World Cup 100 | RP thread

[Oberour Ar Moro]

We see the dark interview room. There is an audible ambient mic hiss. A man in an expensive suit, wearing a large, expensive watch, comes into frame.

PHELIPPE CAUBERE, VERITABLE CEO
"So, where do you want me to sit? Here?"

An off-camera producer replies. "Yeah, if you could sit in this chair here." Phelippe sits, unbuttoning his jacket.

"Good, good."

The off-camera producer asks: "Is there anything we can get you? A bottle of water?" Phelippe shifts in the chair, getting comfortable.

"A glass of champagne would be lovely."

The view shifts to an aerial shot of a race track.

ON SCREEN TEXT:
Lannier Racecourse
Naucratis

PHELIPPE CAUBERE, VERITABLE CEO
"Naucratis was like my second home growing up. I mean, my father's company had an office in Naucratis. We did have a second home, and it wasn't in Naucratis. But I still have a strong connection to the city."

DR. LAOUIC LE VISAGE, RACING HISTORIAN
“The Holy Lambe Shield is one of the oldest horse races in the Dominion. The trophy is a large silver representation of the Lannier family crest, a lamb dormant on an argent field.”

Historic footage of stable owners lifting, or attempting to lift, the large silver shield over their heads is shown.

DR. LAOUIC LE VISAGE, RACING HISTORIAN
"The Holy Lambe Shield is the first of the three Ascendent races. The races for three-year-old horses that make up the most prestigious of events in Oberour horse racing."

ÉTIENNE CAHUFE-L’EAUE, KAN ROUE CEO (V.O.)
"A horse winning just one of these races is life changing. For everyone, the owner, the trainer, the jockey, the... farrier. The kid who gathers hay for the horse.”

CATERINA CINELU, BLOODLINE ANALYST
"Whatever you paid for your horse. From birth to the moment they cross the finish line. It was all worth it, and will likely be worth twice that going forward."

LISTIEN BOURSEL, PLAGE DE MOUSSE FARM OWNER
"And that's just winning one of them. Imagine winning two. Or all three!"

DR. LAOUIC LE VISAGE, RACING HISTORIAN
"There are kids who can tell you all full Ascendent winners than name all Chancellors of Oberour Ar Moro."

A fan on a crowded street is reciting names while tapping his fingers. "Necesse, Memoria, Astra Ardent, Spes Alit, Ark Knight, Nouvelle Planète, Exozodical, Balme de Vie, Euterpe, Magie et Muscle, Ce Gars Pierre, Limerence, Lemon Rush, Drivers High, Cherry Vanilla."

He looks expectantly to the camera. "Did I get them all?" The producer indicates he did. "Yes!" he says, pumping his fist.

DR. LAOUIC LE VISAGE, RACING HISTORIAN
"It's been 39 years since Cherry Vanilla won all three races. There have been some talented horses that won two of three, or won all two of the Ascendent races they entered in, like Claperleux last year."

ÉTIENNE CAHUFE-L’EAUE, KAN ROUE CEO
"Going to the Holy Lambe Shield, there's always a hope that this year may be the year you see another horse reach immortality. That's Kan Roue's goal every year."

PHELIPPE CAUBERE, VERITABLE CEO
"I just want to have a fantastic time. Don't get me wrong, horse racing is the greatest sport in the world. But if you're not having fun while you're doing it, what's the point?"

Back at Lannier Racecourse, Phelippe holds a flute of champagne in a half-put-up hospitality tent.

PHELIPPE CAUBERE, VERITABLE CEO
"Have a drink, it'll calm your nerves."

PEVER GAUGAIN, VERITABLE TRAINER
"No, it's fine. I really should-"

Phelippe cuts Pever off, putting his arm around his shoulder and orienting them towards the camera. He points at Pever.

PHELIPPE CAUBERE, VERITABLE CEO
"Pever Gaugain. Absolute genius trainer. You've heard of his grandfather Lunaire. Real horse royalty!"

Phelippe squeezes Pever slightly, as some champagne sloshes out of his glass. Pever looks pained.

PHELIPPE CAUBERE, VERITABLE CEO
"I let him handle the important things."

He winks and releases Pever, then strides off. Two assistants chase Phelippe across the shot. The camera closes in on Pever, who reaches across his body to rub his arm.

DR. LAOUIC LE VISAGE, RACING HISTORIAN (V.O.)
"Every once in a while, a new stable appears. They come from outside the system, and they have enthusiastic owners who want to shake things up. They're often incredibly charming. But they can burn themselves out."

The shot shifts to the dark interview room. The producer asks: "What stable do you think spends the most on hospitality at the track?

ÉTIENNE CAHUFE-L’EAUE, KAN ROUE CEO
"Venerable."

The producer responds: "Veritable?" Étienne thinks.

ÉTIENNE CAHUFE-L’EAUE, KAN ROUE CEO
"I mean, I suppose it would be."

We show the Veritable hospitality tent becoming more lavishly decorated. A chef decorates blue-frosted cupcakes with small yellow diamonds to match the Veritable silks. A DJ sets up his turntable while electricians connect large speakers and set up multiple large-screen televisions.

JEAN-DENIS DE RÉAUMUR, TRANSFER MARKET REPORTER
"For a new stable Veritable's financial resources are very impressive."

CHARLOTTE DE CLAIREMONT, RENARDIERE VICE PRESIDENT FOR BRANDING AND ENGAGEMENT
"You have to admire them, though they can be a bit self-aggrandizing."

A Renardiere social media post shows their staffer driving by Phelippe Caubere and the Veritable set-up on a cart. "Hey there, bestie!" says the female influencer. "Hello!" shouts Phelippe, smiling broadly and waving back.

CATERINA CINELU, BLOODLINE ANALYST
"Don't get me wrong, please. Veritable are serious. Cardinalate is a fine horse."

We finally see Veritable's horse, a bay stallion with a black mane and tail, looking out of his stall up and down the barn with some degree of impatience.

CATERINA CINELU, BLOODLINE ANALYST (V.O.)
"Third in both the Airzis Futurity and the Crocus Bowl."

We return to the interview room. Caterina looks very serious.

CATERINA CINELU, BLOODLINE ANALYST
"The Holy Lambe Trophy is the first time that the greatest three-year-olds, the most promising three-year-olds, are running together, with no interference. And it is a major challenge."

TRISTANIG LE VERGER, KAN ROUE TRAINER
"Lannier Racecourse is a tough race track. Particularly for young horses."

We see footage of twelve horses setting out with a massive grandstand full of cheering crowds behind them.

PEVER GAUGAIN, VERITABLE TRAINER
"It's close."

A gray horse and a chestnut horse racing each other neck and neck push against each other.

PIUS COIPEL, JOCKEY
"Cramped."

Three horses run side by side into a corner.

LISTIEN BOURSEL, PLAGE DE MOUSSE FARM OWNER
"Visceral."

In slow-motion, a jockey rips off his mud-covered goggles and throws them directly towards a fellow jockey.

TRISTANIG LE VERGER, KAN ROUE TRAINER
"Claustrophobic."

A camera mounted on top of the grandstand captures a race in tilt-shift.

TREVEUR VAOLIANIER, JOURNALIST
"It's almost literally an oval. The straights are curved."

We see a satellite image of the track. A blue loop shows the racing line, demonstrating the curve.

GEOFFROY LOZEC, RETIRED JOCKEY
"You're out of the gate? Start turning left."

Footage shows a pack of horses all pushing left as hard as they can.

LISTIEN BOURSEL, PLAGE DE MOUSSE FARM OWNER
"You would think it's a test of power, when it's actually a test of control."

Tristanig le Verger stands at the rail, then kneels, holding his hand out to feel the turf.

TRISTANIG LE VERGER, KAN ROUE TRAINER
"Lannier Racecourse's turf is deep and drains terribly. I swear you can have a month-long drought in Naucratis and there will still be sections that are just bogs."

The view hovers just over the turf.

TRISTANIG LE VERGER, KAN ROUE TRAINER
"And it's just uneven. I know they level it every year, and every year there's just undulations. There's an unpredictable wobble to the course. It's not dangerous, but a horse can find it hard to get the proper footing."

Pever Gaugain speaks with Cardinalate's jockey Jud Destot, while Phelippe Caubere watches. Caubere butts in.

PHELIPPE CAUBERE, VERITABLE CEO
"Just keep him on the flat parts!"

Pever and Jud look at Phelippe.

JUD DESTOT, VERITABLE JOCKEY
"I guess I can try that."

Phelippe claps.

PHELIPPE CAUBERE, VERITABLE CEO
"Excellent! That's what I like to hear! Thinking differently."

He taps his head and strolls off. Another pair of assistants chase after him.

Holy Lambe Shield Post Draw

Post	Horse (Stable)
1	Downtown Boy (Talbourdet)
2	Fou du Jeu (Asterus)	
3	Pearlescence (Renardiere)
4	Cardinalate (Veritable)	
5	Idle Grace (Courant Marin)
6	Livre et Disque (Lazarus)
7	Neon Lamplighter (Vallon Gautier) 
8	Oh Connexion (Armelle)	
9	Aerostat (Etiquette Noire)
10	Hyper Lucky (de Serent)	
11	Magia Record (Kan Roue)

The crowd is already at full volume when the gates open. Downtown Boy, Livre et Disque, and Hyper Lucky seem to stumble with their first steps.

Magia Record is aggressive with his run, pressing in from the far gate. Aerostat’s jockey looks over in shock as Magia Record nearly body checks his horse.

Downtown Boy remains committed to the sluggish lane against the rail. Fou du Jeu passes by, but remains one lane up as Neon Lamplighter slots in behind him.

Cardinalate is bumped along by Oh Connextion to his right and Pearlescence to his left as they enter the first turn proper.

A camera on the wall at the first turn shakes as the herd thunders past.

Phelippe Caubere watches the race, gesturing wildly.

PHELIPPE CAUBERE, VERITABLE CEO
“Hold him back! Hold him back! Hold- go! GO!”

Magia Record continues his single-minded push to the front, barely sliding in front of Idle Grace.

Hyper Lucky is going all out to make up for his earlier mistake. Jockey Henry Millor is elbows out as he passes Livre et Disque.

The race is shown on the televisions in the large Veritable tent. About half the guests are watching.

The pack remains tight coming into the final turns when Neon Lamplighter stumbles. Aerostat and Cardinalate have to take evasive action, slowing their gallops.

Watching from the hospitality tent, Pever Gaugain clicks his tongue.

Coming onto the stretch, Fou de Jeu, Hyper Lucky, Idle Grace, Pearlescence, and Magia Record are somehow side-by-side coming to the finish.

ANNOUNCER (V.O.):
“This is unbelievable! They’re five across! It’s anyone’s race!”

No one lets up as the five horses cross the line almost simultaneously. It is a true photo finish.

Holy Lambe Shield Results

Position	Horse			Jockey			Trainer				Stable		Display Time	Margin Behind Previous
1		Pearlescence		Bartholmew Domine	Kenider Madeline		Renardiere	2:08.67		Winner
2		Idle Grace		Andre du Mont		Titus Piédefer			Courant Marin	2:08.73		Head
3		Magia Record		Reynald Fougères	Tristanig le Verger		Kan Roue	2:08.79		Short Head
4		Fou du Jeu		Morgann Jazier		Peregrine Trace-d’Ouë		Asterus		2:08.79		Nose
5		Hyper Lucky		Henry Millot		Clement Paridan			de Serent	2:08.95		½ Length
6		Livre et Disque		Arzhurig Colm		Laorans qui Vent Les Poriaus	Lazarus		2:09.71		4 Lengths
7		Oh Connexion		Eccliseus le Letier	Ado de Saint-Armand		Armelle		2:09.77		Short Head
8		Neon Lamplighter	Karan Marest		Jhared Courrèges		Vallon Gautier	2:10.89		6 Lengths
9		Aerostat		Joncis Berthome		Guénhael de Choursses		Etiquette Noire	2:12.25		7 Lengths
10		Cardinalate		Jud Destot		Pever Gaugain			Veritable	2:12.39		Neck
11		Downtown Boy		Lohann Cazalis		Theoren Chupleur		Talbourdet	2:12.93		1 Length

The Veritable tent is awkwardly silent after seeing the results. Phelippe bursts in, all smiles.

PHELIPPE CAUBERE, VERITABLE CEO
"My goodness, can you believe that finish? A four-way photo finish? What a sport!"

Phelippe rushes to Pever Gaugain, grabs him on the upper arms, and shakes him.

PHELIPPE CAUBERE, VERITABLE CEO
"Was that the best tenth-place finish you've ever seen from a horse? What an animal!"

He hugs Pever tightly for a brief moment and dashes off. Pever looks a mixture of relieved and disappointed.

We cut to victory lane, where Renardiere celebrates their huge victory. Phelippe suddenly appears among the white and cerise, shaking hands and enjoying the party.

CHARLOTTE DE CLAIREMONT, RENARDIERE VICE PRESIDENT FOR BRANDING AND ENGAGEMENT
“I really like Phelippe, and Venerable as whole. They’re good for the sport-”

The producer cuts in. “It’s Veritable.”

CHARLOTTE DE CLAIREMONT, RENARDIERE VICE PRESIDENT FOR BRANDING AND ENGAGEMENT
“But of course it's veritable!”

[Dantopia]

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VOL. 45,958

LION CITY, DANTOPIA SATURDAY 1ST NOVEMBER, 2025

₵500

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Brilliant Bullvale Blockade Irks Isidoren

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The Lions Hold Visitors To A Goal-less Draw Thanks To Masterful Goalkeeping

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By SAUL ARNSTEIN

Gēcko Arena
Dantopia0-0Isidoren

(The Ko-oren Constellation)

Half Time: 0-0

Alex Bullvale

LION CITY, DANTOPIA — The Dantopian National Team were able to hold off Isidoren (The Ko-orenite Constellation) to a Nil-Nil draw at the Gēcko Arena in Lion City last night. Despite the attacking dominance on display from the visitors, the Lions rallied behind an incredible, man-of-the-match winning performance from shot-stopper Alex Bullvale. The Kyethas Riverman goalkeeper was simply unbeatable between the sticks, making save after save — racking up a total of fourteen on the evening.

Rick Bishop reverted back to a full strength starting eleven against the visiting Isidoren — albeit without veteran Grenadiers midfielder Dani Spaghetti, who was still out with a tweaked hamstring. The manager was able to confirm before the game that Spaghetti's prognosis looks good, and they are glad they caught it early. "He's due back for the important match against Chromatika in match-day seven, so not the next one, but the one after..." remarked Bishop. The void made by Spaghetti in the heart of the midfield was filled by the Rockport Ravens' own Nehemiah Cunningham — joining his brother in the starting line-up for the third time already this qualifying cycle.

It might be fair to comment on the internal political situation in the Ko-orenite Constellation as slightly contentious — with each territory arguably trying to use their qualifying matches in this cycle's World Cup as a grab for some sort of soft power. The better one of the nations perform, perhaps the more influence they can wield within the Constellation — and this certainly seemed like enough of a motivating factor for the Isidoren team against the Lions last night. Their attack — orchestrated by Lívia Malapeir in the midfield and spearheaded by Uxia Cancio up front — was relentless and constantly testing the resolve of the Dantopian back line. Between the ladies — being supported in large parts by Tiadora Jimenez and Constança Caballero as well — Isidoren held seventy-five percent of the possession and attempted thirty-three shots, though only sixteen of those were on target.

Emerson Cromwell

Keegan Foster

Alongside the man-of-the-match performance from Bullvale, defenders Emerson Cromwell and Keegan Foster also had impressive displays at the back, and they were kept very busy all night by the opposition. The pair of them managed to go the whole game without committing a foul between them, and winning one-hundred percent of their aerial duels. The bulk of the most deadly attacks from Isidoren came along the ground anyway. In transition, the Dantopian forwards weren't able to muster much — the experience of Patric Cabrol, Altzibar Guezala and Oriol Pérez proving too much for either Danchevy, Brunson or Adeyemi to make any headway.

The Lions haven't held a clean sheet in qualifying up until this point, so the defensive solidity was very pleasing to Rick Bishop and his staff, who had put a specific focus on set-piece defending and defending from crosses in the pre-match training this week. After all, Dantopia had conceded from either set-pieces or crosses against Dēmos, Whispinia and Karmosora — the only match they had not conceded in this way being the horror show against United States Of Alpha. In fact, going into this game, Dantopia had conceded the fourth most goals in the group, and were the only side near the top of the group table to have a negative goal difference — something which, of course, is still the case following this match as well, owing to no goals being scored at the other end.

alex.bullvale

10h

Delighted with the clean sheet. Honoured by the award. C'mon You Lions! #Dantopia #Lions #WorldCupQualifiers

Changes made in the match included appearances from Dwight Krol; Nico Hollins; Kai Watanabe; Will Fodderingham; and Zeke Edwards — the first three of whom were brought on for their defensive abilities, and the latter two as alternate options in the attack, with neither able to make an impact beyond a scuffed shot from Edwards near the end that was narrowly wide of the post. It was a relatively quiet night for young Cecília Mistral in net for Isidoren, with much of the defensive work already being done by her veteran, well-marshalled defenders ahead of her. Two attempted looped balls over the top looked like they might have tested her, but she either got a palm to them, or they sailed over the bar. That was about the grand total of Dantopia's efforts on goal last night.

The Dantopians are away in the next fixture to Archalit, who not too many cycles ago were promising Baptism of Fire and Cup of Harmony challengers. The Archalitians have been struggling in the group stages thus far, amassing only four points in as many games. They had a bye in match-day five, so should be well rested for the fixture against the Lions, but Rick Bishop's side will be looking for a response in the way of some goals after being completely shut down by Isidoren in front of a home crowd. Improved performances from the front three of Danchevy, Brunson and Adeyemi will be required as elsewhere, wins from Chromatika, Abanhfleft and Dēmos mean the pressure on the Lions to match them and keep within distance of a rare qualifying spot is more than ever.

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OOC Disclaimer: Images used in this RP post were created with the help of generative AI but have been hand edited and refined by myself. Proof of this can be produced upon request from the hosts.

[Dantopia]

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VOL. 45,959

LION CITY, DANTOPIA SATURDAY 1ST NOVEMBER, 2025

₵500

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Captain's Contribution Clinches Victory For Lions

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Michael Danchevy's Late Game Heroics See Off Hosts Archalit In Thrilling Scenes

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By SAUL ARNSTEIN

Archalit National Stadium
Archalit0-1Dantopia
Half Time: 0-0

Danchevy 90+4'

CHARKARA, ARCHALIT — The Lions snuck away with a famous victory last night away to Archalit. Captain Michael Danchevy delivered a stoppage-time winner for the Dantopians who had totally controlled proceedings in the game, albeit without the clinical finishing to accompany their numerous attacks. The win is the third in six for the Lions in Group 9, and might yet prove pivotal in the race for one of the two, much sought after, qualification spots. Not only was it an important victory for Dantopia, but also their second consecutive clean sheet for the — of late — much improved defensive line.

Despite playing in front of a home crowd, the Archalitians played as if it was their backs against the wall, with the Dantopian front three of Danchevy, Brunson and Adeyemi constantly probing and jabbing at their back line. In all, the Lions held eighty-one percent of possession in the match, and accrued an xG of 3.65 from twenty-seven shots to Archalit's measly 0.13 in three shots. What the Dantopians lacked, however, was the final finishes to push them forwards. Efforts from Brunson, Adeyemi, Cunningham and Kahananui all ricocheted off the post or crossbar at various points throughout the match, showcasing just how close the Lions were to scoring many. Moreover, the Archalitian goalkeeper was kept busy and made a number of crucial saves.

Manager Rick Bishop piled on more pressure to Archalit in the form of offensive changes; Raphael Lacroix replaced Will Cross; Maverick Johnson came on for Adeyemi; Jeremiah Jackson Jr. swapped in for Bradini Brunson; Will Fodderingham got twenty minutes in place of Johnny Kealoha; and Zeke Edwards even got a late showing, with Nehemiah Cunningham going off and manager Rick Bishop pivoting to a 4-2-4. Disaster struck for Archalit as one of their defensive midfielders slid into Ezra Cunningham with studs showing in the 84^th minute. The challenge left the referee with no choice but to pull out a red card, so the hosts had to soldier on with ten men for the final few minutes. Fortunately Cunningham was not seriously hurt by the challenge, but may have a few stud marks on his left shin as a war wound.

Michael Danchevy

Alas, it was only in the dying breaths of additional time where Dantopia finally broke the seal, to the credit of the Archalit defence. In a last-ditch attack down the left hand side of the pitch, Kaleb Kahananui was able to slide a through ball in-between the Archalitian right back and right centre back — a perfectly weighted pass for Michael Danchevy to pounce upon. In his customary fashion, Danchevy's finish was cool, calm and collected — he nestled the ball softly into the far, low corner of the goal, just a matter of millimetres past the outstretched hand of the opposition goalkeeper.

The resulting celebration by Danchevy and the team was one of absolute joy, as they ran towards the faithfully supportive away crowd who had travelled with the team from Dantopia. The Lions had finally done it, they had secured a crucial win to help propel them on in Group 9. The test against Archalit was not easy — though wastefulness from the attacking players was acknowledged by Rick Bishop in his post-match comments. It's the next game, however, against group leaders and perennial qualifiers Chromatika, that will be the biggest test yet for Dantopia. "We've got to focus on the next game now. Yes, to win in the last minute is fantastic, and the win is really vital for us, but I'm making sure my players keep their heads down for the task at hand against Chromatika now. We have a bye before then, which we hope will give us all a chance to rest, recover, and refocus on our duties. We are hoping to give the crowd in Lion City a fantastic match." said Bishop, as his final contribution in his post-mach interview.

michael.danchevy

8h

What a night! What a feeling! What a win! So proud to represent @dantopia.football and give my all for this team. #Dantopia #Lions

For Chromatika, the first official meeting with Dantopia offers the visitors a chance to play at the newly constructed National Team Stadium in Lion City, that was opened just prior to the World Cup Qualifying campaign. The brand new arena boasts an impressive 100,000+ capacity, with the stands towering above the pitch on all four sides. The Lions will be hoping it helps home fans provide an intimidating and thrilling atmosphere against the Anomalies — who were coming off the back of three consecutive victories against United States Of Alpha, Whispinia and Karmosora before their recent loss to Meia-Armadoren of the Ko-orenite Constellation. Their 3-4-1-2 shape really gets the most of their impressive wingbacks Grayson and Edith Fillar. The Lions will need to ensure they can defend from out wide just as well as through the middle.

Rockport Ravens

Of course, there has been some investment in Dantopian football from a Chromatik company. Black Raven Technologies' recent takeover of the Rockport Rovers — now Rockport Ravens — could possibly be described as a soft power play, but has been overwhelmingly welcomed by fans from Rockport, as the Chromatik corporate giant seeks to heavily invest into not just the club but the entire area. The city of Rockport is not one of the major hubs in Dantopia but is a proud northern, coastal city with a history of shipping and fishing. The development of local talents — such as the Cunningham brothers in recent years — has always been a point of pride for the club and the community. It is hoped that with the investment from Black Raven Technologies, future stars might be uncovered at Rockport — and whilst Kaleb Kahananui is not a Rockporter, but instead from Lion City, and the Grenadiers academy, he too will be familiar with the Chromatik company, as he has recently joined the Vna-Chuhul Ravens of Tikariot, another club under the umbrella of Black Raven Technologies.

Group 9
POSNATIONPWDLGFGAGDPTS
1Chromatika64022013+712
2The Ko-orenite Constellation5320103+711
3Abanhfleft5311103+710
4Dantopia631288010
5Atymnius (Dēmos)5212118+37
6Whispinia6204918-96
7Archalit5113610-44
8United States Of Alpha5113814-64
9Karmosora5113611-54

Chief of Acquisitions at the firm, Mariam Wyman, had this to say on the take-over at Rockport. "Rockport is a proud, blue-collar community, with an important and storied history in Dantopia. It's football club is intertwined with that story, and we hope to help it carry on in that vein. We hope the Ravens will continue to be a team that Rockporters feel just as strongly tied to as they do their community. We will always push for excellence within this great organisation and look to promote local talent as best as we can. We are thrilled to start this excellent adventure in the city of Rockport."

Dani Spaghetti

The return of Dani Spaghetti to the team ahead of the match against Chromatika will be a welcome sight for fans of the Lions — the team has missed his composure and experience in the middle of the park. Rick Bishop is once again at full strength going into the next fixture. Following the game against Chromatika in match-day eight, Dantopia will have two back-to-back away fixtures against Abanhfleft and Dēmos (Atymnius), before hosting United States Of Alpha at the Bank of Dantopia Stadium in Dartford in match-day eleven.

Expected Line-up against Chromatika
A. Bullvale — W. Cross — E. Cromwell — K. Foster — K. Kahananui — D. Spaghetti — E. Cunningham — J. Kealoha — A. Adeyemi — B. Brunson — M. Danchevy (C)

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OOC Disclaimer: Images used in this RP post were created with the help of generative AI but have been hand edited and refined by myself. Proof of this can be produced upon request from the hosts.

[Sangti and the Filindo Isles]

Behh 0–2 Sangti and the Filindo Isles
World Cup 100 Qualifying - Behh
SFI Scorers: Renze Coligado (9'), Jeremil Jomerson Boire (40')
SFI Lineup: Aldren Lucero Labawig, Serio Irorita ▼ (▲ Fiona Thibault 45 + 1'), Aljon Syquiatco ▼ (▲ Katrina Charlaine Pernia 84'), Arshed Basque, Kohlen Chestang, Mary Virginia Fonder, Renze Coligado, Rutchel Cerdeno, Aletta Abigail Reano ▼ (▲ Jomark Sampang 57'), Jeremil Jomerson Boire, Neal Abon

Sangti and the Filindo Isles 2–2 Choppyhausen
World Cup 100 Qualifying - Nuevo Estadio Nacional, Nuevo San Marco, Sangti and the Filindo Isles
SFI Scorers: Rutchel Cerdeno (16'), Jeremil Jomerson Boire (39')
SFI Lineup: Aldren Lucero Labawig, Katrina Charlaine Pernia, Aljon Syquiatco, Arshed Basque, Analyn Joyce Berin ▼ (▲ Diwata Blonna 54'), Meira Madlangsakit ▼ (▲ Renze Coligado 56'), Erika Madlangsakit, Rutchel Cerdeno ▼ (▲ Amor Tanquintic 68'), Aletta Abigail Reano, Jeremil Jomerson Boire, Neal Abon

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Libertad Sportswear Main Office
Nuevo San Marco, SFI

Days after Paterno sent an official communication to the FA TJUN-ia regarding his offer of a kit refresh, he was able to get a favorable response from their Esportivan brethren. His assistants still wanted more clients aside from Nova Calania, and potentially TJUN-ia, as first, Hispinas was not able to register in time for the current qualifying campaign. Also absent in this edition's qualifying is Doubeia, and North-and South Slavo-Baltia, and Nascadia did not even bother to participate in international football.

"Sir, our storefront is not looking good right now. How can we be able to attract more customers? Only two nations out of around two hundred are wearing Libertad this campaign and no one is lodging a new request right now. How can we compete with the likes of Nerio, Kirola, and other companies in kit making?" One of the assistants muttered during the daily stand up meeting Paterno sent.

"Easy now, what we can do now is to maintain good relations with those having existing agreements with us. We gave the Agilang Dilaw the retro feel this campaign, and we are finalizing a deal with TJUN-ia to do the same. Now, our current client, Nova Calania, have won their regional competition. We will make a communication with them to offer a kit refresh since they should be eligible for one since the last time they ordered during WC97 qualifiers. I can handle this and make sure we could close the deal."

With this, Paterno prepared two offical communications. One to TJUN-ia to finalize the deal, and one to Nova Calania to offer a klt refresh with an option for a Anaia-themed third kit.

"Speaking of regional-themed kits, should we commission one as well to the Agilang Dilaw for their away match against TJUN-ia?"

"Hmm, that is a good idea."

TO: Official Representatives of FA-TJUN-ia
FR: Paterno Pajo
    CEO, Libertad Sportswear

SUBJECT: Updated kit deal for TJUN-ia National Team

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Hi! Thank you for accepting our offer for a contract negotiation. We would like to finalize the details of the contract to supply your national team with football kits. The minimum terms would be for three World Cup cycles starting from WC 100 to WC 102, then you will be free to renegotiate the design of the kits or look for other potential avenues thereafter.

We would love to get your inputs on the design of the kits, as it will be very valuable for us to fulfill them. As one of the tenured nations in the multiverse, we would also offer you a third kit option, something that we are only offering to select potential clients that we feel that deserve that privilege. Let us know if you have any theme in mind, although we are currently offering this template for our third kit offers.

You may reach out to me via private message (OOC: TG Sangti and the Filindo Isles or via Discord), or fill out the form template in our storefront website.

We will be waiting for your response and will work on the kits as soon as we receive it.

Thanks and Regards.

TO: Official Representatives of United States of Nova Calania
FR: Paterno Pajo
    CEO, Libertad Sportswear

SUBJECT: Updated kit deal for United States of Nova Calania National Team

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Greetings!

I am Paterno Pajo, the current Chief Executive Officer of the Libertad Sportswear company, who is one of the emerging kit makers in the multiverse. I am writing to your organization as one of the current valued clients of our company.

First of all, I apologize if we were not able to congratulate you promptly for your qualification to last edition's World Cup finals and your triumph in the most recent CAFA Cup tournament. As you have already fulfilled the three-cycle minimum term for the initial kits supplied from World Cup 97 campaign, we would like to inquire if you are interested in renewing the partnership we have by ordering new designs of your kits for the next three cycles minimum. In addition to that and your recent success, we would like to inform you that you are eligible for an offer for a third kit option, something that we are only offering to select potential clients that we feel that deserve that privilege.

Regarding this third kit, we have an Anaia-themed kit design in mind that is a prototype of our new template for third kit offers, but we would like to have your inputs as well on it, although we are currently offering this template for our third kit offers. You may also choose to retain the current kit designs that you have for the primary and change kits.

We appreciate your response on this matter. Kindly let us know if you have any concerns or issues with this communication. Hope to hear your response soon.

Thanks and Regards.

[Grod Island]

Back from the Brink: Grod Island Fights, Bleeds, and Finally Blooms
By Leni Haravo, Senior Football Correspondent

For a nation still recovering from the eight-goal nightmare of Matchday 1, Grod Island’s World Cup campaign has taken a welcome turn. Three wins, one narrow defeat, and something that’s been missing for a while - belief.

Matchday 5: Sector 18 0–1 Grod Island

Grod Island’s push for qualification stayed on course with a narrow but vital win over Sector 18, a result we ground out more through grit than flair.

Sector 18 started aggressively, pressing high and snapping into tackles. Grod Island looked rattled early, their midfield unable to find rhythm. The first fifteen minutes saw little football and plenty of fouls, and by the 20th minute, midfielder Karo Yavene went into the book for a tug on the break.

Gradually though, the Water Lillies settled. Lano Kure began dictating the tempo, switching play to stretch the compact Sector 18 defence. Their best chance of the half came in the 34th minute when winger Vani Samori's low cross flashed across the box just out of Yavene’s reach.

The breakthrough arrived late in the second half. In the 67th minute, Kure clipped a clever diagonal ball into the box. Lani Varo, ghosting in from the right, met it first time but his volley was parried, then Riko Aneme (yes, the keeper, upfield after a corner routine that stayed alive) recycled possession, chipped it back in, and Evan Rani was there to head home from six yards.

After that, it was trench warfare. Sector 18 threw everything forward but rarely tested Aneme. We lowered our line of engagement and defended deep, sometimes too deep, but our shape held. Substitute wingback Tenoa Kewali also picked up a yellow for a professional foul breaking up a late counter, and that was that.

It was not a pretty performance by any means, but it was a professional one. Our back line stayed disciplined, and while our attack still lacks sharpness, our control in midfield made the difference. These are the kind of games teams generally look back on if they qualify - ugly yes, narrow perhaps, but absolutely crucial.

Matchday 6: Grod Island 2–3 Vdara

Vdara - ranked 25th in the world and playing like it. The best team in the group alongside Milchama, and for ninety breathless minutes, Grod Island fought tooth and nail.

Vdara started strong and took control early. The Water Lillies were penned in for the first quarter-hour, unable to clear their lines as wave after wave came forward. When the opener arrived, it felt inevitable. But the team thankfully, didn’t fold like it did against Milchama.

They pushed higher, pressed harder, and found their rhythm. The equaliser came from a set piece when wingback Daren Kolopa swung in a wicked free kick that Maro Javiri met cleanly, rising above two defenders to head home. The captain roared, and the home crowd erupted, and for a few minutes, it looked like we have found our edge.

The second half was frantic. Tomas Raveka wisely decided to park the bus and grind out a draw. Winning even a single point is an absolute steal in a fixture like this one. But Vdara’s quality in possession started to show, pulling our defence all over the pitch, and two quick goals turned the game again. Even then, Raveka’s men refused to die quietly. In the 84th minute, substitute striker Samu Selari slipped a neat pass through the back line for Evan Rani (who has established himself as our star for the WC leading the scoring charts), who squeezed his shot past the keeper from a tight angle. 2–3.

The last few minutes were pure chaos. Grod Island threw everyone forward - wingbacks bombing up, long balls flying, Raveka shouting himself hoarse on the touchline. A few scrappy chances came and went, and then it was over. The players sank to the turf, knowing they’d come close but not close enough.

There’s really no shame in this one. Vdara are one of the best teams in the world, and Grod Island matched them stride for stride for most of the night. They competed, pressed, and looked far better organised than in the opening matches. The back line still switches off at key moments, and the goal difference (-6) will hurt in the standings, but this performance showed that there is still faint hope for qualification.

The Table, and the Task Ahead

After six games, Grod Island sit fourth with nine points, three wins, and a still-ugly goal difference of –6. Not out of the woods yet. Those early drubbings still drag us down, and it could come back to haunt us if qualification goes to fine margins.

Next up: Liberecky Krajland. The unranked dark horse of Group 11. Nobody knows where they came from, but they’ve torn through the group like a storm with sixteen goals scored, third place, and a point away from the big two. They’ve beaten better sides than us.

For Raveka, this is the real test. The team is finally showing shape, composure, and a bit of swagger. But to prove Grod Island belongs on this table, they’ll need more than spirit. They’ll need discipline, precision, and a little luck.

For now, though, the island is daring (cautiously but still) to dream again.

[Hanalia]

Justine Long had been at sea for some time, enjoying the solitude aboard her yacht, the Dublin Bay. Cradling a cup of tea, listening to the lapping of the water against the hull, as the orange sunset sky gave way to the deep blue starry night above the Sullow Sea. It was as if she was alone in the multiverse. There was no evidence of another soul in existence. This individual illustration was soon to come to an end as she needed to resupply her provisions. She set course for the historic port city of Auldfort, Saltstead.

It was late in the evening by the time she had arrived, moored up, checked in with the marina manager, changed and headed into town. She had the good fortune of finding herself in many interesting places on her travels and Auldfort was no different. The small streets opened up into plazas and squares full of people and buzz. Each one had a distinct feel to it and by the time she had seen a handful or so of them she drifted into a bar that was advertising live music and ordered a drink.

Justine followed her ears through the labyrinth of rooms to the one where the band were playing. Although they were singing in Saltsteadish, the emotion of music is universal and Justine had learned to appreciate that and dance along regardless. She enjoyed the mostly energetic pop/dance tracks but every so often they threw in a slower one to sway along to and catch your breath. When the time came for Justine to take a break, refresh with a glass of water and acquire another drink she set off through the maze again in search of a bar.

Just as she passed a doorway a great chorus of "OOHHHH!" was expelled from within that snapped her attention. There was a large projection of a football match. While many of the room's inhabitants were wearing shirts matching one of the teams, they were clearly playing Hanalia owing to the unmistakable Fire Orange kits. The collective exclamation was evidently a result of Hass punching away a shot by Victorijn Såutwelle. It was evidently a crucial save as the score stood at 2-2 with 36 minutes left to play.

Justine continued on her mission to find a bar and now added to the quest was the task of finding restrooms to relieve herself. With all business taken care of she attempted to retrace her steps to rejoin the dance floor. She must've got lost along the way as she found the music room without again passing the football match. There were only another handful of songs played before a new band took to the stage. When the new band started into their third heavy metal song, Justine downed the rest of her drink thinking she'd head on somewhere else to find something more to her liking. Heading towards the exit she was held up by the football supporters leaving the room. The final score Saltstead 2 - 4 Hanalia displayed on the screen.

Following the Saltstead supporters onto the street, she continued to amble through the streets. Dropping into this bar and that for a drink, as the night wore on and steadily the number of establishments remaining open began to dwindle. Justine sought out her way back to the shore and back to the Dublin Bay. As she was bedding down for the night, Auldfort was very nice, she thought, maybe I'll stay a while.

Schedule
MD1 v Astograth      D 0-0   MD7  BYE                      MD13 v Zwangzug
MD2 @ HOT-DAMN       L 1-3   MD8  v Olastor                MD14 @ Brusselstein
MD3 v Vaishnavaria   W 3-0   MD9  @ Chemicala              MD15 v Saltstead
MD4 @ Zwangzug       L 0-3   MD10 @ Astograth              MD16 BYE
MD5 v Brusselstein   W 4-1   MD11 v HOT-DAMN               MD17 @ Olastor
MD6 @ Saltstead      W 4-2   MD12 @ Vaishnavaria           MD18 v Chemicala

[United States of Nova Calania]

Nova Calania defeats Bears Armed on matchday 6

Starting XI vs Bears Armed @ Stadion Azteca, Ostrow Krolewski, Odlegla Ziemia

GK Bleau-Bean - LB A. McCaskill - CB Wolkowicz - CB T. Gibouleau-Beaudoin [-> Moineau '68] - RB N. McCaskill - DCM Fauteux-McGrath - LW S. McCaskill [-> M. Klingenberg '68] - ACM C. Gibouleau-Beaudoin - RW Van der Jagt - S Guénette-Velazquez - S Goudreau-Luneau [ -> Dockendorf Salazar '74]

Ostrow Krolewski, Odlegla Ziemia - If Nova calania wants to secure a spot at World Cup 100, they needs to beat the best teams in their group and Bears Armed is one of them. They're the team with the most history. Mei Qi Xiong missed the game because of an undisclosed injury and Scarlett McCaskill replaced her in the starting XI. Nova Calania attacked at the 19th minute when Charlotte Gibouleau-Beaudoin made a short pass to Rodrigo Guénette-Velazquez who kicks it into the goal. The Tapirs increased their lead at the 62nd minute when Rodrigo Guénette-Velazquez received the ball and, instead of shooting, he made a cross to Frédérique Goudreau-Luneau who kicks it past the goalkeeper. Rose Van der Jagt had the ball at the 83rd minute and she passed it to Haley Dockendorf Salazar who had a better angle. Dockendorf Salazar shoots and she scores! This is her first goal with the national team and the final score is 3-0 Nova Calania.

After 5 games played in 6 matchdays, Nova Calania is still 1st, tied with The Lake Isle of Innisfree. The Lake Isle of Innisfree is an impostor and we have found the impostor that is among us! In 3rd and 5th place, we have Zenic and Bonusia who, I believe, have the best chances to get the 2nd place. Nova Calania will travel to The Lake Isle of Innisfree on week 7 and our best starting XI will be on the field against the 2nd best team in our group. On week 8, we will receive Greater Deutsche at Stade Fernand-Desgroseilliers in the Baie-Sainte-Marguerite neighborhood of Saint-Jean-Jacques-sur-Mer. Some of our best players will rest against them.

Starting XI @ The Lake Isle of Innisfree

GK Bleau-Bean - LB A. McCaskill - CB Wolkowicz - CB T. Gibouleau-Beaudoin - RB N. McCaskill - DCM Fauteux-McGrath - LW Yi Ming Xiong - ACM C. Gibouleau-Beaudoin - RW Van der Jagt - S Guénette-Velazquez - S Goudreau-Luneau

Starting XI vs Greater Deutsche @ Stade Fernand-Desgroseilliers, Sainr-Jean-Jacques-sur-Mer

GK Mongrain - LB Blouin - CB Wolkowicz - CB Olkowski - RB MacNeely - DCM Yi Ming Xiong - LW M. Klingenberg - ACM Dockendorf Salazar - RW Van der Jagt - S Guénette-Velazquez - S Malboeuf

Paul-André Veilleux

2029 Co-Consulship Candidates

Wlodzimierz Pruszkowski (incumbent): Pruszkowski is running for a 2nd mandate. He was elected for two years in 2027 following the creation of the United States of Nova Calania. Before being elected, he spent 30 years in municipal politics. Then, he was Grand Duchess Wladyslawa Wozniakowska's advisor for nearly 20 years and a senator in Odlegla Zlemia's upper house. His favorite beer is the Alan Belmore and his favorite football club is Przybyszowianka Chwojnowszczyzna. He's married with 3 adult children and 6 grandchildren.

Agnieszka Ostrowska-Czajkowska: Commonly known as AOC, Ostrowska-Czajkowska. started her career as a lead singer in a struggling metal band who only performed in seedy bars in Ostrow Krolewski, the capital city of Odlegla Ziemia. Three years ago, she started rallies against illegal immigrants in Ostrow Krolewski and now, she's dipping her toes in the waters into politics. She's known for her far right positions. Her favorite beer is the Simeone Di Bradini and her favorite football club is Hutnik Ostrow Krolewski, a 2nd division club. She has a boyfriend and a 12 months old baby from a previous relationship.

Coralie Bourgoin: Bourgoin is a retired sexy tenniswoman who'se now playing pickleball. She speaks English only and is denying her Jean-Jacquois heritage. She has no knowledge into politics but she thought applying for consulship would be fun. Her favorite beer is the Pamela Scott and her favorite football club is West Burnham United F.C. She's actually seeing someone and have no kids.

The result of the election will be known during the 100th World Cup in august. Only the governors of the 5 states of the United States of Nova Calania are eligible to vote. These 5 governors are: Prince Pierre-Alexandre 1er de Saint-Jean-Jacques-sur-Mer; General Secretary of the Burnhamese Communist Party, Braelynn McIlwain; Grand Duchess Wladyslawa Wozniakowska; General Zhang and Supreme Leader Moctezuma XIX. The co-consuls are elected the same way as the pope is chosen, with a secret vote.

The other co-consul is Sophie-Charlotte Gingues, in office until 2031.

Anne-Charlotte McDermott

[Tanirinthia]

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OF FATES AND FORTUNES
Chapter Thirty Eight -Bibliosmia

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Throughout their travels in the multiverse they had encountered all sorts of things, realms made of dreams, sentient and, perhaps more concerningly, armed bears, and many more weird and wonderful differences. But he had pondered what constants there seemed to be among the multiverse. Now the obvious one they had encountered was sports, the largest of which being association football, this was obvious and it was the backbone of this particular multiverse. Now there seemed precious else that truly was a constant found in every world, sure there were some things that were present on many (coffee thankfully seeming to be one of the more abundant ones), but there was one that surprised and delighted Jasper in equal measure.

Books, files and records, not the existence of them, but the smell. Across the multiverse, they were made of all sorts of things, paper yes, but throughout the many worlds there were all sorts of different materials used, however when you placed them all together in a library, hall of records or equivalent place the smell remained the same. Bibliosmia was the neologism used back in Tanirinth, and if you looked it up you would have it described as gradual chemical breakdown of the compounds used within the paper, but his travels across the multiverse had revealed something deeper, that this smell was somehow linked to the grouping of knowledge, or perhaps simply knowledge itself.

As Jasper found himself at the Genealogical Hall of Records, he felt the aroma wash over him, and for the time being that comfy smell helped dull the thrum in his head and lessened the weight on his shoulders.

Clara could only do so much online, digitisation of older records was something not prioritised and although the census records were able for her to search, they were only every decade leaving gaps that needed filling in as well as the fact any census in living memory was not available, they had even to Clara’s chagrin taking the step of not even digitising them ready to go online when they would be legally able to do so. This meant they weren’t hiding somewhere she may have been able to hack her way into. And it may have put her in a foul mood, it gave Jasper the chance to do his favourite thing; hands on research, nose deep.

Clara still got to have some fun, as he needed a fake identity for him to go undercover as members of the public didn't have the full access he needed. Howard Elliott however was able to get behind the scenes at the hall of records. Jasper obviously had no trouble blending in with the librarians and record keepers that worked there, after all they were his kin. He was even able to set himself up in unused office space and began getting to the task at hand.

Several days passed, as he painstakingly recreated the family trees of the twelve individuals who had been shifted back home by circumstances out of their control. The eye of history through the lens of official records and newspapers is an interesting one, in some cases you need to infer what happens without specific records to back it up, but the lack of certain records, or only the appearance of only certain individuals on some records compared to others. In some cases this would be the likelihood of a child being the product of an affair, either meaning a likely descendant never being officially linked to one of the families, or the opposite a branch where on the record they are full descendants, but are in fact not even descended in any way to the original twelve. It was all fascinating and engaging to him, and speaking to Clara in his excitement about all of this, she likened it to problem solving she had to do in programming.

Knock! Knock!

The sound jolted Jasper up from the papers and his thoughts, he told whoever it was to come in. A slender figure walked through the door, they seemed somewhat fuzzy, Jasper rubbed his eyes supposing he'd been staring at books for too long and needed to refocus on things further away, but as his eyes returned to the figure the fuzziness remained

"Now Mr Elliot, " the figure said while sitting themselves down opposite Jasper "It seems time for a long overdue conversation, I've never thanked you for freeing me"

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Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five | Chapter Six | Chapter Seven | Chapter Eight | Chapter Nine | Chapter Ten | Chapter Eleven | Chapter Twelve | Chapter Thirteen | Chapter Fourteen | Chapter Fifteen | Chapter Sixteen | Chapter Seventeen | Chapter Eighteen | Chapter Nineteen | Chapter Twenty | Chapter Twenty-One | Chapter Twenty-Two | Chapter Twenty-Three | Chapter Twenty-Four | Chapter Twenty-Five | Chapter Twenty-Six | Chapter Twenty-Seven | Chapter Twenty-Eight | Chapter Twenty-Nine | Chapter Thirty | Chapter Thirty-One | Chapter Thirty-Two | Chapter Thirty-Three | Chapter Thirty-Four | Chapter Thirty-Five | Chapter Thirty-Six | Chapter Thirty-Seven

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Matchday Five

Matchday Six

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[Eshialand]

The Dust Starts to Settle
Krytenia 0-2 Eshialand
Eshialand 6-3 Montagne Noire

What happens when two teams manage to forget the entire concept of defense and just start potting goals past each other like it's some sort of contest before the ESL's all-star match? Well, you get whatever just happened at the SuperDome when Montagne Noire came to town.

A lot of this can be blamed on the sheer nature of the team. This was a team that didn't really have any sort of concept of "positions" or "formations". Instead, you have 10 dogs running down the field after the ball like it's a game of fetch and one poor soul sitting in the goal waiting on their turn to go after the ball themselves. This was not a normal football team, and it was something the Owls were absolutely unprepared for, and they realized this as early as the 7th minute, when Alan Belmore the Border Collie headed a ball past Harry Bruske.

The Alan Belmore effect is a funny thing. While it may seem like an innocent and non-descript name, it's one that seems to love following all sorts of random shenanigans. Whenever you see an Alan Belmore -- or an Alán Belmores, or an Avi Benbemore, or any other sort of variation thereof -- weird things seem to follow. Oftentimes, it's just because these players play for very unique teams, such as this team from Montagne Noire, or those variant names which come from the Holy Empire and Milchama respectively. Alan Belmores follow unusual things, unusual things follow Alan Belmores. It's a tale as old as the World Cup itself.

The Alan Belmore effect seemed to be manifesting itself here, as once the Owls surrendered one goal, another quickly followed off the snout of Soleil the Australian Shepherd. This is when Kenny Morgan realized that playing normal football was never going to work against such a fundamentally abnormal team. There's only one thing you can do when faced with such a bizarre sort of squad with tactics straight out of a storybook.

They needed to embrace kindergarten tactics.

Instead of "passing", Mel Carey had the guts to call for players to hog the ball and shoot like they just learned how soccer works and really wanted to be heroes. Instead of "dribbling" they would play keepaway with the other team, practically taunting them as they got past them. Instead of playing soccer as it was "meant" to be played, they started playing as if Space Laser Dinosaur Robot Pirate Land just accepted a new class of children who had never seen a football before, and they were that new class of children, and somehow it all started clicking.

Nobody at the stadium knew quite what was going on. Josh and Karsten had a lot of trouble calling play-by-play, as players kept cropping up in weird places they never belonged. "What do you mean Kami Elgin is taking a shot from the penalty kick spot?" Josh asked. "And why is there nobody within 5 miles of Harry Bruske??"

This sort of football, with everybody running after the ball at once, was much more tiring for humans than it was for canines, so Kenny burned through all his substitutions much quicker than he was used to... but the results were showing for themselves. When the smoke cleared, it turned out the Owls were overwhelming the Doggies with their own style of play. This was like nothing any Eshian had seen before... it was madness.

Eshialand - 6 (Elgin 22'; Davis 31'; Young 45+1'; Umbring 52'; Olyred 70'; Daniels 87')
Montagne Noire - 3 (Alan Belmore 7'; Soleil 10'; Gribouille 66')

This win left the Owls in a surprisingly good position heading into MD7. While things may've looked dicey after the draw to Captina Island, they now found themselves tied for 1st with them, but with a game in hand where Captina instead suffered a loss to Putrasia. There would be no accurate way to compare the whole group until after MD9 when every team would have played 8 matches each, but their last matches before that critical checkpoint were @ Britonisea, vs. Nergtul, and @ AJTON. None of these teams had any wins that weren't against each other, and all looked like the Owls could make quick work of them.

While Kenny Morgan still stressed that those matches weren't at all freebies and they would still need to put in a ton of work to get the wins, "I'm proud of what our team was able to do here tonight. They faced a team that played unlike anything they had ever seen, and adapted in ways I would never have expected. I have to thank Mel for making that call there, I don't think I ever would've considered doing anything of the sort... together, we make an amazing managing team, and our players make an excellent playing team. This is what we need right now, and I'm so excited to see how it'll keep going."

[Qusmo]

Uzo sighed and turned off the TV. “Good win.”

“Great win!” Uka corrected. Their sibling was so optimistic, about the national team most of all. “Eight-two, that’s amazing!”

“Yeah.” Uzo was unconvinced, but they didn’t want to argue about football. “Maybe.”

“Maybe? What’re you talking about? Definitely!” Apparently Uka did. “Anytime you put eight balls in the back of the net, anytime you win by six goals, that’s one hell of a win right there.”

“I don’t know. I just don’t think it’s all that impressive to demolish some unranked team.”

“Oh, come on,” Uka protested. “You can only beat the team in front of you, and we did. You can’t ask for much more than that, honestly.”

“I can ask for a clean sheet,” Uzo retorted. “I can ask for us not to concede multiple goals against some also-ran who won’t even be back next cycle.”

“Oh, come on, Uka. It’s not absolutely perfect, so what? We’re doing fine. More than fine, much more than just fine. Eight goals! Come on.” Uka was absolutely incredulous with their sibling’s negativity.

“But we keep letting them in!” Uzo answered. “Two goals today, one goal last time, two goals the game before, five goals against Ko-oren, two goals on opening day.”

“Oh, seriously, Uka, you’re better than that. Indo-Athena were so behind, it was hopeless. They had to throw everything forward they could, and they got a couple consolations. No big deal, we hammered them.”

“But it’s not just about this game,” explained Uzo. “It’s the whole campaign. It’s the whole system.” They paused. “Five games so far during Qualifying, three against teams outside the top two hundred fifty, and we haven’t recorded a single clean sheet. We’ve only even held them to one goal once so far this entire Quali. It just isn’t sustainable.”

“Oh, seriously, that’s just all wrong. It doesn’t matter if you let two in if you score three. Or eight! Or nine! We never scored nine before, until Shizuna Rem Misurugi. We never scored more than eight before, until Indo-Athena — except, oh wait, against Shizuna Rem Misurugi!”

“It doesn’t matter—”

“How doesn’t it matter?” Uka cut their sibling off. “Eight goals scored, nine goals scored, six-goal win, seven-goal win. Those’re records! Those’re good!”

“Yeah, I mean, that’s great. That’s great for that match. But we’re in fifth place, the team in the playoff spot has more than double our points, and a team ranked outside the top three hundred has a six-point lead and a head-to-head away win.” Uka tried to get a word in, but Uzo wouldn’t let them. “At some point, you can’t rely on glamor results, you have to stack results. You have to be consistent. And what’s been consistent so far? We’ve conceded goals every match, we’ve conceded multiple goals four out of five matches— and we can score in bunches against bad teams, but we can’t score against the good ones. We’ve played the top three teams, and we’ve scored one home goal against Canamn, of all teams, in three matches, and no surprise when we keep conceding, we’ve lost them all. We consistently let in goals. We don’t consistently score eight or nine goals. We can’t consistently score eight or nine goals, that’s just not possible, certainly not at the international level. We’re going up against the biggest, most diluted Qualifying field in history, and we’re going to have blowouts, but what actually matters is winning against the top teams. If we blast Indo-Athena eight-two and Carpathia and Ruthenia wins one-nil, two-nil, three-one, it doesn’t matter— we both have the exact same three points, and it just comes down to who wins against the top few teams, and we haven’t been able to do that. And if we keep conceding goals willy-nilly, we won’t be able to do that.”

“Come on, this is completely off. It’s just like you to be negative after we somehow win by six. We’re rounding into form: seventeen goals in our past three matches, we’ve never done that before in our history, compared to five against. We started off slow, but our players are picking up the system and we’re rounding into form just at the right time. We’re second in the goal difference table already!”

“And we’re fifth in the actual table!” Uzo cried out. “We only got six points in those three matches where we scored seventeen. We smashed the two nobody teams, and when it came down to the one game we absolutely had to win, against the team which actually was competitive, we lost without scoring a single goal. It’s not the players, it’s the system itself. Ilinx-Kepex wants to control every single shadow on every single blade of grass over the whole ninety minutes, and maybe you can do that in the League of the Single Sun, but you can’t do that at international level, and you especially can’t do that against these quality teams. Sometimes it works, and you can just do the same thing over and over again and even score eight or nine. That’s great. But even when you’re hammering them, completely dominant, without mercy, you still let in a pair of goals at the back end. All it takes is one little slip-up, one little mix-up, one little mistake, and the goalkeeper’s fishing the ball out of their own net. You just can’t bank on that for a whole Qualifying campaign. I’m sorry, it’s just not happening.”

Uzo stood up and grabbed their jacket. Uka could hear them muttering, “I’m just so fucking tired of this shit.” They didn’t know whether their sibling was referring to the game.

Uzo walked out. Uka didn’t follow.

[Chromatika]

World Cup 100 Qualifying Matchday 5: Chromatika 3-2 Karmosora
Goals: Xuen-Zhukov 28', 61', 84'
Starting XI: Sourtois; Coulibaly - Jackson-Jones - Saburo; Fillar, G. - Mesic-Mizayaki - Fillar, B. - Fillar, E.; Françine-Miklavivec; Xuen-Zhukov (C) - Howard-Dawes.
Substitutes: Lethbridge-Antonio, C. -> Jackson-Jones (62'), Prenn -> Fillar, B. (62'), Bittencourt -> Howard-Dawes (78'), Van Der Borght -> Mesic-Mizayaki (78'), Nodis -> Saburo (83')
Summary: It took a brilliant hat trick from Lavrentiy Xuen-Zhukov for the Chromatiks to escape this matchup against Karmosora. The visitors got two goals on the board in the first fifteen minutes - a penalty kick off of a hard tackle and a corner - but Xuen-Zhukov was able to take over for the rest of the game. It makes it three out of three games that the best of the best Chromatik players have failed to dominate in a game - a worrying trend.

World Cup 100 Qualifying Matchday 6: The Ko-orenite Constellation 4-2 Chromatika
Goals: Howard-Dawes 32', Fillar, B. 71'
Starting XI: Sourtois; Coulibaly - Jackson-Jones - Saburo; Fillar, G. - Mesic-Mizayaki - Fillar, B. - Fillar, E.; Françine-Miklavivec; Xuen-Zhukov (C) - Howard-Dawes.
Substitutes: Han Cunningham -> Jackson-Jones (67'), Þyrill -> Françine-Miklavivec (67'), Paterson -> Coulibaly (76'), Baïe-Verte -> Howard-Dawes (76'), Mátyás -> Fillar, E. (86')
Summary: The Anomalies' first string dropped their second match - both on the road - as the Constellation dominated the majority of the game to shock the Chromatiks. They still have the lead in the group because of having a game in hand, but the Constellation hasn't dropped a game yet - very worrying for the Chromatiks.

---

World Cup 100 Qualifying - Matchdays 7 & 8 vs. (119) Archalit @ Chromatik City Field, Chromia, Capital District (Cap. 100,000; 32,000 Seats) & @ (UR) Dantopia
Starting XI: Swanson (C); Paterson - Lethbridge-Antonio, C. - Saburo; Hauptmeijer - Lethbridge-Antonio, J. - Prenn - Mátyás; Lee; Jean-Baptiste - Baïe-Verte.
Reserves: GK Jessika Aniston, GK Hera Courtois, DCR Jaxon Lehmann, DC Samantha Han Cunningham, DCL Cylie Nodis, DCR Ami Coulibaly, MR Kandice Oriol, WBL Róża Panaś, WBL Willemieke Janissen op Colmans, CDM Cassandra Van Der Borght, CDM Eden Gunsdorf, BWM Erica Holgersson, AM Þyrill Bjarnhéðinsson, AF Adélaïde Bittencourt, CF Jack Heimdell, AF Elaine Howard-Dawes.
Preview: For now, Chromatika will continue to rotate. This will end the first leg of this Qualifying Cycle. They've done well enough in the games played so far, and the Anomalies need all six points to stay atop the group.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Epsilon Omicron Delta

Part 4

KEIRA

It was crazy to think that barely three months ago, the biggest event in Keira Andisori's life was trying to prepare for running for Premier in the upcoming Election. It was going to be Andisori vs. Armageddon, two previous Chromatik Anomalies that had transitioned to politics. The Rainbow Party against a Red/Spade/Green Alliance that had grown to become rather formidable since the scandal of the New Light Party and the Abyssal Occupation followed by the rebuilding of the eastern half of Myana Island.

Then, the Great Resonance Shift had happened, and Keira Andisori had devoted her life to trying to rebuild the country after that. To his credit, so had Enigma and his people - what mattered was restoring normalcy to Chromatika as soon as possible. The Chromatik Security Council was the perfect entity to have in charge in the interim, and they could fight it out in the political theater afterwards.

The Yesopalithan allies still in Chromatika had helped tremendously in the three months since the Great Resonance Shift. There was now a fully functioning Planar Gateway between the center of Chromia and Freedom's Altar that was constantly bringing in supplies. Magic worked in this new plane/dimension that Chromatika was now part of, but no matter what the scientists tried, electronic could not. Things that were battery-powered would power up, but the very nature of the air around them would not allow for a signal to travel through it or electricity itself. This made running a country nearly impossible without having to resort to some more archaic ways.

Three months was enough time to come up with a rudimentary system using pack animals, some battery-powered simple machines, and a whole lot of Yesopalithan spellcasters to run a country. The people were being housed, fed, and comforted to the best of their ability, which meant that they could start figuring out what exactly was going on.

According to the explorers who had been to the edge of the usual landmass of Chromatika, there was an invisible barrier that prevented anyone from going past the usual physical borders of the country. Freshwater did exist within the country where the water used to be, but there was no such thing as an ocean here; in fact, one of the great mysteries of this plane/dimension was where the water was coming from - since there was no sun and no weather. The mountaintops of the Mountain District remained in the same temperature, but as there was no temperature variance, there was no melting of things either.

Thermodynamics dictated that whenever the Chromatiks/Yesopalithans created energy, it had to dissipate somewhere - but the plane/dimension that they were in defied those very laws. The people were allowed to exist and to do what they needed to survive, but there were none of the established, expected results from the environment.

The smart people in the country started calling it the null constant, and although they tried to test the magnitude of the null constant by doing various experiments, a limit was simply not being found yet.

As to the whereabouts of the now-confirmed six hundred thirty-eight thousand, three hundred and sixteen souls that had been taken from Chromatika since arriving at this new plane/dimension, there hadn't been much success, either. The scientists and the magicians were able to determine that the people would've been fully healthy at the moment of their transportation, and that the transportation itself wouldn't have harmed them. Popular theories stated that they had been taken into another pocket dimension or plane, but the fact that there were millions of potential dimensions and planes meant that it would be near impossible to figure out exactly where they were or for what purpose they were taken. The forces that were causing the planar shifts seemed to have figured out that the Chromatik/Yesopalithan alliance had figured out how to counteract the pulses, as they had stopped occurring.

The sheer amount of magic that would take to take Chromatika back to the dimension that they were in wasn't in the arsenal of the Yesopalithans, which meant there were only two ways to get out of this mess: Find the culprits of what was behind it and get them to reverse, or find another force in the multiverse with the power to send the Chromatiks back. Otherwise, they'd be stuck here, surviving but not thriving.

Nobody was giving up, but the stress of the situation was starting to get to some of the government agencies and the people in charge. The very Chromatik spirit was being challenged at the very core.

///

If there are fundamental rules of the multiverse that transcend those of physics, thermodynamics or the like, it is that for every force of evil, there has to be a force of good. Karma dictates that for every instance that something goes wrong, there is a chance of something going very right in a future instance - even if it seems to be unrelated to each other.

Key contributors had always showed up in Chromatik history at every moment of need. The Banijans, The Enlightened Ones that didn't follow the tenets of a select few that had been against the Chromatiks. The double agents that had turned their backs on The Shadow Hand when the truth was brought to light.

There was a fundamental force of the multiverse that did have its proverbial eye on the little nation known as Chromatika. It wasn't ready to make a full-on appearance yet, but it was not going to let this chance of showing its machinations go to waste.

The cavalry was coming.

[Ko-oren]

OOC: image AI-generated. Caption and 3 seconds in paint.net to turn it black and white are my own hard work.

Five games into the cycle and the Dragonflies have already scored more goals than in any qualification cycle going back to 95. Since then, they've scored 17 in 12, 25 in 16, 18 in 14, and 24 in 18. That's about 1.2 to 1.6 goals per game. World Cup 95 sat a little above that with 1.86, leading to 26 goals in 14 games. The records for the national team were set in the 60s, when we pursued a more attacking style with around 2 to 2.3 goals per game.

Right now, the Dragonflies are 4.6 goals per game.

Five games into the cycle and the Dragonflies have conceded one goal - that's 0.2 goals per game.

And that surpasses our best cycle to date - edition 91, which had .25 goals conceded per game.

Juliasterinthen is back in charge and the turnaround is incredible.

Pictured: Katanmak Juliasterinthen during the pre-WCQ 100 picture day.

Back when he took over the national team for the first time, he inherited the scraps of a previous regime and a pointless KFA failing to even field a national team for two full cycles. The club scene was more or less intact during that hiatus, but academies were barely hanging on and players were opting to play every sport except football. In his first cycle, he managed a 7th place in the qualification group. That improved to 5th in his second cycle, and stagnated immediately in cycle 3 - 5th again.

But that's when things started rolling. The academies had been working with Juliasterinthen's ultra-defensive vision for three years, so the 16-year olds were now about 20 and ready to contribute. The Top League had a stable set of 12 clubs - no promotion or relegation - to make sure each club to create their own pipeline, that they had time to implement their vision and strategy. Juliasterinthen wanted to go further and mandate which club should adhere to which general formation and strategy, but the KFA intervened. The clubs weren't too happy with that prospect, either. The result was that Straudum was the main defensive outfit and that may explain the overreliance of the national team in the late 70s on players from the purple northeastern club.

It worked, though.

From that moment on, Ko-oren always finished second or better in the qualifiers, except twice: cycle 82, just in the middle of the growing pains; cycle 93, which would be Davenport's last; and 99, where we went into the qualifiers with an interim coach. Say about Manguele what you will, but his four qualification cycles had us win the group three times and runner up once. Never in doubt.

Nobody doubted whether Juliasterinthen would have the defensive gameplan back up and running when he decided to offer his service to the KFA once more. But that it would also lead to the greatest offensive statement since the Nationalists' parliament fraction leader's Christmas speech? Unheard of.

Juliasterinthen left all the other things in place. The assistants hired by Manguele - Mivune, Brogley, Hosorthaunden, Theshendan - and their possession-oriented approach, as well as the selectors who have shown to get very creative with the midfield - but in a 32-man selection they also decided there was room for just three strikers. Apparently, that was the right mix to give to the legendary head coach, who... well, on the surface didn't really do much to the 5-4-1 we've come to love. Three centrebacks, two fullbacks, two of which have some creative license to drift up the field and help the midfield get a numbers advantage, then four midfielders whose job it is to circulate the ball, and then one striker who gets three half chances a game and he's got to make one goal assuming everyone else does their job.

But somewhere between then and now, the formula got changed. Ko-oren ranked near the top of the qualifiers in 99 in 'passes per chance', meaning that the midfield really circulated the ball a lot before attempting a shot or losing the ball. In 100, Ko-oren is towards the bottom of that metric. That's not because the defence clears the ball hoping that a more attack-minded teammate can find it before an opponent, but because Juliasterinthen has taken Manguele's relationism and made it 'effective': a compact defence to a compact buildup structure, geared towards getting the ball upfield. Knowing the new/old manager, that's mostly for field position purposes - surely Katanmak isn't a huge gridiron or rugby fan, but he'll have people on the staff who are familiar with those sports - but it also gets the ball behind most of our opponents. Caught on the back foot, any combination of Laza, Urwegun, Nakasarudhen, Entatingun, Sauzharegaunden and sole striker Hiraide have probably gotten the ok to simply go for goal.

Speaking of that midfield: in five games, we've seen nearly every combination we'd hoped to see. What happens with a symmetric, wide Sauzharegaunden-Laza. Or with the double playmaking Nakasarudhen-Entatingun. But we expected to see a lot of Andrade or Meigun - or possibly both at the same time - but Juliasterinthen has almost entirely foregone his defensive duo in favour of the name that seems to be the first on the list these days: Urwegun. The creative midfielder for Sterrenwolde is putting together attacking statistics that we haven't seen since maybe Shiribeshi (ask your great-grandparents: he played in the 50s) - both due to the players around her and the system as well as her own qualities - and as long as she can keep that up, we're sure we can keep scoring how many goals?

Is this really Ko-oren? How are we scoring 4.6 goals per game?

[Hapilopper]

REPORT: BOOTH LOSING SUPPORT OF LIBERALS
By Jimmy Falconer
Hapilopper City Herald

HAPILOPPER CITY – Reports from Liberal Party headquarters indicate that Brett Booth is losing the support of the Liberal Party, and is even facing calls to step down from within his own party.

Sources close to the party report that Booth held a disastrous meeting recently in Liberal Party headquarters. The meeting was mandatory for all to attend, even though it was held at the same time as many World Cup qualifying matchups. The timing of the meeting, according to sources, was one of the reasons for the meeting going so poorly.

“Nobody wanted to be there,” a source said on condition of anonymity. “It was a Saturday morning, people wanted to watch football and they didn’t want to be there. And they really didn’t want to be berated.”

The source said that Booth screamed at members of the Liberal Party for their role in a bench-clearing brawl that took place after Conservative Party leader Tom Baxter demanded a vote of no confidence. Booth singled out Deputy Liberal Party head Bob Strange, who threw the first punch in the melee. Strange walked out of the meeting and has resigned his post. Numerous members of the party also walked out of the meeting and of the party, founding the Social Hapiloppian Party.

“All of this is Booth’s fault,” the source said. “If he called us all to meet on Monday and handled this in a more appropriate manner, we wouldn’t have had a rift. Someone is drafting a resolution right now, within our party, asking him to step down. If he says no, we won’t ask so nicely the next time.”

As to who would replace Booth as the head of the Liberal Party, sources have floated several names, including Strange; Kerry Keller, Hapiloppian secretary of state; Ashley Thomas, a popular MP from Buckridge; and even Booth’s predecessor, William Mathis, now serving as the director of the HOT-DAMN territory.

When asked about possibly taking over as head of the Liberal Party again, Mathis responded negatively.

“Absolutely not,” Mathis said. “I don’t want to do that again. I have no desire to run for President again. I’m having too much fun in Anaia.”

While Booth declined to comment for the story, his press secretary, Marjorie Handel, said that Booth would not step down.

“That is absolutely out of the question,” Handel said. “We need to reform the Liberal Party, and we do so by correcting specific elements within the party, not by walking away from the job.”

---

BAXTER DEMANDS NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE FOR MONDAY
By Tim Goodman
Hapilopper City Herald

HAPILOPPER CITY – Tom Baxter, head of the Conservative Party of Hapilopper, has said he will “move Heaven and Earth” to make sure a no-confidence vote occurs on Monday.

The no-confidence vote, if successful, would remove Brett Booth from office as President of Hapilopper. Bob Strange, deputy leader of the Liberal Party and the de facto Vice President of Hapilopper, would not serve as replacement as Strange has resigned. Instead, Parliament would be effectively dissolved and an election would be scheduled for six weeks after the vote.

“Brett Booth has failed,” Baxter said. “And the Liberal Party has failed. There is no benefit from letting this sick experiment go on any longer. You have a government led by people who do not have Hapilopper’s best interests in mind, nor do they have any regard for the health, welfare, and safety of its people and the economic drivers that help make this country an economic powerhouse. I’m sorry I have to take this action, but drastic times call for drastic measures.”

Baxter said that if the vote passes, he will put his hat into the ring to run for Hapiloppian President. He also said that if the vote fails, he will call for another vote in one week.

“We’re going to do this until we do it right,” Baxter said. “Or unless Brett Booth sees the light for once in his life and realizes he is killing this country. We are not going to allow Brett Booth to continue to run this country. He either leaves or we’ll make him leave. His choice.”

Marjorie Handel, press secretary for President Booth, said Booth is directing Liberal members of Parliament to take action.

“We have options in our toolchest,” Handel said. “If Baxter wants to pull that stunt on Monday, we’ll be prepared. We’ll take care of this little issue the same way we took care of the electric ban veto override. We’ll run the clock out on it. And if Baxter wants to keep trying it, he’ll end up regretting it. Plain and simple.”

The Hapiloppian Parliament attempted to override President Booth’s veto on the electric car ban, but it did not come to a vote due to an extended filibuster on the topic. A two-thirds majority is required to stop a filibuster, and to override a veto, but not enough people could agree to stop the filibuster or to override the veto. There are 450 members of the Hapiloppian Parliament.

While the Liberal Party has a 55-45 majority in the Parliament, there appears to be some fractures in the party. Members of the party are starting to openly express dissatisfaction with Booth’s leadership, and the far-left flank has broken off into their own party, the Social Hapiloppian party. Some 45 members of the Hapiloppian Parliament have expressed their support for the new party.

There are rumors that the Conservative Party are trying to form a coalition with the Social Hapiloppians, as well as members of the Wreckerian Party of Pride (11 members), in an attempt to try to get a successful no-confidence vote.

A simple majority of 50 percent-plus one is required for a no confidence vote.

[Sarzonia]

The morning started out with Caleb Rush sitting in a local bagel shop with a cup of coffee and a bagel with creme cheese.

He started out the window at the bucolic scenery just outside the cafe. He'd taken some time to relax since the Sarzonian national football team opted not to send a team to the most recent Arrosian Regional Championships, and he'd walked away from the national team job. He'd put in his recommendation for his successor, but decided not to pay attention to the chatter in Sarzonian media. He also decided not to entertain foreign offers. He recalled the days when he was named national team manager before the inaugural ARC and World Cup 96. The idea that another country's national team would ever seriously consider him would've been mind-boggling to him in those early days.

Right now, however, he enjoyed watching the scenery outside, far away from social media, his phone, which sat face down, charging in front of him as he sipped on his coffee. He'd enjoyed a few days away from distractions, and he figured today would be no different. Until, that is, his phone seemingly vibrated out of nowhere. Once, then twice, then thrice. He pondered if there was a word for four times other than the archaic quarce, but then after that time, he finally rolled his eyes and turned the phone over and opened it.

"CALL ME IMMEDIATELY," the text came from Brady Reynolds. The former Sarzonian midfielder and manager was all of a sudden the interim chairman of the Incorporated Football Feder-"

"Wait, WHAT?" Rush said out loud, oblivious to sudden looks in his direction. He'd looked at the news alert. Zack Wilson was found to be the "mole" who leaked the information to the press that resulted in Rush deciding to walk away from the job. He pushed the icon to call Reynolds back.

"Caleb," Reynolds said. "I assume you saw the news."

Rush paused for a second, two, three, seemingly weighing the impact of his words on this conversation and the future of himself and others.

"No shit," Rush said. Reynolds heard the slightly higher pitch in his voice that signaled incredulity. "How'd it happen?"

"Investigators are calling it an honest mistake," Reynolds said. "No reporters skulking about. It was apparently an offhand comment, and if the video's to be believed, he reacted like 'shit! I shouldn't have said that' as soon as the words came out of his mouth."

"So he's gone?"

"Yep. The Board called it a mutual decision, but the termination papers went in four hours before the resignation letter did."

"So what's the board deciding to do about the manager's role?" Rush said, wondering if Reynolds was going to ask him for advice on it or offer an insider's perspective. "You up for the job?"

Reynolds guffawed in response.

"Aw hell no!" he said. "I, uh," Reynolds said after a pause, then paused again. "I was hoping you'd be keen to return."

"Me? Why me?"

"Frankly, Caleb, you've been the best manager we've said since Franz Braddock. Hell, you might even be the best one since Dave Wilson. You did say you'd be open to return if we got rid of the mole, and we got rid of the biggest mole possible."

Rush leaned back slightly, the words weighing heavily on his mind. Here was the job he'd walked away from after his mental health struggles were thrust out into the open asking if he'd come back. The IFF found their mole, and it was right at the top of the food chain. Not only that, but it was a fucking Wilson. Wilsons were the Sarzonian footballing royal family. Dave Wilson: Managed the Stars to a World Cup and a Cup of Harmony. Kevin Wilson: AOCAF champion. Zack was following in both his grandfather's and father's footsteps. His children both played for the Stars. And now Spencer was Rush's biggest question now that his father was no longer chairman. As Rush took in this information, he saw a text from Spencer Wilson saying, "Coach, if you're in, so am I."

The betrayal was huge. His mental health battles, the imposter syndrome he still battled in conversations with a psychologist were laid bare by a mole, but when the IFF identified the mole as their boss, they shit-canned him.

But here was the boss's son who followed up the short text with a more detailed one saying he supported his manager over his father, and he was just as upset with Dad as he was with Rush's decision to walk away.

"I need some time to think," Rush said. "That's a lot to take in, you gotta admit."

"I understand," Reynolds said. "We need a decision by next Friday, but I can push it back if you need."

"Friday should be just enough time," Rush said. He texted his agent right after he and Reynolds.

"Get me my old job back," he said. "Negotiate a contract for me."

And that was how the Stars returned Caleb Rush to the fold as national team manager.

[Free Republics]

Toakameau Post

The Foundations of Decay: World Cup 67 Qualifying's Group of Death Part I - Before the Storm
By: Professor August Arvidsson

As hard as it may be to believe, a soccer tournament marks one of the major turning points in the history of the multiverse. The World Cup is a tournament that, as of this writing, is now in its 100th annual edition. This makes it the oldest international competition in the multiverse. Over the past century, thousands of nations have competed in it. But never has there been a qualifying group more hotly contested or more consequential for history in general than the infamous Group of Death from the tournament's 67th edition. The group, which was numbered Group 17, consisted of 9 nations. Of these, KungYo and Preiva are footnotes that aren't even worth mentioning. Pasarga, West Angola and Vettrera, while all respectable soccer nations, are not the focus of this story. Pasarga under-performed, failed to qualify and ended up finishing second in the Cup of Harmony that year in Valanora. But our story is not really about the soccer so much as it is about the geopolitics and their impact on the domestic politics of the Free Republics.

The protagonists of this story are the Federation of Free Republics, at the time competing in its 3rd World Cup cycle and managed by the legendary Rule Theriault. At the time, the face of their team was Kyle Bolton. A promising reserve named Koby Theodore also plays a key role but at the time he wasn't particularly well known. Their main antagonist was Felix. They had need nicknamed the Felix Trolls by Sporting World journalist Nova Hellstrom, later known as Nova Hellstrom-Hancock and now known as Lady Nova. Today, she is a trusted aid to the Republican dictator, the mysterious man who calls himself the Grand Immortal Imperator whom many believe to be Rule Theriault or maybe his brother Pierre Theriault. The "Felix Trolls" are joined in this tale by their allies The Sarian and Mizuyuki. Mizuyuki would later go by the name of Kirisaki. All of these nations would be prominent in international soccer in the years following the Group of Death. In a normal World Cup qualifying, all of them and Pasarga would have likely qualified. But this was not a normal World Cup qualifying.

The soccer rivalry between the Free Republics and Felix had started in the 27th Di Bradini Cup before World Cup 65. They faced each other twice in that tournament. Both on the final matchday of the group stage and again in the semifinals. The match report on the group stage match by Steven Smith that originally appeared in The National shows no sign that this would become a heated rivalry. Nor were there any such signs in the match report by Nova Hellstrom that appeared in Sporting World. Hellstrom's most controversial statements in that report were the usual insults directed at the Equestrian States, which now calls itself Equestria. The phrase "Felix Trolls" had clearly not been coined yet. Steve Notapony of the Equestrian Sports Programming Network (ESPN) referred to these statements as "moronic failings of the Free Republics media", blissfully unaware of how mild they would be compared to what it would later publish.

The feud between the 2 nations actually started during Baptism of Fire 52, where the 2 nations did not face each other, in part because some obscure nation called Nandezia managed to upset the Republicans 3 to 1 on the 4th matchday of a 5 matchday Casaran format tournament. This upset and a 1-1 draw with Qatarus caused the Free Republics to miss the knockout rounds, finishing 17th in the Casaran tables with only the top 16 qualifying. As the 16th placed team Kalusia had 9 points and the FFR had 8, there was no need for a tiebreaker. The FFR's experience with Casaran in that edition of the BoF would prove important later. It all started with a feud between Steven Smith and Nova Hellstrom after Smith took issue with a match report by Hellstrom. Specifically, Smith took issue with Hellstrom's claim that Brenecia was actually the then-reigning Esportivan regional champions New Sideburn, later known as Nephara. In this article, she made many other highly offensive statements such as "The success of [Sanctii] athletes proves that the caliber of competition in international sports is not very high.", "The only reason that baseball team of scrubs started struggling was because their captain came out as gay, splitting the locker room. Their performance shows why gay athletes need to keep their preferences to themselves." and "personally I can't say that basketball players are even real athletes". She also claimed that the nation of Legalese was the place "where the incomprehensible language of legalese was invented". Nova Hellstrom took offense to Smith's insinuation that she was having an affair with Rule Theriualt in an article complaining about "trolls", which is likely the origin of the Felix Trolls nickname. The article also included many more inflammatory statements including claims that New Sideburn/Nephara is a "communist" country.

This war of words continued during World Cup 65 qualifying with Rule Theriault threatening to sue Smith and The National if he didn't retract his assertion that Theriault and Hellstrom were having an affair. This led to several back and forths before Hellstrom eventually published a bizarre article about how she loves "adbots" that spam internet forums. This would finally go too far for Sporting World editor Jasper Chuter who re-assigned Hellstrom to the pro wrestling beat and inadvertently started her legendary pro wrestling career that culminated in her eventually becoming the Chief Creative Officer of the Republican Wrestling Conglomerate. She later confirmed in a debate during her campaign for consul that Chuter had pressured her into having sex with him in order to keep her job. Chuter would ultimately be killed by Main Nation Ministry's dictator The Leader in a massacre at Gossip Magazine's O'Reilly Tower office after he published inflammatory things about the dictator's daughter.

The first usage of the phrase "Felix Trolls" in the archives appeared in a a World Cup 66 qualifying preview article by Theriault. Theriault wrote "I'm sure everybody reading this wants to forget that friendly against the Felix Trolls from 2-3 months ago" but I am unable to find evidence of such a friendly. There was a friendly that apparently took place at the Soccer Palace in Plymouth, Petrograd prior to the 58th Cup of Harmony (OOC: I apparently scorinated it myself along with a Welsh Cowboy friendly that ended 2-2 because it had been sitting a while and nobody on the friendly scheduler had bothered to scorinate. I don't recall either Felix or Welsh Cowboy objecting and this is probably the closest Felix ever came to beating the Free Republics.) but this cannot be the match Theriault is referring to because it took place later.

The Free Republics-Felix rivalry got hotter in Cup of Harmony 58, held in the Free Republics and Falcus (OOC: Falcus was a puppet of Karditan/Mriin. At the time, I was considered the junior host in the pairing.). It started with an ominous preview article in Sporting World, written by Theriault. The article featured Theriault making his picks as to who would advance in the tournament (OOC: I should not have done that when I was a co-host of said tournament. Huge appearance of a conflict of interest.). Theriault concluded the article by writing the following: "then we're going to take care of the Felix Trolls, in more ways than 1. I should warn that reporter for Felix's newspaper, who will remain unnamed, that we don't appreciate defamation around these parts, so remember to be respectful and accurate about our National Soccer Team and our journalists while you're here, if you know what is good for you." I believe this would count as very strong evidence in a court of law that Theriault knew what was going to happen next.

This quickly escalated as Steven Smith published a series of derogatory articles about the Free Republics, Theriault and Hellstrom. He could not have predicted what would happen next: Nova Hellstrom took him to court in Jolarus for libel and "impugning the virtue of a lady". The court in New Jerusalem, Jolarus declared Smith guilty by an 11 to 1 vote and ordered him to pay a fine to Hellstrom of a million thalers within 36 hours or be imprisoned for 5 years. As Smith, predictably, refused to pay, he was sent to prison in the Free Republics. (OOC: Felix was unable to RP in the CoH due to RL reason) This incident became a topic of discussion in the then-ongoing consul election with Venicio Piazza taking a stance against "judicial hellholes". Eventually, he would be pardoned by consuls Gilbert Savard and Hilarion Vasin after serving 33 days in jail. Yet this was only the calm before the storm.

To be continued...

August Arvidsson is a Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Falatulu. This article is an excerpt from his new book "Road to Ruin: The Fall of the Federation of Free Republics".

---

Grand Immortal Imperator's Palace
Republica

The Grand Immortal Imperator read the excerpt in the Toakameau Press of the new book and could not believe what he was reading. A book like this reminding his people of their history could threaten everything that he had worked towards. He knew exactly where this story was going and did not want Koby Theodore to have to answer questions about that again. Especially not when his team had just dropped 5 points to Sernet and Yangchenia allowing Jeruselem to take first place in Group 13. He summoned Lady Nova to his palace.

Grand Immortal Imperator - Lady Nova, have you seen the new article in the Toakameau Press?

Lady Nova - I haven't. What has Falatulu published now?

Grand Immortal Imperator - A professor of history in Falatulu wrote an article, excerpted from his new book, about the "Felix Trolls" situation.

Lady Nova - Oh my Goddess. That is so bad.

Grand Immortal Imperator - It sure is. The last thing we need is a return to those days. Remembering would just enable a new generation to send us into another chaos.

Lady Nova - How do we stop this?

Grand Immortal Imperator - This book must be banned. All copies of it that make their way into the Free Republics must be burned. Possession of it without turning it over to the authorities must be made a death penalty offense.

Lady Nova - Isn't that a bit extreme, sir?

Grand Immortal Imperator - Preventing war and preserving the peace is not extreme, Lady Nova. Even if we have to use whatever means necessary to do so. In this case, they can be burnt at a stake with their copies of this book.

Lady Nova - Sir, don't you think burning foreigners who bring this book into our Federation would be a bit extreme?

Grand Immortal Imperator - Of course, we would just deport said foreigners and bar them from re-entry under penalty of immediate flogging.

Lady Nova - As you wish, sir. I will inform customs and the Cyber Safety Commission of the need to keep this book out of the Free Republics at all costs.

Grand Immortal Imperator - Thank you for your attention to this matter!

[Valanora]

If there was any hangover from the ARC, it seemingly had been sorted out by Ellzidan after the first international window, which had been a full six pointer but had failed to live up to fans expectations. The elf knew as much as anyone that it was not merely about the results on the field and putting points on the board, if the team failed to deliver upon fan expectations they would likely turn on her much as they had done on Millet. It still seemed surreal that the Ko-orenite manager who knew she was a lame duck had guided the Marauders to the Final of the 97th World Cup and a runners up medal all while the fans had been calling for her head for a cycle and a half. Perhaps that was a testament to how good of a manager Millet actually was or how the team seemed to rally behind her in the face of such adversity to send her out on a high. While winning the sixth title would have been an even better send off for the Ko-oren born manager, it was not the first time that the Marauders had rallied behind a manager they knew was set to leave at the end of the tournament, having done so to the manager before her in Dan Eastwood and sent him out on with a win as he coasted into retirement.

Last month's window perhaps had been the best of the three, with a fairly dominant win away to New Zhengguo, before returning home to put six past The Democratic Unionist Cool Kids, though they did allow the visitors a consolation goal to ruin the clean sheet. It had been the most complete ninety minutes of the campaign until they had given up the goal, especially after having gotten the clean sheet the few days prior away from the Empire. All in all, it was an impressive performance over the two games and saw the team continue their perfect start to the campaign, having won their first five matches including the game against current second placed Calgasia, whose only dropped points had been against the Marauders in that first international window. The issue now was to continue to have that momentum and impetus against the rest of the teams on the schedule, particularly when traveling away from the Empire, as momentum was hard to carry at the international level with the gaps between games. If the team could continue to play at this elite level, they would be looking to punch their ticket to Rushmore and the final forty-eight before the final window was upon them.

Yet the Drawkian had seen scorelines from the other groups and seen how some of the best teams in the sports were being upended by teams that no one would have thought to have a second look at before the matches began. She wondered if the expanded field for this qualifying cycle and plenty of unknown teams were throwing a bit of a wrench into things, teams that these high level participants might not have much information about to prepare against. It was too early to think that first and second seeds were simply resting on their laurels, that usually was not apparent until the halfway point and final stretch of a qualification campaign as the matches start to wear on the legs and you can just about see the finish line. Her team had a bit of a bobble in previous cycles around that time and she was hoping to ensure that it would not happen again, the fans would certainly make their voices heard quite loudly if the team found a way to have a rough patch of form in the middle of the qualifying cycle once more. She desired a nice, clean finish that was stress free and would allow her and the rest of the staff to focus on the Finals and that desperate attempt to break the curse of six.

There were growing whispers that the pursuit of a sixth world cup title by any federation was a cursed endeavor, each of the four teams who currently sat tied atop the history books with five titles had had their troubles with the pursuit. Starblaydia withdrew into isolation, few concerned that there might not even still be a functioning government in the nation that had the biggest rivals in the game to the Marauders. The Holy Empire's form had swung up and down as if they were on a roller coaster who was still being built while they were on it, each new twist and turn leading into further uncertainty and doubt. Then of course there is Vilita who was caught in the massive cheating scandal from both their present and past, so thoroughly deep that they were banned from competing for a few editions and had not been seen since in the world of football. Of course there was the Marauders, the closest to have ever come to actually grabbing the title, having twice in been in a Final since and both times had come up empty. All the stats about the pursuit would definitely lead to the idea of it being a cursed endeavor. Curses were for superstitious individuals though and Ellzidan had lived long enough to have let that go, what the Marauders simply needed was a bit of luck and to play to their own level and it would come at some point. For her sake, she hoped it would be sooner rather than later and that she could be seen as the one to break the supposed curse.

[Saterun]

The Banc of Saterun Park, in Mieteng, was a gleaming centerpiece of the city's Rojadas district. Today, it was teeming with Claws fans. Mieteng didn't often host Saterun international matches, and the city were eager to see their Claws. It had been a shaky opening to qualifying, but Handrix Casfo hoped that they could turn things around here. Due to how it was constructed, the Park trapped sound in its basin, creating an outsized atmosphere for only 37,000 seats. As the Claws took to the field, Kameron paced on the touchline. As they inched towards halfway in qualification, every game counted. Especially home matches. It was vital for them to pick up these three points.

Buoyed by the rising atmosphere, the Claws started very well. It was Maksymillian Bates with the first shot, just two minutes in, and before any Valladaran player had even touched the ball. It had just narrowly been pushed to the outside of the post by the keeper. On the ensuing corner, however, the Claws made their initial physical dominance pay. Hans-Jürgen Becker whipped in a tight inswinger, and it went right to the head of Matt Saez. The 6' 3" defender towered over most other players, and was vital on set pieces. He rose to meet the ball, and merely had to redirect it towards goal. It sailed in past the near post, with the opposition keeper rooted to the ground. Within just a few minutes, Saterun had gotten themselves in front. 15 minutes later, they would double the advantage. Anders VandeLlen, who was starting his first game this cycle tonight, managed to artfully skip past his marker before breaking down the side of the pitch. VandeLlen wasn't the fastest player, but he had quick feet and could move the ball at will. He also had excellent vision and passing. He displayed both of those as he played a delicate through-pass to split the line and put Caesar Ibañez through on goal. The speedy striker burst away from the defenders, before neatly chipping the ball past the rushing keeper to bring the Claws the two.

And they didn't slow down. This was a hallmark of Handrix's style: he wanted his players to keep pushing. Just before the halftime whistle, Becker stood over a freekick about 25 yards from the goal. It was within his range, and everyone was wondering if he'd shoot. When he kicked the ball, it wasn't immediately apparent what the aim was. The ball sailed across the field, even farther than the back post. However, waiting for it, was Bates. He headered it back into the penalty area, where it was met on the volley by Ibañez. The Wirr Tsi striker gave the keeper no chance as he thundered the ball into the back of the net. After halftime, the game slowed down a bit. Adrian Schlimme, Ruben De Santiago, and Darius Hammel were all brought on. As the game entered the final ten minutes, Abbas Alil and Channan Gatsby were brought on to ice the game. However, the Claws still had one more attack to unleash. In the 87th minute, a clearance from Alil happened to land right at the feet of VandeLlen, who quickly saw Ibañez making a run through the line. In what Handrix could only describe as magical, VandeLlen managed to swing the ball up, over, and back across the Valladaran back line, and right into the path of Ibañez. He was fast enough to bring it all the way to the goal, before sliding it across to Schlimme, who finished it cleanly for the fourth goal. The assist showed both the selflessness and intelligence of Ibañez, who had actually made the pass because he was at an impossible angle. It was also nice to get Schlimme a goal, however.

The game finished off soon after that, and the whole stadium was in high spirits. The fans had witnessed an exciting win at home, and the players were full of confidence. Handrix could feel the mood lift in the dressing room. After he gave a short talk about the pros and cons of the game, we dismissed the players early. They deserved to have a full week to rest, which is why they would only do two light trainings before their next game, against Tristan de Cunha. This win had put them in a good place, but they had to follow it up with another good performance. However, that was a lot easier said than done.

After an excruciatingly long plane ride and even longer boat ride, the Claws arrived in Tristan de Cunha. They had had to travel some pretty long distances before, but this was probably some kind of record. Needless to say, they were exhausted, and it still showed when they took to the pitch the next day. Handrix had decided to rotate slightly. Not that he was taking this match for granted, but his players were tired. However, the hosts quickly made the Claws pay for the squad rotation.

The Potato Fielders, as the Tristan players were nicknamed, were faster than most of the opposition the Claws had faced up until this point. They tore down the sides of the field, using flair and quick passing to out-maneuver the Saterun players. Merely five minutes had passed and Handrix was already starting to get worried. Finally, in the 21st minute, the home side took their chance. The ball was crossed crisply into the penalty area, and although Saez managed to get his head to it, the clearance had been poor. It dropped to Steven Millet, who hit the volley first-time. Kristofor Bohler could only watch as the ball clanged off the inside of the post, putting the hosts up 1-0. 10 minutes later, they were able to extend their lead in what was one of the most unfortunate own goals Handrix had ever witnessed. A lazy pass from Masoud Shain gave Brian Zhang the ball right at the top of the penalty box. The striker raced into the area, and quickly played the ball across the goal. Bohler went out full stretch to get a hand on it, but he pushed it right into the path of Saez. The defender couldn't stop himself in time, and the ball bounced back into the goal. Handrix quickly instructed his team to pull back, and they just managed to make it to half-time without conceding.

At half, he knew he had to make some changes. On came Schlimme, Gatsby, VandeLlen, Poulssen, and Kalemanu. It was a bit of a gamble in bringing all five of his subs in at the halfway point, but something needed to change. Instantly, he could see the difference. The new, rested players were able to match the host's tempo, which was even starting to slow by now. In the 49th minute, just after halftime, the Claws stuck back. A brilliant through ball from Oscar Carlisle split the Tristan de Cunha defense, and Sülimein Kalemanu was able to run on to it. He brought it all the way to the top corner of the box, before cutting inside. He had just half a step of space. But that's all he needed. Saterun main teenage star had been quiet in qualifying so far, but here he showed a snapshot of his brilliance. He curled the ball towards the far post, where is nestled cleanly in the side netting. Dylan Channing had been left without a chance. Energized by the equalizer, the Claws pressed on. Off a corner in the 66th, Matt Saez nodded the ball towards the far post. However, it wasn't quite on target. Luckily for the Claws, though, Kalemanu had managed to lose his marker, and slid in just before the ball went out to redirect it to the inside of the post. In just 21 minutes, they were back on level terms.

However, 5 minutes from time, disaster struck. In a tangle in the box, Simon Glass had been brought down. It wasn't immediately clear who was at fault, and the stadium held its breath through the lengthy VAR review. Finally, to the joy of the home fans and the despair of the Claws, it had been decided that Channan Gatsby had stuck out his leg a bit too far. There was the consolation of no card, but that was small. Showing the experience of his age, Sean O'Connor coolly slotted the ball into the bottom left corner, out of reach of Bohler, who even managed to dive the right way. That late shock completely rattled the players, who were unable to muster any really attack for the remaining minutes. In extra time, the hosts even extended their lead of off a lucky bounce on a corner, which just made it sting worse. By the time the whistle blew, the team was just ready to head back home. Luckily, they would be hosting the reverse fixture, and thankfully wouldn't have to ever visit this god-forsaken island again.

(OOC Note: I have nothing against Tristan de Cunha, this last line is just a reflection of how the team feels following the loss.)

[Pasarga]

The SuperLiga of today is a fully different league than the SuperLiga that your parents grew up with and even more different than what their own parents grew up with, much less resembling anything like what the original league structure in the dual islands looked like when it first took shape in 1899. A hundred and seventeen years have past since the first league took shape, the Pasargan First Division & Second Division, to the here and now. The modern SuperLiga has a handful of super rich megaclubs who are recognized as some of the best in the entire sport, the biggest of course being CA Paulinthal. The Hurricane themselves started out as a small club merely treading water in the top division until a sudden burst in the 1930s saw the team rise to the heights and win their first of a record thirty-six top division titles. Punctuating this ascent to one of the best clubs in the world, this past spring the Hurricane were the first Pasargan team to ever win the Champions League (or UICA Champions Cup), in their second appearance in the Final and having lost in that first showing.

The league was officially formed in 1947 after the first edition of the Liga de Fuego, a league that shared teams from Pasarga as well as Queer Poco el Mono Ara, was disbanded supplanted the former First Division, before itself going on pause for a decade after a second attempt at the Liga de Fuego. The second iteration of the Liga de Fuego would seen a decade long partnership between the dual islands and their neighbors to the north in the form of Sargossa. Despite what had been a successful partnership with the two associations, funding and shifting priorities on the Sargossa half of the arrangement saw and end to the multiassocional league and the SuperLiga brought back for a second time. This time the PFA decided that it was going to future proof the association and funded an expansion across the entire nation, taking the number of clubs from forty-eight to sixty-four as remote rural areas that had no club were given priority over adding second or third clubs to cities, with a few notable exceptions to that rule.

One of those exceptions would be in the capital city of Torgos and the club Avidë, who throughout their history have had significant rumors that have tied the royal family to the club, even if there has never been any official links. The Rangers would exist for most of their time as a yo-yo club between the second and third divisions, however in the past two decades their fortunes have changed dramatically. Due to an anonymous donation, the Rangers had been upgrade their training and youth facilities and had gradual become a lower league power before finally making a breakthrough to the top division and having become an entrenched team. Even more surprising they have won a SuperLiga title and finished second last season, in addition to having won the Copa de la Luna on two occasions. They are one of two clubs who have shifted the power in the league, the other being Hellinic Rouge who are the current holders and were a team created in Evenfar when the first Liga de Fuego was formed, as the nation went from thirty-two teams to the aforementioned forty-eight.

The league had for long periods of time struggled with finances, as it was merely seen as a somewhat decent regional power but the failure to perform in the UICA and the IFCF initially had forged the idea that it was only within Rushmore that the SuperLiga had any real prominence. Yet success in the IFCF has attracted far greater amounts of capital to the league and the teams are all on far greater financial footing than before, able to pursue targets in the transfer window without being afraid they would be busting the budget. That has allowed for greater reach and for the clubs to be able to attract to the league players from outside Rushmore or the other major regions of football, as the league has turned into a true international power with the reputation and finances to back up that claim. Yet the ascent to the top is often far easier than the ability to stay there, the clubs would know this as teams like Baskita, Club Stein-los, and even the mighty Tani have had trouble maintaining superiority in the new SuperLiga, can the league maintain its presence at the top of the best leagues in the world now that it has made it there or will they fall back into a good but not elite league once more?

[Warkus]

Today was a coach-mandated post-match recovery day following the 3 nil defeat away to Indusse. Not a rest day, not a day off, but a recovery day. This was an idea thought up by the new fitness coaches that Jack had brought in during the last CAFA Cup to get the team through a tight schedule. A day where the players had to come in for training, but the training would consist of soft tissue massages, foam rolling, yoga, ice baths, physio checkups, psychological check-ins and some low intensity exercise to reduce overall fatigue.

The team had mixed opinions on the recovery day. Some players found them useful, almost like a sportier spa day. Others felt like it robbed them of a real rest day and following the highly organised and tight schedule made them feel more stressed out than anything. But most players had gotten used to it and the staff worked around the ones that still hated it.

The recovery day also served as a bit of a rest day for Jack. He still needed to show up, partly because he felt he was morally obligated to rock up to anything he made his players attend and partly because he knew he’d get bombarded with a thousand emails and phone calls if he didn’t. Better to take all the questions and short meetings in person than be on his phone all day, he thought. It also happened to facilitate his discussions with Queen Eirian quite nicely. They found themselves chatting a little bit each session and sometimes more than a little. Usually they spoke about football – the history of the team, his thoughts on the domestic game, how he viewed his players, that sort of thing. Increasingly, though, they would talk about things that had nothing to do with football.

Today they found themselves chatting about a recent lecture she attended, or rather had to attend, since it technically doubled as a briefing, on new developments in modal interaction theory. She explained, in short, that modal interaction theory is a cross-disciplinary field seeking to answer questions about the multiverse: the worlds that come into contact in events like the World Cup. How do these worlds interact? Why do they interact? Why is it that they often have completely different nations, species, physical laws, geography and so on?

There isn’t really any strong consensus on these questions, but the most popular theory for the last fifty or so years is ‘modal distance theory’. The central idea behind modal distance theory is that cross-world interaction occurs according to what’s called the ‘distant accessibility principle’. The distant accessibility principle says that different worlds can interact if and only if they are sufficiently ‘modally distant’. Modal distance corresponds to the degree of difference between worlds. Worlds that only differ in extremely minute ways, like the world of Anaia right now and the world of Anaia right now except the President of Flavovespia has one extra strand of hair on their head, cannot interact. Even worlds with nations of the same name, broadly similar history and so on cannot interact. Of course, many of the different worlds making up the interactive multiverse have the same basic laws of nature, similar political institutions and so on. But they still have vastly different histories. Different nations, different people, different geography. The more similar two worlds are, the less likely it is that they can interact and be a part of the known multiverse.

There are numerous candidate explanations as to why this is the case. One thought is that sufficiently close worlds can’t interact because it would create all kinds of logically and metaphysically destabilising paradoxes. Now, we know that some worlds and nations experience strange paradoxes, but we don’t as of yet know of any cross-world paradoxes. It’s a good thing we don’t because their existence would require us to radically revise all kinds of well-established scientific and philosophical theories.

The key thing that modal distance theory has going for it is that it fits with our empirical evidence that sufficiently different worlds interact all the time and worlds with extremely similar histories don’t. The most controversial assumption invoked in most forms of modal distance theory is plenitudinous modal realism: the thesis that all possible worlds exist. The big worry, however, is that the whole concept of ‘modal distance’ is vague to the point that it’s question begging. You can endlessly insist that worlds must be sufficiently different in order to interact, but without a clear idea of what counts as sufficient distance it risks becoming totally vacuous. Critics often claim that modal distance is suspiciously unmeasurable and conveniently infallible. But as Eirian explained, the speaker she listened to argued that this was no longer the big worry. The new worry was an empirical one. An insufficiently distant world interacting with the known multiverse.

Jack figured it out pretty quickly. It was the Krytenia thing. The World Cup 50 squad participating in today’s World Cup Qualifiers. The person giving the seminar had argued that this was a key piece of data that modal distance theory couldn’t explain. Sounds convincing enough. The Krytenia squad was from one of the plurality of worlds, but clearly it was from a world modally, though not temporally, close to ours.

Eirian pointed out, however, that the other attendees didn’t find this to be a particularly compelling problem for modal distance theory. The Krytenia team could be the result of some localised temporal phenomena. Maybe they’re not from a different world, maybe they’re from our world and they’ve been brought forward in time somehow. Perhaps they are from a different world, but one that’s otherwise incredibly different from ours. We simply don’t know yet. It could be the case that Audioslavia never existed in that world or that ‘West Starblaydia’ is what ear infections are called over there.
The conversation ended somewhat inconclusively when Jack had to handle some media obligations, but both came away feeling a little less stressed out. Jack got to hear someone talk about something that had nothing to do with the qualifiers for the first time in a while and Eirian got to vent a bit about her work to someone that isn’t involved in it without accidentally spilling state secrets.

[Snestar]

Matchday 5: Snestar 2-2 Cretian Territories
Goalscorers (Snestar):
68’ Mattia Castelletti
90+5’ Sebastiano Balestri
Goalscorers (Cretian Territories):
19’ [unknown]
83’ [unknown]
Player of the Match: [unknown]

Matchday 6: Denyssia 1-1 Snestar
Goalscorers (Denyssia):
10’ [unknown] (PK)
Goalscorers (Snestar):
22’ Alberto Migliaccio
Player of the Match: [unknown]

Snestar gets halted by both Cretian Territories and Denyssia, securing only two points: Viola’s chances of qualifying for the World Cup are low

A series of terrifyingly mediocre draws have brought Snestar down to third place in Group 18, having being surpassed by both Hapilopper and Super Earth. With nine points over six matches, Snestar’s chances of qualifying are slim, also considering the upcoming Bye that will make them lose their one match advantage.

Snestar 2-2 Cretian Territories: Match Summary

Once again, Snestar’s match against the Cretian Territories was a narrowly avoided catastrophe. Despite the scoreline ending up a 2-2 draw at the Stadio Quattro Venti in Carvella, the entirety of the Snestaryan team looked lost. After conceding a goal in the 19th minute due to an unforgiving mistake by Alberto Migliaccio, the Viola appeared more demoralized than ever. While watching the game from the sidelines, Camilla Arentas knew she would need her players to overturn the result; otherwise, she would not be able to keep her job. Thankfully, the second half saw Snestar recover themselves a little, finding the equalizer thanks to a power shot by Mattia Castelletti in the 68th minute. However, just as Snestar seemed to have regained control of the match, the Cretian Territories bounced back with another goal in the 83rd minute, plunging the Snestaryans into preparing themselves for humiliation: Camilla Arentas was screaming at everyone, while the benched players tried to keep her inside her area and prevent them from getting a yellow card. Luckily for the Viola, Sebastiano Balestri ended up saving the squad with a clumsy series of shots in stoppage time. Camilla Arentas was safe from getting sacked, at least for now.

Denyssia 1-1 Snestar: Match Summary

The Snestaryans faced another embarrassing result, as Denyssia kept the Viola in their place for the whole match. Most of the action happened in the first half, with Alberto Migliaccio conceding an early penalty (and almost getting a red card for it), while he later proceeded to make up for his mistake by scoring a beautiful curved shot from outside the box. However, the following hour felt like hell for the Snestaryans: the Denyssians were attacking relentlessly, completely negating any chances to make any kind of counter-play. Substitutions didn’t help at all: the only thing they actually did was add another yellow card to the list of booked players. Camilla Arentas kept her head low, knowing that if she drew or lost the next match against Super Earth, she would be sacked immediately.

Matchday 8 - Snestar vs Cretian Territories, Denyssia vs Snestar
Matchday 8: 4-4-2 Formation
GK 1 Federico Calvaresi (C)
LB 3 Alberto Migliaccio
CB 20 Sebastiano Balestri
CB 2 Giulio Maritan
RB 15 Simone Ramella
CM 8 Nicola Acanfora
CM 10 Martin de Roux
CAM 25 Arminia Cremisi
LW 19 Mattia Castelletti
ST 9 Leonardo de Martino
RW 27 Elisa Baldriga

Dandelicha, November 1st; The day before Snestar - Super Earth

Camilla Arentas was mindlessly scrolling on her phone, watching videos of horses and Division Alpha highlights, hoping she’d distract her mind from the national team. She took a quick look at the results of Matchday 7: Venistalya finally losing 2-5 against Rofflavya, Grenna shocking Edervina with a 1-0 win at the Evergreens Arena, Rosavina losing yet another match… But those stupid Super Earth Senators kept her attention fixated on what would possibly end up being her last match in charge of the Viola. She put her phone down and stared at the players, casually bickering and messing around with each other. Baldriga was trying to stop Castelletti from flirting with Arminia, telling him, “You’re doing it only so you can flex dating the president’s niece.” Deep down she wished she was one of the players: at least she wouldn’t have to worry about losing her job completely.

“Camilla, are you feeling alright?” A tall figure placed a large hand onto her back. The woman didn’t even bother turning around: she already knew Vittorio Gallerani was going to be the one to comfort her.

“I’ll get sacked if we lose against Super Earth.” She sighed, taking off her glasses and rubbing her eyes nervously. “I don’t want to lose this opportunity.”

“You have already done great things with us. We finished in fourth place in the Baptism of Fire, and we are now 186th in the rankings. Even though we're not the best, we're already better than half of the world, at least on paper. You know better than me that upsets happen, and even if you get sacked, you’ll find another team to lead to glory.”

Vittorio’s words reminded her of her time spent in the men’s Division Alpha, leading Rimanya in the first few matches before inevitably resigning from her position, knowing she wasn’t good enough to keep the team above the relegation zone for the entirety of the season. “Why did they ask me to lead the team then? There are plenty of better managers than me. Realdi, Marchetti, Giulian… I’m sure they’d have done a much better job.”

“I can’t answer that, honestly. The SFF saw something special in you, I guess. Besides, look at Arminia. That girl is already living under pressure from literally everyone. Just like Bolenya, you chose to take her under your wing, despite the allegation. Without you, you wouldn’t have been able to blend in with the rest of us.”

Camilla slowly raised her hand and patted Vittorio’s arm slowly. She was too shaken to respond, but she tried her best to show a bit of gratitude. “Our next match will be at the Stadio Elena Maria Arentas.” the man responded. “I’m sure she’ll watch over us from above.”

[Pyazhnaya]

The team lounge at the Tverinsk training complex is lit only by the glow of the TV and the faint neon shimmer of the shiny, new Apex NSS1 console. Empty soda cans, a few open snack bags, and a growing mountain of controller cables decorate the table.

The AuraCast stream overlay is live and chat is already exploding with comments and emojis at this first-ever stream.
The stream title is "WC100 CHAOS MODE – PYAZHNAYA vs PYAZHNAYA"
Team 1: Danila Terentyev + Danila Mukhametshin
Team 2: Taras Rybalkin + Naira Akhatova

Danila T:
(to chat)
Welcome to the first-ever Pyazhnaya Civil War. Because apparently, we don’t have enough internal drama already.

Danila M:
Yeah, who needs qualifiers when you can settle it on WC100 – West Pavola Edition? And let's be honest, if we play Pyazhnaya against Pyazhnaya, we can't lose!

Taras:
(grinning)
You mean lose it on West Pavola. I’ve seen your tactics, Mukhametshin, you couldn’t beat me three-year-old nephew on rookie mode.

Danila M:
This from the guy who once rage-quit against the AI Jeruselem?

Naira:
(interjecting)
Jeruselem isn't even in the game!

Danila M:
Yeah, because otherwise it would have been rated Q for questionable.

---

The match begins: as can be expected, both teams are wearing identical Pyazhnaya kits, confusing everybody, from the players to the viewers. Players are sliding into their own defenders, the virtual goalkeeper has already committed two penalties, and even the crowd animation looks utterly baffled.

Chat explodes:

LOL which team are we even rooting for??
Double Pyazhnaya = double heartbreak
This is like watching a mirror argue with itself

Danila T:
(to camera)
No idea who’s winning, but I’m confident it’s not us.

Danila M:
That’s the Pyazhnaya spirit.

Taras:
Look at this: tactical masterclass. Two identical formations, both wrong.

Naira:
We call that mirrored chaos. Coach Agratova would be proud.

Danila M:
I wonder what Woodsmere and Agave would say if we played like this.

Danila T:
Aga-who?

Naira:
Avote.

Danila T:
They are in our group?

Taras:
Do you two pay any attention to who we’re playing?

Danila M:
Nah, not really. Does it really matter? As long as we score at least one more goal then them, all’s good.

---

[Half-Time – Score: 3–3 after two own goals and one accidental bicycle kick by the goalkeeper.]

Danila T:
(pauses the game)
Okay, okay, let’s check chat. What’s everyone saying—

Chat scrolls fast:

When’s the next qualifier?
We heard Zubova showed up today??
Is Agratova really getting fired??
Blink twice if the FFP has you hostage.

Danila M:
(reading)
Oh no. Here we go.

Taras:
(chat-scrolling)
“#FreeAgratova”? That’s trending now?

Naira:
(snickers)
She’d love that. Except for the “free” part; she’d invoice us for it.

---

Danila T:
(trying to be diplomatic)
Alright, folks, listen; we’re not exactly cleared to discuss internal stuff, okay?

Danila M:
Yeah, transparency and accountability, or whatever slogan Zubova dropped today.

Taras:
(chuckling)
You mean “accountability is not an attack”?

Danila M:
That one! We should print it on T-shirts.

Naira:
I’d buy that; if it came with a matching resignation letter.

Danila M:
Who would be resignating?

Naira:
Your English teacher.

Danila M:
Oh, come on.

---

Chat:

Did Zubova really walk onto the pitch mid-training?
How’s the team morale?
We saw clips; it looked tense.

Danila M:
(leaning closer, grin still wide)
Yes, she waltzed right on the pitch, gave us a whole spiel about accountability, oversight and probably a few more things after I stopped listening.

Taras:
Yeah. She’s a special kind of… insert whatever you feel should go here, I don’t want our first stream ever to get nuked live on air.

Naira:
We play for Pyazhnaya, not for the suits. That’s all you need to know.

Danila T:
And now, back to the real battlefield: the West Pavola stadium.

---

[Gameplay resumes – second half]

The camera shakes as both Danilas score an own goal simultaneously. Everyone bursts into laughter.

Danila T:
That’s it. Pyazhnaya defeats Pyazhnaya. Peace restored.

Danila M:
Balance has been achieved.

Taras:
Let the oversight committee review that.

Naira:
Yeah, accountability achieved through entertainment.

Danila M:
Who of us actually won?

Taras:
Hell if I know…

---

[STREAM ENDING SCREEN – “THANKS FOR WATCHING! #TeamPyazhnaya #DoubleOwnGoal”]

Danila T:
(leaning back, smirking)
If Zubova’s watching this, I hope she rates our performance transparent and accountable.

Danila M:
She’ll probably demand a rematch.

Taras:
She can bring her aides, we’ll give them controllers.

Naira:
Pyazhnaya vs Oversight Committee, now that’s pay-per-view material.

Danila M:
Ooooh, should we invite her?

Aleksandra Agratova:
(from the off)
If you do that, you’re cutting the training pitch with nail scissors, Mukhametshin!

Danila M:
Damn…

(Laughter fades as the stream cuts to black.)

---

[Fan Comment Compilation from the AuraFeed]

@FedorTheFan: I can’t decide if this team is falling apart or becoming legends.
@Mila_FF: Double own goal and still more entertaining than the qualifiers.
@InnaStats: “Accountability is not an attack” but apparently, it is a drinking game now.
@PyazhnaUltra94: The Danilas are chaos personified. I’d die for them.
@QuietGoalkeeper: They’re playing Pyazhnaya vs Pyazhnaya while the FFP’s probably drafting suspension letters.

---

[Excerpt – “Morning Report,” TVR-7 News]

Anchor Andrei Khmelnitsky:

“The Pyazhnaya national football team continues to draw attention, this time not for performance, but for playfulness. Last night, several players livestreamed themselves playing WC100 – West Pavola, during which they commented, somewhat irreverently, on oversight committee chair Simona Zubova’s recent visit to their training centre.”

(Cut to clip of the Danilas laughing about Zubova’s “transparency and accountability” quote.)

Andrei Khmelnitsky (cont’d):

“While the AuraCast attracted over a million live viewers, sources within the Federation have called the broadcast ‘an unfortunate lapse of professionalism.’ No formal statement has been released… yet.”

---

[AuraFeed – Sports journalist @RomanSoloveyOfficial]

You can’t make this up. The Pyazhnaya NT turned a political crisis into a livestream comedy.
The result:

+40% public engagement
Trending #1 in Pyazhnaya
Possible fines incoming

Is this rebellion or PR genius? Time will tell.

---

[Private chat leak. “Players’ Group (not the official one)”. screenshot circulating]

Danila M: we’re famous now lol
Taras: yeah until Zubova drags us into a committee hearing
Naira: worth it
Danila T: I’ll bring the controller to the hearing. maybe she’ll finally play

---

[FFP Official Statement – next morning, posted on their site]

“The Federation acknowledges the recent online broadcast by members of the national team. While we encourage camaraderie and connection with fans, we remind all personnel that public commentary on internal matters must be handled responsibly. The Oversight Committee will review the incident to ensure continued professionalism and alignment with federation values.”

[Immediately gets ratioed in the comments.]

---

[Fan Edit Video – Trending on NextVibe]
“Pyazhnaya vs Pyazhnaya: Accountability Edition”

Clips of the chaotic match
Overlaid with Zubova’s quote in slow motion
Ends with the words: “We play for Pyazhnaya — not for the suits.”

Views: 3.8M
Comments:

“Revolution disguised as gaming.”
“Give the Danilas a talk show.”
“Coach Agratova better use this for team morale.”

---

[Scene End: 09:42 AM – Tsentr Podgotovki “Admiral,” Cafeteria]
The players scroll through their feeds, half-proud, half-panicked.
Coach Agratova stands behind them, arms crossed, unreadable expression.

Coach Agratova:

Next time you want to express team spirit…
(pauses)
...at least win the damn match.

Danila M:
We did! We think…

(Fade out on the players’ groans and laughter.)

[Edsmontik]

panzvastekolektion.eds

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English | Vdesic

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MILITARY HISTORY SHOWCASE WEEK 3 - THE PONZVANKREN OGENVAGN: OUTDATED TOO QUICKLY

Sunday, 10/17/2032
Written by Salzen Beirborgd

---

Edsmon Military Showcase

---

Week 1 - Week 2 - Week 3

The Edsmon L1 'Ponzvankren Ogenvagn I', developed shortly after the V1 'Weirbel I', was yet again another wheeled Edsmon Tank. The vehicle was 6 wheeled, having two less wheels than the Weirbel, but it was faster due to being much lighter. The 'L' in the category stood for Lutennone, a former Edsmon general who was known for his bravery even after passing retirement age.


The L1X1 (left) and L1X2 (right) Ponzvankren Ogenvagn Models

The Tank would be equipped with a 50mm cannon called the Zeusfragge Equivon 1, as well as a tiny 7.5mm machine gun port. In terms of the engine, the same engine as the Weirbel I was used. There was a total of 5 crew members in the Ponzvankren Ogenvagn, those being the Commander, Gunner, Loader, Driver, and Machine Gunner.

The frontal armor consisted of 50-degree angled steel at a thickness of 30mm, and the side was completely flat with only 15mm of thickness. The main weakness was the sides and rear (10mm 85-degree angled armor plating for the rear) and the area in between the turret and the body, which was also where the roation machine was located in the tank.

The L1 was first deployed by Edsmontik in the 1920s as a lighter variant of the Weirbel. It appeared in the coastal conflicts in southeastern Karma, as well as in the north. However, in the L1X1, there were lots of times where the rotational device would freeze up and cause the L1's turret to be stuck. That would be fixed in the L1X2 and L1X3 models, which would be released not too long after.


The L1X3, shown above.

The L1X3 had the most changes, with a hand crank that turned the turret faster and also an upgraded cannon at 58mm. The L1X3 used newer APHE shells as well, which ended up proving extremely useful as new opposing tanks were getting stronger and strong.

The entire L1 series would serve until the early 1930s, only around nine years, as they would quickly be outshined by the L2 models that boasted stronger engines and improved designs. The rising technology and focus on new medium sized Evich class tanks sent the L1 in sort of a downwards spiral, ending its career as a new model that became outdated too quickly.

---

BIG WOAH: EDSMONTIK'S LARGEST WIN YET

Monday 10/18/2032
Written by Jon Fraltz

---

Edsmon fans visiting the Suberarenae today were shocked to find out that Edsmontik dropped their mediocre performance acts from the first few matches of qualifying and managed to get five players to score a total of six goals against Papiv Nappon. From their previously boring draws and small wins against small, weak teams (as a considerably strong one) arose a beast who, yes, six-nilled an unranked side, but it was Edsmontik's first or possibly second actual "good" performance this World Cup. One could argue that the game against West Vdara was a good one for the Eagles, but it was controversial as the Edsmons scored one goal very late in the half, nearly drawing their opponents. Every other game was full of mishaps and chaos.

Looking into the game, it started off with kickoff for the Papiv Napponians, who instantly fell back after a few pushes from the Eagles. Maartin Stuero, Maktholm Ghreksbvy, Lajiflak Fruedenne, Maven Rehcikt, and Sravagn Utravak, the "front" five, instantly set out to fire shots. According to Fruedenne, the Edsmons needed "to do better or suffer backlash" from the fans. He admitted that the Eagles have not been at their best and claimed that this would be the matchday that they re-proved themselves to their fans.

The wingers took most of the shots despite being out wide, which at first seemed to go nowhere. There were passes from the centers out to the wings, possibly to exploit the possible Papiv Napponian weaknesses. By his third time in the box, Maktholm Ghreksbvy's second shot managed to barely slot itself into the top corner with a crossbar-down finish, securing Edsmontik their first goal in the 12th minute.

Following this was a grounded shot by Maartin Stuero in the 18th minute, which curved around two defenders and the goalkeeper, as well as a shot from Utravak from distance in the 26th minute. Both goals were assisted by Ystermakt, who sent in long passess from the center. These long passes so far were really working out well for the Edsmons. This was also mainly because the Papiv Napponians were failing to cover their vulnerable center, but that weakness was meant to be exploited.

The Eagles held down the Papiv Napponians, continuing to block them from getting anywhere too close to the Edsmon penalty box. Any movements too close were blocked and sent rushing back into the center by the Edsmon defense. Despite the absence of Javarqa and Norseden, Travdt and Shouzvenkreden were faring pretty well against the Papiv Napponians.

By the end of the first half, Edsmontik slotted yet another ball into the net through Shouzvenkreden, who sent a header directly into the net. With Edsmontik now leading 4-0, there wasn't much more they had to other than conserve energy for the second half and continue to prevent the Papiv Napponians from getting into the box.

The second half started with a substitution to bring in Zeukalmen for Ystermakt and Javarqa. The Edsmons focused slightly more on their defense now, knowing that a win was almost guaranteed. Despite the defensive formation, the Edsmons were still getting a lot of chances. Zeukalmen was doing well in Ystermakt's spot, being able to make the same long passes to the forwards.

Later in the half, Maartin Stuero landed his second ball in, followed by a powershot from range by Maven Rehcikt. With the score at 6-0 now, the Eagles' fans were really celebrating. With a few minutes left, the game was now coming to a close. The Edsmons would grab several more shots through stoppage time before the final whistle finally blew.

---

Want to Read More? View the Topics Below!
Winter is Almost Here! What You Should Do to Gear Up for Record Lows - Predicting the Outcome of the World Cup 100 Qualifiers - "What Happened in Yaneu in 2019?" Documentary Airs on KarmaTV - Two Gang Members Caught and Arrested by Skronselen FBI

[Biyambi]

Previous Episode: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=575263&p=43173443#p43173443

(The episode opens with a title screen. Episode 4: Silence of the Royals. The scene then changes to an aerial shot of the 20,400 capacity Zote Palace Arena. As the sound of roaring passionate fans fades under some epic orchestral music text appears on the screen:
Mafumu Chiefs VS Ngwazi Strikers
Matchday 1: Ziwanicell Super League)

(The scene cuts to the tunnel where we see players of both teams walking out, their boots clicking on the concrete, their faces tense, others chewing gum, and others carrying out various superstitious rituals as they step onto the pitch. All this as the crowd roars passionately)

Voice Over:
“Ngwazi Strikers is a team that has traditionally played cautiously in their first game of the season. For the past 7 seasons, the Royals have drawn four times, won twice, and lost once. However, with the dawn of a new era under the Raulmans Corporation and their vision of the club lifting the league championship, a strong start to the season is extremely vital in achieving such. ”

(The scene cuts to the Ngwazi Strikers lockerroom, we see two players sitting and they have on red and navy-blue training kits. Their names flash on the screen next to them as they speak, on the left: James Thom-Winger, on the right: Mphatso Lyson-Defender.)

James Thom (Ngwazi Strikers’ Right Winger):
“Mate, I must be honest, in the four games we have played this season; the Top 8 Quarter-final, the Top 8 Semis, and the opening Super League tie against Mafumu Chiefs ̶ the Super League match was our best performance. ”

Mphatso Lyson (Ngwazi Strikers’ Left Back):
“ yea! you are right, it was truly our best performance till date. The way we controlled the game, the Southern Royals were dancing to our tune. ”

James Thom (Ngwazi Strikers’ Right Winger):
“ We were the snake charmer and they were the cobra. It’s just that we didn’t take our chances in that game. ”

(A montage comes on showing Ngwazi Strikers dominating the game, we see their slick shot passes and their dribbles past and around Mafumu Chiefs defenders. However, the Royals shots go wide, attempts at chipping the ball into the net are punched over the bar by James Frank the Mafumu Chiefs keeper. The camera zooms in on the clock 75 minute 0-0. We see Chifundo Lenpi being subbed in.)

(The scene cuts to Mada Masina on his sofa at home, his arm still in a cast.)

Mada Masina (Ngwazi Strikers Captain:
“The boys had tried everything, that’s when coach decided to bring in another attacking player to try and influence the game and possibly get a goal. Chifu came in. He’s still new at the club, hasn’t established himself in the game yet but came to the club for a lot of dosh. We’re coming off the 4-2 thrashing at Stadiya Bayaram and the chaos that followed. and when he comes in he makes a mistake and within 2 minutes of him being on the pitch you hear supporters booing him. ”

Mphatso Lyson (Ngwazi Strikers’ Left Back):
“ our own fans all booing an inexperienced player that’s bound to affect him and make him play worse. ”

Mada Masina (Ngwazi Strikers Captain:
“ Chifu made 3 or more mistakes. When the fans boo a player, it doesn't just affect him but the whole team performance as well. We were already playing away but we now have our own fans booing at one of us. It felt like we were playing against everyone in the stadium. ”

Mphatso Lyson (Ngwazi Strikers’ Left Back):
“ the booing from our own fans especially after they attacked us at Stadiya Bayaram greatly affected us and we lost control of the game from then on.”

(It cuts to match footage, we see Isaac Phiri slide tackling and bringing down Christopher Kumwenda in the penalty area. Isaac Phiri is shown the red card. The stadium gasps. Isaac Bonongwe takes the spot kick sending Harry Garnett the wrong way,GOAL. Ngwazi Strikers are a goal down.)

Isaac Phiri (Ngwazi Strikers’ Centre Back):
“ No player steps onto the pitch wanting their team to lose. Every player that steps on the pitch plans to give their all. but when the fans are not on our side, it greatly affects our performance. I never meant to get a red card, was just frustrated. ”

Mada Masina (Ngwazi Strikers Captain:
“ he treatment the Chifu got on the day and also the violence against the team at stadiya bayaram did not sit well with everyone. We had new inexperienced players, do you help the player by booing and beating them up? Is that how we can get the best out of the players and win? After that game, everyone decided that we would not accept the fans apology, we would not engage them. All we would do is play our best and win trophies available that season then at the end of the season everyone would terminate their contracts. ”

(It then shows a montage. Matchday 2 Ngwazi Strikers winning the game 2-1 against Mighty Rangers, it’s an away game, the players don't greet their fans who have travelled to Mansanduni. next match Ngwazi Strikers beat Moyo Power Pack 4 goals to nil, the players hug each other and walk into the tunnel, they don't greet the fans, they don't sing with the fans at the end of the game, they don't sign shirts, they don't celebrate with the fans after scoring goals. next match away Ngwazi Strikers draws against Amari Tsopa 1-1.)

Voice Over:
“ After 4 league games, Ngwazi Strikers find themselves in 3rd position with 7 poiints, in first place is the team they dream to beat in their next game, the BT Top 8 final, Mansanduni Union with 8 points, the only remaining unbeaten team in the league, serial winners. With the tensions between the players and the fans can Ngwazi Strikers rise above everything and keep the Top 8 Plate in Mrima Nlluwa? ”

[Airannia]

Meanwhile in the present...

Tanirinthia 3 - 1 Airannia
Emerald Park, St. Cirith, Tanirinthia

4': Lark Holt 1-0
20': -- Pilleç Tournay (AER)
51': Ferris Dixon 2-0
58': Donato Stáspertéls <> Evil Theuter (AER)
58': Alma Menzie <> Regina Newman (TAN)
70': Violet Bacchus 3-0
76': Miyáv Taizpuj <> Joux Khettesburá (AER)
80': Bud Barnett <> Jack Bell (TAN)
80': Ferris Dixon <> Edmond Barker (TAN)
83': Joux Khettesburá 3-1
84': Pilleç Tournay <> Marten Hiqa (AER)

Elation
The best way to describe the match of Airannia against Tanirinthia in one word is Elation.

Elation in Anticipation: Truly the first "big" match the Drills will be playing on the World Cup Stage is the one against Tanirinthia, the 12th nation on the rankings worldwide. Sure, the Blue-Yellows have taken on some other opponents, but this is going to be the toughest match they'll play - away against the top seed in the group. Emerald Park — the stadium the match is going to take place in, is the largest stadium any of these players have played in, like ever. Nothing can go wrong; although every single Airannian fan is secretly hoping for a little more than just an ass whoopin'.
Elation in the Roster: Alce Méring, the team's physio, has given the go-ahead for Joux Khettesburá to make an appearance in Tanirinthia! It seemed unlikely the player, who was dismissed from the roster for the game against Sudilia, was going to be travelling to Tanirinthia, but he will be on the bench. Several other issues plague the Drills: Ilténe Shibhann was forced to withdraw from the selection after just one match following a hamstring injury. And Mon Gantre has also been relegated to the bench, citing mentality issues. It might surprise one - but apparently even after winning two games confidently, some players' mentalities might suffer.
Elation on the Field: And there it was. Having been brought on just minutes prior, Joux Khettesburá (of course it had to be him!) caught a long ball fired forwards by Évangelique with his head, putting it cleanly past Elmer Marshall. Naturally, this was cause for Joux to start running down the field, screaming - although after a few seconds, he must've remembered a past lesson, and slowed to a much more modest gait. His teammates didn't agree though, and celebrated wildly with him. If only the Tanirinthians hadn't scored 3 goals already, this goal might actually matter.

Airannia 1 - 0 X Country
Agatha-Uidhobá, Sanna Agatha, Airannia

27': Joux Khettesburá <> Miyáv Taizpuj (AER)
45': Êkarloz Tuptyól <> Usi Sarván-Dendh (AER)
61': Miyáv Taizpuj 1-0
70': Quent Pirakel <> Stéphen Helmantha (AER)

Grievous
The best way to describe the match of Airannia against X Country in one word is Grievous.

A Grievous Injury: After the exciting defeat against Tanirinthia, it was only appropriate for the Drills to suffer some headwind: in this case, a slightly drunk Alphe Toussaint exited the plane - and promptly strained his ankle. His position on the field is going to be filled by Alexander Régervothys for the time being - definitely a downgrade overall, but hopefully not a hurdle on the way to the play-offs, which are rumoured to be within reach for the Drills, who have been dealt a favourable group draw.
A Grievous Misunderstanding: On the flip sidet seemed that Khettesburá, after spending a few days resting, was going to be able to play in the starting 11. However, this was clearly not the case; only 27 minutes into the match, he collapsed. Medical assistance was rushed onto the pitch, but was ultimately not necessary — the midfielder was able to walk off without intervention. Or at least, he would have been, were it not for an overzealous medic that demanded Joux get on the stretcher, by force if necessary. The midfielder was exhausted, yes, but given his sheer size, it wasn't an easy task to get him off the field in the appropriate manner. After the game, Joux showed the scratch on his shoulder, and told of a bruise on his thigh; all thanks to a paramedic who had misread the situation.
A Grievous Mind: Exit Toussaint. Exit Khettesburá. And by the start of the second half against X Country, you could add Exit Tuptyól to that list too. Fans watching in Sanna Agatha were confused where the minute player from Ztázhn-Vertuw was when the Drills took to the field after the break, and Sarván-Dendh was brought on. That isn't to say that Sarván-Dendh isn't a crowd favourite; but it does make the mind wonder about the reason why the ever dependable Tuptyól was left to watch the game from the bench. The answer wouldn't come until after the only goal in an otherwise boring match, not until after the final whistle, not even until after the dawn of the next day. A statement was released that explained Tuptyól was experiencing anxiety when shooting the ball. Surprising at first, rewatching the tapes of the match revealed that, sure, a few of his shots on target were seriously lacking power. Within one match after the Tanirinthian defeat, the Airannian squad had suddenly lost 3 of its dependable members.
A Grievous Curse: And that wasn't the end of it; the last instance of the Country X curse was much less publicized: Donato Stáspertéls broke his leg on a bike ride in the days after the game. The media wasn't informed until the next matchday... probably not to stir up any coverage of the supposed curse that was plaguing the team...

Quakmybush 0 - 4 Airannia
Revena Stadium, Revena, Quakmybush*

8': Usi Sarván-Dendh 0-1
61': Armande Hotsimya <> Mon Gantre (AER)
67': Pilleç Tournay <> Marten Hiqa (AER)
68': -- Quakmybush player (QMB)
71': Usi Sarván-Dendh
77': Usi Sarván-Dendh
85': Quent Pirakel <> Noitaryng Milantriç (AER)
90+3': Marten Hiqa

Firsts
The best way to describe the match of Airannia against Quakmybush in one word is Firsts.

First Straight Red: Airannians don't really play with the same rules as ordinary footballers across the multiverse. Notably, there's no straight red cards in Airannian football. It's highly unusual for a player to do anything at all that could warrant immediate exclusion from the game. In the Airannian leagues, yellows are cause for a 5 minute time penalty; and that's about the worst punishment you could give a player. Football is played at a much lower level of intensity on Airannian fields - reds only ever occur as a result of two yellows. Thus, when a Quakmybush player received a straight yellow for a tackle against Evil Theuter, wild enough to also take out a linesman as collateral, both teams protested the straight red the referee showed him: the Quakmybush players obviously weren't excited about playing the remaining 20 minutes a man down, and the Airannian players were completely unaware of this even being possible at all!
First Hat Trick: Amazingly, this is the first hat trick that any Airannian has ever made; at least, on a national level. Usually, games don't really go to this point - on a local level, goal differential is hardly ever required to win the game (due to the way the Airannian team generally outclasses all local opponents anyway...), so when a team is ahead by 2 goals, they lock up and play fully defensive. However, goal differential could make all the difference for the qualifying series - and therefor, Sarván-Dendh went all out, amazing the minuscule Airannian delegation in the Revena stands.
First Game: This game was the first game played by up-and-coming talent Milantriç, brought on for the last few minutes of the game; although it wasn't fruitless, as the young striker was at the base of the 4-0 goal scored by Hiqa. With these 9 playing minutes, Noitaryng just barely misses out on the title of "youngest ever player" in the national team by 13 days. However, youngest player to earn an assist? That title's definitely his.

Airannia 0 - 1 Mytanija
Jongo-Lydia Stadion, Saxalloubhy, Airannia
55': Lico Luth <> Kaeman Forompléls
70': Usi-Sarván Dendh <> Êkarloz Tuptyól
83': Miyáv Taizpuj <> Joux Khettesburá
88': Evil Theuter (OG) 0-1

Homebound
The best way to describe the match of Airannia against Mytanija in one word is Homebound.

Homebound Striker: Marten Hiqa has fallen to the curse, which is still not a thing. In his case, the issue is much less worrisome than a broken leg, or a mental blockade: it's the common flu. However, under strict doctor's orders to not leave his bed, let alone his house, Marten's had to sit this one against Mytanija out; and the upcoming game against Pichvi too, from the looks of it.
Homebound Midfielder: Khettesburá was allowed to give it one last shot. Simply put, Taizpuj is doing fine as his replacement, but it's also become obvious that Joux Khettesburá is eager to play again. However, after the game, the midfielder was spotted travelling straight home to Véque, instead of going on the player bus to Vorácy with the rest of the team. It seems unlikely he will be returning in the game against Pichvi, all things considered; his body is simply betraying him.
Homebound Victors: It must feel great, knowing you did absolutely nothing, and still winning. It's what happened for Mytanija in Saxalloubhy — they hardly showed up to the game, but neither did the Drills. Another incredibly boring game was being played here; but this time at least there was some tension in the air. Near the very final minutes of the game, a game as boring as this got its deserved ending, when a slightly-too-fast pass from Theuter back to Cristigny (who hadn't allowed any balls past him on home turf thus far) ended up flummoxing the goalie, and sealed the conclusion of a game that didn't deserve any conclusion.

[Choppyhausen]

Chris
Soo, what are you guys thinking about the last two WC games?

Danny
i can't believe how many games we're winning with the little effort we put in

i mean Colmaijo literally had like 70% posession and we still won 2-1

Phyllis
which is also kinda sad to play so defensive against last place lmao

as first place

Alexis
i wouldnt say we dont put effort in, Weiner-Kracht was exceptional both games

this man will carry us through the qualifiers

Phyllis
truly a GOATED performance

I'd frame a picture of that one save before the break and hang it on my wall

Danny
do that, it'll look glorious next to your pile of plushies

Phyllis
-.-

Chris
Holdenbeck also had an unbelievable performance against Colmaijo, I can't believe he didn't get the Man of the Match Award. He literally had TWO on-the-line clearances in one game.

Phyllis
well, corte scored two goals and awards are always striker biased :/

Danny
i feel like we're getting carried by three players this tournament: WK, Holdenbeck and Corte

Alexis
that is clearly a take by someone who didnt watch Lukeson take out the entire Sangti defense on his own lol

Danny
ok yeah that was epic

i guess its 4 players

Phyllis
that's cleary a take by someone who didn't watch bender-mckay totally own the sangti offense lol

Danny
might be 5 players

Alexis
that is cleary a take by someone who didn't watch Iduna throw out four pinpoint crosses into the Sangti box in like four minutes

Danny
fine, six players -.-

Chris
You guys make it seem like we dominated against Sangti and the Filindo Isles while we actually barely managed a tie.

Alexis
yeah, the first half was shit ngl

one shot on goal in 45 minutes lmao

Danny
but after that it was solid

and i mean we're number 1 babyyy

Phyllis
For now...

---

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World Cup 100 - Group 20 - Matchday 5

Choppyhausen

Colmaijo

2

1

⚽︎ Corte 44’, 67’

⚽︎ ??? 42’

World Cup 100 - Group 20 - Matchday 6

Sangti and the Filindo Isles

Choppyhausen

2

2

⚽︎ Cerdeno 16’

⚽︎ Lukeson 60’
⚽︎ Gardiner 78’

⚽︎ Boire 39’