Six Hundred and Seventy Sixth: Skywalker

When one side on the court is suddenly counterattacked, the players on the field will subconsciously retreat to defend. No matter how far away from the football, retreating and taking a defensive posture is at least a performance of dedication.

This will cause the formation to move backwards. After defending the counterattack, the advancement of the attack will re-brew the threat.

When the Greek team launched a counterattack against England in the 41st minute, England's frontcourt players did not go back to defend immediately, nor did they move back.

Owen, Scholes, McManaman, bearing in mind Aldridge's exhortation before the game, their position is to press the Greek midfield line.

It is risky to do so, because if the Greek team seems to be breaking the boat and presses hard, the pressure on England's defense will suddenly increase.

However, the Greek team's counterattack does not rely on too much input of troops, but concentrates on the weak links, relying on the flexible movement of the players, so as to fight more with less.

After England defended successfully, they turned around and England launched a counterattack on the spot. This wave of forward offensive was more powerful than any attack in the previous 40 minutes.

The reason is that the Greek team's counterattack is advancing rapidly, and the formation will be slightly premised to provide pass support points, tear England's defensive formation, create opportunities, and ensure the success rate of the pass.

Greece's counterattack is by no means relying on a simple long pass, but a terrifying tactical discipline.

Although England's counterattack after the failed counterattack against Greece in this round is still not as broad as the previous game against Germany, the victory lies in the relatively stronger player ability. The strength of the Greek team's players cannot be compared with the German team's players. The space is not too big. But it is enough!

This was a risky Greek counterattack. As a result, 3 seconds passed after the fatal pass. England's counterattack passed the Greek half instead!

Such a sudden reversal of the situation on the field made the Greek team at a loss.

It is conceivable that they gathered their strength and waited for the opportunity. Just about to explode, they thought they could surprise the England team and catch the opponent by surprise, but the reality was a completely reversed picture. Their counterattack made a certain threat, but they failed to score in the end. . Not even a shot, even so, should scare the England team, the result? The England team seemed to have been prepared for a long time, but they also suddenly exerted their strength, and turned to beat them to death!

The left back Fisas and midfielder Saglakis rush up in a panic. With a movement of the midfielder, the center is wide open. Beckham transfers the ball just right. McManaman quickly dribbles forward after taking the ball in the center .

Irving went straight to the middle of the opponent's penalty area. Attracted away central defender Dabizas and sweeper Dras,

Another central defender, George Kiotis, had to come up to defend McManaman who dribbled the ball.

But at the moment when he just moved. He sounded the alarm in his heart, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone stabbing behind him diagonally from the middle of the restricted area.

McManaman went straight to the right side of the penalty area, and Owen held the Greek defenders to the left and center of the penalty area. After the right side grabbed Beckham on the full back and the center back defended, there happened to be an English player running into the area. An area, like a sharp knife, hits the weakest part of the enemy army!

"Scholes! Scholes got a good shot, stopped the ball, slid the ball to his dominant foot, volleyed! Beautiful! Scholes opened the scoring for England! The goal was better than we expected It's a little later, but it's here. England, top of the group, qualify for the World Cup finals!"

After Ginger head broke the goal, he turned around and pointed at McManaman with a smile on his face.

Old Trafford was silent for a long time, and finally burst into overwhelming jubilation.

The first 40 minutes of the game did make the fans drowsy, but the process of scoring the goal really made the fans feel ups and downs and excited.

The Greek team suddenly picked up the pace and played a wave of sharp counterattacks. When people were worried about England's defense, they blinked. Seven seconds later, England turned to break through the Greek goal!

This reversal drama on the green field, from Greece's counterattack to England's goal, may add up to less than 15 seconds in total, but it is what happened in these 15 seconds that made the fans hooked.

In the stands, many fans patted their chests, looking happy but still worried.

Aldridge clenched his fist fiercely, and many players on the field looked at him, the admiration for Aldridge in their hearts could not be expressed in words.

Rehhagel saw the team's shortcomings in this conceded goal.

But he is not discouraged.

He has only been coaching the team for half a year, and the Greek team has a poor foundation. It will take longer to fully form.

As for the time of this formation, Aldridge knows better than Rehhagel.

Many people later said that the myth created by the Greek team in 2004 had a lot of luck and chance.

Aldrich doesn't think so.

Especially after being immersed in the football circle in this life, recalling Greece's brilliant record, it is difficult to describe it as lucky or accidental.

A match can be lucky or accidental, but if a series of matches that are attributed to luck and chance by outsiders appear continuously within a period of time, then this is not luck!

The Greek team is really taking shape and will be at the end of next year!

When the 2004 European Cup qualifiers officially started, the Greek team lost to Spain at home and lost to Ukraine away, losing both games 0:2.

At that time, everyone thought that Greece would be out early, but in the next six games, the Greek team won all 6 games! No goals conceded!

4 games 1:0, 2 games 2:0.

In 8 games, 8 goals were scored and 4 goals were conceded. The statistics are very poor, but the results are brilliant.

Overwhelming Spain to directly enter the European Cup, Ukraine was kicked out!

In terms of luck, the only luck for the Greek team may be the group stage of the European Cup, with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss. They sent Spain back to their hometown by scoring more goals than Spain.

However, they eliminated France in the quarter-finals, beat the last strongest Czech team in the semi-finals, and defeated the host Portugal in the final. With these 3 1-0 games, Greece entered the temple of green mythology!

This is by no means lucky!

Fleet Street often describes Aldridge and Wenger as skywalkers, both of whom have their own pursuits on the field. And successfully let a football style set off a huge wave in England. The resulting storm will have far-reaching consequences.

But in Aldrich's view. Rehhagel is the Skywalker on this thorny and difficult road of seeking Tao!

Greece's game is mainly about training, and the outcome is not important.

Aldridge will not have any sense of accomplishment because the team temporarily took the lead, or even if they finally defeated Greece. If he is proud, it is simply sad.

After this conceded goal, the Greek team's original plan was disrupted. In the last few minutes of the first half, there was no explosive attack. England walked into the locker room with a one-goal lead.

Aldridge did not praise the players after returning to the locker room. Instead, the focus is on the performance of the Greek team. He actually hopes to let the England players understand from the perspective of the Greek team how to cope with the game in such an environment.

In international competitions, especially major competitions, caution is the top priority, and the mentality must be stable!

Especially when it comes to the World Cup, when masters compete, whoever can hold his breath will have a higher chance of winning.

During the intermission, Aldridge gave the players some time to digest.

Today's game. Fighting is not bravery, but resourcefulness. Whoever is calmer on the field and who can make the best use of the situation can gain the upper hand. If you blindly charge, you will only fall into the opponent's plan, and on the contrary, you will expose your life to the opponent.

Aldrich went out to have a cigarette with Jenson at the corner of the passage.

Jansen exhaled smoke and said with a smile: "Aldrich, you want to train the counterattack ability of this England team to the peak, it's almost perfect."

Aldridge lowered his head and smiled, and said, "There are thousands of paths to victory, and the one that suits you best is the right one."

Jenson thought about it and nodded in agreement.

The coaching staff doesn't spend much effort on England's positional warfare at all. There is a profit and loss consideration. How much is invested and how much is returned? Because England has no Zidane, no Pirlo, no Xavi, no 3r

But England has players who are absolutely suitable for counterattacks. Owen's running position and speed, McManaman's breakthrough and dribbling, Beckham's long pass, Scholes' precise kick and forward scoring awareness, and then Coupled with Lampard's long-range threat, England itself has the potential to play a super-class counterattack. It is the player's ability and characteristics that determine the tactical design, not what tactics Aldridge suddenly wants to play and then let the players adapt or transform the players.

"What if Greece is determined to defend today? Or is the opponent we face in the future also determined to defend?"

Jason raised his head and asked leisurely.

Aldrich pointed at him with a smile, and said, "Find faults on purpose to tease me?"

Jenson laughed, they all knew that this would not happen.

In the league, there are indeed some teams who will face a strong team because of the large gap in strength and just want to stick to a draw, because a draw has points.

But in the national team, especially in international competitions, this kind of situation is very difficult to happen. If you don’t win in the group stage, you will face the possibility of being eliminated, and you will stick to the knockout stage? How do you get promoted? Penalty roulette?

The success of the Greek team's anti-counterattack is due to certain factors behind the strong team's contempt, but also because they have a more stable mentality and grasp the opponent's psychology. The opponent's mentality is anxious due to the delay in scoring goals, and they continue to invest in offensive forces. It gave Greece a chance to strike a fatal blow.

Although Aldrich felt in his heart that he could not be compared with Rehagel, the opponent was like a god, and he only relied on better resources to stand on the top of mortals, but Aldrich did not admire Rehagel's tactical system.

People will study 442, 433, 352, 4321, Christmas tree, Mourinho's winger attack group 433 and so on. Such successful tactical systems.

But few people will study the successful 5-back tactical system of the Greek team. Under the background of encouraging offense, Rehhagel’s tactical system in the Greek team itself is not popular. It is understandable to play like this in international competitions, and the defense wins It is also a cliché.

But it has never been able to form a mainstream, because even the relegation teams in the top leagues will not adopt this tactical system that will force fans to leave the stadium to watch the game. The team may have a little bit of financial resources to form a similar-level lineup, but not every team that wants to imitate can have a coach named Rehhagel.

The training battle of the Greek team and the life-and-death battle of the England team were still turbulent in the second half, but when the 80th minute of the game, Greece made a comeback, but the England team copied the goal of the first half, but the goal was twists and turns , Owen's shot was blocked by goalkeeper Nicopolidis, and Lampard followed up with a long-range shot from the outside to make up the goal.

Amidst the cheers of the audience at Old Trafford, Aldridge sent away the expressionless Rehhagel behind the loss.

The England team's World Cup preliminaries are over. The England team ranked first in the group with 6 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss with 19 points, and will directly advance to the World Cup finals next year.

The German team is going to play an unpredictable play-off.

The England team's plan before the World Cup, in addition to studying the opponents in the group stage after the results of the World Cup group draw at the end of the year, the other match days will be to drill the lineup to further run the team and improve their strength. (to be continued...) ()