Almighty Coach

Chapter 328: Running

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Facts speak louder than words. When Cloud witnessed the apparent progress of his players, he never mentioned Li’s training method again. Meanwhile, Dai Li continued to use his training method, with training interlaced in the warm-up.

A week before the start of the Chinese Super League, the Dingtian football team played two matches in the group stage of the Asian Champions League. The first match would be against the Binh Duong team of the Vietnamese, and if nothing else, Dingtian would beat Binh Duong by 1-0 in Vietnam. Then, in the second match, Dingtian was at home, and it beat the FC Tokyo of Korea by a score of 2-1.

It was a good result for Dingtian to obtain two winning streaks in the Asian Champions League, and through these two matches, the players of Dingtian had gotten into the state of the game in advance. Therefore, in the next Chinese Super League, Dingtian obtained another two winning streaks, capitalizing on their more excellent state and stronger strength.

In May, there would be more matches, as well as the four matches of the Chinese Super League happening later this month, the top 16 elimination matches of the Asian Champions League that had already started, and Dingtian had one home and one away match still left to play. What’s more, the third round of the Chinese Football Association Cup had also started, and Dingtian was about to play against a team from the Chinese League.

According to the rules of the Chinese Football Association Cup, 32 teams from the Chinese Football Association Division Two League, amateur league, and qualifiers of the Football Association Cup, would play an elimination match. The top 16 winners would enter the second round, then would play against the teams from the Chinese League in the elimination match, the victor of which would then play against the teams from the Chinese Super League in the third round.

That was to say, that in the matches of the Football Association Cup, the teams from the Chinese Super League would show up in the third round. In addition, their opponents would be less stronger teams from the Chinese League, or much worse teams from the Chinese Football Association Division Two League. For the players of the Chinese Super League, it would be quite easy for them to win, if the main players played the game.

In June and July, the Chinese Super League played eight matches, the Football Association Cup played five matches, and the semi-finals were soon on the way.

August would present a more tough schedule for the Dingtian Football Club: four matches of the Chinese Super League, semi-finals of the Football Association Cup, and the top 8 of the Asian Champions League, among which, the latter competition was the most important.

Busy schedules and highly intensive matches historically was shown to cause more athletes to get injured. Such injuries are inevitable in sports, and it is even an indispensable part of sports, especially in football. Even for amateur football players, it is very common for them to get injured, while for professional football players, they don’t care about these common injuries at all.

Fractures or muscle tears are serious injuries, and if players are unlucky to encounter these injuries, they will waste the whole season. The most common injuries are general muscle strains, such as a ligament injury, hamstring injury and strain injury. Even cramps can be recorded by the team doctor as an official, albeit minor, injury.

All of these are minor injuries have no impact on players’ matches, and require no special treatment, because the therapist and physical coach can cure them. However, these players suffering from these injuries must be treated specially during training. In addition, changes must be made in cycle training, training loads, and training programs, which address the need for special attention. This is called "individuated training."

Cloud was personally responsible for the individuated training. This is a serious task, which is very strict in the need for a high level of training skill and experience. If the coach has a poor ability, it will be useless for training, and it will even aggravate the players’ injuries further. Therefore, Cloud had to take charge of the training himself.

During his time in Dingtian, Dai Li also tried to learn more knowledge about football training and tactics from Harman’s coaching staff. The physical coach must be involved in the training planning, and the purpose of physical training is to help players execute their tactics. Therefore, Dai Li, as the physical coach of cycle training, must know something about football tactics. It meant a learning process for Dai Li.

What’s more, Harman had the world’s top football coaching staff. In fact, you couldn’t find so many perfect coaches anywhere, especially for such an unprofessional football coach as Dai Li. He could learn a lot of new knowledge from one simple tactical meeting.

Previously, Dai Li had only a little knowledge of football tactics, so maybe he was only a bit less inferior to those who made comments blindly. But, after staying in Dingtian for several months, his knowledge of football changed dramatically.

At the end of September, the semi-finals of the Asian Champions League started, and this time, Dingtian had to play against Jeonbuk Hyundai of South Korea. The first round of the two teams would be held in South Korea.

Chonju World Cup Stadium

"Foul, but why were there no whistles?!" Harman complained loudly.

Yunping Zheng stood up, with difficulty, on the court, then rubbed his legs, gritted his teeth, and continued to play.

Just now, a player of Jeonbuk Hyundai tripped Zheng with a foul, intentionally bunting Zheng with his knee. As a result, Zheng fell down, but the referee didn’t whistle.

This was not the first time that such a thing had happened, as Jeonbuk Hyundai had made several fouls in the previous match, but the referee didn’t whistle or issue yellow cards, he just gave them a verbal warning.

At the start, all felt that it was due to this being the home court advantage of Jeonbuk Hyundai, so the referee might be giving face to the team. But gradually, all came to find that the referee was simply being biased in his whistle blowing, apparently desiring to help the home team.

After several of these bogus whistle calls, even those home players knew that the referee was being lenient with the fouls, so they took advantage. Hence, they made big movements, obviously not for the ball, but at the opponents most of the time.

"In my idea, Jeonbuk Hyundai should call itself Jeonbuk Tripping Team."

"Don’t say that. The shit Koreans may apply for the list of world heritage, saying even the tripping is theirs..."

"They never change. There were black biased whistles in The World Cup in South Korea, and it’s still the same."

Even the fans vented their feelings with lots of complaints. On the court, Dingtian players showed extreme perseverance in facing the situation.

The referee whistled once more, and the first half was over. The score was 0-0, as neither team had made a goal, which was actually good news for Dingtian. If it could get back to play at their home court with a draw here, the hope of Dingtian’s promotion would soar.

But Jeonbuk Hyundai couldn’t accept the result, because no goal at home meant that it would be much harder to play away from home. In the locker room, Yunping Zheng lifted his shorts, revealing that his right leg was bruised.

"It’s so swollen. The South Koreans were so vicious," said the teammate nearby with sympathy.

"It was okay to kick here, but if it had been a little further up, that could have been a kick to my genitalia! The South Koreans were too insidious. If it weren’t for the match, I would definitely have hit him!" said Zheng Yunping fiercely.

"Calm down. It’s home court for them after all, and the referee is also partial to them. If you are not calm, you will be given a red card. Then, the loss will outweigh the gain," the teammate urged.

Next to him, Martin, a foreign player, walked up and down the locker room with the help of a therapist.

"How are you feeling?" asked the therapist anxiously.

"It still hurts," Martin said, gritting his teeth.

"I have checked you all over, no bone is hurt, it was the same strain that you had before, and it was almost healed, but it has been stepped on by the opponent, and it becomes even worse with the new injury. You need to walk more and open up your body now," said the therapist, stringing the words together quickly in his haste to explain.

The team doctor Maraloni was grim-faced.

"How’s it going?" Harman asked.

Maraloni shook his head, "I’m not optimistic. Most players were injured already, and now, their injuries are more serious. Although it did not affect their performances so far on the court, it definitely may affect them in the second-half match."

"Is there anyone who needs special attention?" Harman went on.

"Most mainly have a normal strain or bump, so with a pain-retarding spray and a simple massage, they should be fine 45 minutes after treatment. But the situation with Jingyuan Zhang is more complicated. He has had surgery on his ankle, and has been kicked by his opponent in the first half. Now, his running will be greatly affected," said Maraloni.

"That opponent should be given a yellow card!" Harman’s face scowled at once and said, "Zhang’s breakthrough on the left was an important means for us to break the opponent’s defense. Also, iit could attract the attention of the opponent’s defense, so as to create favorable attacking opportunities for Neol. If Jingyuan Zhang can’t run, we will lose a very effective choice in our attacking tactics."

"I have tried my best, but now it seems to be difficult for Jingyuan Zhang to run as easily as when he started, and I suggest you be prepared in advance for substitution, or a change in the original tactics," said Maraloni.

As soon as Maraloni stopped, someone said, "Everybody, make room for me!"

When Harman and Maraloni looked in the direction of the sound, they saw that Jingyuan Zhang was running at an accelerated pace, sprinting from the left side of the locker room to the right in the blink of an eye. His movements were smooth.

"That’s Jingyuan Zhang!" Harman looked at Maraloni, exclaiming, "You have told me that he couldn’t run as well as he did at the start!"

Maraloni was surprised as well, "Wow! He was limping just moments ago, but now he’s running!"