Golden Greenery

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Rustenburg is a small city. Its name means "resting town" in Dutch. People who come here will always stop in the sunshine of Rustenburg. Time here is so slow that they seem to forget that it has ever passed.

The city of Rustenburg, located in the northwest of South Africa, is not only a well-known tourist destination, known as the "Utopia", it has also hosted the Miss World beauty pageant for 5 consecutive times, which sounds very glamorous.

On June 11, 2010, the tranquility of Rustenburg was broken, and the Chinese national team arrived here.

With Deng Shuexiang's kick, the Chinese team defeated the French national team 1:0 in Reunion Island four days ago. Although it was only a very irregular friendly match, it was enough to be recorded in the history of the Chinese team.

In that game, Zhuoyang was replaced by Rong Hao in the 75th minute, but the French team still had no way to defeat the Chinese team, and they could only scratch the surface despite their continuous attacks. The shooting ratio of 17 to 6 was far less shocking than the 0:1 on the scoreboard.

In the next two days, the Chinese and French teams continued to stay on Reunion Island to prepare for the game. Zhuo Yang took time to break into the French team's camp to reassure Scar. The war is coming, and troubles must not occur again. In a team that cannot win everyone back, protecting oneself wisely is not a derogatory term. Take care of yourself and do your own thing well, and you will do a lot of good. Leave the rest to your God.

I don’t know if Scar heard it, but Zhuo Yang felt that the French team was hanging by a thread this time, desperately.

After leaving Reunion, Zhuoyang and the Chinese team first went to Durban, a city on the eastern coast of South Africa, where they played the final warm-up match against the Toure brothers' Cote d'Ivoire, but lost 1:2 to their opponents.

This is not surprising. Although Drogba, the striker's killer, did not play, the overall strength of Côte d'Ivoire is still much higher than that of the Chinese team. Lille forward Gervinho and Hamburg full-back Demel each scored one goal. Li Jinyu equalized the score at the beginning of the second half.

It can be seen from these warm-up matches that captain Zhuo Yang, who is the soul and strength of the Chinese team, is not in very good condition. After a season of fighting, the ups and downs caused by fatigue at this point are understandable. It has been eight years since he entered professional football. Zhuoyang knows how to adjust, and Jieshuai also gives him full freedom in training.

At this point, the Chinese team has ended all the warm-up before the World Cup with a record of 6 games, 3 wins and 3 losses, and will wait for the hustle and bustle to come, and the first contest will be in Rustenburg.

Arriving in this small town with the Chinese team, there were also a large number of media reporters and fans who came like dark clouds. There are a large number of Chinese and overseas Chinese in southern Africa, and those Chinese who can take root and develop here generally have good economic conditions. The game will change from one shot to another, and many Chinese will follow the national team to move around.

A large number of fans even came from China. Chinese suddenly became the most popular language in Rustenburg, a small town with a population of only 300,000. "Have you eaten?" and "One, two, three, eggplant" were heard in the streets.

"Chinese Expeditionary Force Occupies Rustenburg" said the local newspaper.

The next day, as the Paraguay national team also arrived here, Rustenburg became even more lively. However, compared with the huge expeditionary army of Chinese fans, there were very few Paraguay fans and they did not dare to speak loudly. As a country not as big as Gansu, with only 1/3 of its population and only 1/4 of its GDP, Paraguay is struggling outside the stadium.

Relaxation is the way of civility and martial arts. After rest and adaptive training, the entire national team came to Piranesberg National Park, one of the world's three natural parks, located southwest of Rustenburg on the opening day of the World Cup.

The opening ceremony was held in Johannesburg, the capital of South Africa, 120 kilometers southeast of Rustenburg. Latin singer Mebarak Shakira once again showed off her twerking and water snake waist to sing "Wakawaka (thistime for africa)" African Moment.

In fact, "Wakawaka" is not the theme song of the World Cup in South Africa. Another song at the opening ceremony, "Flag Wavin'" ("Wavin'") composed and sung by Somali-Canadian singer K'naan, was.

But just like Yoso Ndo's "Do You Mind If I Play Football" () lost to Ricky Martin's "Cup of Life" () in the 1998 World Cup in France; "The Time of Our Lives" (The Time of Our Lives) in the 2006 World Cup in Germany was not Shakira's "hipsdon'tlie";

In 2008, "Beijing Welcomes You" was more popular than "Me and You". Even earlier in the 1990 Beijing Asian Games, people thought "Asian Glory" was the anthem, but "Burn the Torch" was.

Many times, the popularity of promotional songs exceeds the official title song. After all, officials cannot only consider the melody and rhythm, but also the depth and connotation of the song. Over the years, only the Italians with their romantic lives created a classic height that other football-related songs cannot match in 1990's "Italian Summer" (Un'estateitaliana).

The Italian Summer made Giogi Moroder and the smoky-voiced Gina Nanini become eternal legends, and Shakira has to continue to work hard.

Going to the savannah to see lions, baboons and hyenas is a good way to relax. In the Pilanesberg National Park, the national team and the Paraguayan national team also met unexpectedly. In this huge natural park, two teams The team traveled the same tourist route.

In this Paraguay team, Zhuoyang's only acquaintance is former Bayern player Santa Cruz. When playing against Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga at Madiburg, Pengpeng broke Santa Cruz's cruciate ligament, which almost prevented him from catching up with the World Cup in Germany four years ago.

When he was at Bayern, Santa Cruz had a good relationship with Xiaozhu. That injury had a great impact on him, and his originally strong upward momentum came to an abrupt end. Since then, he has become an opportunistic forward with glass man attributes. A year later, Bayern gave up on him and Santa Cruz went to the Premier League.

Although he transferred to the new giant Manchester City last year, he can only be a substitute, and the flavor of the second-hand player is very strong. Even in today's national team, the former 'Batistuta of Paraguay' is no longer the main striker.

Because of Xiaozhu's relationship, Zhuoyang and Santa Cruz were able to chat quite well back then, and they were considered friends in the Bundesliga. Times have changed, and Zhuoyang four years later didn't even know that he had moved to Manchester City.

Some people say that under Kaka, Santa Cruz has the most handsome face in the football world. Maybe this statement makes sense. When Roque Santa Cruz and Gisela Tavarelli held their wedding in Asunção in 2003, more than two hundred female fans outside the Metropolitana Cathedral cried down the red carpet.

Zhuo Yang chatted happily with the former Bundesliga's most handsome man: "Roque, you really don't look like you are twenty-nine years old. You don't look old at all."

Santa Cruz: “…”