our champion dream

Chapter 86 All the Waiting
Before the first round match against Birmingham in the English Premier League, Ferguson announced the 18-man squad at the pre-match press conference.But no starting lineup was announced.

Li Xiaoming was selected without any suspense.

Even, being selected into the squad is no longer what Li Xiaoming should consider. What he should consider now is this game, whether he will play as a starter or as a substitute... because Scholes was not selected for the squad.

Ferguson himself is used to announcing the starting lineup in advance, but this time he did not announce it in advance, but chose to announce the starting lineup in the locker room of the stadium on the day of the game, so before that, no one knew who would start.Ferguson hid a trick in it. He didn't want the news of Li Xiaoming's starting game to be passed on.

Although it is a home game, the players still have to stay at the hotel one day in advance.It's easier to manage - who knows what they'll be doing at night if they're all staying home?
This is bad for management, especially abstinence management.Even if these players stay at home honestly and don't go out to clubs, but if they have a few more rounds with their wives and girlfriends at night, tomorrow's game may become a hollow carrot and their feet will be weak.

On the day of the game, the players called the bus and rushed to the game field collectively.

The fans of Manchester United went earlier than the players. They had to set up the stadium, and those huge TIFOs and banners needed to be installed in advance.In the first game of the league, Manchester United fans hope to greet the arrival of Manchester United players with huge cheers, so that they can fully experience the enthusiasm of Old Trafford.

The team's bus slowly drove into the entrance of the player tunnel at Old Trafford.The gate opened slowly, and the Manchester United players in suits got off the bus under the guidance of the staff and walked into the stadium. Li Xiaoming also got off the bus, wearing a suit and leather shoes, wearing earphones, and holding a small leather bag in his hand .The camera flash was constantly in Dawn's eyes.Before flashing, he lowered his head and followed his teammates into the locker room.

Walking into the locker room, this was the first time Li Xiaoming walked into the home team locker room at Old Trafford, but this time his mood was very different. He quietly took off his suit and put on the Red Devils No. [-] jersey, and then put on the new Nike sneakers.Seeing that everyone had changed their jerseys, Mullensteen urged the players to warm up on the court.

Li Xiaoming followed his teammates into the Old Trafford stadium. Seeing the players entering the stadium, the auditorium of the stadium was already boiling. Li Xiaoming raised his head and looked at the stadium called the Theater of Dreams.The stands are not yet full, but the momentum has taken shape.The characteristic of the home court of the Premier League team is that the auditorium is very close to the stadium, and fans who are close can even touch the player when the player takes a corner kick or a throw-in.

Li Xiaoming thought that he could only sit in the auditorium and watch the game before, but now he is standing in the stadium.To be watched by the people there.Sure enough, the visual effect here is better, this is the real big stage.Stepping onto the lawn, Li Xiaoming did not say a word, but carefully followed the assistant coach to warm up on the court, making sure that every muscle and every bone in his body was fully prepared.Li Xiaoming had a premonition that maybe he would be the starting character today.

After warming up, Li Xiaoming followed the players back to the player tunnel and back to the locker room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Is that all right?"

"It's fine, it's fine."

Nanhai City, Li Xiaoming's home, Li Hai's father is trying to connect the computer screen to the newly bought super large ion TV at home.

Watching the computer screen synced to the TV, Li Hai wiped the sweat from his forehead in relief, walked to the coffee table, drank a cup of tea and sat down.

The broadcast of the game has already started, and the screen has been switched from Old Trafford to Penguin.com's Premier League broadcast room. Zhan Jun and He Ping are the commentators of the game.

The commentator Zhan Jun and the guest He Ping looked at each other and smiled, and then Zhan Jun said: "Ferguson only announced the list of 18 players at the press conference before the game. We fans all know that Li Xiaoming was selected, and the team's previous starting core Scholes It was not selected, and now we have got the starting list passed back from the front."

Speaking of which, Zhan Jun smiled mysteriously.

Feng Zhong straightened his back.

"Here we come!" Li Xiaoming's mother seemed very excited. She didn't understand football, but she understood her son.

"I can tell you first, Li Xiaoming, who everyone cares about the most..." Zhan Jun paused, "I got the chance to start"

"Yeah!" Feng Zhong and Li Hai high-fived each other, celebrating Li Xiaoming's starting.

In Guangzhou, hundreds of kilometers away, Li Qingru was wearing pink pajamas, with her back leaning against the back of the bed and the computer on her lap. She was watching the first round of the Premier League match between Manchester United and Birmingham broadcast on Sky TV.She looked forward to the starting lineup displayed on the screen. A few seconds later, she saw the name she wanted to see and smiled in relief.

This is the first battle, you have to work hard.

At the same time, Madrid of Spain, Lisbon of Portugal, Rome of Italy, Dortmund of Germany, Xiao Xiao, Su Ye, Wen Ziming, Chen Bin, and Pan An all turned on the TV on time to watch the Premier League game between Manchester United and Birmingham. round.

Li Xiaoming's game affected not only his parents, girlfriend and domestic fans.And my colleagues in Europe.

※※※

In the dressing room, Ferguson also announced the starting lineup to his players.

Li Xiaoming was indeed among them.Li Xiaoming didn't seem too excited, just lowered his head and kept fiddling with his sneakers. For the first time, he felt a little nervous.

In fact, the teammates were not surprised that Li Xiaoming would start. After all, everyone saw his performance in the last game. Since Scholes was injured, why couldn't Li Xiaoming start?Rio Ferdinand sat next to Li Xiaoming, gently rubbing Li Xiaoming's hair, he could feel the special seriousness of Li Xiaoming, who had always been heartless.

After announcing the starting lineup, Ferguson made a request for the team for this game.

"This is the first game of the Premier League. I hope to see our team firmly control the situation on the court. No matter what the score is, we must not slack in the slightest. The team must play as a whole, not casually. Concede the ball at the back, run more and try to open the fans early. Remember we are Manchester United and we are aiming for . . .

"champion."

All Manchester United teammates stood up and shouted loudly.

Ferguson smiled and watched his players making final preparations for the game, and he glanced at Li Xiaoming.

Ferguson sighed. To be honest, he knew that he seemed a little reckless this time. After all, this young man was under tremendous pressure. It was also the first time Ferguson saw Li Xiaoming in such a serious and tense state.

However, he still hopes that Li Xiaoming can take the first step in his career. He has to face it all the time. He is Manchester United's No. [-].

Because Scholes was unable to play in this game, Li Xiaoming, who replaced him, was more impactful than Scholes in terms of technical characteristics.So Ferguson made some adjustments to the team lineup.

Carrick and Fletcher served as the defensive midfielders for this game. Li Xiaoming, Giggs and Valencia lined up in front of them. Li Xiaoming was in the middle and the other two were separated from each other.

And the person at the top is Rooney.

Park Ji-sung did not play because Ferguson felt that when Li Xiaoming played, both Fletcher and Carrick had good coordination and defensive capabilities, and Birmingham did not particularly need players to focus on, so Ferguson wanted to use control , Attack and control will kill you.

And the playing of these two people, together with Li Xiaoming, can maximize the control in the midfield.

※※※

When the game was about to start, Li Xiaoming and his teammates stood in the tunnel, waiting for the referee to take them out.

After discussing with Rooney, Gary Neville pulled Li Xiaoming, who was in the middle of the crowd, to the end of the team.

At this time, in the stadium outside, the live broadcast is leading the fans to read the starting list of the game aloud.

"Our Great Gatekeeper—Edwin!" he shouted, drawing out his voice.

Then the fans went on to shout: "Van der Sar!!"

At the same time, Van der Sar's photo, number, location and name were displayed on the big screen.

Then Van der Sar began to lead the players out one by one.

The on-site announcer announced the names of the players one by one, and the voice was louder and louder.

After Rooney's name was broadcast live,
Next, the announcer started shouting: "Manchester United's new No. [-] --- Lai"

"Li"

Li Xiaoming led the caddy out of the tunnel and waved to the fans who were waving and shouting at him.

The 8 shouts of "Li!" almost made Li hear all the pores in his body open, as if a burst of electricity ran from the ground through his feet, and finally rose to the top of his head, making his scalp dizzy. Numb!

Thousands of people shout their names in Dream Theater
This is what it's like to play at Old Trafford!This is the stage where I want to start.

Even though he hasn't started kicking yet... But the moment Li Xiaoming stepped on the field, his heart was slightly relieved. Stepping on the soft lawn, he could feel his body full of strength.

But he couldn't wait to get the game started.

He feels that his dream is being realized step by step, and in the process of realizing it, there are always many memories worth cherishing for a lifetime.

For example, this is the first time I played in Dream Theater.This is the first step for his real dream to take off.

"Look! It's our son!" Feng Zhong in front of the TV excitedly pointed at the TV screen.

At the same time, in front of countless TVs and computer screens in China, countless fans were as excited as Li Xiaoming's parents.

Finally, Li Xiaoming made his debut!Standing at the star-studded Old Trafford Stadium, become one of the stars and receive the worship of the fans.

And still started at Old Trafford, as Manchester United's new No. [-] starter!This is a great honor and commendation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Captain Gary Neville took the side and Manchester United won the kick-off.

Li Xiaoming took a deep breath
Since there is only one starting striker, Li Xiaoming, who is the attacking midfielder, also has to kick-off in the center circle.He and Rooney faced each other, Barrios with a football at his feet.

Rooney looked at Li Xiaoming with his head down, and said, "Are you okay? Li"

Li Xiaoming raised his head and smiled: "No problem, Wayne, I feel strong enough to kill a few tigers."

Rooney understood what Li Xiaoming meant, and laughed when he saw that Li Xiaoming could make jokes.He gave Li Xiaoming a thumbs up.

At this moment, the referee blew the whistle to start the game. Rooney knocked the football into Birmingham's half. Li Xiaoming stepped forward and kicked the football back.

Then Li Xiaoming rushed forward, while Rooney ran back.The two parted ways.

After the football circled around the defense, the formations of the two sides also pulled apart. Li Xiaoming waved to Carrick who was holding the ball, and the football returned to Li Xiaoming's feet again.

After receiving the ball, he turned around and knocked the football directly to the feet of Evra on the wing.

Then he also ran forward.

Evra moved forward with the ball, and when he encountered difficulties, he chose to pass the ball to Giggs on the same side.

After getting the ball, Giggs did not shake the defense of the Birmingham defenders with a few fake moves. Instead of choosing to rush, he chose to pass back to the feet of Li Xiaoming who ran up to meet him.

Li Xiaoming made a diagonal long pass and then accurately distributed the football to Valencia on the other side.

The Birmingham team put up a defensive formation at Old Trafford from the very beginning. They didn't even take the initiative to compete with Manchester United for the team's possession of the ball. back-court.

Li Xiaoming saw the opponent's active recovery tactics after the start of the game, and knew that there was no need to deal with them in his backcourt.

After playing the football to the frontcourt, how to break the dense defense is what Li Xiaoming should consider.

In the process of passing the ball and running positions, he began to observe the situation on the starting field, hoping to find some ideas. Rooney is not a strong center forward. On the contrary, he needs enough space and impact to allow his explosive speed to be displayed. Come out, so the cross must not be the best choice.

This was also quickly brought to the fore in the game

Regardless of West Asia's development on the wing, it was blocked by Nuremberg. He finally chose to force a cross, but Rooney failed to grab the point.The football was ejected by Birmingham's central defender Johnson, but he made a hasty clearance. The ejected football did not fall to the feet of the Birmingham players, but was intercepted by Fletcher.

Li Xiaoming asked Fletcher for the ball, he already knew how to organize the offense.

In the past of Manchester United's style of play, crosses from the side still played a very important role in Ferguson's tactics, so Birmingham, who knew this well, would naturally focus on defending the side. The reason why both West Asians were blocked by the other side on the wing.

Birmingham obviously thought of this too. With Berbatov unable to play at this high point, Rooney cannot get cover and be directly exposed to the defense of Birmingham's central defender. As long as the efficiency of the cross is not particularly high, it is particularly good , then the chances of Manchester United hoping to score a goal through a cross from the wing are very low.

Now it seems that such a defense seems to be more beneficial to them.Besides, at Old Trafford, the Birmingham players didn't think about scoring goals, they just hoped to get one and get a draw to end the game.

After Li Xiaoming got the ball near the middle circle, he easily faced the goal. The offensive and defensive situation on the field was clearly visible in Li Xiaoming's field of vision.

(End of this chapter)