Godfather Of Champions

Lippi, the manager of the Italian national team, gave a television interview before leading the team to the UEFA European Championship. In the interview, the elegant “silver fox”, with a cigar from the “paradise” Tuscany clamped in his mouth, spoke frankly with assurance as he said goodbye to the television audience across Italy—-

“This is my last time in charge of the national team. After the end of European Championship, I will leave no matter what happens in the end. Of course, I want to win the championship. Italy is a team with the ability to win the championship. I can’t say too much before anything happens…”

In fact, the people within Italy did not place too much hope for this team. They believed that the host team, Spain and the French team, undefeated in the qualifiers were more likely than Italy to win the title. If Italy had encountered these teams before the final, it would have been hard to say what the outcome would be.

The Italians’ pessimism stemmed from the World Cup in Brazil two years ago. In that tournament, Italy, considered the favorite to win the title before the tournament, was eliminated during the group stage and had to return home. The Italian team was not a “group of death”. It was considered a major upset at the time.

The World Cup defeat of that time caused many people to leave the national team, including the 35 years old Pirlo, the 32 years old Cassano, the 32 years old Dossena, and the 36 years old Buffon. The current national team had been re-established and they had nothing to do with the Italian team that won the World Cup in Germany a decade ago.

But Italian football was so strange that every time the world looked down on them, they could always achieve impressive results. For example, they were the champions in the 1982 World Cup and 2006 World Cup.

Now they had also made it all the way to the final, hoping to win the European Championship. As a four-time World Cup champion team, they had only won once in the highest level of competition on the continent, which was really not in line with their status as the world’s powerful team. The Italians wanted to put their name on the UEFA European Championship for the second time. Although people were generally not optimistic about them before the game, they still made it to the final. Then, at this time, the voices in Italy were naturally unanimous in believing that the blue warriors led by Lippi could beat England and ascend back to the top of Europe.

In order to cheer the team on and boost themselves up, the Italian media took out the game that happened six years ago as an example. In the World Cup in South Africa six years ago, the England team, led by Capello, played well and made it to the semifinals only to encounter Lippi’s Italian team. Lippi had the last laugh in the showdown between the two Italian managers. The Italian media now rehashed this matter to say, “Look, we have a psychological advantage over England.”

Such a statement was far-fetched, but today’s Italians just liked to listen to it.

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An atmosphere of optimism was deliberately created within Italy. But Lippi did not think that there was much to be optimistic about the game. As a manager who had experience a lot of games, he had encountered all kinds of opponents and led teams to play countless games without repeat. He had a wealth of experience and he was aware that this England team was very difficult to deal with.

Although at the start of the UEFA European Championship, Twain’s team gave a bad impression to people and at one point even came close to not being able to advance out of the group stage. But since the start of the game against Germany, their performance had been getting better and better. They defeated Germany by 2:1, ended Sweden’s undefeated 48-year run against them with a 2:0 score, crushed the hot favorite, French team 4:0, and eliminated the host team, Spain with 3:1. Such results were impressive enough. One must know that they basically eliminated the best teams in Europe on their way to the title. Italy, on the other hand, had a much easier path to being promoted.

The good news now was that England fought fiercely with all the top teams all the way and so their physical exertion must have been greater than Italy’s and the England players must be mentally exhausted. Even though Italy had one less day of rest than England, they played so easily in the semifinals that it could be described as “an effortless victory.”

Lippi’s tactics were simple, and not hard to guess. He would emphasize on the defense before he underscored the offense. No matter what happened, the defense was the most important. The England team showed its strong attacking prowess in the UEFA European Championship. The only exception being that they did not score a goal in the game against Wales. It was this game that Lippi needed to focus his research on. Those games in which the teams had lost to England were of little value. Only Wales’ victory over England was worth studying. From there he could find the code to beat England.

Lippi had already thoroughly studied the game. Wales clung fast to defense and counterattack. They deliberately employed a weak approach, and then waited for England to be arrogant and underestimate the opponent. After which, they made use of their ability with place kicks to determine victory with a goal. The tactics were simple, but they worked very effectively. The Wales manager, Toshack seized on the characteristic that England was in high spirits and proud from its recent victory over Portugal to develop the set of tactics, which ultimately paid off. Their only victory at this UEFA European Championship put them in the top 16.

Wales did not continue to use the defend to the last tactics in the game against Italy. Perhaps because they had already achieved their pre-match target, so they let their guard down in the game. Perhaps Toshack wanted to show the other side of the team, so they attacked aggressively the moment the game started and wanted to breach the Italian goal. Unfortunately, they were met with a piece of iron – even when they were up against a weak team like Wales, Lippi insisted on playing defensive counterattack. The copper-walled like defense made Wales’ offensive go home with its tail between its legs and exposed holes in their rear defensive line, in which Italy seized hold of these gaps to counterattack and defeated Wales with ease.

Now, come to think of it, Lippi might have wanted Wales to employ the same tactics as they had used against England in the game, so that he had a chance to test how much the team could accomplish in the face of such diehard defense tactic.

He was currently uncertain as to what tactics Twain would use against Italy.

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“Lippi will definitely persist with the defensive counterattack tactic.” Twain said in a meeting with the coaching staff. “He has led the team to play a lot of games. Whenever he wanted to hold a massive offensive campaign, it always end badly. Personally, I think there’s a game that is a good reference for us. It is not known how many people still remember the game – it was a group stage game during the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup when Brazil crushed Italy by 3:0.”

Once he said so, several knowledgeable coaches immediately showed a dawning look of realization. Everyone still remembered the game.

“Lippi had already deployed the strongest lineup he could have sent for that game. He wanted to attack Brazil because he needed to score goals and a victory to advance from the group stage. The 4-3-3 was Italy’s formation at the time, with Pirlo and Montolivo as the double cores. There was also De Rossi. But the performance from such a lineup was a tragic sight. Because Pirlo was old and Montolivo lacked speed and was not good at defending. While only De Rossi was in the midfield to deal with Brazil’s Kaka, Robinho, Maicon, Melo and the others. Not only did Italy lose the game in terms of the score, but it could not gain the upper hand at all on the pitch. The game caused a lot of shock to Lippi and left him completely disillusioned. From then on he went back to the old way of defensive counterattack…” Twain spoke with confidence, as if the game had not happened seven years ago, but only yesterday.

“In this final, we can’t expect Lippi to make the same mistakes as he did then. I think Lippi will continue to stick to the defensive counterattack tactics. They have players in the front field who can solve problems on their own. As long as they can hold on to the tie, they are likely to win. We have two options: first, try to score goals as quickly as possible in the game and force Italy to press out and contend with us, so that we have more chances.” He put up two fingers and continued, “Second, we also retract to mainly play defense and avoid conceding the goal first. Then we drag the game till the penalty shootout and bet on our luck.”

“Which one do you choose?” He asked.

The coaches were in deep thought one by one.

Generally speaking, the finals in international tournaments were usually boring, because most people chose to play conservatively and making sure that their side did not concede the goal before they would consider scoring a goal. If both teams’ manager thought so, then the final game must be boring without exception.

The oldest manager, the 66-year-old Tony Carr, was the first to express his opinion. He said, “I think it’s better to be more cautious, Tony. Defense should come first, and we have to make sure it’s not us who concede the goal first before we can consider beating Italy. In a final like this, the side that concedes the goal first will become reactive, especially when we’re up against a team that’s widely known for its solid defense…”

Twain did not respond. He did not nod in agreement or shake his head to reject. He just looked at the others, hoping to hear more of their opinions.

“I don’t agree with you, old Carr.” Steve Wigley disagreed, “I think we should be more active. Lippi definitely won’t think we’d take the initiative to be aggressive in the finals. He’d think we would be like what you thought, and I think that’s exactly what we can take advantage of. Take the initiative to attack and fight to score goals first. We have the strength to do so.” He even clenched his fist.

When he heard someone object to his suggestion, Carr did not immediately retort. He just smiled and shook his head.

“I think it’s better to be conservative. It’s the final. We can’t afford to make mistakes, at least we can’t make mistakes first…” Another coach, Steve Gatting spoke, “The final game is not about which team is better than which, but which team makes less mistakes. Even if we have to drag it till the penalty shootout, we have a chance to win. We just need to strengthen our penalty shootout training these days.”

The votes were now two to one, with the conservative coaches temporarily gaining the upper hand.

Twain turned his attention to Des Walker. As an assistant manager, he also had to add his two cents’ worth.

“I’m in favor of Wigley’s suggestion.” Walker’s opinion was simple.

Now everyone looked at Twain again. The votes were two for two for the conservative and offensive coaches. It was a tie.

Twain did not give an immediate answer. Apparently, he was still mulling it over. The conservative coaches had their reasons, and it was persuasive. Such finals were won by teams that made fewer or no mistakes at all. Conservative defense was the way to go if they did not want to make mistakes.

According to reason, Twain was the kind of person who would do whatever it took to win and was not afraid to sacrifice the play. He was also not afraid to take on the blackened name of playing passive football. As long as he could lift the championship trophy, he could trample on all those people who had once scolded him in the mud.

But today, Twain did not really want to do that. Or rather, he did not intend to do so.

“Every one of you spoke with a lot of reason, which makes it really difficult for me…” He deliberately gave a look of being in a tight spot.

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George Wood, who had just showered, received a call from Gareth Bale.

“Guess where I am! George!” As soon as he got on the phone, he heard Bale’s energetic voice.

“At home.” Wood did not bother to play this childish game with Bale, so he just named a place.

“Tsk, you’re so boring! I’m in the Maldives! Palm trees and white sandy beaches, ten million times better than the British weather! I love it here! It’s good to be knocked out early…” Bale said in exaggeration.

Mitchell pushed open the door to enter and saw Wood on the phone, so he casually asked, “Is that your mother?”

Wood shook his head and said, “Just a noisy little monkey.”

Mitchell laughed for he knew who had called.

“Hey, George!” Bale heard Wood’s words and was not happy. He said, “I was kind enough to call you. How can you treat me like this?”

“What’s the matter?” Wood ignored his antics and asked directly.

“Congratulations on getting to the final.” Bale said sourly. Although he had said earlier that it was nice to be eliminated early, in fact he would rather stay in Spain at this time.

“Thank you.”

“I heard that your opponent is Italy, and I have something to tell you. Maybe it might be of some help to you.”

Wood raised his eyebrows in response, “Oh?”

“What do you mean by ‘oh’!” Bale knew Wood was interested. He had finally gotten a handle on Wood.

All right, thank you. Please tell me.”

Bale cleared his throat and fully enjoyed the respect Wood gave him before continuing, “If you can say to the boss, tell him it’s best to take a more conservative defensive counterattack approach against Italy…”

“Italy will do the same as well.”

“I know! But this is the final, not a game in the group stage. There is no such thing as a draw. Even if everyone defends, the outcome will still be determined! A penalty shootout! I think that’s the best way to decide where the championship trophy should belong to. When we played against Italy, being in the top 16 teams had gone to our heads a little. Everyone from the coaches to ourselves, thought we could challenge Italy. So, we tried to take the initiative to attack. And as a result? We were utterly defeated. Lippi was cunning. He waited for someone else to attack him, and then he waited for the opportunity to fight back. He’s really similar to the boss on this. So, I suggest that the boss does the same. It doesn’t matter if the game is awful to watch and never mind if the game is boring. You’re not playing for the television audience. This method gives you a very high chance of winning the title. I believe England’s defense is not a problem with you there. To be honest, if we had continued to use the tactics that were used against you in that game, maybe we could have dragged them into overtime or even a penalty shootout. It’s just a pity…”

Bale was silent for a moment. Obviously he was still brooding over being knocked out and eliminated from the competition.

“If we had defeated Italy, maybe it would have been us you meet in the final! At that time, we could have a psychological advantage dealing with you! Ha ha!” For a moment, his voice was full of energy again.

Soon after, Bale told Wood about the players in the Italian team who needed special attention and reminded him to be extra careful of those players in the game. All of these were first-hand information Bale had acquired after the match against Italy. He certainly knew that the boss was used to thoroughly studying his opponents, but the information collected from the player’s point of view should have something new. Even if it was only a little bit, he wanted to help the boss.

Finally, he was about to hang up after he bragged about the Maldives scenery and weather.

“George.” He suddenly called out again.

“Yes?” Wood, who was going to put down his phone, stopped.

“You must win! Be sure to win the championship title!”

“Of course. We’re not here to compete for the first runner-up spot.”

“He he, that’s good, that’s good…” Bale snickered and said, “Then I can say at that time –’Look, we’re the only team that the European Championship winner had not defeated!”

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It was raining heavily outside the windows and the winds were raging in the distance sea. The huge waves rolled up and hit the dam on the shores. The poor palm trees were bowed down in the ugly weather, seemingly in danger of breaking their trunks at any time. The shore was covered with white mist of water, and nothing could be seen in the distance.

The loud roar could not be stopped even with the closed windows and steadily drilled into the dim room.

The Maldives rarely had such weather, but it did not mean it would never have it. May to November in the Maldives was the rainy season. The heavy rainfall brought on by the southwest monsoon seemed to confront the dry weather brought by the northeast monsoon. It was often blustery with rapid waves and strong gales. At this time, the tourist could only hide in the hotel room and sigh in despair.

The hapless Gareth Bale dropped his phone and laid in bed, bore stiff looking at the ceiling. He had the time to call Wood since his girlfriend was taking a bath.

“Damn it! It’s not easy to come to the Maldives, but yet we encounter this kind of f**king weather … Ah, it’s still better to be in Spain…”