Chapter 1 An Ke's Choice

An Ke's decision to stay with Dortmund, rejecting the overtures of powerhouse Bayern Munich, was leaked to the media as quickly as his initial "flirtation with Munich."

The Dortmund media naturally cheered An Ke's choice, but the Chinese media generally felt that An Ke was too impulsive and lacked maturity and rationality. After Zhang Jun's departure from Milan, they pessimistically announced that after Zhang Jun bid farewell to the giants and his career prospects dimmed, An Ke's future had also become worrying.

Speaking of which, the domestic media had been quite lively recently, worrying about the two "unbelievable" choices of overseas players on the one hand, and agonizing over the problems gradually exposed within the national team on the other, because this was related to how well the Chinese team could perform in the World Cup.

Unlike the media's worries, Qiu Suhui appeared calm and composed. He didn't care about the current situation. He even hoped that the matter would become as big as possible, so that those players could realize the seriousness of the matter.

Many players now, regardless of whether they are old or new, lack a sense of crisis. They always think that qualifying for the World Cup is enough to complete the task. This may be true for a team that has qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time. However, for a team that has entered the finals for the second consecutive time, such self-demands are too unambitious.

The European leagues have all ended, and overseas players are resting and waiting for the national team to assemble in Europe for training.

The Chinese domestic league and the European leagues have different schedules, so the league will be suspended during the World Cup. Several years ago, some people believed that the timing of the Chinese league was very unreasonable, and suggested changing it to a cross-year model to adapt to the schedules of international competitions such as the World Cup, Asian Cup, and Olympic Games. Chen Wei is now under heavy pressure and facing numerous difficulties in domestic reforms, and has not had time to consider this.

Connected to domestic reforms, Qiu Suhui's burden became even heavier. Qiu Suhui's national team has been regarded by most people as Chen Wei's direct line of troops. If Chen Wei wants his reforms to proceed smoothly, then Qiu Suhui must lead the team to make a breakthrough in the World Cup. Chen Wei already knew about the disunity within the national team, and his promise to Qiu Suhui was: "Just do it according to your ideas, and I'll back you up if anything happens. I don't care what methods you use, in short, I want to see a united national team before the World Cup opening game."

With a backer, many things became easier to handle, so on the night before the national team went to the Netherlands for training, Qiu Suhui said to Hu Li with a sly smile: "Old Hu, this time to Europe, I have to let you know in advance. I plan to intensify this conflict, and you have to cooperate with me at that time. I'll play the heavy, and you play the soft."

Hu Li nodded. Although he was not clear about what Qiu Suhui wanted to do, more than three years of tacit understanding made him choose to trust this person unconditionally.

At this time, most of the national team members were still dreaming about the World Cup in their beds, unaware that a "conspiracy" was waiting for them in the Netherlands.

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Netherlands, again the Netherlands. There were two reasons why Qiu Suhui chose the Netherlands as the training location before the World Cup. First, the Netherlands is close to Germany, with convenient transportation and similar climate. Second, he had extensive connections in the Netherlands, making it easy to find pre-match training grounds and warm-up opponents.

Therefore, the Chinese team once again placed its training base at Ajax's training center.

The people from the former national Olympic team were no longer strangers to this place, because including this time, they had been here three times.

Just half a day after the national team arrived, the overseas players also arrived in Amsterdam one after another.

One day later, the national team's 23-man roster was fully assembled, and Qiu Suhui could finally start formal training.

This training session lasted nearly half a month, from May 20th to June 3rd. He arranged three warm-up matches, but the opponents were not strong, only local club teams in the Netherlands, and none of them were top-tier teams. The media believed that Qiu Suhui was obviously trying to build confidence for the national team.

But in reality, Qiu Suhui's mind was not on that. He believed that at present, solving internal problems was far more important than external battles.

But how to intensify the conflict between the two sides and make them explode?

In the past few days of training, Qiu Suhui turned a blind eye to the new and old players' cold words and some small conflicts. In fact, he had not relaxed his observation of the two groups at all. He wanted to find the key to angering both sides.

In the first few days of training, everything was still considered normal. Two warm-up matches were played. The Chinese team won one and drew one. They discovered some problems and also saw the solutions - that is, to first improve unity.

The warm-up matches were not televised, which made Qiu Suhui very unhappy. Good shows like Xiang Tao and Zheng Jun arguing on the field were not seen by many people.

Speaking of which, the responsibility for that conflict lay with Xiang Tao. Facing a second-tier team, after losing a goal, he became impatient and yelled at captain Zheng Jun, accusing him of not marking tightly, which caused the goal to be lost. In fact, the loss of the goal had nothing to do with him. He was purely meddling.

So, Qiu Suhui seized the opportunity to make a fuss and severely scolded Xiang Tao in front of everyone after the game. This naturally made the old players led by Zheng Jun very happy. They always showed a sense of superiority in front of the new players, thinking that Qiu Suhui's move was a compromise to them, because the head coach used to be considered part of the national Olympic team system.

And naturally, the new players would definitely be unhappy, on the one hand feeling that Qiu Zhi (short for coach Qiu) was not helping them and that they had been wronged, and on the other hand, they were even more dissatisfied with the arrogant old players.

As a result, in the second warm-up match, Zheng Jun made a somewhat incredible mistake, allowing the opponent to tie the score at the last moment. This time, Xiang Tao did not jump out and shout anything, but Qiu Suhui's face darkened at the time, and he was actually secretly happy.

Back in the locker room, Qiu Suhui naturally reasonably continued his strict requirements and strict military management attitude from the previous game, severely criticizing Zheng Jun and also pointing fingers at some old players. He even threatened that if anyone didn't work hard and was half-hearted, they could leave now, and there was a large group of substitutes waiting in China.

These words made the old players lose face, but they did not dare to argue with the head coach, and could only be upset with the new players sitting aside with gloating smiles on their faces.

Qiu Suhui saw all of this and was happy in his heart. This was the effect he wanted. Now both sides should be "internalizing hatred," and all it took was someone to light a small fire to set off a prairie fire with a "boom."

But who should light this fire?

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Qiu Suhui looked into the distance, where Ke Lu was taking advantage of his rest time to show his street soccer skills to his teammates, occasionally eliciting cheers.

Of course, his performances were only for the new players. Even during rest, the national team was still divided into a group of new players and a group of old players.

Seeing this situation, Qiu Suhui suddenly remembered that, according to his observations, the old players did not like Ke Lu, this newly added person, and generally felt that this kid played selfishly, was arrogant, and looked down on people.

In fact, Ke Lu only looked down on the old players under the influence of the new players. He did not look down on everyone, otherwise he would not have performed for everyone during his rest time.

This might be a good opportunity.

Qiu Suhui blew his whistle, signaling the players to come and gather.

"We will hold an intra-team training match tomorrow. Everyone should treat it as a real battle, because the starting lineup for the World Cup will be born from this training match."

As soon as Qiu Suhui said this, he could see the light flashing in the eyes of many players - green light. This was what he wanted.

After training, Qiu Suhui said to Hu Li: "Old Hu, there's a good show to watch. You will be the referee tomorrow, and I want you to control the scale of the calls."

Hu Li nodded: "Will it be strictly enforced?"

Qiu Suhui waved his hand: "No."

"Then leniently?"

"Neither." Qiu Suhui shook his head, "You have to do it this way. At the beginning, try to be as lenient as possible. For fouls that don't really kick someone, no matter how bad they are, ignore them if you can. When someone really gets knocked over, then tighten the scale for me. As long as there is physical contact in the foul, call it if you can."

Hu Li looked at Qiu Suhui in surprise, and the latter gave him a sinister smile: "I will let all the team doctors be on standby tomorrow. If things get big, I will intervene. Oh, and go notify the reporters. Tomorrow's training match will be open to reporters throughout the entire process. They can bring cameras or video cameras, no problem. I guess they are going crazy."

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Ke Lu, who was eating dinner, had just finished when he was called out by the head coach. The Chinese team's meals were collective, and everyone acted together. He had just finished eating when he saw Qiu Suhui appear at the door.

"Ke Lu, are you done eating? Come to my room when you're done. I have something to talk to you about." Then, in front of all the players, he called Ke Lu away, completely disregarding the way other players were looking at Ke Lu.

Sitting in his room, Qiu Suhui asked Ke Lu with a smile: "Do you know why I called you here?"

Ke Lu shook his head. He hadn't thought about it at all.

"It's like this. You are a key figure in tomorrow's game. I want to focus on examining your situation. I want you to take the ball more and dribble the ball more. Since our first opponent in the group stage is Brazil, and you are the only one in the team who can compare with the Brazilian team in terms of dribbling and ball control, I will arrange for many people to defend you tomorrow. Maybe their movements will be very rough, but what I want to see is whether you can perform under such harsh conditions."

"The defenders in the Premier League are much rougher than the defenders in China." Ke Lu replied indifferently.

"It's good that you have this confidence." Qiu Suhui chuckled, "That's it. You can go back now that you know."

Ke Lu didn't ask any more questions. He wondered why the head coach would talk to him alone about this matter, and got up to leave. When he reached the door, Qiu Suhui stopped him again.

"You have confidence in competing with the Brazilians in footwork, right?" he asked Ke Lu.

"Of course." Ke Lu replied succinctly.

"Very good. Oh, by the way. Remember to do a good job of protecting yourself tomorrow. I don't want to lose a main player before the World Cup." Qiu Suhui waved his hand, "Go back and play, but don't play too late."

After sending Ke Lu away, Qiu Suhui found Zheng Jun again. Of course, this time he did not do it in front of everyone, but found Zheng Jun alone.

"I know you must still be very angry about my criticism after the last game, right?" Qiu Suhui said to Zheng Jun with a smile.

What kind of person was Zheng Jun? He quickly waved his hands and shook his head: "No! No! The coach's criticism is right, I have no objection." Just kidding, would I say I have an opinion in front of you?

"Hehe, let's not talk about that. You know the World Cup is approaching, and the pressure from above is great. In tomorrow's training match, I want to test the abilities of you old players. Our first opponent in the World Cup is Brazil, which is a team that is good at technique. I want to know what you can do when facing Brazil's attack. So in tomorrow's game, the defensive line you lead must give it your all. We'll say the ugly things first. If you don't try your best, then don't blame me for being impolite."

Zheng Jun nodded his head like a chicken pecking rice: "Definitely! Definitely! Coach, don't worry, I guarantee I'll give it my all. Hehe!" Saying that, he laughed.

"Haha! That's good, don't let me down." Qiu Suhui smiled and patted Zheng Jun on the shoulder.

The two of them, each with their own ulterior motives, pretended that nothing had happened and were dealing with each other here hypocritically.

Only Hu Li was a little worried. He did not know to what extent he could control tomorrow's game. With the competition approaching, even adding another injured soldier to the team would be a big blow. Qiu Suhui was taking a dangerous move.

※※※

The next morning, the reporters who had received permission to film the news gathered early at the edge of the playing field.

Qiu Suhui specially arranged this game at the Ajax training base's No. 3 field, because there was a simple stand there. All the print reporters among the reporters were invited to sit on the stand, and the photographers set up their machines at the edge of the field. Qiu Suhui rarely showed such kindness. While everyone was surprised, they were unwilling to give up such an opportunity to have zero-distance contact with the national team.

The national team had been training for almost a week, and Qiu Suhui only opened up fifteen minutes at the beginning of each day's training to allow filming and video recording. Once the time was up, photo reporters and videographers had to be kicked out, leaving only print reporters, but the print reporters could only watch for another half an hour.

Such strict requirements made it impossible for Su Fei to have much contact with Zhang Jun. It was said well on the phone before the training camp, but when she arrived at the training camp, she realized that it was not what she had imagined at all.

Su Fei naturally could not complete the task given by the newspaper, and Zhang Jun had no way to do anything. He focused on the overall situation of the national team and did not take the initiative to look for Su Fei, because Qiu Zhi had not said that family members could be brought in to visit, and none of the other teammates had girlfriends or wives with them, so he naturally could not be special.

Only Su Fei suffered, running around with her camera all day, racing against time, and painstakingly taking various photos related to the Chinese national team. Fortunately, Li Yan was helping her. Even if she didn't complete the task, the two of them could bear it together.

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When the Chinese team came to the stadium, they were also taken aback by the array of cameras and lenses on the sidelines. Since the training camp began, they had never seen such a large interview lineup.

Qiu Suhui was extremely satisfied with the reporters' reaction. But he also felt a little regret, it would be great if there was a live broadcast!

The lineups of both sides were arranged, and Qiu Suhui directly asked Hu Li to explain the personnel configuration to the players. The game was divided into two teams, Team A wearing red national team uniforms, and Team B wearing white uniforms. The yellow vests symbolizing the main players did not appear on either side. Qiu Suhui's meaning was obvious: if you want to become a main player, use your own actions to grab it!

Team A was almost entirely composed of old players, and they played the Chinese team's traditional 442 formation. Team B was composed of new players, and played a more offensive 352 formation.

The intention of this arrangement was also very obvious, that is, the battle between the old and the new. After turning a blind eye to the factional struggle in the team for a long time, Qiu Suhui finally clearly brought it to the table.

Many reporters were also taken aback when they saw the red and white players on the field, but some of them quickly realized that Qiu Suhui's attitude towards this factional conflict had been too ambiguous in the recent period, and now he seemed to be determined to solve it. This game was probably "the drunkard's intention is not in the wine."

After Qiu Suhui assigned the teams, he moved a chair and sat on the sidelines to watch the show. Hu Li stood in the middle of the field wearing a red and black Chinese team jacket. He was the referee for this game. After being instructed by Qiu Suhui, he knew what to do.

As for the players on both sides, they, as Qiu Suhui said, treated this game as a real battle. Related to their respective performance opportunities in the World Cup, no one would be soft-footed. Even if some people usually had a good relationship, at this time, as long as they were opponents, there would be no sentiment to talk about.

With a whistle from Hu Li, the game began.

As an attacking midfielder, Ke Lu has outstanding ball control skills, and the ball is naturally often passed to his feet.

In the eyes of Zheng Jun of Team A, this was naturally a great opportunity to show the head coach. But in the eyes of other old players, it was thought that the head coach was deliberately cultivating Ke Lu. Obviously, this "transfer student" was very popular, and they, these "old courtiers," were gradually losing favor.

This was a very uncomfortable and depressing reality for them. They couldn't compare to Ke Lu in terms of skill and performance, but it didn't mean they couldn't deal with this "arrogant" newcomer. This training game gave them a good opportunity. In a training match, a certain player had an accident, collided with a teammate, resulting in a serious injury, and had to withdraw from the national team before the World Cup. This was truly regrettable.

For similar news, everyone would only feel sorry for the injured person, worry about the fate of the national team, but would not think about what conspiracy could be behind this injury.

And the ideas of these people also coincided very well with Qiu Suhui's hopes. It was not that Qiu Suhui was a genius, anticipating everything, but that he knew very well that some people's humanity was like this, for their own self-interest, they could resort to any means, sacrificing the interests of others, and even sacrificing the interests of the overall situation of the country.

How hateful, how sad, how pathetic.

That's why they can only be substitutes in the national team.

※※※

Not only was there Ke Lu, but Zhang Jun, as a scorer, would naturally also receive their "warm hospitality." It was just a little different. Zhang Jun was used to the rough tackles and brutal collisions of defenders in the Italian Serie B League. In his eyes, the rough movements of some defenders in the Chinese team were too amateur. They had the momentum, but they couldn't touch anyone.

In terms of his speed, he could avoid these people getting close, but of course, that would inevitably sacrifice some scoring opportunities.

Similarly, opponents didn't pay attention to players like Zhao Pengyu, and naturally disdained to use any dirty tricks on him. And Yang Pan, who would dare to attack him with a black foot? Who could guarantee that he wouldn't use his long shot to kick your head in the game? At that time, he could say that he had no responsibility at all, that was a real accident.

Zhang Jun got the ball less, while Ke Lu got the ball more, so he naturally became the target of everyone. And Ke Lu was too confident. It should be known that even substitutes in the national team are not useless. Some people are always a little better than the worst defenders in the Premier League. Even in the Premier League, he wouldn't dare to say that he could pass everyone. If the opponent didn't foul and it was a one-on-one situation, his chances of winning were indeed high. But once three opponents came up at once and adopted a attrition tactic, how would he deal with it?

Zhou Tao and Kong Liang, plus Chen Cheng, rushed towards Ke Lu in a very layered manner. Chen Cheng used his hand to pull Ke Lu from behind to interfere with his ball control, while Kong Liang used a frontal block, planning to stop him with a foul, and Zhou Tao was on the side waiting for an opportunity to move.

Ke Lu flicked the ball to the left, avoiding Kong Liang, but he had just gotten the ball again and was planning to cut inside when Zhou Tao suddenly rushed up from the side. Since the direction he was rushing was exactly opposite to the direction Ke Lu was cutting inside, Ke Lu was knocked flying!

This was a very obvious foul for hitting someone, but coincidentally, Zhang Jun received the ball that Ke Lu had flicked away in front, so Hu Li followed the principle of "advantage to the attacking party" and did not stop the game.

But some reporters on the sidelines were already shaking their heads and sighing. It was just a training match, was it worth fighting so fiercely? This was already the third time Ke Lu had been maliciously fouled in twenty-five minutes. It gave people the feeling that they were not teammates on the same national team, but deadly enemies in a city derby.

Zhang Jun pulled the ball and went into the penalty area. This time he would face Zheng Jun. He didn't use beautiful moves to pass people like Ke Lu, but chose the simplest and most effective method: suddenly changing direction and accelerating.

His left shoulder sank, but his right foot flicked the ball to the right, while his left foot exerted force and his body rushed to the right. As long as he could flash out a gap, even if it was only a trace, he could shoot!

Of course, Zheng Jun knew this, and he also knew that he could no longer block Zhang Jun's shot now, so he chose to interfere with him. He directly shoveled towards Zhang Jun's supporting foot - his left foot. He knew this was a foul, and he also knew that it could injure someone, but he would tell himself in his heart afterwards, "As a central defender, sometimes in order to stop the opponent from shooting, you have to use any means." Of course, he wouldn't think about the fact that Zhang Jun's shooting angle was almost comparable to Van Basten's "zero angle," how much threat there was in shooting at this angle, and he wouldn't think about the fact that Zhang Jun was his teammate, not an enemy.

At the moment Zhang Jun shot, he also managed to shovel Zhang Jun's left foot. Zhang Jun's body tilted to the right, and the ball was shot high and out of bounds.

Zhang Jun fell directly to the ground after shooting and did not get up. While Hu Li was hesitating whether to suspend the game, a conflict broke out on the other side.

Ke Lu stood in front of Zhou Tao, who was as tall as him, and pinched his neck with his hands. He cursed in English: "You're fucking looking for death!" Obviously, he was angered by the successive rough movements of these people.

At twenty-six minutes and thirty-seven seconds, Qiu Suhui finally waited for this moment, but he did not rush into the field in a hurry, as if he was stunned by what he saw and had not reacted yet. In fact, he was leaving time for the people on the field to fight, the more people involved the better.

At this time, Xiang Tao, who had also long been dissatisfied with those few defenders, rushed from the backfield at high speed and pushed away Kong Liang, who had come to help Zhou Tao. Kong Liang naturally refused to be outdone and slapped the back of Xiang Tao's head.

Wang Yu, who always cooperated tacitly with Xiang Tao, could not sit idly by and watch his partner being beaten. He went up and stomped on Kong Liang's stomach with one foot. This foot was accurate and ruthless, and Kong Liang, who had not reacted yet, fell to the ground.

Sure enough, more people participated, some were really there to pull people apart, and some were using the name of pulling people apart to carry out their dirty deeds.

They completely forgot that hundreds of reporters outside the field were flashing their flashlights and that the cameras were all faithfully recording everything. They had long been displeased with each other, suffering from not having the opportunity to severely "teach" the other party a lesson. Now that the opportunity had come, with their blood rushing to their heads, who cared about the reporters! And Hu Li's rapid whistle also seemed pale and powerless in this conflict and fight.

"Stop! Stop fighting, you motherfuckers!" An Ke came up and slapped away a certain old player who was trying to attack from behind, "We're on the same team, what's there to fight about!" He shouted like this and kicked away the hand of a certain old player.

After Yang Pan pushed down a certain player who was planning to make trouble, he pushed away Xiang Tao, who was fighting fiercely, giving each side fifty lashes, which was fair.

Until this time, more than thirty seconds had passed since the conflict between Ke Lu and Zhou Tao, and Zhou Tao had been pressed to the ground by Ke Lu. Qiu Suhui rushed into the field, and with the help of some players who were sincerely pulling people apart, he managed to control the situation.

The players' excitement was naturally the reporters' excitement. They used cameras, video cameras, eyes, paper and pens to faithfully record this "sudden" conflict. Big news! A major event! When the World Cup was approaching and the preparation had entered a critical moment, a conflict broke out among the players in the team. This really made many reporters excited.

"Cancel! The game is canceled!" Qiu Suhui waved his arms angrily and shouted loudly. He was signaling the staff and other members of the coaching staff to drive the reporters away. Since he was acting, he had to have some professionalism. Under normal circumstances, the first thing a coach should do is not to criticize the players, but to drive away the reporters on the sidelines so that they cannot continue to film.

And in this situation, even if they continued to watch the show, they would not wait for anything more valuable. Qiu Suhui wanted to leave more room for imagination for the reporters to guess, fabricate, exaggerate, and sensationalize.

It took this group of hundreds of reporters a full fifteen minutes to evacuate the field completely. When they left, they were all "reluctant to leave," for fear of missing anything more exciting.

In reality, there was nothing more exciting. After Qiu Suhui and other staff members closed the door, he only said coldly to a group of players who were all injured but still unconvinced: "Today's training match is over, there will be no training in the afternoon either, everyone is not allowed to leave their rooms a single step except to eat!"

He confined everyone like this, his facial muscles constantly twitching, very angry.

Even Hu Li, who knew the inside story, was wondering whether Qiu Suhui was acting or was really angry.