green mercenary

Chapter 264
"cheers!"

"cheers!"

Back in the hotel, Shen Xiangfu immediately issued a ban, and with Mr. Xu's sponsorship, gave each player a glass of wine.

The city of Mendoza is the capital of the Argentine province of the same name, located in central-western Argentina.Close to the foothills of the Andes, the climate is dry and mild.Argentina is a big grape-producing country, and its wine production ranks fifth in the world. Most of its wine is produced in Mendoza Province.There are more than 1740 large and small wineries, with an annual output of nearly one million tons of wine, accounting for two-thirds of Argentina's national output.

Winning the United States in the first game gave the National Youth League a shot in the arm.To put it bluntly, even if the national youth team loses the remaining two games, they still have a chance to qualify for the group stage.

The competition system of this year's World Youth Championship is that the top two in the group will qualify, and the No.4 of the four teams with the best results will qualify.Therefore, after the national youth team won a good start, the chances of qualifying have greatly increased.

"Xiaotian, how do you feel?" At the dining table, Shen Xiangfu came to Bai Xiaotian with a wine glass and asked.

Compared with other players, the tacit understanding between Bai Xiaotian and his teammates is not very high.Coupled with the fact that Bai Xiaotian was assigned to the left back position for the first time, Shen Xiangfu naturally wanted to ask Bai Xiaotian about his "feelings after the game".

"It feels okay." Bai Xiaotian smacked his lips, not sure if he was savoring the mellow aroma of the wine, or the World Youth Championship, which was not too difficult. "Although it's a bit awkward, there's nothing wrong with it overall. Xu Liang and Yan Song are quite cooperative, so it's not difficult to kick."

"Well, that's fine." Shen Xiangfu nodded after hearing this, "Don't just play for your teammates, play for yourself when you have the opportunity."

Although Bai Xiaotian is standing as a left midfielder, in Shen Xiangfu's plan, he is actually a free player in the frontcourt.That is to say, if Bai Xiaotian kicks smoothly, it is also possible to run to the right wing position.

"It's okay, coach, let's take it step by step. I can't rely on me alone. I want to win everyone to work together."

"Well, it's good if you have the heart!" Shen Xiangfu drank the wine in his hand, "You have changed a lot in the past six months! You said that the level of European football is so high? You have been trained like this in just six months?"

"It's not that the level of training in Europe is high, but that I already have such strength!" Bai Xiaotian ignored Shen Xiangfu's green eyes, and directly drank the wine in his glass.

Bai Xiaotian is notoriously not a drinker in the team, so Shen Xiangfu also wanted to take this opportunity to snag the cup in Bai Xiaotian's hand.Seeing that Bai Xiaotian was "not on the road", Shen Xiangfu said awkwardly: "Okay, if there is a chance after this competition, let the young men from the National Youth League go abroad to see and see. If there are any who go to the Netherlands, you can take care of them!"

"Okay, no problem!" Bai Xiaotian patted his chest.

After drinking for three rounds, seeing that everyone had almost eaten, Shen Xiangfu stood up and cleared his throat.

"Ahem, boys, be quiet! Tell everyone good news!" Shen Xiangfu turned around and shouted to everyone present.

"What good news?" Buzz Guangyan asked first.

"After our Chairman Yan heard that we won the game, he planned to come to Mendoza to watch the game and cheer for us!"

"Huh? Chairman Yan is coming too?"

"Yo! Let's do our best!"

Looking at the excited players on the field, Shen Xiangfu nodded with satisfaction.

In fact, Yan Shiduo would come to Argentina to watch the match. This was planned long ago, but it didn't catch up with the first match of the National Youth League.If the national youth game is lost, the reason becomes "The chairman learned that you lost, so he came to cheer for you in person!" Of course, this kind of thing can only deceive a few passionate young people on the team, such as Bai Xiaotian, Dewey and others, who are totally dismissive.

After the players gradually calmed down, Shen Xiangfu said again, "The second good news is that not only Chairman Yan is coming, but also the national football coach Mr. Milu!"

"Yahoo!" Hearing the news, everyone became excited again.

When Yan Shiduo came, it was probably just a little sympathy, a little bonus, and maybe a few bags of mustard.But Milu is different. What Milu brings is a career, a future, and the pinnacle of his football career development.

In the last Asian Youth Championship, Qu Boduwei and others have already been selected for the national football team. This time, if they perform well in the World Youth Championship, it is not impossible to be selected for two or three more!For a while, all the players were gearing up, looking forward to the next game against Ukraine coming soon.

"Xiaotian, do you think that Coach Milu is here this time, can I be selected?" Xu Liang leaned over to Bai Xiaotian and said.

Bai Xiaotian tilted his head, but said nothing.

"That's right, you're here, and Milu basically came to see you!" Xu Liang was not stupid, and instantly figured out the relationship.

"I don't necessarily have the time."

Bai Xiaotian said something that didn't have a preface, but Xu Liang understood immediately.

"Don't, you and the club can take a leave of absence. And the World Cup is the top priority! How can you miss it so easily? Besides, didn't you say that you are recovering well? At worst, you can go back after playing a game." Xu Liang looked resentful.

Bai Xiaotian pouted, but didn't answer.

Bai Xiaotian might be worried in other World Cup qualifiers, but this is the 02 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, without Bai Xiaotian's help, the national football team will qualify.

After successfully passing the first round of qualifiers, on Children's Day a few days ago, a news that was even more explosive than the World Youth Championship came back to China.

Zhang Jilong, vice chairman of the AFC, used his "hand of God" to help the national football team draw a magic lottery that was almost the best result.

On June 6, the AFC gathered in Bangkok, Thailand, and drew lots for the teams that advanced to the top 1 in Asia.The most concerning issue is how to determine the seeding team.

Since Japan and South Korea are the hosts, they will not participate in the qualifiers.However, the strength of Saudi Arabia and Iran is not inferior to the national football team. If Saudi Arabia and Iran are in a group with the national football team, it will be more difficult for the national football team to get the top spot in the group.

As I said before, there are only 2.5 places in the Asian region of this World Cup. If there is no first place in the group, then for the 0.5 places, you will even have to play four or five more games.

In order to help the national football team get a good lottery, the game between FIFA and AFC has begun.

FIFA mandated that the seeding be determined "on the basis of the results of the past two World Cup qualifiers and the past two Asian Cups".According to this standard, Saudi Arabia and Iran are the seeded teams, and the Chinese team is in the third tier. They will meet Saudi Arabia or Iran anyway.

This kind of rule is obviously detrimental to the national football team, but the AFC also has a set of algorithms, that is, the seeding team is determined according to "the results of the past three World Cup qualifiers and the past three Asian Cups".The result is that China and Iran will definitely not meet, and the probability of the national football team meeting Saudi Arabia is only 50.00%. This is of course the result that the national football team most wants to see.

In this game, Zhang Jilong himself has contributed a lot.

On May 2001, 5, FIFA President Sepp Blatter, FIFA Secretary-General Rufining, and AFC Secretary-General Verapan made a secret decision in Seoul, South Korea. The determination of the seeding team and the position will not be based on the results of the previous three World Cups, but only the previous two.

On the afternoon of May 5, Verapan informed Zhang Jilong of this decision.In the evening, Zhang Jilong met with Qatari and United Arab Emirates football association executives, hoping to unite the two forces to protest to FIFA.

At 6 a.m. on June 1, AFC Secretary-General Verapan negotiated with Blatter and conveyed Zhang Jilong's attitude that "FIFA has no right to interfere in the internal affairs of the AFC".

Blatter also knew at this time that he could not offend the AFC.After all, in the 2003 FIFA general election, the support of the AFC was particularly crucial.At 4 o'clock in the morning, Zhang Jilong received a call from Verapan, and the other party informed Zhang Jilong that the AFC's classification plan was finally adopted.

In the early morning of June 6, Zhang Jilong, who stayed up all night, came to the temporary office of the AFC. The staff congratulated Zhang Jilong and congratulated Zhang Jilong and the Chinese team on their successful comeback.At 1:16, the draw officially began.

The final result is that China, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Oman and Qatar were divided into Group B, successfully avoiding Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the difficult Iraq.

(End of this chapter)