Chapter 108 Provocation (1)
The day before the game, Dave Jones and McLaren were like shrews, swearing at each other non-stop. Each of them said that his team was confident that they would definitely be the winner of tomorrow's game. Their certain expressions made the media excited.
Everything the two said was recorded word for word by the media. After the game, they will have plenty of reasons to laugh at the loser.
In recent years, Ferguson and Wenger are popular head coaches in the Premier League. Due to their success, many new Premier League coaches also like to imitate their actions. Therefore, the head coaches in the Premier League seem to have become hot-tempered and often start verbal battles before the game. Perhaps this can be regarded as progress?
But McLaren and Dave Jones failed to learn the essence of the pre-match war of words. What they said left no room for any mercy. After the game, the winner will definitely be jubilant, but the loser will inevitably become the target of media ridicule. Perhaps this is another kind of success or failure.
From this we can see that these two young head coaches still need more training if they want to reach the level of cunningness of Ferguson and Wenger in off-field details!
After attracting more media attention, this game was upgraded from an ordinary clash of mid-level Premier League teams to a battle of honor like the collision of Mars and the Earth. Historically, Middlesbrough and Wolverhampton have never had much intersection, but because of a word from Greening, the two head coaches had a fierce war of words, which made this game become the focus of attention.
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BBC TV has always been a giant in the British media industry, and today, their special correspondents also came to Middlesbrough, just to see which team will win the game and who of the two young head coaches will have the last laugh.
Paul Nix is a special commentator for the BBC Football Channel and he is responsible for commentating this game.
Fans who often follow the BBC Sports Channel know that Borrill is a pure Newcastle fan. As long as Newcastle participates in the game, his commentary will be seriously biased.
But today is the match between Wolverhampton and Middlesbrough. To Borir, these two teams are just country teams. There is no excitement in this kind of match, so he didn't hold much hope for this game.
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Today Middlesbrough lined up in a standard 442 formation, with Boateng and Zenden in the middle, Greening and Mendieta as left and right wingers, Mills, Southgate, Davis and veteran Cooper as defenders. On the forward line, Juninho got the start, he and Nemeth formed a double fork in the frontcourt, constantly threatening Wolverhampton's defense.
One has to admire McLaren's tolerance. Before the game, Greening's big mouth caused so much trouble to the team, and even made him speechless several times by the media. But today, Greening still got the starting position. It seems that on the court, he still has McLaren's trust.
Maybe Greening had promised McLaren something, or maybe McLaren was very confident in his defensive ability. Today, Greening's range of activities was no longer limited to the position of right winger. Instead, he focused on the defense on the right side, and sometimes even participated in the defense in the middle. Generally speaking, his range of activities just happened to be opposite to Wang Li. It seemed that McLaren attached great importance to Wang Li, and in order to defend him, he even weakened the offensive on the right side.
Although before the game, McLaren vowed that his team had made all preparations and would definitely get a clean victory at home, the current situation for Middlesbrough is not optimistic.
Just over ten minutes into the game, Middlesbrough's players had made more than a dozen mistakes in a row. If Miller and Harrison had not been able to really get into the game, they might have lost the ball.
"Boy, you're such a wimp! I heard that you are good at dribbling past opponents, why did you pass the ball again?" Seeing that Wang Li did not choose to break through on the right, but passed the ball to Kennedy in the middle, Greening sneered sarcastically.
From the beginning till now, Wang Li had chosen to pass the ball directly to Greening's defense. Originally, this was the right approach in the official game, but it became Greening's excuse to mock him. Before the game, McLaren had emphasized that Wolverhampton's Alan Wang had outstanding dribbling ability and should be carefully defended, but in the first ten minutes, Greening did not see Wang Li dribbling past anyone, so he thought that the boy was afraid of him, which made him a little complacent, and the expression on his face was quite a bit like a villain's success.
Hearing Greening's trash talk, Wang Li had a blank expression on his face and did not respond at all. He just shook his head and ran towards the backcourt.
After so many Premier League games, Wang Li's game experience has gradually enriched. When there is no good opportunity to break through the opponent's defense, blind dribbling and passing will only waste energy. Even if he passes Greening, he still has to pass the ball afterwards. Therefore, this is simply useless. The Premier League is a formal competition, not an exhibition match. He will not waste energy in vain just to show off.
"A coward is a coward!" Seeing Wang Li turn and leave, Greening pouted and said in a low voice.
With Wang Li's sensitive hearing, he certainly heard Greening's whisper, but he didn't say anything, just silently accumulating anger in his heart.
In the 17th minute, Miller received a pass from Kennedy in the penalty area, stopped the ball, turned around and shot hard, causing a cry of surprise at the Riverside Stadium! But at this time, Middlesbrough veteran Southgate stepped forward, fell directly to the ground, and blocked the shot with his back, which won applause from the fans.
Southgate is 34 years old this year. He was once the main defender of the England team and participated in the European Cup in 1996 and 2000 and the World Cup from 1998 to 2002. In England, Southgate has always been known for his "tenacity" and is deeply loved by the fans. Because of his spirit on the court, even though he is close to retirement, he still has the trust of McLaren.
It is rumored that Middlesbrough's chairman, Mr. Steve Gabbidon, even intends to let him coach Middlesbrough directly after his retirement. This shows that Southgate's tenacity and loyalty are very trustworthy.
After Southgate blocked the ball with his body, it flew directly into the air. Goalkeeper Schwartz rushed out, jumped up and easily caught the ball. He looked up at the situation in the frontcourt, then he threw the ball hard and the ball was passed to the feet of his own midfielder Boateng on the left side of the penalty area.
Middlesbrough strikes back!
In the frontcourt, after Boateng got the ball, he kicked it directly to Zenden in front of him. After receiving the ball, Zenden quickly took a few steps upwards. Seeing that there were players from the opposing team running over to compete for the ball, he did not stick to the ball and passed it to Greening on the left.
At this time, Wang Li stood in front of Greening. In the previous attack, he did not join in, but stood in front of the penalty area waiting for an opportunity. Seeing the ball in the hands of Middlesbrough goalkeeper, he immediately ran to the backcourt. Seeing Greening taking the ball and breaking forward, he hurried to meet him.
"Boy, do you think you can get the ball?" Greening dribbled the ball quickly from the left, and trash-talked Wang Li who was clinging to him. Although Greening's temperament was annoying, his strength was still pretty good. He kept the ball firmly on the left side, and it kept rolling along the sideline. Wang Li, who was on his right, wanted to steal the ball, but he had no chance at all.
When Greening was dribbling the ball to the baseline, Wang Li felt that his chance had come. There would definitely be a loophole when Greening stopped the ball. At that time, he could use his "Shadow Foot" to easily grab the ball.
However, Greening's action was beyond Wang Li's expectations. When the ball was about to reach the baseline, Greening did not stop the ball at all. Instead, he directly stepped out with his right foot, and with a back heel, he knocked the ball back hard. The ball spun and rolled to Boateng's feet!
"Boy, you are too young to try to snatch the ball from under my feet!" After passing the ball, Greening said with a slight tilt of his mouth and a sneer.
PS: I changed the titles of several chapters today, and Qidian banned my author account. The ban has just been lifted, and I’m very depressed. When I got to chapter 100, I couldn’t write the title anymore. I deeply apologize for the inconvenience this has caused to everyone.