Chapter 1 The Domestic Away Game and Jet Lag?

Has anyone ever heard of having to deal with jet lag when playing an away game in their own country’s domestic league?

In the magical land of Russia, it all happened.

Although Chen Hero and his teammates weren’t sleepy at all, under the supervision of head coach Advocaat and assistant coach Potter, all the players obediently stayed in their rooms, sleeping as required.

Denisov tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep. The hotel’s bed sheets were a bit stiff and rough, and made a very obvious rustling sound with every turn.

He had slept for a long time on the plane, so he wasn't sleepy at all now.

The team arrived in Vladivostok after four o'clock in the afternoon. After arriving, the whole team went to the hotel to put down their luggage and rushed to Dinamo Stadium to adapt to the field. This was also to adjust the players' jet lag and condition.

After all, Vladivostok is seven hours ahead of St. Petersburg...

St. Petersburg is almost at the westernmost end of Russia, bordering the Baltic Sea. Vladivostok, on the other hand, is in the Far East of Russia, at the eastern end of the Asian continent. The distance between these two cities is so far that it's as if they are in two different countries.

Arriving at this place, Chen Hero realized that this place should be called Haishenwai, formerly Chinese territory, which was later seized by Russia. Speaking of it, Russia and China have quite a few feuds, but those are all historical matters and have nothing to do with him.

Chen Hero is just a football player, who has studied football since he was a child, and knows nothing about politics and history.

But he strongly wished that China had not lost Haishenwai back then, because if that were the case, he wouldn't have to follow the team to fly here for an away game today, and be laughed at by the whole team.

All the Zenit players spent their first night in Vladivostok in a half-asleep, half-awake state. When everyone met for breakfast in the hotel restaurant the next day, they all greeted each other with yawns.

"Hello—yawn—"

"Good—yawn—morning—ah!"

"I really want to keep sleeping..." Denisov supported his cheek with his hand, his head nodding. His breakfast was on the table below, and his nose was constantly moving back and forth a few centimeters above the breakfast.

But he couldn't go back to bed to sleep. Because today is Friday, their last chance to train before the match.

In the afternoon, they were allowed to use Dinamo Stadium for two hours of training.

The reason why they chose to fly to Vladivostok overnight on Wednesday was because from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, there are only fixed flights on Wednesdays and Saturdays during daylight saving time. Therefore, after playing the game on Saturday afternoon, they would have to rush directly to the airport to take the evening flight back to St. Petersburg, flying another thirteen hours, crossing seven time zones, and then continuing to deal with jet lag...

This back-and-forth tossing really made many people feel uncomfortable.

Chen Hero felt that the Vladivostok Luch-Energiya team being able to rank in the middle of the Russian Premier League was definitely helped a lot by the geographical location of their home stadium...

The home stadium of Vladivostok Luch-Energiya is called Dinamo Stadium. In Russia, this name is very common. Well-known in Europe alone are Dynamo Moscow and Dynamo Kyiv. In the former Soviet Union, the police teams were basically called Dynamo. So Dinamo is very common in the sports field.

Luch-Energiya's Dinamo Stadium can only accommodate more than 10,000 people, which is a very small stadium. It is much smaller than the Kirov Stadium, which can accommodate 80,000 people.

But Chen Hero had played in even smaller stadiums than this, so he didn't think there was anything to it.

The whole team came to Dinamo Stadium for training to adapt to the field yesterday, and they continued to train on this field today. The quality of the turf on the field was not very good.

Although Luch-Energiya's sponsor is LuCh, the largest independent oil producer in Russia, this stadium is not very in line with the company's strength.

Unlike St. Petersburg Zenit, when it was sponsored by Russia's largest industrial group, Gazprom, it immediately began to build a new stadium.

Of course, small teams in such remote areas cannot be compared with the big teams in the "Northern Capital". Moreover, Zenit's number one fan is Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, the current First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government. In addition, it is said that a Zenit senior official fan club composed of Federal Security Service Director Patrushev, State Duma Speaker Gryzlov, and Defense Minister Serdyukov has been established in Moscow.

Russian senior officials have a habit of supporting football. Although the current President Putin is also from St. Petersburg, he does not support his hometown team. According to rumors inside the Kremlin, President Putin is not interested in Dynamo Moscow, which the government has always sheltered, but rather favors CSKA Moscow. As a result, during his administration, CSKA Moscow bravely won the UEFA Cup championship in the summer of 2005, becoming the first team in Russian football history to win a European club competition honor.

This beautiful story is thought-provoking—now there is a lot of momentum, and Putin has also publicly supported his partner and friend Medvedev in running for president. If this is true, then Medvedev will have no opponent. Once he becomes the leader of this Russian polar bear, will his beloved St. Petersburg Zenit usher in a take-off like CSKA Moscow?

While Zenit was training at Dinamo Stadium, three people were also sitting in the shadows of the stands. They were Luch-Energiya's head coach Sergey Pavlov and two assistant coaches, Yury Shishlov and Yury Saukh.

"Is that big guy number 99 who scored in the game against Spartak Nalchik?" The fifty-year-old coach Sergey Pavlov turned his head and asked his two assistants.

Assistant coach Yury Shishlov, who specializes in collecting and analyzing opponent information, nodded.

"Judging from his physique... it should be him."

"But..." Pavlov frowned and said. "Judging from this period of training, his level is very average?"

This is the truth. As long as he doesn't do heading training, Chen Hero's performance makes people feel that he is completely unworthy of the St. Petersburg Zenit first team. Fortunately, his teammates are used to it, and everyone knows that Advocaat recruited this person, maybe it was for his header.

But outsiders don't know. Therefore, anyone who hasn't seen Chen Hero show his heading ability in training will feel puzzled—is it really because St. Petersburg Zenit has too much money to spend after Gazprom took over, and they are finding such rookies to waste their salaries?

"Do you have the video of St. Petersburg Zenit's last game?"

Shishlov shook his head: "That game was not broadcast nationwide, so I'm sorry... no."

Pavlov watched for another ten minutes, then stood up: "I don't think there is any need to continue watching. Zenit's most threatening players are still Arshavin and Radimov, oh, and Kerzhakov also needs special attention. As for that number 99..." Pavlov shook his head, he felt it was really too mediocre.

The technical statistics of that game said that the number 99 player scored a goal, and the technical statistics should not be wrong. But judging from this performance, the number 99 player should just be lucky... A guy who played for the first team for the first time, because of luck, scored a goal... From this point of view, although this number 99 is tall and strong, he is not to be feared.

Advocaat didn't need to look to know that the home team would definitely be observing his team in the stands, so he didn't do any set-piece tactics drills. Unexpectedly, this also made the opponent's coach Pavlov misunderstand Chen Hero's ability, thinking that he was not to be feared.

In fact, after knowing that the next round of the league would be played away in Vladivostok, Advocaat adjusted the training plan and moved the set-piece training to Tuesday and Wednesday, which was done in St. Petersburg. After arriving in Vladivostok, the team mainly did simple passing and shooting exercises. There is nothing secret about such exercises, and they are not afraid of being spied on.

Although Chen Hero worked hard to practice shooting and has improved, there is still a certain gap from the requirements of an excellent striker. Naturally, Pavlov was mistaken.

After the afternoon training, the team took a bus back to the hotel where they were staying. After dinner, Advocaat held a tactical meeting.

According to the rules, the starting list must be announced at the meeting. This is the highlight.

When the starting list was announced, Chen Hero felt a little nervous and expectant.

When the list was announced, he was as excited as if he had been selected for the starting list for the first time. But this time, he didn't forget himself and stand up from his seat and shout "Yeah!"

He was once again selected for the starting list, partnering with Kerzhakov, a member of the eating, drinking, and playing gang, as a striker.

After hearing his name in the starting list, Chen Hero thought to himself—another task is completed, and he is one step closer to leveling up!

Now Chen Hero is putting all his energy into it, just waiting to get a talent point after leveling up, and then continue to put it on the "Knockdown" talent. A 5% chance is not high enough, he wants to fill all five points. This requires leveling up four more times... Chen Hero used to think that leveling up was fast, but now he thinks it's slow...

Yesenin did not follow Chen Hero to the away game. His Russian level is improving very quickly, and he can already communicate with teammates and coaches in basic terms. He has even accepted interviews with reporters, so Yesenin feels that he doesn't need to go to the away game.

Otherwise, Chen Hero would definitely use his laptop to open the website and check his leveling progress after returning to his room now.

He found himself addicted—addicted to this system, enjoying it.