long live football

At the end of February 2004, before all Manchester United members were ready to leave for Porto, Portugal, they visited Ferguson, who was still recuperating.

"If the doctor is willing to advance my operation a month, I can fly to Portugal with you now." Ferguson pointed to his left chest, and then said: "Porto won the Portuguese Super League last season, the European Cup The UEFA Cup champions, as well as the Portuguese Cup champions, have also maintained the first position in the standings this season, crushing Sporting Lisbon. You know how powerful Sporting Lisbon is, it is recognized as the Portuguese It is definitely not easy for a super-hegemony team to have the upper hand in Lisbon for a long time, and it is impossible to get here by luck. When you play against Porto, you must not underestimate it, and you must treat it with caution."

The Manchester United coach nodded along with the players.

Ferguson pointed to Cristiano Ronaldo again and said: "Ronaldo was transferred from Sporting Lisbon, and he has a say in Porto's situation. Walter, Karl, if you want to learn about this team without the information, You can ask him more."

"Sporting Lisbon and Porto are mortal enemies." Seeing everyone staring at him, Ronaldo couldn't help sitting upright: "We competed with Porto for the league title last season, but unfortunately we still failed in the end. The coach is a very, very tricky guy."

"Jose Mourinho?" Karl asked.

Ronaldo nodded and said, "Yes, that's him."

Carl remembered the information he had checked: "A person who is only 41 years old and led the team to play a full season for the first time and established the miracle of the Triple Crown is definitely not easy."

Mourinho has been the head coach since September 2000. After working in Benfica and Leiria in Portugal for less than a season, he switched jobs. He finally settled down in Porto in January 9. After the 2002-1 season, he In one breath, Porto won two domestic championships and one European Cup championship.

In the field of head coaches, such a result cannot but be called a miracle. You must know that there are not many people in football who become head coaches of top league clubs when they are around 40 years old. There are even fewer people with championship trophies - although the Portuguese Super League is not one of the five major leagues in Europe, the gold content of the League Cup is not low at all. After all, Portugal is also one of the football powerhouses. Moreover, the UEFA Cup It's not an easy trophy either.

Ferguson mused: "He was Bobby Robison's assistant for five years."

Sir Bobby Robison, once coached PSV Eindhoven, Sporting Lisbon, Porto, Barcelona and other teams, also coached the England national team and led England to the quarter-finals in the 1986 World Cup. Lost to Argentina, one of England's most famous managers and is now manager of Premier League side Newcastle United.

Mourinho has been working for Robison since 1992. At first he was a translator and later became an assistant. He followed Robison wherever he went. The two of them worked together in Sporting Lisbon, Porto and Barcelona. , Until the old Robson left the Nou Camp, but he recommended Mourinho to his successor, and Mourinho stayed in Barcelona until 2000.

"Why should you be afraid of such a young man? He has only made some achievements in the Portuguese Super League. He has never even played in the Champions League before." Smith said with a smile at this time: "We are Manchester United, the most powerful football team in Europe. one of the teams."

"I don't want you to have any contempt for our opponents, it is very likely to capsize the team in the gutter." Ferguson first stopped Smith's self-encouraging words as a warning, and then said worriedly: "If you formulate New tactics, tell me, if you find Porto difficult to deal with during the game, you can also call me during the intermission..."

Ferguson glanced outside the door, and after making sure that his wife was not standing at the door, he lowered his voice and said, "I will keep my phone open."

"But, boss..."

Looking at Ferguson who was not reconciled, Walter Smith laughed a little awkwardly—just before they entered the ward, Ferguson's wife Katie dragged them to complain, asking them to stop talking to Ferguson about the game thing.Because Manchester United won the game against Everton two weeks ago, Katie let Ferguson watch the end of the match, but Ferguson's old arrhythmia broke out again that night!Since then, the doctor has even issued an order. Before the operation, Ferguson should stay away from football.

Manchester United's coaches and players looked at each other in blank dismay, not daring to take the initiative to say to Ferguson, "I will tell you the truth about the game". After all, no game is as important as Ferguson's body!

Seeing that no one agreed to him, Ferguson lay down on the backrest annoyed: "Okay, okay, let's talk about everything after my operation."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

……

Porto is the second largest city in Portugal, nicknamed the capital of wine.

The wine culture spreads throughout the city, and there are countless bars and restaurants on any bustling street, and all of them are full of guests.

The most important thing in a football game is of course the state of the players, so when he got off the plane, Smith issued a ban on all Manchester United first-team players: from now until the end of the game, no one is allowed to drink a drop of alcohol, and those who disobey the order will be sent down immediately. Go to the reserve team to practice and practice.And it's not just spirits, beer, red wine, champagne, and even table wine that's banned.

Looking at the mournful expressions of the first-team players, Karl couldn't help but gloat. The players are not allowed to drink, but the ban doesn't apply to the coaches.In fact, the coaches of Manchester United kept exchanging glasses with their colleagues during dinner, because the British are inseparable from alcohol, and a glass after dinner will help them better devote themselves to night work, right?

After dinner, most of the people went back to the room to rest, but Carl was full of energy. His body was not only not tired after a few hours of flying and trekking, but also clamored that it needed to experience more foreign cultures, so Carl went to Leaving the hotel, strolling on a street called Cais de Libera.

The shops on both sides of the road are brightly lit, almost all of them are hotels, restaurants or bars.Pedestrians come and go, very lively, it is hard to tell whether there are more locals or more foreigners.

There are long tables at the entrance of some bars, on which there are huge oval wooden wine barrels, and the strong aroma of wine smelled nearby makes Karl conclude that this thing is definitely not a decoration, and it must be full of fine wine.

Sure enough, every ten minutes, when I saw some pedestrians gathered outside the bar, a waitress in beautiful work clothes came out of the bar, holding some glasses, and received wine from the wooden barrel for free to passers-by. , and invite them to sit inside.

There was a huge football pattern painted on the window of a bar. Carl just stood next to the pattern, and a beautiful waitress immediately opened the door of the bar. She pushed the door with one hand and smiled warmly at Carl. Said: "Why don't you come in and sit down? Today is football night."

She speaks English, but it can be heard that her mother tongue is not English. Although it is standard, it has a distinctly exotic flavor.

Carl smiled. "Don't I look like a local?"

"Your beautiful blond hair and blue eyes can't be grown by our locals." The brown-haired girl blinked playfully: "Besides, this street is full of tourists. Are you German?"

"Half German. And you're a bit wrong. My eyes aren't green."

The brown-haired girl came over curiously and stared at Carl's pupils: "Ah, it's gray-blue..."

She got so close that Carl took a step back.

The brunette's face flushed instantly.

"But you just said...football night?" Carl smiled and changed the subject.

"Tonight's bar is only open for fans." The beautiful brown-haired girl winked at Carl: "Cais de Libera Street is a tourist street, and most of our guests are foreign tourists, but the boss is a stubborn He insists on having a fan night once a week so he can watch football with his friends. I just saw you stop in front of the football sign, are you a fan?"

"It should be, and my work is also related to football." Carl nodded at her.

"That's great!" the brunette said excitedly. "Want to have a beer? I dare say we have the best bartenders on the street!"

Carl nodded with a smile: "Of course."

……

Perhaps in order to cater to the theme of tonight, the shadow of football can be seen everywhere in the bar-football-shaped chandeliers, wall stickers, small flags are planted everywhere at the bar, and several large-screen rear-projection TVs are tuned to the same game live On, take a closer look, every waiter also has a soccer ball printed on their clothes.

"What do you want to drink?" After coming to the bar, a middle-aged bartender with a beard asked Carl.

"Is there any dark beer?"

A full glass of beer was quickly pushed in front of Karl, he took a sip from the glass, and then looked around - except for a few waiters running around, there were almost no women in the bar.Other customers sat in groups of three or four, chatting and drinking. They all had brown skin and chocolate hair. When the game live on TV was particularly fierce, a few people could be seen pounding violently with regretful faces. table.

Guided by the eyes of those fans, Karl couldn't help but start to pay attention to the live broadcast. This is a match between Sporting Lisbon and Braga at home in the Portuguese Super League. The current score is 1:0, and Sporting Lisbon is leading .

The Portuguese Super League ranks ninth in Europe in the latest UEFA league ratings. It can be regarded as a league that is far behind the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga, and French Liga. At the end of the season, pay attention to who is the champion of the Portuguese Super League, whether there are any supernovas worthy of attention, etc. But when Carl put all his energy into the game, he was surprised to find that the level of Sporting Lisbon is very high , not only far surpassing their opponent Braga, but even stronger than many Premier League teams that Carl knows.

After thinking about it for a while, he was relieved. After all, Sporting Lisbon is also one of the top European teams, isn't it?Although it cannot be compared with Real Madrid, a recognized football giant, it is also considered a team with profound background and extraordinary strength.On the contrary, although some teams rank among the top five leagues, they are often on the verge of relegation every season. Not only the team's infrastructure cannot keep up with the development, but even the top stars cannot afford it. It may be better than Sporting Lisbon, which is far away from the prosperous area of ​​​​European football. Similarly, there must be opponents that cannot be underestimated in leagues such as the Russian Super League, the Soviet Super League, and the Eredivisie.

So when Sporting Lisbon's leading striker, No. 10 player Sapinto sent the ball into the Braga goal with an extremely wonderful scorpion tail, Karl couldn't help but put down his glass and cheered: "Wonderful Goal!"

Suddenly, the bar became extremely quiet.