Chapter 37 Outside the Plate

The match also caused a stir in South Korea, and the Korean media were more confident in the strength of Seoul FC than the Chinese media's optimism about Guangzhou Evergrande. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Although Guangzhou Evergrande's attacking ability is amazing this season, and they have eliminated Lehevia and Kashiwa Suns one after another, the South Koreans have always scoffed at Chinese football and do not think that Guangzhou Evergrande can defeat the South Korean champion Seoul FC.

South Korea's major newspaper "Chosun Ilbo" made a front-page headline with the headline "K-League continues to conquer the AFC Champions League, Seoul FC will challenge", and gave a preview of the AFC Champions League final.

"Since 1967, when the AFC organized an Asia-wide club tournament, South Korea was the first time that a national team has been able to reach a season final for five consecutive years," the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said. From 2009 to 2013, the South Korean team reached the AFC Champions League final for five consecutive years. Prior to that, only three Asian countries had reached the final three times in a row: Iran, South Korea and Japan. Even in the Champions League, the strongest league in Europe, there are only five cases where a country's team has been able to reach the final for five consecutive years. Counting from the Asian Club League (the predecessor of the AFC Champions League), South Korean teams have reached the final 16 times, winning 10 of them, which is also unique in Asia. ”

And in this report, "Chosun Ilbo" used another set of data to prove their strength.

"Since the restructuring of the AFC Champions League in 2003, South Korean teams and Chinese teams have played each other a total of 54 times, of which South Korean teams have a clear advantage with 30 wins, 11 draws and 13 losses."

In addition to using data to prove the advantages of the South Korean team, some South Korean media are ridiculing Guangzhou Evergrande as a "RMB" team created with money, as long as the South Korean players show their willpower and "patriotism", they can offset the advantage of the opponent's super foreign aid!

Some Korean media even compared the foreign aid of the two sides, believing that although the foreign aid of Guangzhou Evergrande is more expensive than that of Seoul FC, the foreign aid of Seoul FC will play more roles than the foreign aid of Guangzhou Evergrande in the game. Han reporters believe that from the analysis of personal characteristics, Evergrande's Muric's speed is better than Dejan's, while Dejan, who has just played for the Montenegrin national team, has the advantage of heading and possessing the ball with his teammates, and his role will be to organize more offensive routines and instigate shots near the opponent's penalty area. Colombia's Molina's fame is obviously not comparable to Conca's, but his game experience and understanding with his teammates are much higher than Conca's, and he is better than Conca in controlling the pace of the game, so it seems that Seoul is better than Evergrande in terms of foreign aid ability and actual performance.

Of course, in addition to showing the consistent "self-confidence" style of Koreans, there are also Korean media for Seoul FC, and some Korean media have analyzed Guangzhou Evergrande's biggest weakness, saying that Guangzhou Evergrande's biggest weakness lies in air defense - in this season, Guangzhou Evergrande's goals conceded in the air occupy a large part.

Just when the sports media in China and South Korea were focusing on the first leg of the AFC Champions League, Guangzhou Evergrande's charter plane landed at Seoul Airport.

Guangzhou Evergrande arrived in Seoul, South Korea, on October 24, and when they landed at the airport, it was already past six o'clock in the evening.

Since the race on the 26th was at 7 p.m. local time in South Korea, Lippi had already arranged half a month ago that after they got off the plane and settled into the hotel, they would have a training trip on the field that night. Half a month ago, Guangzhou Evergrande had already contacted Seoul FC, hoping that the other party could provide a training venue for Guangzhou Evergrande.

In the AFC Champions League, according to the AFC regulations, the home team is obliged to provide assistance to the away team in terms of hotels and training grounds.

However, when the Guangzhou Evergrande team just got off the plane, they received a notice from the Guangzhou Evergrande South Korea advance working group, because the hotel provided by the home team was too far away from the competition venue, and the conditions were not too good, so the Guangzhou Evergrande team could only temporarily find a hotel near the competition venue to stay.

When he saw that the hotel, which was temporarily replaced by the team's advance team, was in good condition, Lippi's originally unhappy face was a little unpleasant.

Lippi is a person who pays a lot of attention to detail and executes according to the plan, and if the team's preparation is affected by something as small as the hotel, it is estimated that the club's staff will bear the wrath of Lippi.

The players were full of lightheartedness, talking and laughing, from getting off the plane to taking the airport bus to the hotel, the players still had relaxed smiles on their faces.

After the players settled in the hotel, the players boarded the bus and prepared to go to the training ground for their first training session in Korea.

However, when they arrived at the training ground, the person in charge of the training ground said that they would not turn on the lights on the training ground without the permission of Seoul FC. Guangzhou Evergrande staff had no choice but to call Seoul FC urgently, but were told: "To turn on the lights or change the venue, you need to apply to the Korean Football Association first." ”

Lippi almost laughed when he heard the report from the staff, as an Italian, the shamelessness of the South Koreans made the whole of Italy unforgettable at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.

Unexpectedly, eleven years later, Lippi refreshed his impression of Koreans.

The whole team of Guangzhou Evergrande can only stand awkwardly on the training ground without lights, and the team can't arrange training when the lights can't be turned on.

Guangzhou Evergrande even communicated with the Chinese Football Association, the AFC and the South Korean Football Association, but the other party still refused to provide a lighted stadium.

On the way back to the hotel, the players of Guangzhou Evergrande did not have the smiles they had before, and the Koreans' actions made the players angry.

After returning to the hotel, Lippi had to arrange for the players to do some simple physical stretching exercises in the corridors of the hotel. On the first day in South Korea, Seoul FC gave Guangzhou Evergrande a dismount!

Until the pre-match press conference the next day, Silver Fox's face was gloomy, and he said angrily at the press conference: "This is the first time I have encountered such a situation in my 30-year coaching career, I have participated in 15 finals, including the World Cup final, the Champions League final and this AFC Champions League final, and it is the first time I have encountered such unreasonable and presumptuous news!" ”

After that, he was still unhappy and continued: "I want to reassure the Seoul club and the head coach of Seoul first, they will not have any problems in terms of training time, training venues and other issues after they come to Guangzhou, because this is an international practice, and we will arrange all this for them." Yesterday we couldn't find a place to train in the whole of South Korea, and it was incredible to encounter such a problem in the AFC Champions League final, which is contrary to the relevant regulations of the AFC Champions League final. Seoul didn't provide any training for us, but I can tell them that they won't have any difficulties in Guangzhou. ”

Seoul FC head coach Choi Yong-so responded: "Coach Lippi is a world-class coach, and the war actually started before the game started. We have been able to provide all the help we can with the training ground, and we have already dealt with the Korean Football Association. As for our second leg in Guangzhou, we won't ask for anything extra. ”

Before the AFC Champions League final, China and South Korea were already tense and full of gunpowder.