Chapter 534: A Head Start
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Mourinho’s a.n.a.lysis was correct. Although the Forest team won 2:1 against Chelsea in the first leg and scored two away goals, Twain, who returned to the City Ground stadium, did not say that he was going to suppress Chelsea with offense at home. Instead he used the defensive counterattack tactics that the Forest team was best at.
It made sense for Twain to do so. He did not need to go on a frenzy to attack the opponent with the team leading in the total score. If he did that, it would create a void in the rear instead and give the opponent a chance to score. Defensive counterattack was the best method to swap his and his opponent’s roles to arrest the trailing party’s idea of hoping to score as early as possible. They would patiently deal with them, and then watch for the timing to launch a deadly counterattack to further widen the gap in their score and completely doused the opponent’s confidence and fighting spirit.
If they wanted to win, this was the most secure way.
Once the game started, the home team, Nottingham Forest a.s.sumed the stance of a defensive counterattack. They kicked off but only three players launched the first attack. In the end, van Nistelrooy hastily made a long shot under Terry’s close marking and tackle outside the penalty box. The threat from the king of the penalty box was greatly reduced and the kick turned into a high shot.
After a hasty end to the attack, the Forest team’s offensive retreated quickly as if it had been the tide that rushed to the sh.o.r.e.
They put up a tight defensive formation in their own back half of the field, waiting for Chelsea to come attack.
Twain sat on the coaches’ seat and crossed his legs. Chelsea would eagerly press up. They just needed to wait for them to hand over ball possession. Then they could seize the opportunity to launch a counterattack and everything would be okay.
Chelsea also seemed to be playing exactly as he envisioned.
More than half of the blue players rushed headlong to partic.i.p.ate in the attack, but so many of them were powerless the face of Nottingham Forest “parking the bus.” After their pa.s.ses were cut off, the ball control was lost.
Chimbonda intercepted Robben’s ball and then pa.s.sed it to van der Vaart.
It was a great opportunity for the Forest team to launch a counterattack. Suddenly, the stands erupted with the excited shouts of the Forest fans.
They had seen such scenes countless times. Few teams could withstand the Forest team’s quick counterattacks!
The football was still in the back half of the field and van der Vaart was not in a hurry to get it out right away. He decided to observe the situation first.
Just as he looked up to confirm his teammate’s positions, suddenly an oppressive force struck him. His intuition told him that it was a tackle from Chelsea, and he tried to get the football out in a hurry but kicked the air.
“Makelele intercepted the ball! Van der Vaart was too careless. Did he think he would be safe in his own half of the field?”
Van der Vaart lost the ball all of a sudden, which caused the Forest team to fall into an extremely pa.s.sive situation. Because Ribéry, Lennon, Eastwood and van Nistelrooy had just completed by doing turning defense into offense, they were rus.h.i.+ng to the opponent’s goal.
The Forest team did not have enough defensive players!
Makelele, who intercepted the ball, did not let the football stay at his feet for another second. He pa.s.sed the football on to Robben, who had already plugged in.
Up against Chimbonda, who rushed to defend, Robben used his speed to push on and overtake outside the line. He bypa.s.sed the Frenchman.
The conditions had been good for the Forest team to fight back, but in a matter of seconds, it became Chelsea’s counterattack. The Forest team did not expect this. Their defense organization was hasty and scattered.
“Go fill the position!” Piqué yelled to Kompany. The Belgian kid was currently the nearest to Robben.
Kompany ran desperately to cover the defense but at which point Robben was already going into the penalty box. He decided to take a risk and shovel the ball. Even if it was a foul, he could not let him into the penalty box. The consequences would be unthinkable once he was in.
Running quickly, Kompany flew towards Robben and shoveled.
Twain, who saw this scene off the field, held his head. This was truly one of the most reckless options.
Unsurprisingly, Robben easily dodged Kompany’s shovel, and then charged into the penalty box.
The cheers from the Chelsea fans became stronger than the Nottingham Forest fans’ as they saw the hope of scoring.
Robben kicked his leg and pa.s.sed. The football had just left his foot when it was blocked by a leg and bounced out of the end line.
“George Wood!” Wood hurried back that fended Robben’s pa.s.s and defused the crisis. Running from the defensive midfielder’s position to the penalty area, he temporarily cameoed as a center back just in time.
Mourinho had already gotten up from his seat. He had wanted to celebrate the goal but ended up seeing only a failed offense. He shook his hands in annoyance and sat back down.
Robben grabbed his head with his hands. He had observed clearly before he broke through Kompany. When there were not many defensive players in front of the Forest team’s goal, as long as he could send the ball in front of the goal, Drogba could shoot it. He did not expect the ever-present Wood to appear in the pa.s.sing route.
His speed was not that much slower than his own.
“Chelsea receives a corner kick in the opening two minutes and they seem to want to play the role of the home team instead of a visiting team? If that’s the case, this game will be very interesting.”
Van der Vaart regretted losing the ball so easily, but no one blamed him. Who would have thought that Makelele would rush to the thirty-meter zone to grab the ball? Everyone completely overlooked the small-built black man.
Once Chelsea’s corner kick was shot, Kompany, who had just been easily bypa.s.sed by Robben, decided to make up for it. He used all his might to jump high in the crowded box and topped the football out.
The Nottingham Forest players did not receive this ball. Instead, Essien, who had lay in wait outside the box, immediately swept his leg and kicked the incoming ball. He wanted to take advantage of the chaotic situation and score.
The football hit Piqué and rebounded. This time Wood received the ball. He was going to turn around to pa.s.s it to Ribéry at the flank, but he had just turned around when he was pushed down from behind.
“This time it was Makelele’s foul. He had stopped a quick counterattack by the Forest team!”
The referee’s whistle rang. It was a foul from Chelsea. But like the commentator had said, they used an inconsequential foul to stop the Forest team from fighting back quickly. It was evident that which team had a bigger loss.
Knocked to the ground, Wood smacked the ground with some exasperation. He was completely unprepared for the collision. More importantly, he actually lost his balance from the collision and fell to the ground, and his team’s fast attack was forced to end here.
At this moment, a black hand appeared before his eyes.
He looked up and discovered that it was Makelele, the culprit.
Makelele smiled and extended his hand to him. No one could get angry at that smile. Wood was not furious at Makelele for this foul but did not accept his opponent’s kindness. He turned a blind eye to the hand right in front of him and stood up from the ground himself.
Makelele was not annoyed at Wood’s att.i.tude. He just smiled and ran away.
The Forest team received a free kick in the backfield. Wood got ready to kick. He stood in front of the ball and glanced up at the situation in front of his eyes. With the exception of the strikers, the Chelsea players had all gone back to defend. In the face of that situation, they would not be able to launch a quick attack.
Wood could only kick the ball to Chimbonda in the flank and the Forest team was just pa.s.sing the ball within the backfield, looking for a way forward. Unfortunately, the opponent had set the defensive formation, which made it hard.
Van der Vaart waited in front for the ball to be pa.s.sed but found that the football did not come for a long time. So, he had to run back to pick up.
The Forest team’s offense finally found the right person. Wood pa.s.sed the football to van der Vaart and stayed behind to defend.
After van der Vaart received the ball, he organized an attack. However, because both teams needed to mind the void behind them, they could not press hard enough, and the attack died.
※※※
As the game went on, Twain, who sat in the technical area, discovered something — it was very difficult for his team to push forward quickly when it was time to turn defense into offense.
The reason was because Chelsea forced interceptions without any regard for its physical strength and committed fouls left and right.
Mentally unprepared, the Forest team could not adapt in the face of Chelsea’s crazy pressing across the board. They made mistakes, and could not organize a fast counterattack.
This was completely different from Chelsea’s performance in the first leg. Twain did not expect Mourinho to play this tactic before the game. He turned his head and looked at the visitors’ technical area.
Mourinho sat in the coaches’ area and crossed his legs.
Twain did not immediately get up and go to the sidelines to yell. He did not know what adjustments he should make. He just stared at the field to think about countermeasures.
Kerslake was anxious about this situation in front of him. He got up from his seat and took two steps before he sat down again, agitated.
Twain waved his hands.”David, can you sit down? You’re making me dizzy.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Kerslake sat down again. “Tony, we’re in a bad situation right now.”
“Of course, I know that.”
“I think we should make some adjustments soon.”
“Of course, I know that, too.”
“Then you…”
“The problem is I don’t know what adjustments to make right now.” Twain muttered as he watched the field.
Kerslake heard him and was also quiet as they watched the game attentively.
※※※
Mourinho’s tactic was effective. Through a frenzy of tackles on the front field, he not only prevented the Forest team from fighting back, he also grabbed some opportunities to launch a counter-offensive, which threatened the goal, guarded by Edwin van der Sar, several times.
With just one more push, we will be able to blow apart the Nottingham Forest’s goal! Mourinho thought, as he turned his gaze towards Twain and found that Twain had not gone up to stand on the sidelines to direct the game due to the unfavorable situation. He still sat in his chair. The only change was that he had uncrossed his legs.
He did not believe that Twain had not seen such an obvious tactic. Now it was up to the other man to make his move.
※※※
“A, drag it out with Chelsea and defend with all our strength to guarantee not to concede the goal. This kind of full-on pressure is very draining. When they are out of stamina, the winner will naturally be us. B, change our offensive tactics to recapture the midfield and suppress them with our offense.” Twain put up two fingers in front of his a.s.sistant managers in the technical area. “Which one would you choose?”
Kerslake thought for a moment before he said, “I think option A is more solid. If the Chelsea players continue to run like this, their strength will be emptied in the latter half of the second half. They will be a mess, whether it is their offense or defense. Then we press up to attack. We can crush them with one goal!”
After he listened to him, Twain turned his head and asked Dunn, “which one do you choose?”
“B,” Dunn replied succinctly.
“The reason?”
“We can’t guarantee that by playing option A, we will be able to hold on. Especially in a situation like this. Chelsea looks like they will score at any moment. Although the effects of option B are unclear, it can effectively reduce the defensive pressure.” Dunn a.n.a.lyzed.
Twain nodded as he listened. He was also more inclined to choose B.
“We definitely have to make adjustments, but we need to take some time to think about exactly how.”
“What we lack now the most is time. Chelsea could score at any moment,” Dunn warned.
※※※
As he spoke, Chelsea finally scored. Their tireless efforts cracked open the Forest team’s a.s.sertion of “an indestructible reinforced concrete” defense.
It was a typical forward rush. When Lennon took the ball, he was still looking around in the hope that someone would come up and a.s.sist him. He did not expect Chelsea to deploy two players and launch a counterattack immediately after they grabbed the ball amidst the chaos.
Before that, Chelsea had a few such chances, but the last shot or final kick was always close.
This time, Drogba lived up to the expectations of Mourinho and all his teammates, as well as all the Chelsea fans. He decisively lifted his leg after he received the ball and the football flew into the goal past Edwin van der Sar’s armpit.
Only the Chelsea fans’ cheers could be heard in the City Ground stadium in that instance. They saw the hope to advance to the final.
“1:0! Chelsea is the first to score an away goal and Drogba equalized the scores of both teams at 2:2! But that’s not enough! If Mourinho wants to go to Athens, the team must score another goal and keep Nottingham Forest from scoring!”
※※※
Looking at the Chelsea players celebrating wildly on the field, Twain was not too angry. He just rolled his eyes at Dunn. “Jinx.”
Then he got up from his seat and walked to the sidelines. While the opponent celebrated the goal, he shouted several people’s names. “Wood! Van der Vaart! Come here!”
The two players heard their manager’s shout and ran over from the far end.
“We will change our strategy.” Twain pulled the two men to his side “Chelsea did not want us to hit them quickly from behind through the midfield by a full-field rush. So, we could not get through the midfield quickly. The midfield is key in this game. Get it back again.” He clenched his fist.
Van der Vaart asked, “How do we grab it back, chief?”
“You are in charge of all the offensive organizations in the Forest team.” Twain pointed to van der Vaart.”Control the football and don’t rush to pa.s.s the football out. Under pressure from our opponent, our players will make mistakes when they receive the ball.”
“But, chief, it’s easier for us to be intercepted in this way. Didn’t you see the goal concede just now?” Van der Vaart raised an objection.
“Of course, I saw it. That was why I called you two over instead of one.” Twain turned to Wood.”George, your only task in this game is to defend. I don’t need you to be involved in offense. Get it?”
Wood nodded.
“Your job is to protect van der Vaart and the ball under his feet. Protect him from being surrounded easily. You must get back the ball if it is lost. Do everything possible to give van der Vaart the opportunity to dribble the ball for as long as it takes to find a void. Let him remain undisturbed to organize attacks.”
“No problem.”
“The midfield is the key. Once you guys are active, the wingers on our flanks will soar.” Twain patted the two men on the shoulder. “Don’t take that goal concede to heart. Since they scored, the best thing to do is send the ball in return — we’ll score one on them, too! Go ahead, their celebration is coming to an end.”
The pair ran back to the field and the rest of the Forest team had placed the football at the center circle, waiting for the Chelsea players to return to their places.
The goal concede did not seem have much effect on them. Maybe it was because even though they trailed behind by 0:1, the score would not cause them to be eliminated. Without that pressure, they would naturally be more relaxed.
Another important reason was that this was only the 17th minute of the game. The Forest team believed they would have a lot of chances to score within the remaining seventy minutes. After all, this was their home ground.