The biggest fanatic in football

Flowers, birthday cake, candlelight dinner, and a small temporary gift. Relying on the strong support of his roommate, Li Polo successfully spent his girlfriend's first birthday.

If you really want to investigate carefully, the birthday cake and gifts all have obvious signs of rough work, but as Lee Polo himself said:

"At least... I have no problem with my attitude."

“It really doesn’t matter whether it’s expensive or not.”

"Lisanna's father... seems to open a private bank."

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After Lisanna's birthday, Li Polo could finally put down his burdens and devote himself to the team's training.

Two days later, on November 8, he arrived with the team in North Yorkshire, 300 kilometers away, to participate in the first round of the FA Cup.

As the oldest football cup competition on earth, the FA Cup has always had a very unique historical status - at least for the British.

This is probably also the largest official football event: from the top Premier League teams to the lowest community amateur teams, everyone can theoretically participate - of course, the premise is that they are certified and registered by the Football Association and have a safe competition venue.

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According to conservative estimates, the total number of teams participating in the 2014-15 season exceeds 700. Based on each team having at least 20 players, the number of participants exceeds 14,000. This number is really scary!

After all, the entire population of England is only 50 million, and the number of eligible men between the ages of 18 and 40 is only 7 to 8 million. Fourteen thousand people means that 1-2 of every 1,000 young men participate in this activity.

event!

According to this ratio, the Chinese Football Association Cup will have almost 20,000 teams and 400,000 players...

Although the first round of the official competition system only started this weekend in November, the first round of qualifying had actually kicked off as early as the beginning of the season in late August and early September.

It was a competition for truly grassroots teams. There were more than 400 teams participating in the first round of qualifying. Only after four rounds of qualifying could these amateur teams be qualified to compete with professional teams.

It's a pity that Wimbledon's opponent is not an amateur team, but York City, which also belongs to the English League Two.

With 15 points in the 16 league rounds, York City, ranked third from bottom (tied), was already stuck in the relegation quagmire and had no energy to distract from the cup match. They directly sent 11 youth team players to symbolically resist at their home court for 15 minutes.

Completely surrender.

Although Wimbledon also had a rotating lineup, their morale was high and they showed no mercy at all, going on a killing spree in the cold evening breeze!

Veteran Andy Frampton, who had not scored for a long time, opened the scoring in the 16th minute. Eight minutes later, Lee Polo took advantage of a set kick in the frontcourt and scored with a header, extending the score to 2:0.

Compared with Ivan Toney a week ago, these young people in York City are as weak as primary school students!

As Dubis scored twice between the 35th and 40th points, all suspense in this game was lost, and the second half directly turned into a tactical practice time for Ardrey.

So, the head coach had a sudden idea and removed Frampton and asked Lee Polo to take his place!

Cox sitting next to him and the substitute players behind him were all stunned!

"Hey, boss, is this okay?"

Akinfenwa, wrapped in a down jacket, couldn't help but pat the head coach's shoulder.

With a four-goal lead, the opponent had no fighting spirit, and it looked like he had no chance to play.

Adray shrugged:

"What does this have to do with it? You don't want to tell me about Liverpool's miracle night again, do you? Don't worry, I'm calm now, and we didn't open the champagne at halftime to celebrate."

Akinfenwa opened his mouth, revealing his big white teeth, but quickly closed it again:

"The weather in the north... is really cold!"

The FA Cup's status in English football is so high that even the League Cup, which is a cup, is far behind, let alone the fourth-tier league like English League Two.

For example, in the League Cup, clubs basically find time to play in the middle of the week, but every round and game of the FA Cup must be scheduled during prime time on the weekend!

For the sake of the FA Cup, the league can completely give way!

Although with the fierce impact of gold dollars, for the Premier League and English Championship teams, the importance of the FA Cup has fallen far behind the Champions League and the league. The championship bonus of two to three million is not even as good as a luxury car owned by a big-name player.

A car, a luxury watch, but for the FA, this event must still be taken seriously!

Moreover, for the sake of television broadcasting, almost all FA Cup games are scheduled during the prime time in the evening. However, in the winter when the sun sets at 4 or 5 o'clock and snowflakes fall every now and then, this time is not friendly to coaches and players at all.

…

Fortunately, although it was cold and windy in Yorkshire today, there was no interference from rain or snow. The Wimbledon players performed to their normal level. Every pass and ball was passed easily, and the tactic of switching from central defender to center forward was also perfectly implemented.

implement.

In the entire 45 minutes of the second half, there were probably more than 50 crosses in the midfield and backcourt. Except for the passes that were intercepted halfway or flew directly out of the baseline, about one-third of the passes were successfully landed.

Within the penalty area, Li Polo grabbed 8 times by himself.

Among these 8 opportunities, he formed 4 effective shots, captured York City twice, and another header was given to Dubis. Unfortunately, the latter's shot was too on target and was easily resolved by the goalkeeper.

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In the 81st minute, Akinfenwa, who was sitting on the bench, shook his head repeatedly with an expression of disbelief:

"Just a centre-back, this is a hat trick?"

Adelai in front of him finally stood up from his seat and waved his fist to congratulate the players on the field.

He also proudly boasted to his assistants about his talents:

"I said when I bought him three months ago, I will never regret signing him!"

Cox, who knew everything about him but couldn't bear to expose him, nodded repeatedly:

"Yeah!"

But he couldn't help but curse in his heart:

[If it weren’t for Smith, several Fuller defenders were all injured, and Osraja was given a red card and suspended, which gave Lee Polo a chance to play, I’m afraid you might not be able to let him start in a year’s time! 】

-

"Here, your ball."

Lee Polo's first career hat trick came so suddenly that when the referee handed him the football, he had no reaction at all and even asked:

"What are you doing for me? The game is over."

Reeves slapped him on the head and took the football for him:

"Reward for a hat trick!"

Suddenly realizing it, Li Polo quickly grabbed his prize and saw a staff member coming over and handing over a small plastic gadget with a smile on his face:

"Congratulations, Mr. Li, you have been officially recognized as the best player of the match by the Football Association. This is an honorary trophy. Please continue to work hard."

It was the first time he received such an important personal award, and Li Polo was very excited.

But after waiting for a long time, he finally couldn't help but ask:

"Uh, no bonus?"

The staff member smiled awkwardly:

"Oh, this trophy is the best encouragement for players, isn't it?"

Li Polo lowered his head and glanced at the plastic sign in his hand.

No name, no date, no carving...

The cost price of this thing...is only about one yuan!