[football] walk side by side

After the European Youth Championship, Porto once again faced Benfica in the league.

Amidst the boos of the Stadium of Light, Porto easily took away the victory with a score of 1:0. This is a game without suspense. Although the score is not big, everyone can see it. Like against Sporting, Porto dominated the game.

Since then, this season's league championship has basically ceased to be controversial. Benfica, which ranks second, has fallen behind Porto by a full 13 points. There will be the possibility of an avalanche overturning.

In this case, the winter break arrived.

All schedules have since died down, and the players have disbanded and gone home.

Naturally, Christmas night was spent at home with Shen Wei. The two sat on the sofa and chatted casually about homework. Have your own study and so on.

Christmas with only two people is not lively, but for Cyril, that alone is enough.

After dinner, Cyril received all kinds of congratulatory text messages, some from his teammates in Porto, some from Portugal’s u21 teammates, and besides that, there were also opponents who played in the European Youth Championship, such as the one who played for Portugal in the final Petr Cech in major trouble.

It is worth mentioning that although the Czech Republic lost to Portugal in the final final, the mvp of this European Youth Championship finally fell to this outstanding new-generation goalkeeper. Considering that various awards in the football world have always favored As an offensive player, Cech's award has to be regarded as a big upset.

After the final, Cyril and Cech exchanged contact information, so when the final result came out, Cyril immediately sent a text message to express his blessing, and Cech's mood was very complicated.

It's nice to win a prize, but it doesn't bode well for a goalkeeper.

Because of this, Cech couldn't help complaining: "If possible, I don't want this personal award at all."

In this regard, Cyril was even more helpless than him: "You can be content, at least you still have you in the Czech Republic, and we in Portugal simply want a goalkeeper without a goalkeeper, and a defense without a defense, so only the offensive end can pass. "

Then it was Cristiano who called. The boy said Merry Christmas in a brisk tone, and he couldn't wait to switch to another topic that he was particularly concerned about: "I heard you are going to Arsenal?"

"..." Cyril was stunned by this sudden question for a few seconds, and then he realized that Cristiano probably read the reports in the newspapers, and replied with some confusion: "Chris, when will you start?" Do you believe the nonsense of those newspapers?"

"Oh..." Cristiano's voice sounded a little regretful: "I was still thinking, maybe we can still meet in Highbury."

Cyril remembered the reports he had accidentally seen before, about Arsenal's youth godfather being interested in the Lisbon Nova. At that time, he thought it was just a random nonsense in the newspapers, but now it seems that there is such a thing.He asked curiously: "So, you are going to Arsenal?"

When it comes to this topic, Cristiano is a little depressed: "I don't know what Arsenal mean. They asked me to try out before, but there was no result. Two days ago, they called me again and asked me to go again. ..."

"And what?"

"...nothing." Cristiano pouted, not very happy to continue this topic - because it would always remind him of another La Masia player who was persuaded by Wenger himself, which made him very unhappy , In addition, Arsenal called him back and forth twice without giving a result. Once he came and went, Cristiano felt that he was a little lumpy with Arsenal.

Cyril could hear the displeasure in Cristiano's tone, he didn't continue this topic, but just kept his mind on it, and he switched to another topic.

When opening the presents the next day, Cyril received a watch from Cristiano. It was not a high-end watch, but a well-known mid-range brand. This made Cyril a little bit dumbfounded—because Cyril sent In the Christmas gift for Cristiano, the packaging is also a watch, except for the different colors, even the brand and style are the same.

There is always a feeling that I bought myself a Christmas present...

Having said that, Cyril put it on anyway.In fact, Cyril does not actually have the habit of wearing a watch, mainly because his usual activities are mainly playing football, and once on the green grass, things like watches must be removed, so Cyril has always Neither was equipped with a watch.As for why Cristiano put it on without hesitation...

I always feel that if I don't wear it, someone will be angry and break it.

***

After the winter break, Porto ushered in the first round of the league in 2003, going to Madeira to play Maritimo.The problem is that in just nine days, in addition to this league game, Porto also has the fourth round of the UEFA Cup qualifying round, and some players will also play against the Italian national team in Italy as international players. For one thing, many of Porto's players have to play three major games.

"Here is the first leg of the second half of the 2002/2003 season. Porto was away at Madeira to face Maritimo. Italy returned to Lisbon and then transferred to Porto. With less than a day's rest, they had to go to the away game..."The game has not yet fully started. After the commentator Shay introduced the lineups of the two sides, he began to chat about other things: " If Porto wants to maintain the brilliant record of the first half of the season, Mr. Mourinho will have to consider how to solve the physical problems of the players."

The cameras on the pitch were shifted to Mourinho on the coaching bench, and a close-up shot of Mourinho appeared on the big screen at the same time. Mourinho on the camera still looked serious, but he was more confident than before. Man, I'm a little more worried now.

You know, at this time in Porto's first team, many players played the whole game against Italy two days ago, and their physical fitness is definitely inferior to that of Maritimo, who has rested for a winter .

In this game, Cyril once again replaced Pedro and stood in front of Deco.

At the beginning of the game, Porto launched a methodical attack in the midfield. Mourinho did not insist on the previous opening onslaught tactics. After all, no one knows the physical fitness of the players in the team after the national team game. Is it enough to implement that kind of stormy attack? To be on the safe side, Mourinho chose to play steadily.

In fact, there was nothing wrong with his tactics.

Thanks to the solid defense and keen offense in the midfield, Porto got a lot of opportunities in the first half, and several shot angles were very positive, but football is sometimes very mysterious. It not only depends on strength, Sometimes it takes luck.

Obviously, in this game, God did not favor Porto again.

In the No.30 minute of the first half, Maritimo took the lead in scoring.

Of course, Porto will not panic because of a conceded goal. For this team that has experienced many battles and is still at the top of the standings, they have enough confidence to equalize the score, overtake their opponents, and win the final game.

Therefore, even in the background of Maritimo cheering, Porto players still behaved calmly and calmly.

But Cyril pursed his lips and sighed softly.

The youth's growth environment made Cyril's skill tree, the item of "observation of words and emotions" has always been at the top of the list, which allowed him to clearly perceive another hidden problem in Porto -

Porto underestimated the enemy.

In many cases, underestimating the enemy is an emotion that is difficult to detect and solve, because emotions themselves are beyond their control. It does not mean that you can not underestimate the enemy if you tell yourself to face the opponent squarely. .

The same is true for Porto now.

Although everyone knows that you should not hold an overly optimistic attitude in the game, but with the almost unbeaten results in the first half of the season, the players will more or less have some thoughts of underestimating their opponents. This kind of blatantly looking down on the opponent, an open and aboveboard contempt.It hides deeper and is more dangerous.

And on the court, unless woken up by hard truths, such slights are the hardest to undo.And when this contempt can be eliminated, it is often the time when the matter is a foregone conclusion.

In the 60th minute of the game, in order to block Maritimo's attack, Deco had to choose to bring down the opponent's striker again, which brought him a yellow card, plus another yellow card in the first half, two yellow cards Turned red and was sent off.

This time, Porto was really completely awake.

Although the Brazilian midfielder is not a leader player in the Porto team, he is an out-and-out core on the field. The tactics of the entire Porto first team are built around Deco. Now that the core is down, the impact on the team is not. One and a half points!Compared with the fact that the core of the team is the end, ten to eleven is not so serious.

The only good thing is that in the 703rd minute of the game, Maritimo's defender brought down Delray outside the penalty area. This fierce action caused the referee to directly give him a red card, and at the same time awarded Porto a free kick. Delray Ray himself took the penalty and scored the goal to tie the score.

Ten people against ten people, 1:1 tie.

The two sides returned to the same starting line again.