The Legendary Chairman Novel - Chapter 229

229 Warm-Up Match Against Duisburg

Duisburg was founded in 1902 and is now a hundred-year-old club with a long history.

In the beginning, they had won the championship of the regional bidding tournament many times. They were the strongest teams among the strongest teams. One season, they scored 113 goals and conceded just 12.

However, mobilization took place in the 1930s and only recovered in the 1950s.

Duisburg was one of the sixteen initial members of the Bundesliga in 1963. In his first season in the Bundesliga, Duisburg finished second in the Bundesliga, but it was also their best result so far in the Bundesliga.

Duisburg had been in the Bundesliga for more than 20 years, and it was not until the 1982-1983 season that they were relegated to Bundesliga for the first time. Since then, Duisburg has been in and out of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. It is simply a Bundesliga lift.

Last season Duisburg played in Bundesliga and this season they were promoted.

Duisburg have also brought in a number of players over the past two seasons and are said to be interested in South Korean striker An Jung-hwan, hoping to bring the South Korean forward to Duisburg.

An Zhenghuan was a famous vanguard!

Many people know that An Jung-hwan is not because he is a symbol of Korean football, nor because he is a Korean striker abroad, but because of the “all Italians boycott” of An Jung-hwan back then.

An Jung-hwan is indeed a strong striker and a symbol of Korean football.

In the 2000 season, 24-year-old An Jung-hwan was valued by Italy’s Perugia on loan and moved to Serie A for $2 million the following year.

At that time, the Serie A League was called the Minor World Cup. The fact that a team could join the Serie A League was enough to show that An Zhenghuan’s strength was extraordinary.

However, in the 2002 World Cup, South Korea eliminated Italy with a black whistle. All Italians have a bad impression of Koreans and are very angry. And Serie A’s Perugia have a Korean player, how can the Italians tolerate that?

Before the World Cup was over, Perugia announced that South Korean striker An Jung-hwan would be kicked out.

Speaking to reporters, the president of Perugia said: “All the players in the team are boycotting him. He has no place on the team and we can only clean him up!”

In two seasons in Perugia, An Jung-hwan played 29 times and scored five goals.

It was precisely because of this “Italian boycott” that An Jung-hwan became really popular. Countless Chinese people knew about this Korean, even if it wasn’t for the fans.

After being kicked out, An joined Shimizu Akemi of Japan for two seasons and then played for the Yokohama Seamen for two more.

This summer, Duisburg had placed a premium on South Korean An Jung-hwan, and was now preparing to bring An Jung-hwan to Europe. However, Duisburg has yet to succeed and the South Korean striker has yet to appear in the Duisburg formation.

Duisburg coach Norbert Meyer is considering a move for a striker. Their relegation mission this season will be very difficult. He needs attackers to pull out of the fortress.

It was said that Leeds United’s defensive strength was very strong. Norbert Mayer chose to play Leeds United in a pre-season friendly. On the one hand, he wanted to check his team’s forward strength and offensive capabilities. On the other hand, he wanted to learn some defensive skills from Leeds United.

He is now standing on the sidelines, on the pitch are Duisburg players and Leeds United players.

–Division Line–

Zhong Cheng knew that Duisburg was a promotion team, but at the same time, he also knew that their attacking power was not strong.

Even last season, Duisburg won second place in the Bundesliga, their attacking power was not ranked in the top three of the Bundesliga and their goals were only ranked sixth in the Bundesliga. If they don’t bring in some strikers, Duisburg will have to prepare for the Bundesliga.

However, Duisburg have not brought in any good strikers so far because they don’t have much money. That’s why Norbert Mayer is interested in South Korean striker An Jung-hwan because he has experience in Europe and played in the World Cup. Most importantly, An Jung-hwan is cheap.

Even so, Zhong Cheng would not rashly attack in this match.

Although he really wanted to play Wallace’s offensive football, Zhong Cheng knew very well that Leeds United would still focus on defensive counter-attacks in the Premier League this season. Therefore, in this match, Zhong Cheng still wanted to test the team’s defensive strength, of course, the most important thing was to test the speed of the counterattack.

In this match, Zhong Cheng changed a few starting players. Today, Leeds United’s starting line-up was as follows:

Goalkeeper: Zhong Zheng

Fourth Guards “Left to Right”: Danny Pew, Gary Cahill, Ivanovic and Gary Kelly

Double waist: Alexander Song, Albertini

Three avant-garde “from left to right”: Ribery, Modric, Dembele

Single forward: Huntelaar

Yes, there were a few more rookies in this match, such as Alexander Song and Dembele, who had just turned around. It could be seen that Zhong Cheng wanted to see what kind of strength these players had.

Zhong Cheng was wearing a white suit as he stood at the side of the field, attracting the attention of the fans, because Zhong Cheng was too eye-catching, his clothes were too coquettish. Even Duisburg’s substitutes couldn’t help but glance at Zhong Cheng. Zhong Cheng was really manly.

Of course, most people’s gazes were more on Zhong Cheng’s suit. They liked it at a glance. It was very nice, but it was also very personal and perfect. The feeling of wanting to buy all of them could not be pulled out from their eyes.

At this moment, Zhong Cheng crossed his chest and quietly stood at the side of the field, his eyes staring at the field.

The result of this match was not important, what Zhong Cheng cared about was the process. That was why he was so focused on watching the match on the pitch.

Zhong Cheng was focusing on examining Alexander Song and Dembele to see how adaptable they were. How’s your psychological quality?

At the beginning of the game, Duisburg were attacking like crazy.

Zhong Cheng couldn’t help but nod when he saw this. He could tell that Norbert Meyer was determined to attack Duisburg.

At the beginning of the match, Duisburg had a good chance.

Young Alexander Song made a mistake and was seized by Slovenia international Kalivin Lavric at Duisburg’s front as he sped out into the Leeds United box.

Facing Gary Cahill who was moving horizontally, Callivan Lavridge suddenly faked a real buckle, shook Gary Cahill, and swung his leg to shoot. With a bang, the football shot towards Leeds United’s goal like a loaded cannonball.

Norport Mayer leaned forward involuntarily and was very excited.

Unfortunately, the football was thrown out by Zhong Zheng’s side. The football was directly cleared by Ivanovic, not even giving Duisburg a chance to corner the ball.

Some fans from Belgium applauded and cheered for Zhong Zheng’s wonderful performance.

Norbert Mayer sighed. This striker was really not good!

This was a good opportunity. To be honest, Callivan Lavric had already done a good job with some of his previous moves, except that his last shot was slightly weaker. If he had a better striker, he would have won the ball.

Norbert Mayer nodded. It seemed that he had to bring in a striker who could score as soon as possible, otherwise Duisburg would be hanging in the balance this season.

Duisburg’s attack came again. The winger crossed 45 degrees and the ball flew into the Leeds United box. Duisburg’s other center Marcus Coulter jumped high to head the ball.

Unfortunately, football was stared at by Gary Cahill.

The ball rolled under Albertini’s feet. Albertini pulled the ball and turned around. He turned horizontally, avoiding the Duisburg midfielder’s attack. Then, he sent out a scalpel-like direct pass. The ball pierced through Duisburg’s sidelines.

Ribery sprinted after catching the ball. Facing a succession of left-right spikes from former Danish U21 centre-back Thomas Bloom, he dodged the Serie B centre-back and shot the ball into the corner of the goal. Leeds United took the lead with a single goal.

It was still Ribery. Ribery’s condition was really too hot.

Zhong Cheng crossed his chest and frowned. Isn’t Ribery’s condition a little too early? The new season hasn’t even started yet? What if Ribery goes mad at the start of the season?

At this time, Zhong Cheng wanted to suppress Ribery and replace him.

Ribery did not perform well, but last season Leeds United’s best shooter, Champions League’s best shooter Huntelaar, did not perform well and was unable to get into form in the warm-up.

Zhong Cheng and the Leeds United coaching staff were a little anxious. Huntelaar was the top priority of Leeds United. If his condition wasn’t good, it would be troublesome.

After all, the new season is right in front of us. Since Leeds United are going to play in the UEFA Cup this season, the new season is really right in front of them. Huntelaar has to find his form as soon as possible.

During this period of time, Duisburg launched a ferocious attack and surrounded Leeds United, but they really did not create too much trouble for Leeds United. Zhong Zheng’s performance was really good, making Duisburg’s striker feel desperate.

At the end of the first half, Leeds United scored again.

This time, it was an assist from Alexander Song. He sent out a very beautiful crossover ball and the football was caught by Ribery. Ribery swayed and then directly hit Duisburg centre-back Alexander Meyer. Then, he shot another kick and broke Duisburg’s goal.

This Alexander Mayer is not the striker in Frankfurt, he is a centre-back and can play at full-back.

2-0. Half the game is over. Leeds United have a 2-0 lead.

At half-time, Zhong Cheng changed players. He replaced Zhong Zheng with Simon Minolai, Gary Kelly with Sagna, Danny Pew with Evra, Gary Cahill with Vermaelen, Albertini with Darren Bent and Ribery with Lennon.

Huntelaar continued to play on the pitch.

Zhong Cheng really hoped that Huntelaar could find his form through this match. At the same time, Zhong Cheng also instructed the Leeds United players to feed Huntelaar more balls and let him score as soon as possible to break the goal shortage.

In the second half of the game, the Leeds United players frantically passed the ball to Huntelaar according to Zhong Cheng’s plan. However, Huntelaar’s goal was indeed delayed, and he even missed another opportunity to empty the goal from behind. Huntelaar didn’t even grasp it and directly missed the ball.

Still, Darren Bent, who has just arrived for the new season, scored a brilliant goal in a counter-attack with his speed, keeping Leeds United in the lead until the end.

In this match, Leeds United beat Duisburg 3-0.

Duisburg’s offense is problematic, and if Norbert Mayer doesn’t fix it, Duisburg will definitely be relegated this season!