2021 DSAFF Frost Cup

2021 DSAFF Frost Cup

2021 Frost Cup Kazanaty 2021
The official logo for the 2021 DSAFF Frost Cup
Tournament details
Host country	Kazanaty
Dates	11 December 2021 – 11 January 2022
Teams	24
Venue(s)	8 (in 8 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Gondwana (1st title)
Runners-up	Osreton
Third place	Lannistter
Fourth place	Tìrastrāl
Tournament statistics
Matches played	52
Goals scored	130 (2.5 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Ash Blackwell
Best player(s)	Ash Blackwell
Best young player	Neaniaõ
Best goalkeeper	Jan Obølsnen
Best coach	Finch Arachova

The 2021 DSAFF Frost Cup, also known as 2021 Frost Cup or simply Kazanaty 2021, was the first edition of the second most important tournament for senior national teams organized by the Democratic Socialist Assembly Football Federation (DSAFF). It took place in Kazanaty between 11 December 2021 and 11 January 2022.

The Frost Cup at the time was the largest tournament ever organized by DSAFF, involving a total of 24 teams. A total of 52 matches were played around eight different cities and stadiums.

COTEFU nation Gondwana won the cup at their first participation in a DSAFF tournament, playing in an environment completely different to that their players were used to. Gondwana won 2-1 in the final match against Osreton, another great surprise of the tournament. In the third place playoff, Lannistter (the great favorite to win according to bookmakers at the beginning) won agains Syndic Australia.

Different awards were assigned after the end of the cup. Osreton’s forward Ash Blackwell won the best player award, while the Lannish captain Jan Obølsnen won the best goalkeeper award for the second straight time after the 2022 Comrades Cup. The young Talamian striker Neaniaõ won the best young player award.

History

In September 2021 the DSAFF Congress chose to create a new tournament to ride the huge success of the Comrades Cup, Blossom League, and Rose Cup. It was the second tournament created for male senior National Teams. The event was chosen to be at the end of the year, in winter. Six names were taken into consideration: Blizzard Cup, Frost Cup, Frost Fun, Frozen Cup, Rosecup Bud and Winter War. With a toal of 12 preferences, Frost Cup was chosen as the official name on 21 October 2021. Kazanaty went on a successful host campaign with no one else bidding, becoming the tournaments first host on 1 December.

Every team in DSAFF at the moment was able to join the tournament. Twenty-four teams decided to do so. For the first time in DSAFF history, the United Federal States of Mexico decided not to take part. On the other hand, Kanoshu, Tertania, Yucatan, Zemlyazvezd, Torshavn, Leouschburg, Osreton and the host Kazanaty made their debuts in a senior men’s tournament. Itini, Veyoris, Talamia, New Ordiel Kalibleland, Syndic Australia, and Lannistter made their second appearance at another senior team tournament, after the 2021 DSAFF Comrades Cup. Taskania was invited to the tournament after their win in the Beteltarian Qualifiers. After Ukotrium's withdrawal from DSAFF, the amateur national team made up of pirates from Chan Island finally decided to join the tournament. This was their second participation in an official tournament after their controversial appearence in the 2021 Comrades Cup.

Host nation

On 1 November 2021, as the only nation to present an official bid, Kazanaty - one of the newest members of the federation - was appointed as host country of the tournament. Being a small and poor country, with very low temperatures, the Kazanaty government invested heavily in modernizing the stadiums chosen to host the matches. Innovative heating systems were installed and the stands, originally designed to accommodate a small population, were enlarged.

The Kazanaty Football Federation called for an online vote to choose the tournament mascot. Nine million people stood to vote. Among the animals proposed were a seal, a walrus, an owl and a polar bear. The latter won, obtaining over five million preferences. The polar bear was named Hamäkal, which means “the one who scores from within” in the Kaza language. The mascot was real life polar bear with cooperative efforts from the Alamor Sanctuary of Ashetton.

The official logo of the competition was created by the Ardelarkian designer Imad Noori, who succeeded in the task of maintaining a logical continuity with the previous logos created by his colleagues for DSAFF competitions and at the same time implementing stylized snowflakes and the typical colors of the Kaza culture in the new design.

Venues

Kazanaty chose eight different stadiums to host the tournament. Due to the low temperatures of the season and the poor infrastructures that connected the cities, six of these stadiums were assigned to the same number of groups in the first phase of the cup. In this way, the teams were not forced to move from one city to another for the first nineteen days. Despite the upgrades and enlargements of the stadiums, the seats available to watch the games obtained were not enough. To make up for this lack and satisfy the possible high turnout of fans in the country, Kazanaty decided to make four additional venues available in the ski resorts most frequented by tourists. The Mountain Peaks Stadium, the Keg Stadium, the Pioneer Ground and the Glacier Transport Stadium were thus equipped with giant screens inside them.

The following stadiums were chosen to host the matches:

• ICBL Arena in Ashetton, for group A matches, round of 16 and the final;
• Polar Airways Stadium in Södergård, for group B matches, round of 16, quarterfinals and third place play-off;
• KazaTV Stadium in Kærager, for group C matches and round of 16;
• Tønsbak Municipal City Stadium in Tønsbak, for group D matches, round of 16 and wuarterfinals;
• Jōgessaare City Stadium in Jōgessaare, for group E matches and round of 16;
• FK Nørrebjerg Stadium in Nørrebjerg, for group F matches;
• FK Nynähammar Stadium in Nynähammer, for round of 16 and quarterfinals;
• ReykGas Stadium in Reykbakki, for round of 16, quarterfinals and semifinals.

Qualification

List of qualified teams

All 26 DSAFF national teams were eligible to compete in the 2021 Frost Cup. Twenty-four teams decided to join the cup. The 24 senior national teams were divided into four pots according to their position in the DSAFF MexiCola™ Ranking as of 1 December 2021, with the highest-ranked teams in pot A and so on. The seeding pots were announced on 2 December 2021.

Pot	Nation	Region	DSAFF Code	Rank
A	Kazanaty (H)	Democratic Socialist Assembly	KAZ	17
A	Lannistter	Democratic Socialist Assembly	HOR	2
A	Ardelark	Beteltaria	ARK	3
A	Veyoris	Democratic Socialist Assembly	VEY	4
A	Safiloa	Democratic Socialist Assembly	SAF	5
A	Torshavnese Empire	Democratic Socialist Assembly	TOR	6
B	Talamia	Democratic Socialist Assembly	TAL	7
B	Yucatan	Democratic Socialist Assembly	YUC	8
B	Leouschburgh	Democratic Socialist Assembly	LEO	9
B	Gondwana	Democratic Socialist Assembly	GON	10
B	Kanoshu	Democratic Socialist Assembly	KAN	11
B	Itini	Democratic Socialist Assembly	ITI	12
C	Zemlyazvezd	Democratic Socialist Assembly	ZEM	13
C	Sörslúth	Democratic Socialist Assembly	SOR	18
C	Tìrastrāl	Democratic Socialist Assembly	TIR	19
C	Kepler-0085	Forest	KEP	20
C	Osreton	Democratic Socialist Assembly	OSR	21
C	New Ordiel Kalibleland	Democratic Socialist Assembly	NOK	22
D	Krbustan	Island of Union	KRB	UR
D	Tertania	Confederation of Corrupt Dictators	TER	UR
D	Forest Virginia	Forest	FVG	UR
D	Roless	Forest	ROL	UR
D	Taskania	Beteltaria	TSK	UR
D	Chan Island	Forest	CHA	UR

Format

The DSAFF Frost Cup at the time was the largest event ever organized by the Delusian federation. Twenty-four teams decided to join the competition. The teams were divided into four pots according to their position in the MexiCola™ Ranking as of 1 December 2021, with the exception of Kazanaty, that was automatically allocated to group A, being the host country. The draw was held on 4 December 2021 inside the Ashetton ICBL Arena press conference room. The teams were drawn by Gondwana's forward Robbie Chadwick and Mexico national team's manager Sandra Brioschi into six groups of four teams each, where they competed in a single-leg round robin format. Teams were awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw and none for a defeat.

The winners and runners-up of every group advanced to the knockout stage, as well as the six best third-placed teams. In the knockout stage, there were four rounds of matches, with each round eliminating half of the teams entering that round. The successive rounds were the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the final. There was also a play-off to decide third and fourth place. For each game in the knockout stage, any draw at 90 minutes was followed by thirty minutes of extra time; if scores were still level, there was a penalty shootout to determine who progressed to the next round. Due to the freezing temperatures that are reached in the evening hours, all matches will be played either at 1pm or 5pm.

The specific match-ups involving the third-placed teams depended on which four third-placed teams qualified for the round of 16. The following table shows all the possible combinations.

Knockout stage

In the knockout stages, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, extra time was played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winners.

Below is the bracket for the knockout round of the tournament, teams in bold denote match winners.

Awards

Obølsnen

Błaszczykowski

Kùrtz

Tupinen

Martínez

Darby

Ödergerdensen

Raghidi

Blackwell

Selic

Neaniaõ

DSAFF Team of the Tournament

DSAFF Team of the Tournament

DSAFF's technical observer team was given the objective of naming a team of the best eleven players from the tournament. Two players from the winning Akachese squad were named in the team.

Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Jan Obølsnen	Karl Tupinen Piotr Błaszczykowski Van Kùrtz Diego Martínez	Ulkvík Ödergerdensen Gerardo Darby Ahmed Raghidi	Ĵensen Selic Ash Blackwell Neaniaõ

Best Player

The Best Player award was given to Ash Blackwell, who was chosen by DSAFF's technical observers.

• Ash Blackwell

Best Young Player

The Best Young Player award, open to players born on or after 1 January 2000, was given to Neaniaõ, as chosen by DSAFF's technical observers.

• Neaniaõ – (2002-04-19)19 April 2002 (aged 19)

Top Scorer

The Top Scorer award, given to the top scorer of the tournament, was awarded to Ash Blackwell, who scored ten goals.

Top scorer rankings

Rank	Player	Goals	Assists	Minutes
Error creating thumbnail:	Ash Blackwell	10	1	630
2nd place, silver medalist(s)	Branislav Zuber	7	0	588
3rd place, bronze medalist(s)	Ĵensen Selic	6	1	602