Chapter 247: Gasping

"Today we should pay attention to Leiden Oriental. This red dragon, which was once glorious at the beginning of the season, has recently become the messenger of peace... Since winning two consecutive victories at the beginning of the season and winning the European Super Cup, Leiden Oriental was once believed to have set off a red storm in the league and European arena, but since the third round of the league, their record has begun to become very bad. Apart from defeating Chelsea in the league, they have no other wins in the league... Now it has slipped to ninth place in the league, and in the Champions League, he ranked last in the group after losing to Hertha Berlin 1-2 away - our topic today is, why did Leiden Oriental quickly fall into a landslide after the glory last season and early season?"

In the famous football program "Daily Events" of bbc TV, host Reinker talked to the camera.

"Mark, Alan, what do you think the performance of Leiden East is very different from before proved?" Leinker asked his two partners, who were also famous central defenders of Liverpool in the 1980s, Mark Laurenson and Alan Hansen.

"It's very simple. Leiden Oriental itself is just an ordinary team. Although they have developed rapidly in recent years and achieved incredible results, their background is average. Last season, they introduced Boban and Deselli. The experience of these two players helped Leiden Oriental, which is mainly young players, achieve good results. This season, their boss Xiao Ming implemented this idea of ​​signing. The arrival of Suk and Garney made Leiden Oriental more experienced. Unfortunately, they were not able to adapt well to the style of English football. At the same time, they did not introduce one or two players who were in their age, put them in a very embarrassing situation - when the veterans were in poor condition, the state of young players also fluctuated, which directly caused their performance to decline." Mark Laurenson touched his beard and said.

"I think it's too early to say this now." Alan Hansen shook his head: "Actually, during this period, Leiden East has played several beautiful games - a 2-1 victory over Chelsea at home, a 1-1 draw against Manchester United away, completely suppressed AC Milan at home, but was not lucky enough to win... Even if they lost to Hertha Berlin, it was more because of misjudgment. The penalty kick created by Deisler was very reluctant, and Robbie Keane was tripped in the penalty area in the end, and he should get a penalty. If the referee did not make any mistakes, Leiden East deserved a victory in that game."

"So what to say about the draw against Coventry and Derbyshire? What to say about losing to Everton? They have no reason for these games." Laurenson raised objections.

"But from the start of the season to now, they have nine rounds of leagues, two Champions League games and one European Super Cup. In addition to the draw with AC Milan, they have goals in every game, and this kind of attack power is extraordinary."

"But they also conceded goals in every game! In addition to the boring zero-to-zero game against AC Milan, this kind of defense may not be able to achieve good results."

"Their defense is gradually improving. In addition to maintaining their offensive characteristics, Garney has also begun to do better and better defense. Now Leiden East is just in the running-in stage. When their team really runs through, and when their shooter Fanny returns from injury, we may see a Leiden East that is as eye-catching as last season."

"If they are a traditional strong team, I believe you, but it will be difficult for ordinary teams to get up after falling down. Next, Leiden Oriental will participate in the third round of the Champions League group stage. If they cannot win this game, Leiden Oriental may continue to sink."

"I really agree with this. This will be the most important game and may become a watershed in Leiden Oriental's results this season."

Leiden Oriental's luck was indeed not very good during this period. For a whole month, Leiden Oriental seemed to have been infected with the bad luck of the England national team. They had the advantage in some games, but they just couldn't win. When they were in good condition, they met Manchester United and tied their opponents. When they were in bad condition, they also tied to Tottenham. If they scored their first goal, they would definitely be tied by the opponent. After nine rounds of the league, they won a game against Chelsea, with three wins, five draws and one loss in nine rounds, tied for ninth place. This is not a particularly outstanding result.

In the Champions League, although Leiden Dongfang's defeat came more from those two misjudgments, no matter what, if you lose, you lose. The loss in this game also put Leiden Dongfang in a very difficult situation. Next, he played against his brother Galatasaray at home. What both sides had to do was to defeat his brother and get up on his body.

Leiden Oriental tied AC Milan at home, lost to Hertha Berlin away, and Galatasaray tied to Hertha Berlin away, and lost to A Milan away - this game is undoubtedly the most important for both sides - at least, if you win, you will have the hope of entering the League Cup as third place...

In the outside world, even if there is no chaos within Leiden East, at least it is quite nervous and anxious. The continuous defeat has indeed caused the players to have this emotion - in the world of football, if the score is good, all problems will be covered up, and if the score is bad, even small problems will be exposed, and eventually a vicious cycle will be formed.

However, under Xiao Ming's suppression and indifferent performance during this period, all this did not happen. Xiao Ming did feel a little headache about his recent results. He knew that Leiden East was in an adjustment period during this period, especially on the left. Jin Kraze was used to being protected by Daniel, a reassuring person behind him. Other players on the defense did not need to go to the left to make up for defense before, but the change now is that they have to focus on the left instead of the right to be used to. This habit that has been preserved for two seasons is not so easy to suddenly change.

Originally, Xiao Ming thought that even if he lost some games due to changes, he would still win some games. However, football games are the easiest to happen. In Leiden East, they rarely lose, but they can't win the ball - this seems to be a little worse, because three draws are comparable to one victory, and the unbeaten of three consecutive draws is far less valuable than the result of one win, one draw and one loss - the latter can have one more point than the former!

However, Xiao Ming still saw the gratitude in his bad results - the defense on the left was gradually becoming more and more stable. After all, Garney began to pay attention to returning to defense, while the left central defender Hepia and Midfielder Marklele also began to pay attention to making up for defense on the left, and the assists on the right were obviously increased. With Gerald becoming more main force and Leiden East's right offense became weak, Daniel forced to start to show his assist ability. In addition to the long shot after dribbling, his extraordinary ability and crossing ability were much better than before.

In history, Klose was a standard center who only knew how to use his head when he was in Kaiserslautern, but in the 2006 World Cup, he began to use his feet to complete the attack more - his changes were of course due to his own efforts, and more because after transferring to Bremen, he was forced out by the midfield behind him - Miku led the Bremen midfielder fed a large number of ground balls, and fed him into a center who could participate in ground attack - sometimes people were forced out!

Daniel is the same now. When he is on the left, he can defend in the back with legitimate reasons. There are many reasons - the captain cannot defend, so I want to help him wipe his butt; the opponent's offensive player breaks through fiercely, so I want to kill him; after I stepped forward, no one helped me fill the position...

Now on the right side, there is a Gerald who is not inferior to his defensive ability, a Gerald who only likes to attack in the middle and has no breakthroughs on the flank, and Gerald who will help him make up for the position after he goes forward... In this case, Daniel can only grit his teeth and insert the attack. After a few games, he also likes the feeling of killing from his own penalty area to the opponent's penalty area - it is a waste for full-backs with physical strength and speed to not do this, although his crossing level is still average - compared with full-time full-time forwards like Glenshare and others.

In addition to Daniel's beginning to show off his offensive talent, Gerald and Robbie Keane performed equally well after taking on the leeway. Keane's speed and breakthrough made Leiden East's offense more new, while Gerald began to remind the old players of Barack before - full of energy, tall, excellent physical fitness, active running, and excellent long-range shooting... And Gerald seemed to be more comprehensive than Barack, because he could also perform well on the right.

This is one of the most pleasant things that made Xiao Ming feel during this period, and it is also the only light in this relatively dark period.

The problem with young players is that they are ups and downs, but they can perform well when they play well. Although they have been unable to win for five consecutive games, Xiao Ming believes that as long as they continue to play like this, Leiden East's victory will only happen sooner or later.

On September 28, the third round of the Champions League group stage.

Amid the shouts of 30,000 fans, the young players of Leiden East showed excellent form. They defended tightly throughout the game, pressed fiercely, and attacked sharply, leaving Galatasaray in a passive manner throughout the game.

Leiden Oriental shots 27 times in the game, with a ball possession rate of up to 70%. However, in this game, Galatasaray's former Brazilian national goal Tafarell performed extremely bravely and saved dangerous balls repeatedly. Even Jin Kraze's penalty kick was rejected by him - in this game, he seemed to have regained his heroic posture as a "penalty goal god" of the Brazilian national team back then!

However, Leiden East still won the victory. The number one scorer Phillips stood up at a critical moment. His shot in front of the goal made Tafarell unable to turn the world back. One to zero, Leiden East achieved a not-glorious but very important victory.

After winning, Leiden Oriental ranked third in the group with four points, and another game seemed to be beneficial to them - AC Milan was tied 1-1 by Hertha Berlin at home, Pritz's goal helped Hertha Berlin take a point away from the San Siro Stadium. The German veteran scored two goals in three group matches, which was the key figure in Hertha Berlin's score.

After the game, Galatasaray's head coach Trim felt very dissatisfied and believed that Leiden Oriental's victory was quite lucky. If it were not for a loophole in the defense line, Galatasaray would never lose to Leiden Oriental.

"For me, these points often determine the outcome of a game - a set piece, a defender's mistake, a counterattack, and a magical cooperation. Obviously, we have an absolute advantage in this game. Even without that defender's mistake, we can win through other factors - we deserve this victory." Xiao Ming said with a smile.

"We will return to our home court in twenty-two days. At that time, we will let people know how powerful Turkish football is!" Trim said angrily.

"I hope it's not to let us know how good Türkiye is at home." Xiao Ming continued to smile.

Trim left with his sleeves.

Leiden Oriental's first victory in the Champions League is a piece of news, but compared with the other two Premier League teams, their results are quite average. Manchester United won two draws in the group first, Arsenal won two draws in the group second, and only after Barcelona. In front of Fiorentina, even if Leiden Oriental wins this round, they are only third in the group.

After defeating Galatasaray, Leiden East's condition seemed to have become worse again. They were tied 1-1 by Xie on Wednesday away and were unable to win four consecutive rounds in the league.

At this time, Leiden East ushered in a breathing moment, and the European Cup qualifiers began again during this period. Although the English national team did not have any games, the foreign players in the league still had to participate in the national team. England also arranged a warm-up match during this period. The next league will be held two weeks later, and then the fourth round of the Champions League group stage.

All England began to focus on the last round of the qualifiers, Sweden's home match against Finland, and even the warm-up match between England and South American team Colombia has received much less attention. There is no way, if England wants to get the chance to participate in the playoffs, they have to pray that Sweden will beat Finland at home and draw.

Keegan is really an honest person. Although Leiden Oriental has not performed well recently, Xiao Ming criticized the national team for not using two players, Phillips and Gerrard, this time, the three English players from Leiden Oriental were still selected for the England national team and got the opportunity to play in the warm-up match.

What made England fans ecstatic is that Sweden did not give up the last game because of qualifying early. Two players who played in the UK scored one goal each - Larson, who played for the Scottish Celtics, opened the first record, and Lyonberg, who played for Arsenal in the second half, scored a goal to secure the victory by a single shot. The English national team escaped death. They scored the same points with Finland, relying on the goal difference and the advantage of both sides against the victory and loss, surpassed Finland's second-ranked group and qualified for the playoffs. In addition to England, Portugal entered the European Cup final circle as the second place in the group with the best results. The other teams participating in the playoffs are Scotland, Denmark, Israel, Slovenia, Ukraine, Ireland and Turkey. The playoffs will be held in mid-November, which means that the Premier League schedule will become more stringent.

Xiao Ming didn't care much about this result. Of course, he hoped that England would not miss the European Cup. He also hoped that the players in the team who could be selected for the English national team could accumulate experience in the European Cup. Although this would make them more tired - which club would not face such a dilemma? The more national players, the stronger the team's strength would be.

If there are many players in the team who play football in first-class national teams, the more attention the club will receive, and more people who are originally fans of the national team will become fans of the club. Fans are divided into many types, some like the team and some like the players. It doesn’t matter how high or low the fans are. For a club, the more fans pay attention, the better. No matter what the reason they are following your team is the same.

Of course, there must be achievements to give fans more motivation.

Perhaps it was because the two weeks gave Leiden Oriental a breathing time - after all, there was only one national team game in the past two weeks, and the other was the League Cup game. Leiden Oriental played the game with all substitutes, and the main players were very physically strong - perhaps it was because the good luck of the English national team also spread to Leiden Oriental. Leiden Oriental, who remained unbeatable in the league after August 28, finally won the first victory one and a half months later. They defeated the promoted player Bradford three-to-zero at home, breaking their own circle of unbeatable losses.

The victory of this game also allows Leiden Oriental to face another life-and-death battle with a relatively relaxed attitude - in the fourth round of the Champions League group stage, Leiden Oriental challenges Galatasaray away - the red dragon will cross the English Channel and fly to the great empire established by the Turks, fighting bloody battles at the home court known as "hell" to fight for the opportunity to enter the next stage of the Champions League group stage - or the opportunity to enter the League Cup.

"We are getting better and better. The embarrassing scene of invincibility has passed. What we have to do next is to make up for the scores and wins we lost before, and tell everyone that Leiden East is still the invincible red dragon last season."
Chapter completed!