[Boromir88]

The Great Delving stadium was filling up quickly when the gates opened a few hours before the first kick. Most spectators were surprisingly hobbits and thus entered the grand stands as neutrals. Even if most hobbits were not enthusiastic about putting their support behind either of these teams, the Arda Cup was in town, it was just another reason to eat, drink, and have some good-simple entertainment. Who could pass up on this deal?

Of the hobbits who were not neutrals, most seemed to be for The Downer, particularly because Saucepan Man was their favorite player. The large Gamgee family was out in full force, bringing all sorts of pots and pans to bang on and cheer for the family favorite. However, it was Angband who had the most fans show up from the non-hobbit crowd: swarty easterlings and bands of orcs made the trip to root on Morgoth and Angband. The hobbits were noticeably nervous having their borders open to unsavory looking big folk and orcs, but with Morgoth working in tandem the Barrow-wights patrol's they felt the matches would be secure.

Group A @ Michel Delving

At the start of the match, it was clear to any one watching there were just 2 different classes of teams on the pitch. It was if Morgoth wrote the script of the game before even playing it. Angband's passing was quick and precise. Their strikers up front were just lacking the finishing touch, or else they would have likely scored within the first couple minutes. The Downer defenders were actually into the game, but defending doggedly trying to get in the way of Angband's shots. Since Ancalagon looked a bit slow and rusty, it worked at first, but being unable to take possession away, eventually the early game rust falls off.

It wasn't even 15 minutes into the match, when Telvildo was already weaving in, out and around Downer defenders' legs After making mousemeat out of the defenders, Telvildo left the ball to Ancalagon to slam in from close range. That goal would surely give the oft-accused of being overly priced dragon some confidence!

Angband seemed content to go pull back and defend, testing their defenders against The Downer attack. The Downer was able to build some pressure in the mid-field, but for the most part they could not beat the Angband back-line. None of their chances seriously trouble Caracharoth at goal.

A mishap in the mid-field between Lalwende MP and John Fillis led to the next goal for Angband in the match. Gelmir stepped up to intercept a pass, and with Ancalagon and Telvildo already stationed up the field there were plenty of Angband players attracting attention. One who did not attract much attention though was Ulfast. Gelmir found the traitorous man at the top of the box. Ancalagon was doing a good job shielding the Bubble Buddha out of the play, and thus Ulfast was able to send a good drive to the back of the net.

Play got a little chippy towards the end of the half, but both teams seemed to welcome the rougher play. The Downer upping the physicality wasn't bothering Morgoth in the least bit, but this team is completely mental. They were laughing, and begging Angband to hit them harder, yet were showing no signs of injury, or wearing down, they just kept...laughing. It was probably Angband's worst part of their game today, since all it did was get their players a couple of yellow cards before the half, which could see one of their player's sent off in the 2nd.

Alas, there was no sign of strategy or life to The Downer's play. 12 minutes into the 2nd period, Ancalagon got his 2nd goal of the match off a free kick. It began with the crowd hearing a pained screech and seeing a feline sent flying some 40 yards through the air. Morsul avoided a straight red card by saying he sincerely tried to clear the ball, but it's not his fault he whiffed at the last moment and cleared Telvildo instead! It was straight from goal, but quite a ways away, still when Ancalagon takes the free kick, everyone knows what's coming, a shot on goal. Ancalagon lined up his shot, and with his trademark tail whip, struck the ball so hard it cleaved a path through everything.

Things began getting really ridiculous after Angband went up 3-0, and most neutrals wound up exiting the stadium. They liked the play they saw from Angband, but were not at all interested in watching The Downer players getting out of control, just as Morgoth was not interested in putting a stop to the sideshow that was The Downer.

Angband was confident of the shut out, but in this way they allowed overconfidence to let them get lazy. The ball somehow freakishly ended up in Hookbill's possession, but he just kicked it towards the sideline (being more fascinated by Alien trying to catch Lalwende MP's cloak on fire). However, Saucepan Man got to it before going out of bounds and then out ran the Angband defenders. Morgoth was the only one left to beat, but Morgoth didn't step up to challenge at all, he appeared to just let Sauce have an open crack at goal, and Saucepan easily beat Carcharoth with a solid strike. The few Pan Fans left in the stands, clattered.

Afterwards, reporters asked about Morgoth's late game decision "Of course I could have stopped him if I wanted to, but we had scored 3 goals and Carcharoth had yet to save a difficult shot. I knew Saucepan would not disappoint in challenging our keeper. I wish Carcharoth had been able to come up with the save, but I purposefully put our keeper in a difficult situation to see how the werewolf would handle it."

Angband 3-1 The Downer
on target 7-3
tot shots 16-12
GOALS:
*14, 1-0 Ancalagon (Telvildo)
*31, 2-0 Ulfast (Gelmir)
*57, 3-0 Ancalagon
*82, 3-1 Saucepan Man (Hookbill)
YELLOW CARDS:
*Angband- Ulfast, Lorgan, Telvildo, Ulfang
*Downer- Hookbill, Evil Mayo, Morsul

It was the greatest buzz happening in The Shire since the hobbit folk could remember. The weather had been bright and clear all day (which obviously was putting the TIG team in a crummy mood before kick off). Adding to weather conditions, the entire atmosphered seemed to be set against the wolves. Their fanbase is normally quite small, but raucous and travels well, but there was barely 2,000 TIG colors spotted in a small corner of Michel Delving stadium. Why such a low turnout? Was the TIG base that despiritted by the Arda Cup's biased rules limitting the number of werewolves on their team?

And obviously, all the unsold TIG ticket allotment just went to Shirelings, and those sold out quickly. Even the standard baddie creatures, like other wights and civilised orcs were joining chants towards Shire-Bree's victory...no doubt thanks to Khamul and the Barrow-wight now playing for them. "Traitors. Both of them" grumbled Gwathwight.

Whatever the reasons were (and we would contribute the combination of negative factors piled up) TIG were a complete mess to start the match. It was none other than Bombadil playfully skipping circles around the TIG defense. Not even the Phantomwolf, who had a much publicized rivalry with the foolish man, could seem to slow him down effecitively. And in the 8th minute, Bombadil added another score off his famous yellow boots.

After the early goal, TIG's defense regathered themselves and actually showed they could at least hault Shire-Bree from building up prolonged attacks, but they were unable to keep possession for long. The mid-field was being masterfully commanded by Khamul and the B-W. The wolves plan seemed to be make Bombadil ineffective by rattling him. Yet, they were playing quite timid, trying not to attract the attention of the ref and pick up cards, but Bombadil was the type of player no one (including the refs!) could take their eyes off. And whenever there was the window where the ref wasn't watching, the B-W's presense could be felt lurking nearby. It would put chills in any physical being!

So, it was in the 30th minute with TIGs defense completely worn down, from being unable to keep the ball off their side of the field, when Aragorn made it 2-0 Shire. Bombadil after causing a BoroWight and GaladriWight to run into eachother, flicked a pass forward to Aragorn who slid it past the wolf-keeper. The crowd went wild in rioutous applause, chants, and songs. TIG was fortunate to find themselves only down 2 going the half, thanks to some nice stops by Shastawolf.

The halflings couldn't believe it, they knew their team was talented, but did not know they would be this dominating! They spent the half-time glued to their seats, with their cakes and ales, unwilling to leave out of fear they would miss the beginning of the second. And they were doing it against the nasty wolves of TIG!

However, often as the case can be, never assume you have a sure 3 points until the ref blows the final whistle. Especially, since there was still a lot of pride in the TIG players, and they are no strangers to making comebacks. They simply refused to let this pathetic people called hobbits embarrass them in this fashion. They would not allow such nonsense!

Tol-in-Gaurhoth came out of the lockers in a roaring fury. It was one attack after the next, and except for the delusional fanatics in the crowd, people could see what was happening and thus were getting nervous. Shire-Bree's defense was not capable of stopping the monstrous wolves when pressured. Nogwolf pulled the wolves within 1 after re-directing on of sally's strikes back on goal, in the 54th minute.

There were several more minutes of pressure, Halbarad had to tip one of Phantomwolf's strikes out of bounds for the corner. Phantomwolf took the corner and expertely curved one right to the waiting forehead of NerWight who made no mistake with that golden chance. They were tied! And 15 minutes still remained!

The Shire fans deflated a bit after the equalizer, but it was only temporary. With TIG now tying things up, in only made the pro-Shire crowd more determined to get behind their team. "Come on Shirelings! Get behind our valiant heroes!"

Try as they might to be spiritted by the crowd, for whatever reason, Bombadil was not nearly as effective in this half. And TIG began to really rain down the shots on Shire-Bree's goal, devastating their defense. If not for some heroic saves by Halbarad, the wolves could have completely flipped this game on it's head in the 2nd.

Thus when the final whistle blew, the SB fans breathed relief to hold on to the point, but were baffled to how their team could look unstoppable in the 1st, but come out completely flat in the 2nd. TIG, likewise, relieved to get the point, were clearly more angry with their sloppy performance.

Shire-Bree United 2-2 Tol In Gaurhoth
on target 6-7
tot shots 12-19
GOALS:
*8, 1-0 Bombadil (Khamul)
*30, 2-0 Strider (Bombadil)
*54, 2-1 NogWolf (SallyWight)
*75, 2-2 NerWight (PhantomWolf)
YELLOW CARDS:
*SBUnt- Ferny
*TIG- GaladriWight, AganWight