Chapter 39 Shang Fang’s Sword

When Zhou Yi came to the restaurant to have breakfast, he found that everyone was watching TV, and the TV was playing his interview with the media yesterday afternoon.

"What are you doing? Watching TV without breakfast, do you understand?" Zhou Yi asked from behind the crowd.

Everyone turned their heads when they heard his voice, and some people made way for him, so Zhou Yi saw the national team's Portuguese translator inside.

Because the World Cup is held in Brazil, the common language here is Portuguese. Considering that the national team’s preparations and training arrangements here require contact with a large number of local people, the Football Association has specially equipped the national team with two Portuguese translators. , they were found locally in Brazil. One is an overseas Chinese who has been doing business in Brazil for many years, and the other is a college student studying in Brazil. Both of them are football fans and can speak Portuguese, so they are fully qualified to do the translation work. After the Chinese team came to Brazil, their performance also proved this.

The translator in the crowd now is the young college translator Geng Zhe.

He turned around and saw Zhou Yi, and quickly stood up: "Brother Yi, are you here?"

Although he is older than Zhou Yi, he has always called Zhou Yi this way. Zhou Yi felt awkward at first and refused to let him call him, but he insisted on calling him that. He also said that calling him brother has nothing to do with age, and that all the wise people are his elders. ,senior.

So with his persistence, Zhou Yi could only recognize this "younger brother"...

"What did the Brazilian TV station say?" Zhou Yi asked Geng Zhe, pointing to the TV.

"The Brazilian Football Federation has just issued a statement saying that your remarks are a huge insult to Brazilian football... They said this question is a form of contempt for referees. FIFA is a world-class institution that has been established for a hundred years. During this period , Brazil will never engage in heresy, so please...please, uh, respect the Brazilian Football Association." Geng Zhe honestly translated what was said on TV to Zhou Yiting. "...What you said also angered the Brazilian fans. When the game comes, as long as you get the ball, you may hear huge boos..."

Zhou Yi waved his hand: "I was shocked. I thought I was going to be banned from the game."

After saying that, he turned around and went to get breakfast, no longer caring about what was said on the TV.

Seeing that Zhou Yi had left, the other players no longer had the intention to listen to Geng Zhe's translation on the TV. They all caught up with Zhou Yi and expressed their concerns about this matter.

"Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi, I saw in the news that you were given a new nickname, called 'Brazilian Public Enemy'..."

"What a stupid nickname..." Zhou Yi expressed dissatisfaction with this name.

"That's not the point, right? The point is that you may be booed by all the Brazilian fans during the game. That's a lot of pressure..."

"Hey, what's the big deal? I thought you were trying to grab the eggs...I've long been used to boos and the like. Haven't you ever encountered boos in away games in the league? I went to the Ruerderby to play at Lao Yang's home court, and my ears... There is no quiet time." Zhou Yi smiled. "I no longer care about the boos or anything like that, and there is no pressure or anything like that."

Zhou Yi is full of confidence, but there are still people in the Chinese team who are worried about him, hoping that he will not perform abnormally in front of the crazy Brazilian fans. He is the backbone of the Chinese team. If something goes wrong with him, the whole team will go wrong.

But Zhou Yi didn't take it seriously at all. He went to breakfast, sat down to eat, and chatted with other teammates.

Until the head coach Lippi came. He stood at the door of the restaurant, looked inside, and then walked straight towards the table where Zhou Yi was.

Everyone suddenly became nervous again. The head coach suddenly came to see Zhou Yi. Is this pressure from the top?

We are all Chinese. Naturally, under the guidance of official-oriented thinking, even if we are as strong as Lippi, we cannot completely get rid of the leadership and influence of the Chinese Football Association and the General Administration of Sports on the Chinese team.

What if the Brazilian Football Association brought this matter to FIFA, and FIFA put pressure on the Chinese Football Association, and finally the Chinese Football Association put pressure on Lippi and wanted to take action on Zhou Yi?

Some players with quick minds have already thought about how they will face this result if Zhou Yi is defeated by Lippi and the Chinese team loses to Brazil...

Just when several days had passed in these people's minds, Lippi walked up to Zhou Yi, pulled out his chair, and said to Zhou Yi in English: "I didn't know what you said until I saw the news."

"That's not a big deal, right? Besides, my worries are justified." Zhou Yi said. "In the opening game, Brazil played Croatia. Japanese referee Nishimura Yuichi awarded them a controversial penalty kick. That was an opportunity for the Brazilian team to overtake the score."

What Zhou Yi said is true. When Fred fell in the penalty area, Nishimura Yuichi judged Croatian player Lovren to pull down the Brazilian center, awarded the Brazilian team a penalty kick, and gave Lovren a yellow card. However, it can be clearly seen from the slow motion that Lovren only gently put a hand on Fred's shoulder, and there was a tendency to stop, but Nishimura Yuichi still believed that this was a penalty kick.

This penalty made the Croatian side very dissatisfied. Because if this is a penalty kick, then Alves' previous action of kicking down Croatia forward Olic in the penalty area should also be ruled a foul and Croatia should be given a penalty kick.

But Nishimura Yuichi didn't say anything, which caused the Croatian players to argue with him for a long time.

After the game, Croatia coach Kovac specifically talked about this controversial penalty: "If anyone here thinks this is a penalty kick, please raise your hand. But I won't raise my hand. Everyone knows that it is not a penalty kick. That penalty kick That's ridiculous. That would never be a penalty kick in any game. If those kinds of shots are awarded penalty kicks, then we might as well be covering the basketball..."

According to the laws of basketball, physical contact is prohibited under the basket. As long as there is physical contact, the referee can naturally call a foul.

But football does not prohibit physical contact so completely. That's why the Croatian coach has such complaints.

Kovac also continued to blast Nishimura Yuichi: "Will playing the host country in the opening game affect the performance? If the penalties for other teams' games against Brazil in the future are still the same as those in the opening game, it will be a disaster. The referees in the opening game need to be better Professional, more advanced... It's normal in football to encounter away teams. I don't want to criticize the referee, but the referee is too ridiculous..."

Although Brazil and Croatia, one is a South American team and the other is a European team, it is normal to find an Asian referee to referee this game. But in the minds of those who are a little bit conspiracy-minded, this refereeing arrangement still has special meaning-there are a large number of Japanese immigrants and descendants of Japanese immigrants in Brazil, about 1.5 million people. The relationship between the two countries is very good, both at the civil and government levels.

Japanese football focused on learning Brazilian football, and finally became the Samba faction in Asian football, and even gained the reputation of "Asian Brazil".

So in this opening match, there were so many non-South American and European referees to choose from, but in the end, a Japanese referee was chosen...

You can't help but think of conspiracy theories.

Coupled with Nishimura Yuichi's controversial penalty in the game, it is even more thought-provoking.

Lippi nodded: "It's not a big deal. The only problem is the pressure you have to face. I didn't expect that the Brazilian Football Association would issue a special statement... After Kovac said those words, he did not see the Brazilian Football Association issue a statement. Disclaimer, I think they did this in the hope of putting more pressure on you and causing some trouble. Since that game with Spain, the whole world has known how important you are to the Chinese team."

Zhou Yi laughed: "Haha! Maybe it's because of my unfortunate remarks? Don't worry, coach, I'm not under any pressure, and the boos won't cause me any trouble."

"I know, I know you are a person with a big heart." From Zhou Yi's smile, Lippi felt that Zhou Yi's calmness was not just pretending, but that he really didn't take it seriously.

He stopped talking, patted Zhou Yi on the shoulder, got up and left his seat, and went to find breakfast.

As soon as Lippi left, other players gathered around, wanting to find out what Lippi and Zhou Yi had talked about.

The two of them spoke in English throughout the whole process, and not all Chinese team players speak English very well.

"Hi, it's nothing. You all look so nervous..." Zhou Yi waved his hand. "We came to talk about Brazil's refereeing issues, and we all thought that Brazil was indeed taken care of by the referees. For example, in the opening game..."

When Zhou Yi said this, everyone also thought of the media reports about the controversial penalty in that game after the opening game, and suddenly became nervous: "Fuck, Brazil won't cause trouble in our game, right?"

Zhou Yi waved his hand again: "I think the possibility is low. The Brazilian Football Association has issued a statement, and the words are so absolute and upright. If something like the opening game happens again in the game, wouldn't it be a slap in their face? So don’t worry, now that the Football Association has spoken, I think the game should be a normal game by then.”

Lippi was worried that the Brazilian Football Association's statement would cause trouble for Zhou Yi, but in Zhou Yi's view, the Brazilian Football Association's statement would actually help the Chinese team. At least this game can definitely be played in a relatively fair environment.

He said that at the time, but he was actually not sure whether Brazil would be taken care of by the referee. He just wanted to be vaccinated in advance and say ugly things in front of others.

The result was beyond his expectation, because the Brazilian Football Association did not take the lead and issued an official statement directly.

Now when the Chinese team competes with the Brazilian team, it is like holding a Shang Fang sword.

This is something that the Brazilian Football Association probably never expected...

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