[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