Fox in the Penalty Area

Maxi Carey's state in training is really good, compared with his state last season, it's a heaven and a low.

In particular, he was able to use his speed to pass defenders in practice.

This is a very rare scene.

Last season, I don't know whether it was a physical reason or a psychological reason, or both, Kyrie rarely used speed to break through after getting the ball.

Carey has a very strong technical advantage, the technique at his feet is extremely delicate, and everything is full of imagination, but speed is his most powerful weapon.

At his peak, Carey was considered one of the five fastest players in world football at the time.

Cooperating with the fast-break style of the Madrid Pirates coach Bjorn Hantchek at the time, it simply pushed Carey's speed advantage to the extreme.

Kyrie is not just about running fast, he can also use his excellent ball feel and foot skills to control the ball during high-speed running, and make all kinds of incredible extraordinary.

This multiplied his individual threat by two.

A fast forward is already a headache for the defense, and this fast forward can also make various dribbles in high-speed running.

It is a combination of threat and ornamental.

Of course, some people worry that if Kyrie does not change his style and continues to play like this, as he grows older and his physical function declines, his knees will not be able to hold up sooner or later.

After all, he always uses his legs to play various tricks during high-speed running, and the burden on his knees is much greater than that of ordinary direction changes...

This fear became a reality on the eve of the 2026 World Cup.

In fact, the 2025-2026 season was originally an extremely glorious season for Maxi Carey. He helped the Madrid Pirates to win the runner-up in the league and also won the Europa League.

Eleven goals in the Europa League won the Europa League Golden Boot.

In La Liga, he also ranked third in the scorer list with 29 goals. There is only four goals away from Alexandra Celados who won the Golden Boot, which shows that he is still the top among La Liga forwards.

He is in such a good state that Dutch fans hope that he can lead the Dutch national team to achieve good results in the US-Canada World Cup.

He himself is also ambitious. Before going to the World Cup in the United States and Canada, he said that the Dutch national team will achieve zero breakthrough in the World Cup.

As a result, he collided with his teammates during training.

cause severe knee injury...

Not being able to participate in the World Cup when he was at his peak, no matter how stubborn he was at the airport, this is indeed the biggest regret in his career.

It is difficult to attribute all the responsibility for his serious injury to the collision with his teammate.

Because maybe his knees were overwhelmed before he was hit?

His outstanding performance in the 2025-2026 season is likely to be at the expense of overdrafted knee health.

Even without that collision, maybe a fierce fight in the World Cup would have caused him to collapse.

And by then, he wouldn't even have the chance to cover his reddened eyes with sunglasses.

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Although Maxi Carey showed good condition in training, the coaches of the Madrid Pirates coaching staff were very happy.

But there is still one problem with this Madrid Pirates team that cannot be ignored.

That is because Hu Lai joined the team too late, and there is actually not much time left for him to integrate into the team.

Ten or twenty years ago, among the major European leagues, only the Premier League started in mid-August, and the others started after September 1st.

With more and more club and national team events, the league has to advance the start date of each season again and again, otherwise, after the end of each season, there will not be enough time for the national team to play.

This season's La Liga will start on Saturday, August 14th.

There is not much time left for Hu Lai to integrate into the team.

At the same time, due to the restructuring of the Spanish Super Cup, the pre-season Spanish Super Cup was moved to January during the season, so the Madrid Pirates also lost the opportunity for an important pre-season warm-up match.

Today's Spanish Super Cup is no longer just a one-on-one match between last season's league champions and King's Cup champions, but a small game consisting of the top two teams of last season's league and the finalists of the King's Cup, a total of four teams. Cup.

If there is an overlap between the participating teams in the Copa del Rey final and the top two in the league, the team with the highest ranking in the league will be used as a substitute.

The top two in the league last season were Catalan United and King Madrid, and the two teams participating in the final of the Copa del Rey happened to be Catalan United and King Madrid.

So this season's Spanish Super Cup will be participated by four teams: the league champion Catalan, the league runner-up Madrid King, the league third Madrid Pirates, and the league fourth Valentia.

Play a semi-final first, then play a final.

If the Super Cup is arranged before the start of the season, the Madrid Pirates will have two more gold-rich warm-up games.

This is of great help to Hu Lai's integration into the team.

Now, although the Madrid Pirates also organized a warm-up match, compared with the real Super Cup, the effect is still almost...

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After ten days of training with the Madrid Pirates, Hou Lai ushered in the club's annual tradition-the "Grassroots Day" before the start of each season.

The name "Grassroots Day" was given by Hu Lai, who called it "Club Tradition Day".

But after understanding what this "club tradition day" is about, you will feel that the name of Hu Lai is better.

The Madrid Pirates were a workers' team - no surprise, given that many teams were organized by workers in the early days of modern football.

For example, the warship port, one of the BIG6 in the Premier League, is composed of workers who worked in the naval port on the banks of the Thames.

However, in the future development of most workers' teams, they gradually broke away from the original class groups.

It is even more so for those who can become wealthy.

Some teams will promote their traditions, but it's just propaganda.

And the Madrid Pirates really used actions to show that they have not forgotten their roots.

Although this action is somewhat of a "face project" nowadays.

But being able to act is better than not even being lazy.

Before the professionalization of players, the former Madrid Pirates players were all part-time players without exception, and they usually worked in various factories located in the south of Madrid.

Even the Madrid Pirates had a prerequisite for recruiting players at that time, that is, they only charged workers.

This condition sounds unbelievable now, but in Spain, any incredible things are normal.

For example, Sporting Vizcair has only recruited players from the Basque Country until now...

Because the players of the Madrid Pirates are workers, except for training and games, they have to work in their respective factories at other times.

After the tide of professionalization swept across Spanish football, the Madrid Pirates once resisted this change.

It wasn't until they were almost relegated by the tide of the times that they had to change course and accept the change of professionalization of players.

However, in order to show that they are a team of workers, the Madrid Pirates Club has established a tradition, that is, before the start of each season, a day will be set aside for professional players to go to various factories in Madrid to experience life, participate in labor, and not forget the club. Tradition, but also mingle with the team's fans.

This tradition has been carried on every year and has been passed down to this day.

Only the specific content has been adjusted.

In the beginning, this activity was quite hard-core. It really meant that professional players went to the factory as interns for a day, and took the tools to work in a serious manner, no different from those ordinary workers.

Now it has become an experiential vanity project.

Moreover, with the economic transformation of Madrid, there are fewer and fewer factories in the past, coupled with the improvement of factory automation, it is indeed difficult to find suitable jobs for players to experience life.

So now it's all broken up to experience life.

Some went to work as factory workers, while others entered the community and participated in community service.

For example, visit the elderly in nursing homes and give them warmth.

Or work as a waiter in cafes and bars, serving Pirates fans in a neighborhood.

In short, those star players with an annual salary of millions and who often appear in various media reports have to serve the fans honestly at this time.

This is the Club Tradition Day of the Madrid Pirates.

After learning about the tradition of the Madrid pirates, Hou Lai still had some expectations.

It's like a student who studies hard in school all day and suddenly hears that an outing will be organized tomorrow.

He had never encountered such a thing when he was in Leeds...

Leeds City also has an open day for fans, but it is only an open training base for fans to visit, and they can also watch the team's training up close and get in touch with the players.

That's all.

Unlike the Pirates of Madrid, they can still play role-playing games.

The giants really know how to play!

Just didn't know if he would be drawn to go to the factory or the community nursing home, or what bar or coffee shop-he heard that the lottery was used to decide where to go.

He wants to go to any of them, but different places have different expectations.