Ender's Football

While Scheuerman's first practice session was safe except for a little more work, that may have been just a faux pas, as he gave the group a second session on Thursday. Talented teenagers from all over the country took a lesson.

——It only took half a training session.

"You should block his passing lane when the opposite side dribbles the ball! Why don't you run to that place, but go to the other side, what, did you find any rare treasures there?"

"Cole, I really hope you can save your brain, or just stop embarrassing yourself to do such brain-intensive work—why didn't you just make a long pass? Didn't you see that Ender and Jeremy in front have already Are you in place?!"

"My God! With your poor imagination, don't you understand why 352 needs two wingbacks instead of fullbacks! Help me, I don't want to spend such precious time on you, you should only listen to elementary school students Tactics class!"

His barrage of metaphors, his cold voice, and his habit of shooting criticisms as soon as he opened his mouth really made every boy in the team tense up, for fear that the next second the coach will read his name on the sidelines .

Even the best forwards on both sides of the team - Ender and Jeremy, of course - can't escape his "magic voice".

"Ender! Why don't you retreat? Why don't you help Cole defend! Do you think you don't need to work so hard to defend in the frontcourt?"

"Can you understand your responsibilities in 352? Did I put you in front so that you can do some scheduling at this time? Don't compete with Cole!"

"I've already talked about how you should run with the two wing forwards, but I haven't seen a single shadow in the whole game! Can you do something besides stealing?"

"And you, Jeremy! I don't remember the position being changed to 'performance striker'. If you really want to perform, then I suggest you might as well play freestyle football. You may find it there. Home, maybe you will thank me the day you win the freestyle football championship, so you won’t let yourself waste time playing professional football.”

Ender looked tired.

He had already begun to fail to understand Schuylman's instructions.

At first, he told Ender to help, and Ender went.

Then he started to say that Ender was fighting Cole for a job, and Ender had to move forward a little, not daring to go to the middle of the field to "get a job".

So Schuylman began to berate him for "doing nothing."

……

If only the coach could visualize the me in his head who knows what to do.

He thought helplessly.

At the end of halftime, Ander slumped down on the turf beside the court. He was soaked all over. In the cold winter of East Germany, he even felt steaming white air all over his body. A strand of bangs stuck to his sweaty forehead, adding a touch of unspeakable temperament to the boy's face.

In this way, he is still "decent".The other boys were already lying on the turf staggeringly, and Jeremy even lay down next to Ender, poking Ender with his arm.

"Brother, what did the coach just say?"

—Yes, Jeremy still can't understand German today.

Ander actually envied him a little bit.

"He seemed to be criticizing me just now...?" Jeremy sat up and said hesitantly, then turned his head to ask Ender next to him uncertainly, "Is he criticizing me? I haven't heard it for a long time." The coach has criticized me..."

"He said to let you do less work." Ender relayed for Schuylman. Of course, he directly omitted Schuylman's long and wonderful speech, and extracted what the other party said. core idea.

"Ah——" Jeremy lay back again, showing no repentance at all, "again! The coaches always like to kill my creativity like this! I just skinned it a little bit, and it worked! Our defender just now I was also taken aback because I made a face at him!"

Ender: "... so you made a funny face just now?" He was shocked, "I thought you just stepped on the bicycle and then made a cow's tail..."

Jeremy: "Hehehe~ I would have liked to try Rainbow if I could~ That would be cooler, don't you think?"

Ender: "..."

Jeremy: "But my mother said that we just practiced together and we can't do this. It would be bad if we were beaten by our teammates."

Ender: "..."

Jeremy: "I think what she said makes sense, but skills need to be used, otherwise what can be invented! Look at Messi, look at Neymar, and Ronaldinho, everyone They all have their own famous stunts! I think Neymar's rainbow is cool! Look at the moves he did in Brazil! It's a flash of genius! But the media has to say he is provoking the defender , I think he is just playing~ football, or South Americans have fun and have fun.”

Ender: There is some truth to it... Although, guards generally don't reason with you.

Jeremy continued his efforts: "By the way, Ender, you are Asian. You must believe in Buddhism! I heard that Buddhism teaches that people have previous lives. I think I must have been a Brazilian or an Argentinian in my last life, although In this life, I was reborn in the British Isles as a boring Englishman, but I still have Ronaldinho’s soul in my body!*”

Ander: Grandpa on the subway looks at his phone.JPG

He kept babbling, and Ender was speechless here, neither of them noticed that the training ground where a bunch of people were lying just now was empty at this time.

"This reincarnation of 'Ronaldinho'," a cold voice sounded above the two boys, just like the beginning of all horror movies, a shadow of a person sees through the sun on the training ground, from above the heads of the two boys Projected down, creating an eerie atmosphere, "I think the two gentlemen can discuss topics such as Buddhism and past and present lives later. This is a training ground. I hope you can allocate some space in your poor little brains. Let your meager tactical knowledge expand a little bit, so that you don’t stand on the court and don’t even know what you are going to do. Now, go to the small conference room.”

After Schuylman finished speaking in one breath, he even added a sentence to Ender: "Translate this passage to him without any deletion."

Ender: "..."

He couldn’t count how many times he was speechless today, and silently complained in his heart: If I can do it, I can even become a professional German-English translator, maybe I have a better future than me playing football—— — After all, I am a foreigner who has been entrusted with such an "important task".

Jeremy didn't realize that Ender was speechless. He grabbed Ender's shoulder and asked him, "Dude, what did the coach say just now?"

Ender pulled him up from the turf: "Hurry up! He asked us to go to a meeting!"

He ran away, and Jeremy's sleeve was pulled by him. Fortunately, he had excellent balance, and he could take a few small steps when he jumped up. He followed Ender, and a puzzled voice floated in the wind: "But coach Did you say a long paragraph just now?"

Ender replied firmly: "It's all long and difficult sentences. In short, that's what he meant—"

***

Compared with Ander's dire situation, Sieghard's life in the U19 team was a little easier.

His current coach is Heyman, who is a good friend of Bayern U19 coach Vogel, and also followed Mr. Albeck to the Red Bull Youth Training Center this season.

After meeting Sieghard, Heyman was very happy. He chatted with him for a long time when the goalkeeper team was training alone, and he was also concerned about whether his injury had recovered.

"When Vogel mentioned you to me, he was always full of praise," Heyman said with a smile, "I blamed him at that time, don't always show off to me that you have such a genius, it will make people jealous Unexpectedly, now I am your coach."

Coach Vogel worked in the Bayern Youth Training Center when Sighard was very young. At that time, Vogel even had a father's heart for Sighard.

It was he who took over the immature Sieghard in the youth academy, taught him how to play football, and later taught him how to be a goalkeeper.At the age of 15, Vogel promoted Sighard to the Bayern U17s, and when Sighard was 16, he brought him to the Bayern U19s.In Sighard's youth training career, Vogel undoubtedly occupied a very important position.

However, when Sighard was determined to leave, he was not the first to tell Vogel.Vogel even knew about it later than Bayern sports director Sammer. When Sieghard had already started packing his luggage and decided to set off for Leipzig in East Germany, the coach who had watched him grow up silently sent a letter to him. He sent a text message, which simply wrote a sentence:

——[Do it well, Sig. 】

Sieghard couldn't explain why he hadn't told Mr. Vogel himself about it.

Maybe it's because of the discomfort in his heart, maybe it's because he doesn't want to see the other party's disappointed eyes, maybe he feels that he is already a loser in the goalkeeper battle-he didn't even sign a new contract with Bayern from France. The talented goalkeeper had competed together, but he had already lost in a mess-in short, he left quite embarrassed and dared not face Vogel.

He thought that his relationship with coach Vogel would gradually fade like this.

You know, even if you were best friends, as long as you haven't seen each other for many years and gradually lose contact with each other, then no matter how good the relationship is, it will turn into a bubble.

But unexpectedly, Vogel actually said hello to Coach Heyman for him to leave without saying goodbye.

"I..." Sieghard opened his mouth, and for a moment, he didn't know what to say.

Coach Heyman interrupted him with his hand, and he patted Sieghard on the shoulder: "Okay, Sieg, follow our goalkeeper coach to train well! I know that when you are in Bayern, you can ask Neuer's goalkeeper Ask the coaches for advice, but sometimes, learning other things from other coaches can also help you improve."

His smile is sincere and eager, and he is obviously a very approachable and easy-going youth coach.

"For this week's game, I will choose one of you and Nicholas to be the starting goalkeeper for the first round after returning from the winter break. The final result will be based on the performance of the two of you. I will let you down because of my relationship with Er - on the contrary, I may be more strict with you, do you have confidence?"

***

The small conference room is actually not "small".

The Red Bull Youth Training Center is newly built by the Red Bull Group for the Leipzig Red Bull Club. The building is very new and the equipment is also very new. Everything inside is brand new and modern, even the top German youth training camps such as Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04. For rivals in the Ruhr area, their youth training centers may not be as well-equipped as Red Bull's here.

The small conference room in the Youth Training Center is actually officially called the "Tactical Conference Room". It has two giant projection screens and theater-style stepped seats, which can fully accommodate young players from the next echelon to hold meetings and study here.

Of course, the players call it the "small conference room", and naturally there is a "big conference room", which is more like a classroom, with whiteboards, tables and chairs, when the coach stands at the front and gives lectures. At that time, it was very similar to the scene of class in school. Because it can accommodate more players, that conference room was called the "big conference room" by everyone.

Ender and Jeremy were the last in line when they walked into the small meeting room.

When they were just lying on the turf chatting (in fact, it was basically Jeremy's unilateral output), Shuierman had already announced the cancellation of the other half of today's training and decided to temporarily add a tactical lesson.

He glanced coldly at Ender and Jeremy who were late, and then opened the video of the game just now from the computer, and started to play it for the boys.

A line of words floated silently in Ander's mind: "Public execution!"

They do usually have video analysts to do some editing work on the game, but that is all after the game. How can there be such a thing as Schuylman, who directly brought the young players to the meeting in the middle of the game? The video started playing in the room?

Indeed, as Ender thought, this was Schuylman's public execution of them.

Schuylman was unkind—although he hadn't been polite before—turning on the video and, from minute one on, telling the boys about their mistakes.

Especially Jeremy, he criticized the behavior of the British genius on the field in a large number, and even specially changed to English, which he did not speak very well, and began to export his thoughts on tactics and discipline.

Jeremy scratched his head, thinking that Schuylman's English level was also a test for his listening ability.

He even leaned over and asked Ender privately, "What did the coach just say? Did he speak German or English?"

"..." The corners of Ender's eyes twitched, and he barely maintained his serious expression, and answered him in a low voice, "English, he's still saying that you shouldn't show off."

"Oh~" Jeremy didn't take it seriously, and was still talking nonsense, "I've already said it, I'm the reincarnation of Ronaldinho~"

Ender: "..."

He still prayed that the real Ronaldinho would not know about it. He was still alive and well, but he was reincarnated inexplicably, and no one would be happy if he knew about it.

Schuylman was very upset by these two guys who talked small things in the meeting—mainly when he was exporting to Jeremy. And after he didn't come back to help in midfield on a regular basis, he started talking about Ender's mistakes.

When pausing the picture to a certain frame, Schuylman pointed to the screen and emphasized his tone.

"Why did you choose to run to the other side at this time?"

Ender was suddenly asked by him, and suddenly he couldn't remember the scene at that time. He looked at the blurred self on the video, and hesitated: "Maybe... I wanted to stop Jeremy at that time, so that he wouldn't let him go." Forward to David?"

"This job Cole is doing," Schuylman pointed to Cole on the other side of the screen, who was running in Jeremy's direction, "You want to do this, he wants to do this, and then you all The running was heavy, and the passing route on the other side was not blocked, so the opponent passed your midfielder smoothly and passed the ball to the winger. At this time, Jeremy moved forward again. You and Cole Where are people? Not a single one."

What he said was very merciless, but maybe it was because Schuylman's output was aimed at everyone in the audience, and Ender didn't feel that he was being targeted.

He's just kind of... kind of, not good.

A dual emotion of shame and embarrassment enveloped him, making him involuntarily rub the seam of his trousers with his hands.

"I was... was thinking..."

"Stop, sir, I don't want to know what you think," Schuylman said. "You just have to listen to me and correct it."

He was as arrogant as the day we first met.

"If you choose to run to this side at this time," Schuylman pointed to a position with his finger, "you can block the passing cooperation very well this time, and then you can cooperate with the midfielder here to make the The ball is broken. At this time, because the opponent is too deep into your penalty area, you can cooperate with Cole to press forward quickly. If possible, this defensive counterattack can even buy you a precious single-handed opportunity. So you A mistake, not only gave the opponent a goal, but also ruined a possible goal for yourself, assuming this is a real game, your team is already behind."

Ender said nothing this time.

He rehearsed what Schuylman said in his heart, and he had to admit that his thinking was very clear and his perspective was broad.

But he still has a problem.

"Coach," Ender said hesitantly, "I'm sorry, but I still want to ask you a question..."

"Speak." Schuylman said.

"On the court, I may not have much time to think," Ender asked, "so how can I make quick and correct choices every time..."

Schuylman, the arrogant young coach, looked deeply at him for the first time today and raised his eyebrows: "Very well, this is the first very valuable question I heard today," he said , "This is also the question that you will spend your whole life exploring, because it has no answer."

***

Schuylman's tactical lesson ended up going into the evening, beyond the day's practice time.

When Ander and Jeremy stepped out of the youth training center on the cold winter evening wind, the training of the U19 echelon had already ended.They went to the restaurant together with the flow of people, and almost everyone in the U17 stayed in the academy for dinner today.

As soon as Ender entered the restaurant, he saw Sigurhard waving at him from his seat.

He was about to go there, but Jeremy pulled his sleeve excitedly: "Is that the Sieghard they are talking about?!"

"Who?" Ender was alert.

"It's Lynch and the others," Jeremy said.

It was only then that Ender remembered that when he and Sieghard had just moved into the Red Bull Youth Training Center last weekend, the boy who took the initiative to say hello, but ended up having a bit of a bad quarrel.

The opponent is also in the U16 echelon, and they are still training together today, but Ender is not on the same team as him, so they didn't say a few words.

Jeremy didn't know this part, he was just plain excited.

"Hey man! Your friend is kinda cool, can I meet him?"

Ender thought about it, if Jeremy just wanted to get to know Sighard, he could be an introducer—maybe he could make Sighard more friends, so he nodded: "Yes."

Saying that, they walked towards Sieghard together.

As soon as Jeremy walked over, he took the seat opposite Sieghard very familiarly, and greeted him in English: "Brother~ Hello, my name is Jeremy! I'm from the U16 echelon, and it's Ender's hello." Brother! From England! My mother is Swedish, my father is British, my mother accompanied me to Germany, and now she is my agent..."

Ender: Help!He started again!I'm almost going to recite this passage!

But he murmured a long string of words affectionately, Sigerhard just frowned, and said to Jeremy in English indifferently: "Excuse me, can you?"

Jeremy blinked, not understanding what he meant.

Sieghard pointed to the seat he was sitting on: "That's what I reserved for Ander."

Only then did the English boy suddenly realize that he stood up and gave up his seat.

Ander thought that the atmosphere was about to freeze, but Jeremy didn't feel any embarrassment after getting out of his seat, and sat down on the seat next to their table again, happily continuing: "Your relations very nice!"

Ender: "..."

Save the child, he has been speechless enough times today.

The dinner was still in the form of a buffet. Ender took the meal and sat face to face with Sieghard to eat, while Jeremy followed him and forcibly inserted into the conversation between the two of them, sublimating the time he spent a meal into Mutual friend of Sieghard and Ender.

After dinner, the British genius finally took his leave.He exported a lot of stories today, and he didn't even stop talking while eating, but he managed to maintain his image and didn't do anything particularly indecent.

During the conversation, Jeremy first berated Sighard for Schuylman's poor spoken English, and then began to rant about the manager's devilish charm (forgive Ender, he really heard the adjective ), and finally talked about the wonderful confrontation between Ender and Schuylman with great interest (although he couldn't understand it, he still made up a big drama).

All in all, the meal was accompanied by Jeremy's cross talk, and they ate wonderfully.

Watching Jeremy walk out of the restaurant of the youth training center, Sieghard said to Ender, "Your friend...you can talk."

Ender: "...Indeed."

The two looked at each other, then laughed together.

Ender said to Sieghard seriously: "Jeremy... is actually very smart, and although he can't usually see it, he is actually a bit arrogant."

Although this person talks a lot, looking at his trivial thoughts, he has never had any unnecessary gossip, and they are all gossip that is easy to get closer.Moreover, beneath the friendly chatterbox and deceptive appearance of the British genius, there is arrogance that belongs to the proud son of heaven.

——How can a guy who can say something like "we are so strong, whoever didn't choose us be a fool" be a humble person?

"It's just that he likes to play with stronger people," Sigerhard said. "He seems to like your new head coach very much. Although he said that the other party is very strict, it is obvious that he agrees with him."

Ender shrugged: "Jeremy is a little bit, the first day we came to the trial training, he only talked to me, and today he has been walking with me - but he is also a very cheerful guy, It relieved me a little bit of embarrassment."

A narrow smile appeared in Sieghard's eyes: "You are saying that you are strong, I know."

Caught off guard, Ender choked on his words, and then choked on his own saliva: "I... cough, cough cough... I, no... cough cough."

Sieghard patted him on the back: "Well, you didn't, that's all I think."

They walked back to the dormitory together.

The dormitory of the two of them has never been very noisy, Sieghard is busy with his homework, he is now in a critical period, not only to keep up with the team's training, but also busy with high school homework and worrying about his Abitur exam; Ander turned on his phone and watched the Bundesliga game video before the winter break with headphones on.

He took it very seriously, especially for the "choice" issue mentioned by Schuylman today. Ander focused on observing Bayern striker Lewandowski and Dortmund striker Aubameyang. The number of goals is pulled back and forth on the Bundesliga scorer list, and it can be said that they have carried the offensive banner of the two strongest teams in the Bundesliga.

After turning off the lights, Ender lay on the bed, looking at the ceiling, recalling the events of the day, unable to fall asleep.

Probably because he made some movement, Sieghard in the next bed suddenly turned over, turned in his direction, and asked, "Can't sleep?"

"...kinda," Ender said honestly.

Sieghard smiled: "Is it because of your coach? Listen to the talkative kid today, he is very strict."

"It's very harsh," Ender sighed. "He pointed out some problems to me today. I think...he is right. Sometimes I will make wrong decisions on the court, and then there will be a chain reaction...but , I have no idea how to solve these problems."

"He told you the problem, but didn't tell you what to do?" Sieghard asked.

Ender shook his head in the dark before realizing that Sieghard couldn't see.

"No, no," he denied, but he felt that he couldn't completely deny it, "in fact...he did tell me that in that situation, what choice would be better for me, but how should I put it...that's... ..."

Ender didn't quite know how to describe his feelings.

"He's just telling you what to do 'in that situation'," but Sieghard quickly understood what he meant. "Your question is, apart from this particular situation, there's no way At any other time you can figure out what to do."

"Yes!" Ander nodded sharply.

Sieghard smiled softly.

Ender sat up. He turned on the sleeping lamp beside the bed, and saw Sigurhard's handsome side face in the dim yellow light. His jaw line smoothly extended along the light, and the cast shadow was finally submerged in the At the neck, there is a mixed beauty of a boy and a man.

"What are you laughing at, Sig?" Ender looked at him anxiously.

Sighard sat up too, having caught a glimpse of Ender watching a Bundesliga game earlier in the evening, and said, "You watched Lewandowski's tape today, do you think he made a mistake?"

Ender froze for a moment.

"...of course," he replied.

Sighard asked again: "Did Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo make mistakes in the game?"

Ender: "... yes."

Sieghard said: "So you see, even a Ballon d'Or winner, it is impossible to make perfect choices all the time. The problem that causes you to lose sleep is that you pursue an infinitely perfect formula too much and hope to be able to do it all the time. Every situation applies, and this doesn't exist."

"It's impossible to hope that you won't make mistakes," repeated Ender murmured, "but at least . . . at least it can be reduced?"

"Of course it can be reduced," Sieghard said, "but it requires game experience, your ability to read the game, and your ability to understand your teammates. Only when you do all of these well can you barely reach this level. The first step. Before that, you need to be like a sponge, constantly accumulating 'situations' in actual combat."

He made a lot of sense—so much so, Ender had to admit, that Sigerhard was a natural speaker, he just didn't usually speak like that, but once he wanted to convince someone, it was a piece of cake.

This is probably the speech at the captain level of the National Youth Team.thought Ender.

He thanked Sieghard very seriously, lay back on the bed, and turned off the light.

However, before falling asleep, Sieghard added another sentence.

"You said today that Jeremy is arrogant," Sieghard said slowly, "This is a common problem of geniuses. When some of your talents surpass others, you will involuntarily appear this characteristic, which is why No team can put eleven talents together and play that kind of football."

"It's arrogance to wish you could do everything perfectly."

Ender was silent for a long time.

"Maybe, Sig," he said seriously, the darkness giving him the strength to dissect himself, "but I was never a genius, and I was the skinniest kid on the locomotive, and everyone thought I was that My body was knocked out on the pitch; at Uwensborg, Coach Tierner didn't let me play because he thought and thought I'd be eaten to death by tall defenders until I finally grew to his size. Standard, to be put in the starting lineup... I have to do well, because I know, there is no seat reserved for me-maybe you don't understand this, Seager, but I'm an Asian, My yellow skin will make them distrust naturally, so if I want to play in Europe, I have to be better than everyone, even twice or twice as good as them, and the coach will let me play."

What he said made Sieghard look sideways.

"It's full of power." Sieghard said, "Ander, go and write my German homework today. Write this paragraph into the composition. I think if I were a teacher, I would give you full marks."

The two of them laughed together in the dark, Ender covered himself in the quilt, and laughed muffled, Sigerhard was not so scruples, he sat on the edge of the bed, and said in a laughing voice : "I originally wanted to enlighten you-it turned out that I was inspired, give me a hug, young man full of strength, you are much braver than me."

Ender threw off the quilt again and jumped off the bed.

He took a few steps forward, and then hugged Sigurhard. He was not as tall as the opponent, but because Sigurhard was sitting, Ender still easily wrapped his arms around the opponent's shoulders. He rested his chin on Sieghard's neck.

There was no ambiguity in this hug. In this untroubled, silent night in the youth training center, the two boys gave each other a strong hug, conveying strength.

"I'm going to write it in my autobiography," Ender said, slamming his chin on Sigerhard's collarbone, and feeling himself surrounded by the scent of fresh body wash, "just write, In January 2016, the famous German star Sieghard gave me a hug in the dormitory of the Red Bull Youth Training Center, which then influenced my life."

"Then I will also remember to save a place for this hug in my autobiography," Sigerhard said, he put his arms around the teenager's back and patted it, "Probably, in January 2016, A frustrated goalkeeper is inspired by an Asian talent."