The Asian Cup started on January 7th, but the training camp of the Chinese team had already begun. As soon as the Chinese Super League ended, the national team entered the training period. The Guangzhou Asian Games were in full swing, and the Chinese national team had already started a closed training camp in Haikou. For this Asian Cup, Gao Hongbo strives to prepare well.

Although the national team has already started training, Chu Zhongtian has to wait until the first half of the Bundesliga game to report to the national team. The league ends on December 18th, and the date of reunion agreed by Chu Zhongtian and the national team is December 20th.

The nineteenth day in the middle is not a rest time, and Chu Zhongtian has other arrangements.

After playing against Wolfsburg, he didn't even go back to Sinsheim with the team, so he flew back to China. There was a reason why he was so hurrying. He had to go to Sichuan first to see the new Sichuan Quanxing team that had put all his hopes and efforts in mind.

As the boss of the team, the team has been established for several months, so he should go and take a look no matter what.

However, time is very tight, so he can only stay in Chengdu for one day. He will rush to Dongguan, Guangdong to participate in the national team training camp and prepare for the Asian Cup.

At Chengdu Shuangliu Airport, Xu Xiaodi came to pick him up. The two drove directly to Pujiang training base. The first team of Sichuan Quanxing is currently preparing for training here for the new season next year.

The renovation project of the training base has been completed. Weeds more than one person tall have been pulled out, trees have been re-molded, and all buildings have been renovated from the inside to the outside, looking completely refreshed. All the training facilities that have passed rusty have been put in the garbage dump. The first money invested by Chu Zhongtian was mainly spent on the renewal of training facilities and the redecoration of training bases.

Today's Pujiang training base looks no longer the kind of deserted and dilapidated look that no one cares about. After several months of renovation, this training base looks brand new and rejuvenated.

Chu Zhongtian saw the first team being formed here. Compared with the first team, various echelons are formed faster. This is quite in line with Chu Zhongtian's idea, that is, the youth team is more important than the first team, and the youth team is more important than the youth team.

First lay the foundation, then pursue results. His Sichuan Quanxing can play the lowest-level league in ten years. As long as he does well in youth training, he will sooner or later reap sweet fruits.

There are only a dozen players in the first team now, some of which are left by the old Sichuan team, and some are players that others don’t want from the youth teams and reserve teams of other clubs across the country.

The young people in the first team are very excited to see the only proud hero of both their boss and the current Chinese football. For them who play football, Chu Zhongtian is everyone's idol. They did not regard it as a target because most people know that they do not have the strength of Chu Zhongtian or the opportunity of Chu Zhongtian.

Some of them even scrambled to take a photo with Chu Zhongtian and asked for an autograph from Chu Zhongtian.

Chu Zhongtian had no airs at all and was satisfied.

After meeting the first team players, Chu Zhongtian met his team's coaching team.

The head coach of the first team is a teacher from Sichuan Sports and Technical College, and is unknown in Chinese football. Because time is tight, the team framework must be built first. It is impossible to have no leader, right? So without time to further inspect the head coach, the Sichuan Football Association recommended this teacher to Xu Xiaodi. Xu Xiaodi treats him as a transition coach. Once a suitable candidate is found, he has to go back to his sports school to be a teacher.

After meeting with the coaching team, Chu Zhongtian went to see the various facilities of the training base and was very satisfied with the renovation project. In his opinion, although there is still a big gap compared to the modern training base newly built by Hoffenheim, it is better than most of China's training bases. Chu Zhongtian, who focuses on hardware construction, even spent a lot of money to introduce various advanced training equipment from Europe and the United States. Some people may think that this is too wasteful, but this is one of the reasons why Chinese football cannot always be promoted - they are reluctant to spend money where they should be spent, and they are squandering at will.

After visiting the training base, Chu Zhongtian gathered all the management staff of the club and held a meeting. At the meeting, he listened to Xu Xiaodi's report on the progress of his work, talked about his opinions and hopes, and reiterated his team building philosophy. He hoped that everyone could work together to build Sichuan Quanxing into a century-old club.

"I don't care much about the team's performance. What I care about is the team's future. If our great-grandson can still watch the game in Quanxing, Sichuan on the stadium in a hundred years, we will be successful."

※※※I stayed in Chengdu for a day, reunited with my parents at my home in the evening, ate the meals made by my mother, rested overnight, and boarded the plane to Guangzhou the next day, and then he would gather with his national teammates in Dongguan.

Chu Zhongtian never returned to the national team after playing against Paraguay in September. He did not participate in various warm-up matches. The national team won Syria 2:1, defeated Uruguay 0:4 and defeated Latvia 1:0, and defeated Uruguay 1:0, have nothing to do with him. The 0:4 loss to Uruguay is considered by the media to be inseparable from Chu Zhongtian's ironclad evidence. If Chu Zhongtian was there, he could not win Uruguay, at least he could draw. Even if he lost to Uruguay, he would definitely not lose so much.

The disastrous defeat of the National Olympic Team at the Asian Games also caused rumors. Everyone said that after the Asian Cup, Gao Hongbo will be replaced by foreign coaches. Three national teams will be reshuffled, and foreign coaches will fully participate in the Chinese national football team. Various football celebrities have emerged to criticize local coaches for their low level and short-sightedness. Gao Hongbo and others cannot bring much changes to Chinese football. To completely change Chinese football, there is only the only way to ask foreign coaches. The National Olympic Team lost to Japan and South Korea 0:3 one after another, and the national team lost to Uruguay 0:4 is proof.

Gao Hongbo was under great pressure during that period. The media kept saying that the Asian Cup was a mock exam before Gao Hongbo's "college entrance examination". The results of the exam will directly determine how long he can sit in the position of head coach of the national team.

Although Gao Hongbo has always claimed that he did not set goals for the national team in the Asian Cup, Wei Di, director of the Football Management Center, also said that the so-called news that the national team replaced foreign coaches after the Asian Cup is purely a rumor.

But everyone knows that the Asian Cup is actually a hurdle. If Gao Hongbo cannot overcome it, this amazing team in the East Asian semi-finals will fall apart.

Gao Hongbo actually knows that if he wants to continue to stay in the position of head coach of the national team after this Asian Cup, then he would be better off leading the team to the semi-finals in the Asian Cup, which is the minimum requirement. If he can win the championship, it would be better.

The Football Association has changed its new chairman, and Cai Zhenhua, the former deputy director of the General Administration of Sports, took office. Such a meritorious leader who has created infinite glory in the field of table tennis suddenly came to a sports event where people scolded each other. The glory of table tennis and the ruin of football formed a strong contrast, and his requirements for his performance were even more urgent. No matter who it was, he had been brilliant, he could no longer accept failure.

So Gao Hongbo was under even greater pressure.

He pressed all his treasures on Chu Zhongtian. When Chu Zhongtian competed in the European League, what he was most worried about was seeing the news that Chu Zhongtian was injured. Fortunately, until the winter break in the Bundesliga came, Chu Zhongtian was in good health. In addition, he was in good condition.

Take a bus from Guangzhou Baiyunshan Airport to the training base of the Dongguan national football team. When Chu Zhongtian arrived at the training ground, Gao Hongbo was leading the team to train. His arrival even made the head coach leave the team training and come to the sidelines to shake hands with him, and welcome him back to the national team. It can be seen how noble Chu Zhongtian's status in the national team is.

After seeing Gao Hongbo, Chu Zhongtian went up to say hello to his teammates. He had a boss style in every move. He sat up and was not pretentious. His experience in the European League and the honors he received gave him such an aura. No one in the national team dared to question his status. Today, the Chinese team still has the situation of seniority and is still divided into various small groups, but Chu Zhongtian is the boss within, which is meaningless. This consensus has been reached among the small groups.

Hoffenheim's captain has won the UEFA Cup and the Bundesliga championship. Players who have scored goals in their matches against Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Inter Milan, AC Milan and Real Madrid are indeed worthy of everyone's worship.

In the latest national team year-end rankings announced by FIFA, the Chinese team ranked 87th with 389 points and 6th in Asia. Chu Zhongtian also made contributions.

After saying hello to his teammates, Chu Zhongtian went directly to the locker room to change his clothes and train.

He had just flew from Europe to Sichuan, ran in Sichuan for a day, then flew to Guangzhou, from Guangzhou to Dongguan, took a car for more than an hour, and had no rest, so he went directly to the training ground. Moreover, his performance on the training ground was better than some of his national football teammates. He ran actively, had good movements, and was full of energy. He could not tell at all that he had been running back and forth for tens of thousands of kilometers.

Such spirit and ability are amazing - his success makes sense.

※※After the first day of training, Gao Hongbo found Chu Zhongtian in the restaurant and told him that he had something to come to him tonight, hoping that he could go to Gao Hongbo's room for an interview.

After dinner, after making a fuss with his teammates for a while, Chu Zhongtian said goodbye to everyone and knocked on Gao Hongbo's door.

Gao Hongbo opened the door for him and asked him into the room.

I first took care of Chu Zhongtian's health, especially his physical condition, and then congratulated his team on his journey to the next round in the Champions League.

The conversation between Gao Hongbo and Chu Zhongtian did not look like a conversation between a head coach and a player, but a communication between two people with equal identities.

Then Gao Hongbo talked about the topic of this conversation.

"What do you think about this Asian Cup, Da Chu?"

"Da Chu" is the nickname for Chu Zhongtian in the national team. Although he is not old, Gao Hongbo called him that obviously had a very good relationship with him.

"Opinion, high guidance, what are you referring to?"

"score."

"Of course it's the champion." Chu Zhongtian had actually thought about this question himself. It was not on the way to come, but after confirming that he was qualified for the Asian Cup.

Apart from the championship, he couldn't think of any other goals. He didn't know whether he could participate in the World Cup in his lifetime. Can't he make a breakthrough in the Asian Cup? He has always accumulated experience and confidence in the top European games, which makes him very passionate about such Asian Cups. Although the overall strength of the Chinese team is not the top in Asia, he believes that his outstanding performance will definitely help the national team achieve historic breakthroughs.

In addition, with his personality, participating in football matches is to win. If the goal is undecided, then don’t participate. If you don’t have the confidence to win the championship in a competition of the Asian Cup, what’s the future?

That's what he thought.

Gao Hongbo smiled, his little eyes narrowed into a slit.

"My goal is the semi-finals, and I thought it was already very difficult. I didn't expect you to have more ambitions than me."

"That's what I think, coach. If we can qualify in the group and reach the quarterfinals, we will only be a game away from the quarterfinals. Why not strive to enter the quarterfinals? If we reach the quarterfinals, we will only be a game away from the finals. Why not try to enter the finals? Since we have reached the finals, are we here to compete for the runner-up? Except for the championship, no other result is worth pursuing. So..." He spread his hands. "I think only the championship is the most suitable goal."

Gao Hongbo was joking about Chu Zhongtian's theory of "Since that's the case, why not continue" that sounds like an idealistic one, but it won't make people feel incredible when Chu Zhongtian said it.

In European football, he has proved this many times. Now the whole of Europe is saying that Chu Zhongtian said before the season that they were going further in the Champions League, further than last season, which is possible because they have this strength.

Gao Hongbo felt so too.

But in your own team, is it possible to have this confidence?

Gao Hongbo is not an arrogant fool. He knows that the strength of the Chinese team is different from Hoffenheim. Although many people think that Hoffenheim is definitely not a top team in Europe, it is still top-notch when compared with the Chinese national team. In Hoffenheim, Chu Zhongtian has many outstanding teammates to help, but what about the Chinese team? Most of the time, I am afraid he has to rely on himself.

Although Deng Zhuoxiang and others are still considered to be capable, there is still a gap between them and professional players in Europe.

Originally, Han Peng and Feng Renliang could also help Chu Zhongtian, but they didn't expect that during the training camp, both of them left the national team due to injuries and could not participate in the Asian Cup... The damage to the national team's strength means that Chu Zhongtian's burden is heavier.

However... Gao Hongbo looked at Chu Zhongtian. This man never minded these small places. In fact, he was always carrying huge pressure to move forward. Since Metz, he has been regarded as the only hope for Chinese football. Chinese billions of fans are paying attention to him, pressing all the grievances, anger and dissatisfaction he had encountered on Chu Zhongtian, hoping that he would not let them down and that he could still keep a glimmer of hope for Chinese football. Any mistake of his mistake may cause large-scale criticism, and every wonderful performance of his performance will attract the attention of Chinese fans. Many Chinese players in the past liked and loved by others in China. But Chu Zhongtian is different. He has won the love and support of all Chinese fans, but if he disappointed these people, he is likely to fall into a state of doom.

It can be seen how much pressure he is.

Despite this, he still performed well and stably. He even took the initiative to take the pressure on himself. Let’s talk about his declaration before the start of this season. Most people would not say that. For example, when Gao Hongbo answered the national team’s Asian Cup goals, in order to reduce the pressure, he would say “we have no goals”, but Chu Zhongtian said “we have to go further in the Champions League than last season”. As a team participating in the Champions League for the first time last season, he reached the semi-finals of 16 last season. Such a result is already very good, and Real Madrid is only in the semi-finals of 16. But Hoffenheim’s performance this season is better than last season. For Hoffenheim, who has only participated in the Champions League for the second time, this is definitely not something that can be easily done.

But Chu Zhongtian dared to say that.

What is this not taking the initiative to take the pressure on yourself?

He seemed to enjoy playing football under such heavy pressure.

Psychological quality, this is where he is superior to others.

Gao Hongbo said: "If you think so, that's great. But you know, football is not a sport alone. You have this idea alone and work towards this goal, but what about your teammates? Can you guarantee that they are willing to do this too?"

Chu Zhongtian shook his head: "I don't know, but I'm willing to try it."

Gao Hongbo nodded: "Okay, you are the captain, and you can solve the internal affairs of the team. Go and rest, you must be exhausted this day."

Chu Zhongtian smiled and shook his head: "It's okay, young people are energetic, so running around is nothing."

The conversation ended.

From this conversation, Gao Hongbo learned about the team's core thoughts, which is helpful to his work. If the core does not have fighting spirit, then his work will be difficult to carry out. As long as the core is pursued, his work will be much simpler. The role of a team's core is very important, otherwise how can it be called "core"? Just look at the difference between Hoffenheim with Chu Zhongtian and Hoffenheim without Chu Zhongtian.

Chu Zhongtian also gained something. He learned about Gao Hongbo’s plans from this conversation. Gao Hongbo announced to the public that the team had no goals in this Asian Cup, but in fact it was not the case. His goal should be the semi-finals.

But as long as you reach the semifinals, this goal will definitely be modified. As he said, since the team has reached the finals, why not try to reach the finals? Since they have reached the finals, why do you still have to work hard for a runner-up?

So as long as the team can successfully enter the semi-finals, Chu Zhongtian will have the confidence to compete for the championship.

It is a fantasy to lead the Chinese team to the World Cup championship, but it is still OK to compete for the Asian Cup championship. After all, the Chinese team has won the runner-up of the Asian Cup twice, just one step away from the championship.

The foundation is not too bad, and you also have such a foundation, so you can try it.

If he just came to the formalities and went home after the group stage, he might as well have a Christmas holiday and then followed Hoffenheim to Spain for winter training and prepare for the second half of the season.
Chapter completed!