Born to be a coach [soccer]

Chapter 207

When Sunderland scored the second goal, Anton had already left the main stand behind the coach's bench and came to the VIP box at the Stadium of Light.The club's owner Ellis Short and CEO Martin Bain are both seated here.

Unfortunately, the boss, Short, was allergic to cat hair. As soon as Anton entered the box, he sneezed several times.In desperation, Martin took the little black cat Larry from Anton's arms, and then sat far away, leaving Short and Anton alone to talk.

Short: "Ahhhh! I'm sorry, I mean, Anton, you're welcome back!"

Anton stood next to Short's seat, did not answer Short's words, but lowered his head quietly watching the situation on the field.

Short was very embarrassed, scratched his head and thought for a long time, and decided to "confess" once: "When you were not around, I can see that no one can compare to your role in the club. Black worked hard, but he was far away. not at your level..."

Short is not always an "approachable" boss in normal times.But he was particularly afraid that Anton would be poached, so his attitude towards Anton was completely different from that of other club employees.

Before Xiao Te finished speaking, he suddenly saw Anton's clenched fist raised, and Xiao Te's heart rose to his throat.He knew that Anton was a taekwondo master, and he was afraid that if the opponent punched him, he would suffer disaster immediately—the poor boss could only think in his heart: Did he say something wrong in his "confession" just now?

The next moment, Anton loosened his fists, and then spread his palms out, applauding calmly and gently.

At the same time, the cheers in the Stadium of Light also sounded.Only then did Short wake up: Sunderland scored a goal and equalized the score.As the owner of the club, he was distracted and missed his own goal.

When the broadcast in the stadium shouted Ibrahimovic's name, the owner Short knew that Ibrahimovic had scored the goal.He hurriedly applauded along with Anton, and said cheerfully: "As expected of Ibrahimovic! He fell behind twice and equalized twice. In my opinion, the final result of this game will also fall on him!"

Beside Short, Anton shook his head slightly, pointed at Ibrahimovic in the middle circle of the court who was anxious to let the opponent kick off, and said calmly: "No... not just two equalizers, Tottenham's second The goal, probably also goes to Zlatan."

Just now Ibrahimovic provoked Van der Vaart in public, and Fan Fa turned furious, and then began to attack Sunderland desperately.Normal people can make judgments without hearing what Ibrahimovic said.

And Lao Lei also seized the opportunity at the right time and urged the whole team to assist, allowing Tottenham to score the second goal.

Therefore, today Sunderland can be said to have lost Ibrahimovic and succeeded Ibrahimovic.The things he provoked by himself were resolved through his own goals.

Short: So it turned out to be like this...

Then, as time was running out on the field, Anton's brows gradually frowned, and Short's heart sank accordingly.He asked cautiously: "This game, if it's a draw, it should be... no problem!"

"If we draw, we will fall back to the second place in the standings... In that case, I feel too sorry for the coaching staff. Russell commanded very well, and this game should have been won smoothly." Anton said Wan sighed softly, he didn't know whether he was sighing for the current draw, or for the boss's "not thinking about making progress".

Short was so desperate that he didn't dare to take the fight, so he could only look down and watch the game with Anton.

Immediately after they saw Lao Lei's substitution, Anton clapped his hands excitedly: "Lao Lei wants to keep the tie, Sunderland has hope of winning!"

Short: ...Teach me that my logic is not good, why is there hope for Tottenham to save Sunderland?

Anton seemed to be considerate of Short, and continued to say: "Because Sunderland has no problem in attacking the city, and is not afraid of intensive defense-if Lao Lei lets Van der Vaart continue to attack, Sunderland's defense may still be strong. Tight, but he wants to defend, and most importantly, his players know he wants to defend."

Although Van der Vaart is still cruising in the frontcourt, everyone knows that his role is to contain.Therefore, it is difficult for Van der Vaart to get any real opportunities.

Once everyone has a defensive heart, Sunderland can let go of the attack.

What's more, there is another one on the field, Ibrahimovic who wants to get a hat-trick.

Next, everyone in the VIP box saw Ibrahimovic stepping forward to steal the ball after the opponent kicked off. CEO Martin stood up so excited that he even dropped the cat in his arms.

The little black cat Larry squatted on the side of the box wagging his tail, and seemed to be bending over to watch the situation on the field.

Anton frowned, especially after Ibrahimovic got the ball, there were teammates on the left and right to respond, but Ibrahimovic did not pass.Anton immediately commented: "Ibrahimovic is so 'independent'!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Ibrahimovic scored a goal.

This time Short didn't dare to blink, he looked straight at it, and immediately jumped up with his arms high: "That's amazing!"

Ibrahimovic is indeed powerful. Ordinary people would never have imagined that he kicked in such a heavily surrounded situation with almost no shooting angle, but he just kicked and scored.

Short himself is also a fan, otherwise he would not be the boss of Sunderland.Ibrahimovic's goal and the subsequent celebration made his blood boil, and if Ibrahimovic was in front of him at the moment, he would be willing to worship him.

Anton gently shook his head aside.

"It's nothing serious." Anton said, his tone was a little cold.

Short: ...isn't that amazing?

So, after talking for a long time, Boss Sunderland said something that he thought was very appropriate:

"Anton, you are even better!"

Anton was startled, and turned to stare at his boss helplessly, before saying, "Thank you for the compliment! I... I'm not good at all!"

If he is really "powerful", the kind with all-hands and eyes, how could it take him so long to return to Sunderland, and how could he make the whole club and all the fans worry.Thinking of this, Anton's eyes immediately showed a little more guilt.

He stared at Short, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart: What a naive boss this is!Among so many clubs in the Premier League, this one is unique.

So Anton stopped hiding, and simply made it clear: "Ibrahimovic has not really regarded himself as a part of the team until now. Look at his ball just now, obviously the teammates on both sides are better. The chance, but he is so 'alone', he must shoot by himself."

Short thought to himself: But Ibrahimovic also scored a goal with his own shot!In his opinion, if a goal can be guaranteed, it is not considered "independence".

Unexpectedly, Anton continued, "Because what Ibrahimovic thinks in his heart is not to help the team win. His only goal now is to perform a hat-trick in this game, so that he can stand shoulder to shoulder with Messi and van der Vaart!"

Sure enough, as soon as Ibrahimovic scored the goal and the hat-trick was performed, Da Fengxian immediately entered the sage time and "walked around" in the frontcourt.

His strolling in the courtyard is of course different from Messi’s strolling in the courtyard. Even if Messi walks slowly, the opponent has to arrange someone to watch him, but at the moment Ibrahimovic is really leisure, walking while staring at the players on the field. He is holding the ball for the game, as if the result of this game has nothing to do with him, he just waits for the end of the game to take the ball home!

"Russell's best way now is to replace Ibrahimovic. Let him enjoy the applause without affecting the last few minutes of the game... Although the score of 3 to 2 is still unstable... Sigh!" Anton sighed again Take a breath.Short recalled that Anton returned to the Stadium of Light, and sighed a few times, it seemed that it was all because of Ibrahimovic.

There is not much time left in the game. Although Lao Lei had chosen to keep the tie before, he was one goal behind at this time, and it was meaningless to keep defending.All Tottenham players aggressively pressed the offense.

At this moment, Russell found a dead ball opportunity, replaced Ibrahimovic with a defender, and prepared to keep the advantage of the ball.

As Anton said, Ibrahimovic enjoyed the applause from the fans at the Stadium of Light very, very much.In addition to all the local Sunderland fans standing up and applauding, the Ibrahimovic fans on the field also played a huge Swedish flag at this time-most of them are Swedish, and they came here entirely because Ibrahimovic joined Sunderland Stadium of Light, and registered as a Sunderland fan.

Ibrahimovic floated off the field amid the cheers and applause of the fans, and by the way, delayed a little time.

The Tottenham fans were extremely upset about this, but they couldn't stand the fact that there were so few of them, even if they shouted loudly, no one paid attention.

In the remaining few minutes, all Sunderland defended desperately. All the players returned to their own half and stood firmly in their positions. No matter which direction the opponent attacked from, there were immediately more than two players Go forward and mark, the formation is orderly and orderly.Most of the attacks launched by Tottenham were resolved by this solid defensive formation. Only two or three times that threatened Sunderland's goal were all saved by Pickford.

The only one who can break through Sunderland's well-organized defensive formation by personal ability is Van der Vaart—it's a pity that Van der Vaart was provoked by Ibrahimovic earlier and consumed a lot of physical energy. At this time, he can only look at Sunderland's goal and sigh. And powerless.

When the final whistle sounded, Sunderland's players almost slumped on the ground-the game was too dangerous and difficult, and it was too difficult to win this game.

Most of the Tottenham players were downcast: they lost a good game, which is called-they led twice, were equalized twice, and finally were overtaken.All in all, in this game, they actually only lost to one person: if there is no Ibrahimovic, they must have won.

But a huge explosion of color erupted throughout the Stadium of Light.The fans began rhythmically chanting a name: "Zlatan! Zlatan!"

Ibrahimovic, who had been waiting on the sideline bench, went to get the game ball as soon as the game was over, held it in his hand, circled the pitch, and greeted the fans.He also deliberately walked past Van der Vaart. Fortunately, the Sunderland players were very vigilant, and Henderson and Garner were separated between the two, which finally prevented the two from having a direct conflict again.

After Ibrahimovic held the ball around the field for a week, it was unknown who led it, and the fans suddenly changed their name to Anton.

"Anton! Anton!" Welcome back, Anton!

The fans are all convinced. They all think that the game can be won because Anton came back and brought the team's most important "mascot" to the scene.

At this time, in the VIP box, the bosses Short and Martin came over to hug Anton and celebrate.After touching the cat hair on Anton and Martin, Short went to the side to sneeze again.Anton and Martin stood at the forefront of the box, waving to tens of thousands of fans at the scene.

Russell stood on the field, lowered his head, and he also breathed a sigh of relief.

He had just shaken hands with Lao Lei, and the old Lei patted him on the shoulder and said, "Your on-the-spot command was good. Young man, work hard!"

Russell: ...

Compared with Anton, he is no longer young.Although the game was barely won, there are still many shortcomings.If Anton was to conduct the on-site command, it would definitely be better than him.

But he didn't lose the chain after all, and made several substitutions and adjustments in a timely manner, and the result was that he scored all 3 points at home.

He is still good.

Although no one will notice.

Russell stretched out his right foot and rubbed the turf with the old-fashioned leather shoe on his foot: Anton was right at the beginning, if he can't fully command this game, he may never...or at least for a long time There is no way to coach the game independently.

But so what, he is just a small person, no one will notice him.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, Sunderland players, led by captain Garner, came over together and surrounded Russell.

Russell raised his head and looked around: what's the matter?

Garner waved to the stands, mouthing "Russell."

First, a small group of fans in the stands yelled, and they called Russell's name rhythmically.Immediately afterwards, hundreds of fans joined in, and in an instant, the audience shouted in unison: "Russell! Russell!"

Those who contributed to the team, you will not be easily forgotten.

One by one, the players came forward and hugged Russell.Russell was so excited that he didn't know what to say, so he could only mechanically hug each of them passively, and said vaguely: "Thank you! Thank you!" He sincerely thanked his players for their support and trust, allowing him to have Courage stayed in this position until the final whistle.

Only Ibrahimovic was in the distance, clapping the ball in his hand, looking at Russell who was very excited, flattened his mouth, and thought: Now I know if I am a bicycle, right?

At the end of the game, the relevant personnel were interviewed, and all the players returned to the locker room.

Russell had already received a call from Anton at this time, and told everyone beamingly that Anton would return to the Sunderland locker room in a while.

The whole Sunderland team was immersed in the joy of winning, and they were even happier to hear the good news.Pickford took his mobile phone out of the locker in the dressing room, turned it on to the music mode, and played the most popular single on the chart.The other players sang and danced along.

After all, those darkest and most depressing times have passed, and this game was won by a thrill under extremely difficult conditions.

Ibrahimovic naturally didn't get involved, he sat in the locker room with his hands on his knees, waiting for the door of the locker room.Those who don't know think that Ibrahimovic is waiting for Anton, but those who know know that Ibrahimovic is waiting for a cat.

Not long after, Anton opened the door and came in.Boss Short and CEO Martin also came in together.

The entire coaching staff and many Sunderland club staff lined up outside the door of the locker room. The locker room is not too big to hold so many people.

Ibrahimovic stared wide-eyed: Where is the cat? Where is the cat?

Larry the black cat, Sunderland's official mascot, did not follow.

When Russell saw Anton, he immediately strode forward and gave him a bear hug.He had countless grateful words to say in his heart, and he completely forgot how many shocks and fears he had suffered during Anton's absence... Now he only remembers Anton's few words at halftime, encouraging He mustered up the words.

At the same time, Short and Martin, the staff waiting outside the door, and the players staying in the locker room all applauded.

Anton came back at last, he was all right, and Sunderland was all right.

Amid the applause, Anton patted Russell on the shoulder and said something in a low voice.Russell immediately turned away to give Anton a place so that he could have a few words with the players.

Anton stood in front of everyone, silent and did not speak immediately.The locker room fell silent immediately.

"The incident this time was indeed due to my personal reasons, which affected the team's normal game and training." Anton looked at everyone in the locker room, "I would like to apologize to all of you here, and thank you for your support. Everything I have done in the past ten days..."

"You spoke up for me and defended me, and you chose to believe me unconditionally;" Anton said and looked at Russell, and the eyes of Russell's elder brother were a little red.Before Anton could do anything, Russell was already in tears.

"During my absence, you have been perfectly self-disciplined, self-regulated, and self-motivated. You have experienced failures and setbacks, but you have stood up again with your own strength... You have shown me the most Team with potential."

"When I stood in the stands watching you play, I thought to myself: Is there anyone in the world luckier than me to lead a team like yours?"

At this point, Martin applauded first, followed by Short, who was belatedly aware, and then the entire locker room was immersed in applause.

Anton strikes while the iron is hot: "Three days later, we will enter the first big test of the Europa League knockout round. We will face Benfica, the first opponent in the European knockout round. I hope that each of you can become a part of this team." Members, do your best for this team..."

When Anton said this, Ibrahimovic raised his head. He couldn't find the cat, so he looked up and listened to Anton reluctantly: his teammates listened carefully, but he looked at Anton and then secretly made a face ——Is Anton talking about him?

But then Anton changed the subject. He crossed his arms, pointed at himself with his right hand, and said with a smile, "Okay, I've said enough? I haven't seen you for a while, what do you want to ask?"

This is great, the locker room exploded.A group of people cried and begged Anton: "Boss, can you help us fight for that new football management simulator during the public beta?"

"I really want to try to access a completely virtual world—Boss, what does it feel like?"

Ibrahimovic sat aside and picked his nose in boredom, thinking: You should have said it earlier!I can lend you the account number, but none of you come to me!

The author has something to say: Tonight is the final of the Community Shield Cup.Sleeper lost 5 out of 4 warm-up matches, and to be honest, I don't have much confidence in this game... But, most importantly, the new season is about to start!