[Nogrod]

Mighty Mithrim rips Pelennor to pieces!

There had been great anticipation for the games to begin and when the day finally arose, sun shining from the clear skies, the excitement could be felt everywhere in Amon Sûl. The crowds packed the stadium full in no time as the gates were opened. There was an air of great sporting celebration all around Amon Sûl. Unlike in some other venues in the past tournaments the afternoon match was also sold-out as everyone wished to see the heroes’ performances. It wasn’t everyday you got to see men like Húrin, Túrin, Theoden or Imrahil in action, not talking of Huan, or elves like Curufin, Celegorm, Beleg or Legolas.

The opening game at the Weathertop-Arena was a slaughter plain and simple. Veni, Vidi, Vici; The Mithrim team came, saw and conquered with a virtuoso performance bulleting itself to the top of any phanatasy-gamers’ list of predictions. The crowd enjoyed some magical football and astonishing teamplay in both defence and offence, from one team. Pelennor was reduced to shambles on every area of the gameplay.

Pelennor’s feared offence was shattered by the solid and tough defence of Mithrim led by Fëanor’s sons Curufin and Celegorm who even plotted a goal later in the game. Those two have not received their stars from nothing! And whatever was not cleared by the defences, Huan picked up comfortably. It was clear the whole team was playing the shut-out for him.

Mithrim’s midfield commanded the pace of the game with the same ease and showed some sovereign control of the ball, and when the forwards got the ball it made the Pelennor-fans shiver, for a reason.

The most remarkable feature in Mithrim’s performance was undoubtedly it’s teamplay. Pelennor earned a reputation as a really offencive team during the friendlies, but against Mithrim their quite aggressive shooting average of 13/5 per game was reduced to 5/2. Comparing that to Mithrim’s ratio of 20/12 just tells the whole story of that game. Also seven different players made their name to the scoreboard and that should tell the future opponents something about the width of their team's cababilities.

Mithrim 4-0 Pelennor
tot shots 20-5
on target 12-2
GOALS:
*6, 1-0 Turin (Hurin)
*22, 2-0 Morwen (Androg)
*33, 3-0 Hurin (Beleg)
*57, 4-0 Celegorm (Curufin)
YELLOW CARDS:
*Mithrim- Gelmir
*Pelennor- Duinhir, Forlong, Windfola, Gothmog II


High-hopes of the hometeam fans shattered!

Everyone knew the second qualifying place from group C would be up for grabs to any team showing themselves worth it. Pelennor got such a beating in the hands (feet?) of the Mithrim team that the winner of the evening’s game would make a serious move towards qualifying. So the stakes for the game were high and that was clearly seen in the performance of both teams.

The home-crowd supported their team with high spirits in the beginning but as both teams played it very carefully indeed, concentrating on avoiding mistakes, the tension fell considerably after the first ten-twenty minutes. Towards the end of the first period Nargothrond got the upper hand and started rolling the ball against the Norbury defences with gusto, but with no result.

One would have thought the home team to come back to the field quite spirited after the intermission, but that was not the case. On the contrary, nine minutes into the second period Nargothrond’s pressure finally bore fruit: Celebrimbor’s free kick hit the post and the High Princess of Noldor wrestled the rebound to herself from between the Norbury defences putting the ball into the net giving Arvedui no chance to react.

With the lead Nargothrond drew back just a little which can be aftwerwards judged as a mistake from their part. The change was not great but little by little the home team started to win one-on-ones and took more of the possession. It was a classical lesson of football; lose 10% of your energy and awarenenss and you lose 50% of your performance. And slowly also the home crowd awakened to cheer for their team. The tables had been turned and the home team was fervently going for the equaliser while the Nargothrond team just concentrated on damage control.

And what a mighty roar there was when Araphor finally scored the equaliser five minutes before the final whistle! The homefans went just mad! The northeners had once again risen to the occasion when it was needed! The hopes of the home team were rekindled! But it didn’t take long the laughter and joy turned into the realisation that a draw wouldn’t help them too much in this hard-fought battle over qualifying.

Nargothrond 1-1 Norbury
tot shots 12-9
on target 7-4
GOALS:
*54, 1-0 Finduilas (Celebrimbor)
*85, 1-1 Araphor (Malbeth)
YELLOW CARDS:
*Nargothrond- Celebrimbor, Boron, Arminas
*Norbury- Argeleb, Tarcil


So second place, anybody's game. Mithrim dominating the group comfortably. That's day 1 from Amon Sûl in a nutshell.