World Cup 83 - Roleplay Thread

[Eraman]

_____THE PEOPLE'S NEWS_____
ERAMAN JOURNAL

| SPORTS | SUNDAY |

TUN SENGALANG PETARA WON HIS FIRST MATCH 
IN CHARGE IN FRONT OF FOREIGN DIGNITARIES
DAULAPURA, ERAMAN - The bendahara (prime minister) of Eraman won his first match in charge as the head coach of 
the national team in style against The Szcerkina Federacy.

The win was made even sweeter with the Minister of Foreign Affairs from Hundredstar, Dr. Bernardo Postell in 
attendance accompanied by the Admiral of Eraman, Laksamana Selempeta Semarugah. The delegation from Hundredstar 
is on an official visit to the country.

Eraman came into the match as the favourite but struggled early in the game against a very determined The Szcerkina 
Federacy who won their previous match against Anthor. Our national team lost to Anthor which led to the dismissal of
former head coach, Kitchi Diman in the previous match.

The opening goal was only scored in the 45th minute by young central midfielder, Milo Kaulawi's long shot.

The momentum of the home side continued in the second half with attack after attack that finally came to fruition
at the 51st minute with a thunderous shot from inside the box from promising 19 years old striker, Era Hitam.

The Szcerkina Federacy spent most of the second half in their own half with occasional quick counter attack but
failed to penetrate the Eraman defense line.

In additional time, Era Hitam again took advantage of a hectic situation in front of The Szcerkina Federacy goal 
following a corner kick by scoring the third goal.

The new head coach is unavailable for the press conference after the match. He left the stadium as soon as the
referee blew his final whistle with the delegation from Hundredstar.

The win was Eraman's first victory in the 83rd World Cup qualifying round. The national team is currently fourth in 
Group K with 3 points after Matchday 4.

Eraman will travel to Wymgore to play Brigantii on Matchday 5.

[Timuria]

Timuria Fall Short

by Tufan Nursultan

Timuria 2-3 95X
Caner Turan (29), Ertan Renda (71); Eric Adelphia (21), Sydney Hardin (51), Alix Ajax (85 pen.)

The national team have suffered their first defeat of the qualification campaign, putting forth a valiant effort against group leaders 95X in front of an ultimately disappointed but rightly proud crowd at Tim-Enerji Park. The defence once again looked like the teams weakest link with a foolish and rare mistake from Gokdeniz Dag leading to the decisive penalty that allowed the visitors to return home with all the points.

Though many expected the national team to suffer a heavy defeat, the early exchanges showed that the national team were not going to conform to the script. Ertan Renda forced 2 smart saves in the 11th and 15th minute from Lauren Hills in the opposition goal. While 95X also threatened Saban Inekci with Alix Ajax hitting the crossbar on the break. The deadlock was broken by right midfielder Eric Adelphia's well placed shot from the penalty area leaving the goalkeeper scrambling. The national team would respond however with winger Caner Turan showcasing his individual talent running circles around both Talon Claw and Chaya Concord-Fourteenth who had been drawn out of position to try to neutralise the winger. The resulting shot curled viciously into the bottom corner of Lauren Hills' goal.

With the scores equal both teams tried to retain possession as best as they could, however 95X showed their greater class with their ability to frustrate an energetic and attacking minded Timuria side. Just as half time was arriving it looked as if we would witness an incredibly rare event as Ozbek Sarikaya fired off an incredibly well struck effort from a volley on the left wing that stung the palms of Lauren Hills.

The second half began in the same spirit as the first, with both teams appearing to very much be on equal footing. Vatan Ercetin, who had a rather quiet game by his standard, struck the post with a well struck effort. The shock of this apparently kicked the visitors into gear with Sydney Hardin grabbing the goal that returned the lead to the visitors. Yusuf Ihsanoglu found his way into the referee's book with a reckless challenge on Diego Dodongo, both were fortunate, in Dodongo's case to avoid any injury and Yusuf for avoiding a red card. Ertan Renda then equalised for the national after a smart pass from Atilla Acar which found the attacking midfielder in space at the edge of the box, resulting in a powerful strike that Hills managed to get a hand to, but couldn't prevent from hitting the back of the net.

As the game began to enter the closing stages, many fans were expecting some kind of drama as has been the habit of the national team. They weren't disappointed if all they sought was drama, but they were likely furious with the player who created it. Gokdeniz Dag who is normally ever reliable clumsily fouled Alix Ajax in the box and conceded a penalty. A visible frustrated Bekir Altingunes, usually a zen figure got into a very public altercation with his opposite number Katelynn State over whether it was indeed a penalty and had to be pulled back from the technical area by his assistant. Alix Ajax calmly slotted the ball past Saban Inekci to give the visitors their third win of the qualification campaign, leaving them a point clear of Valanora who have played in one fewer game.

Elsewhere in the group, favourites Valanora extended their perfect record with a 2-1 win in Kavagrad, while Balqia overtook the national team courtesy of a solid and convincing 3-1 victory over cellar-dwellers Kiryu-shi.

What they said after the game:

Senol Tarimcioglu: "Obviously we didn't come into this game expecting to be so competitive so in that sense we're delighted. Of course if you're competitive in a game like this and something seems to come from nowhere to derail it frustrations can boil over and Bekir is only human. But the players can be very proud of their performance today, it showed that if a few things begin to fall our way that maybe we can be really competitive internationally so there's a lot to work with here."

Player Ratings:

1. Saban Inekci 6/10 - Despite conceding 3 goals, he didn't really have any real impact on whether they would be goals or not. Though the defence's suspect play is exposing him and he's not performing as well as many might expect.

2. Ozbek Sarikaya 7/10 - Had the best game in defence, his substituting for Beyhan Enver after he had been run to exhaustion by a much fitter opposition doesn't take away from how good he was.

3. Eyup Mustafa 6/10 - Recovered from his disaster against Kiryu-shi with a stable performance in this game, he didn't look out of his depth and this will likely provide a platform to boost his confidence.

4 Osman Hasanoglu 6/10 - Managed to improve on his last performance, will now need to kick on and provide the kind of performances he did during the Baptism of Fire.

5. Gokdeniz Dag 5/10 - Conceded the decisive penalty earning him the ire of the national team's fans. But he was struggling before the penalty was conceded.

6. Atilla Acar 6/10 - Energetic, but ultimately a bit futile, but his effort wont have gone unnoticed or unheralded.

7. Tayyar Ozel 6/10 - Tried his hardest to cause trouble for his opposition in the form of Jay Hooper, but found him a tricky obstacle.

8. Yusuf Ihsanoglu 6/10 - Provided adequate support to the offence, but ultimately didn't do anything that stood out.

9. Caner Turan 7/10 - Grabbed one of the equalising goals and made Talon Claw (and to a lesser extent Chaya Concord-Fourteenth) look poor.

10. Ertan Renda 7/10 - A typically understated, but effective performance from the attacking midfielder. Got an important goal even if it didn't impact the result in the end.

11. Vatan Ercetin 6/10 - Struggled to get anything going in terms of goalscoring but showed he was more than a pure poacher and got involved in the build up play.

Substitutes:

18. Beyhan Enver 6/10 - Came on in relief of Ozbek and managed to hold his own, Sydney Hardin has a noticeably easier time against him.

21. Berkin Batuk 6/10 - A rare cameo appearance. He didn't have much impact, but showed flashes of his athleticism.

22. Mehmet Karaman 6/10 - A last roll of the dice from the manager, he managed to get into one threatening position, but failed ultimately to provide a goal.

(Wo)Man of the Match: Sydney Hardin - She put in a consistently excellent performance and tried her hardest to make Ozbek Sarikaya's life a misery. The fact she was able to get a goal and cause trouble despite the fact that Ozbek more than challenged her and had a good game of his own is only testament to the quality of play she was able to bring to the table.

Our editorial staff have recovered from their mistake in match day 1 and have now got the result right 2 matches in a row, if it wasn't for the national team's offensive potency they would have 7 rather than 4 points.

Schedule and editor's predictions with the results so far:
MD1: vs Kavagrad, Manat School Sports Centre, L 0-2, Result: D 1-1
MD2: @ Kiryu-shi, W 1-0, Result: W 4-3
MD3: Bye
MD4: vs 95X, Tim-Enerji Park, L 0-3, Result: L 2-3
MD5: @ Balqia D 2-2
MD6: vs Valanora, Hisar School Field of Excellence, L 1-4
MD7: @ Lavize D 1-1
MD8: @ Kavagrad L 1-3
MD9: vs Kiryu-shi, Maden-Is Stadium W 2-0
MD10: Bye
MD11: @ 95X L 0-4
MD12: vs Balqia, Manat School Sports Centre D 1-1
MD13: @ Valanora L 0-4
MD14: vs Lavize, Belediye Park W 1-0

Total points won: 4

The next match: The next match will see the national team travel to Balqia who occupy the spot above them in the standings and who are coming of a solid 3-1 victory. The national team will need to pick themselves up from this disappointment quickly and go to face yet another team that is far ahead of them in the world rankings, this time without the benefit of a playing at home. The starting XI will be identical to the one that started against 95X.

[Barunia]

Position Vacant

Governing Department: Federal Department of Tourism, Events, and Leisure

Employer: Barunian Football Association

Job Title: Head Coach, Barunian National Football Team

Job Description: The Head Coach will be responsible for all aspects of coaching and managing the Barunian national football team, including scheduling and running training and coaching sessions, developing team strategies, and typical game day duties. The Head Coach will work closely with other members of the support team, the players, and the Association to deliver the expected outcomes.

Selection Criteria:
The successful applicant should
• Have experience relevant to managing and coaching a football team currently ranked at 33 in the World Rankings. Relevant experience may include the management of an international team of a similar or higher rank, a domestic team in a high-ranked league, or experience as a player in a similar team.
• Demonstrate knowledge and effective use of suitable training methods and techniques to develop the skills of the professional footballer.
• Display innovation and insight in developing effective strategies and formations that win football matches.
• Demonstrate effective communication skills suitable to working with a player group.
• Demonstrate strong leadership skills suitable to managing a support team.

Applicants should submit a written response, outlying their suitability to meet the criteria. The response should be submitted along with an up-to-date curriculum vitae, to the address below:

Department of Human Resources
Barunian Football Association
2 Ruskin Avenue,
Porthaven 1003, HV
BARUNIA

Applications should be submitted no later than August 18th. The successful applicant would be expected to take up their role prior to the commencement of the 83rd World Cup.

[Krytenia]

Mariner Navigates The HUE Forward
By Rami Niblick in Ashton

COME in number six, your time is up. Murray Schwarzkopf, following his disastrous display against Mercedini, may just have seen his international career spring a leak and sink under the waves. Alexander Sampson picked the twenty-year-old Stephen Mariner ahead of the Stanton man for the game against HUElavia, and Mercia's young midfielder grabbed the chance with a peerless performance in the middle of the park.

Defensive frailties, however, still exist, and that will be a worry for Sampson. He does seem to have some bead on the scale of the situation, though. After the visitors took advantage of an early mistake from Gareth Brannan, and almost got a second within twenty minutes thanks to the captain being in a different time zone to the action, the manager had seen enough. Ellis Ducaine-Petit was brought on for Brannan, who angrily tossed his armband at the bench as he trudged off the field. Sadly, it didn't quite staunch the flow, as the HUElavians exploited gaps left by the wandering Thomas Scott to double the lead before half-time. That's not to say that Krytenia didn't have chances; far from it. A Jake Hansen free-kick rattled the bar on thirty-one minutes, whilst Chris Naismith, now wearing the captain's armband, was denied only by a fine fingertip save. The debuting Mariner, too, came close, playing a fine one-two ith Selaphiel Kennedy before firing his shot agonisingly just wide of the post.

It's fair to say that Sampson was about one hundred and ten percent done with his defence at the break. He took a big risk in using his remaining two substitutions to replace Scott and Matthew Gray with Will Vasser and Miguel Torres, trusting his front six to do the rest. Only time will tell if any of Scott, Brannan, or Gray will turn out in the sky and white again.

The changes worked a treat. Krytenia came out for thesecond half playing like a team that finally had trust in their back four, and the marauding Dragons of old came to the fore. Mariner especially looked like a man freed from his shackles, distributing the ball with wilful abandon. He set up Naismith for Krytenia's first, an over the shoulder ball that the Ousevale man latched onto and buried in the bottom corner. With new life in the home team, HUElavia found themselves chasing shadows, and when Joe Hansen whipped a ball in that was only half cleared, who else but Mariner was there to thump the ball home for the equaliser. There only looked to be one winner from thereon in, and when a stray arm blocked a Kennedy shot, the new captain secured the points with a textbook penalty.

With renewed hope and confidence, Krytenia travel to Aurevbush for their next game. The Dragons now lie third in the table, just three points off Mercedini, and will be looking to continue their charge in a game they'll surely be favourites for. Onward!

KRYTENIA - 3
Naismith 48, 77 (p)
Mariner 59

HUELAVIA - 2
Scorer 8
Other Scorer 41

[Port Ember]

Port Ember Times

Disaster strikes the Tridents!

Qusmo 2 - 0 Port Ember

By Erica Davies - Port Ember Times Sports Section

The Tridents have suffered a 2 - 0 loss against footballing giant Qusmo this Monday at the Mastad Tracama stadium, Qusmo as part of the World Cup Qualifier Run.

The highly energised and passionate game managed to ignite the fans in a truly entertaining match. Although the Tridents faced a tough 2 - 0 defeat, they can still hold their heads high and proud, as they played hard and well and clearly gave it their all.

However disaster did struck the young Port Emberian team, as two of their key players picked up injuries during the match, making them unavailable to play for an undetermined period, which will put serious stress on the young team.

Captain Raymond Reddington and star midfielder sustained a injured ankle whilst star striker Danny Nicovic sustained a knee injury. Analysts have determined that the team's loss against Qusmo is not all bad - but the injury loss may spell serious disaster for the team.

The loss of star striker Danny Nicovic could have a serious impact on the entire performance of the team, as he is the main goal scorer for the team, and have managed to bring the team back to wins before where it seemed impossible. His speed, stamina and technical skills will be sorely missed.

Even more critical is the loss of Captain Reddington. His individual skills as a midfielder, equally dominating the field in terms of assisting in defence and creating oppertunities for attack will surely be missed. Even more critically, his organising and rallying skills will leave a massive gap in the Tridents line up.

Post Match Interview with Port Emberian Manager - Stuart Baxter

Erica Davies: "Coach you must feel emotional regarding the loss against Qusmo?"

Stuart Baxter: "Obviously I am not overjoyed that we lost. No sane person will be happy about a loss. But I am not broken because of it. We played a nation who is ranked as the 22nd best team in the world, with years of experience and infrastructure and faced them on their own turf. We - a rookie team with almost no international exposure still managed to put up a world class show, and lost a 2 - 0 game where we can hold our heads high. We entered this Qualifier Run to gain exposure and grow as a team, and thats exactly what we did today."

Erica Davies: "You have been qouted a few times saying that you are not in this run with the expectations to actually qualify, but to grow as a team. Some critics are saying you are merely using it as an excuse. Thoughts on this?"

Stuart Baxter: "Indeed I do. I could not care less what those critics are saying. They do not see the big picture. We are attempting to build this sport from the ground up to an international level. You cannot do this in one day. Its a long tedious process which takes commitment and sacrifice. I invite those critics to qoute their own opinions next year when our sport has matured a bit because of the groundworking work my lads are doing right now."

Erica Davies: "Thanks for that emotional revelation coach. You have been struck a massive blow with Reddington and Nicovic's injuries. Will this affect the rest of your campaign?"

Stuart Baxter: "It surely is a terrible occurance to lose two of your best players at once indeed, but it is not a campaign stopper. We have bench players ready to step up and fill those massive gaps left open. We will take some time to adjust to the new setup, but no we will not be stopped by this crises."

Erica Davies: "Good to hear! Any idea how long the two players will be out?"

Stuart Baxter: "The lads are still receiving treatment and are under observation. We will not know for sure yet, but its pretty safe to say that they are both out for at least 3 games."

Erica Davies: "I have heard rumours that you blame yourself for their injuries. How so?"

Stuart Baxter: "That is true, I do blame myself for their injuries and the loss against Qusmo.

Before the Baptism of Fire commenced, myself and Neil Strauss invened a scientific routine to keep the lads prepared and rested during back to back matches -a routine I have defended religiously since we went public. Yet I buckled under the pressure of facing such a world class team, and overworked the team. I am pretty sure we lost the game and received those injuries due to the lads being overworked and overtired. And thats my fault. I feel like I have let down these kids and our entire nation with my idiocracy, and blame myself more than any critic ever can."

Erica Davies: "Thank you for the honesty Coach. Well on behalf of the nation, we wish your players a speedy recovery and goodluck for the next game!"

[Nephara]

Nephara 6 - 0 No
(4-4-2) 1 - Ramelow; 18 - Sanger, 5 - Visser, 22 - Brosch, 19 - Rouphos (3 - Katarec 61'); 13 - Kuepper, 15 - Aschenbach (4 - Marchant 73'), 8 - Chalk, 16 - Deventer; 23 - Breremond (9 - Tzorvas 76'), 17 - Bastable
Goals: Deventer 11', Breremond 31', Bastable 47' 66', Tzorvas 83', Kuepper 90+2'

THE HERALD
CAMPAIGN SEASON OFFICIALLY BEGINS WITH PRO DEMS IN DRIVER'S SEAT
Luna Giesler

As the federal election campaign formally begins in Nephara, Margrave Florian Pritchard could well become the first modern-era head of state to have his reign cut short at just a single three-year term.

Pritchard's Nationals have polled poorly throughout his tenure, and after a perceived weak response to the Brenecian crisis of democracy, have slumped to a two-party preferred rating of just 43%. Granted, the relevance of such a metric is in doubt, given the strong polling of the Liberal Alliance under Sherry Garnett.

The Alliance had the chance to play kingmaker last time around for the Nationals, which arguably worked to the detriment of Pritchard's party. The Alliance have succeeded in most of their key goals, somewhat liberalising the Nepharim economy and achieving massive success with global and regional policy, benefiting from a united front while Rushmori-sceptic elements are present in both major parties.

While a majority for the Alliance - though they achieved the strongest results of any party in the CRC elections - is beyond reasonable reach, it is not unlikely that they could once again play a deciding role in the election. This is narrowing down as the Nationals' only viable route to power, and would keep Nepharim government approximately in step with Eura's.

Althea Carrick, meanwhile, has driven her party in opposition to a commanding lead in the polls, and also leads Pritchard in the Preferred Margrave stakes by a commanding 62:38. Carrick's explosive rhetoric, down-to-earth background and continuation of former Margravine Aurelia Fern's global reinterpretation of a hard-left stance have proven popular, and she has been successful in brutalising the rest of her party to fall in line.

While the Alliance and Nationals make for relatively natural bedfellows, Carrick has not ruled out a red-yellow coalition. With the protectionist elements of her own party curtailed, they could unite on foreign policy, perhaps more naturally than the somewhat hawkish Nationals.

As for the minor parties, the Returners hope to make an imprint into Barossia, hoping that a message of protectionism will cut through to once-safe Pro Dem territory. That said, Returner MP Bastian Flaxland's comments in Parliament two wees ago that seemed to argue for an invasion of Brenecia have painted the party in a more negative light. Green left Moving Forward's vote is set to recede somewhat, while the Libertarians could find themselves wiped out altogether.

One thing is for certain, however. The Liberal Alliance are not going away. The days where Nepharim politics could be summarised as just red vs. blue are behind us.

NEPHARIM NATIONAL TEAM SELECTION - FORTNIGHT 3
Goalkeepers: 1 - Andreas Swoboda (Holdenberg, EUR), 12 - Hesterine Mercator (Eastweald, COS), 20 - Apostolos Tsattalios (Falourr, EUR)
Defenders: 2 - Eloise Kielseng (Kingsgrove, BRE), 3 - Marcin Close (Brinemouth), 5 - Roxelana Thorn (Revolutionaries, EUR), 6 - Dragora Steelhenge (Ramusok United, COS), 18 - Anita Sanger (Rammsissil, VIL), 19 - Nike Rouphos (Chenoworth Harriers), 22 - Ilyana Brosch (AFC Corvistone)
Midfielders: 4 - Tawny Shone (Sabrefell Moths), 7 - Ishtar Fanaiyan (Eastweald, COS), 8 - Malachi Chalk (Falourr, EUR), 11 - Rowena Strongbow (Directus, EUR), 13 - Monako Saroszi (Ulsa, EUR), 15 - Circe Rosenthal (Directus, EUR), 16 - Morena Deventer (Brinemouth), 21 - Chimera Moxham (Crawford City FC, COS)
Forwards: 9 - Estrella Hawke (Directus, EUR, c), 10 - Aristide Metzger (AFC Treason), 14 - Arista Tzorvas (Olympic Thessia, MYT), 17 - Kurtis Bastable (Hornchurch, EUR), 23 - Cheney Breremond (Vermillion Rage)

SCHEDULE
Nephara 5 - 3 Orion Islands @ Phoenix Rise (Corvistone)
Ethane 1 - 3 Nephara
[Bye] (Friendly: Ceyne Isles 1 - 3 Nephara)
Nephara 6 - 0 No @ Ludd's Hammer (Stahlburg)
Geisenfried vs. Nephara
Nephara vs. Kandonica @ Godswatch (Crisisbless)
Geektopia vs. Nephara
Orion Islands vs. Nephara
Nephara vs. Ethane @ Farham Arena (Sabrefell)
[Bye]
No vs. Nephara
Nephara vs. Geisenfried @ The Gauntlet (Treason)
Kandonica vs. Nephara
Nephara vs. Geektopia @ Eagle's Club (Brinemouth)

[Brenecia]

Lepolanatnessffiria 0 - 3 Brenecia
(4-4-2) 20 - Farrell; 18 - Weaver (2 - Marquess 78'), 22 - Horgan, 6 - Mathers, 19 - Prentice; 15 - Cheney, 21 - Staunton (4 - Townsend 63'), 8 - Matheson, 16 - Fletcher; 17 - Bremner, 23 - Carrick
Goals: Carrick 36', Matheson 70', Bremner 78'

Ceynes 0 - 3 Brenecia
(4-4-2) 1 - Kenway; 2 - Marquess, 22 - Horgan, 5 - Grayndler, 3 - Tambor; 7 - Garrard, 4 - Townsend, 13 - Locke, 11 - Corvey; 10 - Strider (9 - Kennedy 54'), 14 - Lindauer
Goals: Lindauer 57', Locke 65', Horgan 87'

The following article is held on the Rozelle Observer's archives, but is no longer available for public viewing. It was put up at 3.25pm local time, and taken down by an administrator seventeen minutes later, though not before being widely circulated and spread across the internet. Miss Woods appears to have been quietly removed from the staff listing on the Observer.

THE ROZELLE OBSERVER
Brenecian military 'prepared for regional security role': key general Blackwood
Lilith Woods

In comments that will raise alarm bells across Esportiva, senior General Dorian Blackwood announced earlier today that the military was now fit for purpose in a regional security role.

Speaking to a press conference that had been cherry-picked for institutions favourable to Prime Minister Clarisse Ward's freshly-rebranded Conservative People's Party, Blackwood was bullish about return on the significant military investment in recent years.

Blackwood did not hold back on the state of the military prior to these reforms, describing it as a 'laughing-stock' armed with 'sticks, rocks and castoffs', rife with corruption throughout every rank. If he is to be believed, it is suddenly ready and willing to turn fights around the world.

The timing of the announcement has not gone unnoticed, coming as it does in the wake of instability in Mareibat, a nation with some level of ties to Brenecia, and facing similar troubles to those Ward suppressed here. One has to wonder, however, if Brenecian jackboots will be as welcome on foreign shores, particularly when unasked for.

Prime Minister Ward, who has only just returned from a visit to the vulnerable island of Ceynes that she is eager to tempt out of the Nepharim sphere of influence, has gone relatively unscathed in the international press, largely due to the excesses of outright fascists such as the Covellan demagogue Carter Redwin.

But eventually, her constant posturing in front of a refurbished military, her egotistical rebrands, her courting of the Brenecian crown and her hawkish rhetoric will bring widespread attention to this grey island, and she carries significant risk of falling flat in the face of any significant pressure at all.

Brenecia is broke. Austerity is cutting poor urban citizens to the bone. Our freedoms that we once took for granted in a liberal democracy are eroding. We are at risk of becoming a failed state. It is difficult to see how thinly-veiled threats to go abroad and kill rioters will be a salve to these issues.

But then, as Prime Minister Ward continues to insist, she doesn't do things the usual way.

BRENECIAN NATIONAL TEAM SELECTION - FORTNIGHT 3
Goalkeepers: 1 - Rostyn Calhoun (Wexax United, VAL), 12 - Lenore Drummond (Rozelle), 20 - Cass Farrell (Northern Union)
Defenders: 2 - Keziah Broxham (Mallox, COS), 3 - Gethin Quill (Revolutionaries, EUR), 5 - Cheney Heneghan (Carsby, EUR), 6 - Garwyn Varney (Soldarian FC, VAL), 18 - Erica Weaver (North Hall), 19 - Morwen Prentice (Crystal Fair HC, CRY), 22 - Garrett Horgan (Northern Union)
Midfielders: 4 - Catsidhe Alweather (Eastal Lunar, VIL), 7 - Brae Crowther (Chenoworth Harriers, NPH), 8 - Elysse Matheson (Hornchurch, EUR), 11 - Cathal Keynes (Lajuno, EUR), 13 - Corby Wheeler (Goldstaff City, COS), 15 - Lauren Cheney (Kingsgrove), 16 - Ceridwen Fletcher (North Hall), 21 - Falcon Case (Barbury Town, APX)
Forwards: 9 - Griffin Riordan (Klyde, COS), 10 - Kara Ciogach (Southern Star), 14 - Creidne Lindauer (Kingsgrove), 17 - Niall Bremner (Unioneers, EUR), 23 - Vesuvia Carrick (Atletik Thessia, MYT)

SCHEDULE
Islas Aaland 0 - 4 Brenecia
Brenecia 0 - 1 Polkopia
Lepolanatnessffiria 0 - 3 Brenecia
[Bye] (Friendly: Ceyne Isles 0 - 3 Brenecia)
Brenecia vs. Hapilopper
Damukuni vs. Brenecia
Brenecia vs. Bolgano
Brenecia vs. Islas Aaland
Polkopia vs. Brenecia
Brenecia vs. Lepolanatnessffiria
[Bye]
Hapilopper vs. Brenecia
Brenecia vs. Damukuni
Bolgano vs. Brenecia

[Port Ember]

Port Ember Times

The Tridents prepares to face off against Far Wor Eryunce

Pre Match Analysis & Interview

By Erica Davies - Port Ember Times Sports Section

Port Ember will face off against Far Wor Eryunce in their fourth match of the World Cup Qualifier run this Tuesday, to be played at the Trident's homegroud, Waterstad International Stadium, a 90 000 seater stadium located in the Waterstad Borough of Port Ember Megalopolis.

Team Stats Analysis

Far Wor Eryunce:

This team has played 3 matches so far as part of the World Cup Qualifier Run, in which they have lost them all against San José Guayabal, Qusmo and Euran Oceania Territories. This team is currently unranked on the world rankings, with not much known about their footballing history or infrastructure. For the qualifier run they have played one less match than Port Ember and have scored a total of 2 goals and allowed 7 goals to be scored against them.

Port Ember:

This team has played 14 total international matches so far, of which they won 11 matches, drew 1 and lost 2 matches. Their Qualifier Run is looking good so far, with one loss, one draw and two wins against Qusmo, Competetive Solitaire and San José Guayabal respectively, all very strong teams. The Tridents is currently ranked as the 186th best team in the world.

From a pure statistics point of view, the next match is solid in favour for Port Ember, as they are having a good run, being placed against their bottom table opponents, who have genuinely struggled so far in this run. Port Ember will also enjoy the home ground advantage.

Team Analysis - Port Ember

Offense: The technical offensive skills of the team is on suberb form. The chemistry between their starting striker duo and their midfield creates amazing attacking oppertunities. Also their signature 'Bait Ambush' tactic is still a highly effective tactic, proven to be effective at this level of football. It remains to be seen whether this team can still perform this well in this aspect with their star striker Nicovic being unavailble to play due to injury.

Midfield: Traditionally the strongest component of this team, under command of the amazing Reddington. However sincr he was injured, this sector is a question mark, and we wonder if the midfield will hold up without him.

Defence: The backline has grew into a true iron wall of defence. They have howevered shown some cracks when put under constant pressure in their last matches, and will need some work leading up to the physical upcoming match.

Goalkeeping: Analysts have nothing but praise for Peter Smith the starting goalie. The young man is a legend in the making.

Substitutes: The team has a impressive line-up of substitutes, whom have received field time recently, adding possible depth to the team when needed. The extra attention they have received from the assistant coach is sure to play a important role as well.

Team Morale & Cohesion: The 4 year youth program is paying off dividends, as the team has excellent cohesion and on-the-field chemistry. The last defeat against Qusmo and the injury of their two best players might have a negative impact on team morale.

Current Form:The team is on good form, having a overall good Qualifier Run so far. It remains to be seen whether their previous loss, and the injuries of their two best players will have an impact on them.

Typical Gameplan: Their typical system of tiring out and frustrating their opponents in an attempt to pull their 'Bait Ambush' is a risky play which can easily go wrong and concede a goal. However when it works, it is highly effective, and so far this is still effective on this level so far.

Starting Line-Ups

Port Ember

Goalkeeper (GK)(#1): Peter Smith.

Center Back (CB)(#2): Josh Richards.

Center Back (CB)(#3): Jason Lee.

Full Back (LB)(#4): Alex Kuhn.

Full Back (RB)(#5): Russel Pierce.

Attacking Midfield (AM)(#18): William Carvello.

Defensive Midfield (DM)(#6): Steven Packard.

Wide Midfield (LM)(#8): Jason Chamberlain

Wide Midfield (RM)(#11): Steve Rogers.

Central Forward (CF)(#7): Leon Moult.

Central Forward (CF)(#22): Ryan Bowman.

The line up remains the same, except for Reddingtom having been replaced by Carvello, and Danny Nicovic being replaced by Bowman. The Temporary Captain position has been given to Jason Lee.

Team Kit

Port Ember have announced that they will play with their main kit in their upcoming match.

Pre Match Interview with Port Emberian Coach - Stuart Baxter

Erica Davies: Morning Coach. You are from a unfortunate defeat against Qusmo. Will that have an effect on the team tomorow?

Stuart Baxter: Morning Erica. Indeed it will have an effect - we have played admirably against one of the best teams in the world - we have learned a lot. So, as an effect, we will be stronger than ever for our next match!

Erica Davies: Are you worried about the next game?

Stuart Baxter: I am not terribly worried no. We have done the analysis and the math - we will certainly be expected to win our next game. However as I said before, there are no easy games on this level, so we are goimg in hard.

Erica Davies: So for the next game, any changes in your gameplan, based on your opponents play?

Stuart Baxter: There is obviously a weakness or two which I have noticed from the other team, which we will hammer upon, but we will not change our overall play, besides fixing a mistake or two which we have noticed in our previous match.

Erica Davies: Good awnser! Lastly, prediction for the upcoming match?

Stuart Baxter: I know many of our fans and analysts alike are worried due to the injuries of Reddingron and Nicovic, and feels that we are in deep trouble due to that, but I dissagree. All of our players are talented and hard working and used to our system. I am personally going to push the lads for a 2 -0 victory tomorow.

[Dreamplanet]

CRISIS

6 points behind the leaders, was the dream one step too far?

The time is running out for Os Tricores, they were expected to be fighting up there with Eura and Ko-oren, and after this, Dreamplanet would be back in third place, unfortunately with a 6 point gap, as the squad continues to implode, is it time to Dreamplanet to just forget about it?

Dreamplanet were still seen as the favourites to beat the unranked nation, although they could've predicted a tough match, they still tried to crush Flavovespia with relentless attacks, however none of the attacks would work, Luis Silva had a point-blank header hit the crossbar in the 35th minute and Miguel Benedito's close-range shot was parried away shortly after, Flavovespia had seemingly taken a step back this half, knowing that Dreamplanet had something to prove and they would tire themselves out, seemingly using Dreamplanet's very own tactic against them.

The second half would really ring the alarm bells when Scott Coleman put the home team ahead following a through ball being slotted past Filipe Vaz, not the first time this happened but Dreamplanet didn't expect to get held back by Flavovespia, this really put Os Tricores in a state of panic as the team became disorganised and nervous, trying frantically to attack that at one point Luis Silva had to bark positioning and where to be to his teammates as the team was so disorganised, Rodrigo Vaz looked shellshocked on the sidelines as the final whistle drew near and Dreamplanet were still losing, however hope would come when Luis Silva scored in the 81st minute from a tap-in following Miguel Benedito's cross, Benedito himself had a chance to give Dreamplanet the win when he was set through on goal, rounded David Meehan but hit the post and went out for a goal kick, Miguel Benedito fell to the floor and had to be consoled and raised back up so that Meehan could take the goal kick, and the result would stay at 1-1.

Dreamplanetian fans later heard the worst case scenario that Ko-oren and Eura both won their games, putting Dreamplanet 6 points behind them, however the squad is still trying to get a much needed win, falling here was unthinkable but they simply couldn't get the goal that won it, are Os Tricores going to fall even lower or is it possible that they can recover and deliver when they need to, if not, should we be filing our Cup of Harmony applications?

Dreamplanet 1 - 1 Flavovespia
(Luis Silva 81' - 64' Scott Coleman)
Libon, Dreamplanet

Fixtures:
August 1st - MD1: Western Bjornaic 2-6 Dreamplanet
August 2nd - MD2: Dreamplanet 3-4 Eura 
August 4th - MD3: Ko-oren 3-2 Dreamplanet 
August 5th - MD4: Dreamplanet 1-1 Flavovespia
August 6th - MD5: Torisakia vs Dreamplanet
August 9th - MD6: Bye
August 10th - MD7: Dreamplanet vs Freeport
August 12th - MD8: Dreamplanet vs Western Bjornaic
August 13th - MD9: Eura vs Dreamplanet
August 14th - MD10: Dreamplanet vs Ko-oren
August 16th - MD11: Flavovespia vs Dreamplanet
August 17th - MD12: Torisakia vs Dreamplanet
August 19th - MD13: Bye
August 21st - MD14: Freeport vs Dreamplanet

Group M                             Pld   W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
1 Eura                               4    3   1   0    12    6   +6    10
2 Ko-oren                            4    3   1   0     6    3   +3    10
3 Dreamplanet                        4    1   1   2    12   10   +2     4
4 Torisakia                          3    1   1   1     6    6    0     4
5 Freeport                           3    1   1   1     2    2    0     4
6 Flavovespia                        3    0   1   2     6    9   −3     1
7 Western Bjornaic                   3    0   0   3     4   12   −8     0

Qualified for World Cup
Qualified for Playoffs
Eliminated

[Bolgano]

Three defeat, will there be hope at the end of the darkness?

The story of another defeat, the third one for us and the teasing that has happened has caused the current coach of Bolgano to be dismissed from his position by changing for the coach of the national league champion team, Fedek ASS his coach Thomas Keckly will take the destination of this selection after the defeat against Aaland Islands 3-1.

[The Macabees]

THE WITCH EMELIE,V
Previous: I, II. III, IV

When she arrived at Donal Jerispo's door, Janis turned the handle only to find it was locked. She knocked. From inside, she heard someone clear their throat — it sounded feminine.

"Y-yes?" she heard a man ask.

Frowning, she replied, "It's Janis Mariko."

"Uh, just a minute," said the same voice back to her.

When the door opened, she saw Emelie, who was finishing wiping something off of her lips. Janis' eyed narrowed at the sight of the evil woman and, when the doctor said 'hi,' the analyst responded, "Oh, don't you 'hi' me. I'm about to get you fired! What you did to Dario is beyond words!"

"Oh?" Emelie looked confused. "Dario? That creep? He got what he deserved. Besides, you should hate Frapto and Klasos, not me."

"Frapto and Klasos? The players?" asked Janis, perplexed.

Emelie giggled. "Yep, they've been messing with Dario all week."

"Why?" Janis' hands were on her hips now.

Emelie shrugged. "Ask them." With that, she walked by Janis and left.

The analyst turned her attention to Donal, who was sitting behind his desk. She thought she had caught him zipping up his pants, but she wasn't sure. Emelie had taken up all of her attention for the moment. But, now she stormed into the room before the Director could say anything about it. With stern voice, she said, "You need to re-hire Dario. He did nothing bad."

"Um," started Donal, "well, first of all, take a seat." He gestured to the chair on the other side of his desk.

"I won't be sitting where Emelie sat. That's an insult to me," she replied.

"She wasn't sitt — nevermind." He hid a mischievous smile. "Take a seat, now, Ms. Mariko." She did as she was told. "First of all, thank you for coming to my office. I'm glad we have this opportunity to talk. Second of all, I know Dario is your friend, but it was brought to my attention that he had been harassing some of the female staff. The Imperial Football Team of the Golden Throne cannot accept that sort of behavior and the course of action I took was the fairest, without being unduly harsh on Mr. Gertona. Trust me, the punishment could have been a lot worse. But, now he will have a chance to restart his life...doing something else. His skills are highly coveted, I'm sure it won't take him long to find a new job."

"By 'some of the female staff,' you must mean Emelie," retorted Janis.

The Director cleared his throat. "I'm not at liberty to reveal that, Ms. Mariko. Those kinds of details are revealed to me under the confidence of anonymity."

Then something struck Janis all of a sudden. "Wait a minute," she said, "what was Emelie doing here? This seat was cold. She wasn't sitting here. What was she doing, Mr. Jerispo?"

Laughing nervously, the Director replied, "Don't be silly."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Uh," he said, clearing his throat again, "look, I'm very busy. I need to get back to work."

But, Janis wasn't done. "Emelie has been sleeping with the players. I know that for a fact. Are you going to do anything about it?"

"That too has been brought to my attention," said Donal. "I have already spoken to the relevant party. I cannot repeat what I said or what actions I took, but know that they have been disciplined in the right and proper way, again without being unduly harsh. The same courtesy must be extended to them as I extended it to Dario."

"Courtesy?" she spat. "Did you offer Dario the opportunity to suck your — nevermind." She smirked.

Red-faced, Donal rose and pointed out the door, yelling, "MS. MARIKO, GET OUT!"

She stood, but before she stormed out, she said, ominously, "You will all pay for this. You will all get what's coming!"

"GET OUT!" he repeated, this time more frantic than the last.

This time, she did exactly that, but not before she looked at him one last time with utter contempt, and said, "I quit."

As she walked out, Donal yelled from inside his office, "And take Dario's things with you while you're at it!"

I will! She thought to herself. Fists curled up into furious little balls, she marched her way downstairs to the analysts' room. There, everyone looked at her while she packed up her belongings — and Dario's, too. Without saying a word, she put every last thing in a box and then made her way out of the building with as much dignity as possible.

Janis wondered if she should go to him now. Dario must surely want his things. But, no, he had been treating her poorly lately and he was most obviously still obsessed with the whore witch Emelie. She would have to capture his attention to win his love. So, as she made her way to her car, she thought about what exactly she'd do. What would impress him? What would get him to finally realize that she, Janis, was the woman he needed. Her thoughts traveled from Dario, to Emelie, to Klasos and Frapto, and then back to Dario. As she took the seat in the back of the automobile, the engine self-started, and the vehicle's AI began moving it forward, the solution came to her.

[Timuria]

Under Qualified Chapter 4:

Iskender tugged at his button down shirt. He wondered why he even came to his cousin's wedding, he didn't even like him. His parents insisted he come. Boredom took over rapidly after the ceremony and he found himself at a hotel bar in Demir. Quite a luxurious one, even by the standards of the capital. A lot of foreigners walked by, all carrying bags filled with what he assumed were souvenirs. He sipped at his beer and sighed, the past match made him wonder if he might have done better than Saban. He knew he was a good goalkeepers, but hadn't he performed better in the Baptism of Fire than him? Even accounting for that game.

He saw a redheaded woman from behind and smiled, sure he wasn't a starter, but he could still have a bit of fun. He walked up to her and cleared his throat, "Hi, if I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me?"

The woman turned in her green dress, her eyes looked into his before she burst out laughing, "I'm so, sorry. Did you rehearse that?" She continued to laugh uproariously at his ham-fisted attempt at a pick up line.

"No, no practice, just natural charisma. I'm Iskender, one of the goalkeepers for the national team." He extended his hand as the laughter was suddenly cut off.

"Aren't you the goalkeeper who lost the Baptism of Fire quarter final?"

He paused and hummed as he looked away awkwardly, "I prefer to think I un-won that game, lost is such an ugly word."

The girl stood up and smiled falsely at him, "Well why don't you call me when you figure out how to win that game." She swiftly departed as Iskender digested what had just happened.

"B-but wait you didn't even give me your-" He stopped and sighed, sitting on a stool as he stewed over his failure.

"Wow that was terrible." He jumped startled as he looked at the other redheaded woman in the bar, "Oh. You're the personal security lady right?"

Rabia nodded, "Yeah. So what are you doing here?"

Bekir walked in and saw the conversation unfolding and came up to the chatting pair, "Iskender, what are you... never mind hi Rabia!" He couldn't stop himself from dumbly smiling at her.

Iskender smirked and stood up, "Hey coach, I'll leave you to it."

Bekir nodded gratefully, "Thanks, hey I need to talk to you." He pulled Iskender aside, "I know you've been frustrated, it's showing in training when you're not violating team rules. I know people are still mad at you about that game, it doesn't have to be the end of your career internationally if you don't want it to be."

Iskender was left stunned by the assessment as he wandered out of the hotel, musing upon this odd sense of having a coach who believed in him.

***

The team sat in the meeting room, a little preemptively embarrassed by what they knew was coming before their tactical analysis session. Bekir walked in flanked by two officials from the Football Federation and looked at his assembled players. "Well I am speechless." The players looked shiftily around, "You're all very lucky that the player who did this deleted the post before anyone important saw it or had the sense to screenshot it." The faceless bureaucrat accompanying him to his left handed him 23 sheets of paper. "I can't believe we need to have one of these explicitly signed by all of you. A group of 23 fully grown adults. But this is your new social media policy. I don't care what you do when you're not with the team, but when you're here you're to follow these guidelines. Now in my dreams we never have to have this conversation again or refer to this document which your all about to sign, but to help my dream come true, we're going to go over all of the stuff you guys have been up to that's not allowed anymore."

A projector was switched on and a post with the name of the player censored appeared. They were using very explicit language about a female player on the other team. "So to spare the player in question embarrassment, but I don't and the people of this country don't need to see any of you talking about whether parts of a person's anatomy bounce or not. You're not 18. Except Iskender who bizarrely is the only player not to have violated any of the items in this agreement recently." He brandished the wad of paper before handing it to Beyhan who took one and passed it along.

He moved onto another which showed a screenshot of a video taken by the team where they applied a hot brand shaped like a wolf to the rear end of a fan who asked them to. "So aside from this being unsanitary and potentially a lawsuit waiting to happen, I don't want to see any of you posting content that involve." He paused and coughed, "Any intimate part of a person being exposed, or branded for that matter." He took a deep breath as he saw the players signing having read the paper, or at least he hoped they read it. "When we play together, it's business okay. I'm not saying you can't have fun, but don't be vulgar or needlessly offensive okay?"

The team looked suitably cowed and nodded in agreement, a few mumbled "Yes coach."

"Great, lets make my dream a reality and never put me in a position where I have to speak about this again or bother our legal department. One infraction from today and you're off the team. Understood?"

"Yes coach!" The team replied much more enthusiastically, from a combination of fear and a desire to leave this awkward conversation behind them.

***

After the match against 95X

Bekir and Senol stayed behind in Tim-Enerji Park's manager's office, which was kindly lent to them for the match. Bekir was still seething over the decision that in his mind stole a point from his team. He sipped on the water he had poured for himself and almost pouted as Senol broke the silence, "So I spoke with the press like you asked."

Bekir clenched his jaw, "Good. I wasn't in any state to speak with them."

"Want to tell me why you're so worked up? Not like we were planning to win that game or even get a draw."

"It's because we were in a position to get a point, really show people that we mean business and then... that happens and I don't think it was a penalty."

Senol hummed sympathetically, "Bekir, everyone thinks it was a penalty. Even the players do. It's just you who doesn't. What's really going on?"

Bekir leaned back on the chair, "Fine maybe it was a penalty, but I reacted that way, because the team didn't even fight their case when the penalty was given. They just took it. We can't win if we have no fight in us."

"So... you want players to argue with refs and fight all the time?"

"No, but it showed a lack of toughness I don't like. Look why did we do well in that match?"

"What do you mean."

"Look, we lost right, but everyone thought we'd lose 3 maybe 4 nil. Why did we do so well?"

A pause. The silence filled the room as Senol tried to figure out the answer he wanted to hear.

"God you really are a stats person. We did well because we didn't respect them. But as soon as a decision went against us, rightly, maybe. We folded and showed no fight. We deserved to lose for that alone."

Senol swallowed and thought upon what the manager was saying, "Look I just don't think you should be angry. We didn't play poorly." He stood up, "In fact I think a lot of people will look at that game, up until you decided it was wise to argue publicly and think you managed that game almost perfectly. Especially with the players we have. Think about that when we're playing the next match." Senol left, gently closing the door behind him.

Bekir leaned back again and grabbed his hair in frustration, he couldn't grasp why he was acting out all of a sudden. It was as if something was pushing him. He could feel energetic one moment, lethargic and uninterested the next. It didn't help that he was hardly sleeping anymore. He collected his bag and locked the office behind him sighing to himself, "Onto the next match I suppose."

[Hapilopper]

Capital Stadium, Hapilopper City
World Cup Qualifying Match 4: Hapilopper vs. Lepolanatnessffiria
Members of the Hapilopper National Football Team looked at a whiteboard in the locker room, to find a different starting lineup from one they were used to, and a different subs’ list, too. Ernie Stevenson was not starting, nor was he a designated substitute for the match. In his place was Patrick Morris, the striker from Pinkerton City. Patrick hadn’t seen much playing time, and now was a good time for him to perform for his fellow countrymen.

Bobby East and Murray Hunnisett had also been benched in favor of Steve Swindlehurst and Brandon Herbert, while Cooter Harris would be replaced with Colt Delaney. There was no hard feelings, and it was no negative reflection on any of these players. The fact was, Thom Perkins was of the opinion that he couldn’t afford to lose any of his top players in a match against a last-place team, especially right before a match against Brenecia, the 9th ranked team in the world. Sure, they would disappoint a few people at Capital Stadium, but the fact was, it was much better than one of the top players on the team turning a knee the wrong way and seriously injuring themselves.

“Nothing against any of you,” Thom said. “We’ll need you guys at 100 percent against Brenecia.”

When the match started, it was clear that the Haps didn’t have their foot fully on the gas. They didn’t need to go all-out against a team like Lepolanatnessffiria that had a solid lock on last place in the group. They didn’t need to run up the score and they didn’t need to showboat excessively. But they also didn’t need to give them too many chances. The substitute players handled their roles quite well, while the typical starting players enjoyed their day off on the sidelines. The 66,000 watching at Capital Stadium knew the substitute players were on the pitch rather than some of their nation’s best, and they understood. All of them were looking to the Brenecia match as the one to watch.

All things considered, the match was nondescript, if you could call it that. The only goal of the match came from Patrick Morris with an assist from Brandon Herbert in the 11th minute. Hapilopper led 1-0 for the rest of the way, and it seemed as if their opponents provided little, if any resistance. Theoretically, the Haps could have won the match 9-0 or 10-0 if their foot was fully on the gas. However, a player could have wound up getting injured too, had they played all-out when they clearly didn’t need to.

It was the fourth straight win for the Haps in the World Cup qualifiers, and the 14th consecutive victory for the team overall, going back to the start of the Baptism of Fire. The team was very clearly firing on all cylinders, and was operating as a unit, with most dissension pretty much quelled. The players were getting along famously, even those that had experienced past issues in the domestic Hapilopper Football Association. They would need to get along as a unit, too, as their toughest challenges were ahead of them.

The victory, however, was not as well received among some as other victories, primarily due to the fact that, one, Hapilopper only beat their opponent 1-0, and two, the match took on a much lower tempo than other matches had taken. This would have been a fantastic opportunity for Ernie Stevenson to make one of his famous promises and then live up to them. This would have been a fantastic opportunity for a Hapiloppian to score in the first 30 seconds of the match and then pour it on. But none of that happened.

In fact, some of that frustration was seen in the media, who asked Thom Perkins why this match appeared to be different from others.

“Well, the fact is, we can’t afford to have one of our players get hurt just prior to a huge match with Brenecia,” he said. “We need Ernie Stevenson, Bobby East, Murray Hunnisett and Cooter Harris to work their magic in that match. What if they get hurt? What if someone breaks an ankle? Brenecia is the toughest team in this group, and we need to be at full strength against them. Period.”

Another reporter asked Thom why the match appeared to be at a slower tempo than other Hapiloppian matches.

“Well, we didn’t need to be pedal-to-the-medal,” Thom replied. “It wasn’t as if we were facing a potent threat at all this match. All we needed to do was get ahead, take the victory and go home. We’ll be going all out against Brenecia, because that’ll be the only way we’ll be able to stay competitive with them.”

The next morning, all of the players, having gathered in the locker room at the team center a few miles away, were getting dressed for the first training session of the day, in preparation for the big match with Brenecia. Many of the players were watching “Sportsmorning”, the morning sports highlights show on H-Sports. Some of the highlights included the recent HASCAR race in Pinkerton, the HC Nationals struggling without Leroy Hunnisett, and Team Blue’s recent performances in the NSSCRA.

And then, a flicker of hope.

The #2 ranked team in the world, Turori, had been defeated by Pratapgadh, the #137 team in the world. The Hapiloppians looked at that report and took it as hope. They were ranked #167 going into the qualifiers, and they were going up against a team ranked ninth. They had seen that an underdog could knock off one of the world’s top footballing powers.

“We can do that,” Murray said to his teammates.

“We sure can,” Ernie said. “Let’s go for it!”

Thom Perkins, meanwhile, was in his office with his coaching staff figuring out a rough draft for their tactics against Brenecia. The door was open in the office, and they were starting to hear some of the loud whooping and cheering among the HNFT footballers. It wasn’t a reaction the coaching staff was expecting to hear at 6:30 in the morning, especially the morning after a match. Typically, the players were reserved before starting training, particularly against a potent opponent.

The first reaction from assistant manager Buddy Martinez was to slam the door shut. But technical director Jim MacNeil and Thom both looked outside to see why their team was so rambunctious this time of morning, and especially against a team like Brenecia.

“Did you see the news?” Murray hollered. “137 beat 2! We can do this!”

“Yeah, well… they did?” Thom said, doing a double-take. “Wow!”

Thom reminded his players to not instantly think this would mean a guaranteed result, and they had to work for that victory, but boy, did that attitude sure go a long way in helping. Rather than worry themselves if they would actually get the job done, the players of the HNFT appeared to be more confident. They appeared to be more hopeful as they trained in the days leading up to the Brenecia match. They had seen that such an upset was possible, and they wanted to make sure they did everything within their powers to make sure they could pull off such an upset.

After all, they had the people of Hapilopper cheering them on. They had that can-do, never-say-die attitude that the Hapiloppians held near and dear to their hearts. If Brenecia did roll over Hapilopper as everyone expected them to do, at least the Haps would have given them the fight of their lives.

Several days later, when it was time for the Haps to fly to Brenecia for their fifth match of the World Cup qualifiers, the team was ready to go. They had smiles on their faces. They had reviewed their plans, re-reviewed them and looked them over again. They had seen game film. They had watched Brenecia’s previous matches to spot any potential holes in their defense and their offense. They had seen what they could do. All Hapilopper needed to do was be at their best on match day, and that was something they were more than happy to do.

[Torisakia]

And welcome to another edition of the Sports With Bort blog, I'm your always humble host Bort Stevens. We're continuing our special report on Torisakia's World Cup 83 campaign that we began earlier. Previously, we talked about Torisakia's 6-4 win over Flavovespia on matchday three of the group stages. Today we would normally be talking about what happened on matchday four around the rest of the event since Torisakia had an off day and be looking ahead at their matchday five game against Dreamplanet. But we have some bigger issues to deal with today.

If some of you were following my posts back during Torisakia's World Bowl 37 run a while back, you'll remember that I talked about receiving an email from someone from Geektopia, that country had all those players and coaches with the weird names that sounded like chemical compounds and pharmaceutical items, with them saying how I was besmirching the Geektopian culture and the "most sensible thing to do is to just abbreviate" and he also made fun of my iconic closing line by saying "This is HR Terinntothol and don’t forget to have common sense". You'll know that I wrote back to him. Calling him names, obscenities, and using a wide range of threats to let him know that I would rain down an ungodly fucking firestorm upon him. He would have to call the World Assembly and get a binding resolution to keep me from destroying him. I was talking scorched earth. I WOULD FUCK HIM UP! I also had my best friend and partner Boharry trace his IP and we doxxed him and leaked his personal info on social media. That showed that little twerp to talk crap and make fun of me. Last I heard he deleted all of his social media accounts, went off the grid, and hasn't been seen in months.

Not long after, a few days later. I got a letter from the Torisakia Bureau of Investigation and the National Office of Security Enforcement stating that I was under investigation for making violent threats over the Internet that crossed country borders and for illegally obtaining personal information and distributing it over the Internet that crossed country borders without permission. The TBI later said that I could potentially face up to 25 years in prison and a T$57000 fine for doing such things and I could even face the death penalty. A few more days went by and eventually the TBI and NOSC cleared me of any wrongdoing because they agreed that the guy who emailed me was an absolute cunt and deserved to have his life ruined. And from then on I heard nothing else of the matter. I assumed that everything was good. I figured I wouldn't be labelled a cyber terrorist and potentially go to 'Buttfuck Penitentiary' or get Murvin'd. But apparently I was wrong. I was horribly wrong.

So this morning at around 6AM, I hear loud banging at my front door. It was the TCTF with a search warrant. As my old friend Soloman Bubbe used to say "Oh no! The moment I dread when the TCTF goes from being cheery to absolutely furious!". I scrambled out of my bed and hid inside my closet and covered myself with all my clothes so they couldn't find me. The TCTF eventually broke down my door and did an entire sweep of my house. They looked in my living room, they looked in my kitchen, in my bathroom, in my attic, in my refrigerator, they even looked in my room. While they were rummaging through my house with all this yelling and crying and the noise of guns loading I was in my closet all shaky and sorry and shuddery feeling bad, feeling worse than bad, terrible, nearly crying. After a few hours of this, they finally left out of my house. They searched every crevice of my home. But they never thought to look in my closet did they? So, they took every thing electronic that I had in my house. My desktop, my laptop, my PauseStation, my yBox, my Pintendo Twitch, and they even took my virtual pet game. So now I have nothing. And there's hundreds of gigabytes of stuff on those devices. Hundreds and hundreds of them. I can only believe that they took it all because of the thing with the TBI and NOSC and the violent threats. So now I'm typing up this post at the studio on some piece of crap laptop from 20 years ago. Worst of all I can't play Tactical Teamfighting anymore. That's a shame I was so close to hitting Silver.

So in essence, I may or may not be going to jail in the next few weeks.

Welp, that's all I have for today. I'll (hopefully) be back with another edition of Sports with Bort soon to discuss the Torisakia-Dreamplanet matchup and preview the next matchup as well as take a look at other happenings around the tournament in other groups. Take care and doesn't this whole thing count as double jeopardy since I was cleared the first time?

[Flavovespia]

Dreamplanet 1–1 Flavovespia

Flavovespia finally got off the mark with an away draw at the third seeds in the group, Dreamplanet. After a close loss to Ko-oren, and a collapse against Torisakia, some will be criticising the team again for another failure to hold onto points, and they were somewhat fortuitous to take a point. Nevertheless, a point is a point, and the change in formation worked well.

Lining up in a 3-5-2, it quickly became a 5-3-2 with the relentless attack of Dreamplanet in the first half. The home team were keen to try and get an early lead, having falling behind to Eura and Ko-oren in Group M. Charles Winward, often a midfielder of an attacking disposition down the left flank, was put under pressure from Antonio Luis down the flank. The 3 central defenders however, meant that the centre forward of Paulo Figueiredo was forced to try and do much more work than expected.

The 35th minute saw Dreamplanet go very close, as Luis Silva rose above Tony Gardner to head the ball. Gardner however had done just enough to get Silva out of position as the ball skimmed off the crossbar. 3 minutes later, and Conor Harrington did well to parry the ball away from the goal. Dreamplanet had the most attacks in the first half, but at the break the game was 0-0.

Going into the second half, Flavovespia looked to try and take the game a bit more to Dreamplanet. An early deflected shot by Steven Hall should have concerned Os Tricores, as he was given too much time to work with. The hosts looked to have struggled to deal with the fact they couldn't get the opener in the first half.

In the 64th minute, Flavovespia grabbed an unexpected lead. Steven Hall got past the defensive midfielder of Paulo Oliveira. He slotted a well timed through ball into the path of Scott Coleman, who beat the offside trap. One on one with Filipe Vaz, Coleman placed his shot low and into the corner, and made it 1-0 to the visitors. There was a breakthrough, but not to the side the crowd expected it to be, and Scott Coleman continued to be the breakout player for the Hornets. Scott Coleman recently confirmed that he's staying at Stanmorn, and the current Super League champions will be pleased with that, based on his World Cup qualifying form.

Dreamplanet looked panicked, they launched more attacks, but seemingly had no positional awareness, and could have been hit on the counter, if Flavovespia had gone with a more attacking setup. Nevertheless, Dreamplanet even in their frantic state were matching Flavovespia in the key areas, and it looked like a nervy finish was in store. This was exacerbated for the Hornets when Harrington limped off following a goal-kick, giving David Meehan his chance to return in goal. Thankfully the #12 only suffered a small strain, but caution was taken by Nick Cole.

Dreamplanet got an 81st minute equaliser. Miguel Benedito, the central midfielder, got a whipped cross in. Luis Silva got ahead of Mark James and Tony Gardner in the box, and the leading scorer for Os Tricores had a simple tap in past Meehan. 1-1, and another late goal was conceded by The Hornets, who now had to hold on for a point with Dreamplanet full of confidence.

Injury time came, and Miguel Benedito caught the defence out of position. Distracted by the run of the strikers, Benedito got around David Meehan with some skillful dribbling. With the home crowd already on their feet in celebration, Benedito hit his shot at the open goal. However in a disastorous moment for him, it hit the post, and rolled out of play. Benedito himself broke down on the pitch, unable to believe the magnitude of his error, and it took the words of his captain Luis Silva to get him back up. Meehan launched his goal-kick downfield, to finish off the game.

1-1 it was, arguably a lucky result for Flavovespia, but having had 2 losses, one of which was to a very strong Ko-oren side, the Hornets will be pleased to finally get off the dread 0 points mark. The next game at home to Freeport in Saints Park and away to Western Bjornaic could be key to seeing if the Hornets join the likes of Dreamplanet, Torisakia and Freeport in the middle of the group, or fight to avoid the wooden spoon. As for Dreamplanet, they seem to have suffered an unfortunate draw for this World Cup qualifying campaign, and now need Eura and Ko-oren to lose form if they stand a chance of qualifying.

Domestic News

Hadford Hill are the team who have opened their proverbial warchest so to speak, with 2 big transfers. As predicted, Malcolm Mackay has left Butterfield Rovers, the 23 year old defender leaves for £22.5 million, and joins Hadford Hill. However, the more surprising transfer was that for £24m, 27 year old midfielder Alan Holt has left Langmere Green Rovers, a professional player for them for a decade, to sign for Hadford Hill. In the press conference to announce the players, Holt thanked his previous club for everything they helped him to achieve, but felt the time was right to make the move. Certainly the transfers are a big outlay for Hadford Hill, and they will need them to pay off to improve and become a powerhouse again.

£24m is the biggest transfer so far, but it is possible either John Lawler, 24, from Butterfield Rovers to Waldster or Sean McClafferty, 22 from Apsbrooke to Stanmorn could beat that if either of those strikers do move teams. The latter rumour is definitely picking up steam since Tony Elvidge of Carston Green was seen in the vicinity of Apsbrooke recently.

Lucky Diamond, considered a raw but high potential goalkeeper has made the unusual choice to move to newly promoted South Maishop. If he can keep them up in the Super League his evaluation will be much improved, but if the defence in front of him can’t do enough, he’ll have another season of fetching the ball from the back of the net again. South Maishop will be guaranteed first team football for him however, something other clubs may not have offered.

Soon the kit launches will also begin, with Apsbrooke already announcing retention of their 26AU kits for another season. The smart all yellow kit with black trim suits the team, who will have happy memories of it from last season’s relative success. No team have confirmed any major colour changes, although the usual clichés of “bold”, “exciting”, “made for the fans” have already been used to describe some of the as yet unseen kits.

[The Sarian]

Tilly (naked) and The Thing (naked) are in an alternative world where New Saria was invaded by Jerusalem.

Tilly: Where are we? Why am I here?
Thing: This is an alternative timeline in the multiverse. There's plenty of them.
Tilly: I'm starting to understand that, but why here?
Thing: Have you tried travelling through the dimensions? All the places that it's easy to get to, this was the best to hold a conversation.

Tilly: Soooooo....?
Thing: So, answers. What do you want to know?
Tilly: Why am I here?
Thing: We've been monitoring your nation for a while now. We've already had to take strong measures and intervene once, and we don't want to again. You were questioning too much.
Tilly: What do you mean you had to intervene? Are you..?
Thing: No, we didn't create the Doom. Your scientists did. They started playing with the dimensions. My job is to intervene when that happens.
Tilly: So you destroyed our home?
Thing: No, we stopped you from destroying everyone's home. I told your, your scientists created the doom. We were only just able to stop it.

Tilly: So that's why...
Thing: Yes, that's why nothing makes any sense. Your timeline has essentially collapsed. Humans are easy, they want to understand so they make themselves understand. But it isn't sustainable, you aren't the first person I've had to speak to after thinking too much. Everything will come crashing down, and we'll have to intervene to make sure it doesn't affect anyone else.
Tilly: What does that mean?
Thing: Your country will simply cease to exist. Drop off the map. Nobody else will remember it was even there.
Tilly: But what about my friends, my family?
Thing: They will have never existed.

[Balqia]

The light flashes started to shoot as soon as the National Team entered the stage. The short man was known all over Balqia for his height and bad humor, some people called him Imp, for his height and apparent genius that showed itself recently. Liene was in the center of the crowd formed by journalists from all around Balqia, this press conference was a gold mine for the media. She entered there as an Intern from a small, and nonexistent, newspaper from Orsav University. Besides Laqlo was Siedoni, the assistant coach, and Laios Viq, a tall blond man, with a goatee and a sunglass his appearance remembered a character from some of the 80’s movies. After introductions the questions started. The first to ask was someone from the Sports Channel.
-Mr Laqlo, with the recent victory against Kiryu-shi and draw against Kavagrad, what are your expectations to the next game against Timuria?
The coach grabbed the microphone and bringed it next to his mouth.
-Dear Sports Channel, considering our good performance against Kavagrad, who are thirty positions above us in the oficial ranking, and that the game will happen here in Balqia, I can only imagine defeat in the worst scenario. However, after a quick analysis of the Timurian team I have my doubts, they got a draw against Kavagrad too, so we are considering them in equal grounds with the National Team for now.
Some flashes were shot before the next Question.
-Mr Viq. Some rumors about bad administration are being spread about the team, what you have to say about it?
The young girl who asked this was a student from the real Orsav University, she was very audacious, most people who asked these kind of question had a strange tendency to develop mental issues.
-These rumors are as fake as my grandma’s teeth.- After a brief laugh the manager continued.-I can guarantee you that we are a hundred and one percent clean. After all our country is one of the last corrupt countries in the Confederation. Also, the Police and Intelligence Agency watch our every move, it’s impossible to spend a penny without being investigated about it.
More flashes and a question.
-Mr Laqlo, in the last game Petre Qalti was injured in the knee, will he be playing in the match against Timuria?
-No, Putiniq will play in his place, we will also replace Faj by Narvo. The team will suffer these eventual replacements so the players can have some time to rest between matches. We also need to put our reserve in use to guarantee their efficiency.
More flashes, now a young man got up and started to talk.
-Mr Laqlo, your training methods are very criticized in Balqia and all over the world, also, you never managed a Football Team before the Harmony Cup. How do you feel about it?
The expression in Laqlo’s face was very disturbing, a mix of rage and shame, maybe a bit of… sadness?
-Dear International Newspaper of the Balqese Government. If you analyze my curriculum you will see that I am actually a very qualified man. My jobs included being a PE teacher in the Polytechnic School of Orsav, the Polytechnic School of Budborg and a teacher of the University of Orsav. I worked as coach and manager of the Feminine Volleyball Team of Orsav, in the Army’s Football Team and as director of the National Committee for Gymnastics. I must say that I am PhD in Physical Education and Anatomy by the University of Orsav, my thesis consisted of alternative training methods for football, thesis that made the actual Sports Minister and the Team’s Manager to appoint me as coach.- he drinks a bit of water from a bottle of water.-About my training methods. They proved to be efficient and actually gave us two victories and a draw in the World Cup. Even Primlid, your beloved old coach, sent me congratulations for my good job. Next question.
Flashes shoot, but now the reporters remained in silence, no one dared to talk. That was Liene’s chance.
-Excuse me, Mr Siedoni, could you answer a question?
That was terrible, what kind of reporter gets permission before questioning someone? The man, however smiled at her and said with a calm voice.
-Of course I can feel free to ask whatever you want.
Ok, she hadn’t thought in anything, she just saw an opportunity and grabbed it. Then, an idea popped up.
-Could you compare our performance in this Cup with the performance in the last one?
-Well, we’ve grown a lot. We entered as beginners in the last one, proud of our second place in the Baptism of Fire, however our ego was crushed and we had to battle for the fifth place. Now we have a third place with more victories than defeats, a dream for every fan in Balqia. Unfortunately our players are too pessimistic due to the defeats in the last Cup, many of them believe that we are going to lose, or that we have no chance against Valanora and 95x. I must disagree. I believe we have hopes of classify to the World Cup, if we manage to do so it will be a great evolution for our Team and nation.
With that the conference came to an end, Liene returned to her hotel room and wrote about it. An advantage of underground media was the fact that they didn’t passed through censorship, so the Press Conference was firstly noticed on the underground newspaper were she worked.
“Hope they don’t find out about my participation in the Conference, I think that counts as espionage”.

[Xanneria]

A Most Embarassing Loss
By Steve Stevenson

APOX - When Xanneria took the field for the Apox game, it was a mix of trepidation and a mix of wonderment. Apox being the highest rated team in the group meant it would be likely our toughest game. But after a draw versus Banija a powerhouse and host of the World Cup proper put confidence in the team it was immediately deflated by the Paratan team drawing the Maroons 1-1. Worse yet through 4 games that 1-1 tie is the only points the Maroons have gotten in 4 games. Most awkward of the losses was a 1-0 loss to unranked Koyoland as we reported a couple weeks ago was played in a "near flood".

As for the game with Apox , the loss by 3 hurts but to some extent is predicted. What wasn't predicted was that the shut out would be carried out by Jim Fletcher. Jim is the Goalie for Apoxian side "Wofford Town" and was actually listed by the team as fourth on the depth chart. But when you play Xanneria, physical aggression can lead to some incidents. In the 10th minute Apox's Goalie Tregatta Spitfire attempted to come up and grab a ball that had gotten away from Glenn Hailey. At the same time Spitfire was going for the ball Pete Saigon was attempting to slide at the ball, a collision occurred and Spitfire landed hard on their shoulder and head after a partial front flip. Spitfire was briefly knocked out but left under their own power clutching their shoulder. Tests for a shoulder injury came up negative but there were signs of a mild concussion as a result of the collision, it's likely most of the games they miss will be in domestic play. Needless to say, while playing football in Xanneria, that move would have been more or less an afterthought, the Apoxian crowed roared into a chorus of boobirds and the ref had no other option than to redcard Saigon. But that wouldn't be the only redcard flung as a fight broke out between Osmosis Ghandi who attacked Saigon and Xannerian reserve Ricky Bryan who attacked Ghandi got in fist fight with both visibly bleeding. After that mess was cleaned up, Apox put in Jim Fletcher in goal and he played a mervellous game. But how did the fourth man on the depth get in there? Well both Goalies ahead, Vesta Rasmussen , and Orianna Durrell both suffered a bout of the flu a few days before the game so the Wofford Town star played goal. He did a marvelous job with keeping a steady Xannerian attack at bay. The smaller forwards helped Xanneria win the time of possesion, but the slower brutish defenders of Xannerian could not keep up with the Apox attack.

As for Apox, two of the three goals were scored by James Palmisano a veteran midfielder and both time he scored he gave glaring looks to the Maroons sideline. The final goal was scored at 68 minutes a blinding fast shot from Cassiopeia Quintero that bounced off the shoulder of Defensive Midfielder Eusebio Drawbridge ricocheting just past Evan Jefferson. This would be the first internationa goal for Drawbridge even if it was a mistake.

After the match Amos Alton was swamped by reporter from both countries and when asked about the tackle he said the following "This is how we play in Xanneria. Yes we know the international game is less violent but sometime our players loose track of what country they are in. We do try reigning in the aggression but when Domestic and International games start blending its kind of hard sometimes to remember what game is what"

Also FLOX president Jeb Gyjorko said there will likely be some sort of monetary or roster reprimand for Rick Bryan's blind attack, but only after Apox announces Osmosis Ghandi's first.

APOX - 3
Palmisano (24' 45')
Drawbridge (68')

XANNERIA - 0

[Terre Septentrionale]

Terre Septentrionale wins against Darkmania

Tÿramël, Darkmania - On matchday four, Terre Septentrionale travelled to Tÿramël in Darkmania, another nordic nation, to play an away game. The task wasn't easy because Darkmania is ranked 78th. It started good for Terre Septentrionale and they attacked at the 16th minute when Élisabeth Normandin passed to Pawel Wawrzynkiewicz who made a cross to Sarah Surprenant who shoots and she scores! 1-0 Septentrionaux. The Nordiques attacked again at the 27th minute when Sarah Surprenant dribbled with the ball and made a short pass to Amelia Zalwowska who shoots. The ball touched Lërnÿn's hand in the penalty box and it was a penalty for Terre Septentrionale. Fryderyka Cwierczakiewiczowa takes the penalty, she kicks the ball and it's in! 2-0 Reprezentacja Nordycki. Coach Slawomir Wyrzykowski changed his mind because Zbigniew Zajaczkowski was the designed penalty taker at the start of the Baptism of Fire, but Fryderyka Cwierczakiewiczowa is crearly the better striker. The score is still 2-0 at the halftime.

Terre Septentrionale usually takes early leads and collapses in the 2nd half, but luckily this time the team didn't collapse. They still allowed one goal tough, at the 67th minute when Rånde passed to Årdalberg who made a header pass to Mjøe who heards the ball right into the net and the Northmen's lead is cut to 2-1. This is the final score, Terre Septentrionale beat the 78th best team in the multiverse 2-1.

BOXSCORE
16th minute: Sarah Surprenant assisted by Pawel Wawrzynkiewicz
27th minute: Fryderyka Cwierczakiewiczowa (penalty)
67th minute: Mjøe assisted by Årdalberg

YELLOW CARDS
27th minute: Lërnÿn
81st minute: Tymoteusz Swierczewski

RED CARDS
None

Group W

Group W becomes more fun after matchday 4. Terre Septentrionale is back on track with this huge win against Darkmania. Pratapgadh beat Turori, the 2nd best team in the multiverse, 3-1 and The Macabees beats Amurbia 4-1, it's Amurbia's 1st loss. Turori and The Macabees will battle for the 1st place as expected, and there's 4 teams battling for the 3rd place but the 3rd place doesn't qualifies you for the World Cup, it only means a better rank for next time. On matchday 5, the Nordiques will receive Pratapgadh at home, which are ranked 137th. The game will be played at Multiversal Hotel Stadium in El Perro, Texas Township.

Wlodzimierz Pietruszewski,
Senoir writer, La tribune septentrionale

NK Inter Krstinja sold to a new ownership group and will move to Ville Jacques-Cartier

Ville Jacques-Cartier, District de Cartier - 2nd division team NK Inter Krstinja had a lot of difficulties to attract good players and fans, and considering there's 3 teams in the township of Dalmatia, and it's a little too much, the team was sold to a new ownership group led by national team and Szczakowianka Trzebiegoszcz star Sarah Surprenant. The team will be named Club international de football Montérégie or Inter Montérégie CF for short. It will be based in Sainte-Julie, township of Montérégie but due to a lack of stadium in Sainte-Julie, it will play it's home games in Ville-Jacques-Cartier. Sarah Surprenant wasn't present at the press conference because she's currently in Darkmania with the national team but here's what Isabelle Bureau, who'se part of the same ownership group said:

"I feel sorry for the people in Krstinja but it was a small town with a small stadium not attracting anyone. The opportunity was there to buy the team and move it to the Ville Jacques-Cartier area. Because there's already 3 teams in Ville Jacques-Cartier and none represents the township of Montérégie, we decided the team would represent Montérégie and because some immigrants are living here in Sainte-Julie, Côte-des-Neiges and Sainte-Catherine, we decided to call it Club international de football Montérégie. Sainte-Julie doesn't have a soccer stadium, so for the first three years we'll rent Impact de Jacques-Cartier's Sauvageau Stadium in Ville Jacques-Cartier."

Sauvageau is a local cheesemaker and Impact de Jacques-Cartier is actually a 2nd division club.

Karine Gingras,
La tribune septentrionale

[Taeshan]

It was an interesting post awkward draw with Senayan match for the Purple Knights as they headed to West Phoenicia looking to get back on track with a win against another relatively weak team. The Knights outside the lapse of winning ability against Senyan have looked strong and if any hope of qualifying lives within this roster they won't get caught being sad about draws or even losses, especially with two matches left against Darmen. The Knights wanted to ruin the home match for the Phoenician side by continuing their strong defensive play that they have long been known for, while finding a way to get a goal and allow them to make a 0-0 draw into at least a 1-0 victory.

The Knights proved pretty strong on the day with the defense proving rather able to prevent West Phoenicia from doing any sort of attacking for the main portion of the game. The Knights for their part seemed rather anemic in their attack, much like the previous matchup with Senayan. For them to get the full points they would have to actually score a goal, and that they would eventually do. It took a while and with the side seeming rather unable to create much more attacking options seemed the best course of action, but then on came the double switch in the 63rd minute of Nycolas Jackson a rather sparky midfielder and defender Aidan Foster who seemed a rather odd substitution for Xander McDrew.

That substitution proved to be a moment of brilliance from the gaffer as Foster turned the back four into a back 2 with Jackson coming in for Coshan and Foster coming in for the Captain Randall Abl Bakr, who handed off the armband to Geoffrey Klingenberg who recently earned his 100th cap in the dreadful draw with Senayan. The Knights pushed forward with Foster playing in front of the two center backs, and Santiago Santiago basically playing left wing. The Knights basically disregarded any West Phoenician threat of attack and then Klingenberg finally put the ball into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead, which was also the final score. The Knights eventually were able to put the game to bed and get up to 10 points on the table.

This would later be enhanced by the news that elsewhere in Group J Darmen laid another egg, this time on the road in Saint Émelie. The Knights greeted their plane ride home with roars on seeing the news on TSPN, and then began to mentally prepare for their next match as once again they face a team coming off a strong performance against Darmen and will need to not let themselves succumb to similar results, especially after the noticeable hubris they felt against Senayan being unable to score at home against a lowly opponent. To add more interest to that match the Knights will find themselves also trying not to look ahead to their following matchup with Darmen, who notably get a bye before the two sides face. It will be another big test.

For their part the side from Saint Émelie will be somewhat familiar to the Purple Knights. While every other opponent the Knights have faced in qualifying was a new opponent in Soccer for the country, Saint Émelie is the only one aside from Darmen the Knights have ever faced. The one meeting saw the Knights win 1-0 in an otherwise fruitless Cup of Harmony. Regardless of the result against Saint Émelie the Knights will have to prepare to win for Darmen shortly after, and with a win against Saint Émelie they all but guarantee themselves a chance to go into their final matchday bye and the halfway point as group leaders. That said two losses in the next two matches and they could be finding themselves in altogether too familiar territory for the Taeshan faithful over the last 19 qualifying campaigns.

[Ko-oren]

The Numbers Game - by "Lunaro" Tsukida

Since our last meeting, things have only gone further uphill for the Dragonflies. By which I mean, everything's gone a lot better. It's funny how the words 'uphill' and 'downhill' both imply things going worse: uphill because you're fighting an uphill battle and downhill because you're physically descending. Anyhow, with two further victories over our nearest rivals for second place and their poor results in the meantime, the Dragonflies are sitting nicely in contention for first place together with Eura, the obvious team to beat in Group M.

First, the national team have beaten Dreamplanet 3-2. Dreamplanet, the ones who have set their sights higher than any before the start of the qualification campaign. Even with the limitless ambition of the red and green team, and quite honestly a league I get to see too little of, things have gone downhill for them (there's that word again). They knew they would be challengers, a position that's all the more familiar to us, before our gradual ascent back into the KPB's 20s - a climb that Ko-oren has now made twice in its history, and hopefully one we won't have to make again. Aaron Hungar was made captain ahead of the meeting, a decision that sparked immediate unrest among Os Tricores. They tried to channel the anger into extra motivation to beat the one team that stood between them and a shot at the playoffs - that's us - but then their hopes quickly extinguished as Vaugrenard scored the 1-0 from a Longchambon cross within the first 300 seconds of the match starting. Before we go into the specifics and relevance of this goal, let's first play out the remaining 85 minutes. With a poor leader to make them regroup and re-attack Ko-oren, the Dreamplanetians fell into disarray and tried to score desperately, with some 80 minutes still on the clock. Desperation play kicked in early, and to be frank it's one of the earliest self-destructs I've seen in a long time. Maybe I should watch football in some more emotional leagues - Ko-oren's Top League definitely isn't known for its high-temper, hot-headed play and the same goes for all the highest-quality clubs in the best leagues, as they've learned that too much emotion gets you nowhere. Dreamplanet was about to learn this for themselves, too. The game got bad, then ugly, and I was a few seconds away from switching to my huge backlog of league matches from the past weekend, and I even delved into a library of highlights from, say, Wight's first class or a relegation battle from Valanora from five seasons ago.

Vaugrenard was the first recipient of Dreamplanetian revenge, and Luis Silva was rightfully shown a yellow. By the time the first half hour was over, Os Tricores were sitting on three yellow cards, the Dragonflies were sitting on four minor injuries (no subs required), a near-goal saved with a desperation hand-ball, a subsequent penalty, scored by Janoreirinthen of all people - who was given the right to kick penalties following Vaugrenard's discomfort. A rare-seen panenka gave the Dragonflies the 2-0 lead, and little seemed to trouble the team at that time. Dreamplanet was so busy beating themselves that Ko-oren barely got the opportunity to do so.

Before half time, there was some trademark mismatch giving Silva the prime opportunity to score a 2-1, which he did, and this shows that despite the defensive arrangements by Juliasterinthen, and one of the best back lines in the Multiverse, there are still some misses in match preparation. This must be corrected and will be penalised by Eura - or any other team once our attack inevitably forgets to score in three consecutive matches against teams ranked 200th or lower. After half time, the Dragonflies gleefully joined in the fray, stirring sh*t while taking their sweet time on set-pieces and throw-ins, yelling things at fans and opposing players, while being the exact team we would never want to face in this position. The rebellious personalities of Lampshire and Benjamin, as well as Van Schelven, who have all mastered the art of pissing your opponent off, shone. Nevertheless, Hungar was the local hero for taking an opportunistic shot at Theshendan - and as I said before, that's exactly what he's gotten terrible at - and scored the 2-2. Cardozo was then sent off for Dreamplanet as Os Tricores were down, but still far from out. With 10 men and one goal down, they kept playing a furiously unpredictable style that nearly culminated in the go-ahead goal. Van Schelven was getting too cute and Hungar, the captain, couldn't keep his hands off of him. What followed was a disgraceful display, and honestly, a crime. Maybe not attempted murder, but definitely assault, and it remains to be seen how the national association as well as the international community respond to that. The referee did the only thing that was in his power, and sent Hungar off. Janoreirinthen scored his second goal of the game, a beautiful bouncing missile, it can only be described as, and at 90+5, the Dragonflies finally bested the nasty opponent. The Willowbourne folk have gotten a match they shouldn't soon forget. Os Tricores have a horrible start, hoping to upset either Eura or us, and ending up with zero points from these two encounters. Ko-oren, meanwhile, are in second place, six points over the third place team - after just four matches. With this form, and winning ugly games, we might be in for a good campaign, actually.

It's just sad to see that the Theshendan problems haven't been addressed. What is fun to see is how Longchambon is utilised: instead of purely being a centre-pitch pony, he now gallops on both flanks, seeing where the space is, and either overflowing that space for a short passing game or leaving that space to find acres of empty grass. This is a nice variation on an otherwise boring attack that mostly tries to fidget the ball through the defence in the narrowest of margins, not trying to put the ball out wide even one second. This innovation probably won us the Dreamplanet game.

That other challenger, Freeport, was our next opponent. An away match. Not that that troubles us: we're strong at home, but it's almost like we're even better when playing away from home. The defence was reigned in, back to their professional selves, with Lampshire especially playing like a gentleman. Almost like a 'good cop, bad cop' routine with Van Schelven, who committed nasty fouls and tried out many more risky sliding tackles - but surprisingly got away with it. Longchambon was found out wide again. The defensive five were exclusively found at the back, so that 'one defender up front in possession' gimmick turned out to be a WCQ 82 thing only. It might be brought back, and it would be interesting to see, but so far the Ko-orenite attack is potent enough even without an added defender as passing option. More about that later, though. If we see it, and we should.

[Saltstead]

---

The Beet

---

The Beet Opinion: It’s time to start firing Tlanx-Nulzk Hal continuously
It’s clear the head coach needs a little more motivation and what more motivation can you get than being on fire!

A visual representation of our modest proposal

Ashwell — Saltstead have now played four games in the qualification stage for the eighty-third NationStates World Cup and have failed to win three of said games. We believe the problem is clear: the head coach of Saltstead is too comfortable. Therefore, we propose as a means of motivation that we fire Tlanx-Nulzk Hal.

Continuously.

“Now,” you may ask in visible confusion, “how do you continue to fire someone?” “Surely once they’ve been fired, you can’t fire them again unless you rehire them, but in that case the firing is not continuous,” you may say to support this baseless assertion. Or you might claim that “to fire someone is a discrete action, rather than one that is capable of being continuous.” To all of that, we say this: you’re wrong.

It is obvious that when we propose to continuously fire Tlanx-Nulzk Hal, we intend that they will be literally on fire continuously until we decide to stop firing Tlanx-Nulzk, in which case, Tlanx-Nulzk will no longer be literally on fire. We are sure that this means of discomforting motivation will be adequately incentivising for our fine head coach to make a more concerted effort to win games, which, we are told, we must do if we want to qualify for the World Cup. We frankly see no downsides whatsoever to our proposal and we will put it into effect immediately after the publication of this article.

Hold on a moment, we’ve got a knock at the door…

Sorry about that. It has come to our attention that if Tlanx-Nulzk is set ablaze, it will have the unfortunate side effect of rendering them deceased. Therefore, we will have to modify our proposal by hiring wizards from the Dreamed Realm to make Tlanx-Nulzk feel like they are on fire, but without actually being on fire. We shall do that continuously until Saltstead’s performances improve. This has the benefit of motivating the head coach by providing an incentive to win games, but without the unfortunate side effect of killing them dead.

Err, we have more knocking at the door…

Wait, what do you mean no one in the Dreamed Realm wants to do that for us? Surely someone there would want to. Surely there must be some kind of sadistic wizard who would accept our fat stacks of totally inflated yen. What do you mean those stacks are already worthless? We got them shipped in just yesterday. What do you mean they’re even more worthless now? And what do you mean that some Anglophones use the word “fire” for the act of terminating someone’s employment? That has absolutely nothing to do with chemical reactions of any sort!

Ah, fuck it. Forget we even tried. You win this round, Hal.

For now… —TB

[Alasdair I Frosticus]

Press Release

The Beached Boyz to Come Out of Retirement!

The Holy Empire Football Association is pleased to announce that Imperial musical legends The Beached Boyz are to come out of retirement to play at the special World Cup 83 concert currently being organised by the Royal Banijan Soccer Association. More details will be provided in due course in the appropriate place.

"It's because this is a beach soccer-themed tournament for the Holy Empire" said de facto group leader and much unloved co-lead singer Mike Hate. "It'll be an honour to perform in Drawkland... [offstage whisper] I mean Banija. Of course I mean Banija. Banija is a fine country for organising this evil beach soccer... [offstage whisper] I mean, co-organising this fine non-evil tournament where our national team just happens to be playing beach soccer whether other nations like it or not. Makes sense to me. Let's celebrate the beach!"

Mr Hate will be joined by his bandmates Brian, Carl, and Dennis Nilsow, and the other one whose name no one can ever remember; Al Darjine, we think. Yes, absolutely; Al Darjine.

Mike, Brian, Carl, Dennis, and Al last played together in the immediate aftermath of The Event, that simultaneously tragic and heroic time in Imperial history, before a final falling out when arguing over Brian's insistence on burying his head in a fully functional piano made entirely of sand.

The Boyz promise to play all of their hits... including Surfin' Party; Surfin' the Empire; Surf, Surf, Surf; Surf's Down; Let's Surf!; Surfin' Smurfs; Catchin' a Wave (to Surf); Go Near the Water (to Surf); Help Me Surf, Rhonda; Not So Noble Surfer; Surfin' Jam and Bread; (and many more!)

Fans of The Beached Boyz are particularly excited at the rumour that the Boyz are considering playing in full their legendary never-released quintuple concept album Frowny Frown (No Surfin' Today) as part of the Banija World Cup 83 concert. Whether negotiations can succeed in giving the Boyz the necessary four-hour performance slot remains to be seen.

"I'm bummed at the 1-1 draw with Quakmybush last night" said Carl Nilsow; "we hope this will inspire our lads to win their remaining matches by giving them something to look forward to".

Main band songwriter Brian Nilsow was temporarily unavailable for comment due to his head being stuck in a piano.

[Saint Emelie]

---

La Poste D'Émelie

---

Giant Killers!

Saint Émelie 4-3 Darmen

-Blackwood (12')
-Stafford (25')

-Lekarisa (41')

HT: 1-2

-Katjanovic (53')
-Pelletier (69')

-Parks (74')

-Lekarisa (88')

Stade Duport, Port D'Émelie. Attendance 7,645

Mathilde Lekarisa scored her first Saint Émelie goals as Les Insulaires claimed another big international scalp thanks to a thrilling 4-3 win against Darmen.

The 29 year-old got her side back into a match that looked to be quickly getting away from them with a low-shot from the edge of the box before lashing home a chaotic late winner after some pinball inside the Darmen penalty area.

Saint Émelie top scorer Sara Katjanovic, who opened her goalscoring account with a tap-in in the 2-2 draw with Sanayan, bagged a headed equaliser as Les Insulaires fought back from 2 goals down. Craig Blackwood and Juanito Stafford had given Darmen the early lead as Amélie Martín's team struggled to retain possession against the sweeping defensive midfielder Alberich Goldschmitt and possession-based approach of the attack.

Nevertheless, Saint Émelie's counter-attacing style finally started to come off towards the end of the first half and they capitalised on a rare good spell to halve the deficit as Rapid Petrovijanka forward Lekarisa collected a through ball from Simon Pelletier and hit a skimmer across Darmeni goalkeeper Hyman Campo and into the bottom corner.

That gave the uncharacteristically tepid crowd some life and with the extra energy from the crowd behind them, Saint Émelie looked a totally different side in the second half. Wingers Florence Caseille and Mathilde Laurent began to find extra space as the Darmen defence lost it's usually-unshakeable shape and the pair started putting testing crosses into the box that eventually resulted in the equaliser.

Despite the surprisingly high quality of some of the balls in, the goal in fact came from a scuffed cross from Laurent that snuck into the corridor between a hesitant goalkeeper and defender and was headed home by katjanovic on the bounce.

Saint Émelie kept the pressure on, before Simon Pelletier scored another sensational strike for his national team with an unstoppable 25-yard half-volley that snuck under the crossbar. Despite the disappointment of Gerrard Parks' sweeping equaliser when the 26 year-old midfielder swept home following a poorly-defended corner, Saint Émelie kept their tempo, helped by substitutes Tomas Cousineau and Jadine Dupont. They finally got their reward with 2 minutes of normal time to go as Lekarisa seized on a rare mis-kick by experienced centre back Silver Abbey and smashed the ball high into the roof of the net to send the Stade Duport into bedlam.

The win is another of several stunning wins against far higher-ranked opposition that Les Insulaires have enjoyed since their explosive debut against Vilita and Turori in AOCAF 56. They won 4-3 that day thanks to a late header from captain Florian Bastereud and have since beaten Farfadillis 4-1 and Eshan during AOCAF 57 among other surprise results.

There'll be a special feature on Saint Émelie's 'giant killer' label coming soon in La Poste, but until then enjoy the feeling of another special victory and an extension of Les Insulaires unbeaten run in this tournament.

[New Lusitania and the Algarves]

STL|Serviços de Transmissão Lusitana
Sport | Football|
World Cup 83 | 83º Mundial

TURNING A NEW LEAF
New Lusitania 2-0 New Karelograd
@ Estádio do Algarve {AlgarveArena} [
(Att: 31 201)

Returning home, New Lusitania now needed to keep the pressure on Cassadaigua, following their points loss against second placed Rakivland. New Karelograd had all to prove and were certainly eager to do so. New Lusitania saw three changes to the team sheet with the return of Guerreiros, as Eustáquio took Nevais' place. Cavalariça was kept on after two decent performances. Some players had all to prove in this cycle. António Lopes would play in goal. Fernando had yet to dazzle anyone further up field with his captaincy skills and creative passing holding his position safe enough. Meanwhile, Jota was losing his foothold on the team. The first goal came just after the half hour mark as Gama crossed the ball into Silveira who managed to volley it in, with the goalkeeper just about putting fingers to it, giving New Lusitania the result they would exit the first period with. During the initial forty-five, New Karelograd went over the bar twice and Veiga attempted to shoot the ball making it miss by a few centremeters. In the second half, Jota came on for Cavalariça which hadn't done much up to that point. A few decent chances came in this second period, including a header for Silveira and a shot for Cédric, whilst the opposition had to test New Lusitania's number 2 goalkeeper.
Jota would finally get his moment by the end of the game. In a great counter-attack, Breu, a sub for Mário Played a through ball into his direction with Jota scoring the goal. The pass however was scrutinised and had to go to the Video Assistant Referee due to a potential outside, but it stood and New Lusitania were 2-0 up, as it would stay in the end. The Selecção showed a better version of themselves tonight, showing that there's a lot of talent on the bench. Props to Eustáquio who managed his position between defence and midfield well, proving him to be one of the younger promises on the team with Veiga who once again justified his recent callups. FULL TIME: 2-0.


Around the Grounds
In Group Q, Cassadaigua managed to keep ahead after a strong 0-2 scoreline away at Abaja, whilst the Crystalline Caverns started to shake off their initial form with a win against Rakivland by a single goal at home, with last placed Bengaliana taking the week off. This means the matchday's biggest winner are the Crystalline Caverns who climb up to third with the Heróis do Mar keeping their two point gap from Cassadaigua. This could all change with the next match being the reception of the women's nation at the Jamor Stadium. Victor Santa Cruz considers his team good enough to at least give them a run for their money according to him. If this is true or not, remains to be seen.

THE HUB
GOALS: Silveira (2), Cavalariça (1), Gama (1), Jota (1),
ASSISTS: Veiga (1), Guerreiros (1), Silveira (1), Gama (1), Breu (1).
CARDS: Nevais (1Y)

LATEST STATS
World Cup 82 Quals
Top Goalscorers: Silveira (9)
Assists: Fernando (8)
Cup of Harmony 74
Top Goalscorer: Silveira (4)
Assists: Fernando (3)
-------------------------------------
Matchday: Internationals
coverage of the best
STL1 22:00 GMT
-----------------------------------
World Cup 83
The best of the action on STL, your National Broadcaster
New Lusitania in exclusive.
-----------------------------------
Reach us with your reactions:
#STL #forçaselecção #WC83 #LUS
----------------------------------
STL in association with FLF
MMXIX