[Nogrod]

Like in Edoras, also in Osgilath the afternoon match was one between the losing teams of the first leg. But there the similarities seemed to come to an end. For as the crowds really got entertainment for their money in Edoras, there’s not much to tell the next generations about the match between Lothlorien and Umbar. Especially the Lothlorien team has disappointed both their fans and the great number of football cognoscenti who have bet their money on the team getting through from its group. After today’s match Lorien still has a chance to go forwards but the betting offices are giving one extremely high returns on that prediction.

The game was mostly lazy-paced. The Umbar offence showed some real promise at times but the Lothlorien defence led by Galadriel – which seems to be the only thing working in that team – managed to keep the Umbarians at bay for most of the first half. But just before the half time Nazgul #9 managed to pass the ball to Castamir who gave the southerners the lead with a splendid bicycle-kick even Galadriel was unable to catch.

As their only forward Eldarion was running in shadows Haldir tried to beat his team into making an effort on the second half but was mainly left alone in the offence. Umbar was the more active party on the second half as well but it seemed they were mostly happy with their lead and so most of the game was played in the middle field.

Securing one’s lead has proven a bad idea many times before and so it did this afternoon as well. Lothlorien got the equalizer as Haldir managed to beat his team into a few real efforts. Amroth made a good run at 70th minute and Haldir passed him a long ball behind the Umbar defence. Pelendur at Umbar goal had only needed to catch two shots in the whole game before Amroth’s breakthtrough and was totally unprepared leaving it an easy job for the Lothlorien midfielder to score.

Both teams maintained their chances of qualifying from the group-phase but with these performances it’s more than easy to predict that the evening game’s teams will be more probable ones to qualify.

Lothlorien 1-1 Umbar
shots 11-15
on target 4-7
GOALS:
*Umbar, 41 (Castamir- Nazgul #9)
*Lothlorien, 70 (Amroth- Haldir)
YELLOW CARDS:
*Lothlorien- Gollum, Rumil, Orophin
*Umbar- Sangahyando, Ulrad, Fastred

The crowd was waiting nervously for the evening match as the Nargothrond team had taken a convincing win over Umbar on the first round and the team was full of legendary players. The Nargothrond roster looked quite intimidating indeed.

Osgiliath took to defending from the opening whistle. It was the tactics they knew and they hoped that Nargothrond would get too confident on offence so that they could strike back with fast counter-attacks. But the Nargothrond team played a very disciplined game and didn’t fall for that so any time they lost the ball on offence they fell immediately back into defence and minimized the chances for any effective counterattacks.

But it was clear from the very beginning which was the team calling the shots in the field. Osgiliath defended bravely like in the old days when they had to do it for real – and like then the opposing forces just ran them over. Glaurung in fact did literally just that as using his size to his advantage he forced his way through the defence and hammered the ball in.

On the second half the script remained more or less the same. Nargothrond still played a highly disciplined game which gave also the Osgiliath team some opportunities to actually build up attacks. And Nargothorond also scored on the second half of the game. But if Glaurung’s goal was just brutal force and brazen aggressiveness then Beren’s and Gwindor’s goal on 60th minute was classy teamwork with a show of talent even the homeside fans had to acknowledge and cheer for.

But the 2-0 lead seemed to relax the Nargothrondian discipline a bit. Awakened with the newly found cheering and singing of the homecrowd the Osgiliath team turned into open offence and started creating some nice opportunities. Those were paid at 72nd minute when Eldacar finally got into a runaway with Falastur against a lonely defender Bregor. He made a late sliding tackle on Falastur who nevertheless managed to pass the ball to Eldacar who then beat Beor on the goal. Bregor was booked with a yellow card afterwards and the homecrowd was wild with joy.

The homeside goal woke the Nargothrond team and they played securely keeping the homeside at bay for the last minutes of the game.

The win for Nargothrond means they’re secured to qualify. Osgiliathians gained a lot of self-confidence after being able to play a decent game against such an opponent a will be hard for Umbar to beat on the last round. And with a win on that game the Ogiliath team qualifies.

Nargothrond 2-1 Osgiliath
shots 10-8
on target 4-2
GOALS:
*Nargothrond, 35 (Glaurung- Finrod)
*Nargothrond, 60 (Beren- Gwindor)
*Osgiliath, 72 (Eldacar- Falastur)
YELLOW CARDS:
Nargothrond- Glaurung, Bregor
Osgiliath- Narmacil


-----------------------
D OSGILIATH

Nargothrond – Umbar 3-1
Lothlorien – Osgiliath 0-1

Lothlorien – Umbar 1-1
Nargothrond – Osgiliath 2-1


1. Nargothrond 5-2 6pts
2. Osgiliath 2-2 3pts
3. Lothlorien 1-2 1pt
4. Umbar 2-4 1pt

The last matches:
Umbar – Nargothrond
Osgiliath – Lothlorien