Chapter 20: Can you handle the profoundness?
On the morning of March 4, in the Hortaleza district.
Carlo got up early as usual, and as usual, he went downstairs and went straight out to the courtyard to pick up the morning newspaper from the mailbox outside.
What was different from usual was that the mailbox not only contained a freshly published AS newspaper, but also two football tickets that had been put in there at some unknown time. They were the tickets for the derby match between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid at the Bernabeu Stadium tonight.
As early as a few months ago, tickets for this game were already hard to come by.
There was a piece of paper sandwiched between the two tickets, with crooked Spanish words on it.
"I hope you guys can come to the game, Gao."
In fact, even if Gao Shen didn't sign his name, Carlo could recognize his handwriting at a glance. It was really ugly.
Back in the house, sitting at the dining table, Carlo stared at the two football tickets in a daze.
It has been four days since I stepped down as Real Madrid coach.
"Who gave you the tickets? Was it Gao?" The wife came out of the kitchen and saw the tickets in Carlo's hand, and asked with concern.
Carlo nodded without saying anything.
"Why didn't you invite him in?" Mrs. Carroll complained.
Carlo knew that his wife had always had a good impression of Gao Shen, and in fact, his dismissal had nothing to do with Gao Shen. It was purely the new chairman Martin's mess. But he always had this knot in his heart.
Just like now, he is very conflicted.
Want to go see it?
Definitely, very much.
But do you want to go and see it?
He refused very much because four days ago, he was still the head coach of Real Madrid, but now, he could only watch the game with the tickets sent by Gao Shen, which made him feel uncomfortable no matter how he thought about it.
"Why don't I see anyone?" Mrs. Carlo looked outside the courtyard and was very surprised not to see Gao Shen.
"The tickets were probably delivered last night. We were supposed to rest, so he didn't wake us up and put them in the mailbox," Carlo explained.
Mrs. Carlo saw what her husband was thinking, and sat down opposite him. After a few minutes of silence, she couldn't help but ask, "Are you going to see it tonight?"
Carlo was silent again.
He obviously didn't want to answer the question.
"He said before that he really wanted you to go and see him," said Mrs. Carroll.
Carlo regarded Gao Shen as his student, so Gao Shen often visited their home. Mrs. Carlo also had a very good impression of Gao Shen, and really did not want Carlo to have any more contact with Gao Shen because of this matter.
She had been with Carlo for twenty or thirty years. She understood her husband's character better than anyone else and knew the dilemma he was experiencing at the moment.
Not to mention Carlo, wouldn't it be the same for anyone else?
After hesitating for a while, Carlo gently pushed the ticket in his hand to his wife and said, "I won't go. If you want to watch it, ask a friend to go with you. If you don't want to go, give it to a neighbor."
After saying that, Carlo opened today's newspaper.
Mrs. Carlo looked at her husband deeply, didn't say much, nodded, and put the ticket away.
…
Not surprisingly, today, all the news in AS is related to tonight's derby.
Even as early as yesterday, the whole city was hyping up this focal battle.
Many outsiders cannot understand Atletico Madrid's resentment towards Real Madrid. Only people living in this city understand that it is a deep-rooted resentment that will only grow deeper with the passage of time.
Long before Atletico Madrid was relegated, their chairman, old Hill, once said that Atletico Madrid's mission was to defeat Real Madrid, and as long as they could beat Real Madrid, they would not hesitate to be relegated.
Unexpectedly, Atletico Madrid was really relegated!
For Atletico Madrid, this was a disaster that completely shattered their dream of becoming a strong team, but this instead further fueled their resentment towards Real Madrid.
Because, when Atletico Madrid was relegated to the Spanish Second Division and was struggling, Florentino became the chairman of Real Madrid, won the Champions League twice in three years, continued to buy the world's biggest superstars, and built a star-studded Galactico.
Atletico Madrid is in the Spanish Second Division, looking up at its former arch-rivals. It is shining brightly in La Liga, the Champions League, and even the whole world.
Anyone with poor mental strength would have collapsed on the spot, but unfortunately, Atletico Madrid was very tenacious.
The Colchoneros returned to La Liga and stood in front of Real Madrid again.
Every time facing Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid played without any retreat, which resulted in both sides playing very dangerous games. Although there were complete victories of 4-0 and 3-0, the process was also quite dangerous, and most of the time they were evenly matched duels.
Since Atletico Madrid returned to La Liga, Real Madrid has one win and two draws at the Bernabeu, and four consecutive wins at the Calderon Stadium.
What does this mean?
Atletico Madrid always fights hard against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu!
This one will be no exception.
…
At the pre-match press conference, Atletico Madrid head coach Murcia said in an interview with the media that this is the best time for Atletico Madrid to defeat Real Madrid, and they are confident that at the Bernabeu, they can make Real Madrid everyone recognize Atletico Madrid again.
"It's a sad news that Real Madrid are in turmoil, but it's also a great opportunity for us as a competitor to get revenge at the Calderon Stadium at the Bernabeu."
At the Calderon Stadium, Real Madrid defeated Atletico Madrid 3-0. The process was dangerous, but the score was a complete victory.
Murcia also mentioned Real Madrid's acting head coach, Gao Shen, who is only 25 years old. He felt that this was a very ridiculous decision and he could not understand it because the average age of Real Madrid players was more than 25 years old.
"They will pay for their absurdity!"
Not only head coach Murcia, but also the team's top scorer Fernando Torres is ready to go, especially when he heard that Real Madrid did not include all Brazilian players in the roster, he was overjoyed.
"This is really an incomprehensible decision. I even have some doubts whether the interim head coach of Real Madrid is a spy we planted in the Bernabeu?"
This is of course a joke, but Torres said that without several Brazilian stars, Real Madrid's strength would be greatly affected, especially Ronaldo, Robinho, Baptista, Carlos and Cicinho. These five players are all Real Madrid's backbone.
Gao Shen took them all down at once, and with Ramos' suspension, this undoubtedly made Real Madrid's lineup even more difficult.
"It will be a difficult game because it's at the Bernabeu," Torres said.
"But my teammates and I are ready. We look forward to winning at our rivals' home ground. We hope they won't disappoint us too much."
AS believes that Torres looks very confident.
Also full of confidence is Spanish international center back Pablo Ibanez. He believes that Real Madrid without Ronaldo is like a tiger without teeth and is not worth fearing at all.
"I know a lot of people will talk about the game at the Calderón Stadium, but I want to remind everyone that in the sixth minute the referee sent off our left-back. I don't think it was a fair game."
"We will prove our strength at the Bernabeu!"
Atletico Madrid's youth player Antonio Lopez also mentioned the match in the seventh round, where he received a red card in the sixth minute, but he said that he did not touch Raul at the time.
At that time, Raul received a pass from Ronaldo, broke into the penalty area from the right rib, and was tripped by Antonio Lopez, but Atletico insisted that Lopez did not touch Raul, and that the referee did not intend to give a card at first, but then for some reason he suddenly decided to give Lopez a card.
Atletico Madrid believed that this was pressure from Real Madrid players, because an Atletico player was sent off in six minutes, and Ronaldo's penalty kick allowed Real Madrid to win the game directly.
"At the Bernabeu, they will pay the price!" said Antonio Lopez fiercely.
…
The showdown between the two mortal enemies in the same city has always been hot and fierce.
At the Calderon, both sides set a record of one red card and seven yellow cards, and everyone believed that the data at the Bernabeu Stadium would not be too bad.
Carlo looked at the pre-match analysis in the newspaper with concern. He could clearly feel the ambition of the Atletico players.
Real Madrid has problems and is internally divided, and Atletico Madrid wants to take advantage of the opportunity to add insult to injury.
They have such strength.
The question is, can Gao Shen handle it?
Tonight at the Bernabeu, he not only has to face the challenge from his arch-rival Atletico Madrid, but also the pressure from within the team, the threats from the management, and even the opposition from the 75,000 Real Madrid fans on the scene.
He is deserted by everyone and is completely alone!
Thinking of this, Carlo turned around and looked at the note left by Gao Shen.
“I hope you guys can come to the game.”
…
…
Match day was a busy one.
All the players included in the match roster arrived at Valdebebas on time at the required time.
Afterwards, Gao Shen started the tactical preparation meeting, focusing on discussing the team's formation adjustment issues.
Gao Shen repeatedly emphasized the problems that have been repeatedly exposed during training in the past two or three days.
On the one hand, he felt sorry because he didn't have much time to prepare and the team had to rush into the game.
But on the other hand, he was also happy because Woodgate was not injured.
Oh my god, this is really very good news.
So when Gao Shen saw Woodgate in the conference room, he couldn't help but smile at him and said, "Jonathan, I'm so glad to see you here!"
What Gao Shen emphasized the most was actually the issue of positioning and defensive area.
In the past, Real Madrid adopted man-to-man defense, but now Gao Shen has to adopt zone defense, which are two different defensive concepts.
To put it simply, zone defense is an evolved version of man-to-man defense.
Both Valencia and Liverpool have proved how solid Benítez's defense is.
Of course, set-piece defence is a problem.
Gao Shen has repeatedly instilled this set of tactics into Real Madrid players over the past few days. How much they can use them on the field is not something Gao Shen can control.
In the afternoon, Gao Shen made targeted tactical arrangements, emphasizing the suppression of Atletico's defense.
Except for Pablo Ibanez who is 1.92 meters tall, Pereira, Velasco and Antonio Lopez are all less than 1.8 meters tall. Negredo has a huge advantage in this regard and can make good use of it.
On the defensive end, Torres is the most important.
But as a double striker, Kežman also needs to pay attention.
Although this player did not perform well at Chelsea and his performance has not improved much since joining Atletico Madrid, he is still a dangerous player and must be guarded against.
"Finally." Gao Shen stood in front of all the players and took a deep breath.
These eighteen players were all selected by him, and he will be responsible for all the victories and defeats.
"I hope that each of you can give your best performance when you walk into the Bernabeu Stadium tonight and live up to the jersey you are wearing!"
After saying this, Gao Shen looked deeply at everyone present before turning around and leaving.
