Start from 1999

Chapter 215 Sino-German Friendship Match (1)

Borussia Mönchengladbach scored 1 point at home, which was unanimously believed by the media to be caused by the drag of the Champions League. The media believed that this young team had not yet adapted to the intensity of double matches in a week.

In this round of the league, the wind is blowing. Except for Hertha Berlin's 9:4 home defeat of Cologne in the 2 games, the other 8 games are all draws.

这样7轮之后，门兴格拉德巴赫积19分依然排在榜首，柏林赫塔5胜2平积17分派第二，拜仁、沙尔克04和不莱梅都是4胜2平1负，三队拿到14分分列3-5位。

The Bundesliga teams are still strong and weak. Except for these 5 teams, the other teams have not scored more than 10 points, including Leverkusen and Hamburg who participated in the Champions League this season.

Too many draws will cause the middle and back of the standings to be bloated, but this is a great boon for the teams at the top of the standings. The fewer competitors, the sooner the team's season goals can be determined as soon as possible.

After this round of the league, the international football match day has come, and the German national team will also play a friendly match with the Chinese national team in an away game.

The German team's roster consists of 90% young players. The oldest Neuville is only 27 years old. Nick is still the youngest player, but the youngest player will stand at the forefront of the team in this game.

Ballack, Janker, Frings, Jeremiah, Talat, LaMelo, Asamoah, Metzelder, Friedrich, Nossa, Dex, Enke.
All the well-known German players have come to China this time, and this friendly match will be held in the beautiful spring city - Kundu.

The first stage of the Chinese team's 02 World Cup qualifiers will be in Kundu, so the Chinese team also invites the world's powerful German team to adapt. Lao Mi's intention is obvious, that is, to use this game to position Chinese players. Which players can be selected for the 02 World Cup qualifiers will be revealed after this game.

However, the list of the Chinese team is quite good. There are 14 returned players in the big list: Hao Dong (Hertha Berlin); Sun Hai, Fan Yi (Crystal Palace); Wei Jun (Bielefeld); Li Yi (Unterhaching); He); Yao Xia, Li Bing (League One Nottingham Forest).

Coupled with the former Jianlibao players, the strength of the Chinese team is very impressive. If it is placed in Asia, it will definitely be first-class.

If there is a returnee goalkeeper, Lao Mi can definitely form a returnee lineup, and Lao Mi is very clear about the stubborn illness of Chinese players, that is, he has too much burden in his heart.

Now the warm-up matches that Lao Mi contacts with the Chinese team are all strong European and American teams. By playing against the strong teams, Lao Mi hopes that the players can find confidence. After passing this hurdle, the future of the Chinese team will be extremely bright.

On October 10th, the German team came to Kundu. The beautiful Kundu is said to be like spring all year round. In this season, the green belts on both sides of the street are still full of flowers, full of greenery, and the warm sunshine shines on the earth.

Faced with such a beautiful city, the German players were immediately attracted, and the welcome guard of honor formed by Kundu fans was even more beneficial to the German players. These Kundu fans held up signs with superstars such as 'Nick' and 'Barack', singing and dancing.

The security guards are under a lot of pressure. After all, there are not many opportunities for Kundu to hold competitions, and this is also an opportunity to test them, so there are still a few fish that slipped through the cracks.

A beautiful fan wearing black-rimmed glasses fell into Nick's arms, and said with a choked-up Kundu accent: "Mr. Nick, you are so handsome, I finally see you alive!"

"Pfft!" Nick was almost killed by lightning, alive?Brother is still alive, okay?
Nick helped the fan upright in a friendly manner, and then said seriously: "Thank you for your support, I will play well and repay you and the Chinese fans!"

Security came quickly and took the female fan away.

After an hour's delay at the airport, the members of the German national team boarded the bus and prepared to go to the field base for training. The game was scheduled for October 10, and there were two days left. The players needed to fight jet lag and go shopping.

Sitting in the bus, everyone looked at the scenery, characters, and buildings going backwards, enjoying the exotic customs.

Nick has been to Kundu many times in his previous life, but facing Kundu in 2000, Nick still feels a little strange. The development of Kundu has not yet entered the high-speed period, and many urban villages still exist. There are street vendors everywhere on both sides of the street, and some snack sellers are pulling rickshaws and selling.

Looking at these scenes, the German players were a little surprised. While lamenting that China has a large population, they are also very interested in these vendors. If there are no regulations, they would like to get out of the car to visit now.

After a journey of more than 30 kilometers, it took nearly an hour. The German national team finally arrived at the training base on the ridge. After checking into the hotel, the players began to move around freely.

Nick was surrounded by his teammates.

Neuville said expectantly: "Nick, let's go to the center of the city to see what's delicious and fun."

"Okay, okay, China is too mysterious, it looks like it's still early, let's go out and have fun." Yankel also said with a cheap smile.

The other teammates booed and planned to go out.

Nick smiled and said, "Let's go, everyone, pay attention to your image and don't discredit the Germans."

After calling a few taxis, Nick and the others rushed to the center of Kundu. Nick remembered that there was a department store in Kundu, and that area was more prosperous, so he told the driver to drive to the department store.

The driver was also very happy when he heard the foreigner speak fluent Mandarin. He chatted with Nick non-stop along the way. He talked a lot, mostly praising Kundu for its beauty, welcome everyone to travel in Kundu, and enjoy the food and fun.Nick couldn't help laughing at this guy's 'Kunpu', and almost laughed out loud several times, but Nick still felt the enthusiasm of the Kundu people.

When we arrived at the department store, everyone went their separate ways. Metzelder, Friedrich, Enke, Jankel, Dex and Nosar followed Nick.

Nick first took the guys to eat 'Crossing Bridge Rice Noodles', which is the most famous delicacy in Kundu.

When he arrived at the store, Nick skillfully negotiated with the waiter. The waiter was also deeply attracted by the blond foreigner's Chinese accent, so the service attitude was super good, and he arranged a larger table for Nick and others.

Yankel and the others had different expressions. Metzelder looked at the beauties in the store sneakily, Friedrich looked at the introduction of the story about "Crossing the Bridge Rice Noodles" on the wall with a serious face, Enke touched the old-fashioned tables, chairs and benches in the store, Yankel was sitting upright, looking like a bodyguard, and Dex and Nosa chatted non-stop.
When the soup, side dishes and rice noodles were served, except for Nick, no one else knew how to eat. Nick smiled and asked the waiter to teach these guys. Of course, Nick himself skillfully poured the side dishes into the boiling soup pot, and then waited for 2 minutes before pouring in the rice noodles. After stirring a few times, he began to taste.

Others did the same, but these guys hardly knew how to use chopsticks, and this made a lot of jokes.

Yankel tightly grasped the chopsticks and stirred in the pot, stirring up the rice noodles; seeing that the chopsticks were not working well, Enke immediately started to drink the soup with a spoon, but he was too anxious, a mouthful of the soup was not cold enough, he sucked it into his mouth, and immediately grinned his teeth with scalding; Dex was smart and quickly picked up the chopsticks like Nick, but he couldn't pick up the rice noodles, so he rolled up the rice noodles with the chopsticks, and stuffed them into his mouth happily Metzelder and Friedrich were so big, but they were worried about the chopsticks in their hands, and finally chose the soup spoon, chopped the rice noodles into pieces, and put them in their mouths to taste; Nosa, the black boy, was the fastest learner, and he ate very politely, but he ate very well.

The movement at this table immediately attracted the attention of the diners around. Everyone stopped eating and turned to watch Nick and the others eating rice noodles.

"Wow, that blond foreigner is so handsome, and he is also very skilled with chopsticks."

"Hey, that bald head is so funny, he actually uses chopsticks like that."

"Ha, that black man is really smart, he can even eat rice noodles with chopsticks."

"Oh, these foreigners are so tall and mighty, they look like they are playing ball."

The diners were whispering, and Nick could hear them clearly. He thought to himself that these teammates were embarrassed, and the mess on the table was caused by these guys who couldn't use chopsticks.

Everyone's body was also covered with oily soup, but the taste of the cross-bridge rice noodles was really good, which made everyone very happy.

After drinking the last sip of soup, Yankel laughed and said, "Hey, Nick, China is such an amazing place. If there is a chance, I would also like to come to China to play football."

"Haha, you foodie, you actually came to China to play football for food." Enke hit him.

Nick laughed and said: "Actually, Carsten, coming to China to play football is also a glorious journey in your career. As far as I know, Chinese football is developing very well now. They are already moving closer to European professional football. It is said that the Chinese Super League will be established next year. If it develops well, it is very likely to become the first league in Asia. In time, it is even more likely to surpass many leagues in Europe."

Nick is not just talking about it. Due to the influence of Xichuan 1999, many Chinese teams have begun to follow the example of Xichuan 1999, attracting big-name players from Europe and the United States to join the team with high salaries.

Former German national team captain Bierhoff is now playing for Shencheng. Colombia's "Golden Retriever" Valderrama and famous forward Asprilla are also playing for Lucheng. Liancheng has absorbed England's "bad boy" Gascoigne. Shancheng invited retired Italian star Donadoni to play, and Brazilian veteran Bebeto came to Jinmen.
The joining of big-name stars not only greatly increased the popularity of the club, but also had a great impact on the strength of the team. Many Chinese players have also learned something.

And the major clubs have built first-class bases and reserves of reserve talents, and they are also on the right track. Coupled with the support of the State Sports General Administration and local governments, football has rapidly expanded its influence.

It's just that in terms of commercialization, Chinese football can't be achieved overnight, and there are still administrative interventions.

After listening to Nick's words, Yankel really planned to play football in China in the future.

After eating delicious food, everyone wandered around the streets of Kundu again. Many ethnic costumes attracted the attention of these foreigners.

Yankel grabbed a Yi costume and looked at it for a long time before being told that it was worn by a girl, so he reluctantly put it down.

However, the enthusiastic stall owner recommended a men's large Yi costume to Yankel, and Yankel immediately bought it happily. Of course, the hundreds of soft sister coins were gone.

Enke also bought a Tibetan hat and was very happy to wear it on his head. Metzelder and Friedrich each bought a pair of jade bracelets. Dex bought a big chimney. The kid didn't know what it was for, just for fun.

Nossa followed Nick, and he bought whatever Nick bought, probably because he knew that Nick knew what to buy, so following Nick would not hurt him.

Seeing that it was getting late, Nick greeted everyone and was ready to go back to the Tiangeng base. After a few phone calls, other teammates also rushed over. Everyone had a good harvest and dedicated a lot of soft sister coins to the people of Kundu.

(End of this chapter)