Chapter 119 Greeting in Advance

While Shinji Kagawa was chatting alone with Klopp, Zhou Yi was squatting on the ground, scribbling on a soccer ball with a marker.

"Hey, Zhou Yi, what are you doing?" Gotze noticed Zhou Yi's actions in the corner and curiously went over to investigate.

"Saying hello to Manchester City in advance," Zhou Yi said.

"How are you saying hello?" Gotze asked, puzzled.

"Didn't they say the two Carrington training bases are next to each other? Legend has it that a single long kick can reach the other side."

Hearing Zhou Yi's words, Gotze straightened up and looked outside the training ground at the row of dense trees...

"Don't be silly, Zhou Yi. That's definitely a rumor! Even if you kick it with all your might, there's absolutely no way it will reach Manchester City's side!"

"Even if it's a rumor, I have to personally debunk it."

As he spoke, Zhou Yi had finished writing. He put away the pen, stood up, estimated the distance, tossed the soccer ball up, and, like a goalkeeper taking a long kick, forcefully kicked the soccer ball over.

The loud bang even startled other people on the training ground, but when everyone looked over, they saw nothing. They only saw Zhou Yi and Gotze standing on the other side, looking at the trees at the edge of the training ground, not knowing what they were doing.

"You can't even see it. I told you it was impossible to kick it over," Gotze shrugged.

"Damn, looks like it really is a rumor!" Zhou Yi said, frowning.

"You wasted a soccer ball."

"It's okay, it's Manchester United's anyway," Zhou Yi waved his hand. After saying that, he patted his butt and turned to walk towards the main group. "Let's go, let's go. Don't tell anyone about this, okay?"

"So you know it's embarrassing too..."

"What are you talking about? I'm afraid Manchester United will ask me to pay for the ball!"

※※※

The match was approaching, and both clubs were prepared. Players on both teams were unable to play in this match due to injuries. For Dortmund, it was the long-injured Owomoyela, who had already missed four league games.

For Manchester City, Richards was still injured and had not played a single game this season.

Maicon was injured in the last league game and was unable to participate in this match.

During this time, Mancini had been studying Dortmund, mainly studying Dortmund's core player, Zhou Yi.

Trying to figure out how to curb Zhou Yi's performance in the match.

In the last Champions League group match, Ajax used the method of building a wall in front of their own goal to curb Dortmund's attack. They didn't use any special tactics to target Zhou Yi, and even gave up possession outside the penalty area. Their approach was to defend the space in the penalty area, not giving Lewandowski, Reus, Gotze, and others space and time to receive the ball inside and outside the penalty area, so Zhou Yi naturally had no target to pass to.

Ajax's approach gave Mancini some ideas. Of course, he couldn't let Manchester City park the bus at home. That wasn't his style, nor was it Manchester City's style.

But instead of trying to curb Zhou Yi, it might be better to try to curb Zhou Yi's passing targets. That was indeed an idea.

Zhou Yi's movement was very flexible, and it wasn't easy to curb him because he could appear in almost any corner of the field. Assigning someone to specifically follow him would mess up his own team's formation. If he used zonal marking on him, focusing on defending Zhou Yi in one area, it would be difficult to guarantee the defensive strength against Dortmund's other players.

Neither was a good approach.

So Mancini thought that perhaps he could borrow Ajax's approach, but not copy it completely. If Zhou Yi was in the backcourt, there was no need to bother with him. Once he approached Manchester City's thirty-meter area, someone should go and closely mark him, while everyone else did their job to ensure the integrity of the defense, trying not to leave too obvious gaps, so that Zhou Yi didn't have a good passing target. And the person marking Zhou Yi would be responsible for interfering with Zhou Yi, not allowing him to control the ball and observe calmly.

The day before the match, Mancini arrived at the Carrington training base, where Manchester City would do their last training session, which wouldn't be too intense and would mainly focus on set-piece attacking and defending training.

Today, he had just sat down in his office when assistant coach Brian Kidd knocked on the door.

"Manc, the equipment manager is looking for you."

Mancini was puzzled. "Is there a problem with the training facilities?"

"No, it's actually... uh, let him tell you, he's outside." Kidd thought it would be troublesome for him to explain, so he simply passed the task to the manager.

"Then please ask him to come in."

The equipment manager of the Carrington training base walked in, holding a soccer ball in his hand.

"My people found this when they were picking up soccer balls in the grove, sir. I thought I should bring it to you to take a look..."

Because the training base was next to a dense grove, and players would often kick soccer balls into the grove during training, the equipment manager would arrange for people to go to the grove to pick up the soccer balls after each training session.

Mancini immediately saw the large Nike logo on the soccer ball in the manager's hand.

"Manchester United's ball?"

Nike was Manchester United's sponsor, so their training balls were definitely Nike. And Manchester City's sponsor was Umbro, so it was impossible for a Nike soccer ball to appear at Manchester City's Carrington training base.

Because the training bases of the two clubs were next to each other, it was possible to pick up the other club's soccer balls when picking up balls, although the chances were not high, it was indeed possible.

However, when they picked up the other club's soccer balls, they would temporarily store them and collectively return them to the other party after a certain number. Although it was very intense during the match, the working relationship behind the scenes was not so bad as to be irreconcilable.

"Yes, sir. It's from Manchester United's side."

"Then just return it to them, right?" Mancini didn't understand why the manager would specifically bring a Manchester United soccer ball to find him. Didn't he know that his time was very precious? Especially before the Champions League match...

"Uh, but this one is quite special, so I thought maybe I should bring it to you to take a look, sir." The manager was also a little hesitant about whether he should bring this soccer ball to the first-team coach. Maybe they didn't care about these things at all?

However, Mancini still took the soccer ball and held it in his hand, turned it around, and a line of crooked English written on the light red surface appeared in front of him.

"hello，蓝月亮，这是来自大黄蜂的问候 (hello, Blue Moon, this is a greeting from the Yellow Jackets)."

The signature was "Zhou Yi", followed by a smiley face and a V sign.

Seeing this scene, Mancini was a little stunned. Seeing the head coach's strange reaction, Kidd also leaned over to see what was going on. After seeing this sentence, he frowned: "What... does this mean?"

"Don't know," Mancini shook his head.

"Could it be Zhou Yi's prank?"

"Is he that bored?" Mancini didn't believe it. He thought Zhou Yi must have a purpose for doing this, but he couldn't think of what the purpose was for a while.

Regarding Zhou Yi, he had heard some rumors that he was the smartest of the young players. Others used their bodies to play football, but he used his brain to play football. Mancini believed this because Zhou Yi's physique was not dominant, but he was able to achieve such achievements by relying on his brain.

There was also a rumor that Zhou Yi was called the "Oriental Wizard" in Germany, saying that he knew mysterious oriental witchcraft. When Barrios was deeply mired in a goal drought and was questioned by public opinion as a parallel import, he used his powers to save Barrios. Under the blessing of his witchcraft, Barrios scored goal after goal, and in the end, Barrios won the cannon-shaped trophy symbolizing the best scorer award that season.

At that time, there were still many people in Germany who specifically blocked Zhou Yi outside Dortmund's training base in order to receive his blessing, which was said to be quite effective.

Mancini had heard that Chinese medical skills were very magical. Acupuncture was no longer a rare thing. Doctors could use a needle to pierce into the human body and cure diseases. He had also seen cupping. Doctors would use fire to heat the glass jars, then press them on people's bodies. When they were taken off, there would be a dark circular scar on the body. According to the doctors, the bad "qi" in the body was pulled out, and those scars were proof.

And the key was that doing so seemed to really work.

Mancini found this incredible. In his eyes, this was simply no different from witchcraft.

Now, holding the soccer ball, he connected Zhou Yi's nickname with the oriental "witchcraft" he had seen, and increasingly felt that Zhou Yi's kicking a soccer ball over was probably not as simple as a prank.

Was Zhou Yi using this ball to cast a spell?

Thinking of this, he handed the soccer ball to the manager: "Return this ball to the other side immediately."

The manager asked strangely: "But we only picked up this one..."

"Then return this one." Mancini was stern and unquestionable.

The manager didn't understand why the head coach was suddenly so serious, but he did as he was told, took the soccer ball, turned around, and left.

As soon as he left, Kidd asked Mancini, "Manc, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm just a little worried," Mancini muttered to himself.

"Worried about what?"

"Um... just some unfounded guesses. Okay, okay, let's talk about today's training content..." Mancini realized that he had accidentally let something slip, so he quickly changed the subject.

※※※

The last training session before the match ended, and the entire Dortmund team gathered to return to the hotel.

Klopp came to everyone with a soccer ball in his hand.

He spun the soccer ball with one hand and then called Zhou Yi out of the line.

"Did you write the words on this, Zhou Yi?" he asked.

Zhou Yi didn't answer the question immediately, but looked at Gotze.

Gotze in the team spread his hands: "I swear I didn't say anything."

"Manchester United gave it to me," Klopp said.

"I wrote it," Zhou Yi honestly replied.

"What did you write this for?" Klopp continued to ask.

"I wanted to say hello to Manchester City before the match, and by the way, see if the training bases of the two clubs were really that close," Zhou Yi explained the original intention of doing so.

"You're really boring," Klopp was also speechless about Zhou Yi's completely unusual imagination. He threw the soccer ball to Zhou Yi. "Keep it yourself."

Zhou Yi took the soccer ball with great concern: "Will Manchester United ask me to pay for it?"

"Manchester United said, give it to you as a souvenir," Klopp waved his hand, let Zhou Yi return to the team, and then began to summarize the training results.

Gotze whispered to Zhou Yi next to him: "I told you that you definitely couldn't kick it over. See, Manchester United picked it up, right?"

"How would I know if I didn't try, Mario?"

"Then what did you find out after trying?"

"I tried it and found that I really couldn't kick it over."

"Tch..."

"But at least I know that the distance between the training bases of the two clubs is not so close that a soccer ball can be kicked over with one long kick. If I didn't try, I might never know and just follow what everyone else says. Mario, do you know what the scientific spirit is? The scientific spirit is to boldly hypothesize and carefully verify!"

Zhou Yi spoke of his brain-opening behavior in such a lofty manner that Gotze didn't know what to say.

When the team returned to the locker room to change clothes and get on the bus, everyone ran over to ask Zhou Yi if doing so was a provocation to Manchester City, just like flying an arrow to deliver a challenge letter.

But Zhou Yi shook his head and denied: "No, no, this is actually the literal meaning, there is really no subtext. I just wanted to say hello to them."

"Really?"

"Of course it's true. I have no grudges against Manchester City. Why would I provoke them? Angering them and making them kick me black feet in the game? Am I that stupid? So it's just a failed friendly greeting," Zhou Yi explained very seriously.

"Tch, Zhou Yi, you're really boring..." Everyone dispersed.

Seeing everyone say this, Zhou Yi pointed to himself and asked Gotze: "Boring?"

Gotze shook his head: "No, it's very boring."