Chapter 37: One-on-One Defense
"Less than 15 minutes into the game, both teams have already provided us with fantastic moments of attack and defence, and now we can see that the managers of both teams are already standing on the sidelines watching the game intently. It seems that as the pundits predicted before the match, it will be a great matchup. Seeing the performance of the two teams at the beginning, Manu, the commentator in the stands, was already completely excited and couldn't help himself.
On the sidelines, the head coaches of the two teams were already looking at the field with deep frowns, and both of them began to have a deeper understanding of the intensity of the game, and they both turned their heads to look at each other.
And as time goes by, the offense and defense on the field have become more and more intense.
In the 15th minute, Swansea left wing-back Tom Williams took the ball at the back and slowly dribbled along the left side, and after 20 meters of his own half, he suddenly made a direct long pass, and the ball flew straight behind Leeds United right-back Frazer Richardson.
Caught off guard, Swansea's left winger Thomas Butler had already cut past Richardson and headed straight for the bottom line.
Seeing that his opponent was about to go to the bottom, Richardson hurriedly turned around and chased straight after him, and finally successfully caught up with his opponent near the baseline. Seeing that Butler had already observed and was about to cross, Richardson fell directly to the ground and made a tackle, and the ball just touched Richardson's thigh and bounced directly to the left front of the penalty area.
Due to Butler's bottom, the Leeds United penalty area at this time was already crowded, and there was no one in front of the left side of the penalty area for a while, and he could only watch Williams step forward to stop the ball.
It turned out that after passing the ball to his teammates, Williams had been trotting all the way to follow-up, and at the same time, his position was also slightly approaching the edge of the big penalty area, ready to meet his teammates' attacks at any time. At this time, he unexpectedly got such a big gift, and Williams, who didn't think much about it, adjusted himself slightly after stopping the ball, and directly used his left foot as the fulcrum, and his right leg was fiercely pumped towards the ball.
Seeing the ball fly, Leeds United goalkeeper Ankel Gren made a brilliant save. Having learned from his experience, in order to prevent the accident last time, he directly clenched his fists and hit the ball directly out of the court.
Another threatening attack from Swansea ultimately failed, and Wise on the sidelines was both happy and a little anxious. The so-called long defense must be lost, and now Swansea's attack wave after wave, even if their own back line is strong, there will be times when they concede goals. But the players on the pitch are the strongest players at Leeds United, and the tactical focus of both sides is in midfield. So Wise is still hesitant to adjust or not, maybe he can see how the situation develops.
While Wise hesitated, the situation on the court was still going back and forth. In the 22nd minute, Leeds United also launched a wave of attacks. Leeds United were awarded an indirect free-kick in the middle circle of the Swansea half.
Sean first passed the ball to the captain Thompson on the left side, facing Aman Kwach who stepped forward to mark him, Thompson, who had already played several times, slowly dribbled the ball and then made a few feints at his feet, Thompson knew that his speed was much slower than his opponent, even if he wiped the opponent, he would be caught up again later, so after the feint attracted Amankwach's attention, the ball suddenly knocked the ball with his left foot, and the ball was passed directly to the right and inserted into Hausen.
At the edge of the penalty area, Hausen, who had inserted the attack, had just stopped the ball when he saw Swansea defender Ovacane Jones rushing towards him with a fierce face. The opportunity was fleeting, and Hausen, who seized a gap in the box, picked up the ball first and flew straight to the back of the net.
Standing at the back of the goal, seeing the ball flying towards him, Flo immediately tensed up and prepared. The body twisted and constantly got rid of Alan Tate's small movements, ready to head the ball at any time. Watching the ball fly all the way to him without hindrance, Flo's face gradually smiled, such a good opportunity is rare in such a fierce game. With all his strength exerted, Flo finally stuck Tate by his side.
At this moment, a figure flashed in front of Flo's eyes. When you look closely, the ball has been punched out of the box by Swansea goalkeeper Willy Gueret.
Unfortunately, before the Leeds United players could lament the failure of the attack, the ball had already fallen directly to the right of Swansea. In the face of the opportunity, Aman Kwah directly shook off Thompson with his superior speed and took the ball first and rushed directly to Leeds United's half, and the offensive and defensive sides exchanged identities in an instant.
At this time, Brinton in the middle and Trende on the other side had directly inserted the attack, and most of the Leeds United players had not had time to return to the defense, and Leeds United instantly became a 3-on-3 situation at halftime.
Amandkwah, who was dribbling the ball, saw someone running towards him, and without the slightest hesitation, he made a powerful long pass with his right foot, and the ball flew over the entire pitch and fell directly to the feet of Trende on the left.
I saw Trende raise his left foot as he ran, and when the ball was about to make contact with the inside of his foot, he slightly retracted his foot, and the originally imposing ball fell obediently in front of Trende as if it had been tamed. Then he took a trip with his right foot and continued to kill towards the Leeds United penalty area without slowing down.
In the penalty area at this time, Tang Fei saw that his teammate Marquis had been directly pulled to the other side by Brinton, and knew that he could only rely on himself this time. Looking at Trende's series of actions from afar, Tang Fei was stunned to see that such a powerful pass could be unloaded so lightly, and he continued to move forward with the ball without slowing down at all, this ball feeling was really amazing.
Stuck on Trende's offensive line, Tang Fei also cautiously retreated, trying to slow down the opponent's dribbling speed and create opportunities in his favor to disrupt the attack.
But what Tang Fei didn't know was that Swansea had already done a lot of research on himself before the game, so Trend, who remembered the information, only smiled at the corner of Tang Fei's movements, and then continued to dribble the ball without slowing down.
Looking at the smile on his opponent's face, Tang Fei was slightly puzzled in his heart, maybe it was because Trende felt that this opportunity was rare, right? However, there was no time to think about it, and now Tang Fei could only temporarily put down the doubts in his heart and concentrate on dealing with this attack.
"Can't go back!" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that he was about to step into the penalty area, and his teammates were still in midfield for a while and couldn't come back. Tang Fei knew that he had to keep Trende out of the penalty area, otherwise his situation would be even more disadvantageous.
Seeing Trende rushing towards him at an unabated speed, Tang Fei directly stood in position, and his center of gravity slowly lowered to prevent his opponent from easily breaking through him.
"Swansea's chance! For the evenly matched sides, perhaps this is the best moment to change the situation on the pitch, the strongest dribbling king in League One and the core of Leeds United's defence, let's look forward to who will win in the end! Seeing that the two teams have been entangled on the field for so long, in the face of the best opportunity in this game so far, Manu in the commentary seat was completely hoarse and shouted into the microphone.
Looking at Tang Fei, who was like a big enemy, Trende, who was smiling even more, slowly slowed down the speed of dribbling the ball in the approach, and brought it to the penalty area unhurriedly, but he was more cautious in his heart. In just a few offenses and defenses in the first half, Trende already knew how powerful Tang Fei was, so although he was smiling, Trende would not despise Tang Fei in his heart.
"Remember that this guy's speed is not much worse than his own." Trende thought back to his first shot, and his mind turned to an idea. Immediately, the ball under his feet was slightly larger, obviously luring Tang Fei out of his feet.
At this time, Tang Fei had completely tensed his whole body, ready to attack at any time. I saw that Trende suddenly took a big step, Tang Fei had completely understood what the opponent meant, obviously tempting himself, it seemed that his poor steal had been discovered by the opponent.
He already knew the opponent's intentions in his heart, but Tang Fei had to kick his feet now, otherwise Trende would definitely take advantage of the situation and directly insert himself into the penalty area, and he would definitely be more passive at that time.
With his mind decided, Tang Fei rushed out like a cheetah, flying to the ground and tackling the ball. As an excellent defender, Tang Fei knows how to play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses, since he can't tackle, he will tackle the ball directly, so that even if he can't tackle the ball, he must put the opponent down and not let the opponent have a chance to break through himself.
However, it is important to note that the foul must not be in the penalty area.
Therefore, Tang Fei tried to tackle the ball with the intention of fouling, even if it didn't work, it would be a free kick at most, plus a yellow card.