[Nogrod]

A great host of Noldorian and Teleri-elves travelled to their neighbouring city of Valmar to witness the game between their team Tirion against hosts Real Valinor – even if the other Tirion-based team FC Valinor would be playing at home. But there sure were enough elves to fill the stadium at Tirion upon Túna as well.

It was clear the home team was the favourite of the crowds – as well as betting agencies. Fex. every bet made on the Barrow-Downs had Real Valinor (and FC Valinor) to qualify from the first qualifying games. But the supporters of Tirion were not that easily discouraged: their team had left Ulmo’s The Sea behind them in the group phase and played even with the mighty Nargothrond – and in the friendlies they had drawn with Melkor’s Angband and won Gondolin quite confidently. Sure Real Valinor was one of the hot teams but who could beat them if not Tirion?

And that was exactly what nagged the supporters of Real Valinor deep inside them… who could beat them if not Tirion? Well FC Valinor was a monkey on their shoulder looming heavy but it would be the next round only, they said to themselves. Surely, it was no walk in the park for Real Valinor from now on. What encouraged the fans though was the thought that if they got through from the next few matches (if they got through the next two they’d most probably meet nothnig less than AC Beleriand!) they would be so strong as to be more or less invincible – for who could claim as tough a schedual than them – and every win would make them stronger! They just had to win some real big games before that – and game one was now about to begin.

Tulkas’ Court was filled to the last seat and the standing areas were packed to their full capacity. The crowds consisted mainly of elves with some Maiar and Valar attending – the few Balrogs were easy to spot from the crowds while the men of the first age blended in the general athmosphere a lot better – and nobody probably noticed the handful of hobbits but the ticket-office.

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And what a game it was!

Many in the audience anticipated the home-team to dominate the game – after all they had drawn 2-2 with FC Valinor and beaten Manwë’s Valimar 3-1 in the friendlies – not to talk of them bathing the mighty Hithlum 3-1 and Elwë’s Doriath 2-0. But facing a strong elven defence and aggressive attack it proved to be as hard for Real Valinor the Tirion fans had hoped for – and Real fans had feared of.

The three sons of Fëanor proved especially hard to get by for their mom and grandmom – giving hard times to Oromë as well with their solid power. On the other end Finwë and Aredhel made Nahar and Nienna to run for their money and stature while Mahtan forced Tilion to stay alert downstairs efficiently denying him chances of making any daring runs forwards to support the attack.

The game was pretty even for a long time with both teams making a good effort but being denied by the solid defences of the other. Towards the end of the first half Tirion started to gain something like an upperhand of the game and was able to flow a few dangerous attacks against Real Valinor’s defence.

At 40 minutes Tulkas was barely able to tip Aredhel’s close effort off the post and a few minures later Finwë’s mighty boomer from twenty meters went just inches over the crossbar. So to the embarrasment of the hometeam fans the game was not only even in numbers come halftime, but it was also feeling like Tirion was slowly calling the shots.


But the home team came to the second half with a fury – and the crowds went crazy! Real Valinor had been somewhat passive on the first half but now they came to the game with full energy – and the sons of Fëanor had their hands full in the defence when Real Valinor unleashed their attack, this time led by Oromë himself. Tulkas was leading the game from behind and Nessa was was calling the shots behind the attack – in good understanding with her brother up front. But that didn’t mean Nerdanel or Miriel would have fallen back to be mere statists – on the contrary; with their deep runs inside the Tirion defences they were a constant threat.

At 58 minutes Nerdanel missed a header from just a few meters in front of an empty goal being forced to make it from an unbalanced position. Two minutes later Finarfin showed some real master-class goaltending reaching for the cannon Oromë fired from the corner of the box gluing the ball to his gloves from the top left corner of the goal when the crowds were already standing up to cheer for a goal.

But as it so often happens in football, when a team is not able to use their initiative succesfully to score the opponent strikes from behind the corner…
Tirion had a few quality counter-offences while Real Valinor was running over their defences – and at the 70th minute Rumil was actually able to send Finwë into a break-through. Facing Tulkas alone he sped towards him – and Tulkas leaped towards Finwë… just before the evident clash Finwë leaned heavily to the left like he was going to duck Tulkas that way – and Tulkas followed him. Just before losing the control of the ball Finwë gave it a nudge with the tip of his boot – and the precision of his timing was just astonishing! Tulkas had just given up his balance to rush on him when he chipped the ball from between Tulkas’ legs and while being buried under the mighty Vala the ball rolled into the goal!

Tirion was in the lead!

It was clear Real Valinor had to put even more effort in to their attack – and that opened new chances for Tirion as well – and Tirion was not going to play a second fiddle anyway, but actually rolled some definitive attacks towards Real’s defences every time they had a chance. It was fingernail-biting time for the crowds on both sides…

At 78th minute Miriel hammered a mighty volley from the edge of the box only to be denied by the post.

At 83rd minute Aredhel slided a nice centering by Rumil just inches off the post.

At 85th minute Finwë missed a nice header from the close quarters and it went high up.

At 87th minute Nessa gave a corner and Oromë dived to head it… IN! It was a goal!

Real Valinor had evened the game three minutes before the final whistle! The homecrowds went wild with celebration while the Tirion fans were forced to realise the game had just started anew – just as they had started to feel good that their team was going forwards from this game…

It was overtime then. Half an hour overtime and if that wouldn’t make a difference, then it would be a penalty shoot-out. The stakes were high indeed.
With the “sudden death” rule both teams started the overtime quite carefully as a single mistake might prove the downfall of the whole team. But little by little it started to look like Tiron was more satisfied of the two to the way things were and Real Valinor was starting to show clearly as the team more hungry for a win – and those little differences accumulated into sharper and weaker performance in the field.

And it was a tactical misjudgement that made the difference in the end – and why there was no penalty shoot-out. The sons of Fëanor thought Oromë to be their primary threat after his goal and Nessa was their target number two because of the role she had organizing the offence – but you only disregard Nerdanel and Miriel on your own expense…

So leaving only half of Amrod’s energy to play against his grandma while looking more after Oromë was the error number one as Miriel took away from her overcoat quite easily. But leaving Irimë to play against Nerdanel alone was just a disaster. Outpacing her shadow Nerdanel had no problem to head in the millimeter exact pass by Miriel leaving Irimë’s brother Finarfin no chance to save it.

It was just six minutes from a penalty shoot-out that Real Valinor nailed the game.

Tirion had showed that with a tight elven defence Real Valinor’s offence could be brought into a halt and with a quality offence they could be scored against – but Real Valinor just showed the width of their offence: if you take Oromë and Nessa out Miriel and Nerdanel will score in the end – and if you take the ladies out the Valar will score.


Tirion 1-2 Real Valinor (OT)
on target 6-6
tot shots 16-16
GOALS:
*70, 1-0 Finwe (Rumil)
*87, 1-1 Orome (Nessa)
*24, 2-1 Nerdanel (Miriel)
YELLOW CARDS:
*Tirion- Amrod, Mahtan
*RealV- Nahar


Real Valinor goes through to the quarterfinals.