Chapter 40 If you fail, you will die!
Technology: poor; physique: poor; tactics: poor; psychology: average.
When the whistle sounded to mark the end of the training, Su Dong collapsed on the grass, panting heavily.
Coach Lionel Pontes came over and handed him a fresh evaluation, which was disheartening.
Su Dong shook his head helplessly and smiled bitterly at Pontes.
The Madeira coach casually pulled out another assessment report and handed it to Ronnie.
The youth team talent wasn’t much better.
Technique: good; physique: average; tactics: poor; psychology: poor.
"Lionel, did you make a mistake? How could my mentality be rated bad? I tried my best throughout the whole process. I didn't stop for even a moment in the 15-minute competition." Ronnie looked very aggrieved.
Pontes nodded and said, "That's true, but focus and dedication alone are not enough. Look at the comments."
Su Dong came over and looked at the comments with Ronnie.
"His concentration is OK, but he plays football too selfishly, is obsessed with showing off, and tends to get impatient."
Ronnie was speechless.
This was his first training session with the first team and his performance was indeed terrible.
If Su Dong is the worst player in the team, then he must be ranked second to last.
Ronnie has more opportunities to get the ball than Su Dong, because as a forward, Su Dong has been facing the Brazilian veteran Cruz.
This defensive center back came from AC Milan. Even though he is a little older, he is very experienced. It is too easy for him to deal with a rookie like Su Dong. The entire team was frozen in the game without any ability to struggle.
This is also the reason why all three categories of Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are poor.
Ronnie's problem is mainly psychological. He is too anxious to express himself.
"Sometimes the more anxious you are, the more likely it is that something will go wrong. This is a big problem, and you must do your best to overcome it," Pontes advised.
Ronnie nodded, not sure if he heard it or not.
He is still very proud in his heart and doesn't think he will lose to anyone, but today's training with the first team made him feel powerless.
"When I watched from the sidelines before, I always felt that training with the first team was just that easy. Sometimes I even thought that the mistakes were too stupid. But when I participated in it myself, my feeling was completely different," Ronnie said with a frown.
Obviously, the first training session with the first team gave him a great shock, or a blow.
"What about you?" Pontes looked at Su Dong.
"Me?" Su Dong smiled bitterly. "The only feeling I have is tiredness. I have tried everything to get rid of Cruz, but it still doesn't work. I feel like he can guess what I'm thinking and is always one step ahead of me. It's very depressing. I even feel like I want to collapse."
"That's right," Pontes smiled.
Both Su Dong and Ronnie felt very strange. How could it be right?
Pontes squatted down in front of the two men and looked at the two young players who seemed very immature. Although they performed terribly in the training just now, he was still full of confidence in them.
"You know what? Whether it's the media, the fans, or the players in the youth team, it's easy to overthink the first team. It's so easy that when you're in the youth team, you take it for granted that you can do the same in the first team. But in fact, it's not the case at all."
The expression on Su Dong's face began to become serious.
He is good at listening to other people's suggestions, which is one of his good qualities.
"You may think that the gap between you and the first team is the gap between you and Quaresma, and a little more is the gap between you and Jardel , but what is the reality?"
Pontes did not intend to let them answer, so he gave the answer himself.
"The gap between you and the first team is between you and the twenty or so Quaresmas and Jardels. There is a huge gap between you and them, a gap that many people may never be able to overcome in their lifetime."
At this moment, Su Dong suddenly thought of Edgar Marcelino .
He is a genius in the youth team, but seems to be unable to gain a foothold in the first team and may be sent back to the second team at any time.
"The first team has never been a place to train people, the youth team and the second team are. In the first team, whether in training or in the game, everyone will try their best to show themselves. Every touch of the ball, every defense, and even every run, they are trying their best."
"So you will find that even in training, the first team has a very fast tempo, the ball is passed so fast that you can hardly catch it, the players run very fast, if you hesitate for a moment, the chance is gone, the ball is intercepted."
What Pontes said is indeed the personal experience of Sudong and Ronnie.
"You are considered the best in the youth team, but when you get to the first team, you will find that you can only be at the bottom. Do you know why?"
Su Dong and Ronnie both shook their heads.
"Strength is one part, and the other part is that you are used to the playing style and rhythm of the youth team. You need to integrate yourself into the first team, try your best to keep up with your teammates around you, keep up with the pace and rhythm of the whole team, keep up with the playing style of others, and then integrate into it and play your own strengths."
Su Dong understood.
Why did Marcelino and Quaresma enter the first team at the same time, but one shines while the other is in a slump throughout?
Perhaps at the moment of entering the first team, the strength of the two was similar, but Quaresma integrated quickly, quickly improved his game ability, and then showed his strength.
Unfortunately, Marcelino has not done well in this regard, so his performance has remained poor so far.
For those who can enter the first team, the basic strength is not a big problem, at least it is not out of reach. The key is to be able to integrate into the team, keep up with the pace and rhythm of the team, and give full play to one's own strength, which is the most difficult thing.
"Do you know why the whole team, including the head coach, is so cold to you?" Pontes asked.
Su Dong and Ronnie both shook their heads again.
"The reason is very simple. From the youth team to the first team, only a very small number of people can cross this gap. Failure is a high probability event. Therefore, it is normal that no one is optimistic about you."
After hearing this, Su Dong and Ronnie looked at each other again and saw the dissatisfaction in each other's eyes.
It has not been easy along the way for them, and they will never give up easily.
"Lionel, generally speaking, how long does it take to integrate into the first team?" Ronnie asked with concern.
"It's uncertain. Some are fast, some are slow, and you came in midway through the season, which is disadvantageous because the entire technical and tactical system of the first team has been established and is very stable. Others have figured it out, but you are still confused. This is also the reason why many teams don't like to recruit players during the winter break."
"Ricardo has an advantage, that is, he has nearly two months of summer training and warm-up matches, but you have none of that, so there is no way to measure and demand yourself by his standards, but Edgar's lesson is worth learning."
Using Quaresma and Marcelino as positive and negative examples is intuitive but somewhat inappropriate, so Pontes spoke in a low voice, fearing that others might hear him.
"You should have half a year, at the latest until the summer training camp. If you still can't integrate..."
Pontes didn't finish, but the answer was clear enough.
The first team gathers the best and most high-quality resources of Sporting Lisbon and provides the players with the best environment. It is impossible to keep players who cannot contribute to the team.
If by the time of the summer training camp, Sudong and Ronaldo are still unable to integrate into the first team and fail to prove their strength in training, Sporting Lisbon will certainly not give up on them, but they can only send them back to the second team for further training.
And soon, the club issued a warning.
…
…
On the morning of the first day of the team's winter training camp, after the training session, Edgar Marcelino was called to the office of the first-team coach Boloni.
Not long after, after returning to the dressing room, he quietly walked to his closet, packed his things, and left.
Su Dong stood at the door of the locker room, watching him carrying his backpack and walking through the barbed wire. His back looked extremely depressed and frustrated.
"I don't know if he can return to the first team after suffering such a blow?" Su Dong said sympathetically.
Ronnie shook his head. "If it were me, I would come back even if it cost me my life, but for others... who knows?"
Having said that, the boy from Madeira turned and left.
Su Dong was looking at the barbed wire. Marcelino was no longer there, but he seemed to see the struggle and loneliness of the African player on the other side of the barbed wire.
If you fail, you will die!
…
Su Dong encountered a wake-up call in the first training session, and his beautiful vision of the first team became much more sober.
Even he calmed down.
Although he has the help of the road to becoming a football king, and although he has some advantages that others do not have, in the final analysis, he is still not enough.
But what’s interesting is that as the training level of the first team improves, his strength is also increasing bit by bit.
Although it is slow, it is at least faster than when I was at Sporting CP.
In addition, his King of Ball value comes faster, especially when he is facing Cruz, his efficiency is not inferior to Ronnie at all.
After a training session, he can often earn several thousand or even tens of thousands of football king points.
This is a very gratifying harvest for Su Dong.
The only trouble is that he still seems out of tune with his first-team teammates and can never keep up with the rhythm.
Pontes comforted him, saying that such things could not be rushed, and the more anxious you were, the more likely it would be counterproductive.
"Stay calm and rational, keep a normal mind, take steady steps, improve , and slowly, you will reach that step."
Although Su Dong was anxious, he knew that Pontes was right.
After a week of training with the first team and being brutally abused by Cruz for a week, Su Dong forged ahead in the interweaving of pain and happiness, not daring to slack off in the slightest.
After entering 2002, the Portuguese Super League quickly reignited the war.
Su Dong also played his first game for Sporting Lisbon.
