THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME



At least seventy-five minutes before the time fixed for the kick-off of any league match, a representative of each participating club had to submit a team sheet by methods approved by the Serie A governing body. The submitted information would contain particulars like the names and shirt numbers of all the team's players (including the substitutes), the color of the team's jerseys (including what the keeper would wear), plus the names and job titles of up to seven officials that would occupy the technical bench during that league match.

The time that Saturday was 8:00 PM, and only an hour remained before the scheduled kick-off of the highly anticipated Serie A league match between Juventus and Empoli. Maurizio Sarri, the head coach of Empoli, had already submitted the mandated team sheet for his club and, in turn, received the one for Juventus. At that moment, he was seated beside Francesco Calzona, his assistant, in the visitor's dressing room of the Juventus stadium. The 'two of them' were reviewing Juventus' team sheet together while waiting for their players to return from their pre-match dynamic warm-up.

A solemn expression particularly outlined Coach Maurizio Sarri's face as his eyes took in the name after another name of Juventus' starting eleven. As expected, Coach Max Allegri had rested most of his starting players and fielded a team almost full of second-stringers. But as far as Maurizio Sarri was concerned, that weaker Juventus team was still enough to give Empoli a big challenge.

Angelo Ogbonna, Leonardo Bonucci, and Andrea Barzagli were the men in Juventus' defense of three. Then, Stefano Sturaro, Zachary Bemba, Simone Padoin, Patrice Evra, and the young Federico Mattiello made up the midfield of five. And finally, Coach Allegri fielded Fernando Llorente and Álvaro Morata as the two strikers to complete Juventus' 3-5-2 formation.

It was not the best squad according to Juventus' usual standards. But, with a player like Zachary, the Old Lady's starting eleven still had strong enough tactical prowess and individual brilliance within their ranks to overpower Empoli and go home with the three points. With all that in mind, Maurizio Sarri had not stopped working out strategies to ensure a win for his players against such on-form opponents.

"What we expected happened," Francesco Calzona, his assistant, remarked beside him. "They rested most of their players who played international games over the past seven days. The only surprise listings in their starting eleven are Zachary Bemba, Patrice Evra, Leonardo Bonucci, and Fernando Llorente."

"Yes," Maurizio Sarri grunted a response. "Zachary's presence is a surprise. But it's good that we prepared tactics against him beforehand. At least, without Pirlo and the other Juventus regular starters to support him, we'll find it easier to execute those tactics and contain him on the field of play."

"Yeah!" Francesco Calzona agreed. "We're lucky to face off against a much weaker Juventus team. If we stick to the game plan and remain focused, we'll definitely come out on top against them today."

Maurizio Sarri nodded. His team, Empoli, was only eleven points above the relegation spots. As such, he would be in even deeper shit and closer to the red zone if he failed to at least go home with a point after the match. More than anything, he needed to find a way to overpower Juventus even while playing away from home. He had to encourage his players to go for a desirable result and, in so doing, increase the gap between him and the teams occupying the relegation spots.

The time passed quickly as the two coaches reviewed the match sheets, and when the clock hands around Turin were about to point to the 8:30 PM mark, the Empoli players returned to the dressing room after their warm-up. They settled on the seats around the dressing room and began their final preparations for the game.

A few more minutes passed, and after Coach Maurizio Sarri judged that the time was right, he took center stage. He spent the next quarter of an hour talking about the main points of the game plan, which included playing with a 4-3-1-2 defensive formation with three holding midfielders. He also emphasized the need to remain focused during the game before touching upon the importance of taking advantage of set pieces, like corner kicks, to create golden opportunities against a much stronger Juventus side. Eventually, the coach ended his speech with encouraging words to boost his players' morale before summoning his three defensive midfielders to one side.

"Croce! Valdifiori! Vecino!" The coach looked at his three defensive midfielders with a solemn expression. "As we discussed, you have vital roles during today's match. You three will take turns marking Zachary Bemba throughout the entire duration of the game."

"I have disclosed plenty of information about Zachary during the past few preparatory tactical meetings. He is a genius of a creative playmaker who thrives when you allow him to move freely between the lines and pick out passes and shots as he wishes. He has sublime ball technique, exceptional passing, superior vision, rock-solid composure, and world-class flair, especially with the ball at his feet."

"All those qualities allow him to remain cunning and press-resistant, even at crucial moments. If you lose sight of him for even a minute, he will not hesitate to immediately carve out beautiful through balls and smart forward passes, which can be a thorn to deal with. Moreover, Zachary also possesses potent dribbling abilities, okay physical power, impressive work rate & aggression, plus world-class decision-making and anticipation. He's really a handful of a playmaker, but we can still stop him today if you three work hand in hand to limit his impact on the game."

The coach's voice turned more vibrant. "By using specific man-marking strategies and sticking close to him, you can reduce the time he got to do some purpose with the ball to the bare minimum. By staying 'particularly' close to him, you can make it more challenging for him to play forward passes or cut through the middle wherever he wants."

"Judging from past performances, Zachary always favors playing forward passes to a wing-back cutting in from the flanks or setting up the strikers darting forward through the middle with defense splitting passes between the lines. Other times, he can go at it alone and cut in from the wing while dribbling toward the goal. So, how do you three stop him?"

"You tight mark him to the very end. You deny him space and time to pick out the passes while blocking his vision and the most obvious passing options. However, remember not to panic at crucial moments. You only have to hold your position and stop him from driving forward and past you with his dribbling and speed. If you accomplish that, your teammates will have all the time in the world to fall back into shape and help combat against the danger."

"Take my word for it," the coach continued, "Any player, no matter how talented, will not perform at his best when he has someone constantly breathing down his neck. For instance, if you tightly mark Zachary, he will most likely always receive the ball with his back toward the goal and then fail to turn and lay off passes to players in the spaces ahead of him. And with that, you three will have achieved your goal of making him unable to advance play into the final third in a manner he would have wanted. Clear?"

"Yes, coach! We understand." The three holding midfielders replied solemnly.

The coach smiled and continued. "Remember, tight marking alone isn't enough to contain a player as skilled and talented as Zachary. You three have to go all out and quickly turn the game from a battle of skill to a contest of physicality and aggression whenever he receives the ball. You can tackle him hard, bump into him with such force and momentum that he shudders, or pull his shirt when the referee's line of vision is blocked. I'm not encouraging you to behave like foolish rogues by committing silly and outlandish fouls that will bring us trouble. All I am saying is that you remain patient while using your intelligence to nip at his tenacity. Use your strength against him, trip him a little when there's a chance, or execute other inconspicuous fouls until they pile up to the point of frustrating him and affecting his performance on the field of play."

"Moreover, by constantly harassing him, you'll tire him out fast. At first, he may beat you with his superior ball skills. But if you remain tenacious and torment him like a parasite, his stamina reserves will drain fast, and he will quickly turn into another run-of-the-mill midfielder on the field of play. Have you guys registered all that I have said in your heads?" The coach looked at the three players before him.

"Yes, coach," the three holding midfielders replied.

"That's good, then." Coach Maurizio Sarri nodded. "At any given time, one of you three must remain with Zachary to tight mark him while the other two cover the other spaces in the defensive midfield. You must not allow him to leave your sights even for a second on the pitch. Is that clear?"

"Yes, coach," the players replied solemnly again.

The coach smiled and glanced at his watch. He stepped away from his three holding midfielders and said a few more last-minute encouraging words to his other players. Then, when the clock hands around Turin pointed to the 8:50 PM mark, he dismissed his players from the visitor's dressing room and sent them toward the pitch for the match.

Over the past week, he had done his best to develop targeted strategies for the match against Juventus. He had spent many hours at night watching past match videos featuring players like Zachary Bemba, Andrea Pirlo, and the other creative Juventus players before conjuring plans to limit their influence on the pitch. He had passed all the details of the approaches he had come up with to his players in the best way he could over the past few days of training. Now that the time of the game had arrived, he only yearned to see them execute his game plan in a perfect manner before going on to defeat the Italian football giant that was Juventus.

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