NationStates Jolt Archive

As requested by Sliponia, here it is. The title says it all, really. I'll post the first round results roughly this time tomorrow, and then sim the next games then (this takes less time than I thought, luckily)

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Other sport:
Handball-team starts luckily
The Rejistanian Handball national team was started their first world cup apperance with a small 21-19 victory against Eastern newfoundland. Also they are newcomers since the handball world championship takes place for the first time. The Rejistanians were behind untill three minutes before the end, when Hada Isra secured the victory by two consecutive goals.

http://www.ews.uiuc.edu/~rhornick/kbsnews.gif
Ted Park: ...And we're back from commercials. Now over to Johnny in Sports.
<Camera pans>
Johnny: Today an eventful day for KOR3AN sports, with our national team taking to the courts in handball for the first time against real competitors.
<Graphic displayed>
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Johnny: And what a game it was, with Team KOR3A taking on the Cockbill Street national team in a hard-fought match. Team KOR3A had a lead early on, with captain Tae-Eun Ha scoring 8 goals in the first half and 13 overall, but Cockbill Street's defense was able to keep Ha from making a similar effort in the second half and their offense able to keep it up, Team KOR3A narrowly losing a 26-28 effort to Cockbill Street. All hope's not lost, though; Team KOR3A hoping to prove themselves tomorrow in what will surely be an exciting match against the veteran handballers of Kaze Progressa. That's it for now, I'm Johnny Lee, back to you Ted & Esther.
<Camera pans>
Esther Kim: Thanks John, and now in other news...

Round 1 Results:

Group 1:
Sliponia 25-19 New Montreal States
Rejistania 21-19 Eastern Newfoundland

Group 2:
Cockbill Street 28-26 KOR3A
Kaze Progressa 31-24 Olympus Coliseum

And the tables - well, they're a bit superficial, but still:

[code:1:4d6a7d3a77]Group 1 P W D L GD Pts GD
Sliponia 1 1 0 0 25-19 2 +6
Rejistania 1 1 0 0 21-19 2 +2
Eastern Newfoundland 1 0 0 1 19-21 0 -2
New Montreal States 1 0 0 1 19-25 0 -6[/code:1:4d6a7d3a77]

This will be played at the Roegrow Arena, capacity 30,000.

[code:1:4d6a7d3a77]Group 2 P W D L GD Pts GD
Kaze Progressa 1 1 0 0 31-24 2 +7
Cockbill Street 1 1 0 0 28-26 2 +2
KOR3A 1 0 0 1 26-28 0 -2
Olympus Coliseum 1 0 0 1 24-31 0 -7[/code:1:4d6a7d3a77]

Played in the Vimesbairn Hall, capacity 45,000.

And a small RP too:

Ankh-Morpork C-mail
Cockbill Street Department

Handball Team Starts With A Win
Fine tradition of national teams continue

A tough encounter against fellow young and promising side KOR3A saw Cockbill Street prevail in their own handball championships with a final score of 28-26. The visitors started out well, surprising us with some very good line-play that shocked our offensive 3-2-1 defense. Eventually though, the Cockbill Street coach changed to a flat 6-0 after a time-out, and this was the solution. KOR3A were 14-9 up at the time though, 5 minutes before half-time, but three quick goals in succession from playmaker Chris Mariner saved the first half. It was 14-12 by half-time, but Mariner continued in this style in the second half, scoring a further six goals (of which 4, incidentally, came on counter-attacks) out of Cockbill Street's 14 second-half goals, and making many important tackles in defense. All national teams of Cockbill Street who have made their debut in a World Championship (be it football, rugby, cricket or handball) have won their first matches, for then slowly to decline (bar of course our glorious cricket team - see page 18 )

Bumpitybump. Matchday 2 results are now TGed to all players.

Sliponian's Pull Out Two Wins
Sliponia beat New Montreal States 25-19 and Rejistania 21-18.

From The Raytown Tribune

COCKBILL STREET -- Spirits are high in the Sliponia locker room after starting out 2-0 in the first handball world cup. Sliponian Coach Paul Hammond is very happy with these first two matches. "Our team is consistent, I like that. We've scored over twenty, and held our opposition to under twenty in both matches. Things are looking for the AP of S."

My next RP will be beter, I'm rushed right now.

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Other sport:
Handball-team loses against Sliponia
The rejistanian newcomers in the handball sport have lost their first-ever international match against Sliponia 18-21. Coach Juu Junu has commented this: "We lacked some offensive skill. But I mean, a margin-3 loss is not high!" The Orange-Whites (they play in orange and white and not in orange-blue like most other rejistanian national teams) and Sliponia had a very even match in which it was not that obvious, which team is best.

Matchday 3 results are out and in your TG boxes, along with the final tables. Some of the tables may be wrong - note that the result of the match before the teams count before the goal difference if the teams are equal on points. Top two go to semi-finals.

The semi-finals will be simmed by Monday. There will also be play-offs for each position, so teams who are knocked out still have one game left. The final will be best of three, as explained earlier.

From the Kangaroo:

DOUBLE DELIGHT FOR HANDBALL WIZARDS

Kaze Progressa earned two fine victories in the NationStates Handball Championship to earn a route to the semi finals with a game to spare.

The first victory, 31-24 against Olympus Coliseum, involved a truly Herculean effort from the attacking players against a tough defence who held the Progressans early on. The Progressans trailed 7-5 with eleven minutes remaining in the first half before beginning their goal spree in earnest with five unanswered goals in six minutes, eventually leading 13-10 at half-time. The second half proved a veritable whitewash, the Progressans scoring eight goals in ten minutes to seal the fate of the Olympians at 21-14. The seven-goal margin remained at the finish, a final score of 31-24.

Their second opponents, KOR3A, suffered the same fate in a different way. The match was defensively minded throughout the first half, with neither side giving away anything. The fear factor, it seemed, made this a dull affair early on, livened up only by the fine goalkeeping of Ruilnab Nabiret, who almost completely shut out the Kor3ans in the first half, which finished 6-4 to the Progressans.

After the break, KOR3A, suddenly realising they simply had to win to stand any chance of qualification, poured forward, changed their formation and were rewarded by pulling back to 6-6 within ninety seconds of the restart. But that merely spurred the Progressans into life, and they racked up ten goals in as many minutes for the loss of only three. The mammoth 16-9 lead was never in doubt in spite of a mini-revival from the Kor3ans (who at one point pulled back to 20-17), and the final score was 26-20.

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Orange-Whites in the Semifinals!
The Orange-Whites, the rejistanian handball team, defeated the New Montreal States with the extremly narrow result 23-22. In a fast and balanced match, it was luck and perhaps goalie Lyku Syku to decide the match. New Montreal States started the scoring and were soon leading 5-1. At that time, the Orange-Whites were too unorganised andd their defense was sometimes faulty. But then the Rejistanians improved. Kada Sulny and Hada Isra leveled the score to a 7-7. Both teams played hard and when one team scored, the other equalized just after that again. Half-time result was 12-12. The second half began like the first ended: balanced. Shortly before the final whistle, the score was 22 all. A quick attack put the Orange-Blues one goal ahead. The New Montreal States attackedagain, but in the deciding seconds, Lyku Syku was there and prevented the equalizer.

The result:
Rejistania: 23
New Montreal States: 22

EDIT: Typo in the scores - now that's embarrassing

Sliponia Drops One But Still Wins Group
Sliponia wins Group 3 even after loss to Eastern Newfoundland 19-24.

From The Raytown Tribune

COCKBILL STREET -- Spirits are still high in the Sliponia locker room after the unfortunate loss to Eastern Newfoundland. "The team just got lazy after they heard we could lose and still win, but this means that I'm going to work them extra hard coming into the next matches."

From the Kangaroo:

HANDBALLERS SHARE SPOILS, SQUEAK TOP SPOT

Kaze Progressa and Cockbill Street, already through to the semi-finals of the NationStates Handball Championship, produced a titanic battle in a bit to gain the easiest draw in it. Eventually, the Progressans came out with the advantage after a 24-24 draw caused them to earn top spot in the group courtesy of their superior goal difference from the first two games.

The first half was a see-saw affair of startling intensity. The Progressans opened up a 5-2 lead within five minutes before Cockbill Street scored four in a row in three minutes to lead 6-5. After a succession of stunning saves from both goalkeepers maintained that score, the Progressans equalised and then took the lead just twenty seconds later. Both sides alternated goals for a while, taking the score to 10-9, before four consecutive Cockbill Street goals left the score 13-10 at half-time.

The Progressan response was immediate, with two goals in the first minute of the second half and four more in as many minutes earning them a 16-15 lead. The aggravated Cockbill Street players began conceding fouls with some regularity, but their aggression was also converted into attacking power which Nabiret was helpless against. As a result, six goals for each side were scored in a frantic seven-minute spell, leaving the score 23-22 with five minutes left.

At that point, the goals somehow dried up, Nabiret and his opposite number saving everything in sight. Then suddenly two Chris Mariner goals in fourty seconds made it 24-23 to Cockbill Street with two minutes left, only for Unabi Jurilin to score his tenth of the match with fifty seconds left on the clock. A stunning save from Nabiret in the dying seconds meant the match finished 24-24, enough for the Progressans to top their group. They now meet Rejistania in the semi finals.

Semi-final results have been TGed today.

Schedule:

1st Final simmed Tuesday posted Thursday
2nd Final simmed Boxing Day (Friday) posted Saturday
3rd Final and Play-offs simmed Sunday, posted Monday.

Rounds 2 & 3 Results:

Group 1:

New Montreal States 24-23 Eastern Newfoundland
Rejistania 18-21 Sliponia
New Montreal States 22-23 Rejistania
Sliponia 19-24 Eastern Newfoundland

[code:1:7b1ff2e744]Group 1 P W D L GD Pts GD
Sliponia 3 2 0 1 65-61 4 +4
Rejistania 3 2 0 1 62-62 4 0
Eastern Newfoundland 3 1 0 2 66-64 2 +2
New Montreal States 3 1 0 2 65-71 2 -6[/code:1:7b1ff2e744]

Group 2:

Olympus Coliseum 20-28 Cockbill Street
KOR3A 20-26 Kaze Progressa
Olympus Coliseum 27-18 KOR3A
Kaze Progressa 24-24 Cockbill Street

[code:1:7b1ff2e744]Group 2 P W D L GD Pts GD
Kaze Progressa 3 2 1 0 81-68 5 +13
Cockbill Street 3 2 1 0 80-70 5 +10
Olympus Coliseum 3 1 0 2 71-77 2 -6
KOR3A 3 0 0 3 64-81 0 -17[/code:1:7b1ff2e744]

Ankh-Morpork C-mail
Cockbill Street Department

Second Place Sets Up Thrilling Semi-Final
Last-Gasp Finish To Group 2 at Vimesbairn

After our 28-20 defeat of Olympus Coliseum, a team which was regarded as a strong contender before the tournament, Cockbill Street and Kaze Progressa would fight off for the group title and perhaps a slightly easier semi-final draw. It was an amazing encounter, dominated by Cockbill Street playmaker Chris Mariner and Kaze Progressa's left back Unabi Junlin, who each made ten goals.

That wasn't to say the other players did not do well either. An exceedingly good performance nearly all the way to the end could have seen Cockbill Street top of the group. Alan Jones, the line player, made four goals, among them the all-important 22-23 goal five minutes before the end that gave hope of victory, and also set up a number of penalties slotted in by left back Martin Read. And that's not to forget right winger Brian Smith's defensive job as right-second defender, blocking four shots from Junlin and tackling him well on a number of occasions. Junlin of course took penalties - six in fact - but also slammed in the final goal of the game forty seconds from time. Kaze Progressa's right wing ran in to the centre, taking with him the right-third, thus leaving a huge gap on the wing for Junlin to run into and score. A very nice play indeed. Cockbill Street attacked immediately, but with the time pressure and everything, Chris Mariner's final shot was a weak one in keeper height, and it was well blocked by Nabiret.

The poor points were, sadly, a lot of technical faults and passive-plays. The ball was often thrown away needlessly, and when it wasn't, the Kaze Progressa players were skilled in closing us down. Thus, there were many passes, but never that many creative plays that led to goal. Mostly, goals were scored by defensive errors, and this is something that Cockbill Street can't trust in the semi-finals and final.

Conspicous lack of coverage dooms Paladins to 3rd place finish

Well, it has been a long and hard slog for the unknown Paladins handball team. Between the World Cup and Empress Cup, as well as the Paladin Ice Hockey team advance into the playoffs in Cherry Cup action, little attention has been payed to the unhearlded Handball team.

A 1-2 performance doesn't come close to showing the grit and determination displayed by the young squad of recent college graduates. All 3 games have been very close. "It could have been 3-0 as easily as it was 1-2" said coach Chlemno Verdansk. "We played very well, and hopefully next time the dang tourney won't be during finals and the press could give it more attention."

OOC: Yeah, I overcommited myself last week. Plus I couldn't find this thread. Sorry :(

Conspicous lack of coverage dooms Paladins to 3rd place finish

Well, it has been a long and hard slog for the unknown Paladins handball team. Between the World Cup and Empress Cup, as well as the Paladin Ice Hockey team advance into the playoffs in Cherry Cup action, little attention has been payed to the unhearlded Handball team.

A 1-2 performance doesn't come close to showing the grit and determination displayed by the young squad of recent college graduates. All 3 games have been very close. "It could have been 3-0 as easily as it was 1-2" said coach Chlemno Verdansk. "We played very well, and hopefully next time the dang tourney won't be during finals and the press could give it more attention."

OOC: Yeah, I overcommited myself last week. Plus I couldn't find this thread. Sorry :(

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ORANGE-WHITES IN THE FINALS
In the semi-final against Kaze Progressa, the Orange-Whites won by a three-goal-margin and secured themselfs a spot in the final. If you use the words 'final' and 'Rejistania' in one sentence, every Rejistanian goes mad, and so this time spontanious cheering could be heard. A place where this seemed especially strange was at the KaMaRi stock exchange, the brokers didn't have a reason to cheer since a long time.

Kaze Progressa was dominating the first half, since the rejistanian offense made too many errors. 5 Progressan goals were archieved in counter attacks. Half-time result was 8-13 Coach Juu Junu got furious. He announced a 'Nate E. Visser' treatment in case of a loss. This seemed to work. In the second half, the Orange-Whites played much more concentrated and avoided the stupid errors of the first half. Especially Hada Isra and Kada Sulny improved much. Lyku Syku only let 7 goals in, while the Orange-Whites scored 15.

The result:
Rejistania: 23
Kaze Progressa: 20

If you heard in newscasts, that the match was against Cockbill Streets, please ignore it. Someone in the Rejistanian Press Agency was not quite awake when he sended the wrong information.

From the Kangaroo:

PROGRESSANS HAND REJISTANIANS SHOCKING COMEBACK WIN

Kaze Progressa's dream of reaching a major sporting final has persisted for many years. In football, the competition has proved too well established. In field hockey, there seems to be no way past the first knockout game. In ice hockey, much the same. But the admittedly-smaller handball tournament appeared to be going the Progressans' way - two comfortable wins and a draw against the strong hosts seeing them top their group.

And then, as usual, things went horribly wrong.

Not that it seemed to during the first half, dominated by the Progressans whose high-speed counter-attacking style was defended against only by fouls from the Orange-Whites of Rejistania. Junlin took advantage and scored five penalties to give the Progressans a 13-8 lead at half-time, having been up 7-3 and 11-5.

But the Rejistanians had drawn a glimmer of hope from their mini-revival late in the first half, and were utterly transformed after the break. Within six minutes, they were level at 16-16. Junlin earned the Progressans an 18-16 lead with two goals in a minute before Rejistania scored three in two minutes to go 19-18 up. Junlin and Sulny exchanged goals twice to bring the score to 21-20 before two Hada Isra goals in the 57th minute killed off the Progressans.

OK, I'm gonna reveal the second semi-final result here and now:

Ankh-Morpork C-mail
Cockbill Street Department

Handball World Championship Extra!

[b]Cockbill Street In Final
Callous' Keeping Heriocs Makes It Possible

What a day for Cockbill Street sport. The 45,000-seater Vimesbairn Hall was packed, and that includes 10,000 Sliponian fans who had been lucky enough to get their tickets. The first few minutes were frantic and hectic, as the teams struggled to gain control and both made many technical faults, resulting in many goals from counter-attacks. It was 4-4 after six minutes, after which the Cockbill Street manager wisely took a timeout. Play calmed down a bit, and more regular attacks gave goals - like that one when Chris Mariner jumped up, faked a shot, then back-passed it to substitute left back Ioannou who charged in at great speed and succeeded in giving this speed to the ball. It flew into the top corner and the score was 6-4 to Cockbill Street. This combination between Mariner and Ioannou was very successful, yielding six goals for Ioannou and four for Mariner that had been assisted by the partner.

That's not to say the defenders didn't do well either. They played the usual 6-0 formation used by Cockbill Street league teams, which can be disastrous against teams with powerful marksmen, but as Sliponia lacked one of these today, that was no problem. Sliponia relied on the line player to score their goals, and he was effectively stopped by the strong central defense made up of Healy and Read, who immediately closed the line-player down if anything happened near the centre, while maintaining the blocks. Excellent defending. Also, Callous did a great job in goal, making three 100 %-saves on counter attacks and having a saving record of 59 % (including rebounds). They helped particularly in the period between 10 and 20 minutes, when they only let in one goal - and a penalty shot at that - which brought the score to 9-5 for Cockbill Street, mainly due to the attackers' ineptitude to score on the counter-attacks.

However, that improved as frustration grew for Sliponia. They threw their balls away needlessly, and it was only due to some very sloppy defending and goalkeeping that the score was actually 14-8 at half time - very flattering for the guests. That changed early in the second half, though, as a revived Sliponian side took to the field. They were better in every aspect of the game, and three quick goals in the first four minutes made sure there was a game again. Substitute right winger Hreidar Trollfighter tried to rally the squad with a quick reply, but Sliponia were better in the first part of the half. The established attack was especially good, but it was made good due to the fact that our defenders was reluctant to rush out and block shots from 9 metres, something that must be corrected before our next game. Still, another timeout, where the manager was noted to say "You **** *** *** *** haven't **** ***** **** won the ***** *** *** game *** yet" (we apologise for the asterisks, but they are very necessary in case children reads this paper) helped. Both defense and attack improved, and the score moved from 14-13 after 9 minutes to 21-17 after 18. Sliponia never fully recovered, despite a timeout taken with eight minutes to spare, and the final goal was scored twenty seconds from time by Benjamin Ioannou for 24-20.

A worrying aspect, however, was the way the left and centre backs Ioannou and Mariner dominated the game. Rejistania will surely have noticed this, and concentrate on this part of the defense, as Andy Healy, Hreidar Trollfighter, Brian Smith and Andrea Durham all were looking remarkably unthreatening on the right side. Smith did score four goals, but as they were all penalties, they count for little as a measure of his skills on established attacks.

Cockbill Street's playing 14 (starting seven named first, goals after name, penalty goals in brackets): Callous, Helen Peters 2, Alan Jones 1, Brian Smith 4 (4), Benjamin Ioannou 8, Chris Mariner 6, Andy Healy 1, Neil Quinn, Hreidar Trollfighter 1, Martin Read 1, Andrea Durham, Peter Sanders, Matt Pollock.

Ankh-Morpork C-mail
Cockbill Street Department

Handballers Fail At The Crunch
First Really Poor Game Came In Final

In the first Final in the Roegrow Arena yesterday, the visiting crowd from Rejistania saw their team win in convincing style over a very defensive and generally very lost Cockbill Street team.

It actually started out well, with two quick goals from left back Ben Ioannou. However, it was clear that the Cockbill Street defense wasn't up to it, as Rejistania easily found their way through the defense and made simple goals due to huge defensive mistakes, like that time when both Brian Smith and Helen Peters marked out Kada Sulny, resulting in a huge gap for Hada Isra to score his first goal of the match. Rejistania up 4-2. This trend continued for most of the first half, and it resulted in an 8-goal lead for the Orange-Whites at half time.

Cockbill Street tried to rally early in the second half with the only good spell of handball in the game. Earlier, there had been many technical faults, and there still were, but at least now they went quickly for goal and got it. That reduced the lead from 7-15 at half-time to the more respectable 12-16 after 8 minutes of the second half. However, the defense faltered again, and Sulny and Isra got some very easy shots that were impossible for Callous to grab. Thus, Rejistania moved away again, and this time there was no mercy for Cockbill Street. The final result was actually very flattering, as Rejistania slept through the last five minutes, allowing Cockbill Street to score four goals and reduce the gap from 11 to seven goals.

Cockbill Street's playing 14 (starting seven named first, goals after name, penalty goals in brackets): Callous, Helen Peters 1, Alan Jones 3, Brian Smith 3 (3), Benjamin Ioannou 4, Chris Mariner 4, Andy Healy 1, Neil Quinn 2, Hreidar Trollfighter, Martin Read, Andrea Durham, Peter Sanders, Matt Pollock 1.

Final score:
Cockbill Street 19
Rejistania 26

OOC: Anybody interested in a second instalment of the Championship?

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(A big image of celebrating Orange-Whites fills half of the page)

We are the champions!
Today the whole country dissolved into one big chaotic celebration as the Orange-Whites also won the second final and became the new world chamion in handball. This is the first-ever title of a rejistanian international team. I even wonder, if this edition of the KaMaRi Update ever gets delivered.

In the first minutes, it was Cockbill Street, who dominated the match. Ben Ioannou again took the lead like in the first final with two quick goals, that made the rejistanian defense look far too unorganised. The shock made then improve drastically. Sulny'he and Isra'he equalised the score again minutes later. The match was a final, that was worth seeing: two skilled teams played a fast and aggressive but still fair match. Rejistania was the better team, but they were not dominating. At half-time, they only led with one goal difference. Whenever the Orange-Whites scored, Cockbill Street tried it too. This changed in the second half, since Lyku Syku saved some 'unsaveable' balls and the goal-difference slowly increased. In the last minutes, the Cockbill Streetians made some beautiful goals because again, the rejistanian defense was not as present as they should, but Cockbill Street could not come back from trailing 26-18 and only improved the result to 26-21.

The result:
Rejistania 26
Cockbill Street 21