Chapter 110: The Most Captivating Smile
The cheering inside the Community Stadium continued without pause. Gasps, regretful sighs, sudden bursts of joy, and disappointed groans rose one after another.
No one dared blink. After watching an entire season of Third Division football, this might be the most exciting match they had seen at this level!
Swansea and Brighton had played only twenty minutes, yet the tempo had never slowed. Both sides were fully exploiting the fleeting flaws in the other's defense, constantly trying to tear open a path to goal.
Dangerous moments appeared again and again, but neither side had managed to deliver the final blow past the opposing goalkeeper.
In the 22nd minute, Swansea attacked down the left again. Cromwell received the ball in midfield and played it straight into the forward line. Ibrahimović dropped back with his back to goal. Instead of using his personal skill to challenge Cullip, he laid the ball off sideways.
Villa, stationed just outside the left channel of the box, did not stop the ball. He flicked it with his heel, knocking it behind him and into the empty space on the left side of Brighton's penalty area!
Watson had just moved to block Villa, never expecting Villa to release the ball into the box first time. Grosso cut into the area and charged into the space behind him. By the time Watson turned to chase, it was already too late!
Grosso stormed into the penalty area like a gust of wind and met the ball with a thunderous left-footed strike!
Boom!
Every Swansea fan thought this one was certain to go in, but they never expected goalkeeper Roberts to dive sideways and somehow throw an arm out. His reflex save actually blocked the shot!
"Whoa! Grosso's angled shot toward goal somehow stays out! Roberts has produced a brilliant save! Brighton escape disaster!"
The ball, deflected diagonally away, fell to James Cook on the right side outside the penalty area. Cook decisively struck at goal, but his long-range effort from outside the box flew just slightly over the bar.
Brighton's defense, which had already run out of options, breathed a collective sigh of relief. They had been unable to stop James Cook from shooting just now, and although the shot made them break out in a cold sweat, at least it had not turned into a Swansea goal.
Seeing Grosso fail to score, Lynn showed not the slightest regret. Instead, he stood up from the bench, walked to the touchline, and applauded the players' performance.
When Adams saw Lynn's reaction, he frowned slightly and became even more convinced that Lynn was determined to attack down the left.
He wanted to use the combination of Grosso and Tobias Rau to attack Brighton's defensive line.
It was reasonable. According to their analysis of the opponent, James Cook was not particularly threatening when he personally cut into the penalty area. On the wing, he looked more like a traditional wide midfielder. He contributed to defense and, in attack, was mainly responsible for crossing, either from forty-five degrees or from the byline. Ninety percent of the time, he was there to support play and provide the final pass.
Add that to Gabbidon's characteristics as a full-back who was strong defensively but weak going forward, and if Swansea mainly attacked down James Cook's side, Cook would receive very little support, while his own threat to the penalty area would be very low!
In that case, it really was better to use Grosso cutting into the box or Tobias Rau's sudden late runs to create danger.
Against Ibrahimović, Brighton needed to defend him from both front and back, preventing him from casually controlling the ball. Against Villa, they had to block both his forward path and the space for his changes of direction.
Brighton's defensive line had done pretty well in closing down and shifting together up to this point.
But visible threats could be stopped.
What about the invisible ones?
Grosso, Tobias Rau, and Cromwell, who had been diligently organizing play but had yet to show any threat with late forward runs?
Adams felt his head spinning.
He suddenly cursed under his breath, "How the hell does Swansea have this many good players? This is ridiculous!"
Yes. Every Swansea player seemed to have distinct competitive traits. On the surface, Swansea had the terrifying forward line of Ibrahimović, Villa, and Charisteas, whose combined goals were closing in on the hundred-goal mark. But looking at their other goals, they were actually an attacking setup with threats from many points!
Trying to completely seal off Swansea's attack all at once was very difficult. Almost impossible. At the same time, Swansea could not possibly activate every attacking point at once either.
In a single match, it was possible for one side of the attack to go quiet while the other lit up. But it was not as if the east could go dark while the west, south, and north all lit up at the same time!
Adams knew that now it depended on who could break the balance on the pitch first. After that, it would come down to the players' mentality and the tactical changes from both sides.
In the 26th minute, Swansea attacked in the front third. Cromwell tried to play a one-two with James Cook, but the ball was intercepted. Cook had been harassed from behind by Harding, and his pass was not ideal. Cromwell had only just touched the ball and could not find a suitable passing lane when Carpenter ambushed him from behind and poked the ball away.
Before Cromwell could counter-press, Hammond stepped forward and clipped the ball over the top. The ball flew over Cromwell's head, and Cromwell immediately gritted his teeth and turned to chase.
He saw Carpenter, the man who had poked the ball away from his feet, already completing his turn. The ball came from behind him, and Carpenter let it pass. After it bounced and moved forward, Carpenter ran onto it and brought it under control steadily.
Pedretti had already moved to the front of the penalty area, his face calm and stern as he prepared to intercept.
He carried the presence of one man guarding the pass!
Carpenter remembered Adams' instruction before the match very clearly.
Never go one-on-one against Pedretti!
On the Third Division stage, almost no player could break past Pedretti head-on in a one-on-one anymore!
Even if the ball got past him, the man should not expect to follow it through!
Pedretti was frighteningly decisive and calm. If he could not defend cleanly, he would use a foul to stop the opponent's attack.
However, Carpenter still drew Pedretti's attention first before suddenly passing the ball toward the right-front area.
Pierce suddenly took an inside route and appeared to Pedretti's left.
Pedretti judged the timing and immediately rushed over to block him, only for Pierce to meet the ball and use the outside of his foot to lift it up.
Pedretti instinctively threw his head toward it, trying to block with a header, but the ball flew past his ear. The sound of the wind it carried was chilling!
Pedretti immediately turned his head and looked back. He happened to see the path and trajectory of the ball.
It curled with an inward arc and bounced into the empty space on the left channel just outside the box. At that moment, Swansea's defensive line made an error in judgment!
Gabbidon thought the ball was flying toward him, but after bouncing, the ball's inward spin increased from the friction with the grass, sending it directly around behind him!
He failed to lift his leg in time to block it. Cold sweat instantly seeped from Gabbidon's forehead.
Although he did not look back, he could vaguely feel someone darting past behind him.
Left midfielder Harding had looped around Gabbidon from the outside and cut into the area near the byline at the edge of the box.
Before the ball could bounce a second time, Harding drove a low first-time pass into the penalty area!
After turning around, Brunel saw the quick and agile Hart making a diagonal run behind him. He wanted to raise his hand and tug at Hart's shirt, but under the current circumstances, pulling Hart's shirt would very likely result in the harshest punishment.
So he hesitated.
He wavered.
In the end, he did not raise his hand.
Hart watched the ball fly toward him from the wing at speed. He completed the shot with an awkward, unorthodox movement!
He charged diagonally, jumped, and in midair used his left foot to guide the ball toward goal!
The deflected shot immediately flew toward Swansea's near corner.
After taking the shot, Hart looked toward goal, only to see Glendower's tall frame already right in front of him. The keeper threw himself forward with both arms spread. The ball struck Glendower's shoulder, then was slapped again by his right palm and sent flying straight out of the penalty area!
After making this dangerous save, Glendower got up in one smooth motion. With slight dissatisfaction on his face, he roared at his teammates.
"Wake up! We can't let them shoot freely like that again!"
Adams' reaction was almost the same as every Seagulls fan. He raised his head and painfully closed his eyes!
Brighton had missed another great chance!
It was more like a gift from heaven squeezed out through the narrowest gap, a close-range shooting opportunity in front of goal, and Swansea had somehow dealt with it!
The Swans fans felt their hearts pound with a fear they had not felt in a long time.
Brighton were putting them under real pressure on the pitch!
Lynn had been standing on the touchline since he had got up earlier. His expression did not change as he calmly watched the action on the pitch.
He glanced at the time. More than thirty minutes had passed. He immediately made a hand gesture.
The serious-looking young manager left Adams unable to read him. No outsider could understand what his signal meant.
But Adams' heart began to pound.
He had thought he had seen through Swansea's attack.
Maybe he was wrong!
He immediately stood up and walked to the touchline too. He wanted to take in every detail on the pitch and figure out what the hell Lynn was up to!
Swansea's next attack immediately changed direction.
When Brighton all believed Swansea were almost obsessively determined to carve out a world on the left flank, Swansea suddenly began making rapid attacking switches in the final phase!
In the 33rd minute, Tobias Rau overlapped forward. After brushing past Grosso, Grosso passed the ball to Tobias Rau. As Tobias Rau carried it forward, before he even reached Watson, he had already noticed Brighton's defensive line slowly shifting toward Watson's side, squeezing the space in that area and sharply increasing the difficulty of Swansea's left-sided passing combinations.
From a forty-five-degree angle on the flank, Tobias Rau passed the ball across.
Villa received it with his back to goal. In front of Cullip, he then laid the ball diagonally back. Cromwell rushed forward from behind, controlling and carrying the ball past defensive midfielder Hammond in one motion. Then, in front of him, a wall appeared.
Cullip, Butters, Watson, and Hinshelwood had all dropped into the penalty area, lined up across the box and leaving no obvious gap.
At this moment, Cromwell stopped the ball and changed direction, carrying it two steps to the right. Just as Hinshelwood stepped forward, Cromwell slipped the ball straight into the right channel of the box.
Hinshelwood slammed on the brakes and turned, only to see James Cook charging into the penalty area, forming an angled one-on-one chance against the goal!
Goalkeeper Roberts rushed toward the near corner at full speed. At that moment, James Cook met the ball and shot directly with his right foot!
His strike was extremely decisive, and the ball flew in a straight line.
Just as the Swansea fans thought this golden opportunity would bring them a goal, the next second, they saw the ball smack solidly into the side netting. Quite a few people even had the illusion that it had gone in!
James Cook clutched his head in frustration as he ran back. A golden chance had been wasted just like that!
He gritted his teeth, shook his head, and quickly recovered his deeply focused expression.
Lynn's mouth only twitched slightly. Other than that, he showed no reaction.
Adams, however, reacted strongly.
Brighton had survived disaster, and inside his heart he shouted wildly.
'So that's it! So that's it!'
Swansea had been attacking down the left all along as a feint!
They were drawing Brighton's defensive attention toward the right side, then suddenly switching the attack. James Cook, who everyone believed could not possibly cut into the penalty area, had become the hidden late-arriving attacking point!
Lynn, what a calculation!
He had caught the opponent's blind spot in awareness!
If people first assumed James Cook would not enter the penalty area, then they would relax their attention on him.
Previously, James Cook had not shown much threat. But in one sudden instant, he had almost taken the Seagulls' life!
A cold smile appeared on Adams' face. Since he had already seen through Lynn's plan, he would no longer be afraid or worried.
Adams immediately shouted instructions onto the pitch, emphasizing to the back line that they must pay attention to James Cook's position when defending. The one who had to be most alert was Hinshelwood, since he was directly matched against James Cook.
Lynn slightly raised his chin. The color in his eyes was strange and impossible to read. No one knew what those deep eyes were truly looking at, or what schemes they were calculating.
In the 37th minute, Harding tried to complete a one-two with Carpenter down the left, but under Pedretti's interference, Carpenter's diagonal pass went astray.
Brunel stepped forward to intercept the ball, then immediately sent a diagonal pass into the space behind Harding.
That was where James Cook had been waiting for his chance.
As soon as James Cook controlled the ball, he saw Carpenter running toward him. He immediately passed sideways into the middle.
Cromwell stepped forward and then played a diagonal pass to Grosso on the wing.
Grosso carried the ball forward. This time, he had already shaken off Pierce when he accelerated, and then he dribbled toward Watson.
He saw Villa coming to receive, so he immediately passed the ball to Villa.
Brighton's defense instantly realized Swansea were about to switch the attack, so their defensive shape spread out in balance. They were afraid that crowding too heavily into one area would expose space elsewhere.
After controlling the ball, Villa faced pressure from Watson and Cullip. In that tiny gap, he laid the ball diagonally back.
Defensive midfielder Hammond followed the path of the rolling ball with his eyes and saw a Swansea player waiting to receive it.
It was Ibrahimović!
Hammond instantly realized something was wrong.
Why was Ibrahimović here?
But he had no time to think about it. He simply felt that this Swansea attack carried a completely different scent from the ones before.
Ibrahimović pushed the ball diagonally forward, drawing Hammond along in the direction he was moving.
And the area where Hammond had originally stood immediately opened into a corridor.
Cromwell surged forward at speed. At the edge of the penalty area, Ibrahimović passed the ball horizontally toward the right side in front of the box.
James Cook ran over to receive it and, at the same time, used his right foot to deliver a cross!
A cross behind the defenders!
Brighton's defenders looked left and right.
Ibrahimović was blocked outside the box and could not receive it.
Villa was on the left side outside the penalty area, watched by Cullip and Watson. No problem there either!
Swansea's two executioner-level forwards had both been marked. It should be safe, right?
But everyone also knew something was wrong!
Wrong!
Wrong!
Wrong!
Because they could sense that another Swansea player had burst into the penalty area!
Who?
Who?
Who?
They turned their heads and saw Cromwell!
Who was marking him?
No one!
No one!
No one!
After making the pass, James Cook watched the flight path he knew so well unfold before his eyes. It was as if he could follow the ball from a first-person point of view.
The cross, sharp and fast like a half-moon slash, curved around the back of Brighton's defensive line. Its outward arc made the delivery beautiful and unpredictable.
The ball bent behind Butters. After Cullip turned, it was already too late for him to lift his foot and block it. After passing Cullip, just as it was about to fly in front of Watson, someone rushed up from behind.
That figure gradually became clear.
James Cook saw it.
It was his best friend.
It was the captain of the Swan Sea!
The young captain, Oliver Cromwell!
Cromwell swung his right leg and volleyed directly!
His posture was not especially perfect, but the effect was stunning!
After being struck on the volley, the ball changed direction, flying from a slightly left-of-center position in front of goal straight toward the top-right corner!
Straight into the dead angle!
James Cook jumped on the spot. His handsome face bloomed with a pure, innocent smile, as if it could infect every person and move football fans all over the world.
This was the most captivating smile!
Because he was happy for the team's goal.
Because he was thrilled for his friend's finish!