Chapter 1218 Go to the grassroots level
Maxi Carey's condition in training is indeed good. Compared with his condition last season, it is simply a sky and a drop.
In particular, he was able to use his speed to get past defensive players in training.
This is a very rare scene.
Last season, whether for physical or psychological reasons, or both, Kyrie rarely used his speed to break through after getting the ball.
Carey has a very strong technical advantage. His foot skills are extremely delicate and full of imagination, but speed is his most powerful weapon.
At his peak, Carey was considered one of the five fastest players in world football at the time.
Coupled with the fast-break style of Bjorn Hantcek, the head coach of Madrid Pirates at the time, it simply pushed Carey's speed advantage to the extreme.
Kyrie is not just a fast runner, he can also use his excellent ball sense and foot skills to control the ball while running at high speed, and make all kinds of incredible moves.
This doubled his individual threat from the original level.
A fast forward can already cause headaches for the defense. This fast forward can also make various passes while running at high speed.
It's simply threatening and entertaining all in one.
Of course, some people are worried that if Kyrie does not change his style and continues to play like this, as he gets older and his physical function declines, his knees will fail sooner or later.
After all, he always uses his legs to do all kinds of tricks while running at high speed, and the burden on his knees is much greater than ordinary changes of direction...
This fear became a reality on the eve of the 2026 World Cup.
In fact, the 2025-2026 season was originally a season of great glory for Maxi Carey. He helped the Madrid Pirates win the runner-up in the league and also won the Europa League championship.
Scored 11 goals in the Europa League and won the Europa League Golden Boot.
In La Liga, he also ranked third in the scorer list with 29 goals. There is only four goals behind Alexandra Cerrados, who won the Golden Boot, which shows that he is still the top striker in La Liga.
He is in such good condition that Dutch fans hope that he can lead the Dutch national team to achieve good results in the World Cup in the United States and Canada.
He himself is also ambitious. Before going to the World Cup in the United States and Canada, he said that this time the Dutch national team will achieve a breakthrough of zero World Cup titles.
As a result, he collided with his teammates during training, causing a serious knee injury...
Not being able to participate in the World Cup when he was at his peak, no matter how tough he was at the airport, this was indeed the biggest regret in his career.
It's difficult to place all the blame for his serious injury on the collision with his teammate.
Because maybe his knee was already giving out before he was hit?
His outstanding performance in the 2025-2026 season is likely to come at the expense of overdrafting his knee health.
Even if there hadn't been that collision, maybe a fierce fight in the World Cup would have caused him to collapse.
And by then, he wouldn't even have the chance to cover his red eyes with sunglasses.
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Although Maxi Carey showed good condition in training, the coaches of the Madrid Pirates coaching staff were very happy.
But now this Madrid Pirates still have a problem that cannot be ignored.
That's because Hu Lai joined the team too late, leaving him little time to integrate into the team.
Among the major European leagues more than ten or twenty years ago, only the Premier League started in mid-August, while the others did not start until September 1st.
As there are more and more club and national team competitions, the league has to advance the start date of each season. Otherwise, after the end of each season, there will not be enough time left for the national team to compete.
This season's La Liga will kick off on Saturday, August 14th.
There is not much time left for Hu Lai to integrate into the team.
At the same time, due to the restructuring of the Spanish Super Cup, the Spanish Super Cup before the season was moved to January during the season, so the Madrid Pirates also lost the important warm-up match opportunity before the season.
Today's Spanish Super Cup is no longer just a one-on-one match between last season's league champions and Copa del Rey champions, but a small-scale competition between the top two teams in last season's league and the Copa del Rey finalists, a total of four teams. Cup.
If the participating teams in the Copa del Rey final overlap with the top two teams in the league, the team with the higher ranking in the league will participate as substitutes.
The top two teams in the league last season were Catalonia and Kings of Madrid, and the two teams participating in the Copa del Rey final happened to be Catalonia and Kings of Madrid.
Therefore, this season's Spanish Super Cup will be participated by four teams: league champion Catalonia, league runner-up Madrid Kings, league third-place Madrid Pirates, and league fourth-place Valentia.
Play a semi-final first and then a final.
If the Super Cup is scheduled to be played before the start of the season, Madrid Pirates will have two more valuable warm-up games.
This will be of great help to Hu Lai's integration into the team.
Now, although the Madrid Pirates have also organized a warm-up match, compared with the real Super Cup, the effect is still little...
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After ten days of training with Madrid Pirates, Julay ushered in the club's annual tradition - the "Grassroots Day" before the start of each season.
The name "Grassroots Day" was given by Hu Lai, who himself called it "Club Traditional Day".
But after understanding what this "Club Traditional Day" is, you will feel that the name Hu Lai is better.
Pirates of Madrid is a team born of workers - which is not surprising. When modern football emerged, many teams were founded by workers' organizations.
For example, the Warship Port, one of the BIG6 in the Premier League, was formed by workers who originally worked at the military port on the Thames River.
However, in the future development of most workers' teams, they gradually separated from their original class groups.
This is especially true for those who can become a wealthy family.
Some teams will promote their traditions, but that's just propaganda.
And the Madrid Pirates really used actions to show that they have not forgotten their roots.
Although this action is somewhat of a "face project" nowadays.
But being able to show off is better than not even bothering to show up.
Before the rise of player professionalism, the former Madrid Pirates players, without exception, were all part-time players. They usually worked in various factories located in the south of Madrid.
Even Madrid Pirates had a prerequisite for recruiting players at that time, that is, they only accepted workers.
This condition sounds a bit incredible now, but in Spain, incredible things are normal.
For example, Sporting Vizcaya has only recruited players from the Basque Country until now...
Because the players of Madrid Pirates are all workers, except for training and games, they have to work in their respective factories at other times.
After the wave of professionalism swept across Spanish football, Madrid Pirates once resisted this change.
It wasn't until they were almost relegated by the tide of the times that they had to change their ways and accept the changes in the professionalization of players.
However, in order to show that they are a team of workers, the Madrid Pirates Club has established a tradition that before the start of each season, a day will be set aside for professional players to go to various factories in Madrid to experience life and participate in labor, without forgetting the club. tradition, while also connecting with the team’s fans.
This tradition has been continued every year and has been passed down to this day.
Only the specific content has been adjusted.
In the beginning, this activity was quite hardcore. It really meant that professional players went to the factory to work as interns for a day, and they got the tools to work seriously, just like ordinary workers.
Now it has become an experiential face-saving project.
Moreover, with the economic transformation of Madrid, there are fewer and fewer factories that used to be lined up. Coupled with the increasing degree of factory automation, it is indeed difficult to find suitable jobs for players to experience life.
So now we are breaking up to experience life.
Some people work in factories as workers, while others enter the community and participate in community services.
For example, visiting the elderly in nursing homes and bringing them warmth.
Or work as a waiter in a cafe or bar, serving Pirates fans in a neighborhood.
In short, those star players who make millions a year and often appear in various media reports have to serve the fans honestly at this time.
This is the club's traditional day for Pirates of Madrid.
After Hulay understood this tradition of Madrid Pirates, he still had some expectations.
It's like a student who has been studying hard in school all day and suddenly heard that an outing will be organized tomorrow.
He had never seen this thing before when he was in Leeds City...
Leeds City also has an open day for fans, but it only opens the training base for fans to visit, and they can also watch the team's training up close and interact with the players.
That's all.
Unlike Pirates of Madrid, you can also play role-playing games.
Rich families really know how to play!
He just didn't know whether he would be chosen to go to a factory or a community nursing home, or to some bar or cafe - he heard that where to go was decided based on drawing lots.
He wants to go anywhere, but different places have different expectations. (End of chapter)