436 Round Two (2/2)
”Tails.” The referee had placed the coin in front of Henry, indicating the side facing up.
Flipping the coin, the referee presented it to Wood. Wood nodded.
The coin was tossed up high before falling back onto the grass. The main referee bent over to look while Henry and Wood exchanged glances.
”Tails!” Picking up the coin, the referee pointed to Henry, indicating he had the first choice.
”Kick-off rights.” Without hesitation, Henry chose the more advantageous choice for them.
What was left was hardly a choice. Wood chose the side of the field where his team warmed up to be their half.
Both captains shook hands with the three referees and parted ways after.
At that point, Tang En acknowledged that he had completely disregarded what he was to do if they successfully advanced from the semi-finals. In his eyes, this was the finals.
He adjusted his sitting posture and waited for the referee to blow the whistle signaling the beginning of the first half of the match.
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”Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the second round of the UEFA Champions League semi-finals in the 05-06 season. The two teams opposing are Nottingham Forest and Arsenal! This is a civil war in England. I believe the English would hope even more for these two teams to meet in Stade de France (where the finals of this season's Champions League were to be held). Let me take this opportunity to introduce you to the starting line-up of both teams…”
Kenny Burns sat in the bar, his head looking up at the huge television screen that hung below the ceiling. The whole bar was filled to the brim with people taking the same posture as him.
The Forest Bar had used to be a place Tang En frequented. Everyone here knew what kind of person Forest's manager was. They were also his most loyal fans. These people idolized not some football star, but a manager instead. Even though Tang En very rarely came back here to drink and chat now due to his work, his spot continued to be reserved only for Tang En's use; no one else was allowed it.
Today, within the crowded bar, only that seat was empty.
The introduction of Forest's list of starting players began on television. Just like fans watching it live, the people in the bar started shouting the names one by one. After they got to the last name, Anelka, everyone added in: ”… and Tony Twain!”
After the shout, everyone guffawed and raised their beer mugs, drinking heartily.
Burns raised his cup in a toast to everyone. The charisma that only Brian Clough had had was now reflected in Tony Twain.
The racket gradually eased. Everyone looked up at the television, waiting for the match to begin.
A clear whistle emitted from within the television, sounding in every corner of the city.
The match was beginning!
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”Right off the bat, Arsenal has opted to take the initiative of an attacking stance. It's a necessary move for them. If they want a ticket to the finals, Arsenal, who have lost a goal on their home field, needs to go on the offensive in this match. They need to score and upset the advantage that Forest has. Only in that way would the match return to Wenger's control… however, the team they are faced with is the third-best team in defense in the current season of the English Premier League.”
”I don't really agree with what you're saying. The Premier League and Champions League are not quite the same things. Being able to defend well in the EPL does not mean they can do the same in the Champions League.”
Arsenal's Henry dribbled the ball in an attack and quickly got trapped in a two-player encirclement. Tang En had asked the team to use a pincer defense against Henry, taking extra caution protecting their fronts and backs; when defending, they needed to make sure there was depth in their defense. They must not allow him to break through easily. Henry himself was no stranger to such defense against him. After all, they had played against Forest for almost two seasons.
After attracting the attention of two defending Forest players, Henry passed the ball outwards.
Following, Fàbregas received the pass. At the same time, George Wood also came forward to press him. Without killing the ball and observing, the Spaniard champion directly passed the ball to Reyes upon seeing Wood run over.
Reyes then passed center. He kicked a low pass, attempting to create confusion in front of Forest's goal. But Pepe kicked the ball out of the sidelines first.
Wood waved to his teammates in front of him, indicating for them to return to participate in the defense.
Something that had recently delighted Tang En was George Wood becoming more and more initiative in telling others his thoughts. For example, those actions during a match would be a rare occurrence a season ago.
If he wished for his teammates to return for defense or go on the attack, he would now use his own methods to inform them rather than keeping his silence and not speaking a word.
Donning the Captain's armband had truly made him grow a lot.
Wood could tell that the initial stages of the match might need defense, so he got everyone to return to help.
His actions were correct. After kicking off, Arsenal had indeed intended to use the time in that period to launch ferocious attacks. They hoped to break the stalemate as early as possible.
Three minutes, five minutes… Arsenal surrounded Forest's penalty area in a continuous streak of attacks. Forest could only depend on a tight defense to put a halt to their offense.
However, no one on the spectators' stand felt dissatisfaction about that. Forest's fans had long gotten used to this style of football from Tang En. To them, it did not matter how they kicked so long as they could win.
Forest's players were also used to it; first, defend, and then attack. Many times, this was Nottingham Forest's basic strategy.
Henry forcefully broke through into the penalty area, igniting a storm of turbulence. Amid the mess, his shot landed on Piqué's body, changing direction. It flew straight towards the corner, the far corner of the goal! But Edwin van der Sar was blocking the corner closer to them instead. Was it already hopeless?
Arsenal's fans watching this scene before their televisions were all too ready to begin celebrating and cheering in advance. In this instance, a streak of shadow dashed out. With a stretch of his leg, he kicked the football out!
”George Wood resolves the danger; he saved Forest! Arsenal's attacks are too ferocious, Nottingham Forest is beginning to stumble!”
Piqué patted Wood, still feeling some trepidation in his heart from the shot earlier, thanking him for his save.
Tang En, sitting outside the field, looked towards the away team manager's seat. Like him, Wenger was seated and seemed impassive.
Arsenal put in a lot of effort for this match; they must score. That was why Wenger discarded the idea of a defensive counterattack, changing to make use of Arsenal's greatest strength to deal with Forest.
Such an Arsenal was, in fact, the scariest. At first, they had tried changing strategies, playing defensively as Forest did. They were thinking of depending on it to advance to the finals, but they were taking it too lightly. They should just stick with whatever they were meant to be.
On the contrary, Tang En was not afraid of Arsenal attacking. In the previous round, he had to try so hard to force them to attack because Arsenal did not want to. Now that Arsenal took the initiative to go on the offense, Forest could play defensive counterattacking more comfortably.
Faced with Arsenal's tidal wave of attacks, Tang En decided against making a move, continuing to observe instead.
He had seen many such scenes. It was no big deal.