News/20061126

edit World Battlegame Monitor, 2nd part of November, 2006 — "They were not defeated" (the first article in the magazine)

After a spectacular performance in the finals on November 19th NAL became the 11th battlegame champions of North America. This is the fifth time the NAL team gains this title, but the previous such time was 15 years ago. After a great performance in the matches of group I NAL easily defeated Alta California in semifinals (8:2) and advanced to the final match against Mejico (which had not-so-unexpectedly defeated Louisianne in semifinals - the final result there was 5:4 after two overtimes). The American fans started to celebrate in advance after the Louisiannians fell out of competition. Indeed, Mejican team was unable to pose a major threat to the NAL hegemony and the final match ended with 6:3 victory for NAL.

After the final match celebrations started in Chicago and in other American cities. "If we will continue play like this, I am sure will become world champions once more" - claimed a fan from New Amsterdam. The leader of the NAL team Benjamin Buttler did not hide his joy either - "We deserved this victory for sure. The great times of American battlegame are back".

The players and fans of Alta California were also happy, even though they have lost the match for the third place to Louisianne at 3:4. As the Californian coach Emanuel Guerrero said after this match, "Although of course it is the more the better, we have fulfilled our goal to win the right to participate in the World Championship. Furthermore we lost to the powerful Louisiannians only by one point. I have my faith in this team and I believe we could even get into the playoffs in the World Championship".

Different thoughs were in the mind of Louisiannian coach Napoleon de Navarre most likely. 3rd place is not something the people of Lousianne expected, especially as the team was North American champions the previous cycle. There are already rumours N. de Navarre will announce his resignation in December, after the battles of his team will be evaluated by the Lousiannian Battlegame Association.

"We have won the second place, but I am not happy with our performance" - claimed Vicente Madrazo, a notable attacking player of Mejico - "We should have been more active on the offense. Now we have achieved no decisive victories and even a draw with Saint-Domingo. Many fans probably cheer about the victory over Louisianne but let's face it - the Lousiannian team was not even the shadow of their team in the previous championship. We will definitely need to change the style of our battling in order to achieve something in the World Championship". The survey by a popular Mejican newspaper shown however that 59% of Mejicans are "very happy" or "happy" with the performance of their Battlegame team.

In the next pages of the magazine - further information about each match of the playoffs, exclusive interviews with the coaches and key players of all the four playoff teams.

(To be added to http://www.bethisad.com/news2006b.htm. Source:

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