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Godfather Of Champions Chapter 380

Chapter 380 - A Yellow Card Part 1

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

When Anelka put his index finger on his lips to make a “keep quiet” gesture, the Bernabéu stadium went quiet for a moment, but immediately got even louder.

The Real Madrid fans hated the French striker to the core. They did not hesitate to put up their middle fingers at the arrogant Frenchman and abuse him with the most commonly used insults in Spain.

Ear-splitting cheers rang out from Nottingham Forest substitutes’ bench and resounded clearly in the midst of the booing of the entire stadium.

The Forest team’s substitutes stood on the sidelines and applauded Anelka. Twain pumped his fists in celebration of the goal. He was not celebrating, he was demonstrating in front of Bernabéu.

Being ahead of Real Madrid was not very exciting to Twain. He had already done the same thing once in City Ground stadium.

Taking the lead over Real Madrid at Bernabéu was not considered a winning advantage. Still, Twain enjoyed the thrill of striking a blow to the team on their home ground.

As a result, he was very pleased to see Anelka put his forefinger on his lips to make the Bernabéu fans shut up.

※※※

“What a surprise, Nottingham Forest takes the lead in Bernabéu! The English scored a goal in the first five minutes of the game!”

The ESPN commentator was right. It was normal to lead against Real Madrid, but it was astounding to take the lead within such a short period of time from the start of the game.

“I believe that this Nottingham Forest team, which has defeated Benfica twice, is definitely not a complete unknown who pulled off an upset in Portugal.”

The group points and ranking were displayed in the lower left corner of the screen. Real Madrid and Nottingham Forest occupied the first and second spots respectively, but they had the same points: ten each.

The television footage then gave Tony Twain, who stood on the sidelines, a five-second closeup. His face no longer showed the excitement and joy from the goal. It was replaced with a serious expression.

“The youngest manager in the UEFA Champions League has taken the lead at Bernabéu. Tony Twain seemed to be shrouded in a mist that we can’t see through.”

Twain did not know that the television commentator was commenting on his close-up. He stood on the sidelines for a while before he walked back to the technical area.

“The game has just begun, David,” he said.

※※※

After the kickoff, Real Madrid was not adversely affected by the goal; instead, they soon launched a frenzy of counterattacks.

After all, this was a veteran powerhouse club. No matter what low point they were facing, their foundation still existed. It would be a sham if they were to be knocked out by one goal.

Wood once again became a busy man. Such a moment was rarely seen as the Forest team’s strength increased and their ranking in the Premier League rose. When the Forest team was weak and often pressed by their opponents’ positional warfare, George Wood was the most eye-catching player, which was one of the reasons why he quickly became famous even though he was young and had debuted less than two years.

More balls were sent to Zidane’s feet. It looked like they did not trust Guti, who was a brilliant but inconsistent playmaker.

More offense was concentrated on Zidane’s side, which meant that George Wood was under more pressure.

As the game progressed, Zidane made him feel bad again, whether Wood admitted it or not.

When an opponent faced the French baldie, he would always have a way to bypass his opponent. If he could not go around, he would immediately pass the ball and not leave his opponent with too much time to intercept.

This was not only a divergence in skill but also a huge disparity in experience.

Zidane took possession of the ball when he faced Wood and made a feint to move the ball to the left for a breakthrough. Wood quickly rushed out. Then Zidane calmly shifted the ball to the right flank as Salgado plugged in from behind.

Wood was not the only one under enormous pressure. The young left back Gareth Bale and the right back Chimbonda were equally so. It could be said that everyone in the Forest defensive line faced tremendous pressure. This defensive line was very young and the offensive lineup they faced was world-class.

Salgado did not break past Bale. But after he lured Bale to the vicinity of the end line, he passed the ball back.

And behind him was the right midfielder, Beckham!

“Beware the Englishman!” The commentator shouted in an exaggerated way.

Beckham did not stop the ball. Instead, he received Salgado’s return pass and made a direct pass.

The football drew a perfect arc in the air and almost hit Ronaldo, who was not good at headers, on the forehead!

“A header by Ronaldo… WOOOW!”

Close at hand, Edwin van der Sar made an incredible save. He deflected Ronaldo’s header with a single palm!

“Oh, what a shame! If the shot was headed by Morientes instead, it would have gone in.”

Ronaldo put his hands on his hips as he looked at van der Sar, who had gotten up from the ground, in disbelief. He had thought that this ball was set to go in.

In fact, when he saw Beckham swing his leg to kick, Twain’s heart leaped as well. At that moment, when he saw the football hit Ronaldo’s head and then change direction to fly towards the goal, his heart almost came out of his throat.

Fortunately, van der Sar’s outstanding performance put Twain’s heart back in its place. But it was still thumping wildly.

After taking the lead, Twain experienced that keyed up state where a heart attack might happen at any time.

1:0 was not secure at all.

However, the Forest team must now persevere with the defensive counterattack. They had to hold fast under their opponents’ constant onslaught and wait for the opportunity to sneak attack again.

This was not just testing the mettle of the players on the field, but putting this manager’s heart to the test.

Very soon, Twain was unable to sit still in the technical area. He stood up and held onto the awning of the technical area. He continued to keep a close eye on the situation on the field.

※※※

This was not the first time that the Forest team was confronted with a situation in which they were under enormous pressure from their opponents. They had recently had a taste of it in the league game with Chelsea.

It was painful, but they must bear it.

This was also a game experience.

Once there was a breakthrough by Zidane which resulted in a corner kick. Albertini pulled George Wood aside.

His hand slipped. He almost could not grasp Wood’s arm. Albertini realized that Wood’s arms were very sweaty.

“George.”

Wood turned his head to look at his captain.

“Let’s switch. I’ll defend against Zidane.”

Wood, who always listened to the team captain, shook his head this time. “No, Demetrio. The chief told me to defend-”

“But…” Albertini wanted to say, “But you won’t be able to.” However, before the words came out of his mouth, he swallowed them back. Those words would be too much of a blow.

George Wood was not a fool. He knew what Albertini wanted to say. He gasped, “He’s really good. But the chief said to let me defend against him. Unless I’m being brought off, he’s mine.”

After that, he ran past Albertini and returned to the penalty area to participate in the defense.

Albertini shook his head as he looked at Wood’s back, and then ran to go back.

※※※

Kerslake noticed that Albertini had pulled Wood aside to discuss the matter. He turned to Twain.

Twain shook his head and said nothing.

Kerslake turned his gaze back to the field.

※※※

The situation did not improve. Zidane was still very active. Pressing on, Real Madrid still bombarded the Forest team’s penalty area. It looked like they wanted to regain the dignity and position they had lost.

Twain stood up from his seat again and walked to the sidelines. Edwin van der Sar was preparing to kick off the ball. He placed the football twice. He had been wasting game time since the first half began.

Wood stood on the right side of the center circle, and not far from him was the Frenchman.

Twain took a breath, and then suddenly shouted Wood’s name. “George!”

Not only Wood but almost all of the Forest team and even some of the Real Madrid players heard it. They all eyed Twain at the same time.

“Did you forget what I said to you? Restrain him!” Twain pointed at Zidane. “I don’t care what you do, use any means! By hook or by crook! Use whatever damn means!”

He pounded his fist in the palm of his hand.

If Zidane could be hurt and brought off the field without Wood even getting a yellow card, that would be the perfect outcome in Twain’s mind.

However, that was not likely.

Real Madrid’s right flank was on the side of both teams’ technical areas. Beckham heard Twain’s expletive-peppered English clearly. He glanced towards the indecorous visiting manager and frowned.

Zidane also looked toward the sidelines. He saw Twain point in his direction as he shouted and knew in all likelihood that it was related to himself. It was merely to let the boy mark him. Zidane had seen much of that in his career. Almost every manager would instruct the same to his team’s main defensive players.

Except, the disparity between him and this Forest team’s number 13 seemed to be too big. Up until now, everything was well within his control. He did not feel that the game was too hard. Other than conceding a goal, which was an accident, the Forest team was completely misfiring now.

Ever since they took the lead, they had not even fired a single shot at the goal. Everyone had withdrawn to their side of the field. As long as Real Madrid continued to attack like this, an equalizer was only a matter of time. Things would be simple once they equalized the score. The opponent would surely collapse. At that time, it would be a home victory for Real Madrid.

Godfather Of Champions

Godfather Of Champions

冠军教父
Score 8.3
Status: Completed Type: Author: , Released: 2007 Native Language: Chinese
This is a story about the pursuit of victory. — “I subscribe only to the theory of victory. I only pursue victory. As long as I am able to obtain victory, I don’t care if it’s total football or counterattack. What is the ultimate goal of professional soccer? In my opinion, it is victory, and the pinnacle of victory is to become the champions. I am a manager. If I don’t wish to lose my job or be forgotten by the people, there’s only one path for me to take, and that is to lead the team in obtaining victories, in obtaining championship titles!” The main character was not well-liked by people. — “⋯We conducted a survey which had been deemed by Manager Tony Twain as extremely meaningless. In a random street survey conducted, ninety-three percent of those surveyed chose the option ‘I hate Tony Twain’, while only seven percent chose the option ‘This person is rather decent, I like him’. It is worth noting that nobody chose the option ‘Who is Tony Twain? I don’t know him’. Mark, do you know why Manager Twain felt that our survey was very meaningless?” Parker, a reporter from laughed loudly and said when he was being interviewed by BBC. But there were also people who were madly in love with him. — When Tony Twain was forced to talk about the survey conducted by during an interview, his reply was : “I am happy, because Nottingham Forest’s fans make up seven percent of England’s population.” And he did not seem to care about how the others saw him. — “What are you all trying to make me say? Admit that I am not popular, and everywhere I go will be filled with jeers and middle fingers. You all think I will be afraid? Wrong! Because I am able to bring victory to my team and its supporters. I don’t care how many people hate me and can’t wait to kill me, and I also won’t change myself to accommodate the mood of these losers. You want to improve your mood? Very simple, come and defeat me.” His love story had garnered widespread attention. — “Our reporters took these pictures at Manager Tony Twain’s doorsteps. It clearly shows that Shania entered his house at 8.34pm and she did not leave the house throughout the night at all. But Manager Tony Twain firmly denies, and insists that that was merely the newest-model inflatable doll which he had ordered. He was the number one star of the team. — “⋯ Became the spokesperson of world-wide famous clothing brands, shot advertisements, frequented the fashion industry’s award ceremonies, endorsed electronic games, has a supermodel girlfriend. His earnings from advertisements exceed his club salary by seventeen times, owns a special column in various print medias, publishing his autobiography (in progress), and is even said that he is planning to shoot an inspirational film based off his own person experiences! Who can tell me which part of his life experiences is worthy of being called ‘inspirational’? Hold on⋯. Are you all thinking that I’m referring to David Beckham? You’re sorely mistaken! I’m talking about Manager Tony Twain⋯.” He was very knowledgeable about Chinese soccer. — “⋯ I’ve heard about it, that Bora gifted four books to his manager Mr. Zhu before your country’s national team’s warm up match. After which, the team lost 1:3 to a nameless American team from Major League Soccer. The new excuse that Mr. Zhu gave for losing the match, was that Bora gifted “books” (‘books’ and ‘lose’ are homophones in the Chinese language). Here, I recommend that you guys find out what that one specific book is. Which book? Of course the one that caused you all to score a goal. After that, tell me the title of the book. Before every match, I will gift ten copies of that same book to you. In that case, won’t you all be able to get a triumphant 10:0 win over your opponents every time?” An excerpt taken from Tony Twain’s special column in a certain famous Chinese sports newspaper. He was loved and hated by the press. — “He has a special column in at least four renowned print media, and he is able to get a considerable amount of remuneration just by scolding people or writing a few hundred words of nonsense weekly. While we have to contemplate hard about our drafts for three days before our boss is pleased with it. In an article inside his special column, he scolded and called all of the media ‘son of a bitch’, announcing that he hated the media the most. But every time he publishes an article, we flock towards him like flies which had spotted butter. Why? Because the readers like to read his news and see him scold people. I dare to bet with you, and Manager Tony Twain knows clearly in his heart as well, that even though he says that he hates us, he knows that the present him cannot do without us. Similarly, we also cannot do without him. Is this ultimately considered a good or a bad thing?” Bruce Pearce, a reporter from said with a face of helplessness when talking about Tony Twain. But no matter the case, his players were his most loyal believers. — Gareth Bale, “No no, we never had any pressure when playing on our home grounds. Because the pressure is all on the manager. As long as we see him standing by the side of the field, all of us will feel that we will be able to win that match. Even the football hooligans are like meek lambs in front of him!” (After saying this, he began to laugh out loudly) The reply from George Wood, the team captain of Nottingham Forest, was the most straightforward. “We follow him because he can bring us victory.” The legendary experience of Tony Twain, the richest, most successful, most controversial manager with the most unique personality! Debuting this summer. Thank you for reading.

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