Godfather Of Champions

　　Twain was a little bit nervous himself, however, it was not as bad as some of the players. He had been to many important finals previously, but he was just a little bit nervous about this first time——The first time he led the national team to the final of a major international competition.

As a manager whose past life was a Chinese football fan, he had a little “international competition” complex. The World Cup and European Championship were the main focus of his football life for a very long time. There was even a period of time when he thought that national teams were better than clubs as they represented the best team in the country.

All these became a joke later. However, he is still a little excited to be able to take part in the final of a major international competition like the European Championship.

He chose to leave the empty changing room to calm himself down. Work could make him forget about all other emotions and he watched the players warm up at the sideline.

He was very satisfied with the players’ warmup. Everyone was very excited when faced with a final like this and he had no need to be concerned about their morale. All he had to worry about was that someone might be overzealous during warmup and hurt himself.

The coaches had the warmup under control and Twain turned his attention to the stands as he had some time. The Bernabéu, with a capacity of 80,000, were full to its brim. The noise from the crowd was deafening and there were thousands of flags waving about in the wind. There were even some people who could not control their excitement and set off mini fireworks in the stands.

The English fans in the stands started to sing together when they saw the England team appear on the pitch for their warmup. Just like what they did during the English Premier League matches, they used their singing to convey a message to the players——We are with you.

This singing gave the English players the feeling that they were at their home ground. In fact, the number of fans from both sides were almost even. As Spain lost in the semi-final, most of the Spanish population lost interest in the final. This meant that the England fans who flew to Spain from England just before the final were in luck. There were many Spanish fans selling their tickets outside the Bernabéu the day before the final. The same could be said for the Italy fans who just flew in from Italy.

The neutral Spain fans on the stands were just the supporting cast for this match.

Right after the England fans started singing, the Italy fans started singing themselves. The fans from both sides started a “singing contest” across the pitch.

The media from different countries started to get busy as the teams started their warmup on the pitch.

“This is Spain Football at the Santiago Bernabéu. There will be a heavyweight battle right here, in front of millions of fans all over the world!” The China national television CCTV5 also dispatched a commentator and reporter to the stadium to give live commentary about the match. Even though the standard of China football was very low, the Chinese fans were still considered to be quite blessed. The development of television and the internet network allowed them to watch the best games in the world, and it was basically free.

“England will be in their white jersey in this match. However, it was said that their manager, Tony Twain, hoped that the team would be wearing their red jersey as red is not only his lucky color, but also the same color as the Nottingham Forest jersey. Looks like his wish was not fulfilled…” The reporter from Spain Football was introducing some of the smaller details, such as the jerseys, to the audience, “Italy will be in their traditional blue jersey with white shorts. This is the jersey that they were wearing when they won the World Cup 10 years ago. And further back, 16 years ago, when they lost to France in the European Championship final, they were in their white jersey. Maybe to the Italians, blue is more auspicious than white.”

“The temperature tonight is 31 degrees, not too hot but it’s not exactly cooling either. It was very hot in the day and the heat from the day has not disperse yet which will inevitably affect the play of both sides. The humidity of the stadium…”

Even though their own teams were eliminated, the media of the other countries still paid a lot of attention on the reporting of the final. Just the satellite vans outside the Bernabéu stadium alone had 27 of them. It was quite a sight to see them lined up together.

“Here we see the players of both sides appearing on the pitch for their warmup. We’ve already gotten the starting lineup for Italy but England’s starting lineup is still nowhere to be seen… Seems like Tony Twain will not release the starting lineup until the final moment. He seems to be too cautious when compared to the experienced Lippi…”

“From the lineup that we have, it appears that Italy has sent out their strongest team here. The goalkeeper is AC Milan’s Marco Amelia. The left-back is AC Milan’s Simone Vitale and the right-back will be Inter Milan’s Davide Santon. Their two center-backs are the Juventus pairing——Giorgio Chiellini and Domenico Criscito. Their midfield, from left to right, comprises of Juventus’ Sebastian Giovinco, Roma’s Daniele De Rossi and Alberto Aquilani and Davide Lanzafame, also from Juventus. The two strikers are AC Milan’s Alberto Paloschi and Juventus’ Salvatore Foti. What we can tell from this lineup is that Lippi trusts players from the traditional strong teams more than players from mid-table teams. The starting lineup comprises of players only from the top four teams of last season Serie A and amongst the four teams, he prefers players from Juventus…”

When the England players finished their warmup and returned to the changing room, the media finally received the starting lineup for England from Twain. Twain did not give them lots of surprises as he did in the past few matches, and his starting lineup here was not much different from the one that experts predicted before the match. The only surprise was that Vaughan, who performed very well in the semi-final, did not get to start.

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Even the England players themselves did not know who was starting until now, let alone the media.

Goalkeeper, Joe Hart, was the only one who was sure of his position. Almost every other position had been changed during the course of the competition except for his position. As long as there were no major mistakes or injuries, the position of starting goalkeeper would usually not be changed.

The right-back was still Richards, who had been starting ever since the match against Wales. Twain preferred his defensive capabilities. The left-back was Joe Mattock. In this European Championship, Mattock was under scrutiny and he passed the test. It was normal for him to continue starting. Just like how Lippi preferred the Juventus players that he managed before, Twain also preferred the Nottingham Forest players that he managed before.

The center-backs were John Terry and Steven Taylor. This center-back pairing had been playing for England ever since the first match of the competition, the synergy between them had been tested.

In midfield, there was the pairing of Gerrard and Wood. Twain’s “Wood-Gerrard” pairing was much more effective than the “Gerrard-Lampard” duo during the Eriksson and McClaren era. That was because he had a all-rounded George Wood who could play as a core or as a supporting role for other players, which meant that the England midfield would not be too messy due to too many core players. There are some teams that can play with a duo core, but England definitely could not.

On the right was Walcott, coming back from his injury to claim a starting berth. The right winger position was one which had the most changes due to injuries throughout the competition. Walcott’s advantage over Bentley and Moke was that he had faster speed and better dribbling abilities.

On the left was Middlesbrough’s Downing. Just like Walcott, he had superior speed and dribbling technique. He returned to the starting lineup due to Twain’s tactics for this match.

The striker’s position was one which people were most interested in. Mitchell was suspended because he accumulated too many yellow cards, and this became the position where the competition was most intense. Everyone hoped to start in such an important final. Rooney was definitely going to start for sure. As the most experienced player amongst England’s striking options, Twain needed him very much.

But who would be Rooney’s partner?

James Vaughan was one of the favorites because of his brace in the semi-final. He himself thought that he was in good form recently and should be able to start in the final. So, when Twain started to announce the starting lineup, he was anticipating to hear his name being read out.

After reading out Rooney’s name, there was only one last name to be read. Vaughan sat up straight and prepared to welcome the historic moment——He would be the starting striker in the European Championship final.

“Agbonlahor.”

However, the name that came out of Twain’s mouth stunned him.

He did not expect Twain to pick Agbonlahor, who did not have any standout performance, instead of himself. He looked at Twain with a bemused look on his face, but he did not say anything. He looked down and clenched both fists in anger.

Twain’s decision shocked the other players. Everyone else thought that the other starting striker would definitely be James. Even Agbonlahor did not expect himself to be starting in such an important match and the surprise and happiness combined to make give him a very complex feeling. He did not even dare to look at Vaughan who was seated next to him.

“Why is Agbonlahor the one starting?!” All the reporters had the same question when they saw the starting lineup.

“Based on current form, James Vaughan should be Rooney’s starting partner. If not for his brace in the semi-final, Spain might be the one playing in the final!”

“I don’t know why Tony made such an arrangement…”

“Sigh, what’s there to not understand? Just look at Lippi. All these successful managers do the same thing when it comes to important matches——They would rather pick players that they are more familiar and like more, instead of players who are performing better. It’s just experience. Agbonlahor is a Nottingham Forest player and he worships Twain. Twain likes him a lot too. Compared to Vaughan, Twain is more familiar with him, that’s why he starts.”

The reporters were embroiled in a discussion and for a moment, “nepotism” was the trending thought amongst the reporters.

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After reading out the starting lineup, Twain looked at the players and remembered the expressions on everyone’s faces.

“This is the starting lineup.”

The match tactics had been discussed during the tactical meeting the day before and even though everyone did not know who would be starting at that time, they had to remember the tactics for their own positions.

“I hope that everyone still remembers what we discussed last night. Let’s give them a surprise!”

This starting lineup was too much of a blow to everyone, so much so that they did not hear what Twain said after that. They were all concerned about Vaughan.

Twain had to bring their attention back to the match. He clapped and raised his voice, “What’s wrong? Pre-match anxiety causing you guys to be distracted?”

The players could tell very easily that their Boss was a little unhappy. So, despite their unhappiness about Vaughan’s treatment, they had to keep it to themselves and focus their attention back onto the match.

However, due to the starting lineup issue, they had forgotten about their nervousness. They were only a little bit confused. How could Boss make such an obvious mistake when he had always been treating everyone in the team very fairly? They did not feel that Agbonlahor should not be starting, but even an idiot could tell that Vaughan was in better form and him starting would be much more effective than Agbonlahor. Did he not want to win this match? Could he really be doing this so that his favored players could make a name for themselves in history? Then why did he not let Moke, Cohen and Bentley start too? They were also players of Nottingham Forest, were they not?

The players headed to the pitch of the final with all these questions in their minds.

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“They’re out! Let’s welcome the eleven starting players for England!” John Morrison shouted passionately as he started to introduce every starting player for the fans.

Even though he was surprised about Agbonlahor starting the match, his voice and tone did not appear to be any different when he read out Agbonlahor’s name.

To be honest, Twain’s starting lineup was basically just as Lippi expected. He was only surprised that Twain did not start the impressive James Vaughan in the striker role and allowed Agbonlahor to start instead. This was a change that he did not understand. As a striker, Agbonlahor’s shooting was not comparable to Vaughan. Other than his speed, he had no other advantage and he was more suitable on the flanks than in the middle. Italy had specially analyzed Vaughan for this match but they did not expect Twain to not start him!

Even though he was surprised, Lippi also felt very interested about it. He thought that the match would be very interesting since he was able to be surprised. As the last match before he retired, he was not just looking for a result, it would be best if it would be a match that he would never forget.

Tony Twain and his England team. They were obviously good enough to be the opponent for his final hurrah.

An explosive final, then we’ll become champions.

This was Lippi’s final wish.