Football: Don’t talk about feelings, I’m just an AI

Time goes back to the moment when the players came back from warm-up and they listened to the head coach's pre-match mobilization in the locker room.

In the England locker room, head coach Hodgson looked extremely serious.

"Greece is definitely not a weak team since they made it through the group stage. They may be a little weaker than us, but they are definitely not a weak team that can be bullied at will.
Children, I need you to pay great attention to the opponent and treat this game as a final... Their tactic is high-pressure defense. We have conducted targeted training on this point in training... In short, in the game, you must not underestimate the enemy and do your best to cooperate with Xia Qi. "

Hodgson turned his gaze to Xia Qi when he spoke here.

Xia Qi is the core of this team, like the conductor of an orchestra. Without sufficient teamwork, even Xia Qi cannot create miracles alone.

Hodgson is worried that the players will neglect teamwork because of overconfidence, and will not obey orders and squander opportunities in order to show off themselves.

During Hodgson's coaching career, he has witnessed too many strong teams suffer defeats.

To be honest, it is worrying for a team like England to play against a weak team. It would be better to have a strong dialogue with a strong team like the Netherlands!

At least against the Netherlands, there is no need to worry about the players being careless and losing the game...

After putting some pressure on the players, Hodgson tried to ease the tension:
"Of course, you don't need to worry too much. After all, we are stronger. We have the most firepower among the top 16. If I'm not mistaken, they are trembling and discussing how to defend against our attack..."

"Ha ha……"

Compared to the relaxed atmosphere in the English dressing room, the atmosphere in the Greek dressing room before the war was more intense.
Head coach Santos is also emphasizing the tactics of this game to his players.

"Based on our observations and analysis of the previous games, we can see that the real core of this team is"

Santos pointed to the name on the tactical board in the center circle of the court and said:

"Xia Qi! He is the core of England. England's organization and attack are initiated by him. Please note that he is not only a commander, but also an excellent finisher. He has scored six goals so far.
Just think about it, he scored one more goal than our entire team.

Isn’t it a bit scary?
So our defensive strategy for this game is to prevent him from shooting at the front of the penalty area and to defend his passing point..."

...

...

When the game started, Xia Qi realized that the old man's worries were not unfounded.

Although Greece's three lines are positioned very forward, it seems to give England space to attack from behind.

This kind of play with dozens of meters of space behind is "just what I want" for players who are good at speed, such as Sterling, Walcott and Xia Qi.
But after the game started, it was found that it was not easy to attack Greece from behind.

The distance between the three lines of Greece is kept very close.
The distance between each line is very narrow, leaving Xia Qi with little space to play offside. If he is not careful, his teammate who receives the ball will be in an offside position.

Even though Xia Qi and his teammates have the attribute of "telepathy", they are often called offside.

This style of play, which was visible but unattainable, gradually worsened the mentality of the English players, and they became a little irritated.

The overall pressure of Greece's three lines also has another effect, which is to press high up the pitch.

Because they are in a high position, as long as the Greek players succeed in counterattacking, it will easily make the English players nervous.

After all, the high position was not far from the England goal. After the opponent intercepted the ball, he kicked the ball towards the England goal without thinking twice. Xia Qi and others could not stop him no matter what.

Some high-quality long shots often make Xia Qi and others nervous.

After playing for a few minutes, Xia Qi understood why Greece, which had a negative goal record, was able to advance to the round of 16.

This is a team dancing on the edge of a knife. Either they get beaten or they beat others.

The reason why Greece was able to defeat their opponents was because of their 433 formation. The defense started with the three forwards at the front harassing the opponent's defenders.

When the forwards are fighting for the ball, the midfielders and defenders also press forward to press the players opposite them.

Doing so not only maintains a close positioning of the three lines, making it less likely for the opponent to "counter offside", but also purposefully compresses the space through continuous movement and isolates the player with the ball, so that he cannot pass the ball.

If the defender with the ball wants to pass the ball through the goalkeeper, then English fans will have to prepare special rescue pills.

In short, the collective high pressure gave the Greek team many frontcourt opportunities.

If it weren't for Xia Qi and Henderson's frequent saves, England's goal would have been breached.

England coach Hodgson sat in the coaching booth with a gloomy face, his eyes never leaving the field.

Every time the England goal was in danger, he couldn't help but drink water in big gulps. When Greece was pressing, the mineral water bottle in his hand was deformed by him, which shows how nervous he was.

On the other side, Greek head coach Santos was not much better.

He stood at the side of the court with a tense expression. Every time Greece shot the ball past the barest goal, veins would pop out on his forehead, and he would beat his chest and roar like a wild animal...

The atmosphere on the field was tense, but the atmosphere above the Pernambuco Stadium was not tense, but rather like a festival.

For many Chinese fans, the outcome of the game is not important. What matters is that Xia Qi performs well.

They could still laugh heartily when England's goal was in danger.

The student next to Xia Qi's parents advised them not to be too nervous and to enjoy watching the game.

England failed and continued to be the "European Chinese Team", which is good!
It would be great to advance and cheer for Xia Qi in the next game.

Only Chinese people can experience this kind of happiness!

Xia Qi’s parents accepted it humbly!

...

...

On the field, in the first ten minutes, England made some tentative attempts on Greece's tactics.

The AI ​​designed a counterattack for Xia Qi.

On the court, Xia Qi reached out for the ball and made a secret gesture of "scattering flowers from the sky" to the three forward players.

Walcott and three others rushed forward quickly from their respective positions, but failed to break through Greece's last line of defense.

The ball was quickly passed to Xia Qi, and next to Xia Qi was a Greek defensive player. This was the Greek tactic, where almost every player had a corresponding player defending him.

Maniatis immediately stepped forward to stick to Xia Qi, making it difficult for Xia Qi to get the ball comfortably.

But it is difficult for one person to defend Xia Qi alone.

Xia Qi did not wait to catch the ball, but ran towards the football, and Maniatis, who was defending him, could only chase after him.

Xia Qi didn't stop the ball, but passed it horizontally.

He passed the ball to Gerrard who was not far from him, and then Xia Qi ran forward. Maniatis who was following him had to turn around and chase back.

As soon as Maniatis turned around, he saw Gerrard passing the ball back to Xia Qi who was making a forward run.

A textbook "two-on-two wall pass".

Maniatis accelerated and rushed towards Xia Qi.

But before he could reach the target, Xia Qi passed the ball again.
This time the ball was passed to Rooney in the middle.

Rooney had his back to the direction of attack, and behind him was the Greek center back Manolas, who was pushing against him with all his might, making it difficult for him to turn around.

Rooney had no choice but to pass the ball back. The ball was passed to Xia Qi, and then Rooney turned and ran forward. At this time, Manolas did not run forward with Rooney, but sped up and pounced fiercely on Xia Qi.

Following his dive, the entire Greek defense line pressed forward collectively.

"Greece, offside again!" Huang Jianxiang shouted.

In the previous offside situations, Greece successfully stopped England's attacks.

Manolas, who was defending Rooney this time, also thought it was okay.
He thought Xia Qi would still play wall-to-wall cooperation with Rooney!

Seeing the football flying over his head, Manolas was too lazy to turn his head and look behind him. He just raised his hand to signal the referee: Rooney is offside.

Rooney was indeed offside!
But the referee didn't blow the whistle!
Manolas was shocked and turned to look at the football.
It turned out that the ball did not fly towards Rooney, but flew to the right.

There, Walcott received the ball.

Manolas was stunned for a moment and shouted: "Number 15 is also offside!"

"We collectively created offside."

Neither the referee nor the linesman paid any attention to him, and the referee put his hands forward to indicate that the attack was valid.

If England still plays as before, with the trident simultaneously countering the offside trap and advancing, Walcott would have difficulty escaping the offside trap because Greece's offside trap is very neat and compact.

But this time, under Xia Qi's command, Walcott did not rush forward at the same time as Rooney was offside.
Instead, he cut in from the right and walked sideways, trying not to exceed the Greek defense line.

When Xia Qi passed the ball, he ran diagonally in the opposite direction, and in an instant the offside trap that the Greek team had carefully built for England became a huge gap.

"Pretty!"

"Walcott is not offside!"

"The Greek team finally tasted the bitter fruit of being offside!"

Huang Jianxiang and He Wei in the Chinese live broadcast room became excited, and the stands of the stadium also became lively.
The Chinese drum finally showed its power!
Every loud noise it makes provides Walcott with tremendous energy, allowing him to gallop freely across the endless green grassland like a flash of lightning!
Greek fans in the stands booed in horror, but the sound of the Chinese drums had no effect on Walcott at all.

Greek goalkeeper Karnezis could only abandon the goal and attack. Although there was a possibility of being lobbed by the opponent, the goal rate of lob shots was lower than that of close-range shots.

Whichever is the lesser of two powers that harm each other!
Although Karnezis is not well-known, his goalkeeping style is extremely similar to that of the world's number one goalkeeper Neuer, in that his defensive range is extremely wide.

This style of goalkeeper is best suited for offside tactics.

His presence is also one of the reasons why Greek head coach Santos dares to use the "offside" tactic.

But this time...

Walcott broke through with the ball and saw Karnezis leaving the goal, so he took a direct lob shot.

If it were Neuer, Walcott might have hesitated, but facing the Greek "Neuer", Walcott was still very confident.

As soon as you lift your foot, you get kicked!
At this time, Karnezis had already run to the penalty spot.

Walcott lobs the ball!

The football drew a rainbow in the air and headed for the empty goal behind Karnezis.

Karnezis quickly retreated, then jumped into the air, raised his arms high, and lifted the football...

But, nothing came across...

The football fell into the empty goal behind him unaffected.

"The ball is in!"

"England is currently leading Greece 1:0!"

"The offside tactic is a double-edged sword. If it is cracked, it is very easy to score a goal."

"That's why Greece has a negative goal difference!"

Seeing the ball fly into the goal, Hodgson in the coaching booth finally smiled and stood up to applaud...

After scoring the goal, Walcott rushed to the corner flagpole and completed his celebration there.

The English players were celebrating, while the Greek players surrounded the referee, complaining that it was an offside.

The referee and the linesman insisted on their judgment, and the video replay also confirmed that their insistence was correct.

Walcott's lateral movement, diagonal forward movement, and Xia Qi's pass were just right!

"The Greeks only lasted a dozen minutes before their tactics backfired. The next game will be even more difficult for them."

"England has overcome the initial confusion and finally found the right approach under Xia Qi's organization."

In the stands for Chinese fans, the student enthusiastically introduced Xia Qi's role in this to his parents and praised Xia Qi without hesitation.

Mother Xia waved her hand modestly and said, "Xia Qi is not as good as you say. The one who scored the goal was Theo..."

"Ninety-nine percent of the credit for this goal goes to Xia Qi!"

The student boy opened his eyes wide and looked at Mother Xia with a look that said "are you kidding me?"

Seeing that Xia's mother really didn't understand, he continued: "Look, Xia Qi seemed to be at ease facing Greece's high-pressure defense. It was his few passes that created opportunities for Walcott..."

Father Xia knows more about football than mother Xia. He said objectively: "Those few passes are what the core players should do. Although Xia Qi's passes are important, it is undeniable that Theo's ""-shaped movement on the court is the key."

The boy could not deny this, so he said angrily: "If you continue to watch, you will find that Xia Qi is the most important! England without Xia Qi is nothing!"

Xia Qi's parents smiled broadly. They felt proud and accomplished when someone praised their son.

Greek head coach Santos stood on the sidelines, staring blankly at the field.

He never expected that the tactics that gave the opponent so much headaches in the group stage would be cracked so easily by Xia Qi.

The Greek team was only powerful for 12 minutes before they lost the ball.

What made Santos feel disappointed was that facing Xia Qi's method of cracking it, he had not yet thought of a way to counter it.

He originally thought that Xia Qi would use "direct long pass from the backcourt" to crack the situation, so he specially prepared three countermeasures for Xia Qi, but now none of them are needed.

The solution to Xia Qi is simple but not easy!
He first resolved Greece's high-pressure defense by making adjustments, and then used one of the three forwards to advance.
Forcing Greece to "create offside" turned their passive offside into active offside, gaining the initiative for the other two spears, which was equivalent to turning Greece's offside trap from a hidden card into an open card, and finally the other two spears implemented counter-offside.

The method seems simple but it is not!
First of all, he must ensure that he will not be intercepted under high-pressure defense. Secondly, the trident must cooperate with him tacitly. Any carelessness will lead to failure.

Thinking of tacit understanding, Santos thought of Xia Qi and Walcott coming from the same club, so...

Thinking of this, he immediately shouted to the players on the field: "Strengthen the left side defense."

The Greek team's left side was defending England's right winger Walcott.

Santos hopes that England's central midfielder Rooney and left-winger Sterling will not be able to play the tacit understanding that Xia Qi has.

In this way, England will still fall into the offside trap. (End of this chapter)