[Roleplays] :: World Cup 92

by **Civia Welephilostopia** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 6:51 pm

The Elephants's coach today announced that the team would be spending a day training in preparation for their next game, 'Guanacesta is a strong side,' The coach said to reporters, 'It will definitely be a challenge especially their defence.'

The players looked visibly frustrated after being crushed 4-0 by Ochre in their previous match and many looked at training and their next game with eager eyes and a thirst to get their first win.

Even as morning turned to afternoon and the clouds darkened onlookers outside the stadium could still hear players hard at work, improving for their next game.

by **Ziwana** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 6:59 pm

92nd NS World Cup Qualfiers News

Ziwana 4 - 1 Salstead
(GK)William Tembo, (LB)Apekaloma Aneko, (CB)James Kaunda, (CB)James Chirwa, (DM)George Rooney, (LM)Brandon Payen,(RM)Mphatso Hara, (AM)Victor Mussa,(ST)Richard Mumba, (ST)Charles Tembo.
Subs
Andrew Gondwe (18'),Andrew Moses (18')

Giant Killing at Ziwanicell National Stadium

Before the match most Ziwani national team fans where not confident in the abilities of Agus Putra Yudana and his fellow joint managers. They both played football that was not quite suited for the national football team. Agus Putra Yudana prefars the 4-4-2 diamond formation which a lot of analyts criticized heavily. The 4-4-2 diamond was heavily criticized for its lack of width,exposure to counter attacks and the physical strain the tactic puts on the players.

When the match started, the weaknesses of the tactic where in full view for everyone to see. Ziwani strikers Richard Mumba and Charles Tembo kept drifing into the flanks during attacks thus reducing the potency of the Ziwani attack by a great margin.Yudana's was furious at Mumba and Tembo and quickly instructed them to keep on the strike position and let the fullbacks go on the overlap. However, this instruction made everything worse. With fullbacks Pekaloma Aneko and Anuiha Mikil, both Western United Players , begun overlaping to compensate for the lack of wide attacking players, the backline was left exposed to Salstead counter-attacks which led to the visitors scoring in the 10 minute. George Rooney had been placed as a Defensive Midfielder to mitigate against counter-attacks but due to his inexperience led him to move foward instead of sitting back leading to the Salstead goal.

After the goal Ziwana seemed to be a different team, probably due to Yudana's and Thokozani Tembo's shouts on the touchline. George Rooney was also substituted out for Andrew Moses in the 18th minute whilst Manager Thokozani Tembo's son, Charles Tembo was substituted out for 39 year old Andrew Gondwe. It must be noted that this caused controversey, the Tembo family are Western United fans and Charles Tembo playing for their rivals Amangwazi Birnin is a disgrace and has caused the young lad to be enstraged with his dad who had played and managed for Western United. Most people thought Tembo Senior was substituting out Tembo junior for petty reasons and disagreed with putting on a very old Andrew Gondwe. Andrew Gondwe had been impressive in the previous season by scoring 20 goals for Teuila City who where ultimately relegated. Gondwe had been the first scorer for Teuila and also the first scorer in the Ngwaziliga era, they saw him as a curse that would cause the national team problems. Whether this will happen is yet to be seen because Gondwe scored minutes after coming in after capitalizing on the mistake of the Salstead keeper to put Ziwana level with Salstead. Gondwe would double lead after dispossesing a Salstead midfielder and quickly striking the ball from 30 yards into the net sending the whole stadium into a roar.

Gondwe continued his good form in the second half by scoring his third goal in the 55 minute. Mumba who had won the Golden Boot after scoring 23 goals in the previous season finished off the demolition of Salstead with the final goal to put the game to bed.

After the game Yudana suprisingly was not happy and blasted his players for being lazy and not following instructions, he warned that the national team would struggle in the next games if the players did not concentrate, work hard and follow his instructions.

by **Graintfjall** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 7:17 pm

Tikariot – 3 (1)
Nighthorse (34’, 62’), Aird (77’)

Græntfjall – 3 (1)
Björnólfur (90+6’); Sigurbergur, Grímúlfur, Eyvar (90+4’), Jasmijn (48’) (75’ Jan ); Tinni (82’) (84’ Kjárr ), Danny; Vanessa (84’ Hanna (90+4’)), Kæja, Sara (c) (64’) (69’ Ari ); Jason (31’) (69’ Röskvi )

Græntfjall – 4 (2)
Björnólfur (90+5’); Alyssia (90+3’ Sigurbergur ), Grímúlfur, Tom, Jasmijn (52’); Tinni (74’), Danny (39’) (79’ Johanna ); Vanessa (79’ Hanna ), Kæja (58’) (84’ Steinar ), Sara (c); Jason (16’) (84’ Röskvi )

Astograth – 3 (1)
(42’), (72’), (90+1’)

Thorball continues to, if nothing else, excite. When the Snow Wolves won World Cup 91 (have we mentioned this yet???) they did so with two goals being scored by either team in three group stage games, combined. In their opening two games of World Cup 92 qualifying, 13 goals were scored. The good news among the goals included Thor’s faith in 33 year old Jason Þórhallursson being proved, a maiden international goal for Hanna Nicosdóttir to cap a thrilling comeback against Pavolan rivals Tikariot, and Sara K scoring on her debut as captain. The bad news: the porous defense continues to concede from set pieces, with Tikariot and Astograth both scoring from free-kicks, questions over Alyssia Noahsdóttir’s defensive skills persist after Morris Nighthorse twice danced past her untouched to score, and referees are rapidly losing their shit with Björnólfur Ernestisson’s tactic of trying to waste time at the ends of games to preserve a lead (or tie). Tinni Grímólfursson is expected to miss the games against Eraman and North Cassadaigua after being ruled out with a bruised kneecap; given both of his knees are perfectly fine, police are highly concerned where he got this other one from and who it belongs to.

In ‘A’-Defense Department Emergency Room, generally referred to as ‘ADDER’, Kaija Michaelsdóttir was chairing the daily security meeting. Election season didn’t put an end to the business of government. She had a busy day ahead of her out on the rope-line, kissing babies, shaking hands, and taking selfies with youth volunteers, talking climate change, bread-and-butter economics, and gay rights; and yet, in here, domestic policy barely deserved a mention. The issues foremost in voters’ minds – their taxes, their hospitals, their children’s schools, that disconcertingly swarthy family that had moved in down the road – mattered little to the assembled collection of military and intelligence staff meeting with her. It was one of the paradoxes of democratic government that the decision of who to put in charge of the state’s most essential function – protecting itself – was typically based on factors that had nothing to do with the capability of carrying out that function effectively.

Or, something like that. Truth be told Kaija had rather zoned out during the interminable briefing on the ongoing debate over the Nepharan law banning showers over 15 minutes in length.

“…which brings us to the powerful pumice stone lobby, not to be confused of course with Citizens for Loofah Freedom, which our intelligence analysts say may actually be an astroturfed front organization…”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but – how do they actually tell if you’ve had a shower lasting than 15 minutes?”

There was silence around the table in response to Foreign Minister Brynjúlfur Brynjarsson’s question.

“So, can we move on? Please, Prime Minister?”

Kaija was a petite, elegant, young woman, and Brynjúlfur was about as incredibly not any of those things as it was possible to be, but whether it was a case of opposites attracting or just her respecting his experience, this wasn’t the first time she found herself grateful for one of his interventions. “Yes, please. Yuezhou, how serious is the situation?”

The map on the wall (which had showed Nephara as well as, helpfully, a ClipArt picture of a showerhead) changed to show a map of the United Republics, and some bar charts showing poll predictions.

“Very serious, Prime Minister,” began one of the foreign ministry briefers. “Kara Mingsdóttir is a very talented midfielder. That goal she scored in the Cup semi-final? Sublime. She’s a teenager and she’s already getting serious minutes for Steinaux. She was born here, trained here, she has everything we’d want as a counterattacking force to come through as the next Sara K. We need to send a clear message to the YFA that…”

Kaija waved her hand. “What the fuck are you talking about.”

“The situation in Yuezhou? I assumed you meant…”

Though Kaija didn’t know the briefer by name she guessed he had a background in field operations as he dodged the mug she threw at his head with surprising skill. “The election, Hermannsson*, the election.”

“It’s a mixed picture. Wu’s government is weak, but there’s little to indicate a serious chance of electoral victory for the left.”

“And if the Liberation Army win, they’ll abort the CRC membership bid?”

“All the indications are, yes.”

Kaija fiddled with her pen. Since the Kitaran Crisis had opened a gulf between the pro-Pavolan and pro-CRC factions in Rushmore, Græntfjaller sympathies had very much leaned towards the former, and even Kaija – whose party had campaigned on joining the CRC – had found herself denouncing the organization as a tool of Euran foreign policy hegemony. Having their neighbor turn their noses up at the CRC and double down on Pavolan regional connections really would not be the worst thing in the world.

Brynjúlfur read Kaija’s expression, and then announced: “Alright. We remain neutral in the election beyond encouraging all sides to abstain from violence. We’re willing to offer election advisors. We look forward to continuing to work with the United Republics on counterterrorism issues. And then, let’s try to establish a private line to the Liberation Army. Let them know we would not be an unfriendly ally if they did indeed drop the CRC bid.”

She nodded in agreement with her Foreign Minister, and then waved to the briefing officer at the display map.

“Next.”

The map switched to show Pasarga. “The parliamentarian forces have fired on the capital. Civilians are being evacuated from Torgos to Peynol, and the queen and prince are in retreat in Stilinkeep.”

The issue was tricky for Græntfjall. The White Winter Queendom had a tradition of monarchy, but technically of elective monarchy in which succession was determined not purely by bloodline, but by a vote of the Thing. The succession dispute in Pasarga cut across both lines.

“Our position has to remain unequivocal,” said Kaija. “We back the queen as rightful ruler of Pasarga, against the Majistar pretenders’ claim.”

Given Græntfjall had limited contact with the distant realm, it was relatively costless to take a firm line. Kaija’s audience, in any case, wasn’t really the Pasargans, who probably didn’t care what some distant Pavolans with frozen nads and an inexplicable obsession with krakens thought, but the Höll. Queen Júlíana would be gratified to see her government standing firmly against the prospect of distant pretenders returning to challenge orderly successions.

“Prime Minister, if I bring up football, will you throw something at me?”

Kaija eyed another mug, but offered a grim head shake.

“We do have players in Pasarga. Kæja Finnvarðsdóttir, Jasmijn Spiderlair. We’ve received guarantees of their safety from the PFA, who are relocating all their matches to Valladares.”

“Alright. Keep us updated on that,” said Brynjúlfur.

“Next.”

The map changed again, now displaying a view of Cassadaigua, with the territory known as ‘North Cassadaigua’ marked in a striking red color.

“Oh,” said Kaija glumly. “We can’t punt on this one?”

They had been ‘punting’ on the issue for some time.

“So…” The officer braced himself and held up his clipboard as a shield.

“Let me guess – football?”

He gulped. “Um. Yes. The national team has a World Cup qualifying match coming up against North Cassadaigua. We pretty much have to recognize them, unless we want to forfeit and risk missing out in Group 8.”

“Lieutenant, our foreign policy is not going to be determined by World Cup qualification points,” said Kaija sourly. “But as it happens, there’s no need. We will continue to recognize the independence of ‘North Cassadaigua’ and to offer ongoing assistance in the war on terror against ‘the River Republic’ group. Next.”

Surprisingly, the next map was of Græntfjall itself.

“Last week, Immigration Enforcement raided a massage parlor in Laafjörður.”

“Massage parlor?”

“A brothel,” he said frankly. “They’re saying there are more and more Zelenans being picked up as illegal immigrants.”

“Undocumented workers,” Kaija corrected him.

“Yes, well. As it stands…”

“Didn’t it used to be Mytanars?” Brynjúlfur cut him off.

“Some, yes.” The economic intelligence attaché spoke up. “And some still are. But the Mytanar economy is improving under Mecava-Catic.”

Kaija snorted. She had little doubt the leftist leader hated her. But then again, so did the Euran Prime Minister. And he probably hated Mecava-Catic even more. A certain saying about the enemy of her enemy bubbled up in the back of her mind.

“Alright. Reach out to Mytanija, offer them cooperation in dealing with international human trafficking. Whatever Ms Mecava-Catic’s differences with us on financial liberalization, there’s no reason we can’t lend a helping hand,” said Brynjúlfur.

Especially if it leads to a few photo ops of Græntfjaller forces in heavy gear and captions about getting tough on crime and immigration, thought Kaija. In an election year…

“I suppose all that leaves…” Brynjúlfur sounded reflective.

“Jabal Akhdar,” she answered solemnly. The situation had remained at an impasse since Græntfjall sent a fleet into the Vilitan Bay last year.

“We have rumors of Atlantian nations putting special operations forces on the ground in the Emirate.”

She exchanged a glance with Brynjúlfur, who nodded. They’d met, earlier, with an advisor not present at this table. Aron Fritzson. She wondered how much blood and fire these pompous career officers would spit if they knew who was whispering in her ear now.

“Rumors?”

“Hard intelligence.”

“Gathered by our own special operations forces on the ground there?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Kaija hated being called ‘ma’am’, but at the end of this long meeting, was too tired to correct them.

“I need you to get a message to them,” she said, turning to Franzisca Fabrisíusardóttir, who represented the regional envoy to Atlantian Oceania. “Tell them we have no intention of withdrawing, and once we have identified terror targets, will commence bombing. If their troops are still on the ground in 48 hours, it’s on them.”

The foreign ministry staffers bristling. The Prime Minister’s hawkishness was reaching impossible levels. Risking friendly AO nations as collateral damage? It just proved how insulated they were from public opinion: out on the street, the overwhelming public opinion was to ask why bombing hadn’t started already.

“Next.”

“Tensions in Brenecia over welfare reform are boiling over. There was a confrontation in their Thing…”

“What is that?” interrupted Kaija. She pointed to a red blinking light, on a different map.

“It’s a kraken activity monitoring station. It monitors for seismic activity, possible indications of long-range kraken spawning…”

“I know what it is,” she snapped. “That’s what we pretend to have in Cabo Azure. I want to know why it’s flashing red.”

“It must have picked up something.”

She looked around for another mug.

“Major seismic activity,” confirmed the scientific affairs intelligence operative.

“Where is it?”

“In the Verdean Ocean…”

* Albert Hermannsson was a noted Græntfjaller theoretical physicist; calling someone ‘Hermannsson’ is a sincere compliment or mocking insult to their intelligence, dependent on context. Given in this case it was accompanied by hefting a ‘Region’s Best Prime Minister <3’ mug, lovingly gifted by the Prime Minister’s husband, at the target’s head, context clues suggest the latter meaning was intended.

by **Pemecutan** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 7:24 pm

MD 1
Pemecutan   3 – 0   Srednjaci

Goal scorers:
Dewa Putu Sastrawan (17')
Leo Olivando (39')
Rama Karyadi (73')

Substitute:
Samsul Hermawan <—> Kristian Subrata (69')
Komang Trisna Mahayana <—> Wisnu Pramana (77')
MD 2
Poafmersia   5 – 3   Pemecutan

Goal scorers:
Rama Karyadi (38')
Leo Olivando (61', 88')

Substitutes:
Samsul Hermawan <—> Kristian Subrata (56')
Jaka Wiryawan <—> Alvino Bastian (71')
Sorabala Aksapadan <—> Surya Brata Wijaya (77')

Redite Umanis Wuku Kelawu, Pawukon 1783

The Week of Wayang

Pemecutan Puri - Just yesterday, we saw the last day of the 27th week in Pemecutan's official calendar, the Pawukon calendar. The week is named Wayang which literally can be translated to shadow puppet. And in its last day, the Saturday or Saniscara Kliwon Wayang, the Sanatana Dharma followers in Pemecutan celebrated a little holy day known as Tumpek Wayang. Tumpek however is a recurring little holy day which is celebrated in the second week of each five-weeks cycle in Pemecutan Pawukon calendar. And Tumpek Wayang is the last Tumpek in the year. But what it is really celebrated about? And does it related to the shadow puppet itself?

The Wayang kulit show

The Tumpek holy day have a close relation with celebration towards the nature and human creation. In one Pawukon year there are 6 Tumpek holy day which all fall in the Saturday of the second week of the five-weeks cycle. The first is Tumpek Landep which is the celebration of human sharp thinking and inovative nature. It is also known as Iron Day. The second, Tumpek Wariga which fall at the 7th week. On this day the Sanatana Dharma believers celebrate the God Sangkara for the creation of plants and trees which give a lot of benefits to human. At the 12th week, we have Tumpek Kuningan where the Sanatana Dharma believers pray towards their ancestors. Tumpek Kuningan is part of 2-weeks long Galungan Holy Day, the largest Sanatana Dharma holiday in Pemecutan. Then on the 17th week, there is Tumpek Krulut. It is believe that music is bestowed on this day with the creation of gamelan, Pemecutan traditional music ensemble. Although in modern day, Tumpek Krulut sometimes associated with the equivalent of Valentine's Day. On the 22nd week, we celebrated Tumpek Uye. It is a day to blessed the animal, pets and cattles. It is sometime nickname as Animal Day or The Pet Birthday. And the last, on the 27th week is Tumpek Wayang. It is a celebration of another artwork and performance, Wayang or shadow puppet. But there is also some old historical reference that makes the day special especially for kids who born on this particular week.

Kayon, the main Wayang piece
symbolized the nature

Mentioned in Sapuh Leger Chronicles, God Shiva have 2 sons who is born in the Saturday of Wayang week. The older one is Bhatara Kala (ruler of time) and the younger one is Bhatara Rare Kumara (the guardian of children). One day, God Shiva made a promise to Bhatara Kala that He can eat everything and anything during his birthday especially the one who walk at high noon. This promise is given as a reward for Him after helping Goddess Durgha acquired the milk of a bull. It is then mention that Bhatara Kala chase his own brother, Bhatara Rare Kumara to be eaten as He is also born in the same day as Bhatara Kala. He chase down Bhatara Rare Kumara everywhere on Earth. At the high noon, Bhatara Kala success to cornered Bhatara Rare Kumara but when He try to eat His own brother, God Shiva interrupt. The situation change the course of event as Bhatara Kala is now watns to eat God Shiva because He is walking around at high noon on that day. God Shiva agree for Bhatara Kala to eat Him as long as He is able to solved the riddle given by God Shiva. Fortunately, Bhatara Kala is unable to solved the riddle and the time to solved the riddle is taken into advantage by Bhatara Rare Kumara to flee away. Bhatara Kala spare God Shiva live and chase Rare Kumara again. The day has change to night and Bhatara Rare Kumara is already exhausted. He goes to a place where there is a Wayang performance being held. As fear engulfed Him, Bhatara Rare Kumara took a hide inside a bamboo that is use by the Dalang, the Wayang's puppeteer. Because of His rash behavior, Bhatara Kala accidentally eat the offering placed on top of the bamboo which shocked the Dalang. The Dalang then adviced Bhatara Kala to end his quest to eat His brother and He already eats the offerings. The Dalang said that the offering is the exchange for Bhatara Rare Kumara. Bhatara Kala take the advice and end His quest.

Based on the story, every children that is born in Wayang week especially on the Saturday have to be held a special ceremony to avoid the children from being chased or harmed by Bhatara Kala. The ceremony itself have to use a specific Wayang performance known as Wayang Sapuh Leger. Sapuh means cleansing or eradicated. Leger means bad or negative omens. This practice have been done from historical times and still held to this day.

One of Wayang Cenk Blong show using modern lighting effects

However, the practice of Wayang performance itself in general have been declining through times. Long performance times (around 3-4 hours) and the repetitive storyline becomes the main reason. Young generation tends to avoid Wayang because of its, sometimes, boring performance. In the recent decades, a revive of Wayang is conduct. Started with a Wayang's group known as Cenk Blong. The Dalang use a modern approached to gained audience. From intricate lighting (as oppose to oil based lights used before), the use of sound effects, addition of new characters, the use of elaborate background set and more humorous scripts. These approached success to make Wayang become known again. And the same approach is begin to adopted by other Dalangs in order to preserve the traditional performance. However, some Dalangs stay to the old performance nature of Wayang to preserve the way of Wayang's original performance.

MD 3
Bye
MD 4
Pemecutan v Tecoia
@ Manguwi Stadium, Mengwi

Starters: Benches:

21 GK Aksabala Jandisuga Herman Putrawan GK  1

12 LB Dwi Putra Kusuma Yuhabani Nehusandak LB  2

3  CB Sorabala Aksapadan Surya Brata Wijaya CB 13

4  CB Satya Putra Laksamana (C) Oscar Tri Atmaja RB 26

14 RB Alvino Bastian Ngakan Putu Suweca CM 29

6  LM Agus Kusumawijaya Kadek Rai Partha RM 30

7  CM Rama Karyadi Wisnu Pramana ST 20

19 CM Agus Setiahadi Reserve benches:

8  RM Samsul Hermawan Gery Afilianto GK 33

10 ST Leo Olivando Putra Eka Laksana CB 18

28 AT Dewa Putu Mahardika Basuyuha Padurjana LM 15

Adiwira Sudirga CM 34

Komang Trisna Mahayana AT 11

by **Saint Eleanor** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 7:27 pm

OOC: Nyowani Kitara/Banija roleplayed the NYK-EXT match first. The events documented in this roleplay are consistent with what Ban's RP says.

Nyowani Kitara 3-4 Saint Eleanor: Eleanorians survive late Anders scare to claim opening-day win
Chief Football Correspondent Jamie Rodgers looks back on a dreamy team performance that could have so nearly turned into a nightmare
Originally published on Tuesday 9th January 2001

Despite conceding three goals and going a player down in the final half-hour at Dewayo's Revolutionary Grounds, Saint Eleanor held on to secure a second win over Nyowani Kitara in six months - opening their World Cup qualifying account with maximum points.

Like last year's encounter in Græntfjall, Priscilla Evans kept to her expected formation: 4-4-2 then, 4-1-4-1 now. And the lineup was also largely free of surprises, with the exception of a powerful striker with the potential to make a big impression. Last time, Melcheta Pazorzal scored twice to put the White Stars in cruise control. Today, it was Dekamela weMexala's turn. She was threatening up front early on, scuffing an early solo effort into the arms of opposing goalkeeper Oduor Bigombe - but went one better a matter of minutes later. With Olaf Svante slacking on the ball, Exandra Davies won possession off him and teed up Bridget Coombe, out of desperation more than intention. After spending a few seconds on the ball, she cut through the rest of the New Kitaran midfield easily and found weMexala, herself up against Tendenka Mutsekwa. The Occidental Olympic star jinked past her marker, let her right boot fly from twenty yards out and sent the ball so far into the top-right corner that Bigombe could not possibly reach it.

Naturally, the Rushmori team wanted parity, and fast. Svante was paying a bit more attention a few minutes after his earlier mistake, whipping a ball into the box that nobody could find, despite Odede Angonga's best efforts, and ultimately trickling out for a throw-in. They were persistent after that, trying - and occasionally succeeding - to break up prospective Eleanorian attacks at the first opportunity. At one point, fellow striker Owino Odede robbed Liam West of the ball - twice - and should have scored, but John Bailey cradled it before the New Kitaran could complete his shot. But it did not, and could not pay off. Two similar chances from other attacking players were not even met with that dignified response: they just ended up flying into the home crowd. The ambition was there, but the ability was quite simply not.

In the end - and there were still seventy minutes to play - it was David Newcastle who shattered their delusions. Having received a throwin from Independence 1975 teammate Cathy Winchester, the wide midfielder had cut inside and teed up Sylvia Hollenberg, who tried to send the ball into the box but could only find Catarina Malmquist. Her attempts to play the ball from the back were rushed and the Atoccian princess intercepted her woeful impersonation of a pass; moving the ball to Steve Pilchard, he cut the ball across to Jessica Martin, whose fortitous cross was met by a Newcastle volley into the near post. Never mind that he was almost, so very nearly onside: the assistant referees knew he was well-positioned enough, and that sufficed.

Were the New Kitarans really, seriously going to try this again? Yes, they were: Angonga finally had a serious chance some five minutes later, evading Sam Newbridge's desperate attempt to stop him from going forward, but Bailey pushed it out for a corner. As it turned out, it was not a particularly good corner: it went so far out that Winchester, on the far end of the penalty area, ended up with the ball; she went twenty-five yards with the ball before hitting it as hard as she possibly could. weMexala, in the opposing half but just a couple of yards behind Malmquist, successfully outran her - an excellent outcome for a woman who can occasionally be allergic to sprinting, only made better as she put her effort just past Bigombe to make it three within thirty minutes.

They were not going to try this yet again; the opportunity to go into shutdown mode for fifteen minutes, before the opportunity to rejuvenate at half-time, was seriously tempting. weMexala tried to bite, but Mutsekwa had her number - and when she tried to circumvent Malmquist instead, she just could not. Martin had a go, too, but her attempt was cleared to safety long before it could endanger Bigombe. Most other attacks from either side collapsed in midfield. However, Saint Eleanor's latest breakthrough came in unlikely circumstances: Coombe, who assisted the first goal from about forty-five yards out, tried her luck from thirty - a low and powerful, if slightly rising, shot more than likely destined for the net which Bigombe must have reckoned he had kept out by the narrowest margin. Unfortunately for him and his side, he had done little more than make the ball bobble, rather than glide, past the goal line, able only to watch on as Latrobe Athletic's newest signing made it 4-0: a scoreline that should be foreign to dedicated followers of the White Stars.

It should have been five after the break, but Bigombe was more fortunate in his response to an angled Newcastle effort, forcing a corner kick that was easily cleared. weMexala was no more successful in her quest for a hat-trick, trying to lob him but hammering the face of the crossbar instead. Nyowani Kitara was a bit quiet in the face of this, but started to heat up about ten minutes into the half, as Odede's header across the face of goal almost paid off, but was palmed off by Bailey instead. Substitute Mhara Vera tried from distance, but the Eleanorian stopper found his try simpler to deal with. But most threatening of all was a calm dribble from Angonga: he had skipped past a couple of opposing players and hoped that he could get past Newbridge - but he was instead brought down, after a bit of tussling. The defender was booked - and had it not been for Odede being a bit further up the pitch, ripe for a quick pass, the promising attack he was cautioned for stopping could have turned into an obvious goalscoring opportunity and a red card. Wang Jiahui, until now quiet, roared with the subsequent free-kick, sending Bailey the wrong way with a curling effort and cutting the deficit, even if by the most insignificant amount.

For all intents and purposes, Wang's goal was a blip, a moment of New Kitaran magic that should have had little effect on its victim anyway. Instead, it quite nearly turned out to be the catalyst for a comeback. Despite a couple of good chances from Pazorzal, who had ironically been brought on for weMexala, he could just not will a 5-1 lead into existence. His best chance was interrupted by farce: in clear with only Mutsekwa and Bigombe to beat, he was more focused on the defender, but both stopped challenging for the ball when the Eleanorian saw Bigombe just pull up. He was dragged away on a stretcher and replaced by the little-known Fwaya Sialo. The last sixteen minutes, plus stoppage time, should have been the best time of the match for the Eleanorians to widen their lead - but Sialo didn't face a single shot.

Instead, the focus was on defence: Wang tried for a second but was denied by John Bailey, and on other occasions by Winchester, who was marking the winger almost as persistently as she was at the World Cup. In general, a stringent system of man-marking kept each of the hosts' front four in their place (while Hollenberg was dropped back to help Coombe look after the opposing central midfielders), resulting in what almost felt like a ten-minute stall in play during which nothing except an audacious Odede effort that came off the post for a goal kick resulted. Naturally, Newbridge decided he would go a little bit further, harrying Angonga at every chance he got, but perhaps going a bit far as he almost rammed into the striker, sending him tumbling and finally earning himself a red card.

Although the Lakiska SC star was not injured, Liang Wei decided at that moment that he was a bit tattered, opting to bring on Lars Anders in his place. This might just have been one of the very best decisions of the first round of qualifying matches: his introduction combined with Newbridge's dismissal made him an incisive inspector of Evans' one-on-one tutoring program. His findings: resources were lacking; safeguarding was ineffective; leadership was mediocre at best. At least bullying was no longer rampant. His first recommendation for improvement: sort out low-level disruption. Coombe is a good centreback, even if she has to - but Hollenberg is an okay defensive midfielder at best, especially when up against two others. Nothing apart from a good interception (and Hollenberg had a couple of these) could stop them from just passing to each other and then drilling Anders for a dangerous opportunity.

Recommendation two: improve peer mentoring. Coombe did not live up to her full potential in defence, despite support from captain West. Anders, who had already tried for goal a couple of times but was being marked by her as an emergency measure nonetheless, had a bit of difficulty in breaking her down at first. His goal came when she was watching over him: receiving another Vera pass, she gave chase and should have gotten the ball clear, but quite evidently failed as he easily hammered the ball past Bailey. What was she thinking? Perhaps she had thought if she tried to keep Anders on the ball long enough, she would force a mistake and get him to send his effort wide - but that is Liam West's specialty. Her job is to win the ball (cleanly, of course) and, if possible, get it to a teammate rather than just clear it. But then 95 minutes playing two different positions in a completely different country can do strange things to your brain... never mind your lungs.

And finally: help the strugglers get their work done. Anders did this excellently - his own one-two with Odede should have led to a third goal, but the East Dewayo man was distracted and could only send his effort wide. While he did get onto a powerful Wang cross a while later, Bailey could only deflect it when he could have grasped onto it (and he could have just made a clearance before Odede could get a sniff at all); this created an ideal opening for Anders, faced with an effectively empty net, to score. There was nowhere near enough time for an equaliser, but the damage had been done, mentally if not mathematically.

Lessons must be learned. Newbridge was a pest, but closer to a jumbo-sized rat than an ant that had lost track with its colony: Angonga was fortunate not to have been injured by the Grand Beach captain, not least for what turned out to be the Eleanorian's final act. Although it has never technically happened before, you could make a case for Lydia Nicholls being a good makeshift centreback for the last few minutes; Coombe filled that role after Newbridge's dismissal, but seemed a bit lost at times (especially before Anders' first strike) and you cannot help but feel as though the 20-year-old would have done a better job. weMexala the poacher should have been partnered up front by Pilchard, a playmaker by trade but happy to be a shadow striker - yet save for Saint Eleanor's last good chance (which was well wide), he was anonymous in the shooting department. And Bailey, normally flawless, was clearly at fault for Anders' second.

None of this takes away from the fact that Saint Eleanor won their first qualifier. It could have been an excellent win, perhaps even a template for future performances against opponents much less likely to put up a challenge - but instead, it proved to be the latest point on a learning curve that is becoming increasingly shallow. The Eleanorians will recover from their late, late horror show, but nobody knows when; all there is left to do is hope they will proceed against Quakmybush and the Independent Wreckerian Athletes, the other two teams they must face off against this month, with confidence, certainty and competence. The White Stars' B+ grade from this match could turn into an F without action.

Nyowani Kitara 3 (Wang Jiahui goal 65', Lars Anders goals 90+2' and 90+8')
Saint Eleanor 4 (Dekamela weMexala goals 7' and 27', David Newcastle goal 20', Bridget Coombe goal 44', Sam Newbridge red card 81')

by **Independent Athletes from Quebec** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 7:27 pm

Dr. Heo and the Portal of Madness

PART 5 - New Orleans is Sinking

The Prospero Club was a multi-dimensional, out-of-character, existentially-fluid social club that was located somewhere indetectable between seven universes of ‘The Narrator’, in which only one of them led to his primary nation of Quebec and Shingoryeo, and only two of them had belonged to three thousand deities who had lived in their own universes.

It wasn’t a club that most individual creations, especially those who did not share the same breadcrumb, a winedrop or a golden-locked thread of inspiration with that of ‘The Creator’, were expected to be invited. Here the invitation was almost always via those traits, though exceptions were sometimes provided to those who had received a recommendation letter from their respective creators (author’s note: OOC permission and arcs of collaboration). It is famously said that a half-dozen Frusennians and Ortelians, a dozen Chromatika, six-dozen Azureans and twelve-hundred Banijans and Schottians, with the last two often coming here in groups, not individuals, had received a temporary visa of undisclosed length to access this lounge if need be, so the visit itself wasn’t a problem at all.

That said, to seek permanent residency in this Prospero Club was a different task of its own. To kick off the process, just first of many, it was required for the applicant to be not only deceased at the time of application but also to hold a metaphysical tithe in which they would be subjected to contribute to a series of greater arcs. And while it was relatively easy for the applicant to enter after paying those dues and completing paperwork, it had come with a price for there existed almost a nil chance for them to escape the maze of ‘The Narrator’s arcs that ever so intertwined with that of his friends, colleagues and patron. The Club, a miraculous creation that had taken over a decade, or if you are viewing this from that of the subjects, several centuries, were filled with obscure safety devices and hidden traps, so if you had the intention to leave without properly planning your escape like a Wightling or an Azurean Papillon, you were most likely going to find yourself disappear from everybody’s consciousness. If you leave without a carefully-worded letter of thanks and just try to slip outside the lounge by its mahogany doors, you were most likely going to find yourself in front of a boundless expanse of water. Very likely you won’t be able to able to swim in those waters because of how icy and tempestuous the Blood Sea water would be at times. And you will find yourself at the point of no return because the moment you turn around…the Prospero Clubhouse that you had once seen would no longer exist.

Thus, it was as rare for an external applicant to apply for permanent residency at the Prospero Lounge as it would be for them to get out successfully. So in the end, the difficult level of admission into the Lounge, not to mention the existence of all devices that would prevent the permanent residents (and their arcs) from escaping altogether, had made it a formidable fortress. This did not mean that it was never impossible to breach or penetrate through the Lounge property, however, for a clever or a doubtful mind would always find a way through blind rage and fury with the venomous arrow from an anxious outsider enough to cause damage to some degree. This was exactly what happened one day in June 2056 - just shy of World Cup 91, when the Farf forests were burning and the Krakens danced wildly to the growing tensions among Farf ethno-states - when its half-dozen residents who were stationed at the time, found their floor wet with floodwater from the basement.

It happened a week after the familiar-looking human-deities from the ancient Koreanophone land of Queb-909 named Jowangsin (Goddess of Household), Yeomra (Yama) had made their annual visit to the Lounge to make sure they had the basement access to the old, faceshifting machines they had created when accessing the human world in the advents of Industrialisation in the 1780s.

The visit itself, while high-profile in nature, was held with relatively little security or maintenance check on the grounds for the two deities, who dressed like a normal, Quebecois couple who’s been married for well over fifty decades, had insisted so. They did not like being asked unnecessary questions and kept mostly to their own affairs in the basement and their own guest rooms. Now whether they were actually in a relationship beyond platonic friendships, or have managed to find themselves so closely aligned to each other’s domains that their pretend-game may as well look real, was another story. But the visit, no matter how distressful it was at times to the likes of Henri VIII, who had managed to come up with a decent enough excuse in the sporting multiverse to leave midway through the weekend, or a simple spiritual butler by the name of 'Joe', was fine with the visitors leaving satisfied about the level of service and maintenance offered here. No matter how repetitive it would feel in the world

Now back to the very accident. The residents of the lounge did not notice the damage done to it rightaway. In the Prospero Lounge there existed twelve-hundred hundred rooms with about one-third of them made available for the Lounge’s dozen permanent residents and another dozen for the temporary residents whose numbers would vary every now and then. While what each spirit would receive in their accommodation package would vary, in each room each resident was given an ever-revolving shelf that functioned according to the resident’s mind, and they would be able to access whatever they needed.

Each room would also come with a separate window that would be used to access their multiverse of origin, though in this case, they would not be able to choose when they would land. No matter how all-giving this house and its rooms appeared to be, there was a provision that the past cannot be changed, for they were considered final sales and not refundable items on this figurative store they served as both customers and workers. The very risk of the breach, most notably occurring at the World Cup 77 Sponsorship Scandal of 2030, meant that in the case of an accident where the windows are damaged or hit on either end of the inter-dimensional access, the resident were prevented from escaping the properties alone.

So this caused a particular problem as the residents woke up to a flooded floor, with the muddy water of toxic northern (OOC: the direction north usually holds negative connotation in the Quebecois lore, due to its association with the treacherous waters of Blood Sea that separates Rushmore and Calanaia), distant renard-poop slowly rising in level. As with every sentient specie, they would get out of their room and try to escape, but there were many chambers, even more doors, and unnavigable hallways that only made them more disoriented than ever before. With the Lounge’s basement already flooded with all the dangerous equipment from the previous weekend’s Yeomra-Jowangsin experiments, they knew that they had to go to the roof in hopes that a rescue plan can be made in the hours to come.

by **Montana Verde** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 7:30 pm

Isla de Coco – 0 (0)

Montaña Verde – 2 (1)
Moises; Roberto Dylan, Mandito (78’) (84’), Arquímedes, Juderías (76’); Schutzán (63’) (85’ Cristo Díaz ), Coco; Primitivo (30’) (55’ Emma ), Aramis (63’ Covarrubias ); Tino (63’ Indiano ), Osito (55’ Tatiano )

Montaña Verde – 0 (0)
Dolfo; Roberto Dylan (45+1’), Mandito (64’), Arquímedes, Juderías (61’ Tíntín (83’)); Cristo Díaz (50’) (73’ Cambeiro ), Coco; Aramis (73’ Monaguillo ), Primitivo (24’) (88’ Covarrubias ) Tino (73’ Indiano ), Osito

Montaña de Gnomos – 1 (0)
Kranforde (46’)

Breaking news story on AP wire.

Huge earthquake strikes Montaña Verde:

by **Vilita** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 7:38 pm

FOOTSPORT ASSOCIATIONS OF VILITA & ELECTRUM - WC92 ✓

@FAVE92
Fans of any team that loses on MD 3/4 of #WC92Q wearing their teams gear into any @SpinningLeek Restaurant this weekend will receive 20% off their entire bill or a free appetizer.

#CUTOFF :: #GRP_8-15

by **Tjorl** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 7:50 pm

Jan Thomassen: A Player the Tjorlish Can Be Proud Of

Born in northern Tjorl, which was known for its rocky terrain, Jan Thomassen's first love was skiing. He wasn't great at it, but he loved it nonetheless. When Jan was 11, his family moved to Kjol, in southern Tjorl. Now living in an area where it would be much harder to ski as much as he did back north, Thomassen moved on to another sport. He was good at basketball, showing skill in reading the floor and setting up big plays for the team. However, it was the other national favorite sport, football, that he found an ambition for. Just like in basketball, he excelled in creating chances for his attackers and making do with whatever amount of space he had. Eventually, he was noticed by scouts from FF Trygveland, a local minnow club. Jan quickly displayed his talent on the pitch, leading Trygveland's U16 side to success. With the U16 team of a usually-minor club suddenly making noise, Zentraliga giants SF Kjol were quick to notice the young talent, and they immediately recruited Jan to the Tjorlish capital's most historic club.

Having enjoyed a meteoric rise up to that point, it wouldn't immediately be the same for Jan this time around. Coming off a successful season, in which they won the double, SF Kjol's midfield looked to be secure for at least the next five years. The well-loved mid-2000s Kjol midfield included three of the Zentraliga's best. First was Fredrik Rosholt, a man whose aggressiveness constantly terrorized opponents. Second was Kamilla Vergaard, who utilized her incredible pace to run circles around the defense. Lastly, there was the elusive Frank Hofland, who always seemed to get out of tough situations. Despite proving himself well enough that he was designated as a midfield back-up, Jan just wasn't given enough opportunities to cement his name in the starting line-up. Until, one of Kjol's midfield maestros departed the squad. Hofland, who felt that he should be paid the same amount as Rosholt and Vergaard, left the team in the '09-'10 season, paving the way for Jan.

Now in the starting line-up, Jan didn't waste any time proving that he deserved his place. Scoring eight and assisting twelve more, he was given the Zentraliga's young-player award. With Rosholt's unfortunate early retirement due to injury and Vergaard's transfer to Drazieu by 2012, Jan struggled to lead an awful Kjol squad. For the next five years, Kjol languished in the bottom half of the table. In the '15-'16 season, they suffered their worst year up to that point, only being able to tally 35 points as they finished in 15th place, only one spot above the relegation play-offs. Manager Victor Grünberg was sacked soon thereafter, and numerous rumors about Thomassen's possible departure to Konunsfjord or Roshavn spread throughout the Tjorlish football community. However, Jan proved his loyalty to the club and its fans by staying with the Tangerines, promising to lift them out of their struggles. It wasn't easy, but they gradually crawled their way back up the table. By the '18-'19 season, things haven't looked better for the capital's club since 2011.

Then, they hired Michael Tischbein. Tischbein was a stern coach. He wasn't known for being the most friendly man in Tjorlish football, but it didn't matter as long as he kept delivering. After being hired halfway through the '18-'19 season, Tischbein led the squad to a resounding 5th-place finish and a Forbundets-Pokal trophy, signaling the return of Kjol to winning ways. While Tischbein was the revolutionary on the sideline, Jan was the leader on the pitch. His leadership and decisiveness when making tough decisions was a crucial factor in Kjol's sudden return to the Zentraliga's very best. With star striker Mariano Simões now up front for the Tangerines, Jan enjoyed gifting golden opportunities that the Tecoian can convert with ease. Today, Jan doesn't appear on the scoresheet as often as he used to, but his contributions are still there. With Mikael Kirkegaard and Solveig Nicolaisen looking to be the next midfield legends in Kjol's history, Jan has spent more time in the past few seasons mentoring and leading the young stars, in hopes that they can succeed him once he hangs up his boots.

As for his international career, Jan has always been part of the national squad, whether it be U17, U19, U21, or the senior team. He was there when Tjorl made their IAC debut. He was there when the Krigerne made their World Cup debut only last cycle. He was there at the Cup of Harmony, where Tjorl just couldn't get anything going and finished in last place. Jan was there for every high and every low, and it looked like he was still able to be the man the Tjorlish midfield relied on for at least five more years. However, at the age of just 30, he retired from the national team. This was a huge surprise to pretty much every Tjorlish football fan. When asked of his decision, he stated that he simply wanted to spend more time with his family. Another, he mentioned how he thought it was the right time to make way for Tobi Krzanowski and Mathias Schärer, players he thought could definitely do a whole lot more for the Krigerne than he has ever done.

by **Ranoria** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 7:57 pm

Upset Victory In Opener Over Squornshelan Remnant States,
4-0 Shutout Against Bongo Johnson Make Snow Bears Early Group Leaders

The Snow Bears have started strong, but as with most competitions for this team, we're waiting for the inevitable collapse

After speculation of Ranoria's final World Cup coming in the 91st edition were rampant - with their last hurrah supposedly coming by making the Cup of Harmony knockouts - many were surprised that the team made a return. But with plenty of young potential stars in the mix playing abroad, maybe it shouldn't be as surprising as it is to see them doing so well. Tatiana Queen - who's been responsible for 3 of the team's 5 goals so far, has been flashy, but as always it's going to be the defense carrying the load - fans have to have someone to rag on once the losses start piling up after all, and there's some dignity in having a strong defense on a bad team. Trust us, we spoke with the Snow Bears marketing team, and they studied at the University of Loyola-Istria.

(Get it, because it's a terrible school? No? Tough crowd.)

Anyway! Kris Reinhardt continues to be the centerpiece of our defensive unit and she's established herself as the best Ranorian on the pitch by now, playing abroad for Omnio in Chromatika, but she's got some help now. While her long-time running mate Jules Annina has been relegated to a back up role, youngsters Sabra Sapharina, David Yarbrough, and Andrew Parrish are all under the age of 24 and performing admirably around their captain...so far. Throw in Vincent Emila at goalie and...sheesh, it's not that terrible of a lineup!

Seriously though - the win over Squornshelan Remnant States on the crimson turf of Smith Field was an incredible showing by this team - they're capable of upsetting some strong competition. The Black-and-Reds came into the tournament ranked 22nd in the world to our 63rd. As the Pot 2 team in Group B, they were projected to make the Proper coming into this WCQ stage - while a sweep is unlikely, it's possible at least for this Snow Bears team to make a push after the early victory. The Snow Bears have a strong chance to at least get to 3-0 with a winnable match up next against North and South Vietnam, but a trip to Sargossa for their fourth match will certainly be a test. If they can get away from that with a win, well, they'd go into the bye 4-0. That has to be the goal for this team - with the youngsters we have, discipline and stamina of the long qualifying stage will set in at some point, so starting strong is always an emphasis.

Mind you, we outside the organization are laughing at the idea of their potentially making the Proper - not only would it be a Cinderella story, but a slap in the face to the established power houses of the World Cup. As usual, expect a winning record from this squad and not much else.

by **Bears Armed** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 8:29 pm

The date and time: mid-morning, two days after the Bear-Belles' return home from their 'away' match (and victory) in Harmonia.

The place: One of the cafes in Pumtrees Park, a riverside set of gardens and sports fields near the south-western corner of Council Groves.

People present: Karra Brent (footbaall star, in the Belles' current squad), her best friend Lurrsee Faane-Urrsen (a former member of the Belles who, like Karra came up through the country's Under-21s team that won DBC46 but who had to take a break from playing halfway through the qualifiers for WC84 when she found that she was pregnant), and Lurrsee's young daughter Errissabearrh... who, due to an incident slightly earlier in the WC84 qulifiers that involved about half of the Belles' players & travelling staff being turned into pastel-coloured 'Ponies' of various kinds for a couple of days -- with Lurrsee having become a 'Pegasus' -- has wings!
(NOTES: Lurrsee is the younger sister of famous journalist Florise Fane, who is married to Karra's cousin -- also famouus as a journalist, and famous as a broadcaster too -- Bark Brent. Bark and Karra both deny strongly any connection with "the doomed planet Krapton". Lurrsee's husband, Errissabearrh's father, is photographer Jamms Bearthorromew 'Jammy' Urrsen who often works with Florise and Bark.)

--------------------------------------------------------

(Lurrsee) "So, how was Harmonia? Have you got their team's hrroster, now?"

(Karra) "Foggy, all the hwhile we were there, so I can't tell you much about hwhat the place looks like, and 'No': They still haven't released that yet... and in fact nobody there with hwhom I spoke would give their own name neither. Maybe that's a 'taboo', or something of the sort, there."

(Lurrsee) "Or maybeso they just aren't used to dealing with people who aren't jother Humans, and that made warier than normal? Too overawed by the very sight of you? " (She giggles.)

(Karra) "Hwell, maybeso, but aanyhows: Still no hrroster, nobearry there would tell us the name of the stadium hwhere we were playing, and hwaht with all that the fog -- and maybeso something else, too -- I couldn't even tell you hwhat any of their players looked like, neither. They just appeared briefly out of the fog, hwhen we were near them, and then disappeared back into it again "

(Lurrsee) "Oh, one of those teams. Urrgh'harr! I always disliked playing against teams like that.. Ur'rmm, hwhen you said "something else", hwhere you suggesting that that" (She pauses, not wanting to use a swear-word in front of her daughter...) "Dragon might have been meddling again?" (She looks worried and not without good reason: The' dragon' to which she's referring here, actually a draconic avatar of Chaos who goes by the name of ' Discord' -- Yes, that 'Discord' -- had not only messed with the Belles' perceptions like that during the WC84 qualifiers but also had been the being responsible for their [temporary] ponyfication...)

(Karra) "Semharn said not and I'd trust Him to know."

(Lurrsee) "Ayyuh for true, so would I... "Was their players being hard to see like that hwhy they were able to score those two goals against our girls?"

(Karra) "Auuyh, that it was. Both times, their shooter just appeared almost on the line and put the ball into the net before anybearry could get into position to stop them."

(There is a repeated thumping sound nearby, and both of them turn to look at the high-chair into which Errissabearrh is strapped. Its feet are making that noise, as they return to the ground after the youngster's rapidly-beaing wings lift one or more of them at a time briefly up into the air.

(Lurrssee) "I think that we'd better order our drinks and food, before my little princess breaks free and flies off to find some for herself."

(Errissabearrh) "Nice-crream, momma? Nice-crream for urrs?"

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, at the BAAS offices _

(Surranna SunDaughter [BAAS ChairBear]) "So, do we finally have hrrosters for all of Group 1's other teams now?"

(Judith Gold[Belles' Deput Manager: Admin.]) " "For all of them except Harmonia, hwho are still being secretive -- or maybeso just inefficient -- anyhows. Turori releaded theirs shortly before the deadline, and all of the others that we were waiting on released theirs actually on the first Matchday iitself...

(Sunnarra) "Hokay... and maybeso the Harmonians -- Harmonics, hwhatever -- will provide details before the Belles/[i] second [i]game against them.
"Were the hrrelevant stadium details included with these additional hrrosters that we have [obtained?

(Judith Gold ) "Gyatso-Kai gave full details; Zeta Reki and Hugeltadom did name and describe the three stadiums that they're using for home games, but unfortunately hwithout actually saying hwhich of those sites wwould be used for hwich games... otherwise, no.
"Oh, but the football authorities in savigliane, who had rreleased a hrroster earlier but hadn't named any stadiums then, have sent a letter directly to the Belle's own offices with an apology for that accidenttal omission and the necessary details. Ourr girls' 'away' game against them on Matchday Four will be at a 'Stadio del Piero' in a town called Acqui Bollente... and that town has convenient rail links to both of the nation's main seaports, so the Belles will be able to avoid travelling by air -- hwhich they mostly dislike, just as most Bears do, of course -- this time."
(OOC: Savigliane's player read my earlier RP, in which one of the Bears mentioned that omission, and sent me a TG clearing up these details.)

OOC: My own Roster post has now been clarfied to specify which of the Belles' home games will be at NorthPort rather than at Wimbley: MD6 against Valentine Z, and MD18 against Strayaroos Barrier Islands.)

by **New Gelderland** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 8:34 pm

Legislative Assembly of New Gelderland
Hansard
Oral Answers to Questions, Volume 731

On the subject of the success of the Confederacy of the Afanc Strait, the Chairman of the Afanc Strait Steering Committee was asked the following... (excerpted)

Tara Riordan (Newmarket-on-Rogue)

Let me be blunt here: How does the Honourable Chairman believe that this Confederacy has any value when Graentfjall continues its strategy of attacks on Jabal Akhdar, Pasarga has descended into all-out civil war, and Rushmore is descending into a proxy conflict between Pavola and the Common Rushmori Community?

Liam Penderyn, Chairman of the Afanc Strait Steering Committee

Well, uh, thank you for the warm welcome to the Legislative Assembly of New Gelderland. I didn't imagine that I would get softballs in my first time here, but I was certainly not expecting to immediately have a polemic directed against me! Thankfully, I am not Lonus Varalin — another tennis player known for his sardonic wit and inane answers to question, if you must know — and I will attempt to answer your questions with the severity that they deserve.

I understand the sentiment behind the Honourable MP's question. After all, the Afanc Strait has not made the impact on foreign relations that we had perhaps hoped for. But did anybody think that Ceni and New Gelderland joining together would suddenly mean that the Pasargan claimants to the throne would suddenly come in to the throne room bowing their heads, that Graintfjall would suddenly stop its all-guns-blazing approach in Jabal Akhdar, and that Eura would suddenly cede its place as the power broker in this corner of the world? I certainly hope not.

If we cannot accomplish those things, then what purpose does the Confederacy of the Afanc Strait serve? To project and magnify our influence as two-like minded nations. And how can we project and magnify our influence? By lobbying as a united force. As we speak, we are assembling the best diplomatic minds of our two nations to attack these intractable questions. We also remain open as a neutral party to hold and guide negotiations in Pasarga, and likewise between the Atlantian Oceanian Regional Defense Organisation and Graintfjall.

Ezra DeWitt (South Fairleigh)

Just to follow up on my honourable colleague's question, is Terranea still the relevant power center in Rushmore?

Chairman Penderyn

I mean, does it really matter? If the region's attention is focused elsewhere, we can lurk in the backrooms and push for our interests that way, can't we? I would prefer to sit down and negotiate with someone rather than being in the spotlight. I think that's one of our advantages, actually. This comes as a shock from a sportsperson who was always in the spotlight, of course, but I think it's working for our purposes.

Ewan Koerner (Gallant Fields)

Reports out of Montaña Verde suggest that a large earthquake and incoming tsunami will have devastating impacts on the nation. Will the Confederacy of the Afanc Strait commit to immediately sending aid to get the recovery started posthaste?

Chairman Penderyn

I think it would be counterproductive to send aid before the tsunami has even hit, no? That would have absolutely no effect at all, if transportation options are foreclosed and, even if aid reached Montaña Verde, might be destroyed before it could help anybody. But I agree with you, Honourable Representative, that we should send aid as soon as practicable, "posthaste" as you say.

To raise another question, I am thankful that this tsunami is not aimed at Ceni or New Gelderland. We had received initial reports from our own seismologists that the tremours might be headed in our direction, but the Grainfjall outpost in Cabo Azure confirmed the most. Of course, we wish that the tsunami and earthquake had hit nobody, so of course we extend our condolences. And of course, we will extend aid posthaste.

Iain Rogue (Lexington)

The honourable MP from Gallant Fields has inadvertently raised an important question: the foreign presence in Cabo Azure. Indeed, it was the Graentfjaller kraken-forewarning site that first detected these tremours, and Quebec and Shingoryeo also has a military base in Cabo Azure. How does the Chairman opine on these bases, and does the Confederacy of the Afanc Strait plan to establish military bases elsewhere?

Chairman Penderyn

At this point, the Confederacy of the Afanc Strait has no plans to build military bases elsewhere. Our power project has always been within the diplomatic and soft power realms, and we see no reason to overextend our relatively small and specialized militaries in that way. That being said, we have commissioned research reports on foreign military influence in Rushmore and are exploring our options. So this is not a guarantee that we will not ever seek to have a foreign military presence, although any foreign military presence that we do have will be small and advisory in nature.

As for the current foreign bases in Cabo Azure, we see no reason to worry. We maintain strong cultural, sporting, political and diplomatic ties with Quebec. After all, would an Olympic bid be on the table if that weren't the case? So we see no danger in their presence in Cabo Azure, and in fact welcome their friendly presence to call on if things go awry. As for Graintfjall, we have no evidence to believe that it is anything other than a peaceful research site, and in fact the early warning to Montaña Verde has already proven beneficial. Therefore, again, we see no reason to worry here, and believe our interests are not harmed or provoked by these outposts.

by **Squornshelan Remnant States** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 8:46 pm

Ranoria - 2
Squornshelan Remnant States - 1

Goals:
RAN: Queen; 32', 47'
SRS: Damnagoras; 51'

Lineup:
SRS: Shimski; Nyberg, W. Harkhan, Titov, Halfariani; Tabur (Zazagan 49'), Hashemi; Bondarov (Stern 68'), Damnagoras, Yonte; Fridtjofs (Petrov 87')

It was a match unexpectedly dominated by the home side's defensive unit, with team captain Kris Reinhardt playing the starring role. Tatiana Queen's sheer athleticism created problems for Harkhan and Titov in the center, and she struck for a late first-half goal, and another just after the restart to put the Snow Bears up two goals. This prompted Groothuis to make an early first change, bringing Tabur off in favor of Zazagan's more dynamic attacking game. It was a move that immediately paid off, with the Treason center mid launching an attack that brought the Black-and-Reds within one, with Damnagoras finishing off the play in typical fashion. Practically invisible throughout the buildup, one touch, one goal. The Squornshelans came close to finding the equalizer several times over the final half hour, but always the Ranorian back line seemed to hustle the ball out of danger at just the right moment. It was a clutch performance, especially considering the relative youth of several of the first teamers on their defense. The loss, combined with lackluster results from pre-qualifying friendly matches against Drawkland and Baker Park, puts Squornshelan fans all too uncomfortably in mind of several other slow starts in recent memory, some of which the team recovered from, some of which they did not. Groothuis likely needs no reminder, but I'll just state it here all the same: qualifying is no longer optional for this team.

Squornshelan Remnant States - 3
South Covello - 2

Goals:
SRS: Yonte; 13', Hashemi; 22', Ness; 84'
SCO: Roster not available at press time

Lineup:
SRS: Krusan; V. Harkhan, W. Harkhan, Bedrosian, Malgos; Tabur, Hashemi (Hedberg 88'); Stern, Damnagoras (Zazagan 71'), Yonte; Ness (Galdra 90')

For the first time in their history, the Black-and-Reds recorded a win against South Covello. The previous meetings had led to a pair of draws and a pair of wins for the Rebels. It's true that this is hardly the same side that we faced back in World Cups 84 and 86. Indeed, we aren't even sure of the names of the squad we just faced, though I'm pretty sure that Lonzo Gordon-McHayward-Greensward-Squidward and Dodo McAllister were the goalscorers for the visitors. Still, despite the fact that the Covellans are a far cry from their days as the third-ranked side in the multiverse, it was a decent bounce back win, though the Black-and-Reds will be unhappy with some defensive miscues and miscommunications that led to conceding goals. Unlike against Ranoria, the Squornshelan midfield was generally in control throughout, and put constant pressure on their defensive minded opponents. If not for the successful counterattacks that neutralized Yonte and Hashemi's early goals, the match might very well have become a rout. As it was, the Black-and-Reds needed and got a late goal from Ness to take full points. The striker got a rousing sendoff from the crowd at Radlov Arena when she was brought off just prior to stoppage time as Groothuis decided to park the bus for the remaining few minutes.

Schedule and Results

FRND: SRS 0-0 DRK @ Ripper Stadium (cap. 40,000), Constantinople, New Gesem
FRND: SRS 1-2 CBP @ Ripper Stadium (cap. 40,000), Constantinople, New Gesem

MD01: RAN 2-1 SRS @ Smith Field (cap. 19,050), Richardson, RAN
MD02: SRS 3-2 SCO @ Radlov Arena (cap. 76,800), Brantisvogan, Megabrantis, SRS
MD03: YZH  v  SRS @ TBA
MD04: SRS  v  PYA @ Black Raven Field (cap. TBA), Yassaca, Sivolvia, SRS
MD05: BRP  v  SRS @ TBA
MD06: SRS  v  TLI @ Castle Street (cap. 57,300), Jaglan, Algolia, SRS
MD07: KAN  v  SRS @ Empress Masumi Stadium (cap. 90,000), Tenkyo, KAN
MD08:     BYE
MD09: SRS  v  BGJ @ Synesoft Arena (cap. 46,950), Syneca, Sivolvia, SRS
MD10: NSV  v  SRS @ Tiên Sơn Stadium, Đà Nẵng, NSV
MD11: SRS  v  SRG @ Chernov Stadium (cap. 57,600), Viltvodle Megabrantis, SRS
MD12: SRS  v  RAN @ Raftel Park (cap. 59,870), Chalesm, Megabrantis, SRS
MD13: SCO  v  SRS @ SuperNerd Wants To Fight Video Game And Computer Store Stadium, (cap. 42,000), Riverview, SCO
MD14: SRS  v  YZH @ Slavnareczpospolitastadion (cap. 61,230), Lublova, Molvania, SRS
MD15: PYA  v  SRS @ TBA
MD16: SRS  v  BRP @ New Rudlit Arena (cap. 31,200), Rudlit, West Flania, SRS
MD17: TLI  v  SRS @ LTI Stadium (cap. 75,000), Montfort, TLI
MD18: SRS  v  KAN @ Vogsphere Arena (cap. 90,000), Vogsphere, Isle of Squornshelous, SRS
MD19:     BYE
MD20: BGJ  v  SRS @ TBA
MD21: SRS  v  NSV @ Ralph Wilson Memorial Stadium (cap. 48,700), Han Dold City, Han Dold, SRS
MD22: SRG  v  SRS @ Estadio Generalissimo Joaqín Delgado (cap. 108,879), Soluca, SRG

World Come Undone, A Recap
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

Last time around, we talked about how the Squornshelan Civil War began, now just over 100 years ago. We discussed the events and fortunes of the first two years of the conflict. We watched four nights of political protest explode into violence, saw both the Imperial forces and insurgents take drastic actions in the streets of Damogran. We saw the urban crackdown and Imperial reprisals that appeared to have quelled the revolution before it could truly begin, and the first true rebel victory on the steppes of Molvania. The full-scale Imperial occupation, with eventually nearly half a million troops stationed in West Squornshelous, together with a bitter first winter of war nearly broke the revolt. But the Western population was already chafing under boots of Imperial troops and draconian wartime policies. Even as the snows of winter melted, the ranks of rebel veterans were swelled by fresh recruits, ready to take the battle to the enemy.

As spring wore into summer, it became clear that there was no quick end to this conflict in the offing. All across the nation, rebels grew bolder, and recorded new successes which the Imperium struggled to hide. Still determined to keep its finest troops in reserve against foreign threats, the leaders of the Imperial military sought to overcome the rebels by sheer quantity of inferior troops. They also conscripted forced labor units from the local population, and authorized the Ministry of Security and Department of Information Management to act with a free hand in the western provinces. This only worsened an already dire state of affairs for the civilians caught up in the midst of the conflict. Soldier and secret police on one side, ruthless terrorists and revolutionaries on the other. Tight media control meant there was no chance for any sort of foreign aid, and those who fled the country did so largely on their own.

Surges of troops in problem areas put a dent in rebel numbers, but were never able to quell them entirely. When the Imperium ramped up the intensity of military operations in Molvania, for instance, many insurgent groups escaped through the mountains into Algolia. Joining with the rebel cells already in that province, the Molvanian reinforcements wreaked havoc all across the south of West Squornshelous. The societal pressures of a wartime economy also began to show back in the Imperium's power base on the Isle of Squornshelous, where signs of discontent among the vast working underclass began to show themselves in decreased economic production, record absenteeism and allegations of sabotage. In the West, army morale was at a particularly low ebb, as nearly all but the staunchest loyalists among the civilian population now considered them a nuisance at best, and all too often as outright invaders. The rebels were growing bolder by the day, and very soon it looked as if the expeditionary forces must either withdraw or disintegrate.

Into that situation, the Imperium now looks to pour the very best it has. The Navy had always been the most prestigious and best funded of the Imperium's armed forces, and the Imperial Marine Corps, which was more an army of its own rather than an auxiliary force, was among the multiverse's very best. With one task force, Eagle, assigned to cover the south of the country, and another, Condor assigned to cover the east, the Navy and Marines prepared to take over operational command of the theater, and to impose new levels of brutality on West Squornshelous.

by **Milchama** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 9:03 pm

Hilforshire Small City Newspaper With a Really Long After Name That We Will Eventually Get To, So Don't Worry As It Is Coming...Now! Times-Plain-Dealer-Gazette-Thingy-Post-Tribune-Sun-Daily-Mail-Picayune- Herald-Pink-Floyd-Haaretz-International-Domestic-Newspaper-Doom!-!-National- Enquirer-Spelled-Wrong-Right?

Sports Section

An Oral History of World Cup 27

Editor: Wait you're aware that's like over 100 years ago. Everybody involved is dead. Like this is a terrible idea, maybe it could have worked back in the Jolt Forum days but you can't do that.

Journalist: No I have a way. I've talked to Florent Tremblay, Nostradamus Narniire-Nevara, and Äsim Madradora and they say that they've found a way to bring people back from the dead.

E: So you're making zombies, using unclear medical technology, to do an oral history!

J: Correct

E: What the hell?! Is it tested?

J: No, it's experimental technology

E: Has it worked at all before?

J: Unclear, they wouldn't specify

E: Did you pay them?

J: Well you do give me a reporting budget, what else was I going to spend it on.

E: Real stories! Like actual reporting! Not on ridiculous science experiments from 3 crackpots!

J: I did real reporting but I had leftover

E: So you give it to the paper. Look at our name, we're a small town newspaper

J: In theory but we're the biggest newspaper in Guerre so we're not that poor

E: It's a rural region, like come on man

J: I got this in the bag

E: I can't believe you did this. You're aware that you basically are making zombies just to ask them questions about a World Cup.

J: No, I'm doing this to get the whole truth

E: Ugh, why? Why? Why? Why? Why?!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello! With Milchama in their 50th ever World Cup campaign [ed note: this is false WC 23-72, 89-92. This is our 53rd campaign] it would be time to talk to the legends who qualified for Milchama for their first ever World Cup. Of course the big problem is that outside of Marc J. Floren who is, of course, still chilling in the Archregimancy the rest of the squad is dead. So how do you do an oral history from a bunch of dead people?

There are three options; do research based on interviews conducted around the time and create a history based on that, make everything up, or reanimate them from the dead and ask them these questions. As somebody who takes no shortcuts at the Hilforshire Small City Newspaper With a Really Long After Name That We Will Eventually Get To, So Don't Worry As It Is Coming...Now! Times-Plain-Dealer-Gazette-Thingy-Post-Tribune-Sun-Daily-Mail-Picayune- Herald-Pink-Floyd-Haaretz-International-Domestic-Newspaper-Doom!-!-National- Enquirer-Spelled-Wrong-Right? I know that there is only way that works for our hard working readers and that it to reanimate corpses to ask them questions about the legendary World Cup 27 campaign. So with the help of 3 scientists Florent Tremblay, Nostradamus Narniire-Nevara, and Äsim Madradora I have helped fund a reanimation machine to bring people back from the dead to ask them questions about World Cup 27. So, without further ado, let's get to this thing.

The initial draw

Jamie Smith, coach of the Warriors - Where am I? What is happening? What is going on? There was just a tunnel and then, well, wait a second, I'm alive again! What World Cup are we in? Oh my god how am I still alive?! Did I die? What is going?!!!!

Silas Milckey, starting left back - You did what? I just read my own obituary like that shouldn't be allowed! How is this happening? Do I need to start something like the Noble Prize because that's how he started it because of a mistaken obituary reading. I really don't want to do that. What were you saying? Yeah, this isn't good, you shouldn't play God and I really don't want to commit suicide but like I can't be here right now.

Floren Albentine, substitute striker - BRAINS! BRAINS! I WANT BRAINS! Give me brains!

Calvin Chintermantomantomantoman, MFA President - How is my family doing? Are we still rich and successful? Can I call them? Do you have the yellow pages? I would really like to know what's up with the Chintermantomantomantoman family. Is this a Rumplestillskin like situation? Like what's going on?

Marc J. Floren, striker for Milchama - Wait you did what?! You can't play God like that! That's so bad! Oh my god! What did you do?! Ugh, I can't believe you did that, now I have to go talk to the Archregimancy about this and ugh this is so much work.

What was your question again? Oh World Cup 27, yeah I remember it like it was yesterday, so qualifying at that time had 12 groups which meant playoffs and we were a third seed so we knew at the beginning we had a chance as long as we could hold our own against worse teams. Eauz and especially Vilita we knew would be tough outs but if we could beat everybody else we could win. I felt good because, well, we were better than them and had really looked good at some of the other tournaments like the Dragonii Inviyatii and the most recent Cup of Harmony so it looked like we had a shot. There really was a good thing going on there. It could easily happen.

Dunston Copperlee, starting midfield and captain - AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! I'M ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!! HOW!!!!!!!!!!!! Wait what did you say? You made me alive to ask me about World Cup 27?! It wasn't even that great of a World Cup we were -10 in the actual thing. Is this because it was the first time Milchama qualified? That doesn't matter. You should do one for World Cup 32, wait don't, nobody needs this. Oh my god, did they randomly change the names of cities now? Where am I? Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Fanta sea? Does that meme still exist? Why did you do this?

After the disappoint first few results

Clay Finton, starting goalkeeper - You did what? Why? Why did you do this? Can I eat your brain? I'm basically a zombie right? Is this a Princess Bride thing, was I mostly dead? You are aware this is a terrible idea. What was your question again? No, I'm not going to answer that. What the hell man? Why did you do this?

Jamie Smith - You took me out of my eternal slumber, which was quite nice by the way, to do what? Also, how did you get into the Weegies, like I'm not even Milchamian and I was buried in a country that CTE'd like 15 years ago. How did you do this? Is The Weegies back in existence again? Wait, can you un-CTE people too? Is that how this technology works? Wait, you want me to answer your questions, no way I'm having an existential crisis right now and that's much more important. Do you know the Meaning of Being? Do you know the question of the Meaning of Being? Find the question and the answer shall become obvious but you have to understand Being.

Kendric Pevington, starting central defender - WHO AWAKES ME FROM MY ETERNAL SLUMBER?! THEY SHALL PAY!!!! COME HERE PUNY MORTAL AND FACE MY ETERNAL WRATH! I SHALL AVENGE MYSELF ON THE WORLD AND YOU SHALL COME WITH ME!

Uhh... I may have released an eldritch horror on the world. Don't worry about it. To be continued...

by **Aleirave** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 9:26 pm

An Isle Ignored
Bears Armed 2-2 Aleirave
Aleirave 1-4 Valentine Z

"Ugh... I really don't think we can withstand much of this..."
"Much of what, Haulafo?" Coach Morgan asked his Aleiravan counterpart.

The two coaches had regular phone conversations, and the two considered each other quite close friends. They always found time to chat about their problems, their successes, and the little things in life... and of course, they talked about their teams.

The two started talking to each other around the time Eshialand annexed Aleirave. At the time, the isle hadn't had too much contact with the world outside Anaia. Heck, they only knew of Eshialand because a couple of people told stories about how the king of this far-off land was always there to fight for his people, to support causes, and create a better world. The island voted to join Eshialand less off of informed decision-making and more off of legends and trusting that crazy guy Makale in the alley by the bar.

Haulafo and Kenny certainly wouldn't have considered each other friends at the start. One of their conversations, about a year ago, saw Haulafo bragging about Aleirave's fourth-place finish in CAFA III, how he brought the team from nothing to higher heights than the Owls could've achieved. So Kenny, smug as he was feeling at the time, told Haulafo that, if he was the better coach, he could enter Aleirave into the BoF and have the Seagulls win that.

So he did. And they won.

It was after that that their rivalry started to turn into a friendship. They realized that the two of them really were just in the same boat. Sure, they were still rivals, but they had more in common than they realized... and now, with Eshialand's political situation, they had one more thing in common.

"It's Reval's budget cuts, Kenny... I just can't take it. We can't keep taking this team around the multiverse when there's no money to be had..."
"Well, I've been able to scrounge up some money from ticket sales, I don't know about you..."

"Yeah, you have a 75,000 seat stadium that you can sell out to get money, but you know what we have? A grassy field on the outskirts of town that's lucky to have 100 people walk over and get a glimpse of the game. Without paying, of course."

"I think I could send some money your way if you need it, we have enough..." Kenny replied, even though he knew that his team probably didn't have enough money. He'd be trying to pull money out of coffers that simply didn't exist. Money was already tight, but supporting two teams? That would be a bit much for his wallet to bear.

"Thanks so much for the generosity... but it's not just that. Reval's budget just seems to ignore Aleirave entirely... all of the funds going to Aleiravan infrastructure, all the support provided to help heal our racial wounds... it's all gone. It's like she doesn't even think we're Eshian enough for her nation. It's like our island doesn't even exist..."

"Leave it to Fiona Reval to screw over her own people to fund her half-baked plans and ill-thought-out 'solutions'..."
"Yep, and we've been caught in the middle of it, Kenny... well anyway, we have a plane to catch, we must be heading off to the StrayaRoos Barrier Islands, hopefully none of us get torn apart by the emus..."
"Sounds like fun..."
"Sure does, doesn't it... talk to ya later."

*CLICK!*

by **Guanacasteca** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 9:38 pm

Estelí, Northern Province – 01/10/2002

Things in the República Guanacasteca have been looking nasty, gray, and hopeless for some time. Football has been the only tool for unity in the nation, considering that Han Ruoyang and his pupils have managed to assemble a rather competitive side if we ponder the little to no resources that this republic has to offer to them. As effective as it has been, any kind of glue and tool of cohesion doesn’t last forever, it will break up at any moment, and that moment was getting close in this republic.

During the last months, President Carlos Somoza has lost control of the few bastions he had kept under his control when it comes to institution control, rebellion had been in place from his MPs, the Supreme Court of Justice, and, basically, every governmental institution in the republic since he isn’t deemed fit to govern. He still has a lot of support from the people, partly because of his populist agenda with tax reduction, debt mismanagement to provide placebos to people in the form of small oeuvres and constructions across the north of the republic. The South, in the other hand, was preparing for an assault, as they couldn’t longer resist populism and the drainage of resources they produce to the North.

Several South democrats and people have mobilised to Esteli, without knowledge from the government in the matter nor any indication from the Guanacastecan Intelligence Agency, they were people on a plan, a very secret yet powerful one. Southerners aren’t the typical rebellious and violent people that might lead to crisis and crimes for any reason, they always need serious reasons and a threat to act like that, mostly in desperation than in a vindicative way; and they had the reasons to do so, tax drainage, lack of proper investment and seriousness in government issues in this region had led to this moment and situation.

“Señores” said a voice from a walkie talkie to liaisons in all the 25 busses that were in the convoy and several trucks with loads of people hidden. “We are getting close to Esteli. I repeat, we are getting close to that hellhole. The moment has come, it is the time for liberation of our Southern Province for once!” Then, a woman read instructions to the liaisons “Remain at the central plaza, as our governors ask for a meeting with the government representatives. We will be given instructions from them on when to attack and how to do it. Please, grab stones, Molotov cocktails, everything fit enough to perform the biggest damage possible to those bastards.”

The busses were reaching Estelí, Francisco, one of the carried protesters saw his clock, then said “Wow, it’s only 2 p.m.?” We’ve flied from Tibás, we’re quite ahead of schedule,” Then, Omar, one of his friends listened and said, “It is way better to do this in this moment than doing so at night, the Revolucionarios (mercenaries allied with the Government) could corner us with ease and try to kill us, we would fail!” Then, a third voice popped up and said, “We don’t care of them, we have enough weapons and skills to demobilise them and force the coup to happen.” Francisco then added, “Well, we are a lot of people compared to the small amount of them that would be able to act due to time constraints.” Then Omar replied “See? They don’t stand a chance, we must continue to push and corner those pigs, it is our chance to regain control of this nation for once.”

Time has come, the demonstrators arrived at the main plaza of Estelí and started to burn flags and decorations in the surroundings, then to throw rocks and Molotovs against police cars near there, holding banners saying, “It is time time for you to listen the South!” Riots were escalating and the anti disturb police arrived, by that moment those officers decided to shoot to the air as a measure to contain and calm the mob of Southerners in the plaza. Politicians then walked to the National Assembly offices to talk with MPs and the President, who casually was there, standing the happenings from his balcony. The governors were granted access to the premises to talk with the higher echelons of the government.

Meanwhile, some riot police officer decided to shoot close to group of people, a big mistake as they were already annoyed due to the lack of seriousness granted to their opinion and against them as a collective. Another group of people noted that the guards had another set of weapons near a trash can, that’s why they robbed those weapons, they were expecting the right moment to attack the officers, kill those and rampage the streets of Estelí with terror against the weak president.

The politicians were now seating in the middle of a hall, eating, and drinking wine as they started to talk about the situation in the South. “See, we are concerned about the lack of seriousness and proper representation that you give us, there’s no channels open for conversation or any moment to exchange opinions for the benefit of this nation.” The president said “I’m the greatest person of this nation, you owe me respect. If you respect me, then, we will consider giving some support for your cause in the South, reducing taxes and providing better investment conditions than the ones we are having right now.”

David Sandí, one of the most relevant politicians of the Southern Province then added, “What’s all your hate against us, we are fed up with mistreatment and exaggerated support for those in the North. We all are Guanacastecan, we all have rights in the North and in the South, those rights are and must remain as equal as possible as we are humans.” Somoza then replied, “You know what, say all what you want, if you continue to act like this, you’re all ruined.” Somoza walked and then a Guanacastecan politician talked through walkie talkie and said the magic word “proceed.”

As people was walking, there were a group of protestors who took up guns and started to shoot against the police, that was the signal they were waiting for to attack. Two, then three, then 6 police officers died after being shotted. People who assisted to the event had the chance to storm the Assembly and rob everything they could find between them and their path to the main hall of the building. The Southern politicians decided to hide as the mob was getting closer and closer, Somoza didn’t recognise that there were a horde of people trying to kill him. Some minutes after, a group of 5 people stormed the room and asked for the Governors, which left the premises, then Somoza was shot on sight by the demonstrators.

As it was planned, the Southern politicians took advantage of the situation and decided to run towards the Guanacastecan Radio and Television Service, with a document already signed and validated by all parts into the new movement. Then, Carlos Guevara, one of the men in charge, pointed a weapon against the anchor of the 17:00h news anchor, then grabbed a chair and read “We, the South Government of Transition, are desirous to take Guanacasteca into a new state of progression, freedom, and economic growth, we will make sure that the order in the nation remains as it has always used to be. That’s why we stablish the Martial Law and Curfew across the nation for a week, to avoid dilatations to the progress of recmposing and restructuring the República Guanacasteca for once.” We will make sure that the basic requirements of people are met, to avoid suffering or disruptions to the economy, which is a priority for us.”

“As of now, we are redefining the roles of the old Government delegates, including Mr. Somoza right now. Meanwhile, all the old cabinet will be sent to jail to Matagalpa, the place where the Naval Forces are resting and working.” Then, another person said “Make sure to support us, we are in a mission to not disappoint you all, we desire the very best for this nation, progress, prosperity and rule of order, things at which Somoza has been a complete flop. Our responsibility is to take the República Guanacasteca out of the mood and help it to shine as it used to do some years ago.”

Now, with the coup made successfully, the new Southerner government is expecting the reactions from the Multiversal Community, be it in support of a backlash against the methods used to get rid of those politicians who couldn’t provide the required support for the Southern Province. Now, it is important to see which will be the first key decisions that the new cabinet would take the reigns in terms of economy, energy, and overall stability of Guanacasteca and its surroundings in Pavola. It is a complete set of uncertainty feelings, disappointment as there’s lack of a culture to settle difference and bad governors. Will this group of politicians be a real change or is it still an act of corruption from the economic elite of this nation? We will see it.

World Cup 81/82/83/84

Introduction:
https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=39979966#p39979966

Examination--Part 1
The changes to the electoral map for the House of Assembly present a unique look at the very nature of politics in Baker Park and how government on a local level is much different than the landscape in Belle Haven at Parliament House.

The 42/33/25 plan, as laid out in the Commonwealth of Baker Park Act was meant to give Baker Park State a sort of “managing partner” type role in the national affairs of the country; under the most recent makeup of the Assembly, the State was actually underrepresented relative to its population over the last 50 or so years while the next three largest states wielded more power than they should have, as did the three smallest states.

BP State gained nearly 1/3 of the new allocation (19 of 56) while Midalia, St Leon and Lynchana combined received only a net gain of four seats—Lynchana is actually losing a seat, which St Leon gains and Midalia goes from 21 to 25 Assembly constituencies—which brings the trio back closer to the 25% threshold, and just 1 seat less than their larger neighbor. In the southeastern corner, the re-drawing of district boundaries required just small adjustments, as St Leon carved out an additional area within Shirley City and Lynchana consolidated 3 districts into two by using their state legislative map as a guide (there are 33 seats on the Legislative Council there). Midalia was able to add a pair of seats on both sides of the river in the areas that have seen the most population growth since the last census, the far eastern and western areas of the state.

Back in Baker Park's eponymous political subdivision, the problem seemed to be as simple as it was in the previous scenario, which is where the federal/local divide comes into the equation.
The State Assembly--which meets in and administers the apparatus of the state government from the suburbs on the south bank of the Belle Haven River—consists of 65 elected representatives, just 3 fewer than the new House of Assembly delegation will have; as a template to utilize in coming up with a new distribution of the population for Parliamentary election purposes, overlaying the BPSA district boundary map should've been a no-brainer beginning to the process. And this is where we take a detour to discuss the subject mentioned in the opening.

From the very start of the Commonwealth, the political divide was based on Liberal vs Tory ideology that came with the founders from the old country(s); the very first Parliament in August 1893 had no actual party division and the second one only had party labels assigned to some of the members several years after the fact.
The following two Parliaments (1901-10) were the first where elections were broken out along Liberal-Conservative lines, with the former holding power under George W Baker II and Simon Baker II.
The election in November 1910 was the first for a 99 seat Assembly and saw the introduction of a third faction—the National Union party, which won a surprising 15% of the seats and partnered with the Liberals in government.

The Conservatives were legitimately a representative body of nearly half of the nation's populace from 1915 through 1945 under the leadership of Josiah Peter Moore, who was the first four-time Prime Minister during that period; the problem his Tories faced was a razor thin majority in each instance, even after the increase to a 131 seat House in 1931.

The rise of the Federalist Party from breakaway faction of centrists from all three political factions in the 1930's to center-left alternative after 1945 changed the Commonwealth forever; no other party has won an outright majority in the Assembly since 1951, even after the merger of the Liberal and National Union parties in 1960 to become the Liberal Trade Union Alliance.

The Federalists were, at their fundamental core, a national government oriented party for much of their first 25 years; they worked backwards in building grass roots support by running candidates for state legislative seats, then down to city/town level offices.

Although the party has significant support in many areas of the nation, they are the majority state legislative party only in Endover and Lynchana; the LTA are the largest party in BP State, St Leon and Midalia's unicameral governing bodies with the Conservatives in charge in Osheana and Ezra.

In a nation with three major political parties and three other fringe parties—the Progressives, the Social Democrats and the Greens—the idea of Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) or proportional representation as a manner of ensuring the proper balance of the national will in the lower house of Parliament is partly debunked by the comparison of state representative breakdown versus Parliamentary election totals.
The Federalist Party have the outright majority of Assembly seats in five of seven states, and the plurality in the other two. It's apparent that a majority of the voting population would select a Federalist candidate as either a first or second choice in a RCV, and the party would retain some advantage in a race where the total percentage of the popular vote determined the breakdown of Parliamentary seats.

In fact, the Government attempted to make redistricting as party-neutral as possible, with the assignment of an all-party Special Select Committee that supervised the process, consulted each state legislative body for input and solicited public comment on the draft maps for each state.

In Baker Park State, the question of adapting a modified State Assembly district map for the House of Assembly raised questions across all party lines. Much of the Federalist Party electorate is centered in Belle Haven City and Springfield, Mansfield & St Stephens Counties; the LTA is strong in the western counties, with the Conservatives also counting on making gains in those areas closer to Osheana and Ezra.

Who sacrificed what and how do the projections from the now smaller constituencies look?
Join us for Part 2.

Lineup vs The Jovannic (MD3)

Johnston; Brooks, Kucera, Bauer; Eichorn, Nolan, Buxton, Reynolds; D'Amico; West (C), Garvey
bench--Rossi, Freeman, Joe Finnegan, Vuckovic, Milton, Altman, McDavid, Price

Lineup vs Sajnur (MD4)

Rossi; Hardwick, Finnegan, Freeman; C Logan, Vuckovic, Milton, Altman (C); Price; Mack, McDavid
bench--Johnston, Brooks, Kucera, Eichorn, Buxton, Reynolds, West, Garvey

by **Eura** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 11:29 pm

WORLD CUP 92 QUALIFYING – GROUP 4 – MATCHDAY 1
Gortolekua 0–2 Eura
Scorers:
Malone 13, Woodman 42
Lineup:
1. T Hammond
4. J Menard (sub Hart 45)
19. J Byrd
5. T Green
6. J Gates
16. O Vincent (sub Brown 78)
11. B Malone
10. S Singh (sub Matthews 56)
7. A Woodman (sub West 73)
9. S Robson
14. A Sharp (sub Brookfield 67)

The Brigham Herald (Brigham, centre-left broadsheet)
AFTER TWO YEARS OF DOMESTIC SUCCESS, BARNHAM TURNS TO RUSHMORE

Not many new Prime Minister’s deal with such a wide array of competing crises as Harry Barnham has done in his first two years in post. Mass resignations of Capital Party MPs in Sameba that put a generation of Sameban nationalists in parliament. Striking dockers in his own party’s constituencies. Designing and taking to parliament the most comprehensive reforms to Eura’s health, social care and welfare systems in a century. And, of course, the challenges of dealing with a series of destabilising international events – conflict near Cassadaigua and Sicoutimont, an apparently failed Graintfjaller jaunt in Atlantian Oceania, a dark turn in the politics of Brenecia and, most crucially of all, civil strife in Pasarga.

Thanks to the leadership of the Barnham administration, Eura has avoided being dragged into a quagmire – diplomatic, military or otherwise – in any of these developing situations abroad. Not yet at least, as only one of those four issues has been sort-of-but-not-really-resolved, and many more will emerge in time. Even so, he has so far stood up for democracy abroad without putting Euran treasure or lives unnecessarily at risk. This is a major accomplishment at a time when Eura has begun an overdue transition into the post-Sameba era, including a massive military overhaul of both modernisation and cutbacks, and a rejuvenation of Eura’s diplomatic corps.

More importantly, the Social Party’s first winning leader in several decades has proven many of his critics wrong by keeping the ship of Euran state on a steady course, seeing off critics on domestic issues that could threaten his position much more than a brush war thousands of miles away. The early test of the “Green Wave” in Sameban parliamentary seats has been passed by thoroughly marginalising the nationalists, perhaps cynically getting the Government chequebook out in their regions, while ignoring the siren calls of the Euran right to punish Samebans for their voting patterns. The Unionist Party could not capitalise on a prime opportunity. This, and the passage of the Federal Deal Act expanding the normalisation of former Sameba within Eura, has settled the issue until at least the next election campaign.

Then the dock workers strike appeared like a bolt out of the blue and brought the new government’s honeymoon to an end. It was a potentially nightmare scenario for Barnham; core Social voters in an industry of seismic importance to Eura’s economy and national identity, expressing their dissatisfaction, and letting loose the spectre of factional warfare in his own party. But Barnham pulled a masterstroke in appointing Paul Overton as his Minister for Labour, a veteran of labour disputes from the union side during the long Liberal government. A deal was reached far quicker than the Yarley and Smith governments ever would have done, and both the right and left of his party were kept away from each other’s throats.

With these early curveballs swept aside, Barnham’s government set its sights on its most central manifesto pledge aside from the Federal Deal. Ever since he became party leader Barnham has emphasised the critical importance of Eura’s lumbering “network of care”, as he described it – the gargantuan Federal Health Service and its underappreciated social care wing, a welfare system beset by disastrous complex mechanisms based on outmoded technology that dates to the Capital-Liberal coalition, and a brewing housing crisis in Eura’s megacities which had essentially run out of the tower-block dominated social housing on which many Eurans rely.

This collective legacy of decades of Liberal government neglect resonated with the electorate and the results vindicated Barnham’s focus. He had some luck on the housing issue, where the reduction of Eura’s pre-war population from deaths, emigration and a stagnant birth-rate has freed up accommodation for hundreds of millions of Eurans. But fortune alone cannot address the rest. Soon the government published one of the most comprehensive pieces of legislation in this country’s history, the Health, Care and Welfare Provision Act. Its proposals set political debate alight.

A new national corps of healthcare professionals to end understaffing in the FHS. Separating out social care from the FHS into a distinct system under a new Social Care Agency, with vastly improved funding, and the devolution of power within the FHS to metropolitan governments. A trial of what some have called “UBI-lite” to end the crisis of Eurans falling through the cracks of the welfare system, which also compensates for the abolition of dozens of welfare schemes that are barely operating.

Many on the right were incensed by the proposals as they would be by anything a Social government suggests, the Liberal centre were not too keen either, and the left of Barnham’s own party decried them as window dressing. Nevertheless, in a gruelling period of parliamentary battling the argument was gradually won, rebellions quashed, and “HCWPA” passed into law with a majority of 35 votes. Implementation is underway and problems may yet arise, but the fact that its happening at all is an achievement. Every Euran government within living memory has dodged this question, until now. The selfish side of his brain will inevitably be looking forward to winning over Liberal and Unionist voters with this success come the next general election.

These reforms will now take less of a focus, allowing Barnham to go on the offensive and expand his government’s ambitions beyond delivering its core aims. Some attention may be directed towards another key manifesto pledge, reform of the armed forces, where Generals, Admirals and their friends in Blackhall have earnestly protested what they see as a penny-scrounging assault on the troops. But as with every Euran Prime Minister who aspires to be remembered, he is likely to turn attention to foreign affairs, where a marked change in post-war Euran foreign policy has seen the government caring less about chasing the ghosts of Sameba and more on asserting a new role for Eura. But above all he will focus on an area that links the foreign and domestic spheres like no other – the Common Rushmori Community.

||==========||

Finding a way to continually navigate the escalating Pasarga crisis will be a key priority on the diplomatic to-do list, even for a government that has noticeably gone cold on monarchies and evangelised about democracy in a notable shift in Euran elite ideology. But as for the broader strategic picture, there is a determination to use Eura’s role in the region to address what many Social policymakers see as a worrying drift in democratic internationalism and progress. Central to this belief among all else is the accusation that the Liberal government allowed the Common Rushmori Community’s initial membership boom to stagnate after Euran accession, when Euran membership was supposed to be a catalyst for the continued growth of the Community.

It’s not an entirely unfair accusation. The Liberals were once the pan-Rushmori ultras of Euran politics, but their interest waned once Yarley was out of office, and since leaving government ex-Liberal ministers have admitted that they “dropped the ball” on the CRC, to quote one senior figure. The Social Party does not accept this and has become the new torchbearer of the Community in the Liberals stead. It sits at the top of their evolving international agenda, and that of Foreign Secretary Eloise Chadwick, the figure credited with winning over the left of the party to the pan-Rushmori cause. And with other member states not apparently keen to pick up the slack, they feel this is their moment to shine.

‘It’s all about dispersal!’ says Brendan Glennard, the enthusiastic Minister for Rushmore who has been conducting a kind of unilateral review of the organisation since the Social government took office. ‘What I mean by that is, when the Community was founded, it quickly thrived around the east of the region where there is a high proportion of democracies and several centres of power. But then it tailed off, and it’s too concentrated in the east.’ Some economists have claimed this is partly because the accession of Eura to the Community would put off potential new members, whose leaders would lie awake at night worrying about Holdenberg steel and other products flooding their markets.

We challenged the minister on this point, but he utterly rejected that idea. ‘Its nonsense. If anything, the Community is weighed against us – we only have 45 votes for goodness sake.’ He’s referring to the cap on Rushmori Parliament seats, which limits all member states to a maximum of 45 seats, regardless of their population or any other criteria. Returning to his point, he said: ‘To reanimate the momentum behind it, the Community needs to break out of its eastern comfort zone and increase membership across Rushmore. A whole swathe of democratic governments in the region could come on board and give Rushmore a collective unity and weight that seemed impossible not so long ago.’

Here is where scepticism might set in, and Barnham’s party must balance its vision with what is realistic. Unfortunately, several key states that would make good members in terms of economics would not be compatible with a multilateral democracy-based body, no matter how focused on issues of trade and regulation it might be. This includes Astograth for example, a key Euran ally that consecutive Euran administrations were keen to smuggle into the CRC despite its undemocratic system of government, with Bastion pointing to Pasarga and Valladares hybrid systems as precedent. But this government is noticeably less keen on that alliance, one of Eura’s oldest, and despite Astograthian interest in integration, a lack of progress on democracy makes membership a distant prospect.

Among the democracies that do exist there is some wariness of the CRC. Recently, some key countries in the west of Pavola have had governments and opposition parties alike expressing significant doubts about the CRC and its purpose, often characterising it as a vehicle of Euran and Nepharan political influence that is alien. The aftershocks of the Nyowani Kitara conflict doubtlessly contribute. Of course, there are many problems in this belief; the CRC already exists in eastern Pavola, Eura was not even a founding member, and the aforementioned structure of its elected body limits the influence of any one power.

Certainly, accusations of Euran domination will be news to Eura itself, which despite its best efforts does not host the core institutions of the CRC, has proportionately the worst representation on its elected body due to the 45-seat cap, and has no power to compel the CRC to do anything beyond making sure any blue and gold flags are at half-mast when someone important dies. Aside from the Euran aspect itself, there is also a strong argument that CRC expansion would end its eastern focus and revitalise pan-regional collective security and free trade, with western Pavola better placed to benefit than most due to its proximity and mostly democratic governments.

Alas, the discomfort remains, and it’s something the Barnham administration must overcome to get the CRC back on track to its full potential. Most analysts suggest that the most receptive audience in this part of Rushmore is likely to be found in Nyowani Kitara to the east and Yuezhou to the west (though both have their vocal sceptics), with Tikariot being more of an open book. Bastion is downbeat at the prospects of Graintfjall showing interest any time soon, though a future change in administration may always reopen the door.

An even bigger challenge may lie beyond. Insular, isolationist governments in Branta and the Vatmark express little interest in interacting with anybody, let alone the CRC. Terramidia has Darmen, but Valladares may object to their joining, and Cassadaigua has torpedoed hopes of democratisation by violently annexing neighbouring territory and continuing with an autocratic monarchy. The far west – the Goose Coast – was once a hub of democratic optimism. But the governments of Vermark, Swartaz, Erathore, Civil Citizenry and Marianne have turned inwards.

Mytanija has gained some semblance of stability and is unquestionably a flourishing democracy, but there are question marks about whether its firmly left leaning political system would be keen to join a pact that might prise open domestic markets to others. Then, to the north, Sargossa is the unanswered question in the equation; an autocracy that desires membership, but never acceded due to its political system, and one of the few countries that matches Eura’s geopolitical gravity.

||==========||

So, where does the project go next? No one of the existing “Community of Nine” has recently demonstrated much zeal for growing the club, but when we put these doubts to Mr Glennard, he pushed back with a very different perspective. ‘You’re looking at different countries, this and that and they and them and whatever, and just seeing obstacles. We see challenges at worst. And there’s no war or recovery or integration to distract us now. As usual, if no-one else is going to get things done, Eura will find a way.’ A confident statement, but with an admission buried in subtext; if the Community can’t sell itself to new members, Eura will have to push for internal change, potentially even a loosening of the organisation from its current level of integration.

In the coming days Prime Minister Barnham will be putting his own face to this mission with a speech at Lithgow House, a glamorous old country home of the kind not often found in Eura. From this retreat outside the bustle of nearby Directus, he will set out his stall for a revitalised CRC, and a new sense of direction for this country, in the very building in which Eura signed its accession protocols for the Orean Treaty. This will serve as a staging point for a lengthy trip to various countries in the region with Chadwick and others in tow that is currently in the works. Although this tour is likely to touch on all kinds of issues, the CRC will be the key focus that ties them all together.

One already announced destination is Yuezhou, where Barnham will become the first Euran head of state to visit the United Republics. This is a country that holds particular importance for what Barnham and Chadwick want to achieve. Its an emergent democracy, which is geographically isolated in a key strategic position, but politically and culturally tends to pool itself with the western Pavolan club – a gateway of sorts to wider growth of the pan-Rushmori project. In just a few months it goes into an election where CRC-curious long term incumbent Wu Zhongsheng faces a strong challenge from CRC-sceptic opposition, who regularly inflame nationalist sentiment against Euran influence and bear a grudge over the Nyowani Kitara conflict.

They have also slated the current regime for forming a body to start asking timely questions about how and when Yuezhou could join the CRC. There is a constituency for this argument in the country, of that there is no doubt. If Wu is turfed out of power, few expect that to be the definitive end of the road. Governments come and go - the weight of geopolitical tides always has the potential to turn their principles and beliefs upside down. However, the Prime Minister is two years into a five year term and is set to make the CRC the defining feature of his foreign policy – for Eura or the CRC itself it would be a temporary setback, but for his own legacy it could be a big blow to have a failure at the first hurdle. Therefore, the timing of this state visit could not be more opportune.

Where there are risks, there are also opportunities. Bastion’s recent official recognition of the “UR” was seen as a diplomatic coup for Yuezhou after years of struggling to throw off its communist past, and Wu’s government has already established working contacts with Eura on counterterrorism, plus maintaining the peace in Nyowani Kitara. Wu’s biggest threat – the hard right Liberation Army of Liang Ziyou – revelled in this as another example of collaboration with Big Bad Bastion, but Wu can now correctly point out that working with Eura, and crucially across the region, can deliver big wins for the country.

Meanwhile, a growing separatist movement in the province of Sangau also threatens to derail the United Republics quest for lasting stability, creating yet another opportunity to help solve problems. Eura has consistently opposed separatism without electoral legitimacy in democracies and has a likeminded attitude to this kind of scenario, making bilateral assistance viable, but it would also point to how the CRC can nip flashpoints in the bud – after all, the CRC is often credited with preventing an escalation of the Euran-Electrumite border dispute many years ago.

As ever, the economy is king, and the economic boon the CRC can offer Yuezhou goes further than anything Eura can offer bilaterally, a fresh impetus into the nation building project of the new Yuezhou. Something fresh is exactly what Wu needs at a time when his administration appears stagnant to voters. ‘If you offer people prosperity and a positive vision of the future, that’s something to turn up for, that’s how you see off people who rely on anger alone’ said an anonymous Euran cabinet member, ‘but no-one is going to show up for a party that’s just clinging on and has a shaky grasp on the economic picture. You don’t need to be from the country to see the fundamentals are not good for Wu. There’s a two-way opportunity here.’

Barnham cannot say such things, but Wu will have surely spotted the opening already. Where Barnham really comes in is to legitimise Wu’s arguments and, through the pageantry and bridge building of a state visit, win over hearts and minds in a country that is unsure about the Community, Eurans and anyone else outside of a handful of nearby countries. What’s more, Barnham’s desire to inject Euran energy into the Community could have a snowballing effect; a country that might want to join, such as Yuezhou, will find it easy to do so if the Community’s most strident voice is the new candidate’s chief advocate. There is a risk this will strengthen the position of some that Eura is some kind of shadow hand behind the Community, but the far worse alternative is to let it stagnate if other member states don’t step up.

Ultimately, this is just one country among many, but it could serve as a template (or a cautionary tale) for convincing the nations of Rushmore to pick up the pan-Rushmori baton that can be traced back to ancient times in this region. Nyowani Kitara’s post-Akongo government is another candidate and will receive a state visit straight after Yuezhou, after Barnham cemented strong relations in the early days of both administrations. This marked a clean start after tensions over Eura’s backing of the former President and there are high hopes that the Kitarans could become a member state with huge economic benefits on offer.

Closer to home, Euran neighbour Austroslovakia is reportedly considering a surprise change of heart on CRC membership after decades of sitting out. Rumours suggest it is Eura’s ambitions to pump new life into the Community that have prompted reassessment and planning has already begun for accession. Ironically, in Harry Barnham’s quest to make the CRC resemble what was originally envisioned for its future, a Community stretching to every corner of the region, his first success may be waiting on our doorstep.

While Eura is trying to take a central role in revitalising the project, it is not only in Eura itself that there is anticipation, and worry, about where it will end up. The pan-Rushmori philosophy is an old one and has its adherents all over Rushmore. For its most committed supporters, recent years have been a disappointment, as the organisation chugs along perfectly well but without any prospect of change or growth, replacing the optimism that characterised its earliest years. They will be hoping the Euran government will succeed in bringing back that brightness.

by **Baggieland** » Sat Oct 01, 2022 11:53 pm

At Port Kejm, Gnejs

Captain Fletcher: "Landsman Øye, have ye got the contact for these forks?"

Landsman Øye: "Yes Captain, Jakob has expressed a serious interest in our haul of cutlery."

Captain Fletcher: "Can we trust him? You know some nations have laws against piracy."

Landsman Øye: "Absolutely, he seemed… ahem… fairly pleased to hear from me."

At the Bergsonian Institute for Fine Cutlery, Gnejs

Lena: "These are some of the finest forks I've ever seen."

Jakob: "Where exactly did you get these from, Øystein?"

Landsman Øye: "They… umm… fell off the back of a lorry."

Lena: "A lorry? In the middle of an ocean?"

Jakob: "Øystein, do you think we were born yesterday?"

Lena: "This ill-gotten plunder, what nation was the ship from?"

Landsman Øye: "Elec- *cough-cough*."

Jakob: "I didn't quite catch that, Øystein."

Landsman Øye: "Look, I just found out that my beloved cats, Mimi and Toutou, have died. Can't you allow a grieving animal lover to mourn?"

Lena: "Okay Øystein, we'll pay you the market rate for these forks. Are you going to see your wife and kids while you're here?"

Landsman Øye: "Well… umm… I promised them a percentage of all booty and these forks are the first monetary reward we've received."

Jakob: "What? Two years at sea and all you've got is a couple of crates of forks! Seriously Øystein, have you made the right life decision here?"

Landsman Øye: "Well, we did get quite a bit of gold at the last Olympics, but the medal winners now want to keep their medals as a memento of their successes at the games, rather than sharing out the booty between the crew. Something I said, apparently."

Lena: "Another thing, when are you going to get a promotion? Landsman is such an insulting rank. You should be a Rear-Admiral by now."

Landsman Øye: "It's not easy gaining promotion on a pirate submarine, but I did put tomato sauce on the potatoes. That was greatly appreciated by everyone."

Jakob: "By the way, if anything else falls off the back of a lorry in the middle of the sea, make sure you bring it here first, okay?"

Landsman Øye: "It's a pleasure doing business with you!"

Captain Fletcher: "Landsman Øye, shore-leave be over. We've got more booty to plunder!"

by **The Jovannic** » Sun Oct 02, 2022 12:04 am

Sarzonia 2-1 The Jovannic: Mathee encouraged by tenacity despite tough loss

In their first game back in action since the World Cup Qualifiers of 89, the Emperors fought hard against a much higher ranked Sarzonia team, and eventually lost out by a singular goal.

The Jovannic had not played together for a substantial period of time, and their chemistry was certainly lacking as Sarzonia immediately had the upper hand in the match, intercepting a weak pass by Jin Tze and forcing a save by Tsuniki. Raye Eng was rather lucky to get away with a yellow card after a crunching tackle on Jake Campos in the 5th minute, while Kish Dasny also got a card as he struggled to hold down Carlos dos Santos, accidentally tripping him up as he dashed down the wing. With ball retention at disastrous levels, Sarzonia was bound to take advantage of The Jovannic's poor start.

This came in the 11th minute. Being a goal down, however, seemed to have awoken the Emperors. With Mathee giving enthusiastic encouragement from the sidelines, they surged forward, producing a more even match experience to the relief of the visiting Jovannican crowd. The two sides clashed fiercely, both obtaining great chances, but it was the visitors that would grab the second goal of the game in the 37th and restore parity to the scoreline as Sami Ning squeezed himself into space, poking in an excellent lay off by Jovan Ilohil. Sarzonia however, relinquished their one goal lead just before half time even after their first attempt was parried away by Tsuniki.

The second half was just as exciting, but both sides showed greater defensive solidity, and while The Jovannic did attempt to equalise the scoreline, there was no time to break through the extremely solid Sarzonian Defence.

Nevertheless, Gothal Mathee stated his contentment at The Emperors’ rebound from their poor start. “You see at the start, we weren’t playing as a unit. I’m glad the lads bounced back from that.”

We will face Damukuni at home on the next matchday.

The Jovannic 3-1 Damukuni: Emperors get first win with dominant performance

The Emperors took on their first opponents at home in this World Cup Qualifying Campaign, where they came out with a resounding victory.

Mathee set forth with the same formation and starting eleven as the one against Sarzonia, emboldened by the encouraging performance the previous matchday.

Unlike against Sarzonia, The Jovannic started well, maintaining a clear advantage over Damukuni in terms of possession, and were obtaining and carving valuable spaces in the box. Juyt Dersa’s long range effort clattered against the crossbar in the 3rd minute while Jin Tze’s own effort was tipped away by the Damukuni goalkeeper. It was clear, however, that the Emperors would be most likely to open up the scoring. They did just that in the 25th minute, after a looping cross by Carunos Majaria missed everybody and fell to the feet of Juyt Dersa, who promptly drilled the ball from point blank range past the goalkeeper and into the net. The Jovannic kept this high flying momentum going, scoring a second just six minutes later courtesy of a central cross by Jin Tze, which was knocked down by Jovan Ilohil to the path of Sami Ning, whose well-timed half-volley bounced just outside the reach of the opposing goalkeeper and into the net.
Keeping themselves largely on the front foot, The Emperors kept their aggressive playing style through the second half, getting a third goal in the 48th minute through substitute Ianu Fathe’s accurate pass through the defence and into the run of Jovan Ilohil, who in his usual clinical style rounded the goalkeeper and tapped the ball into the empty net.

The Jovannican Defence was playing to the best of their ability, Raye Eng and Kallin Yustat were doing extraordinarily well to combat the Damukuni attack that scored twice against group leaders Delte. Unfortunately, we would concede one late into the match and lose the clean sheet, but the matter of victory was already safely secured.

“Brilliant performance.” Mathee stated in the post match interview. “If the lads keep playing like this, we’re sure to be a serious competitor.”

The Jovannic will now travel (not very far actually) to the Commonwealth of Baker Park, before returning to face Strayaroos. Sources such as the SportingJovannic Insider has claimed that Mathee will select the same lineup for both matches, but it has also stated that Io Castra will have a good chance of starting the game against Strayroos in place of Nivario Wesh.

All Hail The Jovannic!

by **Turori** » Sun Oct 02, 2022 1:11 am

Turori drop points in opener but respond well against rival Bisons

Eels Park, Eelandii, Turori :: Although they had recently contested three Eagle's Cup matches on home turf, including one at Eels Park in Eelandii, the return of the Turori National Team to Eels Park for World Cup Qualifying competition was a bitter sweet affair for Nigel's Army and the scores of Turori National Team supporters that flocked to the sportropolis. It would be the first World Cup sanctioned match for the Eels since the bitter defeat to host nation Graintfjall in the World Cup 91 Finals. Turori had been near flawless in Farfadillis winning all six of their games heading into the final including four shutouts by ever-present netminder Derizi Amatopa. The change of venue for the final surely jogged the Eels around but despite their defeat, the Turori National Team still emerged as the #1 Ranked Nation in the multiverse heading into the World Cup's 92nd cycle - and as such, favored to win the World Cup.

At the moment of kickoff, Turori National Team goalkeeper Derizi Amatopa would match the all-time record for most consecutive starts for the Turori National Team in World Cup Competition with 11 - tying a record they themselves had set in the midst of World Cup 91 Qualifying when the Eura-based goalkeeper started 20 of Turori's 22 matches. For a nation with a history of a goalkeeper rotation policy there was no sign of Amatopa slowing down any time soon and many wondered if they could become the first Turorian goalkeeper to start every match of a World Cup Qualifying campaign. It would be a long campaign, however, 22 matches and it seemed largely unlikely to Amatopa could pull off the ever-present feat particularly with Timaala Hualtia guiding Inland Peaks FC back to the Stellar Division and with a deep run in IFCF competition while chomping at the bit to get another shot for the national team, and new Eelandii Academy youngster Terasin Moravuao also looking to make their debut for their country during the qualifiers. Regardless, the job was Amatopa's to keep until they lost it.

Despite Turori's inability to put the ball in the back of the net on the opening matchday against Ceni, Derizi Amatopa still did their job pitching a shutout in a goaless draw to open the qualifying campaign. While it was certainly not the result the Turori National Team was looking for, it was a reasonable start where Turori knew too well the impact of an early defeat. With a point against a difficult side going through a rebuild was behind them, the Eels moved on to a rivalry game against Gyatso-kai.

While the two nations regularly competed in other sports such as Ice Hockey, there were no recent meetings between Gyatso-Kai and Turori in the World Cup or any footsport competition. The closest meeting was a match between the Bisons and Vilita and Turori on the opening matchday of AOCAF 63. That match would be heavily favored in the direction of Vilita and Turori and, despite taking place at the Bisons home stadium, this one would also result in a heavy defeat for Gyatso Kai.

Jungle Strike FC attacker Nua'oma Aikiki got the scoring started just five mintues into the match after a skillful play by Lutara Makakio. After making space Makakaio drew the defense in to mark them then flicked the ball over to an unmarked Aikiki who had little trouble getting the ball past Hamada Roshi. The result would be all but sealed just two minutes later when Kinabo Telioa latched on to a long ball from Amakli Inuro'o then fired quickly from just outside the area, catching Roshi off guard and doubling Turori's advantage.

While the three points seemed all but assured there were still over 80 minutes left to play and still more work to be done. Tarek Edgeli's Turori National Team would score once more before half time, the goal coming from Naraiza Ruaplal - who happened to also score the third goal in Vilita and Turori's 4-1 vicory over Gyatso-Kai during AOCAF 63. The Eels would make one change at half time, with goalscorer Kinabo Telioa coming off and Sokattack Mliona youngster Lumlao Noauryua coming on in their place. Noauryua would get involved in the action fairly quickly and had a hand in setting up the Eels 4th goal, earning the corner kick that would led to a headed goal from H'munao Cagomia just before the hour mark.

The Turori National Team would hang on the rest of the way to record a 4-0 victory - their first win of the campaign while recording a second consecutive shutout for goalkeeper Deziri Amatopa. It was a strong rebound for the Eels after their opening matchday draw with Ceni as Turori contested the single group with the highest average KPB ranking in the World Cup 92 Qualifying field. Next up for the Eels would be a home match against Zeta Reka and Hugeltaldom at Almintora National Stadium in the Turorian capital city, followed by a road trip to Aleirave on Matchday Four.

 Turori 0 - 0 Ceni	
	Turori Goals:	               
	Stats :: Turori	:: Possession: 55%:: Shots: 2:: Corners: 9 :: Ceni :: Possession: 45%:: Shots: 3:: Corners: 5
	Turori Lineup ::	Derizi Amatopa, Moumouni Verre'elali, Karek Edgeli (Naraiza Ruaplal 62'), Amakli Inuro'o, H’munao Cagomia, Cuoabaza Orani’aoa (Lumlao Noauryua 70'), Kiidallen Aeroluzzi (Loala Inkabu 45'), Kinabo Telioa, Tulaki Rauogba, Turakia Diijelhma, Nua'oma Aikiki

 Turori 4 - 0 Gyatso-Kai	
	Turori Goals:	:: 5' Nua'oma Aikiki:: 7' Kinabo Telioa:: 40' Naraiza Ruaplal:: 57' H’munao Cagomia           
	Stats :: Turori	:: Possession: 58%:: Shots: 9:: Corners: 11 :: Gyatso-Kai :: Possession: 42%:: Shots: 4:: Corners: 9
	Turori Lineup ::	Derizi Amatopa, Karek Edgeli, Moumouni Verre'elali (Planio’o Nrujsa 72'), Amakli Inuro'o (Tulaki Rauogba 75'), H’munao Cagomia, Cuoabaza Orani’aoa, Naraiza Ruaplal, Kiidallen Aeroluzzi, Kinabo Telioa (Lumlao Noauryua 45'), Nua'oma Aikiki, Lutara Makakio

by **Farfadillis** » Sun Oct 02, 2022 1:40 am

One year and a smattering of months ago

Matchday thirteen, away to René Skaé. Scorching heat, tough opponent, whatever. Lêyêló couldn't care less. He'd come to René Skaé with one specific objective in mind. So, he turned up, put in a man-of-the-match performance at the age of seventeen, scoring two and assisting three while dominating the entire midfield en route to a 5-3 win, then promptly left the stadium after taking an okay bath, which was somewhat marred by the lack of... cold water. Such is Szoirsia sometimes.

He told the gaffer he'd be making a quick trip to René Skaé's official store. The gaffer—who obviously wanted to leave the scorching hellhole they were in as soon as possible—tried to talk him out of it, but relented upon realizing the kid seemed waaaay too enthusiastic about this and he was the best talent Rülândéá Kôstä had ever produced so what leverage did he have, really.

And so Lêyêló cheerily made his way across the city, jogging through the Szoirsian heat, not a worry in the world. He was smart enough not to wear any Rülândéá Kôstä attire, but he was still visibly very Rulandese, and he definitely didn't know his way around René Skaé, so for all he knew, he could be jogging through the most wildly racist, rundown neighborhood in all of Szoirsia. Small price to pay, he figured.

He got a few stares from the few brave souls that had decided to be out and about at three in the evening, but fortunately no stares from the will-stab-shoot-you type. It was a solid twenty-minute jog. He got to the store right as the heat was starting to weigh down on him. Funny how that hadn't happened over ninety minutes of playing football.

He took a moment to stare at the door and catch his breath a bit. The old 'building' looked as rundown as any other in the vicinity, except for the door, which seemed to be quite high-quality and very firmly shut. The window panes were black, so he couldn't peek inside. The only reason he even knew he was at the correct place was the sign reading 'René Skaé official football store' in plain text, white over black, right above the door. This was actually a huge relief, since he'd gotten there by word of mouth, and it could sometimes prove unreliable.

Fully refreshed after a minute or so, he placed his hand on the doorknob to enter. He pressed firmly, but the door didn't budge a single bit. He then pressed much more firmly, armed with all his professional-footballer-who-is-strong strength. It budged a little. He proceeded much more firmly and it budged completely. He fell to the floor, got up, then quickly dusted himself off. He turned to look at the one dumbfounded store clerk—also just the one store clerk. The working-class Szoirsian man was clearly not expecting any clients at the time of day when things decide to just... melt. For a second he thought it was a break-in, but he quickly identified the man breaking into the momentarily closed store as that kid who just gave his club a damn good beating.

"Hello, good evening, do you have Faragó rue Cazade jerseys? I'd like to buy a lot of them."

The store clerk, now even more confused, just shook his head, shrugged, and headed to the back of the store. A good business day is a good business day. A good business day in which he doesn't have to gun down an intruder is a doubly good business day. Though gunning him down after that display of his against the Szoirsian club did tempt the more sinister side of him.

by **Electrum** » Sun Oct 02, 2022 2:01 am

FOOTSPORT ASSOCIATIONS OF VILITA & ELECTRUM - WC92 ✓

@TheTurnip
Does anyone wonder why results from Group 1-7 come after Groups 8-15? This is really unprofessional hosting here! #WC92 #WoahThere

#CUTOFF :: #GRP_1-7

by **Civia Welephilostopia** » Sun Oct 02, 2022 2:34 am

Disappointment today as the Emerald Elephants went down by 1 goal to Guanacesta. It was a game filled with tension and epic moments and the training day before the game showed some improvement in defence and attack however more progress needs to be made. During the game the opposing players ran 4.3 km more than our players and our opponents' pressure and composure on the defence meant that it would be near impossible to score.

Fans are also calling for young star Moralinio to be moved off the young guns squad after allegations of drink driving.

The Elephants will play Dlaclava and Jerusalum.

by **Squidroidia** » Sun Oct 02, 2022 6:04 am

An Inkling's Dilemma

Episode 3 - Splatting Up (Most of) the Competition

A 1-1 deadlock away against the FInntopian Empire can be unnerving and comforting.

That was the scoreline Coltfield and Company, as some Squidroidian fans called this team, were struggling against deep into the 2nd half. If the scoreline stayed, Squidroidia would still stay unbeaten in qualification, which was very much a comfort to this Inklings side in such a tough group like this but, under the wrong circumstances, would be unnerving. However, there was the it factor that would make Squidroidia stand out that was quickly slipping away from them - A 100% record. No dropped points. No stray draws. Unnerving if that record is damaged, but comforting in the sense that chasing the record wouldn't be the be all and end all. Not that Rachel minded - The Tinhamptonian was here to manage a football team.

With 3 minutes left to go before stoppage time ticked through, on Finntopian soil nonetheless, both sides were getting desperate to win themselves. A win for Finntopia would mean more than a win for Squidroidia due to ranking differential, but Squidroidia winning would mean more purely because of the drama. The tense, bubbling drama that some people may call distracting but others... Pure entertainment. A Finntopian attacker loses his ball to aging veteran Muto Toki. Toki, realizing how much this single strip can mean to the swing of the game, immediately passes it back to Kaede Akiyama, the Squidroidian #1 hoofing the ball up knowing that this would most likely mean the FInntopians get the ball back for the Inklings to press them further.

It instead falls on the legs of Tomomi Hamasaki. He got it, now go, as some people would say. He sprints with the ball over to the left hand side of the box, making sure to hold onto it with seemingly his life. Past a Finntopian midfielder himself, he finds Shiba Tetsuo with room for a through ball, played in without a fuss. Shiba, now with the ball, passes it back to Charlie Colbert, and there they were, seemingly the entire Finntopian defense surrounding him, with not a lot of Squidroidian bodies present - They were all shoring up the back line apart from Hideo, who was pretty much offside. All that Colbert could do is man up and try to burst past the back line.

Hideo drops back onside as the Finntopian defenders gang up on him. A side pass needed to be executed to a tee in order to have any sort of hope. And even though Colbert does it, a little toe poke from one of the Finntopians caused it to deviate from the intended line.

Only for the ball to find Hamasaki. A shot just inside the box curls past the goalkeeper and into the back of the net. For once, Squidroidia could be comforted knowing that their record would stay. It was only unnerving in the fact that they still had to defend the lead. A few slipups on both sides later, the score remained the same as the game ended. 3-0-0, 9 points. When asked about the goal, Tomomi said it was "More instinct than patience. I saw the ball on my feet and went for it, and that ended up getting 3 points. Not bad for a one time thing."

The Squidroidians would head back home and invited Macbon to Inkopolis to little fanfare but 3 goals - And 3 points - on the board for Squidroidia, with Marianne McKay starting ahead of Sho Itō and notching home a goal and an assist, the Inkling getting into her Spartansburg form on the international level. Macbon, like the Finntopians, were lower level opposition, but there was one team that Squidroidia were looking forward to face - Starblaydia. The 5 time champions.

On the Starblaydia game, Rachel Coltfield expressed that this Squidroidia side needed all the preparation and motivation they could get. "You don't get to face a team like them all that often. We're one game away from facing them and, while Rouyoute will test how well our defensive tactics are, we are all looking forward to taking on the Starblaydians. They're the 2nd seed in this group and if we want any chance to win the group we have to beat them. They're undefeated, we're undefeated, only one of us can stay that way. It's good that this first game against them will be at home. If we stepped into Jhanna now, we'd be cooked."

It was Starblaydia after all.

[Roleplays] :: World Cup 92

Training raining Training

WCQ 92 Rp 2

Match report: Nyowani Kitara 3-4 Saint Eleanor

World Cup 92 MD1-2

WC92Q - Matchday 1/2

1 Goal is All it Takes

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