Chapter 1 Liverpool Arrives in Changsha

Liverpool arrived in Changsha in the early hours of the morning and received a very warm welcome at Changsha Airport. However, the Liverpool players, tired from their journey, quickly boarded the bus to rest at their hotel.

The next day, the Guangzhou media was still filled with news of Liverpool's caution. Yesterday's wonderful game was the focus of discussion in the streets and alleys, especially Chen Hero's turn and shot in the game.

However, the reaction in Guangzhou had nothing to do with Chen Hero anymore.

He was so looking forward to the game against the Chinese national team.

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Because they arrived in Changsha relatively late, Dalglish allowed everyone to sleep in and not get up until noon.

While Chen Hero and his opponents were still dreaming, Zhong Chusheng, the full-time vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association, arrived in Changsha by plane. With him were several directors from the Football Association office, as well as Camacho, the soon-to-be national team coach.

Their arrival in Changsha naturally attracted the attention of reporters. They were immediately besieged by reporters at the airport, eager to interview them.

And the topic, of course, could not be separated from Chen Hero and the national team...

"Excuse me, Chairman Zhong, is there any conclusion or progress on Hero joining the national team?"

"Excuse me, Chairman Zhong, did you watch Liverpool's game against Evergrande last night? What is your evaluation of Chen Hero's performance?"

Zhong Chusheng got a headache as soon as he heard the name "Chen Hero." However, in front of the reporters, he couldn't show it too obviously—the Football Association's internal decisions must not be told to the outside world, otherwise it would cause an uproar...

"Ah, I happened to have something to do yesterday, so I didn't see the game. Did Evergrande win?"

"Of course not, but they lost by only one goal." The reporter replied, as if afraid that Zhong Chusheng didn't know about Chen Hero's performance, he added: "Hero scored a very beautiful goal in the game!"

"Oh, oh, ha ha... Excuse me, excuse me..." Zhong Chusheng squeezed out a smile and squeezed out, thus shifting the topic.

But how could the reporters let him go so easily: "Chen Hero's performance is so outstanding, what is the Football Association's opinion?"

"Ah, um, his performance is very outstanding, this is a good thing, it shows that we Chinese people can also occupy a place in football, the world's number one sport... I am proud and honored for him, and I hope he will continue to work hard..."

The reporters' ears were already calloused from this kind of official talk, and of course they would not be fooled by him so easily. So someone simply asked directly: "Will the Chinese national team recruit Chen Hero? The Top 20 qualifiers are coming up soon after passing the Laos test..."

"This... depends on the head coach..." Of course, Zhong Chusheng couldn't say that our Football Association had studied internally and decided not to recruit Chen Hero to participate in the Top 20 qualifiers! He kicked the football to Camacho, and then took the opportunity to slip away.

As for how Camacho would answer, he didn't care. Even if Camacho really wanted to recruit people, it would depend on whether we agreed...

Camacho was also surrounded by reporters, and the topic, in addition to the Chinese national team, was also related to Chen Hero.

"He is a very outstanding player, one of the best in Europe. Liverpool made a good deal, and 70 million pounds is not expensive for him... The Chinese team? I am not the national team coach yet."

The Spaniard was also cunning enough. Although no one in the Football Association had told him about the conflict between them and Chen Hero, Camacho had already guessed something just by guessing. He decided to stay out of this muddy water for the time being and wait and see what happened...

So he kicked the football to Gao Hongbo.

Of course, the reporters couldn't run to ask Gao Hongbo, because Gao Hongbo was about to leave his post after leading the team to play against Laos.

Many people still couldn't understand why the Football Association would choose to change coaches at such a critical moment. Didn't they know that changing coaches before a battle has always been a taboo for military strategists? Even if Camacho's ability was really much better than Gao Hongbo, and Gao Hongbo couldn't lead the team into the Brazil World Cup finals with his own ability, they should have changed coaches earlier. Now, there was still a month before the Top 20 qualifiers. After the change of coaches, what could Camacho do to familiarize himself with the players and let the players accept his football philosophy and tactics? He still had to use the tactics and lineup left by Gao Hongbo. In that case, wouldn't Gao Hongbo, who was more familiar with his own lineup and football tactics, be more suitable than Camacho?

What was the point of tossing and turning like this? By the time of the Top 20 qualifiers, Gao Hongbo, who was most familiar with the team, would be gone, and a foreign coach who knew nothing about Chinese football would come. If the Chinese team could still make it all the way to the Top 10 qualifiers, or even qualify, that would really be a miracle.

So no reporters went to ask Gao Hongbo. They watched the people from the Football Association leave with Camacho, and then shook their heads.

"Sometimes I really find it hard to understand what those people are thinking about all day long..."

"I'm afraid there's only sh*t in there!"

"Chinese football is messed up by these people who don't know what they're doing. If I were in charge, I might have rushed out of Asia and into the world long ago!"

"Hey, keep bragging! Haha!"

A group of reporters complained helplessly and then dispersed.

Even if they hyped up this topic, they wouldn't be the ones making the final decision. This was really helpless. These reporters who were in contact with Chinese football all day long would sometimes feel disheartened, because what they knew made them feel that Chinese football was probably hopeless for a long time...

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The national team players were training on the field, and they would be facing Liverpool here the day after tomorrow.

Gao Hongbo stood on the sidelines with his arms crossed, watching quietly, without shouting or yelling to remind the players what to do. He had led this team for two years and knew it very well, and the team also knew him very well. So sometimes he didn't need to do everything himself during training.

The problem was that the reason for his silence was not this.

As the coach of the national team, he had led the national team in many warm-up matches and friendly matches. The Chinese team's results in the warm-up matches were always good, so he had won the title of "King of Warm-up Matches."

But when it came to official competitions, the team's performance was inevitably disappointing. Especially the Asian Cup at the beginning of the year, which may be the reason why he was replaced by Camacho... In the Asian Cup, the Chinese team's performance was really embarrassing, and they didn't even qualify for the group stage.

After the Asian Cup, he knew that his time with the Chinese team was running out.

But what could he do?

If he had Chen Hero during the Asian Cup, let alone qualifying for the group stage, he would have had the confidence to win the championship. Although he emphasized the tactical style of passing and coordination, with the football mainly on the ground, it didn't mean that his team wouldn't cross from the wings. He believed that the problem with the Chinese team was that they lacked a strong scoring arrow on the front line.

Yes, the Chinese team lacked a center forward who could score goals.

If Chinese fans had heard this ten years ago, they would have laughed their heads off—the Chinese team, which had the best group of forwards in Asia, would actually lack a center forward!

But that was the fact. Back then, Chinese football had outstanding forwards such as Su Maozhen, Li Bing, Hao Haidong, Gao Feng, Li Jinyu, and Gao Hongbo himself. Su Maozhen and Li Bing were even powerful center forwards who were among the best in Asia. Such forwards were the envy of neighboring Japan.

At that time, Japan's advantage was in its excellent midfield, and its biggest headache was the lack of forwards who could score goals.

But what about now? Japan no longer lacks forwards, but the Chinese team can't find a stable source of goals. Whether it's Han Peng, Chen Guofeng, Yang Xu, or Qu Bo, their scoring ability is actually not very good—especially in national team matches, the number of goals scored is pitifully small. The Chinese team's midfield has improved greatly under Gao Hongbo's training, and can make many excellent passes and provide ammunition for the front line, but the forwards have begun to learn to waste opportunities, which is really speechless...

Looking at Chen Hero's growth in the past few years, he was originally a player who knew nothing but headers. What about now? Headers are still sharp, long shots are his signature, and he also has a set of skills for getting in front of the goal. With such a center forward in the Chinese team, and the midfield and backcourt constantly supplying him with ammunition, why worry about not scoring goals?

He had privately asked the Football Association about Chen Hero joining the national team, but the Football Association just refused to budge. Of course, he knew that the Football Association thought Chen Hero was disobedient and difficult to manage, so they were unwilling to recruit him into the national team.

But do they care about the national team's results? If the Asian Cup results are not good, the responsibility lies with me, the coach, but they don't think about what your Football Association has done.

To be honest, Gao Hongbo felt very wronged to be squeezed out by Camacho like this.

Now this game is his last warm-up match leading the Chinese team. Can the Chinese team, which has always performed very well in warm-up matches, draw a perfect end to their warm-up journey?

Gao Hongbo didn't know.

He only knew that the Top 20 qualifiers were a very difficult hurdle for the Chinese team.

Was Camacho capable of leading the Chinese team to break through?

He had worked hard for more than two years, but in the end, he was just paving the way for others. It would be a lie to say that he had no emotions.

But it would seem a bit too much to curse the Chinese team so that they couldn't even get through the Top 20 qualifiers...

He only hoped that the Chinese Football Association could repair the relationship with Chen Hero and recruit Chen Hero into the team before the Top 20 qualifiers. In this way, even if Camacho, who didn't know much about the team, led the team, as long as he had Chen Hero, it would still be no problem to enter the Top 10 qualifiers.

He didn't have any resistance to this warm-up match. Because he felt that this might be a key step for the Chinese Football Association to repair its relationship with Chen Hero. Otherwise, why would they suddenly insert a game at a time when there were no warm-up matches scheduled at all? And it was with Liverpool, which had Chen Hero?

There were some things that Gao Hongbo didn't know, so he could only guess like this.

If he could successfully get Chen Hero into the Chinese team, this warm-up match would be meaningful.

If Gao Hongbo knew that Chen Hero and the Football Association had fallen out again... he would probably vomit blood, right?