Godfather Of Champions

There is not much time left for England, who were about to face Sweden in the quarter-finals at the home stadium of La Liga club Sevilla three days after the group stage matches.

Before the match, England’s media did not want to hype up the feud between the two teams as much as they did for the match against Germany, they simply mentioned the embarrassing record of 48 years of zero victories in this match-up, hoping that Twain’s team could finally end this record.

There was no choice but to end the record, if they do not win, they would be eliminated… No Englishman hopes to be eliminated by Sweden.

It was also clear from the pre-match fans’ admission that the two teams did not have a deep feud with each other. Fans of both teams could even put their arms around each other. There were not even one provocative banner against the other team. The media were only reporting the match as an ordinary game, at most they only compared between Ibrahimović and Aaron Mitchell, both had their extraordinary heights, and their ball handling skills were still impressive regardless, Mitchell also had the nickname of “second-generation Ibrahimović”.

England’s players before the game were not like last game, where they would glare with both pupils enlarged, as if the murderer of their parents were on the other side where they could not wait to charge forward and strike them with their cleavers till they fall, then stomp on them for a billion times, causing the other party to never stand up again.

Twain also specifically did not mention the embarrassing record of “zero victories in 48 years against Sweden” in the changing room. He was worried the players would constantly be reminded about that record.

The feud between England and Sweden was different from the feud between England and Germany.

When England was going against Germany, Twain could still use the feud between the two countries to motivate the English players. But upon facing Sweden, the best way was still hold on mentioning the feud between them.

The reason was simple, between them and Germany was hatred, but between them and Sweden was resignation to fate. Upon mentioning that England has never won Sweden in 48 years, the English players would come up with wrong ideas in their minds – Is this what God has designed? Or else, our capabilities are far better than Sweden, why are we unable to win them? Especially that match against them during the World Cup group stage, scoring a goal in the 85th minute, victory was in sight, but we allowed a long goal against us outside the penalty area to tie the score… That was simply too incredible and unable to be explained using common sense!

The more the players thought about it, the more it would cause their brains to become a mess. This mysticism was a bad thing, it would affect the mentality of the players, which would directly cause them to be unable to perform normally. Twain could not guarantee his own players would not have such thoughts:

No matter how hard we try, the end results would always be that way…

So he may as well not mention the record at all, to prevent those players from producing those weird thoughts.

For this special match, Twain also made the corresponding adjustments.

Chris Cohen, who had his debut starting the last game, continues to start in the next game, and Downing would have to continue staying on the bench. As Bentley and Walcott were both injured, Adriano Moke made his first debut in the starting line in the European Cup.

Twain had arranged for as many Nottingham Forest players as possible to play because he was more confident in the mental qualities of the players he brought up by his own hand than the players who came out from other clubs.

In fact, there are a lot of people in the current England national team who had no special feelings about Sweden, because they had basically not experienced any competition against Sweden, if the media did not use the feud between England and Sweden to bombard the players with questions, then Twain did not have anything to worry, but just needed to regard this game as a regular quarter-finals match.

But now, he had to have an additional matter to worry.

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From the start of the game, England took the initiative and repeatedly threaten the Swedish goalmouth several times.

After all, England were far ahead of Sweden in terms of pure capabilities. The most famous and impressive soccer stars in Sweden was only one Ibrahimović, but this Inter Milan striker was already 33 years old, although his ball handling techniques were more precise, but his physicality was on a downfall.

He was at the most front and did not pose much of a threat to England’s defence. Because the Swedish team had no means to get the ball to his feet at all.

England’s midfield had press fully on the Sweden’s midfield and it was not easy at all to send the ball forward.

The Swedish side also could not find a good way to attack, England’s attack was very sound and impressive. As George Wood was unable to play in the game, Gerrard became England’s midfield hub. Although Gerrard was old, but his techniques and game sense were still intact, the decline in his physicality would not hinder him from being one of the most impressive midfielders in the world.

Twain, in response to the situation where the Swedish defenders were generally tall, did not arrange for the type of play where the side flanks would cross the ball over to the middle for Mitchell. He knew that with Mitchell’s body shape in the crowd of Swedish defenders, he was unable to take any advantages at all. Passing the ball over to him was only wasting opportunities. Hence, playing for possession via ground passes became the main attacking direction that Twain prioritized.

Anyways, Mitchell’s dribbling techniques were still as impressive, playing ground passes would still be beneficial for him.

Gerrard passed the ball straight from midfield to Mitchell who was at the front.

Mitchell leaned onto the Sweden’s centre-back, Jonas Olsson, and stepped on the football. Olsen, who was standing at 1.96 metres, stretched out his long leg to try and tackle for the ball, but once Mitchell pushed him with an arm, he could not even reach the ball. Just when Olsen was holding up his hands to signal to the referee that Mitchell was pushing, Mitchell pulled the ball backwards with his feet, and passed it to the player who was passing by him and running forward, Wayne Rooney!

“Rooney received a wonderful pass from Mitchell! It is a breakthrough! ”

Fortunately, the other Olsson – left-back Martin Olsson came forward at this critical moment. When Rooney had just sent the ball forward, he came out from the side and did a clean slide tackle, kicking the ball out of the field.

When England were going to do a throw-in from the sidelines, Mitchell did not wait right in front of the goal mouth, but instead run towards the side line and made hand gestures to receive the ball.

The right back Richards threw the football to him, he received the ball forward with his chest, as he turned around and broke through! Martin Olsson’s slight negligence allowed Mitchell to leave him behind as he gave Mitchell a shove from the back, however this unexpectedly assisted Mitchell – he followed the shove as he pushed the ball forward with increased speed. Afterwards, he stretched his long leg forward to control the ball which was still flying in the air.

Martin Olsson chased immediately, but Mitchell used his left foot to kick the ball slightly to his left while jumping at the same time, allowing him to dodge Olsson’s tackle, and just like that, he escaped Olsson’s defending.

After getting away from Olsson, Mitchell continued to dribble the ball inside. Sweden’s centre-backs were all with a tall build, hence they could easily intercept the high balls, the odds and possibilities of Rooney being able to snatch for the ball was too low.

Just when Jonas Olsson was about to pounce on Mitchell again, Mitchell passed the ball!

He swept the ball through the turf and towards the door, in this pass, as long as someone slightly touch the ball, there would be a high chance that it would enter the goalmouth.

Unfortunately this time Sweden’s veteran goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson defended the ball at the right time as he held the ball tightly in his hands.

Although this attack did not end with a shot on target, but Mitchell’s previous series of performances won the applause of the England fans in the stands and the praises of the English narrator.

“It was outstanding dribble techniques. It’s unbelievable that he’s 2.1 meters tall! ”

Even the Swedish narrator had to praise Aaron Mitchell, calling that he was indeed “England’s Ibrahimović” .

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England had been besieging Sweden ever since, as everyone was no longer able to see the defensive counterattack Twain used when he was against Germany and Portugal.

Sweden’s tall defenders looked comfortable defending the ball in the air, but they were a little overwhelmed when faced with England’s ground coordinations. Adriano Moke was given a very special assignment in this game. Instead of asking him to stay on the sideline, Twain gave him plenty of room for free movement, allowing him to move freely on both the side and the middle route, as well as within the penalty box. Effectively using his ball handling techniques to coordinate with his teammates in a small perimeter, creating opportunities to score.

This play in the first half was quite useful due to Moke’s short stature, flexible movement, good ball control technology. This made the Swedish players run in circles.

By the 27th minute, England had finally found a chance. After Mitchell took control of the ball at the edge of the penalty area, Sweden’s defence focused on Adriano Moke’s on the right side, while England’s left side had a serious lack of defensive attention. Chris Cohen did not perform well in this game, so for a long period of time, England were prioritizing on the right side during their offense.

Seeing this scene, the players who all came from Nottingham Forests had a common idea. As Mitchell held the ball and made a fake pass to Moke, he turned and kicked the ball to the complete opposite direction.

“Chris Cohen received the ball and there was no Swedish defender in front of him! “John Mortensen screamed. This was a good opportunity for the England team!

The ever-tight defence finally revealed a gap, just to see if England’s players could seize it!

After receiving the ball, Chris Cohen looked up at the penalty area. By right the Swedish right-back, Mikael Lustig, was supposed to be defending him, but instead was in the penalty area as his eyes caught onto the side where Moke was, clearly Moke’s continuous excellent performance also attracted his defensive attention.

Cohen no longer hesitated and cut straight into the penalty area. That was when Lestig ran over to prepare to defend.

Any team’s defense is a complete system, once a side was neglected, the whole system would be affected. Once Lestig ran over, the center space of the penalty area was left open.

Cohen saw the opportunity to pass the ball straight into the penalty area. Mitcher and Rooney were still behind the Swedish defenders, this pass was not for them, but instead for…

Gerrard slotted in from the back and suddenly appeared on the edge of the penalty area, Cohen’s football had just passed onto his feet. Gerrard received the ball as he kicked it fiercely towards the goal. The football whizzed towards the Swedish goalmouth.

Isakson did not expect the man to finish the attack to be Gerrard, he was underprepared for Gerrard’s strong shot, when the ball had already hit the back of the net, he then made his diving gesture.

“What a beautiful goal!” Motson shouted, “Stephen Gerrard’s powerful shot was unstoppable!”

“It looks like our players have not been affected by the feud between England and Sweden, up till now, the Swedish team had not gotten any chances nor opportunities, England has taken control of the full situation!”

Gerrard waved his fist excitedly after the goal. He was present the last time England lost to Sweden at the World Cup, he was the one who scored the second goal for England, but it was not enough to rescue England’s fate, as they still ended with a draw against Sweden.

But this time he would not let this exact same situation happen again!

If the two goals are not guaranteed to beat Sweden, then we will score three goals, four goals, five goals! And even more goals!

Gerrard waved his fist with strength as he vented his frustration.

The Swedes looked a little numb in the face of the loss, it was nearly 30 minutes where they did not have a chance at all as they were fully pressed down and beaten up by their opponents, it was only time before they loses a goal.

Tony Twain stood up and applauded the team’s performance, but he was not as thrilled because he had a similar idea with the Swedes – their performance were perfect for the 30 minutes and if we could not score again, then that would really be paranormal. That was the strength gap, coupled with team team respecting their opponents from the start and not leaving any fatal gaps for their opponents to seize, taking the lead was normal.

The Swedes must have not thought that England would be so determined to hold up the attacking flag, as it could be seen from their bewildered reaction. The Swedes must not have thought that this England would seem completely unaffected by their fate which lasted forty-eight years.

“England’s performance allows us to see hope, the hope in seeing the end to that ridicule of such a fate!” Motson spoke the minds of the several English soccer fans.

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After taking the lead, Twain did not loosen up, he instead got up from the coach’s box and stood on the sidelines, constantly signalling that the players should continue to strengthen their attack and not give the Swede a chance to bounce back. England’s players faithfully carried out Twain’s tactical intent, committing a brutal attack on Sweden in midfield, then defending hard in the backfield, not giving Ibrahimović too many chances to receive the ball, and not letting him turn around easily. That way Ibrahimović ‘s room to play is minimized to the point where the narrator wonders if the Swedish tower was even playing…

In the face of England’s surge of attack, the Swedes could only shrink the line of defense, temporarily avoid attacking at the front. Sweden coach Lagerbäck’s idea was to consider it a win even if they were behind a goal in the first half, and as long as the score gap was not widened, he could make adjustments during the half-time break and then go on a full-on attack in the second half. With his knowledge of the England team, the psychological quality of this team was not flattering, their first half of the play was good, but it did not mean that they could maintain their performance in the second half. They just needed to add a little pressure onto them, then they would mess up eventually.

Think back to the World Cup group stage ten years ago. England played perfectly in the first half, but in the end?

Lagerbäck sat back down with confidence, it was as if everything was under his control.

It was as what he predicted as he heard the whistle that ended the first half. Sweden was down 1:0 against England.

Lagerbäck, who left the pitch, had no qualms about the team’s backwardness, and he glanced at Twain, who smiled at his opponent’s face, seemingly satisfied with the team’s one-goal lead.

Lagerbäck smiled inside.

Proud and arrogant Englishman, it would be soon before I’ll let you all know what resigning to fate means!

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PS, a friendly recommendation of a fan-made website by a Nottingham Forest Fan, a chinese blog about Nottingham Forest

WWW.NOTTMFOREST.CN