The strongest blade in football

Chapter 45
The opponent of Standard Liege 29 is the St. Turden club.

Saint-Truden, nicknamed the Canaries, was founded in 1924 and is a Ligue [-] team with a long history.

Their performance in recent seasons has not been ideal, and they have lingered at the bottom of the standings for several years in a row. In the 07-08 season, they accidentally fell to the second.

Fortunately, after a year of hard work, they returned to League One this summer as champions of League Two.

In the first round of the league, Saint-Truden was a guest at the Dufrasen Stadium, and drew with Standard Liege 2-2, which was an upset.

After that, Saint-Truden's strong performance continued.

After the first seven rounds, Saint-Truden directly ranked first in the league with a strong record of 5 wins and 2 draws.

When the fans thought that Saint-Truden was going to rise rapidly this season and break into the Champions League play-offs effortlessly, they suddenly collapsed again.

Starting from the eighth round, Saint-Truden had a bad record of 5 consecutive losses, and his ranking plummeted, returning to the middle and lower reaches of the standings.

It wasn't until the last round that they finally got a draw at home and stopped the decline.

This opponent's strength is very average, and Standard Liege's past record is also clearly superior.

Therefore, Boloni's goal in this game is very clear, to take all three points in the away game, and there is no room for loss!

The training on the morning of the 28th also focused on targeted tactical training.

Like most Ligue [-] teams, Saint-Truden is top-heavy, strong offensively and weak defensively.

Their greater weakness lies in the defense's air defense capability and the cooperation of the two African strikers.

Boloni designed several plans for set kicks and corner kick tactics, and conducted detailed drills and preparations.

The game started on the evening of the 29th. In order to keep everyone in good physical condition, Boloni decided to start again at noon that day.

There can be no more injuries. Boloni would rather leave time to the players and let them have as much privacy as possible before the game.

Saint-Truden is located between Liege and Brussels, 3 kilometers northwest of Liege. It is a small city with only over 15 people. It takes less than [-] minutes to go there by high-speed train.

Even for a Belgian, this distance is not too far.

In conversion, it is equivalent to the distance from Wuhou District, CD City, Wang Nuo's hometown, to Pi County.

Wang Nuo had been to Saint-Truden a few years ago, and had a little impression of that small town, and even bought a sports T-shirt outside their home stadium.

At that time, he planned to watch a game by the way, but there was no discount on the ticket price. The price of 26 euros was not worthwhile for the relegation team, so he chose to give up.

But this time is different. He plays as a player. Not only does he not have to pay, but he can also sit on the bench closest to the center of the court.

Even with any luck... that would be where he made his first career debut.

Wang Nuo can't wait for the day of the competition.

After training on the morning of the 28th, Preto gave Wang Nuo four sets of his own jerseys for the home/away games in winter and summer.

Standard Liege's team uniform is sponsored by Diadora, an Italian sports brand. The design is in line with the Chinese aesthetic taste. It is red at home and white trousers, and white and red trousers at away. The Belgian flag and a gold star symbolizing honor are embroidered on the chest.

Turning the jersey around, you can see the number 43 printed on the back, and the black pinyin WANG below the number.

Wang Nuo likes it so much, this is his jersey!

After dinner that day, Wang Nuo tweeted a photo of himself wearing a team uniform, and then added a line of handwritten Chinese characters under the picture.

"I have embarked on a new journey, please bless Xiao Wang!"

The last time he tweeted was when he joined the U19 team a few months ago and went to Germany for a friendly match.

He doesn't use social software very often, only those things that make him feel important and meaningful will be shared with his friends.

His close friends had already been "harassed" by his phone call the night before, knowing that Wang Nuo had been promoted to the first team.

But there are still many classmates, teammates and friends who were not in frequent contact before, who were blown out by Wang Nuo's Twitter.

After this tweet was sent out, his computer message notification tone never stopped, and it kept ringing.

"Oh~~~ God, what did I see! Are you a professional football player now?"

"This photo is so handsome, do you need a girlfriend, Wang, my sister wants to meet you."

"I saw you on the team's official website! There is only your name but no profile picture, they are being lazy!"

"Number 43 in Standard Liège! It's yours!"

"You're a star, that's cool."

"Will you play in the next game? No kidding, I want to take the whole family to watch your game."

"Wang = the hero of Michelle High School, you can be ranked in the history of the school, the only one."

"Can you help me get a free ticket to Anderlecht? pls!!!"

"Pay attention to your body, my current number is 476420601, keep in touch."

Two hours later, Wang Nuo read all the dozens of messages and replied to some as appropriate.

He has never received so many praises, and it can be regarded as a small satisfaction of vanity.

In addition to likes and replies on Twitter, he also received five calls in these two hours.

Two were classmates in middle school, two were teammates from the former youth training camp, and one was a call from my mother.

Wang Nuo's mother, Leya, has not contacted Wang Nuo for more than half a year. Everything on the day her parents divorced seems to be still vivid in her mind. Wang Nuo hesitated for a long time, and finally chose to refuse to answer the phone.

Wang Nuo didn't know what to say to her, especially at this time.

Do you want to reap a sleepless night and catch up on the bench the next day?

of course not!
At 29:11 am on the [-]th, the team conducted a half-hour tactical analysis and arrangement. After eating a nutritious meal together according to the rules, the standard Liege bus departed.

When we set off, there were many fans standing outside the team's training ground, about 40 to [-] people. As soon as the players appeared with their bags on their backs, they rushed forward happily.

There are notebooks, soccer balls, shoes, books, all kinds of things.

Their goals are concentrated on Jovanovic, Witsel, and Mabokani. Obviously, this time can best reflect who is the real star.

But not everyone was able to approach the target smoothly, at least Jovanovic was surrounded by water.

The players are only a dozen meters away from the bus, their patience is limited, and their signatures are also limited.

So some fans who didn't grab a good position began to turn to new targets.

Wang Nuo felt someone tugging on his sleeve.

He looked down, and saw a little girl about eight or nine years old holding a football and struggling to bring it in front of him.

Wang Nuo was overjoyed. It was the first time he was asked for an autograph, even though he was only a child.

He picked up the football, took the signature pen, and thought, what should I write.

"What's your name, cutie."

"Davinia Vanmechelen." The little girl was shy.

Wang Nuo picked up the signature pen and carefully wrote a string of Chinese blessings on the football——

"May football bring happiness to Davinia forever"

Wang Nuo then signed his Chinese name.

"Thank you, sir." The little girl happily took the football and asked, "What's your name?"

The teammates around Wang Nuo were amused and laughed, they had never encountered such a funny thing.

Wang Nuo was stunned on the spot, but soon he thought of how to answer.

He smiled and said: "Keep this football well, and soon, everyone who sees it will know who I am."

(End of this chapter)