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Chapter 123 Adaptation
When Long Bisheng recalled his year in Newcastle a few years later, his thoughts were always interrupted by chaotic memories, and even he could only recall certain fragments, which seemed to be the portrayal of his experience in this year.

"This is the Longbenton training base. For the next year you'll be training on Ground 19. Ground [-] is for the first team, Ground [-] is the backup, Ground [-] is for the Reserves, Ground [-] is for your echelons... You'll be training with the Newcastle Under-[-]s and I hope in a year's time I don't hear any Englishmen laughing at the low quality of our team."

On the first day of training at Newcastle, Xia Liquan said this to all the players. He has a high prestige among young players. Unlike Ding Yu, young players dare to joke with Ding Yu in normal times, but they can only obey him in front of him.

Since that day, everyone in Yunjiatianyu's U-17 echelon has become a dragon must win - the energy of their training has made the British speechless, especially after a battle with the Newcastle Under-19 youth team.

Yunjiatianyu's players are not bad in skills, but they are much worse than the opponent in terms of physical confrontation and reasonable use of rules. Li Jie looked so clumsy in front of Walcott's quick and sensitive breakthrough. Although the star of hope in Newcastle's defense line is not as tall as Long Bisheng, and his body may not be stronger than Long Bisheng, he uses his excellent positioning ability to prevent Long Bisheng's header advantage from being brought into play.

The final score of this match was two to four. If Dai Guangming and Hu Gandang hadn't supported Yunjiatianyu's middle lane, Yunjiatianyu might have lost even worse.

"Now do you know where your gap lies? You are second to none in China, but just like the gap between Chinese football and British football, the gap between you and players of the same age in the Premier League is also obvious! In the next year, you will participate in the youth team league in Northeast England, and you will meet the youth teams of all the strong teams in Northeast England! Your results will not be included in the league results, but what we want is not this, but what level you can play and what you can learn in a game that is already very close to the professional league! Unfortunately, despite our efforts In that competition, you will be able to meet the best youth team in England." Xia Liquan paused and said, "However, it is not bad to be able to participate in the Under-19 Youth League. After all, this is a completely different atmosphere from the domestic ones, and you will have more real competitions. Unlike domestic competitions, there is only one invitational tournament a year."

All the players were stimulated by this game and Xia Liquan's words. As Xia Liquan said, in China, they are elites, and there are only a few teams in the country who can match their strength. Even so, they still won two championships and a No.3 in the three years of football school. I believe that if they participate in this year's domestic echelon invitational tournament, the championship will most likely be theirs.

It is a pity that just like the gap between Chinese and British football, dominating the country does not mean that they will have such outstanding competitiveness after coming to England. Compared with these English players of the same age, their gap is obvious, but it is not irreparable.

England’s under-19 youth league is played in divisions. In the Northeast League where Newcastle is located, there are not many familiar names. Except for Leeds United, Sunderland and Middlesbrough who have been relegated to League One this season.

But even the under-19 teams of these teams are not easy to deal with.

England is the originator of modern football and one of the countries with the most professional teams in the world. From the Premier League to League One, League Two, and League C, plus a large number of semi-professional and amateur teams, these teams often have a long history. Maybe you just find a team from League Two to observe, and you will find that this team has a history of hundreds of years.

The long history makes these teams have a complete system for selecting young players. Although they may not be able to retain the players they have cultivated, their youth teams often have relatively good results and have a group of outstanding young players. In the confrontation with these teams, Yunjia Tianyu Club often does not have the upper hand.

In the first month, Yunjiatianyu U-17 echelon team played five games against the youth team. The record was [-] draws and [-] losses without a win. In the second half, most of the players were physically weak, and the opponent's equalizer and overtake often appeared in the second half.

Yunjiatianyu's players are not inferior to their opponents in terms of personal ability and overall coordination, but they are passive in the game. Xia Liquan has no explanation for this. The players are forced to start thinking about what went wrong. In the usual training, Xia Liquan also consciously increased the routine of attacking and defending in quick offense and defense, so that the players gradually adapt to the English football style of play.

In the second month of the game, Yunjiatianyu finally won a victory. They defeated the Stockport Under-19 Youth Team. This result made all the players ecstatic. won the game.

"I'm very satisfied with this game." Xia Liquan, who had been gloomy for a whole month, finally smiled after the game: "What I'm satisfied with is not that you won the ball... In fact, last month, you had a good chance of winning two games, but I won't be happy if you win such a game, because in last month's game, you rushed like brazen men who only know how to exert force, and you can't tell your strengths and weaknesses at all... But in this game, I saw that you started to use your brains to play football. It’s very good, very good to exploit the opponent’s strong side and play your own better side than the opponent. You have to remember that in any league, the first thing you need to do is to be familiar with the style of the league, and then use the best way to play your ability. To play, to compete, this is more important than anything else.”

In terms of physical fitness, there must be a certain gap between Chinese and European and South American players. After all, this is a racial difference, but how to find a way to avoid their disadvantages on the court and give full play to their advantages of flexibility and agility is more important than winning a victory.

In the next six months after the game, Yunjiatianyu’s U-17 echelon’s performance gradually stabilized, and they began to win and lose against other club youth teams. The league standings for young players under the age of 19 in Northeast England also climbed steadily. When they were training, there were more and more scouts from various clubs around the training ground, not only from England, but also from Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and other European second- and third-tier leagues.

During this period of time, Long Bisheng was the best performer. When others were still familiar with the tough physical confrontation and fast rhythm of English football, he adapted faster than others. His physical fitness was even higher than that of the average European, which also helped him to display his abilities faster than his teammates on the field.

Although his skills are still rough compared to those of his teammates, he is better able to show them on the field. As Pei Wei said, skills can be honed slowly in the day after tomorrow, but physical fitness is born.

Perhaps it is for this reason that after Christmas, when the FIFA virus hit, when the head coach of the first team, Jose Mourinho, decided to select eight players from the Newcastle reserve team and the Yunjiatianyu U-17 echelon to participate in the first team training, Long Bisheng was honored to be one of them, and participated in a week-long first team training with Wu Bufan, Hu Gandang, Dai Guangming and four other older U-17 members.

(End of this chapter)