Godfather Of Champions

When Barcelona appeared, Camp Nou broke out in a deafening song. When the broadcast introduced the Nottingham Forest players, the song turned into boos. Luckily, the players were used to away games being like this.

As Twain stood in front of the technical area, the boos and abuse continuously streamed in from the stands behind him. Kerslake came to hand Twain the iPod in his hand. However, Twain waved his hand and refused, “No need, David.”

“The swearing…” Kerslake pointed to the grandstand behind him.

“It’s nothing. I don’t understand Spanish anyway. That’s the good thing about not learning a foreign language.”

Although he said that, Twain could understand the universally used “fuck,” but he did not want to use his earphones today to avoid the boos. It was not an ordinary league tournament and the opponent was not the superfluous Reading team. This was the Champions League Round of 16 game and their opponent was Barcelona. He had to listen with his own ears to how fierce the boos were at the Camp Nou and feel his opponent’s fear firsthand.

Indeed, Twain took this as Barcelona’s fear. Why were their boos and abuse so fierce? Because fear was hidden in their hearts and they feared that there was a chance their team would lose to Nottingham Forest at home. Hence, they could only use outrageous boos and abuse to disrupt the game with the Forest team.

Twain shrugged at the old trick.

Kerslake took a seat again. He did not want to stand on the sidelines and be a target of abuse for the Barcelona fans alongside Twain. Twain did not care if he was mentally strong enough, he did not train to be at that level.

While Twain and Kerslake talked on the sidelines, the players from both teams had begun to shake hands with each other on the field.

The camera closely followed Ronaldinho. Without a doubt, he was currently the core of Barcelona and the key figure that would determine the outcome of this game.

As he faced this constantly provocative opponent, the normally happy-looking Brazilian did not smile and shook hands with the other party with a serious expression. When he came to George Wood, he deliberately lingered longer on him.

The Forest team had added some new faces since the last time they had played Barcelona, but Ronaldinho knew most of them except George Wood, whom he was unfamiliar with. He only heard from the coaching staff that this player was tough in his defense and for him to be more careful in the game. He did not know anything else.

With his tanned-skin and a head of black curly hair, the rather good-looking lad looked more like an actor than a defensive midfielder with a rough style. In his mind, the English players who played dirty had to look brutal and fierce, with a five-o’clock shadow and a clean-shaven head to fully highlight their characters, and glowered the entire time.

This man in front of him completely upended his previous impression of the English players.

He extended his hand and shook hands with George Wood. His hand was indeed strong…

※※※

“Barcelona hasn’t changed much compared to last year’s Champions League final, while Nottingham Forest has brought in a number of new players. But for this game, Twain has deployed almost all of last season’s old lineup. Both van Nistelrooy and van der Vaart are on the bench. The two men have proved their strength and secured their strong positions after they joined the Forest team half a season ago. What is Manager Twain’s reason for putting them on the bench?”

“This is why: I think the media’s analysis is quite sound. Twain’s boast before the game was nothing more than a diversion of everyone’s attention. This away game will be very hard. He had put the main players on the bench, precisely to protect these important players to prepare for the next round back in Nottingham home ground. After all, he had stirred up this game with his declarations before this game. It would not be worth it if his players were to be injured during the game. Everyone knows that the Forest team has the smallest number of First Team players among the twenty teams in the English Premier League. They can’t afford to sustain any injuries.”

There was some truth in what the La Liga guest commentator said. Taking a look at the Forest team’s current lineup for the defensive line, Ayala was not eligible to represent Nottingham Forest in this game because he already had represented Valencia in the Champions League.

In such an important game, Twain could only send the young center back partners, Piqué and Kompany. This was also the main evidence that made Barcelona’s media think Twain was just boasting. They did not think that these two kids could be relied on to prevent the repeated attacks from Ronaldinho, Eto’o, Messi, and so on.

“Piqué was a good player from Barcelona’s youth training academy, La Masia. We acknowledge his talent, but he is still a bit tender against an opponent like Barcelona in the Champions League. As for Kompany? He has done well in the Forest team for a young man, but he’s not even twenty yet! Tony Twain is really out of players to deploy.” Originally, the special guest only did commentary on La Liga, but because the match was held in Barcelona, he was brought in by the television station to be a commentator. Other than a few game videos, his knowledge of the Forest team was based on media coverage. In terms of real understanding, he did not know more than Tang Jing, who was standing among the press.

“Taking another look at the forward line: in place of the experienced striker, van Nistelrooy, is another young man! The Danish striker, Nicklas Bendtner. He has been selected for the Denmark national team, but what level is the Denmark national team at?” The sardonic tone in this remark was obvious enough. “Eastwood is a good striker, but he has not been in stable condition since he got hurt and he’s only just good. I think in this starting lineup, only Franck Ribéry counts as a real star and the only outstanding player who can decide the direction of this game. Rijkaard also must be able to tell. As long as Ribéry is closely marked, the Forest team’s attack will not be any threat. And in the face of the defensive line manned by the bunch of kids, the Barcelona fans only need to think about how many goals to score and not how to score goals.”

The half-baked commentator completely neglected George Wood who wore the Nottingham Forest captain’s armband. Fortunately, it was an explanation and commentary for the Spanish audience. Otherwise the Nottingham Forest fans would have surely hurled abuse at the man in the television.

Right next door, the English commentators and guest pundits were also apprehensive about Twain’s lineup.

This lineup was almost the same as last year’s final, in which the Forest team did not beat Barcelona. Could this year’s lineup beat Barcelona? The difference between them and their Spanish counterparts was that they did not ignore George Wood. They said, “of course, we have George Wood in this game. But what about it? Wood is a defensive midfielder and his job is to help defend. After all, the Forest team’s two center backs are too young. Speaking of which, Wood is also rather young, but his steady performance on the field always makes us forget that he is only twenty-one years old. Wood’s mission is to defend. But what about the offense? Van der Vaart, the core of offense organization, and van Nistelrooy, the main center forward are not in the starting lineup. This is really a baffling arrangement. Are they depending Ribéry alone? Ribéry’s performance this season has declined slightly from his first two seasons. In short, people are very worried about this game. We certainly don’t want to see England’s representative, Nottingham Forest, lose this away game. No one likes to lose — even if this team is not a likeable team in England’s league.”

While everyone puzzled over the lineup, Twain stood on the sidelines and endured boos from the rival fans.

Only he and the Forest team’s coaching unit knew why he arranged it this way.

Why did he not use the new players who joined the team last summer? Was it because they wanted to preserve their strength for the second leg of the competition, or that they were worried about those players getting hurt? Twain had another consideration. He spent so much effort before the game to stir up his players’ hatred of Barcelona and make them understand how humiliating it was to lose to this team last year, but these methods only worked on the old players, and for the new players who had not experienced the humiliating defeat of the last season, such incitement was somewhat odd, so the effect would not be obvious.

In an away game, determination and drive were most important. Twain let the players who had experienced the defeat start, in order not to waste the drive that he had stirred up. Consequently, van Nistelrooy and van der Vaart who were not injured and whose form did not decline, had to sit on the bench.

Only those who had experienced that unforgettable failure were in this game and would try their hardest to win the game to prove themselves again.

※※※

While the commentators chattered on about the analysis on how the Forest team would fail, the game had already begun. As Nottingham Forest kicked off first, the referee’s whistle had just sounded before it was quickly drowned out the thunderous boos at Camp Nou.

Eastwood passed the ball that Bendtner kicked to Mikel Arteta and ran forward. Camp Nou could accommodate about 100,000 people. The earth-shattering boos raged against the Nottingham Forest players, but no one’s knees would weaken in this situation. With Twain’s tenacity, the Forest team was currently like a spring, the harder the opponent pressed, the more powerful the rebound was.

It might have been better if the Barcelona fans did not boo. The more they hissed, the stronger the entire Forest team’s desire for vengeance became.

After Arteta stopped the football, he did not rush to pass it forward. Even if he was eager for revenge, it was necessary that he must remain calm as the central midfield commander on the field.

He shifted the football crosswise to the captain, George Wood.

The information that Barcelona had learned was that George Wood was an excellent defensive midfielder who formed a solid barrier in front of the center backs. His special features were his ferocious interceptions, excellent headers, amazing speed and explosive force, as well as inexhaustible stamina.

All the information was summed up like this. As for his ability to attack, it was not mentioned in the information in Rijkaard’s hands.

The football rarely stayed at Wood’s feet for more than half a minute. He always quickly passed the ball. He seldom dribbled, crosswise or forward.

The Barcelona coaching staff believed that this man would only cause little trouble with his offense, so they did not need to defend against him. As a result, they put the focus of their defense on dealing with Ribéry.

After Arteta passed the ball, he ran forward, which drew the attention of the Barcelona midfielders. Based on last year’s Champions League final experience, Wood, as a defensive midfielder, should pass the ball to Arteta, who was plugging ahead, and leave it to the Spaniard to organize the attack. And as for Wood, he would stay in the back field to prevent the opponent from intercepting the ball and fight back after he passed the ball.

This set piece had been played in the Forest midfield for almost more than two seasons. The only difference was George Wood’s partner. The earliest partner was Albertini, which later became Arteta and van der Vaart this season. If Wood was suspended due to a red card, his job would be given to Albertini or the Chinese player, Sun Jihai, and Twain’s task for them would be predominately defense. This man was primarily a conservative manager. If he had coached Barcelona, he would have been ousted by the picky fans in less than a month.

Therefore, after they clearly figured out the Forest team’s usual routine, they just needed to cut off George Wood’s link to the other midfielders and the Forest team’s offense would be paralyzed. It did not matter who Wood was going to pass the ball to. It only mattered who would receive the ball.

As this game was a home match, Rijkaard deployed his favorite and best in a 4-3-3 attack formation. None of the three midfielders was specifically in charge of defense. They were all offensive players. This lineup mainly relied on powerful attacks to suppress the opponent’s midfield. When Arteta plugged ahead, the three Barcelona midfielders just let him go to be dealt with by the full-backs. They believed that as long as the football returned to their feet, they would be able to fully control the pace of the game.

Ronaldinho ran towards Wood and he looked like he wanted to intercept ball. Wood looked at his opponent and kicked his leg to pass the ball.

Rijkaard saw this scene off the field and leaned back against his chair. It was exactly as the intelligence had stated. George Wood did not know how to do anything else but defense.

Matters became simpler. It changed into how Barcelona would blow apart the Forest team’s goal as soon as possible by attacking and defending within half of the field and make them have a chain reaction collapse.

When Ronaldinho saw the football being passed, he did not turn to give chase. Defense was not his job. An artist could not be expected to do a bricklayer’s job, could he?

But just as he was about to brush past Wood, he saw Wood running straight ahead.

What…What’s going on?

After he received the football, Arteta did not dribble it. He simply kicked the football back and it landed at the foot of George Wood who continued ahead.

“Barcelona wants to crush Nottingham Forest with offense at home, but Twain’s team does not intend to defend in this away game! George Wood dribbles the ball as he drives it ahead!”

Indeed, it came as a surprise to Barcelona when Arteta suddenly passed the football back to George Wood. But if they were so easily fooled, they would not be Barcelona. They quickly adjusted their defensive goal and this time, it was aimed directly at George Wood, who was “poor at dribbling the ball.”

Their idea was simple. Wood could not dribble the ball well, so it would be easy to intercept his ball. It was even better this way. They could intercept Wood’s ball and directly launch a counterattack to avoid facing the ferocious defensive midfielder.

Just as Puyol rushed up, Wood passed the ball again. Instead of passing it to Arteta or Ribéry, who was closer to his side, he made an unexpected long pass of nearly thirty meters diagonally across to the right flank to Ashley Young.

“That… was truly an accurate pass!” The commentator exclaimed after his mouth had been wide open with surprise for quite a while.

He was not exaggerating. The pass was indeed accurate. Ashley Young extended his leg and hooked the football down during a high-speed run.

Seeing the scene, Twain looked back at the substitutes’ bench from where he stood on the sidelines. He met Albertini’s eyes and the two men laughed. It looked like most of their efforts this season had not been in vain.

Ashley Young caught the attention of the Barcelona players after taking the ball. No one noticed that George Wood did not follow his usual tactic to run back to defend after he passed the ball. Instead, he continue to move forward.

Facing Barcelona’s left-back, the new world champion, the Italian Gianluca Zambrotta, Ashley Young greeted him fearlessly. Then at a very close distance, he suddenly jabbed the ball and cut inside. Zambrotta reacted quickly and immediately turned his body to block Ashley Young’s path from continuing to break through.

Did he lose his chance?

No, Ashley Young basically did not even think to dribble the ball into the penalty area. He swept his gaze across the middle and sent the ball straight out.

It was not a high ball pass in front of the goal. It was a low-lying pass that swept out of the penalty area.

“George Wood — WOW! That was close!”

The man who had rushed to the middle to directly make a long shot without stopping the ball was not Ribéry or Arteta, let alone Eastwood, but the one who was least likely to appear in this position to make such a move. It was George Wood.

His direct shot was slightly above the crossbar, which made Valdés break out in a cold sweat. He jumped up but did not touch the football. He saw that the football was about to fall into the net. Unexpectedly, that did not happened. The ball flew out in a straight line instead.

Although he was in a bit of pain after he fell from midair, Valdés breathed a sigh of relief. He would have been so embarrassed if he had let in the first opening shot.

“Oh my god! That’s too bad! What a shame!” The British commentator wished he were allowed to use foul language to show the intensity of his disappointment. “It is rare to see George Wood take such a terrific shot and see Barcelona so completely defenseless. There was not a single Barcelona player around when Wood shot at the top of the penalty arc!”

Twain walked back, and Kerslake said to him, “it looks like George is in fighting form today.”

Twain grinned as he glanced at the Barcelona technical area next to them and said, “of course, he has waited for this game for almost a year. This is the Champions League final that belongs to him.”