In a match that would seem more apt to be featured in the World Cup of Hockey rather than the (Football) World Cup, the teams from the Eternal Empire and Kelssek decided to put up a scoreline that also seemed more likely to occur in an ice hockey game than that of a football match, unless maybe you are Farfadillis or Bettia. There were nine goals scored between the two teams, as any sense of a cohesive defense effort by either team went completely out of the window with the show that these two put out on the field here in Ethane. It is baffling that a pair of defense that had been so stellar leading up to this point in the competition would then go on to contrive to have such a porous output, while the other game in Ethane featuring the ultra attacking Farfadillis team would be the match that would end with no goals through a hundred and twenty minutes. Clearly there was something peculair in the air this night in Ethane, as four teams were whittled down to two as a pair of outsiders looked to topple to giants of the game and of Atlantian Oceania in the form of the Eternal Empire and Farfadillis.
In the King Edward IV Stadium in Ethane, the very familiar tune of March of the Elves had just concluded and the two sides were lining up to start the match, Kelssek getting the opening kick. The Marauders were decked on in their blue and white home kit, having been designated as the home side for the fixture, while Kelssek was in their gray and red change kit to avoid a kit color clash. It was a rematch of the qualifying, where both times the Marauders had been able to get one over on Kelssek, the fact that they were now in their third game in two years was a tad worrying for Didrik Gjedrem. Beating a team once was fortunate, beating a team twice was good, but trying to beat an elite caliber three times was asking for everything to go right and for your team to find the ability with their own desires to overcome that foe who had been quite familar with you by now and was out to take out a bit of revenge to get their own back for the losses that they had suffered so soon to your squad. While it was not an impossible challenge, it was a difficult one, and Didrik would be proven right with how the game began to unfold.
Kelssek looked to capitalize on the obvious flaw in the Vanorian formation, the three at the back that required the wingers to play completely up and down the pitch and the two outside centerbacks to drift to the outside to help provide cover on the wing. It is a common strategy for teams playing against the Marauders to try and switch to a wing play system, to try and pull apart the center of defense and midfield, while attempting to tire out the wingers with their need to get back. That can only truly be done well by sides that have the talent to keep the Marauders from applying their possession based game or able to withstand the pressure of their counter press up the pitch. Two of their front four play in the Premiership and eight minutes into the match, they combined to get the opening goal, with McDonald racing down the flanks before putting in an inch perfect cross to Wylten and the Hondo FC striker put head to ball cleanly. They were not satisfied with the goal though and on the half hour mark, McDonald once again turned provider, this time their cross meeting fellow winger Ó Tuathail who slammed it home on the half volley. The Marauders had been pressing well but Kelssek was finding ways out of the press and into the attack while keeping the side at bay on their own attacks. A poor pass from Larsen was intercepted by Taleb and was quickly sent through for Wylten who was able to beat Miljeteig low at the near post, leading to the shocking three to nil advantage for Kelssek after forty-one minutes, a lead that would stay safe for the rest of the half.
This was the most difficult situation that Didrik had found himself in since becoming the manager of the Marauders, three nil down at the half and without any major criticisms of the team to point out where it was going wrong. Kelssek was taking what the Marauders were giving to them and making the most of their opportunities, three goals from five shots on target and six in total. The last goal was preventable if Larsen had not made the poor pass but the other two goals there was not much that could have been done to prevent them. The manager knew that he needed to find a way to start to tilt the field back against their foes if the side had any chance of pulling out a result. Söderström was brought out for Jaimes Ybarra and Nergård was replaced by Marco Grunewald, as Hawk was going to be dropped back into the center of the park and Grunewald to play in the role of the attacking midfield. With two tower presences in the center of the midfield and the tireless legs of Ybarra, Didrik was rolling the dice that the team would be able to start to stop the Kelssek attack and get their own kickstarted.
It took only forty-two seconds into the second half for the Marauders to claw one back, a goal that quickly was something that they had desperately needed to make the comeback more realistic. Saxstrom had taken the kick off and pushed it back to Grunewald who sent it wide to Veliz, the winger putting in a one touch pass through the Kelssek defense and Ludwig was on it. Taking two strides to get into the box, he unleashed a shot high to the far post that snuck beneath the underside of the crossbar to give the side a life line. Not five minutes later in the fifty-first, Ybarra had been taken down just outside the box on the left hand side. Hawk calmly stepped up to take the free kick and with the expertise that had been practiced for decades, put in a perfect shot that looped over the wall and curled into the upper corner where Poirier could not get a hand to it. Kelssek was on the back foot now and struggling to cope with a Marauders side in the ascendency, Saxstrom breaking through a Liadon challenge and getting on goal with her pace, putting another past the Kelssek keeper in the sixty-second minute. In just seventeen minutes the Marauders had erased the Kelssek advantage and now looked the more likely to grab a winner. When Lozic was deemed to have played a handball from a Ybarra cross inside the area, there was a sense of expectancy when Saxstrom stepped up to the penalty spot and sent Poirier the wrong way, finishing off the spotkick as calm as you'd like just six minutes after her opening goal.
The minutes were winding down and Kelssek was pushing hard against the Marauders midfield that had suffocated the attack well with the switch of personnel at halftime. There was desperation now, as there was less than ten minutes and added time left to be played if they wished to break through the Marauders and force at least extra time. Ó Tuathail was up to the task and made a masterful run up the lefthand side, cutting past a tiring Veliz, and was able to get in the cross before Løvland could cut off the angle. Wylten was there once again but instead of putting the header on net, put a flick on that Taleb was waiting for and able to tap it home, the sides level at four a piece in the eighty-first. Hawk found Ludwig as time crossed into injury time and the young striker put in a hard effort to try to grab a late winner at the death of the match, but Poirier was able to get down quick enough to bring the ball into their chest and smother it, not letting the waiting Saxstrom a chance to put in a rebound. The save sealed the game's fate and the two sides were heading to extra time, both teams looking a little labored in their breathing after such a high intensity ninety minutes.
Taking advantage of the extra substitute that came with the extra half hour, Didrik decided to gamble, bringing Saxstrom off and inserting Iman Reinholdtsen to play leftback and moving Vårin Løvland to play rightback, meaning the side was now playing a 4-4-1-1 with a traditional four at the back. While Veliz looked a little spent, Didrik was gambling that without the need to cover the whole pitch, he and Ybarra would have the attacking impetus to put Kelssek to the sword, while Ludwig looked like they could go another ninety if he had to. Both sides were looking like they wanted to just take the game to the penalty shootout in the first half of extra time, each step seemed slower and decision made with a bit of hesitation. However in moments like these, you need but one spark to change it all, and it was Ybarra finally getting one over on Ó Tuathail, dispossessing the Galactico and scampering up field, a through ball cut between the defenders and there was Ludwig to collect, move the ball onto his more favored left foot and volley that bent hard to the far post, curving away from the diving Poirier and into the net. With but four minutes to hold onto their late lead, the Marauders clamped hard but Wylten tried to play the hero with a powerful shot only to have Julius catch and hold onto the ball in the dying seconds. The Marauders were through to the semifinals.
Tired handshakes were exchanged, twenty-two players who looked exhausted out on the pitch, but eleven of them had a wry smile or were laughing slightly, knowing that all the work had been worth it. The Marauders were at long last once again in the semifinals of the World Cup, there was two games left for them to play. While they might have tired legs now, they would be ready in a few days time for the match against Ko-oren, a side that had gotten into the knockouts with a very unsportsmanlike action. It was the sort of behavior that would not sit well with the Marauders, much like the gamesmanship that the Audioslavs attempted to employ against them. There was never any need for extra motivation in a World Cup semifinal, yet for a team like the Marauders that played a clean game, it would add that extra edge to try and defeat what they saw as villains to the beautiful game that everyone had come so much to enjoy. The Pit would be an apt name for such an encounter, with the desire to put such villains back into a pit from where they came.
