Godfather Of Champions

Mark Hughes was still racking his brains over his next course of action after his tactic of utilizing the flanks was kept in check by Twain’s countermeasure, but the goal had allowed him to find the inspiration he needed.

He made use of the opportunity as the players were wildly celebrating the goal to call Elano off the pitch and tell him to rely on his own observations to decide if they should attack the flanks or down the middle for the remainder of the match.

Now, the one who had some thinking to do was Tony Twain.

Bendtner became even more lively after his goal. His team mates also started to pass the ball to him deliberately so that he could take the last shot at goal. It seemed like every Manchester City player wished for Bendtner to win the bet that they had made with him.

The sounds of booing from the Nottingham Forest fans got even crazier with Bendtner’s liveliness on the pitch. It was safe to say that nobody could hear anything else but booing in the entire stadium when Bendtner got the ball. Even the people on the other side of the Trent River would have picked up on the deafening booing noises clearly.

“I have never seen the Nottingham Forest fans treat a person as crazily as this…” mumbled Andy Gray, who was intimidated by all the booing that was going on.

“Perhaps they were triggered by both that throw-in earlier and his celebrations after scoring that goal. Which is why I said that this will be an exciting match! Haha! It has only been four minutes since the match started, and Nottingham Forest has already fallen behind!”

※※※

Twain did indeed have some thinking to do. The problem he had on his hands was that Elano was positioned centrally on the pitch, and he could decide if they should attack down the flank or down the middle. If he were to persist on having the full backs move forward to attack, it will give both George Wood and Tiago a very hard time as they would have to defend both the flanks and the center of the pitch. It was only a matter of time that Forest would give up another goal.

Twain thought about it, and decided to temporarily give up having the full backs move forward to attack. It was more important to tighten the defence for the time being.

He walked to the side of the pitch, whistled with his hands, and gestured to the two full backs who were still ‘happily’ standing higher up the pitch to retreat back to their defence positions.

Bale and Rafinha looked at the empty spaces behind them and retreated backwards reluctantly.

George Wood and Tiago went back to their positions in the center of the pitch, thereby sealing off Elano’s passing routes completely.

Now that the full backs could not move forward to assist in the attack, Nottingham Forest’s attack on the flanks was solely reliant on their two side midfielders.

However, Twain felt that the tweaks he made were still far from ideal. After all, without the support from the full backs, the team’s offense lacked depth and creativity, and could easily be defended against by the opposition.

Hence, he followed up by gesturing for the two defensive midfielders to take their turns in supporting the offence.

George Wood began to get more lively on the pitch after the changes were made.

The formation that Nottingham Forest had put in place for this match was a 4-5-1. There were 5 players in the midfield. The distance between their attacking midfielder, van der Vaart, and their defensive midfielders was a little far, and their forward van Nisterooy was all the way up front. How do they connect the back of the field to the front?

One way was to rely on the side midfielders, namely Ribéry and Lennon, but those two players were mainly active on the flanks, so it was up to the defensive midfielders to bring the ball forward in the center of the pitch.

George Wood had gotten very familiar with bringing the ball forward. He was no longer that player who would run to the front and just stand around not knowing what to do.

Wood asked for the ball from Tiago and started to bring the ball forward. Elano ran up to him to try and get in his way, so he passed the ball over to Ribéry before running forward. The two performed a one-two combination, before the ball was sent to van der Vaart. Wood did not retreat and continued running forward, looking poised to make his way into the penalty area.

This forced Manchester City to scatter their forces in an attempt to defend Wood. The number of defenders marking van der Vaart lessened as a result, and it allowed him to try for a long shot, though the ball went over the goalpost by a little.

At that moment, Wood had turned around and was running back to his defending position.

※※※

Bendtner noticed that he was getting significantly fewer chances at the ball at the front of the pitch after Forest’s change in tactics, so he began to retreat backwards to receive the ball.

Kompany wanted to follow after him, but was stopped by Wood with a hand gesture.

That was because Bendtner had already stepped foot into his territory.

Bendtner raised his hand to ask for the ball while he was in the midfield. Robinho passed the ball over to him after getting it past Lennon. The ball had only just reached Bendtner’s feet when he felt an immense pressure coming his way from behind.

He immediately leaned his body backwards to protect the ball from being taken from him. However, doing so also caused him to lose the chance to turn around.

He knew the identity of the pressure that came his way.

The edges of his lips went up. Such a confrontation was really rare…

He understood then that he could not turn his body around, and also knew that Ribéry was on his way back to defend rapidly. It would be bad to be sandwiched between both of them. All he could do was to pass the ball to Robinho who had run up to assist him.

Tiago was marking Robinho fiercely while Wood assessed the situation and tried to find the timing to go in and defend by the side. Bendtner ran up with Robinho and continued to raise his hand and ask for the ball.

As Robinho battled it out with Tiago, he used his heel to kick the ball over Tiago and towards Bendtner who was charging ahead.

Bendtner leant his body sideways to try and receive the ball, but all he received was the tip of George Wood’s outstretched boot. Wood had already cleared the ball while it was in the air.

“It’s not that easy to break free from Wood!” Gray shouted. It was unclear if he felt bad for Bendtner, or if he was praising George Wood for his quick-wittedness and courage.

※※※

George Wood did not even let Bendtner have the chance to maintain possession of the ball when Bendtner retreated back to the midfield to pick up the ball again. He shoved Bendtner from behind, and Bendtner fell to the ground with the ball at his feet.

Bendtner jumped up off the ground and gestured to the referee that a card should be shown to Wood for his actions. This was a foul. A push from behind!

The booing sounds in the stadium intensified after seeing the gestures from Bendtner.

Pepe could not stand to watch any longer and went up to confront Bendtner. Fortunately, he was stopped by Tiago before he made his way to Bendtner, or else both of them would have clashed with each other over the incident.

Van der Vaart was standing near Bendtner, but he did not confront him directly and only clapped his hands. His gesture was one of complete sarcasm and displeasure.

Bendtner could not care less about how the fans and his former team mates perceived him. He was still hot on the referee’s heels, eager to help Wood earn a card. It would be best if he could get a red card!

Wood did not go forward to protest. All he did was to get up off the ground and did a wave to dismiss all the onlookers around. There was nothing interesting for them to see here.

He stood quietly at the spot, waiting for the final call from the referee.

The referee eventually walked over and showed Wood a yellow card.

The booing sounds got even louder.

Twain remained seated, but Kerslake could not restrain his emotions. He rushed to the side of the pitch and started cursing at Bendtner, calling him a ‘traitor’. He also told him ‘to remember who groomed him, bastard!’.

Twain watched the back of his agitated colleague. He shrugged and said to Dunn beside him, “If we look at this from another perspective… At least Bendtner has professional ethics…”

※※※

“Bendtner got his wish. George Wood has gotten a yellow card under his name. Now Wood will be unable play the game as he likes for the remainder of the match.”

“Not exactly. From George Wood’s perspective, as long as he is not sent off the pitch, he should still play the game however he likes.”

Martin Taylor was right. George Wood’s defense remained as aggressive as before after the match restarted, as if he did not care about the yellow card that he was carrying.

George Wood might not care, but Twain did. He gestured for Tiago to participate in the defense more and for Wood to participate more in the offense and draw upon his experience to level the score.

Yes, to level the score. Nottingham Forest has to tie the score before the first half was over, or they would walk into the dressing room feeling depressed or agitated, and that was not a team that Twain wanted to see. It would also leave Manchester City high on spirits and make them think that Forest is unable to do anything to them.

Twain looked at the watch on his wrist. 27 minutes had passed in the first half.

The match had reached a stalemate then. Manchester City’s offense met Forest’s impenetrable wall and was forced to a stop. Forest’s attack met fierce retaliation from Manchester City. Everyone had chances here and there, but nobody really capitalized on those chances.

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Van Nisterooy was all alone at the front of the pitch. He looked a little isolated and helpless in the opposition’s penalty box. The truth was that he was not the point-getter in this match since they had only employed a single forward. His role was more about creating chances for his team mates behind him. It was a pity that both full backs could not move forward and join in the attack.

The ways in which Forest carried out their offense were simple. Ribéry and Lennon would either pass the ball from the byline or they would cut into the penalty area. If they saw van der Vaart near the penalty box and saw that he wishes to attempt a long-range shot, they would pass the ball to him. If not, they would pass the ball to Van Nisterooy straight away. George Wood’s role at the front was more to pass the balls around.

Manchester City’s defense formation remained relatively compact and their defense never faltered regardless of how Forest changed their attacks. It was clear that Mark Hughes was well-prepared to deal with Forest’s offense. The primary objective of the tight defense was to deal with Forest’s sneak attacks, but it also served the purpose of making it difficult for Forest to carry out their positional play at the same time.

Hughes’ tactics for this match were very simple. Defense-wise, the team would tighten the defence at the back and make use of this tight defense to restrict the space and time that Forest can get for their counterattacks. Offense-wise, the team would make use of the powerful Bendtner up front and the impressive prowess of their attacks down the flanks to score goals.

He did not expect that their attacks down the flanks would get sealed off, and that they would get attacked down the middle.

Twain might have been quick to rearrange his setup, but it was of little effect. Manchester City was leading by a goal, and as long as they continued to fortify their defences, it was not impossible for them to take all 3 points from this away game.

As the manager of Manchester City, he knew all about the bet that the players had made amongst themselves. However, between winning a game and the players’ bet, he would choose to win the game any time of the day.

Seeing that the first half was about to end, Hughes decided to get the whole team to retreat so as to keep their entire formation compact and hit Nottingham Forest on the counterattack.

Twain knew what Hughes was plotting, but he had to press on and attack right then, because there was not a lot of time left. He was not willing to walk into the dressing room knowing that they are a goal behind.

He waved his hand, and both Bale and Rafinha who had been restricted for more than 30 minutes were finally on the move once again.

With only about 10 minutes left in the first-half, Forest set their very first frenzied attack in the match into motion.

※※※

“Show your spirit!” Fat John shouted at his comrades behind him on the stand. “Don’t just think about booing the Danish Boy! What our team needs from us right now is not to boo their opponents, it’s to cheer them on! How many of you want to see us go into half-time being a goal down? Not me for sure! I’d even lose my appetite to drink beer knowing that! Mates, let’s sing our song…”

“Oh oh oh oh! Forest, forest! Nottingham Forest!”

“… Forest, forest! Nottingham Forest! There’s no battle we can’t win, there’s no defense we can’t overcome! We are the best team in the world… We make our opponents fear us, we make them tremble in fear! The world is in our hands…”

” Oh oh oh! Wood, Wood! Grow into a forest! Wood, Wood! Grow into a forest!”

※※※

George Wood received the ball.

He was going to bring the ball forward from the back. He easily shoved aside Elano’s interception. The Brazilian was only making it look like he was trying to defend…

He only met resistance once he made his way to Ireland, though he simply passed the ball over to van der Vaart when that happened. Van der Vaart was unable to turn his body around, so the ball was passed back to Wood, who then passed it to Lennon at the flank.

Lennon crossed the ball to the middle of the pitch. Van Nisterooy jumped up for a header!

The ball was headed out by Dunne.

It fell at Wood’s feet once again.

He acted like he was about to shoot for goal, but no one fell for it. Everyone knew how bad Wood was at shooting.

As expected, Wood did not shoot for goal from 35 yards out. He passed the ball to Tiago, who had run up from behind, and went back to defend himself. He had just switched positions with Tiago. It was now Tiago’s turn to attack, and his to defend.

Forest’s attack was quickly ended by Manchester City with a long ball.

Ashley Young dashed down the flank with the ball. There was an empty space that was left behind after Bale moved forward to attack. This was the perfect chance for Manchester City to widen the lead before half-time!

However, his run was stopped by George Wood, who cleared the ball at Ashley Young’s feet cleanly with a sliding tackle. Wood then took big strides forward with the ball in the opposite direction and left Ashley Young who just got back onto his feet behind.

Tiago saw that Wood was running up the pitch, but he did not go back to defend. There was not much time left before half-time. He wanted to remain in the front of the pitch to participate in the offense.

Elano was the first one to get in Wood’s way once again. He almost succeeded this time round, but unfortunately still lost out in a physical battle with Wood and was unable to stop him from breaking through by force.

After he had shaken off Elano with his body and speed, Wood made a gesture that suggested that he wanted to pass the ball over to van der Vaart. He changed the course of the ball and started running towards van der Vaart.

Right as Ireland’s attention had been averted onto their attacking midfielder from the Netherlands, Wood passed the ball to Tiago beside him.

Thereafter, he ran towards the edge of the penalty box.

Tiago raised his foot and made it look as if he wanted to go for a long shot. This time, somebody fell for it. Ireland turned around and pounced towards him. That was when Tiago passed the ball to van der Vaart.

Van der Vaart did not stop the ball at his feet. He passed the ball straight into the crowd in the penalty area.

“George Wood!”

George Wood turned his body sideways to receive the ball. He charged forward fearlessly even in the face of Dunne’s defending.

The two collided with each other and the ball flew away. Dunne collapsed to the ground, and George Wood looked like he was about to fall to the ground as well.

It was then that his strong body played an important role once again. He managed to climb off the ground in a second by using both his hands and feet!

“Did Wood foul him?”

“No, it was a reasonable clash!”

Manchester City’s goalkeeper Joe Hart hurriedly ran forward to try and stop Wood after seeing that he had already made his way into the penalty box.

Wood had already regained his posture and balance by then. He was positioned behind all of Manchester City’s defenders, and there were only Joe Hart and the goalpost before him. He raised his right leg.

Hart stretched out both arms and pounced to the side. He wanted to stop Wood’s shot!

Richards did not care if his sliding tackle from behind would result in a penalty kick. He slid a leg out towards Wood from behind.

Everyone thought Wood was going to shoot the ball straight ahead with force when they saw him raise his right thigh, because that matched the image that everyone had of him.

Both Hart and Richards were acting under the impression that he was going to shoot in that particular way as well. They were both guarding the bottom corners of the goalpost. Even if Wood shot for the upper corners of the goalpost, there would only be one outcome: miss.

No one believed in Wood’s ability to shoot.

Wood whipped his raised right leg against the ball rapidly.

And then…

The ball flew up, created a nice arch in the air as it went around Richard’s leg and Hart’s body, and went straight into the back of the net…

In that moment, it felt as though time had stopped. Everyone had their mouths agape and gawked at the bouncing ball in the goalpost in disbelief.

What just happened?

Andy Gray’s hysterical screams broke the silence. “Ahhhhhh! What did I just see? Paneka? A lob? A screw shot? God! Tell me this is an illusion! The Wood who can miss in front of an empty goal has actually scored an absolute beauty of a goal! Something must be wrong with this world…”

Tony Twain, who had remained seated in the technical area when Bendtner scored, could not help but hug his head as he rushed out of his seat at this sight. He looked at George Wood as though he was an alien and muttered, “Diego Maradona. Bruno Conti. Francesco Cotti. They must have possessed him right there…”

The three names that he had mentioned were all experts at lobs in the history of football.

“I cannot believe what…” Kerslake was also hugging his head in shock alongside him. “… My eyes are seeing.”

Only Dunn was a little more composed. “He did attempt it before when I gave him extra shooting practice previously. But he had never succeeded once before…”

※※※

After George Wood had lobbed the ball into the back of the net, he was sent crashing to the floor by Richards who could not retract his feet in time. He had only just stood up when he was brought down once again by his howling team mates who had swarmed all over him. Bale was sprawled on top of him and was hugging his head. Their noses touched each other.

“How did you do that?!” Bale exclaimed.

“I… I don’t know. All I thought was that the ball had a higher chance of going in if I lobbed it up slightly…”

Ribery slid towards him from the other side. After hearing what Wood said, he wrapped an arm around Wood’s neck. “So you were actually aiming for that! You little… How dare you steal all of our limelight!”

“What other kinds of shots can you do? How about doing the ‘scorpion kick’ next, George?” Van der Vaart patted his head while grinning.

Everyone at the stands were on their feet. They had their hands high up in the sky and swung their scarfs about. They were jumping around excitedly and singing songs in unison.

Every single person related to Manchester City was dumbfounded. They were all well aware of George Wood’s shooting abilities. It was safe to say that everyone in England knew about his abilities. They all knew how bad he was at shooting.

They did not expect Wood to be the one to pull off such a challenging shot that beat Joe Hart at goal and tie the score at 1-1!

Even Bendtner and Ashley Young, who used to be his team mates, had faces of consternation on them. Did that blockhead get injected with some kind of growth hormone? How did he come to know how to do a lob shot out of a sudden?

“All right, it does not matter what went wrong with this world, and it also does not matter how George Wood managed to score that goal. The fact is that he had scored the equalizer. Before the first half ended, Nottingham Forest has brought the entire match back to its starting point!”

“This is George Wood’s first goal of the season and it is such a beauty… It can surely become the goal of the match! The ‘Wooden Spoon’ goal! [1] Hahahaha!”