West Ham United Football Club, founded in 1895, is located in the Newham district of East London.
This team, founded ten years earlier than Cambridge United, also had its glorious moments in history.
West Ham United has won the FA Cup three times and the European Cup Winners' Cup once.
What makes West Ham United fans most proud is that the team is one of England's top youth academies, hailed by the English media as a football academy. Both Lampard and Terry came from West Ham United's youth system.
West Ham United's crest features crossed golden hammers, symbolizing the team's establishment in 1895 by blacksmith artisans along the River Thames, and the nickname “the Hammers” originates from this.
What's interesting is that Cambridge United will face West Ham United twice in four days. First, they will compete away for a spot in the League Cup third round, and then Cambridge United will return home to play West Ham United again in the Premier League.
Cambridge United spent most of the remaining day and a half on new tactical adjustments. Fortunately, the team only made minor tweaks to their familiar 3-5-2 formation, so the players, after a day of high-intensity training, somewhat grasped Huang Hao's new defensive ideas. As for mastering them, that will likely take some time.
For now, they can only test the effectiveness of Huang Hao's transformation against West Ham United.
On the evening of September 23rd, a light drizzle fell. Cambridge United's team bus slowly pulled up in front of the London Olympic Park Stadium. For Huang Hao, the name “London Stadium” might leave a deeper impression.
As early as 1904, West Ham United adopted Upton Park as their home stadium, and after playing there for over a hundred years, West Ham United successfully obtained the leasehold for the London Olympic Park Stadium, with a lease term of up to 99 years!
The London Olympic Park Stadium, because its appearance resembles a large bowl, is referred to as the London Stadium domestically.
Compared to the London Stadium's construction cost of 489 million pounds, West Ham United only needs to pay 2 million pounds in rent per season for this stadium, which can accommodate 66,000 spectators, clearly a very cost-effective deal.
This was the first time Huang Hao and the Cambridge United players visited the London Stadium. West Ham fans did not seem very interested in this League Cup match, with nearly half of the seats empty and only about 30,000 fans in attendance.
“It seems that a stadium being too big isn’t good either; when it’s not full, it looks really awkward.”
Huang Hao turned his head and chatted with Darren.
Before Darren could respond, the famous “I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles” suddenly rang out in the London Stadium. This song, which translates to “I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles,” is West Ham United's team anthem.
Accompanied by the song, bubble machines around the stadium actually began continuously spraying out large quantities of bubbles! Soon, these bubbles filled the area around the stadium, and the bubbles dancing in the sky looked quite spectacular!
Huang Hao looked at these bubbles and the excited West Ham fans with surprise, finding it hard to imagine that West Ham United, nicknamed “the Hammers” and known for their tough, iron-blooded style, would have such a soft, fresh, and artistic song as their team anthem. He even felt like he was celebrating Children's Day!
As the bubbles gradually dissipated, the English League Cup Second Round knockout match officially began!
Zola's team, as expected, directly deployed the same 4-4-2 formation as Manchester United. Clearly, Manchester United's victory had made it easy for Zola to find a way to defeat Cambridge United.
Just five minutes into the match, after Parker received a pass from Spector on the wing, even when facing a triple-team from Cambridge United, he still found a passing lane and successfully threaded the ball to Carlton Cole in the box!
Cole immediately drew his bow and arrow, shooting the ball towards the goal!
Oblak elegantly stretched his body, using his palm to block the tricky shot onto the crossbar!
The rebound was quickly cleared by Van Dijk!
West Ham was just inches away from scoring!
Zola on the sidelines also regretfully waved his fist.
Pantilimon had recovered from his injury, but Huang Hao still wanted to use this opportunity to help the world's number one goalkeeper, Oblak, grow as quickly as possible.
However, Zola quickly noticed the changes in Cambridge United.
Cambridge United did not press West Ham United's players frantically as they did in the previous match.
After the forwards failed to intercept West Ham's attack, Cambridge United's two lines quickly retreated, greatly compressing the defensive space in the backfield, giving Cambridge United an absolute numerical advantage in their backfield defense.
As a result, West Ham could not, like Manchester United, tear open Cambridge United's defense directly through sharp quick passes.
And when their players entered Cambridge United's attacking third, although Cambridge United was still performing zonal marking, they didn't swarm with two players rushing up together. Instead, it became one player pressing tightly and another cutting off West Ham's passing lanes!
Zola thoughtfully stroked his chin and turned to look at Huang Hao, who was standing on the sidelines.
It seems that not only himself, but this Chinese man also put a lot of effort into analyzing the last match!
While Zola was pondering, West Ham's right-back, Spector, successfully made an overlapping run to Cambridge United's byline.
Cambridge United's defenders quickly took their positions. The player pressing Spector closely was actually Cambridge United's left-winger Mahrez! Cambridge United's left-back Van Dijk did not go forward to block Spector at this time, but instead quickly positioned himself in front of Spector. At the same time, Golonas and Kante also quickly found their marking assignments.
Spector looked up and saw that his three closest teammates were all tightly marked by Cambridge United!
Just as he hesitated between cutting inside or passing to the far post, Mahrez came in!
Mahrez executed a clean and swift slide tackle, not only dispossessing Spector but also successfully keeping the ball at his own feet!
Mahrez agilely got up and followed with a long pass, directly finding Lewandowski in midfield! Lewandowski, while trapping the ball, gently nudged it forward, then turned, directly evading Upson's defense!
At this point, only Tomkins was left in West Ham's backfield!
Lewandowski easily chipped the ball over Tomkins' head!
Vardy, lurking beside Tomkins, sprinted towards West Ham's penalty area!
When Vardy successfully received the ball in front of West Ham's big penalty area, five West Ham players were frantically sprinting back to defend behind him!
Clearly, Vardy wouldn't foolishly wait for his opponents. He quickly dribbled into the box, and facing Green's charge, he effortlessly chipped the ball into the top left corner of the goal!
0:1!!!
Eight minutes into the match, Cambridge United scored their first goal at the London Stadium!
The more than 7,000 Cambridge United fans, who didn't expect such sudden happiness, jumped for joy!
After conceding, West Ham United had no intention of surrendering the victory and immediately intensified their siege on Cambridge United's goal.
But to be safe, Zola still instructed Upson and Tomkins to hold the backline to prevent Cambridge United's quick counter-attacks.
What made Tomkins difficult was that Vardy's position did not seem to be that of a traditional striker. When off the ball, his position would even drop back to midfield, so most of the time, Tomkins could not tightly mark Vardy, but maintained an ambiguous distance, which was very awkward.
Vardy didn't care about any of this. As someone who could originally play as a winger, he felt no discomfort with Huang Hao's arrangement. Seeing Tomkins' hesitant demeanor, he felt a bit smug.
West Ham was clearly somewhat unaccustomed to Cambridge United, who played completely differently from their coach's deployment. Especially when attacking, Cambridge United did not form a chained defense with parallel positioning as usual.
When the opponent gained possession, Kante would quickly run back to the edge of his own penalty area, while Vardy would make up for the lack of numbers in midfield.
As a result, Cambridge United seemed to transform into a 5-4-1, and their backline defense became layered.
Once West Ham was forced to shift their attack to the flanks, Cambridge United's wide midfielders and defensive midfielders quickly formed local interception units. Even if West Ham managed to cross, the ball would mostly be headed away by Cambridge United's players.
Therefore, in the subsequent attacks, West Ham's shots were often long-range efforts from outside the box. These shots either hit Cambridge United players or were safely gathered by Oblak.
For a moment, Zola felt that Huang Hao, this junior, seemed to have given him a difficult problem, as if deliberately testing him.
Oblak calmly held Upson's header, quickly passed the ball to Lovren beside him, and when Lovren passed the ball back to him, Oblak looked at Mahrez in the distance and powerfully kicked the ball towards midfield!
At this moment, West Ham's players had not yet returned to defend!
Mahrez received Oblak's pass in the attacking third, and with the momentum, flicked the ball to Lewandowski in front!
Lewandowski, after gaining possession, made a sudden stop and change of direction, successfully shaking off Tomkins' defense.
Then Lewandowski nudged the ball forward, followed by a powerful shot!
The ball grazed the right post and flew out of bounds, eliciting a gasp from West Ham fans!
The scene shifted, and Di Michele's long-range shot was somewhat weak, with the ball rolling obediently into Oblak's arms.
Although West Ham did not have a clear disadvantage in terms of possession, once they entered Cambridge United's core defensive area, they seemed at a loss.
And when Cambridge United transitioned from defense to attack, Ayu and Vardy's positions became unpredictable! Cambridge United did not, as before, constantly play balls behind West Ham from both flanks, but instead focused on the middle.
Ayu often made forward runs, appearing in the attacking midfield position, while Vardy's range of activity was even larger, seemingly everywhere from midfield to striker!
Zola's pre-match tactical deployment seemed to not describe the Cambridge United team currently in front of him. This also meant that West Ham's players could only temporarily set aside their Head Coach's instructions and continue the match based on their own judgment.
28 minutes into the first half, the score remained 0:1, with Cambridge United maintaining their lead. At this point, West Ham United won a corner kick.
Although Cambridge United had seven defenders positioned in the box, Noble steadfastly sent the ball towards the far post!
Cole sprinted from outside the six-yard box to the goalmouth, using his run-up to jump high!
And Lovren, who was a full 6 cm shorter than Cole, clearly could not stop him from taking off!
Cole, with a clear advantage, powerfully headed the ball into the top left corner of the goal!
Despite Oblak stretching his limbs with all his might, he still couldn't prevent the ball from slipping under his armpit and into the net!
1:1!
West Ham United successfully equalized the score from a set piece opportunity!
After some celebration, Zola's furrowed brows did not relax.
He, who had been full of confidence before the match, completely lost his composure when facing this seemingly different Cambridge United.