Chapter 190: The UEFA European Football Championship Part 1
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The only thing that Tang En remembered about the 2004 UEFA European Football Championship two years after it took place was the Greece national team. In that European Football Championship, there were many occurrences which had shocked Tang En at the time, such as Rooney's springing to fame, and Zidane's turning of the tides at the last minute of the match. However, it was only at the end of everything that Tang En realized: the thing that had left the deepest impression on him was a team, not any football star in particular.
Being able to watch and relive the 2004 European Football Championship live was an entirely new experience for Tang En, and this made him feel that travelling back in time still had many perks. In addition, he could also learn, from close up, how Rehhagel deployed his tactics. The overall tactics of the Greek team was simply too strong, and Tang En even felt that it had completely surpassed that of every other team in the 2004 UEFA European Football Championship. They were really the most deserving team of the championship title in the end.
Now, the only thing that worried Tang En was the question of whether the ripple effects caused by his arrival would affect the UEFA European Football Championship held in Portugal. What if Greece did not become the Champions in the end? Of course, luck would have a part to play in a team's obtaining of the championship title. But still, Tang En felt that Rehhagel's train of thought and the tactics he deployed at the UEFA European Football Championship would still be proliferated and passed down, even if the Greeks did not win the championship. The only difference was that their proliferation would be much faster if the Greek team were to win the championship title.
In the past, everyone had said that the Greek team's skills were very unpolished. Counterattacking relied heavily on the interception of the ball with very tight defense, before doing a long pass to the front and making use of the tall center-forward's header advantage to pose a threat to the opponent.
However, the counterattacking style displayed by the Greek team during their matches was different: from the moment they intercepted the ball, to the moment when they pushed the ball into the opponent's penalty area, their speed was very fast; but they did not always perform long passes and let the ball fly through the air without touching the ground. Instead, the coordination between two or three of the players, as well as their swiftness in passing the ball, was the essence of Rehhagel's counterattacking tactic. Seeing the tall players passing the ball around skilfully and reaching the opponent's goalpost after just a few passes with the rest of the team positioned favorably was very enjoyable for the viewers, even though it was just a counterattack.
Upon getting news of Tang En going to Portugal to watch the matches, Nottingham Evening Post hoped that Tang En would write some observations in his special column. Tang En was still troubling over what to write at that time, but now he decided that he would fully focus on watching Greece. Regardless of whether the team could win the championship title, they would definitely give the whole world a pleasant surprise.
After hearing Tang En's plans, Pierce Brosnan was in a slightly difficult position. "Well, actually, we were hoping that you would write more about England…"
Tang En shrugged and replied, "Everyone else is writing about England, and I don't want to jump onto the bandwagon. Mr. Reporter, I would be willing to bet that Greece will be the greatest dark horse in this year's European Football Championship!" Tang En did not mention the other reason he did not want to write about England. It was because he simply did not like Eriksson as a manager, so he was never optimistic about England's prospects in big matches.
During the 2002 World Cup, the English media advocated and promoted the idea that the English team for that year was the best one since England won the World Cup in 1966. And look what happened in the end? England had lost to Brazil, which was stumbling during the qualifiers and had been completely suppressed in their first match against Turkey. The only consolation for them was that Brazil ultimately became the World Cup Champions for that year. In the 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, Tang En, who was still a football fan then, still did not look favorably upon the English team. So when Rooney got switched out due to an injury and England was eliminated by the host in a penalty kick, Tang En thought that it was reasonable. In the 2006 World Cup, if not for David Beckham, who had been widely criticized by the media as largely incapable, perhaps Eriksson's team would not have even made it out of the group matches.
English people always had this sense of arrogance, often thinking that they were the place of origin of modern football, and that their playing standards should therefore be number one in the world. As a result, no matter what new football star they had, he would be propped up into a world-class football star by the media. With the English team made up of this group of "world-class" football stars, it was only natural that they would be the best team.
England's arrogant mentality was not only reflected in terms of football. It was reflected in many aspects of the society. There were many people who were still reminiscing about the past, about how glorious it was for the empire on which the sun never set. Now, their influence internationally had been greatly weakened, and they were reduced to being America's lackey. As a result, they could only use their absurd sense of arrogance to continue and sustain their dignity in their hearts.
Tang En was completely uninterested in this ridiculous national pride. He was not an Englishman himself, so he did not bear any good feelings towards the British empire. In addition, Tang En knew the English team's fate in this year's European Football Championship, and he could not pretend that he was looking forward to their performance and tell the readers, "We will definitely become the champions!"
Eriksson was much more suited to be a football club manager instead of a national team's manager. He had too soft of a personality.
Perhaps it was prejudice on his end, but Tang En simply felt that people with soft personalities were not suited to be a strong team's manager.
"Greece?" Bruce remained stunned for a while before he continued. "I haven't heard that name for a long time in international matches. Are you sure?"
Tang En nodded. "I'm sure of it. They have a very, very capable manager, and a team of players with decent abilities."
On the plane to Lisbon, Portugal, Tang En also talked to Dunn about this problem, and expressed his opinion that the tactics employed by Greece were something that Nottingham Forest could emulate in their first Premier League season.
Compared to the other teams in the Premier League, Nottingham Forest had no advantage in terms of overall strength. Many teams would look down on their opponents when fighting against a team that had just been promoted, and often lacked understanding of their opponents. Nottingham Forest could deploy a tactic of counterattacking to stabilize its position in the Premier League.
Dunn was curious as to why Tang En would know so much about the national team of a country which Europe was not too familiar with. Tang En could only scratch his head and say that he preferred to pay more attention to small teams.
Bruce Pearce reached Portugal earlier than Tang En, but their targets of interest were different. In order to bring back news that readers cared about most, he had to follow the English team throughout their entire journey. He had to report everything back, regardless of whether they were important or trivial. Even the type of clothes worn by the wives of the players when they went out on street had become a topic of interest for reporters.
Before the matches started, practically all of the newspapers in England were filled with articles regarding the English team. The article in the Nottingham Evening Post, in which Tang En had written about Greece extensively, had been completely ignored by the readers.
In the end, after the opening matches were finished, Bruce's first reaction was to find a two-day-old copy of the Nottingham Evening Post, which had an article written by Tang En and published in his special column. Matching the words in the articles to the results of the opening matches, Bruce discovered that he perhaps had no choice but to admit that Tony was God.
The words that he had written two days ago were completely correct after checking them against the match results.
Bruce was not the only person who was shocked. Dunn, who had been inseparable from Tang En since the beginning, was surprised as well. The only difference was that Dunn's shock came much earlier, because he had watched the opening matches with Tang En. During the match, he and Tang En could not stop discussing the tactics used by Greece and Portugal.
When Karagounis scored the first goal, Tang En affirmatively said that Rehhagel's tactics could completely suppress Portugal. After watching the first half of the match, Dunn already completely believed the person next to him.
Scolari was a master tactician, but so was Rehhagel. Although the cards in Rehhagel's hands were not as good as those in Scolari's, Rehhagel managed to be in a more commanding position than Scolari. Perhaps in the eyes of the hosts and many fans, Greece's playing style was boring, as they made ten people defend and one person attack. However, from a manager's perspective, Dunn felt that all of this was quite normal.
The Greek team currently did not have the qualifications to dance the European Samba in front of the Portuguese. If they wanted to prove that they were stronger than the hosts, they only had one way of doing so: they had to defeat them, regardless of what tactics they used.
And Rehhagel managed to accomplish it. The results that nobody had expected prior to the match had become a reality. Despite him saying, "This is the greatest victory in the history of Greece!" after the match, both Tang En and Dunn knew that Rehhagel did not let the victory get to his head. He was very clear about his goal for participating in the UEFA European Football Championship. It was not to win an opening match, or to score a goal, or to draw a match… He had a very noble goal, one that nobody knew.
Only Tang En knew.
In the remaining days, aside setting time aside to write articles for the Nottingham Evening Post, Tang En and Dunn spent most of their time on the bustling streets. They watched most of the matches live at the stadium, and they also watched the remaining matches which took place at the same time on the television, not forgetting to record them.
The reasons for Tang En going to Portugal to watch the matches live were firstly to assess the cheap yet useful football players. The second reason was to learn from the various outstanding managers' experiences. Regardless of whether those experiences were successes or failures, they would still be in Tang En and Dunn's list of things to analyze.
In terms of finding players for the team, this year's Championship League made Tang En feel slightly disappointed. Those who had been called the "stars of hope for the European Football Championship" were all players who had been famous for quite some time. As a result, it was completely lacking in terms of novelty. Even if Nottingham Forest wanted to buy some of those players, they would be facing off against a lot of competitors; for instance, Wayne Rooney, who was still under Everton F.C, had been immensely sensationalized by the media, with various experts sharing the opinion that Rooney was the greatest reward the English team had in this year's UEFA European Football Championsip. However, Tang En knew that after the Champion's League, Wayne Rooney would be purchased by Manchester United at a high price. For Nottingham Forest to try to snatch a player from Manchester United? Fat chance!
As for the new star from Holland, Robben, the new Swedish player, Ibrahimovic, and the Czech Republic's young goalkeeper, Cech, all of them had already been famous for a long time. Robben and Cech were already reserved by Chelsea, and no matter how rich Evan Doughty was, how could he be richer than Abramovich? Furthermore, although Ibrahimovic rejected the Italian team for this year's European Football Championship, Italian Football Clubs were still very interested in him. If everything went smoothly, Juventus F.C should successfully snatch this young Swedish man, who had been nicknamed the "second Baten" ever since Ajax's time.