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Nogrod · 07-14-2008, 08:38 PM

Sorry it took so long... but I really had my hands full.

The MEFA (Middle Earth Football Association) had laid strict conditions for the hosting organization in Mordor for the games to continue there after the events of the first day of games. There would be a strict ban on any weapons brought to the stadium. At first the organisers thought it was a bad joke, but after they realised the MEFA was serious about it, they had no other option but to try and execute the claim.

Naturally it provoked a fiery opposition. It had been the unalianable right of any orc to carry a personal weapon; a sword, a scimitar, a knife, an axe, a flail… since times immemorial. It had been sanctified by their founding father! It could not be taken from them for such a petty thing as some football tournament. Many orc-youth organizations – and conservative groups – threathened with a massacre of all the foreigners, if the ruling would not be withheld. But finally the PR-campaigns did their work. With campaigns like “Soccer is for sissies!” and “Leave your weapon for two hours, get to see Mordor invade the two towers!”, and the like, the organizers managed to divide the populace into those ready to yield their arms for the time of the match and to those who would never do it but would stay away from all the events as football was such a loser’s thing.

In the beginning though it seemed the campaigns had totally failed from the football point of view as the stadium was almost empty when the first game began. But the foreigners at place – as well as the handful of Mordorians – got to see an interesting match.

A football game consists of two halves so it is scarce to see two teams that both think they need to play just one. But that was the script of this game.

On the first half it looked like the Minas Tirith players were still sleeping or hadn’t realised there was a game going on. Moria’s waves of attacks fell on Minas Tirith defence one after another with irresistible force while Minas Tirith was in no position to give a counter attack even a try. And even in defence the Minas Tirithians felt like they were going in slow motion. Some fans even thought it was dwarven magic or poisoning of some sort.

Be what it may, but the Moria team stacked a two goal lead on the first half having a total control over the field. First Azog flied forwards to head a long pass by Durin into the back of the net at the 19th minute. At 41st minute Balin advanced to the end line and sneakily passed backwards to an empty spot into which Durin’s Bane had advanced while the defenders were trying to tie down Azog and Durin who were rushing to the goal. Left relatively unchallenged near the goal it was no problem for Durin’s Bane to add Moria’s lead into 2-0. The Mordorian crowd got a little interested with that goal and they cheered. It was clear Durin's Bane was one of their favourites.

But Minas Tirith came to the second half as a newborn team. The fans thought it had to be due to the dwarven potion’s effect finally wearing down while some more objective spectators just thought their coach had pushed them about enough during the interval. But then again the Moria team seemed to be overconfident relying on their lead and an already secured victory. It became a mirror-image of the first half.

Minas Tirith kept on attacking and Moria defences were in trouble. And after being shaken they found it hard to find the rhythm of the game again. At 63rd minute Earnur made the considerable amount of the scarce number of spectators to cheer and sing wildly by tossing the ball in from close quarters after Mardil had nicely drawn both the remaining defender Oin and the Watcher away and passed the ball to him in front of an empty goal.

On 78th minute Bolg got his second card and was commanded out from the game. That was greeted with loud whistling and throwing in of some sneaked-in cold steel. Bolg seemed to be one of the small orc-crowd’s favourites along with Durin’s Bane and the Great Goblin. As the incident was short-lived and no players or referees got hurt the game was allowed to continue.

Playing shorthanded made the Moria team to draw even lower and trying to only defend but Minas Tirith had now the spirit to press forwards. On 81st minute they took a nice advantage of their numbers and zig-zagged the whole field making the defence run and in the end leaving Mardil to finish a nice goal from around the penalty spot.

The game ended even and both teams were in a way happy about it. Minas Tirith for coming up from two goals behind and Moria for holding the one point in the end. But looking at the performances of the teams of this group it is hard to foresee a place in the play-offs for either team.

Minas Tirith 2-2 Moria
shots 11-11
on target 4-5
GOALS:
*Moria, 19 (Azog- Durin)
*Moria, 41 (Durin's Bane- Balin)
*Minas Tirith, 63 (Earnur- Mardil)
*Minas Tirith, 81 (Mardil- Boromir I)
YELLOW CARDS:
*Minas Tirith- Denethor II, Earnil II
*Moria- Durin's Bane, Bolg
RED CARDS:
*Moria- Bolg, 78 (second yellow)

Slowly the arena started filling up. The disaster the organizers had feared seemed to fade away. The game of the home team seemed to arouse enough attention and interest that the house could after all get filled – even without the weapons allowed in the stadium. And the adversaries were none other than Hithlum, those humans and elves the Mordorians had a lot to pay back from history and whom they in a way revered as great enemies. And after all Turin – or “Black Boots” as he was known – , Hurin, Huor, Fingon, Fingolfin… they were all household names in Mordor… It’s futile to say the heroes of Hithlum stood firm and proud before the game but names like The Witch King and Gothmog aroused both awe and decisiveness in them. All was set for a truly great game.

“We have precedents to this game what comes to those elves and the men who have met our side!” shouted a seemingly learned orc going in with a host of friends. “We’ll kill’em like we’ve beforr!” yelled another, a less sophisticated one. But the mood of the home crowd was clear and definitive. The following two hours would show whether the precedents had any value today.

It was a great game. And the almost full arena filled slowly to it’s limits as the word started spreading what a play there was in the field; the excitement, the beauty of the team play, the individual stars making astonishing feats, the struggle, the tension… The organisers were more than delighted and even the MEFA was content.

The home crowd got what it wanted at 23rd minute when the Mouth dribbled brilliantly Galdor and Marach from their posts and then left the ball, running himself forwards and taking the defenders with him for the crucial second. He knew Khamul would be following him and he did. And Khamul blasted the ball into the net without anyone being able to do anything about it. The Mordorian crowd went just wild but this time they were not trying to kill anyone but started a forty-thousand voices strong low-roaring chant that would have frozen the blood of any free man, elf or dwarf.

But the Hithlum heroes were not so easily beaten. On the contrary, their attacks started to pound the Mordor defence even harder and more frequent they had before. Even if the Mordor team had it’s chances as well, Hithlum was now pressing and just before the half time they finally managed to equalize the game. And what a goal it was! The father and the son gave a real show how to do it!

Hurin got the ball ball from his grandpa in the middlefield and played a nice wall-pass with Angrod to get rid of the middlefielders on him. By the pressure of Nazgul #7 and Shagrat he was forced to run forwards all the way up to the end line. But just as everyone was anticipating a high pass to the center and to Fingolfin rushing in towards the goal Hurin chipped the ball over Nazgul #7 and plunged from between the Nazgul’s feet to grasp the control of the ball again for the fraction of the second he needed to pass it by ground diagonally to his son who had just scared the Valar out of Shagrat and run over him following his dad. Shelob had already positioned herself to catch a header from Fingolfin and was deliberately late. But there was still Gothmog rushing down between Turin and the goal. Getting the ball Turin stopped calmly. Gothmog had been anticipating a straight shot and pounced himself on the coming ball only realising in mid-air there was no shot. He came tumbling down face on to the grass and Turin banged the ball in before Shelob had time to throw her web.

The home crowd went silent but it in a way appreciated the way the goal was made. The football-mania had bitten them.

Both coaches had clearly told their team in the interval that an even result was good for them and had required the teams to play easy and carefully. That kind of game – accompanied by the loud boo’s of the home crowd - lasted only five first minutes of the second half. Then Fingolfin was given a yellow card for quite an innocent situation where he tried to reach the ball with Gothmog and that cheered the crowd and angered the visiting team.

Suddenly the game was alive again and Hithlum really pressed – allowing the home team nice counter attacks. That was crowd-pleasing football! But the home crowd was silenced for a moment by a goal for the Hithlum team when Fingon just forced the ball in after trying it twice in the mess-up and confusion in front of the Mordor goal.

But the home crowd started now goading their own team. They wanted to see performances like the Black Boots and his father had done. And with the ever louder crowd, player tiredness and loosened discipline the individuals started to shine out from the others.

Turin had a few great chances as he imposed his will upon the Mordor defenders making them always back off a bit, but at the other end the Witch King started to take a big role as well. He was clearly annoyed about the scoreline and the Hithlum defenders were having hard times with him. At 73rd minute The Witch King managed to scare two defenders out of his way at the edge of the box and was about to boot a real killer when Angrod ran to help and tackled him sliding from the back. The referee was firm. A yellow card to Angrod and a free kick to Mordor just from the edge of the box.

A host of Mordor players settled behind the ball but in the end it was the Witch King who took the shot. And what a shot it was! It almost teared the net apart after the defenders in the wall had just tried to duck away from the blast. There was no chance Huor could have even tried to move in front of the shot – and it was questionable would he have even wished to do that had he time to think about it. The home crowd cheered and chanted.

And believe it or not after the game ended even the crowd went out of the stadium not so much willing to fight but to cheer and to have a beer. As usual the visiting fans poured out from the arena only after the homeside fans had left the stadium but there were no fighting mobs to greet them. The orcs were having fun after a great game, even if they didn’t win.

The magic of football?

Hithlum 2-2 Mordor
shots 16-16
on target 8-6
GOALS:
*Mordor, 23 (Khamul- Mouth)
*Hithlum, 42 (Turin- Hurin)
*Hithlum, 59 (Fingon- Turin)
*Mordor, 74 (Witch King)
YELLOW CARDS:
*Hithlum- Gundor, Fingolfin, Angrod
*Mordor- Nazgul #3, Nazgul #5

------------------
G MORDOR

Hithlum – Moria 3-1
Minas Tirith – Mordor 1-2

Minas Tirith – Moria 2-2
Hithlum – Mordor 2-2

1. Hithlum 5-3 4
2. Mordor 4-3 4
3. Minas Tirith 3-4 1
4. Moria 3-5 1

The last games:
Hithlum – Minas Tirith
Mordor – Moria

07-14-2008, 08:38 PM	#100
Nogrod Flame of the Ainulindalë Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Wearing rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves in a field behaving as the wind behaves Posts: 9,308	The games group G, second round Sorry it took so long... but I really had my hands full. The MEFA (Middle Earth Football Association) had laid strict conditions for the hosting organization in Mordor for the games to continue there after the events of the first day of games. There would be a strict ban on any weapons brought to the stadium. At first the organisers thought it was a bad joke, but after they realised the MEFA was serious about it, they had no other option but to try and execute the claim. Naturally it provoked a fiery opposition. It had been the unalianable right of any orc to carry a personal weapon; a sword, a scimitar, a knife, an axe, a flail… since times immemorial. It had been sanctified by their founding father! It could not be taken from them for such a petty thing as some football tournament. Many orc-youth organizations – and conservative groups – threathened with a massacre of all the foreigners, if the ruling would not be withheld. But finally the PR-campaigns did their work. With campaigns like “Soccer is for sissies!” and “Leave your weapon for two hours, get to see Mordor invade the two towers!”, and the like, the organizers managed to divide the populace into those ready to yield their arms for the time of the match and to those who would never do it but would stay away from all the events as football was such a loser’s thing. In the beginning though it seemed the campaigns had totally failed from the football point of view as the stadium was almost empty when the first game began. But the foreigners at place – as well as the handful of Mordorians – got to see an interesting match. A football game consists of two halves so it is scarce to see two teams that both think they need to play just one. But that was the script of this game. On the first half it looked like the Minas Tirith players were still sleeping or hadn’t realised there was a game going on. Moria’s waves of attacks fell on Minas Tirith defence one after another with irresistible force while Minas Tirith was in no position to give a counter attack even a try. And even in defence the Minas Tirithians felt like they were going in slow motion. Some fans even thought it was dwarven magic or poisoning of some sort. Be what it may, but the Moria team stacked a two goal lead on the first half having a total control over the field. First Azog flied forwards to head a long pass by Durin into the back of the net at the 19th minute. At 41st minute Balin advanced to the end line and sneakily passed backwards to an empty spot into which Durin’s Bane had advanced while the defenders were trying to tie down Azog and Durin who were rushing to the goal. Left relatively unchallenged near the goal it was no problem for Durin’s Bane to add Moria’s lead into 2-0. The Mordorian crowd got a little interested with that goal and they cheered. It was clear Durin's Bane was one of their favourites. But Minas Tirith came to the second half as a newborn team. The fans thought it had to be due to the dwarven potion’s effect finally wearing down while some more objective spectators just thought their coach had pushed them about enough during the interval. But then again the Moria team seemed to be overconfident relying on their lead and an already secured victory. It became a mirror-image of the first half. Minas Tirith kept on attacking and Moria defences were in trouble. And after being shaken they found it hard to find the rhythm of the game again. At 63rd minute Earnur made the considerable amount of the scarce number of spectators to cheer and sing wildly by tossing the ball in from close quarters after Mardil had nicely drawn both the remaining defender Oin and the Watcher away and passed the ball to him in front of an empty goal. On 78th minute Bolg got his second card and was commanded out from the game. That was greeted with loud whistling and throwing in of some sneaked-in cold steel. Bolg seemed to be one of the small orc-crowd’s favourites along with Durin’s Bane and the Great Goblin. As the incident was short-lived and no players or referees got hurt the game was allowed to continue. Playing shorthanded made the Moria team to draw even lower and trying to only defend but Minas Tirith had now the spirit to press forwards. On 81st minute they took a nice advantage of their numbers and zig-zagged the whole field making the defence run and in the end leaving Mardil to finish a nice goal from around the penalty spot. The game ended even and both teams were in a way happy about it. Minas Tirith for coming up from two goals behind and Moria for holding the one point in the end. But looking at the performances of the teams of this group it is hard to foresee a place in the play-offs for either team. Minas Tirith 2-2 Moria shots 11-11 on target 4-5 GOALS: Moria, 19 (Azog- Durin) Moria, 41 (Durin's Bane- Balin) Minas Tirith, 63 (Earnur- Mardil) Minas Tirith, 81 (Mardil- Boromir I) YELLOW CARDS: Minas Tirith- Denethor II, Earnil II Moria- Durin's Bane, Bolg RED CARDS: Moria- Bolg, 78 (second yellow) Slowly the arena started filling up. The disaster the organizers had feared seemed to fade away. The game of the home team seemed to arouse enough attention and interest that the house could after all get filled – even without the weapons allowed in the stadium. And the adversaries were none other than Hithlum, those humans and elves the Mordorians had a lot to pay back from history and whom they in a way revered as great enemies. And after all Turin – or “Black Boots” as he was known – , Hurin, Huor, Fingon, Fingolfin… they were all household names in Mordor… It’s futile to say the heroes of Hithlum stood firm and proud before the game but names like The Witch King and Gothmog aroused both awe and decisiveness in them. All was set for a truly great game. “We have precedents to this game what comes to those elves and the men who have met our side!” shouted a seemingly learned orc going in with a host of friends. “We’ll kill’em like we’ve beforr!” yelled another, a less sophisticated one. But the mood of the home crowd was clear and definitive. The following two hours would show whether the precedents had any value today. It was a great game. And the almost full arena filled slowly to it’s limits as the word started spreading what a play there was in the field; the excitement, the beauty of the team play, the individual stars making astonishing feats, the struggle, the tension… The organisers were more than delighted and even the MEFA was content. The home crowd got what it wanted at 23rd minute when the Mouth dribbled brilliantly Galdor and Marach from their posts and then left the ball, running himself forwards and taking the defenders with him for the crucial second. He knew Khamul would be following him and he did. And Khamul blasted the ball into the net without anyone being able to do anything about it. The Mordorian crowd went just wild but this time they were not trying to kill anyone but started a forty-thousand voices strong low-roaring chant that would have frozen the blood of any free man, elf or dwarf. But the Hithlum heroes were not so easily beaten. On the contrary, their attacks started to pound the Mordor defence even harder and more frequent they had before. Even if the Mordor team had it’s chances as well, Hithlum was now pressing and just before the half time they finally managed to equalize the game. And what a goal it was! The father and the son gave a real show how to do it! Hurin got the ball ball from his grandpa in the middlefield and played a nice wall-pass with Angrod to get rid of the middlefielders on him. By the pressure of Nazgul #7 and Shagrat he was forced to run forwards all the way up to the end line. But just as everyone was anticipating a high pass to the center and to Fingolfin rushing in towards the goal Hurin chipped the ball over Nazgul #7 and plunged from between the Nazgul’s feet to grasp the control of the ball again for the fraction of the second he needed to pass it by ground diagonally to his son who had just scared the Valar out of Shagrat and run over him following his dad. Shelob had already positioned herself to catch a header from Fingolfin and was deliberately late. But there was still Gothmog rushing down between Turin and the goal. Getting the ball Turin stopped calmly. Gothmog had been anticipating a straight shot and pounced himself on the coming ball only realising in mid-air there was no shot. He came tumbling down face on to the grass and Turin banged the ball in before Shelob had time to throw her web. The home crowd went silent but it in a way appreciated the way the goal was made. The football-mania had bitten them. Both coaches had clearly told their team in the interval that an even result was good for them and had required the teams to play easy and carefully. That kind of game – accompanied by the loud boo’s of the home crowd - lasted only five first minutes of the second half. Then Fingolfin was given a yellow card for quite an innocent situation where he tried to reach the ball with Gothmog and that cheered the crowd and angered the visiting team. Suddenly the game was alive again and Hithlum really pressed – allowing the home team nice counter attacks. That was crowd-pleasing football! But the home crowd was silenced for a moment by a goal for the Hithlum team when Fingon just forced the ball in after trying it twice in the mess-up and confusion in front of the Mordor goal. But the home crowd started now goading their own team. They wanted to see performances like the Black Boots and his father had done. And with the ever louder crowd, player tiredness and loosened discipline the individuals started to shine out from the others. Turin had a few great chances as he imposed his will upon the Mordor defenders making them always back off a bit, but at the other end the Witch King started to take a big role as well. He was clearly annoyed about the scoreline and the Hithlum defenders were having hard times with him. At 73rd minute The Witch King managed to scare two defenders out of his way at the edge of the box and was about to boot a real killer when Angrod ran to help and tackled him sliding from the back. The referee was firm. A yellow card to Angrod and a free kick to Mordor just from the edge of the box. A host of Mordor players settled behind the ball but in the end it was the Witch King who took the shot. And what a shot it was! It almost teared the net apart after the defenders in the wall had just tried to duck away from the blast. There was no chance Huor could have even tried to move in front of the shot – and it was questionable would he have even wished to do that had he time to think about it. The home crowd cheered and chanted. And believe it or not after the game ended even the crowd went out of the stadium not so much willing to fight but to cheer and to have a beer. As usual the visiting fans poured out from the arena only after the homeside fans had left the stadium but there were no fighting mobs to greet them. The orcs were having fun after a great game, even if they didn’t win. The magic of football? Hithlum 2-2 Mordor* shots 16-16 on target 8-6 GOALS: Mordor, 23 (Khamul- Mouth) Hithlum, 42 (Turin- Hurin) Hithlum, 59 (Fingon- Turin) Mordor, 74 (Witch King) YELLOW CARDS: Hithlum- Gundor, Fingolfin, Angrod Mordor- Nazgul #3, Nazgul #5 ------------------ G MORDOR Hithlum – Moria 3-1 Minas Tirith – Mordor 1-2 Minas Tirith – Moria 2-2 Hithlum – Mordor 2-2 1. Hithlum 5-3 4 2. Mordor 4-3 4 3. Minas Tirith 3-4 1 4. Moria 3-5 1 The last games: Hithlum – Minas Tirith Mordor – Moria __________________ Upon the hearth the fire is red Beneath the roof there is a bed; But not yet weary are our feet... Last edited by Nogrod; 07-14-2008 at 08:53 PM.