Episode 14: Light of Europe (2 in 1)

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text:

The total duration of the World Series is only one week, and the schedule is quite dense.

Although the island nation escaped the preliminary round, it was only a day later that they had to face their first opponent.

August 26, 3:30 pm.

The match between the island country and Italy is imminent.

"Italy!"

For this country, the vast majority of friends are yearning.

The city of dreams, the city of love, the city of fashion, the city of food...

Any beautiful imagination seems to be connected with this country.

It's just baseball, they really don't have much impression.

After changing the national team before the island country, he must be no stranger to Italy.

This year's Italian players have the title of Light of Europe.

Their world rankings themselves are not low, generally hovering in the top 10.

Ninth, tenth, eleventh.

Its strength is not very strong, but it is not too bad.

With the strength of the players from the island country, it is not difficult to defeat such an opponent.

Not to mention the island countries, in fact, the top 5 teams, except for the sixth Mexico, it is difficult for them to lose to other teams.

If you want to lose, you usually lose to each other.

There is no way to do this. The baseball atmosphere in the country is different, and the difference in player strength is huge.

How big is this gap?

To give the simplest example, take Baodao as an example.

The Zhonghua Baodao team ranks third in the world.

One time they participated in a World Series, and for some reason, their best players were unable to join the national team due to unexpected circumstances.

The second team can only be put together to play against teams from other countries.

But such a second team has also passed all the way and defeated many opponents.

Advance to the semi-finals.

Among the opponents they defeated, they even included the South Korean representative team ranked fourth in the world.

The world's third-ranked 2 armies can defeat the world's fourth-ranked team.

The gap is that big!

The gap between the top three and the fourth is so big, not to mention the gap between the top five and the following teams.

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Italy is in the top 10, which looks like a pretty good place for this ranking alone.

But it's really not qualified to let the island country's team see it in the eyes.

The reality is so cruel.

Not to mention that the island nation selected an elite group like them this time, even the previous team would not pay too much attention to the tenth-ranked team in the world.

But this Italian team, to be precise, the Italian team of this age group, is an exception.

There was a team in the Netherlands before that suddenly rose, defeated one of the top 5, and advanced to the semi-finals.

In the semi-finals, another one of the top 5 was defeated.

Advance to the final.

Although the final was lost due to too much loss in the previous game.

But it is also glorious to lose.

In recent years, that is the highest record in Europe, passing all the way and reaching the final.

That Dutch team was called the Light of Europe.

After many years, the current Italian team has also inherited this nickname.

In a certain previous game, they also defeated one of the top five.

South Korean team.

This is not over yet, before this competition, they also played a practice match with the Cuban representative team.

In that game, the two sides were tied.

This is the only European team to achieve this achievement after the Dutch team.

So they also inherited the title of Light of Europe.

"The opponent in the first game encountered such a team. It was really tricky."

For the Italian team, the friends didn't pay much attention at the beginning, but after listening to the other party's situation,

They couldn't help but care.

It has won against South Korea and tied against Cuba.

These two teams are the 4th and 5th in the world respectively.

Even if you can't guess the real strength of the opponent?

The friends can more or less feel that the strength of the opponent should not be weak.

At the very least, they already have the qualifications to threaten them.

I met such an opponent in the first game, and I am afraid that the threat will become greater and greater.

The total time of the World Series is one week, and an average of one or two days is a game. Those who play a lot will need to play 4 games this week, even if they play less, they will still need to play 3 games in the next five or six days.

With such a dense schedule, the importance of grouping is very obvious.

The next two games, semi-finals and finals.

The opponents are basically the top 5 fighting each other.

This kind of battle is very, very cruel, even an island country cannot be careless

Considering this, the importance of the first game is self-evident.

The stronger the opponent, the worse the situation is for them.

Conversely, the weaker the opponent is, the better the situation is for them.

This is not to say that the opponent says they can win. If the opponent is strong, they may not necessarily win.

For the top five teams, as long as they don't encounter each other, they will fight each other.

It is still difficult for other teams to be at the same level as them.

But not being able to win does not mean that there is no consumption.

When the opponent has a certain strength, if they want to defeat the opponent, they must pay a certain price.

Just like Italy in front of you.

The opponent's strength quickly attracted the attention of the entire team.

They won against South Korea and tied with Cuba.

You said how they were so unlucky to meet such a strange guy.

This difficulty is no worse than the semi-finals and finals.

That is, if not handled well.

They will play three final-level games.

Even the players from the island country are all star players with extraordinary strength.

Such a terrifying consumption will also make them overwhelmed.

After watching the Italian team's game video, Takeda made a difficult decision.

For three games of this intensity, it is impossible to point at a group of people to survive.

So they also need to arrange troops, to put it bluntly, they need to rotate.

Supervisor Takeda never thought about this before leading everyone to Treasure Island.

why?

The main reason is that this team has just been assembled and is not very mature yet.

None of their main teams have been together for very long, let alone a team composed of substitute lineups.

It is very risky to make such a decision.

Before they came to Baodao, Supervisor Takeda and his coaches never considered this possibility. Because that possibility simply doesn't exist.

Injure the enemy one thousand, and self-injury eight hundred.

Such loss is too great.

They would not have done it if they had had the slightest hope of anything else.

The risk factor is too high!

But there is no way. Now that they have been forced to this point, it doesn't matter whether they are willing or not.

They can only bite the bullet and continue.

Supervisor Takeda proposed a rotation, but the friends didn't have any opinions.

To be honest, with the lineup they have now, it would be a pity not to rotate. There are several top pitchers in the country.

"The best in the country is not necessarily the best in the world. Your opponents are masters from all over the world, so don't be careless."

Supervisor Takeda sensed that the atmosphere in the team was a bit strange, and he reminded all the players not to get carried away.

These players in front of them all became famous in high school.

The vast majority have never played for the national team before.

That is to say, except for Eijun Sawamura, none of the other players has passed the world-class certification.

What is their position in this world? Most are unknowns.

The only thing that can be determined here is probably Eijun Sawamura.

After all, Sawamura had fought against Allen, the Son of God in North America before.

Allen's strength is obvious to all.

Before Sawamura appeared, he was the most dignified person in the world.

In the game against the North American Dream Team, the Qingdao High School baseball team's friends almost all became the background board.

Although their strength is also very strong, they also worked very hard during the game.

But it can be clearly felt that they are powerless.

The level of that game has far exceeded their level.

Sawamura almost relied on his own strength to lead everyone to resist the extremely powerful dream team.

In the end, they fought against each other.

It was also after that incident that Sawamura Eijun's fame was no longer limited to island countries.

But in the whole world, there is such a little reputation.

Considering the grouping, Supervisor Takeda hesitated, and finally decided to put the Tokyo players into a group.

Players from other regions will form another group.

The players in Tokyo, because they have been in a team before, they have experience in cooperating with each other.

Relatively speaking, it is much more mature.

In addition, everyone's strength is similar to each other. Even if the players in Tokyo are replaced and some players are replaced, the strength may not be improved much.

Of course, those that can be obviously improved after switching in, still need to be switched in, such as Soichiro Mima.

The outstanding players selected by Tokyo are basically pitchers and catchers.

Although other positions can also make guest appearances, but the strength is inevitably discounted.

Fortunately for the infield, almost every position has an absolute main force.

But the outfield is no good. Except for a little black Cal Ross, there is not a single professional outfielder on the side of the Tokyo Stars.

In this case, Takeda Supervisor still arranged this way. It's not that he didn't consider this situation. He mainly thought that many of the pitchers in Tokyo could be guest outfielders.

The most notable examples are Sawamura Eijun and Narimiya Naruto.

Their original roles in the team were not just as simple as ace pitchers. At the same time, they also shoulder the heavy responsibility of the team's core hitters.

Therefore, even if they are not arranged to play the ball, they will stay on the field in most cases.

Let them play when it is convenient for the team to attack.

Their position is the outfielder.

But this position is a part-time job after all, and neither of them is a professional.

Although they are doing well, they will definitely not reach the peak level.

So when the Tokyo team formed a team, Director Takeda sent Mima here on purpose.

That's one of the best outfielders in the country.

With him paired with Hale Cal Ross Jr., it feels like the outfield may be more reassuring than the infield.

Both of them are the kind of fast scuds, and the defensive range is so wide.

With the two of them there, the remaining outfielder has relatively less defensive pressure.

It can be handed over to a pitcher with strong hitting power and weak defensive ability to take part-time job.

On the other side, the team composed of players from outside Tokyo also borrowed some players from Tokyo.

For example, the little black Carl Ross, and Baihe and the others.

Hongo doesn't matter. When Akutsu and Yoshida pitch, they still rely a lot on defense.

There are powerful defensive players, and their strength will be improved.

It took two hours for Supervisor Takeda to do all these things well.

After grouping the players, he also explained the reason for the grouping.

Even the reason is hard to find fault with.

It's really hard to believe that he came up with it on the spur of the moment.

No matter how you look at it, it was premeditated.

In fact, it was really premeditated.

When the team was just formed and played in-team practice games.

In fact, Supervisor Takeda has already discovered that these players of the Tokyo Star Team have almost no sense of disobedience when they are combined.

On the one hand, these players are very good, even if they perform their own duties, they can form a great team, and on the other hand, it is because of the series connection of the main catcher Miyuki Kazuya.

It is precisely because of the existence of this field commander that the Tokyo Stars can show their strength so quickly.

The most amazing thing is that these players of the Tokyo Star Team are very willing to cooperate with Miyuki.

You must know that they were all opponents in the same region before.

That is an existence that makes people jealous when they meet each other.

It is really rare to be able to do this step.

Perhaps because they are opponents, these talents are more aware of Miyuki Kazuya's strength.

It is precisely because they believe in the strength of the opponent that they are willing to obey the opponent's command on the court.

After the groups are over, the next step is to discuss. Which group goes first in the game?

The group that was on at this time was basically a substitute.

After all, the subsequent semi-finals and finals are basically the top 5 internal PK.

That game is the real challenge!

In Italy's game, although the opponent's strength is also very strong, they even have the experience of defeating the top five.

But to be honest, in the process of playing against each other, you can't see how strong Italy is.

They were able to win mainly because their opponents were too stupid and made some mistakes they shouldn't have made.

Supervisor Takeda obviously also had some troubles. He carefully looked at the two teams in front of him.

Finally, he gritted his teeth and said.

"Hongo, you will be the starter."

Although they don't want to admit it, but to be honest, because of the existence of Sawamura Eijun.

The strength of the Tokyo Star team is to surpass that of the other team.

It is only natural for the opponent to become a substitute.

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