Volume 1: Playing football with me will break your legs Chapter 57 Let him play center forward!
Flowers, birthday cake, candlelight dinner, plus a small gift prepared at the last minute. With the full support of his roommates, Li Boluo successfully celebrated his girlfriend's first birthday.
If you really look closely, the birthday cake and gifts are obviously rushed and rough, but as Li Polo himself said:
"At least...I have a good attitude."
“It really doesn’t matter whether it’s expensive or not.”
"Lisanna's father...seems to run a private bank."
…
After Lisana's birthday, Li Polo can finally put down his burdens and devote himself to the team's training.
Two days later, on November 8, he arrived with the team in North Yorkshire, 300 kilometers away, to participate in the first round of the FA Cup.
As the oldest football cup competition on earth, the FA Cup has always had a very unique historical position - at least for the British.
This is probably the largest formal football tournament: from the top Premier League teams to the lowest level community amateur teams, in theory, everyone can participate - of course, the prerequisite is that they are certified and registered by the English Football Association and have a safe competition venue.
According to conservative estimates, the total number of teams participating in the 14-15 season exceeds 700. Assuming that each team has at least 20 players, the number of participants exceeds 14,000. This number is really terrifying!
After all, the whole of England has a population of only 50 million, and there are only 7 to 8 million men between the ages of 18 and 40. Fourteen thousand people means that 1 to 2 out of every thousand young men participate in this event!
According to this ratio, the Chinese Football Association Cup will have to arrange about 20,000 teams and 400,000 players...
Although the first round of the official competition only starts this weekend in November, the first round of qualifying actually kicked off as early as the end of August and the beginning of September at the beginning of the season.
That was a competition for real grassroots teams. There were more than 400 teams participating in the first round of qualifiers. After four rounds of qualifiers, these amateur teams were qualified to compete with professional teams.
Unfortunately, Wimbledon's opponent was not an amateur team, but York City, which was also in the English League Two.
York City, which had 15 points in 16 league games and ranked third from the bottom (tied), was already mired in the relegation quagmire and had no energy to focus on the cup competition. It directly sent out 11 youth team players, who symbolically resisted for 15 minutes in its home stadium before completely surrendering.
Although Wimbledon also rotated their lineup, they were in high spirits and showed no mercy, slaughtering their opponents in the cold evening breeze!
Veteran Andy Frampton, who had not scored a goal for a long time, opened the scoring in the 16th minute. Eight minutes later, Li Polo took advantage of a set-piece opportunity in the frontcourt to score with a header, extending the score to 2:0.
Compared to Ivan Tony a week ago, these young people in York City are as weak as elementary school students!
With Dubis scoring twice between the 35th and 40th minutes, the game lost all suspense and the second half became a tactical drill time for Adre.
So, the head coach had a sudden idea and replaced Frampton with Li Polo !
Cox who was sitting next to him and the substitute players behind him were all stunned!
"Hey, Boss, is this okay?"
Wrapped in a down jacket, Akinfenwa couldn’t help but pat his head coach on the shoulder.
Leading by four goals, the opponent had no fighting spirit and it looked like he had no chance of playing at all.
Adley shrugged his shoulders:
"What does it matter? You're not going to tell me about Liverpool's miracle night again? Don't worry, I'm calm now. We didn't even open champagne to celebrate at halftime."
Akinfenwa opened his mouth, revealing his big white teeth, but then quickly closed it:
"This weather in the north is so damn cold!"
The FA Cup has such a high status in English football that even the League Cup, which is also a cup competition, cannot compare to it, let alone the fourth-tier league like English League Two.
For example, the League Cup is basically played by each club during the week, but every round must be arranged during prime time on the weekend!
For the FA Cup, the league can completely give way!
Although with the fierce impact of financial resources, the importance of the FA Cup has fallen far behind the Champions League and the league for Premier League and Championship teams, and the championship prize money of two to three million is not even as much as a luxury car or a famous watch of a big-name player, but for the English Football Association, this event must still be taken seriously!
Moreover, for the sake of television broadcasting, FA Cup matches are almost all scheduled in the prime time of the evening. However, in winter, when the sun sets at 4 or 5 o'clock and snow falls every now and then, this time is not friendly to coaches and players at all...
Fortunately, although it was cold and windy in Yorkshire today, there was no interference from rain or snow. The Wimbledon players performed at their normal level. Every pass was quite easy, and the tactic of changing the central defender to a center forward was also perfectly executed.
In the entire 45-minute second half, there were probably more than 50 crosses from the midfield and backcourt. Excluding passes that were intercepted halfway or flew directly out of the baseline, about one-third of the passes successfully landed within the penalty area, and Li Polo alone grabbed 8 of them.
Among these 8 chances, he made 4 effective shots, conquered York City twice, and headed the ball to Dubis once, but unfortunately the latter's shot was too straight and was easily saved by the goalkeeper.
In the 81st minute, Akinfenwa, who was sitting on the bench, shook his head repeatedly with an expression of disbelief on his face:
"Just a central defender, and this is a hat trick?"
Adre, who was sitting in front of him, finally stood up from his seat and waved his fist to congratulate the players on the field.
He also proudly boasted to his assistant about his talent:
"I said when I bought him three months ago that I would never regret signing him!"
Cox, who knew him inside out but couldn't bear to expose him, nodded repeatedly:
"Yeah!"
But he couldn't help but complain in his heart:
[If it weren't for the injuries of Smith, Fuller and other defenders, and Osraja's red card suspension, Li Polo would have been given a chance to play. I'm afraid you might not be able to let him start after a year! ]
…
"Here, your ball."
Li Polo's first hat trick in his career came so suddenly that when the referee handed him the ball, he had no reaction and even asked back:
"What are you doing for me? The game is over."
Reeves slapped him on the head and took the football for him:
"Reward for a hat trick!"
Li Polo, who suddenly realized what was going on, quickly grabbed his prize. Then he saw a staff member coming over and handing him a small plastic gadget :
"Congratulations, Mr. Li, you have been recognized as the best player of the match by the English Football Association. This is an honorary trophy. Please keep working hard."
Li Polo was excited as he received such an important individual award for the first time.
But he waited for a long time, and finally couldn't help asking:
"Uh, no bonus?"
The staff member smiled awkwardly:
“Oh, this trophy is the best encouragement for the players, isn’t it?”
Li Polo looked down at the plastic sign in his hand.
No name, no date, no carving...
The cost price of this thing... is probably only one dollar!
