After the match began, Moyes's anxiety grew even worse.
He was always worried that his own problems would become Liverpool's breakthrough point, and this emotion had been affecting him, leaving him no time to think about anything else.
He was worried that the team would concede a goal first, maybe within five minutes, maybe within ten minutes, maybe within fifteen minutes.
And he couldn't do anything about it.
But what he was worried about didn't actually happen.
The FA Cup final had already started for twenty minutes, and the score was still 0:0. The two sides were tied.
It wasn't that Everton's performance was particularly tenacious, nor that Liverpool's attack was particularly weak.
The reason for this tie was... the referee's standard of judgment.
The referee for this match, James, was the one who had caused huge controversy this season. When he officiated the Merseyside derby, he made many obvious calls favoring Everton.
Later, when the FA decided to let him officiate the FA Cup final, it caused quite a stir.
But the FA's reasons were also impeccable. As a leader of the younger generation of English referees, Jameson was naturally qualified to officiate the FA Cup, even though he had made mistakes in the Merseyside derby. However, he had also been punished by being suspended from officiating the remaining league games of the season, which was enough. They couldn't very well ask the FA to ban this referee they were focusing on developing for life, could they?
Everyone could see that the FA was letting James officiate the FA Cup final to comfort, or rather, to compensate this young referee who had been suspended until the end of the season.
Some media said that they were deliberately targeting Liverpool, and the FA also had something to say.
"When we made this decision, the FA Cup semi-finals had not yet begun, and we did not know that Liverpool would eventually reach the FA Cup final. Therefore, all claims that the FA is targeting Liverpool Football Club are unreasonable!"
Literally speaking, there was nothing wrong with what the FA said. They were not prophets who could foresee the future, so at the time they did not know whether Liverpool could reach the final, so it was wrong to say that they were targeting Liverpool.
Even if Liverpool's reserves were strong, football is round, and who knows what would happen at that time?
What if Liverpool were eliminated?
No matter how small the probability, it still existed, even if it was only 0.001 percent, it could not be ignored.
So the FA's explanation was perfect, even if everyone knew what was going on, they couldn't criticize them.
James's standard of judgment in this match was very lenient.
A lenient standard of judgment ensured the smooth progress of the match, which, in theory, should have been a good thing.
But specific problems should be analyzed specifically.
It's not always good to have lenient enforcement in all situations.
For example, when Everton players made big moves...
This time, James didn't obviously favor one team over the other. He didn't make as many calls in favor of Everton and against Liverpool as he did in the last match.
This time, whether Liverpool fouled Everton or Everton fouled Liverpool, James's standard of judgment was very lenient, and he didn't blow the whistle if he could avoid it, allowing the match to proceed smoothly.
It seemed like this was fair.
But anyone who had watched the match, as long as their IQ wasn't negative, knew that there was a big problem here.
Because Everton was on the defensive, they defended more and needed to foul with big moves more often.
Therefore, in reality, this lenient standard of judgment was more beneficial to Everton, and Liverpool enjoyed fewer opportunities.
As a result, Liverpool's attacks were repeatedly interrupted by Everton's rough defense, but referee James made no indication.
Of course, Liverpool players could also use rough moves to counter-attack.
But after all, Everton still had the advantage.
At first, no one noticed.
An Everton player made a tackle from behind on Carlton Cole, knocking Cole and the ball to the ground. At that time, there was an exclamation in the stadium stands, and even the commentators shouted, "That's a foul! He should get a card for that move!"
The Everton player who committed the foul was also frightened after the foul. As a professional player, he knew exactly what that move meant.
So he quickly jumped up to defend himself, saying that he had tackled the ball, not deliberately fouled.
In fact, this defense was far-fetched, and everyone could see how hard he had just kicked.
The problem was that James actually believed his defense!
Although he called the foul, he did not show a yellow card or a red card. He just verbally warned the player a few times.
If this was the first call of the match, it wouldn't necessarily explain the problem, but then, when he didn't call fouls that the commentators said were fouls, and only gave verbal warnings for fouls that the commentators said should be carded, everyone suddenly realized.
James's standard of judgment in this match was very broad, very broad.
Of course, James wasn't so lenient with all calls. Sometimes he still had to show a card when he needed to. But that was only occasional and did not affect his overall standard of judgment. Otherwise, everyone wouldn't have thought that James's standard of judgment in this match was so lenient.
You have to know that even acting requires skill. If it's too blatant, it will always leave too many excuses for others.
This thing is like a layer of window paper. Everyone knows it, but it's just not easy to break through.
Everyone knows why James's standard of judgment is so lenient in this match, but as long as he does some cover-up, then it's not easy for everyone to call him out on it.
But some people don't care so much.
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Chen Hero was very unhappy now.
He knew what James was doing this for. Wasn't it just to encourage Everton to use even bigger moves to defend Liverpool's attack?
Look now, he had achieved his goal. With his tacit approval and even encouragement, Everton's players were making bigger and bigger defensive moves.
And Liverpool's players were starting to hold back in their attacks because they were afraid of getting injured.
The initiative of the match was slowly shifting from Liverpool to Everton.
Everton was just defending to the death, and facing such a dead defense, Liverpool was actually a bit helpless.
It had been more than twenty minutes, and Liverpool had not been able to break through Everton's goal.
And the reason for all of this was the referee who made him very unhappy.
Chen Hero regretted that he hadn't just taken that bastard down last time.
But now he still had a chance.
He even felt that Liverpool's biggest enemy at the moment was not Everton, but that damn referee James.
He was waiting for a great opportunity.
※※※
More than twenty minutes had passed, and Everton had not conceded a goal yet.
Moyes's anxious heart finally calmed down slowly.
No matter what unknown flaws he had on his side, Liverpool hadn't scored yet, which meant his team was safe.
Of course, he also knew what the main reason was why Liverpool hadn't scored yet.
But this was benefiting his team, so he couldn't say anything. He would just pretend he didn't see it. Just like last time.
Because of Liverpool's monopoly on various championships, Moyes now felt that as long as he could get the championship, he didn't care what means he used. Facing the consistently strong Liverpool, Moyes would also have this kind of thinking.
Feeling relieved, he sat back down on the bench.
This was the first time he had sat down since the match began.
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Thirty minutes were about to pass, and Liverpool, under the rough defense of Everton's players, lacked a solution, so the score was still 0:0.
Chen Hero waited for a few minutes and didn't get a chance. He decided to take the initiative.
Taking advantage of a dead ball, he found his teammates on the back line and asked him to pass a message to the goalkeeper Stella.
"Next time you kick a long ball or a goal kick, kick the ball at referee James's head!"
The player who relayed the message was stunned for a moment.
Chen Hero didn't have time to explain to him, so he just patted him on the shoulder, "Just tell him that!"
He had absolute authority in the reserves, so this player didn't ask why and obediently ran back.
Soon, goalkeeper Stella heard Chen Hero's words from him.
He didn't quite understand why Chen Hero wanted him to do this either.
But out of absolute trust in Chen Hero, he decided to follow his instructions.
For a goalkeeper to be able to kick a goal kick or a long ball wherever he's told is a basic skill for goalkeepers. A goalkeeper who can't even kick a good goal kick or long ball is definitely not a qualified goalkeeper.
Even the reserve team's goalkeeper had this ability.
So Chen Hero's request was not difficult for Stella.
To know why Hero wanted him to do this, it was simple, just kick the ball over.
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It wasn't that Everton didn't have any attacking opportunities, but they were few and far between compared to Liverpool. But there were always some.
Three minutes later, they shot again, but it went wide.
Liverpool got a goal kick.
Stella placed the ball and then looked up to observe the front. Of course, he first looked for the referee.
The referee was wearing a bright yellow uniform, which was very conspicuous in the red and blue jerseys.
After he found referee James, he noticed Chen Hero near James.
Was he using Stella as a passing target to launch an attack?
But he couldn't figure out what the mystery was in the referee's position.
Forget it, it's useless to think so much. Just kick the ball out and wait for the results. Thinking like this, Stella kicked the ball over.
Next, he waited for something to happen.
But nothing happened.
He kicked the ball out, referee James saw the ball flying towards him, so he moved out of the way, and in the end Chen Hero headed the ball.
Nothing happened.
Chen Hero passed the ball to his teammates, then turned around and ran forward, pretending to receive the ball.
Everything was normal, so normal that it couldn't be more normal.
Goalkeeper Stella stood in the penalty area, looking at Chen Hero in confusion.
He still couldn't figure out why Chen Hero wanted him to do this.