[Nogrod]

Misty Mts. at Pelori


The Scandal Refuses to Die Down


The first problem emerged as soon as the play-off pairs were announced. The friends and fans of Caradhras decided to take the trip to Valinor but Manwë and Námo declared it was against the will of Eru Ilúvatar himself that whole mountain ranges would shift positions for a sake of a single football match. And they were banned on moving anywhere after Caradhras – they were quite blatantly told to just watch the game live on MESPN.

But that wasn’t the only problem. This time Manwë and Námo made it clear in public that no balrogs, wolves, orcs, goblins, trolls or any other odd & evil creatures of old were allowed into Valinor – except as players for that short while the game lasted. And that would be a strict policy “enforced decisively” on the border control with any “straying undesirables”.

Many Middle-Earth media took this announcement as an insult – most strongly those of the more liberal mind-set of men and elves. But the Dwarven media was silent for days as they had not been mentioned… But it was about to break. And it did.

Tumunzahar Weekly, Firebeard Times and Khazad-dûm Guardian published a shared a bold and mocking open letter to Manwë asking whether the dwarves were officially counted as “undesirables”, or could the fans and supporters of Narvi & the dwarves of Moria make the trip without fear of being drowned or otherwise killed by the Valier-authorities. The answer was silence. Valinorian media explained the silence with “the disrespectful tone of the media-trick by the dwarves no decent Valar would pay heed to”.

But that explanation was not bought in Middle-Earth and many critical articles and blog-entries were written over the subject. In protest a host of dwarves from all over the M-E gathered in the Havens in their thousands as a check-out, and declared to the elves of Cirdan they had a right of passage because of the match between Misty Mts. and Pelori. A few hundred liberal activists from Minas Tirith and Dol Amroth joined the dwarves, calling for their dwarven rights and threatened to complain to Amnesty Interardan. The elves were reluctant to admit them into their ships, knowing the risks involved, but as soon as some captains decided the Dwarven gold and mithril was enough for them to take their chances, the seas arose into tumult and storm and there was no way they could make the trip.

Some of the most hot-headed dwarves then stole a few boats by night killing the elves guarding them – of which deed the activists separated themselves strongly. But anyway, it should be no news those boats never got far away from the port of Havens. The next morning Manwë made a press-release where he said that: “This unpredictability and harshness of the dwarves is just one of the reasons we don’t willingly admit them here at Valinor – and they have just showed it themselves to be true. Some things just are not going to happen whatever way you look at them. Eru’s song is the guideline for everyone to follow and we’re not willing nor able to do otherwise, whatever we or you others think.”

Saruman, of course, saw here a chance for bargaining, and announced Misty Mts. was not going to play at all unless their supporters were allowed to the venue to support them, but here his own team sadly let him down. Not knowing of their captain’s scheme, Landroval and Meneldor told the press how happy they were to play against Gwaihir and to see the land of the great Thorondor. And Durin’s Bane went on talking a lot about what it meant to him to go to the land of the creator of his grandfathers, the place he had never seen himself. And Caradhras was giving his own press-releases saying how wonderful it would be to meet the Pelori – the mountains.


~*~

The stadium at Valmar was buzzing with elves and Maiar – and a few of the Valar were also honoring the game with their presence. The only possible supporters of the visiting team were the eagles from the Middle-Earth – who had mixed feelings whether to champion Gwaihir, their leader, or his brother Landroval and Meneldor their mates – the Western Eagles had no problem in picking their favorites against the visitors even if they sympathized with their M-E –fellows. Also the few wizards were undecided as Saruman clearly was one of them, but he was a traitor as well and not that honored here in the West. So the fingers and toes of one would be enough to count the supporters of Misty Mts. from among the tens of thousands spectators gathered to the Valinor Arena.

And the stadium was roaring as the teams entered, hailing the home team Pelori who had beaten team Valinor in the last game of the group-stage. The crowds were confident Misty Mts. would be something the home team would just walk over. Even Saruman and Durin’s Bane seemed intimidated and nervous by the roar of the homecrowds – only Caradhras marched to the field proud and firm.

Team Pelori started the game in a typical way playing defensive and just trying to get the feel of the opponent. Misty Mts. knew they’d have their chance trying to hit into that with some really aggressive pressure-play from the very beginning, but Pelori managed to ward them off by holding the ball and annihilating the pressure with quick passing, forcing the Misty Mts. players to run for their life to try and exert the pressure – to no avail. On the contrary, the few counter-attacks by Pelori were getting close to a goal one by one.

To the honor of Misty Mts. it must be said they managed to keep Pelori away from scoring for half an hour, always finding someone who would end the passing-rally and turn the direction of the game for a while. But they couldn’t shut them out forever. After a lengthy build-up Pelori were playing their quick-pass game on Misty Mts.’ side of the field when Varda found a gap in Misty Mts. defenses – actually between Meneldor and Landroval – and Eönwë made a perfectly timed run into it receiving the ball from The Exalted just inside the box and comfortably hammered it in. The Herald was not used to fail on open positions like that one and Caradhras, even if he did fill most of the goal, was just such slow to move he had no time to react.

After the goal Pelori fell down to their infamous defense with the lead and just froze the game for the rest of the first half. The home-fans didn’t exactly love it but they appreciated it. This was the way their team marched from victory to victory. The half ended 1-0 to the Pelori.


Misty Mts. came to the second half enraged. They had been wronged before the game when their fans were not allowed into Valinor, they had been humiliated on the pitch with their opponents just toying with them… Could Durin’s Bane take that kind of treatment in the land of the maker of his kind? Could Narvi face one more humiliation against the dwarves? Could Azog just take in the dissing Valinor showed against his kind? Could Landroval and Meneldor see any righteousness in the way they were treated in comparison to Gwaihir? Could Caradhras stand the mocking in front of his brothers and sisters looming in the horizon outside the stadium? Could the Watcher just swallow the name and treatment of an odd-weirdo? How was it with the pride of the Chief Wolf, or the Great Goblin? Weren’t they proud and independent heroes each and every one of them? Wasn’t there an honor they needed to display? Wasn’t this the time they needed to stand tall and fight back – and show the vain Valar what they were made of? (We omitted William from the list for obvious reasons) Yes, it was the tongue of Saruman that got them into fury during the half-time.

And Saruman really rallied the team behind him. Misty Mts. came into the second half with fury and pressed strongly, forcing the Pelori to a more defensive position they liked. Narvi hit the rack after just a few minutes into the second half. Durin’s Bane boomed a cannon that hit Nahar sending it tumbling down – and it took a few minutes for the referees and first-aid troops to bring the horse back to it’s feet. On the next offence Saruman dribbled himself free from Gwaihir but his shot was denied at the last instance by a sliding tackle by Mandos. Just a moment later Azog was getting into a firing-range but after shoving Nienna down the referee whistled a free kick for Pelori…

Manwë didn’t exactly lose his cool but it was easy to see he was annoyed and displeased of what he saw in front of him when he shouted his orders to the players on the field. And they did pull themselves together at last coming back to their usual organized game. And boringly enough they scored from the second full attack they built-up after the panicky ten minutes in the beginning of the half. This time Varda was stuck beside the corner flag on the right flank Landroval closing on her. She made a quick pass backwards to Eönwë who volleyed the ball towards the left flank where Lórien was getting ready for a shot - but Ilmarë emerged from behind Meneldor and made a diving header to cut the pass and into the goal – totally surprising Caradhras. A handy performance from a maid!

But Landroval protested heatedly. He said Ilmarë had dragged his wing down unbalancing him before diving for the header thus denying him a chance to reach for the ball. The referees were unfair as they didn’t call off clear fouls made by the home team, but were whistling anytime one of his own team even touched one of the opponents. Hearing the complaining Gwaihir flew in and started publicly patronizing his brother for whining and bad conduct. At that point Meneldor couldn’t stay calm but got into the argument as well actually pushing Gwaihir back with his right wing and calling him a “blind self-righteous puppet of Manwë”. That did it for Gwaihir who pushed Meneldor back and started calling him names we can’t reproduce in this family-friendly site. But seeing his brother pushing his mate with blow after blow of his wings Landroval couldn’t but join the fray to help his friend. The wings were beating and the beaks were hewn dangerously as the three eagles were at it. The referees tried to separate them in vain – basically they lacked daring, authority and force to do that. But Manwë did that for them, growing in size towering the whole stadium and picking Gwaihir from the neck like a sparrow and carrying him away in between two of his fingers. Namo and Oromë had come to the situation and were giving Landroval and Meneldor the kind of looks saying “you better not follow them” that they thought it better not to.

The referees held council while Manwë had some serious words with Gwaihir, and Landroval and Maneldor were cooling down under the watchful eyes of Namo and Oromë. The final verdict was a yellow card to each of the three. And that probably was a wise decision from the referees as if they had shown them all red cards as the incident would have called for, Misty Mts. would have been reduced to one man short and they – like all their supporters and all the media – could have blamed everything on the referees if Misty Mts. lost the game. So instead of drastic measures they only carded the three.

But the steam was out of the match when it finally continued. Saruman and his team saw the impossibility of the situation being two goals down against such a mighty defence and ball-controlling machine while Pelori had no reason to stretch the lead any further. And seeing how the incident with the eagles had ended made even Durin’s Bane to think twice before starting any mayhem: the sight of a 35 feet Manwë carrying Gwaihir away was intimidating enough.


~*~

So Pelori won the game 2-0 and will continue to the quarterfinals. And even if it could be fairly said that a better team won, there was much left to grudge and to speculate upon. Here are a few comments from the media straight after the game.

Tumunzahar Weekly: "The despotic rule of Manwë must end! Arbitrary premises are no grounds for systematic killing or oppressing of other races. It has been an endemic fault in the world from the very beginning and this year’s Arda Cup has shown once more how thwarted it has become. Staying behind the gibberish of Eru’s vision is just cowardice hiding the real reasons that stem from vanity only. Why is Aulë so quiet – has he abandoned us or has his silence been forced upon him?"

The Armenelos Times: "The presumptuous behavior of the Valar must end! The current going is just insulting all the races great or insignificant. In next year’s Arda Cup let the Valinorians fight it out between each other and then come down from their heights to the play-offs into the M-E. That way we remove the hosting problem and all the races can enjoy football. Even better though would be the opening of the realm of Valinor to all at last with no reservations whatsoever! What is it they try to conceal there anyway?"

The Beleriander: "The West behaves scandalously and that needs to stop. Maybe teams from the west should be just banned from the tournament? Arda Cup would be much fairer and more inter-racially binding without them. The whole idea of bringing races together in the name of fair competition, even mixing different creatures together, has it’s greatest enemy in those who pray they are interpreting the holy visions of Ilúvatar himself! What an outrage! We hold the lands were our forefathers died holy, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t let others to join us in festivities of peace for tomorrow in here. Inclusion is the way to peace and happiness, not exclusion."

Imladris Enquirer: "It is clear there are things that should be changed. It is totally unbearable to hear the news year after year about the mishaps happening to footballing tourists to the West – not to talk of some pretty straightforwards talk we have heard this year about the races welcome and the “undesirables” – the term itself mocks any moral person’s conscience. Just throwing it out as an idea that could be developed or challenged, how about the Valar would be spread the next year – like there would be no “Valinor-based”-team but the Vala who wished could still play in any team they wished to play for, as long as they didn’t have a clan there to call it a Valinor team?"

Moneybags Daily: "The current system of the Arda Cup seems to be at an end and new openings are required. How about we leave this buddy-buddying and anti-meritocratic scheming behind and leap into modernity making the Arda Cup a market-based enterprise like all other facets of our culture? So let those who have capital buy the teams for them and forget these race and age things. A football team should be as any other business: pick the right talent with the right price and you succeed. And to the aficionados afraid of our suggestion, pay heed to this as well: a smart investor takes notice of certain players performing profitably together and causing losses when in the wrong envirovment… so you romantics might get your fair share as well while we wealthier people would have some real opportunity to make some serious bucks."


Misty Mts 0-2 Pelori
tot shots 10-14
on target 4-6
GOALS:
*33, 0-1 Eonwe (Varda)
*65, 0-2 Ilmare (Eonwe)
YELLOW CARDS:
*Misty Mts- Watcher, William, Landroval, Meneldor
*Pelori- Ilmare, Gwaihir


Pelori goes through to meet the winner of the match between Lothlórien and Tirion in the quarterfinals.