Football Dynasty

Mourinho scribbled on the tactical board, then pointed to the goal line. "Fullbacks need to push deeper into the attack. The wingers should avoid blindly cutting inside and instead maintain spacing and layers to stretch their defense."

He outlined a tactical shift: using both wings to pull the defense apart, maximizing the chances of exploiting weaknesses while adding a striker in the box. This setup would stretch the opposition's formation, with two wingers wide and supported by Zidane and Neil Lennon.

The attacking players would use layers of movement to slice through the defensive line. Once an opponent slipped up, City would be ready to capitalize.

"On the flanks, you can try to create opportunities. But inside the box—if you don't have a shot—hold the ball, change the tempo suddenly, and force them into mistakes."

The players listened intently, memorizing their roles for the second-half attacks. While the instructions weren't rigid, they needed to commit to the overall tactical principles.

Sometimes, the emergence of a goal doesn't rely solely on the orchestrator, the facilitator, or the scorer; teammates who never touch the ball still play critical roles through their movements and distractions, even if those contributions go unnoticed by the spectators.

Mourinho capped the pen, turned, and raised his voice. "That's the key. Stick to the plan, and we'll break them. This is our match—let's kill them!"

The room erupted, players slapping thighs, fists bumping, voices rising together. The second half was waiting, and City were ready to tear open West Ham's wall.

As the second half kicked off, took his seat on the bench just as the substitutions were made.

As the second half began, West Ham quickly reverted to a defensive stance, with only Cannavaro remaining deep in their half, while Makelele patrolled near the center circle to guard against counterattacks. The two fullbacks, Zanetti and Capdevila, pushed beyond the halfway line, each taking turns to join the attack.

Up front, City's attacking formation was built around two central midfielders supported by wingers, with two strikers ahead of them, creating a layered siege.

O'Neill and Mourinho sat calmly, knowing that breaking through a compact defense was a universal challenge.

Mourinho wasn't worried about teams that played offensively; sides like West Ham, with their counterattacking style, offered Manchester City space to exploit. What truly concerned him were teams utterly committed to defense—their static yet dense structure squeezed the pitch to its limits, neutralizing the strikers' advantages and particularly stifling their speed.

The stalemate continued, but City's influence began to grow. West Ham's defense, though solid, wasn't flawless. Occasional errors forced teammates to scramble, maintaining a constant state of high tension.

Twenty minutes later, Mourinho decisively replaced Makelele with Lampard.

The substitution made sense—Makelele had little to do in such a congested match. On rare occasions when he had shooting chances, after receiving a pass back from Zidane or Lennon, his efforts only ended up in the stands.

Lampard, though still young, possessed superior long-range shooting ability and was the perfect box-to-box midfielder.

Even so, Mourinho cautioned him not to be overly aggressive, given the abundance of attacking players already on the pitch. Maintaining proper spacing and a structured system was crucial; otherwise, they risked slipping back into old-fashioned, disorganized play.

City repeatedly used the fullbacks' overlapping runs to stretch West Ham's defensive shape. The approach resembled Manchester United's style, except applied horizontally, forcing defenders to shift side to side and opening small but crucial gaps.

The alternating crosses and back passes only heightened the tension in the stands.

PHWEEEEE~

"O'Neill opted for another substitution at halftime, replacing the unexpected Ronaldo and Larsson with Henry and Trezeguet. To be honest, Martin, this change doesn't warrant much debate—I don't know what's happened with that duo today, but keeping them on seemed unnecessary. Early in the second half, Larsson even pushed forward as a striker, yet all he managed were a few headers. And Ronaldo… I'm not sure what's going on—his dribbling tonight just isn't effective. Martin, do you think this has anything to do with the Ballon d'Or result?"

"It's a fair question, Andy. Ronaldo came into this match carrying the weight of expectation. Everyone thought he'd use that Ballon d'Or disappointment as fuel, but instead, he looks… flat—almost like the spark is missing."

"It could be fatigue, or maybe just the pressure of the occasion—"

With Henry and Trezeguet's arrival, the threat from their runs increased markedly. Trezeguet even missed a golden chance, his shot cleared off the line by a desperate defender's body.

In the seventy-ninth minute, Manchester City finally carved out their opening.

Zidane received a cross and, without taking a touch, instantly laid it off to the left for Pires. After controlling the ball, Pires feigned a forward surge, only to let it rest for a split second. That pause deceived West Ham's Julian Dicks, who instinctively pulled back, unwittingly dragging the defensive line forward.

That brief hesitation was all it took. A gap appeared.

Pires threaded a clever ball through the channel, and Zanetti, bursting forward with perfect timing, stormed to the byline before whipping in a low, driven cross.

In the middle, Trezeguet battled shoulder to shoulder with Steve Potts. The two clashed, neither willing to give an inch. The ball ricocheted dangerously in the crowded box—first off Potts's shin, then spinning awkwardly across the six-yard line.

But no one expected the young Lampard to be the one who pounced. He darted ahead of his marker, swung his right foot, and volleyed the ball cleanly toward goal.

THUMP!

The strike cannoned off the underside of the bar, rattling the frame. For a heartbeat, the entire stadium fell silent, every eye locked on the spinning ball.

It bounced down, skimmed along the inside of the post, and finally nestled in the back of the net.

The silence shattered into an explosion of noise. The crowd roared, players rushed to embrace Lampard, and the Etihad trembled with the kind of wild euphoria that only a breakthrough goal can bring—a release of tension, like long-awaited rain after a punishing drought.

On the touchline, Harry Redknapp was livid. His face flushed crimson as he lashed out at a nearby advertising board, furious that his side's rigid defensive shape had been undone by a seconds.

On the opposite bench, Mourinho was momentarily disoriented. From his seat, he hadn't seen exactly how the ball had gone in—only the eruption of players and fans told him something extraordinary had happened. He scrawled notes furiously, mind racing, piecing the picture together from the chaos in front of him.

Once confirmation reached him, Mourinho sprang to his feet, both fists clenched in triumph.

Searching for O'Neill, he caught his eye, and when their gazes met, the two men shared a grin—half relief, half exhilaration.

"We did it!" Mourinho shouted, his voice nearly lost beneath the roar of the crowd. "We actually broke them!"

O'Neill clapped him on the shoulder, his face flushed with excitement. "We did it, José—we did it together. The plan worked...!

At that very moment, miles away in Palo Alto, Richard leapt up from his seat in the Garden Court Hotel lounge. Surrounded by a few startled guests, he clenched his fists the same way Mourinho did on the touchline, unable to contain himself.

The television replay showed Lampard's volley crashing in off the bar, and Richard's voice broke out in unison with the cheers from Manchester.

A hand nudged his shoulder helplessly. Stuart and his Goldman Sachs friend had no choice but to wait—Richard stubbornly chose to focus on Manchester City rather than the presentation.

Later that afternoon, Steve Jobs would take the stage to present his NeXT OS design, followed by Jean-Louis showcasing his Be OS system.

Well before Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon existed, Bill Gates was still the CEO of Microsoft and Apple was about to go out of business. There were a lot of reasons for Microsoft's dominance and Apple's failings in the 90s, but a big one was that Apple's operating system was old. Really old. So the company needed to build or buy a new one to catch up.

There were two obvious companies for Apple to buy, Be and NeXT.

The problem was that Apple was already a public company. Richard couldn't treat it like a nimble startup that could be acquired overnight. Every move required navigating shareholder expectations, board politics, and Wall Street's scrutiny.

Even after securing Amelio's shares, Richard didn't have a clear path to impose his will. A sizable faction on the board was still leaning toward Be OS, which had gained strong momentum in earlier discussions.

And it wasn't without reason.

BeOS was fresh, fast, and had a cult following. At the time, its design was seen as revolutionary.

On the other side was NeXT. Its interface might have looked plain compared to BeOS, but the technology powering it was truly next-generation.

For a company losing relevance, the idea of attaching itself to BeOS's image of speed and innovation was tempting.

Still, convincing the board was another matter. Shareholders wanted reassurance that Apple wasn't throwing good money after bad. Directors were split between the "Be camp," who favored something flashy and immediate, and those who saw the long-term potential in NeXT.

Although Richard had bought Gil Amelio's shares, he still retained Amelio as CEO. Richard had been speaking with the CEOs of each company and decided to hold a shoot-out between them today.

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If you use an iPhone or macOS computer, you're still using designs and technology built from the innovations that NeXT pioneered. (And the world wide web was invented on a NeXT computer.)