Chapter 943: Volume 7: Heart of the Lion King, This Is Defensive Counterattack

This will be Messi's first time playing at Nottingham Forest's new home court. How many five-star stadiums are there?

Messi leaned over to touch the turf as he stepped onto the pitch to warm up.

Others think that he is just performing some kind of religious ceremony, only those who are familiar with Messi will be surprised-Messi never does this action before playing...

Only his teammates who are familiar with him are happy to him: "The quality of the grass is very good, this is not the rotten vegetable field."

The treatment Barcelona received at the city stadium has long been spread all over the world, and many people use it as a talking point. The teammates also knew exactly what Messi was doing.

Messi tried to run for two steps, but the uneven feeling of potholes did not appear. The grounds are level and the turf is of good quality, just a little short.

Although three seasons have passed since that game, Messi still cannot forget the feeling of playing on such a field. Half of his energy is focused on not getting hurt. Tony Twain was perhaps the most despicable and shameless head coach he had ever seen, yet he could come up with such an idea. He would never play under such a coach in his life. He thought that every move of Tang En insulted the beautiful and sacred football in his mind.

For George Wood, his mood is much more complicated. He admitted that it would be a great thing if Wood became his teammate, but he felt very uncomfortable with Wood's defensive actions that always seemed to be aimed at his legs.

Whenever Wood ran towards him, he felt chills in his knees.

However, every time he played against Wood, he would be extra excited. You must know that the person in front of you is an opponent who needs to go all out to defeat. Every master hopes to have such an opponent on the field. Competing with them is the greatest joy besides winning the championship.

Since that game, Nottingham Forest has never met Barcelona again, and England has played against Argentina for the first time. Messi is really eager to face George Wood once and beat them.

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The fans who entered the stadium one after another in the stands began to make their preparations. They pulled up banners and portraits in the stands, and then began to sing in chorus. They sang the England team anthem, and some even sang Nottingham Forest's cheering song.

Twain set the venue here in order to put enormous psychological pressure on Argentina with the help of enthusiastic Nottingham fans.

Even though it was just a warm-up match, Twain did not want his team to lose to Argentina. In his mind, this had nothing to do with the Falklands War, or the thirty-year feud between Britain and Afghanistan.

He just wants to keep his promise. Nottingham Forest beat Barcelona, ​​now it's England's turn to beat Argentina.

George Wood, England's captain, stood in the center of the field holding a triangular team flag, waiting to exchange team flags with Argentina's captain Lionel Messi.

John in the stands looked at Wood in the middle of the field and exclaimed, "He looks like a leader..."

"Hey, when Wilford watched him do nothing against Fabregas, I knew he would have this day!"

"Stop bragging! When I saw him dare to throw a punch at the head coach of the first team, Corey Moore, I knew that this kid must have a great future..."

A group of people began to brag about how prescient and discerning they were at the beginning.

Fat John didn't get involved, he just laughed when he heard it. Thinking back to the past twelve years ago, George Wood was still an unknown player in the youth team, Nottingham Forest was still struggling in the First Division, and Tony Twain was depressed in the youth team.

Who would have thought that one day, Nottingham Forest would become the treble winners, Tony Twain would become famous all over the world to coach England, and George Wood would wear the England national team jersey and the captain's armband to shake hands with Messi?

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Wood felt the pressure on his hands increased a bit, and he looked at the short man opposite him.

Messi was staring up at him, eyes sparkling with excitement.

He knew the meaning of those eyes and movements, so he increased his strength without showing any weakness, and squeezed Messi's hand tightly.

Kaka, who is thirty-four, is old, and Messi, who is twenty-eight, is at his peak.

The secret rivalry between the two ended soon. They couldn't always hold each other's hand, otherwise some bad rumors would appear in the media the next day...

Wood lost in the toss and England took the kick-off. This is what Tang En wanted.

It was windy in Nottingham at night, and the temperature was cool, which was the weather suitable for football matches.

Players from both sides stand on the court according to their positions, waiting for the kick-off.

Tang En also stood on the sidelines, waiting for the game to start. People like him also have Argentina's coach Maradona.

The referee blew his whistle, and the British-Afghanistan war, which has attracted worldwide attention, kicked off.

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Dunn's tactic for the England team was a defensive counterattack, which surprised many people. Although he has always insisted on defensive and counterattack in the club, his tactics in England are indeed attack-oriented, which is very strong. The scores of 4:0, 3:2, and 3:1 in that game can explain the problem. They scored 32 goals in the European Cup qualifiers. Twain changed his conservative image in the club and conquered those picky fans with his constant goals.

But in this game, Twain asked the team to recover collectively and use a quick counterattack to deal with Argentina.

Is he afraid of Argentina with Messi, Aguero, Higuain and Mascherano?

Take a look at England's starting XI for today.

In the frontcourt, Tang En shot the offensive combination of Rooney, Abanglahuo, Walcott, and Downing. These four are all speed players. Rooney and Abanglaho didn't retreat to defend at all during the game, they just stood at the front and waited for the pass from behind.

Twain did not arrange man-to-man defense in the backcourt. Even if it was a terrifying figure like Messi, George Wood did not man-mark all the time. England uses a zone defense tactic. After any Argentine player takes the ball in England's defensive third zone, he will be surrounded by at least two English players. One grabs the ball and the other waits for an opportunity. As long as the Argentine player holds the ball a little away from his body A little farther away, the second person immediately steals the ball.

This trick has been tried and tested in the Forest team, and it is also very effective in the England team now.

The Argentine players were very troubled by the defense of the English. Unless they could stick the football to their feet, as long as they made a slight mistake, they might lose possession.

Look at when Higuain retreated to respond, the football bounced off his toes, and the distance was only five meters away from him. It is not a big problem to stop the ball like this normally. He only needs to take a big step to catch up , but today it doesn't work. Immediately after the football popped out, it was snatched by England defender Richards who was following Higuain.

Without Messi, he thought he would have a fair one-on-one duel with George Wood today, a contest between captain and captain. Who would have thought that Tony Twain would not give him such a chance at all. When he got the football, whoever was closest to him pressed forward. He tried his best to control the ball and get rid of the first defender. The second man appeared within a foot, and he quickly pulled the ball back. , As a result, the first person turned over and rushed forward again, so he was turning around in circles.

He tried his best to rush forward, finally broke through the siege, and went straight to the restricted area of ​​England. Only when he reached the restricted area line did he realize that the pass could not be passed, and the breakthrough could not be made. After a moment of hesitation, he was surrounded by England players while he was controlling the football.

After finally finding a gap to pass the ball, when the football was brought forward, the linesman raised the flag-the striker was offside!

He wanted to break through by himself, but he ran into a solid block again, and three defensive players were lying in front of him. No matter how powerful he was, he couldn't make a breakthrough every time.

So he shifted to the two wings.

Some of the teammates who received the ball chose to hit the goal directly from a small angle. For example, forwards like Aguero and Higuain were all saved by Joe Hart. There is no difficulty.

When Messi's pass is relatively large, the catcher needs to run close to the sideline to control the football. At this time, Argentina will choose the most common offensive method of crossing from the side. But the quality of their crosses is not very high, and most of the crosses are pushed out by the tall English central defenders. Occasionally, fish slipped through the net. Two of Argentina's three strikers are too short. Tevez is 1.68 meters, Aguero is 1.72 meters, and Higuain is 1.84 meters tall, but he is not good at heading.

If Argentina's wide cross wants their forwards to get the ball, they must pass lower, but a lower pass cannot bypass England's defense line, and a higher pass can bypass England's central defenders, but Argentina's striker can't get around the ball. The effect of getting up will be greatly reduced.

Either the top is too high, or the top is biased, and the number of times that the top is within the range of the door frame is only a handful.

The Argentine is obviously not suitable for this style of play.

They intend to infiltrate with a short pass from the middle, and they will encounter a block. England's two layers of defense can be clearly seen from the stands. The interval between each line is very short, like a device for filtering pure water. When Argentina's offensive penetrated like water, there was nothing clean.

In the end, the Argentine team had no choice but to shoot from a long distance. If the defenders hadn't blocked it with their hands and bodies, the football could have flown towards the goal. But Joe Hart was in great shape, saving those shots that were within the range of the goal frame one by one. .

Of course, there are those occasional moments where the Argentine feels like a real hit.

"Joe Hart dropped the ball!!"

Aguero rushed up like a cheetah, and he almost succeeded in making a follow-up shot. If George Wood hadn't grabbed the football in front of him... Aguero hit Wood's leg and flew out, lying on his back On the ground, he patted the turf hard, obviously regretting that he didn't seize this opportunity.

Forty minutes into the first half of the game, England had very few shots. Eighty percent of the time, the audience only saw Argentina bombing indiscriminately in the 30-meter area around England, and the number of shots was far ahead. .

The narrator was somewhat dissatisfied with the situation. As old enemies, how could they allow the Argentine team to be so domineering?

"Tony Twain played this trick again... But England is by no means a weak team, and Argentina is not a good opponent. If they give up their offense and completely defend, Argentina can't score with fifteen shots. It doesn't mean that they have twenty or two. Fifteen shots can't go in. A defensive counterattack without offense has no future!"

The narrator shouted. The TV broadcast happened to give Tang En a close-up. He stood on the sidelines with a blank expression on his face, and no one could see what was going on in his heart.

He has confidence in his team's defense. Does he think that a 0-0 game with Argentina will be accepted by everyone?

The narrator was unhappy with this. Tang En was very satisfied with the atmosphere of the Crimson Stadium. Forest team fans who were used to Tang En playing like this in the Forest team were not surprised, and they knew that whenever this happened, it meant that the balance of victory was tilting slightly towards them.

So as long as England have a chance to fight back, whether successful or not, there will be a burst of cheers from the stands.

This is also the reason why Twain chose the Crimson Stadium - the fans here understand him, and they will not easily dedicate boos to their own people.

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Messi soon discovered why the turf at the Crimson Stadium is so short today...

At the end of the first half, England intercepted Argentina's ball once.

In fact, England had counterattacked quite a few times before, but there were not many effective shots in the end, and even fewer could pose a threat to Argentina's goal.

But this time it's different.

They didn't make a long pass directly forward in the backcourt. After receiving the ball, Wood looked at the situation. The central midfielders of Argentina were a little hesitant and didn't come up to him immediately. After Wood made a move to pass the ball sideways to the side, Mascherano shifted his center of gravity to the side of his body in a cooperative manner, ready to pounce on the player who received the ball.

Then Wood wrapped the football with his right foot, and moved forward with his left foot, breaking through in a straight line from the middle!

Wood, who took the ball in stride, was very fast, and ran from the front of the penalty area to the middle circle in an instant.

The Argentine players retreated in a hurry, while the England players were struggling to press.

There was a huge cheer from the stands again, and the England fans saw what they most wanted to see.

"Charge! St. George!!" The fans roared frantically.

Downing, Walcott, Rooney, and Abanglaho ran to four different points with four lines. The involvement of the four made Argentina's defense full of loopholes. Wood observed the situation ahead while running at high speed, and Walcott was taken care of. Who made the "little tiger" famous?

With a flick of his ankle, the instep of his left foot passed the football to the left. Mascherano, who returned to defense, planned to shovel the pass to destroy the pass, but he underestimated the rolling speed of the football on the turf. When he flew out, the football had already rolled past his toes.

On a hard surface with short turf, the football rolls faster. It quickly passed Mascherano and rolled to the left.

Tang Ning jumped in at high speed and caught the ball just in time.

Javier Mascherano, who was lying on the ground, was helpless even if he wanted to return to the defense.

Wood's job was done, but he continued to run forward to support his team's offense. At the same time, it put psychological pressure on the already bewildered defenders in Argentina, thinking that he was going to wait for an opportunity to shoot from a long distance.

This scene didn't happen. After receiving the football, Tang Ning faced the tall central defender Fazio who was defending him, feinted a shot and forced a breakthrough inside.

Fazio has a strong body and a good header, but his speed is not his strong point. He fell to the ground and stretched his legs to touch the football, but the football bounced up and hit Tangning's lower leg and flew forward. Instead, it helped the opponent's breakthrough...

Tang Ning raised his speed to the highest level and managed to recover the football from the low line. Then, without hesitation, he swept the football into the center of the penalty area!

Rooney ran past, and so did Abanglaho. Is it another counterattack without success?

The football was passed around the penalty area, where there was not a single Argentine defender.

Tangning, who fell off the cross, did not regret it. He stared at the court with his eyes shining.

"This is George Wood!"

It was right to go forward just now, and Wood appeared in front of the ball. There was also no Argentine player by his side-who would specifically mark an off-ball player?

He volleys directly at the football!

The Argentine goalkeeper Ustari touched the football, but Wood's shot was powerful. He just stretched out his left hand like a conditioned reflex, and touched the football with one palm, but he couldn't change its flight trajectory.

The football changed its line slightly and crashed into the net!

1:0!

Forty-two minutes in the first half, Argentina had a 64% possession rate, 17 shots, but no goals. England took a one-goal lead after just five shots.

This is the defensive counterattack!

Seeing the England players embracing and cheering together, the proud former world champion had to bow his head.

Perhaps this goal was a surprise to them, but to the English players, it was inevitable, and they even thought it came a bit late...

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PS, it’s the last day, if you still have a monthly pass in your hand, let’s smash it~~Thank you!