Chapter 475 474 The Culprit
The third game of the World Cup quarterfinals.
Su Dong specially brought his parents and Wang Chuqing to the Schalke Stadium to cheer for Ronnie.
When he saw the starting lineups of the two teams, he already had a rough idea in his mind.
"England is in trouble in this game!" Su Dong said with a smile.
He was born in the Portuguese Super League. He has close friends and buddies in the Portuguese team, so of course he supports Portugal.
"How could that be? England is obviously in a stronger position. Even though Portugal has a superstar like Figo, how old is he already? The only one who can be counted among the best in Portugal right now is your best friend." Father Su Wenjie disagreed.
Mother Yang Xiuyu and Wang Chuqing looked at each other helplessly, then smiled bitterly and shook their heads.
During this period of time, the father and son have competed in almost every game.
Argue about who will win before the game, argue about who performed better during the game, and argue about the result after the game.
Speaking of professionalism, Su Dong is definitely more professional, as he plays football. However, professionalism is of no use in front of his father. Especially under his father's unreasonable strategies, Su Dong often surrenders.
"Let me tell you, there is definitely something wrong with Eriksson's starting lineup . What is he trying to do by letting Rooney start? Is he bullying Rooney because he won't die quickly enough? Or does he think Carvalho is no longer good enough?"
Su Wenji also made sense, "Isn't it obvious? England just wants to play more ground balls, so put Rooney on."
"Are you kidding me? Portugal is a typical European Latin school. In terms of technology and awareness, England can't catch up with Portugal no matter how hard they try. Do you believe it?"
"So if you say so, England won't play?"
"England should play to their strengths and avoid their weaknesses. For example, with Carvalho and Mela's height, England should play high balls. Long passes are their advantage and they should destroy Portugal's defense. That's the right thing to do. Don't forget, England has Beckham."
When it comes to crossing from the wing, Beckham is the best in history. Su Dong just can't understand why they just leave such a treasure alone and don't make good use of it?
"Haha." Su Wenji was not convinced, "Do you think Portugal didn't guard against this?"
Just as the two were arguing, their mother Yang Xiuyu interrupted them.
"Okay, okay, the game has started, just focus on watching the game."
As soon as she spoke, Su Dong and his father fell silent immediately.
The world is big, but mother is the biggest in the family.
…
The course of the game confirmed Su Dong's judgment.
After the opening, England lost to Portugal in terms of passing and controlling the ball. Even in the first ten to twenty minutes of the game, England was suppressed by Portugal and had almost no way out.
However, Portugal also performed poorly.
Cristiano Ronaldo was assigned to the left and Figo to the right. They attacked fiercely and passed the ball a lot from the wing, but Pauleta in the middle was not strong enough. Under the control of two strong men, Terry and Ferdinand, Pauleta had no way out.
In addition, in the midfield, after Deco was suspended, the entire midfield organization had problems. Portugal's attack seemed to be a lot of noise but little results, and they didn't have a good way to deal with England.
Ronnie was very active from the start, and his battle with Gary Neville was the highlight of the game.
On the other hand, in England, Rooney was not very effective as a lone striker, and there was no good synergy between Gerrard and Lampard in the midfield.
Many people outside think that the problem with England's two D'Antoni players is that they are incompatible because they are the core midfielders of their respective teams. But Su Dong doesn't think so. As a player, he knows very well that at the level of Lampard and Gerrard, they both have very high aspirations for the national team. Even if there are some conflicts in their roles on the field, it will not be to this extent.
It is more because they want to accommodate each other too much, which leads to their inability to play football smoothly and freely.
Football games are ever-changing, and players often have to rely on their instinctive reactions to deal with the situation. Thinking too much is not a good idea.
Therefore, the problem of Shuangde is really a misunderstanding by the outside world.
As for Rooney, he plays as a lone striker and is diligent enough, but the effect will not be very good.
…
The first half ended with the score at 0-0, and the trend of the game remained unchanged after the second half.
England still hopes to advance the ball through continuous passing, but unfortunately, they are not Barcelona.
The most concentrated manifestation is in Rooney.
After the start of the second half, he started to make more unnecessary mistakes, which was obviously not a good sign.
As a forward, Su Dong knew very well that this was because he could not gain any advantage in front of Carvalho. His sharpness was worn away little by little by his opponent, and his technical mistakes increased. He had the will but not the power.
"Eriksen really should find a partner for Rooney." Su Dong sighed.
Not long after he finished speaking, he saw England make a long pass from the backcourt to Rooney in front of him.
Rooney stopped the ball under Carvalho's defense, but got into a scramble with Carvalho and Petit.
The England striker was very fierce and fought hard. He refused to fall to the ground and tried to protect the ball. He also made Carvalho lose his balance in the fight. But at this moment, Rooney stepped on Carvalho's crotch area.
This made the Portuguese center back scream and cover his crotch in pain with a very painful expression.
The referee blew the whistle on the spot.
"I'm afraid he'll get a red card!" Su Dong judged.
Rooney and his teammate Petit, who were closest to the referee, rushed over and put pressure on the referee, but were pushed away by Rooney.
All this happened right under the nose of the referee, and other players from both teams immediately intervened.
"This is really a red card!" Su Dong sighed.
As expected, the referee directly awarded a red card and sent Rooney off the field.
Scolari reacted very quickly and immediately replaced the underperforming Pauleta with Simao and let Ronnie play as striker.
This substitution allowed Ronnie to suddenly shoot from the right side of the penalty area in the 76th minute, penetrating the England goal and scoring the winning goal for Portugal.
This goal also lasted until the end of the game.
Portugal beat England 1-0.
…
After the game, Rooney's red card sparked heated debate.
England legend Shearer said while commenting on the game, "I think Rooney should find a stick and hit Cristiano Ronaldo when he returns to Manchester United's training ground!"
Subsequently, the whole incident was quickly hyped up by the British media, spread around the world, and caused controversy.
In a very short period of time, Ronnie became a complete outcast.
Many people think that Rooney should not protest to the referee because Rooney is his teammate at Manchester United.
The British media described him as a "cunning Portuguese", believing that he deceived the referee and caused Rooney to be sent off with a red card.
In an interview with the media, Ronnie said that he did not ask the referee for a red card, but emphasized that it was a foul and a card should be given. "But I didn't expect that he would give a red card directly. This was not my original intention."
But the British media clearly didn't buy it.
Before the World Cup, the national team, which was highly expected by countless English people, lost the World Cup, especially when the hero Rooney was sent off with a red card. This was enough to make the British media collectively celebrate.
It’s just like the hype about Beckham’s red card incident in 1998.
The difference is that eight years ago the blame was borne by Beckham, but eight years later, they found another scapegoat.
…
Su Dong received the news in Frankfurt and he immediately called Ronnie.
The Portuguese on the other end of the phone was not interested and just said that he was tricked by the unscrupulous British media.
The Sun even quickly broke the news that Rooney angrily stated in the locker room after the game that he wanted to tear Cristiano Ronaldo in half.
This undoubtedly further confirms the speculation of the outside world.
The Portuguese winger is the culprit for Rooney's red card!
Almost overnight, the British media let the whole world witness their powerful public opinion offensive.
After Su Dong hung up the phone, he took the initiative to call a familiar French media reporter and expressed his willingness to be interviewed and hope to speak out on this incident.
Soon, the next day, Su Dong’s interview appeared on the pages of the French team newspaper.
In the interview, Su Dong said that he was watching the game at the scene, and the referee decided to give a red card at the time, which had nothing to do with Rooney's protest, "because it was a very unnecessary and bad foul. Rooney stepped on Carvalho's crotch."
Su Dong believes that Rooney is just putting pressure on the referee. It is up to the referee to decide whether to give a card or not. Even if he does put pressure on the referee, it is understandable because he is representing Portugal in the World Cup and Rooney is his opponent, not his teammate.
In the interview, as the most successful striker in the world, Su Dong did not approve of Rooney's performance in the game. He said that Rooney did not play to his strength and there were many unnecessary technical mistakes in the game. There were many mistakes in the second half, which accumulated layer by layer and eventually broke out into a stampede.
"I think the main culprit is Eriksson, I don't think it's Rooney or anyone else."
"From the perspective of the lineup, Eriksson did not find a tactic that effectively brought out England's strengths. If Portugal's attacking threat was not strong enough and if Deco was not absent, England would definitely have lost even more miserably."
Su Dong said that it is unfair to put all the blame on a red card or Ronnie just because England performed poorly and lost the game.
…
As the most influential superstar in the world, Su Dong's interview still carries a lot of weight.
In particular, his analysis of Rooney's performance and his denial of Eriksen's deployment were recognized by many professionals. They believed that it was Eriksen's wrong tactics that caused Rooney to play anxiously on the court, and finally made multiple mistakes in the second half, which led to his loss of control.
Su Dong's remarks greatly diluted the accusations imposed on Ronnie by the media, but at the same time it also involved himself, especially since he had played against many Premier League teams before, and many British fans had a love-hate relationship with him.
Now, he has taken the initiative to take the blame for Ronnie, so public opinion will naturally not be kind to him.
Su Dong was mentally prepared for this.
(End of this chapter)
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