Fox in the Penalty Area

The absence of Pete Williams due to injury is a headache for the Leeds City coaching staff.

The good news is that although Hu Lai has played in the World Cup, he has maintained good physical fitness and state.

I can't see the feeling of physical and mental exhaustion after playing the World Cup.

You must know that even Jay Adams, who only came off the bench, can feel his fatigue when he returns to the team after the World Cup and vacation.

Not just physically, but mentally as well.

It's as if playing a World Cup has drained all his energy.

In this regard, the coaches of Leeds City fully understand.

It was the World Cup after all.

England's World Cup trip is always given a lot of meaning by the enthusiastic British media and fans.

This puts a lot of pressure on every English player participating in the World Cup.

You know, England international players, even if they show half of their face on the hotel room window, will be photographed by English reporters and sent out as big news, and then attract countless good people to point out.

This naturally leads to a lot of pressure on the players.

And China has a huge population. It is the first time to participate in the World Cup, and it shoulders the hopes and expectations of the people of the whole country. It seems that the pressure on them is not small.

It is normal to be physically and mentally exhausted after playing a World Cup like this.

But Hu Lai was not only not tired, but also very excited, as if he hadn't withdrawn from the excitement of the World Cup.

In the pre-season warm-up match, he scored two goals in three warm-up matches, maintaining his consistent efficiency.

In this pre-season warm-up match, Leeds City, which has already won the Premier League championship, finally does not have to find a low-level team as an opponent as before.

As Premier League champions, they were invited to participate in the International Champions Cup held in Singapore.

This is a mature pre-season warm-up event, and every year famous European teams are invited to compete in different divisions.

Most of the time, the teams that can appear on the list of this competition are either giants or veteran teams, anyway, they are all influential teams in the five major European leagues.

Leeds City, who were unknown in English football before, and even more unknown in the whole of Europe, naturally cannot have the opportunity to participate in the International Champions Cup.

But it's very different now because they are the new Premier League champions.

So just after the end of last season, they received an invitation from the organizer of the International Champions Cup.

A total of four teams play a single round-robin match in Singapore. Each team plays three games and gets three points for a win, and no points for a loss. Unlike the league system, there is no tie in the International Champions Cup. If the two teams are tied, there will be no overtime and they will go directly to a penalty shootout to determine the winner. The team that wins in a penalty shoot-out gets two points.

Whoever has the most points at the end wins.

In the competition in the Singapore Division, Leeds City fought head-to-head with the giants Ruhr Rhine from Germany, the Sevilla Navigators from La Liga, and the Lyon Lions from Ligue 1.

Hou Lai scored two goals in three games and performed well and steadily.

But Leeds City's performance is not outstanding.

They lost 1:3 to Ruhr Rhine in the first game, and Hu Lai scored a face-saving goal for the team.

In the second game they lost 0:1 to the Serbian Navigators.

In the third game, Leeds City seemed to have finally found the feeling of playing against continental European teams. Their performance was obviously better than the previous two games, and they drew 2:2 with the Lyon Lions. Hou Lai and the team's central defender Teddy Bradford scored a goal each.

But in the penalty shootout, they were unlucky and lost.

So after playing three warm-up matches, Leeds City accumulated zero points and ranked bottom.

The championship bonus was not earned, only the fixed bonus for participating in the competition.

It can be seen from the three games that the Leeds City team has not yet been kneaded.

After all, when the International Champions Cup was held, it was from late July to early August. Leeds City's signings were still going on during this time period, and the lineup was not neat.

For example, the transfer of the team's midfielder Sedu was not yet finalized.

Of course, in front of traditional European teams, Leeds City is indeed still too young.

But for head coach Tony Clark, he doesn't care about the final result.

Participating in this International Champions Cup, originally hoped that the team could play against teams from the European continent first, and see where the gap between themselves and the strong European teams lies.

Adapt to the new season of the Champions League in advance.

In the game, he saw his team's problems and also saw the bright spots.

There are many problems, but the bright spots are also very bright.

This highlight is the team's offense.

Without Pete Williams, the team's offensive organization has been seriously affected. But under such circumstances, Leeds City still scored three goals in three games, especially in the third game, scored two goals, and drew with the Ligue 1 giants Lyon Lions within 90 minutes.

Hu Lai even scored two goals in three games.

Especially the first game against the Bundesliga giants Ruhr Rhine.

In this game, Leeds City was basically completely suppressed by Ruhr Rhine. It can be said that there were no offensive opportunities in the whole game.

But even with few opportunities, Hu Lai still seized one of them.

flash.

And then there was a goal.

This is one of the qualities that Hou Lai makes Clark value the most-as a pie front, in fact, sometimes he can score goals without relying on the support of his teammates.

For example, the ball against Ruhr-Rhein actually came from the Ruhr-Rhein defender who made a mistake when moving laterally. The pass was too weak and was intercepted by Hu Lai. Then one-on-one with Ruhr Rhein goalkeeper Simon Koenigs, easily scored the football.

The whole scoring process is simple and easy.

It doesn't seem to have any technical content.

But why did Hu Lai appear in that place?

This is very technical.

He will always attack the opponent's defense line in the game, on the one hand, to create space for his teammates and create passing opportunities. On the other hand, it is actually constantly putting pressure on the opponent's defender, waiting for the opponent to make a mistake.

This time the Ruerlein's defender made a mistake, and Hu Lai, who had been waiting for an opportunity, would naturally not let it go.

So some people say that Hu Lai is a pie forward who is highly dependent on his teammates, and Clark is too lazy to argue with the opponent.

He wished that Leeds City's opponents would think so...then they would greatly reduce their vigilance against Hu Lai, and under certain circumstances, pay less attention to Hu Lai.

As long as Leeds City is the one who benefits in the end, Clark doesn't care what others say.

Hou Lai's performance is acceptable, but the talented Polish striker Dominic Laski introduced during the World Cup is not so good. He obviously hasn't really integrated into the team. Although he occasionally showed his talent in the three warm-up games, he didn't play at the level overall and didn't fit in with the team as a whole.

This takes time, and there is no rush.

After all, not everyone can score goals in his first appearance on behalf of the team like Hu Lai, and score five goals in three consecutive games... Such a wonderful start is really rare.

Clark can only hope that Laski can find the rhythm of playing with the Premier League team as soon as possible, and at the same time always give Lasky confidence and encouragement in interviews, and believes that he will be able to succeed in the Premier League.

In many cases, the support and encouragement from the coach is very important to the players.

※※※

After playing the International Champions Cup in Singapore, the Leeds City team returned to the UK.

Immediately following is the last important game before the start of the Premier League, which can also be said to be the last "warm-up match":

Community Shield.

As an important event before the start of each season, the Community Shield is similar to the "Super Cup" in other countries, in which the league champions from last season played against the cup champions.

However, English football is a bit special. There are two domestic cups, one is the FA Cup with a long history, and the other is the League Cup with much lower gold content and influence.

So it doesn't matter that the teams participating in the Community Shield Cup don't have the League Cup championship.

It is the confrontation between the league champions and the FA Cup champions.

But in fact, at the beginning, the nature of this game had nothing to do with the "Super Bowl", it was a contest between professional teams and amateur teams.

It was later changed to what it is now.

The two teams participating in the 2026 Community Shield match are last season's Premier League champion Leeds City and last season's FA Cup champion Manchester Athletic.

After 90 minutes of fierce fighting, Leeds City lost to Manchester Athletic 1:3, defeated and failed to win the Community Shield championship.

In this game, Hu Lai was closely marked by Athletic Manchester. There were only three shots in the game and no goals. On the contrary, he topped all the players of the two teams in terms of violation data-as many as seven times.

Athletic Manchester also froze Leeds City's offense by successfully freezing Hou Lai's defense.

Finally won the community shield of this season.

Hu Lai also failed to play the full game in this game, and was replaced in the 63rd minute. At that time, Leeds City was actually only 1:2 behind in the score, and it was not without hope of a comeback.

However, Manchester Athletic's "special care" for Hou Lai made Clark dare not keep Hou Lai on the court. He has already lost Pete Williams in the World Cup. If he loses Hou Lai again, Leeds City in the new season may be It's all over.

Out of consideration for protecting Hou Lai, he replaced Hou Lai early, which basically means that Leeds City has no intention of competing with Manchester Athletic for the "Super Cup" championship.

Clark doesn't attach much importance to the Community Shield, at least far less than he attaches importance to Hu Lai's health.

Hu Lai, who was replaced, sat on the bench with a slightly depressed expression.

Seeing this, Matthew Cox comforted from the air: "Don't be depressed, young man. You have been too crazy this summer-the Premier League champion, the Premier League Golden Boot and the World Cup Golden Boot, the hat-trick against Brazil... no one You can guarantee your status is always online, and no one can guarantee to win everything you want to win. Now let your gun cool down and rest. When the new season of the Premier League kicks off, welcome back!"