Born to be a coach [soccer]

Chapter 113

Shortly after Anton and his team brought the "Community Shield" back to Sunderland, the full league schedule for the new season has been released.

Anton's team will sit at the Stadium of Light against Birmingham City in the first round, and at the end of the season they will play away against the London team "Hammers" West Ham United.Individual dates in the schedule will be fine-tuned according to the actual situation, but the order of the competition is basically fixed and will not change.

Sunderland will usher in the "devil schedule" from September to early October. At that time, the team will face Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and the deadly enemy Newcastle United. That stage also happens to be the group stage of the Europa League. Match days are scheduled midweek.

Although the FA will "take care" of the teams participating in the European competition and adjust the league games to a more suitable time, but there is limited room for maneuvering, and the rest time the team can get between games is at most no More than 96 hours.

Reasonable rotation is very important.

The team started preparing for the league immediately after bringing the Community Shield back to Sunderland.For this reason, the club decided to keep everything simple in celebrating the championship.It just so happened that the Europa League group stage draw ceremony was about to be held. The fans forum organized fans to watch the ceremony that decided the fate of Sunderland's European war at the "Black Cat" bar. So the club adopted the opinions of the fans forum, and before the draw ceremony , hold a simple celebration ceremony.

The starting point of this idea is indeed very good, but the organizers did not consider one thing: Sunderland is not what it used to be——

Since Messi "airborne" and came to Sunderland, Sunderland has transformed from a slightly clumsy industrial city into a football city.It attracts fans from all over England, even Europe and the world.

Everyone is here for Messi.

The neighbors on Mayswood Road removed all the barricades and installed a gate directly at the entrance of the community: it is marked "For Mayswood residents only, private property, entry must be investigated."

Only community residents can enter by swiping their cards. In this way, the privacy of Anton and his neighbors is finally protected.

In addition, the few hotels and hotels in Sunderland are starting to be full, and it is difficult to find a room even at a high price.This is cheaper than the next-door city of Newcastle. Newcastle has much more hotels than Sunderland. There is a light rail link from that city to the center of Sunderland, which is also very convenient.In addition to the fans in the Newcastle area, the perception of Sunderland immediately improved a lot.

The residents of this city are naturally happy to see this change, and the continuous flow of passengers has brought them a lot of income. The small city of Sunderland seems to have once again seen the shadow of prosperity.

The season tickets of Sunderland Football Club are also crazy-not to mention that Messi's lease is only six months. In the eyes of real fans, even if they only watch Messi one game, the price of season tickets is worth it .

When the fan forum organized the event this time, someone leaked the news that Messi might attend, which immediately attracted a large number of fans asking to enter the stadium.

The organizers were dumbfounded, the Black Cat Bar couldn't hold so many people!

The final solution is: Only fans who hold the season tickets of the previous season can enter the Black Cat Bar to participate in the activities; A meeting for new season ticket holders and Messi will be arranged separately at the venue at [-]:[-].

As soon as the news came out, Sunderland's season tickets sold even more crazily, causing the Flanagan Group to quickly abandon their "promise" and "grab" [-] season tickets instead.After all, the Stadium of Light is no longer worried about tickets being sold out, and it is hard to get a ticket for the few games that are open for pre-sale here.

But only the fans who hold the season tickets of last season and accompanied Sunderland through the darkest period of last season are entitled to celebrate with their team and celebrate their team history in the Black Cat Bar A glorious shield was added to the chamber.

All members of Sunderland's first team and the entire coaching staff came to the Black Cat Bar.There, they received a warm welcome from all the fans.

The amazing thing is that some older Sunderland fans had never heard of Messi before this Community Shield game.

They only pay attention to Sunderland games all the year round, and occasionally watch the England team. The older generation rarely pays attention to people and things further away than this.Some of them knew about this local media report, and only then did they know that there is a star named "Messi" in the world who came to Sunderland to play football.

"That young man was born clean and white, always smiling, so happy to see!" An old lady in a grand dress and wearing a pearl necklace around her neck waved to Messi from afar.

Messi does not look like a superstar at all, his stubble is cleanly shaved.His hair is on the long side, tied with a thin headband on this occasion, the whole person looks very refreshing, and he is indeed very fair, after meeting so many old "strangers", boy With a little embarrassment, Messi immediately won the unanimous love of the "grandparents" fans in this bar.

"Go and say hello to Nancy," Anton told Macy, "don't be intimidated by her clothes, she dresses very solemnly every time she comes, but she will still eat sausage and drink beer with us later."

Macy went as he said, and solemnly shook Nancy's hand, and sure enough, Nancy invited him a glass of beer.Turning back, Garner and Henderson booed together, saying that they had seen Nancy so many times, and that Nancy had never invited them to drink beer. Messi was so lucky when he arrived in Sunderland. This is really...

But Messi knew that this old Nancy grandmother should have never heard of herself before, and she didn't know what kind of reputation she enjoyed.But that's the way it is, the old man's favor makes Messi feel particularly ironic.The young man stepped forward to give Nancy a big hug, and Nancy smiled like a delicate flower, not caring that her dentures were a little precarious and about to fall out...

Soon the Europa League draw ceremony began to be played on the big screen.The bar was too noisy, the club's CEO Martin simply took a microphone and announced the draw to all Sunderland fans.

The UEFA Europa League is the second-tier league for European clubs after the UEFA Champions League.A total of 53 teams from 194 national football associations participated in this season's Europa League.

As the FA Cup champions, Sunderland will directly participate in the Europa League group stage.Before the group stage, club teams from various countries have already fought in the qualifying rounds. Together with clubs like Sunderland that have directly qualified for the group stage, a total of 48 teams have entered the Europa League group stage.They will be divided into 12 groups, and the first No.2 in each group will qualify for the knockout round.

There are five rounds of knockout rounds, 24 first-line teams plus 8 No.3 in the Champions League group stage, gradually eliminated from the top 32 to produce the champion.

In fact, there are only a handful of records in the history of the Sunderland team to participate in the European war, and the memory of this generation has no concept of the Europa League.So when the lottery was drawn, the fans in the bar were shouting: "Manchester City, Manchester City!" "Liverpool, Liverpool!"

Both teams will also represent England in the Europa League.

Everyone is eager to have a Premier League brother as an opponent. Whether it is Manchester City or Liverpool, everyone is not afraid.And it is more convenient and cheaper to go away.

Martin held the microphone and looked at the fans shouting with fists in embarrassment. He wondered if he should explain clearly to them: teams from the same league cannot be assigned to the same group.

In the end, Sunderland were drawn into Group H, with Switzerland's Young Boys Bern, Spain's Getafe and Denmark's Odense FC.

Many players in the Sunderland team looked at Eriksson.The little clever ghost's expression at this time looked a bit sad and joyful-against Odense, which means that Eriksson is going home and will play against his old club.

"Let your old club see how good you are, they can only be happy for you!" Henderson went up and patted Eriksson on the shoulder.Eriksson finally let out a sigh of relief and said with a smile: "It is the happiest thing to be able to go back with all of you!"

He is going to bring so many great teammates to his hometown, especially Messi, Messi!

At this time, among the many Sunderland fans in the Black Cat Bar, someone suddenly shouted: "Ah, Switzerland, ah, Denmark... ah——"

These two places are notoriously expensive in Europe.Spain is better.

Other fans said: "After today, everyone will start saving money!"

"Stop drinking beer, quit smoking..."

The sigh of the owner of the Black Cat Bar seemed to ring out.

"Going to these places, tickets and air tickets must be prepared in advance. It doesn't matter what you live or eat. When the time comes, everyone will find a way together and try to get as close as possible."

"If anyone doesn't have the perseverance to save money, you are welcome to hand over all the money to the fan forum. The fan forum has professional accountants who can help you manage your money..."

"Going to these places, this is going to be our most expensive season?"

Anton was listening on the sidelines, with a slightly strange look in his eyes.

These Sunderland fans are all from ordinary working class backgrounds.With the relocation of industries near Sunderland, the industry began to slump, and these residents have been living a life that is not rich, and even a little poor.

But even so, these fans are also willing to give everything for the team-except for the word "true love", this relationship cannot be described.

"No, no, Anton, and the Sunderland boys, don't worry about it. As long as you reach the final, even if we sell the house, we will follow you and watch you reach the final." Some fans noticed the strange color on Anton's face, "This is the awareness that Sunderland fans should have."

"You have never let us down, and we will support you to the end!" The fans sitting in the distance shook their fists at Anton's side together, "Sunderland must win!" Some fans shouted slogans.

"We must win, Sunderland!" The slogans in the Black Cat Bar suddenly rang out.

At this time Anton got up, came to Martin and whispered something.Martin glanced at Anton, and immediately beamed with joy: "That's a great feeling!"

Then the club CEO raised the microphone and announced to all the fans gathered in the Black Cat Bar: "Anton just said that today's event is invited by him. There is no need for fans forum to provide funds. Please look at him Drink to your heart's content! Beer and sausage are enough!"

The fans who were still paying attention just now, thinking about how to save money, were delighted to hear this sentence.A group of fans sang "Anton's Song" in unison, while others thanked Anton loudly.

They were so happy tonight.