Chapter 12

The preparation site of the Argentine team in the World Cup in South Africa is located in Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa, the presidential palace of South Africa is located in this city, and the embassies of various countries are also concentrated in the embassy street of the city, so in fact, Pretoria is the political decision-making center of South Africa, because the city is full of different flowers and trees, and also has the reputation of "Garden City".

Argentina has chosen the Highperformancecentre (HPC) at the University of Pretoria as the team's home for the World Cup. The University of Pretoria is the largest public university in South Africa, and the HPC Sports Centre is South Africa's first elite one-stop sports facility. Facilities ranging from training to medical care, accommodation and food. The central site occupies an area of approximately 76 hectares. It is strategically located not far from Argentina's playing venues (Argentina will have two of their group stage matches in Johannesburg, and if they qualify first in the group, the first knockout game will also be in Joburg, while Pretoria is only a few dozen kilometers away from Joburg), and the transportation is very convenient.

What the Football Association and the coaching staff value most is that the sports center integrates accommodation, training, leisure and relaxation, so that the players can prepare for the game without leaving home, and the conditions are very ideal.

In fact, as early as August last year, Argentina sent the team's technical adviser Bilardo to inspect the facilities here, and he was very satisfied with the place, and wrote to the other party after returning to hope that they could stay during the World Cup. Two weeks later, the England national team also sent a visit, but Argentina was the first team to officially register with FIFA to stay at HPC. The England national team had no choice but to give up and look elsewhere.

England, as Argentina's long-standing rival, took a lead off the field, which made the Chinese people extremely proud and excited, but also more full of expectations for this World Cup.

Of course, Raphael would have known this, still thanks to Manuel.

But Raphael is really happy with the environment here, and the HPC center has a total of 5 buildings, one main building and four annex buildings. There are more than 70 people in the team, including the national team players and coaches who live in rooms called "Rugby House" on the third floor of the main building, while they and their entourage will be accommodated in the annex building as sparring partners. Although the annex is not as elaborate as the main building, it is still very comfortable.

Two people in a room, Raphael and Pezzella live together. It was noon when they arrived, the journey was tired, and the plane had already had lunch, and the head coach Maradona did not arrange any tasks for the players today, and directly disbanded on the spot and let the players go back to rest, as a sparring partner, they naturally did the same.

Pezzella was accustomed to taking a nap, and after saying hello to Raphael after taking a shower, she didn't care about jet lag, put on an eye mask and lay down on the bed and fell asleep.

Raphael refreshed himself, but he couldn't sleep, and the arduous task of signing autographs weighed heavily on his heart. He doesn't live with the players of the national team, he doesn't know people well, he can't play together, and he only eats and trains together every day, and it is impossible for him to hang around with an autograph book during these two time periods, and even if he does, he can't afford to lose this person!

Raphael, who has always been the proud son of heaven who only signs autographs for others, asking for other people's autographs is the first time for him to get a big girl on a sedan chair!

Is there any way for him to get an autograph without revealing himself? Raphael pondered and finally came up with an idea.

Leonel Messi and his friend Sergio Aguero came to the restaurant while talking and laughing, as two game-madness, the two of them rested for a while and played PES in the room.

They didn't come early or late, and the restaurant already had some people. Messi Aguero waved his hand at his teammates from a distance and wanted to walk over, but was stopped by a black waiter at the door.

"Wait a minute, two people, please sign. The waiter handed them an A4-sized autograph book, his Spanish didn't look good, he stumbled over, but the meaning was clear, "Coach demands, check." ”

Messi and Aguero looked at each other, looked down, the left row of the autograph book is the name of all of them, neatly listed, and the grid label in the upper right row is the signature, sign-in time, and remarks - please eat on time, please consciously sign and mark the time. There were already four or five signatures on it, and I looked at the teammates who arrived early.

Did the coaching staff come up with a new trick? Messi took the black marker, signed his name obediently, and looked at his mobile phone, pinpointing the time to the minute, before handing it to Aguero: "Ah Kun, sign." ”

Aguero was puzzled: "Is this a rule of the coaching staff?" he asked the waiter.

It's a pity that the other party said that he was not good at Spanish and couldn't understand it very well, and this signature book was brought by your employee. repeated these two sentences, and then looked at him with an honest face.

"Probably the coaches are here to see if we're eating on time. Messi said on the side.

Aguero shrugged his shoulders and signed: "Maybe." ”

When Raphael came to the restaurant, his hair was still a little wet, his face was flushed after exercise, and his handsome appearance coupled with the vitality of a young man made the reception staff involuntarily look at it several times. As soon as he approached, he heard Pezzella's voice: "Raphael, here. ”

With a light smile, he looked over as Pezzella waved to him in a corner, along with a few of his youth teammates.

"Hey, I didn't see you in the bedroom just now, so I guess you're coming for dinner. Raphael walked over briskly, grinning, and greeting the others, "Good afternoon, I'm Raphael Yun." "He entered the team in a hurry, and it was the first time he entered the national youth team, except for Pezzella, everyone else did not know each other.

"Javier Correa, good afternoon. ”

"Lucas Mugnny. ”

Pezzella said separately to the two tall men facing her.

The remaining shorter, dark-skinned, honest-looking young man nodded at him: "Lucas Rodriguez." You call me Luka, okay. He pointed to Mughni.

After a while, he smiled again: "Hey, you don't seem to remember me anymore." ”

Rafael looked at him a little confused: "This is my first time selected for the national team, it's nice to meet you." ”

"We're all first, just a few days before you, don't be so nervous, ha. Correa smiled brightly.

Rafael looked at them with some surprise and then at Pezzella, who grinned: "Don't look at me, I've only been in the Under-18s a few times, and this is my first time in the Under-20s. ”

Raphael sat next to him: "But you feel familiar to me. "I don't know if it's because of Pezzella's steady nature, you see that he doesn't look like he comes often.

"You're in the national youth team for the first time, and it's still different from us. ”

Raphael squinted: "Are you showing off?" ”

Pezzella hurriedly shook her head: "No, no, after all, it is the national youth team, and any echelon is about the same, so I am not so excited." Everyone's dream, it's still over there. He pouted to the other side, a look of yearning. Rafael followed and saw that Messi, Aguero, Mascherano and two players he didn't know were sitting together for dinner, talking and laughing and looking happy.

Although they and the members of the national team are in the same restaurant, they basically do not sit together, and even the entrance to the restaurant is different.

Raphael glanced at it, smiled, and withdrew his gaze.

Pezzella and they have already ordered the meal, just waiting for the meal, the restaurant has prepared a nutritious meal for them, because of the different side dishes are divided into three ABC kinds, Raphael compared and felt that they were not delicious, so he ordered a set casually and chatted with them casually.

"It looks like you really don't remember me, I was in the Argentine Juniors six, we had a game a few months ago, remember? I was one of the defenders who defended you and you scored a hat-trick and it was a nightmare first half. Rodriguez picked up the topic and spread his hands to the others, "This guy gave me nightmares for days. ”

Pezzella patted him on the shoulder and smiled sympathetically.

The other two looked at Raphael curiously, they had never fought Raphael and had no feelings about it.

Rafael finally remembered which game it was, but he was embarrassed to say that he didn't remember him at all, so he could only smile apologetically: "I'm sorry, I don't have a good memory, hehe." ”

"No wonder Manu says that the only thing you have in your head is football. Pezzella laughed, although he was not in the same echelon, but Raphael's name was very loud in their youth echelon in the past few months, and they had been privately speculating about when this kid would be transferred to their echelon.

"Manu, this guy doesn't speak ill of me all day long. Raphael was furious.

Pezzella smiled and didn't answer, and asked him again: "By the way, where did you go in the afternoon, and when you woke up, you found that you were not there, and the bedding had not been touched, didn't you take a nap?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I went to the training ground. ”

The others looked at him in surprise.

"Don't tell us, you've been on the training ground all afternoon. Rodriguez said.

"Almost," Raphael nodded absently, "or I don't know what to do." "He made a training plan for himself every day, and if he didn't do it for a day, he felt uncomfortable, so he went to train whenever he had time.

"Don't you have a game console with you? Correa watched a movie all afternoon, and finally managed to steal half a day of leisure, and he couldn't imagine that someone would run to practice himself.

Raphael was even more surprised than them: "Can I still bring a game console?" Well, I brought my mobile phone and a change of clothes...... "Originally, he forgot to bring his mobile phone, but Terri stuffed it for him when he checked it."

"Okay, I'll bring it, let's play together then. "Pezzella raised his hand in surrender, shouldn't this be self-taught? The coach has no rule that you can't bring it, and most people will think of finding some entertainment for themselves, who knew that there really was such an upright BOY.

Although Raphael was not very interested, he did not refuse his kindness: "Okay. ”

By this time, the set meal they had ordered had already been delivered, and Raphael had a large bowl of spaghetti with minced beef, a side dish of half an onion, a peeled tomatoes, and a plate of vegetable salad with a large glass of skim milk. He took a hard look, it didn't look good at all, and he could really eat enough like this, it was just abusing minors.

complained in his heart, and in his actions, Raphael had elegantly put the noodles into his mouth with a fork, and when he looked up, he saw his teammates taking out their mobile phones one after another......