At Cardiff City Stadium, Sheffield United fans all stood up, raised their hands and sang the team anthem.
"in this only one city l love, Back in 1889!!"
This is a relatively deep team song, which is relatively rare in British teams, but it contains their deep love for the team.
"Beep! Beep!" The referee blew a short and a long whistle, indicating the half-time break.
Their singing continued, drowning out the noise and boos from Cardiff City's home fans.
The fan atmosphere at Sheffield United is definitely stronger than that of most Championship teams.
They didn't perform well in the first two games because the team as a whole was too depressed and they had no hope.
I finally saw the first half!
In the visiting team's locker room, Sheffield United players returned here to replenish water and rest, waiting for Kevin's next arrangements.
If you want to play well, you must work together. Many people decided to put aside their personal grudges with Kevin and play this game well first.
"Well done."
"Very good boy, I felt you could do it during training."
Maher sat in his seat, and people passing by kept congratulating him, and he responded with a smile.
A feeling of fatigue rose in his heart. The intensity of the Championship is still quite terrifying. Players are often required to do anaerobic running and fight with all their strength.
His body has not yet fully developed, and forty-five minutes straight like this is really a little too much for him to bear.
But it's okay. Just grit your teeth and hold on. It should be fine to last 65 minutes.
Kevin walked in quickly from the door, without any communication with the players, and went directly to the tactical board, "Before the end of the first half, Maher and Ward's several crosses into the penalty area posed a considerable threat.
"The opponent's overall weak air defense is a clear disadvantage, so we need to be more decisive and kick the ball more frequently in the second half.
"Players in the midfield, if given the opportunity, must rush into the penalty area without hesitation to increase the number of attackers."
He moved a few tactical chess pieces on the tactical board and gave instructions: "Before the game, the team analyst said that when the opponent counterattacks, it is easy to invest too much manpower, resulting in the backfield..."
Now that they have reached the professional team, the players have basic technical and tactical qualities.
What the professional team coach needs to tell the players are mostly the strengths and weaknesses of the opponents in this round of games, how to target them, as well as early prevention of certain risks, set-piece attack and defense routines, and changes of tactics.
They also have an important job, which is to manage the team's locker room.
Judging from Kevin's negative example, the second task is much more difficult than the first one.
"Okay, Lorton will take a rest in the second half."
After arranging everything, Kevin glanced at Gary Speed standing next to him, "Gilbert is on the court, go warm up now, and make a substitution before the game starts."
Gilbert, who was sitting next to Maher, had a look of joy in his eyes, then he forced himself not to show his excitement and complacency on his face, and ran out of the locker room with his head down.
Maher looked at his back and cheered for him secretly. They were finally going to fight side by side.
"Beep!"
When the players from both teams on the court finished taking their positions, the referee blew the whistle for substitutions and pointed his finger to the end of the center line.
The fourth official raised the substitution card and No. 17 Gilbert came on to replace starting midfielder Lowton.
Gilbert took a deep breath, stepped onto the field with his left foot, touched the ground with his right hand, then made the sign of the cross on his chest and rushed onto the field.
When he saw Mahel giving him an encouraging smile, his heart surged with excitement and his leg muscles trembled.
"Beep!"
The referee blew the whistle to start the second half, and this time it was Sheffield United's turn to kick off.
"Bang!" Center forward Evans made a short pass to Gilbert who had just come on, hoping that he could touch the ball more and become more active.
Gilbert took the ball for a few steps, waited for the opponent's forward to rush over, then turned around and kicked the ball to the wing-back.
Players from both sides moved quickly, either closing their formation to press or running to open space to receive the ball. The situation changed rapidly.
After most of Sheffield United players got serious, their overall fighting power gradually emerged and they were no longer suppressed by Cardiff City.
In the 54th minute of the game, Gilbert had a chance for a long shot in front of the penalty area.
"Oh!"
He swung his leg and kicked the ball, which flew directly into the fan section of his team in the south stand.
"Hiss" Gilbert took a breath and waved his hand to apologize to his teammates with a guilty look on his face. After all, he still didn't have the long-range shooting skills of Maher.
Maher saw his long shot and felt itchy, wanting to shoot again. He had a chance to shoot from a distance in the first half, but unfortunately his mentality was not stable enough, and the opponent's flying tackle interfered, so he didn't have the chance.
If we give him one more kick, maybe it will test the goalkeeper.
However, in such a high-level competition, you can't get whatever you want. All opportunities are linked to the performance of other people on the field.
If he wants to get an easy chance to shoot, someone needs to run to him and create space, and someone needs to pass the ball to him.
But this is also not very realistic. The score is tied at one to one and the pressure is always there.
No one can put all their hopes on him at this time unless he can first establish a reputation in this arena.
He could only wait patiently and do what a winger should do first.
"Oh!"
In the 59th minute of the game, Gilbert made a long pass to the wing where Mahel was.
Maher was under a lot of pressure when he was unloading the ball, which caused him to have some problems stopping the ball and he almost stopped it out of bounds.
"Bang!" In the subsequent fight for the first half of the ball, his shoulder collided violently with the opponent's full-back Gabor's shoulder, shaking his internal organs and making him feel uncomfortable.
Fortunately, he won a small victory!
While Gabor was still unable to stabilize his body, he controlled the ball, blocked Gabor and dribbled the ball towards the baseline, and ran on Gabor's pursuit route.
In this way, even if he is not fast, he can use the advantage that a straight line is shorter than a diagonal line to get rid of Gabor.
"Bang!!"
After reaching the baseline, he didn't wait for Gabor and the opponent's defensive midfielder Drinkwater to come back, but simply adjusted the ball to his right foot and sent a cross.
This was an aimed pass, and because there was no pressure, the quality was higher than all his previous crosses. The ball's trajectory was erratic and it rushed towards the back point!
A glimmer of hope appeared in Maher's eyes. This ball had the potential to pose a threat.
"Oh" He then heard a faint burst of anticipation from the fans in the south stand in front of him. Many people stood up from their seats and looked at the situation behind the penalty area.
"Oh!"
There, a figure rushed in from outside the penalty area with an unstoppable impact, leaped high and smashed out a header!
"Gilbert!"
Mahel noticed the figure and excitement broke out on his face.
"Swish!!" Almost no one could see how the football went out. They only saw the football hit the net, causing the net to protrude several feet outwards.
The ball went in again!
2-1, Sheffield United reversed the score!
"Yeah!!" The cheers from the South Stand rang out again, this time right next to the ears of Sheffield United's offensive players. Everyone heard it clearly and felt their blood boiling.
Maher roared from his position, lowered his head and waved his arms to celebrate. He didn't expect that he would get his second assist in this way.
Assisted to score twice!
That's also a great achievement!
What's even more rare is that the person he assisted was his good friend who came to Sheffield with him!
"Mael!"
Gilbert ran towards the sideline with great enthusiasm, one hand pointing at him and the other at the sky, "I scored, brother, I scored!"
It was as if he was back in the boring and sweaty training ground. He received Mahel's cross again and again and scored countless wonderful headers.
But this time it happened on the playing field!
"Ha ha!"
Maher ran after him and laughed, "Isn't this a treat for me?"
"Of course!"
Gilbert didn't care about anything else at this time. Even if he was asked to take out all his savings, he might agree. He had lost his mind and said, "Eat the best!"
The two Arsenal players ran and laughed, then in perfect harmony threw their bodies out and combined together to complete the four-bar slide.
"Click, click!" A photographer at the sidelines quickly recorded this rare scene.
The two little guys in the camera looked at each other and laughed wildly, then slid down to their knees with their arms outstretched. Behind them were countless fans stretching their bodies and waving their fists at them, and behind them were their teammates running towards them excitedly.
(End of this chapter)