Chapter 659 The "Red Witch" Living in the Red House
Sitting in the visiting team's locker room at the red-top stadium, Hu Lai couldn't help but sigh in his heart. It really deserves to be a UEFA five-star certified football stadium. Even the visiting team's locker room is much more luxurious.
The visiting team locker rooms in some stadiums are very simple, with no extra facilities except basic cabinets and stools. To exaggerate, there is not even hot water, so you have to use cold water to take a shower. Even the stool is very uncomfortable and makes your butt feel uncomfortable if you sit for a long time.
Of course, these little tricks are all intended to do everything possible to cause trouble to the visiting team and interfere with their game, thereby helping the home team win the game more easily.
The red-roofed stadium, the home stadium of veteran Premier League giant Tramed, has no such problem. Their visiting team locker room is comparable to the home team locker rooms of some smaller clubs.
At least compared with the dressing room of Leeds City's home team Flanders, it is only slightly inferior.
Of course, Leeds City Club will renovate and upgrade the home team's dressing room after the end of this season. For example, adding facilities such as jacuzzis to help players recover - this is said to be a request from head coach Tony Clark.
Therefore, the premise of this project is that Leeds City must ensure that they can successfully avoid relegation. Otherwise, after being relegated, it is hard to say whether Tony Clark can still coach in Leeds City, let alone the comprehensive improvement plan he proposed for the club.
Tony Clark was standing in the middle of the visiting team's locker room at the Red Roof Stadium at this moment, saying loudly to his players:
"Everyone thinks we can't beat Tramed on the road. What they say makes sense. In terms of strength, we are indeed far inferior to Tramed. This is still their home court, in their 'red house' , they are almost invincible, but let me tell you, if football always relies on these paper strengths to determine the outcome, then what is the meaning of the game? The most fascinating part of the football game is that we play hard and blow the final whistle. Before the sound, no one knows who will win and who will lose!”
At this point, he paused and looked around at his players.
He still remembers the way most of the players looked at him on his first day on the team.
Showing doubt, disgust, and disdain.
But now, after more than half a season of cooperation, those looks have basically disappeared completely.
Especially after three consecutive victories, even if they lost cleanly to Battleship Port in the next away game, the players did not seem to doubt his authority as the head coach.
Selling players who clearly do not meet the team's tactical requirements and being disobedient, introducing players he likes, and passing a series of disciplinary requirements including forcing players to take a nap... The seeds he has sown in this team are paying off. After so much effort, there are finally signs of breaking ground.
He raised his voice and continued: "So put aside the strength gap between us and our opponents, and forget how the damn media outside predicted this game! Give it your best! Show our courage to the giants! And at home Compared with Tramed, we have nothing to lose. After all, everyone thinks we will lose, so isn’t the worst outcome a loss?”
Hu Lai listened to the head coach's words and thought that he had rich experience in relegation, but he had never seen such a head coach of a relegation team. It is completely different from Zhao Kangming, the director of Shining Star. He does not care about every detail, but shouts "I just want to beat you to death, or be beaten to death by you"...
Is this to avoid relegation? Isn't this madman sick?
Run quickly, the lunatic is hitting someone! All the beatings were in vain!
But don't mention it, after being treated so badly by the head coach, Hu Lai felt a surge of pride in his heart - the head coach doesn't care about the results, so what else do we want to do? Just do it!
Not only him, but other Leeds City players were also screaming impatiently.
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The red-roofed stadium, home to Tramed, a veteran English football club and a traditional powerhouse, got its name from the red roof when it was first built. Except for the roof, the entire exterior wall of the stadium is divided into upper and lower parts. The upper part and the roof are red, and the lower part is white - exactly the same as their home jersey.
Because the roof of the main stand has an isosceles triangle shape that looks like a huge red spire house from a distance, Tramed fans nicknamed the stadium the "Red House."
The nickname sounds very warm, just like the little girl's home in fairy tales.
But in fact, this was once the famous "devil's home stadium" in European football. During Tramed's most glorious period, this stadium was intimidating to any visiting team.
So there is a rumor that the red in the "Red House" is not the paint, but the blood of the opponent. The "Red House" is not a warm place full of fairy tale atmosphere, but the lair of some evil existence. For this reason, Tramed is nicknamed "The Scarlet Witch", who is as feared as the man-eating witch in medieval legends.
In the past ten years, the "Red Witch" has lost its dominance of the Premier League, and the "notoriety" of this stadium is not as prominent as before.
But even so, playing in this stadium is not an easy task for any team.
Tramed's fans don't need to deliberately target the visiting team. They only need to cheer for the home team, which is enough to make many visiting team players feel breathless... After all, the seating capacity of 60,000 stands is not enough for the current Premier League. It can indeed be regarded as a very large number. Correspondingly, the Flanders Stadium, the home stadium of Leeds City, can accommodate 30,000 people.
But there was a little accident in the "red house" today.
Tramed fans found that the visiting Leeds City players did not seem to be affected by the noise they created.
From the beginning of the game, they played proactively. It didn't feel like they were playing away from home, but more like they were playing at their own home court...
If the performance of the players may still be an illusion of the fans, it cannot be counted.
Then, in the first twenty-six minutes of the game, it was the visiting team Leeds City who scored first, which may allow everyone to confirm this fact - today's Leeds City is different from the one they have seen in this season and a half. .
"Pete Williams——!!" Matthew Cox drawled. "After he received Lorenzo's header, he stopped the ball with his chest and deftly dodged Kirk! Then he shot! Walker couldn't touch the ball! Leeds City took the lead away from home! It's really amazing Surprisingly, it was Leeds City who scored first! ”
Watching Pete Williams running wildly to celebrate the goal on the TV broadcast, the fans in the "White Rose" bar opened their arms, beat the time rhythmically, and then sang loudly along with the time:
"Pete! Pete! Pete! Pete! He is our genius Pete! Pete! Pete! Pete! Pete! He is the Pete who always loves Leeds! Ah - Pete Williams! Ah - Pete Williams!" ”
This is a cheer song created by Leeds City fans for their favorite players, and they sing character songs whenever the players perform well.
Today Leeds City is playing away from home. Many of them cannot go to the away game, so they can only sing in front of the TV and cheer for the players.
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Leeds City fans were not happy for long.
Before the end of the first half, Tramed's French forward Pap Bonnet fired a powerful shot from the corner of the penalty area, helping Tramed equalize the score.
Just after the start of the second half, Tramed's Dutch midfielder Nick van Delft used a low shot from outside the penalty area to open Leeds City's goal again.
"Vandelft!! Beautiful!! His shot was completely suppressed. The football flew forward close to the turf, making it more difficult for the goalkeeper to save! Facing his fellow Dutchman, Vandelft But there is no mercy at all!”
As the score went ahead, Tramed's fans came to life. They sang and danced in the stands. Sometimes they were cheering for their team, and sometimes they were mocking Leeds City's little brother with their songs:
"Go where you belong! Champions League! Go where you belong! Champions League! You know which one we're talking about!"
This was followed by a huge burst of laughter.
Leeds City is not famous in the history of English football and can be regarded as an out-and-out unknown.
It stands to reason that there should be no hatred between them and Tramed in Manchester - in the long history, they and Tramed have rarely had the opportunity to interact.
But Tramed's fans still mocked them mercilessly.
This has nothing to do with football, but mainly with regional hatred - stemming from the historical feud between the two cities of Manchester and Leeds.
The UK is a traditional sheep-raising country and an important wool producer in Europe. Their wool has been supplied to all of Europe.
Later, after the failure of the Hundred Years War with France, Britain decided not to simply export wool, but to vigorously develop the wool textile industry. The woolen textile industry became Britain's "national industry". As the enclosure movement expanded sheep farms and increased wool production in the sixteenth century, British woolen exports accounted for 78% of all exports.
At that time, Leeds was a famous woolen industry center in the UK, with a large number of woolen industry workers gathered.
The home stadium of Leeds City Club is called "Flanders Stadium", which also reflects the development of Leeds' woolen textile industry at that time - Flanders is not the current place name in the UK, nor is it Leeds, but a historical place name in Western Europe. It is roughly equivalent to today's Zeeland province in the Netherlands, East Flanders and West Flanders in Belgium, and Pas-de-Calais and Nore in France.
This place had some of the best woolen workers in Europe at that time. At that time, British wool raw materials were also shipped here and then exported throughout Europe.
The rise of the British woolen textile industry was also due to the poaching of a large number of Flemish workers.
In order to commemorate this history, the stadium of Leeds City Club, which represents the city of Leeds, is called "Flanders".
The rise of Manchester is inseparable from the British cotton textile industry. The cotton textile industry is grabbing the market of the wool textile industry.
As Lancashire, where Manchester is located, began to imitate Indian cotton with cotton from the East and West Indies and Brazil, the British cotton textile industry gradually got on track. Coupled with the invention of the Jenny spinning machine, an important symbol of the first industrial revolution, cotton spinning developed rapidly.
The cotton textile industry is Manchester's pillar industry, and the sales of cotton cloth have impacted the woolen market, causing woolen spinning factories to close down one after another. A large number of woolen spinning workers lost their jobs and had to run from Leeds to neighboring Manchester to find a living.
The competition between wool spinning and cotton spinning contributed to the success of Britain's first industrial revolution, and also caused hatred between the people of the two cities.
So even if there is no football conflict, the teams from these two cities will not look down upon each other after they meet. (Note 1)
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Hu Lai heard the singing in the stands and understood it.
After all, he has been in the Premier League for two months and has played five games. He has some understanding of the ways of the Premier League.
I know that England fans like to express their emotions with singing. They sing when they are happy, they sing when they are angry, and even when the game is too boring, they also use singing to express their dissatisfaction with the boring game, or simply entertain themselves. happy.
For example, they will throw an inflatable penis during the game until the inflatable penis falls under the stands and is picked up and confiscated by the police. Then the fans will start singing a song repeatedly, which has one lyric: " Give us back our big cocks”
After Hu Lai has played football for so many years, this is the first time he has seen such boring fans...
Many times the content they sing can be described as "unpalatable".
If you record a live video of watching a game and then translate the lyrics sung by the fans into Chinese subtitles and put it on the domestic Internet, you will most likely get a 404.
The British football field implements a high-pressure policy against all kinds of racism and resolutely does not allow racial discrimination remarks to appear. But that doesn't matter for personal attacks.
In other words, rival fans can call Hu Lai a fool, but they cannot call Hu Lai a "yellow-skinned monkey." The former is part of English football culture, the latter will be severely punished.
Fans will make songs about swear words to greet the player's mother and family, laugh at a player's physical defects in their songs, and rub salt into the most painful wounds of the opposing team.
If you accidentally score an own goal in a certain final, causing the team to lose the championship. So even if five years have passed, when you play a game against the opposing team, you will definitely hear the opposing fans singing songs in the stands to help you relive this old dream...
Before coming to the Premier League, Hu Lai had seen domestic media criticize those who used local swear words to insult opposing players in the stands, believing that this was discrediting the sport of football and evidence of the low quality of Chinese fans.
After coming to the Premier League, he discovered that compared with British fans, Chinese fans were as polite as good students...
When someone scolds you, they are really vicious.
But if you scold your opponent, it feels really good...
For example, the current Tramed fans are so happy that their players are constantly launching fierce attacks on Leeds City's goal amidst the cheers of the fans.
Obviously, neither the fans nor the players are willing to be just one goal ahead of Leeds City.
After all, they are a traditional giant. Although they have not won a championship for several years, their heritage is still there.
How can you be in a difficult situation with a team that is trying to avoid relegation at your home court?
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Tramed continued to press forward in an attempt to overwhelm Leeds City.
On the sidelines, Leeds City head coach Tony Clark once again showed his gambler-like approach. He would never accept the result of "losing less but winning instead", but also encouraged the team to fight back and fight with Tramed. .
Even if this is the opponent's home court, so what?
We are not even afraid of losing, so what else are we afraid of?
In the 66th minute of the game, Leeds City intercepted the ball from Tramed midfielder Van Delft in the midfield and turned to counterattack on the spot.
The football was passed to Charlie Porter by Pete Williams.
After Porter got the ball, he looked up and looked ahead. Because Leeds City stole the ball when Tramed was attacking, Tramed's backcourt was relatively empty at this time.
He didn't hesitate and directly passed the football to the center with a long diagonal kick!
When Charlie Porter passed the ball, Hulay in front ran quickly. He accelerated and ran forward. Tramed's center back Steko Wilson noticed Hulay's movement and immediately accelerated and rushed over. , blocking Hu Lai behind him.
He could also feel that Hu Lai had used his hands to fight for position with him, trying to pull him away, but with his own body and strength, how could he be pulled away so easily? Sure enough, soon there was no movement behind.
What Wilson didn't know was that Hu Lai, who was behind him, suddenly changed his attitude of continuing to run forward, retreated and clicked back!
"Hu Lai!!"
With He Feng's shouting, the football drew an arc in the air and passed over Wilson's head.
He looked back and saw the Leeds City player No. 14, who had scored five goals in three games, using his chest to stop the ball forward, and then wading the ball into the penalty area!
"Nice connection! Great opportunity for Leeds City! Are they going to equalize the score?" Cox shouted, raising the hearts of the Leeds City fans in front of the TV.
The stands of the Red Roof Stadium were filled with boos from Tramed fans, like thunder.
Hu Lai was not disturbed at all. After putting the football into the penalty area, he looked up to observe the situation. Tramed's goalkeeper Tom Walker has given up!
So he chose to take a shot. When he lifted his right foot, his toes lifted slightly, and the shot changed from a volley to a shot.
At the same time, Walker judged that Hulay was going to shoot low, so he fell to the ground, unable to do anything about the football flying over his head...
"Hu Lai - a shot!! Good shot!! Beautiful!!"
"What a wonderful kick! Hu's kick was so calm that people forgot his age! Facing the attacking goalkeeper Walker, he was calm like an experienced veteran! Great! This is his first time in the Premier League The sixth goal also helped Leeds City equalize the score! At the Red Roof Stadium, Leeds City stubbornly held on to Tramed and did not let go! ”
After scoring the goal, Hulay did not stop. He turned around and ran towards the corner flag area, and then made his signature celebration.
Wearing a white away jersey, he stood out in front of the "red wall" composed of all Tramed fans wearing red jerseys.
"For Chinese fans and players, Tramed's red-top stadium is like a dream stage, unattainable! But now, our player Hu Lai from China has left his presence in this stadium In my memory! He not only broke through the England goalkeeper, he also opened the door of the 'Red House'! This scene will definitely become a classic picture of Chinese football in the future!"
In the picture, other Leeds City players are swarming towards Hu Lai. Those white figures on the red "wall" are like bullet holes, making the high red wall look less indestructible and intimidating. Got it...
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Note 1: This content and data come from the article "The Rise and Decline of Britain - The Competition of Woolen and Cotton Spinning is a Battlefield without Smoke" (End of Chapter)