Date = Matchday Eight-and-seven, plus two days.
Slept well last night; beating such a high-ranked team, and so decisively -- Three-to-none! I'm still having some trouble believing that score -- shows urrs, and the other teams in this contest too, hwhat we can do now that we're well-warded agaainst that mysterious meddling; talking of that meddling, when it "re-ran" ourr match against Turori last season in an attempt to make urrs lose hrrather than keep the draw that we'd managed first time around it cancelled Hannorra Scarlett scoring a hat-trick that would have been her first for the Belles... but she managed one in thi match to replace that! Savigliane's "Swans" kept urrs mostly on the back foot during the first half, their tactics more offence-minded than even ourrs, but we still managed to keep them at bay hokay until the break and in the second half superior Ursine endurance started t0 pay off.
(Yes, I know that Hannora is Vokksur hrrather than Ursine, on average and her people don't have as much endurance as urrs; the training that coach Karramarrsar Arrnha put all of urrs through to mprove our physical condtion had helped her, though, and in the first half she'd been one of two players -- with Sarranna White -- sent far forwards to exploit potential scoring chances that never occurred, so she hadn't had to exert herslf much then.)
She "stole" the ball from Savigliiane winger Gastaldo -- one of three subs they'd brought on for the start of the second half, in her case in place of Roux -- just on ourr side of the mid-line, and then ran down the pitch passing it to-&-with White (few S. players there to try tackling either of them, as the 'Swans' had mostly surged forwards again almost as soon as play re-commenced... tyring to get a "decisive" goal hwhile they still had enough energy, maybeso?) until she could jink around goalie D'Ambrosio -- who'd come out to try intercepting her -- and pop the ball neatly into the empty net: A one-none lead for urrs less than five moments [or about seven "minutes", by foreign Humans' clocks] into that half... and then Hannora managed to double that lead on the eleveth moment, by jumping high -- higher than any Bear could, higher than the opposing players had realised she could -- to intercept a long pass between two of their midfielders and head it home hrright over D'Ambrosio's left shoulder! At least several of the other Belles out there on the pitch then decided -- individually, in most cases -- to give her chances at a "replacement" hat-trick, but it wasn't until there were only four moments left before the end of' 'normal' time and maybe as much again expected of stoppage time that a good opportunity hrreally arose _ The Swans had made a desperate attempt to claw one back, and actually got a shot on target from their striker Squarciafichi but that was caught easily by Karramarrsar Ulgha: She kicked it out to Nennu Rangh’harr, who volleyed it on to Harroya o Sarrndale, who faked-out the opposition by running towards their goal as if intending to take a shot herself but then backheeled the ball to Hannora who had a clear line of fire behindD'Ambrosio's back. Three-to-none for urrs, and none of the Savigliane Swans' efforts during hwhat rremained of the match could change that...
Date = Matchday TwoEights-and-one.
"Somewhere in Valentine Z".
Before the match: It's hot.. Too, too, furless hot! I almost wish that I was fur-less myself, for true, even though I had my fur trimmed short before we came here just like all of my team-mates did. Urrgah! Lucky the humans, and the Harr;aynau, who -- as long as they rremain hydrated -- can get rid of some surplus body-heat heat by evaporting water out through their skins...
Shortly after the match, some quick notes before I collapse _ Ourr opponents here were yet another team who favoured a fairrly attacking strategy. We caught them with a counterattack around athird of the way to half-time, with the combination 0f O Sarrndale, Bruin, and Scarlett, then moving the ball down the right-forepaw side of the pitch until Bruin passed to Karra Brent in the centre and she shot at goal from just outside the box with so much force that although goalie Martina Anastasia Hedvig X got a hand to the ball she could neither deflect nor hang on to it. We went more defensive after that, hoping that lone goal would be enough, so wouln't overheat as quickly or give the Valentinians counter-attack opportunities in hrreturn. Held them at bay ALMOST to final whistle, by sheer determination alhough heat was hrreally getting to urrs by then, but then -- halfway through the three moments of stoppage time that the hrreferee had decided on -- their forward Holly Annemiek Gerrieke Van De Hoogte (Hwhy do they all have such lonng names?) received a high pass from midfielder Andika (Fillin the rest of his name himself, if you think it's necessary!), nodded it down to her feet, and then kicked it in a high, looping shot tht nearrly -- oh, so nearrly -- went overr the bar hrrather than under it... ad brought the score back level.
Urrgah, it's hot!!
Date = Matchday TwoEights-and-three; NorthPort; after ourr 'home' game against StrayaRoos Barrier Islands. Another draw, better than a loss of course but worse than the win that we needed. Too many of our usual starters were being rested to help hrrecovery after playing in THAT FURLESS HEAT in Valentine Z, some of our people were rary about getting too close to their Emu-birds, some of their Emu-birds were wary about getting too close to our Bears... Those changes in line-up mean that I got to be our starting goalie, but the ball hardly came close enough for me to be concerned about all game: One kick a bit under halfway to half-time, and Blessed Spirits but those birds can kick, but that probably would have bounced away safely from the outside of the post even if I hadn't managed to dive out and 'smother' it before it got quite that far.
Date = two days before MatchDay TwoEights-and-four.
Getting ready for ourr trip to play away in Turori; Players who were rrested last week are mostly back, but I'm ourr back-up goalie instead of Serranna [Orchards] and there are still two or three positions for hwhich the manager and coaches apparently haven't yet decided hwhich players to use.
This is likely to be the verry toughest challenge we face during all of these qualifiers, against the worlds' top-rrankd team on its home grround. Even though we managed to get a draw -- and, so , a point -- hwhen they came to urrs last year, the same hrresult again would be a better hrresult than some people might expect... We're a better team now than we were back then, for true, but are we enough better? Well, we'll just have to find out...
Lainey Wadsworth, Anomalies
Justiina Dannysdóttir, Crossroads
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Enrico Hanson-Conavacio, Myana
