It's cheating, but Hazard

Chapter 119 Chapter 117 Warm-up Match (I) (Daily Transition)

The next day after the last round of La Liga ended, Charles boarded a plane to Paris.

As soon as he got off the plane, Charles saw the fleet of cars prepared by the national team. Each person had a car that could seamlessly connect to the Clairefontaine training base.

The Clairefontaine training base is located southwest of Paris. The town of Clairefontaine is a small village with only more than a thousand people and is rich in oak trees.

It was in this oak forest that a football training base was established in the early 80s.

This training base, which covers an area of ​​56 hectares and has an 8-square-meter football field, is the training location for French national teams of all ages.

The car zigzagged through a large forest and finally arrived at the gate of the base.

As soon as Charles got out of the car, he saw a family standing at the traffic light. The woman was holding the child's hand tightly, and the man standing next to her waved excitedly when he saw Charles, "Charles, Charles!"

"Hello," Charles walked up to the three people while pulling his suitcase, "This is little Abbas, right?"

The little boy standing in front of his mother jumped up and down excitedly, "It's Ciel, you are Ciel, right? I recognized your voice!"

The boy's mother picked up Abbas and said, "It's us. I never thought I could bring Abbas to see you."

Ciel stepped aside and looked at the three people with a smile, "Let's go in together and have a good chat on the court."

Originally, Charles wanted to take them to the lobby of the dormitory building, but it was not open to the public, so he had to change his mind and take them to the public playground open to the public.

"Charles, Charles, where are we now?" Abbas twisted and turned in his mother's arms. His round eyes were beautiful, but they were like a lens with no focus adjusted.

At this time, Charles also realized that something was wrong with the little boy. "We are now at the training base of the French national team. We will take you to the court to play later."

The boy's father took the child from the woman's arms and gently stroked his hair. "We are Moroccan."

Although French is not the official language of Morocco, it is undeniable that French is much more commonly used in Morocco than the official language.

At the same time, although Morocco is located in Africa, there are almost no black people in their country.

Clairefontaine in the forest was very quiet. As the four of them walked on the road, they could occasionally see small animals jumping out of the forest.

The boy's father continued, "Abbas was very nice before, but then..."

His mother, who was standing beside him, took over the words of his choked father, "In February this year, Abbas was playing games outside and sweating all over. When he came back, he caught a cold and had a fever."

"After I went to the hospital, my condition got worse and worse. I also got pneumonia. Finally, my optic nerve atrophied and I could only sense light—"

Ciel listened quietly to their painful experiences.

The four of them walked slowly, and by the time they reached the court, their story was over.

Abbas was very distressed about his blindness and found it difficult to accept the reality. He stayed in his bedroom every day and never wanted to go out again.

Then his mother hoped that he could play something he loved most to get out of the haze, and his favorite thing was football.

Later, I learned about the sport of "blind football" and hoped that Abbas could be happy again through it.

In May of this year, Abbas came into contact with blind football, but he wanted to meet Charles because Charles was his favorite player when he watched the game before.

The four of them came to the grass of the open public court and sat down.

Abbas looked up at Charles and waved his hands excitedly. "Charles, were you very good at playing football when you were a kid? If I practice (blind) football now, will I be like you in the future?"

Charles held Abbas in his arms and sat on his lap, answering his questions patiently.

"When I was a kid, well, my father was still taking the coaching certificate exam and was an assistant coach in the youth training camp. And when it just started, everyone was just playing, so I didn't know who was good and who was not."

"When I was a little older, my father was still taking the coaching exam. He changed clubs and became an assistant coach in the second team. He took me with him to continue training. He never said whether my performance was good or not."

"He kept taking the coaching exams, and I kept changing clubs with him. His coaching exams got higher and higher, and I moved up the training ladder as well."

"When I was a kid, I was not very good at playing football. I once thought about giving up, but I persisted in the end."

"Abbas," Charles gently held the boy's hand, "No one knows what the outcome of a certain thing will be. Only when you do it, you will know."

"If you start practicing football now, as long as you start, it is the best time to practice. I believe that you will become an excellent athlete in the future."

In this way, Abbas asked and Charles answered. When it was almost dark, Abbas stood up from Charles' legs with a reluctant look on his face, "Thank you, Charles. It's getting dark, and we should go home."

The two people sitting on the side also stood up. The woman excitedly shook Charles' hand and said, "Thank you so much for taking the time to meet us. When we first told our friends about this idea, everyone said it was unrealistic."

The man embraced Abbas and said, "When we flew to Ajaccio, we found your flower shop through the newspaper and happened to meet your neighbor, who helped us contact you."

"We were already very happy when we were able to contact him, but to actually meet him... it was like a dream. It turns out that children's vision is never wrong."

Charles walked to the sidelines, opened his suitcase, and took out three tickets. "These are tickets for the match on the 3nd. I give them to you. If you have time, you can take Abbas to feel the atmosphere on the spot. If you don't have time, you can give them to others or sell them."

This couple looks like an ordinary family in Morocco. They probably spent a lot of money to come to France.

Abbas's father took the ticket and kept expressing his gratitude.

Charles walked along the same path they had come from, and escorted the three of them out the door. After watching them leave in the car, Charles turned around and returned to the dormitory.

Just after putting away the luggage, Benzema pushed the door open and walked in. "Charles, I heard them say you were back, but I didn't expect you to be in the dormitory just now. Did you get caught by a squirrel in the acorn forest?"

"Why did the squirrel grab me? Kick the acorns?" Ciel sat on the bed and started to change his shoes. "Are we going to eat soon?"

Benzema sat casually on the chair. "Are you going to eat acorns instead of rice? There are trees all around here. It takes a long time to drive out to play. I have been waiting for you for a long time, but I didn't expect you to come now."

"What are you waiting for me to do?"

"...Lori and I have already bought it. I bought it for you and will show it to you after dinner. I also brought you something." Benzema hesitated for a long time, and finally pushed Charles downstairs to eat.

Charles finished his dinner in no time. Although Benzema is a Muslim, Charles didn't need to hide and eat the big-eared sheep in front of him.

Seeing that Charles was so anxious, Benzema also quickened his eating speed, and soon, the two went upstairs again. Benzema also took out his treasure package from the cabinet and placed it on the table like a gift.

"Hey, Ciel, guess what Lori and I bought today?"

"What?" Charles pulled out a chair and sat down, curiously watching Benzema unzip his bag. "Ding-ding-ding--" Benzema opened the package, "The artwork we bought at the market today!"

From Charles's point of view, all he could see was a small, typical statue of a beautiful ancient Greek woman. Below it seemed there were many colorful discs, and the word "Woodpecker" was faintly written on it.

He was about to reach out to take something out of the package when Benzema quickly closed it. "...Oh! Charles, I took the wrong bag. This is Lori's."

"Don't look at me like that, this is Lori's, he likes this stuff."

Whether Lloris or Benzema likes art or prefers art films with no clothes on the cover is indeed an unsolved mystery.

"Okay, Lori liked it, you just got the wrong one," Ciel said, changing the subject, "but what's going on with this one?"

"What?" Benzema pushed the package aside and picked up Charles' phone:

“Shocked! The big game is coming, and Benzema actually did this to his teammates!”

"'What Domeneger feared most has happened: Lloris and Benzema are ruining Charr's team'."

“《Charles’ true colors revealed: He actually asked his teammates to do this for him?!》”

……

On June 2nd, Charles had forgiven Benzema.

"Good evening, viewers, welcome to watch the warm-up match between France and Romania on June 2009, 6."

"The French team welcomed back captain Vieira, who had just recovered from a long injury, and A-Diarra was partnering with Vieira in the defensive midfield."

"In the midfield, Remy and Ribery are on the left and right. Anelka and Benzema are on the front line."

"On the defensive line, Escudé and Squirachi, who have also just recovered from injury, will partner as central defenders, with Evra and Fani on both sides."

"For Romania, veteran Kanu started, partnering with Akpala on the front line, and Odenwenghi played on the left wing."

"The camera shows the bench. On the French side, Charles and Gourcuff are sitting on the bench."

"The whole stadium was cheering his name. It was really exciting."

"In fact, the squad for the match was announced on May 5, with Vieira and Malouda both returning to the French team."

"Although Charles is also among them, Domenegue stated frankly at the press conference that Charles will not start in these two warm-up matches."

……

Charles sat on the bench and watched the game quietly. Lori was originally sitting at the end, but before the game started he switched seats with Gourcuff and moved to Charles' side with his legs crossed.

Ge Wu took out a piece of white tape from his pocket and stuck it on Lori's raised thigh out of itchiness.

Lori felt something was wrong. As soon as he lowered his head, he saw Ge Wu tearing off the tape on his leg.

Domenegue walked over to Charles and said, "These two games are warm-up matches. They are mainly for warm-up and for the teammates to get along well with each other."

"You've just finished playing in the Champions League and now it's more important to rest well, relax your muscles and avoid injuries."

"Now your main task off the court is to observe your teammates' movements and adjust to the national team's state."

Charles nodded seriously, while Gowu and Lori were still playing games over there.

In the past two days, he has been working well with his teammates at the training base and has completely integrated into the national team.

The longer I stay in the national team, the more I feel that there are many factions in the team. Because of different clubs, skin color and other reasons, the team is divided into at least three or four gangs.

The only thing to be thankful for is that Charles can get along well with every gang.

Domenegue looked at the players on the field, then looked at Charles, and nodded with satisfaction.

His position as coach can now be said to be very stable, but he does not want any accidents to happen during his remaining coaching period.

The French team has a lot of talented people, and a large part of the job of the national team coach is to suppress the various factions within the team.

After the Champions League, there will always be many fans asking the national team not to let Charles be a substitute and let him play in all the games.

Whenever this happened, Domenegue would just smile and say nothing.

……

"Here are the match rosters for both teams:"

“法国(4-4-2)：16-曼丹达/21-法尼、17-斯奎拉奇、5-埃斯库德、13-埃夫拉/4-维埃拉、18-迪亚拉、19-雷米、22-里贝里/39-阿内尔卡、11-本泽马。”

“罗马尼亚(4-4-2)：1-恩耶玛/3-阿德费米、20-阿德莱耶、19-索德杰、2-恩切吉尔/16-K·乌切、14-奥洛芬加纳、15-I·乌切、11-奥登文吉/17-阿克帕拉、4-卡努。”

The game was played back and forth.

In the 21st minute, Romania quickly counterattacked. I. Uche received a straight pass from his teammate and almost had a one-on-one chance, but Mandanda rushed out to block the ball.

I. Uche turned around and passed the ball, but Mandanda blocked it and blocked it towards his own goal. At this critical moment, Squillaci headed the ball out from the goal line.

Soon, France got another chance. Ribery passed the ball to Anelka, who cut into the penalty area and shot from a small angle but missed.

A few minutes later, Ribery dribbled the ball inside from the left, and after a wall pass with Anelka, he broke into the penalty area alone. Unfortunately, his final shot was blocked by Enyeama with one hand.

In the 32nd minute, I. Uche dribbled past the defense on the right and cut into the penalty area. His low left-foot shot was saved by Mandanda and hit the inside of the goal post and bounced in front of the goal. Akpala made a follow-up shot into the empty goal and easily scored.

1:0, Romania took the lead.

Subsequently, Romania's momentum grew.

After Odenvingi dribbled into the penalty area from the right side and shot hard, Mandanda made a great effort to block the ball. In the 46th minute, Romania's frontcourt continued to cooperate, and I. Uche's left-footed long-range shot from the center of the penalty area hit the right post of the goal and went out of the bottom line, giving the French team a chance to breathe again.

Bombati won his first Ballon d'Or. Looking back at La Masia at this time, one really has to sigh at Cruyff's contribution to Barcelona.



(End of this chapter)