I want to come on
I want to come on
Sammer stood up from his seat as he decided that they could no longer be conservative anymore.
Schweinsteiger was already heavily marked by England's zonal marking. If he continued to place the attack's focal point on him, it would only lead to Germany's attack being stuck in a rut. Sammer walked to the side of the pitch, whistled, and called for Kroos. When Kroos looked over, he made a hand sign that meant that he was to be in-charge of attacking. Kroos nodded to indicate that he understood him.
Germany also had many different tactics prepared. Normally, Schweinsteiger would be the core of the team, but this would make it easy for their opponents to analyze their tactics. If this tactic was seen through by the opponent, then Kroos would have to step up and be in charge of organizing the team's offense.
The German team was still adjusting when England launched a fierce attack. Tony Twain's team continued to press their attack to get another goal. The lead of just one goal was not safe.
England's morale was high as they just came from behind to lead. Germany wanted to attack as well, and this was a good opportunity to get a goal.
"England is on the attack… Gerrard's long-shot got a deflection off Rolfes… Luckily, Adler reacted well and saved the shot!"
"Corner taken… Walcott's in a good position with a header! Just wide!"
When Gerrard got the ball again, he faked as if to shoot but instead pushed the ball to the side and skipped past Rolfes who came up to block the shot. Next, he passed the ball to Moke, who was performing very well, on the flanks.
Jansen did not hold back this time. He did not even give Moke the chance to run, and he took Moke down rather viciously.
The referee blew his whistle, and England got the opportunity of a free-kick outside the penalty area again. This was a threatening area to get a free-kick, but the Germans were not afraid as they had the aerial advantage.
However, Gerrard did not cross the ball in from the air, choosing to play a low ball instead! The ball went under the jumping wall and rolled quickly on the ground. This was a very dangerous ball; it just needed a touch from anyone and it could be redirected into the goal. In the end, nobody was able to get on the end of this pass, and the ball rolled out of play beyond the far post. The German fans in the stands had their hearts in their mouths, while the England fans had their heads in their hands in pity.
The person who felt the most unlucky was still Tony Twain. That had been a good chance to enlarge their lead… It flew right past everybody's faces as it rolled beyond the legs of the people in front of the goal.
After a period of intense offense, England still did not get another goal. Twain decided to stop while they were ahead as he did not dare to take too much risk in such an important match. If they continued to attack and Germany finished adjusting their tactics, they would be the ones on the losing end if the Germans were able to step into their momentum. The England center-backs were pressing so high up they were in the center circle. That was too dangerous as there was a huge space behind them. All Germany needed was a long pass beyond them, and it would be a free space…
Podolski and Gómez were both fast and able to dribble with the ball well. They would take advantage of it if there were too much space behind.
Twain decided to instruct his team to fall back a little and change their tactics from offense to defense and counterattacks.
At that time, Walcott was dribbling with the ball on the field and was preparing to take on Lahm's defense. He noticed that someone was approaching him from behind. Schweinsteiger was approaching quietly in an attempt to help his teammates surround Walcott. Walcott was not worried, and he had his own plans. He was going to accelerate suddenly when they were about to surround them and catch them by surprise.
Just when he was preparing to accelerate, Schweinsteiger planted his foot on Walcott's ankle from behind…
The momentum to go forward was forced to stay on the ground and Walcott could only feel a tear coming from the back of his ankle before he lost his balance and fell to the ground. Lahm was shocked, and he raised his arms in a hurry to indicate that he did not do anything and that he had nothing to do with Walcott falling—he had already been booked in the first half and he was very scared that he would get another yellow card.
Schweinsteiger also kept waving his finger to indicate that he did not commit a foul.
The referee ignored him and came forward to give Schweinsteiger a yellow card. Next, he looked at Walcott, who was writhing in pain on the ground, and he turned around to signal for the stretcher to the sidelines.
"Damn it!" Twain cursed from the sideline and hurried his medical team to check on the situation.
He had been prepared to make some defensive adjustments in a few minutes, but now his attacking player was injured.
"Walcott is hurt, it looks like he won't be able to continue!" On the screen, Walcott was being carried out on the stretcher, and he covered his face with his hands in pain. The team doctor next to the stretcher was signaling for Twain to make a substitution.
"Damn it, ask Downing to go warm up," Twain told Walker.
The England bench was a mess because of Walcott's injury. Downing put on his training vest in a hurry and quickly warmed up. A minute later, he had to run back and listen to Twain's tactical arrangements. His head was still a mess, and he did not hear anything that Boss said at all.
"Go on!" Twain patted him on the shoulder and pushed him to the sideline. Only now did Downing realized that he was going to go on, but what for? He thought about it, and he guessed it was to attack from the flanks and cover in defense.
The team doctor, Derek Wright, walked over after examining Walcott's injury. In the face of Twain's questioning, he shook his head and said, "This match, the next match, and the match after that—he might not be able to participate in those matches anymore, Tony."
Twain looked down and mumbled some swear words under his breath.
Walcott was injured as well as Bentley. The only person who could be used in the right-winger position now was Adriano Moke. There were many more games after this, and stamina had never been Moke's strong suit. This was truly bad news…
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Walcott's injury affected the morale of the England players. Coincidentally, Twain wanted the team to pay more attention to defense, and they fell back all the way and started to make plays on the counter.
The Germans followed the flow and started to launch waves of attacks on the England goal.
Twain was at the sideline, watching the game with a serious look on his face. He was paying close attention to the performance of both sides so that he could make adjustments at any time.
As it was, the Germany team was dominating, but England's defensive line was still holding strong. Even though Toni Kroos took over the responsibilities of organizing the attack, the England midfielders were not to be trifled with either. Michael Johnson followed Kroos everywhere he went like a shadow, using his exceptional running abilities and ensuring that Kroos could not organize any attack easily.
Both sides were in a stalemate for a while.
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Sammer started to make some changes. He took off Khedira, who had not had an exceptional performance, and put on the 26-year-old midfielder, Marko Marin, from Bochum. He was a winger with impressive dribbling skills, and even though he was right-footed, he was good at playing on the left.
Sammer was sending him on to strengthen their attack on the flanks, and at the same time, to increase the team's penetration and cause some chaos in the English backline. In the way that Twain had sent Moke in to get a goal, Sammer was hoping for the same from Marin.
Next, he moved the position of the defensive midfielder, Rolfes, forward to become an attacking midfielder. His position would be closer to the England penalty box, and it would allow him to make full use of his passing range. In this way, the German lines would be more compact, and movement would be smoother, reducing the odds of their passes being intercepted by the English midfield.
The German attack improved after the changes. Marin was a change that even Twain had not expected. That was because Marin was probably the weakest midfield player on the German team. He was weak and a solo player who had no other forte other than dribbling with the ball. However, a player like that was currently the best performer on the German team, and his dribbling caused a lot of problems for the English players.
At the same time, Sammer asked the German midfielders to take more long shots to attempt to break down England's compact defense.
For a moment, the match intensified in front of the England goal, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense.
"Marko Marin has the ball… He broke through Moke's defense with his individual skills. Adriano Moke is not a defensive player… He crosses!"
Mario Gómez came from behind and leaped up high for the header!
Joe Hart did his best to push his header over the bar. Fortunately, Gómez's header came straight towards him, otherwise, it might have resulted in a goal.
Germany had another corner, and the English players became rather nervous looking at the giants who were all above 1.85 meters in height.
Even though he had made a mistake last time that allowed the opponent to score, Joe Hart had no choice but to come out for the ball in this situation. He did well this time as he caught the ball in mid-air.
But this continuous German attack rang the alarm bells for England's goal. Who knew, maybe when Germany attacked once more, the alarm bells would become a death knell…
The German team launched attacks on England wildly, and England could not even get out of their own half. The strength and fitness of the Germans gave them the advantage in this instance, and they controlled the initiative of the match. The English players were at a disadvantage concerning the physical strength of both teams.
When the match has reached the 75th minute, the situation was very bad for England, and it felt as if they were going to concede another goal.
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Twain walked around anxiously at the sideline. He was very nervous, and he was afraid that the Germans might equalize at the final minute. If that happened, then all was lost.
When he walked to the substitute's bench, George Wood stood up from his seat.
"You need to strengthen the defense," he told Twain, "Sub me in."
Twain ignored him and turned around. Wood followed behind him and repeated himself, "sub me in."
"That's impossible George," Twain replied with his back to him, "Even if we draw, we'll qualify too."
"But you want to win. You know what it means to play against the Germans."
Twain stopped and turned to look at Wood, "Even if I want to win, I'll not fool around with your professional career."
"You won't be fooling around. My foot has fully recovered."
Twain smiled and saw through Wood's lie, "Mister Wright told me that your toe on your right foot still has some pain when it comes with contact with the ball."
"That is nothing!" Wood raised his voice. If Sophia was next to him now, she would lecture him about his attitude when talking to Mister Twain. However, Wood did not care about the relationship between him and Twain now. He wanted to get on and play, so much so that he was going crazy, "The team is in trouble. I'm the captain. I can't just sit here and watch!"
Twain was shocked by what he said.
"Gerrard's stamina is going down, and the Germans are breaking through from his position!" Wood pointed at the field and told Twain, "If you don't make a change soon, then…"
Before he could finish, he was interrupted by the cheers from the German fans on the stands.
Gerrard slipped when facing Rolfes and lost his man. Rolfes took this opportunity to get past him and caused lots of problems for the English backline. If not for Terry blocking Rolfes' long shot with his body, who knew what would have happened.
Wood stopped speaking and looked at Twain quietly instead.
This was a rare situation when Wood was agitated about something. In Twain's mind, Wood was like a piece of wood—he was forever boring. Twain had not expected Wood to be so agitated while telling him that he wanted to play. In the past, he used to listen to whatever Twain said. He was the most obedient person and would execute the tactics properly, the type of player that a manager could only dream of. Now, he was so vocal in his disagreement with this arrangement, disagreeing with the restriction to only play in the play-off stage.
The intensive game was still going on out on the pitch, and England was being pushed back within 30 meters of their goal. In order to stop the Germans' long shots, they had no choice but to block the shots with their bodies. However, it was not a nice feeling to be hit by such powerful long shots all the time.
The cheers from the German fans were becoming louder as they saw some hope of equalizing.
The England fans were unhappy that Germany was getting the upper hand, and they started to sing to cheer the England team on.
Tony Twain and George Wood were in a stand-off at the sideline and they seemed to be unconcerned about what was happening on the pitch.
"England is in great danger! In the last 10 minutes of the match, the Germans have launched attack after attack. They have had two corners in three minutes… Mitchell is basically playing as a center-back right now…" There was a trace of anxiety in Motson's voice. Everyone knew about the Germans' resilience. The harder the situation, the more they would be able to endure.
In this noisy atmosphere, Twain began to speak, "George…"
At this moment, there was a loud roar from the stands as the German fans cheered their team on. Twain's voice was drowned out by this roar.
Wood only saw Twain's mouth open and close, but he did not know what he said.
"Germany's long shot came back off the crossbar! That was too close! There are 10 minutes left in the match, can England hold on to their one-goal lead to the end?"
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