Chapter 285: A game that carries too many things

"Tiger, are you going to Japan?"

After playing the first round of the second stage of the Champions League group stage, Tiger immediately received a call from Kelly - it is no secret that they are going to Tokyo, Japan to play the Toyota Cup.

"Why, do you want to go too? I heard that the shopping there is very good, but I may not have time to accompany you." Tiger said after thinking about it.

"I don't need you to accompany me, there's someone else to accompany me." Kelly laughed giggling from the other end of the phone.

Tiger was stunned for a moment. He didn't think so. If it were a man to accompany her, Kelly wouldn't tell him directly, but he still asked curiously: "Who is it?"

"It's a kid I know who just happened to let her accompany me. I know you definitely didn't have time to accompany me before the Toyota Cup. You should have time after the game." Kelly said with a smile.

"That's fine. We will have at least one day off after winning." Tiger agreed.

"You are really confident." Kelly said, and then said, "We will fly directly to Tokyo by then. But can you ask your club to help you book a hotel? It is best to be closer to the hotel you stay in, which is more convenient... The Toyota Cup is about to begin, and there may be more tourists going to Tokyo during this period than usual."

After thinking about it, Tiger agreed. This was not a troublesome thing. Valencia's itinerary was arranged by the Japanese side. After all, the other party was the host. It was easy to ask the staff from the club to say hello to the Japanese side. It was also very easy to book one or two more rooms near the hotel where they were staying.

"Do you want one room or two?" Tiger asked, Kelly thought about it on the other end of the phone, and then replied, "It's better to have two rooms. Although I can live with her, you still have to come to me after the game..."

Tiger felt a little nervous when he heard this, and after a few words of teasing, he hung up the phone in a relaxed mood.

After Tiger found the staff who was in charge of contacting Japan, the other party agreed to Tiger's request very happily. No matter how you say this request is not too much. You should know that many other Valencia players also want to go to Japan for a few days and book a room together. What's more, Tiger is now considered Valencia's number one player. The number one player still has this face to speak.

Next is to go to Japan. Valencia's opponents in this Toyota Cup match are Boca youth from Argentina. The madman Palermo and the midfielder Riquelme performed well in the South American Cup last season. Although their main center back Samuel has transferred to Roma in Serie A, as long as these two people are there, the strength of Boca youth cannot be underestimated, let alone the famous coach Bianchi who led them.

Compared with Carlos Bianchi, the famous coach, Cooper is much worse than Bianchi. In the 1970s, Bianchi has always been one of the best forwards in Argentina. Although Bianchi has not had many opportunities in the Argentina national team because of the great scorer Kempes, Bianchi has not received much chance in the Argentina national team, but his achievements at the club level are brilliant. The five Ligue 1 best scorer scorer scored extremely brilliantly. As a coach, he also has two South American Liberators Cups and one Toyota Cup. Cooper, who didn't even have the chance to participate in the national team during his time, naturally cannot be compared with Bianchi. However, at the coach level, Cooper can still show signs of separation from this famous coach who is six years older than him.

At least Bianchi's achievements were achieved in South America. The only time he has coached a European team so far was in Rome a few years ago, but he was dismissed after only ten months of coaching. On the contrary, Cooper was doing well in Europe. A trophy for the Champions League alone is enough to become an honor that most head coaches will never be able to win in their entire lives.

Cooper is jealous of Bianchi because Bianchi's reputation in Argentina is much higher than that in Argentina. At least he also has a regular top league title. Although Cooper won some heavyweight championship trophys, such as the South American Cup, the Spanish Cup, the Spanish Super Cup, the European Cup and the European Super Cup, he has never led the team to win the league championship. Even when he made a big splash in Argentina, he only won the runner-up once.

Bianchi is also a little hot to Cooper. Not to mention anything else, it is just for the European Champions League - although he has won the South American Liberators Cup twice, in terms of value and fame, the South American Liberators Cup championship is far inferior to the European Champions League. The best player in Europe is in Europe, and the best player in South America is also in Europe!

So these two head coaches, who are five or six years apart and have a certain gap in fame in Argentina and Europe, secretly began to compete.

In Argentina, Cooper's reputation is naturally not as good as Bianchi, but in Europe, his reputation is higher than Bianchi. In the position of coach, the two of them are considered to be half a dozen.

The confrontation between the two Argentine coaches is also a gimmick, but the media are paying attention to another thing - Tiger and Riquelme, the confrontation between the two attacking midfielders!

Riquelme is three years younger than Tiger, but he debuted much earlier than Tiger. When Tiger was still in Preston, he was already the main midfielder of Boca Youth. In the past four years, Riquelme has achieved extremely brilliant results in Boca Youth. Although he was also out of the 1998 World Cup roster like Tiger, he has pushed Riquelme's reputation to the top. Like Maradona, he is a "Maradona***" in the Boca Youth. However, all Argentines believe that he will be worthy of this nickname than Galado and Ortega before!

Rikelme's playing style is classical, based on midfield, dribbling, short pass, organization and dispatch. The number of forward insertions is not many, but it is always fatal, constantly creating threats in the midfield. Tiger's current playing rules are completely different from the classical midfielder's playing style. He has a higher position and scores more points. He rarely drags the dribbling back and forth, looking for more opportunities in more opportunities!

After leading Valencia to the Champions League last season, many European media have put the hat of "more modern front midfielder" on Tiger's head. Now they have gotten what they want. The confrontation between modern front midfielder and classic front midfielder will undoubtedly give them more things to write about.

"These people are so boring. My position is different from him." Tiger said to Mendieta.

"Who made you the number one star of us and Boca youth..." Menditta shrugged.

"Who said that I am much handsomer than him, and I deserve my reputation." Tiger smiled.

After arriving in Japan, Tiger called Kelly first. Knowing that she had arrived in Japan and had already checked into the hotel she had booked, Tiger felt relieved and began to concentrate on preparing for the next game.

The battle is imminent, and Valencia's players have no time to go shopping - only after winning can they enjoy the scenery of Tokyo with a more relaxed mood.

"By the way, I heard that the best player in the Toyota Cup can drive a Toyota car. Tiger, you have to perform well. Don't you have a car yet? If you get the best player, you will have a car."

Dieta joked to Tiger at the training ground that generally speaking, the best players in the Toyota Cup are often the most outstanding players on the winner side. Judging from Tiger's performance in Valencia, as long as he can lead Valencia to win, he will probably drive away Toyota.

But, would it be so easy?

At least Cooper is not that optimistic.

He is a head coach who loses before he wins. The young stars of Boca may not be as good as Valencia. However, South American teams have a characteristic that they are able to unite around the stars. Often in confrontation with European teams, as long as the stars are in good condition, they can cause great trouble. In other words, those stars who may perform in Europe can get the most suitable environment and the most sufficient support in South America, and they can also perform better than the best players.

Riquelme is definitely a top star. Perhaps in Cooper's opinion, he still has many weaknesses. However, in Boca youth, these weaknesses have been well covered up, but they can allow him to play his greatest strengths, and the same is true for Palermo.

However, Cooper believes that Valencia can give Tiger's support, which will not be less support than the Boca youth, which gives Riquelme. Moreover, in Cooper's opinion, Tiger is definitely better and more mature than Riquelme. Whether in terms of experience and physical confrontation, he is better than Riquelme. It is not easy to deal with South American clubs, but sometimes it is also easy. It is not too difficult to watch the opponent's core players or let his core players show their true strength.

"Four, three, one, Rikelme is that one, can Balaha defend him? There is no physical problem, but in terms of rhythm, this guy is also a master of changing rhythmic football. I'm afraid Balaha will find it difficult to keep an eye on him, let Gezka fill the position? Then Tiger may lack support in the middle, after all, he faces three midfielders, Basua, Batalia and Serna. Although these three players are not Argentine internationals, two are from Argentina domestic players, but two are from Argentina.

The famous powerful player, one of whom is a veteran international in Colombia, is not a good deal. Moreover, if three people deal with one person, I'm afraid that this person will not even have a chance to get the ball. Kili's ability to move forward is not particularly outstanding. It seems that only by putting an Aimal on the right and sharing the pressure of Tiger - Aimal Cooper must use this game, after all, he is the person who has just transferred from the riverbed, probably the person he is the most familiar with Boca players.

Cooper is an Argentinian, so he naturally believes in Argentinians more in Valencia. In this game, facing the Argentine team, he also let all four Argentinians start on the court - European clubs against South American clubs often suffer losses because they are not familiar with the opponent. Now, several Argentinian players in Valencia have left the Argentine League for a long time, but they were considered famous players in the Argentine League before, and they are not unfamiliar with the characteristics of Argentine players.

After considering some details, Cooper breathed a sigh of relief. Next, it was to look at the on-site commander and the status of the players...

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Valencia arrived in Tokyo on November 25th. Compared with their opponent Boca Youth, they arrived in Tokyo one day later. At this time, the domestic league in Argentina has ended. The players of Boca Youth have had a long rest. Valencia has just finished a fierce league game. In terms of physical fitness, it is definitely not comparable to Boca Youth. This is also a factor that South American teams can compete with European clubs in the Toyota Cup.

On November 28, the 21st Toyota Cup competition in Tokyo National Arena officially kicked off!

In the 20 Toyota Cup before this Toyota Cup, South America and Europe each won ten times. The South America clubs initially dominated the team. In the first five sessions, they won five Toyota Cup championships in a row. In the following days, European clubs did not allow South America clubs to expand their advantage to more than five times. After entering the 1990s, European clubs' advantages became more obvious. Starting from the 16th Dutch Ajax defeated Brazil Gremio, Juventus, Dortmund, Real Madrid and Manchester United defeated their opponents in a row, and they even won the Toyota Cup!

For Valencia, they can't afford to lose this game. After all, all the previous five Champions League champions won the Toyota Cup. If they can't win it, it would be a bit embarrassing. For Boca youth, they are responsible for continuing the record that European clubs have never won the Toyota Cup more than South American clubs won the championship!

In this game, both sides bear more than just the winner and the winner of one game. To put it bluntly, it can even be related to the honors of the two continents. Who made South America and Europe win ten times in the previous twenty Toyota Cup finals? Boca Youth and Valencia have never participated in the Toyota Cup before. Boca Youth has only won the InterContinental Cup championship once, and Valencia has never participated in it at all, which makes them feel a little unbearable to lose.

Although the journey is long, it is precisely because of the importance of this Toyota Cup and the fact that neither side has won the Toyota Cup championship before, that many fans from both sides come to Japan to watch the game. In total, about thousands of fans from both sides come to watch the game. Although the capacity of the Tokyo National Arena is 60,000, the total number of fans of less than 10,000 on both sides is nothing. However, there are also many fans in Japan who like these two teams, so the atmosphere on the scene is extremely warm.

After warming up, Valencia's players returned to the locker room, waiting for Cooper to explain the tactics for the last time.

"Their starting lineup today is no different from what we expected." Cooper has already obtained the opponent's starting lineup, which is similar to what he guessed, and the Boca youth lineup has always been relatively stable, and they don't have much room to adjust the lineup: "Their two forwards are still Palermo and Delgado. Palermo is the main scorer of Boca youth, and Delgado is more harassing and covering, allowing Palermo to play his scoring ability. However, we cannot underestimate him. Although he has not scored many goals, it also has a great threat. In the penalty area, Pellegrino deals with Palermo and Robert, while defending Delgado, is there any problem?"

Ayala shook his head. He was the captain of the Argentina national team. Although Palermo and Delgado did not play in the national team many times, he was also familiar with them. Because of his height, he could not watch Palermo. Cooper was considered to have the best of his talents.

"Behind them is Rikelme... This is a very outstanding midfielder. His dribbling is very good. Although he is not fast, he can use the continuous changing rhythm to get rid of his opponent. Moreover, his ball control ability is quite excellent. I am afraid it is not much worse than Tiger. Ruben. When defending him, be careful not to rush to play rashly, and not to get too close to him, so that he has a certain amount of room for movement but not enough space. This is a better way to deal with him... Gezka, you must also be responsible for defense in this game. It is a bit difficult for Reuben to fill in while scheduling and organizing the offense, but I believe you can do it."

Menditta nodded and asked him to return to the middle lane. What Cooper wanted to take advantage of his willingness to participate in defense.

Tiger laughed: "Gezka, Ruben, be careful... When my sprinting speed was not yet trained, I was used to using this extraordinary way to change the rhythm to get rid of my opponents... It's not that I'm boasting, in the Champions League, but few midfielders could defend me!"

Mendeta and Balaha booed Tiger at the same time, but they would not believe Tiger's words, because in the previous few days of training, Tiger used the extraordinary way of changing rhythm without speeding up to get rid of them several times - last season Tiger was used to using a simpler and more effective way to get through people, but it did not mean that he forgot about this very effective way of being extraordinary!

Cooper nodded slightly, and he still remembered Tiger's performance at Manchester United that season - this is also one of the reasons why he decided to introduce Tiger. However, what surprised him was that after coming to Valencia, Tiger's sprinting speed became faster and faster...

Cooper said it in detail in defense, but not much on the contrary in offense. Although Boca Youth is also a team that is good at defense, Cooper knew that no matter how good the South American team is at defense, it would not be so iron-clad. As long as a few offensive players show their strength, there would be no problem.

"Killie is on the left and the middle is left to you two... They have three midfielders on the court. How to tear their defense will be the key to this game." Cooper looked at Tiger and Aimal and said it simply.

Tiger nodded, while Aimal clenched his fists with some excitement.

***: Apart from sorry, there is nothing to say... Let's see Lao Guo's next action. His condition was too bad these days, and he would be out of reach once he adjusted...

Another ***: Recommend a book, title: Soul Ball God; Book number: 2179603
Chapter completed!