champion godfather

Chapter 980
Both Hierro and the Spanish coaching staff guessed that Twain would use rude fouls to deal with a technically skilled team like Spain, but none of them expected that such a completely unfamiliar England team would appear before their eyes...

Not to mention them, even the England fans and commentators had to rub their eyes, still unable to confirm that the eleven players in white jerseys and dark blue shorts in front of them represented England.

When the Spanish team prepared to kick off, the England players stood in their half of the field, and the formation was obviously 352.This surprised many people who are familiar with England, because England in memory rarely uses their traditional 442 formation.If they are well-informed and have good memories, they will remember that Venables made similar adjustments in the European Championship in England 20 years ago. ball game.

But other than that, I can't think of any other examples.

This change made the Spaniard completely unexpected-who has nothing to study the battles of 20 years ago... Their pre-match preparations were all aimed at the 442 England. That England had four defenders, four defenders and three defenders. Defenders make a big difference.And that England team definitely didn't have the setting of a "front midfielder"... Now, Gerrard is standing in the position of the front midfielder.

The Spanish players on the field were very surprised. Such a change in Ingra made them a little overwhelmed... If they continue to follow the pre-match deployment, they will leave England with a lot of space.But if you want to change, how to change?

How to do?
The Spanish players looked at each other, and they all found the same question in each other's eyes.

Hierro knew that now was not the time to be indecisive. Although it was unclear what Tony Twain's intentions were for such a change, he had to do a good job of prevention first.He went to the sidelines and shouted to his men: "Watch out for their Gerrard! Gerrard!"

Hierro's idea is very simple. Since Gerrard appears in the midfielder's position, he must be responsible for organizing England's offense.He has done similar work at Liverpool, which is not new to Gerrard.

Since the head coach asked to keep an eye on Gerrard, as the only defensive midfielder in the team, Ignacio Camacho (Ignacio_Camacho) naturally had a duty to do so.

Tang En saw this change in the Spanish team off the court, and he laughed.

This is exactly what he wanted to see.

Gerrard did try to organize the offense several times afterwards, but under Camacho's strict marking, he did not pass any threatening passes.This made both Camacho and Hierro convinced that Gerrard was the core of the England team.

In the first 15 minutes of the game, George Wood devoted himself to defending, leading his teammates to block Spain's attack, mainly targeting Cesc Fabregas.In the opening 15 minutes, he has been called for two fouls, but fortunately he has not yet received a yellow card.In fact, Tang En didn't want him to commit fouls so frequently, because George Wood had a yellow card on his back. If he received another yellow card in this game, even if England could eliminate Spain, Wood would miss the final.This was definitely something Tang En didn't want to see. He hoped that his team could make it to the finals, and he also hoped that George Wood would not be absent.

In this game, Spain formed a single striker lineup. Bo Yang was at the front alone, while Torres was injured. In order to ensure that he can participate in the final, the Spanish coaching staff decided to let him sit on the bench.The person behind Boyan is Iniesta, Fabregas and Camacho are behind, Lago is on the left of the two wings, and David Silva is on the right.The left back is Arbeloa, the right back is Sergio Ramos, and the two centre-backs are Piqué and Raul Albiol.The goalkeeper is Asenjo.

Except for one Torres who is injured and unable to play, this is already the strongest lineup in Spain at present.

Hierro worked hard on Spain's dual-core tactics and finally achieved results in this competition.Both Fabregas and Iniesta can organize offenses, but there are differences between the two.Iniesta has excellent dribbling, short passes and crosses are very sharp, the closer to the penalty area, the greater his threat.And Cesc Fabregas passed the ball well, was good at controlling the rhythm, and was responsible for the overall scheduling at the back.

In this way, even if one of them is frozen by the opponent's man-to-man, Spain's offense will not be greatly affected.

The current situation is like this. After Cesc Fabregas was frozen by Wood's personal defense, the banner of organizing the offense was immediately handed over to Iniesta.

In this game, Twain did not stick to the "area defense" tactics he used before, but switched to "man-to-man".Wood pegged Cesc Fabregas, while Michael Johnson's goal was Iniesta.This allocation is also made after fully considering the characteristics of the players on both sides.Cesc Fabregas and George Wood have been rivals in the Premier League for a long time and are very familiar with each other. No one is more suitable to defend the Gunners captain than him.Iniesta is a little older, has poor physical fitness, and is prone to injuries. It is more appropriate to let Johnson, who is younger and has good endurance, entangle the opponent.

As for the two wingers... Rooney and Abanglaho are more like two full-backs than full-backs since the start of the game.At the same time, three strong central defenders were hoarded in the penalty area, making it difficult for Spain to penetrate the short pass that Spain is good at.

After withstood the Spanish team's offensive in the first 15 minutes, England began to prepare a counterattack.

After Michael Johnson and John Terry teamed up to intercept Iniesta's pass, Terry did not hand the football to Gerrard, the "strike midfielder" who was already rushing forward. The "lower back" George Wood.

With such a dislocation of Gerrard and Wood's "double virtues", football has not changed hands and is still at Wood's feet.After seeing Wood receive the ball, Gerrard also turned and ran forward.At the same time, both Rooney and Abanglaho have changed from "full-backs" to "wingers" who are rushing forward!
Camacho was hesitating whether to go to George Wood who got the ball or his original target Gerrard, and he quickly made a choice-let the person holding the ball first.

But when he pounced on Wood, the running Wood passed the football to Gerrard who was keeping pace with him.Wood, who had completed the passing task, slowed down, and Gerrard passed the past and passed the ball to Rooney, who cut in from the wing.

Spain's defenders are marking Mitchell and Vaughn who suddenly become active, so that Rooney and Abanglahor, who are inserted behind, have a large space in front of them to move freely.

After Rooney received the football, he cut in and did not hesitate to take a long shot from outside the penalty area!Let him, who is good with his right foot, play on the left, that's what Twain meant—cut in and shoot!
Rooney's powerful long-range shot was finally saved by Asenjo, and England got a corner kick.

England's corner kick did not go directly, but played a tactic.Gerrard passed the football to Johnson who came up to meet him, and Johnson passed it to George Wood who was waiting in the middle. After receiving the ball, Wood adjusted and took a long shot about 30 meters away from the goal. The second ball went directly over the crossbar and flew into the stands behind the goal.

"England has no way to go deep into our penalty area, and can only rely on long shots to threaten the gate guarded by Asenjo! Unfortunately, the accuracy is almost there!" The Spanish commentator expressed optimistically that their defense is safe.

Many Spanish fans also hold this view. Judging from the scene, it is obvious that Spain has the advantage, with the ball possession rate far ahead of England, and the football is better than England.

They believe that if they continue to play like this, it will be a matter of time for the Spanish team to score goals, and victory is not a problem at all.

Some England fans who don't know the truth are worried.This England team in front of them is really too unfamiliar. Of course they know that this is a strategy Tang En came up with to deal with Spain, but this England team has never played 352, and the temporary change of lineup may not surprise the opponent, let themselves first People are at a loss...

Will this happen?
※ ※ ※

Spain made a comeback and launched an attack again. This time it was still Iniesta who took the ball to organize.It was obvious that the Spanish team-mates were passing the ball to him.

When Michael Johnson defended Iniesta, he won the "true biography" of those old fritters...not the feet first but the hands first, grabbing Iniesta's shoulders, then stepping up and pushing with his body Looking at the opponent, not letting Iniesta turn around easily.Then he kept kicking forward from behind with his feet. If he hit the football, he would steal the ball. If he kicked the ankle, Iniesta would suffer a little. Knowing how good the Englishman is, let him catch the ball next time. My ankles are aching.

But this time Johnson miscalculated. He stretched out his foot to steal the ball, but Iniesta used it instead, turned around and dialed the ball to avoid it.When Iniesta, who quickly dodged Johnson in a small area, was about to loose the ball into the penalty area, England's defense suddenly had an overall premise and no one commanded them, but they obviously had a good understanding, and the three central defenders moved forward neatly. One step was taken, and it was this step that made Bo Yang, who was at the front, offside.

Iniesta passed the ball and the whistle sounded.

The people on the England coaching bench below wiped away their sweat-it was too dangerous.This was not what they had arranged in advance, it was entirely the judgment made by the three defenders at that moment.Fortunately, their thinking was highly unified at this moment, otherwise, if one of them took a step slower, Bo Yang would come to him to face goalkeeper Joe Hart directly.

Although escaped, Terry still criticized Johnson, telling him not to pounce too hard in the first defense, and to leave some room for his follow-up actions.

Johnson nodded and humbly accepted the old-timer's experience.

Terry saw the immaturity in Johnson's defense, but Wood saw something else-Spain will see from this attack that Johnson is a weakness in the double midfielder, and they will definitely use this. The tower serves as the main direction of attack.The best solution is definitely not to hide in the backcourt and deploy heavy troops and wait for the opponent to attack, but... to attack and look for opportunities to score goals!
It's time to tear off the pretense.

England's backcourt free kick did not go directly to the frontcourt, but passed to Wood who retreated to respond.

Since Wood is a defensive midfielder, there is no one to mark him in Spain.Even Fabregas can only pay attention a little bit, and can't really run up. Who made Fabregas also a midfielder?The distance between the two people is more than ten meters, what should I do if I run up to the space behind me?
In fact, Twain's change was precisely because of the consideration that it would be difficult for Spain to immediately defend against Wood.Otherwise, why didn't he make Wood's position more premised?Isn't it closer to the Spanish penalty area and more threatening from a defensive midfielder to a central midfielder?

Letting Wood play the defensive midfielder to be responsible for organizing the offense is to consider that he has a good overall view and vision, and has an excellent long pass, and he is unobtrusive and uninterrupted, so he is suitable as an organizer.

Seeing that no one came up to grab his own ball, Wood calmly passed the football to Abanglaho on the wing, and then he himself advanced forward, ready to respond.Abanglahuo's breakthrough encountered difficulties, and he quickly passed the football to Wood who came up to meet him.At this time, Fabregas had the opportunity to come up to one-on-one with Wood. Unfortunately, Fabregas is not good at defense. Wood squeezed him behind with his body, and then ran on the left side, but suddenly slanted his foot during the run. Pass through.This time it was Rooney who received the ball.

Exactly the same as last time, because Mitchell and Vaughn made the intention to respond to the pass, the Spanish defenders were pressed in the penalty area and did not dare to act rashly.Rooney is temporarily unmarked.

In this game, Twain gave Rooney the task of scoring goals, and putting the pass assists in the second place.Now that there is no one to mark, Rooney, as a striker, naturally chose to come by himself...

With a feint shot, he tricked the rushing full-back Sergio Ramos, and then Rooney pulled the football and rushed past Ramos into the penalty area...

Rooney, who rushed into the penalty area, did not hesitate anymore and shot with his right foot.

The football went straight to the far corner of the goal. Asenjo reacted quickly, fell to his right, stretched out his long hand, and pushed the football out!
"Nice save!!" The Spanish commentator shouted.Such a save made the Spaniard excited. "It is comparable to Banksy's save!"

Just as the Spanish fans were about to start cheering, someone came to disturb their good show...

"Aaron Mitchell!" John Mortensen shouted.

Piqué held the tall center forward of Nottingham Forest tightly. He was a little slow at the start, and now he could only use his body to hold down the opponent.Mitchell is bound to win the ball, how can Piqué be able to suppress it?While losing his balance, Mitchell swept the football with his feet. This time it seems that he will definitely score!

but!

With a bang, the football hit the goalpost and bounced back...

The Spaniard's heart almost stopped beating at this moment, and just when they thought they had escaped the catastrophe again and were about to breathe a sigh of relief, their hearts were lifted again.

James Vaughan, who was overlooked in the series of offensive shots just now, appeared before the ball's landing point. He swung his foot and prepared to volley directly!

Albiol flew forward, intending to block the opponent's shot with his body.

The football falls, Vaughn swings his leg...

The football flew between Albiol's legs!
Asenjo has already got up from the ground, and his reaction is considered fast, but the direction of Vaughn's shot is completely opposite to the direction he got up...

This time he could only watch the football stick to the turf, pass through Albiol's legs, and then get into the net...

"The ball is in! The ball is in! Three shots in a row, the ball is finally in!"

England fans leaped from their seats with their hands up and their team took the lead in the opening 27 minutes!

Twain's changes had paid off, and Spain felt very uncomfortable with such an England team.Their city gates were exposed to the heavy artillery of England, and in the continuous bombing, they finally fell.

At this moment, some pessimistic Spaniards seem to see that the scene 500 years ago is slowly unfolding.The Spanish Armada was crumbling under the bombardment of the British Royal Navy.

(End of this chapter)