Chapter 409 Grand Slam

Although the Olimpia team won the Copa Libertadores, the personnel were very unfamiliar to George. In other words, they are very unfamiliar to European football. At this time, George really hopes that his opponents are clubs like Boca, River Plate, and Sao Paulo.

It’s not that Olympia’s history is blank. On the contrary, Olimpia has a glorious history. This is the third time they have won the Copa Libertadores, and they have also been runner-up in the Copa Libertadores three times.

But after all, the essence of South American football lies in the Brazilian League and the Argentine League. European clubs really don’t pay much attention to Paraguayan clubs. Even if they poach people, they always poach people from the Brazilian and Argentine leagues.

Therefore, the geniuses from South America will first come to Brazil and Argentina. After training in the Brazilian and Argentinian leagues, I went to Europe.

Therefore, the teams in the Paraguayan League really have no reputation.

Look at the lineup they put together. The goalkeeper is Tavarelli, the backline is Isasi, Pedro Benitez, Zelaya, and Jara, and the midfielder is Altman, Caceres, Enciso, and Cordoba. , the forwards are Rodrigo Lopez and Miguel Benitez.

Among these people, Tavarelli, Caceres, Baez and Franco represented Paraguay in the 2002 World Cup. Among them, goalkeeper Tavarelli is the best and most characterful player on the team. He is a very good goalkeeper, but he can only live in the shadow of Chilavert in the national team.

Although it participated in the World Cup, Paraguay itself is not a strong team. And they were eliminated early, so they are still very unfamiliar to these people.

Not to mention ordinary fans, even professional journalists in Europe are very unfamiliar with these people. If they hadn't looked at the information, they probably wouldn't be able to name some people. Such an opponent is actually a test for the commentator.

Of course these commentators are all professional commentators. Before the competition, you must do enough homework.

A team that neither professional reporters nor professional commentators understand, is even more of a headache for George, a European coach. Coaches of strong European teams like George not only focus on domestic league opponents, but also on European giants. Whenever I have time, I’d like to learn about a South American club’s team.

Although I have watched some Copa Libertadores games, I am not particularly familiar with my opponents.

George has played in many cup finals. Including the Champions League, UEFA Cup, European Super Cup, English FA Cup, and English League Cup, but this is the first time that George feels that his opponent is so blind.

But now George is no longer the kind of person who is trembling when facing any opponent. Blackburn is a two-time Premier League champion and a Champions League champion. They have nothing to fear when facing any team.

Although he is not very familiar with the opponent, George now believes in the team's strength.

As long as I can exert my strength, I won't be afraid of any opponent.

George has that confidence. This is the confidence cultivated one championship after another.

Therefore, when setting up the rankings, I completely follow my own ideas. Especially the midfield, Blackburn's midfield has been very changeable this season. George himself doesn't even know who the current main combination of Blackburn's midfield is.

Anyway, there has never been a fixed main combination in the midfield.

Among the Blackburn midfielders, Miku, Pires, Kaka, and Duff are currently the most important and the four who play the most playing time. They pretty much take turns. Their playing time is also similar. Because Kaka has risen strongly this season, it has taken up a lot of playing time for the three of them.

In this game, George re-activated the combination of Miku and Kaka.

In the midfield, except for the two fixed midfielders Alonso and Hargreaves. George used Pires, Miku, and Kaká in the midfield, and Klose was used as the lone forward.

Although he only watched a few games, George still saw some of the Olympia team's tactics.

Olimpia was able to stand out from the double-teams of Brazil and Argentina, relying on tenacious perseverance and a high degree of teamwork spirit. The Paraguay national team is known in South American football for its fierce defense and compact formation, and Olimpia embodies the essence of it.

It can be said that Paraguay is the European team of South America.

But after all, Paraguay is also a South American team. Some characteristics of South American teams are still retained.

If it is a strong South American team and a team that retains the South American style, George will be even more worried. After all, those teams are full of talented players who play as they please. For a team like theirs, if inspiration strikes during a game, no one can guard them.

People like Aimar, Saviola, and Riquelme are all majestic in the system they are familiar with. The European teams that played were all astonished. This is the genius of South America.

But George scorned pseudo-European South American teams like Olympia. Olimpia coach Pompidou said before the game: "They have won the Champions League and are very strong. But we are also the champions of the Copa Libertadores and we have the ability to defeat them."

Pompidou was full of confidence before the game.

Pompidou seemed very confident that he could defeat the giants of Brazil and Argentina to win the Copa Libertadores.

However, George did not refute his words at all. Because it was not worth refuting at all. Playing defense and compact formations with European teams was simply boring. Europe is the ancestor of South America in this kind of cooperation and tactics.

Sure enough, after the game started, Blackburn quickly controlled the game.

Although it was a South American team, Blackburn's technology was no worse than theirs. Especially the four people in the frontcourt, Pires, Miku, Kaka, and Klose, their skills were excellent. Especially the technical abilities of Pires and Miku, they were not inferior to South American players at all.

Pires and Miku, even if they were thrown into the Brazilian and Argentine leagues, there would be no problem with their technology.

The Olimpia team was very tactful and shrank back.

Seeing the Olimpia team shrink back, George did not continue to entangle with them in the midfield. With a stroke of the pen, he let the team go to the two sides.

George wanted to let the Olimpia team see what a European team is. Look at what a Premier League team is, so instead of playing with others in the midfield, they started a straight-forward style of play. Crosses, long shots, headers, the rhythm suddenly became very fast.

Maybe in South America, Olimpia's defense is good.

Therefore, they can win the Copa Libertadores among the strong teams in Brazil and Argentina. But facing Blackburn's aggressive style of play, they can't defend at all.

Soon, in the 17th minute of the game, Pires made a cross from the wing, and Klose dived over his head and scored the first goal of the game.

"Klose! This is Blackburn's first time playing in the Toyota Cup, and it is Blackburn's first goal in the Toyota Cup."

"Klose has the most valuable quality of German players. That is, the more important the game, the better his performance. Since following George to England, especially after coming to Blackburn, Klose has performed particularly well in every important game."

"In the UEFA Cup final, Klose was the best player. In the first Premier League championship, Klose was the Premier League's top scorer. In the Champions League final, it was Klose's lore. Klose is the most important striker in George's hands."

Motson did not hide his love for Klose at all. He also praised Klose very much.

Klose has completely conquered the English football world.

Many famous players in the English football world have given up their grievances with the German football world. They praised Klose. Klose, who came to England at the age of seventeen, from the English League B to the Premier League, step by step became a world-class striker. Many people in the English football world like him very much.

Of course, this has something to do with Klose being very low-key.

The British media is very developed. But even they rarely catch Klose's off-field life. And Klose is completely different from his mentor George, never offending the media. Therefore, he has a very good relationship with the media.

After seeing the goal, Klose waved his hand and told the players not to come over. Then he came to George alone. George thought Klose was going to give him a hug, but he didn't expect that he would stop in front of George.

Then he made the very famous Bebeto cradle action in the world of football. Now many players who followed understood and came to do this action together.

George was stunned. Only then did he understand what Klose meant. So he laughed immediately, and then did this cradle action with Klose.

"Well, is Klose's girlfriend pregnant? I haven't heard that Klose has a child?" Alan Hansen was very surprised by Klose's celebration.

"I know, I know this." Mortensen said with a smile. "Klose is not celebrating his girlfriend's pregnancy, but celebrating George's wife's child. I just heard that George's beautiful lawyer wife is pregnant."

"Given the relationship between George and Klose, it is normal for Klose to celebrate with George after scoring a goal."

Alan Hansen nodded. Alan Hansen is not jealous of Mortensen's connections. After all, unlike himself, Alan Hansen is a Liverpool legend and has a brand, a Liverpool team brand. So even if Alan Hansen admires Ferguson, he will not praise Ferguson. Because Ferguson is the head coach of Manchester United. Of course, Alan Hansen does not like Ferguson.

But Mortensen is different.

Mortensen has a wide range of friends in the British football world and has friends in various clubs. So Alan Hansen didn't know that George's wife was pregnant, but Mortensen knew it.

After leading by one goal, George was not in a hurry.

Blackburn returned to its own rhythm. George wanted to show the Olympia team what defense and counterattack are.

Olimpia played a team style of football.

After falling behind, they wanted to make a comeback. However, they had neither a talented superstar who could change the situation on his own, nor a mature team style like European teams. Therefore, apart from some threatening free kicks, they did not get any good opportunities in the mobile game.

When their offense was tired, Blackburn's counterattack started.

At the end of the first half, Lucio suddenly inserted from behind. Caught Olimpia off guard, Lucio ran all the way to 40 meters away from the opponent's goal before passing the ball to Klose in front.

After Klose dribbled the ball to the opponent's penalty area, he did not shoot, but passed it back to the vicinity of the penalty area.

Miku, who came in from behind, scored this goal very easily. Miku has a strong adaptability, or with Miku's talent, as long as he wants, he can easily integrate into the new tactical system. Now George is using Miku as Lampard.

But Miku did an excellent job.

Of course, sometimes George will let Miku go back a little to assist Kaka in the middle. Even so, Miku can use his excellent passing ability to complete George's arrangement beautifully.

George likes it very much.

Miku is like this. As long as he is willing to change, there is no formation and style of play that he cannot adapt to.

It's just that Miku didn't have a good result before. So his self-esteem is very strong, and Miku should be very inferior. He used introversion and arrogance to cover up his inferiority, but with the winning of several important championships, Miku began to really let go of himself.

Therefore, he is willing to try and willing to adapt.

Although Miku is still introverted, George is more and more happy when he looks at the changing Miku.

"Two to zero, it seems that there is no suspense in this Toyota Cup. Blackburn easily led two to zero in the first half. In the first 22 Toyota Cups, European clubs and South American clubs shared the world, and both won the Toyota Cup championship 11 times."

"If Blackburn wins this time, then European teams will surpass South American teams with 12 championships."

In fact, in the history of the Toyota Cup, the early champions were basically South American teams. At that time, European teams were at an absolute disadvantage when they met South American teams. But since the emergence of the Bosman Act, it is not only European football that has been affected, but also the entire world football.

It has been more than seven years since the Bosman Act. During this process, only Boca Juniors has won the Toyota Cup championship once, and the other champions are European teams. And basically they all won the championship without suspense.

It is obvious that today, when the overall development of football is emphasized, European teams are increasingly dominant against South American teams.

The second half of the game was still under the control of Blackburn.

It was because Blackburn's counterattack was too unexpected. Speed, this counterattack that emphasizes speed, made the Olimpia team completely unable to defend.

In the 69th minute of the game, Kaka once again completed a beautiful long-distance run. The score was fixed at 3-0.

Kaka's long-distance run appeared several times in the game this season. Therefore, many people are not surprised.

In the end, Blackburn won 3-0 with goals from Klose, Miku and Kaka.

"Congratulations to Blackburn! This is the first Toyota Cup champion in Blackburn's history! It is also Blackburn's fifth championship this year, Premier League champion, Champions League champion, Community Shield champion, European Super Cup champion, Toyota Cup champion. This is a five-time champion."

"Congratulations to George! With this Toyota Cup championship, George has truly become a Grand Slam head coach. The 34-year-old George has become a rare Grand Slam head coach in European football. Congratulations to George, George has become a miracle in world football!"

Two updates today, ready to recuperate. Take a look at the opening ceremony of the European Cup.