Hodgson, on the sidelines, was terrified, for although Schwarzer bravely thwarted Cambridge United's two close-range headers, what did that signify?
Fulham's defense would still give Cambridge United opportunities to shoot inside the box!
He steadfastly demanded that his team strengthen their defense, never changing his initial goals and ideas for the match.
The Fulham players, having defended for an hour, were now even more unified in their defensive efforts to prevent their hard work from going to waste.
After 60 minutes of the match, Cambridge United's attacking players' stamina began to noticeably decline. Mahrez, on his side, was struggling to make runs.
He made two consecutive dribbling errors, and Mahrez alone gave Fulham two counter-attacking opportunities within five minutes; one was successfully intercepted by Kante with a precise tackle in the backfield, and the other allowed Murphy to take a long-range shot from outside the box, fortunately, the angle was a bit central, and it was directly collected by the Goalkeeper Oblak.
In the 70th minute of the match, Huang Hao used his last substitution, bringing on Smith and dropping Juninho back a bit.
It was a sign of backing down, and Swansea's fierce attacking momentum slowed somewhat.
Tadić's side was also affected; the left-wing attack couldn't pose a threat, allowing Fulham to specifically defend and freeze Tadić, which meant Cambridge United's two-wing attack tactic could no longer be executed.
When the match reached the 75th minute, Huang Hao simply waved his hand, ordering Cambridge United to retreat en masse; except for Kane and Lewandowski who remained on the frontline, all other attacking players fell back to midfield.
Huang Hao wanted to see how Fulham would approach the match without pressure.
At this moment, the Fulham players might have truly been momentarily lost.
When Cambridge United stopped their relentless attack, where should they go?
This was their home field after all; did they have no desire to attack at all?
Of course, they did!
Did they not want to win?
Of course, they did!
But after Hodgson made a gesture from the sidelines for the team to stabilize their defense, the Fulham players dispelled any thoughts of aggressive attacking.
Cambridge United looked like they were running out of steam.
But who knew if that was true?
One or two players might be tired, but even if just one player had ample stamina, they might be able to pull off a long-distance run straight to the goal!
Hodgson dared not take risks; at this point, he no longer thought about the glory of winning, but rather about doing his best to ensure the team's immense effort wasn't in vain!
No, if Cambridge United scored a last-minute winner, he would face criticism and attacks from the media, disappoint countless fans, and potentially lead to distrust in the locker room.
The cost of failure was too great; compared to the reward of successfully scoring a last-minute winner against Cambridge United, if they risked attacking and failed, it would instead be a net loss.
Huang Hao was truly on the verge of a mental breakdown because of Hodgson in this match!
Luring the enemy? Failed.
Giving up the initiative? Failed.
Damn it!
Fulham showed no determination to win at home!
If he had known earlier that the match would turn out this way, he would have made different arrangements, from the starting lineup to the tactical approach.
Unfortunately, he wasn't a god; how could he have imagined that Fulham would really be so cowardly!
By the 80th minute of the match, Cambridge United could only try to create threats through long balls and crosses, but Kane alone, along with a somewhat fatigued Lewandowski and Vardy, found it difficult to win aerial balls inside the Fulham box.
When Juninho collapsed on the field with a calf cramp in the 82nd minute, Huang Hao's face on the sidelines turned extremely grim.
Hodgson still methodically kept Fulham focused on defense; if there was no opportunity to attack, they wouldn't attack, patiently organizing their offense, and if Zamora was in a good position, they would try a long ball or cross.
Even the commentators believed the match had entered garbage time.
Fulham didn't want to attack, and Cambridge United was willing but unable, so the match quickly reached injury time.
At this moment, Huang Hao suddenly shouted to the players on the field: "Charge, attack!"
With a wave of his hand, Juninho, Kante, dropped to the very back.
Lovren, Van Dijk, and other tall players all charged forward.
Smith and Tadić were on both flanks, ready to receive and cross the ball into the box at any time, while Kane and Lewandowski were already waiting in the box.
This move by Huang Hao almost gave Hodgson a heart attack!
The scene on the field suddenly changed, with five Cambridge United players surging into the Fulham penalty area, showing a decisive, do-or-die attitude. Hodgson immediately waved towards the backfield, shouting for his players to return and defend.
Smith was double-teamed at the 45-degree crossing point in the attacking third; he immediately passed the ball diagonally back, Gotze made a quick transfer in the center, and the ball rolled to Tadić's feet on the right wing. Tadić dared not lose the ball, so upon reaching the dangerous attacking zone, he immediately crossed.
The quality of this cross was very ordinary because the ball spent too long in the air.
As the ball came down, Kane and Schwarzer collided in the air; Schwarzer was first to punch the ball away, while Kane, after colliding with Schwarzer in the air causing him to lose balance, fell inside the box.
The Head Referee blew his whistle, penalizing Kane for fouling the Goalkeeper.
Kane was helpless about this; he tried to help Schwarzer up, but Schwarzer remained on the ground and didn't take his hand, and the surrounding Fulham players gently pushed Kane away.
Clearly, Schwarzer also delayed for a bit of time.
The Fulham fans in the stands at Craven Cottage breathed a sigh of relief.
Hodgson felt as if he had turned a corner from the gates of hell and returned to the land of the living.
He had to admire Huang Hao; although Cambridge United only had about two good opportunities within the 90 minutes of this match, from a tactical command perspective, Huang Hao had repeatedly created difficulties for him, and even the final all-out attack was so grand and magnificent, it was just a pity that the players' final execution was quite ordinary.
When the Head Referee blew the final whistle, a deafening cheer erupted at Craven Cottage!
Fulham fans were excited and happy to have drawn with Cambridge United!
No one, not a single Fulham fan, would have expected before the season that they would celebrate a draw against Cambridge United today!
But Cambridge United's performance in these Premier League matches, they had shown such dominance that even a draw against them was a luxury!
Today, Fulham did it, Hodgson did it.
They stopped Cambridge United, not for Arsenal, not for Manchester United, not for Chelsea, but only for themselves!
Huang Hao walked towards Hodgson after the match, briefly shook hands with him, and then turned to walk towards the player tunnel. The Cambridge United players were extremely unwilling; their winning streak had been ended once again!
After Huang Hao returned to the locker room, he instead praised the players' performance. He didn't negate their efforts because of the result, and besides, getting a draw wasn't a disaster like a loss, so there wasn't much to worry about.
As for Huang Hao's comments about Brian Horton in the post-match interview, Hodgson would surely be unhappy to hear them.
"I don't understand what Fulham has to be happy about. On their home ground, they played so spinelessly. Their way of playing seems completely meaningless. I don't oppose opponents using defensive counter-attacking tactics, that's very common, but I've truly seen few teams that only defend without even attempting to counter-attack.
If every team were like Fulham, I'm afraid the Premier League's attendance would continuously decline, and fans would drift away from the stadiums. No one would be willing to come and watch such boring and dull matches anymore."
"Damn it!!!"
Huang Hao suddenly sat up from the bed, and a layer of dense sweat immediately appeared on his forehead.
Lin Kexin quickly turned on the bedside lamp, looking at Huang Hao with concern.
At this moment, Huang Hao seemed not to have fully woken up from his dream, constantly panting heavily, looking shaken.
"Mister Coach, did you have a nightmare?"
Lin Kexin asked in as gentle a tone as possible, afraid of startling Huang Hao.
After a while, Huang Hao gently shook his head, trying to clear his mind.
"I dreamed of coaching a match again, and the opponent scored four goals, phew!"
After exhaling deeply, Huang Hao finally calmed down, looking at Lin Kexin apologetically:
"I'm sorry, dear, did I scare you?"
Lin Kexin's face was full of tenderness, and she smiled, shaking her head.
"It's okay. You've been under too much stress lately, haven't you? When you have time, I can give you a few acupuncture needles, they work very well."
A series of tough battles was not only a torment for the players but equally so for the Head Coach.
The moment Huang Hao heard the words 'acupuncture,' his head started to ache. Although he had complete faith in Lin Kexin's medical skills, a strange fear arose in Huang Hao's heart when he saw those long silver needles.
"Uh, no, no need, I'll be fine with a little rest, just a little rest."
With that, Huang Hao directly hugged Lin Kexin and drill into the covers again, giving Lin Kexin no chance at all!
In the conference room at Cambridge United's training base, Huang Hao, accompanied by his two capable assistants, Adams and Evans, was currently conducting a video conference with several individuals displayed on the large screen.
The individuals appearing on the large screen were the Cambridge United scouts scattered across Europe and South America.
These were just Cambridge United's full-time employees; in addition, Cambridge United also had dozens of part-time scouts spread across the globe.
For every valuable player profile they provided to the club, they could receive a bonus of 10-100 pounds, but all these profiles would be vetted by several full-time scouts, so to earn a high bonus, a great deal of effort was also required.
In terms of club operations, the two departments Huang Hao was most willing to spend money on were the data analysis team and the scouting team.
As early as when Cambridge United was still battling in the EFL Championship, Huang Hao had already extended his scouting network to the South American region, which was unimaginable for most EFL Championship and even Premier League teams.
Especially after Brexit and the restriction on signing players under 18 from abroad, this expenditure seemed particularly irrational.
However, despite this, Huang Hao insisted on investing without expecting returns. If it weren't for his identity as the club chairman, Huang Hao would probably have been packed up and gone.
In mid-January, Cambridge United and the renowned game company Sports Interactive signed a long-term cooperation agreement, becoming the first Premier League team to adopt a data model scouting system.
SI would assist the club's scouts in filtering through the global database and unearthing talented young players using their self-developed scouting system.
At the same time, SI also developed exclusive mobile apps for players and scouts. Players could upload their training and match videos, and the backend would automatically analyze various data, such as speed, strength, and shooting performance, and provide relevant assessment reports to scouts for reference.
With the assistance of artificial intelligence, the work efficiency of Cambridge United's scouts would be greatly improved, freeing them from the nightmare of writing reports every day.
Of course, at the current level of artificial intelligence, it cannot completely replace the work of scouts. After all, the players whose reports truly make it to Huang Hao's desk are those who have been tracked and monitored by scouts for several weeks, and whose performances have been observed in numerous live matches.
Sometimes, Cambridge United's scouts even need to act like secret agents, tracking their targets outside of training and matches to ensure that the target players do not have too many bad habits or controversial remarks, to avoid becoming a ticking time bomb for the team in the future.
With a perfect scouting system, highly professional scouts, and scientific comprehensive consideration, Huang Hao is working step by step to build a scouting network that surpasses those of top clubs.
