Arda Cup Football 2011

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by the phantom

"We spirits have no need of food or beds," said PitchWight.

"Drinks, of course, are a different matter. We spirits need spirits to keep up our spirits, if you get my meaning. Goes without saying. What? Nah, no worry, we won't leave any bottles lying around. Don't wanna anger ol' Bombadillo by littering his forest. We've had a pipeline installed running all the way from Elrond's miruvor distillery back in Rivendell straight to the stadium. And we'll all be drinking from our own skulls. No barrels, no bottles, no plastic cups, no litter. We're eco-conscious boozers.

Who will win? The wolves, of course. They usually do, don't they? More often than not, at least. Though maybe the village will make it this time. Or if there's Lovers, they might win too. Maybe even the Bear.

What? There's no Bear in football? No Lovers either? And what do you mean, nobody gets lynched?"

[Nogrod]

Group A at Himring

The Ever-Cold Arena is built on top of the flat summit of Maedhros’ old stronghold on the hill of Himring. It is said that those who are unlucky to book their tickets too late and are forced to sit on the highest rows have a special compensation in the breath-taking views over Taur-Nu-Fuin, over the plains of Himlad up to the forests of Doriath, and over the narrow beginnings of Little Gelion meeting the Greater Gelion and forming the great river Gelion itself running into Thargelion. Some even say certain people only pay for tickets up there for the view and not so much for the sports. But that of course can’t be true.

After The Himring Herald called group A “The group of the Great Noldor” the usage has spread to most East Beleriand elven magazines which has understandably annoyed not only the core of team Doriath’s fans but has actually caused a kind of protest wave in Shire and Bree. Outside, the press has been more observant as to the dynamics of the group.

The very same rift can be felt in the stronghold at the eve of the games. Even if the Noldorian elves have shown why they are renowned for their lavish hospitality and cordial behavior, the tensions between the different groups has not been left unnoticed by anyone sitting in the tavernas or walking down the streets of Himring filled with tourists and locals the last couple of days. That of course is not the whole picture as there are both bonds and rifts stretching over the team lines and cutting into them; both with the teams and among their fans. So it is no wonder the guard of Maedhros has been called to full alert just in case.

But no one anticipates any real confrontations; some bragging, foul words thrown out or insignificant fist-fights between the drunkards are the mainstay of any larger city or venue hosting major tournaments on any sports and not only tolerable but plain unavoidable.

But it must be confessed that if the hobbit fans of Shire-Bree Utd. have felt themselves more or less a bit lost or forgotten in between the tall elves and relatives and friends of great heroes of early men, the fans of the treacherous easterlings and Carcaroth have had quite hard times in the dark and drunken streets of Himring at night.

But there has been many happy reunions like Fingon the Valiant meeting his sister, uncle and cousins; or the reunion of the sons of Fëanor. And if you want to guess how many pages the yellow press has made out of Aredhel meeting the sons of Fëanor on the one hand and Eöl on the other, you can easily multiply that with ten.

The home-fans look forwards to a tight contest between Himring and their friends Tirion for the other qualification spot as most everyone accepts Doriath is the sole favourite to win the group – and the number of visitors from the neighbouring forest quarantees that Doriath may feel they’re playing almost in front of home audiences.

No one seems to pay attention to the Shire-Bree Utd. A headline in the Four Farthing Daily thus read a day before the tournament beginning: “The small ones have been underestimated earlier as well!” Sadly the big news agencies never noticed even that.

[Boromir88]

Group B at Wilderland
Last year lots of grumblings were made when the Arda Committee awarded the Gorgoroth team with hosting Group B. More than a few believed Sauron had underhandedly bribed and threatened the committee to have the games in Mordor (Sauron claimed he wanted the West to finally wake up and see the improvements and modernization going on in Mordor). And this year, the rumours of dirty money dealings are growing as Sauron's team was yet again chosen as the host team. But where would Sauron construct the new stadium, or would he try to renovate existing ones like in Dol Guldur? Wilderland was a vast and diverse land, and is representative of all the teams in Group B, which have a large cultural mix.

Wilderland almost had to give up their host bid, as Sauron really struggled trying to find a suitable location. Sauron has only himself to blame for the Brownlands being unhospitable for a tournament and the committee denied Sauron's request to build the stadium there. Then he was denied by Thranduil to return to Dol Guldur. Sauron was not happy but Thranduil held firm saying that "Greenwood" was finally beginning to recover and would not allow Sauron to foul up his forest as he had done many years ago, and it didn't matter to him if his father played for Sauron.

So, in the effort to hold onto Wilderland's hosting rights, Sauron brought the captains of Anduin, Esgaroth, and Misty Mountains together to determine the most suitable location. The skeptics would say Sauron was just trying to manipulate the captains to get the most beneficial deal for Wilderland, but Sauron's supporters would tell you he cares about creating the best tournament experience and he should be commended for the effort to unite the culturally diverse land.

The proceedings were mostly kept behind closed doors, but we did see Fram, Earnil II, and Beorn leave expressionless, Saruman left trying to cover up a big grin, and Girion left red-faced. Then Sauron announced he would be building a new stadium, on the edges of Wilderland, and in fact a stadium near the Gladden Fields as a landmark to commemorate the historical fields. Fram was content enough to keep the location along the Anduin, as the team's fans live near the river. Saruman was very pleased, knowing the Misty Mts were near and was likely guaranteed good fan turnout. Girion had wanted the games nearer to the Long Lake and tried convincing Sauron Esgaroth could accomadate the games far better than trying to build up a whole new location, but was overruled by the other captains who were obviously pleased to keep the location closer to them.

When construction of the 50,000 seat stadium was getting underway, despite Thranduil turning down Sauron to rebuild Dol Guldur, he was not going to turn down Sauron's deep pockets. Many supplies for the stadium's construction came from nearby Mirkwood, and Thranduil also agreed to provide at least half the food, and most of the lodging for the duration of the games.

Due to the cultural diversity of the land and all it's teams it would be hard for any of them to have a dramatic advantage in fan support, and also many fans would have mixed allegiances. Like, who would the Beornings support in the 2nd game between Anduin and Wilderland? Would the Orcs and baddies of the Misty Mountains be totally aligned with their team (it helps Durin's Bane is back on the team, as he always has a loyal following of baddie support), or would they want to support the orc Bolg or the dragons on Wilderland?

Once the seat alottment was released, people began to see why Saruman left the meeting of the captains glib and how Sauron was able to pull this whole deal off. 20,000 seats would be alotted to fans of the teams playing in the current match. 2,500 each to the teams not playing. Which left 5,000 seats and while Mirkwood provided the supplies, Saruman agreed to provide the labor and soon the area had a host of dwarves brought by Narvi and orc laborers brought in by Azog to construct the Gladden Fields stadium. Critics also thought Saruman was unsure how his mountain spirit could be at GK, if he was far removed from his source of power in Caradhras. Thus Saruman was pleased with the arrangment when the 5,000 remaining seats were awarded to the Misty Mts for providing all the labor in constructing the stadium and it's surrounding hotels and vendors.

Though, some can't help but wander if this was just Sauron pulling the sheep's wool over Saruman's eyes, as the Wilderland mastermind is surely expecting with icons like Scatha, Smaug, Khamul and Bolg on his team the extra Misty Mountains alottment would have little trouble in supporting his Wilderland team as well.

And what is one to make of the marble statue, titled at the entrance of the Gladden Fields Memorial Stadium? A statue of Isildur, with orc arrows in his back, and titled "Isildur's Bane" is surely to get the orcs joyfully rowdy. Sauron said "It was just a bit of fun for a very old friend of mine." But when word came that the Arda Cup committee would send in demolishers to destroy the statue, by morning it suddenly had disappeared and no one knows to where. Sauron denied all accusations that in the dead of night he ordered the statue secretly removed and relocated to Mordor, saying "If you know about it, then it's not a secret now is it?"

[Boromir88]

Group D at Eregion
There's nothing the Noldor smiths and their dwarven friends like more than a building project. There was already a stadium built outside Ost-in-Edhil which hosted several Arda Cup playoff games, but when Eregion won its bid to host Group D, the Noldor went straight to work renovating the old stadium.

The Ost-in-Edhil Stadium already had 65,000 seats, which was quite satisfactory for the Noldor's fancy. They don't like making the largest, bulkiest stone stadiums possible, but would rather build a true gem on Middle-earth. So the Eregion planning committee diverted all funds not to adding more seats, but to adourn the stadium in all the precious stones and gems the Noldor and dwarves could get their hands on.

The greatest accomplishment of the renovated stadium has to be somehow the Noldor builders were able to craft windows and precious jewels that could take in and capture light. So when the Hollin sky would often be lit up in its various hues of blues and greens, oranges and yellows and reds the stadium's walls somehow took in all the outside light. Then at night time the stadium let out a pale, but bright glow of light being converted to all the colors of the sky. And residents from the nearby great Noldo city and even sometimes from the entrance to Moria (under a day's walk away), could see the stadium letting off it's beautiful multi-colored glow. It was a site that has attracted many a tourists to the area and the Noldor were proud of their new accomplishment.

The stage for this group is expected to be extremely friendly as it will predominantly feature Elves in support of Eregion. However, as the group was also hosting many Elf-friends, like the rangers and older generations of Gondorians, under the captaincy of a jewel unto herself, Arwen then there isn't expected to be much trouble in terms of security or rabble rousers. Even the Barad-dur team, many of Eregion, Eriador, and Gondor fans were anxious to see Gil-Galad, Isildur, and Cirdan return.

The baddies on Barad-dur were feeling quite alone and you must wonder how well they can perform for their team being so far away from any support. Surely the Moria orcs would be more likely to attend the Group B games for the Misty Mountains and whatever orcs out of Mordor decided to travel, they would likely follow Sauron. The Mouth and Nazgul #1 were looking both disgusted and nervous that under 500 orcs and other general beasties (of the 'fell' disposition) had turned up for Barad-dur. Their hearts raised somewhat by a travelling band of around 100 trolls came, but only to find out they were sporting the Dunedain emblem of the royal sceptre and wearing Bert, Tom, or Barrow-wight jerseys.

"This game can turn even the evilest creatures into a travelling carnival of singing freaks" scowled The Mouth.

[Boromir88]

Group H at Dunharrow
The road through Dunharrow, lined with the stone statues the Rohirrim called Pukel-Men was now lined with mostly Men, Orcs, and other beastlies, but also small packs of Elves and Dwarves were heading through up the narrow passage, to cheer for individual favorites like Feanor and Legolas or Gimli. And out of the Dwimorberg, through the Dimholt, came a particularly ghostly and chilling group to support the King of the Dead. Rarely before had these ghouls ventured out of their haunted mountain, but with their King playing on Minas Morgul, they felt their King's call to watch the games.

Where they were all heading? To Firienfeld where the Rohirrim have used the Firien plain as the pitch, and have carved 85,000 seats into the encircling White Mountains. Some spectators believed the seating wasn't ideal since even the closest row of seats were quite removed from the field and players benches. And there were questions of how would you get almost 90,000 people through the congested mountain pass, from Edoras (which was going to be providing all the food and lodging)?

However most were pleased with the large Firienfeld, since no matter where one was sitting, one could see the entire pitch, and the mountains encircling the plain insured the noise from the crowd would be ear-deafening. Lothlorien had the fewest fanbase, and most seemed divided more by either loving Feanor or Galadriel, not so much the 'Lothlorien' brand. Although the Rohirrim would find little difficulty cheering for not only their home team, but also for Lothlorien with Shadowfax and Gandalf, and their friends from Minas Tirith.

The one thing everyone agreed on was Minas Morgul would be the outcasts of the group. The Rohirrim would be hurt if their own team didn't make it, but as long as Minas Morgul didn't go through that would be acceptable. And that was the other problem the Rohirrim would have on their hands, because Minas Morgul had a swarming crowd hoping to get tickets to their teams' games. The Witch-King put together the best PR effort, and not a greater host leaving from Minas Morgul had been recorded in history before (and when joined by the dead men from the Dwimorburg, and the Corsairs out of Umbar, Minas Morgul's numbers swelled to nearly 40,000).

What security problems would this cause, because surely the Rohirrim (nor the Minas Tirithians) would like having to play host to this unruly crowd of their ancient enemies? And especially since such a large turnout came from Minas Morgul, the home town fans were wondering how much of a "home-field" advantage they would enjoy?

[the phantom]

Group C

Though not daytime creatures by habit, the residents of Angband were up early and, equipped with sunglasses and gobs of sunscreen, pouring into the Angfauglith arena, eager to snatch the best seats. The supporters of Hithlum were out in force as well, and wisely the site committee had separate entrances for the two groups, and also tried their best to keep them on opposite sides of the stadium.

But as noon approached, nearly all of the men and elves were seated, whereas Morgoth's supporters were still pouring in, spilling over into the north half of the stadium until they occupied around two thirds of the seats. Hired patrols of various races paced the bordering aisles helping keep incidents to a minimum, but despite this plenty of goblets, wrappers, and such were tossed back and forth, and there were competing songs and chants all the while.

Suddenly the doors to the tunnels were thrown wide and team Angband and team Hithlum trotted onto the brown-yellow field. Most of the crowd cheered wildly, but some booed simply because they were upset that the teams were not allowed to make separate entrances thus allowing them to voice their hatred for the opposition.

Many of Hithlum's players looked a bit sloppy in warm ups, their practice shots and passes all a bit overdone. They were obviously a little too jacked up and anxious for the contest to begin- except the Sons of Feanor. They were used to playing against the best talent on big stages and showed no fear, and they had worked too hard to earn the right to play as forwards to allow themselves to get over-hyped.

Quite soon both squads took their positions and the game was underway. Angband pushed forward immediately and a quick pass from Morgoth to the speedy Thuringwethil caught Hithlum sleeping, but Imlach saved the day brilliantly and Hithlum sighed with relief at dodging the early bullet. Angband attacked again, but this time Hithlum had gotten rid of the cobwebs and converged nicely, forcing the ball to retreat a few times. And then out of nowhere- the first blow was struck!

Ancalagon tried to send it back out to Telvildo, but Gloredhel was there first and touched it sideways to Galdor who immediately sent it downfield over the heads of Morgoth and his Balrogs to a dashing Celegorm and Curufin. Drauglin attempted to challenge as the ball arrived, but Curufin, who largely inherited his father's ball skills and dexterity, received the ball and sent it over the Werewolf and hopped over his swiping paws without breaking stride and continued on towards the left post with Celegorm mirroring him on the right.

At the last minute Curufin faked the shot and sent it sharply to Celegorm, but Ungoliant is a fantastic keeper and read it perfectly and was leaping to meet the ball as soon as he sent it. But Celegorm read his brother even better, and had already turned towards his brother. Celegorm's head reached the pass a fraction of a second before Ungoliant, volleying the ball straight back to his brother who was fully expecting to receive it back and was more than prepared to chip it into the empty net for the 1-0 lead.

Angband's supporters fell silent immediately as Hithlum cheered. The orcs and monsters of Angband had been looking forward to a thrashing, and this was the last thing they expected. Many of them uncomfortably recalled last year's bronze medal match, where Celegorm and Curufin had played an important role in besting Melkor's squad. Would the brothers duplicate the feat?

But Morgoth showed no such fear on the field. "We'll get it back!" he could be heard shouting. "This thing lasts 90 minutes!" And indeed the field general proved correct, as Angband went back on the offensive and soon had their equalizer thanks to the booming tail of Ancalagon. The whole of the crowd was back in the match.

Soon after, however, the baddies were sent spiraling down again, as the Hithlum attackers showed some great movement in sustaining an attack and forced Ungoliant to make a tough save, only to have Curufin pounce on the deflection and skip it to Hador to put them in front once again!

Hithlum tried to get it up to the forwards again, but Morgoth ordered them to be swarmed to deny them the ball, and carefully built up the attack while staying towards the rear himself to keep an eye out for the counter. Shortly before the first half ended the quick and clever Telvildo worked it in against the athletically inferior defense of Hithlum and sent it to a racing Thuringwethil who was left too free on the side opposite the attention grabbing Ancalagon. Yet again, the score was tied!

The general fans of football were quite pleased with the talent they saw displayed in the opening 45, but the more partisan viewers were quite worried. Angband-leaners thought, "We ought to be one of the very top defenses! How can we go on giving multiple goals like this? What's wrong?" Hithlum-leaners thought, "We can't stop them scoring- they're too big and powerful. And Morgoth will have some strategy to stop us scoring, no doubt."

And in fact it was the Hithlum fans who were right to be worried. In the second half Morgoth and Drauglin did their best to stick to Curufin like glue and had his two rear Balrogs hover around Celegorm, thus negating long passes, as those were the two with the blinding speed to cause trouble on them. Hador was certainly a threat as a scorer, but without the Sons of Feanor to get him the ball, the other members of Hithlum just couldn't do the job against their imposing Angband defenders.

On the other end of the field, the Angband offense possessed the ball marvelously and gained some decent opportunities. Not long into the second half Balrog #3 thundered a drive high into the net for the lead, and fifteen minutes later Tilion poked it away from his man and beat everyone to it, immediately crushing a straight drive in nearly the same location as Balrog #3, and it was a two goal lead!

Hithlum pushed desperately to get back into the contest, but to no avail. Hungry to have the ball on his foot, Curufin began coming all the way back to collect the ball and take it upfield himself, but it was too great a task even for him.

Angband left the field looking pleased indeed, having gained a win from their bitter foe. Hithlum was upset, but not crushed. "We fought hard," said captain Hador. "Angband is one of the championship favorites, and I think the way we played today shows we're good enough to qualify, and once you're in the playoffs anything can happen."

Angband 4-2 Hithlum
tot shots 18-11
on target 9-6
GOALS:
*6, 0-1 Curufin (Celegorm)
*16, 1-1 Ancalagon (Ulfang)
*29, 1-2 Hador (Curufin)
*42, 2-2 Thuringwethil (Telvildo)
*59, 3-2 Balrog #3 (Thuringwethil)
*74, 4-2 Tilion
YELLOW CARDS:
*Angband- Tilion, Drauglin, Ulfang
*Hithlum- Algund, Lorgan, Aradan, Galdor

Next up was the contest between the host, Angfauglith, and the upstart team named "The Downer". Captain Fingolfin was quoted before the match as being unhappy with playing a complete unknown in the first match. "They could be great. They could be horrible. There's no preparations we can make!"

But the lack of information did not seem to hinder the elite scorers of Angfauglith. Though Downer's tactics were strange and unbalancing, they did not have the legs to stay with Maeglin and Gothmog and the pair each scored in the first half to secure a two-goal cushion at halftime. And only minutes into the second half Gothmog's pal Ecthelion put his mark on the game, sliding expertly towards a low pass and blasting it low past the wheels of King Bus to go up by three.

Pleased, and perhaps a bit relieved, with the way things had turned out, Fingolfin called off the attack and ordered the team to defend the lead, partly to reduce the chances of injury, as The Downer had been treating the forwards as harshly as allowed by the refs. Fingolfin, his horse, and the balrogs held firm for five... ten... fifteen... twenty minutes, and the Men and Elves in the crowd began growing louder, counting down the minutes to the impending victory.

But The Downer was not content to go quietly. At minute 77 the metal-covered Wight known as Saucepan Man boomed a terrifying bullet past a surprised Huor to make the score 3-1. Fingolfin apologized to the keeper for allowing the good look and made it his mission to deny SPM after that. The Downer then turned to Alien to do the next damage, but his head just wasn't in the game, as he seemed to be more interested in perpetrating various forms of mischief, such as lighting fire to the grass on the sly.

Rather than being angry with the green terror the rest of the team seemed largely amused by his antics, Captain Hookbill in particular, who began shouting out suggestions for what sort of vulgar thing Alien could do next. Finally the refs spotted and carded Alien- this time he was projectile-vomiting into the crowd, giggling all the while.

Angfauglith would have taken advantage of the confusion, but most of them were busy being ill themselves, and the final minutes of the contest were pretty well spent standing around trying not to look at the Downer squad- now gathered in a circle near their own goal to watch Alien attempt to eat the posts.

Only the wights left the stadium in good humor, and no doubt head tournament official Boromir88 will have something to say to The Downer squad about their terrible behavior.

Angfauglith 3-1 The Downer
tot shots 14-7
on target 7-2
GOALS:
*15, 1-0 Maeglin (Gothmog)
*36, 2-0 Gothmog (Gwindor)
*52, 3-0 Ecthelion (Rian)
*77, 3-1 Saucepan Man (John Fillis)
YELLOW CARDS:
*Angfauglith- Balrog #4, Azaghal, Gothmog
*The Downer- Morsul, Burnt Bert, Alien