<all spots taken>

Players:
Luca Goers:
Marinus
Rosco
Gatre


Al Bhed Psyches:
Baligaar
Keke
Jonas
-------Quick Note-------------------

Who ever is shooting the goal has to play as the goalie (just for that shot), so make it fair when it comes to the shot (not everyone can be like Jecht).

The comentators are just for the first post (to spice up my introduction to the game)
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As the gates to the stadium opened, the crowd flooded in by the hundreds. Everyone had come to see the epic grudge match between the Luca Goers and the Al Bhed Psyches for the final spot in the Blitzball Tournament finals. The day had been very sunny, with no clouds in the sky, making for the perfect match to be unleashed.

The cannons below the centre of the stadium suddenly shot water into the sphere. The crowd watched as the sphere filled up with water and the commentators gave a pre match speech about the teams.

Wedge: And here we are with a beautiful day for Blitzball.

Biggs: That's right Wedge, and today we have two of the best teams in Spira. Our very own Luca Goers, who will hopefully win this years Tournament, and the Al Bhed Psyches. Who know how to put up a great fight and make any game seem like a walk in the park.

Wedge: Yes, and on the Goers team we have Marinus, the legendary team captain and midfielder and Rosco, probably one of the best defenders the Luca Goers have ever had. There's also a late change to the team. With the almost invincible Gatre joining the Goers. He has his super ability dubbed "Plan B" where he sacrifices himself just to get a goal. What a remarkable man, to go to such lengths!

Biggs: And on the Al Bhed Psyches, we have Baligaar, one known for his spin passes which will confuse almost anyone, even those watching! Jonas, who is probably Spira's fastest swimmer and one deadly shot.

Wedge: There is also a new fella called Keke, who looks promising as a defender. He's abilities include his elite defence, which allows him to intercept a pass from far away.

Biggs: Yes, this will be one of the greatest matches in Spira's history. With this lot of legends, I guarantee that this will be one epic match.

The Goers and the Psyches swam out into the middle of the sphere, face by face. Both the captains, Marinus and Baligaar stared each other in the face. Baligaar put out his hand, as a sign to keep the game clean. Marinus hesitated for a second, then decided to shake anyways, to show that he would try to keep the game clean.

The teams went back to their starting grids, waiting for the Blitzball to be released from it's starting platform. The crowd went silent as the count-down started. Three, Two, One. The Blitzball shot up into to water, as both Marinus and Baligaar swam straight for the ball.

The Al Bhed were always taught not to be nervous before a blitzball game of any magnitude. It was their duty to go out and win, and typically, they always received a metal, but they were just not the best team all the time. Baaligar knew that he shouldn't be nervous, but he was. He was up against Marinus today, and that was always a tough assignment for him. He had a lot of respect for him, and always gave an extra effort when pitted against him. He did have Jonas though, and Jonas was a brilliant scorer, so if he made a mistake it would be fine. He made up his mind to just go out and be aggressive. If he just made Marinus work hard for everything that he got, Baaligar could be satisfied with his performance.

Baaligar walked side by side with Jonas, the leading assist to goal combo in all of Spira. They were up against it today, and the two knew that as they came out of the tunnel and swam into the sphere. They gave each other a head nod, and Baaligar turned to the rest of the team with a grin, hoping to give them a bit of confidence.

After a short meeting with Marinus mid sphere, the two men respectfully shook hands and parted for the beginning of the game. As the countdown rang out, and the crowd went absolutely wild, the sphere itself began to rattle a bit. Baaligar felt as if he was going to vomit, the same feeling he always got before the jump, but when that horn sounded, and the ball was released, it was if he was set free from the pressure, it was just the game now.

He sprang off of his legs and got a perfect jump on the ball, not even allowing it to get to the top before grabbing the ball away from Marinus. He kicked Marinus with both legs to get some seperation and allow some time to let his forwards get down the field. As Marinus gave chase to him, Baaligar swam to the right of the sphere, drawing the other forward and right defender. It was three against one, and Baaligar gave up a little bit of ground. He saw the left defender caught defending both forwards, and this gave Jonas an opening. Baaligar stopped where he was and gave his patenented spin pass, the ball swirving through the three defenders, curving along the wall and straight at Jonas.

The game was under way, and Baaligar was off to another great start.

Marinus had a set look of determination on his face. He didn’t want to lose this match, or let the Al Bhed even get ahead in the points. This was his time to be the hasty one form the starting block. He had to get the ball first, before Baligaar snatched and got another goal again.

The countdown started again, and this time it was Marinus who obtained the ball first. He took a sharp turn to the right to avoid Baligaar, who was coming straight for him. He was now ahead of Baligaar, but had more problems ahead of him. Keke was right in front of him, the only way around was to take a direct hit, or to pass to someone else.

Marinus stood his ground, as Keke came flying into him with a kick to his chest. This knocked Marinus back a bit, but he held on tightly to the ball, so it didn't become in possession of the opponents. But things were getting worse for marinus, as Baligaar had caught up to him. There was only one way to get around this ball snatcher.

Marinus Threw the ball into the direction of Rosco, hoping that Baligaar would miss the ball, and that Rosco would be able to catch it from that distance.

Rosco swam at the ball that was coming in his direction, he easily caught it but there was a new problem, what could he do with the ball when he was defender in his own end of the sphere, as he started swimming at the opposition he thought if he could draw away his opponents he could create a diversion for Marinus to possibly get the ball and score, so he started swimming as fast as his legs would move him and swam around to the left of the sphere and indicated to Marinus to move up the right side of the sphere.

Rosco now had 2 of the Al Bhed Psyches after him and the other two where thinking about chasing him. He looked back and saw he had Baaligarr and Keke after him both swimming alot faster them himself. Jonas was taking chase after Marinus as he seemed to be the only one who saw what Rosco was doing. Keke amazingly caught up a lot faster then he had hoped and got infront of him slowing down Rosco.

They all where about three quarters into the Al bhed's side and this was far enough for Rosco as he needed to get back to his own end, Keke still infront of him preparing to tackle Rosco, Keke attacked with a kick aimed at Rosco's stomach and had his arm out ready to take the ball. Rosco span over Keke's head and landed on his back and pushed himself further to the goal and dropped the ball and aimed a kick at Marinus. He kicked the ball with all his might and the pass was amazingly accurate. All rosco could do now was hope that Marinus got to the ball before Jonas and managed to get a shoot in, But Rosco was already heading back to his place as the defender.

As Marinus swam into position to receive the ball, he saw Jonas following him. He knew that this would be a tough time to get a goal, so he had to come up with a new plan. He thought to himself, while Rosco was still swimming to his position. The only way around Jonas would be to beat him at his own game.

Without warming, Marinus swam towards Rosco, who kicked the ball into the direction of Marinus. He was side by side with Jonas, who had caught up quickly. Marinus slowed down Jonas by swimming in front of him, but this wasn't hard for Jonas to recover from. They both scrambled to the ball, shoving each other, trying to get rid of the other.

Marinus managed to push Jonas out of the way just in time, as he caught the ball that was about to whiz past them both. He made a quick attempt to get near the goals, but was cut off by Keke. He now had two Al Bhed on him, and the third one was closing in.

Marinus decided to try and withstand two of the opponent's tackles and shoot past the last one. He braced himself for the first hit, WHAM!! Keke delivered a painful head butt to Marinus, but he was able to recover from it. Just as he was sitting up from the blow, Baligaar came in for a side kick. BAM!!! He hit Marinus in the stomach, leaving him more wounded than he expected, but still, Marinus got up from Baligaar's hit.

He aimed carefully at the goals, so that the ball would go in, but at the same time dodge Jonas' block. He kicked as hard as he could, and watched as the ball went hurdling off towards the goals. Jonas went for the grab, but couldn't quite get to it, as it just missed him by fingernail's length.

The goalie was prepared for it, waiting for the ball. He reached out, as the Blitzball came hurtling towards him. He just managed to tap the ball out of the way, just before it went in.

Unlucky for him, Marinus was waiting. He knew the ball wouldn't go in from such a distance. In the time it took for the ball to reach the goalie, Marinus had swam up to the goals, ready for him to send it straight back. Marinus thought this would be a great time to show off. When the ball came straight back to him, he delivered a round house kick to the ball, sending it straight back into the goals.

The goalie had suspected this and leapt for the ball. Only missing it by an arm's length. The crowd cheered as the ball hit the back of the net. Marinus was happy with this outcome, evening out the score early in the game. He just needed to get more goals in order to win this game for the Luca Goers.

Gatre swam past Marinus and high fived him happily.The pressure had been alleviated now that the score was even...and with an abundance of time left the possibilities for this game were endless.

He grinned at the Psyches and swam back into his original position, waiting for the ball to be put back in play.

Baaligar was certainly upset that his kick wasn't enough to shake the ball free from Marinus, even after a powerful attack from his best defender. What started out as such a promising start had been erased and it was up to Baaligar to get his team back on track in the last minute of the half. This is where Baaligar thrived, in last minute, clutch situations.

The ball sprang up and Baaligar grabbed it before Marinus could even come down from his emotional high after scoring his impressive goal. Baaligar was so quick to get the ball that Marinus was still trying to swim up without realizing that it was gone. As Baaligar moved past him, he pushed the bottom of Marinus' boot to keep him going up and not deal with him.

Continuing on, he was already too far up field to deal with their attackers, and only the two defenders were remaining. Rosco was obviously the one that he had to worry about, and Baaligar took a note of that.

He and Jonas already knew what the plan was when time was running short. It was Baaligar's job to get past the midfielder, and step one was out the way. Jonas was on an all out fly towards the goal, and his defender was running with him. Rosco was closing in on Baaligar, finally deciding to leave his man open. When Jonas' defender decided to go after the now open forward.

Before Rosco could get to him, Baaligar stopped, and took a deep shot, well out of his scoring range. He put a lot of force behind the ball, but cared not about accuracy. As the ball whizzed through the sphere and didn't even get on goal. What it did was draw the goalie to his right and put him in a bad spot. He would have to get well off his post to retrieve the ball, or stay put and let him and Jonas be one on one. As he hesitated, he got stuck sticking to the right post, and the ball was headed right for Jonas. Baaligar didn't mind shooting without accuracy, he had the best volley shot in Spira on his team.

Jonas saw the rebound, but he also realized the defender he got behind was hot on his tail and he didn't have much space to make a play. He saw the ball heading straight towards him and didn't lose any speed to risk being caught.

When the ball finally reached Jonas he unleashed a wicked one timer to the top shelf. The shot was so hard and so high on the net the goalie did not have time to catch the ball. He made the save with his left arm, but he didn't control the desparation rebound and the ball bounced right to Baaligar.

The rebound shot out to far for Jonas to have another crack at the rebound, so he stayed in front of the net screening the Goers goalie waiting to see if Baaligar could get another shot to the net.

Maybe in his younger days Baaligar would have been prone to let this opportunity be a failed attempt. Young players all went through their watching phase at some point. Being satisfied with your own effort and then assuming that everything was in the net from that point was not a sin, but it definitely could be the deciding factor in a game with such low scores.

Rosco made this mistake, knowing that Jonas had a nice opportunity and that only seven seconds remain on the clock, so he turned to hope that he would miss. Of course, Rosco was right, and just before he could smile that he missed the goal, he must have felt tiny when he saw another Al Bhed player slam into him, essentially setting a back pick for Baaligar to race towards the goal without contest.

Baaligar wasn't exactly the prettiest goal scorer, or even close, and he didn't really come into any game expecting to score. He was a veteran though, and he knew that at any point in the game, the other team would disrespect the little scoring ability that he did have. He may not be a wicked phenom of a scorer like Jonas and Gatre who were in the sphere today, but this was just a gift from machina heaven with three seconds remaining and the ball spinning sideways towards him.

Baaligar took a quick swim upwards and dove down on top of the ball, pounding it back down towards the nets and sent it straight in to the bottom left portion with a strong header that left nothing to be desired. The lights around the sphere flashed with just one second left on the clock and the first half pretty much over. 2-1 Psyches.

After a quick hand slap to Jonas and Keke, both teams agreed to leave the sphere and call it a half. As the team rested and regathered there energy, no talks of strategy were made. The team ad been together for a while now and they were satisfied with their first half, hoping to see more of that in the second. When the time was up, the Psyches were the first team back in the sphere and ready to start the second half.