Joe. When Shirin was woken up by his own alarm clock, the light from the window shone in through the gap in the thick curtains, falling right on his eyes.

He opened his eyes, squinted, and it took him a long time to see the room that was still dark.

Messy, is the only word that can be used to describe this.

The clothes and pants that I took off yesterday were thrown on the floor, and the quilt on the bed had been halfway dragged under the bed because of his dishonest sleeping position. On the coffee table not far away were empty beer cans that had been sitting for an unknown amount of time, and there were many prototype wine stains on the glass surface, and the ashtray was full of leftover cigarette butts and ashes.

Shirin pulled his numb left hand from under his head, and grinned.

His mind gradually became clearer.

Today is Saturday, January 3rd. Matchday ...... He sat up abruptly from the messy bed.

※※※ Chu Zhongtian put his hands behind his head and sat up from the bed.

"Four hundred and ninety-five...... he lay down again, and then sat up again - he was doing sit-ups.

Since the new season, he has increased the amount of exercise he exercises. He used to do 150 sit-ups in bed every morning after his run and before going to bed at night, but then he increased to 300, and now he is aiming for 500.

This greatly strengthens his waist and abdomen, which is very important for footballers. Just like for a team, the midfielder is also important.

"Five...... "......Chu Zhongtian finished the last one, and fell on the bed panting to rest.

Today is the third of January, Saturday, and it's the day we made an appointment with that Wimbledon team.

He was full of anticipation.

※※※ "Today is Saturday, January 3rd. The day the FA Cup reignited the flames. "Sports on TV are introducing the wake up audience to the important events of the day that are worth watching.

Gavin. Borger and his family sat in front of the TV, enjoying their breakfast today while following the TV show.

"Although the Premier League teams have made their appearances in this round, we think the most special, eye-catching and watchable game of this round is definitely not the performance of the Premier League teams, even if they are in the last four of the Premier League. One of the most high-profile matches of the day is one of the ninth tier amateur leagues, while the other side is a League One side that has just moved. That's why we've scheduled this game to be broadcast live across the country. ”

"Yay!" Ignoring the fact that he still had a sandwich in his hand, Borger clenched his fist so hard that the sandwich was held in his hand like a rag stained with bacon and butter...... "Eat well, Gavin!" Mom scolded and handed over another tissue.

"Ah, I'm sorry, Mom." Borger shoved all the sandwiches in his mouth and wiped them clean with a tissue.

The TV continued: "Wimbledon Athletic, who come from the ninth division, are destined to be the darkest horse in this season's FA Cup. They made it all the way from the qualifying rounds, and in the main draw they knocked out League Two side Norts County and National League side Hinckley United, who were the lowest-ranked teams in the league in the third round! ”

"But that alone wasn't enough to make this game a lot of attention. Their opponents are Wimbledon FC from League One (that is, Wimbledon FC, for the sake of distinction, "Wimbledon FC" will be collectively referred to as "Wimbledon" in this game). Just by looking at the names of these two teams, you can know what their origins are, right? It was the move to Milton Keynes that led to the emergence of Wimbledon Athletic. In other words, Wimbledon's decision to move angered many of the fans who had supported them, so they formed their own team, Wimbledon Athletic. ”

"There is no shortage of examples in English football, where they were originally the same team, but due to internal conflicts, some people separated and formed a team that could stick to their philosophy. Like from Liverpool and Everton. Two teams that are split for internal reasons tend to become fatalistic enemies for the rest of the year, and they will fight each other to the death. ”

'Wimbledon is no longer part of the Wimbledon community, but it can still be considered a derby and I guarantee it is not much worse than the north London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham......

"That's right!!" Borger exclaimed excitedly, squirting out the remnants of the sandwich in his mouth before he could swallow it.

"Gavin. Borger! "Mom finally lost her temper.

"Wimbledon, who moved to Milton Keynes, got into a bit of trouble some time ago. Because they forcibly moved and did not have the support of the fans, when they moved to their new home, they were faced with an empty stadium and a debt of up to 20 million pounds. Winckelmann has been able to raise funds to tide the team through the storm for the time being, but rumours have suggested that they will have to sell off a number of promising players this winter transfer window to ease the financial pressure. In such a situation, they welcomed an opponent who had absolutely no problem in terms of fighting spirit......"

Speaking of this, the host of the show laughed.

For this match, many people voted for the amateur team Wimbledon. Because moving and changing your name is a very bad thing in English football. People themselves sympathize with the underdogs, plus they hate Winckelmann's team, so most people hope that Wimbledon can beat their predecessors in the game. Even the host of the show talked about the difficulties and troubles faced by the professional team Wimbledon, and analyzed to the audience where this team would lose if it was going to lose.

In doing so, he clearly flattered Wimbledon fans.

"Aha! You can say that again! We have no problem in terms of fighting spirit, and we have no problem in terms of strength!! Let those bastards see how good we are! ”

Charles. Philip stuffed his bag with his gear and took the time to shake his fist to show off their "strength".

Joseph. Kenny stood next to him, intently watching the TV screen while his gear was already ready.

※※※“…… The owner of the club, Pete. Winckelman spoke to reporters about changing the name next year, arguing that now that the team has moved away from Wimbledon, there is no need to keep the original name, which would be disrespectful to local fans. ”

Terry. Eames is revisiting the newspaper from some time ago, which is his repertoire after breakfast.

"Despite the FA's suggestion that they keep the 'Wimbledon' in their name and have promised to let the fans vote on the team's new name, Winckelmann clearly has no intention of following it. He also spoke about the FA Cup third-round opponents he will face, and he believes his side have drawn a good draw as Wimbledon are the weakest of all the third-round .......

Eames couldn't help but laugh out loud when he saw this.

"He said: 'I'm happy to play against Wimbledon because it means we can easily qualify for the fourth round. Lose sleep over something? No, I have nothing to worry about. I admit that playing against a first-division team will keep that amateur team motivated, but I'm confident that we won't lose this game. The newspaper also carefully accompanied a photograph of Winckelmann's expression that looked very arrogant.

The more Eames watched, the more merry he became, and at last he couldn't help himself, threw away the newspaper, and burst out laughing. His wife and children looked at him with hellish expressions in laughter.

"What makes you so happy, darling?" After waiting for a long time, Eames's laughter completely stopped, and his wife asked curiously.

"I saw a clown here." Eames pointed to the newspaper. "Very funny clown. He put me in a good mood for the day, haha! ”

※※※ Shirin shaved carefully, his chin was full of foam, and he was still whistling, and he seemed to be in a good mood.

This is the first time he has appeared on national television, of course, he has to pay attention to his image, but he can't let people see his unshaven and unkempt side, he wants to show his most handsome image to the whole England audience.

After shaving, Shirin wiped off all the foam on his chin with a towel and carefully applied hairspray to his hair.

Living alone, he is not in a hurry, and slowly perfects his image.

※※※ And Chu Zhongtian began to make breakfast for Yang Yang and himself after doing his own workout. He didn't have the time or heart to sort out his personal image in front of the mirror for an hour.

"Da Chu, you must win this game, right?" After washing his face and brushing his teeth, Yang Yang was applying skin cream, and he poked his head out of the bathroom and asked while putting white skin cream on his face.

"Of course, this game must be won."

"But how sure are you of winning? That Wimbledon is a first-division team, right? Second only to the Premier League's ......"

"It's just a paper tiger." Chu Zhongtian shrugged, "The current situation of this team is not very good, the financial difficulties, may be forced to sell the main players, and the home stadium has not been gone for a long time, empty, and morale is low." Not as powerful as their rank seems. ”

Yang Yang felt that Chu Zhongtian's analysis was also reasonable, he was a fan, and he naturally knew that the victory or defeat of a football match did not depend entirely on the difference in strength between the two sides and the difference in rank. Sometimes, non-football factors can play a fatal role.

"And I took a look at the few interviews that the president of the club had after he found out that the opponent was us, and there was a lot of contempt in his words. I think that's a good thing, they underestimated the enemy, and that's our chance. ”

Yang Yang is not a Wimbledon fan, nor is he a Wimbledon fan, or if he must say, he is a "fan" of Wimbledon, not a "supporter" (about the difference between supporter and fans, please read "Chapter 99 is another year of Christmas"). He wants Wimbledon to beat Wimbledon because the former has his own roommate playing in it.

So he nodded: "Okay, I wish you success, ha!" I'll cheer you on from the stands! You kid, you're going to be famous! Have you done a good job of signing your signature? I'll tell you, don't write your name vertically anymore...... Ha ha! ”

With that, he smiled and retracted into the bathroom and continued to care for his skin.

Chu Zhongtian didn't care about Lao Yang's ridicule of his name, but was thinking about Lao Yang's words - "You kid, you're going to become famous!" ”

Fame?

Chu Zhongtian hadn't thought much about this before, but this game has been determined to be broadcast live to the whole country, so isn't it equivalent to appearing on a bigger stage? If the team wins and they play well, what happens to them next?

He suddenly felt vaguely that his peaceful life was already showing signs of being shattered.

Even though it's still morning, the BBC TV truck is parked outside the Milton Keynes National Hockey Stadium (national_hockey_stadium). BBC staff are preparing for the 3pm broadcast of the game.

The BBC ace commentator in charge of commentating the game, John Brown. Mortenson (john_motson) sits outside the OB van, holding a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and a large stack of materials in the other. It is all kinds of information about the teams and players of the two participating teams, and he has to write them down before the commentary so that he can use it when commenting. In fact, he just needs to take a closer look and memorize the part of the information about Wimbledon, who has been commentators on League One for a long time, is no stranger to Wimbledon FC, but he doesn't know much about Wimbledon.

Some of this material was used in the Wimbledon and Norths games, and it was a trial commentator who asked the back staff at half-time to provide it, but I didn't expect it to be used again so quickly.

The rest was collected later, from the very beginning of the team's inception to the present, where more than a season of details are located, thanks to the developed media, thanks to Wimbledon's own official website - much of the information about the players on it is copied directly from their official website.

Mortensen looked down at the stack of materials in his hand, occasionally taking a sip of coffee, the coffee in the cup was getting cold, he didn't care. His commentary partner wouldn't be able to come until noon, and it was a busy man. Pierce (stuart_pearce) had just retired from Manchester City at the end of last season to help them progress from League One to the Premier League, missing the hundredth goal of his career in the final game. He has now become an assistant coach in the Manchester City team, assisting Kevin Bush. Keegan manages the team and daily training.

Mortensen doesn't know much about Wimbledon as a team, and he knows almost nothing about the players in Wimbledon. In order to make no mistakes in the game, and to be as fluid as possible, he has to keep the personal confidence of these players in his head, and if he waits until he needs to use it, it's too late - who knows what will happen on the field when he looks down and flips through it?

The information is quite detailed, recording the name, age, height, weight, teams he has played for, favorite current players, favorite historical players, favorite teams, favorite food, favorite albums and artists, favorite movies and actors, favorite drinks...... Wait a minute. In addition to this, there is a small introduction about the player.

Not every player at Wimbledon has it, although a lot of it comes down from their team's website. This shows how unsystematic the management of an amateur team is, and how mobile and random the players of an amateur team are...... First of all, he is the main player of Wimbledon, basically the starting eleven, and every game is the first eleven of them, and there is not much change. These 11 men are also the strongest force in this team, and luckily none of them were absent in this game due to injuries or red and yellow cards.

Mortenson soon saw a name that was completely different from the name format he had seen before - chu_zhongtian.

How do you pronounce the name? Mortenson frowned.

He thought that he had heard that Wimbledon Athletic did have a Chinese player, could it be him?

He looked down, and directly below the names of other players was height and weight, while under the name of this player was another line of text: nationality China.

Sure enough, it was him!

Mortensen became interested in the Chinese player, who played on an amateur team.

There are many Chinese who have played in England in recent years, including Fan Zhiyi and Sun Jihai, and Li Weifeng and Li Tie. But he had never heard of a Chinese player in a team in the ninth tier.

Why is he on such a team?

He is 1.80 meters tall and weighs 80 kilograms, and his position is the lower back.

Here's a description of him:

“…… This is the only 'foreign player' in our team. He is an international student at Wimbledon School of the Arts, but he has a huge love for football. He's been a lot more solid defensively, he's got amazing stamina, he's got a lot of physicality, he's got a lot of experience defending, he's an absolute mainstay in the team. Unfortunately, he missed almost all of the midweek games last season due to his studies, but the fans still thank him for his contribution to the team. He wasn't an Englishman, but he had the purest form of the will of an English player – never give up, never give up. Terry. Coach Eames believes that he is the player who best represents the 'mad gang spirit', but unfortunately he is a Chinese. He continued to be with the team this season and will be part of the team until the end of his studies at Wimbledon. However, we are sad to see that he will not remain at Wimbledon in the future, and he will return to his home country, so I wish him good luck. ”

An international student player?

Mortensen drew a line under the man's name, reminding himself to pay extra attention to the Chinese player during the game, which must be a good gimmick.

(To be continued)