458 A New Job Possibility (1/2)

From the start of England's first game until they were ultimately eliminated by Portugal, Twain had sat on the commentator's seat and attacked Eriksson nonstop.

And as the World Cup progressed along with the increase in England's games, more and more people started to feel that Twain's attacks made a lot of sense. Eriksson's English team had not played a single convincing and watchable game in this World Cup. It was a fluke if they won any games.

Their 1:0 victory over Paraguay was due to their opponent's gift of an own goal.

The process of defeating Trinidad And Tobago by 2:0 also was not as smooth and easy as the score.

England played well in the first half of the game with Sweden, which resulted in a 2:2 draw, and even the loss of Owen.

The 1:0 elimination of Ecuador was even more tiresome for the English people. Had it not been for Beckham's direct free kick and twice helping to defend the goalpost, the English should have gone home after the eighth final.

”This is the most powerful English team in thirty years?” Twain evaluated during the game. ”It's so arduous for them to play against a small South American country. How are they strong? All I see is Beckham playing alone. Lampard? I'm sorry, he's in a terrible state. If there's a statistic for the number of shots that missed the goals, his score must be the highest. Of course, I don't think it's the player's problem. They can't always guarantee they're at their best condition. Even at their best, they need a manager who knows how to use it to get them to play to their full potential. This is obviously the manager's issue.”

After all that, Twain had come back to the main point and pointed the finger at Eriksson.

He believed that Eriksson also knew that, regardless of the final outcome of this World Cup, he would certainly be dismissed in the end.

According to the English Football Association's tradition, they would eventually look for the person in charge for the defeat of the English national team, and then the media would hype it up so that the public would be convinced of it. In short, they were particularly good at giving excuses for their failures.

Like Beckham in 1998, who unfortunately became a leading character in this misfortune. The English always said that if Beckham had not been sent off at that time, they would have been able to beat Argentina. Twain had scoffed at the claim right from the start. If the Argentines were so easy to beat, they could not have been considered a strong team internationally. The English team only said that there was a chance to beat Argentina in ninety minutes, but it was not certain that they would win. Beckham's red card was a fact, and England's defeat became a fact too. With these two facts linked together, Beckham had become a sinner in many people's eyes. They always needed a scapegoat and would not let go once they grabbed hold of one, no matter who they were.

Until 2002, in the game against Greece before the World Cup, Beckham eliminated Greece with a beautiful direct free kick to and sent England to the World Cup finals. Only then was he finally forgiven and respected by the people of all of England and became a god again.

Since there was a precedent, it was unsurprising that Twain ended up getting more support after he slammed Eriksson.

In their last game against Portugal, Eriksson replaced the injured Beckham early and the English captain limped off to the sidelines and returned to the bench, where he sat down beside Wood. Then, Wood saw the popular idol, who was admired by thousands of people, actually cry next to him!

Seeing this, Twain muttered in front of the microphone, ”It's over. Eriksson is starting to bring on new players to allow them to accumulate their competition experience and get the feel of the game.”

Beckham was replaced by the Forest team's right midfielder, Ashley Young. He played well when he got on the field and did not have stage fright. Twain was deeply gratified. The players who came from Nottingham Forest must be different from everyone else, and that was because their manager was an extraordinary person.

Ashley Young was fortunate that he had played in the World Cup on behalf of England after all, even though he did not play long. As for George Wood, who was also from Nottingham Forest and his team captain, he was not so lucky. He was selected to be in the English national team but did not play even for a minute. Other than playing for twenty-one minutes on behalf of England in the warm-up match before the World Cup, he did not appear in any games.

At this moment, England was engaged in a bitter battle on the field. Wood focused his attention on Beckham next to him. This captain of the national team with thousands of fans and an idol adored or envied by many, cried helplessly. He covered his face with his hands and his tears slipped out of the cracks between his fingers.

The televised footage cut to Beckham several times, and as a teammate sitting next to him, George Wood was caught on film too.

Wood's attention was focused on Beckham. He had known of this man before he got into the national team. David Beckham was the only star footballer he could name before he had started playing football. He always felt that this man was a symbol of success with his accomplished career, a beautiful wife, and beloved sons. He did not expect that he would have such an awful side.

Watching Beckham cry so heedlessly in front of the public, he suddenly recalled that Champions League final in Paris. He did not cry at that time, but he could understand how Beckham felt at that moment.

He hesitated for a moment before he put his hand on Beckham's shoulder.

The taste of failure was really hard to bear.

Beckham felt a warm hand on his shoulder and he turned to look at the serious-looking George Wood, sitting behind him.

He wiped away his tears and got up from the ground to sit on the chair. He said nothing as he watched Wood squeeze out a tiny smile.

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In the end, Portugal knocked out England in the game through the penalty shootout. Rooney was even sent off with a red card by the referee because he trampled the crotch area of the Portuguese player, Carvalho. This was the last straw that crushed England. Wayne Rooney's Manchester United teammate, Cristiano Ronaldo, stood up for his Portuguese team at that sensitive moment, which was viewed as a betrayal by the English. It infuriated them. Of course, during the game commentary, Twain unexpectedly did not comment on this sudden incident. He had not spoken for some time.

He actually thought both sides were right. It was understandable for Cristiano Ronaldo, who currently wore the Portuguese jersey, to ask the referee to give Wayne Rooney a red card. But the outraged English did not care about this, and Twain did not want to waste his breath on such a pointless thing.

He just thought both were similarly sent off with a red card except that Beckham was unluckier than Wayne Rooney in that year.

Wayne Rooney would certainly not be heavily censured by the media. The player that Ferguson needed to carefully protect was not this ”purest English kid”, but the traitor, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Certainly, if it did not turn out to be what Twain knew, that Ferguson suddenly lost his mind and wanted to give up Cristiano Ronaldo to save Wayne Rooney, then Nottingham Forest would not mind accepting the public enemy of the entire England.

He could treat it as if he was helping to resolve the difficult predicament Sir Alex Ferguson was in.

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No one felt good that the English team was eliminated. The live broadcast studio fell into silence. Motson and Alan Shearer quietly packed up and finished the broadcast of today's game.

Twain's stuff was simple to handle. The information he prepared was in his own head.

He took off his headphones, looked around at the silent and busy crew, and looked at John Motson.

”Is my work done here?” His question broke the silence in the workroom.

Motson looked up at him. ”No, Tony. The World Cup isn't over yet.”