Volume 1: Playing football with me will break your legs Chapter 8: The old, the weak, the sick and the disabled all join the battle
The coaching staff and main players have already been thinking about the first round of the English League Cup on August 12, but for Li Polo and other rotation players, the league opener on August 9 is what they should focus on.
August 9, 2014, 9 p.m.
Kings Meadow Stadium, Wimbledon, southwest of London.
As a low-level team, the new Wimbledon's home stadium has only 4,722 seats, which is less than one-tenth of the Premier League giants such as Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City.
To be frank, the hardware facilities of most high school and university playgrounds can beat this "bird's nest"!
The "Crazy Gang" who struggle to avoid relegation every season simply do not have the funds to expand the stands and seats, otherwise their coaches and players will run out of money in minutes!
Although New Wimbledon performed very poorly last season, ranking only 16th out of 24 teams and only four points away from the relegation zone, the opening match still attracted more than 3,000 die-hard fans thanks to the mass base of the "Crazy Gang".
But those fans soon felt some disappointment.
Because... among the team's starting 11, they did not see the "most muscular player in British football" Akinfenwa, who carried huge expectations, nor did they see familiar faces such as Fuller, Smith, and Shea. The lineup arranged by head coach Adlay was composed of eleven old, weak, sick and disabled players!
The forward line consisted of three veterans: Andy Frampton (1979), David Connolly (1977), and Matthew Dubis (1984). It was hard to expect them, with an average age of 33, to threaten the opponent's goal.
The age structure of the midfield is slightly more optimistic: Danny Boorman, born in 1979, Sean Rigg, born in 1988, and Frank Sutherland, born in 1993, covering all three generations.
But the defense was terrible: the captain Mark Phillips, born in 1982, was in his prime, and the remaining three were Jack Goodman and Adedeji Oslaja, born in 1993, Lee Polo, born in 1994, and Ryan Sweeney, born in 1997. The last central defender was not even 17 years old!
Looking at those little guys whose hair hasn't even grown out yet, how could more than 3,000 spectators not understand the coaching team's intentions?
Li Polo, who was warming up, was a little worried.
After all, it was the first official game of the new season. Seeing the team they supported being so perfunctory, would the audience who had spent money roar in anger?
"RNM, return the money!"
…
"drop!"
With the referee's whistle, the first round of the 2014-15 English Football League Two officially began.
New Wimbledon's opponent Shrewsbury Town was relegated to the English League One last season with the last place in the league, but as the saying goes, "a lean camel is bigger than a horse", without large-scale sales, they are still one of the teams with the most hope of promotion this season. As for New Wimbledon, even the most loyal fans are not optimistic about their progress.
The home team wanted to conserve their strength to face their arch-rivals, but the away team had no concerns. The game soon turned into a one-sided attack and defense drill. All the players of New Wimbledon retreated, while Shrewsbury pressed forward without hesitation, using a violent offensive force to let the home team fans feel firsthand that the gap between the third and fourth levels is as different as the football level between England and China!
However, even if the England national team fielded all its main players, it would be impossible to break through the Chinese rotation defense in a matter of minutes - especially when the Chinese team was defending with all their might.
Therefore, it was not surprising that after 25 minutes of the game, the score was still 0:0.
Assistant coach Cox, who was sitting in the coaching booth, muttered:
"We seem to have underestimated the fighting spirit of these guys."
Head coach Adre nodded slightly to show his agreement:
"Shrewsbury wanted to win too much. Their attack was too simple and direct. It was easy for them to see through it and then attack..."
Before he finished speaking, Shrewsbury launched an attack. Their right midfielder Ashley Vincent accelerated, shook off Li Polo, and kicked a cross!
Li Polo turned around and looked at the goal, and saw the second goalkeeper Ross Woerner leaving the goal and knocking the football away with one punch!
The ball didn't fly too far, and the one who got the ball was veteran midfielder Brightman. He quickly observed the situation around him, turned around and chose a long pass!
At the forefront is the new Wimbledon striker Matthew Dubis!
Shrewsbury attacked with all their might, and their backfield is now smooth sailing!
Dubis was speeding across the prairie. He only needed to increase his speed to the extreme to shake off Shrewsbury's entire defense line!
Adley and Cox stood up at the same time.
Under their fiery gaze, the 30-year-old Dubis broke into the penalty area of Shrewsbury!
One-on-one single blade!
The visiting team's goalkeeper Jason Leutweiler gritted his teeth and chose to leave the goal to block the shot, but the experienced Dubis seized the opportunity and easily completed a lob shot!
1:0!
The home team took the lead after defending for 26 minutes!
…
"Ma~~~Xiu!!!"
The King's Meadow suddenly became boiling with excitement. The three thousand fans who originally had no hope for this game suddenly burst into violent cheers. They shouted Dubis' name, clapped loudly, hugged fiercely, and celebrated wildly.
After completing the fatal blow, Dubis jumped directly onto the home team's stand and accepted the worship of three thousand fans like a hero.
As a rotation striker for Crawley in English League One last season, he played 18 league games and scored 8 goals, which was quite efficient. He originally thought that he could secure his position as the main striker by "condescending" to join the English League Two team, but with the joining of Akinfenwa and Aziz, he was obviously not the first choice of the coaching staff.
Dubis was very satisfied with his performance just now, and even felt proud as if he had been slapped in the face!
Coach, won't you guys reconsider this?!
…
Although Adre was also very excited, one goal was not enough to make him change his positioning of the players.
Besides…his excitement and happiness didn’t last long.
Just 11 minutes later, Shrewsbury, knowing their mistakes and showing courage, equalized the score, and both teams returned to the same starting line.
It was a central attack. Three visiting team players used fast and brutal passing and cutting to break through the makeshift defense combination of Phillips and Goodman within five seconds. Their tall center forward James Collins sent the ball into the home team's goal.
Unlike the forward line, the defense line requires more stability and tacit understanding, and the most taboo is to change the formation at will. This time the goal lost perfectly illustrates this point.
Adre frowned, but was not too disappointed. He just stood on the sidelines and signaled the players to continue to execute the tactics he had pre-planned.
“Ding~~”
Thanks to the efforts of the whole team, New Wimbledon successfully brought the score of 1:1 into the halftime break.
The players who tried their best were all sweating profusely. Li Polo was also panting as he slowly walked towards the locker room with his teammates.
The home team goes to the left and the away team goes to the right.
The stadium was so dilapidated that the locker room could not be luxurious. Most of the players could only wipe their sweat with a towel and gather around the coach to listen to his analysis.
In the away dressing room, Shrewsbury manager Mickey Mellon was criticizing his players:
"Our goal this season is to return to the English League One. If we can't even beat Wimbledon, how can we talk about promotion?! Look at their defense, it's just a temporary lineup, especially the number 1 and number 22, who don't even have experience in official games. Don't tell me you will lose to them!"
The head coach had just taken office in the new season, and his criticism was merciless. The old players were somewhat embarrassed and stood up to express their opinions:
"Coach, don't worry, we will do our best to win!"
After the atmosphere was stirred up, the next task was handed over to assistant coach Mike Jackson (real name), who began to analyze the performance :
"There's no need for our defense to push too high. The offensive from the midfield and frontcourt is enough to destroy the opponent. Several of their players have good air defense capabilities, so we need to use more ground passes to break through them..."
While the visiting team was arranging their tactics, Adre was also not idle. He drew a circle on the tactical board, completely surrounding his own penalty area:
"The tactics for the second half are very simple, defend the penalty area!"
