This would be Messi's first time playing in Nottingham Forest's new home ground. How many stadiums were rated as five-star?
When Messi stepped onto the field to warm up, he leaned over and touched the turf.
Others thought he was just performing some kind of religious ritual. Only those who were familiar with Messi would find it strange — Messi never did that before he went on the field.
Only his teammates, who were familiar with him, laughed at him, "The quality of the grass is very good. This is not a rotten vegetable field."
The treatment Barcelona received in the City Ground stadium had long been spread around the world, and many people used it as a topic of conversation. His teammates also knew what Messi was doing.
Messi tried to run two steps, but the feeling of uneven depth of potholes did not appear. The field was very flat, and the quality of the turf was great, but it was slightly short.
Although that game had been three seasons ago, Messi still could not forget the feeling of playing on such a field. Half of his energy had to be focused on not getting injured. Tony Twain was perhaps the most despicable and shameless manager he had ever seen. He could actually come up with such an idea. He would never play under such a manager in his life. He thought that Tang En's every move insulted the beautiful and sacred football in his mind.
As for George Wood, his feelings were much more complicated. He admitted that it would be great if Wood became his teammate, but he was very uncomfortable with Wood's defensive moves that seemed to always rush toward his legs.
Every time Wood ran toward him, he would feel a chill on his knees.
However, every time he played against Wood, he would be particularly excited. The man in front of him was an opponent that he needed to go all out to beat. Every master hoped to have such an opponent on the field. Competing with them was the greatest pleasure besides winning the championship.
Since that game, Nottingham Forest had not met with Barcelona again. It was also the first time England played against Argentina. Messi was really eager to face George Wood again and beat them.
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The fans in the stands who entered the stadium began to do their preparation work. They pulled up banners in the stands, held up portraits, and then began to sing. They sang England's team song, and some even sang Nottingham Forest's cheering song.
Tang En set the venue for the game here in hopes of putting a lot of psychological pressure on Argentina with the help of the enthusiastic Nottingham fans.
Although it was only a warm-up match, Tang En did not want his team to lose to Argentina. In his mind, this had nothing to do with the Falklands War, nor did it have anything to do with the thirty-year feud between Britain and India.
He just wanted to fulfill his promise. Nottingham Forest had defeated Barcelona, and now it was England's turn to defeat Argentina.
As the England captain, George Wood stood in the middle of the field with the triangular team flag, waiting to exchange the team flag with the Argentine captain, Messi.
In the stands, John and the others looked at Wood in the center of the field and exclaimed, "He really looks like a leader …"
"Heh, when I saw him defend against Fàbregas in Wilford, I knew he would have this day!"
"Stop bragging! But when I saw that he actually dared to wave his fist at the First Team manager, Collymore, I knew that this kid would definitely be great in the future … "
A group of people began to brag about how much foresight they had back then and how discerning they were.
Fat John did not join in. He just listened and laughed. He thought about the past twelve years ago. At that time, George Wood was still an unknown player in the youth team, and Nottingham Forest was still struggling in the First Division. Tony Twain was depressed in the youth team.
Who would have thought that one day, Nottingham Forest would become the Triple Crown winner, Tony Twain would become a world-renowned coach in England, and George Wood would wear the England national team jersey with the captain's armband and shake hands with Messi?
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Wood felt the pressure on his hand increase a little, and he looked at the short man opposite him.
Messi was staring up at him, and his eyes flashed with excitement.
He knew what that look and action meant, so he did not back down and squeezed Messi's hand tightly.
Thirty-four-year-old Kaka was old, and twenty-eight-year-old Messi was at his peak.
The two men's secret competition soon ended. They could not always hold each other's hand and not let go, otherwise there would be some bad rumors in the media the next day …
Wood lost when they picked sides, and England got the right to kick off. This was what Tang En wanted.
It was windy at night in Nottingham, and the temperature was cool. It was the right weather for a football game.
The players from both sides stood according to their positions on the field, waiting for the kick-off.
Tang En also stood on the sidelines, waiting for the game to start. Like him, Argentina's manager, Maradona.
The referee blew the whistle, and the world-watched battle between England and Argentina began.
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Tang En's strategy for the England team was defensive counterattack, which was unexpected to many people. Although he had always insisted on defensive counterattack in the club, his strategy in England was indeed offensive-oriented, which was very strong. The scores of 4: 0, 3: 2, and 3: 1 were enough to explain the problem. They scored 32 goals in the UEFA European Championship qualifiers. Twain changed his conservative image in the club and conquered the picky fans with his continuous goals.
But in this game, Tang En asked the team to collectively withdraw and use quick counterattacks to deal with Argentina.
Was he afraid of Argentina with Messi, Aguero, Higuaín, and Mascherano?
Look at England's starting lineup today.
In the front field, Tang En sent out the attacking combination of Rooney, Agbonlahor, Walcott, and Downing. All four of them were speed players. Rooney and Agbonlahor did not retreat to defend at all in the game. They just stood at the front and waited for the pass from behind.
In the backfield, Tang En did not arrange for anyone to mark the defense. Even if it was a terrible player like Messi, George Wood did not mark the whole time. England used the zonal defense strategy. Any Argentine player who took the ball in England's defensive zone three would be surrounded by at least two English players. One would snatch the ball, and the other would wait at the side. As long as the Argentine player controlled the ball a little further away from his body, the second person would immediately intercept the ball.
This strategy was tried and tested time and time again in the Forest team, and now the England team used it to the same effect.
The Argentine players were troubled by the English's defense. Unless they could stick the ball under their feet, they could lose possession of the ball as long as there was a little mistake.
When Higuaín retreated to receive the ball, the ball hit the tip of his foot and bounced out, only five meters away from him. Usually, stopping the ball like this would not be a big problem. He just needed to take a big step to catch up, but today it did not work. After the ball bounced out, it was immediately snatched by the English defender next to Higuaín, Richards.
Without Messi, he had thought that he would have an open one-on-one duel with George Wood today, a battle between captains. He did not expect Tony Twain to not give him such a chance. When he got the football, whoever was closest to him closed in. He tried to control the ball to get rid of the first defender, but the second person appeared within a foot of him. He hurriedly pulled the football back, but the first person turned over and pounced on him, so he was spinning in circles in place.
He tried to break forward and finally broke out of the encirclement and went straight to England's penalty area. When he reached the penalty area, he found that he could not pass the ball and break through. With a little hesitation, he was surrounded by the English players again.
When he finally found a gap to pass the ball and moved the ball forward, the assistant referee raised the flag — the striker was offside!
He wanted to break through on his own, but he hit an iron plate again. Three defenders were in front of him and he could not break through by force, no matter how good he was, he could not succeed every time.
So he moved to the two flanks.
Some of his teammates who received the ball chose to directly shoot at the goal from a small angle, such as the strikers like Aguero and Higuaín. Of course, they were all pounced by Joe Hart. It was not difficult to defend such a ball as long as the angle was blocked.
When Messi's ball was wide, the receiving teammates needed to run close to the sidelines to control the ball. At this time, the Argentine team would choose the most common offensive method of passing from the sidelines. But the quality of their passes was not very high. Most of the passes were headed out by the tall English center backs. Occasionally, there were fishes that slipped through the net. Two of Argentina's three strikers were too short. Tevez was 1.68 meters, Aguero was 1.72 meters, and although Higuaín was 1.84 meters tall, he was not good at headers.
The Argentine team's passes from the sidelines had to be low in order for their strikers to compete for the ball. But if the passes were too low, they could not bypass the English defense. If the passes were too high, they could bypass the English center backs, but the effect of the Argentine striker's headers would be greatly reduced.
It was either headers that were too high or off-target. The number of headers that were within the range of the goal frame could be counted on one hand.
The Argentinians were obviously not suitable for this style of play.
They intended to penetrate from the middle with short passes, but they would be blocked. England's two layers of defense could be seen clearly from the stands. The intervals between the two lines were very short, like a device to filter purified water. When the Argentine offensive penetrated like water, it was so clean that there was nothing.
In the end, the Argentine team had no choice but to shoot long shots. If it was not blocked by the defenders with their hands and bodies, the football could fly to the goal. But Joe Hart was in great form and blocked all the shots that were within the range of the goal frame.
Of course, there were occasionally one or two chances that made the Argentinians feel like they had found a treasure.
"Joe Hart missed the ball!!"
Aguero rushed up like a cheetah. He almost succeeded in the rebound shot. If George Wood had not grabbed the football in front of him and shoveled the football out … Aguero hit Wood's leg and flew out. He slapped the turf hard on the ground and was obviously regretting that he did not seize the opportunity.
The game had been going on for 40 minutes in the first half. England's shots were few and far between. Eighty percent of the time, the audience only saw Argentina bombarding England's thirty-meter area and leading the number of shots.
The commentator was a little dissatisfied with the situation. As old enemies, how could they allow the Argentine team to be so overbearing?
"Tony Twain is playing this game again … But England is not a weak team, and Argentina is not a pushover either. If they give up the offense and completely defend, Argentina can't score with 15 shots, but it doesn't mean that they can't score with 20 or 25 shots. There is no future in a defensive counterattack without offense! "
The commentator shouted loudly. The television broadcast happened to give Tang En a close-up. He stood on the sidelines, expressionless. No one could see what he was thinking.
He was confident in his team's defense. Did he think that everyone would accept a 0: 0 score with Argentina here?
The commentator was dissatisfied with this. The atmosphere in the crimson stadium made Tang En very satisfied. The Forest fans, who were used to seeing Tang En play like this in the Forest team, were not surprised. And they knew that every time this happened, it meant that the scales of victory were tipping in their favor.
So, as long as the England team had a chance to counterattack, whether it was successful or not, there would be a burst of cheers from the stands.
This was also the reason why Tang En chose the crimson stadium. The fans here understood him and would not easily give their boos to their own people.
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Messi soon found out why the turf in the crimson stadium was very short today.
Just before the end of the first half, England intercepted Argentina's ball again.
In fact, England had counterattacked many times before, but not many of them ended up being effective shots, and even fewer were able to threaten the Argentine goal.
But this time was different.
They did not directly pass a long ball in the backfield. Wood looked at the situation after he received the ball. The Argentine center midfielders were a little hesitant and did not immediately pounce on him. After Wood made a move to pass the ball sideways to the side, Mascherano cooperated and shifted his weight to the side of his body, ready to pounce on the player who received the ball.
Then Wood wrapped the ball with his right foot and stepped forward with his left foot, breaking through in a straight line from the middle!
Wood, who dribbled the ball in big strides, was very fast. In a flash, he ran from the front of the penalty area to the center circle.
The Argentine players hurriedly retreated, while the English players pressed hard.
Loud cheers rang out in the stands again. The English fans saw the scene they wanted to see most.
"Charge! Saint George! "The fans roared wildly.
Downing, Walcott, Rooney, and Agbonlahor ran wildly in four lines to four different points. The four people involved made the Argentine defense full of loopholes. Wood observed the situation in front of him while running at high speed. Walcott was the focus. Who let the "Little Tiger" be so famous?
He shook his ankle and the outer instep of his left foot passed the ball to the left side of the road. Mascherano, who returned to the defense, was going to tackle to destroy the pass, but he underestimated the rolling speed of the football on the turf. By the time he flew out, the football had already rolled in front of his toes.
On the hard ground with short turf, the rolling speed of the football was faster. It flew past Mascherano and rolled to the left side of the road.
Downing plugged in at high speed and just happened to receive the ball.
Mascherano, who was lying on the ground, was unable to defend even if he wanted to.
Wood's task was completed, but he continued to run forward to support his team's attack. At the same time, he put psychological pressure on the Argentine defenders who were already at a loss, thinking that he was going to wait for a long shot.
This scene did not happen. After Downing received the football, he faced the tall center back, Fazio, who came up to defend him. After a feint, he forcibly cut inside to break through.
Fazio was strong and good at headers, but his speed was not his strength. He fell to the ground and stretched out his leg to touch the football, but the football bounced up and hit Downing's shin bone and flew forward. Instead, it helped the opponent to break through.
Downing raised his speed to the highest and caught the football on the low line. Then he did not hesitate and swept the football to the center of the penalty area.
Rooney ran past, so did Agbonlahor. Could it be another failed counterattack?
The football was passed to near the penalty spot in the penalty area, where there was not a single Argentine defender.
Downing, who completed the pass and fell out, did not feel sorry for it. He stared at the field and his eyes flashed.
"That's George Wood!"
It was right to continue plugging in just now. Wood appeared in front of the ball. There was also no Argentine player around him — who would specifically mark a player who did not have the ball?
He faced the football and directly volleyed it!
The Argentine goalkeeper, Ustali, touched the football, but Wood's shot was powerful and heavy. He just reflexively reached out his left hand and touched the football with one palm, but he could not change its trajectory.
The football changed direction slightly and crashed into the net!
1: 0!
Forty-two minutes in the first half, Argentina had as high as 64% of the ball and did not score a single goal with 17 shots. And the England team was already one goal ahead with only five shots.
This was a defensive counterattack!
Looking at the England players hugging and celebrating, the proud former world champions had to bow their heads.
Maybe the goal was unexpected for them, but for the England players, it was inevitable. They even thought that the goal came a little later …
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