Sarzonia 1 - 0 Nephara
(4-4-2) 1 - Mercator; 2 - Stride, 5 - Thorn, 6 - Brosch, 3 - Close (c, s/o 27'); 13 - Saroszi (7 - Kuepper 59'), 4 - Shone, 21 - Moxham, 11 - Strongbow (16 - Deventer 79'); 9 - Bastable, 10 - Metzger (19 - Katarec 28')
Nephara 5 - 1 Competitive Solitaire
(4-4-2) 1 - Mercator; 2 - Stride (18 - Longship 64'), 5 - Thorn (c), 6 - Brosch, 19 - Katarec; 7 - Kuepper, 4 - Shone, 21 - Moxham (8 - Chalk 70'), 16 - Deventer; 9 - Bastable, 10 - Metzger (23 - Lovelace 76')
Goals: Bastable 7', Deventer 36', Kuepper 58', Metzger 61', Lovelace 90+1'
Extract from the Book of Close.
Like buses in reverse. You're all set, and then two leave at once.
Vivica picked up a knock in training. Thanks, Arista! Not like we'd all been fucking telling you to lay off the crunching tackles. One of my understudy's calves got pincered and that was her done for the fortnight. Nobody told the press what happened, which is handy; they'd be on that like vultures.
Sander came back to the squad. This was his chance to get back in the spotlight, maybe. If he got minutes. Unfortunately for everyone, I gave him the chance barely half an hour in against Sarzonia.
Except? Did I, really? Penalty, yes. Mistimed, yet. DOGSO? God no.
Didn't matter. For all Strauss' talk to the press about how it was 10 vs. 12, I don't make mistakes like that. Or, I didn't. Maybe my old, weary bones - at 29! What a career this is - are getting to me. Nobody really blamed me after the match, since it shouldn't've mattered. Kurtis had the chances, though the young lad Sandt did well between the posts. And they went toe-to-toe with us better than they managed in the first leg, never let us settle into a rhythm. Rowena picked a bad day to be old and slow, and Strauss was sluggish pulling her off; Morena's arrival sparked our best period of the match, better even than the half-hour we actually spent with a full squad. Didn't matter. Nobody had the finishing touch.
It's frustrating. But that's all it is. Three dropped points, but not enough to
At least the headlines were good. The Eastern Star ended up running with 'The Emperor has no Close'.
[...]
In a very 'fuck it, he's here' move, Strauss wound up starting Sander for Solitaire-the-country, on Solitaire-the-wizard's advice. It worked out, I guess, though Solitaire-the-country are no-names and could probably be improved by putting Solitaire-the-wizard out on the pitch.
Roxi Thorn wound up with the armband. Rowena's my deputy; she wasn't out there on the night, Morena was out proving why she should supplant her sooner rather than later (sorry, Ro). Though Rovena Stride would, as ever, flay me for saying that. She idolises the weary old veteran.
Too many Nepharan women these days have names starting in 'Ro'.
Anyway, Ro Thorn had the armband. I spaced out thinking on it a few times. Fact is, this is probably my last World Cup (do I still have to say 'assuming we qualify' eleven points ahead of third?) and that's likely in part because of the armband.
Hear me out. You don't get stripped of the armband unless you fail to exhibit leadership. I don't plan on letting that happen. Now, granted, I took over when it was taken off Hawke. But at the same time, you can't have your captain sitting every game on the bench. I'll be 31 by the next World Cup, and more pertinently, Vivica will be like, 24, 25. She will have my place in two years. Will I still be the second-best leftback in the country by then? Maybe so. But I can't lose the armband, and I can't sit on the bench, and if Vivica's better, I can't start. Graceful exit, stage left. Statement about 'prolonging my club career' en route.
I should scrape to the century, thanks to how fucking interminable this qualifying process is being, and the Eagles' Cup on top of it. And, hell, I've worn the armband. And I'm doing these Annals. My legacy is secure. But who comes next? Strongbow will be gone by then, too; this is explicitly her last show. So Strauss giving it to Ro Thorn...
It's gonna be her, Yana or Kurtis. Yana's bright, but... erratic. If I give her the Annals, well, let's just say it's what the neutrals should want. Kurtis is level-headed, but brusque, to a fault. Thorn's got the right mix of shouty and resolute. So I should probably work my way around to showing her these, convincing them to carry them on. Keep the traditions going, even though I'm not quite sure why they started, myself. Can I call it a tradition if I started it on a whim, and nobody knows it's happening?
Thing is, Solitaire-the-wizard's started calling me 'Annalist'. What's the deal with that?
