Godfather Of Champions

Sammer could choose to play conservatively when the score was 1:0. He could still choose to play conservatively when the score was 1:1. However, when his team was trailing England by 2:1, he could no longer choose to play conservatively anymore. There was still no news from the match between Portugal and Wales after 70 minutes. If the situation stayed like this until full time, then Germany, who had only three points, would be behind Portugal and Wales, who had four points each, and they would definitely be eliminated…

Sammer stood up from his seat as the decided that they could no longer be conservative anymore.

Schweinsteiger was already heavily marked by England’s zonal marking. If he continued to place the attack’s focal point on him, it would only lead to Germany’s attack being stuck in a rut. Sammer walked to the side of the pitch, whistled and called for Kroos. When Kroos looked over, he made a hand sign to mean that he was to be in-charge of attacking. Kroos nodded to indicate that he understood him.

Germany also had many different tactics prepared. Normally, Schweinsteiger would be the core of the team, but this would make it easy for their opponents to analyze their tactics. If this tactic was seen through by the opponent, then Kroos would have to step up and be in-charge of organizing the team’s offense.

The German team was still in the midst of adjusting when England launched a fierce attack. Tony Twain’s team continued to press on in attack to get another goal. The lead of just one goal is not safe.

England’s morale was high as they just came from behind to lead. Germany wanted to attack as well, and this was a good opportunity to get a goal.

“England is on the attack… Gerrard’s long shot got a deflection off Rolfes… Luckily Adler’s reacted well and saved the shot!”

“Corner taken… Walcott’s in a good position with a header! Just wide!”

When Gerrard got the ball again, he feigned to shoot but instead pushed the ball to the side and skipped past Rolfes who came up to block the shot. Next, he passed the ball to Moke, who was performing very well, on the flanks.

Jansen did not hold back this time. He did not even give Moke the chance to run and he took Moke down rather viciously.

The referee blew his whistle and England got the opportunity of a free kick outside the penalty area again. This was a threatening area to get a free kick, but the Germans were not afraid as they had the aerial advantage.

However, Gerrard did not cross the ball in from the air, choosing to play a low ball in instead! The ball went under the jumping wall and rolled quickly on the ground. This was a very dangerous ball, it just needed a touch from anyone and it might just go into the goal. In the end, nobody was able to get on the end of this pass and the ball rolled out of play beyond the far post. The German fans in the stands had their hearts in their mouth while the England fans had their heads in their hands in pity.

The person who felt the most pity was still Tony Twain. That was a good chance to extend the lead… It just flew right past everybody’s faces as it rolled beyond the legs of the people in front of goal.

After a period of intense offense, England still did not get another goal. Twain decided to stop while they were ahead as he did not really dare to take too much risk in such an important match. If they continued to attack and Germany finished adjusting their tactics, they would be the ones on the losing end if the Germans get into their momentum. The England center-backs were pressing so high up they were in the center circle. That was too dangerous as there was a huge space behind them. All Germany needed was a long pass beyond them and it would be a free space…

Podolski and Gómez were both fast and able to dribble with the ball. They would definitely take advantage of it if there were too much space behind.

Twain decided to instruct his team to fall back a little and change their tactics from offense to defend and counter.

At that time, Walcott was dribbling with the ball on the field and was preparing to take on Lahm’s defense. He noticed that there was someone approaching him from behind. Schweinsteiger was approaching quietly in an attempt to catch him in a pincer. Walcott was not worried, and he had his own plans. He was going to accelerate suddenly when they were going to surround them and catch them by surprise.

Just when he was preparing to accelerate, Schweinsteiger planted his foot on Walcott’s ankle from behind…

The momentum to go forward was forced to stay on the ground and Walcott could only feel a tear coming from the back of his ankle before he lost his balance and fell to the ground. Lahm was shocked and he raised his arms in a hurry to indicate that he did not do anything and he had nothing to do with Walcott falling down——He was already booked in the first half and he was very scared that he would get another yellow card.

Schweinsteiger also kept waving his finger to indicate that he did not commit a foul.

The referee ignored him and came forward to give Schweinsteiger a yellow card. Next, he looked at Walcott, who was writhing in pain on the ground, and he turned around to signal for the stretcher to the sidelines.

“Damn it!” Twain cursed from the sideline and hurried his medical team to check on the situation.

He was still prepared to make some defensive adjustments in a few minutes but now his attacking player was injured.

“Walcott is hurt, it looks like he won’t be able to continue!” On the screen, Walcott was being carried up the stretcher and he covered his face with his hands in pain. The team doctor next to the stretcher was signaling for Twain to make a substitution.

“Damn it, ask Downing to go warm up,” Twain told Walker.

The England bench were in a mess because of Walcott’s injury. Downing put on his training vest in a hurry and then warm up in a rush. A minute later, he had to run back quickly and listen to Twain’s tactical arrangement. His head was still in a mess and he did not hear anything that Boss said at all.

“Go on!” Twain patted him on the shoulder and pushed him to the sideline. Only now did Downing realized that he was going to go on, but what for? He thought about it and he guessed it was to attack from the flanks and cover in defense.

The team doctor, Derek Wright, walked over after examining Walcott’s injury. In the face of Twain’s questioning, he shook his head and said, “This match, the next match and the match after that, he might not be able to participate in those matches anymore Tony.”

Twain looked down and mumbled some swear words under his breath.

Walcott was injured as well as Bentley. The only person who can be used in the right winger position now was Adriano Moke. There were many more games after this and stamina was never a strong suit of Moke, this was a really bad piece of news…

※※※

Walcott’s injury affected the morale of the England players. Coincidentally, Twain wanted the team to pay more attention to defense and they fell back all the way and started to play on the counter.

The Germans followed the flow and started to launch waves of attacks on the England goal.

Twain was always at the sideline, looking at the game with a serious look on his face. He was paying close attention to the performance of both sides so that he could make adjustments anytime.

As it was, the Germany team was in the ascendancy, but England’s defensive line was still holding strong. Even though Toni Kroos took over the responsibilities of organizing the attack, the England midfielders were not one to be trifled with as well. Michael Johnson followed Kroos everywhere he went like a shadow using his exceptional running abilities and ensured that he was not able to organize any attack easily.

Both sides were in a stalemate for a while.

※※※

Sammer started to make some changes. He took off Khedira, whom did not have any exceptional performance, and put on 26-year-old midfielder, Marko Marin from Bochum. He was a winger with impressive dribbling skills and even though he was right-footed, he was good at playing on the left.

Sammer was obviously sending him on to strengthen their attack on the flanks and at the same time, increase the team’s penetration and cause some chaos in the English backline. Just like how Twain sent Moke in to get a goal, Sammer was hoping for the same.

Next, he moved the position of the defensive midfielder Rolfes forward to become an attacking midfielder. His position would be closer to the England penalty box and it would allow him to make full use of his passing range. In this way, the German lines would be more compact and movement would be smoother, reducing the odds of their balls being intercepted by the English midfield.

The German attack improved after the changes. Marin was a change that even Twain did not expect. That was because Marin from Bochum was probably the weakest midfield player in the German team. He was weak and a solo player who had no other forte other than dribbling with the ball. However, a player like this was currently the best performer in the German team and his dribbling caused a lot of problems for the English players.

At the same time, Sammer asked the German midfielders to take more long shots and attempt to break down England’s compact defense using long shots.

For a moment, the match intensified in front of the England goal and the atmosphere suddenly became tense.

“Marko Marin has the ball… He broke through Moke’s defense with his individual skills. Adriano Moke is not a defensive player… He crosses!”

Mario Gómez came from behind and leapt up high for the header!

Joe Hart did his best to push his header over the bar. Fortunately, Gómez’s header was straight towards him, otherwise it might have resulted in a goal.

Germany had another corner and the English players became rather nervous looking at the giants who were all above 1.85 meters in height.

Even though he made a mistake and allowed the opponent to score, Joe Hart had no choice but to come out for the ball under this situation. He did well this time as he caught the ball in mid-air.

But this continuous German attack rang the alarm bells for England’s goal. Who knows, maybe when Germany attack once more, the alarm bells would become “death knell”…

The German team launched attacks at England wildly and England could not even get out of their own half. The strength and fitness of the Germans gave them the advantage at this instance, and they controlled the initiative of the match, The English players were at a disadvantage when we compare the physical strength of the teams.

When the match has reached the 75th minute, the situation was very bad for England and it felt as if they were going to concede another goal.

※※※

Twain walked around anxiously at the sideline. He was very nervous then and he was afraid that the Germans might equalize at the final minute. If that happened, then all was lost.

When he walked to the substitute’s bench, George Wood stood up from his seat.

“You need to strengthen the defense,” he told Twain, “sub me in.”

Twain ignored him and turned around. Wood followed behind him and repeated himself, “sub me in.”

“That’s impossible George,” Twain replied with his back to him, “Even if we draw, we’ll qualify too.”

“But you want to win. You know what it means to play against the Germans.”

Twain stopped and turned to look at Wood, “Even if I want to win, I’ll not fool around with your professional career.”

“You won’t be fooling around, my foot has fully recovered.”

Twain smiled and looked through his lie, “Mister Wright told me that your toe on your right foot still has some pain when it comes with contact with the ball.”

“That is nothing!” Wood raised his voice. If Sophia was next to him now, she would definitely lecture him on his attitude when talking to Mister Twain. However, Wood did not care about the relationship between him and Twain now. He wanted to get on and play, so much so that he was going crazy, “The team is in trouble, I’m the captain, I can’t just stay here and watch!”

Twain was shocked by what he said.

“Gerrard’s stamina is going down, the Germans are breaking through from his position!” Wood pointed at the field and told Twain, “If you don’t make a change soon, then…”

Before he could finish, he was interrupted by the cheers from the German fans on the stands.

Gerrard slipped when facing Rolfes and lost his man. Rolfes took this opportunity to get past him and caused lots of problems for the England backline. If not for Terry blocking Rolfes’ long shot with his body, who knew what would happen.

Wood did not continue speaking and looked at Twain quietly instead.

This was a rare situation when Wood was agitated about something. In Twain’s mind, Wood was like a piece of wood, he was forever so boring. He did not expect him to be so agitated in telling him that he wanted to play. In the past, he used to listen to whatever Twain said. He was the most obedient person who would execute the tactics properly, the type of player that a manager could only dream of. Now, he was so vocal in his disagreement with his arrangement, disagreeing with the arrangement to only play in the play-off stage.

The intensive game was still going on on the pitch and England was being pushed back within 30 meters of their goal. In order to stop the Germans’ long shots, they had no choice but to block the shots with their bodies. However, it was not a nice feeling to be hit by such a powerful long shot all the time.

The cheers from the German fans were becoming louder as they seemed to see hopes of equalizing.

The England fans were unhappy that Germany was on the front foot and they started to sing to cheer the England team on.

Tony Twain and George Wood was in a stand-off at the sideline and they seemed to be unconcerned about what was happening on the pitch.

“England is in great danger! In the last 10 minutes of the match, the Germans have launched attacks after attacks. They have two corners in three minutes… Mitchell is basically playing as a center-back right now…” There was a trace of anxiety in Motson’s voice. Everyone knew about the Germans’ resilience. The harder the situation, the more they would be able to explode.

Under this noisy atmosphere, Twain started to speak, “George…”

At this moment, there was a loud roar from the stands as the German fans cheered their team on. Twain’s voice was drowned out by this roar.

Wood only saw Twain’s mouth open and close, but he did not know what he said.

“Germany’s long shot came back off the crossbar! That was too close! There are 10 minutes left in the match, can England hold on to their one-goal lead to the end?”