless of course their officials say otherwise. Though getting them to agree on anything might be easier said than done, perhaps the CRC could make a solid conclusion."

"The CRC, I am unsure just how effectual it will be, especially given the relations between Electrum and Eura currently, what with that weird border wall going up between the two and the lack of taking in of the refugees from the former. Though perhaps we are a bit biased, as our governement is one of the firm allies of Eura and it is the Eurans influence that seems to have been a tipping point in getting Pasarga accepted into the CRC."

"All eyes have bias with them, so it natural to assume that ours are clouded with that as well. Though I do think it is a bit of an objective matter, the downfall of nations and allowing the slaughter of civilains is something that really can not be condoned and that Electrum so callously is should be a severe wake up call to those who have close ties with that ruling party. If they can turn a blind eye to the plight of Eura, how likely are they to turn a blind eye to a plight of someone else?"

"Well at least there is football to distract everyone from all this."

"Have I mentioned that Pasarga is going to be taking in a small contingent of Euran refugees?"

"Why do you not let me enjoy the little things?"

[Valanora]

Matchday 2

Group A
Taeshan 2–2 Farfadillis
Boring Paradise 2–1 Union of Socialist Alpine Republics

P Group A                                Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Boring Paradise                          2   1  1  0    2   1  +1    4
2 Farfadillis                              2   0  2  0    4   4   0    2
3 Taeshan                                  2   0  2  0    2   2   0    2
4 Union of Socialist Alpine Republics      2   0  1  1    3   4  −1    1

Group B
Abanhfleft 3–4 Nephara
Ethane 1–0 The Iron Syndicate

P Group B                                Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Ethane                                   2   1  1  0    4   3  +1    4
2 Nephara                                  2   1  0  1    6   6   0    3
3 The Iron Syndicate                       2   1  0  1    3   3   0    3
4 Abanhfleft                               2   0  1  1    6   7  −1    1

Group C
Darmen 2–5 Mytannion
Ceni 4–1 The Valhallan Union

P Group C                                Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Mytannion                                2   2  0  0    8   2  +6    6
2 Ceni                                     2   2  0  0    5   1  +4    6
3 Darmen                                   2   0  0  2    2   6  −4    0
4 The Valhallan Union                      2   0  0  2    1   7  −6    0

Group D
Eastfield Lodge 1–0 Gim
Nellietopia 4–2 Eshan

P Group D                                Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Nellietopia                              2   2  0  0    7   4  +3    6
2 Eastfield Lodge                          2   1  0  1    3   3   0    3
3 Gim                                      2   1  0  1    1   1   0    3
4 Eshan                                    2   0  0  2    2   5  −3    0

Group E
Semarland 3–5 Super-Llamaland
Mercedini 4–2 Damukuni

P  Group E                                Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Super-Llamaland                          2   2  0  0    7   4  +3    6
2 Mercedini                                2   1  1  0    6   4  +2    4
3 Semarland                                2   0  1  1    5   7  −2    1
4 Damukuni                                 2   0  0  2    3   6  −3    0

Group F
Eura 0–6 Schottia
Cosumar 2–2 Savojarna

P Group F                                Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Schottia                                 2   2  0  0   11   0 +11    6
2 Cosumar                                  2   1  1  0    4   2  +2    4
3 Savojarna                                2   0  1  1    2   7  −5    1
4 Eura                                     2   0  0  2    0   8  −8    0

Group G
Spaam 2–0 HUElavia
Soltsteed 0–2 Pasarga

P Group G                                Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Pasarga                                  2   2  0  0    8   2  +6    6
2 Spaam                                    2   2  0  0    4   1  +3    6
3 Soltsteed                                2   0  0  2    1   4  −3    0
4 HUElavia                                 2   0  0  2    2   8  −6    0

Group H
Qasden 1–0 Osarius
Anthor 0–0 Chromatika

P Group H                                Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Qasden                                   2   2  0  0    2   0  +2    6
2 Osarius                                  2   1  0  1    4   4   0    3
3 Chromatika                               2   0  1  1    3   4  −1    1
4 Anthor                                   2   0  1  1    0   1  −1    1

[Schottia]

Claire Hanson

The move back to Handon had come at a good time for Claire. With everything that was happening in her life, being close to her parents, and the more familiar surroundings, made things much more manageable. Her father's heart attack had helped put everything into perspective for her. Things that were important to her before that, were now allotted a more reasonable place in the pecking order.

Claire had wasted too much time pleasing herself, focusing on her own career, and putting family second. That was all going to change.

Before walking into her parents' sitting room, she took a deep breath. It pained her to see her father looking like he did. For someone who had once been so strong, like a bastion of pride - he now seemed so deflated, listless, and flat. Mr Hanson sat, sunk into his armchair in front of the TV. One hand clutched the remote control, the other a bottle of water. Beer and excessive amounts of tea had been off the menu since the operation; with sparkling water being the most exciting thing he drank these days. Claire walked into the room loudly, hoping it would prompt him to turn round, but it didn't. He seemed utterly transfixed by some daytime talkshow, which looked painfully ill informed.

'How are you Dad?' She spoke up eventually, and the old man adjusted his sizable bulk and turned to face her. 'Feeling any better?' It had been ten months since he had collapsed outside the Estadio Central in SJG. It had taken almost thirty minutes before anyone had worked out that he was in fact, dying, and wasn't just drunk. At first the celebrating fans had simply laughed at him, lying prone on the pavement. Some had ever picked him up and had their picture taken next to him, contorting his lifeless lips into a smile with their fingers.

'Och, I'm fine darling.' Mr Hanson put the TV on mute, and placed down his bottle of water. 'The Doctors said it would take a wee bit of time. How are things with you?' Claire's father wore a pair of tracksuit bottoms, and an old polo shirt left unbuttoned at the collar.

'Good thanks, Dad.' Her smile was one of sympathy. 'Kids are in kindergarten, just been to the shops, the usual crap.'

Mr Hanson smiled weakly. 'Can I get ye a cup of tea or anything?' He made to get to his feet, but it was a token effort. 'Yer Mother'll no doubt have some chocolate biscuits somewhere.'

'She's bringing me a coffee,' Claire held up a hand, instructing him to stay seated. 'But thanks Dad.' She had visited her parents almost daily since her husband, Leonardo, had transferred to Port Sebastian, and she wasn't sure if she could remember him sitting anywhere other than in that chair. It had felt like watching life through someone else's eyes, in the hospital in SJG, when none of them were sure whether he'd pull through or not. The doctors hadn't been certain what had brought it on, maybe the excitement of the match, Schottia playing in the World Cup. Had the shock of Schottia actually winning nearly killed him? Apparently his blood pressure had been a ticking time bomb, and no doubt with the garden incident, he had been under even more pressure.

'That's nice.' Mr Hanson answered distantly. 'And Leo, and the boys? How are they all getting on? You all getting nice and settled here in Handon?' You must be missing that weather in Esportiva?'

'I don't miss it.' Claire shook her head and sat down on the sofa opposite; the same one her parents had had since she was a kid. 'Give me a drizzly Handon afternoon any day.' Mr Hanson gave her a tiered wink. 'As for the kids... where do I start..? Firstly Leonardo is getting on my nerves hanging round the house. Got himself suspended from now till Mid-Winter, for punch a United player.'

'That's ma boy.' Mr Hanson smiled.

'...And as for Enrico? Well he's a chip of the old block.' Claire shook her head. 'I had to pick him up for training last week for biting another player on the nose. Apparently it took three coaches to wrestle him off the poor boy. He'd been playing with the Under-nines, because his style of play was "too physical" for the other five-year-old... I guess it was too physical for the nine-year-olds too.'

This story brought a bit of colour back into Mr Hanson's cheeks, football related violence being a topic dear to his heart. 'I tell ye, he's going to be some player, that laddie.'

'Hah!' Claire rolled her eyes, sitting back in the chair and crossing her legs. 'If we can find a team that'll take him. We are already on our third, and he's not even six yet.'

'That's a load of crap!' Mr Hanson looked more animated than Claire had seen him since the World Cup. 'Pure - total - crap. Back in my day, that wasn't even considered a foul; biting was just part and parcel of the game. And, if you were misbehaving, the coach would just take you to one side and give ye a kicking.' He glanced at his wife, who entered the room and handed Claire a cup of coffee, before placing a plate of chocolate biscuits on the table. 'I can remember one time after I missed a penalty, the coach booted me up the arse so hard, I could barely walk home.'

'Dad..!'

'Derek..!'

'It's bloody well true.' Mr Hanson was clearly on a roll, and ploughed on in spite of his wife and daughter's objections. 'And... know what my old Dad did when I got home and told him what happened..?'

'He reported your coach for assaulting a child?' Claire offered hopefully, before taking a sip from her mug.

'No bloody, likely.' Mr Hanson waved the idea away as if it were ridiculous. 'He gave me a kicking too, and my Mother sent me to bed without supper.' He sat back and folded his arms triumphantly.

There were a lot of things Claire wanted to add, but she knew talking to her father was like talking to a brick wall. He was full of these stories about how hard life had been for him growing up, and had loved to recount them whenever Claire had started moaning about her own lot. She had never been sure how many of these tales were true or not: Like the teacher who used to force them to run along a gravel path barefoot if they got questions wrong. Or the head teacher who once broke a boys finger for pointing. Whether they were true or not, the stories were important in portraying the kind of person Mr Hanson wanted to be. Someone who'd had a hard life, but made it out the other end all the same, and was a tougher person for it. This was part of the reason why it was so hard for Claire to see her father like this: Old, decrepit, dying. To think that it was her actions that had in some way contributed to it, made her feel physically sick. The garden incident had put him on edge, and it had been Claire who had brought Gary Corsie into their life somehow.

If only she had know what it was that had pushed her father over the edge, the guilt she was currently feeling would seem slim in comparison.

[The Iron Syndicate]

Generation Next

Chapter Three: Stunned

“Tell me, when did your problems with your parents and family begin? Try to think back as far as you can, and tell me the time period that it started. Was it things as a kid, or did you have more problems as a teenager, or can you not name a specific time?” asked Fenna Blok, the Priestess who was still working with the Iron Church to help Owen de Vos, the always controversial and always outspoken attacking midfielder that was now the link between the midfield and attack for the new youth team, and a big part of the Generation Next program.

Owen had come to Fenna for help, she had been surprised but had agreed to use the church’s technique of healing trauma and increasing happiness and productivity through neutralizing bad memories from the past, and this was their second session, and it was happening not too long after they had just played Nephara in a match where the fans had presented a mixed reaction to Owen because of his troubles with the law. “I'm not sure that I can name a specific time when the problems started. There's just been so many of them, it's hard to pick out a starting date… Impossible, actually.”

“Hmmmm…. Have you ever considered that your problems with keeping relationships and with family could have started in a past life? We all have them, you know, and your timeline extends beyond one life, as you may have heard from us in the past. Do you know about the Iron Church theories on reincarnation?”

“Um, no, I've never been much of a believer in the religious stuff before now. I only know a few things that my sister told me. Stuff about having memories from the past and trying to access them or something like that,” shrugged Owen.

“Well, the church believes that each of us has a soul that, to put it simply, is what makes your body work. It's somewhat indestructible and it lasts over a number of lifetimes, with a few exceptions, and you've lived a number of lifetimes and most people will continue to live a number of lifetimes in the future. But sometimes, things from the past can come back and store themselves in your reactive memory, and that can hurt you in the present. That's what the church tries to remove.”

“Right… I can't say I believe in all of that. Can we just stick to my family and, well, this lifetime?”

Fenna nodded, adding something to her notes. “We can do that. So, you said that you couldn't remember when you started having problems with your family, because you've always had them and you can't pinpoint one thing?”

“It just seems like I was too young to remember one thing that made things bad. I think it was just always like that, to be honest. We were never the type of family that gets along, the type that did things together. Me and Mia have been close forever, but not us and our parents,” sighed Owen. “I wouldn't be able to give you a point where we stopped getting along, because we've never gotten along in the first place. Even in the past, it was always… Tense, in our family.”

“Let’s go back to something easier that's been bothering you, then. You said that you and your girlfriend, Hailey Maren, were having problems, right? I want you to tell me the last time that you had a problem with her and what happened on that day.”

“The last time we had trouble is the time where… Well, that's one of the times when we fought, and it's the time where she posted those pictures that made everyone turn on me. We were arguing over my friends and her friends and my career and a bunch of different things like that, and she pushed me, I pushed back, things escalated… We both hit each other, but she came out of it looking worse than I did, obviously. It wasn't the first time that something like that happened, but it was the worst case of it, and the thing that's kept us from talking since it happened,” Owen said, recounting the event as he remembered it. “Do you need more details than that?”

Fenna shook her head, taking more notes. “I don't think so, not for now. I'm just going to ask some more questions, like this one. Tell me about a time when you and Hailey argued or fought.”

“That's what I just did-”

“But to get to the bottom of the problem, you need to answer more than once. When I ask the question, try to come up with a time before the last one that you mentioned, and give me the recap of what happened during those times.”

“Alright…”

“So, tell me about a time when you fought with your girlfriend.”

The session would go on like this for more than half an hour, with Owen recounting stories about arguing and not being able to hold relationships, and Fenna would continue asking the same question until they had went far back enough that he was giving stories from before he had even met Hailey. And then, he stopped answering, because he couldn't come up with anything more. “I don't have anything else to say, everything you heard just now was about my first girlfriend, and I don't have any examples from before her. What's the point of this? What's it supposed to prove?”

Fenna finally looked up from her notes, with a curious look on her face. “The goal of this is to find and isolate the one memory from the past that's been causing you trouble, by going deeper and deeper into the past and looking for things that you might not remember at first. Nobody is just born a bad person, Owen, regardless of what some people might say about you. You act the way that you act because of something that happened in the past, and most people that don't act the way that they would want to have similar reasons. Identifying an event that gave you certain traits, however, is crucial to removing them, because after all, those traits are simply a reaction.”

“Fine. Let's keep going, then,” said Owen, closing his eyes.

“Tell me about a failed relationship.”

There was a long pause because Owen struggled to come up with anything, but that was when Fenna spoke again after looking at the meter. “It looks like I'm getting a reading on the meter. What did you just think about to cause the reading to show up?”

“Uh… I don't know. Something just came into my mind but I'm not sure it was part of what we’re talking about-”

“Did it seem like it was in the past?”

“Maybe, I didn't really get to think about it before you asked me what I was thinking about.”

“I think, Owen, that you're looking into a past life. And that, since we couldn't isolate one memory, is where the start of your problems likely lies. You said that you don't believe in that, but if you give me a chance, I might be able to help you out by asking some more questions about that-”

“If you think it will help, then let's do it.”

And that was how their conversation had went from family to the subject of relationships to the subject of past lives, and that was how Owen ended up in that room longer than he had intended at first. But maybe, just maybe, this would help him as much as the church and his sister said that it would, and maybe he would come out of it able to avoid the mistakes of the past and move forward…

~

It was after another training session, and this one was before the second match of the group stage, against Ethane. Depending on what happened in that match and others, there was a chance that they could get out of the group after only two matches, and they had been working on addressing some of their issues that had plagued them against Nephara. But they had addressed the problems that were on the pitch, and the real unity problem had its roots in the off of the pitch situation of the players, who were playing as a team for the first time and were having a hard time with that.

Chiara Altera could be said to be at the heart of the problem, as the talented keeper was cold to her teammates at times when she didn't think they were putting in as much effort as she was, and she was prone to exploding at them for doing things wrong and for minor mistakes, which demotivated her back three and had led to mistakes in the match before. Off of the pitch, there were rumors that Chiara was more troubled than she appeared, and rumors that she didn't deal with the pressure of being a professional star well, and that she wasn't the type that was good at expressing herself to others, including her teammates.

Owen de Vos had problems that were obvious, and very public. There were already rumors that had been dug up that he'd murdered someone in the past, and as if that wasn't bad enough, there were plenty of fans protesting his selection because of the way that he'd been arrested not too long before the tournament for hitting his then girlfriend, Hailey Maren. That was still an ongoing case and even though there hadn't been a trial or anything of the sort yet, many people had already decided to protest against him because of the pictures that had been released by Maren. There had even been threats against him by the militant feminist organization known as the Pink Front, and members of that group had turned up at the airport when Owen and the rest of the team first arrived. The press told one story about him and his teammates and the hardcore fans from the Iron Guard told another story, but the one that the majority seemed to believe was the one that the press was running with, which was the one that painted him in the worst light.

Alexis Valente was quite the talented striker up front, but she had a hard time keeping her head straight because of her hard life in the past and the controversy over her big money transfer from Portus Central to crosstown rivals Independent, who had offered her a starting role instead of forcing her to wait her turn to become the next great star in the city of Portus. And she had already proven her skills in the first youth match and had made Central look bad for letting her go, but that didn't change the fact that she was one of the most controversial players in the country and that no matter how many people loved her, she would always hear the haters first. She seemed to be playing with a dark cloud over her even when she was doing well, and it was hard to keep that from spreading to the rest of the team.

And Jon Laxalt, the wide midfielder, had all the skill and potential in the world and was one of the better players in the tournament when it came to battling one on one with defenders and using his skills on the ball to put his team ahead, but he always felt like he didn't fit in with this team as much as he did with his club team, and he couldn't help but feel that he was the outsider looking in when it came to the top players on the team, regardless of his skill. He had a chip on his shoulder because of that, and it extended to team chemistry and not just to his actions when he was on the pitch.

The last member of the core of the team was Silas de Jong, who had less of the problems that the others had but who had a big task on his hands with trying to hold that core together and keep everyone else from self destructing before they could win anything, or get any notable wins over historically larger teams. He wouldn't trade in that role as the one who kept everything together and kept everyone from getting into fights over petty reasons, but it required more work than outsiders thought that it did, and it could be exhausting at times. It was a job that didn't bring a lot of fame and didn't get much thanks, from the other players or from the fans, and yet Silas did it anyway and realized that if he didn't do it, there wouldn't be someone else stepping up to the job.

So, that was the dynamic in the locker room when the team was heading into the Ethane match, and after the first training session before that match, when some of the players were getting ready to head out to town and others were getting ready to head into the hotel, and that dynamic showed a little when the core of the team was together, getting changed. “So, Owen, are you hanging out with your friends today, or are you going to chat up that Priestess?” asked Chiara, the passive aggression apparent not just in her choice of words but in her tone.

“I was going to talk to her this evening, yes. And I wasn't chatting her up before, I was doing church therapy. You know, the thing that's made the Iron Church into the biggest religion on the islands. I didn't mean to bail on you guys before, but there wasn't a ton of time and I didn't think it mattered,” shrugged Owen, pulling his sleeveless blue hoodie on over a compression shirt that he wore underneath, and then reaching for the headphones that had been resting next to his clothes.

“If you were only with her because you're interested in the church’s pseudoscience or something like that, then why did you decide to talk to the cute blonde intern instead of the full time Priest?” asked Chiara, and the tension in the room was almost visible as some of the players started looking up to see what the heated tone was about.

Owen himself wasn't even sure how to reply, and he just put his hands up innocently and put a neutral expression on his face, “I don't know… Look at it from my perspective. If you're going to spill your secrets and intimate details to a complete stranger, wouldn't you rather have that stranger be someone that you're comfortable around, or at least more comfortable around than a middle aged guy that probably can't relate to you and looks more likely to judge you? What's it matter, Chiara? This was days ago, why are you so bothered by it?”

“Why the hell do you think, Owen?” Chiara asked, her voice a near shout as Silas considered stepping in at this point to defuse things.

“Hey, lets not fight, guys,” said Silas, trying to step in between them and keep things from getting even more heated than they already were. But Chiara pushed him to the side, glaring at him and telling him to stay out of it without a word.

“I don't know,” Owen replied, ignoring Silas and looking Chiara in the eye. “If I knew all of your reasons, I wouldn't be asking-”

At that moment, Chiara grabbed him by the waist and pushed him into the wall, keeping him there and then giving him a tense but long kiss on the lips that a few of the other players outside of their group were able to see, too. The moment was awkward, of course, but there was also a lot of tension being released as Chiara revealed what she wanted and Owen didn't make any moves to stop her, instead putting a hand on her back instinctively. More of the others were noticing now, but Chiara didn't seem to care, and Owen wasn't in the position to notice that. They would stand there like that for a few seconds, with Owen having his back to the wall and Chiara pressing against him, but then they would break away as quickly as it had started, and she would calmly turn her back. “Now you know,” she said, and she started walking off.

“Hey, Chi, wait,” he said, but she kept her back turned to him as she grabbed her backpack and then started down the hallway out of the locker room, followed by Alexis Valente, who muttered something about needing to follow her to keep her grounded after what had just went on between her and Owen. “Chi! Are we going to talk, or nah?”

“Let her go… She's not feeling pretty stable right now, and you don't want to talk to her in that state anyway,” said Silas, putting a hand on Owen’s shoulder and watching as the two girls became the first ones to leave. “And knowing her, she's hurt that you weren't apologetic over not showing up earlier, and that you didn't even realize that she liked you.”

“I kind of knew what was up in the back of my mind, I just didn't think she would ever be this possessive if she had any feelings for me,” Owen sighed, folding his arms and leaning against the wall. “I have to say, though… It would almost be weird to be with her. Like dating an older sister. I can't say I don't return those feelings somewhat, though.”

“Then you better make sure you give her one hell of an apology, regardless of whether she actually deserves it or not. Because right now, she's ready to punch you, not kiss you again,” remarked Jon, speaking for the first time during this drama and reminding everyone that he was indeed still there. “Anyway, are we still going out to the city now, or are we all hiding from Chiara?”

“She and Lex are probably heading back to the hotel, and I vote to go in the opposite direction and head to the city,” stated Silas, and Owen was about to speak up before the players were interrupted by something that they hadn't been expecting. The door at the other side of the locker room opened, but the visitors who entered the locker room weren't members of the team, and weren't coaches or anyone that was associated with sport at all.

These visitors were not team members but were rather police members from the largest law enforcement corporation in the Syndicate, the one that was known by the name of Police Corp and contracted by the government for many tasks ranging from investigation to normal policing in the public areas of the big cities, to counter terrorism to other more secret tasks. And these three officers were in full uniform and were armed, indicating that they were here for serious business. “Hello, everyone… We hate to have to be here for this kind of business, but there's been some changes in plan,” said the head officer. “There were plans to postpone the trial for Owen de Vos until after the tournament, but those plans have fallen through, and we’re going to need to take Owen into the station in Southboro until the original date of the trial, which is set for a few days from now-”

“When the hell did this happen and why wasn't I told about it?” asked Owen, who was visibly surprised both by the officers showing up and by their words. “I asked for the trial to be moved forward and it was supposed to be approved, what changed? And why did it change just now, during such an important tournament?”

“The judge changed the date to the original one because of safety concerns. Specifically, there was a fear that if you continue to play like this, before the trial, you run the risk of retaliation from some of the protest groups that stand against your selection to the team. In his own words, the judge said that he was making this decision to protect you,” explained the officer.

“Yes, well, I'll come for now, but expect to hear from the federation about this. It's not helping anything, all this is doing is ruining the chances of this team. Those people are going to be against me either way, it's not going to help to have an earlier trial. Like I said, you're going to hear from the team. They're not just going to sit quietly about this.”

~

As Chase Dekker was leading his team out against Ethane, it was hard to get out of his head that his most important playmaker in the attack was missing and that they would be going into one of the more important matches of the group stage with effectively no link between the midfield and the strikers, because of Owen’s unique skill set that made him like someone that was a little bit of both positions. Owen had been right when he said that the police would be hearing from the federation, but the federation filing a complaint with the police wasn't something that would show results instantly, and so their star attacking midfielder was currently being brought back to Southboro for the formerly postponed trial, as they took on Ethane.

“Remember, everyone. This is an important match not because of the opponent being a world famous team like Nephara, but because of the timing. With two wins in our first two matches, we can clinch our place in the last sixteen and avoid a potentially hard matchup in the last match of the groups, against an Abanhfleft team that we shouldn't sleep on. Ethane isn't an easy opponent by any means, but they are an opponent that's giving us the easiest path to the next round,” Chase stated as the players headed to the tunnel. “We don't have Owen, but we have enough firepower up front to handle going without him for a match. If we play our game, we’ll have another win. We all know that, so let's go out and get the win.”

And with that, the players made their walk out and had a short warm up before they would kick off minutes later, attacking towards their own rowdy fans and playing with Alexis Valente doing her best to connect the midfield with the area up front, frequently dropping back and assisting attacking midfielder Sem Zavala when they were in the final third of the pitch, while Silas de Jong took over as the lone striker up front and tried to hold up the ball longer to allow the others to position themselves around him.

When Owen was there, they wouldn't have to play like that. He would be able to find them with pinpoint passes and crosses even from a distance, but now, the three forwards were keeping a closer proximity to each other to avoid falling out of their shorter passing range. It showed how much one player could mean for a team, and it also slowed down their attack and kept them from getting many good chances, except for when Alexis spun away from her marker and headed a cross off of the gloves of Nelson Delamora in the twenty fifth minute, the best chance that the Syndicate would have to score all game.

Somehow, even at point blank range, Delamora had been able to turn the ball upwards, and when Silas would jump to try to knock the ball down and send it into the goal, the striker would be tripped up and knocked out of the way by David Welder, who would clear the ball with a deep punt that was nearly deflected and turned towards goal by Zavala, who thundered in late and threw himself at the clearance in an attempt to throw it off and score an unconventional goal.

As soon as the ball was cleared, the entire Syndicate sideline seemed to jump and make frustrated gestures in unison, with Chase grabbing his head and dropping his binder. Everyone knew that Alexis had produced the best chance that they would get, out of nothin at that, and in an important swing game like this, you needed to finish every chance that you could get. Pretty soon, the ball would roll out of bounds and the staff would get a chance to talk to the players. “Don't beat yourself up, Lex!” Chase shouted towards his forward, who had her hands on her hips, breathing heavily after the adrenaline rush of the last sequence. “If you placed that ball two more inches to the left, it would've went in. Don't dwell on the miss, just work on getting another chance like that one. They can't stop you at your best, it's clear.”

Alexis gave a thumbs up sign and jumped back into the action when the ball was thrown in, and it was quickly won by Juna Shine and booted down the field to where the forwards were, as they turned up the tempo and looked to strike while their opponent was still reorganizing from the last attack. Alexis would be the first one to the ball, but Welder would break up another attack by pushing her off of it in what might have been a foul, and Sem would come charging in and would trap the loose ball, but he'd run out of space before he could do anything with it and he would be forced into a bad angled shot that went wide of the far post.

That was another good chance, wasted. And once again, the sideline would react, as they could see that the match was slipping away from them even though they were putting the pressure on their opponents to tighten up at the back and put less into the attack. It would only be minutes later that Ethane got a big chance of their own, when they caught Chloe Catori playing too high up and caught the fullbacks playing too wide and high. Samuel Mitchell would receive a through ball and would manage to get it under control as Chloe chased behind him, but she wouldn't be quick enough to get him from behind, and when he slowed up, he'd pull the ball to his other foot and put Chloe in a bad position before accelerating forward and rifling a shot towards the far post that Chiara Altera had to dive dramatically to save.

The crowd reacted to the save with a loud ‘ooooh’, and Chiara was absolutely livid when she stood up, frustrated with her defenders leaving her on an island to take on the opposing forwards. “Why do you play in defense if you don't want to defend and if you're going to play higher than the midfielders?” she screamed, waving emphatically to her back three after booting the ball down the field to force Ethane to reset the attack. “Get the fuck back. Stay the fuck back. Nobody in this back three moves higher than the dugout.”

And so they would go into the half tied at 0-0 behind Alexis missing a huge chance and Chiara making a great save to keep things scoreless, and the feeling that Chase Dekker got was that his team was feeling the pressure and that they were having a hard time dealing with it when the leader of their attack wasn't on the pitch. They were somewhat less organized in the midfield, their attack had less creativity in it, and it could be summed up by saying that they were missing one player. And while Chase tried to pick them up at halftime, the truth was that many of these kids had never played in such a high pressure match before and they would have a hard time learning now how to handle it.

The only solution was to do what they had done last match and take more risks for a goal, with the aim of generating more chances and giving them more chances to score by putting up more shots on goal. The wide players in their large midfield shifted upwards and Alexis dropped deeper to form more of a link between them and Silas up front, and Sem was still playing next to her and trying to set up some chances for one-two passes between them.

That strategy had immediate effects, but it wasn't the kind of effects that they were looking for. They frequently won the ball and they pushed forward quickly and got the ball into the box from both the flanks and the center of the field, and they did put up plenty of shots, but those shots were all either blocked or saved by Delamora, who seemed to be having the game of his life in the second half after saving three shots each from Alexis and Silas.

But, this strategy of putting the midfield forward and telling them that the one thing that they needed was shots on target and an eventual goal was a mistake in some ways, because while they were getting up plenty of shots, they weren't guarding their back for long periods of time and that was something that only took a single minute and a single pass to exploit. That was something that would come to fruition in the eighty first minute in the form of the goal that would sink their hopes of a win in this match, or even any points whatsoever.

It would come from another chance that was like the first big one of the match for Ethane, with Samuel Mitchell starting out deep and finding himself one on one with Chloe Catori before calling for the ball again and starting a foot race with her for it, one that he would win as the libero turned central defender had a hard time keeping up after all of the earlier hard running of the game. Mitchell would get a step past her and would trap the ball while still running, cutting in the direction of the far post and then firing in the opposite direction of his first shot, to make Chiara dive the wrong way and put the ball into the back of the net by her near post, right in front of the Iron Guard.

And at that time, it was like an entire end of the stadium was deflated, as the Guard went silent and many of the members of the group leaned over the wall to shout at the player who had just scored for the opponent. Chiara loudly cursed and frustratedly kicked the goalpost, before resting her head on it and staring at the ground. Chloe and Harper came over to apologize for being out of position again and Chloe specifically apologized for not being able to keep up with Mitchell and putting Chiara on an island again. And even Chase Dekker and the rest of the bench looked deflated, as the gamble didn't pay off and they were now faced with a late loss that would do anything but help their chances of making it out of this group, which was turning out to be a harder one than it looked like on paper.

If they had Owen with them, this wouldn't have happened, they believed, but having a good excuse wouldn't do much to help them now. No, they wouldn't be able to get a goal in the remaining eight minutes of the match, and they would suddenly be on shaky ground heading into the final match day of the group, where they wouldn't necessarily control their own fate and where they would need a win against a tough Abanhfleft team to get out into the round of sixteen. And if they did make it, they would likely be finishing second instead of winning the group, and that would put them into a tougher matchup.

One minute and one goal had changed everything for them. But for Chase Dekker and the rest of the team, that just meant they would have to work a little bit harder to get to where they wanted to be, and it just meant that game number three would be so much more important than they had assumed it would be.

[Nephara]

There was a chorus, not clearly of cheering or jeering, but of generalised sound.
Escher Speare looked up in alarm, the spell of her watching the game broken for a moment. It wasn't like much had happened on the pitch - well, okay, a lot had happened over the previous eighty minutes. But not right now, not while the game was (surely!) dead.
She looked up at the screen, and... ah. Markus Rensenbrink was there, feet up on the table in a corporate box. He didn't look terribly happy to be watching a scrappy, chaotic affair from out of a window.
Nephara had started, in all honesty, incredibly badly, and the Young Revolutionaries had gone all-out to kill off the game in the first half. That they nearly did - Annamarie Sabado scoring a brace in the first half-hour - said volumes about... well, youth team defending in general. Vannatter, nominally one of her more reliable players, was having a nightmare.
However, the margins were thin in international football, and it took, bluntly, a fluke for Nephara to get back into the game in the 44th minute. Lux Vicelich swept in a peach of a diagonal cross... except she overhit it. And Brook Arzate lost it in the sun. And one way or another it ended up in the back of the net.
Vicelich claimed she meant it, of course.
Still, if the Magpies didn't have the defensive discipline of full-fledged Cormorants, neither did the Young Revolutionaries have the stamina of their senior counterparts. Rowena Strongbow, played in by the tidy Marconi (replacing a frankly abject Kubala) smashed home from just outside the box before another Vicelich cross this time went where it was actually meant to go - Ishtar Fanaiyan, running hell-for-leather at the far post. Fanaiyan misjudged the cross' flight, but managed to compensate by hooking her feet around to hack the ball into the net with the scruffiest volley the tournament had seen.
Abanhfleft had fought valiantly, and had it not been for that stroke of fortune from Vicelich, who knew if Nephara could've mounted the comeback? But it had, and they did, and with some neat passing play around an exhausted Fleftic defence Coppinger set up Lovelock to score Nephara's fourth.
So Nephara had sat back from there, content to force their weary opponents to try and break them down. Rustwyth was equal to the task of repelling some strikes from distance. Granted, there were some weary Nepharim legs, as well... Vicelich hacked down the fresh Sheila Beck, a professional foul she'd never have had to make even fifteen minutes ago. Speare told Lyre Castor to warm up to replace her.
But Rensenbrink watching the game...
It was strange, to think of the WCC President being Nepharim (albeit somewhat by default, after Jeremy Jaffacake ascended to a higher calling). Rensenbrink was always known as something of an enforcer within the NFA and his influence still ran deep - the current NFA president, Auburn Bywater, was a loyalist of his, and his own family were in a few key positions. Rensenbrink was only rumoured to sleep, but never seemed short on energy which was largely purposed for shouting at people.
So far, Rensenbrink had mostly flexed his muscles in an attempt to repeal the yellow-card rule for shirt removal, because, in his words, "who even gives a shit?" That's the kind of person he was. Bureaucrats, by and large, hated him.
He looked unimpressed, now. Some WCC presidents might be expected not to be openly partisan for their national team. This was not a doctrine which Rensenbrink was interested in.
And another ring of cheers around the stadium.
Speare looked back, eyes darting-
The ball was in the back of the net, Rustwyth and McGinnis wrestling over it. Speare cursed herself for looking away, but what could she have done? The free kick had sailed beautifully into the top corner, and Sabado had her hat-trick.
Game on.

[Super-Llamaland]

Three-two to Semarland was a little flattering to the Royals' opponents, considering how the two sides had played. But the fact remained that the Llamaneans were down a goal with fifteen minutes to play. With Mercedini on the horizon, it wasn't the ideal position to be in. But it was the situation that Ryan Reagan's U21s faced.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, one of which had been Kevin Cantor. The forward had been thrown on for Frazier alongside Isabella Shi, whose two goals had single-handedly kept the Royals in the match, and De Los Santos. Reagan didn't think it would work - nothing Cantor had produced in training indicated that he'd be helpful. But anything was better than Frazier, who'd been basically invisible on the left wing. Cantor's reputation as a scorer of wondergoals preceded him, too - making it worth a shot.

And he'd seen the goals scored, many of them in person while watching the U18s. He'd seen Cantor play alongside the likes of fellow Royals Alyssa Håkansson and Ryan McAllister, but the teenager from Vargas had absolutely shone. He had a golden right foot, even if his left foot wasn't much, and he knew how to use it. Reagan knew that, no matter what happened, Cantor had the talent to make his Royals team.

It made his subsequent performances even more confusing. Cantor had been called slow, undisciplined, and an awful teammate. His talent seemed to have taken him as far as it could - a few cameos with second-tier Wheathampton, followed by a move to third-tier SC Hazel. He'd been excellent in the third tier, and kept his spot on the Royals as a backup - Reagan had hoped that Cantor could find his old magic. But even the Royals' manager was beginning to sour on him - not just for his sporadic outbursts during practice, but his failure to perform during training. Reagan was close to giving up on the winger completely.

But, he had to acknowledge, even throwing somebody else on wouldn't have helped - the Royals' defense needed a lot of work. Reagan Fleming's thirteenth-minute injury had forced Elisa Lundin on, and the substitute had been dreadful. Jake Pedersen hadn't been great, either, at right-back, and Calderón was never the most stable center-back. After going up two-one, they had crumbled, with Parfitt-Hendricks smashing through basically everyone for Semarland's equalizer and converting a penalty for a third.

Even now, the Royals were struggling to keep Semarland at three. Marcos Sevenoaks had closed down on the basically-absent Pedersen, who wilted under pressure. Calderón ran over to fill in, but Sevenoaks somehow slipped through both of them and sent a diagonal cross into the box. Michael Lin came out, Parfitt-Hendricks dove in - Reagan winced as the striker got there first and floated his header past Lin, but the crowd and manager sighed in relief together as Lundin managed to intercept and clear the ball.

Lundin's clear happened to fall at the feet of Kevin Cantor, lounging near the center-circle. The winger jogged over to the ball, controlled it, and took a few steps forwards. Catching Olagundoye somewhat far from his goal, Cantor, with all his strength, unleashed a screamer over the keeper's head and into the net. Three-all.

Maybe it wasn't too late for Kevin Cantor.

[Chromatika]

Mario Jankovich picked up the phone nervously. He had scheduled this phone call even before the tournament began - a check-in with Silian Parker, the manager of the Senior Team, to go over tactics and results before the final match of the Group Stage. Intentionally held after the second match, so that Mario had a chance to fix things himself after the first game, Silian could see enough film to provide suggestions, and there would be no doubt in the players' minds whom their manager actually was. That being said, with the results being the way they were - a loss in the first match to Osarius and then a nil-nil draw against Anthor - and there being almost no chance for the young Chromatiks to make it to the next round - they'd have to defeat Qasden by two, and have Osarius not defeat Anthor. Problem being, that Qasden team was the same one that hadn't let in a single goal so far, and led the group. It would be a tough ordeal, which was why this phone call would be important, but Mario couldn't help but think this might be the last time that he'd be talking to Mario as the manager of the U-21 team. There was enough scrutiny about the U-21 team underachieving compared to the Senior squad.

"Parker here," came the voice on the other end.

"Hey, boss," Mario replied.

"Ah, Mario. You must be quite nervous, right? Rough match against Anthor, but got to give credit where credit is due - that Lenox Geary guy sure knows how to play keeper. What was that, three amazing saves on shots by Kaytlyn that would've fooled most senior keepers? He's going to be definitely a player to watch for the Anthorans. It was a spirited effort by your charges, though. Mia definitely came into her own and played a much cleaner match, frustrating Sergeant and that Ferguson guy. I wouldn't be too hard on them," Silian said in a smooth tone.

"They were more frustrated than anything by the end of that match," Mario stated, "Wondering where there were room for improvement. Rather nice for a Manager, to have a team in the mode of figuring out what they can do better instead of just blaming each other. I praised the play of Molly and Ga-yeong, especially Molly with her brother having disappeared on her. The front four were the most apprehensive - Kaytlyn is definitely a fireballer who doesn't like it when she doesn't live up to the standards she has set upon herself - but I think they'll be able to turn it into fuel instead of stumbling block. Got any ideas on how to handle the Qasden defense, though? Ever since they won the last DBC, their whole team has been playing better, and nobody's been able to crack that defense yet."

"Have Herlinda play a bit further back and help with the defense, she's the best when it comes to long passes from afar. Have Kaytlyn and Aide play the true striker position, and Whitney and Lightning be the more true side wingers, with Molly and Ga-yeong playing behind them. It'll be more of a 3-1-2-2-2, and rely a bit more on flow of the ball with passes than speed, but I think you'll be able to get more quick penetration to the Qad defense with that than with bodies. Have Mia stay a bit further into the box than usual, and instead task Lina-Maria with staying a bit further back and letting the other two backs roam closer to the center," advised Silian.

"I agree with you that perhaps an all-out offense isn't the best with this team. I'll take your advise into account. Does this tournament make you consider making changes to the senior team's tactics as well?" asked Mario.

"Yeah, it does. I'll likely end of changing a few things... Have more of a stable of strikers, and focus on the midfield a bit further. Probably depends on if we win the bid. Anyway, I want you to know I've appreciated your work with this squad. I don't get to decide whether you keep your job or not, but to me, you've shown your worth. Go out there and have the most fun you can. As long as you have your players' respect, you've made it as a Manager. Sure, history will remember winners and results, but players will remember managers that made an impact in your life, and that is what truly matters in this line of work," advised Silian.

"Thanks boss. Time to go and prep. I appreciate the pep talk," stated Mario.

"Take care," said Silian, and hung up.

You always got things straight with Silian Parker, especially when he knew that you wanted the truth. He was a great man, Mario thought. Lisa Amos was a force of nature, but Parker? He was all right.

The match against Qasden may indeed turn out to be his last as a Manager of the U-21 team. It might also be the last for a while that a Chromatik would manage the U-21 team, by the way that articles were streaming out.

He intended to make the best of it.

Apologies, but please set my style modifier to 0 for rest of the tournament (which might be just this match, I know.)

[Mytanar Region]

Part 1
Part 2

MUSA.

Musa had a pounding headache. He’d decided it would be a good idea to get up as early as possible after the night before so he could make it before Milana got there and it would give him a chance to get the information before she was there. Instead, getting up that early had just left him with a drum beat pounding in his head and the feeling like he might throw up any second. He knew he probably shouldn’t have shut off the interview as quickly as he did, but the guy clearly didn’t have a clue about anything and one look into the records would clear him as a suspect. He literally was just a lorry driver. Musa hadn’t had it in him to waste time trying to interview someone who was that clearly not involved in a crime. This lad was no more a human trafficker than Musa was any sort of criminal.

Still, Musa had to make up for it however he could. So he had come into work earlier than he ever normally would, giving up his weekend so that he could try and get some information together to make it all worthwhile. He had dug up some information on Stanchev Haulage and none of it was particularly surprising. They were a mid-sized haulage company specialising in transporting freight from Mytannion out to the rest of Rushmore. Nothing untoward there. They had had a couple of pretty high-profile accidents at the port in Trunca, but no signs of any criminal activities.

Musa knew that this case would be difficult, but this happening almost made it harder. They did now have something to go on, but the fact that it was all so vague was tantalising. It felt like they only had a few steps to start finding some success, but in truth, they were just as far away as they had been before the weekend. When they hadn’t even begun the investigation at all. This was of course, a good thing. They had stopped some girls being trafficked. But finding the girls hadn’t given them anymore information on the people who were behind this.

Musa would have to get in touch with Stanchev Haulage and see what they knew about whoever had hired the lorry out and then go to the industrial site where this Vasily had picked the trailer up from and ask there to see if they had any information. Before he had left the office on Friday night, Musa had tried to ring them but there had been no answer. That in itself was strange given that they claimed to have a 24-hour telephone line available, but Musa had wanted to get home anyway.

Milana had tried to get talking to the girls who had been in the lorry but the authorities in Trunca wouldn’t allow it so soon after them being rescued. Apparently they were all deeply traumatised and some even needed medical attention. Musa had agreed that they should be allowed a few days before they would have to be interviewed. They could have some crucial information, after all, but both he and Milana had cast a bit of doubt on that possibility. They probably wouldn’t know anything too incriminating.

Musa picked up the phone receiver and began to dial Stanchev Haulage’s phone number again. They may pick up this time, he thought. In the day, not as late, it may be the weekend but they would still be hauling freight all over Rushmore. Not answering would be bad for business. It would also be bad for Musa’s collation of intelligence, but he doubted that they cared about that very much. They would want this all to be over as quickly as possible. The authorities in Trunca would have already notified them about their lorry being detained and this sort of thing was extremely bad for public relations if it got out, particularly if a group of young girls were found in one of your trucks.

The dialling tone sounded a couple of times before there was a crackle, they had picked up.

“Stanchev Haulage head office, how can I help?” A woman’s voice came at the other end of the line.

“Er, hello, hi I am Musa Ilić from the police’s National Organised Crime Taskforce. I’m calling about the lorry belonging to you that was found at the port in Trunca to have a trailer full of young girls that we presume were intended for somewhere around Rushmore. I need to speak to whoever is in charge with you there.”

“Oh, oh my god.” The woman’s voice was shocked, she was probably just a secretary who had no knowledge of this. Oops, Musa mused. “I’ll just go get someone, please just hold there.”

“No problem.” Musa replied, smirking. He could hardly keep the image of a gossiping secretary out of his mind now, she would get word out about this. Poor Stanchev Haulage. Their reputation would not be improving, that was for certain.

“Hello?” Came a man’s voice at the end of the line.

“Ah, hello. As I just explained I am Musa Ilić of the police’s National Organised Crime Taskforce. I’m calling to discuss the lorry that wa—” Musa was interrupted suddenly.

“The lorry in Trunca, yes. We have nothing to do with that, we have already provided the limited details we have on this to the authorities in Trunca. I consider the matter closed.” The man replied firmly.

“I’m afraid that the matter is not closed, sir.” Musa replied. “We need to speak to you. Who is it that I’m speaking to?”

“I’m Ivan Stanchev. I own the company.”

“Ah, the Mr. Stanchev himself. Very nice.” Musa said sarcastically. “Well, Mr. Stanchev, I’m afraid we’ll have to press you for cooperation on this matter for a little while at the very least. We ne—” Musa was interrupted again.

“I consider the matter closed.” Ivan Stanchev replied again, putting the phone down. Musa smiled to himself. Ivan Stanchev would be getting a visit on Monday morning whether he liked it or not.

IVAN.

This was terrible for business, no doubt. Ivan Stanchev put the phone down grimly and rubbed his eyes. He had worked a long time to cultivate an image as a company who got things done with minimal fuss. When this story blew up, his company would be seen at the heart of it all and it would ruin the legitimate side of his business. He knew that, in truth, his company had been ruined a long time ago. When he had got all mixed up with those bastards, in fact.

He knew that Darko would be in touch with him sometime soon and that he would threaten him with about fifteen different deaths in order to make sure he did not cooperate with the police. Ivan had already sent fake names on the forms to the police for the people who had hired his lorry to take that trailer down to Trunca. He wasn’t sure exactly how he would cover up the location of the industrial site where it was picked up from, but he’d have to come up with something. He’d have to try and contact the driver, too, but he wasn’t sure exactly how he would manage to convince him to be uncooperative with the police. That probably wasn’t possible already, but Darko would not want him to tell the police anything whatsoever.

Ivan remembered when he had first met Darko. He had seemed helpful and had actually got the company out of a very difficult hole indeed. He had said he was an investor. Ivan had thought he seemed like a young businessman, it was very plausible that he was coming to actually make an investment, he dressed smartly and was intelligent. Ivan wasn’t to know that Darko was actually a local organised crime boss. That was only to come when Darko asked for payment for ‘security’. Ivan protested, asking ‘security from what?’ The reply had been the unveiling of Darko’s henchmen armed with baseball bats and pistols. He explained that he wasn’t really a businessman, that he ran an altogether different business and that if Ivan wanted to continue running his he would have to pay a certain fee per year in order to do so.

Then Darko started to run the business, essentially, using Ivan as a proxy. Ivan had little to no idea where a lot of his lorries were going or what they were transporting. He ran just the legitimate side of the business. Darko ran everything else. Ivan knew it was going on, he had seen a trailer full of bags of white powder and that was when it fully dawned on him. He could have gone to the police then and tried to find a way out, but Darko had wanted him to see it – just so he knew exactly who he was dealing with.

From a perfectly legitimate business to being a cover for criminals, the fall had been short and swift. Now, Darko’s men used the lorries to get their ‘goods’ all over Mytannion and beyond. There was nothing Ivan could do about it. He could go to the police, but what would they do? Now was an opportunity, sure. But Darko would know about this already and he had said that if Ivan ever went to the police his family would be killed within hours. Ivan lived a life of fear already, having to work with that man – he didn’t even want to imagine what his life would be like if he had turned Darko into the police.

So he did nothing. He waited for Darko’s call. He sent the police forms that were looking for two entirely invented people who had hired the lorry and he attempted to skirt around the subject of where the trailer was picked up from. He was sure they’d find it out from the driver anyway, but the less he did to cooperate the less chance Darko would fill him with lead. This latest phone call from the fellow from the Organised Crime Taskforce or whatever it was called was all he needed. Ivan didn’t know how he would explain that to Darko.

He shifted his weight on the chair and put his head in his hands. There was no way out for Ivan Stanchev.

VASILY.

Vasily sat uncomfortably in the cell. He had been here for far too long now, his lawyer had even said so, but his protestations fell on deaf ears. The police were able to get away with these things given the fragile state of the entire Mytanar Region. Holding suspects for however long they pleased was becoming all too common. It was almost as if Kalinina had never been defeated. He knew he hadn’t done anything wrong and the same thoughts were still running through his head as before – this whole thing was entirely frustrating exactly because he knew he hadn’t done a thing. At least now, though, he knew the police knew he hadn’t done anything. The interview with the two officers via video link proved that, at least.

Still, he was being held. He had been trying to rack his brains, trying everything he could to conjure up the thoughts that would give the police some information to go on. At least if he did that, they may free him. But he couldn’t remember any defining information about the two guys he had met when picking up the trailer, sure, he could describe them vaguely but they looked like they could have been almost anyone. Vasily said that to the police that kept coming back to him to see if he had remembered anything and they just laughed and told him to keep trying.

It was cruel, the situation he was in and he wondered what he had done to deserve it. He didn’t really believe in fate, or he wouldn’t have if this hadn’t ever befell him. But now he wondered. If there was some sort of deity, why would they allow this to happen to him? He had led a generally good life. He hadn’t harmed anyone. This was completely undeserved, so what God would allow it to have happened to him? If he was outside and asked some religious nut the same question they would probably go on about how everybody has sinned or some bullshit and right now Vasily didn’t feel like entertaining the idea any more than he would have done on the outside.

He heard footsteps pounding up the hallway outside the cell and – like every time he heard footsteps coming up the hallway – his heart skipped a beat a little. A hopeful little bounce inside his chest, hoping that they would be coming to let him out. The footsteps stopped, suddenly, outside the cell and the little window – the slit through which could only be seen a sliver of light and usually eyes when a police officer peered through – opened. Vasily’s heart skipped a few more beats.

“Vasily Petrenko?” The voice enquired.

“Yes?” Vasily answered.

“You’re free to go, mate,” the voice said cheerily, Vasily’s heart nearly exploding. “Just coming to let you out.”

“Oh wow, great!” Vasily exclaimed, getting to his feet. They must have finally come to their senses, he had nothing he could tell them and they were freeing him. His head was a rush of emotion and thoughts, as if they were trying to finally find a way out after being trapped in his mind in the same way he had physically been trapped in the cell. Vasily stood there, waiting, as the officer fiddled around with his keys. They were rattling about and it was as if he was trying to find the right one. He tried a couple before finally the lock in the door clicked open and he pushed the door inwards. It struck Vasily as strange that he hadn’t just used the right key straight away, but he was too eager to get out to really notice.

As the door swung inwards and the man stepped in, horror passed through Vasily. The guy was dressed just like a police officer, he looked like all the others who had dealt with him since he’d been there. But he held a knife in his hand when he entered the cell. Vasily backed towards the back wall of the cell, yelping as he went.

“No, noooo,” Vasily shouted as the man stepped towards him. Every sense of Vasily’s was heightened, he could hear noises down the corridor vividly, he could see everything happening in what felt like slow motion and he could smell this man’s aftershave. He knew that this guy was no police officer. He had had an intuition when the guy was messing about with the keys that something wasn’t right and he knew now for certain.

The man stepped into the cell and plunged the knife deep into Vasily’s abdomen, the pain coursed through his body and he yelled out, the man suddenly placing his hand over his mouth so that nothing more came out except a damp, muffled scream. Nobody would hear him now and as the man extracted the knife and moved behind Vasily with his hand still in place, Vasily knew that nobody would come to rescue him. The man would slit his throat and leave him for dead. Vasily knew it was over.

DARKO.

“It is done?” Darko asked, holding the phone close to his ear as he drove through the narrow streets of Eastern Esca. “Good, the boss will be glad to hear it. Make sure you talk to Ivan as well, I want him to know that we know about this and that it doesn’t change any of our arrangements whatsoever. Tell him that if he mentions me in anything to the police we’ll find out about it and if he does I will chop his balls off myself.”

“Got it boss.” The voice came at the end of the line.

“Okay, speak later, I’ve got things to do.” Darko replied, putting the phone in the little slot beneath the radio. He had too many things to do, in reality. Leading a double life didn’t even come close to describing Darko’s life. He was leading a crime family by day and trying to run a club at night. Although, really, leading a crime family was a 24/7 job. He had learned that the hard way. Darko tried to maintain as many legitimate enterprises as he could as a way of laundering his ‘other’ money. That’s why he ran the club, why he owned a taxi company and why he had been trying to get involved in Stanchev Haulage, too.

It had seemed like the perfect idea, use the company to transport stuff he needed transporting whilst also using it as a front – somewhere he could launder money through. Ivan Stanchev had proved to be a tough nut to crack though and whilst Darko was able to persuade him to let him use the lorries to transport drugs and guns, he hadn’t quite allowed him to take legal shares in the business. But Darko was working on that. He knew he had to keep Ivan sweet, there were only so many threats that people could take and Darko didn’t want to use the stick too much, just in case Ivan decided to bite back.

The events of the last couple of days weren’t great for business and the shadowy guy who Darko worked for had issued instructions that were difficult to carry through, but Darko had got it done anyway. The driver of the lorry was out of action. It had been a tough hit to carry out but it was something Darko had been planning to have done anyway, he just would have waited until he was out of police custody before doing so but it hadn’t gone too badly. One of Darko’s men dressed up as a police officer, stole an identification card and waltzed through the famous Port of Trunca police and customs officers without anybody blinking an eye and after killing the driver waltzed out again. So much for security.

Darko would have to get all of that off his mind though, he was meant to be visiting his mother. She had broken her hip a couple of weeks ago and he hadn’t been to visit yet and his sister was going mad about it. Work had been very busy, he’d told her, but the excuses were drying up and he had to go now. His sister was dubious about his line of work anyway, but he had managed to cover it all up so far without her finding out too much and he would try to ensure he carried on for as long as possible. His sister knowing was the last thing he needed.

He pulled in next to the kerb and got out of his car, a high-end sports car would attract a lot of attention in this neighbourhood, but it was where Darko grew up. These streets were his and people knew that. He knew about everything that went on in East Esca and had been growing his operation to the entire south-east of Mytannion. He faced problems from the Stevanovic family and the Gabulovs for supremacy regionally in Zentria, but he more than held his own. One thing was a fact though, he owned East Esca and the others knew it. They had agreed a couple of years ago to not advance within the capital city, there was enough to go around for them all given the state of Mytannion – a failed state undergoing a horrendous break-up – but it was lucrative for them all and they took a third of the capital each. Darko had the east, the Stevanovic family had the west and the Gabulovs took the middle. It was a good arrangement for them all.

But the Gabulovs had begun to take liberties and Darko would have to confront them about it. The shadowy figure who advised him and provided him with material ‘supplies’, would have to be consulted before he did anything, but Darko was sure that he would give the go ahead to fight back. Darko really did wish he was in a better position of strength with this guy, but he didn’t know his name or even have a clue about who he was. All he knew was that he provided the goods that had made Darko a very rich man indeed, so he would continue to work for him for the foreseeable future.

The foreseeable future right now involved going up to the apartment he grew up in on the tenth floor of a high-rise in Eastern Esca to visit his mother with her broken hip. The contrast between criminal mastermind and son of an old lady could not have been much clearer to him right then, but he had to play both roles.

Work could wait until tomorrow, it had been a good day anyway.

[Nellietopia]

Group D
MD1: 3-2 v Eastfield Lodge @ Lathal, Ianisle
MD2: 4-2 v Eshan @ Miner's Haven, Goldsan
MD3: v Gim @ Miner's Haven, Goldsan

Something was clicking. It was totally annoying. They kept looking out of their secondary ocelli to see whence the annoying clicking was coming. At times, it sounded like a bunch of tin cans rasping against a stone floor. Then, it sounded like crickets. Then, there was the odd clank - the unmistakable sound of a monkey wrench hitting a microscope turret. The nellies scurried over to the source of these sounds, only to find nothing. They would return to their duties, silence resuming for only moments before the clicking would start again. It persisted for almost an hour before the nellies completely dropped their duties to investigate the irritating noise.

They scurried through the hall, looking hard for the possible origin of the clicking. There is no metal in a hall of silk, so they struggled to find anything hard enough to make the noise. Oddly, when they went looking, the sounds would cease, leaving them dumbfounded as to how the sounds would even work in absence of anything that could even make the noises. It was strange. Why would there be clicking in a xenobiological archive? There were no moving parts worth noting, not to mention the number of nellies scurrying in the halls would be negligible.

The nellies squacked at each other, trying to rationalize the experience. "What could possibly be making this noise?" "I don't know. I'm just an archivist, cataloguing ancient nellie parts." Nellie parts? I thought this was a library." "It is, it's just a library of stuff and crap." "So a museum?" "No, a library." "No, a museum." "A library." "A museum." "It's called a xenobiological archive! STOP ARGUING! And where in Maggie's brassiere is that noise coming from?!?" "I don't know, but it's not making that sound anymore." "For the love of Violet, we've been dealing with this noise for the past hour, I'm not about to deal with it again, because you know the moment we get back to work that that sound is going to start up again!" "Well, why don't you go back to work and we'll see what's making that sound?" "We tried that half an hour ago. It didn't work!" "Well, maybe it's just some figment of our imagination then?" "Dude, figments of imagination don't annoy the %$#^ out of you for more than an hour." "Howzabout this? One of us can stand watch out here for the sound, while the rest of us get back to work. Then, we can switch in and out one by one for the rest of our shift. At the very least, we'll get some nice breaks and the sound won't come back to annoy us."

That last remark was perhaps the most sensible thing proposed, and the prospect of a quiet workplace was very appetizing to the other nellies. They quickly and quietly sorted who should be the first to stand watch and then resumed their duties. Immediately, they each noticed something was not quite right. They were each missing something...

---

Something was clicking. The Secret Minister for Information couldn't quite figure out what was going on with the clicking traffic, but it was doing its best job to stem the flow of information. How did they know what to do to access that sort of information? It thought to tunnel to the sources of these incursions, but it appeared that the sources were mutant at best (more than likely, they were false).

A great conspiracy was afoot. Not in years had the Secret Minister seen such movement of material and information - and the last time resulted in a period great stillness and quiet. It thought about cutting the cables, but ... part of it was curious - to see what would happen, what would pass now. It looked on in wonder, slowing the flow of information as much as possible - perhaps only to see what was indeed passing. It bade its time, sitting in its cavernous hole, dark and secluded from the rest of the nellies in Nellietopolis. It rests its limbs upon those strands, watching and listening to streams of information.

As time passed, a certain set of clicks piqued its attention...

---

Something was clicking. This offense-first strategy was somehow producing goals against teams, and the strategy of bouncing the ball on their backends was working remarkably. There were literally no answers that teams could find for that style of play - as simple and elegant as it was. The ability to maneuver through thick crowds of players and gracefully lump the ball to and fro made the nellies' attack irresistable. So it was proved against Eastfield Lodge, it was proved once more against Eshan. The 4-2 scoreline was flattering to the opponents, who could have lost by many more goals - and a pittance of two allowed goals by a keeper nellie that was still hesitant to use all eight of its legs to grab onto the ball.

Still, while the Nellietopians advanced in their final group stage contest against Gim - knowing full well that a single point would guarantee top spot in the group (while a loss could potentially drop them out completely, depending upon how the final games ended up - the extra two goal difference could prove massively important) - there was the utter feeling among the expatriate squad that something was pulling strings from deep within some nether-realm. How that felt was an uneasy feeling, like some itchy hairs rubbed off without any prompting.

[Ceni]

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rotunda > interview
Ceni Ratifies Orean Accords

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Quinn Turnell: Good morning. I'm Quinn Turnell, and you're listening to Rotunda from Cenian Public Radio, your first source for political news without bias. Today a momentous event in Cenian history accord: the Cenian parliament, by an overwhelming vote of 205-20, passed the Orean Accords to formally become a member of the Common Rushmori Community. Here with me, I have a guest to discuss the buildup to this ratification, the finer points of the text, and the greater ramifications of this policy shift. Welcome to Gil Korova, Cenian Public Radio's chief politics editor, and by now a familiar face around here of course, and good morning to you.

Gil Korova: I'm glad to be here, as always. It's always nice to spend my morning here sipping coffee and chatting.

QT: So, let's start off with some explanations. What exactly is the Common Rushmori Community?

GK: The Common Rushmori Community will be a supranational organization devoted to bringing the nations of Rushmore together. Among its stated goals is to eliminate trade barriers and create a common market, develop increased ties between the various Rushmori states, strengthen the rule of law, democracy, and international values, and work together as a common unit on issues such as security and protection from attack. Overall, the CRC is meant to be an organization that truly represents all of Rushmore and brings the nations of the region together - it's supposed to be a cohesive force that helps to foster regional unity.

QT: I have here a copy of the Orean Accords, and they're quite a hefty chunk of paper. Can you simplify them for our audience, and distill them into a layman's version of the dense legalese?

GK: Some of the main provisions deal with the goals of the CRC - setting up the internal market, ensuring freedom and democracy for member states, and that sort of thing. It actually devotes quite a lot of time to discussing the various means of how the single market, and customs union associated with it, would work with the member nations. But among the most important provisions are those setting up the various organs of the Rushmori government - those being the Rushmori Parliament, the Rushmori Council, the Rushmori Commission, and the Rushmori High Judiciary. Suffice it to say, the Rushmori Parliament is the main legislative body within the CRC, the Rushmori Council introduces said legislation to the Rushmori Parliament and acts as sort of a higher legislative body, the Rushmori Commission is the executive branch within the CRC, acting as the figureheads and directors of policy questions, and the High Judiciary is responsible for adjudicating disputes based on the provisions of the Orean Accord and the laws passed by the Rushmori Parliament on this issue.

QT: So, now that that's out of the way, what has public opinion about the Common Rushmori Community been like here in Ceni?

GK: On the whole, it's been pretty positive - Ceni has always been a globalist nation, and since we're a smaller nation, we've often relied on other nations buying our products and our financial services in order to keep our economy growing. As a result, a lot of people, on both sides of the aisle, have supported the deal to bring more jobs to the nation, since it seems that the open market will allow Cenian companies to sell their products and services to other nations much easier. On the other hand, there has been a small but vocal minority, mainly anti-globalists represented by the New Cenians, that has opposed the deal on the grounds that globalization hurts Cenian workers, it takes away our autonomy, and that it allows more immigrants who are supposedly "dangerous" to enter, but those arguments have not been received well by the majority of the Cenian people, and on the whole, most people support this deal.

QT: What was the parliamentary wrangling like in the couple of weeks leading up to the Orean Accords' ratification?

GK: To be quite honest, there wasn't too much parliamentary wrangling over the past couple of weeks. For a few days, it appeared that the Accords wouldn't get the necessary 2/3 vote of 150 lawmakers in order to pass the legislation, but it soon became clear that the Social Democrats and Greens were on board with the proposal, and most of the Moderates, since they're mostly pro-business, were on board with the idea as well. As that became clear, there was some arm-twisting to make sure that the individual legislators would support the party whip, but on the whole, wrangling and amendment-making was on the low side for the Orean Accords. It was pretty obvious that the agreement would pass by a large margin, so the wrangling wasn't as necessary in this case.

QT: How did the final vote play out?

GK: It played out very similarly to predictions - most of the Social Democrats supported the Accords, although there were a couple of holdouts from the Greens, who were a little bit worried about the effect that the Accords would have on the environment and benefits to many corporations, but I think that those holdouts were mostly satisfied by Article 36 of the treaty, which talks about climate change and the environment, and Article 34, on workers' rights, so I think opposition from that quarter was mostly satisfied. Instead, the New Cenians as a party voted entirely against the Accords, for reasons mentioned earlier, and some of the more right-wing hardliners of the Moderates who focused on the autonomy and immigration arguments voted against the Accords. But in the end, it was passed by well above the 150 votes required, with 205 in support and 20 against, which formally ratified the treaty.

QT: How will these Accords change Ceni's relationship with the rest of Rushmore, and more specifically its most important neighbors such as Electrum, Eura, and Nephara?

GK: Well, at the moment, neither Eura nor Nephara has actually formally ratified the Orean Accords quite yet, but both have expressed their interest in joining and are in the process of coming to a conclusion within the next couple of months. I think the accord will benefit Ceni the most in relations with these neighbors, as it will be able to export goods like green technology and financial services without a whole lot of protective tariffs, and common legislation can help to standardize the economy. In terms of political relations, I think it will be a boon as well, as all countries will have a new common set of legislation and standards that can unify the countries and bring them closer together, as well as that freedom of movement provision. In terms of Electrum, our biggest ally, the impact is going to be a little bit less, considering we already have a free trade and free movement agreement, but again, I think this will bring us closer together, and give Electrum perhaps a better ability to resolve their refugee crisis, which I think can help to benefit relations there as well.

QT: That was Gil Korova, Cenian Public Radio's chief politics editor. Thanks for sharing your time with us, as usual.

GK: Thanks for sharing your coffee with me! It's always a pleasure.

[Mercedini]

Newsdesk: 05/05/17
@ Rose Gardens - Kareen, Valanora

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to Valanora for the Di Bradini Cup where Mercedini are in action once again. After the U18s finished in third place in Osarius there is plenty of anticipation for the U21 side, which includes many of the SWC Bronz e medallists plus a further handful of nation team members mean Mercedini could pose yet another threat at an international youth tournament which will put the nation on a good standing for the upcoming World Cup campaign which is currently in the works. Mercedini have been drawn in a competitive Group E with Semarland, Super-Llamaland and Damukuni. We don't know who will go through but we do know that Mercedini have already played two matches so let's see how they have faired and where that leaves them with one match remaining in the group. We'll start with Mercedini vs. Semarland.

Di Bradini Cup: Golden Eaglets On The Brink Of The Round Of Sixteen

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FINAL SCORE

DBC | MD1

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MERCEDINI 2
Dostalok 19', 81'
SEMARLAND 2
Moss 40', Bokila 62'

---

Kareen, Valanora

Mercedini kicked off their Di Bradini Cup campaign with a two-all draw against a strong Semarland side which proved to be a good result for the developing Mercedinian side. Mercedini debuted on the international stage three World Cups ago and have since risen to prominence, developing their youth sides which ultimately resulted in the national team qualifying for their first World Cup in San Jose Guayabal and the Royal Kingdom of Quebec. Mercedini went into the match with apprehension and anticipation as they took on a Semarland side which was very familiar with their surrounding after being on the international stage for many cycles. The match kicked off with the front line being headed by Chillotov who has recently moved to Ceni on loan and Daniel Dostalok who looks to be making tremendous advancements in Schottia for Handon United. Both looking to state their case for a starting XI spot for the next World Cup campaign, along with national team goalkeeper Daniel Hosset whose place seems in doubt after the MFA looked to solve the defensive problems they have after leaking goals in their last qualification and World Cup campaign. However, those fears were pushed to the back of their minds as Daniel Dostalok opened the scoring just before the 20 minute mark after a well worked corner routine. The corner was sent in by Crasic and was flicked on by Di Sansev before Dostalok, who has arriving at the far post, tapped the ball in to open the scoring. Play continued and that early goal seemed to rile up the Semarland players in front of a half-full Rose Garden Stadium. Semarland pressed and had plenty of chance on goal and those eventually came into fruition when Marko Moss slotted home froma narrow thanks to a brilliant through ball which penetrated the Mercedinian back line which equalised the game towards the end of the half. Mercedini could have taken a late lead into the interval as Ben Chillotov, who has been so reliable in front of goal, hit the out side of the post with a shot from the edge of the box in added time. Semarland came out of that unscathed and went into the half with Mercedini at a 1-1 stalemate. Mercedini haven't had the best of times in the Di Bradini Cup, only making the knockout rounds once in their previous two attempts, they finished bottom of their group with a single point in DBC '38 and managed to finish second in their group behind Cosumar before being knocked out in the Round of 16 to eventual winners Pasarga. In their third attempt, they are looking to go one or maybe two steps further to stand them in good stead for the World Cup. The second half came around and both teams knew that an opening win would send them well on their way to a good performance in the Di Bradini Cup and it was Semarland who struck first after the break with a delicious strike from Jonah Bokila whose fast shot flew past Hosset and into the top corner to give his nation a 2-1 lead with less than 30 minutes left in the game. Semarland continued to press forward and looked to have put a third on the board but an almost a shot that would have almost certainly resulted in a goal was skied into the stands with the player holding his head in his hands. That spurred chance gave Mercedini a new lease of life which they took with both hands. It seemed like an equaliser was never going to come but with ten minutes left, Mercedini snatched a point with ten minutes of the match remaining as Daniel Dostalok slotted home another easy tap in to bring the match back level. When the match ended the teams exchanged handshakes with each other and walked off the field with a point a piece. Two-all the final score.

FINAL SCORE

DBC | MD2

---

MERCEDINI 4
Nymark 34' (P), Chillotov 45+1', Dostalok 62', Crasic 89'
DAMUKUNI 2
no roster 3', 40'

---

Kareen, Valanora

The second match of Mercedini's Di Bradini Cup campaign was in familiar surroundings as they returned to the Rose Gardens to play Damukuni in hope that the Golden Eaglets would get a maiden victory at this tournament and take a huge step towards back to back knockout rounds for the first time. The two teams took to the stage with three points in their eyes and, yet again, a half full Rose Garden awaited the action. The match kicked off with Mercedini hoping to put daylight between themselves and the rest of the group but things went horribly wrong from the outset. An unidentified player latched onto a errant back pass before rounding the keeper and slotting hope mere minutes after the starting whistle. It was an error which cost them a goal and gave their opposition a 1-0 lead straight off the bat. It raised serious issues about Mercedini which isn't great when your hoping to qualify for the World Cup for the second successive time. Mercedini have been known to produce and export some of the multiverse's most promising prospects but there has always been a problem with conceding goals, they have pretty much always won by scoring more than the opposition, not by scoring and defending well, that will need to be fixed for the upcoming campaigns. Mercedini got back into the came after the half hour mark thanks to a dubious handball penalty which was converted by Johannes Nymark to equalise the game. Then, two goals in the space of the final seven minutes of the game. The first came when Damukuni retook the lead thanks another goal from an unidentifies plyer who head the ball into the top corner straight from a corner to the delight of his team and their travelling fans. Then Ben Chillotov who has had lots of work to do between all of his national team duties got lucky when a fierce strike from Dostalok was parried into the path of the approaching striker before Chillotov slotted home into the empty net to tie the game up in added time. That's how a frantic half finished with Damukuni cursing their luck and Mercedini counting their blessings after going behind twice to pull it back. 2-2 at half time, it was about to get a whole lot crazier after the break. The teams came back out and immediately got under way with Mercedini and Damukuni duelling it out for the win and a potential spot in the knockout rounds. After being robbed of a goal in the first half, Daniel Dostalok got his name on the score sheet after he turned his defender and took his shot first time and low into the corner of the net to evade the Damukuni goalkeeper. 3-2 with plenty of time left in the game, that left Damukuni the opportunity to equalise but with chance after chance going wide or being saved, it looked to be Mercedini's day. That was confirmed when Tim Crasic broke away after Damukuni committed too many men forward and slotted between the legs of the oncoming goalkeeper to put a fourth on the board and seal the win just minutes before the final whistle. When the final whistle did go, the Mercedinian players embraced as they put a win on the bard which will go great lengths to getting out of the group. Full time, 4-2 with the Golden Eaglets three points clear going into their final group game.

---

That's all we have for you here in Valanora. Mercedini will play Super-Llamaland in their final match where both are pretty much certain of going through, Mercedini must lose, Semarland must win and both matches must have a swing of four goals if Mercedini were to crash out at this stage! So if Mercedini or Damukuni get any result then that will send the former through to the knockout rounds. A win will see Mercedini top the group aswell to there is plenty to play for in MD3. We hope you could join us, from Valanora goodnight!

[Union of Socialist Alpine Republics]

An heart-breaking loss for the Union of Socialist Alpine Republics

Raynor City, Valanora - (NEIP) After a 2-2 draw against Farfadillis, the Alpine Union played against Boring Paradise and lost 2-1. It was an hard fought game, and the score was tied for most of the game. Broring Paradise controlled the ball 52% of the time, while the Alpine Union had it for 48% of the time. Boring Paradise had 13 shots, including 6 on target. The green & white had 11 shots, including 4 on target. Boring Paradise attacked at the 7th minute when Laura Nadeau passed the ball to Harry Morris who made a cross to Raiyaan Malik Jr. who shoots but Tomasz Mikolajczak makes the save. The Reprezentacja Alpejski attacked at the 15th minute when Kacper Plokarz dribbled with the ball and passed to Sandie McCracken. She kicks the ball but Suzy White makes the save. Boring paradise attacked at the 27th minute when Eli Haylin passed to Harry Morris who dribbles with the ball but he's tripped by Krzysztof Blaszczykowski, the nephew of Prince Zygmunt VIII, the former leader of Prusy Krolewskie who's now retiring in his mansion in the Southern Virgin Islands, one of the 30 socialist republics of the U.S.A.R. Blaszczykowski gets a yellow card and it's a penalty for Boring Paradise. Raiyaan Malik Jr. kicks the ball and it's in 1-0 Boring Paradise. The Bisons attacked at the 31st minute when Zeljko Zizic passed the ball to Przemyslaw Tkocz who dribbles. He passes to Elisabeth Nordhaus who makes a header pass to Sandie McCracken. McCracken heads the ball right into the net and the game is tied at 1-1! The score remains the same until the halftime.

Boring Paradise attacked at the 58th minute when Sunny Hughes made a long pass to Sameer Jaklim Jr who dribbles and shoots but Tomasz Mikolajczak makes a sensationnal save! The Alpine Union attacked at the 70th minute when Slawomir Skrzeszewski passed to Przemyslaw Tkocz who dribbled and made a cross to Tymoteusz Swierczewski who shoots. The ball is tipped by Suzy White and goes out of bounds, it's a corner kick for the Green & White! Tymoteusz Swierczewski takes the corner kick and kicks the ball in front of the net, Robert Johnston intercepts the ball and clears it as far as he can but Krzysztof Blaszczykowski intercepts the ball and shoots from 60 meters but the ball goes over the net its a goal kick. Boring Paradise attacked at the 79th minute when Verrall Odonell passed the ball to Laura Nadeau who dribbled with the ball and passed to Sameer Jaklim Jr. who dribbles but he's tackled by Slawomir Skrzeszewski it's a great defensive play and a clean tackle. Florian Baumgarten gets the ball and dribbles and passed to Roksana Kolodziejczyk who dribbles and makes a cross to Tobias Götze who shoots on the post! Sandie McCracken takes the lose ball and shoots on the cross bar! Tymoteusz Swierczewski takes the lose ball and shoots on the other post! Nathan Haslem takes the lose ball and clears it far away. Boring Paradise attacked at the 90 +1 minute when Sunny Hughes passed the ball to Laura Nadeau who passed back to Sunny hughes. Sunny Hughes dribbled and passed to Eli Haylin who dribbled and made a short pass to Harry Morris who shoots and score. Boring Paradise is leading 2-1 and this is the final score.

The Alpine Union now has one draw and one lost and are last in group A. We still can finish 2nd with a win against Taeshan in the final game of the group stage.

BOXSCORE

27th minute: Raiyaan Malik Jr. (penalty)
31st minute: Sandie McCracken assisted by Elisabeth Nordhaus
90 + 1 minute: Harry Morris assisted by Eli Haylin

Yellow Cards
Boring Paradise: Fred Adams, Sunny Hughes
U.S.A.R.: Krzysztof Blaszczykowski, Kacper Plocarz

Red Cards
Boring Paradise: None
U.S.A.R.: None

[Qasden]

Qasden
Athletic News

Qads prevail as UnderVans nip Sparks

---

And another one bites the dust, baby.

The Qasden U21 association has arrived at stage 2 of 3 in group H, with 3 points and an automatic KO qualifier position up for grabs. Between them and greatness lay Osarius, the fire sparks, whom had also come off a close and intense battle against the Chromatiks in Gladerial.

But now the real show was starting. Coach Boulevard Drucati tested new theorems and strategies prior to kickoff, seeing some success and some fail. While he is confident, he was reportedly not as cocky as how he was prior to the Anthor match.

"Prior to when we got here, I thought this time would be easy pickings. A tournament where we'd reign supreme and knock off the U21 shoguns. After the battle with Thurstan, I now see that, rather, the competition is more fierce. Next up for us is Osarius, with Manager McCarthy. A win against Chromatika is impressive, but their defense clearly has a few weak spots. Henderson, the goal keeper, is someone I've actually known before, as she's serving a loan season for Real Qad City. I can see now that she's close on being great, but I'd like to see more of her besides the 3 goals she let past.".

Kickoff commenced soon that evening, as the sparkies started with a power drive down the middle for 20 meters or so. The game went stagnant. No one could make any progress beyond 30 meters of the middle for 32 minutes. 34 minutes in, a quick flick of the ankle rebounded a shot into the net past Henderson, courtesy of Captain Sisu Cassidy. 1-0, the game suddenly became engulfed in a fiery Osarius squad, whom attempted to make a dash towards an equalizer. Unfortunately for them, halftime was called before they could lay a finger into Pahlke's net.

Soon the sides were switched and the Blue-Reds seized to the attempt. Within 10 minutes in, there was a ratio of 3 Qad shots for every 1 Spark shot. None, however, went through. 72 minutes in, the Osarian captain escapaded through the vanguard and slapped one on the crossbar just above Pahlke. 80. 81. 82. No major surges were conjured during this point in time. The fans started roaring louder and louder, before 2 more minutes were added to the 90. One more chance at an equalizer, which ended in agony. Of course, this is good news to Drucati.

"Another close one, I will say this series is spooking the heck out of me. I was, uh, impressed by both offenses and defenses. McCarthy, Henderson, they did really well and I look forward to seeing their final game. I am most pleased with Pahlke's strength in the tournament, as no goals have been conceded. Now we gotta stay diligent, as Jankovich will be a much tougher foe this time around.".

The win sealed the UnderVans a trip to the knockout rounds for a third consecutive tournament, where they will face one of the top 2 from group E. Next for TQ is Chromatika, a strong yet slacking squad, who only have a single point at the moment, following a spark defeat and an Anthorian draw. A win or draw will give TQ the top seed overall in Group H, as a loss will butter up the chances Osarius could come up and take it. Still, it's anyone's game for the second spot.

Will Drucati thrash Jankovick in a strong style, more powerful than the last 2 games combined? Can Qasden finish strong in Gladerial? Could the Chromatiks make the comeback of a lifetime? Only the oracle can tell, so stay packed, stay updated, and stay gyro for our next report, piping hot from the kettles of Valanora!

[Valanora]

Matchday 3

Group A
Union of Socialist Alpine Republics 1–0 Taeshan
Farfadillis 3–3 Boring Paradise

P Group A                                Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Boring Paradise                          3   1  2  0    5   4  +1    5
2 Union of Socialist Alpine Republics      3   1  1  1    4   4   0    4
3 Farfadillis                              3   0  3  0    7   7   0    3
4 Taeshan                                  3   0  2  1    2   3  −1    2

Group B
The Iron Syndicate 3–3 Abanhfleft
Nephara 0–2 Ethane

P Group B                                Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Ethane                                   3   2  1  0    6   3  +3    7
2 The Iron Syndicate                       3   1  1  1    6   6   0    4
3 Nephara                                  3   1  0  2    6   8  −2    3
4 Abanhfleft                               3   0  2  1    9  10  −1    2

Group C
The Valhallan Union 2–5 Darmen
Mytannion 2–2 Ceni

P Group C                                Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Mytannion                                3   2  1  0   10   4  +6    7
2 Ceni                                     3   2  1  0    7   3  +4    7
3 Darmen                                   3   1  0  2    7   8  −1    3
4 The Valhallan Union                      3   0  0  3    3  12  −9    0

Group D
Eshan 1–1 Eastfield Lodge
Gim 2–4 Nellietopia

P  Group D                                Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Nellietopia                              3   3  0  0   11   6  +5    9
2 Eastfield Lodge                          3   1  1  1    4   4   0    4
3 Gim                                      3   1  0  2    3   5  −2    3
4 Eshan                                    3   0  1  2    3   6  −3    1

Group E
Damukuni 1–4 Semarland
Super-Llamaland 0–1 Mercedini

P Group E                                Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Mercedini                                3   2  1  0    7   4  +3    7
2 Super-Llamaland                          3   2  0  1    7   5  +2    6
3 Semarland                                3   1  1  1    9   8  +1    4
4 Damukuni                                 3   0  0  3    4  10  −6    0

Group F
Savojarna 2–1 Eura
Schottia 1–0 Cosumar

P Group F                                Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Schottia                                 3   3  0  0   12   0 +12    9
2 Cosumar                                  3   1  1  1    4   3  +1    4
3 Savojarna                                3   1  1  1    4   8  −4    4
4 Eura                                     3   0  0  3    1  10  −9    0

Group G
Pasarga 0–0 Spaam
HUElavia 2–2 Soltsteed

P Group G                                Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Pasarga                                  3   2  1  0    8   2  +6    7
2 Spaam                                    3   2  1  0    4   1  +3    7
3 Soltsteed                                3   0  1  2    3   6  −3    1
4 HUElavia                                 3   0  1  2    4  10  −6    1

Group H
Chromatika 4–2 Qasden
Osarius 1–0 Anthor

P Group H                                Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Osarius                                  3   2  0  1    5   4  +1    6
2 Qasden                                   3   2  0  1    4   4   0    6
3 Chromatika                               3   1  1  1    7   6  +1    4
4 Anthor                                   3   0  1  2    0   2  −2    1

Round of Sixteen Fixtures
Boring Paradise v Eastfield Lodge @ Metropolis, Ibini
Ethane v Ceni @ Castle de Mot, Wexax
Mytannion v The Iron Syndicate @ Rose Gardens, Kareen
Nellietopia v Union of Socialist Alpine Republics @ Turmondale Grounds, Turmondale
Mercedini v Qasden @ The Tar Pit, Char Sara
Schottia v Spaam @ Duran Palace, Valanari
Pasarga v Cosumar @ Hatire Memorial, Capri
Osarius v Super-Llamaland @ Lathal, Ianisle

[Osarius]

((OOC: If I need to make changes to your team selections, subs and/or scorers, just let me know. It's no problem.))

          Chromatika   3-4   Osarius
            Gail 27'         Udowu 19', 79'
      Victoriane 63'         Ford 49'
       Mehdizade 66'         McIntosh 78'

Player of the Game: Kaytlyn Victoriane (CMT)
							 
CMT: Ria; Ilya, Andhoven (Milner 52), Anderson; Han (Anisov 52), 
     Thorben, Sterling; Gail, Kelly, Mehdizade, Victoriane
OSR: Henderson; G. Dawson, Emeagwali, Simpson, Saunders (Connors 67);
     Duane, McIntosh, Ford (Coyle 80); Bryant (McBride 80), Udowu, Caraballo

"A thrilling seven goal match which was ultimately decided by a moment of brilliance." An fitting description from the Osarius gaffer, as far as this one went. The winning goal came just sixty-seven seconds after Evelyn McIntosh rifled in a twenty five yard effort to bring things level, and was a reminder to anyone who had forgotten that Koren Udowu is capable of mindblowing stuff.

After the Chromatik side kicked off, the ball was won back through George Dawson and Scott Bryant's double press on the left flank, and the winger started the move by cycling possession to the opposite flank via Ford and McIntosh. When Miguel Caraballo controlled Evelyn McIntosh's pass out wide right, Udowu was still outside the box. Caraballo looped his cross over anyway, hanging it up pretty high as it arced toward the back post. Udowu, with a burst of pace, correctly predicted the ball's trajectory, and followed underneath. As the ball dropped, the Marine Coast striker executed a sort of backflip-cum-overhead-kick, landing on his feet, facing away from goal. The Flying Sparks were in fron again.

Apparently the technique is known as "keri o tsuki", or "kick the moon", and is normally only used in demonstrations, to demonstrate the potential of the human body. Udowu didn't have much to say about it post-match, simply stating "I saw the ball, and it was the only way I could think to reach it."

The match was generally controlled in the middle by Osarius, though there were clear openings allowed at the back -- as evidenced by the three excellently taken goals from the Chromatik side. The introduction of Connors after Mehdizade scored Chromatika's third helped shore up the fullback zone on the right flank, but Scott Bryant's questionable defensive workrate left George Dawson under a lot of pressure. It was fortunate for Osarius that the front four on the other side were less than clinical in their finishing, and something that the manager, a defender himself in his day, will certainly be addressing behind closed doors.

"A win is a good result, of course, but this one... it just shows us we have a lot of work to do here. We can improve, and we'll need to if we want to win this tournament." McCarthy said.

              Qasden   1-0   Osarius
         Cassidy 34'

Player of the Game: Emily Henderson (OSR)
							 
QAS: Pahlke; V. Fairbairn, Powers, Hofmann; Strnad, Cassidy, 
     Teague, Nosek, Firmin, Bonner, U. Fairbairn
OSR: Henderson; G. Dawson, Emeagwali, Simpson (Turagoro 45), Connors; 
     Coyle (Z. Dawson 82), McIntosh, Futomito; Bryant (Yarikh 82), Udowu, Caraballo

Sisu Cassidy's goal against the run of play was enough for Qasden, on a rough day for Osarius. When captain Simpson didn't return for the second half -- he had been showing signs of a possible concussion after a clash with Ulysses Fairbairn at a corner late in the first half; it would turn out he was fine, however -- the morale blow was plain to see. Qasden seized the opportunity to press and put Emily Henderson under great pressure, though the teenager was equal to the attempts. Evelyn McIntosh eventually settled into her role as interim captain, and took charge of the midfield, lashing a strike against the crossbar on seventy-two minutes. A warning of sorts.

Ultimately, Qasden were able to hold on for the win, though Connor McCarthy's side were perhaps a little hard done by. The manager himself put forward a primary reasoning for the loss. "We struggled to get the ball to the front three, especially Koren, and that's a big problem. They were very well organised in shutting down our passing lanes, and focing us to play into traffic."

When asked whether he felt the introduction of Andrew Ford may have helped, McCarthy paused. "It's a possibility, and I considered it. But if we couldn't get the ball forward, we might have just ended up with an even more disjointed team, and that wasn't a risk I was willing to take." He explained, in a refreshing show of honesty. "Andrew knows what I think of him, and my decision wasn't a slight on his ability at all. It's a calculated decision I made, and freely admit might have been wrong. We just have to keep going from here."

             Osarius   1-0   Anthor 
         Simpson 78'

Player of the Game: George Simpson (OSR)
							 
OSR: Henderson; Connors, Emeagwali, Simpson, Saunders; Futomito (Yarikh 45), 
     McIntosh, Ford (Hale 80); Bryant (McBride 80), Udowu, Caraballo
ANT: Geary; Rye, Abrahamson, Masters, Hibbert; Kelley (Deschamps 68), 
     McCourt, Langdon (Wright 68); Sergeant, Earls, Ferguson (Seymour 79)

A late headed goal from returning captain George Simpson earned Osarius the win, and saw them progress as group winners in the Di Bradini Cup. Simpson had been subbed out at half time against Qasden as a precaution, and his absence keenly felt. The Burningham City stopper turned in a man of the match display against Anthor to underline his influence, making a number of crucial interceptions -- and effectively shutting down any threat from Anthoran forward Earls -- before rising highest to thump home Miguel Caraballo's corner kick in the seventy-eighth minute.

"George is a great player," said manager Connor McCarthy. "And a fantastic leader. I don't really know what else to say about him. He almost fought us to stay on the pitch against Qasden, but we couldn't risk it. Today he's shown how influential a centre back can be. Something I know a thing or two about, so I suppose I might be a bit biased, but you saw what I saw."

Anthor's midfield appeared to struggle with the pressure exerted by the movement of Maro Futomito and Evelyn McIntosh at times, but Osarius still struggled to get the ball into dangerous areas, where the likes of Bryant and Udowu could do damage. "It's a common thing I've noticed since the Chromatika game. Those guys had too much space and now teams seem to be making conscious efforts to isolate them. But it's good for their development. They need to learn how to handle that, so we're working on it."

When asked about how this might Koren Udowu's aspirations, McCarthy shrugged. "I don't know what his plans are on a personal level. That's for him to worry about. People compare him to Ezio Grassi and I always tell him to ignore it. Koren is Koren. He'll do things his way, and I think he'll do just fine." The player himself wasn't much more help, responding with a bizarre reference to phoenixes and meditation. The former Shiseido monk remains enigmatic, and despite his lacklustre performance in the past two games, he still carries an aura about him. "Whenever the ball goes towards him, you get the sense something amazing might happen." Said Evelyn McIntosh. We know exactly what she means.

[The Iron Syndicate]

Generation Next

Chapter Four: Survival

After becoming known as one of the biggest stars on the youth team that was now representing the Iron Syndicate, and being known as the brightest playmaker on that team and one of the main catalysts of their success, the last place that Owen de Vos thought that he would find himself was a prison cell. But somehow, the past was catching up with him big time, and it had all come roaring back at just the wrong time, when the team needed him the most and when they were faced with their chance at world fame. That had been the dream coming into the tournament, but after being stunned in the last twenty minutes by Ethane, they would be fighting hard just to claw their way out of the group and set themselves up with a round of sixteen matchup against an opponent that would likely be Mytannion, who didn't have the prestige of their other potential opponent but was still an intimidating one nonetheless because of their sharp rise in this tournament.

At first, they had been talking about how they were going to shock the giants and how Nephara had only been the first to go down, and how they would be the latest to continue the underdog tradition that the rugby union team had started and the basketball team had continued, with both teams starting off unbanked and taking out some of the greats in their respective sports, and the rugby team capping their run off with a debut championship. But maybe that confidence in their new tradition of winning as underdogs had hurt them and made them overconfident when they were the favorites for once and when they were supposed to beat Ethane to get out of the tricky group B with one match day left in the group stage.

Maybe that had been the reason why Chloe Catori had made the mistake that would down them, and maybe that was why Chiara hadn't been like her demanding self until it was too late, why Sem Zavala and Alexis Valente missed their chances to take the early lead and change the match completely. Or maybe it was because the lights were too bright and they didn't have their leader with them to ground them and remind them to play the same way that they always did despite the scene being so much bigger. The disadvantage of using so many players from the national academy was that even though the coaching there was very high quality and the players produced by it often went on to become good professionals, they were somewhat sheltered when they were at that academy.

Academy players wouldn't know what it was like to have thousands of fans chanting for them to go forward and get a goal late, nor would they know what it was like to have the opposition deriding them at every chance and reminding them of every mistake that they made. At the Forge, the worst that would happen after having a nightmare of a game would be that you'd get a talking to from the coaches and have them work with you to improve for next time. At the international level, those games would be remembered, as Chloe Catori had found out the hard way when opposition fans in the Ethane match directed their ire towards her in an attempt to force her into the mistakes that she would eventually make. And they knew she was vulnerable not because of something she'd done in that match, but because of the mistakes she had made that allowed Nephara to get back into the first match.

In a way, the Forge was almost like college. It would teach you plenty of useful skills and it would make you feel like you were living on your own, but after getting out, you would realize that you really didn't know anything and that real life wasn't the same as the controlled life that you'd lived at school. But on the big stage of the Di Bradini Cup, where the entire nation would be watching each of the matches and where scouts from every club in the National League and Portum Developmental League would be looking for their stars of the future, there was no room to take some time off and consider the future, like college students would be able to do when they finished. These fans needed results now, these scouts needed to see results if they were to pick up the players on this squad, and the staff could feel the pressure to turn things around immediately unless they wanted to watch all of their players stay in the Forge instead of being picked up by larger clubs in the National League.

While most countries didn't care too much about what their youth teams did, the Syndicate was somewhat of an exception because the country didn't have a history in international sports. They valued being able to see their players compete internationally, even if it was at a lower level, and they also realized that their current national team wasn't the one that would contend for World Cups and other trophies, but that the next generation was. The entire purpose of the Generation Next program was to put the emphasis on youth so they would eventually be able to compete with the top nations. Most countries wouldn't be willing to invest this much into this field, but again, the Syndicate was different. Their extensive analytics showed that the only way to win was through development, and that was where the incredible pressure to win came from. Their performance in the Independents Cup, in international football, and the Champions Cup, in club football, had shown that they weren't going to win with the current group of players. But the kids? They had true potential.

Still, they were able to manage the expectations and play well when Owen de Vos was playing, because he was the kind of player that could take control and help his teammates to keep their heads clear even in the biggest moments, but he hadn't been there for the Ethane match and it didn't look like he would be there for the Abanhfleft one. He wasn't even in Valanora anymore, but was rather stuck in his hometown of Southboro, at the central police station because of the crime of hitting his former girlfriend, Hailey Maren. That brawl, where they'd lost control of their emotions and went at each other, was proving to be his biggest mistake. Not just for ethical reasons, but for career ones, as it was revealed that he would have to stay home for the trial that was set to take place during the tournament. Contrition wouldn't be enough to get Owen out of that cell, and as parts of the public continued to campaign against him and asked for a long sentence, he was beginning to consider that his career might be over entirely.

At least, that was what he was thinking until there was the sound of footsteps coming down the mostly empty aisle of cells where his was located, and as he sat up to listen and see if it was the guard coming, he realized that the footsteps definitely weren't coming from the boots of a Police Corp officer. No, this was someone different, and the walk almost sounded familiar to him, like he had heard it many times in the past. It sounded like someone from his friend group, but he couldn't quite identify who it was. Now, he rolled off of the bed completely and leaned against the wall as he waited for the person to show their face. But when that person did show up, it wasn't who he expected.

The person was clad in all black and was wearing cargo pants, black boots, a matching tight fitting leather jacket, and a balaclava that obscured half of their face, along with a skull cap that obscured the other half, and even though the person was wearing shades, Owen could instantly recognize her because of her figure and the little bit of her golden skin tone that he could see. “Alexis?” he asked in surprise, as she moved in front of his cell and started going through her pockets to look for something. “The hell are you doing here?”

“I have connections with the people that own the Police Corp, from back when I was with the Harlequins. Turns out that being a football star in Portus has more perks than I imagined it did,” Alexis stated, finding a key and unlocking the door, waving Owen out and then closing the door and locking it again. “I called them up and explained the situation, and I believe there's a way out for you that would allow you to… Let's say, give Police Corp something to think about and force them into dropping the case against you. As for today, though, my friends agreed to shut down some of the security measures and they told a few of the top guards around here to turn the other way today and let me through. They'll pretend that it was a prison break and that they can't identify the person that broke and entered, but really, I'm walking right in and letting you out with me.”

“You're too street smart for your own good, Lex,” said Owen, following her as she went down the aisle and towards the split that would make them either go left or right. She pointed to the right, where there was a staff only door that they went through, and Owen thought he could see her smile slightly despite the balaclava covering the bottom half of her face.

“Hey, don't complain, my street smarts and connections are the reason why you aren't going to spend years here after the judge listens to pressure from the public and throws the book at you,” she replied, and then she took her phone out and made a quick call, stopping in her tracks as she listened to the person on the other end of the line before nodding and replying. “Yeah, we’re on the north end, heading to the north entrance. Make sure that you're in position, because we're headed your way in about a minute.”

Alexis ended the call and waved Owen forward, and they navigated a winding series of hallways before emerging from them to a lobby of sorts, which was strangely empty, probably because of what Alexis had said. They had rearranged things so they wouldn't be caught as they left, and they exited quickly as Alexis reassured Owen that the cameras were all offline. And then, they were on the street again, looking quite awkward as Owen wore the orange prison jumpsuit of someone that was fresh out of jail, and Alexis wore her black outfit that made it obvious that she was the one who'd broken him out. They only had to stand on the street for a minute, though, before a red sports car pulled up to the curb. “Our ride,” said Alexis, gesturing towards it.

She climbed in the front on the passenger side, Owen climbed into the back, and before he could even close the door, the driver accelerated quickly, causing them to go nowhere as the wheels spun rapidly before zooming out of their standing start and likely jumping over the speed limit. “Who's this?” asked Owen, trying to get a good look at the driver, who appeared to be a woman with a shaved head and a tough exterior, but who was obviously very skilled at driving the high class sports car.

“I know her as Sam, and let's just say she's a friend of the Kemp family,” Alexis stated, referring to the powerful family of media moguls that owned her club team, Portus Independent. “They aren't the ones that own the prisons, but they are the ones that can get us out of the country quickly and without hassle. We’re headed straight back to Valanora, and we're going to make sure that you're back in time to join us again for the Abanhfleft match. The team might've lost to Ethane because of you being gone, but that's fine. If we win, we're going to be into the next round and we're going to have a tough matchup no matter what position we finish in.”

“I've always been a Ceres guy and not a Portus guy, but send the Kemp family my thanks, in that case. And thank your other friends too, the ones that own Police Corp. You know, you always talk about how hard life was before, but you seem to have a lot of good connections with a lot of really powerful people,” said Owen, as they continued to drive over the speed limit and headed away from the suburbs and towards Ceres, where the big airport was. “But I have one question, how are we going to keep them from just arresting me again as soon as we step off of the plane? They already did it once-”

“And that was their big mistake, because the truth is, Police Corp was acting outside of their jurisdiction and that actually allows you to sue them back here for a lot of money in damages. After all, getting arrested caused you to miss work and also impacted your reputation badly,” Alexis explained, with a grin as she pulled down the balaclava. “The plan is that you're going to threaten to sue them unless they drop their charges, and since they don't have much of a choice, you're going to be off of the hook for what you did and they're going to get the same treatment in return. Assuming that the Pink Front doesn't mess things up, of course.”

“Yeah, assuming that…” Owen muttered, reminded of the protesters that had turned up to the airport and the ones that had threatened him. “Let's hope they don't throw a wrench in this then, like they did for rugby. I didn't think lightning would strike twice, but they already showed up and proved they could get into the country, and you never know what's going to happen…”

~

They were down 2-0 to Abanhfleft at the half, and while they had both been listed as subs on the team sheet, Alexis Valente and Owen de Vos weren't present with the team and were the two players missing from the bench when the match began. Without one of their leaders, they had been able to survive until the late part of the match when having someone to keep everyone thinking clearly was really important. Without two of them, they had went down 2-0 early with a lack of organization and a somewhat demotivated attitude that came as a result of their second straight match without some of their important players.

The two goals had come within twenty minutes and this time, they couldn't be blamed on Chloe Catori, and rather on the poor wide play by the other two members of the back three and the failure to close down on crosses. Harper Smekal had failed to close down and had allowed Chloe to get stuck in a one on one battle with Kelly McGinnis during the ninth minute, and Kelly had won the header and sent it into the lower corner by the near post and caused an early outburst from Chiara Altera, who'd gotten in the face of Harper this time and explained where the wing back and gone wrong in defending the attack that had started from the flanks and went inside.

“If you're going to keep showing fear, if you're going to keep holding back like this and if you're going to react after the fact instead of taking action and going after the damn ball, then you should head straight to the bench and let someone who's actually going to be into the game play!” she shouted, bumping heads with the wide defender and shouting in full voice. “And if you're going to stay out here, then sort things out quickly! Unless we turn it around in the next eighty or so minutes, we're going home, and I don't think any of us want that!”

For added measure, she gave Harper a shove as the other girl backed off and went to return to her position, and the body language with all of the players looked deflated as they lined up to start playing again. It was like there was blood in the water now, and it didn't look like it would be very hard to finish them off early if they continued like this, with their body language slumping and two out of three of the members of their back line being missing from such an important match. The Iron Guard was still in full voice, but even they were looking less and less confident by the second, as the team couldn't get their possession numbers to the levels that they had maintained in the earlier matches.

And Chiara tried to keep them in the match, making three huge saves in the next five minutes, stopping two shots at the top of the box from Annamarie Sabado and stopping another one from range from Kassandra Pratt, but despite shining brightly as one of the biggest stars in this tournament, she couldn't carry her team out of the half without conceding another goal. And this one was a similar story, but this time, the cross had come in from the other side and instead of trapping it, Kelly McGinnis had managed to knock it backwards where Pratt was lurking around the penalty area, and as Chloe threw herself forward to try to block the shot, Pratt was able to make contact and shoot the ball under her on a low rolling path towards the far post.

The Fleftic part of the crowd roared, but there were many sighs and groans from the Syndicate part of the crowd, and from the players on that side. “God damn it!” shouted Chloe, kicking the ground frustratedly and sending a spray of dirt into the air. However, this was the one time when Chiara approached her and put an arm around her, pulling the libero in close and trying to get her to keep her head up.

“You didn't mess up this time,” Chiara stated, softly. “So don't blame yourself for the goal and beat yourself up over it. We're having problems out wide this time but you did your best to keep the ball away from the center of the attack, and you nearly blocked the shot. You know how they say you have to turn the page when you do bad? Well, you also have to do the same thing when something unlucky happens.”

“I never forget anything, but I'll try,” Chloe said as the two separated, and she adjusted her leather gloves and let her hair down, throwing the band that had kept it up to the sideline as if the gesture was letting her start fresh mentally and start over again from the beginning. And as they milled around and waited for the kickoff, Chiara adjusted her heads up display and pulled the interface back with a swiping gesture, deciding to take less help from it with distance projection and proximity alerts, instead opting to play based on her world class instincts and trust that the increased clarity of not having the projections would increase her reflexes.

As they kicked off again, she flexed her hands and stretched in goal, before staring straight ahead and mentally phasing out all of the players until she was just focusing on herself and the ball. Because really, that's what this was for her. Sure, there was a complex game with twenty one other players going on around her, but really, she saw this as a game between her and between the football, where she was facing elimination and where she had her back to the wall not just because of her position, but because of the circumstances. Right now, her sole purpose was to protect this goal, and if she failed at that task, she would likely be going home early and missing out on everything the tournament could give her.

The future money, the chance for fame, the chance to be a hero and the chance to leave a bad childhood in the past to have a great future… All of that was what she would be losing if she went home in the group stage, and at this point, she didn't care about what happened to the rest of the team. No, this was about three things; herself, the ball, and escaping group B. Eventually, she snapped herself out of her thoughts and jumped back into her stance in time to duck to the left and deflect a long shot from a player that she couldn't be bothered to identify, before bouncing back to her feet and making herself big in the center of the goal in time to knock a rebound shot from Sabado over the crossbar.

She was holding on for now, and so was the rest of the team, as the players tried to mentally get over their poor start and get into their game plan. But without Owen and Alexis, how long could they last?

~

“You have more to gain than anyone in this tournament and I hope that you realize that,” said Chase Dekker, as his team sat in the meeting room by the away locker room before the start of the second half. “Abanhfleft is a good team but if they have the same level of motivation that you do, that's a serious problem for you. The thing is, this isn't their first rodeo. They have experience in this sport and they've long been known by other nations as a decent team. They can win today or they can lose and they'll still be viewed the same way by the rest of the world. You, on the other hand, have a chance to make a name for yourselves. The only impression that the world has of you is the one that you're going to give them, so is that going to be a good one or a bad one?”

Chase paused for a long time to let his words sink in, before erasing everything on the whiteboard and setting the marker down, coming to a stop and looking over his audience with almost shining eyes that were still confident. “Abanhfleft also isn't investing in football as much as our nation is. Meaning, they have less to gain from doing good in this tournament, or even winning it. You, on the other hand, have so much that you can earn from a deep run. Win a medal here, and you stand to benefit even more. There's millions of dollars worth of contract offers, sponsorship deals, and other kinds of income waiting for you if you can carve out your name on the sports landscape around these islands. You just have to earn it.”

He started drawing up a new game plan on the whiteboard, pointing to it and standing to the side to let the players see all of it. “You're going to need to get out of the group to get those benefits, and in this second half while we're down two goals, we're going to forget everything that we know. We're not going to go out trying to control all of the possession, we're not going to carefully build up our attacks and look for weak points and tired players. Nah, we tried that already and look where it got us. Like I said, we’re going to forget everything we know and start over. When I erased that whiteboard, think of it as the first half being erased. And now, we're going to blitz them for three goals and come out with a win. Some fields of science say that reality is created by our collective thoughts, and well, we're going to set our minds on winning and create the reality that we want to see. More accurately, all of you will, if you want to.”

Before he could say anything more, the door opened and two figures emerged that the team hadn't really been expecting to see during this match. Alexis Valente was the first one in, and she was followed by Owen de Vos, both of them wearing full kit and being ready to enter the game finally. “I hate to show up now that we're already down two to nil, but better late than never,” Alexis said, with varying reactions.

“Damn, I never thought I would be this happy to see your face,” Jon Laxalt stated, and Chiara flat out stood up and hugged both Alexis and Owen.

“Are we going to do this comeback thing or what?” Chiara asked when she backed away, looking at the time on the clock on the wall and then looking back at the others, who looked ready to play now.

“That's our plan,” said Owen, and then he and Alexis turned and headed back to the hallways that led to the pitch, and the rest of the team started standing up to follow them. Things had just been made far more interesting, and now it was a real fight; two teams at full strength would be battling it out, and two of the better players in his matchup would be let loose with full permission to go forward and use their creativity and flair in the attack. A storm was coming for the Fleftic team that would now have to face the Syndicate at full strength, but would they be able to weather it?

~

“Exiting the game for the Iron Syndicate… Number fourteen, Sem Zavala, and number thirty, Gael Blom. Entering the game… Number eight, Owen de Vos, and number nine, Alexis Valente,” said the stadium announcer, and there were both cheers and jeers from the crowd as Owen entered the game only days after being arrested and transported back to Southboro, where most of the crowd assumed that he was still located at the time of the match. And that would have been true, if not for quick thinking and intervention from Alexis, who had come up with the escape plan very late.

Shortly after the subs entered the match, the second half kicked off and the Syndicate went straight into the attack, forcing Kassandra Pratt into a backwards pass that led to MacAlistair being clattered by Jon Laxalt, who went on the attack with the ball close to his body and then cut to the inside and flicked a pass backwards to Owen de Vos, who held it at the top of the box before playing it sideways and letting the others set up around him. Silas de Jong was rushing into the penalty area and was unmarked, and Owen took advantage of that by backing up with the ball and then laying it forward for Silas, who took it at his feet and hopped around Fleftic center back Miranda Sullins before finishing with a chipped goal.

Suddenly, there was a match again, as the Iron Guard went wild behind the goal and suddenly, orange smoke began to float over the pitch in celebration, with the players crowding Silas and celebrating like they had won. Silas himself stayed calm, but he ran to the corner and did a spinning kick that was directed at the flag, before taking a bow for the cameras. And as the big three forwards gathered by that corner flag and posed for the pictures that were now being taken, with their ecstatic fans in the background, everyone was seeing that the stars of the Syndicate were back in business.

Things were different now, and the Syndicate seemed to be putting on pressure for every possession and they were playing more forward, like they had been when they grabbed the late win against Nephara. Abanhfleft was forced to take a step back and defend at every moment to keep the Black Arrows out of their penalty area, and they could hardly get the ball through their midfield without someone from the Syndicate breaking the play up with a clattering tackle or a well timed interception that would precede a long pass forward.

And the feel of the match was one where everyone on the Syndicate side was on edge, where everyone was going for harder tackles and hitting the ball just a little bit harder on shots and passes, hustling a little bit more and playing with a killer instinct that could hardly be coached into someone, the kind of thing that you either had or you didn't. They had it right now, and it wouldn't take them too long to break down the defense and land a ball in the box that would be chased by Alexis Valente, who quickly recovered it and found herself with her back to the goal.

Most players would try to pass out of this situation, but here in the fifty ninth minute, Alexis dug deep and found the strength within herself to push back against Sullins and take two hard steps backwards even as she was feeling the ball at her foot get attacked, and she tried to use her body to shield it from the standing tackle attempts before shifting around onto her left foot and squaring up, taking one more tentative step forward before knocking the ball onto her right foot and blasting a laser of a shot between Arzate and the near post. It was a cold blooded finish and it had been a very cold and calculated sequence from Alexis, who had the mentality of a worker right now who wasn't in it for the glory and wasn't trying to do elaborate celebrations or anything for the cameras.

No, she was in this for the win, and that was how the others were feeling. She didn't celebrate, she just grabbed the ball and ran back to the center circle with a resolute expression on her face that was different than the one Silas had worn after scoring. That was the difference between her and others… There were plenty who could score, but it took something else to score as clinically as she could, as if she had known for certain that she was going to win the ball and put it into the back of the net and as if it wasn't something surprising or worth celebrating at all, like she was doing what was expected of her and not something special.

Even as the crowd sung her name behind her, she kept her back turned and her eyes focused on the ball and the goal, as she imagined herself getting a second in the coming minutes. If only the rest of the squad had been as intense and dedicated about it as she was. If they had felt the same intensity that she had felt, they probably would have won and they probably would have done it easily, but their old problems would rise again and they wouldn't be able to keep their best performance up for the entire match. They would be content with taking possession and passing sideways and backwards instead of getting forward, and then they would run into an event that would change the match. The fight.

Khaled would launch a long ball down field late in the match, specifically in the seventy fifth minute, and it would get past their midfield trap and challenge their back three that had been caught sleeping, and Kassandra Pratt would bring it down and back out wide before catching the back three playing too deep and playing an onside lob over the defense to see if one of the forwards could get to it. And one of the forwards would indeed get to it and Kelly McGinnis would slot the ball into the back of the net calmly, but not before Chiara Altera would complain that Annamarie Sabado had jumped over her back and fouled her to win the battle for the ball in the air that had allowed it to get knocked down to a wide open McGinnis.

There was a battle of heated words, and Chiara wasn't afraid to let loose with the curses even as the referee was near. “Vaffanculo!” she shouted, and that was when she gave Sabado a shove in the chest that the forward went along with, collapsing backwards for dramatic effect and causing the crowd to roar in anger behind them, making it sound like there was about to be a riot. This was the most intense moment of the match by far, with the fans screaming and the players protesting and Chiara cursing and all of it happening at once, and then there was a stunned silence and another roar when the referee issued a red card to Chiara for the shove.

“I hardly fucking touched her!” Chiara screamed, stepping up to the referee and putting her hands on his chest to illustrate how light she said that he touch had been. “She fucking dove and she did it right in front of the cameras, go look at the replay if you don't believe me! And you're ignoring the fact that she jumped over my back and shoved me down to get to the ball in the first place, she fouled me and you didn't call anything, and then I slightly touch her and you say it's a red!”

“Chi, cool it!” shouted Alexis, coming down from the forward position to get involved with the chaos that was happening in the penalty box. “Let's not get a suspension for longer than we need to!”

With an exasperated shout, Chiara turned and started walking away, shoving Annamarie with real force this time when the opposing player started to get up. And that was what made tempers flare again, as someone that she couldn't identify came up behind her and gave her a shove in the back that sent her forward, and Alexis ran over to defend her along with Chloe Catori, Jon Laxalt, and Reinhard Li Fonti. The benches were about to clear if something didn't change, and all of this was happening in front of fans that weren't happy to see the scene. Someone, maybe McGinnis, tried to go for Chiara on the ground but Alexis stepped in the way, blocking the path to her friend and shaking her head. “I will knock out the next person who tries to lay a hand on her!” she threatened, before helping her friend up and staying close in the middle of the melee.

Owen de Vos managed to get involved too before being separated by Silas to prevent him from getting a card also for being involved in the war of words that was going on between the two sides, but eventually, Silas and Alexis were able to get the sides to separate enough that there were two groups of players still but not two groups that were in a shoving match. “Let's just finish this match and get out without anyone getting hurt,” Silas said, and that seemed to be what caused the players to disperse, as the medical staff gathered by the sideline to look at the busted lip that Chiara now had.

“Exiting the match for the Iron Syndicate due to a red card… Number one, Chiara Altera. Exiting the match on a substitution for the Syndicate, number sixteen, Juna Shine… Entering the match, number twenty two, Heinrich Bongers,” said the stadium announcer, as Chase Dekker made a quick adjustment to give them someone in goal again at the expense of their physicality in the midfield. Juna was a good box to box midfielder, but right now, they needed their playmakers more at that position if they were to tie the match again when it was deep into the time left.

And even though the Fleftic team probably assumed that they were safe now that they had gotten a late goal, they likely didn't assume that the Syndicate team would charge forward and attack like there was no tomorrow, because for them, there wouldn't be a next match if they didn't score. They threw caution to the wind and it looked like subbing off Shine and keeping the playmakers on the pitch was a good idea after all. And the Fleftics really didn't expect Reinhard Li Fonti to bypass the midfield and to send a nearly impossible to defend but impossible to reach spinning volley forward, that would go over their defense and take a high bounce that left it vulnerable to being turned towards goal.

Most of all, they didn't expect Owen de Vos to charge past Alexis to take control of that ball and head it down after it had taken a bounce right to the level of his forehead, and they didn't expect Arzate to judge the header badly and move too late to keep it from hitting the net. No, they didn’t expect any of that, and they didn't expect Owen to slide in front of their own fans and reveal a shirt underneath his kit that had the flag of his home island, Cerium, on it. It was a shirt that all but confirmed that he wanted to stay home and represent the Sporting Ceres Angels, and as he slid in front of those Fleftic fans and pulled his shirt up, before pumping his fists and letting out a guttural cry of celebration, he realized something important.

He had finished his ascension, and right now, he realized that being the villain figure wasn't as bad as he'd made it out to be.