[the phantom]

Barad-Dur played host to the team from The Havens, led in by Cirdan and Olwe. Some team members were wary and hardly any Havens supporters showed, but there was no incident. Sauron was running a tight ship.

Neither squad unleashed their full tournament potential, but they were decently competing, particularly when the score was tied. Three times Havens pulled ahead and nerfed their offense in favor of defending until Barad-Dur answered.

The first two Havens goals were answered quite swiftly by Sauron himself. The keeper Cirdan had to laugh when the second ball veered off away from him leaving him no chance at all. After going up against Sauron several times in the past Cirdan knew that sometimes Sauron's just going to beat you with a play.

But Cirdan got the last laugh- Sauron split the defense and fired for a final equalizer with under 5 minutes, but Cirdan managed to tip the ball up and over the crossbar preserving the 1-goal victory for the Havens.

Barad-Dur 2-3 The Havens
tot shots 14-15
on target 7-8
GOALS:
*36, 0-1 Earendil (Tuor)
*42, 1-1 Sauron (Herumor)
*53, 1-2 Aegnor (Angrod)
*59, 2-2 Sauron (Beruthiel)
*77, 2-3 Earendil (Aegnor)
YELLOW CARDS:
*Barad-Dur- Herumor, Fuinur, Fellbeast #2
*Havens- Annael, Lindo, Angrod

Since Eriador's home stadium at Amon Sul was busy with preparations for group play, Erebor played host to this contest. Both squads seemed comfortable with their stage of preparation and opted to go with only a half-game, wasting time and kicking it around in the first, and occasionally showing off some trick or another.

When the teams emerged for the 2nd half Elrond and Gil-galad shook hands with Thranduil and the Witch King gave a final pat on the back to Nazgul #7 and the teams went into tournament mode.

Eriador had troubles getting it forward against the eagles at the back, while Erebor did a good job possessing against the fairly conservative defense of Eriador. Smaug and Bard both gained great scoring chances in the early-going, but they watched in frustration as their efforts were wiped out by Elrond.

Finally Smaug could be contained no longer, and he put Erebor on the board at 66 minutes. Erebor continued to press for another goal, but Elrond ordered a more pressuring defense and Erebor ran into problems possessing and Eriador began to look the more dangerous.

In the closing minutes Arveleg sent one just over the crossbar, and Glorfindel made a fantastic run in and nearly trickled it past Beorn, but Girion got there to clear it just in time, and so the game ended at 1-0. Both squads seemed happy to have gotten in one half of hard gameplay against a quality foe.

Erebor 1-0 Eriador
tot shots 12-8
on target 5-3
GOALS:
*66, 1-0 Smaug (Bolg)
YELLOW CARDS:
*Erebor- Gwaihir, Bard, Landroval
*Eriador- Valandil