Chapter 16: The Footsteps of the New Season

Gao Bo was not surprised to win against a team in the fifth division, and the thing that excites Gao Bo is that he saw the potential of this team in the future!

This set of tactics in 2008 can be said to be quite advanced football tactics, and with the players at hand, Gao Bo is confident that all English teams will surprise Luton.

The team's second warm-up match came a week later in the coastal city of Brighton in the south of England, where they will take on League One side Brighton!

It will not be easy to contact a team in the First Division as a warm-up opponent, after all, Luton Town are the least favourites in the second division, while Seagulls Brighton are considered to be the most promising side to reach the Championship this season.

This is a team that is also at the top of the first division!

Although the game was not a closed game, it did not attract media attention, and the focus of the English media is now focused on the Premier League, with Cristiano Ronaldo, who has just won a Champions League trophy for Manchester United, and Real Madrid in the past, and Chelsea have welcomed world champion coach Scolari.

And this warm-up game in Brighton obviously won't let those big media notice. In the stands, there were a few Brighton fans who came to watch the game, and in the media box, there were also a few reporters - this is the local reporter of Brighton, and the news about this warm-up game may only be of interest to fans of both sides.

In fact, Brighton chose to warm up with Luton Town, not without the idea of finding an underdog to warm up before the start of the season and welcome the new season with a big win.

However, Brighton obviously underestimated Luton's strength in this game, and at their home stadium, Luton's forward pressure made Brighton very uncomfortable.

Luton Town scored in the second minute of the game.

This time the goal was scored by the team's midfield interception specialist N'Golo Kante, when Brighton pressed heavily on the attack, only to be tackled by N'Golo Kante in the middle, after the half-time break, Kante dribbled all the way to the edge of the penalty area, and after seeing the opposition defence stretched away by Luton's two strikers, Kante simply kicked himself.

A powerful long-range shot broke past the goalkeeper and gave Luton the lead.

Gao Bo's eyes lit up when he saw this goal on the sidelines, in fact, Kante's long-range shooting attribute reached sixty-three, although this attribute is not too high, but in the second division, this long-range shooting ability is already relatively good, and more importantly, Kante is only seventeen years old this year, maybe Kante should be asked to strengthen the practice of long-range shooting?

Gao Bo touched his chin and thought.

N'Golo Kante, who had scored, raced to the sidelines and jumped into Gao Bo's arms.

For this black boy, Gao Bo can be described as a grace to him, digging him out of the French amateur team, taking him to England across the Channel, and trusting his ability almost unconditionally, from the perspective of training or warm-up matches, Gao Bo used Kante as the absolute main force.

"Thank you, Coach!!"

Kante wasn't quite proficient in English, but it did come from the bottom of his heart.

Gao Bo laughed and touched the back of Kante's head.

"You deserve it, boy, you have that strength!!"

"Also, remember to call me the head in the future!!"

Gao Bo touched the top of his head and said.

"Yes! Chief!! ”

Kante grinned, revealing a row of large white teeth.

The Brighton fans in the stands were sparsely packed before their teams conceded a goal before their butts were hot. The Brighton players were also a little confused, and they were a little frustrated when they scored a goal as soon as the game started.

Originally, Brighton wanted to pick a soft persimmon to pinch and add some confidence to themselves, and they certainly didn't want to lose this warm-up game easily.

So in the next game, Brighton pressed hard.

Luton, on the other hand, have tightened their defence, and their airtight central defence has left Brighton looking for opportunities from the wings.

Luton's defence was not purely a bus-and-go defence, and they put so much pressure on each ball-carrier that it was difficult for Brighton to organise even when they were on the wing.

The second goal was also fast in coming.

After Drinkwater broke the ball with Mitchell Piran on the wing, Drinkwater looked at Jamie Vardy's position in front of him and then launched a long ball straight away.

A quick pass to the back of the opposition is a routine that Luton have been emphasizing all this time.

Vardy's cheetah-like speed allowed him to quickly shake off the Brighton centre-back, and then his handling was even more blood-pumping, in the face of the incoming ball behind him, Vardy adjusted his pace, and then hung his right foot directly in the middle of the ball, and volleyed a lift ball!

In the face of such a shot, the Brighton goalkeeper looked helpless!

Two to zero!!

Gobo wasn't too excited about the goal, he knew Jamie Vardy had the ability to do that, and when he's confident, he can always score like that.

John Aston next to him was stunned by Vardy's shot....

"I felt like I saw Van Basten at that moment...", the accomplished John Aston wrote in his autobiography years later.

At this time, John was just so shocked by this goal that his mouth was so open that he could stuff an egg, and even saliva was about to flow out, and he didn't know it.... Of course, such a humiliating thing John did not include in his autobiography.

Brighton are two goals down at home, but they still don't have a good way to defend against Luton, Kante is quite active in midfield, and for Brighton, Kante in midfield is almost an insurmountable barrier.

Luton's third goal didn't take long, as captain Kevin Keane had a shot on the right side of the penalty area in the 38th minute of the first half.

In the second half, Gao Bo did not make large-scale substitutions, he just replaced Charlie Austin with high school striker Matt Schmidt, Gao Bo needs to form a tacit understanding between the three forwards, and these three strikers can be used by Gao Bo this season, although it looks a little thin, but Gao Bo does not have many resources on hand, so he is barely used.

Matt Schmidt's characteristic is very obvious, that is, his height, there are not many strikers on the football field who are 198 cm tall. However, his shortcomings are also obvious, his ability to move, his speed, his mobility are far inferior to Charlie Austen.

However, Gao Bo believes that Matt is a sharp weapon for the team in the face of the opposition's dense defense, and it is not for nothing that many teams like to put a high school forward on the bench. Luton's fourth goal came from Matt's header, who found Matt's head on the counter-attack, and then Matt's header flicked into the feet of Jamie Vardy, who had successfully countered offside.

Faced with a one-on-one chance, Vardy easily pushed into a dead corner and turned the score into 4-0!

The good performance in the warm-up matches boosted the morale of Luton, and then Luton also played several warm-up games one after another, and Gao Bo also tried different formations and personnel combinations in this series of warm-up games, so the results of this series of warm-up teams have been up and down.

However, the warm-up has always been used to run in the lineup for the team and find out the problems, so Gao Bo does not pay attention to the results of the warm-up game.

What he really needs is a win in the official competition!

As time goes by, the pace of the new season has also come to a bang.