The Godfather of Football

In fact, many things in football tactics are very simple.

Just like attacking, all attacks are actually carried out around one purpose, that is, time difference.

The reason why a player can score a goal is that he can shoot before the defensive player arrives, so that the ball can cross the goal line before the goalkeeper pounces on it. Passing and running are also to create a time difference, so that a player in a certain area is unguarded at a certain time.

Then, sometimes things seem very, very simple, just like Tottenham Hotspur's attack this time.

Ribery and Cavani both gathered in the middle arc area, Fabregas rushed forward to further increase the pressure on Barcelona's defense, and Marcelo on the left took the ball forward and was defended by Barcelona just after crossing the center line. The Brazilian left back passed the ball back to his own half and handed it to Beckham.

Beckham has been in good form recently. He wanted to show his strength and win Capello's affirmation, so that he could be included in the England national team's list for the South Africa World Cup. In everyone's opinion, Beckham is also an indispensable player for the current England national team, because his long passes and free kicks are England's most powerful offensive weapons.

Facing Marcelo's return pass, Beckham stopped the ball in front of him with his right foot. Because there were no defensive players around him, he deliberately stopped a little forward, caught up one step, and swung his right foot quickly, kicking a curved ball.

This pass was not high, but the arc was large and the speed was very fast. From the left side of the center line arc area, one foot crossed a large area of ​​the court and landed on the right side of Barcelona's penalty area.

At this time, Messi, who had been cruising on the right, rushed forward quickly. When the ball landed and bounced, Messi had already caught up to the right side of the ball, turned to the left, and stopped the ball to the left with his chest, and directly stopped it in Barcelona's penalty area.

At this time, Abidal and Busquets also chased back to the penalty area. The former immediately got close to Messi, while the latter deliberately lagged behind to ensure that he could assist in defense at the first time.

After Messi entered the penalty area, facing Abidal, he stared at the French left back with his eyes, and his body shape suddenly changed. His whole short body leaned to his right side, looking like he was going to cross the ball.

As Ye Qiu has always said, sometimes the simplest things on the football field are the most effective.

Just like Messi's fake move, it is very simple and everyone can do it, but different people, at different times and in different places, can achieve two completely different effects. The key lies in one word, time difference!

After Messi rushed into the penalty area, Abidal quickly got close to him. At this time, he did not have enough time to make a rational judgment. Therefore, when he saw Messi's fake move to go to the bottom, he did not have enough time to distinguish whether it was true or false. As a defender, the only thing he could do was to respond to Messi's movements.

This is also a very important concept in the defense concept, which is to prevent the offensive players from launching attacks from the front to the maximum extent, because once the frontal attack on the defense, the offensive players have a lot of choices, and the defensive players are absolutely passive.

Abidal moved with Messi, but the Argentine did not control the ball when he leaned to the right. Instead, after leaning to the right, his center of gravity changed from the original right leaning to the left leaning. He gently pushed the ball forward with his left foot and passed the deceived Abidal.

At this time, whether it was Abidal who reacted, Busquets who chased back, or Mascherano in the small penalty area, they all rushed over to double-team Messi.

Three against one, Messi swung his left foot quickly after passing Abidal, and shot an instep arc shot. The whole shooting action was very fast and well connected. After he shot, Busquets' block came to Messi, and the ball passed Mascherano with a strong rotation. Even though Valdés reacted immediately and flew to save the ball, the ball still went into the upper left corner of the goal, 1:0!

It was very simple, and there was not even too much coordination. It was just Beckham's long pass transfer. Messi stopped the ball and relied on his personal ability to get rid of the defense, and then kicked the ball. The whole process happened in the blink of an eye, and the ball went in!

Everyone in the White Hart Lane Stadium was shocked by Messi's goal in an instant. After two or three seconds of silence, there was a deafening cheer. All the fans in the stadium shouted Messi in unison. All the Tottenham Hotspur players rushed to Messi, who had already rushed to the sidelines to celebrate, and surrounded him.

1:0, Tottenham Hotspur temporarily took the lead!

Everyone was obviously shocked by this sudden goal, because it came too suddenly and was too surprising. Even before Messi scored, no one was prepared for the goal, because in the previous half an hour, Barcelona had an absolute advantage in ball possession, and their pass success rate was also very high. Although Tottenham Hotspur had more shots, they did not create any real threatening opportunities.

But who would have thought that the first threatening shot would actually directly form a goal!

While everyone at Tottenham Hotspur was celebrating, Barcelona was demoralized by the sudden goal. The players became visibly frustrated on the court because they found out that they had failed to do so before. For more than an hour, their hard work to maintain possession of the ball failed to bring them any help.

As Ye Qiu said before, ball possession is actually a double-edged sword. It has good and bad qualities at the tactical level, and the same is true psychologically for players. The good side is that when you have the ball, With a high ball possession rate and the ability to create threats at all times, even when scoring goals, players will be more mentally confident. However, if it is the other way around, a high ball possession rate will be a kind of pressure.

To give the simplest example, it’s like a person whose monthly salary usually exceeds 10,000 yuan, but suddenly one month, his salary is less than half of the usual salary. What do you think he will do? What kind of psychological changes?

Ye Qiu knew how to take advantage of the situation on the court. After seeing Messi score, he immediately waved his hand to signal the players to press forward and launch a counterattack against Barcelona.

This has two purposes. The first is to maintain the current lead. It is best to use the morale gained after taking the lead to win another victory. However, if one cannot win another victory, the second purpose can also be achieved, that is Take this advantage and morale to the start of the second half.

In fact, although Tottenham Hotspur fired three more threatening shots in the last ten minutes, they still failed to break Barcelona's goal, but they succeeded in completely suppressing Barcelona in the last ten minutes.

So much so that when Sacchi commented at the end of the first half, he believed that Guardiola lost to Ye Qiu in the head coaching competition.

"Ye Qiu has always been the kind of head coach who is very good at building momentum. This is the case with Ferguson and Benitez. They are the kind of head coaches who are very good at using the situation on the court to create advantages for themselves, and Mourinho is Rinho is different. They belong to the type of meticulous preparation. Through careful preparation before the game, they practice and instill in the players all situations that may happen in the game to achieve the effect of contingency during the game. "

"Guardiola and Wenger are a bit academic. Of course, strictly speaking, Ye Qiu is also a bit academic, but not as strong as Guardiola and Wenger, and such academics are often good at tactics. The design at the framework level is relatively weak in terms of competition response.”

When he said this, Sacchi also sighed, "In fact, in the first half hour or so, Tottenham Hotspur played a diagonal attack, that is, through long passes from the backcourt, they directly found both sides of Barcelona's penalty area. , This kind of offensive routine with Ribery and Messi has appeared several times, but Guardiola obviously did not pay enough attention."

"Of course, you can say that Tottenham Hotspur did not pose a threat in the first few attempts, but the problem is that as a head coach, you should have the ability to predict when danger is coming and respond in advance. , I think Ye Qiu has always done a good job in this aspect, while Guardiola is relatively weak in this aspect.”

"Another sharp contrast is that in the last ten minutes, Tottenham Hotspur scored a goal, and Ye Qiu launched a fierce attack. At this time, Guardiola obviously had no intention of adjusting the team and allowed the team to be passively beaten. His idea should be to wait until halftime to respond, but he ignored one thing, that is, conceding the ball, coupled with the passivity in the last ten minutes, will have a huge impact on the players' psychology and morale. ”

"Ye Qiu is very targeted. I personally feel that he is already planning the tactics for the second half in advance. If I guess correctly, Tottenham Hotspur will start the attack in the second half."

At this point, Sacchi laughed, shook his head and said: "A very smart change. When you thought I would attack after the opening, I didn't. I defended and counterattacked, scored a goal, and gained an advantage. When it breaks your morale and forces you to make changes, I suddenly counterattack. Even if I can't score, I will disrupt your plan."

"We can see that strategy and tactics are in Ye Qiu's body. He can play whatever he wants. Tottenham Hotspur is like his arm. He can hit however he wants and wherever he wants. Where to hit."

When Sacchi said this, the commentator chuckled. Anyway, the first half was over, and he asked: "Mr. Sacchi, do you think there is hope for Tottenham Hotspur this year? You know, They have already defended their title once!”

Sacchi heard what was said and smiled, "Putting aside other possible factors, I think Tottenham Hotspur's hope of defending the title is still very high, but I have studied Tottenham Hotspur very carefully. season, I think they need some luck.”

"Luck?" The on-site commentator was obviously confused.

"If Tottenham Hotspur knocks out Barcelona, ​​their opponents in the semi-finals are Bayern Munich and Manchester United. I think judging from the current performance, if they meet Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur's hope of entering the final is very high. , but if we meet Manchester United, I think it will be very difficult, because Ferguson's control and adjustment of Manchester United have also shown results in recent times. AC Milan suffered a double defeat by Manchester United at home and away. I think Ferguson's team In fact, the combat effectiveness may not be inferior to Tottenham Hotspur and Barcelona, ​​especially their defense!”

The central defender combination of Vidic and Ferdinand can be said to be the best central defender combination in European football at the moment, and in the past few years, they have developed a good enough tacit understanding, coupled with the midfielder this season The adjustment was very good, and the front three also performed very well. Manchester United's overall strength is very balanced, and it is indeed underestimated.

And everyone can actually clearly appreciate one thing from Sacchi's comments, that is, Sacchi has basically judged that Tottenham Hotspur will eliminate Barcelona. Is it because of Messi's behavior in the first half? A goal?

The start of the second half was very consistent with Sacchi's judgment. From the beginning, Tottenham was like a tiger going down the mountain, launching a fierce attack on Barcelona.

In normal times, Barcelona's defense would never have been easily broken by Tottenham Hotspur, but perhaps Sacchi was right. The advantage at the end of the first half was maintained until the beginning of the second half, and Tottenham Tottenham's first threatening attack in the second half penetrated Barcelona's goal, and the scorer was Ribery.

This was a corner kick caused by the cooperation between Messi and Alves on the right. Beckham took the corner kick and accurately found Zygrinski at the front point. The Ukrainian manpower pressed Pique and headed the ball. After the ferry arrived at the back point, Ribery was about eight meters away from the goal. He directly raised his left foot and volleyed through Valdez's goal, 2:0!

After scoring the goal, the entire White Hart Lane stadium was completely elated, and all the players and fans were celebrating wildly.

Strictly speaking, Tottenham Hotspur's performance in this game was not active, and the team's state was not outstanding. Both goals seemed more like the reflection and performance of the players' personal strength, but Tottenham Tottenham's defense was very impressive, especially against Van Persie.

Ye Qiu is very familiar with and understands Van Persie's technical characteristics. This is a player he single-handedly promoted and cultivated. Therefore, in this game, Tottenham Hotspur's coaching staff specially arranged a big net for Van Persie, directly knocking the Netherlands over. The man covered the center of the net, preventing him from catching or passing the ball.

After scoring the first goal in the second half, Tottenham did not slow down their offensive, but continued to launch a fierce attack on Barcelona, ​​and threatened Barcelona's goal again and again, forcing the La Liga giants to adopt a defensive strategy. .

In the 62nd minute, Guardiola took the lead in making the first substitution adjustment of the game. He replaced Alexis Sanchez, who had a poor performance in the frontcourt, with midfielder Seydu Keita. Return to the midfielder and play on the left to strengthen the defense of the midfielder, especially the defense on the left.

You know, Tottenham Hotspur has always been known to fly together on both wings. Ribery and Marcelo on the left, Messi and Alves on the right, are all very sharp offensive combinations, and Keita's appearance It can further strengthen the defense on the left and freeze the active Tottenham Hotspur's attack on the right.

After this substitution, Sacchi shook his head and made a judgment, "Guardiola has given up on this game. Although the score of 0:2 is difficult to satisfy, at least there is a glimmer of hope. Returning to No. 1 At the Campo Stadium, Barcelona still has a chance!”

"However, now Tottenham Hotspur has obviously disrupted Barcelona's plan and rhythm. Barcelona is gone and it is difficult to have a chance to counterattack. Moreover, it is far from the time to give it a try, so Guardiola The idea is to keep the current score and keep the final at Camp Nou.”

Although this strategy is a bit conservative and may even cause dissatisfaction among fans, it is not completely unreasonable. After all, if you want to counterattack now, you have to press out and continue to attack. And according to Tottenham's current advantage, they really press out to attack. , although it is possible to score a goal, the possibility of another goal being scored by Tottenham Hotspur is also very high.

Sometimes, all the head coach needs to do is weigh the pros and cons, but every head coach has his own personality and characteristics, so their standards for weighing the pros and cons are also completely different.

With Keita's appearance, everyone in Barcelona clearly felt the coach's intention. After Tottenham attacked for a while, they gradually slowed down their offensive. In the 75th minute, Ye Qiu quickly replaced Cavani with Falcao. The latter has worked very hard in this game and now it is time to come down and rest.

Then Ye Qiu replaced Messi, replaced him with Hazard, replaced Beckham, and replaced him with Phil Jones. They were all very obvious match-up substitutions, and they were also further adjusting the players. Physical fitness, especially several core players including Messi, are currently in the physical adjustment stage.

Perhaps seeing Tottenham Hotspur's substitutions, Guardiola quickly replaced Van Persie with Bojan, but this was already a substitution that occurred in the 84th minute, and after that, Barcelona also It has always been difficult to organize an effective attack.

In the end, with the whistle of Swiss referee Massimo Busacca, this focus battle that attracted much attention from the outside world finally came to an end. Tottenham Hotspur relied on Messi and Ribery Two goals, and finally defeated the visiting Barcelona 2:0 at their home court.

This victory also put Tottenham Hotspur in a favorable position to advance to the quarterfinals, but no matter who it is, they still dare not be careless, because a week later, Tottenham Hotspur must visit Camp Nou.

The battle at Camp Nou is the key battle that determines life and death!