Legend of Green: Rise of the Red Rebels

On July 9, 2015, the Red Court gathered the managers of four teams, FC United head coach Lu Wei, Burley manager David Flickcroft, AFC Wimbledon head coach Neil Smith. Alderi and Celta's head coach Eduardo Berizzo, who were here for the draw for the second edition of the Friendship Cup tournament organised by FC United.

The team selected for the warm-up match of the "Friendship Cup" was the result of mutual discussion between Lu Wei and Walsh, although there are many teams to invite, but one thing the two agreed on, that is, one team is a club founded by fan organizations like FC United, and the other is a top league team that has no contradiction with FC United.

AFC Wimbledon, like FC United, was founded by fans, three years earlier than FC United, and is still striving for early promotion in the League Two, because the main component of the club is fans, so they readily agreed to the invitation, and they also want to share a victory with Burleigh, last season in the League Two two games won one each without a high.

Burleigh returned to League One this season, naturally wants to be relegated, in the summer from the Premier League Championship team loaned 13 players that is, the combat force, but also signed several Premier League reserve team players, although not seeking promotion, but strive to gain a foothold in the League One, and there are FC United some small players also plan to loan the past for training, Flander. Mendy played almost all of his games at Burley last season and has improved significantly, with Robertson and Zinchenko already in the squad without a place for him, so Lu Wei intends to keep him on loan at Burley this season.

The La Liga team Celta is the team that Michu used to play for, and their pre-season training location this season is in the UK, and with Michu's relationship, they are also invited to participate in the warm-up of the "Friendship Cup".

The draw was simple, with four small notes with AABB written on them, and FC United and Celta drew 'A', with the teams playing the semi-finals at the Red Court tomorrow afternoon, Burleigh and AFC Wimbledon drawing 'B' for another semi-final at Giger Lane.

Since it is a warm-up game, of course, the two sides will not use their full strength to compete, both teams are a set of lineups in the first and second half, Lu Wei sent a "veteran" led by Jaskoleninen, Baird, Michu and others in the first half, and replaced Gnabry, Daniel, Ben in the second half. Young people like White are purely there to make the players feel like they are on the field, and even though it is a warm-up game, more than 6,000 spectators came to the Red Court today.

The final two teams drew 2-2 after 90 minutes, with Makeda taking the lead for the Reds in the first half, but then Celta scored twice in a row via Spanish football, striker Aspas scored twice and Jaskolenen regretted his goal.

After changing a group of youngsters in the second half, FC United played a strikeless formation, tearing the defense through a large number of passes, one to score goals, and the other to exercise the young players' ability to read the game. In the 54th minute, after a series of crosses, the ball was passed into the goal of the Spanish team, and it was new signing James who equalized the score. Madison, it was Bowen who provided the assist.

The rules of the "Friendship Cup" are no stoppage time and extra time, so the two teams directly use a penalty shootout to determine who is the winner. Celta's goalkeeper Sergio. Alvarez was clearly more experienced than Mendy, saving Daniel's penalty in the third round, Maddison, the fourth to take the penalty for FC United, kicked the ball to the post, while Celta's side bounced off and won the game 4-6 on aggregate through a penalty shootout.

Unfortunately, FC United did not reach the final in the second "Friendship Cup", and the other side of the game was won by Burleigh, relying on new signing Leon. Clarke's goal narrowly defeated AFC Wimbledon 1-0 to meet Celta in the final, and it was Burley's first time playing in the red ball.

The next day, FC United and Burleigh "swapped their home" and returned to Giger Lane to play the "Friendship Cup" three or four finals with AFC Wimbledon, and the Reds, who had been criticized by Lu Wei for half a day the day before, became serious this time, defeating AFC Wimbledon 5:1, saving a little face. In the final on the Red Course, Burley failed to keep the trophy in Manchester, losing two goals to Celta and sending the "Friendship Cup" to Spain.

But this is just a warm-up game, every year to leave the "Friendship Cup" on the red court if this cup has no meaning, in the final analysis, let the team achieve good results in the league main game is king, let the players recover their physical fitness in the game, train with the game, and meet friends with martial arts, is the real meaning of the "Friendship Cup".

This summer's failure to leave the "Friendship Cup" gave Lu Wei another excuse for the players to train seriously, because the team was flying to Spain the next afternoon, Lu Wei did not embarrass the players, but after the team stayed in a hotel in A Coruña, Lu Wei announced three rules.

1. All players must return to the hotel before 10 pm during the training period, and must not stay overnight;

2. Must go to bed on time, no night activities are allowed;

3. Do not go out and leave the team privately, do not leave the city during the free period, and must travel together.

Although this is Spain and not the Netherlands, Lu Wei is also afraid that this group of smelly brats will indulge in the nightlife here, and Spain is a country with a relatively late lifestyle, and the port city of A Coruña is much more interesting than Manchester. This is the first time that FC United has placed the pre-match training venue abroad, and it is the first time that people like Madison and Grimes have come abroad, and their range of activities must be strictly limited.

Fortunately, all the players of FC United are more self-disciplined and obedient, the team does not give the coaching staff a headache, they are very serious to follow the arrangements of the coaching staff, the first week of training, Lu Wei did not arrange much technical and tactical training for the team, the main framework of the team has not changed, only Gnabry will occupy a main position among the six players introduced, Baird and McGim will sit on the bench as the main rotation players, Jaskolenen and Maddison can get not many opportunities to play, Jenas has not fully recovered yet, staying at the Newton Heath base for rehabilitation, and the Marseille doctor expects that he will not be able to play until October at the earliest, and the time is not too long.

So this time of year is Gardner's busiest time, and his strength and conditioning coaching staff has been taking the players on warm-ups, sprint runs and strength training, with only two hours a day to technically train the players. Lu Wei saw that the players were very focused on the training ground, and it was also humane to approve the players to have three hours of free time after training every day, and a group of young men shouted, "Long live the coach!"

Lu Wei looked at Steele helplessly, and he was also crying and laughing at this, it's so good to be young, completely forgetting that he is just a 28-year-old boy.