NationStates Jolt Archive

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Opening Ceremony in the Capital City of Cafundó do Juta

Before the start of the group draw, the Emperor of Cafundéu, Hector Van Tocco, spoke to all the participant countries:

“We have here fifteen countries that are going to play their first worldwide competition in football. I want to wish you good luck and I hope to see a good competition, with many good games. You may be anxious for the start of the competition, and so I am, as Cafundéu made a great effort to host the Baptism of Fire. We expanded our stadiums, our cities’ infrastructure and everything related to it. So, I can assure you that we’re making our best to accomodate all the players and staff members. Maybe you can buy some products here in our country, as we want to get some profit on this competition, we spent a lot of money, something that we usually don’t do. We have good prices, just check it!”

“Now, let’s go to the group draw”:

After the emperor’s speech, the president of the confederation, the Counselor-Minister of Sports Samuel Makas, decided to start the group draws:

“So, we’ll now make the draw. It’ll be completely random, so, and we’ll use a computer program to send the countries to their respective groups. Mr. Jowenguard, please click in the OK button. No, not this one, this one is the delete button... you restarted the program. Now it’ll take one hour to prepare everything again!”

“Please wait some moments. I apologize.”

After nearly one hour, Mr. Jowenguard does the right thing and the countries’ names are thrown into its groups. The counselor-minister released the groups:

GROUP A
J-Man2k7
Mekhule
American Fist
Ghost Tigers Rise
Ulzaxid

GROUP B
SS Oaklands
West Pasco
St Paul’s Isle
Holweg
Kampfers

GROUP C
British Londinium
Nerotika
Junista
Kiryu-Shi
Netherwallop

The schedule (all games played in neutral ground, of course – teams not included in a determined round will have a rest day for the matchday):

MD01 (27/3):
J-Man2k7 x Ghost Tigers Rise
Mekhule x American Fist
SS Oaklands x Holweg
West Pasco x St Paul’s Isle
British Londinium x Kiryu-Shi
Nerotika x Junista

MD02 (28/3):
American Fist x J-Man2k7
Ulzaxid x Mekhule
St Paul’s Isle x SS Oaklands
Kampfers x West Pasco
Junista x British Londinium
Netherwallop x Nerotika

MD03 (29/3):
J-Man2k7 x Mekhule
Ghost Tigers Rise x Ulzaxid
SS Oaklands x West Pasco
Holweg x Kampfers
British Londinium x Nerotika
Kiryu-Shi x Netherwallop

MD04 (30/3):
Ulzaxid x J-Man2k7
American Fist x Ghost Tigers Rise
Kampfers x SS Oaklands
St Paul’s Isle x Holweg
Netherwallop x British Londinium
Junista x Kiryu-Shi

MD05 (31/3):
Mekhule x Ghost Tigers Rise
American Fist x Ulzaxid
West Pasco x Holweg
St Paul’s Isle x Kampfers
Nerotika x Kiryu-Shi
Junista x Netherwallop

MD06 (1/4):
J-Man2k7 x Ghost Tigers Rise
Mekhule x American Fist
SS Oaklands x Holweg
West Pasco x St Paul’s Isle
British Londinium x Kiryu-Shi
Nerotika x Junista

MD07 (2/4):
American Fist x J-Man2k7
Ulzaxid x Mekhule
St Paul’s Isle x SS Oaklands
Kampfers x West Pasco
Junista x British Londinium
Netherwallop x Nerotika

MD08 (3/4):
J-Man2k7 x Mekhule
Ghost Tigers Rise x Ulzaxid
SS Oaklands x West Pasco
Holweg x Kampfers
British Londinium x Nerotika
Kiryu-Shi x Netherwallop

MD09 (4/4):
Ulzaxid x J-Man2k7
American Fist x Ghost Tigers Rise
Kampfers x SS Oaklands
St Paul’s Isle x Holweg
Netherwallop x British Londinium
Junista x Kiryu-Shi

MD10 (5/4):
Mekhule x Ghost Tigers Rise
American Fist x Ulzaxid
West Pasco x Holweg
St Paul’s Isle x Kampfers
Nerotika x Kiryu-Shi
Junista x Netherwallop

Quarterfinals (6/4):
Best 1st-placed x 2nd Best Third – Game A
2nd Best 1st-placed x Best Third – Game B
3rd Best 1st-placed x Worst Second – Game C
Best Second x 2nd Best Second – Game D

Semifinals (7/4):
Game A Winner x Game D Winner – Game E
Game B Winner x Game C Winner – Game F

Finals (8/4):
Game E Loser x Game F Loser – Third Place Game
Game E Winner x Game F Winner - Final

"Please wait few moments now until we release the chosen cities for the games."

(OOC: Rosters in this thread. Please note that a roster can give you a permanent RP bonus (maximum 20%), so it's very important. You can also have a style (from -5 to 5) for your team. It's also recommended for the teams to add a RP permissions box in their rosters)

City Details

These will be the cities which will host the games of this Baptism of Fire.

Group A Cities:

Cafundó do Juta: capital of the country, is a big metropolis, with many things to do, good nightlife and shops, and also many tourist points. The police are well funded and is important for the economy of the country. The stadium is very nice and has excellent infrastructure, and is often used for other events, as shows. It also is close of the Bovecaf, Cafundéu’s stock market’s main building.
Climate: warm and wet(high rain probability).
Stadium: Praça Maior.
Capacity: 150,000.
Infrastructure: *****
Will host the games: Mekhule x American Fist (MD1); Ulzaxid x J-Man2k7 (MD4); Ulzaxid x Mekhule (MD7); Mekhule x Ghost Tigers Rise (MD10); The Final.

Tijhus: is very near from Cafundó do Juta, and it’s very big too. But doesn’t have the same importance as its “sister”. Has some interesting museums too. The stadium doesn’t have anything special, but is very good.
Climate: warm and wet(high rain probability).
Stadium: Estádio Olímpico de Tijhus.
Capacity: 60,000.
Infrastructure: ****
Will host the games: J-Man2k7 x Ghost Tigers Rise (MD1); American Fist x Ghost Tigers Rise (MD4); American Fist x J-Man2k7 (MD7).

Elville: a peaceful city, with few high buildings and many farms. But its citizens love sports. There you can buy some homemade products, like desserts and craft. The citizens of this city are very nice and most of the population live in the rural zone. The stadium is good, but its infrastructure doesn’t come close to Praça Maior’s.
Climate: warm and wet(medium rain probability).
Stadium: Parque do Sol.
Capacity: 60,000.
Infrastructure: ****
Will host the games: American Fist x J-Man2k7 (MD2); Mekhule x Ghost Tigers Rise (MD5); Ghost Tigers Rise x Ulzaxid (MD8).

Abadia: this city is known for its strange division of neighborhoods. Each neighborhood has a respective leader, which represents it in the city hall. And most leaders represent a family. These families are very powerful in the city and control almost everything. The city is very big, but has some old traditions that are still unchanged. A.F.F.’s stadium will be used in the BoF. It’s very big and modern, as it was recently finished.
Climate: warm and wet(medium rain probability).
Stadium: Terreno da Vitória
Capacity: 100,000.
Infrastructure: ****
Will host the games: Ulzaxid x Mekhule (MD2); American Fist x Ulzaxid (MD5); J-Man2k7 x Mekhule (MD8); American Fist x Ulzaxid (MD10); Game A(quarterfinals).

Mondragon: this city doesn’t have any big football team, but has a big stadium, which was chosen as one of the host cities. The city is big and developed, and tourists come to Mondragon because of the food, one of the most exotic of the country. The stadium is big, but not so developed.
Climate: extremely hot and wet(medium rain probability).
Stadium: Caldeirão.
Capacity: 80,000.
Infrastructure: ***
Will host the games: J-Man2k7 x Mekhule (MD3); Mekhule x American Fist (MD6); American Fist x Ghost Tigers Rise (MD9).

Lux: has the highest IDH in the country and one of the highest in the world. So, it’s considered one of the best cities to live. It has good security, education and healthcare, but nothing very interesting to tourists. The stadium is very modern, but isn’t one of the biggest of the country.
Climate: cold and wet(medium rain probability).
Stadium: Arena do Imperador.
Capacity: 60,000.
Infrastructure: *****
Will host the games: Ghost Tigers Rise x Ulzaxid (MD3); J-Man2k7 x Ghost Tigers Rise (MD6); Ulzaxid x J-Man2k7 (MD9); Game D(quarterfinals).

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Group B Cities:

Lasft: second biggest city of the country, Lasft is more beautiful than Cafundó do Juta, since it’s on the seaside. People from around the world come to Lasft every year because of its beaches and businesses. It also is the headquarters of the CCFM. The stadium is the most beautiful of the country, with clean bathrooms and an organized restaurant.
Climate: hot and wet(medium rain probability).
Stadium: Obelisco Monumental.
Capacity: 100,000.
Infrastructure: *****
Will host the games: SS Oaklands x Holweg (MD1); SS Oaklands x West Pasco (MD3); West Pasco x St Paul’s Isle (MD6); Holweg x Kampfers (MD8); Game E(Semifinals).

Espinal: tourists come to Espinal because of its wonderful nightlife and big parties. As the city is located on the seaside, its beaches are much visited too, although the government has some problems with violence. The city is also respected because of its social programs, giving assistance to the poorer citizens. The stadium is simple, but in good conditions.
Climate: hot and wet(medium rain probability).
Stadium: Estádio Ernesto Honesto.
Capacity: 60,000.
Infrastructure: ****
Will host the games: West Pasco x St Paul’s Isle (MD1); Kampfers x SS Oaklands (MD4); SS Oaklands x Holweg (MD6); Kampfers x SS Oaklands (MD9).

Submiria: another city located on the seaside. But Submiria has only one beach, the other parts of the city are flooded. But special houses are built on these parts. The city is very interesting and has a very good nightlife. Also is interesting to see the flooded parts of the city. The stadium is located in a flooded part of the city, but there are no problems in its structure.
Climate: warm and wet(high rain probability).
Stadium: Aquário Nacional.
Capacity: 70,000.
Infrastructure: ****
Will host the games: St Paul’s Isle x SS Oaklands (MD2); St Paul’s Isle x Holweg (MD4); Kampfers x West Pasco (MD7); St Paul’s Isle x Holweg (MD9).

Central City: as the name says, this city is located in the centre of the country. It has one of the biggest airports of the country and has a chaotic traffic. As the city is located in an area of mountains, it has many tunnels. Its altitude is very high, so some players can have difficulties in playing in this city, as they can lose breath very fast. The stadium is located in the rich part of the city.
Climate: cold and dry(low rain probability).
Stadium: Toca do Tatu.
Capacity: 85,000.
Infrastructure: *****
Will host the games: Kampfers x West Pasco (MD2); West Pasco x Holweg (MD5); St Paul’s Isle x SS Oaklands (MD7); St Paul’s Isle x Kampfers (MD10); Third Place Game.

Carandirú City: this city was very interesting in the past, but now it’s only used to hold prisoners. Cafundéu’s army is located there, too. It’s the prison city, but is very safe and has many exotic food shops. The stadium is located inside the main prison of the city, and most of the prisoners see the games.
Climate: hot and dry(low rain probability).
Stadium: Presídio.
Capacity: 75,000.
Infrastructure: ****
Will host the games: Holweg x Kampfers (MD3); St Paul’s Isle x Kampfers (MD5); SS Oaklands x West Pasco (MD8); West Pasco x Holweg (MD10); Game C(quarterfinals).

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Group C Cities:

Dunboor: this city is big, but it isn’t too visited by tourists, because of its very cold weather. But it’s good for business and has the biggest mines of the country are in Dunboor. So, it’s jewelry and coal factories are the most important of the country. During the winter (it’s autumn now), it snows nearly everyday in Dunboor. The supporters there like to bring musical instruments to the stadium.
Climate: extremely cold and dry(low rain probability).
Stadium: Maracatu Arena.
Capacity: 90,000.
Infrastructure: *****
Will host the games: British Londinium x Kiryu-Shi (MD1); British Londinium x Nerotika (MD3); Nerotika x Junista (MD6); Kiryu-Shi x Netherwallop (MD8); Game F(Semifinals).

Al-Zalabahad: Arab immigrants founded this city, and surprisingly it became the biggest source of petroleum in the country. Most of the population of this city have a very good relationship with the other citizens. They have beautiful homemade crafts and is a wonderful city. The stadium doesn’t have a parking place for cars.
Climate: extremely hot and dry(no rain probability).
Stadium: Mohammed Field.
Capacity: 70,000.
Infrastructure: *****
Will host the games: Nerotika x Junista (MD1); Netherwallop x British Londinium (MD4); British Londinium x Kiryu-Shi (MD6); Junista x Kiryu-Shi (MD9).

Astari: another economic centre, is the home of two of the biggest companies of Cafundéu: the C-Electronics and the Uranium Kings. Businesses are constant there and the nightlife is very good. It’s called the “city of colourful lights”, as the public lights are of many colours. Its roads are very interesting too. Most games in this stadium will be played at night.
Climate: extremely hot and wet(high rain probability).
Stadium: C-Electronics Stadium.
Capacity: 80,000.
Infrastructure: ****
Will host the games: Junista x British Londinium (MD2); Junista x Kiryu-Shi (MD4); Netherwallop x Nerotika (MD7); Netherwallop x British Londinium (MD9); Game B(quarterfinals).

Penderia: the city is very big, and is an important city because of its location, in the border of the country. A huge fort was built in the city, and some tourists like to see the old buildings. A historic city, but still important today, as an defense and economical centre.
Climate: cold and dry(low rain probability).
Stadium: Campo de Batalha.
Capacity: 85,000.
Infrastructure: ****
Will host the games: Netherwallop x Nerotika (MD2); Nerotika x Kiryu-Shi (MD5); Junista x British Londinium (MD7); Nerotika x Kiryu-Shi (MD10).

São José: the oldest city of the country, São José has many historic buildings and touristic points. But nowadays it doesn’t have economic importance. But has a religious importance, as is the headquarters of most churches in Cafundéu. The stadium is very old, but is big. The infrastructure isn’t so good and there aren’t chairs for the supporters (they have to sit on the concrete).
Climate: extremely cold and wet(medium rain probability).
Stadium: Estádio Pioneiro.
Capacity: 120,000.
Infrastructure: ***
Will host the games: Kiryu-Shi x Netherwallop (MD3); Junista x Netherwallop (MD5); British Londinium x Nerotika (MD8); Junista x Netherwallop (MD10).

[Because I don't actually have an SS Oaklands account and can't really be bothered to open one at the moment, all posts as the Oaklands will be prefaced with this disclaimer. I like doughnuts.]

---

"Baptism of Fire, my pasty white ass."

"Sir, have you ever noticed you use that phrase altogether too much?"

Eric Donahue, the manager, coach and sometimes motivational speaker of the SS Oakland's football team, was not a particularly pleasant man to get along with. He was crude, rude, violent, thuggish, had absolutely no respect for other people's privacy and had a sadistic streak a couple of miles in length; he'd got his start in coaching with the MIHL's London Knights, where he was put in charge of the London Squires (the team's junior affiliate) and sacked two weeks in after the team couldn't ice a squad for it's first game thanks to half of the player having nervous breakdowns. Exactly how he'd finagled this job was, quite simply, a mystery worthy of Sherlock Holmes himself

"No. And I don't pay to ask questions, I pay you to make notes."

"You don't pay me at all, sir."

The unlucky man assigned as his assistant was Leslie Jones, a graduate student at Bourque University who had got the job solely because he made the mistake of claiming to be "good with people" - he'd spent the following months being little more than Donahue's dogsbody, paid a pittance and submitted to treatment that would make more compassionate nations cry into their pillows at night.

"Good, someone as useless as you doesn't deserve pay. Go get me some coffee, the thing's about to kick off."

"Yes, sir. Laced with what?"

"What did I say yesterday about alcoholic drinks?"

Rummaging in the breast pocket of his ill-fitting suit, Leslie leafed through the reams of notes he'd been given on his new boss' habits - after hearing he had to look at least presentable for the group drawings, Donahue had gone completely to the other end of the spectrum from his previous caveman-like look and rented a full tuxedo, with a top hat, a monocle and a cane as well. He was nice enough to remember he had an assistant for long enough to get Leslie one as well, but through bad judgement or a pre-emptive punishment decided to simply outfit him with a children's sized suit.

"Ah, here it is. Er...it says "one with everything", sir, are you sure that's right?"

A swift blow to the leg was his answer, as Donahue turned his attention back to the stage. After failing miserably to click the right button once, the podgy Mr. Jowenguard got it right this time and sorted the Oaklands into Group B, alongside West Pasco, Holweg, St. Paul's Isle and Kampfers.

"Kampf...Holweg...who the fuck are these people?"

The exclamation came out rather louder than he'd intended - presumably, although it's never easy to tell with him - as the assorted men and women turned to look at the crazed man wearing a blinding white tuxedo and looking offended.

"Fuck this shit, I'm going back to the hotel." Pausing only to pick up his cane and adjust his monocle, Donahue left the room considerably darker and less abusive for his absence; just a moment or two after he'd left, Leslie returned with a cup of coffee that couldn't be too far from 100% alcohol.

"Di..." he began, breaking off when he saw the hostile stares he was being given. "Did I miss anything?"

BL Team Roster:

GK - George Maddox (vice-captain)
DF - Brandon Martin
DF - Spencer Wilson
DF - Daiki Suzuki
DF - Chris Richardson
DF - Robert Sinclair
FW - Paul Fletcher
FW - Ben Serrant
MF - Ajeet Prasad
MF - Danny Zieler
FW - James Yossarian (captain)

MEKHULE

Team Manager: Khan Revanna - 53
Team Coach: Kelly Tenanne - 28

Kits:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v495/SgtShezz/Football/MekhuleHome001.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v495/SgtShezz/Football/MekhuleAway.jpg

Formation: 4 - 4 - 2
Bias: +1

Players:

GK - Sasha Bry - 22 - Stape Harriers
GK - Kassandra Fairchild - 20 - Sirus Athletic
GK - Steve Orvile - 31 - Fortress FC

DF - Sigman Elis - 26 - Dassault
DF - Xian Chambers - 24 - Sirus Athletic
DF - Jerry Avanier - 22 - Ascama United
DF - Erin Holmslow - 19 - Sirus Athletic
DF - Oli Voile - 19 - Keller United
DF - Kisla Meculi - 20 - Orson Town
DF - Neil Ridown - 22 - Racing River Rapid

MF - Neil Casoria - 25 - Orson Town
MF - Oliver Cloazov - 24 - Sirus Athletic
MF - Jessica Gonomire - 21 - Stape Harriers
MF - Mia Hall - 20 - Racing River Rapid
MF - Tamsin Logren - 24 - Latona FC
MF - Nicholas Selwyn - 25 - Kaytuo City
MF - Cosette Valsaire - 18 - Orson Town

AF - Julian Almerton - 23 - Latona City
AF - Rhiannon Breeze - 21 - Orson Town
AF - Ken Forrestal - 25 - Orson Town
AF - Raven Kisella - 23 - Stape Harriers
AF - Brian Korsen - 24 - Racing River Rapid
AF - Aby Ubeck - 21 - Fort Lakaria City

Entering the International Scene; Why Kiryu-shi Decided to Join International Football
-By Michio Hibbert

-Cafundó do Juta, Cafundeu At this year's Baptism of Fire, Kiryu-shi's national football team, the Dragons, will play their long anticipated debut match in international football against the team from British Londinium. Although domestic football is, and has always been a very popular sport in Kiryu-shi, the federal government and the Kiryu Football Alliance wanted to wait to enter competive international until they felt that they would be able to field a decent, respectable team. After years of pressure by football fans from all around the country, the KFA finally feels good enough to send a team to enter the BoF, and attemt a run at qualifying for the World Cup, the pinnacle of international football.

____The KFA nominated Bruce Lewis, the long time head coach of Sakaino University's football team to manage the national team. Lewis has a reputation of developing young football players into stars, the reason why he was chosen to head the extremely young team. Lewis was given full responsibility for choosing the starters and the assistant coaches, while the members of the national team were picked by the KFA. Although most of the members were part of the KFA league last year, in order to play for the national team they had to give up their contracts with their team, enabling them to fully dedicate themselves to training with their new teammates. These players are the mostly the youngest and brightest stars that Kiryu-shi has to offer, with relatively little veteran leadership and experience, a fact that critics of the KFA were fast to jump on. However, with approximately six months of training with Lewis at the Sakaino University campus, most of the people who attended the open practice sessions left raving about the fast growth of the players as a complete team.

The projected starers are:
GK
Jon Crow -#1-6’3”-22 years old- The eccentric goalkeeper of Kiryu-shi is known for his whacky hair and spindly, flexible body. He has great instinct as a keeper, but still has difficulty with proper positioning. He is a vocal player, leading his defense line well.

DF
Matthew Pruet-#3-5’11”-27 years old-One of the most solid defenders on the team, he takes charge of the defensive line from the center-back position. Pruet aggressively clears loose balls inside the penalty area and has a strong and accurate kick. He lacks first-class speed, and looks lost when playing outside of his zone. He takes the most free kicks from the defensive half. He is co-captain.

Bob Moya-#5-6’2”-24 years old-A terrific one on one defender, he is often used to neutralize star attackers. He is never caught out of position and is very technically sound. However, he is not a tremendously gifted athlete, lacking speed, durability and a strong kick. He is prone to injury, although he often plays through the pain.

Doug LeBlanc-#2-5’8”-23 years old-What he lacks in knowledge and quick thinking he makes up for in speed and pure athletic ability. He plays especially well with M. Pruet. He is the fastest player for Kiryu-shi and has a strong, if not that accurate, kick. He is very loud and passionate, and will be involved in a lot of physical play, accumulating cards but also drawing fouls from the opposing side. His attacking skills are decent, and is very useful on counter attacks. However, especially when he is not playing with Pruet, he will be caught out of position and will suffer many mental lapses resulting in opposing chances.

Isaac Levi-#7-5’10”-17 years old-The youngest and least experienced starter on Kiryu-shi’s squad, his ability to move the ball up the sidelines is key in the team’s wing-oriented strategy. He shows impressive ability in intercepting passes and ball-handling. He has stamina issues, and is not as strong as a premier player should be. He can be knocked off the ball. His passing abilities are still lacking, and is one of the only players who tries to dribble before passing. Lacks scoring and shooting ability. He sprints well, Has extremely good distance and accuracy on his throws, and will take most of the throws from his side.

Sidney Hendrickson-#12-5’11-22 years old-Originally an attacking midfielder, his talents stealing the ball made it obvious to move him to the defensive line, where he is one of the key parts of Kiryu-shi’s team. He is fast and very effective on the outside, and is never hurt. He has a scoring touch, and is effective as an offensive weapon dashing into the box from the wing. Can beat certain defenders one on one with his quick feet. He lacks a strong kick and plays balls in the air very poorly. Plays up and down the field, and is well-conditioned.

MF
Gregory Iverson-#15-6’4”-18 years old-A surprise starter in the defensive midfield is a favorite of the coach due to his meticulous preparation and imposing size. Although he is not especially skilled in any one area, and is probably the slowest starting player, his size and strength are intimidating in the middle of the field. He can pass and receive passes well, and has a hard kick. Will take long shots once in a while. Is effective on corners, both defending and attacking. He is a good leader, and has been predicted by some that with maturity, will develop into the eventual captain of the national team.

Pat Mayberry-#8-5’11”-25 years old-The most well-known player on Kiryu-shi’s national team, is unquestionably the best all-around player from his right side half-back position. He can dominate matches at times, using his speed and awareness to create opportunities to score for his team. He holds his own defensively. His accurate and strong passes from the wing can create goals. He can beat defenders one on one, and is very fast. He is not that big, and can be out-muscled. When he is really focused, he seems to be able to take the ball up the side, penetrate into the penalty area and score at will in league matches. He never takes set pieces. He is co-captain of the national team.

Giancario Diamanti-#20-5’11-19 years old-Possibly the worst all-around starter, had been compared to a younger Mayberry at age 17. Has yet to develop the explosiveness and awareness that Mayberry possesses, although he is technically very sound, and will rarely make an outright mistake. Doesn't create opportunities, but positions himself well. He is very unaggresive. He doesn't take the ball away from opponents, but can stall them. It is predicted that he will not finish most games, with the veteran Jared Goodman backing him up.

Hellen Gandy-#9-5’6”-23 years old-Led league play in goals last year, as the teammate of Pat Mayberry. Has very precise and accurate kicks, both passing and shooting. Will take all free kicks within scoring distance for Kiryu-shi, as well as penalty kicks. Despite her size, she has the ability to score on crosses and corners, judging balls in the air very well. She does not have the best speed or ability to dribble past players, but uses positioning and passes to set up goal scoring opportunities. Is a liability defensively, and will rarely help to try to win back the ball.

FW
Garret McGee-#11-6’2”-26 years old-The only forward starting for the national team, is nationally known for his acrobatic jumping ability. He plays his position very solidly, and shows the ability to see the whole pitch very well. Has an accurate strike, and the attacking, shoot-first mentality to make great use of it. The excitement over the Mayberry to McGee combination is highly anticipated in many of Kiryu-shi’s soccer fans. McGee’s ability to score using his head, literally, routinely makes it on the highlights of Kiryu-shi’s sports television stations. He has a tendancy to use his elbows and arms to create space for himself, and will get called on it often. He lacks a true striker’s speed, and counts on teamwork and crosses to score rather than individual dribbling ability.

The reserves:
Samuel Webber-#30-6'4"-19 years old-GK
Laura Stroud-#31-5'11"-28 years old-GK
Orson Wells-#14-5'11"-22 years old-DF
Martin Jones-#22-6'5"-21 years old-DF
Esra Goldenbock-#19-5'11"-28 years old-DF/MF
Carl Wright-#23-6'0"-23 years old-MF
Carmen Chow-#10-5'10"-24 years old-MF
Jared Goodman-#4-6'1"-33 years old-MF
Patrick Mann-#16-6'1"-17 years old-FW/MF
Hiro Mason-#21-5'8"-32 years old-FW/MF
Emily Boyle-#6-5'4"-18 years old-FW

The Kiryu-shi national team kits have not yet been revealed, but a press release has been scheduled for two days from now.

OOC: RP bonus -1
For RPs, my opponent can do anything save causing injury or death on a player that will keep him or her out of more than one additional game.

The Holy Empire of Junista submits it's roster. The roster has been blessed by the Holy God Almighty, and priests across the nation have followed the team with their Holy Scriptures, leading the team in prayer and song.

GK - Marcus Valerius
GK - Harold Portellus
GK - Peter Jovus

D - Matthew Brierus
D - Mark Farrus
D - Luke Infus
D - John Sarrus
D - Daniel Vaanus
D - Noah Arcus
D - Christopher Millus
D - Alexander Tetraus
D - John Fleebottus

M - David Marricus
M - Ian Hindpur
M - Adam Goattus
M - Robert Bladdus
M - Joe Hollus
M - Kyle Bessus
M - Nick Prinfus
M - Craig Durrus

S - James Sturrus
S - Paul Tarfus
S - Dennis Craffus
S - Frank Grimmus
S - Philip Varrus

Following is the Junistan home and away kit. If a team's home and away kit clashes with either of our kits, then this is God's will, and the other team shall suffer hellfire and damnation from the world sporting body.

http://www.btinternet.com/~david.boston/_bostopia/Junista1.PNGhttp://www.btinternet.com/~david.boston/_bostopia/Junista2.PNG

El Zalabahad, Cafundéu

"The Junistan team arrived here a few hours ago. Many of the players spoke of being glad to be away from the Region, which contains the nation who's name we do not speak of, as is our Holy Lord, God's will. However, many players were upset by the news that another nation in our Region, Holweg, had entered the Baptism of Fire. Although Heathens, Junista will be hoping that the Holy Lord has heard our Holy Father, Zacarias I's prayer that Junista may meet with Holweg on the world stage and show them that God's might will overcome all.

The other teams in our Group are British Londinium, Kiryu-Shi, Nerotika and Netherwallop. None of whom have been guided by the Holy Lord into our path before, so for Junistan citizens, the Holy Father, Zacarias I, has decreed that they are modern-day Crusaders, ready to defend the name of their nation and of their Holy Lord."

My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my goalscorers - Sure
Godmod Scoring Events - Go forth
RP injuries to my players - Nothing too crazy
Godmod injuries to my players - Again, nothing crazy
Hand out Yellow cards to my players - Within reason
Hand out Red cards to my players - Within reason
Godmod Other Events - No stadium tragedies - but my supporters will be allowed to engage in open brawls somewhere or other

My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my goalscorers Yes
Godmod Scoring Events Yes
RP injuries to my players Yes
Godmod injuries to my players No
Hand out Yellow cards to my players Yes
Hand out Red cards to my players Yes
Godmod Other Events Yes

Roster

Starter Reserve




Forwards
#2 Demetrius Johnson
#19 Alex Fort
#3 David Robertson jr
#4 Layton Huntersby
#27 Jacob Hyran
#40 Phillip DeGlocko
#33 Ambry Higgs
#67 Joe Ridle
#10 Lars Hill
#49 Mark Devin
#90 A.J. Davis
Mids
#24 Alexi Davimov
#12 Joe Roth
#39 Jari Aborginin
#87 Josh Hedevekker
#42 Rohan Sebastian
#23 Doug Gladdys
Defenders
#7 John Halle
#90 Chris Doffit
#86 Ronald Fredrickson
#92 Joe Alloit
Goal
#00 Trevor Dundrod
#000 Kevin Vardrick



Kit

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/7739/hagjy2.png

---

"Roster? We're not giving anyone a roster, I like the element of surprise."

"Sir, please just give them what they want," pleaded Leslie. "They already hate me down there after all the demands I had to make for you, can't we PLEASE just do it?"

"SUN TZU said that whoever has the element of surprise will come out the victor," bellowed Donahue, prompting Leslie to sigh in his long-suffering way. Someone had given him a copy of "The Art of War" last Christmas and he'd been quoting it both incessantly and erroneously since. "And I like the old bastard too much not to go along with him. The man knows what he's talking about, kid, you'd do well to follow his example. Maybe then you wouldn't be such a sissy!" he finished with a laugh.

But regardless of his sissy-like qualities, Leslie was nothing if not sneaky, even if it didn't take much to be sneaky around someone who barely acknowledged your presence. Whether or not he'd realised it was a moot point because lying on the corner of the paper-covered desk was a copy of the roster (well, it had names and positions on it. It was good enough, right?)

---

"Sir, we've just received a roster from the SS Oaklands team that you might want to take a look at."

"What's wrong? 11 players, looks fine to me."

"Yes, but first, all of them come from their parent nation - McPsychoville."

"Ah."

"And second, look on the internet for the names and most of them play different sports anyway."

"Oh."

"Look here. Rob Shields, goalkeeper? He plays for the London Knights ICE HOCKEY team."

"Hmm...this guy? Knight Turley?"

"He's an offensive guard slash defensive end for the Boca Raton Early Birds. They're a gridiron team."

"Oh dear."

"So, what do we do with them?"

"Er...fuck it. If they want to field a team with players who don't play the sport, who are we to say no?"

"The governing body of the tournament, maybe?"

"...shut up."

---

[B]The Official Roster for the SS Oaklands Baptism of Fire team

#1 - Rob Shields

#2 - J.W. Powers
#17 - Knight Turley
#9 - Jayzin Smith
#22 - Jay Forlani
#10 - Mel Camalari (better known as the Dyslexic Squid)

#7 - Noah Hart
#3 - Chester Mills
#14 - Mark Van Evans

#11 - Xander Harris
#18 - Chris Glen

With Ulzaxidians not having names in a traditional sense, nor having football in the traditional sense, all players have copied names from famous footballers to name the squad, hence the names. By studying the list of hall of fame players it seems that strikers are more important hence the 1-3-6 formation.

Manager: Stuart Abdul-Rahim

Starting 11

#1 GK Adam_Vernazza
#2 DF Khim_Azanulbizarn
#3 MF Pizelkaxrovsky_
#4 MF Juan_Tzimisces
#5 MF Esteban_De_Jesus
#6 FW Sani_Luvo
#7 FW Syku_Lyku
#8 FW Marc_J._Floren
#9 FW Trevor_Belmore
#10 FW Simeone_Di_Bradini
#11 FW Callum_Banda

Substitutes

#22 GK Gn_Lg
#23 GK Olivia_Bream
#12 DF Sir_Douglas_Freech
#13 DF Tina_Realm
#14 MF Harald_Axewielder
#15 MF Claire_Briscoe
#16 MF filthyl_
#17 FW Jenji_Y
#18 FW Alan_Belmore
#19 FW Ari_Smith
#20 FW Brian_Wilson
#21 FW Johann_Rilke

Choose my goalscorers Y
Godmod Scoring Events Y
RP injuries to my players N
Godmod injuries to my players N
Hand out Yellow cards to my players N
Hand out Red cards to my players N
Godmod Other Events Y (my creatures are going to almost require god-modding :p)
Style +5

OOC: This is the roster for Ulzaxid, my puppet. It wouldn't post with the Ulzaxid account for some reason.

With Ulzaxidians not having names in a traditional sense, nor having football in the traditional sense, all players have copied names from famous footballers to name the squad, hence the names. By studying the list of hall of fame players it seems that strikers are more important hence the 1-3-6 formation.

Manager: Stuart Abdul-Rahim

Starting 11

#1 GK Adam_Vernazza
#2 DF Khim_Azanulbizarn
#3 MF Pizelkaxrovsky_
#4 MF Juan_Tzimisces
#5 MF Esteban_De_Jesus
#6 FW Sani_Luvo
#7 FW Syku_Lyku
#8 FW Marc_J._Floren
#9 FW Trevor_Belmore
#10 FW Simeone_Di_Bradini
#11 FW Callum_Banda

Substitutes

#22 GK Gn_Lg
#23 GK Olivia_Bream
#12 DF Sir_Douglas_Freech
#13 DF Tina_Realm
#14 MF Harald_Axewielder
#15 MF Claire_Briscoe
#16 MF filthyl_
#17 FW Jenji_Y
#18 FW Alan_Belmore
#19 FW Ari_Smith
#20 FW Brian_Wilson
#21 FW Johann_Rilke

Choose my goalscorers Y
Godmod Scoring Events Y
RP injuries to my players N
Godmod injuries to my players N
Hand out Yellow cards to my players N
Hand out Red cards to my players N
Godmod Other Events Y (my creatures are going to almost require god-modding :p)
Style +5

"This is Aby Watcher reporting live for the Commonwealth News Service from a somewhat expectant Cafundéu where the Commonwealth nation of Mekule's national football team have just arrived ahead of the coming Baptism of Fire tournament in these spectacular surroundings. Supporters from Mekhule and from other parts of the Commonwealth have already started turning up here with the opening match still two days away, all hopeful and expecting to see the Commonwealth nation perform at the highest level. Now for those of you who are unaware, the Commonwealth which resides in The YoungWorld region is made up of five nations which work together for mutual benifit under one supreme leader. As only two nations can ever participate in the NationStates World Cup each cycle the five teams are required to compete against each other in order to qualify. For the fourth cycle in succession Fort Europe won the Commonwealth Trophy to take the first spot, however Mekule's appearence at the final of the Trophy was a first in the nation's history and thus also qualified for a place in this cycles Baptism of Fire.

Players to watch out for include veteran goalkeeper Steve Orville who keeps his place despite strong pressure from up coming starlet Sasha Bry. Sirus Athletic's strong midfielder Oliver Cloazov has provided the national team with a firm foundation in the centre of the park and plays along side team captain Neil Casoria. Up front look out for the the pace and skill of Rhiannon Breeze who starts on the bench for the opening match after sustaining an injury in her last league match two weeks ago. Raven Kisella fills will fill in the gap playing next to experienced striker Ken Forrestal who was the top scorer in this cycles Commonwealth Trophy. I'll be bringing updates and match reports throughout the tournament as the Commonwealth's minows face off against some of NationStates newest national teams. But for now it's back to the studio."

"Thankyou Aby, still to come we have a round up of this weeks domestic football results and go over to the Ascama Mountains where the Commonwealth's wierdest national sports team are gearing up for a second international competition of hockey being played on ice."

Manager: Stewart Jameson

Starters

#0 GK Terry Bankowitz
#4 DF James Garner
#6 DF Eric Lowes
#5 DF Jerry Terrace
#22 MF Aaron Hayes
#26 MF Gary Lukowitz
#25 MF Jackson Haggleson
#28 MF Eric Tatar
#47 FW Micky Ward
#37 FW James Connacht
#88 FW James D'Isle

Substitutes

#00 GK Jamie Terko
#01 GK Ivan Lukuta
#9 DF Aaron Lukuta
#7 DF Robert Klaus
#2 DF Vincentino Alvarez
#21 MF Olaf Golgotha
#29 MF Harald Gorgoroth
#27 MF Dimmu Borgir
#24 MF Erik Bathory
#62 FW Imi Tavor
#777 FW Lucky Larry Lukowitz
#99 FW Pulsar Skate

Style -2

This is Michael Muller reporting for KNN, Kampfers News Network. The whole country gathered in front of their television sets and in this square today as the Fuhrer hosted a national parade to send off the men of Kampfers football team in the “Kampferian way.” As it is The Armed Republic of Kampfers first Baptism of Fire tournament, Fuhrer Richtoff has been preparing in order to make a bang. He has been organizing the UKFA, the United Kampfers Football Association, to have a midseason break, in order that all the best Kampferian players can come together for this amazing event. During this heartwarming sendoff, Captain Michael Ballack addressed the public. ‘First, I would like thank you all for supporting us on this journey. I can’t wait to bring that trophy home to Kampfers. Now let’s go play some football!’ He left to thunderous applause. Supporters of Kampfers are already boarding flights to Cafundéu in hopes of seeing their beloved footballers play. Now back to you, Udo Ferner, at the sports desk for more on these footballers.”

“Thank you Michael. Players to watch out for on this Kampferian team include Michael Ballack, Kasey Kuhn, and Oliver Podolski. Ballack is the team captain and a great leader. He never loses his cool. He has some of the quickest feet in the game, making him an absolute maestro with the ball. Podolski is the best striker in the UKFA’s premier league. He leads the league in goals and has a wicked shot. Look for him to be in many breakaway situations. He is, however willing to gamble a bit on the defensive end to get better offensive results. Finally, Kuhn is the team’s goalkeeper and assistant captain. One of the more talkative keepers, Kuhn makes sure nothing gets behind him. Thus far this season, Kuhn has posted 13 clean sheets in 17 games for the UFKA’s Kampfers Stadt FC. This has been Udo Ferner and Michael Muller for KNN, Kampfers News Network.”

The Roster of the Armed Republic of Kampfers:

# 10 - GK Kasey Kuhn
# 21 - DF Leonhard Kunibert
# 3 - DF Maximilian Heike
# 99 - DF Hartwin Jochen
# 23 - DF Jochim Kayetan
# 7 - DF Parsifal Gebbert
# 11 - MF Joseph Kai
# 00 - MF Marwin Michael
# 13 - MF Michael Ballack
# 10 - FW Ansgar Severin
# 1 - FW Oliver Podolski

The formation is a 5-2-1-2:

Style: -1

My opponent, if they RP first, may do the following:
Choose my goalscorers - Yes
Godmod Scoring Events - No
RP injuries to my players – Nothing that keeps them out of the next game
Godmod injuries to my players - No
Hand out Yellow cards to my players - Within reason
Hand out Red cards to my players - Within reason
Godmod Other Events - No

"OI! YOU!"

The two simple words were, sadly, Leslie's given name as Donahue hadn't been interested enough to either remember or learn his real name.

"Why did I get a letter thanking me for my prompt roster entry?"

"I...well, I took the one you had on your desk, sir. What was wrong with that?"

Evidently something, as Leslie got a sharp rap around the head with the walking cane. "That was NOT the roster! All of those people play different sports! You've sent us into this tournament with an offensive lineman playing defense! ROB FUCKING SHIELDS IS IN GOAL!"

"Oh..."

"YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT OH! IF I CAN'T GET THIS FUCKING THING BACK, WE'RE SUNK AND YOU'RE DEAD!"

"Well, not dead..."

"YES! DEAD! THE FISH WILL BE FEASTING ON YOUR FLESH COME NIGHTFALL!"

And sadly, he looked crazed enough to go ahead with his threat.

J-Man2k7 team

Gk-Marjoram- Highly skilled shot stopper, yet can be prone to the odd mistake
Gk-Ghlarper-Decent, Yet not first choice.

Woodle- Hugely Tall ,fast and efficient,
Mcrmock-A Strong, Reliable, Very good centre back
Talbott- Strong, and a decent tackle
Agnew- Decent all round
Wikles-Can Bugger Off, Yet brilliant while concentrating

Donkan- Amazingly talented all rounder, Passes and Skills Are specialities
Bharker- Good Dribbler, Quick, Has a lethal over the top ball.
Norton-2- Very Quick, Hugs the touchline.
Mcuddam-Good all round.
Terell- Decent skill, good striker of the ball yet sometimes lets off a dodgy pass
Huly- Determined, Strong, Good passing, good tackling, Decent dribbling centre midfielder.
Conna Helons-Great attacking midfielder

Adam Norton- Turns amazingly, Good finisher in the box, plenty of pace and tricks, Yet quite small

Jack Olive- Strong quick, determined, Good dribbler, with a decent head, and powerful shot.
Taylor- Quite Tricky, Pacey, Brilliant one on one finisher.


Marjoram


Woodle Mcrmock Wilkes



Norton-2- Dhonkan Bharker Mcuddam

Helons


A.Norton Jack Olive.

Do what you want, only red card wilkes, And goalscorers, Pretty much everyone:)

(Excerpts from a press release)

"The opening match formation will be:
---------------Crow-----------------------GK

-----Moya------Pruet----Leblanc-----------DF

Levi------------------------Hendrickson---DF

--------------Iverson---------------------MF

-Mayberry----------------Diamanti---------MF

--------Gandy-----------------------------MF

-------------------McGee------------------FW"


"...Kiryu-shi regrets that due to general laziness, confusion and disagreements about the beaurocratic process, the brand new kits for the team have not been sent to Cafundeu. In the meantime, they will play their opening match in the standard Kiryu-shi all black with white numbers, or all white with black numbers training uniform, depending on British Londinium's kits..."

[Because I don't actually have an SS Oaklands account and can't really be bothered to open one at the moment, all posts as the Oaklands will be prefaced with this disclaimer. I like doughnuts.]

[Never mentioned it before, so here it is - don't do anything. I'll pick my goalscorers, the cards, the injuries, everything myself.]

(excerpt from "Letters to the Editor")

"I couldn't help but notice in the Baptism of Fire coverage a team, West Pasco, was listed as having 12 starting players, two defenders, three mids, six forwards and a keeper. I was just wondering if this was a typo by the paper, or they were playing with the extra player? I know Kiryu-shi isn't playing them in the group stage, but my family was planning on watching the whole tournament, and we were just curios.
-Andre in Parktown

(editor's note: Do to our inablity keep reliable records of what we did yesterday, because someone hired mice to run the newspaper, we regret to inform our readers we do not know of this "football", and only hope that someone can inform you of what you want to know. I would look it up, but I'm busy looking for cheese. And a reminder: please keep your subscription to our paper. It is not it's fault it is run by mice, and you would hurt it's feelings if you canceled your subscription.)"

A video broadcast from the office of the coach of the Ulzaxid team. On the screen is a creature unlike any that has ever been seen before. It is an about 8 and a half feet tall bipedal organism. The creature has wings covered with feathers, a prehensile tail and a body covered in a kind of slime. It also is quite massive to go along with it's height and has long claws at the end of it's hand. Despite it's massive size it exudes a sense of grace and agility. It begins to speak:

"Hello, all nations joining us in this baptism of fire competition. We are excited to begin our world football careers with you. Although I don't have a name, for the purposes of this cup I will be using the name Stuart Abdul-Rahim, after the great Bettian manager. Please try not to be alarmed by my appearance. Yes, I am much bigger, stronger and more agile than the average human, but we are a peaceful people. As long as we aren't provoked their will be no problems. If we are provoked however, it would be trouble for the agressors, so we ask the other teams in the competition to remember their sense of fair play."

"Now I will explain a bit about our species' background. All Ulzaxids are part of a species of morphs. We are actually made up of five different organisms that can join together to become one big organism. And we don't have to join together in full. It is possible to be say three combined parts and two individual organisms. This process of combinign is perfectly natural to us and is mastered at a very young age. I am a full morph, containg all five parts. The players on the team will not be playing in full morph form, as that would provide an unfair advantage. Instead we will be playing in a number of different smaller forms."

Two different animals walk into the room. One looks like a big monkey covered in slime and the other looks like a mixture between a ferret and a monkey covered in slime, bigger than just the monkey-looking thing by itself

"Allow me to introduce two of the players for my team as well as the two main forms we will take during the competition. This one (pointing to the just monkey) is known as Marc J. Floren. It is the standard form that most of my players will be using. The second will be referred to as Khim Azanulbizarn for the purposes of this competition. The players in this form will naturally be more agile and athletic than the first form introduced. Ocassionaly we might use other forms, but these will be the main ones. We understand that it wouldn't be fair to use our full forms in this competition, so you will never face anyone like me."

"One more very important thing to note is that during the match we will be perfectly silent, as will our supporters. We don't communicate to each other through talking in the manner that you do. We are more than capable of communicating in that way, as you can see. We just don't. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. We're looking forward to a great tournament."

"We also have a request to make of the Cafundeu hosts. One of our forms is a dolphin like creature. Our experiences in the competition of Atlantian Oceania have shown us that it is best if all of the organisms that make up a whole are allowed to travel with us. Therefore we request some space where we can provide our own aquarium for allowing these dolphin like creatures to rest while the other parts of their collectives are playing football matches. We can transport the aquarium quite easily ourselves and just need help in placing it somewhere."

So, here we are. The glorious sunshine beats down on Cafendeu, and St Paul's are training for their opening game against West Pasco. And with this background, manager Thomas Jones released the twenty-two man Baptism of Fire cup outdoors.

The squad in full (Starters in bold):

Formation: 4-4-2
Style: +2

GK: Jamie Hewson, Luke Goldsmith

LB: Robert Henderson, Andy Milner
CB: Michael Stone, Greg Smith, Martin Brown, Steve Meredith
RB: Charlie King, Simon James

LM: Morris Jones, Ed Johnson
CM: Peter Beckinsale, Keith Quinn, Martin Davis, Ollie Parker
RM: Johnny Bourne, Kevin Dixon

CF: Frankie Davis, Michael Lucas, Nicky Smith, Andrew Taylor

The team will play in red and white striped shirts and black shorts; if there is a clash, the team will play in their change strip of black shirts and shorts with a single red and white strip on the left hand side.

FIRST ROUND RESULTS

Group A:

J-Man2k7 1-3 Ghost Tigers Rise
Stadium: Praça Maior, in Cafundó do Juta

Mekhule 1-0 American Fist
Stadium: Estádio Olímpico, in Tijhus

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Ghost Tigers Rise 1 1 0 0 3 1 2 3
2 Mekhule 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 3
3 Ulzaxid 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 American Fist 1 0 0 1 0 1 -1 0
5 J-Man2k7 1 0 0 1 1 3 -2 0

Group B:

SS Oaklands 4-0 Holweg
Stadium: Obelisco Monumental, in Lasft

West Pasco 1-2 St Paul's Isle
Stadium: Estádio Ernesto Honesto, in Espinal

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 SS Oaklands 1 1 0 0 4 0 4 3
2 St Paul's Isle 1 1 0 0 2 1 1 3
3 Kampfers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 West Pasco 1 0 0 1 1 2 -1 0
5 Holweg 1 0 0 1 0 4 -4 0

Group C:

British Londinium 1-2 Kiryu-Shi
Stadium: Maracatu Arena, in Dunboor

Nerotika 0-1 Junista
Stadium: Mohammed Field, in Al-Zalabahad

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Kiryu-Shi 1 1 0 0 2 1 1 3
2 Junista 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 3
3 Netherwallop 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 British Londinium 1 0 0 1 1 2 -1 0
5 Nerotika 1 0 0 1 0 1 -1 0

One of the main responsible for the accomodations of the participant countries of the Baptism of Fire, Arlindo Fontana, watched the video sent by Ulzaxid. After hearing everything that Stuart Abdul-Rahim said, he looked to his assistant, Márcia Nerlo.

NERLO - "They're just asking for a place to put their aquarium, boss. It couldn't be difficult."

FONTANA - "Yes, but the fact is that they'll travel to six different cities!"

NERLO - "Count only five, Tijhus and Cafundó do Juta are so close each other that they don't need to change hotels."

FONTANA - "You're right. Anyway, it's a long travel from Cafundó do Juta to Lux."

NERLO - "It's your decision, boss. But I think that we shouldn't upset that creature. We could be in a big trouble."

FONTANA - "I noticed. That thing is... I can't find a word for that. And the fact is that they'll play the next matchday in Abadia, so we need to work fast."

NERLO - "So?"

FONTANA - "I think that is my job to make everything that they need to be well accomodated. I'll do my best. Contact all the hotels which Ulzaxid will go."

During hours, Arlindo negotiated with the hotels and with the training centers, and returned with an answer:

FONTANA - "Márcia, write that. The hotels of Mondragon and Abadia are ready to offer their swimming pool to accomodate the dolphin forms. Cafundó do Juta and Lux have a City Aquarium. There, they can accomodate the dolphin forms in a special room, that will be locked to avoid invasions. If they want to use their own aquarium, we can rent another room in the hotels especially for the aquarium."

NERLO - "Done."

FONTANA - "Send it to Ulzaxid's representative."

Pasconians narrowly lose

http://spaam.mrdrake.net/flags/West_Pasco.png 1
http://spaam.mrdrake.net/flags/St_pauls_Isle.png 2

Espinal,Cafendu The international debut of the West Pasco 'PacMen' got of to a rocky start. West Pasco lost a nail biter to Sant Pauls isle 2-1. The game was played in Sunny skies at Estádio Ernesto Honesto. But scenery didn't Much matter as there was footy to be played. The game got started and right away the attacking style of SPI almost scored within one minute, but it was a stop by Alex Fort tha saved it. Fort also got the scoring going by getting one by Jamie Hewson. (Hewson would later be injured after hitting his head on the goalpost.) With Hewsons Injury it looked like easy pickings for WP,but SPI really started attacking and in Quick sucsession of one another SPI scored. Both goals came from Micheal Lewis who's dribbling skills stun the PacMen Defense. Alex Fort had a chance to tie it up in regulation but his shot missed to the left and SPI went on to win 2-1.



http://spaam.mrdrake.net/flags/West_Pasco.png 1


Fort (3:09)

http://spaam.mrdrake.net/flags/St_pauls_Isle.png 2


Lewis (56:02,56:56)

To the staff of Cafundeu,

While we appreciate your offer we think there may have been a misunderstanding. The offer of hotel pools is very kind, but they simply aren't large enough for our purposes. On our private airplane we have a shrinkable aquarium that we can assemble just for times when we need it, during matches. All we need is a decent sized piece of land to deploy it on. It can be in the same city during all matches, as our airplan travels at very high speeds, such that we can travel from city to city in a matter of minutes. I hope arrangements can be worked out.

Stuart Abdul-Rahim

Long Anticipated Match Thrilling to the Finish

-By Michio Hibbert

-Dunboor, CafundéuKiryu-shi's national football team, playing in it's first official match ever, won an exciting and tense match up against fellow newcomers British Londinium in the Bachelor of Fire tournament. An estimated 750 fans from Kiryu-shi descended upon the harsh city of Dunboor in Cafundéu to weather the frigid temperatures to watch the Dragons win in the closing minutes of the game. Although the general consensus is that more people from Kiryu-shi would've showed up if the game was held in a more mild city, weather-wise, the fans that showed up are certainly happy that they made the long trip.

____The action started off slow, with both teams playing sloppy in the midfield, most likely caused by nerves and the cold. Through fifthteenth minute, neither team managed to get any decent opportunities, as both five man defenses of the two teams held strong. The British Londinium team managed to warm up first, really starting to attack the defenders of Kiryu-shi entering the 20th minute. The first clear scoring chance came on a high cross by Londinium midfielder Ajeet Prasad from the right flank. Their captain, James Yossarian, playing striker, managed to sneak behind the normally aware Bob Moya to deliver a strong header that cleared the bar by around five inches. After the close call, the defense seemed to tighten up, although the midfield could not advance the ball. Pat Mayberry was constantly double teamed throughout the first half, and none of the other midfielders were playing well. The defense withstood the pressure well into the 43rd minute, where a quick string of passes up the middle of the field by Prasad, Ben Serrant, and Paul Fletcher led to an open look at goal by Yossarian from around 15 yards. He hesitated a second before shooting, allowing Doug LeBlanc to tackle him. The ref's whistle blew, and he signaled a penalty kick, over the loud protests from LeBlanc, who had to be held back by the co-captain Pruet to avoid being carded. Yossarian put the ball past the keeper easily, putting British Londinium up heading into the half.

____Kiryu-shi came out a different team after halftime, literally. Esra Goldenbock and Jared Goodman came into replace Gregory Iverson and Giancario Diamanti, respectively, using up two of three subs early in a risky move by manager Bruce Lewis. Sacrificing size and power for speed and experience, Goldenbock and Goodman added a spark to a listless offense. Goldenbock especially, from her defensive midfield position was very active and effective, finding and passing the ball into open space for the three main playmakers for Kiryu-shi. In the 53rd minute, following a long pass from Goldenbock to Mayberry up the right side, Kiryu-shi managed to force a corner. Mayberry took the corner, swinging a long cross to the far side, where forward Garret McGee volleyed it awkwardly towards the goal. As the keeper dove, and missed, the ball glanced off the crossbar high up into the air. With the Londinium keeper on the ground, a tangled mess of bodies from both teams jumped for the earth-bound ball, where after a considerable melee, the ball trickled into the net. After replays, the goal was credited to Midfielder Helen Gandy, who fell down and hit the ball with her back to deflect it last. The goal, controversial because of the non-calls of the referee during the carnage right in front of the net, was the first international goal for Kiryu-shi.

____As the second half, progressed, the quality of football on both sides continued to improve. Exciting up and down, fast paced football provided the crowd with may near goals. As the end of the match drew near, both teams got more aggressive, trying to come away with a victory in their first game. In the 87th minute, following a run by Yossarian into the penalty area, Kiryu-shi launched a quick counter-attack, with a dash up the center of the pitch by the speedy LeBlanc, from the defensive line. He fired off consecutive wall passes to Mayberry and Gandy, the last of which gave him free space between two Londinium defenders 24 yards out, where he poked the ball towards the goal, while stumbling and off-balance. By a force that is sure to make some residents of Kiryu-shi turn religious, the normally inaccurate LeBlanc's desperate shot was perfectly placed, just out of the reach of the keeper. Although British Londinium moved their entire team up, for the last minutes of the match, Kiryu-shi managed to run the remaining time out and claim their first victory of the Baptism of Fire. Bruce Lewis named LeBlanc the player of the match. Next round will be a bye for the already weary Dragons, who will no doubt rest their nerves as well as their bodies in preparation for their second match.

Note: There is no word as to whether Goldenboch and Goodman will start in the next game.

OOC: BL, if you want to change your goal scorer, please feel free. I’ll edit my post accordingly.

After receiving a letter from the Ulzaxid team, Fontana seemed embarassed, but calm.

NERLO - "What's the problem?"

FONTANA - "There is no problem. They only need a bigger area in only one of the cities."

NERLO - "And we have it?"

FONTANA - "Yes. The Alien Land in Abadia."

NERLO - "There? But nobody wants to build anything in that piece of land because they think that UFOs go there."

FONTANA - "It's only a story. UFOs don't exist. The Alien Land is a huge place, perfect for their purposes. Nothing will happen there."

NERLO - "Yes, that place is incredibly huge. Okay, I'll prepare a letter for them, saying that they can use the Alien Land in Abadia."

The letter:

Dear Ulzaxid staff members. Sorry for the misunderstanding, these things happen, but we found a perfect place for your your purposes. You have probably reached Abadia by now, to play your first game, and we're glad to inform that there is an enormous piece of land in the city for you to use. Nobody uses it and it's very flat. It's called the Alien Land, because someone invented a story that UFOs went there to kidnap our citizens. Of course nothing was proven, and we are sure that it's only a myth.

I'll send someone to guide you to the land, then you can use it for what you need (feel free to use it, as nobody goes there).

Arlindo Fontana

To the staff of Cafundeu,

That sounds great. Somewhat appropriate as we are a race of aliens, and in fact will be travelling by what you might call a UFO. And since we've got incredibly excellent travel capabilities we're not worried. And you shouldn't worry either, we won't be kidnapping any Cafundeu citizens. No probing either.

Thanks for your assistance in arranging things for us and we look forward to an exciting cup in Cafundeu.

Stuart_Abdul_Rahim

"You did good, boys!" bellowed the happy manager, and you could very nearly see the sigh of relief from the assembled players. At every practice for a week Coach Donahue had shouted himself hoarse and left the players in puddles of his own sweat (and in one case, urine. The ball had caught the unnamed player in his tender region and the pain caused his bladder to just go), so not being called "wastes of sperm that should have been punted into a river at birth" came as a pleasant surprise. At least, for all but one person - the Dyslexic Squid knew better. Mel Camalari had had the misfortune to have worked with Eric Donahue before, and to say he never let up would an understatement on par with saying Hitler just had a slight problem with the Jewish folk; thusly, he knew that the 4-0 crushing of Holweg would not be met with easier practices.

"BUT GOOD ISN'T ENOUGH!" came the jet engine-like booming shout, right into Knight Turley's ears and causing the thuggish lineman to put his hands to his ears and mumble "motherfucker done broke mah ears". "FOUR GOALS ISN'T ENOUGH! HOLWEG ARE SHIT, WE SHOULD HAVE LEFT THEM CRYING LIKE THE LITTLE GIRLS THEY ARE!" Rob Shields, the goaltender who had stopped all of five shots to earn his shutout (as he insisted on calling it), raised his hand tentatively. "WHAT?"

"Sir, we DID leave them crying," pointed out the young, naive netminder, still with his ridiculously-sized glove on. "They're still out on the field being counseled."

"ARE THEY GOING TO BE ABLE TO PLAY AGAIN?" yelled the coach rhetorically, to which Chris Glen made the mistake of answering "Yes?"

"EXACTLY!" A movement out of the corner of his eye caught the coach's attention, and he spun around just in time to spot Jay Forlani and Xander Harris trying to sneak away. Forlani - the only woman on the squad - and Harris were the centre of a much-publicised tryst when the multi-time MVP shortstop was hit by divorce papers right in the middle of the playoffs. London lost in seven games to Bourque as a result, but Harris bounced back in style by unveiling the prenuptial agreement his wife had signed and forgotten about, left her with nothing and then later met and seduced the nubile Early Birds cheerleader.

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"

"To fuck?" replied the always-candid Forlani. "My man scored twice and set up a third, I think he deserves a little something."

"Can I get some of that?" piped up Chester Mills from his corner, where he was busy meditating; his eyes were shut, so he didn't notice the full drink bottle winging its way at his head. As he fall backwards off the bench with a clunk, the happy couple left the rest of the team to it, but miraculously the coach just couldn't muster up any more hatred. He went into the bathroom and slammed the door, the universal signal for everyone to get out while they still could.

---

Statline:
Goals - Harris (16), Hart (32), Harris (59), Van Evans (71)
Assists - Harris, Forlani, Van Evans (2), Mills, Glen
Cards - Turley (yellow, 4), Glen (yellow, 17), Powers (yellow, 88)

Leaders:
Goals - Harris (2)
Assists - Van Evans (2)

SECOND ROUND RESULTS

Group A:

American Fist 2-2 J-Man2k7
Stadium: Parque do Sol, in Elville

Ulzaxid 5-3 Mekhule
Stadium: Terreno da Vitória, in Abadia

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Ulzaxid 1 1 0 0 5 3 2 3
2 Ghost Tigers Rise 1 1 0 0 3 1 2 3
3 Mekhule 2 1 0 1 4 5 -1 3
4 American Fist 2 0 1 1 2 3 -1 1
5 J-Man2k7 2 0 1 1 3 5 -2 1

Group B:

St Paul's Isle 3-3 SS Oaklands
Stadium: Aquário Nacional, in Submiria

Kampfers 0-2 West Pasco
Stadium: Toca do Tatu, in Central City

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 SS Oaklands 2 1 1 0 7 3 4 4
2 St Paul's Isle 2 1 1 0 5 4 1 4
3 West Pasco 2 1 0 1 3 2 1 3
4 Kampfers 1 0 0 1 0 2 -2 0
5 Holweg 1 0 0 1 0 4 -4 0

Group C:

Junista 2-0 British Londinium
Stadium: C-Electronics Stadium, in Astari

Netherwallop 0-0 Nerotika
Stadium: Campo de Batalha, in Penderia

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Junista 2 2 0 0 3 0 3 6
2 Kiryu-Shi 1 1 0 0 2 1 1 3
3 Netherwallop 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
4 Nerotika 2 0 1 1 0 1 -1 1
5 British Londinium 2 0 0 2 1 4 -3 0

"Welcome back to Cafundéu where Mekhule have already begun their campaign in this cycle's Baptism of Fire tournament with two matches played, the first a clear one goal to nil victory against the little known nation of American Fist, who I dare say are so beyond the notice of the Commonwealth that there is little point mentioning more on the match than to state that Rhiannon Breeze scored the winning goal after joining the match from the substitutes bench in the second half.

The second, and more recent match however was quite a different story and while of a match that provided some great entertainment to those that traveled to see it, the outcome was less fortuitous to Mekhule who lost by five goals to three after obtaining a respectable two goal lead in the opening half of the match. Goals came from midfielder Mia Hall and two from team captain Oliver Cloazov, while Neil Rydown collected Mekhule's only yellow card of the tournament so far. A full match report will be in the Commonwealth Newspaper tomorrow morning along with an update on the build up to the NationStates thirty fourth World Cup. I'm Aby Watcher reporting for the Commonwealth News Service. Now back to the studio."

"Thank you Aby. Now the main news again. Thick fog accross eastern parts of Akuna Province has caused the Commonwealth naval destroyer CS Antonia to run aground off the Kellertopian coastline. Three people have been killed in Fort Europe after a fairground attraction malfunctioned and the Great Leader has awarded the Commonwealth's highest honour to Captain James Snook for his long service to the Commonwealth's armed forces."

"See, I know that I could go back to the hotel now," said Jayzin Smith, the pair of shotglasses in his hand filled with some unidentifiable amber cocktail. You know the sort, it's the thing that would probably declared a biological weapon if drunk in a time of war; Jayzin had been drinking "Skullfuckers" for most of the night and was, as a result, thoroughly inebriated. "I could. But if I went back, Coach Caveman would shout at me until I cried at the sound of a loud noise." The woman unlucky enough to sit next to him just nodded, praying to herself that the crazed man who described himself as a "superstar" would just keep to himself mostly.

"So I could keep on drinking. And I'm going to!" Jayzin exclaimed, thrusting the shots into the air and looking confused as to where the sudden rain had come from. He swigged from the two glasses before realising they were empty, and banged on the bar's surface angrily. "I'm sobering up here! Make with the liquor, bar captains!"

"Excuse me?" came a voice in his ear. Jayzin turned the wrong way too fast, and fell off his stool when he tried to correct himself; the owner of the voice - a rather sultry-looking woman - leant down to help him up, and Jayzin unashamedly ogled the sight of her breasts as she did so. "Did I hear you say Eric Donahue?"

Swaying gently, Jayzin focused in on the pretty face in front of him. "Sure I did, babe, I said it. Who's he to you?"

"I used to work with him, back home. Are you part of the Oaklands football team?"

"Hells yeah!" shouted Jayzin, chugging the shot he'd found in his left hand as he did so. The woman smiled bashfully.

"Where are my manners? I'm Amy Bennett, I'm following the team in the Baptism of Fire. I was really impressed by your performance yesterday."

"Naw, girl," slurred Jayzin, trying to brush his hair from his eyes, missing and hitting himself in the face. "It was nuthin', it's how I roll." Amy smiled again, avoiding his eyes.

"Would you...would you mind doing an interview with me, tomorrow?" she asked, touching his arm lightly. "It'd be great for me and the newspaper, to get an exclusive like this. I mean...if you're not too busy with training."

"Shit, no! Training? How can you improve on this?" shouted Jayzin, flexing his biceps proudly. Amy's eyes widened as she felt the muscly arm.

"My oh my...I guess it is true. You know...if you can't go back to the team hotel, would you like to come to mine? The paper paid for me to have a double room by mistake, so...do you want to?"

As you may know, alcohol tends to remove a person's inhibitions somewhat, but considering that Jayzin had few inhibitions to begin with, he became rather rambunctious when given alcohol. It also tended to cloud the logical part of his mind - while the reporter's gesture would usually be seen as a kind offer, Jayzin's brain added two and two and got...well, actually got four as it happened; he believed she wanted to jump his bones, and that was her intention all along.

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune had just swung Jayzin's way.

The Armed Republic of Kampfers lost a heart-breaker today in their first action of the Baptism of Fire. The West Pasco Pac-Men drew first blood 20 minutes into the match when Phillip DeGlocko recieved a long lead pass, deking the only defender in his path, and then drilling the ball past goalkeeper Kasey Kuhn. At the break, the score was one-nil. Early in the second half, Oliver Podolski went down with a strained hamstring. Although this will not keep him out of the next match, it hurt Kampfers chance for a comeback. The match grew tense as Michael Ballack nearly scored on numerous headers, but the door was held shut. Late in the stoppage time, with Kampfers in full attack mode, Layton Huntersby scored by way of a header on a corner. That left the score a final two-nil. The Kampferian team played their hearts out, but in the end, it wasn't enough. This has been Michael Muller for KNN, the Kamfers News Network.

After the cruellest of disappointments in the AOCAF, just missing the second round by one goal of goal differential the Ulzaxids had little time to sit around. After a short stop of in Ulzaxid they headed back out to Cafundeu for their first introduction to the full world of football.

With much more planning the team had much better accomodations in Cafundeu and hoped to take advantage of that. Missing parts of themselves for long stretches of time really took their toll in Bettia and the team still hadn't fully recovered by the start of the match against Mekhule. As such they saw Mekhule jump out to a 2-0 lead in the first five minutes. Thankfully for the team they were confident they could come back, as a team with six strikers can score goals, and they had experience playing against world powers like Bazalonia, Vilita & Turori and Krytenia, and even a win over Az-cz to call on.

And respond they did. What started out looking like a Mekhule party very quickly turned into a Mekhule massacre. In the next 30 minutes each of the Ulzaxid strikers put the ball in the net with the exception of Trevor_Belmore. Simeone_Di_Bradini opened the scoring for Ulzaxid in the seventh minute. Syku_Lyku equalized the game in minute number ten. Callum_Banda gave the Ulzaxids the lead in the 14th minute, just nine minutes after they had fallen behind by two goals. Mekhule then put up a bit of a defensive streak keeping Ulzaxid from scoring for another 14 minutes when Marc_J._Floren doubled the Ulzaxid lead. In the 33rd minute Sani_Luvo completed the Ulzaxid charge to put the Ulzaxids well ahead.

Mekhule being a heady side finally got things together and started to get a sense of what the Ulzaxids were doing. For many less experienced teams the fact that there is no visible communication between the Ulzaxid players can be very disconcerting and that was clearly the case for Mekhule. Eventually they gained a sense of Ulzaxid tactics and found a way to play effective football. However that all came too late in the match and a 88th minute goal from Oliver Cloazov didn't have much effect on the match.

After the match coach Stuart Abdul-Rahim had these comments. "I'm very proud of the way my team regrouped from our disappointment in Bettia. This is another tournament and we have to get focused and do our best. The way they came roaring back after the early deficit is a sign of what we can do. However we expect the next match to be tougher as Mekhule seemed to catch on to what it is we were trying to do. They could well be our main rival in the group and we'll need a fine performance to down them a second time. Despite not having the reputation of some others we've faced they're a fine squad."

THIRD ROUND RESULTS

Group A:

J-Man2k7 0-1 Mekhule
Stadium: Caldeirão, in Mondragon

Ghost Tigers Rise 2-4 Ulzaxid
Stadium: Arena do Imperador, in Lux

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Ulzaxid 2 2 0 0 9 5 4 6
2 Mekhule 3 2 0 1 5 5 0 6
3 Ghost Tigers Rise 2 1 0 1 5 5 0 3
4 American Fist 2 0 1 1 2 3 -1 1
5 J-Man2k7 3 0 1 2 3 6 -3 1

Group B:

SS Oaklands 2-1 West Pasco
Stadium: Obelisco Monumental, in Lasft

Holweg 0-2 Kampfers
Stadium: Presídio, in Carandirú City

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 SS Oaklands 3 2 1 0 9 4 5 7
2 St Paul's Isle 2 1 1 0 5 4 1 4
3 West Pasco 3 1 0 2 4 4 0 3
4 Kampfers 2 1 0 1 2 2 0 3
5 Holweg 2 0 0 2 0 6 -6 0

Group C:

British Londinium 2-1 Nerotika
Stadium: Maracatu Arena, in Dunboor

Kiryu-Shi 3-0 Netherwallop
Stadium: Estádio Pioneiro, in São José

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Kiryu-Shi 2 2 0 0 5 1 4 6
2 Junista 2 2 0 0 3 0 3 6
3 British Londinium 3 1 0 2 3 5 -2 3
4 Nerotika 3 0 1 2 1 3 -2 1
5 Netherwallop 2 0 1 1 0 3 -3 1

Kiryu-shi National Team Wins Easy in Downpour

By Michio Hibbert

São José, Cafundéu For their second ever international match, the Kiryu-shi Dragons were against the little known team from the nation of Netherwallop, however, their biggest hurdle to win was the steady rain that fell upon the historic stadium. Although from the statline, Kiryu-shi seemed to dominate most aspects of the game, it was certainly not an eay victory due to the low visibility and wet turf. Many Kiryu-shi supporters who made their way to Cafundéu to watch the Baptism of Fire tournament haven't even gone to a single game yet, as they sit in hotel rooms watching the games on local television to avoid the bad weather the Dragons have played in thus far. The opening lineup for Kiryu-shi included Gregory Iverson and Giancario Diamanti, at least temporarily shutting down the rumors that they would be benched.

____The rain started during the pre-game warmups, and grew stronger during the first few minutes of the game. Netherwallop, who won the kickoffs, didn't have their names on the back of their jersey's making it difficult to keep track of who had the ball. The game, much like the last game Kiryu-shi played in, started off slowly as the teams looked disoriented by the chilling sheets of water storming upon their shoulders. At one point during the first few minutes of the match, ther referree fell down and aparently hurt his wrist, and the players obliviously continued to play even as the official raced off the field to be bandaged and to change into better cleats. As the referree returned, the pouring rain began to change into a misty drizzle, and play began to get a bit better, although the players still were obviously hampered by the wet grass and ball. In the 24th minute Pat Mayberry managed to track down a deflected ball on the right flank and dribbled through a couple of looking defenders, no doubt sluggish due to the bad footing, before knocking the ball past the keeper from 16 yards out to score his first international goal and the opening goal of the match. Kiryu-shi managed to keep up the pressure, as they forced five corner kicks in the span of six minutes, and finally converted a header goal in the 31st minute, as Mayberry produced a magnificent curling cross to the leaping Garret McGee, who's header just whispered under the crossbar and above the keeper's outstretched arms. However, McGee landed awkwardly in the mud, twisting his ankle, and had to leave the match to get bandaged. Kiryu-shi, playing down a man and without any real forward, hunkered down defensively for the rest of the half, consitently double teaming the opposing attackers.

____Although McGee came back after the break, Isaac Levi didn't return, and reports are that he is questionable for the next match due to a strained right hamstring. In his place, making his first international appearance, was Martin Jones, an athletic defender. Kiryu-shi started off the half playing a ball control game, passing the ball around the back line and gently probing the sides of the Netherwallop midfield, looking to both eat up time and find a place to attack. In the 51st minute, an oppurtunity presented itself as Helen Gandy made a run up the middle of the pitch, catching the defense unaware and recieved a long, perfectly placed pass from Pruett on the defesive. She trapped the ball nicely and managed to step around the keeper and score an easy goal, her second official goal of the tournament. After the third goal, Kiryu-shi focused on defense, substituting Carmen Chow for Gandy and Esra Goldenbock for Diamanti. They held possesion for most the rest of the game, slipping and sliding in the now muddy field. Niether team got a single shot off for the last twenty minutes of the match, and Kiryu-shi won with a final score of three to zero.

____Next, Kiryu-shi will take on Junista, who has the same record as Kiryu-shi as of now. They will play in the beautiful city of Astari, where they will pray for no rain. The uniform scandal has still not resolved itself, and players seem resigned to the fact that they might be wearing their practice jerseys throughout the tournament.

The Armed Republic of Kampfers got their first win of the tournament today. Kampfers drew first blood 7 minutes into the match when Michael Ballack scored on a penalty kick. At the break, the score was one-nil. Early in the second half, Oliver Podolski headed in a cross to make the score two-nil. Late in the stoppage time, with Holweg in full attack mode, Kasey Kuhn barred the gate with three phenomenal saves. The Kampferian squad played a great all-around game and walked away with the victory. This has been Michael Muller for KNN, the Kamfers News Network.

Pasocnianns Lose narrowly


LASFT The West Pasco footy team lost a close game today in Cafendu. It started as a normal game with cloudy muggy conditions. This ment t was gonna be a survival of the fittest. SS Oaklands team got off to a quick start scoring a goal vwery quickly on a breakaway. SS Oaklands scored again a couple minutes latrer to make it 2-0.WP did get within one goal but that was all a SS Oaklands cruised in the second half 2-1.

http://spaam.mrdrake.net/flags/West_Pasco.png 1
Fort (34:19)

http://spaam.mrdrake.net/flags/McPsychoville.png

Player (0:21)
Player(2:15)

After starting off their Baptism of Fire Campaign with an impressive victory over Mekhule the team moved on to face Ghost Tigers Rise. The team we faced on the pitch didn't seem to be undead tigers of any sort, but we're not really sure. Maybe Ghost Tigers Rise has some other meaning or something. We don't really know. Regardless the team put up another very strong performance and easily won despite another tail related PK.

The team came out quickly with Trevor_Belmore putting the Morphs up just eight minutes into the match. Another eight minutes later and the lead was doubled with Pizelkaxrovsky_ scoring from a free kick, amazingly like his Az-czid namesake. The Ulzaxids continued to spread the scoring around with Esteban_De_Jesus getting in on the action in the 25th minute leaving only Juan_Tzimisces without a goal amongst the attacking players.

Ghost Tigers Rise finally got their heads in the game and found away past the lone Ulzaxid defender in the 39th minute to cut their deficit to 3-1 heading into the half.

In the second half Ulzaxid finally had their first repeat goal scorer of the cup as Simeone_Di_Bradini showed the reflexes of the Ulzaxid ferret/monkey combo as he struck quickly on a rebound from Callum_Banda to extend Ulzaxid's lead to 4-1.

The game continued up and down from there until late in the match, just before penalty time when a Ghost Tigers Rise player tripped over the tail of one of the Ulzaxid players. Although the contact was incidental, Ghost Tigers Rise was given a penalty and slotted the ball home for the 4-2 scoreline that finished the game.

Rahim's comments after the game were that his team would have to be much more careful. "Our tails are getting us into trouble. We might try mixing in our eagle part instead of our monkey part. But the wings might do us in there. Who knows. We need to figure out how to appease referees, but it's difficult because we won't talk to them and they don't like telepathic messages, so we'll see."

"I'm back in Cafundeu to report on Mekhule's latest match against J-Man2K7 in what was another outstanding display off footballing talent. Fort Europe dominated the match from start to finish as the opposition team were over run and crushed by the onslaught. Rhiannon Breeze scored the only goal of the match in her first start of the tournament after thirty six minutes of the game had passed. Mekhule now find themselves holding second place in Group A after three matches, behind the leaders only on goal difference. The team's lack of goals may be of concern the manager and coaches, but as long as the points keep rolling in I doubt the fans will mind too much. This is Aby Watcher reporting for the Commonwealth News Service handing back to the studio."

"Thankyou Aby. Still to come in the next hour, we look at Shaun Miller's new look Fort Europe national team, and we talk exclusively to Michelle Bishop about her hopes for this Cycle's World Cup. But first the national weather with Martin Kann."

FOURTH ROUND RESULTS

Group A:

Ulzaxid 5-2 J-Man2k7
Stadium: Praça Maior, in Cafundó do Juta

American Fist 0-1 Ghost Tigers Rise
Stadium: Estádio Olímpico, in Tijhus

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Ulzaxid 3 3 0 0 14 7 7 9
2 Ghost Tigers Rise 3 2 0 1 6 5 1 6
3 Mekhule 3 2 0 1 5 5 0 6
4 American Fist 3 0 1 2 2 4 -2 1
5 J-Man2k7 4 0 1 3 5 11 -6 1

Group B:

Kampfers 2-2 SS Oaklands
Stadium: Estádio Ernesto Honesto, in Espinal

St Paul's Isle 3-1 Holweg
Stadium: Aquário Nacional, in Submiria

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 SS Oaklands 4 2 2 0 11 6 5 8
2 St Paul's Isle 3 2 1 0 8 5 3 7
3 Kampfers 3 1 1 1 4 4 0 4
4 West Pasco 3 1 0 2 4 4 0 3
5 Holweg 3 0 0 3 1 9 -8 0

Group C:

Netherwallop 0-1 British Londinium
Stadium: Mohammed Field, in Al-Zalabahad

Junista 1-3 Kiryu-Shi
Stadium: C-Electronics Stadium, in Astari

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Kiryu-Shi 3 3 0 0 8 2 6 9
2 Junista 3 2 0 1 4 3 1 6
3 British Londinium 4 2 0 2 4 5 -1 6
4 Nerotika 3 0 1 2 1 3 -2 1
5 Netherwallop 3 0 1 2 0 4 -4 1

The Armed Republic of Kampfers fought their way to a narrow draw today. Kampfers drew first blood 34 minutes into the match when Ansgar Severin
scored on a breakaway. At the break, the score was one-nil. Early in the second half, Oliver Podolski scored on a indirect penalty kick to make the score two-nil. Then, less than three minutes later, Mark Van Evans baited goalkeeper Kasey Kuhn out of his goal and chipped it over him, making the score two-one Kampfers. With under ten minutes to play, SS Oaklands was in full attack mode. Kasey Kuhn made a phenomenal save, but before he could recover to the ball, a clearing attempt by Parsifal Gebbert riocheted off Chris Glen and into the net. The Kampferian squad played a great all-around game and walked away with the draw. If it had not been for a crazy play to end the game, Kampfers would now be in a tie for second place. As it stands, they are in third with 4 points, 4 behind the leader SS Oaklands. This has been Michael Muller for KNN, the Kamfers News Network.

snip

[I said don't pick my goalscorers.]

---

...or had they? After passing out in the overly friendly reporter's hotel room, Jayzin Smith had awoken to find something that he couldn't rationalise no matter what; not only had he missed the West Pasco game, but he'd somehow managed to move to a different city altogether. Even the credit card receipt listed him as having a single room, and try as he might, Jayzin simply could not make sense of things. Still, things hadn't been so bad. Despite playing with ten men, the team had taken a comfortable victory over West Pasco to stay at the top of the table (two early goals from Chris Glen taking the wind out of the Pascoian sails).

Any other player would have called back to his coach and grovelled for their place, but of course due to the rather hideous cockup by the coach's assistant - who was strangely absent from the proceedings - the Oaklands only had eleven players. Coach Donahue had, according to some internet reports, intended to play in Jayzin's place but hurt himself in the opening warm-up for the Pasco game, and so when Jayzin returned, the shouting was minimal as he was on very strong painkillers.

The ironic thing was that it actually hurt the team. Jayzin was still under the weather after losing three days to God knows what, and the team were again, effectively playing with a man down from the get-go. They should have beaten Kampfers comfortably, but a late goal from them tied the scoreline at 2-2 and there it stayed. As a result, they stayed top of the group but went into the bye game only a point in the lead.

Jayzin's burgeoning craziness was only exacerbated when he was visited in the night by some soap in socks.

OOC: oops sorry, i couldn't find where your permissions were.

Kiryu-shi Remains Undefeated in Cafundéu Up Ending Religious Fanatics

By Michio Hibbert

Astari, CafundéuThe Kiryu-shi Dragon's, playing against the football team from Fundamentalist Christian nation Junista, improved their recored to 3 wins with no losses or draws to gain sole leadership of first place in their group. The game, played in the early evening mist of Astari in Cafundéu, had the largest group of Kiryu-shians watching at the stadium since the begining of the tournament, as early success has brought even more popularity to Kiryu-shi national football.

____Last evening's game saw the same starting lineup that Kiryu-shi brought to the first two matches that they played in. With a scare to defender Isacc Levi in last week's game against Netherwallop, he was reported as questionable right up until game time, but with proper bandaging by the Kiryu-shi training staff and the looseness that he showed in warmups, Coach Bruce Lewis decided to keep him in the starting formation, in his right back spot. Kiryu-shi came out wearing their now popular plain training kits for the match, instead of the new uniforms designed especially for the tournament, apparently because of public demand.

____Kiryu-shi began the match very strong, after playing in similar rainy conditions last week, they came out well-adjusted and powerfull as Junista struggled to evolve their style of play to the slick pitch and heavy ball. In the third minute of the game, Pat Mayberry, stealing the ball from opposing midfielder Joe Hollus, dashed down the right side of the match, as defender's struggled to keep up. He swung the ball back to the advancing Levi, catching the defender's off gaurd. Levi sent in a to the near side, which Helen Gandy neatly put away into the bottom right corner of the net, stunning the Junista team, who hadn't let in any goals thus far in the tournament. Junista seemed like the goal had just deflated them, as the Dragon's dominated the midfield, leading to a few more close oppurtunities early. In the 25th minute, Gregory Iverson took a long range shot from 31 meters out, blowing between several defenders before the stumbling keeper managed to deflect it, but not enough to prevent the ball from falling into the back of the net for the second goal of the game. The Junista team managed to get more lively for the rest of the half, keeping Kiryu-shi at bay until the break.

____Junista came out of the locker rooms full of passion and fire, taking control of the game early in the second half, as Kiryu-shi struggled to maintain their focus. After Junista Frank Grimmus just missed a shot wide to the right of the net, the goal kick was mishandled by Kiryu-shi defender Doug LeBlanc, which Grimmus pounced on and took into the penalty area. LeBlanc, trying to compensate for his mistake, took down Grimmus from behind as Grimmus was lining up for a shot, almost provoking a brawl between the two teams. LeBlanc was given a red card for his efforts, while Grimmus's threats and behaviour earned him a yellow card. Grimmus, however, was also given a penalty kick, which he angrily converted to draw the score within one goal. However, with Kiryu-shi down a player, they had to play very well to keep the riled up Junista team from scoring. Esra Goldenbock replaced Giancario Diamanti and moved back to the defensive line, which opened up a whole in left the left midfield, where Junista tried to take advantage of. However, trully excellent defending, especially by Sidney Hendrickson, lead to a counter attack in the 77th minute. Hendrickson's agility showed as he intercepted a pass at full sprint, and used his momentum to dribble the ball past two Junista players before he was tripped up by defender Noah Arcus past midfield. Matthew Pruet took the free kick, with Garret McGee, Bob Moya, and Iverson all in front of the goal to provide height. Pruet's free kick arched perfectly to McGee, who jumped over several other players on both sides to score a signature goal with his head. Junista responded with an all out attack for the remainder if the match, but Kiryu-shi substituted McGee out for a defender, Orson Wells, and held the two goal lead using six defenders for the final 13 minutes.

In their third match of the tournament the Ulzaxids continued to throw in the goals, and while their defense was still allowing goals a plenty they were few enough in number to lead to comfortable victories. And really a team with a single defender and only three midfielders is expected to allow some goals.

Their third match was against the very curiously named JMan2k7. We think it might be a tribute to their founder, but we're not really sure. Anyways apparently too much of their energy has been spent making indecipherably strange names and not enough into learning how to play this game as the Ulzaxids jumped up big early and only really allowed the two goals through kindness and fairplay.

The Ulzaxids scored from the opening kickoff with Pizelkaxrovsky_ hooking up with Callum_Banda to put the Ulzaxids up only 9 seconds into the match. And just 35 seconds later Banda had put in a second goal to increase the JMan2k7 misery. And it didn't take Banda too much longer to complete the first hat trick in Ulzaxid history banging in a long shot in the 4th minute. If not the fastest hat trick ever scored, that would definitely be one of them as JMan2k7 was putting on a shameful performance. It took a little while for the next Ulzaxid goal to come as Juan_Tzimisces got his name into the scoring books in the 20th minute.

With all the other players having scored a goal the team spent the rest of the half trying to get a goal to Khim_Azanulbizarn. They did finally succeed in doing so in the 42nd minute. And at that point the few JMan2k7 fans remaing in the crowd left leaving a deadly silent crowd.

Which is too bad cause Ulzaxid didn't something very strange at halftime. Apparently in the locker room at half all of the Ulzaxids demorphed and only the slime part of the Ulzaxid players came out onto the pitch. Considering that a lot of the physical ability of Ulzaxids comes from the non-slime parts of the morph they were a small and unathletic bunch. Considering that it was only their team work and telepathic communication that allowed them to keep JMan2k7 from scoring more than two goals.

After the match coach Stuart Abdul-Rahim explained his thought process. "It would've been unsporting for us to run up the score on JMan2k7 anymore than we already had. There's no point in unnecessarily embarassing the other teams. So we experimented playing just our slime forms. Not suprisingly it didn't work so well, but our team work is quite good, so that helped. It's not likely to get used again but maybe if we face a team that needs as much improvement as JMan2k7.

FIFTH ROUND RESULTS

Group A:

Mekhule 2-0 Ghost Tigers Rise
Stadium: Parque do Sol, in Elville

American Fist 2-6 Ulzaxid
Stadium: Terreno da Vitória, in Abadia

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Ulzaxid 4 4 0 0 20 9 11 12
2 Mekhule 4 3 0 1 7 5 2 9
3 Ghost Tigers Rise 4 2 0 2 6 7 -1 6
4 J-Man2k7 4 0 1 3 5 11 -6 1
5 American Fist 4 0 1 3 4 10 -6 1

Group B:

West Pasco 1-1 Holweg
Stadium: Toca do Tatu, in Central City

St Paul's Isle 0-2 Kampfers
Stadium: Presídio, in Carandirú City

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 SS Oaklands 4 2 2 0 11 6 5 8
2 Kampfers 4 2 1 1 6 4 2 7
3 St Paul's Isle 4 2 1 1 8 7 1 7
4 West Pasco 4 1 1 2 5 5 0 4
5 Holweg 4 0 1 3 2 10 -8 1

Group C:

Nerotika 0-4 Kiryu-Shi
Stadium: Campo de Batalha, in Penderia

Junista 2-2 Netherwallop
Stadium: Estádio Pioneiro, in São José

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Kiryu-Shi 4 4 0 0 12 2 10 12
2 Junista 4 2 1 1 6 5 1 7
3 British Londinium 4 2 0 2 4 5 -1 6
4 Netherwallop 4 0 2 2 2 6 -4 2
5 Nerotika 4 0 1 3 1 7 -6 1

(OOC to Kiryu-Shi: Just note that you played the game in MD04 (against Junista) in the city of Astari, not in Al-Zalabahad, as says your post (you got the weather right, as Astari has rain probability, and Al-Zalabahad hasn't). Don't worry, it's just a minor correction)

OOC to everyone: tomorrow, the matchday results will be posted three hours earlier than usual.

(Excerpt from "Letter's to the Editor")

"I'm sorry but while reading the newspaper this morning, we couldn't help but notice that your reporter covering the soccer tournament BoF was apparently in the wrong city. We're wondering how he could have accurately portrayed the game while being miles away from it? Or did you just see the final score and somehow fabricate the "news" of the match?
Julia L. in Prospect

Editor's Note: Over the past weeks, the editors of this fine paper have made progress on the knowledge if this "sport" called "soccer". Although we have concluded, that sadly, no cheese is part of the game, and thus, with that conclusion, we mice got bored and stopped researching. However, we have a fine reputation to uphold as a newspaper, of sorts, so we will personally white-out and scribble over any place where there seems to be an error. Also, we carry no responsibility for our reporters, we're just happy we somehow get stories to print."

(OOC: Edited, thanks)

Kampfers Dominates St Pauls Isle!

Michael Ballack scored twice as the Kampferian squad rolled to an easy victory. Kasey Kuhn was hardly challenged, making only 3 unspectacular saves. The win moved them into a tie for 2nd place and only 1 point behind Regional leader SS Oaklands. Kampfers leads St Pauls Isle by 1 goal in goal differential, and thus leads the tiebreaker. The Kampfers squad hopes to keep on rolling, as they are undefeated since coming in with a first game loss. Their next game is in two days against West Pasco. This has been Micheal Muller for KNN, the Kampfers News Network.

OOC: Remembered to use the right log in this time!

IC:

"Mekhule may have had a week away from the pressure of the competition but the players didn't get a respite as training was upped, and tempo increased with the intention of providing better performances for the rest of this tournament, and they did not disappoint. Todays match against Ghost Tigers Rise at the Parque do Sol in Cafundeu was nothing short of a display of superior skill as Mekhule rolled over their opponents in a choreographed two goals to nil victory that keeps them in contention to qualify for the quarter finals later this month.
From out of nowhere just two minutes into the game Rhiannon Breeze appeared on the end of a Mia Hall cross from the left wing which was buried neatly into the bottom far corner. Mekhule locked down the match from then on ensuring possession dominance until the fourty second minute when Rhu chipped a floating through ball into the path of team captain Oliver Cloazov on the edge of the area who struck the ball on the half volley into the top corner of the net. The second half, by contrast was entirely possession play by the Mekhule side as the Tigers became more and more frustrated. Two goals to nil the final score and Mekhule might already be thinking ahead to the next round in anticipation."

Another match, another huge batch of goals and another strangely named country for the Ulzaxid crew as they pasted American Fist 6-2. Why there would a country named after America and a form of the hand and why it plays a sport where hands aren't allowed are questions that we're unable to answer at this time. Regardless the team proved that it was up to the challenge and secured a perfect first round through the group stage.

In this match the team did a little bit of experimenting. They fielded new combination of morphs, putting out the eagle/slime/ferret combo and even their first four of in the dolphin/monkey/ferret/slime combo, the first time any eagle parts or dolphin parts had taken part in the action. Not surpisingly the player who used four parts was an absolute beast on the pitch. Pizelkaxrovsky_ was the player who got to use the four part combo and he was just unstoppable. He scored his first goal in the 5th minute jumping up well above the other players to head in the opening goal. In the 9th minute he doubled his scoreline from the penalty spot after Marc_J._Floren was fouled in the box. His third goal came from free kick as he curled the ball around the American Fist wall in the 22nd minute. He even added a fourth in the 30th minute as he dribbled around 6 American Fist defenders. The American Fist players were just pleading with their manager for some help on the pitch as they clearly couldn't deal with Pizelkaxrovsky_ in his four part form.

In the 42nd minute Pizelkaxrovsky added his fifth goal of the game and left the team up 5-0 at half. Rahim not wanting to push things too far subbed out Pizelkaxrovsky at half time and brought on filthyl_. Without their four-form menace the Ulzaxids didn't have quite as much control of the game and American Fist played much better, pulling a goal back in the 66th minute. filthyl_ extended the lead back to five goals in the 81st minute, becoming the first bench player to find a goal. American Fist added a late goal in the 89th minute, irrelevant to the match but which could have an affect on who ends up with the top seed at the end of the group stage.

In his usual post game comments Rahim had plenty to say. "We experimented with some new forms today. Suffice it to say we had our thoughts confirmed that four-forms is probably too much. Maybe if we left out the monkey bit, but even then I suspect we'd run rampant. Also Syku_Lyku told me he was troubled by having wings. He felt like flying, but felt it was unfair so didn't and it caused him problems. So we'll probably be avoding using our eagle parts from here on out. But I don't want to set anything in stone. As for the match, another great job. We'll enjoy our day off and scout Mekhule for our match day seven clash, which ought to be a defacto group championship match."

SIXTH ROUND RESULTS

Group A:

J-Man2k7 1-1 Ghost Tigers Rise
Stadium: Arena do Imperador, in Lux

Mekhule 4-1 American Fist
Stadium: Caldeirão, in Mondragon

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Ulzaxid 4 4 0 0 20 9 11 12
2 Mekhule 5 4 0 1 11 6 5 12
3 Ghost Tigers Rise 5 2 1 2 7 8 -1 7
4 J-Man2k7 5 0 2 3 6 12 -6 2
5 American Fist 5 0 1 4 5 14 -9 1

Group B:

SS Oaklands 2-1 Holweg
Stadium: Estádio Ernesto Honesto, in Espinal

West Pasco 0-0 St Paul's Isle
Stadium: Obelisco Monumental, in Lasft

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 SS Oaklands 5 3 2 0 13 7 6 11
2 St Paul's Isle 5 2 2 1 8 7 1 8
3 Kampfers 4 2 1 1 6 4 2 7
4 West Pasco 5 1 2 2 5 5 0 5
5 Holweg 5 0 1 4 3 12 -9 1

Group C:

British Londinium 1-2 Kiryu-Shi
Stadium: Mohammed Field, in Al-Zalabahad

Nerotika 2-2 Junista
Stadium: Maracatu Arena, in Dunboor

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Kiryu-Shi 5 5 0 0 14 3 11 15
2 Junista 5 2 2 1 8 7 1 8
3 British Londinium 5 2 0 3 5 7 -2 6
4 Netherwallop 4 0 2 2 2 6 -4 2
5 Nerotika 5 0 2 3 3 9 -6 2

"Lying still second in Group A of the Baptism of Fire, fans around Mekhule are growing confident of following in the footsteps of neighboring Fort Europe as they look set to qualify from the group stages and move on into the Quarter Finals. Mekhule need to find five points from three matches to secure certain qualification and with Ulzaxid the only nation to beat them so far, surely now even the players will be confident of victory.

Neil Casoria scored the opening goal in Mekhule's four goals to one thrashing of American Fist. Ken Forrestal scored two, his first from the penalty spot and the second just on the stroke of the hour with a clean header unchallenged at the back post. Raven Kisella put her name on the score sheet to finish off, tapping the ball simply and poetically past the American goalkeeper's outstretched fist. Mekhule will now be looking to take this victory on to their next match as they play group leaders Ulzaxid for the second time. I'm Aby watcher reporting for the Commonwealth News Service live in Cafundeu."

SEVENTH ROUND RESULTS

Group A:

American Fist 1-2 J-Man2k7
Stadium: Estádio Olímpico, in Tijhus

Ulzaxid 0-3 Mekhule
Stadium: Praça Maior, in Cafundó do Juta

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Mekhule 6 5 0 1 14 6 8 15
2 Ulzaxid 5 4 0 1 20 12 8 12
3 Ghost Tigers Rise 5 2 1 2 7 8 -1 7
4 J-Man2k7 6 1 2 3 8 13 -5 5
5 American Fist 6 0 1 5 6 16 -10 1

Group B:

St Paul's Isle 1-3 SS Oaklands
Stadium: Toca do Tatu, in Central City

Kampfers 0-0 West Pasco
Stadium: Aquário Nacional, in Submiria

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 SS Oaklands 6 4 2 0 16 8 8 14
2 Kampfers 5 2 2 1 6 4 2 8
3 St Paul's Isle 6 2 2 2 9 10 -1 8
4 West Pasco 6 1 3 2 5 5 0 6
5 Holweg 5 0 1 4 3 12 -9 1

Group C:

Junista 0-1 British Londinium
Stadium: Campo de Batalha, in Penderia

Netherwallop 2-2 Nerotika
Stadium: C-Electronics Stadium, in Astari

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Kiryu-Shi 5 5 0 0 14 3 11 15
2 British Londinium 6 3 0 3 6 7 -1 9
3 Junista 6 2 2 2 8 8 0 8
4 Netherwallop 5 0 3 2 4 8 -4 3
5 Nerotika 6 0 3 3 5 11 -6 3

*Tomorrow's results to be posted at 16:30 Brasília time (GMT-3)

Kampfers Bitterly Fights West Pasco to a Draw
Kampfers held back tears today after seeing respected leader Joseph Kai walk off the field today with a concussion. Kai displayed his leadership though, by saying "It will hurt, and it's not advisable, but I'll play through it" in his postgame press conference. This draw moves Kampfers back into a tie for second place in their division. Up next on the sceduale is Holweg. SS Oaklands continues to dominate the divison, with no losses and only one draw coming at the hand of Kampfers. This has been Michael Muller for KNN, Kampfers News Network, with your daily sports update.

Kiryu-shi Looks For Number One Seed In Cafundéu

by Michio Hibbert



Al-Zalabahad, CafundéuFollowing last week's tight victory over British Londinium, the Kiryu-shi Dragon's coaching staff stayed at the hotel during this week's matches, scouting ahead for the BoF tournament. If Kiryu-shi continues their pace, they will be the number one seed in the eight team single elimination tournament following the group stage. The shocking upset of the Melhule squad over the previously undefeated non-human group from Ulzaxid showcased two of the best teams thus far in the tournament, showing that the mutating and attacking Ulzaxid squad can in fact be shut out. With Kiryu-shi as the only remaining undefeated team, supporters of the team are over flowing with confidence.

____However, before they can secure the number one seed, they still have to get through the remaining teams in their own group. Although they've already beaten the challenging British Londinium team twice, they can't overlook the other three teams that make up this group. Junista, who is battling to stay in the tournament is especially dangerous, and both Netherwallop and Nerotika have a few dangerous players.

____Kiryu-shi did officially clinch a berth in the final portion of the tournament this week, as they can now no longer fall past second place in their group, even if they lose the rest of their games.

"Good morning, this is Aby Watcher reporting once again from a very bright and cheerful Cafundéu where Mekhule's run of consecutive wins continues unabated with a stunning three goals to nil victory against Group A rivals Ulzaxid. The Commonwealth side came out strong against the puppet nation which had dominated the group undefeated until today, and provided a breath taking display of football that I am sure fans from both sides would have enjoyed.

It was Ken Forrestal who provided all three goals though, the first with his left foot just twenty minutes into the match, the second with his right from the penalty spot after Raven Kinsela was brought down by the keeper, and the third was lovingly slotted into the top corner from a well practiced freekick headed in off the crossbar. While Ken's goal scoring finesse could only be admired, his celebrations however left a lot to be desired.

Just one more win from Mekhule's remaining two matches will see the side through to a well deserved qualification to the next round and an anticipated run to the final. The team will however need to keep their whits about them and not become complacent. Winning both matches would see Mekhule hold on to the top spot in Group A, providing they don't concede too many goals. For now though, it's back to the studio."

"Thank you Aby. Todays other sports headlines, Bovingtonia beat Fort Europe by a goal to nil yesterday in a friendly match, Angel Falls manager Steven Rytaria has been sacked after just four matches in the Commonwealth Second Division. The team were promoted last season but have failed to win a match so far, and finally the Commonwealth Sports Council have announced today that they will be appealing against the recent Heath and Safety findings that have blocked the construction of the Commonwealths first Ice Hockey stadium."

EIGHTH ROUND RESULTS

Group A:

J-Man2k7 2-3 Mekhule
Stadium: Terreno da Vitória, in Abadia

Ghost Tigers Rise 1-5 Ulzaxid
Stadium: Parque do Sol, in Elville

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Mekhule 7 6 0 1 17 8 9 18
2 Ulzaxid 6 5 0 1 25 13 12 15
3 Ghost Tigers Rise 6 2 1 3 8 13 -5 7
4 J-Man2k7 7 1 2 4 10 16 -6 5
5 American Fist 6 0 1 5 6 16 -10 1

Group B:

SS Oaklands 0-1 West Pasco
Stadium: Presídio, in Carandirú City

Holweg 0-2 Kampfers
Stadium: Obelisco Monumental, in Lasft

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 SS Oaklands 7 4 2 1 16 9 7 14
2 Kampfers 6 3 2 1 8 4 4 11
3 West Pasco 7 2 3 2 6 5 1 9
4 St Paul's Isle 6 2 2 2 9 10 -1 8
5 Holweg 6 0 1 5 3 14 -11 1

Group C:

British Londinium 1-1 Nerotika
Stadium: Estádio Pioneiro, in São José

Kiryu-Shi 4-0 Netherwallop
Stadium: Maracatu Arena, in Dunboor

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Kiryu-Shi 6 6 0 0 18 3 15 18
2 British Londinium 7 3 1 3 7 8 -1 10
3 Junista 6 2 2 2 8 8 0 8
4 Nerotika 7 0 4 3 6 12 -6 4
5 Netherwallop 6 0 3 3 4 12 -8 3

Yeah my name is curious, The People Of the country love me:)

The 2-1 victory over American Fist was a highly competitive game, with the team on their arses most games, they turned up that game, yet were sharply woken up as American fist attacked heavily and forced a good save from Marjoram.

In the 17 th minute after five minutes of good play from the Fists, Marjoram spilled a cross, hey presto, Finished well.

they nearly had another as Wilkes tripped the striker after a great run, yet Marjoram has a decent record on penalties, tipped it over the bar.

JMan2k7s team still looked half deflated, yet Donkan rallied the players with two excellent runs into the box, yet the Fist keeper kept him out.

A good cross from the winger Norton(30th min), and The small striker norton at the back headed onto the post.

Good link up play from Donkan And Bharker presented a great chance to taylor, Who finished right into the corner. 1-1(38th min)

The fist though dominated till after the goal to half time, With sloppy defending letting them through, and an effort placed onto the bar. also a great head at the back post was blocked and cleared.

till the 63rd minute, neither team let each other in, Bharkers over the top balls and Donkans through passes Reaching Helons both times, who managed A Trick past 2, yet the pass eluded the strikers.

The fist quickly counter attacked, And blazed one over the bar.

Again the teams kept it even, till the 83rd minute when Small norton up front took the ball round the keeper and Defenders after a splendid trick pass from helons. 2-1.

Yet in the 87th minute, the fist broke well and Marjoram tipped a free kick To the side of his goal, the corner back in was poor and the teams shook hands, J-Man2k7's Defence needed to improve immensly, yet the game was an Improvement then against The Things of Mekhule, Who took them apart, yet Donkhan and Bharker grabbed a goal each and the winger norton should of had one.

Ghost tigers rise was a close Game, The first half, JMan2k7 had them all over, Dhonkan Bharker and Helons all amazing, A Splendid ball from Bharker gave small Norton up front a chance to finish and he did, Chances came, but ghost tigers rise's defence managed to hold out.

The second half ghost tigers rise dominated, Mckormack and woodley held them for a while, While walkes didnt concentrate Then launched great tackles half way through, He was half in half out. A Great break and two double saves from Marjoram couldnt stop the Tigers scoring. After that, Walkes jumped in with enthusiasm, And did his best, which is pretty good, he nearly scored a goal!!! A great 77th minute save from Marjoram and a great clearance from Wilkes kept the tigers out, Bharkers late late late 89th minute Drive Saved Well by the tigers Keeper.

Asked about the defence The manager said
"Welllll, Good Sometimes, The Other Times..." And Left.

Kiryu-shi Stays On Course

By Michio Hibbert

Dunboor, Cafundéu The Kiryu-shi Dragons win big in the sixth game of the group stages of the Baptism of Fire to stay undefeated. Against the struggling Netherwallop squad, Kiryu-shi managed to control the match holding the ball over 65% of the time. It was the most dominating all-around game for the Dragons, as they clinch first place in their group. The 4-0 victory also included the first Kiryu-shi hattrick delivered by striker Garret McGee in his strongest performance in international play.

____The first goal of the match came in the 23rd minute, as Pat Mayberry and Hellen Gandy created a beautiful passing combination to get Gandy open in front of the net. Her shot cleared the Netherwallop keeper, but hit the cross bar and deflected only to meet the volley of McGee who was positioned in the perfect spot to put the ball away. Only one minute later, McGee found himself in position to score again as a long clearance from Pruett bounced over an awkwardly placed defender as McGee sprinted by. The keeper charged McGee, but the striker was able to execute an effective sidestep and score a goal on an open net. For the rest of the half, Although Kiryu-shi managed to keep up the pressure, a number of shots just missed their mark, and Netherwallop kept the Dragons from scoring again.

____Kiryu-shi kept up the pace at the start of the second half as they forced a corner kick when Gandy's shot was deflected at the last minute by the outstretched arm of the keeper. Mayberry's corner kick was headed in by McGee, who's hattrick was completed in the 49th minute of the game. The Dragon's kept their starters in to get more time in the game together, although they didn't keep the pressure on as much. They passed the ball around at will, and created some chances for their key players. Mayberry took a looping shot over the keeper in the 77th minute to increase the lead by another goal. Kiryu-shi managed to keep control of the game until the final whistle, and walked off the pitch with their sixth victory.

____In the other groups of the tournament, Mekhule and Ulzaxid are battling for the top spot in Group A, and SS Oaklands are trying to hold off Kampfers in Group B. Kiryu-shi will likely face the second best third place team, which is still wide open, with Ghost Tigers Rise, West Pasco, St Paul's Isle and Junista competing to make it into the next stage of the tournament.

OOC: Rp for Ulzaxid

After smoking through the first half of qualifying Ulzaxid hit a patch of trouble against Mekhule. The Mekhule players clearly wanted to inject their team into the conversation of viable Baptism of Fire champions. At this point their are only three viable contenders, the two teams who played in that match and Kiryu-shi, the nominal favorites at this point in the tournament.

The team followed that up with a huge pasting of Ghost Tigers Rise, 5-1. Apparently the ghost tigers are staying dead cause they were not even remotely competitive in this match watching the Ulzaxid team score 5 goals quickly with only a lucky tap in near the end of the match making a difference as Ulzaxid romped.

After the Ghost Tigers Rise match manager Rahim had this to say. "We're in fine shape. We're a shoo-in for the knockouts and control our own fate for the top of the group. However we really don't want to lose, cause that will mean we'll probably have to play Kiryu-shi in the semis and at this point I'm not certain we can beat them. So the longer we delay that match, the better."

NINTH ROUND RESULTS

Group A:

Ulzaxid 2-1 J-Man2k7
Stadium: Arena do Imperador, in Lux

American Fist 2-2 Ghost Tigers Rise
Stadium: Parque do Sol, in Elville

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Ulzaxid 7 6 0 1 27 14 13 18
2 Mekhule 7 6 0 1 17 8 9 18
3 Ghost Tigers Rise 7 2 2 3 10 15 -5 8
4 J-Man2k7 8 1 2 5 11 18 -7 5
5 American Fist 7 0 2 5 8 18 -10 2

Group B:

Kampfers 3-2 SS Oaklands
Stadium: Estádio Ernesto Honesto, in Espinal

St Paul's Isle 2-0 Holweg
Stadium: Aquário Nacional, in Submiria

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 SS Oaklands 8 4 2 2 18 12 6 14
2 Kampfers 7 4 2 1 11 6 5 14
3 St Paul's Isle 7 3 2 2 11 10 1 11
4 West Pasco 7 2 3 2 6 5 1 9
5 Holweg 7 0 1 6 3 16 -13 1

Group C:

Netherwallop 1-5 British Londinium
Stadium: C-Electronics Stadium, in Astari

Junista 0-1 Kiryu-Shi
Stadium: Mohammed Arena, in Al-Zalabahad

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Kiryu-Shi 7 7 0 0 19 3 16 21
2 British Londinium 8 4 1 3 12 9 3 13
3 Junista 7 2 2 3 8 9 -1 8
4 Nerotika 7 0 4 3 6 12 -6 4
5 Netherwallop 7 0 3 4 5 17 -12 3

Kampfers Stays on Track With Win over SS Oaklands

The Kampferian team won again to day to raise its unbeaten streak to 6. Oliver Podolski, Marwin Michael, and Ansgar Severin scored to give Kampfers a 3-2 edge. This places them in a tie for first with one game to go. Since SS Oaklands is inactive, all Kampfers has to do is draw St Pauls Isle to win the division. They have, however, clinched a playoff spot. This has been Michael Muller, with KNN, live here in Espinal with the latest update on the Kampferian football squad.

Dragons Suffer Crushing Injury; Barely Keep Streak Alive

By Michio Hibbert

Al-Zalabahad, CafundéuKiryu-shi might have suffered a critical injury heading into the group stages of the Baptism of Fire tournament. Hellen Gandy, one of the most important pieces in the Dragon's attack went down in the 15th minute of the match under the beating sun with what early reports call a high ankle sprain, an injury that could keep her out for a few matches. She came out of the game right away, with the young Patrick Mann as her replacement, but Kiryu-shi found itself struggling in the match with the hungry Junista squad.

____The burden fell upon the defensive line, as the Dragon midfield struggled to keep possesion of the ball. Pruet and Moya especially made key plays to keep Junista off the scoreboard for the duration of the first half. After the half time break, Pat Mayberry finally began to dominate as he was able to move the ball up the field numerous times. In the 62nd minute, he made a move into the penalty area and took the shot, scoring a goal into the top lefthand corner. However, as play continued, his legs appeared heavy with fatigue, and the Kiryu-shi offense slowed down. The defense, however, remained solid, shutting down the opposition and the BoF's best defense in terms of goals against all tournament.

The Ulzaxids seemed to be hitting a wall after an impressive run of matches in the AOCAF, with a .500 winning rate including a victory over Az-cz, the one team to knock off the AOCAF champions, and to start the Baptism of Fire. First they got blitzed by Mekhule and were shutout for the first time in team history. After a positive match against Ghost Tigers Rise the team once again had major problems, this time against the much less impressive JMan2k7. Losing to Mekhule is somewhat acceptable but losing to JMan2k7 would not have been.

The team fell behind early allowing JMan2k7 to score from a corner 19 minutes into the match. And amazingly JMan2k7 was able to ride that all the way into the half. The positive feelings of the JMan2k7 players could be heard from the stands as their were very few JMan2k7 fans to overpower them considering the silence from all the Ulzaxids there. They were saying such things as "these guys look sluggish" or "how did we ever lose to these things"?

However at halftime Pizelkaxrovsky_ got fed up and decided to make sure that Ulzaxid wouldn't lose their lead on the top of the group. He leveled the match in the 70th minute and put the team to victory in the 77th minute. Those were the only goals Ulzaxid could find but they were enough to get them through.

Coach Rahim's comment's after the match were brief. "We beat them, but it was a poor performance. A lot of our starters seem warn down, so we're going to let the bench players play against American Fist. Hopefully that will allow us to get the three points we need to top the group."

TENTH ROUND RESULTS

Group A:

Mekhule 2-2 Ghost Tigers Rise
Stadium: Praça Maior, in Cafundó do Juta

American Fist 1-7 Ulzaxid
Stadium: Terreno da Vitória, in Abadia

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Ulzaxid 8 7 0 1 34 15 19 21
2 Mekhule 8 6 1 1 19 10 9 19
3 Ghost Tigers Rise 8 2 3 3 12 17 -5 9
4 J-Man2k7 8 1 2 5 11 18 -7 5
5 American Fist 8 0 2 6 9 25 -16 2

Group B:

West Pasco 2-1 Holweg
Stadium: Presídio, in Carandirú City

St Paul's Isle 3-2 Kampfers
Stadium: Toca do Tatu, in Central City

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 SS Oaklands 8 4 2 2 18 12 6 14
2 Kampfers 8 4 2 2 13 9 4 14
3 St Paul's Isle 8 4 2 2 14 12 2 14
4 West Pasco 8 3 3 2 8 6 2 12
5 Holweg 8 0 1 7 4 18 -14 1

Group C:

Nerotika 0-4 Kiryu-Shi
Stadium: Campo de Batalha, in Penderia

Junista 4-3 Netherwallop
Stadium: Estádio Pioneiro, in São José

Standings:

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Kiryu-Shi 8 8 0 0 23 3 20 24
2 British Londinium 8 4 1 3 12 9 3 13
3 Junista 8 3 2 3 12 12 0 11
4 Nerotika 8 0 4 4 6 16 -10 4
5 Netherwallop 8 0 3 5 8 21 -13 3

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Quarterfinal Games:

Kiryu-Shi x Junista
Stadium: Terreno da Vitória, in Abadia

Ulzaxid x St Paul's Isle
Stadium: C-Electronics Stadium, in Astari

SS Oaklands x British Londinium
Stadium: Presídio, in Carandirú City

Mekhule x Kampfers
Stadium: Arena do Imperador, in Lux

Good luck for all in the knockout stages!

"Good morning, this is Aby Watcher reporting live once again from a crowded bar in Cafundéu bringing you the latest news on the Baptism of Fire tournament and the Mekhulian national side. The crowd behind me are out here celebrating as well as they should despite last nights draw against Ghost Tigers Rise. The result, while slightly disappointing means that Mekhule will continue through to the Quarter Finals where they will play Kampfers for a place in the Semi's.
The squad have been taking it easy the last couple of days, giving tired and injured players a chance to recover before the next round, and with the team safely through there was no need to push things between the last two matches, though the crowd would have liked to have seen a win. Mekhule went two goals ahead against Ghost Tigers Rise, the first from Dan Forrestal and the second from Raven Kinsela who slotted the ball into the top corner from a powerful thirty five yard strike. Their opponents however managed to claw back to equalise as Mekhule sat back on their lead.

With me now is team manager Shaun Miller, Shaun I know you're probably worn out from signing autographs here, but I was wondering if you could tell me just what qualification means to the team?"

"It means a lot to the players Aby, they have worked hard for this and deserve the opportunity to go on and win this tournament. But more than that, it means so much to the people back home, and the fans who have traveled out here because we are giving something back for all their support in the past."

"How do you think you will do in the quarter final match against Kampfers?"

"I hate it when people ask me whether I think we'll win or loose a match because I can't give you a clear answer. I can tell you that the players, staff and myself will go out there and give our all and provide the best result we can, but there is no way I can predict a result. Kampfers' are a good side and I'm sure they deserve to be here as much as any other."

"Thank you Shaun, I'm afraid that is all I have time for here in Cafundéu, so for now it's back to the studio."

For the last group stage match against American Fist Ulzaxid made whole sale substitions. Their was only one player who started the previous matches left in for the match against American Fist, Simeone_Di_Bradini. Of the twelve Ulzaxid players on the bench only Gn_Lg and Tina_Realm were not playing. And it paid off in a big way as Ulzaxid ran wild rolling up seven goals while allowing just a single in reply for American Fist.

Alan_Belmore was the first sub to add his name to the scoring rolls as he dropped in a beautiful free kick in the 11th minute. Then the Claire_Briscoe portion of the game began as she scored three times and added an assist in the next 30 minutes to put the game well out of reach. She headed in a goal in the 18th minute, fired on an open net after the goalie had been well juked in the 23rd, fed to Johann_Rilke in the 31st and finished her hat trick in the 41st minute to send the Ulzaxids up to half 5-0.

They extended their lead to six on the opening kickoff of the second half as Jenji_Y brilliantly sliced through the American Fist defense. The Ulzaxids scored their seventh goal in the 66th minute from the foot of filthyl_ to put the game totally on ice. At that point the Ulzaxids eased off and allowed American Fist a pity goal to give them some self esteem to head into the cup qualifiers. As they knew that a six goal advantage would stand up for group rankings they weren't worried at all.

After the match they saw the results from the other matches and saw that they did indeed end up as the second seed. The view from the team was that second place was fine. The opening match with St Paul's Isle was at best only a little tougher than Junista, and they'd avoid both Mekhule and Kampfers in the second round if they could advance, with of course Kiryu-shi being in the other quadrant as well. The feeling in the locker room was one of confidence but to a morph the Ulzaxids expected Kiryu-shi to bring home the title. Ulzaxid had multiple games where they allowed as many goals as Kiryu-shi did in the whole group stage, something very impressive to the attack oriented Ulzaxid team. But both teams had to be dreamin about such a clash.

Kiryu-shi Prepares for Knockout Rounds

By Michio Hibbert

Penderia, CafundéuAfter a four to nothing victory to end the group stage of the Baptism of Fire and officially taking the first overall seed for the knockout stage, the Kiryu-shi Dragons look to take on Junista, a team they've defeated twice this tournament allready. With Helen Gandy out of the lineup, Kiryu-shi will face some difficulty, although their offence for the match against Nerotika looked strong without their key attacking midfielder, with Pat Mayberry scoring twice. They will need another strong performance by Mayberry to beat the religious Junista squad, a team that came close to beating the Dragons a couple of weeks ago. However, most Kiryu-shi fans our optimistic after the strong group stage.

____Kiryu-shi, in eight games during the group stages only let in three goals, the lowest out of any team. Meanwhile their offence combined for a total of 23 goals, the second greatest amount by any team. The difference of 20 goals was the most out of any team, and they were the only team to remain unbeaten throughout the whole tournament thus far. Coach Lewis has been given alot of credit for the maturity of his young team, and the style of aggressive defending has been very effective. Co-captain Matthew Pruet has led the powerfull defense, with all of the defenders playing solidly to form the best defense in Cafundéu. The entire team is looking forward to the knockout part of the competition, and to hopefully play against some new competition, perhaps against the impressive morphing squad from Ulzaxid.

QUARTERFINAL RESULTS

Kiryu-Shi 1-1 Junista
(Kiryu-Shi wins 2-1 after Extra Time)
Stadium: Terreno da Vitória, in Abadia

Ulzaxid 3-0 St Paul's Isle
Stadium: C-Electronics Stadium, in Astari

SS Oaklands 0-0 British Londinium
(SS Oaklands wins 4-3 on penalties)
Stadium: Presídio, in Carandirú City

Mekhule 2-1 Kampfers
Stadium: Arena do Imperador, in Lux

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Semifinal Games:

Kiryu-Shi x Mekhule
Place: Obelisco Monumental, in Lasft

Ulzaxid x SS Oaklands
Place: Maracatu Arena, in Dunboor

The Ulzaxid squad made history as they pitched their first ever shutout while also picking up their first ever win in a knockout round match with a tighter than it looks at first glance 3-0 win over St. Paul's Isle.

Most of the original starters were back in the lineup for the match against St. Paul's Isle, although Claire_Briscoe did replace Esteban_De_Jesus and Johann_Rilke was playing in place of Marc_J._Floren.

Ulzaxid jumped up early with Callum_Banda claiming the first goal of the match on a rebound from a Claire_Briscoe shot at the 18 minute mark in the first half. The Ulzaxid squad continued to push the pace from there and continued to attack but St. Paul's Isle held firm and didn't allow much attack going the other direction. It seemed as if St. Paul's Isle was trying to keep the game close and hope for a good bounce or two to get past Ulzaxid.

And their plan worked as they managed to hold Ulzaxid to just that single goal in the opening stanza and in fact got through to the 80 minute mark with still just that single goal separating the two teams. However both teams knew that they'd have to open up the attack at some point. And when they did Ulzaxid was ready to take advantage. Two beautiful counterattacks led to goals from Juan_Tzimisces and Simeone_Di_Bradini in the 84th and 87th minutes respectively to put the game out of reach and push Ulzaxid to the semifinals to meat SS Oakland.

Despite having the easiest victory of the four advancing teams the squad was still nervous about the next match. Rahim's comments after the match confirmed such. "These goals don't carry over, so a 3-0 win is no different than winning on PKs. I'm confident we can beat SS Oakland but I don't want us to leave it to late like we did today. As for the other match between Mekhule and Kiryu-shi I have no real comments other than that I wish both teams can avoid any injuries or foul play during the match."

"Good morning, this is Evan Colder reporting live for the Commonwealth News Service in place of the beautiful brunette that is Aby Watcher who has taken the day off today. I'm standing outside the Arena do Imperador in Lux to report on the Quarter Final match played here earlier today, but first it appears that I have been joined by the welcoming sight of Mekhule's top Cheer Leading team who have turned up here unexpected, and unfortunately two hours late for the match to strut their stuff in support of the Mekhulian national team. Therefore I think we owe it to them to give you just a few moments of their routine..."

Twelve beautiful tanned Mekhulian girls fill the screen each wearing just a red, white or black thong.

"... Okay I think that will do. Is it me or has it suddenly got a lot hotter out here... Anyway, Mekhule started this mornings match well with a strong line up of the nations finest players pushing forwards hard against the Kamfers' defensive line, but it was the opposition who drew first blood here with a swift counter attack that caught the defense sleeping. In the second half Mekhule upped their game to another tempo, pushing out one hundred percent as they fought back, and claw their way back into the match they did, first from a diving header across the goal line by the five foot two inch body of Mia Hall who was the shortest player on the pitch by far. The winning goal however couldn't have been predicted for love nor money as thirty two cycle old goalkeeper Steve Orvile punted the ball up field in stoppage time, the ball flew true and into the opposition goal area where it bounced, directly between the legs of Kamfers' own goalkeeper. This not being enough to stun the croud, the ball then hit the underside of the crossbar and returned to the dumb struck goalkeeper where it struck him cleanly on the back of the head and rolled lovingly into the back of the net.

Mekhule won by the narrowest of margins here, but a win is a win as team manager Khan Revanna made clear in his post match interview which of course will be shown along with the highlights later this evening on the Commonwealth Sports Channel. Right that's all from me, Aby will be back from her holiday to report on the Semi Final match against Kiryu-Shi live from Lasft, but for now it's time I handed back to the... oh stuff it, lets see a few more minutes of those gorgeous Cheer Leaders."

Kiryu-shi Squeezes into Second Round in Overtime Thriller
By Michio Hibbert

Abadia, Cafundeu The third time the Kiryu-shi Dragons faced Junista, the tables almost turned. The ultra-Christian squad from Junista, who just made the knockout round of the Baptism of Fire as the lowest seed, the second best third place team, and the Dragons, who were undefeated during group play, both from Group C, faced each other in the hot and humid Abadia for the opportunity to keep their debut tournaments alive. Kiryu-shi’s Hellen Gandy, who had hurt herself in the previous match against Junista, was out for the third consecutive game, with 17 year old Patrick Mann starting in her place. The difference between Gandy and Mann was for the whole game, as Mann lost possession during key moments, and failed to provide the explosive playmaking that Gandy is known for. Besides that, Kiryu-shi came out with their standard 5-4-1 formation to combat Junista.

____The game started off well for Kiryu-shi as their confidence shown in their play, shown by the aggressive and skillful play by the entire team. In the 9th minute, Giancario Diamanti, who had a very quiet tournament thus far, received a pass from Sidney Hendrickson who had advanced the ball up the left side, and launched a shot from just past the penalty shot dot which rose just past the crossbar to fade harmlessly away into the roaring crowd for a goal kick. The Kiryu-shi attack continued from the sidelines as Isaac Levi raced down the right side of the pitch, showing off his speed and dribbling ability was knocked down right outside the penalty box on the right wing to set up a goal scoring opportunity from set pieces in the 16th minute. Patrick Mann took the free kick, and tried to cross it to the far post for Garret McGee, but the kick carried a little too far and was cleared to safety. In the 23rd minute, Kiryu-shi was finally able to break through as Sidney Hendrickson holding the ball on the side, spotted Doug LeBlanc racing up the middle, using his sprinting ability to catch the defense unawares. Hendrickson’s pass let LeBlanc receive the ball at a dead run right up the center of the pitch. He let off a low shot on goal as he approached the penalty box, which was deflected to the right by the Junista keeper Marcus Valerius, where Garret McGee poked the rebound into the back of the net to put the Dragon’s up one nil. Although Kiryu-shi dominated most of the first half, they didn’t manage to score again, as shot after shot missed the target.

____The second half started very differently, as the Junista coach seemed like he delivered an inspirational speech to his team, while the Kiryu-shi players seemed to get overconfident. Those two reasons let Junista explode at the beginning of the half. Just half a minute into the half, Junista forward James Sturrus beat Isaac Levi on the wing, dashed in front of the goal and blasted a shot into the upper right hand corner of the goal, through the outreached arms of keeper Jon Crow to level the score at one. Junista seemed energized at the goal, maintaining their energy level for portions of the second half, but the Kiryu-shi defenders didn’t let in another chance. As the end of regular time grew near, both teams were playing very controlled match, trying to bait the other team into a mistake. In the 87th minute, the Junista team succeeded. Midfielder Ian Hindpur danced around the center of the pitch with the ball, and Doug LeBlanc, frustrated at the pace of the match, slid into Hindpur's ankles, which immediately drew the attention of the medical staff as well as a red card from the official’s pocket. LeBlanc did not bother to argue the obvious call as he left the match, leaving Kiryu-shi with ten players to defend the free kick. Hindpur was able to get up and insisted on taking the long free kick, to try to end the game before over time. His lofty pass to the front of the net, however, was cleared by midfielder Gregory Iverson’s head, and the match stayed even at one to one as the 90 minutes ended, sending the game into golden goal overtime.*

____Overtime was to be split into two separate halves, fifteen minutes each, with the first team who scores coming away with the victory. Coach Bruce Lewis, faced a challenge, trying to keep his team from losing down one player in overtime by using up all three of his substitutions before the start of overtime. He moved Iverson to the back line, to fill the void created by LeBlanc’s absence. Levi was replaced by the athletic Martin Jones as the right side back. Diamanti left for Esra Goldenbock, who played defensive midfielder instead of Iverson, taking advantage of her veteran leadership in the middle of the pitch. McGee, exhausted by playing as the only forward for 90 minutes, was replaced by the speedy but small Emily Boyle. The strategy seemed to attack continuously on Pat Mayberry’s right wing, as the left side was vacated due to the red card. The Kiryu-shi team wasn't able to come close to scoring in the first part of overtime, as two playes stuck on Mayberry, not allowing him any chances. However, the Dragon's defense stayed tight, even as Junista kept on attacking. 11 minutes into the second overtime, 116 minutes after the game started, Kiryu-shi finally ended the long ordeal. Martin Jones, on the right side, instead of trying to force the ball up to Mayberry on the side, made a long cross field pass to Hendrickson, who was completely free on the left wing. The entire half of the field seemed vacated, as the Junista defense was focusing it's players on Mayberry and Jones. Hendrickson, with heavy legs, was just able to pass the ball up to the sprinting Boyle in the penalty area, where she poked the ball into the back of the net, past the weary keeper Valerius. The Kiryu-shi squad was exausted as the final whistle blew, barely managing any sort of celebration.

____The Dragons now have the oppurtunity to play against the formidable Mekhule team, the only team thus far to have beaten the incredible Ulzaxid squad. Mekhule, managed by the wily Khan Revanna employs an attack orriented 4-4-2 formation, with strikers Raven Kisella and Ken Forrestal on the front line. Mekhule is coming off of a tight victory with some odd goals against the squad from Kamfers. Kiryu-shi will have to play without the services of LeBlanc, out of this game due to drawing his second yellow of the tournament. He will likely be replaced by the solid Orson Wells. However, speculation is that Helen Gandy, sidelined for a few games with a high ankle sprain, will be able to make her return. The game will take place at Lasft, known for it's heat and humidity, as well as it's beautiful stadium. Neither team has had the pleasure to play there this tournament, as both sides' fans are no doubt looking forward to watching the match in the gorgeous setting. The other semi-final will feature the second seeded Ulzaxid mutant squad against SS Oaklands, who won on penalties against British Londinium, making Kiryu-shi the only one of three group C teams in the knockout stage to reach the semi-finals. The two winners will play against each other for the Baptism of Fire Championship.

SEMIFINALS RESULTS

Kiryu-Shi 1-0 Mekhule
Place: Obelisco Monumental, in Lasft

Ulzaxid 5-3 SS Oaklands
Place: Maracatu Arena, in Dunboor

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Last Games:

3rd Place Game:
Mekhule x SS Oaklands
Place: Toca do Tatu, in Central City

Final:
Kiryu-Shi x Ulzaxid
Place: Praça Maior, in Cafundó do Juta

Kiryu-shi in Finals

By Michio Hibbert

Cafundó do Juta, Cafundéu After the semifinal win over Mekhule in the glorius stadium in Lasft, the Kiryu-shi Dragon's will face the formidable Ulzaxid squad in the capital city of Cafundó do Juta. The Dragon's won their semifinal match on a goal by striker Garret McGee in the 41st minute as well as some tight defending by entire team. Even without Doug LeBlanc, the Dragons were able to shut out the tough Mekhule team through the entire game, holding off the good offense that they provided. However, in the finals, Kiryu-shi will really be put to the test, playing against the best offense in the Baptism of Fire. Ulzaxid, a team who's made up of morphing creatures, primarily attacks, using a formation with six forwards and only one defender. The team borrows names from legendary international football stars. Any one of their players seems to be able to take control of the match by morphing and just taking the ball past groups of defenders at a single moment. THey also have the ability to communicate mind to mind, which means they can use shift compex strategies without giving the other team any warning.

____Although that may seem to be too strong of an attack for Kiryu-shi to nuetralize, Ulzaxid has some weaknesses as well. After coming off a five to three victory against SS Oaklands in the semi-final, some of these weaknesses were revealed. Ulzaxid, because of the lack of numbers on defense can be weak against quick counters to create numerical disadvantages with multiple attackers rushing against one defender. If Kiryu-shi manages to pass the ball through the midfield quickly after obtaining the ball, they may be able to get some good oppurtunities. Also, Kiryu-shi will probably be one of the best defending teams, if not the best, that Ulzaxid has faced in the Baptism of Fire. Kiryu-shi gave up the least goals in group play, and will use their blend of athleticism and positioning to do their best to control Ulzaxid's attack.

____Jon Crow, the Kiryu-shi keeper, has been training against specially designed robots that emulate the amazing power of the shots that several Ulzaxid's strikers can use with proper use of their morphing ability. Meanwhile, the Kiryu-shi defenders have been studying tapes of Ulzaxid's matches, trying to come up with the proper way to defend against the multi-pronged assault of Ulzaxid. They seem to plan to collapse their defense a bit, and include Levi and Hendrickson in front of the goal instead of attacking as often as they used to. The pressure will fall on the abilty of Mayberry, Iverson and Diamanti to come back to defense and pass the ball quickly to Gandy and McGee at the top. McGee might be switched out early in favor of Emily Boyle, who has better speed and dribbling ability to take advatage of one on one matchups. Iverson will play back almost the whole game, and probably will basically be a sixth defender. Mayberry and Diamanti will have to run up and down the side for as long as they last, but they may have to be taken out due to fatigue. Everyone will have to be carefull not to draw cards, for playing with one less player would cripple the Dragon's chances. Kiryu-shi, from the fans to the players, is still confident that they have a good chance of staying undefeated to claim the Baptism of Fire, but they face a great challenge from Ulzaxid.

The Ulzaxid team had looked good in advancing to the final. With the exception of a single horrible game against Mekhule Ulzaxid was an offensive powerhouse and the semifinal match against SS Oakland was no exception. The team once again came out full throttle and once again put the game well out of reach before late SS Oakland goals made the score a bit interesting.

The team stuck with the lineup they had been using so well and once again it was Claire_Briscoe who was the morph of the match. A beautiful play from her foot threaded the ball forward to Sani_Luvo who tapped it in on an open net to put Ulzaxid up after seven minutes. Exactly 10 minutes later another beautiful through ball set up an uncontested shot for a striker. This time it was Pizelkaxrovsky_ setting up Simeone_Di_Bradini. The third goal came at the half hour when Claire_Briscoe curled a free kick over the wall and into the back of the net. The fourth goal came soon after with Callum_Banda pouncing on a Trevor_Belmore just three minutes later. SS Oaklands finally gave their fans something to cheer for pulling a goal back just before the whistle for halftime. Still the Ulzaxid team was confident and flying high, although because of the self-imposed limitations not literally so.

In the second half SS Oakland look like they might try to make a game of it and cut the lead to two on a well timed run just avoiding offsides and put the ball into the goal. The SS fans still in the stadium were pleased and started to think about the comeback. Unfortunately for them Claire_Briscoe soon answered that. With a clever manaeuver through the SS Oakland defense she cut through to get 1-on-1 with the goalie where she wasn't to be denied. SS Oakland lost their will at that point and didn't really look like scoring again. They were able to pounce on a Juan_Tzimisces mistake late in the match to pick off a third goal, but it was too late as Ulzaxid advanced to the finals.

On the other half of the bracket Kiryu-shi reaffirmed their reputation as a defensive titan with a shutout over Mekhule 1-0. That sets up a beautiful clash between offense and defense that people following the Baptism of Fire have been looking forward to all cup.

Rahim's comments after the match were positive but nervous. "We looked wonderful out there today. Claire_Briscoe was once again excellent. I'm not sure how I overlooked her. She'll definitely start in the World Cup. I'm pleased that the two best teams this tournament made the finals. Now it's one match for the cup. Kiryu-shi is deservedly the favorites but if we can crack their defense we could get them. We'll be working hard to figure out where their weaknesses are. I'm also going to try to get permission from the council of elders to allow us to use a bit more of our morphing abilities."

Coach Rahim fired up his communicator and started to "talk" with the council of elders back in Ulzaxid.

"Elders, I would like to ask about the restrictions put on my team."

"Ok. Go."

"I would like to have the ability to use a fair number of four part morphs against Kiryu-shi. They are a very strong team and it will be quite difficult for us to beat them without using the four part morphs. However if we did so their abilities would be a shock to the Kiryu-shi team and would provide us a big advantage."

"Coach, do you remember what we told you when we agreed to allow you to compete in these competitions?"

"Yes. That we could try to win but that we shouldn't abuse our powers to do so. But I'm not abusing our powers. I'm not asking for any full morphs and I'm not even asking for a full on set of four forms. Just a number to give us an advantage."

"Not just not to abuse our powers. We joined to make friends in the international community. Do you think the other nations will be pleased if we all of a sudden use our powers like this."

"I doubt they'll be bothered. And they'd be impressed by our victory and be forced to take note. Take a look at nations like Az-cz or Northern Bettia who used the title as a springboard."

"Yes, but look at our hosts for this cup, Cafundeu. They didn't win the Baptism of Fire and yet they have proven themselves to be a valuable member of the sporting community and have made friends from around the world. See winning is not everything."

"So you're saying I'm not allowed to do so."

"No, I'm just discouraging. Not allowing things is very rare in our society, as you know. If you asked to morph with a human I might not allow it. But using a bit more of our full power isn't something I'd disallow. But I ask you to use care. If you think it's best ok, but I recommend against it."

LAST GAMES RESULTS

3rd Place Game:
Mekhule 3-0 SS Oaklands
Place: Toca do Tatu, in Central City

Final:
Kiryu-Shi 3-3 Ulzaxid
(Kiryu-Shi wins 6-5 on penalties)
Place: Praça Maior, in Cafundó do Juta

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Final Standings:

Pos-Team-Campaign

1- Kiryu-Shi (10W, 1D, 0L)
2- Ulzaxid (9W, 1D, 1L)
3- Mekhule (8W, 1D, 2L)
4- SS Oaklands (4W, 3D 4L)
5- Kampfers (4W, 2D, 3L)
6- British Londinium (4W, 2D, 3L)
7- St Paul's Isle (4W, 2D, 3L)
8- Junista (3W, 2D, 4L)
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9- West Pasco (3W, 3D, 2L)
10- Ghost Tigers Rise (2W, 3D, 3L)
11- J-Man2k7 (1W, 2D, 5L)
12- Nerotika (0W, 4D, 4L)
13- Netherwallop (0W, 3D, 5L)
14- American Fist (0W, 2D, 6L)
15- Holweg (0W, 1D, 7L)

Congratulations for Kiryu-Shi, the champions!
And also for Ulzaxid and Mekhule, 2nd and 3rd placed!

OOC: :eek: 6-5 in penalties?! Wow.... Not that "real"istically I'd have a chance in P.K.s against a morphing keeper :p Still, great match Ulzaxid, and great hosting Cafendeu. :) Time for the World Cup! I'll post an IC post tomorrow, probably. Or just edit it on to this one. Still, wow.