<h4>Chapter 925: Qualified for the Next Round in Advance</h4>
<strong>Trantor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio <strong>Editor: </strong>Nyoi-Bo Studio
The new season hasmenced for half a month, and it was time for the Ennd national team to y in games once again.
However, Twain has an issue on his hands. He has troubleing up with the list of yers that he should call up for international duty.
Only three matches have been yed in the Premier League so far, but there were already quite a few yers who have picked up an injury. Wayne Rooney injured his thigh and has to rest for a week. Michael Carrick twisted his ankle and needs to rest for two weeks at the bare minimum. Bentley pulled his ligament yet again after recovering from his previous injury and would be out for at least a month. Stewart Downing strained his calf during the match against Wales on 24th August and would be unable to y for two weeks. Additionally, John Terry also picked up a red card in that same match against Wales, and has been suspended for two matches.
All the yers who picked up an injury have to be substituted. Twain has to find suitable yers to fill in their roles.
Thus, Chris Cohen received his very first call from the national team. They told him to pack his bags and make his way over to London to meet up with the national team before they set off for Macedonia.
Cohen might be a regr first team yer for Nottingham Forest when they won the Treble, but he has never been selected for the Ennd national team before since the position that he ys in is typically upied by Stewart Downing and James Milner, who are much better yers than he is. Cohen is much more average across all aspects of his game, and his only strength is that he is very eager to track back to defend.
Twain showed favoritism towards Forest once again by selecting yet another Forest yer. This time however, the criticisms directed at him were significantly lesser, because his team has been winning all the matches that they yed in so far. As long as the Ennd national team continues to win, who cares if he swapped the entire national team for Nottingham Forest?
Cohen felt ttered after receiving the call from the Football Association. He was then certain that it had not been a dream or a prank done on him by some reality show when he received a subsequent call from Twain.
“Chris. I was the one who promoted you from the reserves to the first team back then. Now, I am also going to be the one to bring you over to the national team from Forest. Honestly, I am under a lot of pressure. If you don’t perform well, I would receive a lot of k from others. I don’t care about getting scolded, but if you guys don’t perform well, it’d definitely lead to discord in the Ennd national team…”
Cohen understood what Twain was getting at. He replied, “Rest assured, boss. I will definitely not embarrass you!”
Cohen was brought into the national team as a potential recement to the injured Downing. Twain could not guarantee him the chance to y in the match, becausepetition for the position that he ys in is fierce.
Adriano Moke was envious of Cohen for being selected for the national team. He has never received a call from Twain at all so far despite bing a regr yer for Forest recently. Twain also chose to y Walcott instead of him when Bentley picked up an injury previously.
Manchester City’s Micah Richards is the yer selected to rece John Terry. Richards is a gifted yer and there are many people who wish to see him y for the national team, but Twain refused to bring him into the team because his performances have been inconsistent recently. Twain would rather anger half of the Mancunians than to take a risk with Richards.
Richards rose to fame when he was still a youth yer and he is well-known in the Premier League as well as the European footballing scene. He stood out among other yers of his same age, and as a result, he was frequently selected for the national team when Capello was in charge.
However, his experiences since young have caused him to be proud and arrogant, and that has affected his performances on the pitch as he often loses his focus when he is ying. Thus, Twain refused to pick Richards for the national team even though there were many people who wanted to see him get picked. He did not want the vice-captain of Manchester City to get too ahead of himself.
Ever since Twain took over, Richards did not even get picked once for the Ennd national team, and that has led to spection among the Manchester media outlets that there could be a possible conflict between Richards and Twain.
Twain never admitted that there was any conflict between them, and Richards would onlyin here and there about not getting picked for the national team.
Now that Terry is absent however, Richards has finally gotten his ticket into the national team for the very first time.
When there is a first, there would also usually be a second. Richards just needs to know how to make full use of the opportunity that he is given.
Michael Carrick was unable to participate in the internationalpetition due to an injury, and Tottenham Hotspur’s Fabian Delph was the reinforcement that Twain brought into the team to rece him. The yer who reced Wayne Rooney was Everton’s top striker James Vaughan, and the yer who reced Bentley was ckburn Rover’s Matt Derbyshire.
Twain then set off for Macedonia’s capital Skopje with a teamprising of all the aforementioned yers.
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Macedonia would not be able to threaten Ennd in any way despite having the home advantage. That was how the Ennd fans thought prior to the start of the match.
The Ennd yers thought the same way as well. Ennd was able to achieve nine wins and one draw in the ten qualifiers that they yed in thus far. Qualifying for the next round in advance was not an issue at all. None of the yers cared about their other opponents in the group stage anymore.
After the match against Macedonia started, it looked like Ennd was en route to their tenth win. Nothing seemed to suggest anything of the contrary.
It had only been seven minutes into the game when Walcott made his way into the penalty box and then crossed the ball into the middle. Mitchell then jumped into the air andfortably headed the ball into the back of the.
Ennd led Macedonia by 1:0.
The Ennd yers began to rx after they went into the lead early in the game. They lost their focus and began ying with their heads in the clouds.
Twain was extremely upset with what he saw. He paced about the side of the pitch and kept gesturing and yelling for his yers to continue to attack.
Macedonia performed much better than they did when they yed against Ennd previously in an away game, and they threatened Ennd’s goalpost numerous times.
Ennd was only able to score their second goal on the 72nd minute of the match. Richards headed the ball that had been sent in from the corner into the, and Ennd ended the match with a score of 2:0.
Richards was thrilled after scoring the goal. He ran in front of the cameras and yelled at the top of his lungs. He was happy that he has finally proven his worth after being treated coldly by Twain for an entire year.
Twain did notmend the team’s performance after the match ended. Instead, he mercilessly derided the yers in the locker room.
“There was a total of 16 shots in the entire match, but only three were on target!” Twain definitely had reason to be angry based on the statistics. “Should I be happy about how we are so efficient because we are able to score two goals with just three shots on target? Or should I feel regret at how you have missed nine of those shots? There were also 4 shots that had been blocked… These are your statistics for the match, gentlemen! Look at how you guys yed against a small and weak Macedonia team! Do you all think that you have what it takes to face bigger and stronger opponents?”
None of the yers dared to breathe a word. They knew that what their boss was true, and that they had put in a mediocre performance for the match. They just could not pump themselves up for the game when they know that they are up against a weak team like Macedonia.
Twain looked at the yers before him. He knew very well that his words would only fall on deaf ears whenever the team faces a very weak team. The yers all have minds of their own, and they would not listen to everything that he says. They would inevitably look down on opponents that they deem to be weak, and they would then y ording to their own judgement.
After all, they are human beings with a life. They are not puppets on a string.
“I don’t ever want to see a match like this one ever again.”
Twain said those words and left the locker room.
The yers looked at each other incredulously after Twain left. They could not understand why their boss would be so angry. They might have looked down on their opponents, but they still won the match anyway.
They did not know that what Twain valued the most was spirit and willpower. Twain did not mind if the team lost a match, but the yers must never lose the fight and determination in them.
Looking down on one’s opponents is not terrible. Having ax attitude towards any match is. If the yers continued to behave and think in such a way, it could gradually be a habit that is hard to break, and it could then end up delivering a fatal blow to the team.
Only the Forest yers understood why their boss was so upset, because those were the same exact demands that he made on the Forest yers when he was the manager.
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Ennd won against Macedonia. It was a good result, even if Twain was not very pleased with the way the match had yed out.
Ennd now has a total of 25 points and they are first in the group. Denmark was only able to end up with 20 points because they drew with fifth-ced Irnd 1:1 in thetest match. There was now a five point gap between the first ced team and the second ced team.
Ennd’s next match was against Denmark away. The winner of the match would get six points, and thus, if Ennd manages to beat Denmark, they would be able to qualify for the next round of thepetition with two games left to y.
To the Ennd press, the ticket to Spain is already firmly in the grasp of the Ennd national team, because defeating Denmark away would not be an issue at all. Ennd had yed against Denmark previously during the qualifiers, and the press was certain that neither Denmark nor any of the other teams in the group would cause any problems for Tony Twain and his team.
Denmark and Serbia might have been regarded as strong teams in the past, but now, both teams seemed weak and vulnerable against the strong and powerful Ennd.
The morous Ennd press started calling the current Ennd national team as the strongest team in the country’s history, and they bragged about how the team would dominate the whole of Europe. Neither Serbia nor Denmark would be able to stop the team in their tracks, and Tony Twain’s unbeaten record would only persist.
Twain was sick of hearingments like that.
The press being overly positive would definitely affect the team’s emotions. Look at what happened in Skopje. They were lucky that they were only up against Macedonia. What if they had been up against Denmark instead? The team known as the ‘Northern European Pirates’ would certainly not miss out on a golden opportunity to defeat Ennd.
Twain could not help but feel a twinge of nervousness over Ennd’s next match. What worried him even more was that the press’s arrogance and pride would lead to disastrous oues during the Euro Cup.
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The yers noticed that their boss was not smiling as much as he did in the past ever since the day he criticized their performance in Skopje.
He was also much more cautious during his interviews when he discussed about Denmark. He kept emphasizing that Denmark was a strong team and that he respected the team.
No one could believe that an arrogant manager like him would suddenly be so humble.
His behavior set the yers’ tongues wagging.
“The boss is behaving oddly…”
“What’s odd about that? He’s just putting on a show before us!”
“Putting on a show?”
“He doesn’t want us to underestimate our opponents.”
“But Denmark isn’t a team that we would underestimate.”
“Not everyone might think that way. After all, our team has been on a winning streak. Even I don’t think we’d have a problem winning against Denmark…”
“Yeah, that’s right! We are definitely going to qualify for the next round in advance. I don’t know what the boss is worried about…”
“They are a team that we can win againstfortably! I really can’t get myself pumped up for the game.”
“Look at you! You just underestimated our opponents!”
“Ah…”
Discussions like that urred frequently among the yers.
The day before the match, Twain gathered the entire team over for a tactical meeting at the hotel that they were staying in. However, when the meeting started, Twain did not discuss his tactics.
The first few words that came out of his mouth startled the yers.
“I wonder if we should lose to Denmark on purpose.”
Twain rubbed his chin as he said those words and he did not look like he was joking. All the yers and staff members were shocked and they stared at him with their eyes bulged and their mouths agape. They did not know why their boss would say that.
“We are definitely going to qualify for the next round anyway. It doesn’t matter if we lose a match. I don’t really care about my unbeaten record either. It’s meaningless to me. I’d rather dampen the press’s mood a little by losing the match… But, are you guys willing to do that?”
Twain stared at the yers as he asked the question.
As the captain, Wood stood up and replied to Twain, “I don’t like doing that, boss.”
“And your reason is?”
“I don’t like to lose. And I especially don’t like losing on purpose.”
Several yers concurred with Wood and they echoed his words.
“Boss, actually…” Mitchell stood up to speak as well. “I don’t think you need to worry about us being affected by the press’s words. We are not kids who don’t know anything.”
Mitchell’s words was met with approval by several yers once again.
Twain threw out his hands before him. “Do you think I’m worrying for nothing? I can already see from some of your faces that you guys are underestimating Denmark. Some of you must be thinking that Denmark is a team that we can winfortably against, right?”
A few yers scrunched up their necks and lowered their heads.
“I’d have to make some changes to the starting line-up, since all of you do not wish to lose the game…”
Thereafter, Twain included all the Nottingham Forest yers into the starting line-up.
Joe Mattock, Chris Cohen, Mitchell, Agbohor and the captain, George Wood were all named as the starting yers.
Twain then faced his team that wasprised mainly of Nottingham Forest yers.
“You all know what I want!” he bellowed.
“Victory!!”
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Denmark tried their best to put up some form of resistance against Ennd’s attacks, and that is also how they managed to score a goal.
Still, Ennd proved too strong and powerful for them. Ennd was just like a raging storm, and the Danes could not even lift their heads amidst the pouring rain.
The final score for the match was 2:1. Ennd beat Denmark away and their victory has allowed them to qualify for the next round of thepetition in advance with two games left to y.
When the referee blew on the whistle to signal the end of the match, the Ennd yers ran onto the pitch to hug their team mates who had yed for 90 minutes. They knew that they were guaranteed of a spot in the Euro Cup that would be held in Spain, and nothing was going to change that.
Twain heaved a long sigh of relief before standing to his feet. He then balled his fists and waved them in the air. His colleagues soon had him in their embrace.
The very first goal that was stated in the contract had been aplished.
From now on, all he had to think about was the Euro Cup.
Shaun Harvey, the chief executive of the Ennd Football Association, stood up to apud Twain and his team at the stands. He then smiled proudly at the person next to him before going on to brag about how he has a discerning eye.
“If I hadn’t been the one to give him that call back then, would we even be seeing these sights today?”
“They say that Tony Twain is a recalcitrant man. But, I can’t tell that at all now that he is working under Mr. Harvey.”
Twain has be rather submissive and obedient for the past year after bing the manager of the national team. There were quite a few people who believed that his change in behavior would not have been possible if not for Shaun Harvey’s charisma.
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The news of Ennd’s qualification into the next round of thepetition became a form of motivation for some of the other teams who were hoping to qualify just like them.
One of the matches that took ce the next day was between Wales and Serbia. In the end, Wales defeated Serbia 2:1 away after a grueling match. Since Denmark lost to Ennd earlier, Wales was able to move up from fourth ce to second ce in the group and they led Denmark by two points.
Wales now had a good chance of qualifying for the next round bying in at second ce in their group.
One point worth mentioning is that both of Wales’ goals in that match hade from the same person.
Gareth Bale scored two goals from free kicks, and he single-handedly sent Wales into the second ce in the group.
His goals also sent the whole of Wales into an uproar, because their football team finally has a chance to participate in an internationalpetition. Bale’s fame skyrocketed, and the entire country extolled his performances. However, none of those things mattered to Bale. The only thing that was on his mind was the promise that he made with Twain by the side of the pitch.
I have to go to Spain!