Godfather Of Champions

Hierro and his coaching staff expected Twain to make use of crude fouls to deal with a team like Spain that played technical football. However, what they did not expect was to see a completely unfamiliar England team before their eyes…

It was not just them. Even the England fans and commentators had to rub their eyes to ascertain that the 11 players donned in a white jersey and blue shorts before them are truly players playing for England.

The England players all stood on their own half of the pitch as the Spain team prepared to take the kick-off. It was clear that England was going to play in a 3-5-2 formation based on the players’ positions on the pitch. The sight of their formation surprised numerous people who were familiar with the England team, because England rarely went with a different formation from their standard 4-4-2. But, if one is well-read or has a good memory, they will remember that England once made use of a similar formation 20 years ago under Terry Venables. It was during the match against Scotland, where Paul Gascoigne scored an iconic goal.

However, this is the only example where England played in a different formation from their usual 4-4-2.

The change in formation caught the Spaniards by surprise. They did not have the time to research about how England played 20 years ago, and they have only practised on how to deal with the England team that plays a 4-4-2 formation whereby there are four defenders at the back. They were not prepared to deal with the 3-5-2 formation whereby there are only three defenders at the back. There is a huge difference between how one plays against four defenders and how one plays against three defenders. Not only that, there was no player playing in the ‘attacking midfielder’ position initially. But now, Gerrard is taking up that very position.

The Spain players on the pitch were left at a loss over what they should do next after seeing England’s change in formation. They would leave a lot of space for England to exploit if they played according to the game plan that they had set up prior to the match. However, if they want to change their game plan, how exactly should they change it?

What are we supposed to do now?

The Spain players looked at each other for an answer, but all they saw was the same look of confusion on everyone’s faces.

Hierro knew that now was not the time to be dilly-dallying. He still has yet to figure out why Twain had suddenly changed his team’s formation, but he has to make sure that his players stay on their toes for the time being. He walked to the side of the pitch and yelled at the players, “Be careful of Gerrard! Gerrard!”

Hierro’s thinking was simple. Gerrard must be the player responsible for organizing the team’s attacks since he is playing at the attacking midfielder’s position. This was a role that he played in previously at Liverpool as well, and he would certainly not find his role to be difficult or foreign.

The task of defending against Gerrard naturally fell on Ignacio Camacho’s shoulders, since he was the only defensive midfielder in the team.

Twain noticed the adjustment that the Spain team made, and he smiled in response.

It was exactly what he wanted to see happen.

Gerrard tried to organize an attack a few times subsequently, but with Camacho closely marking him, he was not able to make good passes to his teammates. Both Camacho and Hierro were convinced then that Gerrard was the core of the England team.

George Wood was fully committed to the team’s defense in the first 15 minutes of the match, and he led his teammates to stop each and every of Spain’s attacks. The player that he paid the most attention to was Fàbregas. The match had only commenced for barely 15 minutes, but Wood had already committed two fouls in this short span of time. Fortunately, he still has not been given a yellow card by the referee for his actions just yet. Twain did not wish for Wood to commit so many fouls in such a short period of time. Wood was given a yellow card from a previous match, and if he were to get another yellow card in this match, he would have to miss out on the finals if England goes on to defeat Spain later on. This was something that Twain wanted to avoid at all costs. Twain wants his team to progress to the finals and he also wants Wood to be a part of the team that plays in the finals as well.

Spain is playing a single forward in this match, and Bojan is positioned all the way at the front of the pitch alone. Torres picked up an injury in a previous match, and the Spain coaching team decided to put him on the bench so as to ensure that he can play in the finals. The player playing behind Bojan is Iniesta, and the two players positioned behind Iniesta are Fàbregas and Camacho. Lago plays on the left wing, whereas David Silva plays on the right wing. Their left back for the match is Álvaro Arbeloa and their right back is Sergio Ramos. Their two centerbacks are Gerard Piqué and Raúl Albiol, and their goalkeeper is Sergio Asenjo.

This was the strongest possible team that Spain could send out. The only player that was missing was Torres.

It has taken Hierro a lot of time and effort to get the Spain team to play in a system whereby there are two core players in the team, and he has finally reaped what he sowed in this year’s competition. Fàbregas and Iniesta are both players who can help the team to organize an attack, but there are differences between the playing styles of both players. Iniesta is better at dribbling the ball, and he is also good at making short passes and crosses to his teammates. His threat magnifies exponentially the closer he gets to the opposition’s penalty box. Fàbregas, on the other hand, is better at dictating the tempo of the match. He is able to make good passes, and he also helps to organize the team’s midfield from the back.

Spain’s usage of two core players in the team helps to ensure that their attacks are not severely affected when one of their core players is tightly marked by the opposition during the match, which is exactly what is happening on the pitch right now.

Fàbregas has been effectively kept out of the game due to Wood’s man marking, and the onus of organizing the team’s attacks has fallen onto the shoulders of Iniesta.

Twain chose not to implement the ‘zonal marking’ strategy that he made use of in the previous matches. Instead, he chose to implement the ‘man marking’ strategy in this match instead. Wood is responsible for marking Fàbregas, whereas Michael Johnson is responsible for marking Iniesta. This arrangement was made after careful consideration of the players’ strengths and weaknesses. Fàbregas and George Wood have faced off with each other numerous times in the Premier League before and they are very familiar with each other’s playing style. There was no better player to mark Fàbregas than Wood. Iniesta, on the other hand, has gotten on with age and is prone to injury. Thus, it is more appropriate to get a younger player such as Johnson to mark him since he would win in a battle of stamina.

As for the two wingers on the England team… Both Rooney and Agbonlahor have been playing more like the fullbacks of the team so far and their focus is primarily on defense rather than offense. England’s defense is also made up of three burly center-backs who are positioned at the back to deal with Spain’s quick passes.

England began to go on the counter-attack after withstanding Spain’s attacks for the past 15 minutes.

Michael Johnson and John Terry worked hand in hand to intercept Iniesta’s pass. Gerrard, who was playing as the attacking midfielder, retreated backwards to receive the ball from Terry, but Terry did not pass the ball over to him. Instead, he passed it to the team’s defensive midfielder, George Wood, who had run towards the front of the pitch.

Wood then ran past Gerrard with the ball at his feet, but he did not pass the ball over to Gerrard either. Gerrard noticed that Wood was intent on carrying the ball forward by himself, and he immediately turned around and ran forward alongside him. Both Rooney and Agbonlahor also stopped being fullbacks and reverted into wingers the moment they saw Wood and Gerrard run forward.

Camacho did not know if he should pounce at George Wood or if he should continue to mark his initial target Gerrard. Eventually, he decided to run towards the player who has the ball at his feet.

However, right as he ran towards Wood, Wood passed the ball over to Gerrard. After completing his pass, Wood began to slow himself down. Gerrard carried the ball forward for a while before passing it over to Rooney on the flank.

Spain’s defenders were busy marking Mitchell and Vaughan, who had suddenly become active after England went on the counter-attack, and they ended up providing Rooney and Agbonlahor with a lot of space to run in.

Rooney made his way into the penalty box after receiving the ball from Gerrard. He then lifted his leg and kicked the ball towards the goalpost without even a twinge of hesitation in his movements! This was exactly what Twain wanted him to do by playing him on the left wing!

Rooney’s powerful long shot was blocked by Asenjo, and England was awarded a corner.

England made use of a different tactic when they took the corner kick. Instead of crossing the ball directly into the penalty box, Gerrard passed the ball over to Johnson who had run up to receive the ball. Johnson then passed the ball over to George Wood who was waiting at the middle of the pitch. Wood adjusted his posture a little before shooting at the goalpost from close to 30 meters away. The ball flew over the crossbar and landed at the stands behind the goalpost.

“England cannot make its way into our penalty box, and so they are relying on long shots to try and threaten Asenjo’s goalpost! Sadly, their last shot was not very accurate!” The Spain commentator was optimistic and he believed that the Spain team’s defense was impregnable.

His opinion was one that quite a number of Spain fans agreed with. Based on the current situation on the pitch, it was clear that Spain had the upper hand. They had a far higher ball possession rate as compared to England, and their football was much more pleasant to the eyes as well.

The fans believed that it was only a matter of time before Spain scored a goal. It would definitely not be difficult for them to secure a victory for the match.

Some of the England fans who were less discerning began to get worried. They did not know what to think about the England team before them, because they have never seen the team play in a 3-5-2 formation before. They knew that it was a strategy that Twain had devised to deal with Spain, but the team has never played in such a formation before, and they could not help but be worried that this sudden shift would backfire on them before it even deals any damage on their opponents…

Will that end up happening in the match later on?

※※※

Spain launched another attack after England’s failed counter-attack earlier on. It was clear from the way the Spain players passed the ball that Iniesta was still the player responsible for organizing the Spain team’s attacks this time round.

Michael Johnson had learned a thing or two about defense from the more senior players on the England team. He learned that the first thing he had to do was not to lunge at the player with his feet. Rather, he had to lunge at the player with his hands first instead, and that was exactly what he did. He grabbed Iniesta by the shoulder before making his way next to him. He then leaned towards Iniesta and made use of his body to hinder the latter from making a turn. Thereafter, he began kicking at the direction of the ball wildly. If his kicks land on the ball, he would be able to kick it away from Iniesta. If his kicks land on Iniesta’s ankle, he would be able to make things difficult for him. Not only that, he would also be able to remind Iniesta of how good the England team is and make sure his ankle hurts a little the next time he receives the ball.

Unfortunately for Johnson, his kicks were taken advantage of by Iniesta. Iniesta timed his run perfectly and made his way past Johnson right at the moment he stretched his leg out to kick the ball away. Iniesta then began to run towards the penalty box and he was just about to pass the ball to Bojan at the front of the pitch when the entire England defense took a step forward at the same time. None of the England defenders communicated verbally with one another, but it was just like they knew what they had to do. It was this one crucial step that caused Bojan to be deemed to be offside by the assistant referee.

The whistle sounded right as Iniesta passed the ball away.

The England coaching staff all broke into cold sweat at the sight. It was a close call. They had not instructed the defenders to take a step forward at the same time, but they were lucky that they had all done the same thing at the same time. If one of them had been a little slower to take the step, then Bojan would have been able to make his way past the defense line and it would have been a one-on-one situation where Bojan only needed to face off with the goalkeeper, Joe Hart.

England might have escaped unscathed, but Terry still made sure to criticize Johnson for his mistake that almost led to a goal for the opposition. He told the younger player not to go all out during his defense, because he needs to give himself a little time to react if the player manages to get past him.

Johnson nodded his head in response to Terry’s advice and he accepted his criticism. After all, Terry is a veteran player on the team who has a lot of experience when it comes to defending.

Terry saw a flaw in the way Johnson defended, but Wood saw something entirely different. He knew that Spain would definitely see Johnson as the weak spot that they can exploit in England’s defense, and they would definitely keep attacking down Johnson’s side from here on out. The best way to deal with this situation is not to put more people at the back to defend against Spain. Rather… It is to go on the attack and find the opportunity to score a goal!

It is time to stop putting on a disguise.

England did not perform a long pass and send the ball to the front of the pitch when play resumed. Instead, they passed the ball over to Wood who had retreated backwards to receive the ball.

There were no Spain players marking Wood since he was playing further back as a defensive midfielder. All Fàbregas could do was to pay attention to Wood from afar, since he was playing as a defensive midfielder as well and could not run up to Wood to mark him either. If he were to run up to him, there would be a space left behind at the back that would be unguarded.

Twain knew that Spain would not get its players to mark Wood if he was further back on the pitch, and his decision to change the formation for this match was to take advantage of this fact. Why else would he place Wood at the back of the pitch? After all, Wood’s threat would increase substantially the closer he gets to the penalty box.

Twain entrusted the task of organizing the team’s attacks to Wood due to the latter’s keen awareness of what is happening on the pitch. Not only that, Wood is also gifted at making long passes, and he is also able to move around the pitch without being marked by the opposing players most of the time.

Wood passed the ball over to Agbonlahor after seeing that none of the Spain players had run up to snatch the ball from him. He then ran forward and waited for the ball to be passed back to him. Agbonlahor was not able to make his run forward, and he was forced to pass the ball back to Wood. Fàbregas ran up to Wood to defend against him, but sadly, Fàbregas was not very good at defending, and he allowed Wood to get past him. Wood began running down the left flank with the ball as his feet, and he suddenly passed the ball over to Rooney before he reached the penalty box.

Mitchell and Vaughan both made a gesture that suggested that they wanted to go and receive the ball from Rooney, just as they had done previously. All the Spain defenders stayed within the penalty box, and no one dared to act recklessly. This allowed Rooney to continue his run forward without any Spain player defending against him.

The task that Twain had assigned to Rooney for this match was to score goals. Twain did not want Rooney to think about passing or providing assists. He just wanted him to score goals. Now that there are no defenders around him, Rooney would naturally chose to shoot for goal himself…

Rooney lifted his leg upwards, but it was all a feign. Sergio Ramos ran up to him and tried to block his shot, but he was duped. Rooney passed the ball next to Ramos and then made his run into Spain’s penalty box…

Rooney did not hesitate once he was inside the penalty box. He raised his right leg and shot for goal.

The ball flew towards the edge of the goalpost, but Asenjo was quick to react. He pounced towards his right and was able to get a hand on the ball. The ball then flew away from the goalpost.

“A wonderful save!” The Spain commentator shouted loudly. The Spaniards were all stirred up after seeing Asenjo’s save. “It is a save that is probably just as good as the one made by Gordon Banks all those years ago!”

The Spain fans were just about to cheer, but someone stopped them from doing so.

“Aaron Mitchell!” John Motson yelled at the top of his voice.

Piqué tried his hardest to pull back the tall center-forward from Nottingham Forest. He had jumped a little too slowly, and now all he could do was to use his body to try and stop the other player from getting to the ball. However, Mitchell was dead set on reaching the ball. How could Piqué possibly stop him when he is this determined? Mitchell raised his leg and kicked the ball towards the goalpost right as he lost balance in mid-air. It looked like the ball was going to go into the net this time round!

But!

The ball crashed against the crossbar and bounced backwards…

In that very moment, the Spaniards’ hearts must have all stopped beating. Just when they thought they had narrowly escaped and were about to relax, they saw something that sent their hearts racing once again…

James Vaughan, who had been ignored by the Spain defenders during the flurry of attacks earlier, appeared right before the ball. He raised his leg and was preparing to shoot for goal!

Albiol dashed towards him and planned on using his body to block Vaughan’s shot.

The ball dropped to the ground, and Vaughan smashed his leg against the ball…

The ball flew towards the net in between Albiol’s legs!

Asenjo had climbed back to his feet. He was quick to react to Vaughan’s shot, but sadly, Vaughan had kicked the ball in the direction that was opposite to where he was facing…

All he could do was watch as the ball went through Albiol’s legs and into the back of the net…

“The ball has gone in! The ball has gone in! The ball has finally gone in after three consecutive shots!”

The England fans all jumped off their seats and threw their hands high up into the air. Their team has gone into the lead on the 27th minute of the match!

Twain’s change in formation had paid off. Spain did not know how to deal with this unfamiliar England side. Their castle has finally fallen after a series of artillery bombardments by England’s army.

Some of the pessimistic Spaniards felt as though they were seeing a scene from 500 years ago unfold before their eyes once again. 500 years ago, the Spanish Armada set sail to invade England, but it was ultimately defeated after suffering constant bombardments from the Royal Navy.