International Democratic Union Football Championship
Hosted by the cities of Elopolis, Carville and Summersea, Lauchenoiria
Welcome to the planning thread for the IDUFC 2026!
To participate please fill in the form below. Initial puppet entitlement is one puppet per player.
Code:
[b]Country Name (short form):[/b]
[b]Puppet (Y/N):[/b]
[b]Country Trigram (3-letter abbreviation for your country):[/b]
[b]Uniform (Optional description of uniform, +1 points for completing):[/b]
[b]Team Roster (Optional list of team members, +2 points for a list of names, another +2 for listing their home clubs):[/b]
Your offence score and defence score are each numbers from 1-9. You can allocate your total points as you wish to each stat. Total points are the number of points you may have received from the optional parts above, plus 10 points for main nations or 6 points for puppets.
[b]Offense Score (1-9):[/b]
[b]Defense Score (1-9):[/b]
[b]Additional Notes (Optional, no points):[/b]
Initial deadline is Friday 1st May 2026 OR until 16 teams have registered. If we do not achieve 16 teams by this date, puppet entitlement may be increased.
Country Name (short form): Commonwealth of Haesan (Haesan) Puppet (Y/N): N Country Trigram (3-letter abbreviation for your country): HAE Uniform (Optional description of uniform, +1 points for completing): Home - Seaside with Silver/Gold accents; Away - Navy with Silver/Gold accents (shown in Discord) Team Roster (Optional list of team members, +2 points for a list of names, another +2 for listing their home clubs):
Starting XI LW: Assane Soumare | Age 19 | AFC Seorin Soumare, the son of a Koldan-Haesanite longshoreman, is a pacy, flair winger who has proven his first team capacity at a young age through his poise and football IQ. Already starting for his club on weeknights in Hesperida, Soumare hopes to impress for his country as well. ST: Seo Eui-kwon | Age 22 | AFC Seorin AFC Seorin's nearly £100 million man, talismanic Seo is a rising star in Hesperida and is the face of the national team. An undersized forward, Seo surprises opposing defences with his pace and clinical finishing off the break - a pure goal scorer. RW: Kim Dong-baek | Age 26 | Hanshui FC Kim is a chance creating winger, regarded for his crossing ability and ball control on the dribble. Along with Seo and Soumare, Kim's pace completes one of the fastest front threes in the IDU (albeit one of its least physical). CM: Mahdi Kamoun (Captain) | Age 31 | AFC Seorin Kamoun is a trailblazer for immigrant representation in the national team, being the first player of a non-traditionally Haesanite ethnicity when he was capped in 2013. Now, Kamoun is team captain where he leads as a strong passer and midfield facilitator. CM: Yves Moulin | Age 24 | Althea CF Moulin went to Althea in 2021 on what was then a record transfer for a Haesanite player, and in Laeral he has developed into a world-class combative, ball-winning midfielder. Moulin's specialty is taking on midfield challenges, pressing the play, and creating counter-attacking opportunities on the break. CDM: Lee Jae-won | Age 21 | Lumeniola AC Lee is still developing, but has already shown he is capable of being an effective anchor of the midfield. Lee is fast and known for his marking ability, which has lead to a high work-rate in stopping opposing counter-attacks against the Haesanite press. LB: Seok Hyeon-woo | Age 22 | Ashford FC Seok is the best young fullback in the IDU, and arguably the best fullback altogether. He is a complete package, with the vision to lead attacking plays down the left, a high defensive work-rate and accurate tackling, and the technical ability to stop the IDU's deadliest and most creative wingers in their tracks. Undoubtedly this team's best player, although as a fullback he is usually underappreciated by the media. CB: Pan Chi-won (Vice Captain) | Age 28 | Litudinem FC Pan is a tough and disciplined defender, with years of club experience at the highest level of Hesperidan competition. He is the leader of this team's back line, and as such often sets the standard and direction of the attacking buildup when in possession. CB: Francois Leroux | Age 25 | Club Cité d'Anfe Leroux is a homegrown talent for Club Cité. He is pacier than Pan, and thus often is more involved with high-pressing and possession winning, while Pan is more of a true centre back. RB: Hwang Jin-su | Age 24 | New Liverpool FC Hwang is a tricky fullback who likes possession of the ball and is adept at long dribbles down the wing. He tends to be a facilitator, but has been criticized as overeager and impatient for his occasional dereliction of his defensive duties when chasing the attack. GK: Charles Cross | Age 20 | Suyang City FC The young Cross takes over from the aging Herve Coste in a changing of the guard at keeper. Cross has impressed in his two first-team seasons with Suyang City, with his numerous clean sheets being instrumental to returning the club to the Elite Championship after years of malaise.
Reserves FW: Jeon Ji-wan | Age 31 | Hansaeng Jeonyu FC FW: Lee Seung-hyeon | Age 23 | Levesque CF FW: Fawaz Al-Qattan | Age 21 | Southland Athletics MF: Tristan Kwon | Age 22 | Club Cité d'Anfe MF: Mekonnen Birhanu | Age 22 | Suyang City FC MF: Bae Yu-jun | Age 27 | Hyangsan Athletic FC MF: Yeon Ho-yeon | Age 26 | AFC Seorin DF: Shin Jae-yong | Age 25 | Litudinem FC DF: Min Seon-min | Age 29 | AFC Seorin DF: Kang Gi-beom | Age 25 | AFC Seorin DF: Armand Payet | Age 30 | Club Cité d'Anfe DF: Park Ji-ho | Age 27 | Atlético Ciudad Victoria GK: Herve Coste | Age 38 | Club Cité d'Anfe GK: Yoon Jun-su | Age 23 | Anmi FC
Your offence score and defence score are each numbers from 1-9. You can allocate your total points as you wish to each stat. Total points are the number of points you may have received from the optional parts above, plus 10 points for main nations or 6 points for puppets.
Offense Score (1-9): 7 Defense Score (1-9): 8
Additional Notes (Optional, no points):
History Professional football was largely banned in Haesan from 1942 to 1971, which coupled with the infrastructure damage from the Great War made the team a late developer relative to its regional counterparts. In the 2000s, the Choi administration invested in football training and youth development facilities, and the number of licensed coaches quadrupled from 2000 to 2015. This led to a new wave of youth players with significantly better training than those in earlier generations, which is why the Haesanite national team remains one of the youngest by average age.
Recent qualifying campaigns have been disastrous for Haesan. In 2018 a 2-1 loss in Jaken City to Gonhog in the UHFA playoff semifinals eliminated the Comets earlier than many expected. 2020 was worse - a 4-0 group stage drubbing by LOM at home in Suyang's Marsh Ground meant that the qualifying playoffs were missed all together. 2022 saw another 2nd place group stage finish and a return to the qualifying playoffs, and a playoff finals berth after a clean win against Misumi. However, one game away from their first ever IDUFC berth, Haesan lost to tiny Grundhaven 2-0 on the road, in the worst loss in the nation's football history.
This year, afforded a top seed in the group stage due to some good friendly and continental results, Haesan swept through their group with a record of 5-0-1 to become one of the first teams in the IDU to qualify. The strong results under Maximusian coach Jordan Avery have given the nation hope that Haesanite football, once played in the shadows, may finally have its moment in the light.
Tactics Haesan uses high pressing, inverted fullbacks, and precise passing to break down opposing defences, and uses the team's strong conditioning and relentless pace to score goals on the counter attack. Haesan usually does not require a lot of possession to win games, and is as comfortable off the ball waiting for mistakes as building up an attack. Haesanite footballers are stereotypically well conditioned with high football IQ but are generally weaker and undersized, and this team proves there is some truth to that stereotype. As such, the team prefers keeping the ball on the ground and moving quickly down the pitch with passing attacks rather than relying on winning set pieces or aerial challenges.
Rivalries Haesan's primary rivalries are with Laeral, Opthelia, and Darya - in that order. Other often-contested or notable matches include those against LOM, Slokais, High Fells, and Lao Sansong. If any of these matches occur, the domestic media intensity will be higher around the match.
Fans While hooliganism and football related violence is tragically common in other nations, Haesan has a much lower incidence of these events. This phenomenon is due to the restrictions that remained around association football when it was re-legalized, along with general social standards during the dictatorship and early democratic period. As a result, football (as with other sports like baseball) tends to be perceived as family-friendly and has a notably more gender-balanced fan base compared to other nations - hooliganism is exceedingly rare amongst Haesanite fans, even in rivalry matchups.
Haesanite football fans, as in other sports, both travel well and make their presence felt. Tam-tam drums, whistles, and excessive fan chant coordination will be coming to Lauchenoiria as well to form "seaside waves" of supporters (and noise).
Country Name (short form): United Federation of Slokais Islands (Slokais Islands)
Puppet (Y/N): N
Country Trigram (3-letter abbreviation for your country): FSI
Uniform (Optional description of uniform, +1 points for completing): Home - Dark blue with white and yellow middle stripe and accents: Away - White kit featuring yellow sleeves with topographic design: Goalkeeper - Red base with white wave pattern, plain red sleeves with purple and dark purple flower designs
Team Roster (Optional list of team members, +2 points for a list of names, another +2 for listing their home clubs):
Starting XI:
LB: Miles Zhao P-an| Age 23| Weston Road Wolves
Zhao P-An is a fast and tricky left-back who has been playing consistent minutes for Weston Road Wolves, including during their 2022 SPL-winning season and their appearance in the UHFA knockouts in 23-24. A product of the Weston Road Academy, he is the pride of the local indigenous community and is the first member of the Kaoin people to play for the national team.
CB: David Delarosa| Age 32| Ambon United
A feature of the 2022 IDUFC squad, Delarosa makes his return to the national team. His mind talent, in addition to his passing presence, is his ability to pick out long balls for his teammates.
CB: Stephen Chang| Age 26 | New Liverpool FC
Chang has rapidly improved his game over the last two seasons, with an intense defensive mindset. Chang always hangs back and currently leads the entire SPL in defensive contributions. Despite his small 5’7 stature, he makes up for it with technique and an ability to square up against taller players.
RB: Khoury Malak| Age 20| Kaijan City Dragons
Malak slides into a position that has little depth among the Slokasian talent pool. Yet don’t doubt the player who lost his home due to the Kaijan War in 2020. Malak can quickly switch into a counter-attack and can be a nuisance to opposing attackers who let their guard down. He also broke with his Dragons teammates in accepting the call-up, as the club is a bastion of Kaijanese nationalism.
LWB: Jerome Jinyarayian| Age 19| Northrock United
A wonderkid from Santi Maria, Ambonar, Jinayayian has been given the green light to start due to his successful first season at Northrock United. Behind Zavala, he has the highest transfer value and is experienced with international football at the U-21 level. He has a technical ability beyond his age, and his natural chemistry is valuable.
CAM: Néstor Fuentes| Age 23| AFC Seorin
A feature for the world-class AFC Seorin, Fuentes is a threat from set pieces due to his relative height and is the tallest outfield player on the entire national team at 6’4. He was brought to Haesan due to his standout performances for Salvador City in the SPL.
RWB: Ceseck Abad Moussa | Age 21| Southland Athletics
A product of the excellent Southland Athletics academy, he immigrated from Kolda at the age of 10 due to political violence, due to being part of the Moujerrian ethnic group. He is a tricky winger who can humiliate defenders in one-on-one situations and will look to send crosses into either Zavala or Olmedo.
RW: Javier Olmedo | Age 28| Ashford FC
Olmedo has featured as a starter for the Maximusian side and has strong stamina and the ability to provide consistency in his role. He also has a dangerous shooting ability and can find the net from outside the box.
LW: Quentin Henderson|Age 26| Northrock United
The highest-paid player in SPL history, Henderson looks to prove his value as he makes amends with his city rival’s star player in Zavala. Henderson has made consistent starts at every level of the national team and was a youth phenom due to his father, Louis Henderson, being a legend in his own right. Henderson is a goal-scoring threat and could easily play a dual striker role.
ST: Theodore Zavala| Age 33| New Liverpool FC
Who else but the SPL’s all-time leading scorer as of last season? After missing the 2022 IDUFC with a calf injury, the sharp striker originally from San Sabla is ready for a challenge. He is both the captain of New Liverpool and the captain of this national team. Zavala is a master of positioning, always the targetman; he continues to find the net. Zavala is also number 1 for penalty duty.
GK: Keith Yuen| Age 35| Northrock United
Yuen is known as the “Rock of Northrock” and has been a fixture at the number 1. He is quick on his feet and can deal with dangerous situations with composure built from an almost two-decade career. Yuen is a living legend who featured in the 2022 World Cup and already has a son starting for the Northrock U-21s at just 16.
Reserves
FW: Simon Rinzu| Age 24| New Liverpool FC
FW: Johnthan Kai-Yuen| Age 32| Acadia Oaks United
FW: Franklin Xiao| Age 21| Weston Road Wolves
FW: Joseph Monejo| Age 33| Northrock United
MF: Aiden Umali| Age 25| Northrock United
MF: Joseph Chang-Hua| Age 30| New Liverpool FC
MF: Joel Luna| Age 29| Docklands FC
MF: David Jimyrajong| Age 19| Ambon United
DF: Joseph Via| Age 28| San Fernando FC
DF: Ricky Chávez| Age 25| Atlético Ciudad Victoria
DF: Michael Adbeyaor-Lin| Age 20| Southland Athletics
DF: Robert Estvez| Age 26| New Liverpool FC
DF: Matthew Whiterock-Kauijaq| Age 20| Northrock United
GK: Kasion Alvarez-Chu| Age 18| San Fernando FC
GK: Daniel Barrenga| Age 27| New Liverpool FC
Offense Score (1-9): 8
Defense Score (1-9): 7
Notes:
The traditional national sport of the Slokais Islands, football is a national pastime. Recent appearances in 2018 and 2022 have solidified Slokais as a regional power. Yet to truly become an international power in the football world, Slokais must make a deep tournament run. In the last appearance in 2022, Slokais failed to make it out of the group despite scoring six goals. Since then, the national team has gone through fairly large roster turnover as the 2022 squad was from a different generation, and key players such as Theodore Zavala were injured. In the qualification for the IDUFC, Slokais Islands held themselves well, 4 wins, 2 draws, as well as excellent play from wonder-kid Jerome Jinyarayian and others to help the federation draft a final 26-man roster.
Culturally speaking, this is a diverse team. Not just in an ethnic sense, but also in the number of teams represented. Past corruption meant rosters often featured primarily from the big 2 clubs of New Liverpool and Northrock FC, which have by far the highest revenue in the SPL. There is a wide range of talent and stories in this national team. The real question is, can the solid quality of the SPL as a league translate to the national team? Critics have accused the SPL of having few international players, yet on the flip side, Slokasian may not play consistently in the top leagues of Haesan or LOM.
Speaking of the SPL, Slokasian fans have an intense passion for the sport, which has in the past translated into hooliganism in domestic leagues at every level. Even in the Federation Cup, which features hundreds of clubs going down to the semi-provincial and township level, there has been violence. Yet, the SIFF (Slokais Island Football Federation) has been rigorous in recent years, especially after the temporary ban on IDUFC qualification in the 2000s.
<t>The Federation of Slokais Islands- fighting for freedom and democracy</t>
Country Name (short form): LIBERTAS OMNIUM MAXIMUS Puppet (Y/N): NO Country Trigram (3-letter abbreviation for your country): LOM Uniform (Optional description of uniform, +1 points for completing):
The Maximusian National Team's primary kit is forest green with golden and white swoops and seafoam blue accents. The secondary kit is purple with white arm bands and a horizontal blaze and gold accents. Team Roster (Optional list of team members, +2 points for a list of names, another +2 for listing their home clubs):
Goalkeepers
GK | RICH GOODWIN | Iustitia City FC
GK | Adrian Blake | Litudinem FC
Defenders
LB | JOSH WEBSTER | Ashford Downs FC
LB | Vincent Montalbano | Perra FC
CB | AARON DeSOTO | Chester FC
CB | Chris Mackey | Saint City FC
CB | John DeVries | Brannigan FC
RB | DAVE BRADLEY | Redbury FC
RB | Jayson Howe | Weston Road
Midfielders
LM | MICHAEL BRUNNER | Saint City FC
LM | Keith Wemble | Chester FC
CM | BEN NEUMANN | Perra FC
CM | SAMUEL CHEN | Lumeniola FC
CM | Zachary Hallman | Iustitia City FC
CM | Charles Kelly | Litudinem FC
RM | JORDAN BOWEN | Papilon Club
RM | James Galea | Litudinem FC
Attackers
LW | CHRISTOPHER DURANT | Chester FC
LW | Will Adley | Lyne River AC
RW | JOE ALDERMAN | Perra FC
RW | Adam Fischer | Oxbend AC
CF | AUSTIN GALLAGHER | Burton AC
CF | Collin Kinnley | New Liverpool FC
*Starter's names are CAPITALIZED.
Your offence score and defense score are each numbers from 1-9. You can allocate your total points as you wish to each stat. Total points are the number of points you may have received from the optional parts above, plus 10 points for main nations or 6 points for puppets. Offense Score (1-9): 7 Defense Score (1-9): 8 Additional Notes (Optional, no points):
Since the 2022 IDUFC, many of the Maximusian National Team's top players have retired, leading to a younger, more defense-oriented 2026 roster. Although the Maximusians have qualified for every new-iteration (i.e. since 2018) IDUFC tournament, their best finish was a disappointing 1-2 knock-out by Great Acadia on their home turf in 2022. The shaken-up roster will have a lot to prove in Lauchenoiria, both to the Maximusian people and to the international football community.
Federal Constitutional Republic
Founded MDCCCXXXVII
Country Name (short form): Novella Islands Puppet (Y/N): N Country Trigram (3-letter abbreviation for your country): NOI Uniform:
Spoiler:
Team Roster:
Goalkeepers:
1. Gareth Mellor (Novella City FC)
12. Nicholas Roe (Stradmouth AFC)
13. Samuel Crewe (Redpool FC)
Defenders:
2. Toby Ashworth (Hartford Athletic)
3. Marcus Aldenby (Novella City FC)
4. Edmund Hallow [VC] (Eddington Commons FC, Opthelia)
5. Daniel Holt (Hartford Athletic)
14. Aarav Singh (Novella City FC)
15. Gordon Maitland (Port Cheltenham AFC)
16. Felix Warren (Richmond City)
17. Theo Larkin (Avalonia FC, Opthelia)
Midfielders:
6. Rohan Mehta (Novella City FC)
7. Elias Thorne [C] (Hartford Athletic)
8. Nathan Calder (Sydney FC)
18. Hassan Khoury (Novella City FC)
19. Owen Bradshaw (Heiwakyō SC, Hanafleura)
20. Jian Lau (Broadbent United)
Forwards:
9. Riku Takeda (Richmond City)
10. Charlie Maddox (Gordon Town)
11. Adam Fenwick (Eddington Imperial FC, Opthelia)
21. Connor Ellison (Wolverton AFC)
22. Jack Easton (Heiwakyō SC, Hanafleura)
23. George Halloran (Port Cheltenham AFC)
Offence Score (1-9): 7 Defence Score (1-9): 8
Additional Notes:
Spoiler:
Overarching doctrine
Possession is the rational default, because the ball is the one variable that most reduces an opponent's expected output: a chance cannot be conceded from a position the other side has been denied the ball to reach. Control is therefore not a stylistic preference, but the evidenced-optimal strategy, and risk is afforded only where the expected return justifies the variance it introduces. The side keeps the ball to starve the match of chaos, advances when the percentages favour it; it treats the speculative pass, the low probability shot, and the showman's dribble as indulgences that trade expected value for spectacle.
Out of possession the team becomes a fortress with a purpose. The block is not an end – indeed, parking for a mere draw is a failure of ambition – but the mechanism of the regain. Pressure is constant yet disciplined: coordinated and patient, never the reckless individual lunge, because power is applied with restraint and only to a calculated end. Every defensive phase exists to recover the ball and restore control.
Above all, the system is sovereign over the individual. There is no Novellan star cult. The side is built as a commons in which eleven roles serve one structure, and a civic culture that is congenitally suspicious of elevating the lone genius above the collective produces a footballing identity to match. Selection runs on demonstrated, current competence, and the side revises itself perpetually. In-match adjustment, exhaustive post-match analysis, and a coaching culture that treats every result as a dataset to be critiqued.
History
Novellan football traces its roots to the worker athletic associations of the Communist Union era, when sport was organised through the workplace and the district. When the Social Republic professionalised football after 1969, the clubs carried that inheritance with them; a collective, association-bred culture that sits comfortably with the modern national side's distaste for the star system.
The deepest association football culture sits in Wainwright's weekend club heartland, and in the capital, more than in the rougher working provinces. In Dalton and Watson, the association code has always run second to older, larger, more aggressive football forms (ironically, closer to the modern Opthelian interpretation), and the clubs there still mark themselves "AFC" to declare which game they play.
The national team's distinctive identity is younger again, and is essentially the application of the Novellan temperament to the sport. The arrival of a serious analytics culture under the present coaching regime turned a vaguely possession-minded side into a deliberately, rigorously controlling one, and the Blossoms (named so for the national flower) became the most patient, lowest-variance team of their generation.
Tactics and strategy
The system is a 4-2-3-1 organised around two principles: control the ball, and make every defensive phase a means of regaining it. In possession, the side builds from a settled base; the goalkeeper as an extra outfielder, the centre-halves splitting, and a full-back (usually Holt) inverting to form a three-man platform with the double pivot. Thorne dictates the tempo from the deepest position; Mehta screens and recycles; Calder operates between the lines as the hinge to the front three. The ball is moved to provoke a shift in the opposition, not for its own sake, and the side advances only when the picture justifies the risk. Out of possession, the Blossoms form a compact block and press on coordinated triggers, rather than committing reckless individual challenges; the front man and the right winger key the press, and the object is always the regain, never the cynical interruption. The set-piece approach is well-drilled, low-risk, and content to take the safe restart over the speculative one.
Novellans abroad
The three in Opthelia went up and into the opposite. Opthelian football is the prized national game there, played the way the Novellans never would. Territorial, aerial, collision-led, big men and brute-force attacks – a code nearer to a contact sport than to the Blossoms' patient circulation – and on a bigger, louder stage than the home league offers. Only the physically viable make the move: Hallow, big enough to thrive and good enough to elevate the power game; Fenwick, the imported craftsman an elite club can afford to protect; Larkin, the cheap young project bought to be hardened at a lesser club. The two seniors are local rivals abroad: Hallow for Eddington Commons, the "people's club"; Fenwick across the city for Eddington Imperial, the "Empress’ XI", reunited only for the Republic. It is alienating work, and coming home to a side that plays the "right way" is, for all three, a relief.
The two in Hanafleura went the other way, down in scale, but into something close to home. The Hanafleuran game is the Blossoms' own creed, taken further. Selfless, exacting, more patient still, holding the collective whole as a thing kept for its own sake rather than for the percentages, and admitting no licensed maverick at all, since individual ornament breaks the shape. Bradshaw and Easton are young, and would be waiting their turn behind the internationals at home; in Hanafleura they start every week and progress faster, drilled in a system that sharpens their fundamentals, instead of deforming them. At the same rate, the steady passage of Novellan talent quietly strengthens the Protectorate's developing game in turn, a relationship the shared values make natural.
Together the five are a fraternity the home-based players are not in, but they split in mood: the Opthelia three carry the wariness of men who play a hard, foreign game ten months a year, while the Hanafleura two carry the polish of a congenial one. Between them they give the side its physical credibility against bigger opponents, and its closest inside read on the two nations it most readily considers rivals.
Rivalries
The primary fixture is against Opthelia: the control game against the power game, irresistible force against immovable object. Everything the Republic believes about football – that the ball is starved of chaos, and the percentages win out – is put to the most violent test available, and the Novellan doctrine is in fact well-built to smother a brute side... provided it can withstand the battering long enough to do so. It tends to play out as both sides' characters predict. Tight, low-scoring, attritional, decided by a single lapse.
The secondary fixture, against Hanafleura, is the meeting of kindreds rather than opposites; the established master against the promising student playing the same creed, only purer and smaller. It is a mirror match, decided less by any clash of ideas than by the senior side's greater maturity and depth. A Hanafleuran win over the Novella Islands is celebrated there with a fervour the result alone would not explain, and received at home with the quiet discomfort of a teacher bested by a pupil.
Fans and supporter culture
Novellan supporters are, by the standards of the sport, an unusually reserved crowd, and the football culture has inherited the wider civic habit of arguing on the merits. The supporters' highest praise is not "brilliant", but "correct"; the sincere compliment of a people who believe the right pass and the beautiful one are the same thing. The same culture produces a marked discomfort with the cult of the individual, and Novellan crowds are slow to lionise a single player, preferring to credit the system itself.
The four-day working week props all of this up at the base, sustaining a deep amateur game, filling midweek attendances, and keeping the professional pyramid rooted in something participatory rather than purely spectated. Nowhere is this seen more so than in Wainwright, where weekend club sport is half the province's sense of itself.
Detailed biographies
Head coach |Mandy Castella
A former sports scientist appointed for analytical rigour over playing pedigree. Speaks of matches as "problems with a correct solution", and treats the squad as a system to be optimised. She is unfashionably content to win 1-0, having had the ball for three-quarters of the match, and unbothered that this makes her, in the eyes of the sports press (and much of the overseas fanbase), excruciatingly dull.
No. 1 | Gareth Mellor | Goalkeeper Age 31 | 1.91 m | right-footed | Novella City FC
The last line and, just as importantly, the first builder. Mellor is a sweeper-keeper in the truest sense – as comfortable receiving a back-pass under pressure, as he is making the save – and his range off his line lets the back four defend high without fear of the ball over the top. He has held the gloves for the better part of seven years on composure, rather than spectacle.
Converted from a junior outfield position, which accounts for the footwork. He was never the most athletic goalkeeper of his generation, and made the national side by being the most intelligent. He keeps a private log of every penalty he has ever faced, by taker, and is said to know an opponent's preferred corner before they have the ball.
No. 2 | Toby Ashworth | Right-back Age 27 | 1.78 m | right-footed | Hartford Athletic
The most reliable and least celebrated name on the team sheet. Ashworth does the unglamorous full-back job to a standard that never draws attention, precisely because nothing goes wrong on his side. He overlaps only when the situation calls for it, and inverts into midfield when the side needs an extra man to control the centre.
Came up through a smaller provincial side and earned his international place not with a single highlight, but with a season in which he simply never gave the ball away cheaply. He is privately, fiercely proud of holding the league's lowest error rate.
No. 3 | Marcus Aldenby | Right centre-back Age 29 | 1.86 m | right-footed | Novella City FC
A ball-playing centre-half, who initiates as much as he defends. Aldenby reads the game a beat ahead, steps out of the line to break the first wave of a press, and treats a misplaced pass as a personal affront. He is the right side of a defence built to play out under pressure.
Groomed in a possession-centric academy that valued his passing over his frame, and vindicated by a decade of it. He posts the highest pass-completion of any defender in the domestic game, and has been heard apologising to teammates for a stray ball that went out of play harmlessly.
No. 4 | Edmund Hallow | Left centre-back | Vice-captain Age 33 | 1.89 m | left-footed | Eddington Commons FC (Opthelia)
The back line's voice, and its aerial anchor. Hallow is old-school in the best sense, commanding his box, organising the block, and offering the security that lets the inverting full-backs and stepping centre-half take their liberties. A leader by command, the senior figure who drags a defence through a difficult half. Abroad he is the odd man less in his game – which the "power league" covets – than in his bearing: the unhurried, never-booked Novellan among aggressors.
His mid-career move across the border raised eyebrows at home, given the rivalry; he has since become something of an unofficial ambassador, and a reminder that the two nations' footballers are not their governments. He embodies the doctrine's restraint literally, having gone an extraordinary run of matches without a booking.
No. 5 | Daniel Holt | Left-back Age 25 | 1.76 m | left-footed | Hartford Athletic
The thinking full-back. Holt is comfortable in central midfield, which is the entire point of him. His inversion gives the side a three-man base from which to control the game, and his positional sense lets the system function without exposing the flank.
A converted midfielder who learned the defensive craft late and retained the midfielder's brain; the modern profile the academy now deliberately develops. He is known to ask the analysts for his own "positions received" map after every match, and to be mildly annoyed when it shows him too wide.
No. 6 | Rohan Mehta | Defensive midfielder Age 28 | 1.82 m | right-footed | Novella City FC
The screen, the ball-winner, the keystone of the fortress. Mehta does the work the highlight reels ignore, protecting the back four, snuffing out the counter before it begins, and giving the ball simply and immediately to the man beside him. Without him, the whole controlled edifice is exposed.
A relentless, selfless engine, the player who covers for everyone else's adventure. He leads the league in ball recoveries and measures his own game by interceptions, not goals, and is faintly baffled when anyone asks how many he has scored (it is not many).
No. 7 | Elias Thorne | Deep-lying playmaker | Captain Age 32 | 1.79 m | right-footed | Hartford Athletic
The metronome and on-pitch conductor. Rarely the name on the highlight reel, always the name every teammate cites. He came up through a worker-association youth side and has anchored the national midfield for the better part of a decade at Hartford Athletic, the unflashy heartland club whose unspoken motto is that "it doesn't need to be the best, it just needs to work". If the Blossoms have a tempo, Thorne is the one setting it.
Ice-calm, never hurried, in constant low communication, treating the match as a problem to be solved rather than a contest to be won (through which he continues to retain the unwavering faith of Castella). Studious and reserved, the squad's most fluent reader of the game, who spends his downtime dismantling matches over a pot of tea with whoever will argue back.
No. 8 | Nathan Calder | Attacking midfielder Age 26 | 1.77 m | right-footed | Sydney FC
The disciplined creative. Calder is the side's most inventive player, and its most harnessed; the creativity is real, but it is spent only when the picture justifies it. He operates between the lines as the hinge from control to chance, and he tracks back to complete the block when the ball is lost.
There is a fittingness to his playing for Sydney, the old establishment club: a cultured player, at the league's most cultured address. A teenage prodigy whose career turned on learning restraint. Indeed, the talent was never in doubt – only the discipline – and the system gave him both a role, and a reason.
No. 9 | Riku Takeda | Right winger Age 24 | 1.74 m | right-footed | Richmond City
The engine of the right flank, and the side's most relentless presser. Takeda combines in tight spaces, holds width when the side builds, and tucks in to defend without being asked twice. A product of Richmond City's academy, he is the modern two-way winger the system is built around. Quick, tireless, and indifferent to whether anyone notices the half of his game that happens without the ball.
Came through Richmond City's youth ranks and earned his international place on work rate and consistency, rather than a reel of beaten defenders, the kind of selection the analysts quietly love. He covers more ground than any forward in the squad, and the analysts have a running joke that his heat-map is simply the entire right third, shaded solid.
No. 10 | Charlie Maddox | Left winger Age 23 | 1.75 m | left-footed | Gordon Town
The exception the doctrine permits, if at times begrudgingly. Maddox is the one player given a standing licence to take an opponent on – the calculated variance the system allows in the final third – and he earns that freedom by tracking back like everyone else. The best player at unfashionable Gordon Town, he is the gem the bigger clubs are circling, and the live test of whether a culture of control can accommodate a genuine individualist.
Bold, direct, the green light the rest of the side does not have. Ambitious and faintly restless, the young player who privately wishes the team would let him off the leash more often, a tension the staff manage rather than suppress. The most exciting talent the academy has produced in years, and the one it has worked hardest to balance; his development is something of a national experiment in marrying invention to the percentages.
No. 11 | Adam Fenwick | Striker Age 28 | 1.83 m | right-footed | Eddington Imperial FC (Opthelia)
The pressing, linking spearhead. Fenwick leads the line less as a poacher than as the first defender, and the connecting forward; the press begins with him, and so does the final phase of many attacks. He finishes what the control manufactures, and creates nearly as much as he scores. Like his vice-captain, he does it in the rival's league, and thrives there.
He is the genuine odd man out abroad – a cerebral, linking forward in a league of collision strikers – and the international window comes as a release. Ten club months as the curiosity, then a side built for exactly his strengths. A late developer who earned his move abroad on the strength of his all-round game rather than a goal tally, and who has quietly become one of the more respected Novellan exports. He records more assists than a striker is "supposed" to, and is proud of it in a way that gently annoys the strikers who measure themselves only in goals.
Reserves No. 12 | Nicholas Roe | GK | 26 | Stradmouth AFC
The shot-stopper's goalkeeper; the contrast option, when a match demands reflexes over a libero. Lower distribution range than Mellor, but quicker off his line in a low block. No. 13 | Samuel Crewe | GK | 22 | Redpool FC
The development goalkeeper and long-term project, carried for tournament experience. No. 14 | Aarav Singh | CB | 24 | Novella City FC
Recovery pace for when the side wants to defend a higher line; the quickest of the central defenders. No. 15 | Gordon Maitland | CB | 30 | Port Cheltenham AFC
The no-frills stopper for closing a match out; on for the last twenty minutes of a lead. No. 16 | Felix Warren | RB | 28 | Richmond City
Two-footed utility full-back, who covers either flank without dropping the side's shape. No. 17 | Theo Larkin | LB | 22 | Avalonia FC (Opthelia)
The attacking left-back and change-of-tempo option; a young Novellan sent to Avalonia – a club well short of the Eddington giants – as a project for the power league to harden, with the staff watching each window to see whether it sharpens his steel or blunts his touch. No. 18 | Hassan Khoury | DM/CM | 27 | Novella City FC
Pivot cover who can screen or distribute, a like-for-like for either of the sixes. No. 19 | Owen Bradshaw | CM | 23 | Heiwakyō SC (Hanafleura)
The box-to-box legs to chase a game, and the most direct runner in the squad. He moved young to Heiwakyō to play the senior football he would have waited years for at home – a smaller league, but one whose selfless, disciplined creed is close kin to his own – so the move has sharpened his fundamentals, rather than fought them. No. 20 | Jian Lau | CAM | 29 | Broadbent United
Creative cover, with a more vertical passing register than Calder; a different kind of risk off the bench. No. 21 | Connor Ellison | W | 26 | Wolverton AFC
Two-footed wide cover for either flank, and the reliable defensive option when a lead must be protected on the wing. No. 22 | Jack Easton | W/F | 21 | Heiwakyō SC (Hanafleura)
The prospect. Direct, fearless, the bench's wildcard. Getting his senior football education alongside compatriot Bradshaw, in a league congenial enough to refine him, rather than reshape him. No. 23 | George Halloran | ST | 30 | Port Cheltenham AFC
The focal-point target man and Plan B; on when control must give way to directness and the side needs something to aim at. A dockyard club striker, through and through.
![[Image: Blossoms_Kit.png]](https://idugov.com/w/images/b/b6/Blossoms_Kit.png)