The Godfather of Greenery

Chapter 316 The Devil's Race
"I am very happy to receive this award, because it is an affirmation of my hard work in the past year!"

At the FIFA Awards Ceremony held at the Zurich Opera House on December 12, Ronaldinho, who won the World Player of the Year, stood on the stage holding the gold trophy and said emotionally to everyone.

"This is a very special moment in my career and this award is very important to me because it proves that all the sweat and hard work I have put in for it in the past is worth it, and it will inspire me to do it again. Keep up the good work, strive to stand here again, and have the opportunity to win awards like my predecessors!"

Ronaldinho's speech received warm applause from the scene, and his teammate Lampard also gave him a warm hug. Although the England star failed to win the World Footballer of the Year, he was ranked The second place suppressed Henry, who also played in the Premier League, while Shevchenko fell to fourth place and failed to enter the top three.

"The feeling of winning the award is really wonderful. I would like to thank my family and friends. When I was in trouble, it was their hard work and support, as well as their trust and affirmation to me all the time, which made me survive until today. I succeeded, so I want to share the joy of success with them!"

"I would also like to thank our head coach, Mr. Ye Qiu!" Ronaldinho stood on the stage. I believe he must be watching live TV, so I would like to take this opportunity to tell him, boss, in my mind, you are the best in the world!"

The live TV broadcast also specially gave Ronaldinho a big close-up, obviously to capture the serious expression of the Brazilian.

"I've been in Europe for many years, but I've never won a title and I've had a lot of difficulties, but it all ended when I joined Chelsea!"

"A lot of people ask me why I joined Chelsea in the first place. In fact, it was because of a person who told me when I was at a loss as to what to do. The best player, you have the opportunity to get the highest honor in football like your predecessors Ronaldo, Romario and Rivaldo!"

"This person is our head coach, Mr. Ye Qiu, and it was his words that made me finally firm up my determination to join Chelsea, so I must thank him here. Without his support and encouragement, I would have Impossible to get to today."

"I also want to clarify here that Chelsea is a team that is very suitable for me because I have the best manager in the world and the best teammates in the world. My teammates say this trophy is not just mine, it's all of you!"

Ronaldinho's words earned Lampard who was standing next to him a nod of approval, and it was obvious that Chelsea's vice-captain felt the same way, because without the other Chelsea players, there would be no There may be them now.

In the past summer, and in the first half of this season, there have been rumors that Ronaldinho may leave Chelsea, among which the rumors about Real Madrid and Barcelona Everyone wants news and news about Ronaldinho.

But I believe that all of this will now come to an end with Ronaldinho's statement. He has no intention of leaving Chelsea, and Chelsea cannot easily let go of the World Footballer cultivated by the club himself.

Especially the last sentence in his speech, "Everyone at Chelsea has given me far more than I have dedicated to them. I will do my best to dedicate everything to Chelsea!"

Ronaldinho's words really touched many Chelsea fans. They all believed that the club should sign a lifetime contract with Ronaldinho, leaving this club and even the Premier League history. The first World Footballer of the Year, also listed by fans as should sign a lifetime contract are team captain Terry and Lampard, as well as Ye Qiu.

Ronaldinho was able to win the World Footballer of the Year, even he himself knew very well that all of this depended on Chelsea's overall tactics, and all of this was driven by Ye Qiu.

However, it is regrettable that Ye Qiu lost the FIFA Coach of the Year award once again, and Rehhagel won this award. The latter led Greece to the European Cup miraculously, beating Ye Qiu to win the award , and coincidentally, UEFA's Coach of the Year Award was also given to Rehhagel.

Once again tragically becoming the second child in a millennium, Ye Qiu had nothing to do about it. Fortunately, he didn't use his hot face to stick other people's cold asses, so he didn't participate in those activities of FIFA and UEFA.

But it was obvious that Ronaldini, who had just won the World Player of the Year, had really good Olympic spirits. At the Christmas party, when everyone started drawing lots, this guy actually won the one sponsored by Ye Qiu. Mercedes sports car.

This made other people very upset. Everyone booed him, so that the new material World Footballer felt that he was really a little unkind, so he just opened his mouth and shouted to take the Mercedes-Benz again. Come out to draw a lottery, and all those who have not drawn a prize can draw again.

This time there was an uproar in the audience, and all the players who hadn’t drawn the prize just now were all overjoyed at this time, but in the end, the draw again, but it was cheaper for the young player Leo Messi, and the audience booed again, because Messi doesn't even have a driver's license.

In the UK, you need to be at least 17 years old to get a driver's license. Messi's age has just arrived, and he has also applied for a driver's license, but the difficulty of the Premier League driver's license test is well-known all over the world, so Messi studied three times In the past few months, he has not yet obtained a driver's license, but he just got this Mercedes-Benz sports car.

The price of this Mercedes-Benz is actually not high, only more than 5 euros. Chelsea’s main players in the first team basically have a good salary. If he wins a grand prize, he will be booed. It's a bit like the leader of the beggar gang has to be spit on when he ascends the throne.

After the lottery draw, many people licked their faces and came forward, wanting to take the prize from Messi at a low price, but the Argentine teenager is also very ambitious, even though he has not taken the driver's license test for more than three months. However, he still confidently expressed that he must pass the exam, and he has been defeated and fought repeatedly, and his fighting spirit is commendable.

Although the professional players are a group of young rich and rich people, there is a trace of wishing to be the lucky one in everyone's psychology, so in this lottery, everyone in the team is encouraged , and after the lottery draw, Ye Qiu and Peter Kenyon came out and presented each player with a small gift of great value.

Although the gift was small, it also soothed the wounded hearts of those players who didn't get the Mercedes-Benz sports car. Ye Qiu's cleverness was that he gave the gift after drawing a lottery first, so as to avoid the disappointment of the players.

The reason why the Premier League's Christmas schedule is regarded as a devil's schedule is mainly because it is too dense.

There will be a Premier League game on December 12th and 26th, January 28st and 2005rd, 1. In just 1 days, there will be 3 games. This schedule is a bit of a devil in any league. Scary, and all of them are the most competitive Premier League games, which shows how difficult the schedule is.

You know, the previous Christmas schedule of the Premier League basically arranged 3 rounds of the Premier League, but now it has 4 rounds. The extra round is not just as simple as one more game, but directly compresses the other three rounds. The preparation time for a game is a huge test for any Premier League team.

Although the Premier League officials did not say so, in fact everyone knows that this is a promotional strategy of the Premier League. Christmas holiday.

Just imagine, if a Hollywood blockbuster exclusively enjoys the summer prime time, how spectacular the box office will be?

As a Premier League team, they have indeed benefited from the successful operation of the overall promotion of the Premier League, the most obvious being the sharing of broadcast fees, and now the Premier League has also begun to promote pre-season warm-up matches, which have benefited the Premier League teams a lot. Coach, this Christmas schedule is definitely the biggest test.

Ye Qiu is very clear that in order to cope with this Christmas schedule, giving full play to Chelsea's ample bench thickness is the team's biggest bargaining chip, so he arranged for Ronaldo in the first home game against Aston Villa. Nardinho, Rooney, Cannavaro and other players took turns off the bench.

Short of major generals, Chelsea played a bit difficult at Stamford Bridge. Aston Villa's lineup is not as thick as Chelsea's, but after a week of rest, they are playing with the full main lineup, which inevitably brings Chelsea. Some difficulties, coupled with Aston Villa coach O'Reilly's full attack after the opening, put Chelsea in a passive situation for a while.

As a player, O'Reilly has nearly 20 years of experience in the English professional league. As a head coach, he was the coach of Leeds United's youth guards. He led Leeds United to the pinnacle of glory. Be seasoned.

Aston Villa is different from Chelsea, who aim to win the championship and inevitably want to win every game, while Aston Villa has significantly fewer goals, so they can struggle in some necessary games Give it a go.

Obviously, O'Reilly just wanted to do his best against Chelsea in the first game and make a good start.

Chelsea's start was a bit conservative. Ye Qiu's winter break schedule was still based on a safe foothold, so he seemed a little passive, but the team's defense was very stable. There was a counterattack in the 33rd minute of the half.

Franck Ribery made a breakthrough from the left and made a diagonal pass to the right. Lampard dribbled the ball into the penalty area after turning offside, and knocked back to Van Persie who followed behind him. The Dutch striker easily pushed in front of the goal, 1:0!

This goal also kept Chelsea's advantage until the end. The Blues finally defeated Aston Villa 1-0 at home.

In the post-match press conference, O'Reilly took a slightly sarcastic and sarcastic tone, thinking that Chelsea's tactics were too conservative and that they won't win by force, while Ye Qiu counterattacked, thinking that Aston Villa's tactics were too conservative. The target was Chelsea, but Chelsea's target was the whole season.

"We Chinese have a saying that the sparrow knows the ambition of the swan, which means, how can the swallow and the sparrow know the lofty ambition of the swan? In the same way, Aston Villa doesn't understand our goals and ambitions at all. Pursue!"

O'Reilly was obviously irritated by Ye Qiu's sarcasm and sarcasm. He left the venue angrily, but Ye Qiu was right about it, because it was purely O'Reilly's own boring idea. Lost, why are you mocking me, right?
But it can also be seen that O'Reilly was a well-known coach in Europe back then, but after leaving Leeds United, he was Wang Xiaoer's Chinese New Year, and the year after year was not as good as the year before, so he inevitably felt a little unbalanced.

While Chelsea beat Aston Villa with difficulty, Arsenal beat Fulham 2-0 at home and Manchester United beat Bolton 2-0 at home. Both teams are clearly not behind and are still chasing after Chelsea , while Everton, currently ranked third in the Premier League, narrowly beat Manchester City 2:1.

Moyes has become famous in one fell swoop this season. After Everton sold Rooney, many people thought that the strength of this team would be greatly reduced. Unexpectedly, after the downturn of last season, Everton is now The performance is astonishing.

But it is not without hidden dangers. It is rumored that Real Madrid wants to strengthen the midfield, so they are eyeing Everton's Danish midfielder Gravesen, who has performed very eye-catchingly this season, and Moyes is now trying his best to retain the Danish midfielder.

The most eye-catching team in the first round after Christmas was Benitez's Liverpool.

The Red Army fell to 7th before this game, but they beat West Bromwich Albion 5-0 in an away game, surpassed Charlton, climbed to 6th in the Premier League in one fell swoop, and entered the UEFA Cup qualification district.

After the end of this round, all the British media were a little surprised, because the situation where the giants they had placed their high hopes on was upset did not happen. On the contrary, all the strong teams won one after another, even Liverpool. big win.

However, everyone knows that the real test has just come.

On the 28th, Chelsea played an away game against Portsmouth.

Portsmouth this season has been full of disasters. After leading the team to the promotion and successfully staying in the Premier League, the conflict between Redknapp and the board of directors has become more and more serious. In November this year, Redknapp Knapp announced his resignation, technical director Zayeqi temporarily took over the position of head coach, and Joe Jordan served as deputy.

Speaking of which, this is also a major trend in the current Premier League. More and more teams have begun to add the position of technical director, obviously to weaken the power of the head coach. Almost every local coach has been affected, including Ferguson.

Under such circumstances, Premier League teams that pay more and more attention to management have begun to add technical directors, and this position is basically occupied by foreign monks. For example, Tottenham Hotspur recently appointed Frank Aney. Sen served as technical director, and Portsmouth also appointed Croatian Zajech as technical director.

There will definitely be some power conflicts between the head coach and the technical director, because the boundaries between the two are inherently blurred. Even in other leagues on the continent where the framework is already mature, such disputes and conflicts are more frequent.

Therefore, Redknapp also left in anger, and the first thing Zayech had to do after taking office was to stabilize the team's morale and situation, and he did a good job. In the 19th round of the break, they defeated the Crystal Palace team away, which also made Zajech and his assistant Joe? Jordan full of confidence.

Portsmouth ushered in Chelsea at home. The team's strategy is obviously to defend and counterattack. With the momentum of defeating Crystal Palace, they fought at home with great enthusiasm. They put on a very solid defensive posture in the game. Two fast horses were arranged to partner with the striker, apparently to use them to harass Chelsea's defense.

Chelsea, who failed to play with all their strength, fell into a bitter battle in the first half. Under the full defense of Portsmouth, the Blues have been unable to find an effective way to break through the opponent's goal. Coupled with the intensive schedule during the winter break, the players The pressure is already great, and it is inevitable that I will be a little impatient.

At halftime, even though the team entered the locker room with a score of 0:0, Ye Qiu still encouraged the team and kept reassuring the players, asking them to play more patiently. He believed that the team would be able to win.

After the start of the second half, Chelsea's performance still did not improve much, but Ye Qiu kept calling on the players to calm down on the sidelines, which obviously played a certain role, especially in the 60th minute, when Ye Qiu used the more energetic ancient De Johansen replaced Drogba, who performed poorly in this game, and the team's frontcourt became more dynamic.

In the 74th minute, Lampard stole the ball in the frontcourt and passed Ronaldinho. The Brazilian kicked directly from the left side of the penalty area. The ball hit the Portsmouth defender's leg, turned in one direction and turned in. Goal, 1:0!

Just 5 minutes later, Chelsea got another chance. Gudjohnsen got the ball up front and passed it back. It was Ronaldinho's shot from a corner 25 meters from the goal, breaking Portsmouth again. goal, 2:0!

The Brazilian scored twice and became the best player in the game, and a major contributor to the team's winning streak!
To the disappointment of many Chelsea players, in the same round, Manchester United beat Aston Villa 1-0 away, Arsenal beat Newcastle 1-0 away, and Liverpool beat Southampton 1-0 at home, really falling behind Only Everton, whose bench is not thick enough, lost 0:2 away to Charlton, but still maintained third place in the league.

Such fierce competition not only surprised the fans, but even the media and reporters were amazed, because after two rounds in a row, no one fell behind, and the rankings of the traditional tycoons are rising steadily. This has to be said It is something that collapses the middle and lower reaches of the team.

And with the victory of this game, Chelsea's winning streak quickly expanded to 11 games, which is only one step away from Arsenal's 14-game winning streak.

But just two days after the 20th round of the Premier League, on January 1, Chelsea visited Anfield.

(End of this chapter)