Chapter 235: Air Battle Part 1

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

"Nicklas Bendtner, six feet two inches and 176 pounds. Currently playing as the main forward in Denmark"s National Under-17 football team. In Denmark, he once held the moniker of "Denmark"s Ibrahimović." In summer this year, several Premier League teams expressed an interest in him. However, it was Nottingham Forest"s Tony Twain who successfully signed him on. This was allegedly because Twain promised him more opportunities to appear on the field with the First Team. Still, except for a few warm-up matches, this is Bendtner"s first appearance in an official Nottingham match. Tony has subst.i.tuted Crouch for someone who"s more of a Center forward than Crouch is. He isn"t willing to end on a draw with Chelsea on his home ground."

After Bendtner was fielded, Nottingham Forest"s tactics became clearer and simpler: to find Bendtner, who outperformed Crouch in headers, for long pa.s.ses. Albertini also did not advance much by dribbling. Instead, he used his precise placements in long pa.s.ses to launch attacks; all of his other efforts were expended in dealing with Lampard.

※※※

Seeing a such a childish-looking boy before him, Carvalho underestimated him immediately.

You think you"re handsome because of your long hair?

Kiddo, let me tell you… you"re still an amateur!

With a long pa.s.s from Forest"s backfield, Bendtner retreated with the intention of receiving the pa.s.s but was caught off guard by Carvalho"s sudden break from his side to jump in front of him, heading the ball away.

When they landed, Carvalho glanced backward at Bendtner. Though he was expressionless, Bendtner could tell that he was being taken too lightly.

This poodle is looking down on me!

Chelsea"s offense stopped at George Wood. Drogba realized that he had met trouble. The lad whom he had defeated in the first half of the match had seemingly found a different method of defending against him. While the Spaniard was disrupting him from behind, Wood went against him from the front, blocking off the pa.s.s routes between him and his teammates.

Wood"s improvement with Albertini was apparent. Previously, Wood"s greatest weaknesses were his inability to see the big picture and his predictive reading. However, Wood was slowly beginning to develop his own sense in reading the opponents" intentions during their offense.

Duff suddenly broke free of Ribéry in the wings. He had planned to pa.s.s to Drogba but was intercepted by Wood, who had routed to the front to defend. Wood, with his successful interception, pa.s.sed the ball to Albertini, who launched another attack via a long pa.s.s.

This time, Bendtner did not retreat but stayed in front of Carvalho, boxing out the spot and waiting for the incoming ball.

Carvalho found himself blocked by his opponent and tried to s.h.i.+ft around to Bendtner"s front. But he quickly discovered the surprising robustness of the seventeen-year-old in front of him.

He could not budge the boy at all.

The ball was coming. There was no time for Carvalho to reposition himself. He could only jump behind Bendtner instead. One can imagine the results; the Portuguese midfielder, whose favorable position was taken, did not even touch the ball. He could only allow Bendtner to head it away.

Bendtner pa.s.sed the ball to Eastwood, who had been constantly roving around him. Without hesitation, the Romanian adjusted his position upon receiving the pa.s.s and immediately raised his foot to shoot at the goal.

"A long shot… And Čech! A gorgeous save!"

Czech Republic"s national goalkeeper, Čech, took a flying leap with his body outstretched, b.u.mping Eastwood"s attack out of the goal. Forest was awarded a corner ball.

"It looks like Nottingham Forest, who is ranked 13, and Chelsea who is number two in the league, are evenly matched. Taking into consideration factors such as being on their home ground and the number of players, perhaps this is reasonable. But let"s recall how a.r.s.enal "equalized" with Nottingham Forest, and how Nottingham Forest defeated Man City; from those two matches, it"s apparent that Tony Twain"s team is fully able to go head-to-head against strong teams. No, I"m not exaggerating. This Nottingham Forest is already an entirely different team from the one we"ve been familiar with these past few years. Now, at least, they have no fear when facing such strong teams."

※※※

In all sizes of bars near Stamford Bridge in London, fans of the Blues who had gathered to watch the match hurled curses at the television. "Bulls.h.i.+t! They have more players than us. If they were scared, they might as well go back to the First Division!"

※※※

Nottingham Forest"s corner ball came, not finding Piqué, but going even further back. From the crowd, Bendtner jumped up high and headed the ball towards the goal. Čech had no time to try to save the ball, but it knocked into the side of the net. The spectators" stand in City Ground again let out a huge sigh.

At that point, there was a small disturbance in front of Chelsea"s goal. After Bendtner headed the ball, there was a conflict between him and Carvalho.

Earlier, when Bendtner was heading the ball, he had pressed down on Carvalho. Carvalho felt that the Forest team had fouled in their offense, and the main referee should give Chelsea a free kick. Originally, he had wanted to appeal to the referee; but upon catching a disdainful look from Bendtner, Carvalho immediately got annoyed. He lunged and stepped in front of Bendtner with an incensed look on his face. They were practically in each other"s faces, with their noses close to touching. Bendtner made no move to back down and stared back at him. Although no one said a thing, everyone could sense the rising winds before a storm.

Their nearby teammates would naturally not allow the storm an opportunity to land; the group of them rushed forward and pulled the two apart. The whistle of the main referee blared as well. He rushed into the crowd and stood between the two players with his right hand raised, blowing bursts of shrill whistles continuously.

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Albertini pushed Bendtner out of the crowd and glared at him. "What are you doing?! Calm down!"

Although Bendtner"s face was still visibly angry, he looked at the team captain before him and seemed to shrink, muttering, "He looked down on me first…"

"Score a goal, and he"ll know how good you are!" Albertini said, smacking his fists together. He then wrapped his arm around Bendtner"s neck. "Don"t let the boss down."

Hearing this, Bendtner looked up at the technical area. The manager was staring at him.

He fell quiet for a moment, then nodded his head.

"I"ll listen to you, Captain."

Albertini cracked a smile as he lightly punched Bendtner in his strong chest. "Listen, Nick. The best way to get back at an opponent who looks down on you is to get a goal off them!"

As Albertini was encouraging Bendtner, Carvalho started to argue with the main referee.

"He was the one who pressed down on me!" Carvalho repeatedly told the referee with his somewhat broken English. Poll only shook his head and flashed a yellow card at the Portuguese man.

"Ah, Carvalho gets a yellow card! It looks like Chelsea"s players are somewhat agitated, but Poll is unmoved and stands by his judgment. It looks like a mess of a match for Chelsea today!"

When Mourinho saw the referee flash his yellow card at Carvalho but not pursue Bendtner"s part in it, he got so furious that he simply waved and turned his back on them.

What a preposterous home field!

※※※

"Bendtner is too eager to prove himself," a.s.sistant manager David Kerslake said to Tang En.

Tang En nodded in agreement. After freezing this boy, whose ambitions were sky high, for a month, he was like a lion crazed from starvation. As Tang En saw Albertini pulling Bendtner to look in his direction and pointing towards him, he immediately put on a face and stared at Bendtner. Only when the boy hung his head did he begin to laugh, murmuring lowly in Chinese, "If you want a hound to run fast, you have to keep his appet.i.te sharp!"

"Hm?" Kerslake answered, thinking that Tang En was speaking to him.

"Ah, nothing." At times like these, Tang En especially wished that the person next to him was Dunn. At least then it would be someone who could understand him. Plus, he then wouldn"t have to worry about having spies from their opponents eavesdrop on their discussions of tactics on the sidelines. Don"t think that spies on the soccer field are only things of fiction. On the sidelines of a soccer field, anything is possible. Tang En"s opponent in the play-off of the first season, the old schemer Neil Warnock, had previously sent spies to his opponents to listen in on their strategies.

Chelsea"s players, who had surrounded the referee in their appeal, scattered. They knew that they would not be able to change the referee"s decision on this, no matter what they did. Either way, it was just a yellow card, not a red one. Surrounding the referee, making some fuss, or stomping their feet was just a way to vent their grievances.

After the match resumed, Mourinho stood on the sidelines shouting at Carvalho to give up marking Bendtner and to deal with the Romanian from Forest instead. Bendtner was pa.s.sed to their Captain, John Terry, who had the same tough playstyle.

Tang En made some changes, but Mourinho did not make any subst.i.tutions. Due to Ferreira"s red card in the first half, he had unexpectedly lost a count for his subst.i.tution quota. With that, so long as the field situation remained within control, he would not make a subst.i.tution lightly.

Even if Duff"s performance appeared lacking, he was in no hurry to change him out.

Duff"s performance was indeed very poor. He was completely suppressed by Ribéry, who was less well-known than him. Ribéry branded Tang En"s expectations of him onto his heart: When attacking, you must be able to move forward; when defending, you must be able to return.

He was young, had good stamina, and was fast. So again and again, he sprinted back and forth in the left wings. Duff is a swift Irish horse? When it comes to speed, I fear no one!