Chapter 101 This Is Fate!

The English FA Cup (e-cup), referred to as the FA Cup (fa-cup), is the most important cup competition in England and the oldest football competition in the world. It is very meaningful in the heart. ∑,

The event represents the culture and history of football in England.

Before 2000, the FA Cup was always regarded by English fans as a more important game than the top league, but in the new millennium, many people think that the FA Cup is not as important as it used to be. They think that the Premier League and the Champions League are more important than the FA Cup. The value is much higher.

There are two reasons for this.

One is the influence of the UEFA Champions League. The giants can make a lot of money from the Champions League, so those games are more important to them than the FA Cup. The FA Cup is just a cup game, even if they win the championship It's just a championship, except for a UEFA Cup qualification that is tasteless for a giant team, there is no other benefit at all.

The second is the influence of coaches from other countries, such as the French. The cup competition in France is not very good, so they take it for granted that the FA Cup in England is meaningless.

For these two reasons, the influence of the FA Cup in England gradually waned.

But for English fans, the FA Cup is still very meaningful. This is the tradition of English football. It is full of unique culture and historical heritage, and it has an extremely glorious history. Almost every FA Cup has an extraordinary The significance of this, many England fans will forget that the team they support beats a strong opponent in the league, but they will not forget to beat the strong team in the FA Cup.

Cups of various countries seem to be a hotbed of unpopularity, and the FA Cup shows this feature to the fullest. According to the FA Cup competition system, the outcome is a decision, and the opponent, home and away games are decided by lottery. In such a competition system, there are often unpopular situations in which lower-level league clubs defeat high-level league clubs.

Every year the FA Cup starts in August.

Before the establishment of the Premier League, top league clubs also have to participate in the FA Cup from the first round, but considering various competitions such as the Europa League, leagues, and League Cups, high-level league teams will participate in the FA Cup from the first round. The schedule is too dense, so the FA has carried out some restructuring of the event, and the Premier League and League One teams have started to play from the third round after Christmas.

In the third round, the round of thirty-two, there will be sixty-four teams participating.

Except for the 44 teams in the Premier League and League One. In the first two rounds of competitions that clubs from the lower leagues participated in before Christmas, only 20 teams could continue to participate in the competition, which shows the cruelty of the FA Cup elimination.

After the game against Norwich, Derby County began to prepare for the FA Cup.

Wan Sheng has made the team prepare a lot for the game because of the bad luck of club chairman Ji Smith...Derby County has drawn a Premier League team, Tottenham Hotspur, and it is Away battle.

Wansheng is still very impressed with Tottenham Hotspur.

When he left Manchester United, he first went to Manchester City to find a coaching job, and then failed. I went directly to North London, Tottenham Hotspur Club. That experience was not a good memory. Alex Inglethorpe, the youth coach of Tottenham Hotspur at the time, did not even read his resume. . Just knowing that it was Chinese, he rejected him directly.

That guy is racist.

A racist guy will never make a good impression anywhere, especially as the object of discrimination, Wansheng doesn't feel very good about that guy. He thought it would be difficult for him to have anything to do with Alex Inglethorpe in his life, because the other side was just a youth team manager, as long as he didn't coach Tottenham. Naturally, I wouldn't deal with Alex Inglethorpe, but I didn't expect things to change - now Derby County is playing Tottenham Hotspur, and Alex Inglethorpe happens to be one of the acting managers. one.

In fact, things haven't been great for Tottenham this season. Tottenham Hotspur sacked manager Hoddle in September due to the team's dismal results.

Hoddle has experienced two seasons at Tottenham, and Tottenham ranked only 10th in the Premier League last season. At the beginning of this season, Hoddle spent 11 million pounds to bring three strikers - Postiga, Canute and Zaza Mora, but none of the three played well.

"Glen (Hoddle) and I spoke tonight. After two disappointing seasons, another important investment was made in the summer to give us a better chance of success this season. Unfortunately The thing is, at the beginning of the season we had the worst record in the Premier League since its inception."

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy said after Hoddle was sacked.

"Added to the lacklustre second half of last season, the current lack of progress and any visible improvement is unacceptable. This is a time of crisis and the board and I should have absolute confidence in the manager's success, but sorry We cannot accept it. It was not an easy decision, but we are determined to see the success of the club and we must now move forward."

At that time, Tottenham ranked third from the bottom in the Premier League. Before that, Hoddle had only scored 4 points in 6 games.

"Glen occupies a special place at the club and today's decision does not change that he is one of our greatest players. He will always be welcome at Egret Lane and I would like to personally thank him for his determination and commitment and wish him well OK. We'll be looking for a new head coach, it's a crucial appointment, and we'll take the time we need to make the best choice."

Shortly after Daniel Levy's speech, Tottenham Hotspur announced that caretaker manager David Plitt would join youth director Alex Inglethorpe as Tottenham's manager on a temporary basis. head coach.

The two have been in charge of the team together for three months. With a fairly gorgeous lineup, as well as good adjustment and leadership skills, the two have made Tottenham Hotspur's performance rebounded a lot, but now Tottenham Hotspur Still ranked fifth from the bottom in the league, still not completely out of the relegation circle.

Now in the FA Cup, Derby County met Tottenham Hotspur, and Wansheng also met Alex Inglethorpe again.

This may be fate.

......

"The purpose of our participation in the FA Cup is to try to achieve better results and I will not give up this cup. Our first opponent was not very good, Tottenham Hotspur, a strong team in the Premier League, their current The results are not very good, but their lineup is indeed very strong. But I still want to defeat this opponent, and I also think that you have this kind of strength!"

Wan Sheng said solemnly to the players.

"This is the FA Cup in England, nothing is impossible, let alone Tottenham Hotspur, even if we meet Manchester United or Arsenal, we will try our best to fight! The FA Cup is In this way, it is normal for lower-level league teams to eliminate high-level league teams, and we should try to do the same! I believe everyone can do it!"

Hearing Wansheng's words, the players were a little surprised.

Before participating in the League Cup, Wansheng just said, "It's good to be a soldier." I didn't expect that in the FA Cup, but I wanted to play as well as possible, especially those foreign players, such as Ribery, Ziegler and others, I don’t quite understand why Wansheng insists on playing the FA Cup, but most English players still understand that the FA Cup is of great significance to English clubs. This is not a cup game that is easy to give up.

But the first game against Tottenham Hotspur... don't care what Tottenham Hotspur's results are now, they are definitely a real strong team, they are the rivals of North London Arsenal, and also Completely capable of arm wrestling with Arsenal.

Such an opponent, can they defeat it?

Wan Sheng looked at everyone's performance and said seriously, "It's nothing to be surprised, I hope everyone can perform as much as possible. Our opponents are very strong, but we must remember that we are also very strong! At the beginning of the season, I told you that we would To fight for the championship, how many of you really believe?"

All the players bowed their heads, they really did not believe it at the time, after all, the team was still relegated last season.

"But what about now?" Wan Sheng's voice changed and he continued, "Now we are No. 1 in the league! We have proved that we are a strong team with our results, and now we only meet Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup. , is it more difficult to beat them than to win the league first? Think about it and know which is more difficult, we only need one game, 90 minutes, work hard for 90 minutes, the victory is ours!”

"Think about how happy the fans would be, how surprised the media would be if we knocked out Tottenham in the FA Cup... that must be interesting!"

"I like the feeling of winning, especially against a strong team! I think you will like it too, am I right! Everyone likes winning, right!"

"Yes..." The players uttered scattered voices.

Wan Sheng roared, "Say it again! We all like to win, don't we!"

"right!"

This time it was much neater and louder.

Wan Sheng nodded with satisfaction, "You have to remember that football games are about winning, we have to take every opponent seriously, as long as we participate in the game, victory is the only goal, I want to defeat every opponent, I want to win To every championship, you must think too! It may be a bit too extravagant, but we have to do our best for this goal to be the best!"

"What is standing in front of us now is Tottenham Hotspur, we have to beat them, eliminate them, and let everyone see that we can also eliminate the Premier League team!"

The day's training ended with Wansheng's impassioned voice. (To be continued..)