[Nogrod]

Group G at Valmar

“No city can compare to the glory and splendor of Valimar, and many say the same about their grand stadium. The masonry, jewels, and lights are spectacular, and adding to the flavor are the trees and flowers incorporated in the design, as well as the many massive beautiful bells which are used to celebrate goals scored by the home side.” Thus started the story about last year’s Group F gearing up by the world famous journalist and commentator the phantom on MESPN. And we have nothing to add to that but the following. There is no more suitable place to hold games than a city in which the houses have roofs of gold and their floors silver and their doors are of polished bronze; in bright sunshine the city glimmers eye-blindingly bright for miles and miles away. What a place for a football tourist to visit! Especially as it is otherwise more or less impossible to visit the Blessed Realm.

Like with group F, group G has kind of two hosting teams even if just one is the official host. That should grant full stadiums for all the games – and as many Middle-earth based teams’ players are either one’s who have lived in the undying lands themselves or relatives & friends of them, there is a great feeling of a family-reunion, mutual respect and goodwill which reaches out to the fans of teams Beleriand and Gondolin as well.

There has been some rumours though that anticipating Tulkas deciding team Valimar willing to host the games at Valmar some AFA authorities were afraid the scandal of last year could be revisited – and that in turn would have affected the group-settings excluding any “baddie teams” from group G. But even with the pretty “good” teams involved, not all pre-game rumors have disappeared. Especially the non-existence of Nogrodian football tourists has raised some eyebrows, especially as it is rumoured at the same time that Aulë himself has begged for the Valar to let the dwarven supporters to watch the games. We will be following this issue closely.

The local media seems to have decided that the “home-teams” would qualify more or less easily and thus they have afforded to comment on the visiting teams in a mostly friendly and polite manner, even bringing forth their strengths; like the stamina of team Beleriand and the quality & achievements of team Gondolin’s players last year. Even if many professional sports analysts do actually agree that teams Valimar and Pelori are the favourites to qualify from this group, it would be interesting to see how the self-asserting mood of local media would change if one of the visiting teams really stood up and challenged the mighty teams of the West.