Chapter 15 A Trip to China
Kaka finally arrived. The day before the game against Guangzhou Evergrande, he arrived in Guangzhou. He seemed a little tired. Brazil lost to Argentina in the Copa America final, but he was unable to turn the tide. After only a week of rest, he set off from Brazil to fly across the entire Pacific Ocean.
This is not the first time Chu Zhongtian has seen Kaka, but it is the first time he has seen Kaka as a teammate. Although he is tired, Kaka still welcomes Chu Zhongtian's joining.
Kaka and C. Ronaldo have a very close relationship, so that some fans in China have paired them up. Chu Zhongtian has been getting along well with C. Ronaldo in the past month, so after the introduction of the Portuguese, Chu Zhongtian and Kaka are not bad either.
Although Kaka returned to the team, he was not put into the starting list of the match against Guangzhou Evergrande. After all, he flew from Brazil the day before and the jet lag was not reversed, so Mourinho placed him on the bench list and planned to let him play in the second half depending on the situation.
Regarding this game, Chinese media started hyping it more than a week ago, and on the day of the game, this hype reached its peak.
In Guangzhou, this game is mentioned in almost all newspapers purchased on the market, and local media in Guangzhou even put it on the front page.
In addition to being one of the participating teams in this game is Real Madrid, it is also because of their opponents.
Speaking of which, this game is indeed interesting. Because Guangzhou Evergrande has the title of "Real Madrid in China" in Chinese football, this game is naturally regarded as "a real match between Real Madrid and Real Madrid in China."
This gimmick is worth hype.
In the whole world football world, Real Madrid's status is self-evident. It is the best team of the century in the last century. In China, Guangzhou Evergrande is a new team in the Chinese Super League. It only participated in China's top professional football league for the first time last season. In terms of honor and status, these two teams seem to have nothing to do with each other.
The reason why it is named "Real Madrid in China" is entirely because Guangzhou Evergrande is as rich as Real Madrid. Evergrande's boss is engaged in real estate. What is the most money in China today? Of course it is real estate! So it is not surprising that Evergrande is rich at all. Because of its wealth, they can buy the players they like without caring about the transfer fee. They repeatedly poach international players from other clubs at high prices, forming the most luxurious lineup in China, and always spend a lot of money on foreign players to create big transfers. Last year, they signed Brazilian striker Muric for US$3.5 million and signed Belgrade guerrilla striker Cleo for 3.2 million euros. When many Chinese capitals were rushing to take out the Chinese football circle, Guangzhou Evergrande was so generous that it was eye-catching.
It is precisely because of its generous investment that it has bought many international players and high-level foreign players and built a top-notch team in China that has earned the nickname "Real Madrid of China".
Now this "Real Madrid in China" is about to face the real Real Madrid. You will know whether it is a horse or a mule, just take it out for a walk.
The tickets for the game have been sold out in advance. The scalpers have sold out the tickets for 5,000 yuan each, and some people are still rushing to ask for them... No wonder some people said on Weibo that when the country is rich and the people are poor, there are shameless and unscrupulous foreign clubs like Real Madrid to grab money. It is really a sadness for the people from China. Chu Zhongtian seemed to have suddenly become a comprador who led foreigners to plunder our Chinese wealth... "... Real Madrid can easily sweep tens of millions from us under the banner of Chu Zhongtian. It was supposed to be our sports hero, but it helped the evil and the tiger to make accompaniment. The imperial court always praised such sports heroes, but they turned out to be the rebels of foreign clubs to advertise money. It was ironic!" On Sina's meager, certified economists criticized indignation.
Of course, such voices are a minority after all, and they are so sorry for them. The first game of Real Madrid's trip to China kicked off the curtain vigorously.
※※※At 7 o'clock in the evening, the Guangdong Olympic Sports Center was crowded with people and bright lights. At this time, there was still an hour before the start of the competition, and the Olympic Sports Center, which can accommodate 80,000 people, was almost full.
This is Real Madrid, which has Chu Zhongtian, debuted in China for the first time, and Chinese fans have been looking forward to it for a long time.
Where will Chu Zhongtian play? How many minutes will he play? What will his performance be? How good is his tacit understanding with his teammates?
These are all issues that everyone is concerned about, and I am eager to find the answer in this game.
In fact, Mourinho is also looking for the answer.
Regarding Chu Zhongtian's use, he has been thinking about what can he use the greatest energy. He is a figure like the Supreme Emperor in Hoffenheim. It is said that he even participated in the formulation of the team's tactical arrangements and training plans. It is obvious that it is impossible for him to give such power in Real Madrid. So how can he use his level at Hoffenheim under the existing conditions?
In order to fully utilize Chu Zhongtian's ability, Rangnick spent three seasons to build him into a brand new freeman.
Do you want to copy it yourself?
Mourinho was not very willing, he re-studied a tactic to allow Chu Zhongtian to play another side.
In this game, he arranged a position for Chu Zhongtian as a back midfielder. He retreated to defend with Xavi Alonso when defending, but his position was higher than Alonso when attacking, and he almost became a front midfielder.
Mourinho plans to make full use of Chu Zhongtian's offensive ability. Alonso is responsible for controlling the rhythm, while Chu Zhongtian is responsible for organizing the offensive.
"You have to actively participate in the offense, and you have to participate in every attack. Do you know, Chu?" Assistant coach Kalanka explained the tactical requirements to Chu Zhongtian. Anyway, Chu Zhongtian had already demonstrated his superman physical fitness in previous training, so when the coaching staff arranged his tactics, they did not consider whether this tactic was enough to support the entire game.
※※In fact, it is impossible to use this game to test whether the tactics are successful, because the opponent is too weak... Real Madrid scored a goal just twelve minutes into the game.
Because of Chu Zhongtian's starting lineup, the fans made huge cheers, and the cheers would sound with every touch of Chu Zhongtian. When Real Madrid scored a goal, the cheers became even louder.
Chu Zhongtian did not directly assist the goal, but he participated. Just like the coaching staff asked before the game, he actively participated and created opportunities.
At that time, Alonso handed the football to him. He did not directly divide the side, but drove the ball forward with the deafening cheers of the fans of the court. After attracting three Evergrande players, he gave the football to Ozil. Ozil played a two-pass and one-on-one with Higuain, and then broke into the penalty area, and then passed the cross. C. Ronaldo inserted the ball from the high speed from behind and easily swept the football into the empty goal.
The whole process is very simple, it doesn't look complicated or gorgeous, but it's very effective. This is the football feature of Real Madrid.
In fact, Chu Zhongtian is not difficult for Real Madrid to adapt, because the football styles of Real Madrid and Hoffenheim are similar in some aspects. They both use speed and pay attention to direct speed.
But it's just that adapting is not enough. He transferred to Real Madrid for 70 million euros. But everyone just wanted to see him adapt to Real Madrid. He must also play his dominant ability in Hoffenheim, and even higher, otherwise he would be considered a parallel product.
The goal was C. Ronaldo, which of course made the fans excited and excited, because this is the biggest star in Real Madrid's current team except Chu Zhongtian - this standard is set by Chinese fans.
Real Madrid, who visited China in 2005, was criticized for breaking the appointment to record CCTV's program and not working hard during the competition. Many media directly called Real Madrid "Real Circus". This time, Florentino obviously wanted to wash away such a shameful title.
Guangzhou Evergrande did not expect that their defense line would be penetrated just twelve minutes after the game started. Speaking of which, the defense line was confused and C. Where did Ronaldo seize the opportunity? Of course, Chu Zhongtian suddenly stepped forward and attracted three defensive players at once. There were only eleven players on the court. Except for the ten goalkeepers, three people were used here, so the defensive power in other places would naturally be weak. In order to fill the gap here, they had to use the defensive power in the next place, and the next gap would have to use the defensive power in the next place, which became a chain reaction. In the end, the mid-point opening was wide, and no matter how hard they were to be remedied, they could not make up for it.
You can say that the players of Guangzhou Evergrande take Chu Zhongtian too seriously. But speaking while standing will never hurt your back. If you really go up and face Chu Zhongtian, you will know that you must pay too much attention.
In Guangzhou Evergrande, there are still several teammates of Chu Zhongtian in the national team. They know very much about Chu Zhongtian. When they meet Chu Zhongtian, they still rushed forward. What is the solution?
Chu Zhongtian performed well, c. Ronaldo scored another goal, but this goal is worth the price.
Amid the fans' voices, the Real Madrid players were a little full of rhythm. After all, they were still quite worried that the opponent's players were too excited, and it was unpaid to be injured in such a game. There is less than a month left before the start of the league... Because Chu Zhongtian is not responsible for controlling the rhythm, he doesn't count on this matter. All he can do is send football to a fatal place again and again.
Evergrande's counterattack was very fierce. They seemed to be angry by Real Madrid's approach of slowing down after taking the lead. They put aside their awe of Real Madrid and began to want to defeat them.
However, the gap in strength between the two sides is still too big.
In the 37th minute, Real Madrid took advantage of a quick counterattack to seize the opportunity of Evergrande's eagerness to equalize the score. C. Ronaldo ran wildly and then distributed it to Higuain, who followed up in the middle. The Argentine scorer scored the ball into Evergrande's goal.
The two goals lead completely lost the suspense of the result of this game. Next, I look forward to whether Chu Zhongtian can score a goal or something, or whether Evergrande can score one, and when Kaka will make the game.
In the second half, Mourinho gradually began to replace the players on the court. The first person he replaced was C. Ronaldo, the Portuguese iron man. If he was injured in this game, Real Madrid's losses would be great. After replacing C. Ronaldo, Mourinho replaced Higuain, who had recovered from injury, and sent Benzema. Then Carvalho, Xavi Alonso... they all replaced one by one. But Chu Zhongtian stayed on the court.
Mourinho is actually not as inhuman as everyone thinks. Although he does not agree with the club's trip to China, the matter decided, and he still gives face. He took the initiative to hold an in-team game that fans can watch very happily in the training, and in this game, Chu Zhongtian played the whole game.
After all, this is Chu Zhongtian's motherland... Kaka only appeared in the 77th minute of the game and replaced Ozil.
Kaka's appearance is another climax of this game. The Brazilian star is quite popular in China, although he is no longer as powerful as he used to be.
In the second half, there were basically rotation players or marginal players, so these people worked harder than the main players in the first half. Of course, the results were also more brilliant.
Benzema scored a goal in the second half, and Granero directly broke the net with a free kick. After Kaka came on the court, Real Madrid won a penalty kick, and he scored a penalty.
In the end, Real Madrid laughed to the end in this so-called "confrontation between two Real Madrid" and defeated Guangzhou Evergrande with a score of 5:0.
The game was wonderful and there were many goals, but many fans were quite regretful when they left the Olympic Sports Center.
Because Chu Zhongtian did not score or directly assisted, although he participated in several goals, he did not assist or score. This made everyone feel very regretful.
Although the game was generally exciting and successful, Chu Zhongtian did not score a goal, just like the New Year's Eve dinner without the dumplings...※※※The second day after the game, Chu Zhongtian's performance also became the focus of reports from major domestic media, and there were also very heated discussions online.
The so-called laymen watch the excitement, while the experts watch the tricks. Most fans only care whether Chu Zhongtian scores goals, while experts analyze how Chu Zhongtian and Real Madrid are doing well.
Overall, it is better than everyone imagined. Chu Zhongtian and his new teammates have established a basic tacit understanding, but sometimes they still seem to have insufficient tacit understanding. Otherwise, Chu Zhongtian would not have lost even a goal and assist. Several times during the game, Chu Zhongtian passed a very good ball, but his teammates did not expect that they would not catch it and could not form a shot. Or Chu Zhongtian ran to the position and his teammates' pass did not keep up. When it came again, they would either be offside or they would have a bad position and barely shot, but they could not score.
Everyone is giving advice on how Chu Zhongtian should integrate into Real Madrid. Chu Zhongtian is not the first Chinese player to join the European giant team. Before him, Dong Fangzhuo was. However, he is definitely the most promising Chinese player to play the main role in the giant club, so everyone has high hopes for him.
Even a commercial game is regarded as so important by everyone. It seems that if you score a goal in this game, you can integrate into the team smoothly, and if you cannot score a goal, you will have a bumpy future and a tragic fate.
What about Chu Zhongtian himself? He doesn't care. He can feel that Mourinho has not yet made up his mind about how to use it, so the results and process of this kind of game cannot explain the problem.
When Zidane transferred to Real Madrid, it took nearly half a season to gradually adapt to La Liga and Real Madrid football. He showed his level, so why should he be anxious?
After all, I am not a C. Ronaldo, who has to serve him as long as he performs well, does not need to adapt, but as long as he plays his best side, he will naturally be very outstanding. He is a midfielder and an organizer, and needs to serve the entire team, rather than letting the entire team serve him, so he needs an adaptation period.
※※※After the entire Real Madrid team ended the game in Guangzhou, they flew to Shanghai early the next morning to prepare for the competition and various activities there.
In Shanghai, the entire Real Madrid team has to participate in the recording of the first football column of CCTV Sports Channel. They broke the appointment in 2005, and this time they can't break the appointment any more.
The busiest one is still Chu Zhongtian.
He is very popular in Guangzhou, and the same is true in Shanghai. If Real Madrid is willing to go to Chengdu, Sichuan, it will probably be even higher.
If Real Madrid wants to make money in China, the golden signboard of Chu Zhongtian must not be defeated, and it must be used well.
The itinerary in Shanghai is very tight, and the time left for the team to train is pitifully small.
Despite this, Real Madrid defeated Shanghai Shenhua 4-0 at the 80,000-person stadium with its strong strength.
Chu Zhongtian still has no assists or goals. Although everyone thinks his performance is excellent, he always feels that there is no goal or assist. You should know that Chu Zhongtian's current net worth is the third place in Real Madrid. He is on the same level as Kaka, and he can be regarded as a "superstar". He played two commercial games in his own country, but he didn't score any goals. It's such a pity.
You should know that it is not easy for Chinese fans to see Chu Zhongtian playing under his nose in Real Madrid's white jersey... After the game in Shanghai, Chu Zhongtian followed the team back to Spain, and the lively trip to China ended. From August 2 to August 8, in six days, Real Madrid swept various appearance fees of 5.5 million euros. If they were willing to arrange a few more commercial matches in other Asian countries, especially Japan, it would not be a problem to sweep away 10 million euros in the end.
Even so, it is already very impressive.
Florentino even started planning on the plane back to Madrid whether he would come to Asia every summer, especially China to conduct business competitions. In this case, a 70 million investment is nothing...
Chapter completed!