Godfather Of Champions

Editor:Nyoi-Bo Studio

Hearing Tang En\'s last statement, the Fourth Official walked over. Tang En glanced at him and turned to return to the manager\'s seat. As he watched Tang En walk back, the Fourth Official also turned to return to his place. He had no intention of pursuing the matter. He knew how Tony Twain was as a manager; it was something that had already spread among the referee circle. Sometimes, it was better to have less fuss.

The referee\'s whistle to stop the match was clearly due to Roy Keane\'s foul against Wood earlier. His leg had been raised too high. He could have kicked Wood\'s jaw if he had gone even a little higher...

But Nottingham Forest\'s members were more displeased than the offending party. The Manchester United\'s players had taken the opportunity to run back for defense. Forest\'s captain, Demetrio Albertini, stood before the referee and questioned his call for the foul.

"Sir, we were on the attack. According to the Advantage rule, you can\'t..."

The referee shook his head. "I know the rules. Manchester United\'s captain needed to be punished for his foul." As he said this, he waved Roy Keane over and raised a yellow card at him.

Keane did not try to defend himself and turned to run back. His previous kick was done on purpose. Before the kick, he had noticed the situation around him. With Gary Neville a little too far away and Ronaldo still near the end line, their opponents would certainly go on the counterattack if he did not manage to receive the ball. He might as well commit a foul on purpose and buy some time for his teammates to return for the defense.

A yellow card in exchange for stemming the flow of the opponent\'s fast break. It was more than worth it.

Wood did not understand the ruling. A call for a foul by the referee was supposed to protect their interests. So why was it the opponent\'s interests that got protected in the end? He pointed at his arm and told Albertini, "I\'m fine. Why did the referee whistle for us to stop?"

Albertini gave Wood a wry smile. "Because we are the away team. You did well, George."

※※※

The television screen replayed the scene of the foul. Wood was facing Keane when he jumped so he could not have missed seeing Keane\'s leg coming up. But he made no attempt to dodge and stretched his head out to head the ball away. Similarly, Keane did not try to pull back his leg but waited with his right foot in the air to collide with Wood.

"Keane raised his leg up too high! He did not have any intention to pull back his leg..." the commentator said, shaking his head. That was Roy Keane\'s style.

After the match restarted, Forest\'s offense from the backfield was of no threat to Manchester at all because their players had already returned for the defense. When it came to such positional play, Forest had fewer options. They lacked a pure holding midfielder. Albertini was, after all, a defensive midfielder. At times, even he had no way of effectively standing in for an attacking midfielder.

Forest\'s attack died down eventually.

20 minutes earlier, Forest team could still contend with Manchester United on even grounds. However, after Keane\'s goal, the match initiative was now in the hands of Manchester. Their tidal wave of attacks completely suppressed Forest\'s offense. For a period, Nottingham Forest could only stay on the defense. Their few attempted sneak attacks were of little threat to the defensive line led by Rio Ferdinand.

Ribéry, who had been performing outstandingly for the past two months, was almost invisible in Forest\'s attacks during the match. That was because he was trying to compete with Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Portuguese man felt particularly good about himself today. The opponent he faced was not much and he could break through at will.

This time was no exception.

Ribéry did not excel at defending; he was only battling Ronaldo because of a drive that stemmed from an unwillingness to lose. But defense was not something that could be carried out by a mere drive.

He had learned his lesson. He was in no hurry to make his move when Ronaldo was doing his fakes. Instead, he followed the steps of the opponent and retreated accordingly. He was so focused on Ronaldo that he forgot that he was already on the penalty line.

The dribbling Ronaldo realized that Ribéry was completely focused on the ball beneath his foot and grinned. He raised his foot and made a false swipe over the ball, looking as if he wanted to bring it towards the end line. Instead, he took it outside in a bid to forcefully break through or pass to the center.

When it came to speed, Ribéry was not at all afraid of Ronaldo. He sprang into action to try to kick the ball out from Ronaldo.

Ronaldo attempted another pass but Ribéry stretched his leg out to block it, sealing up Ronaldo\'s pass route. The price was the loss of his center of gravity.

The Portuguese man was waiting for exactly this moment. As he watched Ribéry leap to block his pass, he pivoted his ankle and changed the pass to a nudge that moved the ball to Ribéry\'s back.

He thought he had gotten Ribéry, but he was the one who had been deceived!

Although it appeared that Ribéry had thrown his entire weight forward and should not have been able to do anything to the ball behind him, he had left his leg dragging behind him. After the nudge by Ronaldo, the ball collided with Ribéry\'s leg and diverted from the planned route. Ronaldo could no longer maintain control of the ball under his foot.

Dammit!

Ronaldo watched Ribéry\'s leg and moved without any hint of hesitation. Changing directions, turning, breaking through... he then stuck his foot in and fell forwards, flopping right into the penalty area!

The referee\'s whistle shrieked loudly among the ear-splitting jeers and cheers ringing within the grounds of Old Trafford. He ran towards the penalty area with a finger pointing at the penalty spot.

"Penalty! Ronaldo tripped by Ribéry!"

When Ribéry heard the whistle, his first reaction was that Ronaldo must have made a dive. But when he turned back and saw the referee pointing towards the penalty spot, he sprang up from the ground and rushed towards him. Fortunately, Matthew Upson hastily blocked the rash man with his quick eyes and deft hands. Otherwise, they would have been lucky to get away with only a yellow card.

But not everyone was as calm as Upson was. Ashley Young ran before the referee and loudly questioned his call. He believed that Ronaldo was just faking the fall and should have been given a yellow card as well. But the result was a yellow card for himself.

Albertini herded the teammates who had come forward to "reason" with the referee. A matter like appealing to the referee should be undertaken by the captain, himself. Even though he did not see clearly what happened, he figured from experience that Ronaldo had fallen somewhat too exaggeratedly.

The referee shook his head and stood by his judgment. He stood beside the penalty spot with his arm raised, signaling Manchester United to approach for their penalty kick.

Ronaldo and his teammates were in a group hug, celebrating the awarded penalty kick.

Meanwhile, Ribéry bit his lip furiously as he stared daggers at the delighted Ronaldo.

※※※

On the sidelines, Tang En was extremely dissatisfied with the penalty. He raged at the Fourth Official. "First, it was a disregard for the Advantage Clause. Then, it\'s a ruling to award a penalty kick for a flop!"

"Mr. Twain, please calm down," the Fourth official said unflinchingly, without a care for Tang En\'s flying spit.

"I am very calm!" Tang En knew that the result could not be changed, but he simply could not accept the fact that they were already behind Manchester United in the first half.

Boiling with anger, he spun around and walked back. He stood on the sidelines and watched as Nistelrooy kicked the penalty ball into the goal Darren Ward was guarding. Once again, resounding cheers rang through Old Trafford.

"Bastard!" he cursed quietly. He was exceptionally unhappy with the current situation. They were now two goals behind in an away match. Would Forest end up with two losses in a row?