Chapter 36: Opponent

Novarello, Novarello, within Novarello's training base.

A very fast free kick passed the "man wall" and rushed to the upper right corner of the goal. Seeing that the ball was about to fly into the goal, a pair of big hands suddenly appeared and hit the side of the football.

"Bang!"

The football hit the post hard and flew out of the bottom line quickly.

"nice shot!"

The onlookers applauded.

This free kick is fast and has a sharp angle, showing the player who took the penalty kick very solid free kick skills. In the face of this high-level free kick, the defending goalkeeper reacted very quickly and his movements were even more standard, reflecting his excellent goalkeeper.

This offense and defense can be said to be: the shooting is beautiful and the defense is wonderful! No wonder the teammates who are watching will not help but cheer.

"Marco, let's stop here today!" The goalkeeper lay on the ground, panting, and waved to the player who took the free kick. After 50 defensive free kicks after training, he obviously felt that he was overdrawn.

"Samir, you saved three more today than yesterday!" Marco, Rigoni smiled, leaned over and picked up the football under her feet, and walked off the training ground with the ball in her arms.

Rigoni is Novara's number one free kick expert. His ability to take free kicks is much better than Chu Jiang's teammate Garofalo. In his career, he has scored many free kicks. Therefore, after receiving the request of Samir and Uykani to practice defensive free kicks, head coach Tser specially arranged for Rigoni to cooperate with him.

Uykani was lying on the grass and had no strength to stand up. For Rigoni, he could only hum twice as a response. Looking up at the cloudless blue sky, Uykani's thoughts couldn't help but float to the opponent in the next game.

"Chu Jiang?" Wu Yikani murmured with the name. The obscure Chinese pronunciation made Wu Yikani feel a little headache.

Novara head coach Texel is a very professional football coach. His focus on the game has even reached a level of almost paranoidness. Before each game, Texel will deliberately summarize the technical characteristics, habitual movements and other information of the opponent's most threatening players in a video and hand it over to goalkeeper Uykani, asking him to study it carefully.

In every game in the past, what Tser gave to Uykani was the information about the opponent's number one star, usually the striker, and only a few of them were the opponent's attacking midfielders. This time, what happened to Uykani was beyond Uykani's surprise that what Tser asked him to study seriously was his peer on the court, a goalkeeper!

This video is very short, only about ten minutes, and the content is all about Chu Jiang's free kick.

Texel told him that the number one star of the Turin team is Bianchi. This player is very capable, but he relies more on the team's offensive system. Texel is confident that he can rely on his own defensive organization to destroy the offensive organization the Bulls rely on, thereby minimizing the threat of Bianchi to the team. However, Texel was very troubled by Chu Jiang's free kick. For such a free kick master, Texel had few ways, so he could only turn to the goalkeeper Uykani, whom he trusted.

After watching Chu Jiang's video repeatedly, Uykani summarized some experience. For four set pieces, Chu Jiang used all the right foot. Except for the one in Crotone, Chu Jiang's free kicks were all arc balls kicked out with the inside of his right foot. It was fast and had a flat arc, just able to cross the wall. Moreover, the shooting angle was all chosen on the side of the wall defense. For goalkeepers, it was very difficult to defend.

Generally speaking, no matter how skillful a player takes a free kick, he usually needs some help from luck when taking a free throw, and the quality of the free throw will fluctuate a little. However, Uykani did not find such a defect in Chu Jiang. When Chu Jiang initiates a free kick, it is like a precision machine, and the quality of the free throw is outrageous.

Otherwise, how could he take free kicks four times and hit the goal all four times? The 100% goal rate makes people sigh that this is simply a monster!

After watching it several times, Uykani came to a conclusion that made him extremely frustrated, that is, Chu Jiang has basically no obvious weakness. There is only one way to defend his free kick, which is to improve his free kick defense level. Only when his own level is improved can he have the opportunity to respond accurately and in time, otherwise, he can only rely on luck...

Uykani is a very excellent young goalkeeper, otherwise he would not have been at the main position of Albania and Novara at the age of 21. His goalkeeping skills are very comprehensive, but he is not very good at defending free kicks. Therefore, Chu Jiang's characteristics just hit his few weaknesses.

In desperation, Uykani had to find the head coach and offered to conduct special extra training for free kick defense. After several days of assault training, Uykani made great progress. However, he still had no idea whether he could deal with Chu Jiang. Because even Rigoni, who had the best free kick skills in the team, was still a big gap from Chu Jiang...

Two days ago, Uykani took the initiative to accept an interview with reporters. During the interview, he expressed disdain for Chu Jiang's level and even challenged his ability to take set pieces. The reason why Uykani did this was to boost confidence in his teammates; on the other hand, he hoped to interfere with Chu Jiang's mood through the power of the media and thus affect his performance. After all, Chu Jiang is only 17 years old, and his ability to cope with pressure may not be so mature.

Uykani hopes to increase his success rate against Chu Jiang from another aspect through psychological warfare. This kind of wishful thinking is very good, but can he succeed?

As the training on Novara approached its end, the pre-match training at the Turin training base was almost over.

During training, Chu Jiang has steadily occupied the main position. His continuous outstanding performance has conquered all his teammates and has also been unanimously recognized by all members of the coaching team. Now, even substitute goalkeeper Ba Xi has acquiesced to his current position. There is no way, Chu Jiang's performance is too powerful, and he can't find any opportunity.

In today's training, Chu Jiang once again staged a four-game happy free kick.

The intensity of the training is incomparable to the official game, and Chu Jiang's kicking is even more relaxed and pleasant. Seeing such a magical free kick personal show every day, Chu Jiang's teammates are almost numb.

"What a freak!" Everyone thought helplessly. However, when they thought that such a "freak" was his teammate and did not appear in the opponent's formation, everyone couldn't help but feel glad. As an opponent, the pressure is extremely great...

With the whistle from assistant coach Destro, the last training session before the game was over.

Chu Jiang picked up the towel in the goal, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and couldn't help but look at the stand next to the training ground freely.

Today is closed training, and the stands are empty and there is no sign of a person. However, just yesterday, hundreds of people gathered in the stands!

Due to his outstanding performance recently, Chu Jiang has received special treatment from fans. During yesterday's open training, they carefully prepared a huge banner with the words "chu, tiamo! (Chu, we love you)"

Whenever Chu Jiang gets the ball, the fans will whistle excitedly. Whenever Chu Jiang scores a free kick, the fans will be cheering and cheering for Chu Jiang!

This is the fans. As long as you give them a point of satisfaction, they will repay them with great happiness!

Among the fan group, the most eye-catching one is undoubtedly a group of young female fans. They all wore low-cut T-shirts, and wrote Chu Jiang's name and jersey number on a pair of peaks on their chests with red colored pens. With cheering, they would jump and jump, and then they could see Chu Jiang's name rising and falling on the "mountain"...

As the name went up and down, Chu Jiang's mood also went up and down... Even the free kick he was good at was missing... he almost scored a goal by the substitute...

"Beauty is such a disaster!" Chu Jiang couldn't help but think.

"But, my chest is surging, my chest is surging..." Chu Jiang couldn't help thinking again.

"I have to say that Italian girls are developing so well! Real people are better than pictorials! That enthusiasm, tsk...that chest, tsk..." Chu Jiang's saliva was about to spill all over the floor...

"Chu!"

"Come!" Chu Jiang responded subconsciously.

"Haha!" Seeing Chu Jiang's strange embarrassing appearance, his teammates burst into laughter.

Destro is both angry and funny.
Chapter completed!