Rebirth 1994: Football Situation

Chapter 635
The English League Cup, the standard name should be called the English Football League Cup, is a competition between all 92 clubs in England regardless of level.This cup was established by the Football League in 1962 to allow clubs to have a knockout-based competition outside the league to challenge the FA Cup, which was run by the Football Association of England, because at the time the FA Cup was in The position in the hearts of fans is much higher than that of the league.

However, when 92 teams from the First Division rebelled and established a parallel Super League in 20, the status of the League Cup plummeted. Up to now, it has only become a place for some mid-lower Super League teams to enter European competitions. It is just a shortcut, of course, it is also a breakthrough for a team like Newcastle, which has a long history and certain strength, but lacks honor, to win the championship.

Middlesbrough is such a team too, founded in 1876 they are worse than Newcastle, Newcastle have won four top league titles and six FA Cups, although that was a long time ago , but Middlesbrough has never won a national championship. The most glorious moment in their club history is only the runner-up in the League Cup in 92 and the two runner-ups in the League Cup and the FA Cup in 97, but It was a bitter season for Middlesbrough fans, with Italian striker Ravanelli and Brazilian midfielder Juninho suffering relegation in the league, and this time, they entered the league for the third time. cup final.

However, for them, this luck did not seem to be too good-in the pre-match dressing room allocation, they were assigned to the famous south dressing room-because Newcastle happened to be a little norther than Middlesbrough , The distribution of locker rooms is based on geographical location. Teams that are closer to the south enter the south locker room, and teams that are closer to the north enter the north locker room.

Pei Wei thought it was very interesting when he first heard this statement. He didn't know about these things, but when he saw the result of the distribution, the fans of Newcastle were all happy, and the newspapers also openly reported When this illusory matter was studied as a major event, he began to be interested in this so-called "Southern Locker Room Curse".

I don’t know if I don’t check, I’m shocked when I check, so far, there have been [-] finals held in that stadium, [-] of which were the teams from the north locker room that won the final championship, and in the other three, there were The two were won by Arsenal, and the remaining one was in the promotion play-offs of the Second Division, which had no influence. However, what is interesting is that before these victories, the Millennium Stadium specially invited a Feng Shui master from China to help them Make a plan, and finally changed the arrangement of several facilities. I asked Welsh local artist Vicary to paint a seven-foot-long mural of phoenix, galloping horses and the sun for the south dressing room to block the curse. Sure enough, Stoke City The team and Arsenal have won one after another.

However, in the subsequent Community Shield Cup final, Arsenal, which used the South Stand, still lost to Manchester United...

When setting off to the stadium, the atmosphere on the team bus was filled with joy. Every player firmly believed that he could win the final victory. The reason was simple-the spell was on the opponent's side, and his side represented luck.

Even the assistant coach Kufuor couldn't help saying: "Fortunately, we are a little norther than Middlesbrough, otherwise it would be bad to get to the south dressing room. But there are basically no professional teams norther than us. Right? We are relying on the sea..."

Pei Wei laughed: "It doesn't matter even if you get to the South locker room... Don't forget that I am Chinese, and the best Fengshui masters are all in China. If there is a magic spell, I can also invite a famous Fengshui master." The master came to help us break the spell...don't forget that the spell was broken because of a Feng Shui master."

After hearing this, the eyes of the players were a little bit wrong-yes, although these Fengshui masters sound awesome, but our boss is Chinese, and he is so rich, so we are afraid that we won’t be able to hire a good Fengshui master ?Even if they were drawn to the south locker room, what is there to be afraid of?
Nie Fei sat in the back silently, but he knew that the boss must be fooling people again... He had never heard that the boss knew any magic stick, and he also knew that the boss was the least superstitious person— — It's hard to imagine a guy with extreme self-confidence pinning his hopes on so-called "fairies".

The cheerful atmosphere continued into the locker room - of course the locker room that represents luck and champions. After entering the locker room, the players seemed to be in such high spirits that they were even chattering wildly as they changed their clothes. What.

Pei Wei saw that Mourinho's expression was a bit ugly, and he immediately knew that Mourinho was very dissatisfied now—of course, he was not satisfied with the players' performance of underestimating the enemy—according to Pei Wei's opinion of Mourinho He even thought that Mourinho would not think that it would be better to simply go to the South locker room after seeing this scene, right?After all, various methods can be used to stimulate the fighting spirit of the players, instead of not paying attention to the next game at all like now.

And now Mourinho doesn't know what to say. After all, the morale of the players is really high now. If you say something casually, it may cause confusion among the players, which is not good.

"Well, everyone be quiet." Pei Wei coughed dryly, making everyone's attention focus on himself. He could see that Mourinho didn't seem to have any good ways to deal with this situation, but he There is a way to make the players more vigilant: "Before the game starts, I will tell you a story, a story about a stupid ancient general."

The players' attention was attracted by him, Mourinho glanced at him unconsciously, Pei Wei ignored it, and continued on his own: "In ancient China, there was a general who When he set out to fight, he had to pray to the heavens, and let the gods give him strength to eliminate those heresies. He specially raised a witch in his army, and asked the witch to dance to pray for blessings before each expedition. At first, because of his The army was well-disciplined and fearless of death, so they won several battles, but the general thought it was due to the priestess praying for blessings, so he rewarded the priestess a lot, but did not reward his soldiers... The final result can be imagined, In the end, he failed and died among the rebellious army. When he died, he wondered why God didn’t bless him this time? Why? Do you know the answer?”

"That's needless to say." Ibrahimovic replied with a smile: "He was able to win the battle because of the bravery of his soldiers, not because of the praying of the witch... He thought it was the merit of the witch and ignored the soldiers. Failed."

"That's right, in the final analysis, you still have to rely on your own strength to win... Do you think this general is stupid?"

Seeing Pei Wei's serious expression, Nie Fei hid in the corner and didn't make a sound. He knew that his boss was going to play tricks again, and the other foreigners replied foolishly: "Stupid!"

A smile appeared on the corner of Pei Wei's mouth, and Mourinho next to him also had a smile on his face - he already knew what Pei Wei was going to say next.

Sure enough, Pei Wei immediately said leisurely: "Then... don't you think your actions today are also stupid?"

The players were stunned, looking at each other wondering why the boss suddenly said such a sentence, Pei Wei didn't give them time to think, and immediately continued: "This general is superstitious about witches and the power of prayer, and what you just said Performance is superstitious belief in the power of the so-called "Southern Locker Room Curse"...Have you forgotten? It is the general's strategy, sufficient supplies, and bravery of the soldiers that determine the outcome of the battlefield, and the coach's determination of the outcome of the game Tactics, adequate preparation and your performance on the field. Gentlemen, judging from your performance just now, you are not worthy of being a professional player. Professional players will not be superstitious about the so-called luck. Only their strength is the basis. The most advantageous weapon in professional football."

There was a hint of shame on the faces of the players, and finally, Captain Shearer said: "Boss, you are right... We are too addicted to the so-called curse, but forget our technology, bravery and Desire to win is the most important weapon we have to win ... we will not be like this again, in this game and in the future games, we will give our best to win."

"Is this your common understanding?" Pei Wei squinted at all the players.

The players answered in unison: "Yes, this is our common understanding!"

"Very good." Pei Wei said with satisfaction, and then he took a step back: "Now, let our head coach explain the tactics of this game to everyone...Jose, I'm sorry, if I don't say something like this In other words, maybe they don't even have the intention to listen to the tactical arrangement."

He said the last few words to Mourinho in a low voice, and Mourinho showed an extremely happy smile, and also answered in a low voice: "It's okay, boss, I'm used to your actions in the locker room. ... I'm really not used to not having you in the first half of the season."

After saying this, Mourinho wiped off the smile on his face, and took a step forward: "Today's game, we have only one keynote, and that is offense!"

"Middlesbrough's offense is more distinctive. The two wingers Mendieta and Zenden are both very good players. Although the midfielder Juninho is old, his skills are quite good. The two sides The two forwards Macarone and Job are both forwards with strong impact, but their defense is as poor as ever, so in this game, we must use an upright attack to solve them! Combination of wing and center , Use continuous offense to destroy the opponent's defense!"

Speaking of this, he paused for a while, and then said: "Today, I don't care how many goals the opponent scores later, anyway, we will score at least one more than them!"

PS: For the update of the 100th ticket, there will be a chapter later.

(End of this chapter)