You both come in, one touch.
As soon as they start to believe, it's happened.
(THE Z TEAM)
Playing in the shadows of the 2012 Olympic Park
are Hacquenye Football Club, sons of Turkish immigrants
all born and raised in London's East End.
They compete in the famous
Hackney and Leyton Sunday League,
the lowest tier of British Football,
and with only three games left to play,
are bottom of the table and need a huge change
in fortune to avoid relegation.
We have to get at least four points, at least.
So if we draw today and if we win next week,
we will stay in the division.
We've still got three games, so hoping we can grab some points
out of them and stay in the division.
All season Hacquenye have conceded early goals.
Today is no exception.
Everything's just going downhill.
I really don't know how we're going to stay in the league.
We are in a very difficult position now.
The main problem is stamina.
Stamina, that's the problem. I see in the team as well.
Halfway through the game, everyone's breathing heavily,
looking down, they're all trying to get a bit of a rest.
Defending corners, set pieces has always been a problem.
It just doesn't happen. We're always losing.
And every time we've given away a set piece,
for me it's like we're giving away a penalty.
But we have to score,
we have to score at least the first half, one goal.
They have already lost 13 times, and won only once.
Desperate for points, they are leaking goals.
Lack of goal. I started off good.
I don't know what happened.
We used to have a great winning capacity and mentality
but that's just disappeared on us at the moment.
To stay up I think we're going to need a miracle.
I'm going to be honest, we're going to need a miracle.
At half-time today Hacquenye are already losing 2-0.
Relegation looms.
Have the team got what it takes to get four points
from their last three games?
This is the last option, guys, this is the last option.
Well, not quite the last.
What the team don't know is that help is at hand
in the form of Olympic gold medallist and Arsenal legend -
Lauren.
I want to call Mourinho, I need Mourinho's help.
Lauren scored three goals at the 2000 Olympic Games
in Sydney
as his Cameroon team won a thrilling final against Spain.
In 2004 he was part of the famous Arsenal team which won
the English Premier League without losing a single game,
a feat which earned them the title of Invincibles.
Here we are, you know, Hackney Marsh.
Let's see how the boys get on.
(DAY 1)
Coach Levent knows that help is on the way,
the team know nothing.
He's a very smart player and I feel like I'm going
to get a lot of benefit from his experience.
Who's that? Come on, Aziz.
I said that's Lauren.
No West Ham.
One week, that's all Lauren has to make a difference
and he'll have to rise to the new challenge of coaching.
And I know it's difficult. You got beat 6-0.
Let's not talk about that.
You know, that's not the point.
If we concede a goal, no problem.
We keep believing what we're doing
try to reverse the situation.
They kick off the session with a fun heading game designed
to encourage a winning mentality
and shake off the cobwebs from yesterday's loss.
Scoring goals in any situation
is good for confidence and morale.
So we're going to do possession.
We don't need a goalkeeper. This is possession.
So, whoever he gets five passes, it means one goal.
Possession and movement is the name of the game
and it also works on the players' fitness and stamina.
Four, five... 1-0,
One,
two...
One, two, three, four, five...
2-0.
The team's best passer is captain
and shop-owner Hasan Dugunyurdu,
who until recently had dedicated his whole life
to football.
I was about two when I first started kicking a ball.
I've always been playing football. It's what I love.
I close the shop on Saturdays at three in the morning,
wake up for about eight, and then I'm straight down
to Hackney Marshes.
We don't need to speak about how good Lauren is.
It's just going to be a privilege for me to see him,
speak to him, play with him, train with him.
He's the type of player who can make me sit down
and think about football again.
Losing is out of the window for us at the moment.
We just need to go out there,
and I'm one of the captains of the team...
We need to go out there, motivated, hungry...
..and believe in it. If you don't believe, you don't get.
If you don't want, you don't get. It doesn't matter
who we're playing against, where they've played,
what sort of background they come from,
what sort of talent they've got.
If we go out there and we want to take the team
to the next season in the same league, we've got to win.
(DAY 2)
To win, Hacquenye need to work hard, and to work hard
they need to be fit.
(STAMINA AND SHOOTING EXERCISE)
This fun, simple finishing exercise disguises the fact
that their lungs and legs are working to the max.
Go!
Go! Don't touch the ball, please.
OK, next one.
You're the last one.
Go on, go on, go on!
Well done... No, no, no!
Go, go, go! One more, yeah, one more.
Next is an exercise designed to help the team play as a unit...
(ATTACKING AS A TEAM)
..in both attack and in defence.
The whole team has to pass the halfway line,
otherwise it doesn't count.
The drill demands the whole team
to be past the halfway line
before a striker can score, ensuring that all the players
concentrate on moving forward as a unit.
Say, for instance, the whole team's going up
and defence stays behind,
all it takes is one pass
through the middle and a through ball and it's all gone.
You have to push up, you have to push up.
That's a goal. Well done, well done.
When I said to those guys there, "Why you come here?
"It's not for the money, it's because you love the game."
If we believe in ourselves and do what Lauren taught us,
we can do it, yeah.
Over 90% of Turkish immigrants in the UK live in London.
Ozan is the son of two such immigrants who met
who met and married in 1990s London.
When I was about nine I started at Arsenal Soccer School.
That was under the Highbury Stadium.
I mean, I've seen Lauren there actually, but he's obviously
not going to remember me, but, yeah I've seen him,
Thierry Henri, Pires...
That's how I started football
and I enjoy it quite a bit, it's my life, really.
I watch it, do it, play it.
The Invincibles are my heroes, you know. They won the league
without losing and I don't think any other team
is going to do that again.
Ozan is the workhorse of the group.
Lauren needs to get the very best out of him if the team
are to stand any chance of survival
or he needs to find someone else.
There has been a bit of a fallout with me
and my manager,
due to work.
Also some players not turning up to training,
and me getting tired, getting home late,
feeling like it's not really worth it,
then waking up early on a Sunday,
so it's been a bit down and up.
With two strikers now available to Lauren, he decides to adopt
a new training strategy.
(CREATING SPACE FOR STRIKERS)
The first striker moves to receive the pass
from the attacking midfielder, creating the space
for the second striker to occupy.
I'm going be for once the striker.
Have a look...
Give it... Give back.
Yes. Look, I'm here.
You leave the space, you leave the space for that one to go.
And then now you move, but not like that.
You have to shoot on target, the target is there.
Give it to me.
Back one touch. No, no, they won't allow you two touches.
They will smack you. You know Martin?
- Keown, yeah? - Exactly.
Stam, Jaap Stam. He will smash your face. Like that, you know.
So one touch, one touch. No!
You are moving a bit early. One touch back, now you go,
A bit early. It's OK.
This is the way to be winning and this is the way
to prepare the game for Sundays.
It's the final training session before Sunday's big match.
Lauren and the team are happy to see that their star player
and passionate captain have been able to make it.
Hacquenye have struggled all season at defending corners
and scoring from them.
Lauren and Levent lay out their plan
to change this before Sunday.
Lauren has split the team into two, with one group
defending crosses in set areas,
and the other attacking them in the box.
The aim is to get the group to work as a team
and move together.
(ATTACKING CORNERS)
And then as soon the guy block your marker,
you will run into here, this here.
You go fast, I'm here.
They want the ball here.
Keep up, keep up.
As soon as they start to believe, it's happened.
They scored two goals in an instant...so...
Another one. So this is the issue.
(MATCH DAY)
Match day has finally arrived and it's time to find out
if all the hard work has paid off.
Lauren is in high spirits,
but the players have fear etched
all over their faces.
Good morning. We have been working all week for this game.
We learnt a lot.
Today is the biggest game in our history.
My only concern was how
the boys are going to face the match,
because, you know, the TV around,
maybe the family will come up,
they've never been in this type of situation.
It's the moment of truth for Hacquenye.
Can they get three of the four points they desperately need
to avoid relegation?
Is one week enough to turn around their fortunes?
The next 90 minutes will be crucial.
Listen, I'll tell you something. This is real.
My blood come from leaders.
The country of my father, he was a leader,
my grandfather was a leader.
You know what that means? We never give up.
If we concede a goal, we fight them back.
We are not head down. Come out and then you fight.
All right? And this is real.
They can be told, they can be good,
they can play football, they can finish with me,
but the one that come behind me, my son, he will fight.
This is my history, I'm a warrior.
So go out and do your work and make yourselves proud.
One, two, three, Hacquenye!
(HACQUENYE 0 - 1 THE CHALLENGERS)
Hacquenye concede an early goal - again!
Heads up, heads up.
But they continue to press forward.
For this week to mean anything, they will need to dig deep.
Good. Well done. Well done.
The team give away a soft penalty.
At 2-0 down it's a long way back.
Will they remember what Lauren has been teaching them
all week about commitment?
This is real.
If we concede a goal, we fight them back.
I'm a warrior. We never kneel under any circumstances.
Stay in zone, stay in zone.
The team continue to fight for every ball and challenge,
and star player Huseyin
has started to influence the game
just as Lauren had hoped.
Yes!
Hacquenye pull a goal back to make the score 2-1
at a crucial time.
Lauren stays calm and confident in his players.
We managed to score a goal before the first half ends,
so we have chance now to level the game in the second half
and hopefully win it at the end.
With only half an hour remaining,
those three points seem to be a long way away.
But with Lauren's words still ringing in their ears,
the team dig even deeper.
From 2-0 down, they've drawn level,
something they've never done before.
I think they can reverse the situation
and score the third one.
So this is the way.
Right attitude, commitment,
belief, belief and good finishing.
For the first time in months, the team can sense
victory is possible.
They remain organised in defence...
..determined in attack...
..and, above all, show real belief
just when they need it most.
(HACQUENYE 3 - 2 THE CHALLENGERS)
Lauren's influence stayed with the team as they went on
to draw their next game, saving them from relegation.
Lauren is seriously thinking about coaching full-time.
Everyone that loves football
has a little manager inside of him.
So that thing starts to grow after this experience,
An unbelievable experience.
It reminds me of when we won the Olympics.
We were every time down, in the final against Spain down,
so we reversed every time the situation,
so this is the Olympic spirit - never give up. Fantastic!