George Wood was the first to reach the locker room. He had already showered and changed his clothes. He just sat there, looking up at the television broadcast.
When he heard someone come in, Wood took a glance and saw that it was Twain. He did not look away; he just stared.
“If you were in the game, the score wouldn’t look like this.” Twain shrugged. “But I’m not blaming you. I think your choice was understandable under those circumstances. I just hope you can be smarter the next time, George. You can wait till the 89th minute before you wipe out the bastard.”
Wood was taken aback for a moment, then nodded. He lowered his head. “I’m sorry, boss.”
Twain gave a grin, walked in, and patted Wood on the shoulder, “All right, let’s not think about it. No one will blame you. I don’t, and they won’t.” He pointed to the door as the noises outside grew louder and nearer. The players were heading back.
He knew why Wood was the way he was, so he said he understood Wood and did not blame him. For people who were not good at expressing their inner feelings to others, they could only choose the method which they thought was the most direct, even though they might look stupid to other people.
The first person to walk into the locker room was Ribéry. He was not surprised to see Wood and Twain standing together. He gave Wood a thumbs-up and shouted, “Well done, George!”
His voice caught the attention of the rest of his teammates returning to the locker room after him. They expressed the same opinion as Ribéry.
“That’s right! I’ve wanted to deal with that bastard for a damn long time!” Leighton Baines said.
Just as Twain had said, no one complained that Wood’s foul was a momentary impulse of individual heroism which disregarded the team’s interests. No one felt that Wood was accountable for turning their two-goal lead into one goal. Everyone commended Wood’s actions for retaliating on their behalf.
Eastwood was extremely popular on the team. Even though everyone speculated that there were some irreconcilable differences between Wood and Eastwood, it was hard to believe those rumors again based on what he did today.
Albertini and the assistant manager David Kerslake were the last to enter the locker room. He looked at the situation in the locker room and turned to ask Twain, “Chief, how’s Freddy?”
Everyone fell silent. They were still haunted by the image of Eastwood being taken to the hospital in the ambulance. As a professional footballer, they were well-acquainted with the feeling of an injury. His was definitely not a minor injury.
Twain shook his head. “I don’t know, there’s no news from the hospital yet. But our goal now is to play this game well.” He smacked his hands, signaling for everyone to re-focus. “The opponents took advantage of our chaotic timing to regain a goal. We can’t give them that chance in the second half. In the next half, we’ll concentrate on our defense. We’ll guard against our opponents’ attacks first, and wait for an opportunity to counterattack.”
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The halftime interval went by quickly. The fifteen-minute period probably felt long for the viewers, who were bored stiff watching the commercials in front of the television while they waited for the second half. But for Tony Twain, who was making impromptu adjustments in the locker room, another fifteen minutes for him would still be too few.
Eastwood’s departure due to his injury and George Wood’s sent-off completely disrupted his pre-game plan. He needed to almost completely overturn his plan during the fifteen-minute halftime interval. Keeping Nani in check was the key.
They could not continue to let Nani be. But who was going to take care of him? It was really a problem.
Gunnarsson could not keep up with Nani’s pace. Albertini was in charge of the middle and could not be moved. If Wood was here, then he could have marked the active young man. But not now…
In the end, Twain decided not to use man marking. Instead, he would employ zonal marking. Wherever Nani went, the focus would be on defense and preventing his breakthrough.
After the start of the second half, this zonal defense gave Nani some trouble. He had to face two defenders at all times. Although the Forest team had one less player than Sporting Lisbon, the entire team retreated to their own half of the field to defend. It was not difficult to gain the advantage of strength in numbers in their half.
Nani soon found it difficult to seek a breakthrough on the flanks.
Twain had changed the Forest team’s midfield positions. It was formerly a triangular layout with two defensive midfielders and an attacking midfielder. After conceding a goal, he found that that defensive combination was not good enough. Assigning an attacking midfielder position also wasted already tight human resources. As a result, he simply withdrew Ribéry to the right in the second half.
The three midfielders’ positions were parallel. Ribéry was on the left, Gunnarsson was on the right, and Albertini was in the middle. In this way, it solved the problem of the defensive forces being too weak in the middle, and also balanced the left and right flanks. Whether on the left or on the right, Nani would have to face the tight defense of two Forest players (a fullback and a winger).
Looking at the scene of Nani struggling to cope, Twain was a little relieved on the sidelines. They had conceded a goal to their opponents, but it was better than losing the game.
He had not at all expected Nani’s appearance. Was this kid Sporting Lisbon’s secret weapon?
Just as Twain breathed a sigh of relief, the Forest team conceded another goal.
This was due to the fact that the Forest team had put most of their defensive effort on Nani but overlooked the others.
This time, the player who had seized the opportunity was Sporting Lisbon’s other midfielder, Pedro Barbosa.
When Nani had engaged the Forest team’s excessive attention, he and João Pinto used a simple two versus one pass in the midfield and dribbled the ball within his shooting range, which was then followed by a powerful long shot!
Edwin van der Sar tried his best to save the goal, but he only brushed the football. He could not completely change its trajectory, and the football slammed into the net!
Seeing the football fly into the goal, the Forest team momentarily froze and seemed to think they had seen wrong; surely the football had not entered the goal, but had gone over the beam to hit the top of the net…
But the reality was cruel. The referee’s whistle and gesture were clear: it was a valid goal.
Amidst the silence, the cheers from the visiting fans in the stands were particularly harsh.
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Twain, sitting in the technical area, did not jump out of his seat in rage over the loss. He just suddenly brandished his fist and punched the awning in the technical area.
To play like this on our home ground is simply terrible beyond words!
Kerslake held his head in his hands. Their two-goal lead was equalized to 2:2 just like that! He found it unacceptable; no one would stand for this!