green winger

Chapter 354

On April 4th, Premier League No.20 six rounds, Leeds United played against Fulham at home.

Four years ago, when Mohammad al-Fayed, owner of Harrods, Europe's largest and most stylish department store, moved into Fulham, the Egyptian business tycoon assured fans that the team would be into the Premier League.To this end, he invited the French coach Tigana. After Tigana's strategizing, the Egyptian predators achieved this goal one year ahead of schedule.

So in the new season, he set his goal to enter the European arena.

However, the idea of ​​Egyptian predator Fayed may not be realistic for this team, because if the newly promoted Fulham can finally be in the middle, it is already a good result.But what the Egyptian did next was as jaw-dropping as he often spewed out surprises.

You must know that the Egyptian predator once amazingly claimed that he had made plans for his own funeral --- he hoped to process his body into a mummified body, and then make the body into a part of a huge wall clock.And this "mummy body clock" hangs on the top of the Harrods department store building that he has been running all his life.That is to say, Fayed Sr. hopes to build a gorgeous mausoleum on the roof of Harrods department store after his death. This mausoleum will be a pyramid made of glass, in which his coffin will be placed.In addition, he hopes to hang a huge and exquisitely carved wall clock on the top of the building, and the "hour hand" of this clock will be made by his remains.

The amazing move he made now is to spend 2000 million pounds before the season to introduce Edwin van der Sar from Juventus, Marblanc Lyon from Lyon, Jon Harry and others from Chelsea, such a big deal Investment may not be a big deal for the giants, but for a newly promoted, almost all of it is his own money!Therefore, his actions made countless Fulham fans crazy, but it is a pity that the European theater is so easy to advance?The Egyptian tycoon's spending a lot of money failed to make Fulham rush to the forefront of the Premier League, but it allowed this newly promoted team to rank in the middle of the league.

The coach who now coaches and leads Fulham into the Premier League is named Tigana, who was one of the former French midfielders.Tigana is a French half-breed with French and horse blood. He is a late bloomer and only became a professional player at the age of 20.Tigana has strong perseverance, steady style of play, unexpected passing, unconventional dribbling, effective passing and stealing. He is the main artery of the French midfielder. Relying on his own performance, he conquered All those who have disputes with him, based on French football, jointly build the "iron triangle" with Platini and Giresse and act as the hub.

Relying on the glory of the player era, Tigana's coaching career was also built on a high starting point. In 1993, he became the head coach of his old club Lyon.As a result, only in the second season of coaching, Tigana led Lyon to the league runner-up, which created the best record in the club's history at that time.At the end of the season, Tigana made the most important decision in his coaching career. He did not choose to stay in Lyon to strive for a higher level, but became the head coach of Monaco in the summer of 1995.

No matter for Tigana or Monaco, this is a very successful cooperation.At that time, Monaco had changed four coaches including Wenger in one year, and was in an extremely turbulent situation.But with the arrival of Tigana, the team quickly returned to the ascending channel and ushered in the most glorious period in history.First, in the 1995-1996 season, Tigana helped the team win the third place in the league in just one season. Then in the 3-1996 season, Monaco even won the championship of the season with a huge advantage of 1997 points ahead of the No.2 team. French League Champions.

Reaching the top of Ligue 1997 has not become the end of Monaco and Tigana, but a new starting point for them to show their strength to the whole of Europe.Monaco became the biggest dark horse in the UEFA Champions League in the 1998-1 season. The young Monaco team doubled the Leverkusen team led by the famous German coach Daum in the group stage. .In the quarter-finals they eliminated mighty Manchester United on away goals and were finally stopped by Juventus in their heyday with Zidane in the semi-finals.

The Monaco team at that time not only won glory for French football in the club field, but also contributed many international players to the national team.In the French team that won the World Cup in 1998, a total of three players came from Monaco.Therefore, after Jacquet chose to retire after success, many French media expected Tigana to take over the French team in the future, thinking that this young coach is expected to become the next Jacquet.

However, in the expectation of the entire French football world, Tigana gave up the opportunity to stay in the country to coach, but chose to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor Wenger and began to move to English football. In the summer of 2000, Tigana became the head coach of the League One team Fulham. He once again showed the characteristics of being good at improving the record in a short period of time. He led the team to win the League One Championship in just one season, helping Fulham Mu returned to the top league for the first time after 33 years.Therefore, Tigana is expected to become another French coach who has achieved results in the Premier League after Wenger. He himself is also optimistic about the prospects of cooperation with Fulham. Tigana said at the time that he hoped that after his success in Fulham Return to hometown to fish and grow grapes.

Of course, looking at Tigana's desire to return to his hometown now, it must come to an end. In this game, Fulham, who had nothing to desire, sent the strongest lineup under the command of Tigana to face a position like Leeds United. The third team in the league.And their performance in this game just confirmed what was said before, the most terrifying situation for the mid-level Premier League teams at the end of the season.

Two Fulham players played a decisive role in this game, one named Luis Saha and the other named Van der Sar.

Saha was born in Paris, France. In 1991, he entered the famous Clairefontaine football training base in France. In 1994, he was selected for the French under-17 national team and became teammates with Henry and Anelka. In 1997, he won the European Championship under the age of 18. In the final, he scored the winning golden goal for the French team. In the same year, he represented the Metz Football Club for the first time. He emerged in Ligue 1999 and landed in the English League in January 1. Scored 11 goals, including a world-class long-range shot in the FA Cup defeat of Blackburn FC.

However, Saha at this time is not a well-known player, so it is accurate to say that the past few seasons of playing for Fulham are the starting point for Saha to enter people's field of vision and enter the room. In Fulham, he is the front line Absolute leader, and has scored 70 goals in the past 33 games, is the well-deserved top scorer in the Fulham team.

In this game, Saha put great pressure on Leeds United's defense. When people really noticed him, they found that this shooter not only has a keen sense of smell, but also has considerable finishing ability. good.Therefore, facing such a player who is like a little monster, Ferdinand and the others can be said to be brain-wrenching, and even so, Saha seized the opportunity less than 2 minutes into the second half and scored the only player in the game. Goals one by one.

Is it necessary to lose to Fulham after losing to Tottenham?
Faced with this problem at this time, the players of Leeds United are naturally unwilling. Although Manchester United lost consecutively to Leeds United and Liverpool in the final strong dialogue, and let Arsenal lock the Premier League title three rounds ahead of schedule at home, but in the Manchester United did not make any mistakes against underdogs and mid-tier teams.Now that the atmosphere of the two teams ranks third or fourth in the standings, Leeds United, who sees no hope of competing for second, naturally does not want to lose and give up the third position, so the players have launched a fierce attack.

Coach O'Reilly also replaced Fowler in advance, and decisively replaced Keane, who was in good condition, and let him and Kenny attack Fulham's fragile defense at the same time.

Soon Fulham's fragile defense was defeated by Leeds United players in turn, but what people didn't expect was that the goalkeeper who had just transferred from Juventus to Fulham this season Desa suddenly stood up. His high-block and low-block made the shots of Kenny and others miss the goal, and also helped Fulham keep the score of 1:0 to the end.

Van der Sar, who was born in the Netherlands in October 1970, started to practice football at the age of 10, and soon entered the youth training camp of his hometown team Freyholt Club to start his football career. After joining Freyholt, Van der Sar He started playing as a striker, but then Van der Sar changed his position on the field to a goalkeeper due to his height. At the age of 6, Van der Sar joined the reserve team of Ajax Football Club under the recommendation of the time.

In 1990, Van der Sar was promoted to the first team of Ajax Football Club as the second goalkeeper, and he played as a substitute in the 1nd round of the Eredivisie in Ajax's 0-32 victory over Sparta Rotterdam to complete his career first. show.Then after being promoted by Ajax coach Louis van Gaal to the No. [-] goalkeeper, Van der Sar was out of control. In Ajax's career, Van der Sar helped the team win the Netherlands four times. Super Cup, won the Eredivisie League title three times, the European Super Cup once, and the Toyota Cup once. He has also won the best goalkeeper in Europe, the best goalkeeper in UEFA clubs, and the best goalkeeper in the Netherlands many times.

After transferring from Ajax to Juventus, the 29-year-old van der Sar also became the first non-Italian goalkeeper in the history of Juventus, where he continued until Buffon transferred, and he gradually Lost the main position to come to Fulham.

(End of this chapter)