Born to be a coach [soccer]

Chapter 213

The next day, when Benfica coach Jesús woke up in his Hilton Hotel room, he felt that the light outside the window was extraordinarily bright.When I lifted the curtains, I realized that the snow had stopped.

It really snowed a lot last night, and even the window frames of the guest room were covered with two or three inches of snow.But looking out of the window, the roads in the distance have all been swept away, revealing the black asphalt road.The traffic seems to have fully recovered, and the traffic of vehicles is orderly.Occasionally, snowplows come to remove the snow piled high on the side of the road.

Jesús packed up and went downstairs to the restaurant to meet his players, only to find that in the restaurant the players from the two teams were sitting together having breakfast and chatting happily with each other.

Local news was broadcast on the TV in the restaurant. Jesús watched it for a while and found that it was reporting the big "evacuation" operation at the Stadium of Light last night.

According to the news, the snow stopped at about 12 o'clock last night, and the Sunderland municipal government immediately invested a lot of manpower to clear the snow on the road.The Stadium of Light has sent some Benfica fans to the nearby "Fans House" around 10 o'clock.After the road surface is cleared and passable, the Sunderland fans will drive and send the Benfica fans to the "Fans Home" farther away for the night.

During the period, some vehicles were frozen and difficult to start. Even the Sunderland club's bus was requisitioned to send the fans stranded at the stadium home.

The fans who have not been able to leave the Stadium of Light for the time being are also in a good state of mind. They are all in high spirits, singing and climbing ladders in the waiting area of ​​the Stadium of Light.Sunderland fans celebrated their 2-0 victory, and Benfica fans celebrated the only "heavy snow" they had seen in their lifetimes. Anyway, Benfica will play another round when they return to their home court. will lose.

Since the end of the game, the hot hashtag #Everything for Bright Stadium# has appeared on social media.The "Fans Homes" in Sunderland that are capable of hosting Benfica fans all put this label on themselves on social media, saying that they have the ability to entertain Portuguese from afar.This provides a lot of convenience for coordinating the residence of all people.

The entire "evacuation" operation lasted until about three o'clock in the morning.The TV media found Anton among the last few people who left the Stadium of Light, and hurried forward to interview: "Head coach, why did you stay until now?"

Anton shrugged and said, "Who made me the head coach?"

Seeing this, Jesús felt a little hot on his face. After all, he followed the team to the hotel immediately, took an early rest in the warm spring-like guest room, and didn't care about the life and death of the fans at all.Who would have guessed that the opponent would arrange for two thousand Benfica fans one by one. He thought that these fans could only spend the night on the ground of the Stadium of Light.

"After tonight, what would you like to say to the fans of both Sunderland and Benfica?"

Anton stretched out his hand and pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose, turned his head to look at the TV camera, and said with a smile: "I must say that the fans on both sides are enthusiastic, friendly and rational, and the 'evacuation' operation tonight especially illustrates this. One point. I especially want to say at this moment that you are the best fans and you should be proud of each other."

That night, apart from Anton, the entire coaching staff of Sunderland remained behind until the end.Together with Anton, they persisted until all the fans were sent away and all parties were confirmed to be safe. Then they left with the local media who stood together.

Russell arrived at home at 5 in the morning. Just when Mrs. Black wanted to put a tub of hot water for him to take a bath, Russell fell asleep on the sofa in his living room and couldn't wake up.

When Russell woke up and saw that the wall clock in the living room was pointing to 9 o'clock, he couldn't help scolding himself, jumped up immediately, and halfway through washing, he vaguely remembered that Anton had told him that he didn't have to go to work at Guangming Academy this morning of.

The sky was already bright outside the window, and the sun was shining brightly, shining bright reflections on the snow.

Russell sat on the sofa blankly, all he could think about was the club's future schedule - after the game on the 17th, they will usher in the second round in Lisbon within a week. Fly to Lisbon on the 23rd, face Benfica on the 24th, turn around and head back to England and face "Toffee" Everton on the 28th. At the beginning of March, there will be a league game every week, with successive matches against Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City...

Russell stretched out his hand to wipe his face. Thinking about the schedule, it wasn't too tense, and then the words Anton once said in his ear suddenly sounded:

At that time, Russell blamed himself for losing the FA Cup fourth-round match against Chelsea. Anton comforted him with an "old saying" from China-sometimes there must be fate, and there is no time to force it.

At that time, Russell was just consoling, but thinking about it now, if the team still maintains the FA Cup front, it will be exhausted in recent weeks and it will be difficult to parry.

It can be seen that his role as the "acting" head coach is not too bad, at least the entire team will be returned to Anton's hands-except for the loss of a front, there is no other major loss.

After washing and changing clothes, Russell checked that it was still early, and turned on the TV at random to watch the scores of the teams in the first round of the Europa League.

Among the 32 teams, Sunderland went well, winning the game 2-0 at home.Several other familiar friendly teams, such as the Bernese youth coached by Anton’s German friend, defeated St. Petersburg 2-1, Liverpool’s 0-0 draw against Sparta Prague in the away game, and Manchester City’s opponent in Athens. in this way.

Porto, led by Boas, defeated La Liga powerhouse Sevilla 2-1 in the away game, that is to say, Porto scored two away goals.Back at home, even if Porto loses 0 to 1 to their opponents, they can still advance because of the advantage of more away goals.

According to the evaluation of the TV media, this game between Porto and Sevilla is the most exciting of all the first-leg games-"Although everyone is looking forward to the contest between Sunderland and Benfica, the bad weather made this game difficult." This game is really lacking in viewing..." The news reported that Russell couldn't take it anymore, rolled his eyes at the TV, pressed the remote control, got up and went out, and rushed to Guangming Academy.

In Guangming Academy, all first-team players have returned.They were arranged to rest at the Hilton Hotel last night. After "having breakfast" with the Benfica players this morning, they made an agreement with their opponents to fight again in 7 days, and then they said goodbye.Benfica rushed to Newcastle Airport, while the Sunderland players rushed back to Guangming Academy together.

When the team left the Stadium of Light yesterday, they already had the task of returning to the training base this morning - to watch the video of last night's game in detail from beginning to end.

When Russell arrived, the first team was sitting in the conference room watching the video. The captain Garner was in charge of controlling the progress of the video, providing "replay" service at any time, and asking questions to make teammates think; Youth team players.

Russell only needs to stand in the meeting room and take a glance, and immediately finds that Ibrahimovic is not among these people.

He strode out and ran into physical fitness coach Adams head-on. He knew immediately after asking that Ibrahimovic came to Guangming Academy with the team. After getting off the team bus, he went to the physical training room for training.Garner notified him once and asked him to go to the conference room. The guy agreed at the time, but he lost his face and ran away on his own.

Russell thought: I know this guy will never change.

Ibrahimovic is not undisciplined, he is absolutely devoted to his training, so that at his age, Ibrahimovic's physical condition is better than all players of the same age, and even many young players are not as good as him.

But he always maintains discipline with the group, not because he can't blend in, but because he doesn't want to.

That's why some fans call him a "family slave with three surnames" - Russell thought angrily.This nickname refers to the fact that Ibrahimovic has no real sense of belonging to any club, and he is always there when he is called, and he can fight when he comes, and it looks like this in Sunderland.

Isn't he just a "mercenary" with better comprehensive conditions?Russell thought of the team's former forward Vincent.

At this time, Anton also came. When Russell saw it, he pointed to the physical training room next door and said, "It's just in time. Look, this guy is useless anyway..."

Anton smiled immediately, stared at Russell and asked, "Russell, did you just say it yourself?" Russell blushed, as if Anton had caught him, and shook his head quickly.

Anton turned his head to look at Adams again, and Adams shook his head, then repeated what he had just said to Russell.

Anton nodded: "That's it. When I find someone to call him, he will definitely come."

Russell folded his arms and said with his mouth flattened, "Anton, are you going to use Eriksson again?" Eriksson is Ibrahimovic's roommate and cat slave friend.Ibrahimovic has always listened to Eriksson's words.But Eriksson is treated like this in the whole club.

Anton shook his head: "It's not him!"

Russell: ...

"I'm not sure of everything, I just tried it."

What Anton said aroused the curiosity of Russell and Adams even more. The two members of the coaching staff followed Anton together and saw Anton go to the conference room to call Royce.

Royce nodded after hearing what Anton said, and ran to the physical training room decisively.Behind him, Garner paused the video playback in the conference room, and everyone waited together.Soon, Ibrahimovic obediently followed Royce out, and triumphantly walked towards the meeting room, ignoring the jaws of Russell and Adams who almost fell to the ground when they passed by on the road.

These two walked into the meeting room like heroes, the whole first team and other club players applauded and there were whistles.

At this time, Anton stayed outside the meeting room, shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands at the two of them, and said with a smile: "What should I say? Everyone, every moment, is changing."

Russell and Adams looked at each other, thinking in their hearts: Sure enough...it's changing.

In the past, Eriksson was the only one in Ibrahimovic's "friend list", but now it seems that Royce has been added.

The author has something to say: Dear friends, how was your Qixi Festival?I wish you all a happy Tanabata.

I have received good news - I won a ticket for next year's European Cup.I'm so happy, I'll add another one tomorrow.