Chapter 1111 Meeting an Old Friend in the Community Shield Cup

After a month of summer training, the Community Shield, the appetizer of the new Premier League season, has finally resumed.

The Community Shield, formerly the Charity Shield, is an annual tournament hosted by the English Football Association between the top league champions and the FA Cup champions. Since Manchester United won the Triple Crown, league runner-up Chelsea and FA Cup champion Manchester United will compete for the Community Shield championship this season.

There is no doubt that Manchester United is the big winner of the Community Shield. They have won this honor 19 times. Especially after the Charity Shield was renamed the Community Shield in 2002, Manchester United reached eight finals and won five championships in nine years.

There was a time when the Community Shield and its predecessor the Charity Shield were long viewed as a bad omen. From 1997 to 2004, there was an iron law that those who won the Community Shield would lose the Premier League for eight consecutive years. On the contrary, the runners-up repeatedly won the league. Manchester United's three consecutive Premier League titles at the turn of the century were accompanied by the Community Shield's "three consecutive wins."

After Mourinho came to the Premier League in 2005, Mourinho led Chelsea to a 2-1 victory over Arsenal in the Community Shield. That season, he defeated Manchester United by 8 points to defend the Premier League title, finally breaking the curse.

Then the Premier League evolved into an extreme battle where every effort must be made to grab points from the beginning. Each team focuses on getting into shape as early as possible and pays more attention to the Community Shield, hoping to boost morale and bring good luck to the new season.

Manchester United and Chelsea are the most successful teams in the Premier League in recent years. In the previous eight Community Shields, at least one team from the two teams participated. Manchester United has appeared in the Community Shield for four consecutive years, and faced Chelsea twice, with the winners eventually winning the Premier League. This time, the two giants Manchester United and Chelsea are working hard and vowing to sacrifice their mortal enemies.

Although this season's summer transfers are not over yet, the two giants have new players joining, such as Manchester United's De Gea and Jones, Chelsea's Lukaku and Benayoun, and of course Chelsea's new coach Villas-Boas. Their performance has also become the focus of attention from fans and opponents.

wembley stadium

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the Manchester United bus slowly drove into the parking lot. Some Manchester United players were wearing headphones, some were wearing sunglasses, and some were chatting and laughing with each other. Except for newcomers De Gea and Jones, most of them walked in with relaxed expressions. the locker room.

Ferguson and the coaches went to the coaches' lounge, and the locker room was dominated by the players.

With the retirement of Scholes and Edwin van der Sar, and the transfer of senior players such as O'Shea, Brown, and Hargreaves, Manchester United's gang divisions have not only not been weakened, but have become more distinct.

The local gang headed by Fletcher, Ferdinand and Rooney sit in the middle, Gao Xiaodong and his Asian, African and Latin American brothers sit on the left, and the European gang such as Vidic and Berbatov sit on the right.

Nani didn't come to Wembley because he had a fever.

The only alternative may be Pogba, who is sitting next to Gao Xiaodong.

The players from the Continental League are obviously not interested in Pogba either. They all look at Pogba like a traitor.

Pogba did not feel uncomfortable at all. With Gao Xiaodong as his backer, he was not afraid of players from the European continent giving him little shoes to fill.

After Gao Xiaodong entered the locker room, he wanted to feel like a captain and said: "The game is about to start, let's play some music to stimulate it."

Gao Xiaodong's younger brothers naturally responded one after another, and Rooney followed suit, but Vidic from the Mainland Gang said: "Play some music, I'll go out to warm up right away."

Vidic and Gao Xiaodong failed to compete for the captain's position. He was not convinced, so he contradicted Gao Xiaodong.

Before Gao Xiaodong spoke, Ferdinand also said: "Stop listening, let's think about how to compete."

Gao Xiaodong bared his teeth. Did these two old guys have a grudge against him? Gao Xiaodong didn't want to argue with them in the first official competition, but he also didn't want to be embarrassed in front of his younger brother, so he said: " Whether you want to hear it or not, I’ll let you listen.”

Pogba said: "We all love to hear it."

Anderson also shouted: "Play it, it's too boring without music."

…

While they were talking, Ferguson and two assistant coaches walked in, and all the players who were about to bicker quickly shut their mouths.

Ferguson was experienced. He glanced at the locker room and saw that the atmosphere was strange. He guessed what happened. There were too many such things. Ferguson pretended that nothing happened and said: "Chelsea lost to us in the league last season." , they will definitely play this game as a revenge game. The game is about to start. Don’t be careless. It should be played like a final like the FA Cup. Everyone go out and do some activities. I will talk about our tactics for today later.”

After the players went out, Ferguson sat down in Gao Xiaodong's seat, looked at Chelsea's starting list for a long time, and asked Meulensteen and Ferland: "What do you think of Chelsea's starting lineup?"

Meulensteen said: "Boas is known as Little Mourinho, but his playing style is different from Mourinho. He likes to attack, but in a short period of time, I don't think he can make Chelsea's The style of play has changed drastically. Although they deployed a 4-3-3 formation for this game, I guess they still stick to their counterattack style."

Ferland said: "This starting lineup does not include Drogba or Anelka, but Malouda and Kalu are on the pitch. This is a bit interesting."

Meulensteen said: "I heard that Villas-Boas had conflicts with Drogba and Anelka, and it doesn't seem to be groundless."

Ferguson laughed and said: "This 33-year-old kid likes to play fast. Drogba, Anelka and others will definitely not be able to keep up with his pace. Besides, he is so young and comes to a wealthy club like Chelsea, even with Abramovich. For support, we must also rely on veterans to establish their prestige. Drogba and Anelka have a lot of influence in the team, and their prestige and status are not as good as Terry and Lampard. They are the targets of Villas-Boas."

Ferran said: "Bos, do you think Villas-Boas will be as successful as Mourinho?"

Ferguson said calmly: "God only knows, but I am more interested in Villas-Boas than the Community Shield champion."

As soon as he came out of the mixed tunnel, Gao Xiaodong met Villas-Boas, his assistant coach at Inter Milan.

When he was at Inter Milan, Villas-Boas was quite kind to Gao Xiaodong, and Gao Xiaodong also had a good relationship with him. Later, the two left Mourinho one after another and never met again.

"Coach Boas." Gao Xiaodong looked surprised. In fact, he knew that he would meet Boas sooner or later, and he had been mentally prepared for it.

"Haha, Xiaodong, we meet again."

Boas smiled, held Gao Xiaodong's hand, and patted Gao Xiaodong's arm very intimately.

"Yeah, I really didn't expect you to become Chelsea's coach, but congratulations." Gao Xiaodong heartily congratulated you.

Boas smiled and said: "I don't know what will happen before the duck is on the shelves. By the way, Chairman Da Costa of Porto is thinking about you very much and often talks about you to me."

Gao Xiaodong said with some shame: "After I came to the Premier League, the competition was too tight and I couldn't go back to see Chairman Costa. Is he okay now?"

Villas-Boas said: "The body is in great shape and I can still work for at least another ten years."

Gao Xiaodong smiled and said: "Then Porto fans will be happy."

After a few pleasantries, Villas-Boas smiled and said: "Go and warm up. The game is about to start. Let's talk in detail after the game."

"Okay, I'll make you a treat." Gao Xiaodong waved to Villas-Boas, turned around and walked towards the court.