Chapter 489 - Reciprocity

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

The two teams that played more reservedly within the English Premier League, Chelsea and Nottingham Forest, chose otherwise when they came across each other. They launched into attacking. Their openness in strategy and play greatly surprised the audience watching the match and had them cheering in excitement.

They discovered that it was spectacular whenever Chelsea and Nottingham Forest went out on the attack against each other. In truth, neither party was lacking good players in their offense. Everyone’s lack of impressions was only caused by the teams’ strategic choices.

What kind of carefreeness did the forwards feel when they no longer had to frequently dash between the two penalty zones?

“Drogba! Long shot! Edwin van der Sar makes another beautiful save! With the two teams clashing head-on, their two goalkeepers are going to be busy.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“The ball is being passed in front of Chelsea’s penalty zone. Rafael van der Vaart passes it to the side. Gareth Bale comes up and receives the ball. He’s faced with Chelsea’s right-back, Boulahrouz. It’s a new opponent!”

Despite how famous they appeared to be, Bale was not at all afraid of Chelsea. When it came to playing against Chelsea, his psychological advantage was greater than anyone else’s because the battle where he first came to light was also a League match against Chelsea.

He did not care about whoever it was that dashed in front of him. Whether it was Paulo Ferreira, Carvalho, or the new guy, Boulahrouz, he only had one thought in his mind: to break through and then pass to the center.

Boulahrouz had become famous when he successfully marked down Ronaldinho in the match against Barcelona. He was not worried about facing Bale. Would a mere child be as strong as Ronaldinho?

If Bale wanted to break through, he would put himself right in Bale’s path. If Bale kept going forward, they were guaranteed to collide.

“Bale!” Ribéry shouted from the side. He had noticed Boulahrouz’s intentions. He could not let Bale rush into it. “Pass the ball to me!”

It was as if Bale did not hear it. He appeared timid when he was off the field, but he seemed to transform into an old veteran of a hundred battles when he was on it.

Bale pulled the ball towards the outside, running alongside the side lines. Boulahrouz saw his movement and was delighted. Bringing the ball to this sort of dead area, I would like to see how you’re going to break through this!

The Netherlander full-back moved his body to block the inner route and then stretched out his leg to steal the ball. He had it mapped out. Bale would surely avoid nudging the ball inwards because he himself was boxing the position out. If Bale nudged it over, Boulahrouz only needed to swoop in between and Bale would become separated from the ball. Bale certainly knew this, so Boulahrouz predicted that Bale would move from the outer path.

Now that the football was so close to the side lines, it would be all too easy to kick the ball out if Bale took the outer path.

Boulahrouz did not necessarily need to take the ball down himself. So long as he forced Bale to kick the ball out of the side lines, it would be considered a successful defense.

His act of stretching out his leg was only to force Bale into kicking the ball out himself.

Indeed, Bale chose to bump the ball; his right foot nudged the ball outwards to the left, but a second after, his left foot immediately kicked the ball straight forward, and the ball rolled past Boulahrouz along the side lines.

Boulahrouz raised his hand to indicate to the referee that Bale’s ball had gone out-of-bounds but failed to hear the referee’s whistle. Instead, he saw Bale flit past his defense zone; a breakthrough!

“A brilliant breakthrough! Boulahrouz did not expect that!”

After breaking through, Bale lifted his head to look at the penalty zone. Rather than choosing to blindly pass center to the front of the goal — the majority of younger players would do exactly that, an irresponsible and brainless method — Bale passed the ball to Ribéry who had had his hand raised to request for the ball since earlier.

“Shoot!” Bale shouted as he passed the ball out. In the previous League match, it was in precisely this position and with such a combination that Bale assisted Ribéry in scoring a goal. He clearly wanted to go at it again.

But Chelsea did not let him do as he wished. Ribéry already had many Chelsea players surrounding him. It would be more than enough if he could just stop the ball.

Ribéry himself also had no intentions of taking a shot. Before receiving the ball, he had already observed his surroundings. If he tried to take a shot, there was no guarantee as to where the ball would go. He was not so foolish as to waste such a precious opportunity to attack.

From the crowd surrounding him, he suddenly saw a familiar back.

How did he get here?

Ribéry did not care about the details about it, nor did he have the time to. He used the arch of his foot to kick the ball that had just rolled over, and shot it through the space between Essien’s legs.

“Freddy Eastwood!!”

The man who appeared in the gap of Chelsea’s defensive line was the person who had been hiding behind Ruud van Nistelrooy’s back; the low-key shooter, Eastwood!

When Bale broke through, he was still outside the penalty zone. Ruud van Nistelrooy had attracted the attention of both Terry and Carvalho within the penalty area.?As for defending against Eastwood, Mourinho had suggested focusing on guarding his activities whenever he was in the penalty arc area. The Romani had scored quite a few goals in this season, and most of them broke through the goal gates with long shots from this position. His long shots packed a punch.

Everyone took note of his long shots, but no one expected him to be a shadow forward.

What was a shadow forward? It was a character who hid behind the center-back and dealt fatal strikes where there were opportunities.

Eastwood nimbly found a hole he could use within Chelsea’s defensive line. He did not know if Ribéry would pass the ball to him, because he did not tell him that he would appear there. He only resolutely cut forward and believed that Scarface would see him.

True to his prediction, he saw the football rolling between Essien’s legs as he turned back.

Beautiful work, Scarface! Eastwood praised him in his heart. He turned sideways to let the ball pass. Without waiting for Terry and Carvalho to leap at him or giving ?ech a chance to rebalance, he lifted his foot and kicked.

ech did not expect the Romani to take such a decisive shot. He did not drag his foot around it; he immediately kicked without adjusting. ?ech didn’t have the time to move over to block it at the right angle. He could only do his best to leap for the ball, hoping to block the ball out.

The Czech’s national goalie used all his abilities but was unable to stop the ball from flying past his body and into the goal.

“GOOOOAL! A remarkable combination! This is Eastwood’s sixth goal in the season! Romani Rooney is back again!”

“After seeing such a beautiful shot, I’m wondering again: why isn’t he a member of Team England?”

Before Eastwood got injured, he had already been selected for the national team. However, it was not England’s National Football Team. It was Wales’ National Football Team. Back then, he was not yet famous. Naturally, England’s National Team was disdainful of such small-time characters. As Eastwood was born in England, he had the right to represent England. But his grandfather was Welsh, so he had the same right to play for Wales’ National Team. When he had to choose his loyalty to either teams, Eastwood made the choice of being loyal to his grandfather, and therefore Wales.

At the time, England did not think that such a choice had any effect on them. They had so many forwards; Rooney, Owen, Crouch, Walcott, and more. They were not lacking even without the Romani.

Now, however, there were more and more voices who were regretful about Eastwood’s initial choice.

What a marvelous thing it would be for such a consistently scoring forward to serve England!

※※※

Putting aside the matter of which national team Eastwood chose to serve, Nottingham Forest’s fans were surely feeling the greatest bliss at the moment.

“Nottingham Forest takes the lead in their home field against Chelsea. To be honest, I’m not at all surprised about this situation. Tony Twain’s team has a lot of experience beating Chelsea.” The commentator offended all of Chelsea’s fans by saying this.

“What do you mean you’re not surprised! They’re only leading by one goal. What’s the big deal?!” Chelsea’s fans shouted at the television screen, waving their fists. “That d*mned Motson. Now everyone knows he’s a fan of Nottingham Forest!”

※※※

On the sidelines, Tang En’s celebrations after Forest took the lead over Chelsea were always the wildest and most eye-catching. Everyone could still recall an instance in the last season, where Tang En somersaulted to celebrate Bale’s winning goal. This time, everyone watched as Tang En threw punches madly in the air at the side of the technical area, as if he was boxing.

He had absolutely no restraint in front of Mourinho. He was doing this on purpose just to annoy him.

Mourinho’s gaze was attracted to his wild performance, but only for an instant, before shifting away.

“This clown.” he cursed quietly.

The best method to deal with this sort of arrogance from Tang En was not to rush up and scold him for being an idiot, nor was it to ask his subordinates to hurl provocations at the opponent’s technical area. That would only make Tony even more smug. Mourinho understood what kind of character his opponent was.

If he wanted to render Tony speechless, the best way was to score a goal against Forest Team.

Now was a good opportunity to understand Tang En’s true intentions in the match.

Was Nottingham Forest intending to shrink back for defense after scoring a goal, showing no difference than how it had been in the past? Or were they planning to attack all the way to the end and clash head-to-head with Chelsea for the whole 90 minutes?

Mourinho did not become annoyed and anxious because his team had lost a ball. In fact, he did not even stand up from his seat. Five minutes passed. Forest Team did not show any intentions of withdrawing at all. Under Tang En’s strategic direction of “Attack, attack! Other than going on the f*cking attack, keep attacking,” the Forest Team continued to put pressure on Chelsea’s defensive line.

The players earnestly wished to have a hearty fight on their home ground against their old opponents.

It did not feel good being constantly suppressed by their opponents and always going on defensive counter attack.

“Nottingham Forest did not choose to retreat for defense.” Even Clark noticed it.

“That’s good.” Mourinho grinned. “Nothing’s changed. Just keep at our pace.”

Unlike Nottingham Forest’s fiery attacks, Chelsea, who was battling on an away field, was more stable. They did not seem to mind having lost a goal; it did not create any changes in their rhythm. The performance of the players on the field was the same as usual, and Chelsea’s attacks were unhurried and calm. They patiently waited for an opportunity.

Mourinho had already told his own players to be mentally prepared to lose goals when they were playing against Forest. They had to be ready to play an extremely tough match. This was not said on a whim. It came from the experience after having played against Forest Team repeatedly over the past two years. Therefore, it was normal for Chelsea’s players to be able to perform in that manner.

Mourinho firmly believed that the holes in Nottingham Forest’s defensive line would grow as their attacks grew fiercer.

They only had to grasp that one chance, and they would be able to crush Forest Team.

※※※

As the match progressed, both parties fought a spectacular battle against each other. The switch of pace between offense and defense took place rapidly. Throughout the game, the football would be near Chelsea’s goal, causing their rear guards much panic, and 30 seconds later, the ball would have flown to Nottingham Forest’s goal gates, forcing Edwin van der Sar to make another difficult save.

Ff course, the audience was incredibly entertained watching it, but it was not necessarily a good thing for the teams to experience such rapid switching of the match’s rhythm; it also meant a greater number of unforced errors.

When they enjoyed the match, the players would be in a state of excitement. They had more than enough enthusiasm and a lack of coolness. Only Albertini and a few other old veterans were able to keep their heads on straight. Everyone else only thought to attack.

The number of unforced errors committed by Forest Team was gradually increasing. Mourinho looked at the mini laptop his assistant cradled, showing the latest data from the match.

“It’s only the 37th minute of the match, and they’ve already made fourteen unforced mistakes, huh.”

He believed that his players would have noticed this.

After cutting off Lampard’s pass, Chimbonda intended to pass to Ashley Young in front. However, the pass was abruptly stolen by Robben, who dashed up from behind Ashley Young with remarkable speed.

“Chimbonda’s pass was too weak!” Motson exclaimed.

Robben was truly fast. Even Ashley Young could only chase after the Netherland’s “Flying Dutchman,” unable to overtake and intercept the ball.

All he could do now was pray that Chimbonda could stop the fast horse and force him to slow down, giving Ashley Young an opportunity to overtake him.

Chimbonda dashed into Robben’s path.

Robben was running at high speeds and had no intentions of reducing it. Facing Chimbonda, he did not make any excessive movements. He only nudged the ball to the left and at the same time rounded past Chimbonda rapidly on the right side.

He passed separately from the ball.

Chimbonda had already turned towards the ball, but when he realized that Robben was in fact trying to get past separately from the ball, there was already no time for him to turn around again to defend against Robben. He also knew that once he allowed him to break through, it would signify a failure of the defensive line. In his anxiousness, a moment of inspiration struck and he abruptly stuck out his bum.

Robben did not expect Chimbonda to use such an ugly posture to defend under the situation. He had calculated the space needed for Chimbonda to turn, so he used the shortest path and fasted speed to break through. However, he failed to factor in calculations for Chimbonda’s bum.

He slammed directly into it and stumbled for a bit before falling to the ground.

Ashley Young caught up from behind and easily took the ball back. Simultaneously, the whistle of the main referee sounded.

“Foul! Chimbonda, blocking!”

The referee ran over to show a yellow card to Chimbonda. Chelsea’s players, however, were dissatisfied. They felt that Chimbonda should have been fouled out with a red card.

“He’s incredibly fast.” Chimbonda felt remnants of the fright he had felt even after escaping that ordeal.

Ashley Young patted him on his shoulders, giving him a thumbs up. “You already did great. That protruding bum was fabulous!”

Of course, the main referee was not about to change his own judgement call. Chelsea’s players were only trying to vent their grievances and relented very quickly.

As the location of the foul was at the wings, they were not particularly close to the penalty zone. Forest Team’s human wall only consisted of two people while the rest had gone back to defend against the Chelsea players who were prepared to ambush any opponents in the penalty area.

The two full backs, Terry and Carvalho, rushed forward, preparing to head the ball. Naturally, they were prime targets to mark down.

Robben stood in front of the ball. It seemed like he was going to take the penalty himself. Meanwhile, the people who had gone into the penalty zone squeezed against each other and had a minor clash. The main referee went over to mediate, warning the players from both teams not to continue such acts of pulling and pushing. After that, he retreated from the penalty zone and blew his whistle at Robben, signaling for him to take the kick.

Naturally, Forest Team’s players were all focusing on the taller players in Chelsea to prevent them from heading in a goal. But Robben did not follow what they had expected of him — to lob the ball towards the penalty zone — and instead swept the ball twenty meters away horizontally!

This was not a shot at the goal going wide; it was a pass!

His target was Frank Lampard, the player who had been hiding outside without joining the bustle in the midfield from the beginning and could kick outstanding long shots.

“Lampard shoots!”

“There are so many people in the penalty zone. What the heck is he doing, taking a long shot!” Tang En cursed internally. Shooting at the goal under those kinds of circumstances meant there was an 80 to 90% chance of the shot getting blocked out by the crowd who could not tell friend from foe. Chelsea’s player must be muddled from thinking too hard about levelling the score. Choosing to take a direct long shot in such a situation — what could it be but blindness?

Just as Tang En thought that Forest’s crisis was over, he spotted the football changing directions — it was now going completely the opposite direction from Edwin van der Sar’s leap. Furthermore, it seemed like the ball had yet to leave the goal range.

Tang En watched the ball slow down as it rebounded and shakily flitted into the empty goal.

“I- F*ck!” He could not help but explode into a mouthful of Chinese swear words.

“Ah, ah, ah! This is too lucky! Lampard’s shot landed on the body of Forest’s full back, Kompany! It changed directions and did not fly over the end line but found its way into Forest Team’s goal instead! Chelsea equalizes the score!”

“Doggone luck! This is ability! Cheers for Lampard! Chelsea’s got to win!” Chelsea’s fans in the bar raised their beer mugs towards the television screen.