Godfather Of Champions

When Sporting Lisbon arrived in Nottingham, the manager, José Peseiro, spoke modestly at a press conference held in a hotel. “Nottingham Forest is a strong team, and I’ll be glad to be able to obtain one point in this match.”

This modesty was not only present in that one press conference; it was displayed in various ways. It seemed that Nottingham Forest was indeed a dangerous adversary in Sporting Lisbon’s view. The Portuguese did not open their adaptive training to the media when they arrived in Nottingham a few days ahead. This cautious and prudent behavior was not a symbol of strength to the people of Nottingham.

Indeed, today’s Sporting Lisbon was not the Sporting Lisbon of yesteryear. The only time they had won a European Championship was forty years ago.

The final game of round 16 had just begun, and the Forest team demonstrated their home field advantage. They did not test the ground in the midfield. The Forest team charged to Sporting Lisbon’s front in the first attack.

Twain had sent out eleven of his best players for the match.

The goalkeeper was van der Sar and the center backs were Hierro and Matthew Upson. The left and right backs were Leighton Baines and Chimbonda. The defensive midfielders were George Wood and Albertini. The left midfielder was Franck Ribéry and the right midfielder was Ashley Young. The two strikers were Freddy Eastwood and Mark Viduka.

This was the Forest team’s main lineup when Twain did not rotate it. It was a perfect combination of youthful vigor and the veterans’ steady calm.

On the other hand, Sporting Lisbon’s lineup looked unfamiliar to Twain. It was difficult for him to put a name and number to the faces of most of the players, let alone have a deep understanding of them. But fortunately, the first round was on his home ground. Twain’s tactic was to gain points on their home ground. They had to win and score big. They had to concede as few goals as possible.

It would not be a victory if they failed to achieve those three targets.

“…Mark Viduka! Terrific shot! Ricardo made a wonderful save. This Portuguese national goalkeeper once personally scored the last penalty kick in the UEFA European Championship and eliminated England in that game.”

He was a brash goalkeeper. Tang En had a deep impression of him. In that game, Ricardo had first saved England’s penalty kick without gloves, and he had personally shot the last penalty kick into the goal to eliminate England. Due to this, Ricardo’s wonderful save did not win applause for him but instead invited jeers from the English fans.

Ricardo was the team captain of Sporting Lisbon and one of the few Portuguese national footballers on the team. With him as the core, Sporting Lisbon’s defensive tactics for the game were already obvious.

Peseiro wanted to get one point on the Forest team’s home ground; on that basis, it would be best to get another goal in this away game if possible. Even if they could not obtain a point in the end, as long as they scored a goal in this game, everything would be fine when they returned to their home ground.

However, Twain would not let him get what he wanted.

Viduka’s explosive attack kicked off a surge of attacks from the Forest team. Amidst the Forest fans’ cheers, wave after wave of attack struck Sporting Lisbon’s goal.

“… Nottingham Forest played aggressively at home. The speed at which they got into the rhythm of the game is amazing!”

This was expected. Twain had prepared a long time for this game. Recently, the team’s daily training had been centered around the UEFA Europa League. If the game did not meet Twain’s requirements, it would have been all for nothing.

Viduka did not manage to score a goal, but a goal was coming soon.

In the ninth minute of the first half, the Forest team’s continuous offensive finally breached Sporting Lisbon’s goal.

Viduka attracted two Sporting Lisbon fullbacks in the front, and soon after passed the ball from his foot to Albertini, who came up. The Italian assumed the stance of swinging his leg to shoot directly into the goal. The Portuguese defenders dared not ignore this and rushed to slide to intercept. Although the Italian was old, his long shot was still enough to frighten the enemy.

When the opponent jumped up to use his back to block Albertini’s shot, Albertini suddenly sent out a direct pass.

Eastwood received Albertini’s pass in the front of the penalty area. After he leaned against Fábio Rochemback, who came up to defend, and blocked him, he turned around to hook the ball into the penalty area. As a result, the Sporting Lisbon players around him would not be hasty with their feet because if they ran into Eastwood with their extended legs, there was a very high chance that the opponent would respond by falling to the ground. Compared to a one-on-one face-off with the goalkeeper, it was more stable to score with a penalty kick.

The surrounding Sporting Lisbon defenders refrained and dared not make a hasty move. Rochemback, who was blocked by Eastwood’s back, could not care less. He only knew the opponent was in the penalty area and had edged him outside. Seeing that he was about to shoot, he absolutely could not let his opponent succeed.

He pushed from behind, hoping that Eastwood, who was about to shoot, would lose his balance. But he did not expect Eastwood to use the push and turn it into a launch!

His center of gravity leaned forward with his legs planted and his toe tips pointed. The football soared and flew over Ricardo’s head from where he had initially obstructed Eastwood’s shooting angle. The ball went into the goal behind him in the midst of cheers from the Forest fans.

“1:0! The game has barely been going on for ten minutes, and Nottingham Forest has taken the lead! This is really an exciting start! Look at Tony Twain’s excitement!”

Twain really was excited. He knew very well what it meant to take the lead in the home ground of this important game. No wonder when he saw Eastwood shoot the ball into the goal, he was the first to rush to the sidelines with his arms raised high from the technical area. He pumped his fist to the sky so that everyone could see his undisguised emotions.

After gaining the lead, the Forest team would undoubtedly play better.

Now it remained to be seen what the Sporting Lisbon manager had planned for this game. If he treated conceding fewer goals as a form of winning, then this score was not unacceptable, and he could continue to hold. But if he wanted to score a goal in this away game and obtain a point, then he had to attack. Even though this would dramatically improve the chances of a goal, there would be more gaps in their defensive line that could be exploited.

Safety or risk. Peseiro had to make a choice.

“0:1? This is nothing.” Peseiro, sitting in the visiting team’s technical area, shrugged and spoke to his assistant manager. He was not that frustrated. “We have to take everything into consideration in an away game. This is in my plan. There’s no need to make any changes yet. We’ll keep playing. We have enough time.” He looked up and glanced at the electronic scoreboard on the stand.

※※※

“The scorer is Freddy—”

The live broadcast of the commentary announced the player who had just scored, and the fans in the stands replied in unison, “—Eastwood!”

The Romani Gypsy celebrated in the field with his teammates.

The Brazilian player Fabio Rochemback stood in the spot where the opponent had scored, staring at the crowd with a dark expression.

He had initially thought that by pushing forward to harass the skinny-looking kid, he should have lost his balance. He did not expect to help him instead, and let him make a shot that Ricardo could not save!

Perhaps at least one-third of the credit would have to go to Rochemback.

This was what caused the Brazilian to feel outraged. His defense had turned against his own team. He clenched his fist. I will make them pay for this sooner or later!

※※※

The game started again. Nottingham Forest was in high spirits. Their fans in the stands continued to attack Sporting Lisbon with loud singing, without intending to take a break at all.

They were still not safe with their one-goal lead. Twain had successfully instilled this idea in his players. They would never stop after one goal if they could get two. There were different levels of conservative play. To play conservatively after scoring a goal was obviously low-level. High-level conservative playing was for two to three or more goals. As for playing conservatively without being in the lead, it was clearly the lowest level. One could reference Italy’s 1998 match against France in the FIFA World Cup.

After the goal, Eastwood was exceptionally active. He would withdraw to receive the ball and assist his teammates. He would look for opportunities around Viduka. If he could not shoot, he would coordinate with Viduka. In any case, he played a very important role on the field.

Twain watched Eastwood’s energetic performance and wondered if the club’s focus on Wood had spurred him on. The Romani Gypsy did not care about the club’s favoritism. Deep down, he just did not want to lose to George Wood.

Despite becoming the father of two children, Eastwood was still a young lad in terms of age. The age at which Romani Gypsies could get married was so young that they could marry and have children from the age of fourteen.

Since he was so young, he was still quite competitive. Losing to someone he did not like? That was not acceptable to Freddy Eastwood.

Twain knew the Romani Gypsy’s mentality. He had known it early on. At that time, he thought that it could be controlled as a form of healthy competition. It was a good thing for the Forest team. However, after the media’s unscrupulous speculation, the healthy competitive atmosphere might be shattered at any moment. There was only a fine line between healthy and vicious competition. The consequences could be polarizing.

This game might be an excellent opportunity for them to get to know each other and resolve their differences. Or it could worsen matters with a loss.

At the moment, the team was leading and Twain did not need to worry.

“Freddy Eastwood is by far the most active player on the field. After scoring, he threatened Sporting Lisbon’s goal several more times. Recently, he completed his first hat-trick of the season. He’s in great shape.”