Group C at Menegroth & Neldoreth
The last round of group C was played at two marvellous venues: Real Valinor and Shire-Bree United would have their game at Neldoreth’s beautiful Holly Fields -stadium, while the home-team Doriath would face Hithlum in the “winner takes it all” -match home at Menegroth Arena.
To be fair, also Shire-Bree United had theoretical chances of qualification, but they were quite theoretical indeed. For Shire-Bree to qualify they would need to win Real Valinor with basically two goals more than with which Doriath would have to win Hithlum. Now both ideas, that Shire-Bree would beat Real Valinor or that Doriath would beat Hithlum, sounded a bit far-fetched to anyone who had seen the previous games or knew what kind of players different teams had on their rosters. It was true that Real Valinor had nothing at stake any more as they had already qualified, but even then it was not very probable they would take a lazy game in just before the important matches and risk losing their game-tempo & touch.
But the other game at “The Cave” in Menegroth was laden with expectation. Hithlum sure were the favourites by a mile, but there was still the fact that it would take Doriath just a win in that one game to qualify and leave Hithlum into the group-stage. Many at Menegroth had lost their hopes after the first two games that hadn’t gone as well they had hoped for, but realising the situation their hopes were rekindled: Hithlum were known as the tough offencive powerhouse but Real Valinor had been able to stop them (and Gondolin had been able to counter them in the friendlies!) – so why wouldn’t Melian be able to do that as well – and weren’t the Hithlum players more like their protegées than their masters?
Understandably then, the game with Doriath and Hithlum was the talk of the town and could have possibly sold double the tickets if there just had been room. Anyway, both arenas were sold to their capacity as the Holly Fields offered cheaper tickets in comparison to Menegroth Arena’s luxury-packages. Consequentually the game between Real Valinor and Shire-Bree also drew in those people who couldn’t afford tickest to Menegroth in the first place and though got their first sight of Arda Cup football this season in this last match of the group-stage.
The AKM will follow both games simultaneously as they deem it a good practise at this point of the tournament – even if there isn’t such a tight competition on group C where the results from the other game would dramatically alter the situation in the other game – or who knows?
Neldoreth
Shire-Bree must be given credit for their brave effort. Gandalf had somehow beaten the Nazgûls to show a fresh face and while Ferny had been left to play a more defending center-midfielder, Bandobras Took seemed to be all over the place causing harm to Real Valinor’s defences (well making Ingwion to run after him) as he would have been double the size and strength.
But to be honest, Real Valinor handled the early fury of the Shire-Bree offence with grace and sheer professionalism. The worst news to any Shire-Bree fans was the imminent fact how Nienna just diminished Gandalf – their top-scorer and soul of their game seemed small and insignificant beside his mentor – and totally unable to take the reins of the game to his hands. Meanwhile Tilion and Nahar made sure the Nazgûls were afraid of them enough to make them hesitate with the finishing of their offensives.
But that said: early in the game Shire-Bree was doing the game and Real Valinor was happy to hold it even. Many of the crowds cheered the underdogs for it – fair enough – while admiring the effectiveness of Real Valinor’s defence.
Menegroth
It has been often complained – with reason – that when the audience consists mainly of people with a lot of money to spend the atmosphere of the game suffers as the rich only want to “experience” the game-mood but are not willing to give their own effort to it by cheering, chanting or booing actively aka. creating that feeling they strive after. Many times it is true that it is the cheap parts of the stands that create the most noise and feeling to any game – and there were no cheap stands at “The Cave”.
But when the game began the stadium just burst with excitement. Even if the optimists of the home fans wished Melian could just shut the humans out, most of them realised it was a game of scoring as Hithlum would score a few anyway – so could Elwë keep on scoring, would Mablung rise to the occasion without Beleg, could Daeron or Saeros redeem themselves? There were so many questions in the fans’ heads…
And then there was a blunt answer from the field. A worst possible anwer, that is.
Túrin made Saeros look like a complete fool passing him with the age-old heeltrick, and using Hador as a wall, broke through the Doriath defences basically elbowing Nellas from his way – and just before facing Melian he shot the ball irresistibly past her – and past the reach of Dior – with such a force the spectators couldn’t but just hold their breath. Hithlum was in the lead with only nine minutes into the game.
Neldoreth
After the initial rush by the Shire-Bree, Real Valinor started to make some counterplay little by little and even if it didn’t seem like Real was making any effort the center of gravity started shifting.
At 17th minute Real Valinor earned a corner after a nice play by Nerdanel and Miriel where Halbarad just barely managed to tip the ball off the crossbar. Tilion gave a high corner towards Oromë who was marked by Gildor and Shadowfax – at the last moment Oromë ducked under the ball taking both defenders down with him – and the ball landed exactly to Nessa’s boot behind him. Some swore she had nodded to her brother in thanks before she shot the ball in. Be that as it may, it was a cool finishing and Real Valinor had taken the expected lead.
But Shire-Bree was not going to give up. On the contrary, it started to build more force to it’s attacks again and Real went into a more defending mode – just waiting for the fury to settle down it seemed.
Menegroth
Meanwhile at The Cave the homeside fans were getting even more anguished as Hithlum didn’t show any sign of being happy with the one goal lead but actually pressed their attacks forwards one after another.
Mablung did rekindle the hopes of the Doriath fans with his far-shot that swerved to miss the post with only a few inches but Hithlum called the shots most of the time. After Beleg had missed an almost certain goal to a questionable offside whistle by the linesman Elwing was forced to tackle speeding Húrin against the rules in the next Hithlum attack.
With the father and son behind the ball the defences were ready to take the hottest cannon-shot possible. While Túrin ran to the ball crossing left and Húrin trailing him crossing to the right the defences split to contain either shot – and no one quite realised Hador had sprinted forwards behind them; and after the two had jumped over the ball Hador booted it into the middle of the goal from the gap that had emerged.
With 24 minutes of the game Hithlum was leading already 2-0
Neldoreth
After Real’s goal the game felt pretty much the same it had when it started: Shire-Bree made a decent effort but Real Valinor kept them at bay with some ease – while at times they made a few pretty dangerous counter-attacks.
It was not that the Shire-Bree were totally excluded of chances but their quality was far inferior to Real. The news from Menegroth telling that Hithlum was leading already 2-0 didn’t cheer up the Shire-Bree team either.
Menegroth
With the second goal by the visitors Elwë and Melian brought their team together into a close ring. What was said there no one knows and the referees were forced to bring it down eventually as the clock was ticking. But what happened afterwards showed it worked…
For suddenly Doriath’s defences were like built from solid steel. With the help of Galadhon and Nellas they wrapped the Hithlum offences and contained them – just coolly shooting the ball away if no better solution was available. But they were also getting the ball forwards on many occasions: Mablung and Daeron were making the runs on both sides while Elwë was still keeping the middle but was clearly falling a bit backwards to feed the two more effectively – and when they were on offensive Melian would actually rise up to build the game almost beside her husband. Add to that the fact that Saeros was distracting both Túrin and Beleg in a major way, and the game started turning…
And just five minutes before the half-time the home team scored!
Melian gave a long pass from the center of the field to the left for Mablung who was rushing deep behind the defences. When Galdor and Gundor overtook him he passed it diagonally backwards to Elwë in the middle who passed it with one touch right-forwards to Daeron who got the Balrog on his neck – but fooling the beast totally by faking a shot he managed to return the ball just to the edge of the box for Elwë to rush in for.
You could see Singollo to take the shot from the bottom of his heart leaving Huor no chance whatsoever to pick it – and the ball was hammered to the upper-right corner of the goal, going there with the slight touch on the crossbar making the ball bounce violently downwards and rolling through the back of the net out and away from the goal. The crowds went wild and the sound of it was just perfect! The game was still on!
There was a huge effrot from the homeside the last five minutes before the half-time – an equalizer there would have changed the whole dynamics of the game for good. But they didn’t come closer than Mablung’s offside break-through and Daeron’s shot far and wide.
HALF-TIME
Neldoreth
The second half seemed to start like the first one with Shire-Bree building the first attack – with the news from Menegroth that Doriath was back in the game it felt like they had a chance anyway – but suddenly Real Valinor basically ended the game.
Nienna took the ball from Gandalf as easily as the proverbial adult takes a lollipop from a child’s hand. Real Valinor changed tempo and stamina in a fraction of a second just outpacing the Shire-Bree team. With the first pass Bandobras was near catching it from Quennar, Shadowfax was already a little late from Nessa receiving the ball in full speed, Gildor tried to slide to the pass coming to Miriel but ended up sliding into emptiness as Miriel had already gotten off – and the Fellbeast was far behind from Oromë when he hammered the ball in from close quarters leaving Halbarad no chance whatsoever.
The spectators were gasping. That was something they had never seen. And it probably was also what broke the Shire-Bree’s resistance for good.
Menegroth
Doriath came to the second half full of spirit and tried seriously to wrestle the game to the Hithlum side of the field – but Hithlum had decided it should go the other way. And finally the crowds at Menegroth could witness some really high-quality football with their own team involved.
The emotions were high. Morwen got a yellow card after assaulting Saeros who had been taunting Túrin for a long time kicking his heels everytime the referee didn’t see – and was only cooled down by Mablung and Beleg together… and Saeros getting carded as well. On the other hand it required all Melian’s skills to cool down Elwë when he had lost the ball to Húrin a few times in a row and Húrin had paid back with some self-righteous remarks on the matter.
It was an open game with Hithlum leading with 2 goals to 1 but Doriath really playing the best game of the season and making a real challenge.
Neldoreth
Like had been foreseeable, the pace of the game had fallen down after the 2-0 goal by Real Valinor and the virtuosity Real had shown – like if they want to, they score. But realising the situation that there were a lot of spectators watching the game at the first time since the tickets to Menegroth were so pricey both teams were clearly willing to give the crowds some entertainment, even if there was no real question as to which team would win the game. So with a kind of a common consent – which probably was never verbalized between the teams – both sides loosened their defences a bit and started trying some imaginative and / or brave ways to score resulting in a very entertaining game.
Gandalf actually hit the crossbar with a bicycle-kick from almost thirty meters – while Miriel and Nerdanel went through the Shire-Bree defences passing the ball to each other so that Miriel eventually passed the ball to Nerdanel even from in front of the empty net just to do a favour – and Shadowfax was able to cut it off at the last moment…
Even if there were no more goals the crowds were entertained to the full – and the game ended as it should have ended.
Menegroth
It was getting nerve-wrecking at the Cave. And many homeside fans swore why their team hadn’t shown this kind of game already in the earlier matches – sure Shire-Bree would have been just a bite for them with this play. But they were still trailing and the game was very even indeed.
Many think Huor at the goal is one of the weakest links of Hithlum team, but at least this day he made one of the saves of the round. Melian managed to free Mablung for a break-through but Huor made a reaction-save with his out-stretched left foot tipping the ball just slightly past the post. From the ensuing corner Huor fisted the ball confidentally away from Elwë who was rushing in for a header.
But Dior was also rising to his level on the other end of the field by denying Hador’s cannon from only fifteen meters (coming straight at him though – but anyway it was such a boot it could have pulled a lesser person with it inside the goal) and tipping Beleg’s close header just inches over the crossbar.
Túrin got his chance in the middle of the second half when Húrin freed him from the side of the box but his volley ran wide. A few minutes later Beleg ran the ball to the end of the field and centered the ball and Túrin dived to head the ball in – and Dior couldn’t pick it! His fingers did reach the ball but he was just that inch late and the power of Túrin’s header was such that it slipped between Dior’s fingers and went in.
With twenty minutes of the game remaining Hithlum was leading 3-1!
Hithlum-lead felt overwhelming but to the honour of the home team it must be said that they fought it to the bitter end – and their fans never gave up as long as there was time in the clock to be played. But to the even partially objective observer it was clear that Hithlum had the game in their control for the last twenty minutes, how much Doriath tried to come back to the game.
Doriath had made it a great match and forced Hithlum to perform their best – and many will say Hithlum got some invaluable practise on defending under pressure from it as the defence has been widely seen as their Achilles’ heel.
Results:
ShireBree United 0-2 Real Valinor
on target 3-6
tot shots 9-14
GOALS:
*17, 0-1 Nessa (Tilion)
*47, 0-2 Orome (Miriel)
YELLOW CARDS:
*SBUnt- Fellbeast#5
*RealV- Enerdhil
Doriath 1-3 Hithlum
on target 6-9
tot shots 14-18
GOALS:
*9, 0-1 Turin (Hador)
*24, 0-2 Hador
*40, 1-2 Elwe (Daeron)
*69, 1-3 Turin (Beleg)
YELLOW CARDS:
*Doriath- Saeros, Galathil
*Hithlum- Morwen
Code:
Real Valinor 9 7-1
Hithlum 6 8-5
Doriath 1 2-6
Shire-Bree Utd. 1 2-7
Real Valinor advances as C1
Hithlum advances as C2