The United States, the most powerful country in the world today, used to be a football desert, but now the level of football has also been rapidly improved.

Because of the large number of Spanish-speaking immigrants in the United States, La Liga has a wide influence in the United States.

Every summer, many Spanish teams go to the United States to train and play warm-up games.

So much so that a fixed commercial warm-up event was formed, the International Champions Cup, which was formerly known as the World Football Challenge.

However, this time Atletico Madrid is not going to participate in the International Champions Cup. There are no of them in the International Champions Cup this time.

They're really just there to practice.

The team will also be in the United States for only one week, taking on major league side San Jose Earthquakes in the United States next Monday and Mexico City on Wednesday against Mexico City, Mexico's traditional powerhouse.

After the game, he returned to China and played with other first-team players who stayed in the country to train together for the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup, which starts on August 19, against rivals Real Madrid.

Unlike in Italy and Spain, Gao Zheng's popularity here in the United States is much smaller.

He and Xu Xin went out shopping without wearing sunglasses to disguise themselves, and they were not recognized until they returned to the hotel.

In the warm-up game with the San Jose Earthquakes, Gao Zheng did not start.

He and Xu Xin sat on the bench and watched the game.

In the first half, Mario Suarez broke through the middle and fell in the box, and the referee awarded a penalty. But it was a pity that Raul Garcia's shot was blocked by the post, and Siqueira's follow-up shot was saved by the San Jose Earthquakes goalkeeper.

Neither team was able to score and the score remained 0-0 until halftime.

At half-time, Simeone made a big rotation change to the team's starting lineup, almost finishing the starting eleven in one go.

Gao Zheng was naturally able to come off the bench.

If this is played in China, it is estimated that when Gao Zheng plays, there will be so much joy in the stadium that no other sounds can be heard.

But in the United States, the response from the audience was mediocre, and it was just a routine round of applause.

Fans were not interested in Gao Zheng, but Diego Simeone straightened his waist after Gao Zheng came on the court, leaned forward, and paid great attention to Gao Zheng's performance.

No matter how many times you practice tactics in training, it is meaningless if you do not put them to the test in actual combat.

For him, this is an occasion for the first test.

However, after the start of the second half, it was the San Jose Earthquakes who scored first - just three minutes into the second half, the new Atletico Madrid players had not yet reacted, and they took advantage of an offside front to give the San Jose Earthquakes the lead.

The San Jose Earthquakes fans cheered on their teams at home.

Gao Zheng, who had high hopes from Simeone, equalised for Atletico Madrid in the 55th minute - he did not score, but equalized with an assist to Alda Turan.

The goalkeepers of both sides then performed well and neither conceded another goal.

The two sides played to a 1-1 draw in regular time, and the game went straight to a penalty shootout.

In the penalty shootout, Gao Zheng was arranged by Simeone in the fourth penalty shootout.

The San Jose Earthquakes kicked the ball away with the first penalty taker, while Atletico Madrid's first three penalty players all hit the ball, and the penalty shootout was 3:1 after three rounds, with Atletico Madrid leading by two goals.

In this way, as long as Atletico Madrid's side can score in the fourth round, then Atletico Madrid will win the championship regardless of whether the San Jose Earthquakes play it or not.

The San Jose Earthquakes' fourth free thrower withstood the pressure and scored a penalty, and it was Gao Zheng's turn to play.

Walking from the middle circle to the penalty spot, Gao Zheng looked relaxed and didn't take the penalty kick seriously at all.

Of course, this is a warm-up game, so there is not much pressure in the first place.

After Gao Zheng set up the football, he waited for the referee to blow the whistle, quickly and neatly helped him run and kick the football into the goal without any suspense.

Atletico Madrid thus won the first game of the North American training session.

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After finishing the match against the San Jose Earthquakes, the whole Atletico Madrid team did not delay here and left for Mexico City directly.

This time he stayed in Mexico City for a short time, and he didn't arrange free time, so Gao Zheng didn't take Xu Xin out shopping.

Just one day after the match against the San Jose Earthquakes, Atletico Madrid ushered in a match against Mexico's traditional powerhouse, America.

Simeone made a big change to the team's starting line-up for this game, with all the players who started the last game on the bench and the players who came off the bench in the last game.

So Gao Zheng appeared in the starting list.

After the start of the game, the América, who were playing at home, were more proactive and constantly threatened the goal of Atletico Madrid. For a while, Atletico Madrid couldn't get the ball.

It wasn't until half an hour later that things got better.

And the sign of gradual improvement is that Gao Zheng broke the deadlock for Atletico Madrid.

He received an assist from team-mate Koke in the box and scored his first goal since Atletico Madrid.

Although this is not an unofficial goal and will not be included in Gao Zheng's career goal statistics, it still makes Simeone on the sidelines very excited, jumping up and waving his fists in celebration, as if this is a Champions League game, not an innocuous warm-up game......

However, after scoring the goal, Gao Zheng seemed much calmer than the head coach, just high-fived his teammates who came up to congratulate him, and there was no happy expression on his expression.

Gao Zheng's goal was also the only goal scored by both sides in the first half.

Although the América tried to fight back towards the end of the first half and created two very good scoring chances, they were saved by goalkeeper Oblak.

In the second half, the two sides changed sides and fought again. Gao Zheng was not substituted at halftime, but played another ten minutes before being substituted in the 155th minute.

But Atletico Madrid, who were ahead, failed to extend their lead and did not hold on to the result of their quest for the lead.

In the 79th and 84th minutes, they conceded two goals in a row in five minutes and lost the game.

Atletico Madrid failed to win two consecutive North American warm-up matches.

The team's overall performance in these two warm-up games was also unsatisfactory, exposing the lack of attacking energy, and although they scored in both games, only two goals were scored.

The only thing to be happy about is that these two goals are still related to Gao Zheng - an assist, a goal, which should show that Gao Zheng bought the right one......

At the post-match press conference, Simeone also talked about Gao Zheng's performance and praised Gao Zheng.

Now Gao Zheng has only been training with the team for 20 days, and he can show such a performance only by virtue of his personal ability, which cannot help but make people look forward to what kind of performance he can show when he integrates into the Atletico Madrid team.

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After two warm-up matches in North America, Atletico Madrid set off for home, and there are still plenty of games waiting for them.

He warmed up in Germany and Wolfsburg before returning home for two Ramon Carranza Cups.

These three games are warm-up games, the result is not the most important, the process is important.

In addition to Gao Zheng, there is also a new addition to the team, Griezmann needs to use the opportunity of these three warm-up games to run in with the team and find a feeling of cooperation.

Then the Spanish Super Cup kicked off on August 19, and it was not a warm-up match that didn't matter whether it was won or lost.

From the beginning of the Super Cup, the team has officially entered the rhythm of the new season.

The rivalry with the city's rivals also makes the Super Cup a must-have.

There wasn't much time left for Simeone to adjust to trial and error.