Chapter 975 Pre-Season
The injury absence of Pete Williams is a huge headache for the Leeds City coaching staff.
The good news is that although Hu Lai played in the World Cup, he has maintained good physical fitness and condition.
I can’t see the feeling of physical and mental exhaustion after playing in the World Cup.
You must know that even Jay Adams, who only came on as a substitute, could feel his fatigue after playing in the World Cup and returning to the team after vacation.
Not just physically, but mentally as well.
It was as if playing in one World Cup had drained all his energy.
Leeds City coaches fully understand this.
It was the World Cup after all.
England's World Cup journey is always given a lot of meaning by the enthusiastic British media and fans.
This puts a lot of pressure on every English player participating in the World Cup.
You know, if the England team's international players show even half of their faces in the hotel room window, they will be photographed by English reporters and published as big news, and then attract countless meddlesome people to point their fingers.
This naturally leads to a lot of pressure on the players.
And China has a huge population. It is participating in the World Cup for the first time, and it shoulders the hopes and expectations of the people across the country. I think the pressure on them is not small.
After playing a World Cup like this, it is normal for you to be physically and mentally exhausted.
But instead of feeling tired, Hu Lai felt very excited, as if he had not withdrawn from the excitement of the World Cup.
In the pre-season warm-up match, he scored two goals in three warm-up games and maintained his consistent efficiency.
In this pre-season warm-up match, Leeds City, which has already won the Premier League championship, finally does not have to randomly find a low-level team as an opponent like before.
As Premier League champions, they were invited to participate in the International Champions Cup held in the Singapore Division.
This is a mature pre-season warm-up event that invites famous European teams to compete in different divisions every year.
Most of the time, the teams that can appear on the roster of this event are either wealthy or established teams. Anyway, they are all influential teams in the five major European leagues.
Leeds City, a "nobody" who was previously unknown in English football and no one knew it in the whole of Europe, would naturally not have the opportunity to participate in the International Champions Cup.
But it's very different now, because they are the new Premier League champions.
So at the end of last season, they received an invitation from the organizers of the International Champions Cup.
A total of four teams play in a single round-robin tournament in Singapore. Each team plays three games and earns three points for a win. No points for a loss. Unlike the league format, there is no tie in the International Champions Cup. If the two teams are tied, there will be no overtime and it will go directly to a penalty shootout to determine the winner. The team that wins on penalty kicks gets two points.
Whoever has more points in the end wins.
In the Singapore Division, Leeds City fought against the German giants Ruhr Rheinland, Sevilla Navigators from La Liga, and Lyon Lions from Ligue 1.
Hu Lai scored two goals in three games and performed well and steadily.
But Leeds City's performance was anything but outstanding.
In their first game, they lost 1:3 to Ruerrhein, and Hulay scored a face-saving goal for the team.
In the second game, they lost to Sevilla Navigator 0:1.
In the third game, Leeds City seemed to have finally found the feeling of playing against continental European teams. Their performance was obviously better than the previous two games, and they tied with the Lyon Lions 2:2. Hulay and the team's central defender Teddy Bradford scored one goal each.
However, they were unlucky and lost in the penalty shootout.
So after three warm-up games, Leeds City accumulated zero points and ranked bottom.
I didn’t earn the championship bonus, I only received the fixed bonus for participating in the competition.
It can be seen from the three games that the Leeds City team has not yet been formed.
After all, the International Champions Cup is held from late July to early August. During this period, Leeds City's recruitment work is still going on, and the lineup is uneven.
For example, the transfer of the team's defensive midfielder Seydo had not yet been finalized.
Of course, Leeds City is indeed still too young in front of the traditional strong teams in Europe.
But for head coach Tony Clark, he doesn't care about the final result.
Participating in this International Champions Cup, I originally hoped that the team could play against teams from the European continent first to see where the gap between itself and the strong European teams is.
Get used to the new Champions League season in advance.
During the game, he saw his team's problems and also saw the bright spots.
There are many problems, but the highlights are also dazzling.
The highlight is the team's offense.
Without Pete Williams, the team's offensive organization has been seriously affected. But under such circumstances, Leeds City still scored three goals in three games, especially in the third game, scoring two goals and drawing with the French Ligue 1 giants Lyon Lions in 90 minutes.
Hu Lai even scored two goals in three games.
Especially the first game against the Bundesliga giants Ruhr Rhein.
In this game, Leeds City was basically completely suppressed by Ruhrlein. It can be said that there were no offensive opportunities in the whole game.
But even when there were few opportunities, Hu Lai still seized one of them.
flash.
Then he scored.
This is one of the qualities that Hulay valued most in Clark - as a forward, in fact, sometimes he can score goals without relying on the support of his teammates.
For example, this ball against Ruhr Rhine actually came from the Ruhr Rhine defender who made a mistake during the lateral transfer. The passing force was too light and was intercepted by Hu Lai. One-on-one with Ruerrhein goalkeeper Simon Koenigs, he easily scored the ball.
The whole scoring process is simple and easy.
There seems to be no technical content.
But why did Hu Lai appear in that place?
This is very technical.
He will always attack the opponent's back line during the game, on the one hand, to create space for his teammates and create passing opportunities. On the other hand, they are actually constantly putting pressure on the opponent's defender and waiting for the opponent to make mistakes.
This time Ruhrlein's defender made a mistake, and Hu Lai, who had been waiting for the opportunity, naturally would not let it go.
So some people say that Hu Lai is a forward who relies heavily on his teammates, and Clark is too lazy to argue with him.
He wished that all Leeds City's opponents thought so... Then they would greatly lower their vigilance towards Hu Lai and lessen the importance they attached to Hu Lai under certain circumstances.
As long as Leeds City wins in the end, Clark doesn't care what others say.
Hulay's performance was acceptable, but the talented Polish forward Dominic Lasky introduced during the World Cup was not so good. He has obviously not really integrated into the team. Although he occasionally showed his talent in the three warm-up games, overall he did not perform well and was not in tune with the team as a whole.
This takes time, and there is no rush.
After all, not everyone can be like Hu Lai, who can score goals when he plays for the first time on behalf of the team, and score five goals in three consecutive games... Such a wonderful start is really rare.
Clark can only hope that Lasky can find the rhythm of playing with the Premier League team as soon as possible. At the same time, he always gives Lasky confidence and encouragement in external interviews, believing that he can succeed in the Premier League.
Many times, support and encouragement from coaches are very important to players.
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After playing in the International Champions Cup in Singapore, the Leeds City team returned to the UK.
Then comes the last important game before the start of the Premier League, which can also be said to be the last "warm-up match":
Community Shield.
As an important event before the start of each season, the Community Shield is similar to the "Super Cup" in other countries, with the league champion of the previous season facing off against the cup champion.
However, English football is a little bit special. There are two domestic cups, one is the FA Cup with a long history, and the other is the League Cup with much lower gold content and influence.
Therefore, the participating teams in this Community Shield have nothing to do with winning the League Cup.
It's a clash between the league champions and the FA Cup champions.
But in fact, at the beginning, the nature of this game had nothing to do with the "Super Cup". It was a contest between professional teams and amateur teams.
Later it was changed to what it is now.
The two participating parties in the 2026 Community Shield are last season's Premier League champion Leeds City and last season's FA Cup champion Manchester Athletic.
After ninety minutes of fierce battle, Leeds City lost to Manchester Athletic 1:3 and were defeated, failing to win the Community Shield championship.
Hulay was closely guarded by Manchester United in this game. He only had three shots in the game and no goals. However, he topped all players from both teams in terms of violation data - as many as seven times.
It was by virtue of Manchester United's success in freezing Hulay's defense that they also froze Leeds City's offense.
Finally won the Community Shield this season.
Hu Lai was not able to play the entire game in this game and was replaced in the 63rd minute. At that time, Leeds City was actually only 1:2 behind, so there was no hope of a comeback.
But Manchester Athletic's "special care" for Hulay made Clark afraid to keep Hulay on the court. He had already lost Peter Williams in the World Cup. If he lost Hulay again, Leeds City would be in trouble in the new season. Totally screwed.
Out of consideration for protecting Hulay, he replaced Hulay early, which basically meant that Leeds City had no intention of competing with Manchester Athletic for the "Super Cup" championship.
Clark doesn't attach much importance to the Community Shield, at least not as much as he does to Hulay's health.
Hu Lai, who was replaced, looked slightly depressed while sitting on the bench.
Seeing this, Matthew Cox comforted him from the air: "Don't be depressed, young man. You have been too crazy this summer - Premier League championship, Premier League Golden Boot and World Cup Golden Boot, hat trick against Brazil... no one No one can guarantee that they will always be online, and no one can guarantee that they will win everything they want to win. Now let your guns cool down and take a rest, and welcome you back when the new Premier League season kicks off! End of chapter)