[Nogrod]

It was a cool and shiny day in Hollin. The colours were subdued but bright, like they tend to be: different shades of grey, pale green and yellow, different light browns, occasional red and the light blue and white from the sky… The great arena built a day’s walk from the gates of Moria was getting filled up with people around the Middle-Earth. There were elves and men from all ages and dwarves and maiar, and sure some odd ones as well. Tom Bombadil and Treebeard were caught by the media, as well as a few hobbits of some stature.

It was looking like a family-gathering, which it kind of was. Both teams knew each other well and loved and / or honoured each other. The welcoming-banquet on the eve of the match took to the wee hours – to the concern of the organisers: a bunch of players with a mighty hangover was not exactly what they wished to see.

But the players were professionals and took to bed early enough. The same could not be said of the supporters, especially the human supporters of Dor Lomin. They celebrated to the morning and waking up at noon continued where they had left it during the night. And the talk was getting more abrasive and proud.

Many humans boasted they were the elders around. Their team had fought the Evil itself, Morgoth, while the players of the Eregion team had only skirmished with the shade of Morgoth, Sauron. And the humans were the ancestors of many of the players in the opposing team, allowing the most drunken supporters to call the elves “kids” or “youngsters”, which surely annoyed many of the first-born.

But it was also the vanity of the elves that proved to be a problem. Unlike gracious and wise elves they were supposed to be, some of them didn’t let the drunken words pass but took to them. “Are we not the first-born? So who’s the youngster around here?” or, “What would your heroes be without us who have saved the day so many times in the past?” Any educated reader might figure out the following arguments about who rescued who, or who betrayed who, or who was to blame initially for any tragedy x, y or z…

The evening coming along – and the discussions among the supporters of the opposing sides getting tougher and turning into minor rows here and there - the organisers felt they had a possible problem in their hands and decided to act on it. After talking to the captains of the teams, namely Gandalf and Marach, they agreed on the procedures.

Some rebel-rousers were taken into the custody but it was a low-profile manouver until the beginning of the match. The supporters of both teams were trying their best to out-sing the supporters of the other team when the teams finally entered the field. And how they did it!

First there came Gandalf and Marach, hand in hand, talking amiably to each other as they went along. They were followed by Túrin and Gil-Galad, as well hand in hand. And all the others followed in pairs until finally Tuor and Eärendil came in as the last pair their arms over each other’s shoulders. The crowds were silenced when the first players were sighted but burst into great applauds realising the message. And with Tuor and Eärendil entering they just got wild. It was good, thus far.

But however nicely the teams entered the field, the game itself was a tough-fought one.


From the beginning the general mood of the game became clear. It was an open game where both teams tried their best not falling into defence only or playing it safe. Dor Lomin built chances for Beleg and Túrin and they were dangerous indeed. The elven supporters watched in awe the way those two played and crossed their fingers for their thus far solid defence and master Elrond to keep them at bay. But on the other end the scrappy defence (in both meanings of the word) of Dor Lomin was having problems with the well organised attacks Eregion team built up and the human supporters were biting their nails every time the elves got a real build-up going.

At 35th minute one of those build-ups finally paid off. After a beautiful set-up Eärendil passed the ball neatly behind the Dor Lomin defenders. Glorfindel had just gotten rid of his shadow – Galdor that is – for the first time in the match and suddenly faced Huor one on one. He pretended to shoot with his right foot and Huor fell into it jumping towards the left corner. Changing his foot Glorfindel had an easy task to pass the ball into the right one before Galdor and Marach were on him (Galdor actually got booked for a late tackle from that situation).

After the goal the Eregion team withdrew to defend their lead for the last ten minutes of the first half in good order, and even if Dor Lomin pressed on they were not able to break the defences of the elven team – even if one spicy shot from thirty meters by Beleg really forced Elrond to do his best to tip it away from the top-right corner of the goal.

The second half went much in the same vein as the first one had done. Eregion controlled the game more and built careful and organised attacks while the Dor Lomin team ran their game through Beleg and Túrin trying to get them into shooting-range. The reason for the lack of goals was clear for everyone to see; Eregion’s forwards shot a number of times but oftentimes over or wide the goal whereas the better quality shots by Beleg and Túrin were either shut out by the great defence of Eregion or saved by Elrond’s master-quality goalkeeping. With a lesser goalie Dor Lomin could have equalised a few times during the first thirty minutes of the second half.

Just ten minutes before full time, when the elven supporters had already started singing their songs of victory Dor Lomin finally scored to make the game even.

Hador had advanced from the right side and playing a wall with Beleg managed to reach the corner of the box. With a neat little trick he got Erestor off balance for the second needed to hammer a real power-shot towards the goal. Elrond could only parry the ball away pushing it to the right – which was exactly what Túrin had anticipated seeing that Hador was to shoot. With his stunning acceleration Túrin left Celebrimbor standing as he sprinted towards the goal only to get the ball straight to his feet. There was no room for mistake from there. The human supporters made a standing ovation to their hero and only sat down after the game had continued for few minutes.

Even if both teams added their pace for the last ten minutes the game went into overtime. The crowds were now getting real value for their money: what a thriller!

On overtime both teams had their chances. On the 6th minute Beleg hit the post with a swerving powershot from between Gildor’s legs. Elrond was totally out from the situation but it seemed the elves were lucky in this game.

On the other end Eärendil completely fooled his great grandfather and passed the ball to Gil-Galad who volleyed the ball with might from 15 meters… just wide!

On the 15th minute Gundor sliped with the ball and Gil-Galad managed to rob it from him. Suddenly an easy paced build up had reversed into three to two counter attack by Eregion. Eärendil took Gloredhel with him leaving Glorfindel free in the middle when Marach was challenging Gil-Galad. With a great technique Gil-Galad managed to pass the ball to Glorfindel who had time to advance a few steps and then rocketed the ball towards the top-left corner… And Huor made a spectacular save! The elven crowds had already began to yell and cheer only to be silenced with the performance of the Dor Lomin goalie.

On the 21st minute of the overtime Dor Lomin made a promising attack. Beleg got the ball to the side and made a straight run towards the goal-line while Túrin was running towards the goal with Gandalf and Celebrimbor marking him closely. Beleg beat Erestor at the goal-line and chipped the ball towards the middle… and it was going wide it’s mark as Túrin was too far away and held by Gandalf while Celebrimbor had turned to pick the pass. But what did Túrin do? He dived forwards from between the defenders and went for an on-air header. And he made it! The move came so out of the blue that Elrond had no chance when he finally saw it coming! It was a goal! Gooool!


Dor Lomin was through! Eregion had been beaten in their home venue! The elves couldn’t believe it. Two thirds of the stadium were totally silent while the human supporters were yelling, screaming and dancing while calling Túrin’s name in a mighty choir.

Could anyone stop this mighty duo?

Eregion 1-2 Dor Lomin (Overtime)

shots 14-14
on target 5-9
GOALS:
*35, Eregion (Glorfindel, Earendil)
*80, Dor-Lomin (Turin, Hador)
*OT 21, Dor-Lomin (Turin, Beleg)
YELLOW CARDS:
*Eregion- Valandil, Elrohir, Gildor
*Dor-Lomin- Galdor, Tuor, Gundor, Morwen