ball at foot

After Gerrard's hat-trick won the game, the Liverpool players will also leave England and set off for Japan to play the Club World Cup.

This session of the Club World Cup is theoretically the second session: the first session was the Club World Cup held in Brazil in 2000.It's just that the Club World Cup has not been merged with the "Intercontinental Cup", which was also known as the "Toyota Cup" at the time. Many strong teams in the country participated, but because the competition itself was not taken seriously at the time, and after that session, due to sponsor issues, the second session that was originally scheduled to be held in Spain was not held until last year. That is, after the end of the Toyota Cup at the end of 2004, the naming rights of the Toyota Cup ended. This competition was merged with the Club World Cup and became today's Club World Cup.The venue of the competition is still held in Japan, and the biggest difference from previous years is that in previous years, the Toyota Cup competition was a match between the European champion and the South American champion, but now, this Club World Cup competition is It turned into a seven-race tournament.In this competition, club champions from the four regions of Asia, Africa, Oceania, North Central and the Caribbean will draw lots and compete team by team, and then the winners will enter the semi-finals.European and South American teams directly enter the semi-finals. After the game is won, they will go to the finals, the third-place and fourth-place matches, and the fifth- and sixth-place finals.

For sponsors, this is a good thing: more participating clubs and more competitions will naturally make more money for them.However, for the European and South American champions, it is not a good thing: such a reform of the competition system makes them have at least two games to play anyway. As far as the American teams are concerned, it is undoubtedly a heavy pressure.

But the championship of this competition is still very attractive to Liverpool players.The reason is also very simple, because Liverpool has never won this championship.

Although Liverpool was very strong in 80, it can almost be said to have swept Europe, but when they participated in the Toyota Cup twice and played against South American players, they were completely defeated.Not only them, in fact, Liverpool, Aston Villa, and Nottingham Forest all lost to South American teams in the Toyota Cup in the 80s-and it is precisely because of this that in people's evaluations, the glory of Liverpool's 80s is not enough to match Milan is comparable.Although they are all dominating domestically and dominating the Champions League, in addition to having more European footballers, Milan also has a good record in the Toyota Cup. The Milan dynasty also has obvious advantages against South American teams and can be called the world. The enemy, but Liverpool's Toyota Cup record is not very good. At the same time, they played all over Europe, but they failed to play all over the world. [

Regarding this question, Zhao Yaning has always been a little confused.In his impression, European football is the center of world football.Although South America is rich in outstanding players, and the national team has always had a good record, their league schedule is chaotic, and the ethos of football has always been to advocate offense, individual ability, and individual performance of talented players.There are often some young players, at a young age, less than 20 years old, who have won the best honor in the Brazilian league, and then want to run outside.Or maybe there are many old players who can no longer play games in Europe. When they return to South America, they can still be all-powerful and domineering. Why can such a league beat Liverpool in the 80s?

He was a little confused about this question, so he directly asked Maicon in the team. After all, the South Americans are the most familiar with South American football in the team.

"Brazil is very strong." Maicon immediately replied, "Let me explain this to you: you have played against the Portuguese Super League and know their strength. Most of the Portuguese Super League players are Brazilians— —Because the Brazilians are not considered foreign aid in the Portuguese Super League, they are excellent, so the Portuguese Super League uses a large number of Brazilian players. And their teams, most of them use second-rate players from the Brazilian Super League. Because the Portuguese Super League is generally poor, they cannot buy them. They can buy good players. And the few teams they can afford to buy good players, Benfica, Lisbon, Porto and Braga, are all teams that have performed well in European competitions. What is the level of the Brazilian team? Refer to the Portuguese Super League It’s enough for a strong team, this is their strength.”

Maicon paused before continuing, "Of course the tactics of the Portuguese Super League are stronger than those of Brazil. After all, every major tactical change starts from Europe. Europeans do have advantages in tactics, but the geniuses in Brazil Players, the Portuguese Super League is also useless, but they are famous in South America. Before going to Europe, they have to be famous first. Do you remember how Luiz was tricked by Riquelme in the Club World Cup? In that game, he Being played like a child, in the end, he became angry and refused to help defend. And Riquelme became famous because of that game. In fact, if you count carefully, in the past, we South America’s performance has always been better than that of Europe. Until the introduction of the Bosman Act, European teams have money and can sign in at will. In recent years, the loss of South American players has been serious, and Europe’s advantage has suddenly become huge. There’s really no way to fight them.”

People say that Europe is the center of football, but in fact the real great contribution of European football lies in every tactical innovation rather than the top players.In fact, South America has always had more top players than Europe.Before the introduction of the Bosman Act, European teams could only have three foreign aids. Under such circumstances, relying on their own domestic players, they are actually not much better than South America in terms of overall strength.

Figo was exposed, and he turned his head away helplessly. The Toyota Cup match in Real Madrid was his nightmare.That was the game where Riquelme became famous, and it was also the most embarrassing game for Figo.In fact, his performance can be said to be quite satisfactory, but against the backdrop of Riquelme, he is a master.In the end, he got angry and refused to assist in the defense, which was a scandal he couldn't erase.

"However, don't South American teams all advocate offense and are not very keen on defense?" Zhao Yaning then asked.

"Why do you have such an idea?" Maicon was puzzled. "We like to attack, but La Liga also likes to attack. Whoever said that offense must not defend, must be weak? Speaking of defense, Ayala, Samuel El, Zanetti, are these Argentines bad? Our Brazilian Lucio, Cafu, Carlos, which one is bad? They like to attack, but it doesn’t mean they can’t defend. South American players have always been good at defense. Not bad. Moreover, not all South American teams like to attack. South America is different from Europe. There is no way to form an overly uniform atmosphere here. There are people who play all kinds of football. It would be a bit of nonsense to say that we don’t defend. In fact, South American players are much more dirty than Europeans. South American defense is not as sophisticated as Europe, and it is true that the tactics are not detailed enough, but our players are very capable, and they are fast, ruthless, and more decisive. Even stronger than the average European team."

When he said this, Zhao Yaning also understood why the strength of the South American team is very good.The strength of South American teams is not weak. Although they may be a bit worse than the top European teams, they are definitely strong teams.However, in the Club World Cup when they met suddenly, the strength of the two sides, the European team does not have much advantage, and they are fighting far away in Asia. The South American team, at this time, is also very lucky. It was originally a decisive game, and they were not familiar with each other. Relying on personal ability, it is no wonder that the South American team will win.

"It seems that there is still a tough battle to play."

"More than one game." Figo also shook his head, "The first game should be against the winner of the North American champion and the Oceanian champion. It is estimated that the North American champion can win, so we have to be careful in that game. "

"The North American champion this time is the Costa Rican Saprissa team, right? There is no team I have ever heard of..."

"Have you ever heard of American football?" Figo also said, "Major League Soccer, they have never won a North American championship. But many of their players are often sent to the British Championship. Playing in League One and transporting talents from European secondary leagues on a large scale is enough to show their strength. There is no harm in being careful, and their strength will not be weak."

American football is actually very good. Although they are considered a football desert, they still have a top [-] level in the world.And it is close to Mexico, a major producer of players, and they have a lot of players.And they have never won a championship in the game, so we can know the strength of North American football.

It turns out that the world is so big and there are so many strong teams.It's really a bit of watching the sky.At first, I thought that winning the European Championship was already a great thing. This Club World Cup championship is just a matter of hand. Who knows, this championship is actually very difficult...

"However, we can worry about not being able to take it, but you can't." Figo spoke again.

"Why?" Zhao Yaning asked back.

"You are the core of the team's tactics. Where are we better than them? We are stronger because our tactics are better, we are a whole, and our team awareness is even better! These things are under your control, that is to say, victory The key is in your hands. As long as you can play well, we can win!"——

When the Liverpool team arrived in Japan, the play-off match had already been decided: Saprisha defeated Sydney f, entered the semi-finals, and was ready to play against Liverpool. [

But at this time, when the Liverpool players got off the plane, they were already too sleepy.

"It's a fifteen-hour flight, and you still have jet lag...Joy, we will definitely not ask you to play immediately after returning from the national team. It's so uncomfortable."

A strong sense of discomfort hit the whole team. After all, the problem of jet lag is not so easy to solve.Zhao Yaning himself is almost used to it because he often returns to China to play national team games, and he only needs to spend a while sleeping. However, these teammates who have never been to Asia have trouble adapting to the jet lag.

In fact, as early as after the match between Liverpool and Middlesbrough, they began to deliberately adjust the rest time, training time and meal time to adapt to a game, but the adjustment at home and the game outside , is still different after all.

"Joy, if you also need to adjust the jet lag, you might as well go to sleep." Benitez said to Zhao Yaning.

"I have no problem... Coach, don't you need to rest?"

Benitez just shook his head to Zhao Yaning's question, "I don't need it. I want to study our opponents in the game to avoid any accidents. This game is to fill a gap in the club's honor. We You have to be very careful."

Although Benitez said this, Zhao Yaning still felt that he was a little strange.I don't know why, Zhao Yaning always felt that Benitez seemed a little preoccupied and absent-minded at this time.

What could make him so sentimental as a person?Zhao Yaning didn’t know what he was thinking, and the relationship between him and Benitez was not good enough to delve into each other’s concerns. Since he didn’t want to say it, then he just didn’t ask.

At this time, Zhao Yaning was still not tired.This is not the first time he has come to Japan. Here, he won the championship of the East Asian semi-finals, and this place is considered a blessed place.Last year, because of my own transfer, I was not able to participate in the last Toyota Cup. In that game, Monaco lost.And this year, since I came here, I can't lose again.

This is the last championship of the year, and it's time to make great strides into 2006 if you take it down.