Ana Sophía v Miggy

The **KOVO Champions Cup Hexagonal Qualifier**, also remembered as the **Ana Sophía v Miggy match**, was a privately-hosted playoff match contested between Brazilian club Palmeiras U20 & American club Porto Alanza as part of the **KOVO Champions Cup Qualifiers campaign**. It is known as the direct political overthrow of Ana Sophía from being the face of the federation and replaced with Matilda Brunet, organized and effectuated by Miggy. Prior to the arrangement of the playoff match, Ana Sophía & Miggy were known to be the most politically influential couple on the Super League platform.

## **Prelude**

### Public reaction

Upon the confirmation that Palmeiras U-20 would face American club Porto Alanza, growing speculation about the game being fixed in order to draw audiences to watch Ana Sophía compete against with her best friends Emma Allen, Julie Wilson & Enzo DeAndre. With the one-match playoff contest set to be played in Brazil, others dismissed the suspicion by citing that Palmeiras were given a home field advantage.

Another controversy came to be the criticism against Ana Sophía for having been a São Paulo FC fan, a historic Brazilian club rival. Representing Palmeiras as a professional athlete, causing disapproval amongst supporters. Up to the moment of the announcement of Ana Sophía signing for Palmeiras in January 2018, social media posts on Instagram showcasing her in São Paulo apparel were available for public view, having had a **+10,000 following** on a public account. Her appointment as captain of the Palmeiras v Porto Alanza match also caused backlash.

### Pre-match

Porto Alanza players arrived in São Paulo 2 days before the match, giving them limited time to settle. In the press conference with Enzo DeAndre the night before the match, he cited a fallout in his friendship with Ana Sophía. He additionally expressed his desire to target a KOVO Champions Cup title-winning season in 2020. Porto Alanza initially did not include Miggy in the 22-player roster made available the night before. He was implemented into the list 2 hours prior to kickoff.

## **The match**

The match was commenced with Porto Alanza's kickoff at 21:00 (GMT) at Allianz Parque in the neighborhood of Água Branca, located in São Paulo, Brazil. Immediately, Porto Alanza advanced in a heavy push forward for the initial minutes of the match. In the 19th minute, a counter buildup initiated by Julie Wilson results in Enzo making a run and passing the ball back to Emma Allen while inside the penalty box, surpassing a Palmeiras defender before scoring the first goal of the match. Shortly after during the 26th minute, a slip to the ground during an attempt at a free kick by Brazilian captain Ana Sophía initiated a Porto Alanza counter attack that resulted in the second goal of the match for Emma Allen. In the ending seconds of the first half, a small brawl was initiated that was quickly disbanded by the head officials, with only verbal exchange made.

The second half was kicked off by Palmeiras. In the 52nd minute, Ana Sophía receives a foul that forces a hard collision to the ground face-first, resulting in a fractured nose that Ana Sophía does not realize. After making a quick recovery, she is yet fouled again in the 55th minute after a back collision with Miggy causes her to fall forward. Her hand is stomped by Miggy, fracturing her index & middle finger on her left hand. She brushes off the pain and continues, with Palmeiras recovering ball possession and controlling the game's ball distribution. In the 72nd minute, Ana Sophía scored a goal to bring Palmeiras back to just one goal away from an equalizer after successfully getting past Brazilian defender Matilda Brunet. In the 82nd minute, Ana Sophía suffered an unnoticed throat injury after Miggy's cleat impacted her neck as they crashed to the ground. Resulting in a yellow card for Miggy, it would be later revealed that Ana Sophía suffered from **laryngeal trauma**, developing a permanent change of voice for Ana Sophía. The final goal would be scored shortly after during the 88th minute by Matilda Brunet, ending the match in a 3-1 final score in favor of Porto Alanza.

## **Aftermath**

### **Final whistle**

Upon the final whistle, Brazilian footballer Matilda Brunet became the youngest female player (having turned 15 years old 2 months prior) to score in the qualification process of the tournament. No player would go on to break the record, neither in the 2020 KOVO Champions Cup campaign. Porto Alanza became the first team with a majority-made gene-edited player squad to qualify for a 2020 KOVO Champions Cup slot. Their victory in Brazil paved the path in what would be a dominated elimination phase of American teams winning all their qualification matches, eliminating all but 1 Brazilian team. The hiring of Super League veterans continued, guaranteeing results for other clubs intending in qualifying.

### Burning jerseys incident

Moments upon the conclusion of the KOVO Qualifier between Palmeiras and Porto Alanza, the upset of Palmeiras fans impacted a surged in destroying fan apparel that night sporting the name of Ana Sophía #11 on the back side of the jersey. Her overwhelmingly poor performance, including her free kick slip that led to conceding Palmeiras second goal by Emma Allen, caused fans to video jerseys, bought from the KOVO apparel stands outside the stadium, being ignited using lighters. Ana Sophía's match reserve jersey for the KOVO Qualifiers match was sold online but later seen to be burned. Her match-worn jersey remains in possession of Miggy.

### Blackout rights

In January 2019, the KOVO Federation announced the full retraction of all photos and videos containing matchday content of the Ana Sophía v Miggy match. This meant footage uploaded on YouTube by fans taken down for broadcast piracy and photos being cited for illegal screening, given the event was privately-hosted under the federation at Allianz Parque. Since 2019, no journalist reporting, match information or video content can be found.