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Chapter 1239: No. in Asia (Second update, please subscribe)

"…After the successful construction of the Berlin Wall, the leader of East Germany, Ulbricht, announced that the completion of the Berlin Wall marked a great victory in the struggle against the West…"

After hearing the news on the radio, Li Huitang, the president of the Nanyang Football Association, who was sitting in the car, was stunned for a moment, then said in a mocking tone:

“Isn’t this a public sign of failure?”

"President, just declare victory."

The driver's words made Li Huitang stunned for a moment, and he said:
"Okay, you're right, just declare victory. It's not a football match anyway, and winning or losing is not determined by the score."

After saying that, he looked outside the car. The car was now driving along the "Highway 1". Soon the car drove out of the Shenshan Toll Station and headed deep into the mountains. After almost an hour, the car finally arrived at its destination - the Army Shenshan Training Base.

This high-altitude training base has always been a place for plateau training in the Nanyang sports community, and professional athletes come here for plateau training every year.

Now the Nanyang National Football Team is training here. After the car passed the inspection of the guards and drove into the base, Li Huitang cast his eyes on the troops in training. These fully armed soldiers, just like in the past, were running and shouting slogans.

Although he is not a soldier, from the perspective of an athlete, Li Huitang can see that these soldiers are all very strong, with very solid muscles. This may be the biggest characteristic of Nanyang youth - during adolescence, they always deliberately exercise to make their bodies stronger.

In Southeast Asia, strong physique became the mainstream aesthetic concept for men, while the demeanor of a literati who follows the rules and the dignified and majestic officials with big bellies became derogatory terms. This was influenced by the modern Chinese people's trend of "strengthening the country and the race", as well as the German aesthetic concept.

The ideal male body is one with strong chest muscles and a tight waist and abdomen. This kind of "powerful and brutal" body has long become the mainstream aesthetic of society.

For this reason, competitive sports are becoming increasingly popular, but football is still the sport with the largest audience and the most popular.

Football has always been the most popular sport in Nanyang. Li Huitang, the president of the Football Association, came to the Kinabalu base to visit the training ground - the national football team that will represent Nanyang is training here.

Soon, the car stopped near a green field where athletes were doing physical training. After the driver stopped the car, Li Huitang did not get out immediately, but looked at the players who were training through the car window. Under the sun, the athletes were training with sweat pouring down their faces. Perhaps because the weather was too hot, many of them were shirtless, with dark skin, toned muscles and solid abdominal muscles. Under the sun, the sweat made their muscles reflect dazzling light like olive oil.

Seeing that the president was silent, the driver asked,

"President, do you think that Nanyang can advance to the quarterfinals of the World Cup again this time?"

Faced with the driver's question, Li Huitang was stunned at first, then smiled.

"There is no problem in reaching the quarterfinals of the World Cup. Our team is the best in Asia, both in terms of physical fitness and technology. The 1958 World Cup in Sweden also proved that our team is not inferior to the European powerhouses. There is no problem in reaching the quarterfinals, but our goal is to be more ambitious."

When he said this, Li Huitang seemed extremely conceited. Next year's World Cup will be the second time that Nanyang will participate in the World Cup. There is a reason why Nanyang missed the 1950 and 1954 World Cups - they are of German descent.

Because issues such as the Nanyang country's head coach and the former Nazi identity of some of the players had not been properly dealt with, after consulting the athletes, Nanyang announced twice that it would give up participating in the FIFA World Cup. For this, both the coach and the players were extremely grateful.

After all, giving up two World Cups means that many football players will never be able to participate in the World Cup in their lifetime, but for the sake of their friends, they chose to give up.

It was not until the 1958 World Cup in Sweden that the Nanyang national team made it to the quarterfinals in its first participation. Although it ultimately stopped there, it showed its level to the world.

What about next year?
Looking at the players who were training on the sports field, Li Huitang was thinking darkly in his heart - OK!
Next year, next year we must make it to the semi-finals!

But there is still one game left before the World Cup!
Li Huitang is very concerned about this game, not only because it is Nanyang's ticket, but also because the opponent is very special - the Japanese team.

And the location of the competition is also very special - Tokyo!
One game affected many people.

Although the outcome of this game was already determined, it still attracted attention from all parties.

Nanyang VS Japan!

Although the game was not very interesting, this match was more than the game itself.

Opponent: Japan!
Location: Tokyo!
In any case, such an opponent and such a place have certain special meanings in themselves.

"...and the Japanese team has to face the powerful Nanyang team. This is a huge challenge for us..."

East Tokyo, when the North Japan national team answered the reporter like this, the South Sea national team had already embarked on the journey from Chang'an to Tokyo.

In fact, it is not that far, just a few hours. Ma Bo, a member of the Air Force's "Red Hunters" and the national team goalkeeper, has an opinion on this point. After all, the Air Force once bombed Tokyo, and the B24 bomber was used at that time.

In a word, they had some special thoughts in mind for this competition.

East Tokyo is not the capital of Japan. Its capital is Sapporo, but this does not prevent North Japan from holding this game here.

"East Tokyo is the window of North Japan to the outside world."

When the plane flew over Tokyo, people on the plane could clearly see the city through the window. From the air, the western side was still full of shanty towns, and the dilapidated buildings were gray and looked like slums, but on the other side in the east, there were tall buildings.

There is a sharp contrast between the two sides.

"Unlike in Germany, where East Germans ran from East Berlin to West Berlin, in Japan, people ran from West Tokyo to East Tokyo."

Listening to the reporter's words, Wu Mingwei said:

"But the Japanese prefer to go to Southeast Asia, haha!"

Although he is of German descent, Wu Mingwei, as a second-generation immigrant, speaks fluent Mandarin. In fact, even first-generation immigrants can now mostly speak Mandarin.

"Yes, Nanyang is the paradise in their eyes."

If there were Japanese in the cabin, they would definitely not deny it. In fact, even from East Tokyo, some people fled to West Tokyo just to be able to go to Southeast Asia from there.

Although the Soviet Union abolished the ticket system in northern Japan as a face-saving project, most ordinary stores were empty except for special supply stores that served a small number of people, and even basic daily necessities were still in limited supply.

But even so, for the Japanese in southern Japan, northern Japan is still like heaven - at least in northern Japan they can eat and find jobs, unlike in southern Japan, where unemployment and hunger are the norm.

Therefore, over the past decade or so, millions of people in the South have fled to the North, which was naturally widely publicized by the Soviet Union and called a "victory."

As the place that showcases the superiority of the Eastern world, East Tokyo is naturally a key construction area. It is full of modern high-rise buildings and people live a rich and happy life - at least in the eyes of the Japanese in West Tokyo.

Eastern Japan, it's like heaven!
However, for the players of the Nanyang National Football Team and reporters from Nanyang, there seems to be nothing eye-catching about this place - the airport is simple, and its scale is not only smaller than the large airports in Nanyang, but it seems to be about the same size as the general airports commonly found in Nanyang.

When the national team members left the airport and changed to the bus, they unexpectedly discovered that they were using a Foton bus manufactured in Nanyang - there was no other way, as the Soviet Union had not yet solved the problem of car air conditioning. In such a hot day, they couldn't let the distinguished guests from afar sit in a bus without air conditioning.

Therefore, even in the Sudong Group, Foton buses and King Long buses are their first choice when entertaining foreign guests. After all, they have better shock absorption performance and are equipped with air conditioning.

When the bus was driving in East Tokyo, a reporter who had been to Tokyo before introduced:
"You see, this is the characteristic of East Tokyo - the streets are wider, the blocks are bigger, there are sidewalks and trees on the roadside, compared to the very narrow streets in West Tokyo,"

As he finished speaking, forward Zhao Shiliang said:

"This is a characteristic of Soviet urban planning. They adopted the design of wide streets and big roads, pursuing grand momentum, wide roads, tall buildings and large squares. This looks good when looking down from a high altitude, but it is not conducive to living..."

Although Zhao Shiliang is a member of the national football team, he is a student who graduated from Dongning University with a major in urban planning. He was once the main player of Dongning University's Ocean Team and is now the main player of Dongning's Glacier Club.

He is definitely an expert when it comes to urban planning. While explaining, as he looked at the street scenes of East Tokyo, his attention was mostly focused on the flags hanging on the telephone poles. There were flags of northern Japan hanging there - red flags with gears and wheat ears, fluttering in the wind.

On the walls along the roadside, there are large propaganda posters. Having once been to Moscow to participate in a competition when he was on the school team, he can clearly feel the similarities in the painting styles of the two countries.

In addition to the powerful character images, there are also eye-catching, call-to-action, and passionate text titles.

This is northern Japan...

(End of this chapter)