legendary midfielder

Chapter 137 Prospects for the Copa del Rey
All night.

Early the next morning, Zhang Xu got up at regular intervals. He slept soundly last night, and woke up in the morning full of energy and refreshed.

After taking Oliveira for a run, Morales just got up when she came back. She opened her sleepy eyes, first glanced at Zhang Xu with dissatisfaction, and then wandered into the bathroom.

"Haha!" Oliveira finally couldn't help laughing after seeing Morales' expression, and after she walked into the bathroom.

After sending Morales to the Eurostar Hotel, Zhang Xu hurried to the club under Morales' resentful eyes.

Tomorrow is the first game of the Copa del Rey, and the team is preparing intensively. As the second captain, he naturally has to set an example.In addition, in the current team, he has become the absolute core of the team, and no formation can be performed without him.

The Copa del Rey (Spanish: Copadel Rey) is an annual knockout football tournament held in Spain. The first competition was held in 1902.

Spanish football has an extremely close relationship with the country's royal family. Currently, only Spain in Europe continues to reward football elites in the name of the royal family. It is the Copa del Rey, which is second only to La Liga. In 1975, the "Spanish Champions Cup" was renamed the "King Cup".

The competition system of the Copa del Rey is completely different from that of the league, because the three levels of clubs are mixed and grouped. In a sense, it should be a cup to assist small clubs. Clubs in the second and third levels have the opportunity to compete with clubs in the first level. This will stimulate and promote the development of local football and the economy of small clubs.

Spain's rewards for the winners of the King's Cup are also very attractive. The overall bonus has risen to 750 million US dollars. The royal family's symbolic check of 50 US dollars and routine summons are also attractive.The most attractive thing is that you can directly enter the UEFA Cup, and the club's income from advertising and TV will rise sharply.

The head coach Alterra attaches great importance to the King's Cup. He believes that with the current strength of the team, it may be difficult to make a difference this season. They can only get a good ranking, but in the King's Cup, they can still work hard. If they are lucky, they may even win the King's Cup.

Based on this idea, in the training of the past few days, Oltra has practiced various formations in a targeted manner. Of course, the most important one is the formation of the offensive organization. After all, Mallorca is not a strong offensive team.

In terms of defense, with Zhang Xu's interspersed organization, Deportivo's defense has reached the strongest state. If you want to improve, you can only improve the player's own ability, but for a group of veterans, it is good if the state does not decline.

At two o'clock in the afternoon on November 2012, 11, the King's Cup match between La Coruña and Mallorca at home officially began.

Because it was a home game, Deportivo, led by Zhang Xu and Belleron, launched a tidal attack on Mallorca at the beginning of the game.

Naturally not to be outdone, Mallorca also launched several counterattacks, but under Zhang Xu's strict defense, Mallorca's counterattacks failed to achieve good results.

However, Mallorca's counterattack attracted the attention of Zhang Xu and Belleron. In order to ensure the victory of the game, Zhang Xu slowed down the rhythm of the attack, paid attention to strengthening the team's defense, and then pursued goals on the basis of a solid defense.

In this case, the situation of the game seemed a bit tepid and peaceful.It seems so, but in reality?
In the 201st minute of the game, Zhang Xu cooperated with Marchena and easily broke the football from the opponent's striker's feet, and then passed it to Belleron.

Belleron was not in a hurry to attack. He moved forward slowly with the ball, and from time to time he poured the ball down with Aguilar. Finally, when he saw that Zhang Xu had run up, he returned the football to Zhang Xu.

After Zhang Xu took the ball, after making an obvious gesture with his right hand, he suddenly increased his speed, quickly crossed the center line, and rushed towards the hinterland of Mallorca.

Zhang Xu's sudden acceleration made Mallorca unable to adapt, so when Zhang Xu rushed forward, none of Mallorca's players came up to press for the first time.

In the end, when the distance from the edge of the penalty area was about 15 meters, only the No.1 Mallorca player forced him up.

Zhang Xu did not continue to dribble, but passed the football out immediately, and the direction of the pass was Ricky diagonally forward.

Ricky didn't stop the ball, he just pushed with his right foot and sent the football to Oliveira.That's right, it's Oliveira.In the last game, Oliveira scored twice to win the trust of Oltra, and this game will continue to arrange his starting debut.

After Oliveira received the ball, he found that he could not turn around, so he began to dribble the ball laterally, and gave it to the left forward Gama.

Gama immediately started at high speed, quickly went to the bottom along the sideline, and after being intercepted by the opponent's defender, he decisively kicked a pass.

Ricky jumped high in the middle and grabbed the first point, but instead of attacking the goal, he pointed the football back and sent it to Oliveira's feet.

Oliveira pushes with one kick!The football rolled into the net!
1: 0!

Although this goal was neither Zhang Xu's assist nor Zhang Xu's goal, his sudden advance disrupted Mallorca's formation and laid a solid foundation for the team to finally win the goal.

With the ball in hand, Deportivo played more easily, and under Zhang Xu's control, the rhythm transition was smoother.

On the contrary, Mallorca also wanted to get back the score and tried their best to launch an attack, but in the face of Zhang Xu's strong defense, everything became unrealistic.

The first half of the game ended quickly. When the second half changed sides to fight again, the veteran Belleron was replaced by Thomas, and Zhang Xu served as the captain again.

Zhang Xu has been studying with captain Belleron for more than three months. From Belleron, he has learned a lot of knowledge about midfield organization.Coupled with the continuous improvement of his own ability, at present, Zhang Xu's midfield organization ability has gradually been recognized by the head coach Ortra and Belleron.

Although there are still some deficiencies in some aspects, such as dribbling, technology, imagination, etc., but in terms of passing, basically got the true pass of Belleron, and has been able to become the team's metronome.

Now, whether Belleron is on the field or not, as long as Zhang Xu is there, the team's formation will not be chaotic.

Sometimes, Oltra is also a little worried about this. What if Zhang Xu is favored by a wealthy club and transferred to the team?Moreover, this is also a very real problem. At least Real Madrid has clearly offered 3000 million euros to buy Zhang Xu.

I can refuse once or twice, but can I refuse three or four times?After all, Deportivo is a small club, and there is also a stingy club chairman, so Zhang Xu, a real dragon, will definitely not be able to keep him.

Alas, Oltra looked at the rampant Zhang Xu on the court, and couldn't help but sighed deeply.

At the beginning of the second half, Mallorca seemed eager to equalize the score, so they launched a fierce attack, which kept Deportivo busy for a while.

In the 407th minute of the game, Joaquin dribbled the ball into the penalty area. At the last moment, Zhang Xu made a precise tackle and stabbed the football out.

In the 409th minute of the game, it was Zhang Xu again who used his body to block the opponent's striker's shot.

Under Zhang Xu's strong defense, the team withstood waves of Mallorca's attacks, gradually stabilized, and gradually recovered their offense.

In the 603rd minute of the game, he finally fished the football from Joaquin's feet again and passed it to Thomas in front.

After Thomas dribbled the ball across the halfway line, he passed the ball to Aguilar on the right.

Aguilar took a few steps and was entangled by the opponent's defender, so he returned the football to Thomas.

However, Thomas didn't catch the ball. Instead, he leaned on the opponent's lower back, turned sideways, and passed the football to Zhang Xu who came in.

With a beautiful through ball, Zhang Xu sent the football to Oliveira's feet, and then quickly advanced himself.

Seeing Zhang Xu rushing forward quickly, Oliveira didn't know Zhang Xu's intention, so he didn't catch the ball, and pushed the arch of his right foot, and returned the football.

Zhang Xu faced the rolling football with a powerful long shot!
There was a loud "bang", and the football, like a gust of wind, instantly crossed Mallorca's defense and flew towards the upper right corner of the goal.

The long-range shot was so fast that Mallorca's goalkeeper just stretched out his arm when he saw the football had passed his fingers and plunged into the goal behind him!

The ball went in! 2:0!

Zhang Xu used a shocking long shot to help the team open the door to victory!

This long shot also completely extinguished Mallorca's desire to equalize.

Therefore, in the following games, Mallorca seemed to lose the desire to be aggressive and put more attention on defense.

The opponent has already surrendered, so Zhang Xu naturally has no need to chase after him. After all, the next match will be against Mallorca, but the Copa del Rey has become a league match.

So, he slowed down the pace of attack.

The following game time became garbage time, and soon, the whole game was over. In this Copa del Rey game, Deportivo defeated the visiting Mallorca [-]-[-] at home and entered the next round.

Two days later, on November 11th, the ninth round of the league began, and the opponent was still Mallorca.

This time, Mallorca is still playing away, and its state is still not improving, so the rhythm of the whole game is controlled by Zhang Xu.

The result of the game was similar to the previous game. Deportivo still won the game, but with one less goal, they beat their opponent 1:0.

It was Ricky who scored the goal. He received a through ball from Belleron, successfully reversed offside, and volleyed into the net.

After the game, Zhang Xu asked the head coach Altera for leave, and prepared to return to China and go to Shanghai to participate in the assembly of the national team.

　Asking for a collection and asking for a monthly pass, life is hard!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)