[the phantom]

The disappointed Eriador folks and happy Hithlum fans were cleared out and the eager supporters of AC Beleriand and Valimar streamed in. The Valar and company were as confident as they’d been since Pelori’s run to the semis, but AC Bel was equally confident. Both felt they were good enough to be in the finals.

Listening to the various chants and taking in the colors before the kickoff it was quite obvious that AC owned the arena, which was no surprise seeing as they had such a diverse squad, and all of them based decently close to Vinyamar (certainly closer than Valimar anyway).

The crowd was forced into silence in the early going though, as Valimar came out full speed and focused. On the flip side, Denethor of Ossiriand looked confused and out of position, Imlach let himself drift out of position a couple times as well, Rochallor made a poor pass and mishandled another, and Angrod and Aegnor missed the deliveries on what should have been routine passes. The announcers supposed that their nerves had failed them. In the quarterfinals against the Valar, perhaps one could understand why they were nervous, particularly attempting to play alongside Feanor and Fingolfin, who were always so high level. The lesser players on the squad must have felt petrified of being the reason for a loss.

Valimar went to take advantage of the early minute lapses—Ingwe had a virtually unopposed header at minute 2, but Marach made a brilliant save. Arien was left a huge clearing to shoot through, but her drive was heroically deflected by Fingolfin, who had sprinted in to make up for the missing defenders. At minute 6 Arien rose up and sent a header just over the crossbar. Finally at minute 13 Irmo fed Vaire a perfect cross, but Feanor flashed in from out of nowhere to take it off her forehead.

Some of the Valimar fans applauded the fact that they’d forced even Feanor to play at the back, but others were uncomfortable. They had wasted golden opportunities, and now that Feanor had been forced to take such a direct role in protecting the goal, he was likely ready to explode and whip his squad into shape. And indeed they were right—Feanor’s voice could be heard clearly by most all of the stadium. “I don’t expect you to win or lose this game, just play! Just be the right place and do the obvious! Don’t even try to make great plays! Let us take care of that!”

Some scratched their heads a bit at the message, and wondered if it was really the right thing to tell the squad, but Feanor has a feel for persuasion, and suddenly it looked as if AC’s players were more loose. Their new goal wasn’t to do things themselves, but rather to get the ball to Feanor or Fingolfin and let them do things. Somehow the closer and more manageable goal settled them, and instantly they could hold the ball and no longer appeared vulnerable to attack.

Already in minute 16 Fingolfin led Feanor forward with a beautiful through ball and Feanor angled in from the right and with a hard cut back outside caused two defenders to entirely fall down, and last minute he skipped it across to Eol who easily deflected it into the open net. AC had weathered the early storm and now they had the lead!

If AC had looked better after Feanor’s speech they certainly looked better after having the lead in pocket, and the ball moved effortlessly and Arien was ball-starved at the front. At minutes 25 and 31 they nearly scored again, but after that Manwe finally got the troops rallied and Valimar raised their level back to the early game level. After Feanor’s rally call Valimar had fallen off their game—whether it was some magical effect of the speech or if it was merely the surprise of AC playing their real game for the first time it is not certain, but they looked ready to push back finally.

Ilmare and Namo pushed out wide to the margins as did Irmo, forcing AC to spread themselves out, which made their transition to offense less immediate and smooth, for AC liked to bunch themselves more tightly and move the ball with very quick and accurate passes, moving forward all the while. At first AC wasn’t willing to chase their marks all the way to the edge, but rather hovered in front and inside of them, keeping them from going anywhere yet allowing them all the time they could ask for to find an open teammate. At minute 37 Irmo was left too much room for too long and he bent in a perfect strike to Arien who managed to get over the Balrog and Imlach and headed the ball perfectly. But Marach was there again, tipping the ball just enough to send it off the post!

After that Fingolfin and Feanor went ahead and expanded their defense and got more aggressive with their on-the-ball play, encouraging all to pressure their mark if possible. Most of the Valimar squad held out okay, but at minute 40 Elenwe found herself harassed by Angrod, and he straight up stole it from her and sent it over to his brother who banged it forward and middle to Fingolfin who was making a deep run (he had been tailing Ingwe who had gone rather far back for a moment).

Feanor and Eol drifted to the wings and let Fingolfin take the center behind them, leaving the defenders to choose between evils. Namo peeled off with Feanor while Este drifted back and right to keep an eye on Eol while Vana and Amarie stayed put. Fingolfin immediately put on an astonishing turn of speed and came on Vana before Este could threaten to help to force a pass, and with one hard cut he rounded her and before Amarie could adjust her positioning he fired a rocket to Manwe’s left and he had no chance of stopping it. AC had a two-goal lead!

The stadium was truly crazy for the first time—the AC supporters were screaming words like “Insurmountable!” and “Clinched!” and the Orc drums were pounding at full speed. The noise continued all the way to the halftime whistle, and AC looked energetic jogging off while Valimar looked downright frustrated. The MESPN announcers took that as a positive, saying that at least they didn’t look beaten or passive. “They felt they should’ve grabbed the lead in the early going, and that would’ve changed the complexion of the contest. They don’t feel out of it—and frankly the hostile atmosphere combined with the Orc section and the Balrog on the field… they may just go full wrath-of-the-Valar mode in the second half.”

When the second half started the commentators were proved correct. Manwe and company were almost glowing with energy—was it fury, or pride, or destiny? But they looked grim to a man, and they seemed to kick and tackle harder and leap higher, and with their special glow some of the AC players definitely looked hesitant.

Already in the first minute Arien got a nearly point-blank shot, but the kick rebounded off Rochallor who managed to get in the way, and the rebound try from Ingwe was smothered nicely by Marach. The AC fans breathed a sigh of relief while Fingolfin received a knowing look from the Balrog next to him, and Feanor quickly trotted back and exchanged a word or two with them. Perhaps Fingolfin had been hesitant to believe that Valimar would bring the heat in this fashion, whereas Feanor and the Balrog had more or less considered it a given.

They were certainly on the same page now, though, and their strategy was set. The Balrog personally marked Arien—who better to stay close to fire than fire? Meanwhile Fingolfin stuck to the side of Irmo, and Angrod and Aegnor actually moved farther back than their midfield fellows and helped clean up anything that got missed. Eol stayed somewhat forward, but he never got far from Namo, assuming he might be used in the offense. Essentially Feanor was left on an island at the front and the rest of the squad committed to defense first, and when in possession they pretty well just held it and didn’t try too hard to get it to Feanor. But Manwe simply had to commit players to the defense anyway, because it was Feanor after all.

This unexpectedly conservative play from AC stymied Valimar, and as the minutes went by the started showing signs of frustration. AC wasn’t going to let Valimar get anything done, and didn’t seem to care if they scored again. Finally at minute 70 Manwe committed wholly to a goal-or-bust strategy, and AC fans began salivating. They were certain they could contain the Valimar attack, and Feanor was being left with too much room to run into.

And at minute 77—it happened. Aegnor dispossessed Ingwe and instantly AC was tearing upfield with it (there must have been some prearranged signal). Eol got it first and he sent it on to Angrod. Angrod and Ulrad were side by side on the left with Feanor to the right, and only Amarie and Vana were even with them. Angrod passed forward to Feanor as everyone expected, but no! It was a hard fake and both defenders pulled up to send Feanor offside and Angrod and Ulrad just continued right past them! The pair ran in unopposed on Manwe and he guessed wrong on the shot-pass option and Ulrad slotted it home off of Angrod’s feed. AC was up by three!

With less than 15 minutes remaining it was all over but the celebrating. AC fell back to defend once again, and while Valimar tried to score a face-saving goal the best they could manage was a weak header that Marach caught easily. Though they weren’t trying to score themselves AC actually managed better, as both Eol and Feanor tried long-range snipes for fun, and the powerful and unpredictably bending shots might’ve gotten past a lesser keeper. As it was the score remained at 3-0 and the stadium was partying in earnest.

The fans barely even noticed the Valimar fans and squad leave the arena. Ingwe wished Feanor and Fingolfin well and everyone except Arien gave a gracious nod or handshake to their foes. Arien just headed straight to the lockers, burning the turf as she went. Losing in the quarterfinals was a far cry from winning the title last year. Good feelings prevailed in the stands as Orcs and Men actually patted each other on the backs. A group of Orcs with signs supporting the Balrog received hugs from some of Marach’s household. “I’m glad we had that Balrog to help with Arien. I know Marach is glad of it!” And the Orcs reciprocated: “Marach probably could’ve stopped her anyway. He was fantastic!”

Football magic strikes again.

AC Beleriand 3-0 Valimar
on target 7-4
tot shots 14-14
GOALS:
*16, 1-0 Eol (Feanor)
*40, 2-0 Fingolfin (Aegnor)
*77, 3-0 Ulrad (Angrod)
YELLOW CARDS:
*ACBel- Feanor, Balrog#4
*Valimar- Vana, Amarie

MESPN Postgame Exit Interview

MESPN: I wouldn’t imagine you thought things would end like this.

Manwe: I think that’s only true of the scoreline. The score just looks bad.

MESPN: So you don’t think you earned a 3-0 ousting?

Manwe: No. We didn’t play poorly at all—we were solid. All credit to AC Beleriand, as they executed even better, but not 3 goals better I should think. We were even on shots, and they just had 3 more on target, and I suppose those just happened to be the three that went in, so to speak.

MESPN: AC had more possession, and they did seem to look more dangerous, especially after the opening minutes of the first half.

Manwe: Well, that was just the matchup. We didn’t come into this intending or expecting to own possession. We thought we’d try and hit them early, and then with timely attacks and perhaps a trick play and a good execution off some sort of free kick we could win the rest of the match. Frankly we did what we planned that first half. That header of Arien’s was perfect, but Marach just had a notion and cheated that direction, and it was similar with that one shot from Ingwe.

MESPN: Arien looked pretty upset after the game. How is she doing?

Manwe: She’s taking the loss hard. She sets her expectations high, and no doubt she’s beating herself up for not putting it in when she had chances. But she can’t do it all alone, so we need to share what blame there is. But for the most part just give credit to AC Beleriand.

MESPN: So the offense was what you wanted, you just caught some bad breaks and Marach had some intuitive magic. But what about the defense giving up 3 goals?

Manwe: That’s the larger concern, for me anyway. We did a reasonable job at bottling up the playmakers Feanor and Eol at times, but it was just too difficult to accomplish that and still lock out the rest of their offense. Those forwards just took too much of our concentration and effort.

MESPN: What can be done about that for next year?

Manwe: You’ve hit in on the head—something needs to change. I really think we need an additional elite athlete at the back. It will be tough to do that on a budget though and still maintain our offensive power.

MESPN: Any clues on how that will work, considering the team finished a few million underwater this season?

Manwe: We haven’t come to a decision yet, whether it’s time for belt tightening or time for an all-or-nothing gamble. Not that another such season would bankrupt us—we don’t exactly have shallow pockets here, and minus seven isn’t the end of the world.

MESPN: All right, thanks Manwe. Good luck on making the tough decisions.