“So… We ourselves are the group’s first seed, presumably?”
“Ayyuh, of course.”
“And the second seed is?”
“That would be Valladares, who are currently ranked at threeEights’th.”
“Hr’rmm… Our last game against them was a friendly back around the start of the previous World Cup cycle, ayyuh? Close match, if I recall?”
“Ayyuh, on that occasion — with us playing at home — we beat them, but only by two goals to one.”
“And how well did they then manage in the Cup itself?”
“Didn’t actually qualify, that time around: They only ended up as third in their group, despite starting as its second seed then as well.”
“Ah.”
“But then they went to the Cup of Harmony and went all of the way to the final in that, and only lost on penalties after holding Andossa Se Mitrin Vega to a 3-3 score right through extra time…”
“Ah, hokay. Hrright, so they’re probably still as much a potential threat to our chances of qualifying as the rankings suggest.
“Third seed?””
“A country called Khabarovsk Krai: Ranked at one-eightSquared-and-four’th. We’ve never played against them before. Last time around they went into the qualifiers as their group’s fourth seed, ended up in second place, but lost the play-off for a place in the Cup proper to Kernansquillec although only narrowly and after extra time.”
“Hr’rmm. They sound like another lot whom we’d better take verrry seriously, then.
“And after them?”
“Another six teams whom we’ve never met on the field before this _
“Ketharnia, ranked at one-eightSquared; threeEights-and-five’th;
“Bettia, at two-eightSquareds-and-four’th, apparently they used to have quite a reputation but that was a lonnng time ago…”
“Weren’t they the ones with a hrrreally bad reputation for cheating and violence?”
“Hr’rmm? Oh, no, that was actually Northern Bettia which I gather is some sort of offshoot of theirs. These are the ones who have trouble with the colour Red, I think…”
“Hr’rmm…”
“Anyhows _
“The rest of the selection consists of Phoenigetuztha, at two-eightSquareds, fiveEights-and-five’th; a place with the hrrather weird name of 19th Century Beards, at four-eightSquareds, twoEights-and-three’th; Byfugland , at five-eightSquareds, threeEights-and-sixth’th; and finally one unranked side, calling themselves Occupy NationStates , whom we don’t know anything about yet…”
“So, basically two teams that could give us some trouble and six that shouldn’t manage to do so?”
“Basically so, ayyuh, but of course…”
“Upsets happen.”
“Ayyuh, sometimes.”
“Hwell, we’ll see…”
“After the scheduled ‘bye’ that we have on MatchDay One , anyhows.”
“Ayyuh.”
“You know, it’s not that Urrra doesn’t have the experience and talent to run the team and probably do so verrry hwell at that , but it’s going to seem a bit strange going to games and not seeing Marra or any of her old assistants on the touchline…”
“Ayyuh, that it is, for true. Decided that she needed the time in which to go off a–travelling by herself for a while instead, Marra did, I hear?”
“That’s hwhat she told the committee, anyhows.”
“Hwell, good luck to her, wherever she is now.”
“Ayyuh, good luck to her.”
