[the phantom]

The crowd applauded loudly for Formenos and Tuna as they jogged out of the tunnels. A few of the Gondolin fans supported Tuna, but most of them sided with Formenos as Aredhel was playing for them.

A few of the Tuna fans were somewhat rude to Formenos supporters, and some of them were inappropriate in turn, still bitter over the events surrounding the banishment of Feanor. But most of the fans got along decently, for many among them had been friends before Melkor's machinations had driven a wedge between them. They laid the blame for the unfortunate events at Morgoth's feet where it belonged and moved on, forgiving each other for anything that had happened with mercy surpassing that of the Valar who had enforced the banishment.

Before the match kicked off the teams shook hands quickly at midfield. Feanor and his parents hugged briefly, wished each other luck, and proceeded to their places.

The offensive prowess of both teams was quite clear from the start, with the players up front sending and fielding excellent passes and making fantastic moves, but the defense of Formenos seemed more up to the challenge. The sons of Feanor seemed determined to impress their mother and grandparents, and guarded them with great vigor and skill. Their crafty elders put a move on them now and again, but the athletic youngsters recovered quickly and used a few tricks of their own. Tuna gained more shots than Formenos, but their shots were constantly a bit more rushed than what they wanted.

After a couple of failed attempts by both teams, Formenos finally broke the game open in the 33rd minute as Aredhel curved a perfect pass from the right side to Maedhros running in from the left. That was all the scoring in the first half, though both had a good opportunity only to be stopped by the goalkeeper.

In the second half Formenos began to assume more control and holding the ball in the offensive zone. In minute 54 they worked their way aggressively forward and Amrod took a hard shot at the goal. The rebound came out hard and Maglor kicked it on the bounce right back at the goal, but it bounded off the crossbar and back, where it was met first by Feanor who headed it out of Orodreth's reach for the 2-0 lead.

Tuna, realizing time was running out, ramped up the attack. A couple of times they nearly got caught too far forward on a change of possession, but Formenos was called offsides. The second time the call was extremely questionable and the Formenos fans complained angrily, and they became even more enraged when Tuna's offense capitalized immediately as Nerdanel sent a perfect pass into Miriel who tripped up her defender with an ankle-breaking move and sent it expertly past the leaping Huan to cut the lead to a single goal.

But the players for Formenos remained controlled for the most part and began steadily working the clock down. They did a marvelous job at maintaining control for several minutes, but at minute 80 Amras made a rather ill advised pass and Finarfin pounced on it and sent it immediately forward to Mahtan. Mahtan crossed brilliantly to Finwe and he took it in past two of his grandsons and boomed a kick to the open net, but Huan reacted perfectly and smothered the shot and immediately boomed it back down the field. Maglor fought for control of it and poked it ahead to Aredhel who drew a defender or two and sent it over to Feanor, who seemed to decide that it was time to force the action. He ran forward against the three defenders that were back and worked his way through two of them. He collided hard with Elenwe right in front of the goal, but maintained control and got behind her. Orodreth leapt forward to snatch the ball away, but Feanor got his foot there first and poked the ball the only way he could before Orodreth crashed into him- sideways.

As the ball trickled towards the far post, running nearly parallel with the goal line, the crowd screamed as three players raced towards it. It was between Ingwe, Duilin, and Maedhros. The defenders were slightly ahead, but as they approached the ball Maedhros slid beautifully and managed to get his toe on the ball and nudge it across the line.

The Formenos section roared and the more neutral fans from Numenor applauded the effort loudly. With the way their defense had been playing, Formenos had likely sealed the game.

Tuna gave it their best effort till the end, but they couldn't crack the defense of Formenos. The game ended as a solid victory for Formenos, and though disappointed, the Noldor of Tuna congratulated them and wished them luck in the semis. Feanor and his parents walked off the field together, his parents offering tips on how to continue his team's success on the field.

Formenos 3-1 Tuna
shots 16-15
on target 8-6
GOALS:
*Formenos, 33 (Maedhros- Aredhel)
*Formenos, 54 (Feanor- Maglor)
*Tuna, 69 (Miriel- Nerdanel)
*Formenos, 81 (Maedhros- Feanor)
YELLOW CARDS:
*Formenos- Amrod
*Tuna- Duilin, Ingwe, Egalmoth