football's number one madman

Chapter 57 Let him play center!
Flowers, birthday cake, candlelight dinner, plus an impromptu gift.Relying on the full support of his roommate, Li Poluo successfully passed his girlfriend's first birthday.

If you really want to investigate carefully, the birthday cake and presents all have rough traces of rush work, but as Lee Polo himself said:

"At least... I have no problem with my attitude."

"It's really not important whether it's expensive or not."

"Lisanna's father... seems to be running a private bank."
-
After Lisanna's birthday, Li Polo can finally let go of his burden and devote himself to the team's training.

Two days later, on November 11, he arrived with the team in North Yorkshire, 8 kilometers away, to participate in the first round of the FA Cup.

As the oldest football cup competition on the planet, the FA Cup has always had a very unique historical status - at least for the Brits.

This is also probably the largest official football match: from the top Premier League teams to the lowest community amateur teams, theoretically anyone can participate—of course, the premise is that they are certified and registered by the FA and have a safe playing field .

According to conservative estimates, the total number of teams participating in the 14-15 season exceeds 700. Based on the calculation of at least 20 players per team, the number of participants exceeds 4000. This number is really scary!
毕竟，整个英格兰也就5000万人口，18-40岁之间的适龄男性最多也就七800万，一万4000人意味着每一千名青年男性中就有1-2个人参与了这项赛事！
According to this ratio, the Chinese Football Association Cup will have almost 40 teams and [-] players...

Although the first round of the official competition system only started this weekend in November, in fact, as early as the end of August and early September at the beginning of the season, the first round of qualifying competitions had already kicked off.

It was a match for real grassroots teams. There were as many as 400 teams participating in the first round of qualifying rounds. Only after four rounds of qualifying rounds were these amateur teams eligible to compete with professional teams.

It is a pity that Wimbledon's opponent is not an amateur team, but York City, which also belongs to the British League Two.

With 16 points in 15 league rounds and ranked third from the bottom (tied), York City has been deeply mired in the relegation quagmire, and has no energy to distract the cup game. It directly sent 11 youth team players to symbolically resist for 15 minutes at their home court. Complete surrender.

Although Wimbledon also had a rotation lineup, their morale was high and they showed no mercy at all. They went on a killing spree in the cold evening wind!
Veteran Andy Frampton, who hadn't scored a goal for a long time, opened the scoring in the 16th minute. Eight minutes later, Lee Polo took advantage of the opportunity of a set kick in the frontcourt and scored with a header to extend the score to 8:2.

Compared to Ivan Tony a week ago, these young people in York City are as weak as elementary school students!
With Dubis scoring twice between the 35th and 40th points, all suspense was lost during the game, and the second half directly became Adre's tactical drill time.

So, on a whim, the head coach removed Frampton and let Li Polo take his place!

Cox sitting next to him and the substitute players behind him were all stunned!
"Hey, boss, is this okay?"

Akinfenwa, who was wrapped in a down jacket, couldn't help but patted the head coach on the shoulder.

Leading by four goals, the opponent has no fighting spirit, and it seems that he has no chance to play at all.

Adrey shrugged his shoulders:

"What does it matter? You don't want to tell me about Liverpool's miracle night again? Don't worry, I'm calm now, and we didn't celebrate with champagne at halftime."

Akinfenwa grinned open his mouth, showing his big white teeth, but closed it quickly:

"The weather in the north...is really cold!"

The FA Cup has a high status in English football, not to mention the fourth level of the League Two, even the League Cup, which is a cup game, is beyond the reach.

For example, the League Cup is basically played in the middle of the week by each club, but every round of the FA Cup must be arranged in prime time on weekends!
For the sake of the FA Cup, the league can also give way!

Although with the violent impact of the gold dollar, for the Premier League and the English Championship teams, the importance of the FA Cup has fallen far behind that of the Champions League and the League. , a famous watch, but for the FA, this event still must be taken seriously!
And for the effect of TV broadcasting, almost all FA Cup games are scheduled for the prime time in the evening, but in winter when the sun sets at four or five o'clock and snow falls every three to five, this time is not friendly to the coaches and players at all ...

Fortunately, although it is cold and windy in Yorkshire today, there has never been any interference from rain and snow. The Wimbledon players have fully played at a normal level. Every pass and reception is quite easy. implement.

In the entire 45 minutes of the second half, the midfielders probably made more than 50 passes in total. Except for the passes that were intercepted halfway or directly flew out of the baseline, about one-third of the passes were successfully landed. within the restricted area, and Li Poluo grabbed it 8 times by himself.

Among these 8 chances, he formed 4 effective shots, captured the city of York City twice, and also missed Dubis with a header. Unfortunately, the latter shot was too right and was easily resolved by the goalkeeper. .

In the 81st minute, Akinfenwa, who was sitting on the bench, shook his head again and again, with an expression of disbelief:

"Just a central defender, is this a hat-trick?"

Adele in front of him finally stood up from his seat and congratulated the players on the field with his fists pumped.

He also proudly boasted to his assistants about his talents:

"I said when I bought him three months ago, I will never regret signing him!"

Cox, who knew everything about him but couldn't bear to expose him, nodded repeatedly:
"exactly!"

But he couldn't help but slander in his heart:
[If it wasn't for the injuries of Smith and Fuller's defenders, and Osraja's red card suspension, Li Polo got the chance to play because of this, I'm afraid you may not let him start in a year! 】
-
"Here, your ball."

The first hat-trick of Li Polo's career came so suddenly that when the referee handed him the football, he didn't respond, and even asked a question:
"What are you doing to me? The game is over."

Reeves slapped him on the head and took the football for him:
"Hat-trick reward!"

Li Poluo suddenly realized that he quickly snatched his prize, and saw a staff member approaching, handing over a small plastic gadget with a smile on his face:
"Congratulations, Mr. Li, you have been officially recognized by the FA as the player of the match. This is a trophy of honor. Please continue to work hard."

It was the first time to receive such an important personal award, and Lee Polo was also excited.

But after waiting for a long time, he finally couldn't help asking:
"Uh, no bonus?"

The staff smiled awkwardly:
"Oh, this trophy is the best encouragement for players, isn't it?"

Li Poluo looked down at the plastic sign in his hand.

No name, no date, no engraving of any kind...

The cost price of this thing... is probably only one dollar!
(End of this chapter)