In the next two matches we'll see Tol Eressea battle it out with Dor Lomin and the Barrow-Downs face Gondor. Finally, we get to see the champions in action. They should be fairly good matches. Anyway, time to kick off!
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Group D
Tol Eressea 1 - 0 Dor Lomin
(Frodo 1st)
You couldn't ask for a better start. The first play of the game resulted in a goal.
Frodo began his run right from kick off and took Dor Lomin by surprise as he ran through to the box and blasted in a shot.
Brodda did get a hand to it but could not prevent it from going into the net, giving Tol Eressea a very early lead. Alas, this was not an indication of what was to be as the rest of the first half was fairly boring. The only other highlight was a yellow card to
Earendil in the 43rd minute.
The second half started off very poorly with
Elwing been shown a yellow card.
Turin took the free kick and it was a good one at that, but in the end it went straight to the 'keeper. Tol Eressea then began to sit back and try and defend their lead. It seemed to work out quite well for them as Dor Lomin seemed unable to get a shot past a stern Tol Eressea back line. In the 80th minute though
Turin broke away and rolled a shot under
Eriol only for
Lindo to make a heroic clearance.
Shots: 4(2) - 4(3)
Posession: 48 - 52
Bookings: Earendil, Elwing
Group G
Barrow-Downs 2 - 0 Gondor
(Rune son of Bjarne 68th, The Phantom 83rd)
Gondor took the game to the 'Downs right from kick off. They began to push back the 'Downs. After some well thought out plays and desperate clearances, Gondor had their first real chance.
Anarion played the ball in to
Faramir whose header was somehow saved by the
Barrow-Wight. The 'Downs began to slowly piece together an attack from here. After a few good passes,
Saucepan Man played a magnificent through ball for
Rune, whose shot unfortunately went just wide of the mark.
From then on the 'Downs began to get in the groove and started to dominate proceedings. A lobbed ball from
Phantom found Saucepan Man whose chip wound up in the back of the stands instead of the back of the net. Towards the end of the half,
Sleepy Ranger nabbed the ball from
Imrahil and frenzied goalwards.
Ecthelion threw himself at
Sleepy to stop him. The young forward appealed for a penalty but the referee judged that
Ecthelion had got the ball first.
Gondor began the second half in similar fashion to the way they began the first half.
Thengel forced an acrobatic save out of the
Barrow-Wight. Gondor were able to build a few more attacks before the 'Downs were able to hit them on the counter-attack around the 68th minute.
Sleepy Ranger and
Saucepan Man played some brilliant one twos before
Slepey Ranger played the ball through to
Rune who made no mistakes this time and scored a fine goal.
Gondor were quite visibly annoyed as they had dominated the second half till this point and it was only fantastic keeping by the
Barrow-Wight that had denied them a goal so far. Towards the end of the game the 'Downs had a free kick in a fairly good position.
Phantom and
Arcticstorm stood over the ball.
Arcticstorm faked by jumping over and
Phantom unleased his right foot, blasting the ball into the top corner, sealing a good win for the 'Downs.
Shots: 8(5) - 11(5)
Posession: 45 - 55
***
A lucky win there for Tol Eressea while the 'Downs managed to net two in their opening fixture against a resilient Gondor. This result will leave the 'Downs tied for top spot with the Inklings who also recorded a two goal victory earlier in the tournament. I expect to see some celebrations here now that the 'Downs have won...
