2023-06-22, 06:19 AM - Word count:
Part 1: Set-up and Teams
Part 2: The Groups
Welcome to the quarterfinals of this national team cup. In these quarter finals we have 2 2-legged ties between the teams coming out of the groups. These are as follows:
USA U23 (D1, 7) - Southern Europe (C2, 8)
USA U23, the surprise winner in a challenging group D, and the expected 7th place in the tournament. Being the winner with the lowest point total could mean 2 things, either group D isn’t as strong as expected beforehand, or group D was the closest group of all. The quarter-finals will decide.
Southern Europe, coming 2nd in group C, and the expected 8th place in the tournament. Being together in 1 group with expected champions Scandinavia had to be tough on Southern Europe, but they managed to win the other 2 games and thus managed to go through as the best number 2 team, on par in points with their opponents USA U23.
British Isles (B1, 6) - Asia-Oceania (A2, 12)
The British Isles came first in group B, looking like 1 of the 2 group B favorites together with Canada the British isles capitalized on Canada’s disastrous group performance by getting first in group B. The expected position for the British Isles was 6th, and this together with being the 2nd best team in the groups, they surely want to continue this form into the knockouts.
Asia-Oceania is one of the surprises getting 2nd in group A, as the team expected as 12th. Asia-Oceania might not have been expected to get out of the group phase. But now they are out they will for sure try to get as far as possible, but this is definitely a team of every step further, makes a good result even better.
Scandinavia (C1, 1) - Western Europe (D2, 2)
Scandinavia the expected first place, and also the actual first place from group C, being the only team which has won every single game in the group stage much will be expected from tournament-favorite Scandinavia.
On the other side of this match-up is Western Europe, being expected to be the 2nd best team of the tournament Western Europe has underperformed in the group stage so far, nearly getting knocked out of the group. But they did make it out and will hope to perform better now the knock-outs have started.
Africa (A1, 4) - Eastern Europe (B2, 13)
Africa, the expected 4th place of this tournament, and the winner of group A have gone undefeated so far. They will hope to extend this tournament run into the semi-final and then see where it will go.
Eastern Europe, the expected 13th place, the lowest expected place in their group did eventually make it through in 2nd place. Having 1 goal and 0 goals against in 3 games does show how solid they are in defense, as the only unbeaten 2nd place team.
The first quarter final match is between USA U23 (USA) and Southern Europe (SE). Kjell Holmberg from USA opened the statistics with a quick yellow card after 4 minutes, quickly followed by a big chance for SE’s Ramos which was held by Burger. But a quick distribution by Burger got intercepted by SE, causing a quick counter-attack with Noodle bringing the ball to Torres to get Torres 1-on-1 with Burger, but Burger managed to stop it and make it a corner. Which was easily kept away by the USA. The next chance comes in the 9th minute with SE having a throw-in which doesn’t go that well, but a quick recovery by SE, and a nice cross by Arasov gets Torres a good heading chance which goes over. In the 17th minute Busquets got a yellow. For the next chance we go to minute 22, where a Burger goal-kick gets quickly retaken by SE eventually leading to Horvat crossing it to Papadopoulos, and with Burger being out of position Papadopoulos looked ready to score but Doug managed to get in between the shot at the last second, to make it a corner. With these chances we go to the 2nd half 0-0. The first chance in the 2nd half comes from a own half throw-in for SE, with some passing play the ball eventually gets to Horvat who makes a nice through ball to Papadopoulos which gets him a 1-on-1 chance with Burger and with clinical finishing Papadopoulos gets SE to a 0-1 lead. But then comes VAR who overrules the goal because of Papadopoulos being off-side getting the game back to 0-0. After a 76th minute yellow for Stains, and a 77th minute yellow for Kroustis the next chance was in the 81st minute. A quick counter-attack by SE gets Horvat to cross the ball in front of goal, with Knight putting the ball into his own net for a 0-1 lead to SE. In the 92nd minute some quick play gives Berbatov a 1-on-1 with Burger, but good goalkeeping by Burger keeps the game 0-1.which also ends game 1 in a 0-1 scoreline.
Game 2 of this tie. After SE dominated the first game it was still only 0-1 for SE. Now in match 2 SE will be looking to keep this lead in their home game. A quick 2nd minute attack for SE opened the scoring early in this one, with Torres getting the ball to Papadopoulos who is on-side this time to make the game 0-1 and the tie 0-2 for SE. A bad kick-off gave Torres a big chance in the 3rd minute of the game heading the ball on the post. In the 18th minute Stojakovic got the first yellow of this match, while in the 23rd there was another SE chance, Arasov getting the ball from the SE goalie in the SE defensive area, and making a run all the way to the opposing sides cornerflag, crossing it to Torres on the opposite side of the pitch, who passed it to Papadopoulos who was standing in the 5-meter zone and tapped the ball in to make the game 0-2 (and the tie 0-3) for SE. This 0-2 lead was kept into the 2nd half where Hall made a foul trying to pick up a ball right outside of the penalty area, getting a yellow, and giving the USA a chance to come back into this tie. But Doug’s free kick ended up in the wall. In the 80th minute SE got a chance to make it 3 but a bad shot from distance wasn’t gonna be fooling the USA goalie. But after the goal-kick ended up at the SE defense, and a quick counterplay started it was Berbatov who was 1-on-1 with Burger, but Burger managed to get the ball away from Berbatov. A 90th minute yellow from Busquests ended this tie, with a on aggregate 3-0 win for Southern Europe meaning Southern Europe will be advancing to the semi-final with USA U23 being knocked out.
The 2nd tie of the quarter-final is the British Isles (BI) against Asia-Oceania (AO). With AO getting a quick chance, where after the kick-off and some quick passes Liang Kuai made it past 2 defenders and bringing the shot in the far-post to make it 0-1 for AO after 31 seconds.Valor got a yellow in the 13th minute, which was followed up by a AO chance in the 20th minute. Rhodes made a corner, which got quickly headed away by LeDiver. But afterwards AO quickly got the ball again and in the end Kaido sent a shot from 20 yards (18 meters)) out to make it 0-2 for AO. The 3rd chance of this game comes in the 37th minute where AO has a throw-in on the half of BI, BI does manage to get the ball away, but without control it ends up at Valor’s feet, where after a quick counter Princess Changshan places a beautiful cross to Liang Kuai who passes it to Mudaliar who makes it 0-3, which is also the scoreline going into the 2nd half. This 2nd half has its first chance in the 55th minute with Vins Vins shooting from pretty far away hitting the crossbar, but the rebound comes to the feet of Liang Kuai who from an impossible corner hits the post, afterwards BI manages to get the ball safely away. Following a Merz yellow, and a throw-in not long after AO gets their next chance in the 68th minute Where Lian Kuai once again sees Mudalair who then passes it to Okamoto who blasts it in for the 0-4. A risky ball back to the AO goalie, nearly gets punished by O’Rourke in the 73rd minute, but the AO goalie manages to get to the ball earlier starts a quick counter which after 5 passes ends with Liang Kuai being free in the penalty area 1-on-1 with the goalie, but Georgiou manages to save the ball. 2 late yellow for Jeeves and Okamoto don’t have an impact on this first game and so AO ended this game with a 4-0 lead over BI.
The 2nd game is a boring one between these 2 teams with the tie seemingly over. There are no chances in the first half. The first chance comes in minute 53 with a VIns Vins, Princess Changshan one-two followed up by a Vins Vins cross, which gets headed away by Le Diver right into Kemoeatu’s feet who then crosses the ball to Lian Kaui who makes it 0-1 (0-5 in the tie) for AO. Another chance came in the 70th minute with some back and forth crosses from AO but none of them managed to connect with anybody in the penalty area. A corner in the 72nd minute gives Kemoeatu a chance to score from close, but the AO attacker heading attempt goes wide, A late yellow for Vins Vins ends this tie with Asia-Oceania winning 5-0 on aggregate over the British Isles, which means Asia-Oceania is going through to the semi-finals while the British Isles will be going home.
The next tie is between the 2 favorites for this tournament in Scandinavia (SC) and Western Europe (WE).With the first chance coming in minute 13 with a Chicken cross leading to a big chance for Gintonic but the post manages to save it from going in. A yellow card for Visser in the 16th minute is the next noteworthy thing before a throw-in by WE ending in a long-range shot by Gourcuff going far over. In the 29th minute a bad SC throw-in ends in a slow counter and Aubuchon-Touchette shooting from far, but Gunnarsson easily saves it for a corner, which gets easily defended by SC. In the 39th minute a WE passing game goes wrong ending up with Larsen being 1-on-1 against Hall, but Hall surprisingly saving the ball, and the following corner being easily headed away. This also ends the first half with the only other noteworthy thing being a 41st minute yellow card for Aubuchon-Touchette. The 2nd half starts with SC putting up the pressure on WE leading to some small chances between the 55th minute, and 60th minute. Which is also the only noteworthy even in the 2nd half, with this first game ending in a 0-0 draw.
The 2nd match starts a lot more exciting with WE messing up playing from the back meaning a counter for SC which after an amazing pass by Jarvinen ends up with Söderberg shooting on goal and making it 1-0 for SC (1-0 aggregate). The next chance follows in the 25th minute with SC having a throw-in which ends up with Nesse crossing it to Brukspatron who heads it straight into the hands of Hall. But a messed up play in the defensive leads to SC getting the ball and after some quick Tiki-Taka Tälli finds a through ball to Imbrimovick who gets 1-on-1 with Hall and puts it in for 2-0 (2-0 on aggregate). Larsen gets another chance for SC in the 43rd minute but this one goes wide. This ends the first half and after a mostly boring 2nd half in the 85th minute it is a throw-in for SC which gives Imbrimovick an amazing chance for the 3-0 but he hits the post. The last chance of the game came in the 90th minute with a mess-up in the SC defense ending up with Isagi shooting over the goal.
This means that the game and also the tie ends with a 2-0 win by Scandinavia over Western Europe, which means Western Europe is knocked out and Scandinavia will continue to the semi-finals.
Now onto the last tie of today with Africa (AF) taking on Eastern Europe (EE). The first 2 notable events are a yellow card for Hlemyzd, and Anshah in the 17th and 19th minute respectively. The first chance comes from a AF throw-in Getting Bobby to give a cross to Rashford and Casual, but Bryzski manages to get to the ball first and gets it out for a corner, which is easily defended by EE. After this we are already in the 2nd half with a EE attack failing, and an AF counter-attack also messing up ending up in a long-range shot by Pinkman going just over the goal.Then we end up in the 53rd minute with AF passing the ball around a bit until eventually Bobby sees Youre standing free, and giving a high through ball to Youre who 1-on-1 with the Heretic sees his shot get saved by the Heretic and going out for a corner, which is easily defended by EE. The next chance comes from Casual running along the side, passing it to Djimrabaye Jr. who shoots from far, but the ball gets deflected by a defender and goes wide and over, with the corner getting once again easily defended. But playing out of the defense gone wrong striked EE when Dian managed to get the ball close to the EE goal, playing it back to Rashford, and then forward to Bobby who gets the ball into the net to bring AF 1-0 in front, but then the VAR checks the goal, and sees Bobby was offside and thus this 1-0 doesn’t count. The 73rd minute gives the next chance with Rashford’s through ball finding Casual who loses it 1-on-1 with the Heretic who keeps EE in the game. Following this up is a 86th minute chance in which Casual find Bobby, puts Bobby through on goal just to see the Heretic also save this attempt on goal. A final attempt comes from the side of AF with Okocha finding Casual after a cross, who heads it on goal just to see the Heretic also saving this one. In the following counter EE had a good chance to make it 1-0 but a bad last pass sees Yeboah easily collecting the ball meant for Taka.
Going into the 2nd game 0-0 might feel harsh for a dominating AF, which was noticeable, as the next match started with a bang with EE having a free-kick after only 3 minutes right outside of the penalty area with the free-kick connecting with Taka who heads it over the goal. The following goal-kick goes wrong for AF with EE easily getting the ball, but after a bad pass in their build-up a quick AF counter finds Casual, who puts in a through ball for Bobby who goes 1-on-1 with the Heretic and chips the EE goalie to make it 1-0 for AF (1-0 aggregate) after 4 minutes.The next chance comes not much later in the 7th minute with a long-shot from Taka getting saved by Yeboah and a Yeboah long goal kick not being handled correctly by the EE defense getting collected by Casual, who crosses it nicely to Bobby for the 2-0 (2-0 aggregate) in the 8th minute. But after a VAR-check Bobby is deemed offside making the score go back to 1-0. The next chance comes in the 11th minute where after a corner for AF that gets headed away by the EE defense ends up at the feet of Rashford who find Youre, who find Dian, who tries to cross it to Casual, and finds Casual, but Casual heads it straight to the Heretic to keep it 1-0. Now onto the 13th minute where a bad build-up by EE gives the ball to AF where after some quick back-and-forth passes Anshah finds a cross to Bobby who makes it 2-0 (2-0 aggregate) and this time the VAR says the goal wasn’t offside. A blunder from Yeboah in the 17th minute in working away a cross gives Taka a big chance to make it 2-1 but Taka kicks the ball straight at Yeboah who easily saves this shot. Which means the half-time whistle goes with a 2-0 lead for AF. The 60th minute brings the first chance in the 2nd half with the Heretic finding a long ball to Pinkman who after passing around a bit with Lamp and Moder finds a run straight to goal, and shoots. But the shot is saved by Yeboah.The subsequent corner leads to a quick counter for AF with Rashford making a long run to get a 1-on-1 with the Heretic and calmly shoots it in for the 3-0 lead (3-0 aggregate) for AF. Following this is a run along the side for Lamp in the 64th minute where Anshah comes in with a tackle from behind earning Anshah a straight red card. In the 88th minute AF finds another chance putting a through ball in for which the Heretic needs to come out of the net, and tackle the ball away from Casual. Bobby tries a shot on the empty goal from quite a distance but shoots the ball wide and over. A EE free-kick in the 89th minute leads Bryzski to cross the free-kick in front of the goal, which in the chaos connects with Miglaskems who makes it 3-1 (3-1 aggregate). Where after a dominating first game it was still 0-0 Africa did come back a lot more clinical in game 2 and managed to make it 3-1 in a pretty even game. Meaning Africa goes through to the semi-finals, and Eastern Europe is out of the tournament.
Scoreline:
USA U23 (D1, 7) - Southern Europe (C2, 8)
Game 1: 0-1
Game 2: 0-2
Aggregate: 0-3
British Isles (B1, 6) - Asia-Oceania (A2, 12)
Game 1: 0-4
Game 2: 0-1
Aggregate: 0-5
Scandinavia (C1, 1) - Western Europe (D2, 2)
Game 1: 0-0
Game 2: 2-0
Aggregate: 2-0
Africa (A1, 4) - Eastern Europe (B2, 13)
Game 1: 0-0
Game 2: 3-1
Aggregate: 3-1
That means that the British Isles (B1, 6), Eastern Europe (B2, 13), USA U23 (D1, 7), and Western Europe (D2, 2) are knocked out. With the semi-finals being:
Asia-Oceania (A2, 12) - Southern Europe (C2, 8)
Scandinavia (C1, 1) - Africa (A1, 4)
The article about this and the finals will most likely come somewhere next week.
Part 2: The Groups
Welcome to the quarterfinals of this national team cup. In these quarter finals we have 2 2-legged ties between the teams coming out of the groups. These are as follows:
USA U23 (D1, 7) - Southern Europe (C2, 8)
USA U23, the surprise winner in a challenging group D, and the expected 7th place in the tournament. Being the winner with the lowest point total could mean 2 things, either group D isn’t as strong as expected beforehand, or group D was the closest group of all. The quarter-finals will decide.
Southern Europe, coming 2nd in group C, and the expected 8th place in the tournament. Being together in 1 group with expected champions Scandinavia had to be tough on Southern Europe, but they managed to win the other 2 games and thus managed to go through as the best number 2 team, on par in points with their opponents USA U23.
British Isles (B1, 6) - Asia-Oceania (A2, 12)
The British Isles came first in group B, looking like 1 of the 2 group B favorites together with Canada the British isles capitalized on Canada’s disastrous group performance by getting first in group B. The expected position for the British Isles was 6th, and this together with being the 2nd best team in the groups, they surely want to continue this form into the knockouts.
Asia-Oceania is one of the surprises getting 2nd in group A, as the team expected as 12th. Asia-Oceania might not have been expected to get out of the group phase. But now they are out they will for sure try to get as far as possible, but this is definitely a team of every step further, makes a good result even better.
Scandinavia (C1, 1) - Western Europe (D2, 2)
Scandinavia the expected first place, and also the actual first place from group C, being the only team which has won every single game in the group stage much will be expected from tournament-favorite Scandinavia.
On the other side of this match-up is Western Europe, being expected to be the 2nd best team of the tournament Western Europe has underperformed in the group stage so far, nearly getting knocked out of the group. But they did make it out and will hope to perform better now the knock-outs have started.
Africa (A1, 4) - Eastern Europe (B2, 13)
Africa, the expected 4th place of this tournament, and the winner of group A have gone undefeated so far. They will hope to extend this tournament run into the semi-final and then see where it will go.
Eastern Europe, the expected 13th place, the lowest expected place in their group did eventually make it through in 2nd place. Having 1 goal and 0 goals against in 3 games does show how solid they are in defense, as the only unbeaten 2nd place team.
The first quarter final match is between USA U23 (USA) and Southern Europe (SE). Kjell Holmberg from USA opened the statistics with a quick yellow card after 4 minutes, quickly followed by a big chance for SE’s Ramos which was held by Burger. But a quick distribution by Burger got intercepted by SE, causing a quick counter-attack with Noodle bringing the ball to Torres to get Torres 1-on-1 with Burger, but Burger managed to stop it and make it a corner. Which was easily kept away by the USA. The next chance comes in the 9th minute with SE having a throw-in which doesn’t go that well, but a quick recovery by SE, and a nice cross by Arasov gets Torres a good heading chance which goes over. In the 17th minute Busquets got a yellow. For the next chance we go to minute 22, where a Burger goal-kick gets quickly retaken by SE eventually leading to Horvat crossing it to Papadopoulos, and with Burger being out of position Papadopoulos looked ready to score but Doug managed to get in between the shot at the last second, to make it a corner. With these chances we go to the 2nd half 0-0. The first chance in the 2nd half comes from a own half throw-in for SE, with some passing play the ball eventually gets to Horvat who makes a nice through ball to Papadopoulos which gets him a 1-on-1 chance with Burger and with clinical finishing Papadopoulos gets SE to a 0-1 lead. But then comes VAR who overrules the goal because of Papadopoulos being off-side getting the game back to 0-0. After a 76th minute yellow for Stains, and a 77th minute yellow for Kroustis the next chance was in the 81st minute. A quick counter-attack by SE gets Horvat to cross the ball in front of goal, with Knight putting the ball into his own net for a 0-1 lead to SE. In the 92nd minute some quick play gives Berbatov a 1-on-1 with Burger, but good goalkeeping by Burger keeps the game 0-1.which also ends game 1 in a 0-1 scoreline.
Game 2 of this tie. After SE dominated the first game it was still only 0-1 for SE. Now in match 2 SE will be looking to keep this lead in their home game. A quick 2nd minute attack for SE opened the scoring early in this one, with Torres getting the ball to Papadopoulos who is on-side this time to make the game 0-1 and the tie 0-2 for SE. A bad kick-off gave Torres a big chance in the 3rd minute of the game heading the ball on the post. In the 18th minute Stojakovic got the first yellow of this match, while in the 23rd there was another SE chance, Arasov getting the ball from the SE goalie in the SE defensive area, and making a run all the way to the opposing sides cornerflag, crossing it to Torres on the opposite side of the pitch, who passed it to Papadopoulos who was standing in the 5-meter zone and tapped the ball in to make the game 0-2 (and the tie 0-3) for SE. This 0-2 lead was kept into the 2nd half where Hall made a foul trying to pick up a ball right outside of the penalty area, getting a yellow, and giving the USA a chance to come back into this tie. But Doug’s free kick ended up in the wall. In the 80th minute SE got a chance to make it 3 but a bad shot from distance wasn’t gonna be fooling the USA goalie. But after the goal-kick ended up at the SE defense, and a quick counterplay started it was Berbatov who was 1-on-1 with Burger, but Burger managed to get the ball away from Berbatov. A 90th minute yellow from Busquests ended this tie, with a on aggregate 3-0 win for Southern Europe meaning Southern Europe will be advancing to the semi-final with USA U23 being knocked out.
The 2nd tie of the quarter-final is the British Isles (BI) against Asia-Oceania (AO). With AO getting a quick chance, where after the kick-off and some quick passes Liang Kuai made it past 2 defenders and bringing the shot in the far-post to make it 0-1 for AO after 31 seconds.Valor got a yellow in the 13th minute, which was followed up by a AO chance in the 20th minute. Rhodes made a corner, which got quickly headed away by LeDiver. But afterwards AO quickly got the ball again and in the end Kaido sent a shot from 20 yards (18 meters)) out to make it 0-2 for AO. The 3rd chance of this game comes in the 37th minute where AO has a throw-in on the half of BI, BI does manage to get the ball away, but without control it ends up at Valor’s feet, where after a quick counter Princess Changshan places a beautiful cross to Liang Kuai who passes it to Mudaliar who makes it 0-3, which is also the scoreline going into the 2nd half. This 2nd half has its first chance in the 55th minute with Vins Vins shooting from pretty far away hitting the crossbar, but the rebound comes to the feet of Liang Kuai who from an impossible corner hits the post, afterwards BI manages to get the ball safely away. Following a Merz yellow, and a throw-in not long after AO gets their next chance in the 68th minute Where Lian Kuai once again sees Mudalair who then passes it to Okamoto who blasts it in for the 0-4. A risky ball back to the AO goalie, nearly gets punished by O’Rourke in the 73rd minute, but the AO goalie manages to get to the ball earlier starts a quick counter which after 5 passes ends with Liang Kuai being free in the penalty area 1-on-1 with the goalie, but Georgiou manages to save the ball. 2 late yellow for Jeeves and Okamoto don’t have an impact on this first game and so AO ended this game with a 4-0 lead over BI.
The 2nd game is a boring one between these 2 teams with the tie seemingly over. There are no chances in the first half. The first chance comes in minute 53 with a VIns Vins, Princess Changshan one-two followed up by a Vins Vins cross, which gets headed away by Le Diver right into Kemoeatu’s feet who then crosses the ball to Lian Kaui who makes it 0-1 (0-5 in the tie) for AO. Another chance came in the 70th minute with some back and forth crosses from AO but none of them managed to connect with anybody in the penalty area. A corner in the 72nd minute gives Kemoeatu a chance to score from close, but the AO attacker heading attempt goes wide, A late yellow for Vins Vins ends this tie with Asia-Oceania winning 5-0 on aggregate over the British Isles, which means Asia-Oceania is going through to the semi-finals while the British Isles will be going home.
The next tie is between the 2 favorites for this tournament in Scandinavia (SC) and Western Europe (WE).With the first chance coming in minute 13 with a Chicken cross leading to a big chance for Gintonic but the post manages to save it from going in. A yellow card for Visser in the 16th minute is the next noteworthy thing before a throw-in by WE ending in a long-range shot by Gourcuff going far over. In the 29th minute a bad SC throw-in ends in a slow counter and Aubuchon-Touchette shooting from far, but Gunnarsson easily saves it for a corner, which gets easily defended by SC. In the 39th minute a WE passing game goes wrong ending up with Larsen being 1-on-1 against Hall, but Hall surprisingly saving the ball, and the following corner being easily headed away. This also ends the first half with the only other noteworthy thing being a 41st minute yellow card for Aubuchon-Touchette. The 2nd half starts with SC putting up the pressure on WE leading to some small chances between the 55th minute, and 60th minute. Which is also the only noteworthy even in the 2nd half, with this first game ending in a 0-0 draw.
The 2nd match starts a lot more exciting with WE messing up playing from the back meaning a counter for SC which after an amazing pass by Jarvinen ends up with Söderberg shooting on goal and making it 1-0 for SC (1-0 aggregate). The next chance follows in the 25th minute with SC having a throw-in which ends up with Nesse crossing it to Brukspatron who heads it straight into the hands of Hall. But a messed up play in the defensive leads to SC getting the ball and after some quick Tiki-Taka Tälli finds a through ball to Imbrimovick who gets 1-on-1 with Hall and puts it in for 2-0 (2-0 on aggregate). Larsen gets another chance for SC in the 43rd minute but this one goes wide. This ends the first half and after a mostly boring 2nd half in the 85th minute it is a throw-in for SC which gives Imbrimovick an amazing chance for the 3-0 but he hits the post. The last chance of the game came in the 90th minute with a mess-up in the SC defense ending up with Isagi shooting over the goal.
This means that the game and also the tie ends with a 2-0 win by Scandinavia over Western Europe, which means Western Europe is knocked out and Scandinavia will continue to the semi-finals.
Now onto the last tie of today with Africa (AF) taking on Eastern Europe (EE). The first 2 notable events are a yellow card for Hlemyzd, and Anshah in the 17th and 19th minute respectively. The first chance comes from a AF throw-in Getting Bobby to give a cross to Rashford and Casual, but Bryzski manages to get to the ball first and gets it out for a corner, which is easily defended by EE. After this we are already in the 2nd half with a EE attack failing, and an AF counter-attack also messing up ending up in a long-range shot by Pinkman going just over the goal.Then we end up in the 53rd minute with AF passing the ball around a bit until eventually Bobby sees Youre standing free, and giving a high through ball to Youre who 1-on-1 with the Heretic sees his shot get saved by the Heretic and going out for a corner, which is easily defended by EE. The next chance comes from Casual running along the side, passing it to Djimrabaye Jr. who shoots from far, but the ball gets deflected by a defender and goes wide and over, with the corner getting once again easily defended. But playing out of the defense gone wrong striked EE when Dian managed to get the ball close to the EE goal, playing it back to Rashford, and then forward to Bobby who gets the ball into the net to bring AF 1-0 in front, but then the VAR checks the goal, and sees Bobby was offside and thus this 1-0 doesn’t count. The 73rd minute gives the next chance with Rashford’s through ball finding Casual who loses it 1-on-1 with the Heretic who keeps EE in the game. Following this up is a 86th minute chance in which Casual find Bobby, puts Bobby through on goal just to see the Heretic also save this attempt on goal. A final attempt comes from the side of AF with Okocha finding Casual after a cross, who heads it on goal just to see the Heretic also saving this one. In the following counter EE had a good chance to make it 1-0 but a bad last pass sees Yeboah easily collecting the ball meant for Taka.
Going into the 2nd game 0-0 might feel harsh for a dominating AF, which was noticeable, as the next match started with a bang with EE having a free-kick after only 3 minutes right outside of the penalty area with the free-kick connecting with Taka who heads it over the goal. The following goal-kick goes wrong for AF with EE easily getting the ball, but after a bad pass in their build-up a quick AF counter finds Casual, who puts in a through ball for Bobby who goes 1-on-1 with the Heretic and chips the EE goalie to make it 1-0 for AF (1-0 aggregate) after 4 minutes.The next chance comes not much later in the 7th minute with a long-shot from Taka getting saved by Yeboah and a Yeboah long goal kick not being handled correctly by the EE defense getting collected by Casual, who crosses it nicely to Bobby for the 2-0 (2-0 aggregate) in the 8th minute. But after a VAR-check Bobby is deemed offside making the score go back to 1-0. The next chance comes in the 11th minute where after a corner for AF that gets headed away by the EE defense ends up at the feet of Rashford who find Youre, who find Dian, who tries to cross it to Casual, and finds Casual, but Casual heads it straight to the Heretic to keep it 1-0. Now onto the 13th minute where a bad build-up by EE gives the ball to AF where after some quick back-and-forth passes Anshah finds a cross to Bobby who makes it 2-0 (2-0 aggregate) and this time the VAR says the goal wasn’t offside. A blunder from Yeboah in the 17th minute in working away a cross gives Taka a big chance to make it 2-1 but Taka kicks the ball straight at Yeboah who easily saves this shot. Which means the half-time whistle goes with a 2-0 lead for AF. The 60th minute brings the first chance in the 2nd half with the Heretic finding a long ball to Pinkman who after passing around a bit with Lamp and Moder finds a run straight to goal, and shoots. But the shot is saved by Yeboah.The subsequent corner leads to a quick counter for AF with Rashford making a long run to get a 1-on-1 with the Heretic and calmly shoots it in for the 3-0 lead (3-0 aggregate) for AF. Following this is a run along the side for Lamp in the 64th minute where Anshah comes in with a tackle from behind earning Anshah a straight red card. In the 88th minute AF finds another chance putting a through ball in for which the Heretic needs to come out of the net, and tackle the ball away from Casual. Bobby tries a shot on the empty goal from quite a distance but shoots the ball wide and over. A EE free-kick in the 89th minute leads Bryzski to cross the free-kick in front of the goal, which in the chaos connects with Miglaskems who makes it 3-1 (3-1 aggregate). Where after a dominating first game it was still 0-0 Africa did come back a lot more clinical in game 2 and managed to make it 3-1 in a pretty even game. Meaning Africa goes through to the semi-finals, and Eastern Europe is out of the tournament.
Scoreline:
USA U23 (D1, 7) - Southern Europe (C2, 8)
Game 1: 0-1
Game 2: 0-2
Aggregate: 0-3
British Isles (B1, 6) - Asia-Oceania (A2, 12)
Game 1: 0-4
Game 2: 0-1
Aggregate: 0-5
Scandinavia (C1, 1) - Western Europe (D2, 2)
Game 1: 0-0
Game 2: 2-0
Aggregate: 2-0
Africa (A1, 4) - Eastern Europe (B2, 13)
Game 1: 0-0
Game 2: 3-1
Aggregate: 3-1
That means that the British Isles (B1, 6), Eastern Europe (B2, 13), USA U23 (D1, 7), and Western Europe (D2, 2) are knocked out. With the semi-finals being:
Asia-Oceania (A2, 12) - Southern Europe (C2, 8)
Scandinavia (C1, 1) - Africa (A1, 4)
The article about this and the finals will most likely come somewhere next week.
![[Image: Mikko-Rashford-Sig.gif]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1022455373170475068/1120512677823918201/Mikko-Rashford-Sig.gif)
