Fox in the Penalty Area

"At the European season awards ceremony held last night in Paris, France local time, Chinese players had double happiness. Li Qingqing won the third place in the best player of the European season and won the bronze ball award. Hu Lai won the European best young player The player's 'little golden ball'. The pair of Chinese football's 'golden boy and jade girl' continue to write their own wonderful stories in European football..."

Following the broadcast of the announcer, Li Qingqing appeared on the TV screen holding the Bronze Ball Award. She was standing on the stage and was giving her acceptance speech in English:

"...This is a great encouragement and reward for me personally. I am grateful for the recognition from the jury, and I will continue to work hard...Thank you to my club, thank you to my teammates, and thank you to my father, who He was my football enlightenment coach, and it is entirely due to him that I have been able to get to where I am today..."

Seeing the subtitles typed out under the news, Xie Lan glanced at Hu Lixin next to him.

At this moment, Hu Lixin got up and walked towards the kitchen.

"Why didn't you read it?" Xie Lan asked.

"Have you been watching it forever? Didn't you watch the live broadcast yesterday?" Hu Lixin was already standing in front of the kitchen stove, turned on the range hood, and couldn't hear the sound from the TV outside.

"You can watch famous scenes again and again..." In the living room, Xie Lan muttered and continued to watch TV. "It's called a classic replay."

Then it was Hu Lai's turn to give a speech.

"...There are too many people to thank, so I won't name them all here. In short, thank you all, thank you to everyone who supports me. As a shooter, I am nothing without you...but I want to give special thanks here A person……"

Hearing what his son said, Xie Lan couldn't help but sit up straight.

In the picture, Hu Lai raised the trophy in his hand, and the English in his mouth became Mandarin: "Dad, this trophy is for you. How is it? Your son didn't embarrass you, did he? Ha!"

Hu Lai on the TV laughed, Xie Lan in front of the TV also laughed, and then turned to look at the kitchen.

Hu Lixin was smoking a cigarette. In the unlit kitchen, the red cigarette butt flickered on and off. When it lit up, it made his side face red, and when it went dark, it merged into the darkness.

I can't see his expression clearly at this time.

She still remembered watching the live broadcast, when Hu Lai suddenly said this, she glanced at Hu Lixin in surprise, and saw her husband sullenly, extremely serious. But in fact, Mingming was very moved and happy in his heart, but he didn't show it on his face...

Xie Lan smiled and cursed: "Damn Tsundere!"

Then she lowered her head and took out her mobile phone to send a voice message to her son: "Son,

When you return to China to participate in the competition this time, will you bring the trophy back with you? "

Not long after, she received a reply from Hu Lai: "Mom, the national team is not playing in Jincheng, and you won't be able to receive it if I bring it back... Don't worry, I've already brought Song Jiajia back, and he's in Dongchuan." Will contact you."

"Okay. Oh, I have to trouble Fatty Song every time, how embarrassing..."

"Then I will try to win less prizes next time?"

"Hi! How do you talk? Let him come to our house more often, and I'll make him something delicious!"

※※※

The enthusiasm about Hu Lai and Li Qingqing's respective awards on the Internet has not subsided. Hu Lai has returned to China and is preparing to participate in the next two national team warm-up matches.

In fact, this time should be the qualifiers for the Asian Cup next year.

However, due to the reform of the Asian Cup qualifiers by the AFC, it has been combined with the World Cup Asian qualifiers—the twelve teams that have qualified for the World Cup qualifiers in the Asian top 12 will automatically qualify for the Asian Cup. Eligibility.

If the host of the Asian Cup fails to reach the top twelve, then at this stage, thirteen teams will automatically qualify for the Asian Cup - the top twelve teams plus a host.

Among the remaining 28 teams that did not qualify for the top 12 in the top 40, the four teams ranked second, the eight teams ranked third, and the four teams with the best results ranked fourth. Sixteen teams will directly enter the Asian Cup qualifier group stage.

There are still the last 12 teams left in the top 40 teams. These 12 teams will go through two rounds of play-offs to determine the last eight places to participate in the qualifier group stage. Together with the previous 16 teams, a total of 24 teams will be divided into six groups, with four teams in each group adopting a home and away double round-robin system, and the top two teams in each group will advance to the Asian Cup.

If the host of the Asian Cup does not qualify for the top 12 and participates in the qualifying group stage of this stage, then the host will squeeze out the second place in the group with the worst score in this stage, and the latter will miss the Asian Cup race.

The 12 teams determined through the qualifiers and the 12 teams from the previous top 12 World Cup qualifiers form 24 teams to participate in the main match of the Asian Cup.

This year's Asian Cup will be held in Qatar in January next year - they have just hosted the World Cup and have advantages in hardware. As soon as they came out and announced that they would run for office, other competitors announced their withdrawal. So in the end Qatar won without a fight and won the right to host the 2027 Asian Cup.

Because the Chinese team has reached the top twelve in the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup in the United States and Canada, the Chinese team does not need to participate in the Asian Cup qualifiers.

They can directly participate in the race in January next year.

So on the national team match day, the Asian Cup qualifiers are in full swing, and they can only play friendly matches.

Of course, because they participated in the World Cup and performed well in the World Cup-as the only undefeated team in this World Cup, if the Chinese team wants to play a friendly match, it is still easy to find an opponent.

It's not like before. It's really not easy to find a match partner with enough level and level, and you have to spend money. Not to mention some teams, even if you spend money, you may not be able to spend it.

And now...after the World Cup, many national football associations have come to their door, hoping to discuss with the Chinese team about playing a friendly match.

In the end, the Chinese team finalized the opponents for the two friendly matches, namely Slovakia from Eastern Europe and Mexico from Central and North America.

Needless to say, the strength of Mexico, which participated in the World Cup in the United States and Canada, has always been an important force in American football.

Although Slovakia failed to participate in the World Cup, it is also a team that cannot be ignored. Many players in the team have played in the five major European leagues. It can be said that it is a high-quality friendly match opponent.

Both games were played within China, but not in the same city.

After the World Cup, the domestic prestige of the Chinese team has further increased, and fans in many cities hope that the national team can play in their cities.

Therefore, the Football Association arranged the national team's warm-up match in two different places.

Of course, considering the factors of time and distance, not one is arranged in the northernmost Heihe Province, and one is arranged in the southernmost Yuezhou Province.

Instead, one was in Jiu'an, the capital of Hexi Province, and the other was in Jingyang, the capital of Haining Province.

Although these two games were warm-up matches, all overseas players returned to the team.

This is the first official appearance of the Chinese team after the World Cup, which is of great significance.

So even though it was a warm-up match, the Football Association still issued a call-up order for all overseas players.

And the head coach leading the national team has also changed.

After Shi Wuyin's contract expired and he did not renew his contract with the national team, the Football Association began to select coaches.

It's just that the selection process was not very smooth.

At present, all famous coaches with sufficient reputation and ability in the international arena are working, and none of them are at home.

So the Football Association tried to find a world-class coach in China.

There were rumors at that time—the rumors, the Football Association and the parties have never admitted it, everything is rumors—it was rumored that the Football Association first approached the German Friedrich Lehmann who coached the South China Tigers in Lingnan. The coach once coached Blue and White Munich and led the team to win the Champions League. He is a very capable head coach.

At the beginning, the South China Tigers of Lingnan spent a lot of money in order to recruit him to coach, and offered the highest coach salary in China, which was sky-high.

However, Lehman has no interest in coaching the Chinese team. After Marcel Wilson got out of class, the Football Association approached him, but he refused.

Same this time.

The two consecutive refusals seem to have dispelled the previous rumors that he didn't want to coach the Chinese team because the level of the Chinese team was too poor and he didn't like it...

After all, the undefeated Chinese team in the World Cup should not look too poor.

Of course, the above are rumors and have not been confirmed by any party. Even the football journalists in the circle did not mention this matter, and all sources of caution were limited to various Internet rumors.

It is still a rumor that after being rejected by Lehman, the Chinese Football Association went to the famous coach Jorge Dillon who coached in Dashun Golden Arrow.

Dillon did not refuse this time, but the two sides did not agree.

In the end, seeing that the national team's games were coming, they still couldn't reach an agreement.

At this time, voices also appeared on the Internet calling for opportunities for local coaches.

After all, the first time the Chinese team entered the World Cup was completed under the local head coach Shi Wuyin, and he led the Chinese team to perform well in the World Cup.

Since there is a precedent for Shi Wuxian's success, why can't he trust China's own head coach?

Someone on the Internet first issued such an appeal, which then attracted widespread attention and unanimous support.

The momentum is getting bigger and bigger.

So the Football Association began to put the goal of coach selection on domestic coaches.

But unlike the fans with high national sentiments, the search for a local coach did not go very smoothly.

High-level local coaches are now coaching in the Super League and have contracts. If you want to coach the national team, you have to first suspend the contract with the club. According to the contract, if the head coach proposes to terminate the contract early, the coach himself has to pay liquidated damages. If the club proposes to terminate the contract and release the player, then the club will pay liquidated damages. No one is willing to pay this money to anyone.

Of course, the two parties can also go through "friendly negotiation" and terminate the contract by agreement, so that no one will have to pay the other.

But nothing like that happened.

The local coaches coached by the Chinese Super League appear to be "indifferent" to the position of the national team.

They are not as rushing as the fans imagined, scrambling to become the helm of this "the strongest national team in history".

After the World Cup, the good reputation and prestige of the national football team among the people does not seem to work for professional coaches.

In the end, the Football Association only finalized the candidate a week ago:

Dong Jianhai, the former capital Tenglong head coach who is currently at home, officially became the head coach of the Chinese team.

The 66-year-old Dong Jianhai is also a well-known coach in China. He has coached the Olympic team and the national team successively, and has experience in coaching a national team. Although the final results are not satisfactory-neither the coaching Olympic team nor the national team has been able to complete the task of breaking out of Asia. But in the dark age of Chinese football, the deeper reason why the national football team failed to qualify obviously did not lie with Dong Jianhai. It was indeed difficult for Dong Jianhai to lead Chinese football out of Asia and into the world under such circumstances.

Switching to the club to coach, Dong Jianhai proved that his coaching level is not a problem.

He has coached the Nanhe Shangdu Shenwei team twice, and both times he took over the team halfway as a firefighting coach, and then succeeded in relegation at the end of the season.

As a head coach, his peak period was in the 2015 season when he led the capital Tenglong to win the Chinese Super League championship. This is also the only league championship of the capital Tenglong. Before winning this championship, he had coached the Chinese team and lost in the Asian top 40 in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.

With doubts, he became the coach of the capital Tenglong, and led the team to win the Super League championship after three seasons. It's a shame.

Today's Dong Jianhai retired from the position of head coach of the capital Tenglong two years ago and is at home.

Because he has proven his coaching ability in the league and has the experience of leading the national team, he has thus become the most suitable candidate that the Football Association can find willing to coach the national team.

However, the Football Association did not sign a long-term contract with Dong Jianhai, but a short-term contract valid until February next year.

In January next year, the Asian Cup kicks off in Qatar with a whistle and ends in February.

The expiry date of this contract is so clear, it is obvious that he intends to use the Asian Cup to examine Dong Jianhai's current coaching ability in the national team.

If the Asian Cup is played well, then continue to sign, if the game is not good... I am afraid that at that time, I will have to hire someone else.

This is not to say that the Chinese Football Association does not trust Dong Jianhai, but it is a normal operation. After all, Dong Jianhai has been away from the front-line coaching work for two years. Signing a short-term contract also avoids the embarrassment that the tail will not be shaken off at that time.

It's just that the duration of this contract is somewhat subtle.

Whether the Chinese team can continue the good performance of the Shi Wuyin era under the leadership of Dong Jianhai, the performance and results of the first two warm-up matches may provide some reference.