Chapter 3: The Ghost of Guinea and the Black Sheep II
The result of the first round of the Poluusia Kingdom against Ukraine was like a spit in the face for Guinea, who expected to see the newcomer crushed. But the humiliation was only beginning. If Poluusia's victory was a slap in the face, the next game was a speeding freight train.
Guinea, now an unstable and corrupt superpower, believed it was untouchable. Its coach, Spanish Esperanza Perez, was hailed as a genius, a cold and calculating tactician who had taken the country to the top of the Ghost Archipelago. His ego was so big that, rumor had it, he had his own time zone.
Their opponent this time? The Santodis World Team. Another nation from the Box & Sheep world, coached by the enigmatic Tilmel. While Poluusia's Pedameo was known for his complex strategies, Tilmel was famous for his brutal simplicity. His motto? "The best defense is to have none. That way, they don't know what to attack."
Esperanza Pérez paid no attention to Tilmel's tactics. She looked at Santodis's team, a team of players who looked like they'd just come out of a pasture, and laughed. "They look like lost sheep. Let's give them a good pasture," she said to her assistant with a smug smile.
The Match: Guinea vs. Santodis
The stadium was packed with holograms of Guinean investors, with their designer shirts and virtual cigars. They expected a historic rout, a bloodbath, a glorification of their economic power. What they got was carnage, but not the kind they'd expected.
Tilmel, on the bench, looked bored. He barely gave instructions. The only thing he said was "Beeeé," which his players seemed to understand perfectly. The match began, and Guinea launched into the attack with the arrogance of someone with a blank check. They kicked, dribbled, and tried everything, but the ball simply wouldn't go in. Santodis's goalkeeper, who seemed to be taking a nap, defended everything with the luck of a drunk in a fight.
In the 15th minute, Guinea attacked in force. That's when Santodis applied Tilmel's strategy: the counterattack was so fast that Guinea, with its slow defenders bloated from too much caviar and bribery, didn't even see what hit them. One, two, three, four, five goals. Santodis's players looked like robots, running nonstop and shooting with a precision that bordered on the absurd.
On the Guinea bench, Esperanza Perez's face, previously full of arrogance, was now a map of panic and disbelief. Fodé, the president, who was watching the match from his mansion, dropped his wine glass in astonishment.
The first half ended with an unimaginable score: 5-0 to Santodis. The second half was a repeat of the first, but with a touch of sadism. With each goal, Santodis's goalkeeper, a player with a lumberjack beard and an "I-don't-care" air, winked at the Guinea fans. The sixth goal, the seventh, and finally the eighth. The last was scored by Santodis's defender, who looked like a fat teddy bear, dribbling past the entire defense and scoring with a backheel in slow motion, humiliating the Guinea goalkeeper in front of the entire world.
Final Score: Santodis 8 - 0 Guinea
Guinea's Reaction and the Consequence of the Rout
The rout was more than a defeat. It was a public humiliation. Guinea's GDP plummeted. Its once-arrogant investors were now rushing to sell their assets. Relegation, once unthinkable, now hovered over the country like a swarm of locusts. "This is impossible! The data, the strategy, everything! Where did I go wrong?" Esperanza Perez screamed in the locker room, smashing her clipboard in anger.
Guinea's economy minister, who had traveled to the match expecting to celebrate, looked like he'd just seen a ghost. "The Collective... they're rigging the game! This isn't about football, it's about power!" he stammered.
In the stadium's VIP lounge, the holograms of Guinea's investors simply vanished. There was nothing left to see. The game was over, and the price of failure was knocking at the door.
Somewhere, Fodé, Guinea's president, threw his cigar on the floor and stomped on it furiously. Guinea, which had become a superpower, was now on the brink of collapse. The most precious thing in the world of the Ghost Archipelago—the ego—had been crushed, and now, reality was about to take its toll. Do you think Guinea still has a chance to recover, or is relegation inevitable?