Campionato Esportiva 38 — Everything Thread

by **South Newlandia** » Wed May 29, 2024 6:59 am

South Newlandian CE38 Roster

Style Mod: -1

My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose scorers: Yes
Godmod scoring events: Yes
RP injuries to my players: Yes
Godmod injuries to my players: Yes, but please ask first.
Hand out yellow cards to my players: Yes
Hand out red cards to my players: Yes, but please ask first.
Godmod other events: Yes, but please ask first

Manager: HAN Ruoyang (Yuezhou), 59
It’s a new era for South Newlandia. After a dismal showing in the previous tournament, the Elephants and previous manager Dale Hartford-Phelps decided to part ways. Despite struggling in recent tournaments, the Zwangzugian remains the only coach to win a major title with the Elephants. The defensively-minded manager had gotten his big break with Beian Athletic, before finding success at the national team level with Guanacasteca for almost a decade. Tactically, he will run a 3-5-2 formation. He tends to rely on a center back working as a deep-lying playmaker; coincidentally the same system that had gotten him success in his playing days. It will be interesting to see him adjust his tactics to the lack of an experienced center back suited for this role.

Expected starting eleven:

(C) GK: Edward Khan (31) Avondale City (Sylestone)
The goalkeeper of top Sylestonian team Avondale City has played himself in the starting spot for the Elephants as well, thanks to reliable performances for both teams. The former bronze glove winner is the undisputed number one for the Elephants right now, and in contention for the best player on the squad. Han has also entrusted him with being the captain of the squad.

LCB: Matias Vaz (22) Zeiven City (The Kytler Peninsulae)
Vaz is playing more of a winger role with Zeiven, but will be expected to stay back more with the Elephants. Still, his great performances in the Peninsulae have more than earned him a starting spot with the team. He’s not really a threat with headers on corners or free kicks, but he can aid with some counter-attacks if he’s allowed to.

CB: Mary Romero (24) Scolastico (Elmyia)
Romero will be the player to make or break this team’s chances. At Scolastico, she’s found some success in a similar role to what Han is looking for; an accurate passer with good vision and creativity to build up attacks for this team. Romero has been getting some good experience in Elmyia, including her first addition on the Team of the Season, but this will be her first time on the Elephants. Like Vaz, she’s also not as tall as you’d like – this team could be quite exposed on free kicks and corners.

RB: Kenzo Harrison (33) Rosenpfelblatz City (Abanhfleft)
Harrison joined his Fleftic club for a surprisingly hefty sum, but has been performing well there when he’s been active. He’s the oldest player on the defense, and also the most traditional defender among the three starters. He’ll rarely move across to the other side of the field.

LDM: Luisa Johnson (28) Pesfield Trees (Sylestone)
Johnson usually plays a more offensive role, but will be shifting back to accommodate her teammates. The oft-injured midfielder is one of the most talented players on the team, and has proved as much on the Trees. Despite being expected to shoulder more defensive responsibilities, she will remain responsible for corners.

RDM: Timothy McCoy (39) Port Tacassam FC (Tikariot)
McCoy is another veteran who found a bounce-back season lately, as he made an impact in Tikariot with some accurate passes off the bench. He’s certainly also here for his experience and leadership. McCoy will also be playing in a more defensive alignment than he’s used to, and at nearly 40, there are real questions if he can keep up with the pace expected from a defensive midfielder. Consequently, he’ll rarely make it past the hour mark before being subbed off.

LW: Christian Lange-Parker (26) Orchideeën (Taxhavn)
Lange-Parker has surprised many as a very real goal-threat in Taxhavn. A short, quick, clever midfielder, Lange-Parker can break down the sideline or inside to try and create himself with his dribbling skills. He certainly played a role in his team’s +40 goal differential, the second best in the SteuerLig-1.

AM: Alessio Lombardo (25) Nova Aegis (Saint Eleanor)
Lombardo left Elephant Valley to join one of the only even smaller countries that were an option. He’s been good for Nova Aegis, and made the bench in the most recent CE, from where he saw some playing time. The Elephants hope for him to be a key figure in the middle.

RW: Levin Voigt (27) Capitol Athletic (Sylestone)
Voigt is one of few strikers who can thrive in the harsh Sylestonian climate. He, too, will be asked to play out of position to accommodate the system. That will include a lot more operating from the wing and trying to bring balls inside, but Voigt should be talented enough to make it work.

ST: Aadi Seidel (22) Zeiven City (The Kytler Peninsulae)
Seidel has been performing admirably in the Kytler Peninsulae, becoming a strong scoring threat for Zeiven, finding a way one time after another. There are some weaknesses to his game that will have to be worked out with experience, but he’s got the talent to be an Elephants’ main-stay. With his extraordinary fitness, he’ll rarely ever be subbed off.

ST: Angela Diaz (26) Star Unicorn (The 14 Stars)
Diaz is returning to the team after some time away. She had been with the squad for a surprisingly strong CE35 campaign. Now, she’s returned to scoring any goal in any situation for Star Unicorn, and will hopefully be doing just that for the Elephants as well.

Bench:
Note that the Elephants are carrying 26 players, just as most other teams. However, substitutes that are unlikely to play a material role have been omitted.

CB: Brittany Edwards (26) Sandwell Rangers (Krytenia)
Edwards is the main defensive alternate for the team. She’s been an interesting addition for the Rangers, and could also fit the scheme that Han is trying to run. However, there are some concerns about her willingness to put in the work. She’ll be able to prove himself with appearances from the bench.

RM: Jacqueline Behera (23) Kyethas Rivermen FC (Tikariot)
Behera should be an interesting addition in the midfield. She’s had some good performances from the bench for the Rivermen, including some critical assists. She’s never quite put everything together despite some obvious talent, but she’s have chances as a substitute to prove herself.

ST: Donald Baumann (20) A.F.C. Viridescent (Geektopia)
Baumann has already logged good minutes with two different clubs in Geektopia at his young age, and has obvious stand-out talents, including accurate passes and a knack for scoring with headers. At 20, he’s the youngest member of the squad.

ST: Tom Sloan (39) Athletique Alexandrie (Patriotlandia)
The new environment has been excellent for the veteran striker, who turned a lot of heads with a 17-goal season lately. He’s another player who will provide experience to supplement the youngest starting eleven in some time, but don’t be surprised if he scores a goal or two himself.

by **Doubeia** » Wed May 29, 2024 7:01 am

Campionato Esportiva 38
Riena Half
Matchday 1 Results

Group A

South Newlandia 3–0 Natanians and Nosts
Silver Spirit Dome, Nagato, Rinkai, Riena

Riena 1–1 The 14 Stars
Funami Metropolitan Stadium, Funami, Rinkai, Riena

  Group A                                  Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 South Newlandia                            1   1  0  0    3   0  +3    3
2 Riena                                      1   0  1  0    1   1   0    1
  The 14 Stars                               1   0  1  0    1   1   0    1
4 Natanians and Nosts                        1   0  0  1    0   3  −3    0

Group B

Irithoren 1–1 Xanneria
Hanamaru Athletic Stadium, Hanamaru, Suenaga, Riena

Eshialand 0–1 Mattheland
Minami Arch, Maihama, Suenaga, Riena

  Group B                                  Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Mattheland                                 1   1  0  0    1   0  +1    3
2 Irithoren                                  1   0  1  0    1   1   0    1
  Xanneria                                   1   0  1  0    1   1   0    1
4 Eshialand                                  1   0  0  1    0   1  −1    0

Group C

Lozho 0–3 Damukuni
Seaside Field, Anzumori, Karen, Riena

Tumbra 0–1 Osterhalten
Eternal Summer Dome, Yarizakura, Karen, Riena

  Group C                                  Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Damukuni                                   1   1  0  0    3   0  +3    3
2 Osterhalten                                1   1  0  0    1   0  +1    3
3 Tumbra                                     1   0  0  1    0   1  −1    0
4 Lozho                                      1   0  0  1    0   3  −3    0

by **Riena** » Wed May 29, 2024 7:02 am

Campionato Esportiva 38
Doubeia Half
Matchday 1 Results

Group D

Doubeia 0–1 Slembana
Town Hall Stadium, Queensland, Doubeia

Fhulghamous Peninsula 5–0 Schimata
Victoria Stadium, Fajar, Doubeia

  Group D                      Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Fhulghamous Peninsula          1   1  0  0    5   0  +5    3
2 Slembana                       1   1  0  0    1   0  +1    3
3 Doubeia                        1   0  0  1    0   1  −1    0
4 Schimata                       1   0  0  1    0   5  −5    0

Group E

Sylestone 0–1 Hapilopper
The Igloo, Winterfalls, Doubeia

Macbon 1–4 TJUN-ia
Pomeranian Hub, Port Pomeranian, Doubeia

  Group E                      Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 TJUN-ia                        1   1  0  0    4   1  +3    3
2 Hapilopper                     1   1  0  0    1   0  +1    3
3 Sylestone                      1   0  0  1    0   1  −1    0
4 Macbon                         1   0  0  1    1   4  −3    0

Group F

Vielfaltig 0–2 Zeta Reka and Hugeltaldom
Harriott Loft, Ethelfled, Doubeia

Kamijiro 2–6 Dod Rava
Sirotkin Stadium, Solvecere, Doubeia

  Group F                      Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Dod Rava                       1   1  0  0    6   2  +4    3
2 Zeta Reka and Hugeltaldom      1   1  0  0    2   0  +2    3
3 Vielfaltig                     1   0  0  1    0   2  −2    0
4 Kamijiro                       1   0  0  1    2   6  −4    0

by **Restresas** » Wed May 29, 2024 7:45 am

After seeing Happilopper's upset win over Sylestone, Restresian Manager Wesley Nires had this to comment: "Congratulations on the big win Happilopper, they did a great job of making their opportunities count and their gameplan intact. For us, the gameplan still remains the same, but agreeing with my players, we have decided to let the plan shape up and show itself at Port Pomeranian on Friday." The comments from the newcomer nation's manager has led many to be curious if the claim of sending a message to Esportiva will come true or not, but regardless, many Restresians are pulling for the upset win, while the media has no idea what to expect heading into their match against heavily favored Sylestone considering the utter silence of the Squirrels on post-practice media interviews and social media...

by **The 14 Stars** » Wed May 29, 2024 12:51 pm

New tournament new struggles!

As any new challenge it comes with struggles, when they finally arrived at the place where they would have their match there were millions and millions of Starsian fans....why? The 14 Stars was a huge nation consisting of 10,5 billion people and expanding.
For this reason The 14 Stars also was located in its own universe and you can only visit it by multiversal portal (very expensive) and millions of fans traveled with our team to see and cheer on the squad.
When they saw the Riennese team they did not even bother to go say hello, their nation had no known history thus to the Starsians not really worth talking to and Kira Blade our captain called her players together before walking up the field.

Kira: ''Alright everyone, a new tournament and a new challenge awaits us here but we are still THE best players of The 14 Stars and we are currently among the 100 best nations of the world and we as a group have come far.
Its now our job to turn those efforts into results, i believe in each and every one of you and i hope you all have the same belief in me and your teammates so lets go out there and win!''

Team: ''Yes captain!''

As they moved out on the field The Starsians would look kinda alien to the Riennese players, unlike the Riennese players the Starsians had each player now for the first time in the NT introduced the eleven-net.
Each player would wear a digital bracelet and with this they could live follow things such as heartbeat rate, blood pressure and to an extent predict energy levels so they could guess when a player would eventually run out of energy and optimize their substitutions.
In the Starsian league this has been legalized a few years ago but it has not been accepted everywhere, its mostly a tool to prevent unncessary injuries such as the Morris Valerian case when he after collapsing on the field showed to be having heart problems.

Ever since the Starsians were very much considering their health, further they also seemed to know eachother through and through as they had trained for months together up to this moment and the league was adjusted to the campionato schedule.
As the Riennese team kicked off they started the game and the Starsians started pretty calm letting the Riennese play their game adjusting to them to get to know how they play a little bit and also see what their limits are.
With those inexperienced Riennese players also some surprises came and a surprise goal was one of this as they in the late stages of the first half shot a ball into the top corner Davis toucing the ball but not enough to keep it out, it was unheard of that the Starsians the Wolves would get beaten by a rookie team and knowing coach Walcott from Sylestone it would not happen now either.

During halftime the substitutions to change the game were made, Kai Schulz was taken off and Christian Fourseasons was brought on the field the veteran going for his 28th game for the Starsian flag.
Grace Ewards a more defensive RB was taken off and Eva Weber who was currently in a rough season with Alexia in Auprussia was brought on because she had a more offensive style of playing and thats what they would be needing the second half.
Lastly there would be a rookie making her debut, Elizabeth Phillips was taken off in favor of Iris Olivier and with this coach Walcott took a huge risk because Iris Olivier has zero international experience and even if a talent still does not have the experience other had.

As the second half started a relentless and gruelling 45 minutes for the Riennese would start with attack after attack pass after perfect pass and the pace of the game getting higher and higher even probably causing some Riennese players to be taken off most likely with cramps.
Not a major issue it happened often to players but the Starsians did not seem to be all that affected because they always played high pace games and often their opponents if they were weaker would be having a tough time matching it.
Fourseasons had good chances but was seemingly unable to score as it seemed now, while the rookie player supported by two experienced midfielders showed good things and keeping herself up agains the Riennese.
In fact as time went down and there was a need for a decision in the game it was this same rookie that on her own played out the entire midfield with great skill combining passes with Joy Sol and then going for a run as she turns inside then with a great distant and hard kick shot at the goal as everyone watch the ball fly over everyone including the goalkeeper into the top corner of the new above their head.
Iris Olivier had just made her first goal in her debut match for The 14 Stars, Iris Olivier the supertalent born in 2018 now made name and fame as a great player and millions of Starsians could be heard cheering through the city, the stadium went crazy.

With little time on the clock ofcourse the Riennese players would try to attack but fail and they nearly lost another one as Olivier shot again now from closer distance but the goalpost saved their goalkeeper and their nation from worse.
For them the final whistle would have been a good thing, an escape with a point but the Starsians knew that they should have won this match and also now know Iris Olivier is a deserved international and not just because of her talent, many criticized the decision for Olivier instead of Kendra Halisovic due to Olivier being always called a supertalent but today she has shown that talent.
After the match a the Starsian broadcasters stand by with an interview from Olivier herself.

reporter: ''Iris Olivier a great debut a great goal how does that feel for you to make the first goal of the tournament and the first goal of your international career huh?''

Olivier: ''Really great i was so shocked when they told me i was already getting my debut, ofcourse you hope but those other players are experienced and very strong players too so its an honor for me to stand between them.''

reporter: ''Did the Riennese players surprise you? do you think they have chances?''

Olivier: ''Oh sure they are able to pull off the upset as you see today, however im not sure its the most stable team out there they dont have consistency and i do not think they can develop it during this tournament.
If i were them i would use this CE as a learning experience and focus on the next tournament so you can build on consistency and the experience of your players just like we used to have to do aswell before many great players we have now showed up.''

reporter: ''Do you hope you can make more appearances this tournament?''

Olivier: ''Ofcourse i do but i am a patient person, i will be there when they need me and unlike some on the team i've got years to come.''

Reporter: ''Indeed, Christian Fourseasons is retiring from the national team after this season, i assume he was happy with playtime?''

Olivier: ''Yes very, he wants to show the world one last time his skill, he had to wait a long time standing in Holly Moonlights shadow until she quit early and he became the top striker so yeah its quite the tournament for him.''

Reporter: ''I wanna wish you alot of good luck and hopefully more matches Iris, thanks for making time for us''

Olivier: ''Anytime! thanks for having me!''

by **Osterhalten** » Wed May 29, 2024 1:13 pm

OSTERHALTEN FOOTBALL

KITS

Many thanks to Dantopia for the beautiful graphics!

Pos # Name Age Birthplace

Goalkeepers	 
GK		1	Harry	Amberg	        32	Haverby, Burton
GK		2	Etienne	LaCasse	        23	Sander City, Mecharia

Defenders						
LB 		6	Aidan	Quickenden	25	Chamberlain, Ashcairn
LB 		12	Xavier	Peabody	        19	Ingny, Ashcairn
CB		14	Peter	Hanselmann	31	Wickleigh, Arbour
CB		13	Sepp	Fischer	        29	Etnauber, Saarburg
CB		30	Willis	Zimmerman	26	Dreamcliff, Capital
CB		25	Pascal	Magnan	        27	Vollehof, Withings
RB		22	Timothy	Pendleton 	31	Darton, New Conach
RB		19	Paul	Ramadier        22	South Lehigh, Ponomo

Midfielders						
LM		7	Elliot	Johanneson	22	Wickleigh, Arbour
LM		18	Phineas	Ellsworth	26	Redchapel, Capital
CM		15	Michel	Phaneuf         31	Cape Breeze, Weisinstaat
CM		4	Werner	Fietz	        38	Ferris, Ashcairn
RM		5	Leon	Sylvestre	20	Traise, Borterre
RM		20	Zane	Edgerton	27	Lockhart, Ashcairn

Attackers						
ST		3	Raymond	Ludlam	        28	Grenier, Burton
ST		24	Tuomas	Termonen        21	Rapsa, Maakiari
ST		10	Nathan	Marner	        34	Lazeau, Terrebonne
ST		9	Cesar	Haselhurst	25	Traise, Borterre

Starting 11						
GK	02	Etienne	LaCasse	
LB 	11	Gabriel	Oliver	
CB	13	Sepp	 Fischer	
CB	25	Pascal	 Magnan	
RB	22	Timothy	Pendleton	
LM	18	Phineas	Ellsworth	
CM	04	Werner	Fietz	
RM	05	Leon	Sylvestre	
ST	03	Raymond	Ludlam	
ST	09	Cesar	Haselhurst

My opponent, if they roleplay first, may do the following:
Choose my goalscorers: Yes
Godmod scoring events: Yes
Roleplay injuries to my players: Yes
Godmod injuries to my players: Yes
Issue yellow/red cards to my players: Yes
Godmod other events: Yes - if you're going to, make it well worth it!
Style Mod: +1

by **Fhulghamous Peninsula** » Thu May 30, 2024 1:39 am

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, your new champions of Esportiva, the Fhulghamous Peninsula!”

Truthfully speaking, that was a sentence that no one, not even the most ardent, die-hard, and deluded fan of the Fhulghamous Peninsula national football team would have ever imagined they would ever hear in their lifetimes. And yet someone did finally say that exact sentence, and not in an ironic way either. The Fhulghamous Peninsula was indeed champions of Esportiva, and they had overcome one of the best football teams (not just in the region but in the whole multiverse) in Sylestone. Both teams were looking to win their first ever Campionato, with Sylestone especially looking to get rid of the bad taste of being the bridesmaid but not the bride in two consecutive third place playoffs. Meanwhile, the Peninsula’s best result before the 37th Campionato was two bronze place finishes, and amongst all that they had had their own reputation of being just like their parent nation Abanhfleft when it came to football: good enough to make it out of the groups but never good enough to advance further than the first round of the knockout stage.

The Fhulghamous Peninsula’s road to the Campionato Esportiva final was not an easy one at all. The Peninsula had topped their group (even if they did lose their final match in that particular stage against Tumbra), but most fans of the Colonists knew that that didn’t mean anything because the Fhulghamous had lost in the first round of the knockouts after topping their particular group. And given the amount of times that this had happened to them at the hands of a supposedly lower ranked or less favored team, it was perhaps no surprise that nobody thought that the Fhulghamous would actually get a win over newcomers Irithoren. But they did get a win against Irithoren, even if they had to fight hard for it.

The Peninsula’s next foe in the quarterfinals was TJUN-ia, another tough opponent making a name for themselves across all sorts of different sports. The Jaguars had gone on a tear through the Campionato and its accompanying Esportivan Sporting Festival, and both sides knew that whoever won this particular meeting might actually have a claim towards being crowned Esportivan football champions. The match lived up to expectations, if those expectations were for a cagey and tense match which could very well be (and was) decided by just the one goal. Whether it was actual irony or simple coincidence, there were those that felt that it was actually fitting that one of the most skeptical players in the Fhulghamousian squad, Silas Babalioutas, the one person who was open about how he felt that the Peninsula simply had no chance of winning the Campionato, would be the one to score the winning goal for the Colonists against TJUN-ia. There would have been nothing wrong with the Fhulghamous bowing out in the quarterfinals against the Jags, but the win undoubtedly was what Fhulghamousian fans would have wanted anyway.

And then the Colonists would again go up against the one and only team that had managed to beat the Fhulghamous in this Campionato so far, Tumbra. Tumbra was a decorated side with three Campionatos under their belt and looking to add a fourth to their trophy cabinet, and since the Black Eagles had already taken care of the Fhulghamous before, the expectation was that they would do it again. Sure, it might have taken them 76 minutes to knock off the Colonists through Edward Maddison, but it was still a victory to Tumbra’s name, and once again practically everyone expected the Black Eagles to emerge victorious from this contest. Well, Tumbra did take the lead early on, and on previous occasions, that would have been the moment that the Fhulghamous would fold and roll over, but there was something different with the Colonists this time around, and they were able to dig deep and find a way out of the hole to book their ticket to the Campionato Esportiva final, where there would be one final obstacle for them to hurdle: Sylestone.

The 37th Campionato Esportiva final unfolded almost exactly like how many of the Fhulghamous Peninsula’s knockout matches: nervous, cagey, and edgy, with everything teetering on a knife edge. After all, this was the first time that the Peninsula had made it as far as the Campionato Esportiva final; their previous best result had been a pair of victories in the third place playoff. The stakes were much more massive than before, and while the Colonists were determined not to live up to their reputation of being bottlers yet again, it would be a lie to say that that wasn’t in the back of at least some of the players’ mind throughout the game. It was definitely on the forefront on the mind of one Silas Babalioutas, that much was certain. But the Peninsula held firm against the Sentients over ninety minutes, which granted them an additional thirty minutes to think about the possibility of being Esportivan champions.

The first half of those extra thirty minutes was just as nervous and cagey as the ninety that had preceded it, but as time was running out on the first half of extra time, Alibek Sokolov (a Pridnestrovian immigrant who settled down in the southern town of Heliopolis) decided to go into business for himself by picking up the ball in midfield, going on a solo run, and smashing the ball past the Sylestone goalkeeper. To say that everyone of a Fhulghamousian persuasion lost their heads once Sokolov’s goal went in would be an understatement. There was every possibility that every single person living in the Fhulghamous Peninsula, all 21 million of them, screamed in celebration as the Colonists went 1-0 up in the Campionato Esportiva final, from the Governor-General himself all the way down to the most recent immigrants. And while, of course, Sokolov scoring his goal was great, the Colonists would still have to defend that lead with their lives for fifteen more minutes, plus however much the referee decided to add on at the end.

To the surprise (and perhaps even relief) of those on the gray side of the final, the Fhulghamous Peninsula did manage to hold on to the victory, and once the final whistle blew, most (if not all) of the Fhulghamousian players looked around in disbelief, as if even they couldn’t believe that they had just pulled off what everyone (even some of their own) believed to be the impossible: win the Campionato Esportiva. Noted skeptic Silas Babalioutas almost looked like he was disgusted to have been proven wrong by his own teammates, but perhaps that was just an effect of the lighting or a trick of the camera. Surely no one could be angry that their team won a freaking international championship, right? Of course, such a thing wouldn’t stop the elder Babalioutas brother from accepting his own winner’s medal during the awarding ceremony, but his face definitely had a look of “What in the world did I do to deserve this?” But he was just one sour face among a sea of happy and relieved football players, and even he forgot that he was supposed to be the sourpuss when he joined in on the trophy lifting part of the title celebration. People really could be weird sometimes.

37th Campionato Esportiva Final – Final Score

  FHULGHAMOUS PENINSULA 1 - 0 SYLESTONE          
                        (aet)
         SOKOLOV (105')

by **Hapilopper** » Thu May 30, 2024 11:51 am

The Igloo, Winterfalls, Doubeia
Campionato Esportiva 38 Match 1: Hapilopper v. Sylestone
It had been a long, long time since anyone could remember a Hapiloppian football match that carried as much emotion as this one did. Probably ever. When someone walked into the locker room, they were instantly awash with the feeling - the importance of the situation and the sadness of who wasn’t there. The players - those new to the national team and those that remained from Ellis Football - knew there was someone vitally important that was missing. Rod Cutt and Stan McLamb, the first two players hand-selected to be a part of the Ellis Football project, felt a heaviness in their chests that they hadn’t felt before.

It was the first time that a Hapiloppian national team would be playing a match after the death of Nathan Ellis, the inspirational leader of football in the Dominion. In the wake of his death, Dominic Probst, Thom Perkins and Ernie Stevenson agreed that in Nathan’s memory, a national team had to go on. Nathan’s five-year plan, which culminated with Team Hapilopper, Ellis Football, whatever you wanted to call it, “winning the whole fucking thing” at World Cup 100, had to go on, albeit a tiny bit revised due to a missing year, due to the team, once again, having to make up for lost time. But in the locker rooms, the team hotel, even in the individual lockers, the slogan “Win the whole fucking thing” was everywhere. Even on the team’s alternate jersey for this year, the phrase appeared on the backs.

Nobody said anything. Nobody needed to. They knew what was at stake in this first match of the campaign. On paper, it was a standard group stage match, against the best team in the group, the Sentients from Sylestone. But for the players, the staff and for those that followed Hapiloppian football, it was the most important match in a long time - as much as that night in the Free Republics when Hapilopper played West Phoenicia for the Baptism of Fire 14 years ago, as much as that night when Hapilopper qualified for their first World Cup proper, and as much as a couple of years ago, when Nathan Ellis had gotten together his motley crew of players to form an unofficial national team to play in what turned out to be the final-ever Atlantian Oceania Championship.

The emotion was evident when the players emerged from the tunnel. Usually, a national team squad from Hapilopper would be fired up, screaming, whooping and ready to raise hell. But on this evening in Doubeia, you could see the sadness in everyone’s eyes - well, those that didn’t hide their eyes behind sunglasses. Leading the group was Thom Perkins, acting head coach of Team Hapilopper, looking like he just came from a funeral. He was donned in all black - black suit, black shirt, black tie and black sunglasses that served more to hide the tears that were coming down his face. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be here. He knew he was in Nathan’s place, and he knew this was supposed to be the start of a cycle that would see Hapilopper qualify for another World Cup - hell, maybe make a deep run.

Fortunately, a lot of that emotion started to wash away when it was game time. Almost as if someone, from another dimension, let them know, “Hey, it’s going to be OK. Just do your job, kick some ass and have some fun.”

Hapiloppians are not religious people. It’s not that they are opposed to it, nor are they an athiestic bunch. For the most part, Hapiloppians never really gave religion or spirituality that much of a thought. They just went on with their lives, sought to be the best at what they were, and if there was a spiritual deity at the end of the day to judge how they were, then cool. So beliefs in the supernatural, among the nation’s more sober population, was not common.

But Thom Perkins swore someone put his hand on his shoulder and told him that everything was going to be just fine. He swore it happened. You could see his mood, his attitude change after he claimed it happened.

And the rest of the team felt it. It was almost as if they could feel a spirit riding with them from another dimension. They knew, right then and there, it was time to raise some hell. And it was time to do what they could against a team that could very easily eat their lunch.

For the first half - and for much of the second half, the goal from the Hapiloppians was simple - don’t suck, don’t let Sylestone take a lead, and don’t let them get an advantage. And fortunately, the Hapiloppians were able to do all of those things. It was coming at the expense of Lou Hyde, who looked drained by the 75th minute, having made a dozen saves, including four in the last two minutes. The last one, as the clock read “74:17,” was almost enough for him to keel over as Scott Roundtree blasted the ball as hard as he could out of bounds, to try to stifle a Sylestonean goal-scoring opportunity.

Several players rushed over to Lou, who looked drained.

“Motherfuckers, just send it over there!” Lou shouted at his teammates. “Give me a rest, for fuck’s sakes!”

The teammates nodded their heads and got back to resume play. At that point, it seemed like Hapilopper turned it up a gear and looked for a way to sneak one - any one - past Sentient keeper Ryan Macleay - which, to be perfectly honest, was a lot easier said than done.

Several minutes passed by where Hapilopper tried - desperately - to get the upper hand. As the clock read “80:05,” Ernie, possibly going over Thom’s head, shouted something out to his boys.

“PLOW THE ROAD!” Ernie roared.

Thom turned to look at Ernie. Some of the players on the pitch turned to look at Ernie. Anyone that followed football in Hapilopper knew the significance of “Plow The Road.” It was something Ernie yelled at his teammates 14 years ago in the Free Republics, right after Nathan Ellis had been ejected for just about getting into a brawl with Zbigniew Zajaczkowski from Terre Septentrionale. It was the third match of the Baptism of Fire, and the squad from Terre Septentrionale had taken a 2-0 lead. From there, Ernie and the Haps scored four goals to put their opponents away and to set the tone for the rest of the Baptism of Fire. For the players of this generation, it meant it was time to do something special.

It was time for Hapiloppian defensemen and midfielders to divert the attention of the Sentients so Stan McLamb could sneak in a lucky goal - which he did around the 85th minute, to put Hapilopper ahead 1-0.

The match stayed that way, and by the time it was all over, the Haps had gotten lucky - to be sure. Everyone knew it. Nine times out of ten, Sylestone would have had Hapilopper’s number, and everyone knew it.

But maybe, just maybe, someone was riding with them today. Maybe someone would ride with them moving forward.

by **Tumbra** » Thu May 30, 2024 12:04 pm

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2038 Election: Labour make gains in Senate as Hardcastle and Scanlon proceed to presidential run-off

Former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party David Hardcastle and former Minister for Health Adam Scanlon have progressed to the presidential run-off
In the Senate, the United Party lost twelve seats while Labour gained six to become the largest party in the chamber
The campaign was dominated by questions over the age of the presidential candidates, and whether the long-standing ban on presidential re-election should be lifted

STRATON: Tumbra's thirtieth presidential election marked a return to tradition for the two biggest parties in Parliament, as Labour's David Hardcastle and United's Adam Scanlon won the most votes in the first round of voting to proceed to the run-off that will take place in two weeks from now. In a campaign dominated by questions over the age of all the presidential candidates, Hardcastle and Scanlon maintained their clear polling leads over the other three candidates to progress to the run-off. Hardcastle, 65, thanked his supporters in a campaign event in Clearmont, while Scanlon, 72, did the same in Kingsbury.

The campaign, unlike the last presidential election, focused largely on matters of the presidency. One early issue raised was the prospect of the elimination of the run-off, where the top two candidates proceed to a second round of voting two weeks after the first round. The system has been criticised for unduly favouring candidates from the top two parties, though the previous two presidential elections saw candidates from outside the top two parties reaching the run-off. David Hardcastle committed during the campaign to discussing with the federal government whether the run-off could be abolished and the presidential election could be "conducted in one night." When confronted by Scanlon during a candidate's debate on TBC One, Hardcastle cited "the absurd proposition of having to go out twice in two weeks to the polls when we already have a system that allows for preferences to be channeled," referring to the system of instant runoff voting that the House of Representatives utilises, and has utilised since 1906. Scanlon, meanwhile, maintained that the "run-off system allows for two weeks of sober second thought" after the first round.

Scanlon's age, at 72, became a particular campaign issue near the end of the campaign, though it later transformed into a general debate about the age of presidential candidates. Outside of Hardcastle and Scanlon, two of the other three presidential candidates were also above the age of 60 — former Vice President Thomas Carmichael, making his third appearance in a presidential campaign, is 60, while former leader of the centrist Moderate Party and former Minister for Finance in the Stephen Williams government, William Boyd, is 62. Journalist Jonathan Delaney, who ran as the presidential candidate of the hard-left Social Democratic Party (SDP), was the only presidential candidate under 45, though even his ticket was balanced out by the presence of vice-presidential candidate Alexander Hatt, who at 70 is the second-oldest candidate on any ticket behind Scanlon himself. In hustings, Carmichael said that the presidential one-term limit meant that the post had become regarded as a "career-ending position — somewhere you go when you decide you're done with politics and want to do one last thing for the country before you leave politics and become an elder statesman," and committed to "discussions over whether presidents should be allowed to run for two terms instead of just one." While Hardcastle strayed away from committing to discussion over repealing the one-term limit, Scanlon said that the one-term limit is "needed to prevent the accumulation of power in the hands of a few," something that SDP candidate Delaney surprisingly agreed with.

Ultimately, the results, according to psephologist Dr. Ted Lincoln, largely adhered to conventional wisdom and the polls. "The surprising thing about this election is quite how non-surprising it is," he said on the TBC's results programme. "This election could very easily have been one from the 1990s to 2010s, and nobody would really have bat an eyelid. There were no insurgent candidates, the third parties gained about 15% of the vote, and we have a United-Labour competition in the second round."

The Senate election, however, proved to be more surprising than the presidential election. While Labour gained six seats in the upper house of the Federal Parliament to become the largest party in the 30th Senate of Tumbra, more attention was focused on the success of the smaller parties — and the breakthrough of a party focused on the southwest of the country. The main victim of this realignment towards smaller parties was the United Party, who lost twelve seats from their 2032 total to end the night on 76, but the result was less bad than they could have perhaps hoped for.

"The result bucked the trend of the squeezing of the minor parties, but it also goes to show that the electoral system somewhat punishes Labour for being stronger in the higher-population states," said Dr. Lincoln. "United, meanwhile, lost a lot of seats, but were saved by the fact that they had a lot of support in the less-populated states, which have more seats than they should have if seats were apportioned properly." The Senate currently sets a minimum of six seats per state and a maximum of twelve seats, meaning that the most populous state — Napier, with 11.5 million voters, only has six more Senate seats than Pesvern, with its 1.2 million voters.

The centrist Moderates gained five seats while losing three to reach 18 seats, while the environmentalist Alliance gained three while losing two to take its total up to 20. The story of the night, however, was the self-proclaimed liberal Republican Party, led jointly by Turvenal Premier Ben Hoekstra and Southport mayor Zoë Vollebregt, winning four seats on a platform of federal recognition of the Dutch language as an official language, as well as more focus on the south west of the country, which they maintained has been "underinvested in and ignored by the federal government." In a response to their election, Labour Senate leader Gareth Cahill congratulated the Republicans on their election triumph, while saying that he looked forward to "working with them on how best the federal government can invest in our southwestern communities," a possible signal that the government might try to gain Republican support to pass legislation.

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by **Riena** » Thu May 30, 2024 2:10 pm

The minutes slowly ticked away on the digital scoreboard looming over one end of the Funami Metropolitan Stadium.

Down in the dugout, Cocoa Haneda's face was a study in dispassionate calm. Even though there was no doubt that her Riena was on the ropes against a resurgent Starsian side, clinging onto a share of the points as the game edged into its final moments, the only thing that betrayed her inner emotions — if indeed she was feeling any — was a slight tightening of the lines around her mouth. Occasionally, she would lean across the seats in the dugout to hear some observation or analysis by a member of her coaching staff, or whisper tersely to her assistant manager Kaede Igarashi, who, hunkered down in her seat in the dugout, was furiously tapping on her tablet, scrolling past pages and pages of opposition scouting reports the scouting team had managed to compile as she muttered inaudibly to herself.

Not that Cocoa was hoping for much from the scouting reports. She — along with her entire team — had already gone through every single page of those reports in painstaking detail. She was reasonably confident that they hadn't missed any tricks, any little detail that might have given them that extra edge on the pitch. But football wasn't something that played out on paper. Managers and coaches could legislate for just about anything on paper, but trying to bend a game to your will after the referee has blown their whistle was another thing altogether. The Riena coaching team were only too aware of that fact — and the match that was unfolding before them at this very moment was proof positive of the nugget of truth in that time-honoured football maxim. Riena had played relatively well, all things considered, but here they were, in the final ten minutes to the game, clinging on to a precious point by their fingertips.

Cocoa's teams tended to start out well, and in her first outing as Riena manager, her team seemed determined to show that they had taken her ideas on board. With the impressive Kanna Nagara doing an excellent job of dictating the tempo of the game from deep, Riena probed patiently away at their opponent, looking for potential vulnerabilities in their defensive line. Before the game, the coaching staff had identified the left side of the Starsian defence as potentially weaker than the right, and that was where Riena focused most of their attacks, trying to isolate the Starsian left-back Maddie Saturn against the pacy combo of Shiori Mihane and Reisa Yuzuriha. It was an approach that yielded some joy for Riena — Yuzuriha was able to get into the space behind Saturn a number of times, but her final ball let her down on every occasion. For their part, the Starsians weren't exactly content to sit back and just let Riena run at them to their heart's content. They were a team who loved to attack, and whenever they pinched the ball off Riena, attack they did — punching strongly into the space behind the high Riena defensive line by their attacking full backs with the intelligent running of Kai Schultz and the craft of the experienced Kira Blade.

Cocoa was reasonably pleased by her team's performance in the first half — despite their profligacy, they had been more than a match for their more experienced opponents, and they had looked lively and threatening while doing so. Emiri Nekoda had nicked the outside of the Starsian post with an instinctive flicked header from a corner; a Mihane long-range rocket had forced Emily Davis into a sprawling stop. Riena had had their chances — all that was missing was that crucial final touch. And moments before the fourth official's board went up on the sidelines, they found that final touch. Raharinaivo, finding a bit of space inside the final third, struck a long range shot that cannoned off Skamandros, straight into the path of the onrushing Mihane. The right back muscled strongly past a backpedalling Saturn and pushed up the field, playing a cute one-two with Nakiri before fizzing a cutback to the edge of the area. There was so much pace on the cutback that a less accomplished player might have been forced to take a touch and lose the opportunity to shoot, but Kanna Nagara was nothing if not a polished technician, and her first touch did not let her down as she curled a precise finish into the top right corner of the goal.

All was well, then, at the break. But as soon as the second half kicked off, the momentum began to swing against Riena. Their opponents, perhaps feeling affronted at conceding a goal against such a callow Riena team, grew into the game by degrees. The optimism on the Riena bench quickly dwindled away as Suzutsuki's goal came under siege by wave after wave of relentless attack. The home crowd's buoyant mood too began to sour as they groaned in dismay at every loose pass, every shanked clearance, every mistimed tackle. The Starsians, savvy operators that they were, used their superior experience and fitness to play around the Riena press, which began to look more and more ragged as the game wore on. The Starsian attack, now expertly led by a combination of the veteran Christian Fourseasons and the emerging prodigy Iris Olivier, were regularly bypassing Riena's midfield and running at the central defensive pairing of Skamandros and Ishikari. This was not good news. For all of Skamandros's and Ishikari's defensive qualities, searing pace was not one of them. Fourseasons had only been on for fifteen minutes, but he had already fluffed a couple of very presentable chances to test Suzutsuki — not sitters by any means, but chances that any world-class forward worth their salt would put away seven days a week and twice on Sundays.

It didn't take long for Cocoa to ring the changes. Off went Nakiri and Nagara; on came Kazamaki and Shirasu. The idea was to shore up the midfield with Shirasu without completely neutralising Riena's threat on the counter. But despite the fresh legs in midfield, the team was beginning to show signs of fatigue. They had been chasing shadows for the entire second half, and it was bound to take a toll on their bodies. More than once, the game had to be stopped for a Riena player to receive treatment for cramp. All the signs seemed to point in one way and one way only — and sure enough, the Starsians finally got the equaliser they had been chasing. Iris Olivier was the player who made it, and Iris Olivier was the player who finished it. The left winger had been electric since being introduced at half-time, tormenting the usually reliable Mihane, and always looked like the most likely Starsian player to make something happen. Sure enough, she did — picking up a loose ball in midfield, she danced past a couple of unconvincing challenges, exchanging passes with the midfielder Joy Sol before cutting inside and striking a rising drive past Suzutsuki's despairing dive.

It was perhaps a testament to how spirited — if a touch desperate at times — Riena's defending had been that it had taken a moment of real individual quality to finally breach them, but Olivier's goal was undoubtedly a hammer blow. Despite taking a battering on the pitch, Riena's youngsters had managed to prevent their more seasoned opponents from scoring for so, so long. They had been so, so close to earning a famous victory. And yet, for all their flaws, you could not find fault with the spirit, the sheer bloody-mindedness this Riena team showed in the last quarter of an hour of the game. Instead of collapsing in the face of the Starsian onslaught, they rallied strongly. Cocoa brought on Kagami Sorasaki in place of Yuzuriha, playing her as a striker just to give the Starsians something to think about, and withdrew the other nine outfield players deep into the defensive third. It was squeaky bum time.

By this point, the momentum had swung entirely in favour of the Starsians. Blade, whose influence had steadily grown as the Riena press fell away, curled a low shot inches wide of Suzutsuki's far post. Fourseasons, yet to get the goal his performance probably deserved, thumped a close range effort straight into Skamandros's back. Olivier, still irrepressible, almost got away from Shirasu with a deft flick, but Skamandros stepped across just in time to deny her a clear run at goal. Riena dug deep, far, far deeper than they would've liked for the opening game of the Campionato. The home fans, who had been muted since Olivier's equaliser, gradually began to rediscover their voice, shouting encouragement from the stands as their team stood firm.

Eighty, eighty-one, eighty-two. Still the onslaught continued. Inside her own area, Ishikari had to time a sliding challenge to perfection to nick the ball away from Blade's dancing feet. Kisaragi hurriedly latched onto the loose ball and hacked it into row Z.

The clock continued ticking inexorably. There was a collective gasp inside the stadium when Shirasu managed to poke the ball away from Lina Hansen and into the path of Sorasaki, but she was quickly forced down a cul-de-sac near the corner flag by the Starsian defence, where she fought hard to win a few precious seconds for Riena.

Eighty-five, eighty-six, eighty-seven. Now even Sorasaki was back defending. It was all hands to the pump. Cocoa bit her lip in silence as she watched Emily Davis launch the ball up the pitch. Just ten minutes ago, the Riena bench had been a flurry of frenzied activity, mirroring the home crowd as they groaned and gesticulated, shouted and groused. But now they all fell deathly silent, in stark contrast with the cacophony of sound roiling inside the cavernous stadium. They knew they had done all they could. Now, at this critical juncture, everything was up to the eleven players on the pitch.

Eighty-eight, eighty-nine, ninety. One of her coaching staff remonstrated testily with the fourth official about the amount of time added on. The referee promptly marched over and gave her a booking for her trouble. Cocoa simply watched on in silence, blind to everything except the luminous numbers on the stadium's scoreboard. Running from deep, Saturn launched the ball into the Riena area. The Riena defenders soared into the air, one by one, like a pod of uncoordinated, disoriented dolphins, trying desperately to intercept the cross before it could reach a Starsian head. Ishikari, visibly tired, gave Fourseasons a nudge as he challenged for the ball, and the Starsian forward went down in a heap inside the area. Next to Cocoa, the Starsian bench erupted from their seats as one, baying for a penalty. The referee waved their appeals away. Suzutsuki collapsed on top of the ball and clutched it gratefully to her chest. Cocoa breathed again.

Ninety-one, ninety-two, ninety-three. One last twist in the tale. Skamandros, who had been a monster in defence all game, crunched into a tackle on Sol. Kazamaki smashed the ball up the pitch. Zarratti returned the favour immediately. Shirasu leapt with Raharinaivo. The ball dropped to Fourseasons.

Cocoa saw the danger immediately. She froze in her seat, completely motionless, as Fourseasons spun Shirasu, leaving her on the ground, and threaded a pass through the tiniest gap between Mihane and Ishikari to send Olivier through. The angle was tight. Suzutsuki, a grim look on her face, advanced to narrow it even further, as the rest of her teammates, now alive to the imminent peril, turned and dashed back towards their goal.

Ninety-four. Time slowed to a tortuous crawl. A hushed silence fell across the stadium. Cocoa's gaze was fixed on the ball at Olivier's feet. She was vaguely aware of a Riena player launching herself across the area, trying to stop Olivier from getting her shot off. Behind Olivier, another player reached out a hand towards the Starsian winger, an irrational impulse to do something, anything, etched on her panicked face. As the seconds stretched into eternity, Olivier took aim at goal, and every single soul in the Funami Metropolitan Stadium followed the arc of her foot as it swung powerfully towards the ball.

A resounding clang echoed around the stadium. Cocoa gasped. So too did the rest of the stadium. Olivier had hit the base of the post.

Ninety-five. The ball rebounded off the post and back towards the top of the D. The Riena players, who had all been rushing back towards goal to stop Olivier, were flat-footed. Kira Blade picked up the ball, her first touch sending the ball spinning away from her. Shirasu threw herself between Blade and the gaping goal, but Blade took an uncharacteristically wild swipe at the ball and sent it soaring high and wide of the goal.

The stadium erupted just as the referee's whistle blew for full time. Cocoa passed a hand over her eyes as the rest of the Riena bench leapt out of their seats and raced onto the pitch as one.

It was only one point, but that first point of Cocoa's tenure as Riena manager tasted far, far sweeter than any other point she'd earned in her career.

by **Osterhalten** » Thu May 30, 2024 8:42 pm

GIANTS FALL TO OSTERHALTEN

There were many nerves in the Osterhaltienne locker room in the Eternal Summer Stadium prior to the nation's first foray into international football waters, clearly not aided in any way by the fact their opponent was to be the second-ranked team in Esportiva and fifth in the entire world: Tumbra.

Even before the tournament's schedule was announced, the Osterhalters were a bit jittery on the topic: they were, after all, to be the first representatives for their nation in easily the biggest sport in the world, if not in their own country. After the announcement made that Tumbra would be joining Osterhalten in Group C, spirits fell and hopes fell further, merely aided by the fact they now had an excuse for their near-certain poor performance in the tournament. Back in Yarizakura, not a soul in that locker room thought the Otters had a chance in hell of taking down the behemoths that are the Black Eagles: maybe they said it on the outside, in words of encouragement or plastered-on grins, but it was all a facade. This was all unsurprising, Osterhalters are known to be a pessimistic bunch, yet manager Callan Whittaker held out some hope yet, since he knew his team wouldn't sit back and let it happen. They'd go down swinging, or kicking or something else more football related.

In the minutes leading up to the Otters and Black Eagles taking the field, the Osterhalters got their final cross-room paces or jumping jacks in, and headed to the center of the room for the ritualistic team huddle. Whittaker kept it short and sweet, he was known for that and the players appreciated it. After all, who does love listening to or giving long speeches - it was a win-win for all parties, really, and Cal understood that. In essence, all he said was to give it your A-game: prove we're not just some wannabes, prove we can at least hold our own, to whatever extent that would mean. A loss here is expected, but doesn't need to be the case: Whittaker gave it a 1 in 20 chance of a win. He didn't let the team know that though, as he didn't want to raise or lower hopes, he wanted the players to go in with their own mindset, as he found that tended to be what they wanted and what they succeeded with. Telling others how or what to think never ended up well. The team jogged out into the afternoon sun, the pitch shaded very slightly by scattered, wispy clouds: about one part in twenty, Callan estimated.

The first twenty minutes went just about as expected, the Black Eagles dominating play and holding possession while Oliver, Fischer, Magnan and Pendleton were trying their best to stop the onslaught from the Tumbran offense. A small breakthrough occurred at around the twenty-minute mark, followed by a larger one a few minutes after when midfielder Phineas Ellsworth sneaked the ball through to the goal-scoring, French-speaking, darling of the nation Cesar Haselhurst, who got a shot off which was excellently saved by the Tumbran keeper. After that moment, the tide seemed to shift somehow: the Osterhalters gained stronger and stronger possession against the increasingly erring Black Eagles side, until Haselhurst rocketed a shot in the top-right corner past Victoria Jones, to shouts of anger from the devoted Black Army, who's clear displeasure nearly drowned out the raucous cheering by the far smaller section of Otter fans. The Black Eagles didn't recover well after that, though they did eventually regain stronger possession in the 60th minute, which they mostly held until the last breaths of the game. Clearly outmatched by the Tumbrans, the Otters tried to clear the ball whenever presented with the chance, to regain some much-needed oxygen and a chance to regroup a bit. The Black Eagles were out of form, and anyone could see that - their game just didn't look like normal, and their best chances were blown either by shots too high, too wide or directly at Mr. LaCasse, who's form was stellar when called upon. Drawing into the 90th minute, the Tumbrans kicked it into the fullest gear available, peppering the net with a few shots in the final four minutes of extra time, when Leon Sylvestre stole the ball away from Victor Leighton, and ran it down the field into safety. The time was up, and Osterhalten emerged the victors of their first ever international match against one of the most difficult opponents one could ask for. Game 1 of the 38th Campionato Esportiva would certainly be a legendary moment in the history of Osterhaltienne football, even if not necessarily due to specific, memorable events or extraordinary overall play: just the fighting spirit of the Otters and their triumph against a titan of football.

Whittaker was jubilant post-game, as he should be, yet he was positive it was a fluke. The Black Eagles weren't in their classic form, and LaCasse was lucky a good few times. This game would look great on his resume, regardless how the rest of the tournament yet: no reason not to celebrate.

by **Xanneria** » Thu May 30, 2024 11:26 pm

Costly Penelty causes stumble for Maroons!
extracted from www.xtrasports.xan

RIENA - The Xannerian Maroons opened up their Campianato Esportiva tournament in Riena today. A 1-1 draw versus Irithoren. a costly penalty in the box near the 63rd minute allowed Irithoren a draw the opening match versus Xanneria. Irithoren is a small nation allied with Ko-Oren and thus the Ko-Orenite way has infiltrated football in Irithoren. Scoring nearly opened nine minutes into the match, with Allison Burnes getting behind the defense she took a shot but had it deflected by veteran keeper Loulwa Ard and on the ricochet, defender Saeed Fiqawit deflected the shot out of bounds and the Maroons couldn't capitalize on the corner kick. The diminutive Burnes had a second shot at minute 21, only for that shot to inexplicably ricochet of the opposite post back into the path of Fiqawit who took possession. Going into half time, stats looked to be in favor of Xanneria, They had seven shots with three on target and no shots on target out of the opponent. This indicated something else though, the play style of Irithoren was very much Ko-Orenite. It was clear that the team in gold and green was not going to camp in Xannerian Territory.

A breakthrough was eventually found though. In the 55th minute, Italo D'Arcy of Darmani side Rodgerton Whitecaps found second option striker Malcolm-Jamal Haddix and lobs a shot which the new Ko-Orenite bound player headed into the goal. It looked as if this goal would be enough to start dueling Irithoren with a Maroon version of the Park the Bus strategy that Irithoren had been employing. It should not have been that hard anyways as Xanneria's traditional vertical Tikki-Takka play style could be slowed down for a more park the bus style of defensive holding.

Sadly towards the end that ended up costing dearly the Maroons, as the press of the Irithoren defense eventually caused a crack and the potent midfielder Saeed Qaid intercepted a pass deep in Xannerian territory and looked to be headed to a one on one showdown with brilliant, second generation keeper Markus Portsman Jr. But Towson Cowper slid and mistimed his slide taking out Mr. Qaid's legs and garner himself a card in the process, to make matters worse, Qaid had just gotten in the penalty box and now young keeper Portsman, had to deal with a penalty kick. Saeed Fiqawit was the penalties taker (who else would it be?) and he got one by Portsman as the younger Markus guessed wrong. This left the score 1-1 and the taste in the mouth of Xannerians bad. But 1-1 was what the game was left at and the solo point is still better than none I guess.

XANNERIA - 1
Haddix 55'

IRNITHOREN - 1
Qaid 71' (p)

by **Kamijiro** » Thu May 30, 2024 11:39 pm

Lightning Struck by Food Poisoning, Lose 6-2

The Kamijiroans decided on a seafood place the night before their match for a team dinner. This decision proved costly, as they proceeded to spend their entire matchday running to the bathroom. Raiji Kagawa was unable to manage the match, and seven of the expected starters were absent from the matchday roster entirely.

The two goals came courtesy of Haruki Kagawa, the debutant striker thrust forward after the other FIVE strikers went down ill. She became not only the first woman to represent Kamijiro, but the first woman to score a goal, then the first woman to put up a brace. However, the defense was completely absent, as the back line consisted of Tadahiro Abiko (a CDM), Ryohei Murai (a debutant) and Richard Lawson (a debutant, who also plays wing back instead of center back). The expected starting goal keeper, Jokichi Asumi, was also absent due to illness, as was second-choice keeper Azael Costa. Genichi Kitamura was the least sick of the three, but it was obvious he was struggling, letting in a couple of gimmes that really should've been kept out.

Obviously, starting out the group stages at a -4 goal difference isn't exactly the start we were all hoping for, especially off the heels of being launched into the top fifty in the world rankings after a very strong World Cup and Cup of Harmony showing. But that's okay. We'll go from here.

As always, thanks for reading and please remember to be careful with seafood!!!

- Flavio da Silva, Porto Times.

by **Natanians and Nosts** » Fri May 31, 2024 5:24 am

Kits made by:K Kits

# name position height club

1	Daniel Whitcliffe	 	goalkeeper 	34	 	Dínamo N-City
2	Rato Ret	 	 	r. wingback	43	1,80	Notrina Lat F.C.
27	Cláudius Petre Constantinescu	centre back	27	1,78	The N. Blue Lions
28	Mikhail Ioan Ionescu	 	centre back	27	1,80	The N. Blue Lions
69	Caeso Júlio Probus	 	d. midfielder	25	1,80	T-natanicus F.C.
6	Laço Tralto	 	 	l. wingback	43	1,80	Notrina Lat F.C.
5	Rodion Mihai Wafa	 	d. midfielder	30	1,83	The N. Blue Lions
7	John Cramer	 	  	a. midfielder	26	1,97	The N. Blue Lions
8	Mihai C. Mureșan-Antonescu	a. midfielder	33	1,80	The S. Blue Lions
20	John Mihai García	 	centre-forward	24	1,87	Notrina Lat A. A.
25	Sheldon Ubuntu	 	 	centre-forward	26	1,90	The Northern Blue Lions
45	Mihai Xosé Apilescu	 	goalkeeper	36	1,90	S.C. N-City
38	Ion Petre Alencastre	 	centre back	27	1,79	T-natanicus F.C.
14	Marcus Caeso Domicianus	 	r. wingback	37	1,75	S.C. N-City
15	Paulus Mihai D'Orville       	centre back	30	1,90	S.C. N-City
16	Michel Carvalho	 	 	l. wingback	39	 	The Northern Blue Lions
17	Mihai Vladimir Duarte	 	a. midfielder	25	1,75	Rodion F.C.
18	Tătareanu	 	 	d. midfielder	26	1,80	T-natanicus F.C.
70	Mihai Publius Muniz	 	d. midfielder	22	1,73	Mkhedruli F.K
10	Natan Gabriel Ademélsson-Vit	   striker	23	1,79	Dínamo N-City
54	Jack Kramer	 	 	a. midfielder	26	1,93	Catamulina Catarollas (Cardenao)
24	Ioan Magnus Shroom	 	goalkeeper	28	2,15	F.C. Northern Light
21	Márius C. Mureșan-Antonescu	   striker	21	1,78	The S. Blue Lions

captain's name is in blue

Starters

RP Permissions
Choose my scorers:Yes*
Godmod scoring events: Yes
RP injuries to my players: No
Godmod Injuries to my players:No
Give Yellow Cards to my players:Yes (Maximum three per match)
Give Red Cards to my players:Yes (One per match,but never the goalkeeper)
Godmod other events:No
Style Modifier:-2

*Players that have the probability of scoring(in order from more probable to least,by number):
25,(10,)20,(21,)7,8,(54,17,)69,5,(70,)27,28,(18,14,15)

by **Sylestone** » Fri May 31, 2024 6:23 am

”NOT GOOD ENOUGH”: COHESION AN ISSUE AS SENTIENTS SUCCUMB TO OPENING LOSS

WINTERFALLS, DOUBEIA - A seventeen-game unbeaten streak in the group stage of the Campionato Esportiva has come to an end, as Mojmir Anac’s new-look Sentient outfit failed to overcome a tough Hapilopper challenge in the city of Winterfalls. Not even the weather, which can reach well below freezing point in the winter in the region, could be to blame - while not the steamy, tropical heat of Sylestone, the cool breeze from the mountains should not have been enough to deter from the heat of the sun blazing overhead. No, Hapilopper simply made it count when it mattered and as a result of some excellent defending and goalkeeping, beat the Sentients at their own game.

It was a momentous occasion for the entire nation of Hapilopper, let alone for the team and everyone else involved with the intrinsic workings of the country’s football network. After falling ill last Campionato Esportiva in South Newlandia, long-term head coach Nathan Ellis did not win his battle with a serious bout of double pneumonia, passing away mere months later to send the football world, who had shifted focus to World Cup 96 Qualifying, into shock. Many questioned whether Hapilopper and their “Funball” style of play would be back but sure enough, under the leadership of Thom Packham and a host of new players, they would be.

For a nation recovering from a tragedy of the highest order, there’s no more difficult task than facing one of the best teams in the world in your return - something the Sentients themselves experienced after five years of financial crisis when they faced off against Tumbra six years ago in the 34th Campionato Esportiva, putting up a strong fight but still losing 2-0 against the nation that were far and away the best of the region at that point. But for the Haps, it simply meant more - at the end of the day, financial crisis stood nothing against the death of an entire country’s spiritual leader. They would surely come out fighting, ready to stake their claim in memory of the man that brought good to so many lives.

Back in Sylestone, the aftermath of the game left many fuming - some even went to the extent of claiming that the team “weren’t truly trying” against a team and set of supporters so determined, unwilling to spoil Nathan Ellis’s final farewell. In the post match interview, Mojmir Anac was very quick to dispel these rumours in a short, sharp press conference along the lines of “We weren’t good enough, we have plenty to work on and not much time. Goodbye.” And he was right. Despite the result, the Sentients were still clearly the superior team on the pitch in all manners except the one that truly counted - who put the ball in the back of the other’s net more.

Instead, it was a concerted effort by the entire Hapiloppian outfit to achieve the three points in possibly one of their greatest upset victories, and certainly the most meaningful of all. They came out all guns blazing, only to work out that the Sentients would surely repel most all of their attacks and the risk of leaving themselves open to being regularly hit on the counter was not worth it and within ten minutes, had dropped back more and began to play a more cautious, possession-based strategy - a style of play that, while not always effective, was certainly more level-headed than what an all-out attack strategy would do, for that was exactly what Mojmir Anac wanted. With Charlotte Eastwood lying up front in wait to break free, she would surely capitalise on the leftovers often time when the ball was cleared by Sylestone’s back four.

So while the change in tactic certainly reduced the intensity of the match just slightly, it did mean that going into half time, the score remained deadlocked, neither side really able to find the clear cut chances they were hoping for. But for Anac, this was all business as usual - surely, the Haps would eventually begin to tire out, causing more mistakes and giving the Sentients more opportunities to pounce on loose balls and put their opponents to the sword.

And sure enough, that’s exactly what began to happen. With half an hour remaining, Charlotte Eastwood managed to collect a long ball from Jade Wettenhall and dribble up the pitch, cutting inside to feed Brett Sarcav-Jones, but some dogged defending forced him to shoot earlier than he would’ve liked and watched the ball sail inches wide of goalkeeper Lou Hyde’s left post.

In response, both managers began to call for changes, looking to bring on fresh legs in a desperate attempt to find that winning goal. But it was Sylestone getting the better of the chances, and they were becoming more and more frequent…

And yet, they just couldn’t get the ball into the back of the net. Hugo Mornington’s header was saved on the line by Hyde in the 71st minute before, just two minutes later, a Morgan Gallagher strike cannoning towards the bottom corner of the goal was prevented by Scott Roundtree’s outstretched leg, seeing the ball safely behind for another corner. In the 82nd, a Jack Lawson free kick from well within shooting range hit the crossbar; it just wasn’t going to be their day.

And then, in the 85th, disaster struck. At the back, Jade Wettenhall calmly dispossessed Ben Fairchild’s run down the right flank and immediately passed it on for Cameron Milligan, who immediately turned and began to make his way up the pitch, Hapiloppian hearts in their mouths once again. But he hadn’t noticed the press of fullback Rodd Cutt, who immediately brutally dispossessed the Capitol Athletic winger and, as quickly as he received the ball, passed it through a tiny hole in the Sylestonean defensive line that had been left out of complacency; it was so unlike the Sentients to give the ball away so easily. And Stan McLamb was there, receiving the through pass from Cutt and hammering the strike home on the second touch.

1-0 to Hapilopper, and that was how it stayed. Two of Nathan Ellis’s favourites, and they had just combined in what was surely about to be the most emotional triumph in their entire history. And to do it against arguably the world’s best defensive line - a side that had come off a run to third place in the recent World Cup - words could not describe it.

For the Haps, it was a momentous occasion. For the Sentients, though, there were the pieces to pick up, as they would now need to go again against debutants Restresas to get their campaign back on track. The few changes he had made to the first team had largely been a failure - it was Alana Faucett out of position that let McLamb through in the 85th minute, while it was becoming increasingly obvious that Thomas Hellyer and Jack Lawson would struggle to play together as a central midfield duo. They were both too inclined to fill the right side of the pitch and despite Hellyer’s more attacking, playmaking streak that seemed to complement Lawson’s deep, ball retention and passing-based game, every time they had played together it had turned out to be a failure. Of course, this wasn’t an issue if Hellyer occupied the attacking midfielder role, but As for Seth Baldwinson, who made his first international appearance after years of impressing in the League Number One, he was admittedly a bright spark - but whether it would be enough for Anac to give him the nod over Matilda Molineux for the rest of the tournament? Unlikely at best.

Meanwhile, up front, Brett Sarcav-Jones and de facto sister-in-law Charlotte Eastwood’s usually sublime partnership simply did not click, prompting questions being raised as for whether the likes of Eden Crommelin or even Finn Freeling - who made his debut today coming on for Eastwood late on - could receive a start over those two as to dip their feet into international football properly. For while everyone wanted to win the competition, this was still a chance to give some of those young players on the fringes an opportunity to represent their country and see how far off they were.

But for now, there were more serious problems. They knew that, on their day, they were the best team in Esportiva - it was just about finding that mojo again and hoping that this was just a blip. It’s one game, after all, surely far from the end of the world.

Sylestone vs Hapilopper @ The Igloo, Winterfalls, Doubeia

Sylestone (4-4-1-1): Macleay; Wettenhall - Mornington - Faucett ( 44’) - Baldwinson (Molineux 80’); Ryland (Milligan 80’) - Hellyer (Gallagher 64’ ( 82’)) - Lawson - Arnold (Cayley 80’); Sarcav-Jones ( 90+1’); Eastwood (Freeling 88’)

Hapilopper (4-2-2-2): Hyde; McCullough ( 88’) - March (Bradford 73’) - Roundtree - Cutt; Radomia - Watts ( 52’) (Schuyler 59’); Kelsey - Winslow (Nicholson 59’); Fairchild - McLamb (Blackwood 90’)

Sylestone 0-1 Hapilopper
                                                             McLamb 73'

Starting XI vs Restresas @ Pomeranian Hub, Port Pomeranian, Doubeia

Macleay; Wettenhall - Mornington - Blackall - Molineux; Ryland - Gallagher - Lawson - Arnold; Hellyer; Eastwood

by **South Newlandia** » Fri May 31, 2024 8:03 am

New Elephants Era off to a strong start

The Elephants debuted in the Esportivan Football Scene in Riena, more than two decades ago. Then, in the 27th edition of the tournament, they opened with a win against Gergary, having been drawn into their group as a three-seed. Riena had participated in any recent Esportivan tournaments at the time, but the Elephants would perform well here, making it to the knockout stages.

22 years later, the Elephants find themselves in Riena again. It is a very different team compared to the one that would be defeated in the second round by Jeckland, a team that is dearly missed.
However, much like those Elephants, this team feels like they’re trying to establish themselves with a new identity. The team has a new manager with a distinct identity, they’re playing in a new kit, and they’re fielding one of the youngest starting lineups in some time. Again, they find themselves as the three-seed, but this time, they would be opening on a bigger stage. In the Riennese capital Nagato, they would be taking on group favourite Natanians and Nosts.

The Elephants had identified one key mismatch in the lineup. Playing wingback for the team in blue are a pair of 43-year-olds who would likely struggle to combat the Elephants and their speedy players on the wings, like Seidel, Lange-Parker and Angela Diaz. Especially the left side should be vulnerable, and it was that same side the Elephants would attack for their first big chance of the match.

With five uneventful minutes in the books, Matias Vaz took a throw-in around midfield, leading to some quick passes down the sideline. Luisa Johnson distributed to Seidel on the left side, locked into a stand-off with Rato Ret. Seidel cleverly waited for help to arrive, and gave the ball to Lange-Parker on the goal line. The young midfielder was able to pull inside undeterred, passing the ball into the box for Angela Diaz near the penalty spot. She slotted the ball brilliantly into the bottom-right corner to give the Elephants the early lead, with no chance for Daniel Whitcliffe in goal.

The team of Mureșan-Antonescu finally kicked into gear after this, and started to take command of the match. In quick succession, Edward Khan was forced to make three nice saves to preserve the lead, with the Elephants struggling to coordinate on defense while Sheldon Ubuntu continued to find good shots. Still, they’d stay ahead, and they even had some good opportunities to add on. Once again playing down the left side, Luisa Johnson kept her head up and found a brilliant pass to Levin Voigt on the other side of the pitch with some free space. After a cross to Seidel, goalkeeper Whitcliffe managed to get a hand on the header to prevent a second goal for the Elephants.

Going into the break, the game was still wide open with the Elephants holding on to a slim 1-0 lead. Both teams had about the same number of chances, with the Elephants trailing slightly in possession. Manager Han would make two changes for the second half, bringing Jacqueline Behera for Timothy McCoy in an all-TPL swap, and getting Donald Baumann involved for Angela Diaz. Losing their big star would hurt the Elephants, but the striker had collided late in the second half with centre back Mikhail Ioan Ionescu. While the defender was fine, Diaz had to leave the pitch with a head laceration. Worried about a potential concussion, Han made the decision to give the youngster an early chance to prove himself.

The second half started with the team in blue in control. The Natanians and Nosts had the first big chance on a free kick, which John Cramer placed just inches above the crossbar, and they started to dominate possession more. Pushing further up also meant that the Elephants would have chances for counter-attacks, and after a corner was cleared out by Edward Khan punching the cross away, the Elephants were rolling quickly. Behera found Lombardo up front, with the attack turning into a 3 on 2 with Seidel and Baumann. Lombardo feigned a shot before passing the ball to Baumann, and defender Laço Tralto had no legal ways to prevent the South Newlandian from storming towards a sure goal. Instead, there was contact, and they both fell, with the referee quickly awarding the Elephants a penalty. With the usual penalty taker out of commission, the Elephants gave the ball to Levin Voigt.

Voigt stared down Whitcliffe, took a short run-up, and hammered the ball right down the middle, where Whitcliffe had been milliseconds ago before he elected to jump towards the left side, having to watch helplessly as the Elephants went up 2-0 with only another 30 or so minutes to play.

The Elephants continued to hold steady and were able to occasionally pierce their opponents with counter-attacks, but it was mostly Edward Khan who fought to preserve the shutout. Khan was voted the man of the match after the game was over. The time continued to dwindle for the favourites, and they continued to play increasingly aggressive. By now, the Elephants had taken off Voigt after a strong game to bring on a fourth defender in Brittany Edwards, shifting into a 4-2-2-2, trying to prevent a comeback for the team in blue.

Once again, the Elephants had increasing amounts of space on their counter attacks. In injury time, they would launch another one, with Johnson booting the ball up the field to Seidel. Facing Paulus Mihai D'Orville, who had only been on the pitch for about twenty minutes at this point, the young Elephant turned on the jets to beat him in a footrace, finding himself one-on-one with goalkeeper Whitcliffe storming out of his goal. Seidel would play it perfectly, lobbing the ball over the outstretched arm of the goalkeeper before watching the ball fall into the net for the 3-0 final score.

Next, the Elephants will face the Nova Anglican Admin Zone of Esportiva, who were on bye on the previous matchday, before the Elephants themselves will have the third matchday off; with tough tests against the Riennese hosts and The 14 Stars still to come.

by **Doubeia** » Fri May 31, 2024 8:15 am

Campionato Esportiva 38
Riena Half
Matchday 2 Results

Group A

Natanians and Nosts 4–2 Riena
Silver Spirit Dome, Nagato, Rinkai, Riena

Nova Anglican Admin Zone of Esportiva 0–1 South Newlandia
Funami Metropolitan Stadium, Funami, Rinkai, Riena

  Group A                                  Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 South Newlandia                            2   2  0  0    4   0  +4    6
2 Natanians and Nosts                        2   1  0  1    4   5  −1    3
3 The 14 Stars                               1   0  1  0    1   1   0    1
4 Riena                                      2   0  1  1    3   5  −2    1
5 Nova Anglican Admin Zone of Esportiva      1   0  0  1    0   1  −1    0

Group B

Xanneria 0–2 Eshialand
Hanamaru Athletic Stadium, Hanamaru, Suenaga, Riena

Kita-Hinode 1–2 Irithoren
Minami Arch, Maihama, Suenaga, Riena

  Group B                                  Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Irithoren                                  2   1  1  0    3   2  +1    4
2 Mattheland                                 1   1  0  0    1   0  +1    3
3 Eshialand                                  2   1  0  1    2   1  +1    3
4 Xanneria                                   2   0  1  1    1   3  −2    1
5 Kita-Hinode                                1   0  0  1    1   2  −1    0

Group C

Damukuni 0–3 Tumbra
Seaside Field, Anzumori, Karen, Riena

Gouvanarch 0–1 Lozho
Eternal Summer Dome, Yarizakura, Karen, Riena

  Group C                                  Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Osterhalten                                1   1  0  0    1   0  +1    3
2 Tumbra                                     2   1  0  1    3   1  +2    3
3 Damukuni                                   2   1  0  1    3   3   0    3
4 Lozho                                      2   1  0  1    1   3  −2    3
5 Gouvanarch                                 1   0  0  1    0   1  −1    0

Roleplay prompt — Riena Half

Beach football is Riena’s national sport. Whether on actual beaches, or sandy pitches built specifically for the purpose, you can find people indulging in a spot of beach footy just about everywhere you go in Riena. Is beach football a popular sport in your country? How is it structured/organised? Do you have a professional domestic league, or even a governing body for beach football? Now that your team is in Riena for the Campionato, you are almost guaranteed to come across people playing beach football anywhere you go. Will you join us for a friendly kickabout, or is beach football too far outside your comfort zone?

by **Riena** » Fri May 31, 2024 8:16 am

Campionato Esportiva 38
Doubeia Half
Matchday 2 Results

Group D

Slembana 0–3 Fhulghamous Peninsula
Town Hall Stadium, Queensland, Doubeia

Esportivan Darmen 4–4 Doubeia
Victoria Stadium, Fajar, Doubeia

  Group D                      Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Fhulghamous Peninsula          2   2  0  0    8   0  +8    6
2 Slembana                       2   1  0  1    1   3  −2    3
3 Esportivan Darmen              1   0  1  0    4   4   0    1
4 Doubeia                        2   0  1  1    4   5  −1    1
5 Schimata                       1   0  0  1    0   5  −5    0

Group E

Hapilopper 4–2 Macbon
The Igloo, Winterfalls, Doubeia

Restresas 0–1 Sylestone
Pomeranian Hub, Port Pomeranian, Doubeia

  Group E                      Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Hapilopper                     2   2  0  0    5   2  +3    6
2 TJUN-ia                        1   1  0  0    4   1  +3    3
3 Sylestone                      2   1  0  1    1   1   0    3
4 Restresas                      1   0  0  1    0   1  −1    0
5 Macbon                         2   0  0  2    3   8  −5    0

Group F

Zeta Reka and Hugeltaldom 1–2 Kamijiro
Harriott Loft, Ethelfled, Doubeia

Josifovo 3–3 Vielfaltig
Sirotkin Stadium, Solvecere, Doubeia

  Group F                      Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Dod Rava                       1   1  0  0    6   2  +4    3
2 Kamijiro                       2   1  0  1    4   7  −3    3
3 Zeta Reka and Hugeltaldom      2   1  0  1    3   2  +1    3
4 Josifovo                       1   0  1  0    3   3   0    1
5 Vielfaltig                     2   0  1  1    3   5  −2    1

Roleplay prompt — Doubeia Half

Doubeia hasn’t hosted any regional events, and it certainly hasn’t seen this many tourists within its borders. The Doubeinese people are excited and certainly prepared to make an amazing first impression on all the visitors? However, their positivity can seem a tad bit too excessive, and some store owners seem to be giving secret discounts locals aren’t privy to. What are your country’s supporters’ thoughts on Doubeia now that the first matchday is up, and how do they feel about the Doubeineses’ perhaps saccharine hospitality?

by **Restresas** » Fri May 31, 2024 8:39 am

After many missed opportunities, especially from Pablo Albu and Paul Stan Cojocar, both having perfect opportunities to pierce the Sylestone defense that has become world renowned for their excellence. A goal in the 84th minute by Thomas Hellyer sealed the Squirrels' fate of a loss, as Cojocar missed a major chance to tie it in the extras.

The match itself was rather exciting, with the Sylestonians shooting a surprising 6 shots on goal, while Restresas had 6 and around 20 in total, many not making it on goal.

The Squirrels' Manager, Wesley Nires, had this to say: "We didn't win, but we proved that we belonged here, and I'm proud of this group for making our nation respected in the scene. We messed up 3 opportunities to win this match, which we will need to work on in our matches ahead."

The match left many Restresians disappointed in the outcome, but they cheered on their team afterwards with the clapout with pride, as they know that the Restresians proved that they want to win on major stages like this. Despite Marcus George messing up, the Captain from FC Ports left many impressed with how he stopped many attacks from Sylestone, racking up 5 saves on the match.

Fans on the way out of the stadium showed their pleasure of this performance by Restresas despite the loss, like this fan who flew in from the city of Dacia who said: "Sunt atât de mândru de această echipă pentru că joacă cu inimă și arată de ce Restresas este de temut ca o stea în ascensiune în lumea Esportiva!!!"

Now, the sleepers have to refocus quickly ahead of their match against Macbon, who lost today 4-2 against Hapilopper.

by **Irithoren** » Fri May 31, 2024 9:18 am

Is it an indent in the coast? Is it a bight? Is it a cove? No... it's Ted Bayh! The Jerboas have signed the Tumbran manager to a prove-it deal, considering he hasn't been in a full-time management position since his departure from Clyde Park some three and a half years ago. The 55-year old was spotted on Irithoreni shores, ordering martinis as well as ordering around a few teenagers at Al-Shabab, which happened to be the football club nearest his 4-star resort. The club's yellow jersey also was better at keeping the heat of the sun out - compared to the jerseys of other squads in Dhidiyah, like black-clad Al-Amid or red Al-Ettifaq - so it was a match made in heaven.

At Al-Shabab, no matter how infrequent and informal his employment, he oversaw the development of Jerboa starters like Maraara, Sabar, as well as a resurgent Lina Bahr. Before long, parallels were drawn between his 4-1-4-1 Clyde Park days and the 4-4-2 of the Irithoreni national team, and the only thing that was still needed was a signature. That took a few years to happen - apparently our 4-star resorts are that good - but what seemed to have pushed everyone over the edge were the xtrasports.xan comments that instead compared between Irithoren's role in the Ko-orenite Constellation and Ko-oren's famously cowardly style of play.

A few extra Dinars were added to the offer and lo, Ted Bayh's job was a fact. Maybe he was done living his 'best life', as foreign tourists sometimes call their stay on our shores, maybe he just needed to make some money to continue living in luxury.

Bayh inherits a squad that's weirdly well-off: a late point conquered against Xanneria and three points off of our meeting with m-m-m-multi world champs Kita-Hinode later, we're first in the group with matches against Mattheland and Eshialand left. Ranking-wise, the latter is a problem, but current-group-b-standing-wise, Mattheland are the bigger deal. For now, the Tumbran has a few days to ready the squad in Maihama, site of our previous game, our bye day, and our next game. We're not expecting anything big: the team is already working, the system should mostly stay in place, but we're just looking for those tips to help us to regional relevance.

So far, the stay in Riena has been reminiscent of home: on the off-days, we've seen the team enjoy some light training on the beach while challenging local football teams on their turf, which has almost exclusively been beaches. It's where plenty of our olive-and-tans got familiar with the game and honestly it's a pretty good surface to play on, only a little more uneven than the actual 'fit'-for-purpose pitches further inland. That said, the real game always took place on said pitches, with standard dimensions and goals, but now that Irithoren was doing a little better financially, the beach game could be developed into a standalone thing rather than an alternative for those too poor to play elsewhere - though Dhidiyah's urban planning didn't help, leaving barely any space to squeeze athletics into between the harbour and the dense city blocks.

Either way, Matar scored her first goal this campaign, and Fiqawit scored his first goal for Irithoren in any capacity, as the team ever more looks like a coherent unit capable of making a regional quarterfinal.

by **Riena** » Fri May 31, 2024 12:19 pm

The Riena Sentinel

Campionato Esportiva 38: Natanians and Nosts 4-2 Riena
Cocoa Haneda's new-look Wavelets slump to defeat against higher-ranked opponents

Natanians and Nosts: Ubuntu (4', 50'), Probus (32'), Ionescu (68')
Riena: Nekoda (45+1'), Nakiri (84')

Riena's second match of Campionato Esportiva 38 saw Cocoa Haneda's hastily assembled side, who were playing in front of a raucous home crowd at the Silver Spirit Dome in Nagato, fall to a humbling 4-2 defeat against Natanians and Nosts.

This was a stunning wake-up call for the new-look Wavelets, and at the same time, a painful reminder of the huge gulf in both quality and experience between them and the rest of the multiverse. Riena had, by all accounts, performed reasonably in securing a point in their opening group match against the 14 Stars, but here, Cocoa Haneda and her coaching staff could only watch on helplessly as Riena were systematically dismantled by Natanians and Nosts, a team who — it must be said — are ranked a lofty sixth in Esportiva. This chastening result means that Riena now find themselves in fourth place in Group A, already a hefty five points behind early pacesetters South Newlandia. With just two more games to play, against South Newlandia and Nova Anglican Admin Zone of Esportiva, Haneda and her team have their work cut out for them if they are to mount a late push to qualify for the round of sixteen of the Campionato.

In the wake of Riena's hard-fought 1-1 draw against the 14 Stars, Haneda had expressed concern that her players' physical exertion in that game would have a negative impact on their preparations for Natanians and Nosts. Her concerns proved to be spot on — drained from their heroic efforts just a couple of days before, Riena looked leggy and uninspired right from the opening stages of the game, and they soon found themselves on the back foot. Natanians and Nosts, perhaps fired up after a poor display against South Newlandia, put the Wavelets under serious pressure, and they registered an early opening goal when center forward Sheldon Ubuntu latched onto a cleverly disguised reverse pass by John Cramer to tuck an instinctive poacher's finish past Miku Suzutsuki.

Shell-shocked by the casual, yet unerringly precise manner in which their opponents had put them to the sword, Riena wilted. Perhaps a more battle-hardened team would have rallied to punch back strongly after conceding an early goal, but here Riena showed precious little of the rousing spirit they had shown on the previous matchday. Despite Haneda and her staff doing their best to encourage the players, it was to no avail as Natanians and Nosts continued to pile on the pressure. Both Ubuntu and Cramer missed further presentable opportunities to test the creaking Riena defence, and a speculative long range effort by the veteran full back Tralto almost caught Suzutsuki unaware, the Riena goalkeeper having to sprint back towards her goal at full tilt to fingertip the shot over the crossbar.

But given how the game was going, it was only a matter of time before Natanians and Nosts extended their lead — and so it proved in the thirty-second minute. Kirikaze lost possession far too cheaply in an ill-advised attempt to dribble her way out of a tight spot in midfield, allowing Probus to nick the ball away from her, stride clear of the Riena midfield and send an unstoppable missile of a shot past the helpless Suzutsuki. At this point, a more pragmatic manager might have elected to shift into damage limitation mode, but Cocoa Haneda was by no means a pragmatic manager. Conscious of the need to chase the game, the Wavelets manager reconfigured her side to be even more adventurous. Mihane tucked into the right side of the defence to form a three-player backline alongside Skamandros and Ishikari, while Kisaragi was pushed higher up the field to play as an auxiliary winger, with Mercerian given more freedom to drift and create. Haneda's rejig steadied the rocking ship to a certain extent — Riena slowly found some purchase in the midfield with the extra player, and began applying some pressure of their own on their opponents.

In the first of four added minutes at the end of the first half, Emiri Nekoda gave the home fans, who had had precious little to celebrate thus far, something to cheer. Although Riena had been slowly regaining their composure, they were very much still under the cosh, and the goal came completely against the run of play. It came when Suzutsuki collected a high ball into her area and, spotting a rare opportunity to counter, quickly distributed possession out to the left flank. Meruto Mercerian latched onto the pass and glided infield, skipping past a couple of challenges before putting the ball on a plate for Nekoda to tap home from five yards out.

On another day, Nekoda's goal might have served as the catalyst for a stirring Riena comeback against superior opponents, but the canny Natanians and Nosts team quickly put paid to any such notions within five minutes of the restart. The dominant Ubuntu put on a masterclass in center forward play to bag his second goal of the game — first displaying a brilliant bit of chest control to bring a fizzed clearance under his spell, before calmly sliding a dagger into the heart of the Riena defence, timing his run to perfection and flicking a nonchalant header into the top right corner of the goal. Just moments after Natanians and Nosts had restored their two goal lead, things could have turned even uglier for Riena when Skamandros brought García down with a clumsy challenge as he threatened to race clear — only the presence of the covering Mihane spared the central defender from being shown a straight red card for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity.

Riena were rocking again. Now 3-1 down, heads began to drop. The Riena players out on the pitch seemed sapped of energy and devoid of confidence, and they were being completely outran and outplayed by their opponents. Every time a Riena player received the ball, a swarm of blue shirts would descend upon her, snapping at her heels relentlessly to win the ball back. Once again, Haneda tried to change things up — this time by turning to her bench — but realistically speaking, she was always going to be hard pressed to find a game changer from among the callow players on her bench, none of whom had even started a match for Riena before. Mercerian and Kisaragi were hooked in favour of Kazamaki and Owari, but the substitutions did nothing to stem the bleeding. In fact, it was a lapse in concentration by the substitute Owari that allowed Natanians and Nosts to further add to their lead. She failed to keep an eye on her player at a corner, allowing Constantinescu to help the ball on to his central defensive partner Ionescu, who could not miss with his header from two yards out.

The game ceased to be a contest from that point onwards. Natanians and Nosts were content to allow Riena to have the ball, while Riena, who had been thoroughly outclassed, looked as though they couldn't wait to hear the final whistle. Even Nakiri's consolation goal in the eighty-fourth minute, a trademark header from a late run into the area, did little to rouse the rest of her teammates from their funk. The Wavelets knew only too well that they had been comprehensively beaten by superior opponents.

Even though she has only been in charge of Riena for two games, the concerning nature of this limp surrender will surely intensify the spotlight on Wavelets manager Haneda. Questions will be asked as to why she did not rotate her team more after a gruelling opening game — when asked why she elected to name an unchanged starting XI for this game despite citing fatigue as a possible concern, Haneda responded: "I merely picked a starting XI that I thought could win the game." Her critics have also questioned her decision to put all her trust in young, inexperienced players, neglecting to pick more experienced, proven Riena One League players in her Campionato squad.

Only time will tell whether Haneda's approach to squad selection, as well as her football philosophy, which mirrors that of her erstwhile mentor and former Riena manager Kanata Shiranami, will pay dividends. However, her rocky start as Riena manager will mean that every single decision she makes in that capacity will be subjected to the most intense scrutiny. Haneda will no doubt back herself to pick up the pieces from this shattering defeat in Riena's next match against Nova Anglicana Admin Zone of Esportiva, but realistically she will need to pick up two wins from Riena's last two games — the final game of which is against a rampant South Newlandia — if she is to stand any chance at guiding her young charges into the knockout stages of this Campionato Esportiva. These two must-win games will prove to be a serious test of the mettle of Haneda's Riena.

Natanians and Nosts (4-2-2-2): Apilescu; Tralto, Ionescu, Constantinescu, Ret; Wafa, Probus; Cramer, C. Mureșan-Antonescu; García, Ubuntu
Substitutes: Shroom, Alencastre, Domicianus, Duarte, Tătareanu, Kramer (67'), Ademélsson-Vit (80'), M. Mureșan-Antonescu (80')

Riena (4-3-3): Suzutsuki; Kisaragi, Skamandros, Ishikari, Mihane; Kirikaze, Nakiri, Nagara; Mercerian, Nekoda, Yuzuriha
Substitutes: Kamikata, Akeboshi, Kotonoha, Shirasu, Kazamaki (55'), Owari (55'), Sorasaki (70'), Shimanto

by **Hapilopper** » Fri May 31, 2024 7:48 pm

The Igloo, Winterfalls, Doubeia
Campionato Esportiva 38 Match 2: Hapilopper v. Macbon
The mood in the Hapiloppian locker room prior to the Macbon match, all things considered, was so much different than it was prior to the Sylestone match. While the Hapiloppians were full of emotions before the Sylestone match, the team was ready to raise some hell against Macbon as the second match of the team’s Campionato Esportiva campaign got going. Thom Perkins and Ernie Stevenson were in a much better mood as well, excited for the match.

“Let’s give ‘em a show,” Thom told his boys before the match. “I think we can show everyone what we’re capable of tonight.”

The players nodded their heads, acknowledging what Thom meant by giving them a show. It meant that the Hapiloppians had a great opportunity to do something fantastic against Macbon. And you could see it in the faces of the Hapiloppians. They had something fun in mind against this squad. As the Hapiloppians emerged from the tunnel, walking next to the Macbon team, you could see certain Hapiloppians looking mischieviously at their opponents. They had some things in mind for this match. And you could see it on their faces as the national anthems played. You could see the gears turning in the heads of the players. They knew what they wanted to do. And they knew what was ahead.

Rod Cutt, the head of the Hapiloppian defense, had a huge, goofy smile on his face. He nodded his head to the players in the midfield, indicating that he wanted them to let the Macbonians get through. And the Macbonians probably should have figured something was up when the Hapiloppians were being a little unusually pedestrian with their defense. And maybe they should have figured something was really up when Rod Cutt, standing a few yards in front of the Hapiloppian goal, appeared to be daring the Macbonians to come at him. The look on his face, one that resembled one from a villain of a slasher flick, would have, should have, been enough for the Macbonians to realize something was up.

Off to the side, Thom and Ernie wondered what in the world was going to happen. Rod could hardly afford a red card and a one-match suspension, especially with TJUN-ia coming up. For whatever reason, Thom got incredibly nervous watching Rod stare down the Macbonians and hoped he knew what was coming up.

And as the Macbonian forward rushed closer dribbling the ball downfield, Rod made his move, and fortunately for everyone, his move wasn’t a dirty hit, a clothesline or a suplex. It was a thunderous kick that knocked the ball so far the other way that it rolled towards the Macbonian goalkeeper. The Hapiloppians in the stands roared with delight. Thom breathed a sigh of relief as he could see an image of Rod suplexing the poor hapless Macbonian through the turf.

As the Macbonian looked at the other end of the pitch to see where the ball landed, Rod looked at him and smiled.

“Brother, you think you can get past me? I’ll be your huckleberry all night long, my boy,” Rod said.

In other words, Rod was going to give that poor guy trouble all night. It set the tone for the entire match. And it set the tone for how Hapilopper was going to be against Macbon. Throughout the match, it seemed like the Haps had Macbon’s number. Six minutes in, Stan McLamb scored a goal, the first of the day for him. The goal was hardly anything memorable, and certainly not one that people would remember years from today. The opposite was true of the second one.

About twenty minutes in, there had been a stoppage of play due to a foul, and the players stood around waiting for play to resume. Hapilopper, however, had the ball not far from the Macbon goal. Standing behind the ball, waiting to kick it in, was Ben Fairchild. He’d pass it to Stan McLamb - hopefully - which would hopefully lead to a 2-0 Hapilopper lead. But Tad Winslow had a smile on his face and he was making his way to Fairchild.

“See, I’ve got an idea,” Tad said to Ben. “If I kick it back in, I could get a goal.”

“What do you have in mind?” Ben asked.

“That guy over there? I’m gonna aim right at his nuts,” Tad said. “The ball’s gonna bounce off his nuts and go in the net.”

Ben looked at Tad like he had gone crazy. But he figured Tad knew what he was doing, so he swapped places with him.

Tad sized up the ball, and fortunately, that Macbonian player did not move. He had no idea what was coming up. He fired it, and past a group of diving players, the ball bounced HARD off the Macbonian player’s nuts, just as originally planned, and made its way past the Macbonian keeper and into the net. Rather than running around, making an ass out of himself, Tad threw his hands up in the air and smiled in a gesture that seemingly implied “Oh golly gee, did I do that?!”

As that Macbonian player - the one whose nuts were used as part of that skill shot - doubled over in intense pain, the referee and Huntley McCullough walked over to Tad, who was still hamming it up.

“You think that was funny?” Huntley asked. “Dude, when you did that to me that fucking hurt.”

“Yeah, it was!” Tad said. “Even more to that guy, he had no idea.”

The referee shook his head in bewilderment.

“So, you’re saying this has happened twice?” the referee asked.

“Yeah, I did it to him last year,” Tad explained. “Fired a line drive off him and into the net, same kind of goal, same way, too.”

“So you did this intentionally,” the referee said. “I ain’t got no choice then, yellow card, man.”

And sure enough, the referee showed his yellow card to Tad, indicating to him that while, yes, that nutshot goal was cool, it was still a nutshot and as a result it was not allowed. Tad didn’t even protest it. He looked at Huntley, who looked pissed off at Tad for having made him remember what happened when he got a line drive to his own nuts.

For the rest of the match, Hapilopper was easily in control, winning 4-2, giving up two late goals after the outcome of the match had been decided. But the Haps knew that any other matches in the group would not come easily. The next match, against TJUN-ia, was probably going to be a wild one. Any match between Hapilopper and TJUN-ia was always wild, no matter the sport. But there had been an extra added bit to this match. It had been declared that this match would be the Nathan Ellis Memorial Match, and the emotions were bound to be high for it.

(O.O) · by **TJUN-ia** » Sat Jun 01, 2024 12:56 pm

The Random Rambles of a Jaguar - Cup of Harmony 88 Edition
with Killian Looker

Welcome back to this Random Ramble. So...welcome back to the Campionato Esportiva for it's 38th edition, co-hosted by Riena and Doubeia, the latter of which hosts our group for this edition. Last time out, improvements were made - we reached the CoH and made the knockouts at that - but those within the FA-TJUN-ia want more than that. After some more roster churn, Fernandino was now the Captain of this ship who had one goal in mind - making it as deep as possible in the regional competition. But this is TJUN-ia we're talking about - we always say we want to do well in these regional competitions, but that is easier said than done. Could we even do something here? Who knows...but I guess there is only one way to find out.

The Match
Game 1 of this CE would go down at the Pomeranian Hub in Port Pomeranian against #15 Macbon, a team that can certainly bite on their day if you are not careful. We knew we just wanted to start on the right track before we immediately went into a bye-week for MD2...so if that was the mission, I would say it was 'mission accomplished' as we put Macbon to the sword and never looked back. Stephan Fiedtkou scored two within the first 25 minutes of the game and while the opposition got one back before halftime, that would be the only spark of joy they got all game. Regina McDuff headed home the 3rd on the 66th, substitute Dakota Monroe made it 4 in the 81st and that's all she wrote. 4-1. They don't come as convincing as those, do they?

Reactions
Mild surprise would be the prevailing mood after that performance, but entering the bye week, some still urged caution. The Jagaurs can flip-flop between World Beaters and WC85 on any given game week but if we want to make it back to the big dance next year, we need to be more consistent on the positive side of our pendulum...so could we do this here? No one truly knows with David Seems and Li Xiu Ying still at the helm.

Up Next...
After the bye comes Hapilopper, which will be very emotional in more ways than normal. TJUN-ia and Hapilopper meeting for the 1st time in the CE should always be a moment of rivalry and one where two teams throw everything at each other...but not this time. This time, things are different. Hapilopper, now Ellis Football, is still mourning the loss of their main engine, Mr. Hapiloppan Football himself...Nathan Ellis. That man gave his body and effectively his life for this sport in the Dominion. Sure, Racing and Baseball will always be on top over there and he was always a bitch to play against either as a player or as a player-manager (our friends in Anaia can attest to that). But you could not deny his passion...and he will be sorely missed from this rivalry.

For this group stage game, for this first-ever CE meeting between Jags and Haps, the rivalry aspect is being set aside as both FAs have declared this game to be the Nathan Ellis Memorial Game. There will be black armbands, a mark of respect before kickoff, a minute's applause on 5 minutes (his famous number), $5 million (V4.75 million) donated to a charity of Acting Head Coach Thom Perkins' choice and a rare change in numbers on our end. Hapilopper doesn't wear the #5, which was retired in Nate's honour, but they do wear the #05 instead out of respect for their Head Coach For Life. Out of respect in this game, we will do the same - so Mantfombi Dlamini will be wearing #05 for the very first time.

All in all, we will enter this game with conflicted thoughts. On the one hand, we want points on the board. But on the other hand, we don't really want to beat up on the Haps to do it. This is the rare game in our history where the result doesn't fucking matter. Because in Port Pomeranian, the scoreline doesn't really matter. Honouring a legend of the game does.
Don't ask me what Nate would've wanted. That I cannot ever answer.
GO JAGS!

SCHEDULE (Group E, Doubeia)
MD1: vs Macbon (15) - Pomeranian Hub, Port Pomeranian W 4-1 (1st)
MD2: BYE (2nd)
MD3: vs Hapilopper (26)* - Pomeranian Hub, Port Pomeranian
*Nathan Ellis Memorial Game
MD4: vs Restresas (UR) - The Igloo, Winterfalls
MD5: vs Sylestone (1) - The Igloo, Winterfalls

by **Tumbra** » Sun Jun 02, 2024 6:45 am

POLITICS
The rapid ascension of a newly-elected Senator to Cabinet gives hints as to the Andrews' government's priorities in the second half of its term — nuclear power.

STRATON: To perhaps the relief of Prime Minister Bertram Andrews, politics in Tumbra has become a bit boring. Labour seems to be holding on to its polling leads — something reflected in it becoming the largest party in the Senate and the distinct possibility of it claiming the trifecta of executive offices when the country goes to the second round of its presidential election on Friday — and former Prime Minister Lawrence Newell's United Party seems to be having a bit of an identity crisis, with Newell allegedly struggling to keep his own house in order amidst the rise of the socially liberal, southwest-focused Republican Party which nabbed four seats from United in the Senate election. Andrews has moved quietly to consolidate this opportunity — he has not been publicly pushing for any big policy measures that could potentially swing momentum back in favour of the right, and provide ample fodder for Newell and company to feed upon; but there are hints that this era of quiet politics may come to an end very soon. The biggest hint came on Monday, with the appointment of newly-minted Senator Jerome Conway to a minor Cabinet post.

Political observers were quick to notice upon the close of nominations that third on Labour's list for Napier, the country's largest state, was a virtually unknown name. That name was Jerome Conway, 50, a scientist who'd only began his political career six months before nominations closed for the Senate elections. The quiet, unassuming demeanour of a political novice has carried him through his political career — and his Labour campaign efforts on the campaigning trail were largely limited to low-key events in smaller cities within Napier. But he was easily elected — as Labour candidates in Napier are wont to do — and assumed office on Monday, alongside the rest of the state's Senate delegation.

It took less than six hours, however, for Conway to make the step up in his political career that most political figures spend their career hoping they will do. At three pm on Monday, Conway was the subject of a government gazette in which he was appointed Second Minister for Energy and the Environment; with a particular remit focusing on "energy independence" and "energy entrepreneurship." The political world was quick to dig up Conway's past, and what they found out was perhaps the biggest hint that the second half of Bertram Andrews' term of office will be focused on one thing, and one thing only — nuclear energy.

Before entering politics, Conway worked for Marinca Labs in Gillman, Napier, as a physicist, and got his PhD in nuclear physics from Hoxford Technological University; focusing on the construction of safe nuclear reactors. In his first press conference as a Senator — which was also his first press conference as a minister — he acknowledged that his past as a nuclear physicist might give rise to the impression that the government was "looking to go ahead with nuclear power as a future source of Tumbran energy," but seemed especially keen to emphasise that "nuclear power is but one of the many options that the country has when it comes to our energy independence, which is an extremely important ideal that I hold and was a large part of why I agreed to serve in the Prime Minister's Cabinet."

A casual glance at Labour's 2037 election manifesto reveals that energy independence was mentioned in it, but it was hardly a focus on the campaign trail — and it did not specifically commit to any form of energy becoming Tumbra's main source of energy bar a focus on sustainable energy. But nuclear energy has been seen by previous Labour governments as a way for easy investment; particularly if those plants are built in the west of the country, which is in sore need of economic investment. The appointment of Conway, a Senator, to the role is likely a play to try and convince Senators to swing over to the Government's side if they decide to go through with the nuclear plan; where rebels are more commonplace and where the Government does not have a majority, requiring one of the Greens or Moderate parties to vote with the Government to pass any bill.

It seems, then, that the battle lines for the second half of the Andrews term are being drawn right now — will Tumbra go nuclear?

by **Fhulghamous Peninsula** » Sun Jun 02, 2024 6:53 am

On a chartered plane 38,000 feet above Esportiva
Somewhere between South Newlandia and the Fhulghamous Peninsula
Three days after the Campionato Esportiva 37 Final

“I still can’t believe that this is actually real. I just can’t believe that it’s actually happened.”

“What can’t you believe, Silas?” Polynikis Kalyftakis asked his friend and teammate on the Fhulghamous Peninsula national football team Silas Babalioutas.

“This, everything that’s happened in the past few days,” Silas answered without actually clarifying anything. “I can’t believe it’s actually happened. I can’t believe that we’ve actually won the Campionato Esportiva.”

“Come on now, man, are you still hung up on that?” Polynikis asked in disbelief. Even after you’ve held it in your hands so many times, you still can’t believe we’ve won the whole damn thing! You want to touch it again so you can make sure this time around?” Polynikis continued as he gestured to the shiny Campionato Esportiva trophy sitting beside him.

“I don’t think I really want to, man,” Silas shook his head. “Part of me is afraid that touching that thing is going to be what finally wakes me up to the day before the final, and then we’re going to play that final again and this time we’re going to lose. I’m not doing it, man. Not taking any risks anymore.”

“See, this is what you get for believing in all of those conspiracy theories,” Polynikis muttered. “You start believing in all sorts of things that never made sense in the first place, and then when you put them all together they make even less sense. You gotta get off the Internet a little bit more, Silas. We won the Campionato Esportiva, bro! Forget everything else and just sit back and bask in the moment.”

Silas ran his hands over his face and let out a long and slow sigh. “I’d really rather not deal with this right now,” he muttered back as he stood up from his seat. “You keep enjoying that trophy while it lasts. Seems to be helping you out much more than me.” Silas then walked away from Polynikis and the trophy, but no sooner had he left than his seat was occupied once again, this time by Polynikis’s younger brother Evangelos.

“What’s the deal with him?” Gelo asked his older brother while gesturing at the departing Babalioutas. “Still can’t believe that there’s no such thing as a conspiracy to stop the Fhulghamous from winning anything in international football?”

“Yeah, I think the poor guy’s still in denial about the whole thing,” Polynikis shrugged as Gelo sat down in front of him. “Then again, that’s literally the first stage of grief, so maybe in a month or two, he’ll finally accept that we actually won the Campionato or whatever. Meanwhile, I see that you’re enjoying being the best karting driver in all of Esportiva,” Polynikis added, pointing at the Esportiva Karting Trophy in his little brother’s hands.

“Oh, what, this thing?” Evangelos looked down at the trophy he was holding. “Well, uh, to quote Silas, I didn’t really expect to win this thing too. But honestly, Nicky, I really thought that Sentient Engine had this one in the bag. The guy’s literally a go-kart engine. How do you even mess that up? It’s practically a title that was made for them to win, but then I came out of nowhere to nab it! I mean, if it was your standard race schedule, four races to win as many points as possible, I’m sure Engine would have run away with the trophy. But for some reason, the organizers decided that they were going to have the top eight drivers in the standings race it out in one race, winner takes all, and that’s how I won. Crazy how these things work out in the end, right?”

“Crazy indeed,” Polynikis nodded. “So, what’s next for you, Esportivan Karting champion?”

“More of the same, hopefully,” Gelo shrugged. “This whole thing happened before the Tumbran Super Formula season, so this is basically me prepping myself for my first full season in a competition. I wanna think that I’m now ready to fight for the championship over there now that I’ve won in the Sporting Festival. Now, as for the trophy itself, that depends on the Festival, actually. When did they say they were going to hold the next one again?”

“Nobody said anything,” Polynikis shook his head. “And really, Gelo, no one really knows when the next one will happen. It’s not like the Campionato Esportiva where it’s a regular thing every few years or so. So enjoy that trophy while you’ve still got it and don’t have to worry about defending it.”

“Speaking of defending things, you think that’s another reason why the Ultimate Worrier isn’t so happy we won the Campionato?” Gelo asked with genuine concern. “Man already thinks we’re pushing our entire country’s supply of luck just by winning the Campionato, and now we have to defend it in two years too? Yeah, if I believed in all the things that Silas does, I wouldn’t be so happy about our prospects of retaining too.”

“You don’t have to worry about any of that, Gelo,” Polynikis assured his younger brother. “You’re not playing for the football team. That’s my job. Besides, we’ve got two years hanging out with this baby,” he added as he patted the trophy on the seat beside him. “Might as well just enjoy that time and worry about defending the title in the next Campionato.”

       FHULGHAMOUS PENINSULA 5 - 0 SCHIMATA       
  STAMATELOPOULOS (15', 83')
                MUKHIN (38')
               SOKOLOV (62')
              SADAQUAT (75')

Campionato Esportiva 38 — Everything Thread

No Disclosure by Manager Wesley Nires!

Restresians Blow Chance of Major Upset!

Rambles CE38 (Macbon + BYE)

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