Chapter 38: The Solid Defense

The score is still 0-0. But, Southampton coach George Eastgate looked restless. He walked back and forth while sometimes giving instructions. After the chance created in the 14th minute, Southampton did not get another chance until now. Chelsea broke all the counter-attacks that Southampton wanted to build. You could say Chelsea has built a defense from the very front line which makes it difficult for Southampton players to build attacks.

Looking at Chelsea's relentless attack it was clear they were going to score sooner or later. If Chelsea leads goals, then Mourinho will change his strategy to be more conservative. He would park the bus, so the Southampton players would have a hard time scoring goals.

In the 37th minute, Chelsea finally broke Southampton's goalpost. This attack was initiated by the solo action of Zelatta who was finally able to break through the Southampton penalty box. Zelatta's actions made Southampton's defense chaotic, Dusan escaped from Okhalo and Hilton guards. Zelatta gave Dusan a pass, the pass easily converted by Dusan into a goal.

"Finally, Chelsea managed to get a goal after attacking Southampton from the start of the first half. Zelatta's solo action managed to break the concentration of the Southampton players. Dusan took advantage of the moment well, he ran into the gap in the Southampton defense. 1-0 to Chelsea's advantage."

After Chelsea scored, Mourinho celebrated on the sideline. Mourinho's celebration was more prominent than the celebrations of the Chelsea players themselves.

Meanwhile, George raised his hand in disappointment. He knew that Chelsea would score but seeing the goal in person still made him feel bad. Southampton's players have done their best but star players like Zelatta are always able to do miracles.

"What are we going to do, Coach?" the assistant coach, James Ward, asked George.

After this goal, Southampton needed to attack, but the thing is, Chelsea's counter-attack is very dangerous. Dusan's speed, Lambert's long pass, and Zelatta's dribble have always been the main weapons in Chelsea's counter-attack strategy.

George took a deep breath and said, "We will play patiently, Chelsea are only one goal ahead, as long as there is a chance to counter-attack, we can certainly equalize." George tried to think positively even though the situation was less convincing for Southampton.

Until the end of the first half, the score 1-0 did not change. Chelsea relaxes the intensity of their attacks. The Blues played conservatively after they scored. Although Southampton is now able to control the ball their attacks are always deadlocked. Instead, Chelsea's counter-attack continued to threaten the Southampton goalpost.

In the face of Chelsea's solid defense, George decided to bring in Kazuki to replace Osmund. After Kazuki's outstanding performance in three consecutive matches, George started to feel Kazuki was his lucky star. As long as Southampton was at a disadvantage, then George would trust Kazuki to do a miracle.

In addition, George criticized Denilson for Southampton's only chance in the first half missed because of Denilson's selfishness. He also asked Freddy to be more active in helping the attack. Crage will replace Freddy defending the right-wing defense when Freddy goes up to overlap.

In defense, George praised the duo Hilton and Okhalo. Chelsea's goal is not entirely their fault. On the contrary, it is precisely because of them that Southampton has not conceded more than one goal. In the second half, the game will be more difficult but George believes Southampton will be able to overcome this challenge.

The second half of Chelsea's match against Southampton started with kick-offs by Kazuki and Denilson.

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Southampton started the second half in a relaxed manner. They knew a hasty attack would only end in a counter-attack from Chelsea. Chelsea's defense is different from Liverpool's who constantly press. Chelsea's defense is passive and tends to wait for opponents to attack.

In the 48th minute, Southampton started the attack with a counter-movement between Crage and Freddy. Crage descends to lure Maroda forward, while Freddy dashes forward to exploit the gap left by Maroda. After that, Freddy received the pass given by Simone. Shank Lambert cut off Freddy's run space. Freddy was about to give a pass but he saw that all his teammates were being closely guarded. Freddy did a forward lob pass while expecting Kazuki and Denilson to receive the pass.

Even though the pass was hard to reach but Kazuki forced himself to try to get it. Unfortunately, Peter Krech got the ball first.

Kazuki wasn't too disappointed by the failure. Because the opportunity was too forced by Freddy. At that time, as he walked back from the penalty box, Ruiz spoke to him.

"Hey, does your coach think you can turn things around? I think he must be disappointed because his top teenager couldn't do anything in this match," said Ruiz while patting Kazuki on the shoulder.

Kazuki smirked and looked at Ruiz confidently, "I don't know but the last time someone said that to me, he regretted what he said after the match."

Ruiz chuckled and replied to Kazuki, "You have a good imagination. Many young players have illusions about themselves. I will teach you how to face reality."

Some of what Ruiz said was true. Many young players have illusions about their abilities. They fully believe what the media and coaches say about their talent and genius. This gives them the illusion that they are great players. However, it's not like that. Because young players tend to be less known and underestimated, they have less attention in the opponent's defense area rather than that of famous players.

However, once the player is famous, the defenders will learn the strengths and weaknesses of the player. They will analyze how to detain the young player.

This was what Ruiz had done a few days earlier. He studied some of Kazuki's match videos. He knew one of Kazuki's strengths was his composure. When Kazuki was being tightly guarded by Kevin, Kazuki was indeed angry and annoyed but he still maintained his composure and was not provoked. Because of that, he wanted to make Kazuki lose his concentration and composure in this match.

Provoking is one of those scary weapons when done right. One example is in the 2006 World Cup Final. Zidan was sent off after he got a red card because Materrazi provoked him.

Of course, Kazuki knew the importance of playing calmly. That's why he didn't reply to Ruiz's words anymore. He walked away leaving Ruiz. Meanwhile, Ruiz himself knew that provocation was not something that could be done in one go. There were still plenty of opportunities for him to slowly destroy Kazuki's composure.

Although Kazuki has replaced Osmund, Southampton is still struggling to build an attack.

Wright-Phillips in this match was completely helpless against Hosingwa and Essian.. Kazuki felt he had to do something about Wright-Phillips, in this match Wright-Phillips' technical ability was needed to break down the Chelsea defense.

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