long live football

Hoffman stood in front of the goal, he took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down.

But his heartbeat like a drum betrayed him.

Opposite him stood Werder Bremen striker Nelson Valdes, and just now, Janker's foul tackle on Valdes in the penalty area caused the referee to award Werder Bremen a penalty Penalty.

The game has been going on for 88 minutes, the score is 2:1, and 1860 Munich is leading.

Therefore, the penalty that Valdes will take is a penalty that may determine the outcome of the game.

Where will Valdes shoot the ball?

Hoffman has some shooting data of Werder Bremen forwards floating in his mind, and he finds out Valdés from them: Valdes has taken 13 goals in total this season and scored 5 of them, including penalty kicks. The efficiency is that 7 penalties were scored and 2 scored, which is a relatively low data.This may have something to do with Valdez's right foot for free throws. He likes to shoot the ball to the right side of the goalkeeper's body, but many goalkeepers subconsciously jump to the right side when they catch the ball.

Although Hoffman even has data on the angles of the Werder Bremen forwards' penalty kicks prepared for him by the coaching staff before the game, he knows that these are actually rigid things. The important talent is intuition.

How accurate a goalkeeper's natural intuition is, directly determines how high and far their careers can go.

It's a pity that Hoffman knows that his talent is not outstanding, so when he faces a goal crisis, he half relies on experience to guess, and the other half relies on gambling.

Standing in front of the penalty spot, Nelson Valdes glances at the goal.

Karl and the head coach of Werder Bremen stood on the sidelines, watching the scene with bated breath.

"This is a very crucial penalty. To put it mildly, it will determine whether Munich 1860 can win in the end, or if they can only take the draw helplessly... On a bigger scale, this ball is likely to affect the current Ranking in the standings... In the current Bundesliga rankings, apart from Bayern Munich with 63 points, Munich 1860 and Hamburg both have 60 points..."

Valdez took a few steps back to run up, his speed was slow at first, then suddenly accelerated, he raised his right foot and hit the football violently!

In this short moment, Hoffman couldn't complete any complete estimation in his mind. Relying on his past experience, he rushed to his right!

But this time Valdes deliberately shot the ball to the left of the goal!

"The football flew into the goal in the opposite direction, Hoffman missed the penalty, and Werder Bremen equalized the score! 2:2! The Lions and the Parrots are on the same starting line again!"

"There is only one and a half minutes left before the end of the game. It is very difficult for 1860 Munich to win. They may be destined to get a draw in this round of the league..."

Frustrated, Hoffman fished the football out of the goal, not looking his teammates in the eye as he threw it out.

The morale of other Lions players has also been hit, but they still muster up their spirits, holding some hope that they may be able to score goals in stoppage time.

But a few minutes later...

“伤停补时结束！”解说员盖纳大声叫喊着：“比分仍然是2:2！慕尼黑1860没有能在终场哨响前攻进一球，他们目前的积分是61，而汉堡……刚刚从美国在线竞技场（汉堡主场）传来的消息，汉堡球队2:0战胜了他们的本轮对手沙尔克04拿到了三分！”

"The latest update on the Bundesliga standings: Bayern Munich again with 66 points in first place, Hamburg second with 63 points, Munich third with 1860 points and 61 points, Werder Bremen fourth with 56 points …The teams behind No.4 have a very obvious gap with the top three, and Bayern’s lead will not be shaken for the time being, and Hamburg and Munich 1860 may continue to be stalemate… Probably until the season, we Only then can we know which two teams will go directly to the Champions League, and which two teams will start from the qualifying round..."

I kept facing the cameras off the field and continued to give close-ups of the faces of the coaches of the two teams as usual: the young coach of 1860 Munich couldn’t tell the joy or anger on his face, and the reporters and fans are now accustomed to him using calmness as his disguise color.On the contrary, the head coach of Werder Bremen was very happy. Since the Lions kicked the Parrot Legion to the fourth place in the standings, Werder Bremen didn't mind making trouble for them when Munich 1860 continued to climb. .

……

Before the dawn of a new day, Club Munich 1860 updated the headlines on its official website. On the well-maintained page, there was a dazzling photo and a few lines of words: "Because of receiving the famous director Spielberg and Warner At the invitation of the brother company, Karl Oston has decided to terminate the contract with 1860 Munich, and will soon go to Hollywood, USA to star in a new movie tailored for him. Mr. Orr, the chairman of the club, thanked Oston for his dedication to the team over the past two years Everything, and congratulations to him for a happy life in Los Angeles, and it is best to get an Oscar statuette as soon as possible."

Below those words was a photo of Orr and Carl shaking hands, both smiling in what appeared to be an amicable breakup.

The fans who got up in the morning and refreshed the website to see this news were all stunned. They rubbed their eyes in disbelief, stared at the website for a long time, then picked up their mobile phones and frantically called the club, wanting to ask what happened. not real.

At 4 o'clock in the morning, the Munich 1860 website made an update. By [-] o'clock, this horrifying news had spread like a virus on the Internet. Many media websites immediately updated and reproduced it. People who heard the news were shocked, unbelieving, Anxious and restless, several telephones of the club's external liaison office were all paralyzed.

But no matter how many times reporters and fans called, the landline of 1860 Munich kept ringing and no one answered.

Lions fans were in contact with each other, exchanging news, discussing whether to skip breakfast or even work, and ran directly to the club to protest.

Then I don't know who was the first to realize: "Hey, what date is it today?"

It's like lighting a torch of wisdom in everyone's head. People invariably turned over the calendar and cursed: "Damn Munich 1860!"

That's right, today is April 2006, 4, April Fool's Day.

On this special day, people with the most serious and staid personalities in the past may tell the most nonsensical jokes.

Those who have been fooled, after the initial anger, turn to want to continue to play other people.Even several media outlets, such as "Bild" and "Süddeutsche Zeitung", withdrew their prepared April Fool's Day headlines and replaced them with the news that Karl had defected to Hollywood.

This is destined to be a wild morning.

It was about 7:[-] a.m. when the alarm clock rang again, and Carl was still in bed.

The phone rang suddenly and violently, the second alarm clock?

Annoyed by the noise that disturbed him from thinking about life with his eyes closed, Carl reached for his phone and pressed pause.

Then it started beeping a third time.

So it's not an alarm, it's an incoming call.

When he opened his eyes again, Karl was already half awake. He looked at the phone screen. The caller was... Beckham?

"David?" Carl's voice was a little hoarse when he just woke up: "Why did the call come so early today?"

"The news on Bild surprised me! Why didn't I hear about such a big event beforehand? If it wasn't printed in black and white, I couldn't believe it..." Beckham's voice There was a sudden pause, and he asked a little strangely: "Why does your voice sound so calm?"

"What news from Bild? What's wrong with my voice?" Carl was confused.

"'Karl Oston unilaterally terminated his professional contract early, and Warner Bros. paid 1860 Munich a termination fee of 300 million euros for him, because they were very optimistic about Oston and believed that he would have something to do in Los Angeles...' Beckham's voice became lower and lower, and finally turned into a murmur: "Why does it look so fake news the second time?"

"Me? Going to Hollywood?" Carl had already wandered around the door of the apartment and came back. He got today's newspaper and stared at the headline: "This is definitely a joke."

"..." Beckham suddenly yelled: "Oh! I forgot that today is April Fool's Day!" After that, he laughed: "Next time I can't be so surprised again."

"Actually, I was taken aback when I saw the newspaper just now." Carl laughed together: "Speaking of April Fool's Day, I remember that on this day last year, Bayern posted a news on the official website, saying that you are going to transfer. When I came to Germany, I didn’t expect that it wasn’t you who got teased this year, but me instead.”

On April 4 last year, Bayern Munich also announced an amazing news on their official website. They announced that they had signed England captain Beckham from Real Madrid. The transfer fee was a club record of 1 million euros. The price was the same when Beckham was signed, and the England captain's new Bayern Munich shirt number will be 3500.

Of course, within hours, Bayern's official spokesman declared the news an April Fool's Day joke.But at that time, many fans had already been deceived.

Karl just thought of this matter suddenly, and then said it casually, but unexpectedly, this sentence touched Beckham's emotions, and his voice suddenly became low: "If any club makes fun of my transfer this year, There may be more people who believe it.”

Karl smelled something unusual from it.

Karl reads a lot of La Liga news, and knows that since Florentino resigned in February and Martin became the new chairman of Real Madrid, Beckham's life has not been peaceful.Martin attaches great importance to Beckham, but Carlo does not. Many media said that he became the cannon fodder for the exchange of fire between Real Madrid chairman Martin and coach Carlo, and a victim of the wrestling of two rights figures.

The contract between Beckham and Real Madrid will expire next summer, so his agent has been preparing to negotiate with the club since the end of the year, but the negotiations do not seem to be going well, because if the team cannot get the head coach If you support it, even if you can successfully renew the contract, it will have a negative impact on Beckham's career and business development...

"The contract renewal is not going well?" Carl asked.

Knowing that the other party could not see, Beckham still nodded: "The club is a little bit reluctant, they don't want to sign me so early, especially when they know that I will not be reused by the head coach. Pay 600 million euros a year to a Players who can only sit on the bench? Ha, they're not that stupid." He smiled self-deprecatingly.

Carl didn't know what to say.Because in his opinion, after going to Real Madrid, although Beckham's business development has brought great help, it is not beneficial to the other party's career. You must know that Beckham has been to Real Madrid for nearly three seasons, but still Didn't get a champion.

"Well, have you thought about your future? David, if you end up leaving Real Madrid."

"Maybe to the United States? Victoria likes it very much, and since last year, many teams have offered me an olive branch." After hesitating, Beckham said truthfully: "Actually, I have planned my career long ago. , I originally wanted to renew my contract with the team for another three years, and then consider going to the United States or other places after 09, after all, I am only 31 years old, I know my state, and I can definitely play in the top league for a few more years." After a pause, he smiled and said, "At the very least, I have to keep my best condition until after Euro 08, the World Cup in South Africa, and even the Olympic Games in 12... I didn't expect to become completely As an audience, I know I still have the strength to fight."

"As you said, David, I also think that you are in good shape and you can play in the Champions League for a few more years. You really shouldn't give up on yourself and come up with the bad idea of ​​going to the United States to retire early. The past three years Here, your team changes coaches like they are changing clothes. Queiroz, Camacho, Raymond, Luxembourg, and then Carlo. All coaches who fail to achieve results will be immediately abandoned. Carlo I didn’t get anything, and I guess he won’t last long either.” Carl comforted his friend: “Maybe the next head coach will like you? If you renew your contract, it won’t be too late to come back next season.”

"I don't know." Beckham's voice sounded a bit worried: "I hope it's as you said."

……

In early April, the German Cup semi-finals of the 4-2005 season were held as scheduled. In the two games where tickets for the finals were distributed, one of the teams that played against was Bayern Munich and their city rival Munich 06.

In this way, Bayern and 1860 will play 3 times this season, twice in the league and once in the cup.

The two teams met for the first time this season in the sixth round of the league, when Munich 1860 beat Bayern 3-0 in an upset. But it was also a painful experience of being hated by Bayern fans for more than half a year.

More than a month ago, when the quarter-finals of the DFB-Pokal ended and 1860 Munich and Bayern Munich had qualified, Bayern fans were clamoring loudly: "Revenge!"

After so many days, the slogan of "revenge" has expanded from fans' private chants to official ones.

When Bayern head coach Magath accepted an interview with a reporter from the "Munich Daily" a few days before the game, he said firmly: "There is no doubt that Bayern will wash away the mistakes made half a season ago in the second match against 1860." shame!"

Regarding the high-profile statement of the Bayern coach, the head coach of the Lions did not make any comments in a very low-key manner. In fact, Karl has devoted all his energy to preparing for the game since the week before the game.

The Bundesliga overlords who chanted revenge slogans are coming aggressively. Karl can imagine what kind of formation they will put on his team in the game. It took him several days just to decide on the starting lineup and tactics.

Among them, the position of goalkeeper is the one that makes him hesitate the most.

In terms of status and strength alone, Koch is undoubtedly the best candidate.

After making a mistake a few months ago and being caught, the group of young players headed by Koch has become much calmer and more honest. Among them, Koch has made the most thorough reform. He does not make girlfriends, does not go to bars, and comes at the earliest and leaves at the latest every day. When almost everyone of his teammates bought a car to travel, his mode of transportation was still the subway and bus.

This low-key, simple, serious and hard-working lifestyle makes it impossible for Lions fans not to like him. Among the young players under the age of 20 in the team, Koch has the most fans.And Koch's performance in training is as usual, and his talent makes any insider look amazed.

But considering the overall situation and the stability of the team, Karl couldn't easily give up Hoffman.

Because Hoffman is the captain of the team... the other veteran main players in the locker room, Carl, can play casually, but the captain is directly removed from the main position?This will cause riots.

Carl got a taste of being in a cocoon.

But who would have expected Koch's emergence when he appointed Hoffman as captain?

In the end, he put Hoffman on the starting list, for the peace of the locker room.

Karl prayed for the team's defense, and for Hoffman to perform exceptionally well and keep the goal.

But unexpectedly, he soon paid the price for his indecision.