Chapter 2014: Defending

The first to kick off was Stoke City.

Stoke City paid the highest respect to the powerful Manchester United. Their two forwards did not even advance forward after passing the ball in the center circle, but stayed in the center circle to connect with their midfielder.

After the ball was passed a few times in Stoke City's midfield, it was immediately kicked towards Manchester United's half, and the ball was simply handed over to Manchester United.

Ferguson was speechless. He had known for a long time that Stoke City would give the ball to Manchester United, and he would defend and counterattack, or even defend the counterattack. But he didn't expect that Pulis would play it so thoroughly. He even feinted after the start. Don't attack.

On-site commentator He Hui joked: "It seems that Stoke City doesn't want to give any space to Manchester United. If Manchester United wants to win, it depends on its ability to break the bus."

Manchester United was fully prepared for Stoke City's tactics in advance. After getting the ball, Manchester United immediately passed the ball to Nani and launched an attack from the wing.

Attack from the side, open up space, and break through the middle. This is a conventional tactic for breaking through dense defense.

Obviously, Stoke City was more prepared. After Nani got the ball, full-back Pennant quickly retreated and guarded Nani with full-back Wilkins.

There was no space, and there were two people guarding him. Nani did not dare to rush forward. He controlled the ball and waited for his full-back Evra to assist and open up the opponent's defense.

Evra saw the opponent's conservativeness and assisted quickly. He cut forward quickly, attracting Pennant's follow-up defense and leaving Wilkins to Nani.

Wilkins was not a very good defender, so Nani was very confident in facing him. He flicked the ball, feinted with his upper body, and then dunked again, trying to get rid of Wilkins' center of gravity and rush towards the penalty area.

However, Wilkins didn't care about what he was doing. He started directly and pulled Nani to the ground with a sudden pull.

The referee immediately blew his whistle, pointed to the location of the foul, and gave Manchester United a free kick.

Free kicks are also a good way to break dense defense. Scholes took the corner kick, and all the players in Manchester United who could grab points went up.

Stoke City made up their mind to defend and defended the set piece well. Scholes' curve ball went in and the ball was headed out by Stoke City center back Huth.

The second goal was still under the control of Manchester United. Rafael passed the ball to Valencia, and Valencia kicked it into the penalty area.

There are many players in the Stoke City penalty area;

But the landing point was grabbed by Huth and pushed out.

This time the clearance was not so urgent. Huth headed the ball towards his forward position where Jones was.

Jones grabbed the header in the fight with Gao Xiaodong, but he couldn't find a passing point around him, so he pushed it directly out of the sideline.

It was a waste of time, but it started to waste time from the first minute, which still caused dissatisfaction among Manchester United fans.

"Just shrink down, it's a waste of time."

"Is this going straight to 0:0?"

"This is a global live broadcast of the final. It's too embarrassing to play like this."

"There is nothing to be ashamed of, as long as Stoke City can win the championship, they will be the city heroes.

The players of Manchester United are not in a hurry. The game has just begun. The players of Manchester United believe that they have plenty of opportunities.

The throw-in was issued and Manchester United continued to attack from the wing.

This time it was on the Valencia side.

Valencia's side breakthroughs don't have as many tricks as Nani's. No matter how many opponents there are on the side, he drives the ball to the baseline and uses his speed to beat the opponent.

This move is simple and direct. Except for fouls, no matter how many defensive players there are, there is no way to defend. However, Stoke City left little space for Valencia. When Valencia overtook and caught up with the ball, the ball also went out of the baseline.

When Stoke City took the goal kick, the players still did not press forward. They just symbolically pushed the two forwards through the center circle, and then waited for Manchester United to get the ball and continue the attack.

Manchester United is a team that focuses on impact play. Stoke City defended the penalty area and did not even have a chance to attack. They just had to defend to the end. Manchester United had no space and could not rush forward even if they wanted to.

Manchester United had no choice but to patiently intersperse and cooperate in the center and wings to find Stoke City's flaws.

Stoke City is known as the Sky City in the Premier League. This means that their players are very tall and have excellent confrontation and air defense, but this also causes their weakness of turning too slowly.

However, Stoke City's head coach is also very aware of this, so he adopts the tactic of not leaving the hole, using the numerical advantage to make up for the players' weakness of not turning around quickly.

In the 8th minute, Manchester United continued to pass the ball and cooperated, but they were still unable to penetrate Stoke City's two lines of defense. The ball returned to Gao Xiaodong's feet again. Gao Xiaodong didn't want to pass the ball back and forth anymore. He took the ball two steps laterally and then Hit the door directly with great force.

Stoke goalkeeper Sorensen was well prepared for Gao Xiaodong's shot. He flew forward and knocked the ball away with both fists.

The ball fell to Scholes, who found Rooney with a long pass in the chaos, but before Rooney could get the ball, he was hit behind him, almost fell down, and lost the ball.

Stoke City's defender passed the ball to his forward. This pass was actually more like a clearance, but it was accurately passed to the feet of forward Jones. Jones also caught the ball and passed it to the core midfielder. Etherington.

Seeing that their frontcourt controlled the ball, and it was core Etherington who held the ball, Stoke City finally attacked.

Stoke City plays a traditional British style of play, with quick breakthroughs from the wing, 45-degree long passes, and high-altitude bombing. Double-height forwards Jones and Carew are at the forefront. Their task is to wait for the pass from the wing in the penalty area. A header shot from the center of the ball. When the team is on defense, they will retreat to the midfield to meet other teammates or defend high-altitude balls in their own penalty area. During the counterattack, they will participate in dribbling the ball near the midfielder.

The two central midfielders are mainly responsible for the defense in the middle. They only make simple passes when attacking. They mainly pass diagonally to the two wing midfielders, or occasionally when the opponent's defense line is pressing up, they will pass through the two forwards. The two core ball-controlling players are the two full-backs Etherington and Pennant. Their task is to use their personal skills to control the ball at their feet, and then high-ball the ball into the penalty area to challenge their teammates for the top. When defending, they retreat to their own midfielder to get closer. The center and the two central midfielders compress the space in the center. The two full-backs basically did not assist today and stayed behind to defend.

After Etherington in the frontcourt took possession of the ball, the two midfielders moved up, leaving only a defense line in the backcourt.

Etherington's attack was simple. He quickly moved forward along the wing, forcing Valencia to retreat, and then he made a 45-degree cross to find the forward.

Manchester United's two central defenders Ferdinand and Vidic are not vegetarians. Vidic headed the ball before his opponent and headed the ball outside the penalty area.

Gao Xiaodong grabbed the second spot, stopped the ball with his chest, half-turned and hit Valencia to the side.

This pass from God's perspective won the cheers of the entire Manchester United fans.

Valencia finally found a breakthrough space. He used his speed to rush forward, penetrated Wilson's defense, and sent the ball into the penalty area with a kick from the baseline.

Valencia broke out well, but passed the ball poorly and the ball was confiscated directly by Sorensen.

Stoke City only attacked once, leaving a line of defense in the backcourt, but they were still counterattacked.

After this time, Stoke City was honest and stayed in the backcourt to defend. When given the chance, they would attack with up to four people, determined to defend 0:0.