Chapter 30: Fierce Match

West Bromwich Albion is an English professional club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They were formed in 1878 and have been headquartered at The Hawthorns since 1900.

West Brom was one of the founders of the football league in 1888, which was the first professional football league in the world. They spend most of their time in the English first league.

The club, nicknamed The Baggies, will face Southampton in the 25th round of the English Premier League. West Bromwich Albion is 11th in the Premier League, higher than Southampton who is now at 18th.

This season West Brom performed quite well compared to previous seasons. West Brom who usually always struggles in the relegation zone is now able to maintain 11th position until the 25th week.

West Bromwich is coached by Joshua Bruce, a well-known coach who has coached many mid and lower-level Premier League clubs. He also once managed a top-class team, namely Liverpool, but failed in his first season, after that, Bruce only focused on coaching lower and middle-class teams.

Southampton's players and coaching staff get off the bus in front of the Hawthorns stadium. Kazuki took off the Headphones and stared at the Hawthorns stadium.

Wright-Phillips nudged Kazuki and asked, "Are you nervous about being a starter for the first time?"

Kazuki rolled his eyes and replied, "No, I just want to remember this stadium. One day people will remember the Hawthorns stadium as the place where I, Kazuki Kazeshima, started for the first time."

"Hahaha, don't let the West Brom fans hear that." Wright-Phillips laughed softly. After that, Kazuki followed the other comrades into the stadium.

After walking down the stadium, Kazuki arrived at the visiting team's dressing room at the Hawthorns stadium. Kazuki saw a lot of grafitty that had the intention of insulting and sarcastic anyone who used this dressing room. More specifically, Kazuki saw some grafitty about clubs Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

"Is something like this allowed?" Kazuki muttered as he looked around the grafitty.

***

After changing clothes and a briefing session by Southampton coach George Eastgate, the Southampton players lined up neatly in the stadium hallway preparing to enter the field.

After hearing the referee's signal, the Southampton and West Bromwich Albion players entered the field. They did the opening ceremony of the match, after going through some things, the players stood in their respective positions waiting for the kick-off to begin.

At the Skysport studio, James Kaglin opened the match between Southampton and West Bromwich Albion.

"Good afternoon everyone, welcome to the 25th round of the English Premier League 2011/2012 season. In this match, we present Southampton who travels to the home of The Baggies, West Bromwich Albion.

In the previous round, Southampton suffered a painful defeat to Tottenham which left them stuck in the relegation zone. To get out of the relegation zone they need three points. Meanwhile, West Bromwich Albion, who had drawn three times, of course, want to get three points from this match.

Alright, let's take a look at Southampton's formation. The Saints are using back a 4-4-2 formation but it looks like Kazuki will replace Osmund as a starter.

Goalkeeper: Dean Smith;

Defenders: Vicente, Hilton, Okhalo, Benson

Midfielders: Hugo, Simone, Rudolf, Kounde

Strikers: Kazuki, Denilson.

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On the other hand, West Bromwich Albion also uses their main formation, 4-2-3-1.

Goalkeeper: Ben Foster

Defenders: Jones, McAurey, Ohsson, Gridewell

Midfielders: Thorne, Kevin; Dorrans, Rosenberg, Odemmiwe

Striker: Shane Long.

There are not many changes to the West Bromwich Albion lineup. Changes are in the Southampton starting lineup, player number 28, Kazuki Kazeshima who scored 2 goals last week replaced Osmund. Let's see if this teenager could bring a surprise in this game."

The referee's whistle sounded, the West Brom players started the first half kick-off.

Of all West Brom players, the most dangerous is not their striker, Shane Long, but their left winger Odemmiwe, who is West Brom's top scorer. West Brom's style of play has always relied on their wings.

At the start of the game, they started attacking from the wings. Their right winger Graham Dorrans tried to break through Benson after receiving a pass from George Thorne, West Bromwich Albion's defensive midfielder. Benson who last week was beaten by Gareth Neill, this time he performed well. Benson managed to steal the ball from the feet of Dorrans.

Benson passes the ball to Rudolf. Then Rudolf dribbled the ball across the halfway line. He then gave the ball to Hugo. Unfortunately, the ball was stolen by Gridewell after Hugo was surrounded by West Brom players.

Under 10 minutes, neither team created chances. Their attacks both failed to threaten the opponent's goalpost. Even so, the intensity of the match increased after the 8th minute, Kazuki was knocked down with a body charge by Kevin. Kevin didn't commit any offense but Kazuki as the side that was dropped was annoyed with Kevin.

In the 11th minute, Graham Dorrans tried again to break through Benson. This time he was successful, but Benson chase him and tackled Dorrans. Dorrans fell to his knees, he then stood up and pushed Benson.

"What are you doing, you bastard?! Your tackle almost broke my leg!" Dorrans shouted angrily at Benson.

Benson spread his arms and said, "I hit the ball, you're too softy, idiot."

Hearing Benson's words, Graham was about to approach him again but Thorne stopped him. Hilton also pulled Benson away from Graham.

The referee did not give any cards in this incident. He then blew the whistle to continue the match.

In the 15th minute, Rudolf made a triangular pass with Hugo and Vicente. Vicente managed to break through the left-back of West Bromwich Albion, namely Gridewell. After that, he gave a cut-back pass to Kazuki.

Kazuki received the ball but a second later Kevin had a physical confrontation with Kazuki. The Japanese player fell again, but this time he still managed to control the ball, Kazuki kicked the ball towards Denilson. When Kazuki kicked the ball, Kevin also swung his leg, so Kevin kicked Kazuki's leg after Kazuki sent a pass to Denilson.

Denilson who received the ball from Kazuki brought the ball into the penalty box. However, Denilson's shot was blocked by West Bromwich Albion center-back Ohsson.

The match was paused, the referee ran towards Kazuki who was still sitting holding his feet. He asked Kazuki, "Are you still able to continue the match?"

"Yeah, I can still go on." There were no serious injuries that Kazuki had, he only felt Kevin's kick brought more pain than Kazuki had imagined.

In this match, Kazuki felt the true meaning of being targeted by the opposing defender.

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