When you're a defending champion in a sport and you've won two of the three titles competed for in the history of a sport, success looks different for you than it does for just about anyone else.
Sure, the Sarzonian national Aussie Rules Football team won handily in defeating The Islamic Caliphate of The Balkans 222-24, and it's true the result all but places Sarzonia into the quarterfinals directly with a match against Kriegiersien still in the offing. But manager Katie Sampson said she was disappointed with her team's effort.
"We got off to a piss poor start," she said, pointing to the first quarter when The Caliphate scored two of their four goals in the match and only trailed 15-12 after the first stanza. Sarzonia led by 34-18 at halftime and only allowed a single second half goal to the debutant team in the sweeping win, but Sampson said she was disappointed with how the team began the match.
"We have high standards for playing this code of football," she said. "Quite frankly, we didn't meet those standards. If we play like this against Kriegiersien, we'll be in trouble."
Sampson refused to admit it, but a couple of observers said she was looking for something, anything to harp on to demand continued excellence from her team. At 2-0-0, the Stars would qualify directly as Group 1 champions with a win or a draw, even if the result weren't the fluid, strong result Sarzonia would want against Kriegiersien. The team also have played with impressive form, and their closer-than-expected victory against the other debutant team in Group 1, Soldera, now looks better as that team crushed Kriegiersien 170-66. Sampson said she hadn't watched that result.
"I've been too busy focusing on my side to worry about that other match," she said. Publicly, she was focused squarely on making sure the Stars didn't slip up against a team that have quietly gone about their business, even though it's been futile thus far. Privately, she and assistant manager Corey Sands watched the Kriegiersien-Soldera match and her eyes widened when she saw how badly Soldera defeated the eighth ranked team in the Aussie Rules Football multiverse.
"If I didn't see it, I wouldn't have believed it," she told Sands after the graphic flashed the result. The one team expected to seriously threaten for a spot in the knockout rounds, and even potentially give Sarzonia a challenge for the group title was on the wrong end of an absolute drubbing. A team that looked like they didn't even know each other's names one day was now looking like the experienced unit two days later. It was Kriegiersien who were searching for answers, and instead of Soldera hoping they'd somehow close out their group stage with a victory and some pride to take back home to Soldera, they were looking at having to extend their hotel reservations for a couple of days at least.
At her press conference when asked about the Solderan victory, she shook her head.
"I guess when you've had a chance to play together, you can get good results," she said. "This tournament is still in its early enough stages where a new team can still make a huge impact. We're not here to take anyone lightly." Sampson said she wasn't looking ahead at all to the quarterfinals.
"We haven't qualified for anything just yet," she said. "There will be no scoreboard-watching on Matchday 3. We're going to have to work our arses off to beat Kriegiersien." Even with a combined 22-3 overall record across four World Cups, Sampson still draws motivation for herself and her charges anywhere she can find it.
Perhaps that's why she has such a gaudy record despite the sport only being a niche offering whilst her team face opponents for whom it's a passion.
