Fox in the Penalty Area

Hu Lixin looked at his wife dressed neatly, sitting on the shoe-changing stool at the entrance of the house, lowering her head to play with her mobile phone, and felt strange: "Why did you pack it so early today?"

My wife's unit usually goes to work at nine o'clock in the morning, so she doesn't leave so early.

"Occasionally, you still have to be active. You can't just click into the office every time." Xie Lan explained while looking at his phone with his head down. "You don't know, every time I click in, Sister Wang's eyes will roll to the sky..."

"Then don't you hurry up? What kind of mobile phone are you still playing here?"

Hu Lixin went to elementary school to work as a football coach. There was nothing special about it. He didn't have to go to school in the morning, and he would go back down, so he didn't have to rush to work.

At this moment, Xie Lan heard the sound of opening the door from the next door. She quickly made a "shh" gesture to her husband, then got up and opened the cat's eyes to look out.

I saw Li Ziqiang and Li Qingqing father and daughter appearing in the stairwell.

She was also the one who hurriedly pushed the door out.

Hu Lixin understood why his wife was in no hurry to leave just now, so he let out a hey.

Li Qingqing had just pressed the down button of the elevator when she saw Hu Lai's mother push the door out.

She greeted with a smile: "Good morning, Auntie."

"Oh, good morning, Qingqing, and good morning, Lao Li." Xie Lan smiled all over her face when she saw Li Qingqing, and felt that her mood improved for the day.

"Thank you, sister." Li Ziqiang also returned the greeting.

"Auntie going to work?" Li Qingqing asked.

"Yes, go to work. How about you, go shopping?"

"No, we are going to work too." Li Qingqing said with a smile.

"Go to work too? What class do you work, Qingqing?"

"I went to Dongchuan Middle School to train with my father's football team to keep fit," Li Qingqing explained.

"Oh--"

Just as the elevator was coming, the three of them walked in together.

Xie Lan asked again: "Qingqing, how long are you going to stay at home this time?"

"Our team started reporting on July 1st.

Barring any accidents, I will stay at home until the end of June. "

Xie Lan slapped his hands: "That's just right! Then we will watch the World Cup together and cheer for the Chinese team!"

"Okay!" Li Qingqing agreed very simply, and Li Ziqiang had no objections.

Seeing this, Xie Lan said happily: "Watching football, it needs more people to be lively, ha!"

Then I was a little disappointed: "Oh... I don't know what performance our Chinese team can show in the World Cup this time. I feel that everyone is enthusiastic now. I am afraid that the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment..."

Li Qingqing comforted her: "I don't think it's too bad, right? Hu Lai is here!"

Xie Lan liked to hear these words, and she immediately regained her spirits: "That's right, my son is here..."

The elevator arrived at the underground parking lot on the first floor with a ding, Xie Lan went out first, and waved to Li Qingqing in the elevator: "Come and play at home when you are free, you can come if Hu Lai is not here..."

"Okay, Auntie, you must come when you are free."

Before the elevator doors closed, Li Qingqing agreed to come down.

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Two days ago, Hu Lai was picked up from his home by a special car from the Football Association, and went to the Jincheng Football Association training base in Pujin, south of Jincheng, where he joined his teammates from the national team and started training for the World Cup.

This is a much-anticipated training camp.

Li Qingqing saw the picture of Hu Lai arriving at the training base countless times on the TV news and on the Internet.

You must know that this scene is just him entering and sitting in the car to enter the training base. At most, he opened the car window and waved to the cameras of the fans and reporters outside.

It can be seen that the current Chinese fans... no, not just the fans, but the entire Chinese society, how much hope is placed on this group of people.

Outside Jincheng Pujin's training base, there are a large number of fans gathering every day, and there are many people who are not even fans, and they also join in the fun. As for self-media celebrities holding their mobile phones and doing live broadcasts at the door...there are more, although they can't take pictures-the Chinese team implements closed management, and the players will not go out if there is no game of.

But even so, it can't stop everyone's enthusiasm for "pilgrimage" here-many people really just come here to take a photo or a short video of the signboard of the Pujin Training Base of the Jincheng Football Association.

There are also people on the Internet who specially made tutorials for taking pictures and recording videos.

Some people call this "Chinese Football Holy Land Tour".

Yes, the Jincheng Football Association training base in Pujin County has thus become the "sacred place" of Chinese football. Because this is where the dream of the Chinese team began.

Regarding the reason why Jincheng was chosen as the last training place before the World Cup for the national team, although the official has never admitted it, there is an explanation that everyone believes in on the Internet:

It all starts with the 2024 AFC Champions League group stage, Anton Shining Star defeated South Korea's Seoul Lejin in Jincheng...

On the way to Jincheng for an away game, Seoul Legion encountered extreme weather for no reason, and the plane was forced to divert to a heavy mountain, which caused the players a lot of bumps and toss in the journey. After finally staying in the hotel in Jincheng, there was another small earthquake, which scared the players of Seoul Legion to rush down from the upstairs without even their clothes on.

After such a series of tosses, Seoul Le Jin had no form in the game, and was easily defeated by the inferior Shining Star.

Since then, there have been rumors that South Korea's football team and Jincheng are incompatible. If the Chinese team wants to beat the South Korean team, there is no place that is more suitable for home games than Andong Jincheng. Because this is the anti-Hanfu land of Chinese football!

This statement reached its climax when the Chinese Football Association finally decided that Jincheng would host the top 12 match between the Chinese team and the South Korean team.

Although the Football Association officials did not admit this statement, every Chinese fan thinks so!

Sure enough, before the top 12 match, there was an accident that South Korea's main core player, Park Chun-tae, was sent directly from the plane to the hospital. The Chinese team finally defeated the South Korean team at home when there was no way to retreat.

The victory against the South Korean team was a crucial game for the Chinese team to qualify for the World Cup.

It is precisely because the Chinese team defeated the most powerful enemy, the South Korean team, and gained precious three points and gained strong confidence. After that, the Chinese team was able to pass all the way and enter the World Cup finals.

So it is said that this is the sacred place and blessed place of Chinese football, and it is the place where the journey of Chinese football World Cup begins. There is really nothing wrong with it.

Holding a training camp in this place, on the one hand, is of commemorative significance, on the other hand, there must be some superstitious considerations, thinking that Jincheng is a place that can bring good luck to the Chinese team, training here, good luck, maybe Can you achieve good results on your first World Cup trip?

There are quite a few people who have such an idea, so that it is passed around, and in the end some people come here just for the purpose of getting a little luck...

Chinese football, which used to exist like a street mouse, is so notorious that it almost insults the title of "the world's number one sport".

Now, in the eyes of many people, it has become a symbol that can bring them good luck.

I have to say that this phenomenon baffles many old Chinese football fans.

After all, in the eyes of many people in the past, all the dark sides of this country may not be as sinful as Chinese football...

No matter how stupid things and people are, they can gain recognition and fans on the Internet. Only in Chinese football, everyone's position is surprisingly unanimous - just scolding is over.

Now such a situation no longer exists, but it still makes those old fans who have witnessed the darkest years of Chinese football a little uncomfortable.

Seeing the one-sided praise of Chinese football in the online public opinion, they felt uneasy. They were afraid that this kind of attention would push up everyone's expectations and requirements, so that it seemed that the Chinese team failed to qualify for the World Cup group stage this time. It is the same as a failure... …

In this excitement, the Chinese team ushered in their first warm-up match in Jincheng. The warm-up opponent is the Nigerian national team.

Nigeria will meet Japan in the World Cup group stage, so they come to play a warm-up match with the Chinese team.

Although the Chinese team also had an African team opponent in the group stage, Algeria is obviously not in the same way as Nigeria. Algeria is located in Africa, but it is more of a European way of playing.

The purpose of this warm-up match is just to let the Chinese team find the feeling of playing against the world's top teams, not to imitate the opponent.

The Chinese team asked the Olympic team to simulate the opponent. While the Chinese team was training in Jincheng, the Olympic team was also training in Shanhai. The purpose of their training camp is not to prepare for any important event, but simply to study and simulate the Chinese team's opponent Algeria in the group stage.

As the only opponent of the Chinese team in this group that can touch the edge in terms of strength, Algeria is the top priority of the Chinese team's research.

If they can beat Algeria in the first group match, it will be a good start-of course, it is not easy to beat this team, and they need some good luck while going all out.

But after all, it is the only opponent that the Chinese team can fight hard, and maybe they can still fight against it.

In the warm-up match between Jincheng and Nigeria, the Chinese team finally lost 1:3. It is no surprise that Hu Lai scored the only goal for China.

Although the Chinese Olympic team once drew with the Nigerian Olympic team 2:2 in the Olympics, it was after all a contest at the Olympic team level, which was completely different from the national team.

In this Nigerian national team, there are also several players who were in the Olympic team at the beginning, but most of their performances are completely different from those in the Olympic Games that year.

In front of this traditional African team with excellent physical fitness and exquisite technology, the Chinese team did not get any advantage in terms of physical fitness or technical skills.

In the end, a 1:3 loss is actually not bad. Anyway, Hu Lai also scored a face-saving goal, which did not let the Chinese team be shaved.

After the match against Nigeria, the Olympic team flew from Shanhai to Jincheng. He played two teaching games with the national team behind closed doors in the Pujin training base.

The results of these two games are not important, after all, the meaning is not to see how many goals the national team wins in the end. It is to let the national team understand how Algeria plays football during this match, especially what it is like when confronting on the court.

Of course, it is impossible for the Olympic team to imitate them very much, but it is better than no imitation at all.

In fact, asking the Olympic team to imitate the opponents of the Chinese team in the World Cup is also Shi Wuyin's opinion. In the past, when the Chinese team played in the Asian Cup, they did not let the Olympic team do such things as sparring. The Olympic team and the national team are still relatively independent, and the national team cannot command the Olympic team.

Now for the Chinese team's first trip to the World Cup, the Laguo Olympic team is here as a sparring partner. No one thinks this is inappropriate or weird.

Everything has become a matter of course, after all, this is the first World Cup in the history of Chinese men's football!

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ps, the European Cup has already started, but I have been silent. It's really because I'm busy coding and have no time for him. In addition, I am getting older, and my health is not very good, and I can't stay up late. Most of the European Cup games are in the second half of the night. There is no way to stay up late to watch every game like the World Cup that year.

So I don't plan to watch many games.

Since he didn't watch it, he was naturally embarrassed to predict the score.

But I am still interested in the match between Croatia and England tonight, because the time is just right, at nine o'clock in the evening, I still plan to watch it.

Personally, I am more optimistic about England. After all, the current World Cup runner-up Croatia is too old...Modric is the core of this team and a player I like very much, but it still has to follow objective laws.

I think England should beat Croatia by one goal. If you are lucky, you can win by two goals.