Fox in the Penalty Area

Hou Lai's goal helped Leeds City re-extend their lead to two goals.

After leading 3:1, the Leeds City players still remember what coach Clarke said to them during the intermission:

"Offensive! In addition to attacking, it is still attacking!"

So they went on the attack.

Seven minutes later, Leeds launched a counterattack.

Kamara dribbled the ball in the middle and drove straight in. When Helmer's players came up to surround him, he pushed the football through the gap.

Passed to Hou Lai who was pulled to the ribs.

"There is a chance!" He Feng shouted out loudly when he saw the football being passed to Hu Lai.

Then he saw Hu Lai start to adjust his pace and the orientation of his body while running.

The football rolled right in front of him just as the adjustment was finished.

Instead of stopping the ball, he swung his right leg and shot directly with the inside of his foot!

The football flew out in an arc, bypassing the legs of the Helmer defender who came up to block the shot, and then bypassing the finger of the Helmer goalkeeper Arnett, and flew into the goal by rubbing the inside of the far post!

"Beautiful——!! Hu Lai——!! Shot directly without stopping the ball, beautiful!! Scored twice! Three goals in two games! Hu Lai! Aha!" He Feng laughed happily.

No matter how Zhang Qinghuan, Luo Kai, Chen Xingyi, Xia Xiaoyu and Wang Guangwei are, Hu Lai is the repertoire...

At this stage, Chinese fans can only pin their feelings on Hu Lai.

At the same time, because of Hu Lai, everyone will not feel that the time is too difficult while waiting for the others to grow up.

How can you not love such a fool?

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After Hu Lai scored twice, Leeds City has three goals ahead of Helmer.

However, Helmer's performance improved after continuous substitutions and adjustments, and he scored two goals in five minutes in the 72nd and 77th minutes.

Chased the score to 3:4.

Helmer, who scored two goals back, boosted his morale.

It seems that they want to overthrow the defending champion on the road.

But Leeds City finally maintained a one-goal lead until the end of the game, winning with a score of 4:3 and taking all three points.

The post-match commentator Matthew Cox joked: "This fully demonstrates how correct Coach Clark's theory is: as long as we score enough goals, we can guarantee to win the game in the end! The best defense is to score more goals than the opponent." More balls! Logically flawless!"

As if to echo Cox's words, Clarke first criticized the team's defense in the post-match press conference: "After we took the lead, we failed to maintain our focus all the time... This is why we lost three. The reason for the ball."

Then he changed the subject: "But fortunately, we scored four goals in the game, so in the end it was us who won..."

Cox reposted the news of the post-match press conference on his social media afterwards, with an expression of laughing and crying.

But in any case, Leeds City did win the game and got three points.

After two league rounds, they are in second place with six points.

The first place belongs to Wiggerston with six points. Their goal difference is one more than Leeds City, so they rank first.

After the two rounds of the league, there are now seven teams in the Premier League with six points, and the ranking is determined entirely by goal difference or the number of goals scored.

Of course, the league ranking at the beginning of the season is actually meaningless.

For example, teams like Wiggerston, Liverpool United, and Sydenham are all ranked in the top seven now, but it does not mean that they will definitely be in the top seven in the end.

Although Leeds City won the Premier League championship last season, they gradually calmed down from the excitement and excitement at the beginning. After thinking about it, it will be clear that Leeds City's championship is a "miracle" of this era.

Since it is a "miracle", it is naturally impossible to reproduce it, or it cannot be easily reproduced.

Not to mention mid-range teams such as Wiggerston and Liverpool United.

Even for Leeds City, nine times out of ten this season they will not be able to reproduce the glory of last season.

For a civilian team like Leeds City, it is the greatest honor to have a Premier League championship trophy in the club's honor room.

Some media once commented:

"...Leeds City Club should put the Premier League trophy in the most prominent and important position in their honor room, so that every visitor who visits their honor room can see this trophy at a glance no matter where they are. After all, it is theirs The only honor that can be given..."

Someone else drew such a cartoon titled "The Honor Room of Leeds City":

A room called "Leeds City Honor Room" is full of Premier League championship trophies. At first glance, you may think that Leeds City is a giant team that has won many Premier League titles. But looking again, the words "2025-2026" are written on each trophy.

This cartoon is obviously used to satirize Leeds City using a Premier League champion to pretend to be rich.

Although Leeds City did have a strong sense of presence around the world after winning the championship last season, media from various countries rushed to report their inspirational stories, which moved many people. There have also been calls for Hollywood to adapt the Leeds story into a film.

But to be honest, the Leeds City club did not use this Premier League champion to "pretend to be rich".

However, many Leeds City fans are quite smug.

Perhaps these smug Leeds City fans have angered many people, after all, "one fan tops ten blacks".

But the group of fans is inherently so fanatical and unreasonable. Of course, if you win the championship, you must vent your emotions and blow your team to the sky.

This is the same for any team's fan base.

If you use this as a reason to attack the Leeds City Club, you have to be careful that one day the team supported by these people will get carried away after winning the championship, and thus be attacked by others for the same reason...

In fact, there is another reason-not everyone thinks that it is a good thing for Leeds City to win the Premier League last season. Those supporters of the rich and traditional forces will certainly not let go of any opportunity to attack Leeds City.

Writing articles in the media to bad-mouth Leeds City, drawing caricatures to satirize Leeds City...all belong to their routine operations.

Of course, they can only make a fuss about Leeds City at present.

For Hu Lai, the most important player in Leeds City, it seems that there is no way out.

After all, Hu Lai's performance so far has no black spots-only two rounds of the Premier League in the new season, Hu Lai scored three goals, occupying the top scorer list in the league.

What else can I say about such a performance?

And there are even more exciting things in the back:

Both the British media and the Chinese media began to hype a piece of news.

That is... Hu Lai is very likely to win the European Best Young Player Award in the 2025-2026 season!

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"...'Europe's Best Young Player Award' is one of a series of award activities held by the French "Golden Ball" magazine every summer at the beginning of the new season. It is only awarded to all European football clubs. Players under the age of 23. This award is also affectionately called the "Youth Golden Globe Award" by fans. You can know the gold content and importance of this award from the nickname...Since the establishment of this award in 2000, there have been two Fifteen players won this honor, and among these twenty-five players, ten European Golden Globe winners were born... Therefore, if you win the European Best Young Player Award, you have a great chance of being awarded the best player in Europe Golden Globes...

"Hu Lai, who will be 23 years old on September 9 this year, this year is the only and last time he has the opportunity to win this award... Last year when the 25th European Young Player Award was selected , he has just joined Leeds City for half a season. Although he scored 11 goals in his Premier League debut in half a season and his performance in helping the team avoid relegation is also very impressive, but this obviously does not make him the best young player in Europe Ten-man candidate list...and last season, Hu Lai scored 32 goals in the Premier League. He won the top scorer in the Premier League and helped Leeds City, a little-known relegation team, win the Premier League title unexpectedly. In addition, in the World Cup in the United States and Canada, he scored five goals and won the World Cup Golden Boot... This performance is enough to make him stand out among the young players of all European clubs.

"In the just-announced list of ten candidates for the best young player in Europe this year, Hu Lai's name is on the list... and his competitors are really not competitive in the face of Hu Lai's superb performance and achievements last season ...It can be said that as long as there are no factors other than football, it should be a certainty for Hu Lai to win the most important personal award in his career, and he didn't run away..."

Xie Lan, who was standing in the "son's honor room", put down his mobile phone and looked around at the glass cabinets.

The 2024 Chinese Footballer's Trophy, the 2025 Chinese Footballer's Trophy, the 2024 Super League Top Scorer Trophy, the 2024 Super League Best Player Trophy... These golden or silver trophies are lined up in the display cabinet.

These are all personal honor trophies won by Hu Lai in different periods.

Even the national championship gold medal, best player, and top scorer trophies won in high school are all there.

In addition, there are the championship gold medal and Golden Boot trophy that Hu Lai won in the Premier League last season, as well as the Player of the Season Award and the Best Young Player Award awarded by the Premier League Players Association and the Premier League.

Now the most conspicuous trophy in this honor room is the "2026 23rd World Cup Top Scorer Trophy in the United States and Canada"-a gold-cast sneaker-shaped trophy.

This is the most important personal honor her son Hu Lai has received so far.

Although more professional senior fans may think that the best players in the Premier League have higher gold content-after all, the World Cup Golden Boot is not always won by the best player. The four-year World Cup Golden Boot is also more like a reward for a flash in the pan.

And the best players in the Premier League every season can better reflect the level and ability of the award-winning players.

But in Xie Lan's view, all the honors of the World Cup are higher, after all, this is the World Cup!

The best player in the Premier League is born every year, but it takes four years to get a World Cup Golden Boot!

Rare things are more expensive, so the World Cup Golden Boots are more awesome than the Premier League Golden Boots, there is nothing wrong with it.

Of course, Xie Lan also knew that the trophy of the best player in the World Cup was better than the trophy of the World Cup Golden Boot, but it was a pity that her son didn't get it... She couldn't help it.

After Song Jiajia helped Hu Lai deliver the trophy to Hu Lai's home in Dongchuan, Xie Lan invited out the best Premier League trophy that was originally placed in this cabinet, and put the World Cup Golden Boot trophy in.

But now...

Xie Lan was already thinking about moving the World Cup Golden Boot trophy out of the cabinet in the center of the room to make room for the trophy that the media said was the best in the world for players under the age of 23.

"What are you looking at?" Hu Lixin asked curiously when he saw his wife as he passed by the door.

"Look at the trophy!" Xie Lan didn't turn his head, but Hu Lixin could tell from his voice that his wife must be smiling.

He shook his head, he really looked like a... dragon patrolling his treasure house.

But this time he didn't say anything, after all, he was also looking forward to it together...

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Attached:

All the honors Hu Lai has won so far in his football career:

2019 Anton Provincial Middle School Football Championship Anton Cup · High School Champion;

2020 Anton Provincial Middle School Football Championship Anton Cup · High School Champion;

Top scorer and best player in the Anton Cup High School Group of the 2020 Anton Province Middle School Football Championship;

Champion of the 7th National High School Football Championship in 2021;

Top scorer and best player in the 7th National High School Football Championship in 2021;

The best rookie in the 2022 Chinese League One;

2023 East Asian Cup champion;

2023 East Asian Cup top scorer and best player;

2023 Chinese League Champions;

Top scorer, best local scorer, most popular player, and best player in the 2023 Chinese League One;

Champion of the 2023 Chinese Football Association Cup;

Top scorer and best player in the Chinese Football Association Cup in the 2023 season;

2024 U23 Asian Cup champion;

2024 U23 Asian Cup top scorer and best player;

2024 Chinese Super League champion;

Top scorer, best local scorer, most popular player, and best player in the 2024 Chinese Super League;

The top scorer of the AFC Champions League in the 2024 season;

2024 Chinese Footballer of the Year;

2025 Chinese Footballer of the Year;

2025-2026 Premier League Championship;

2025-2026 Premier League top scorer, official best player, best goal (37th round lore Tramed goal), PFA (Player Association) best player, PFA best young player;

The top scorer of the 23rd US-Canada World Cup in 2026;

Note: Personal honors such as the best of the month and the best on the spot in the Premier League are not included because there are too many.

In addition, since there is no "top scorer" award in the Olympic football match, the so-called Olympic top scorer is just the name of the player who scored the most goals in the Olympic football match, so it is not included in the official honor statistics.