Chapter 138
On February 1, Manchester was sunny.
Chen Huan received a call from Longguo in the afternoon.
"Chen Huan? I'm Zhang Hao, the new head coach of the Chinese national football team."A strong male voice came from the other end of the phone.
Zhang Hao, 45 years old this year, is a former international player of the Chinese national football team and a famous football trainer of the Chinese national football team. After retiring, he joined the Chinese national football association. It is said that he is a friendly and enthusiastic person.
Chen Huan has heard of Zhang Hao, but he is not familiar with him. When he heard that he was the new head coach of the Chinese national football team, he roughly understood his intention.
"Hello, Director Zhang"
"Chen Huan, the Asian Cup is about to start, and the draw is expected to be held in a week. The national team and the head coach are considering that some of the Asian Cup matches may overlap with the Premier League. I wonder if it is convenient for you?" Zhang Hao asked
"It's convenient. I will put the national team's game first." Chen Huan answered without any hesitation.
"OK, I understand. We will add you to the official list of the national team. Please continue to maintain your form in the Premier League and strive to achieve a breakthrough in the Asian Cup this year."
"OK, I understand. Goodbye, Coach Zhang." After Chen Huan finished the call, he sat in the locker room for a moment.
"The Asian Cup is finally here.
At this moment, the system that had been silent all this time started to ring again.
"Ding——The system detects that the host is about to participate in the Asian Cup and issues a task——The host leads the Dragon Country national team to win the Asian Cup trophy!"
"Mission Reward - One chance to draw a star player’s special skills!"
……
February 4, afternoon. In the FA Cup fourth round replay, Manchester United played at home against lower-level Cambridge United.
"ha——"
On the bench, Chen Huan yawned softly, then looked up at the score. It was the 73rd minute of the second half, and Manchester United was already 4:0 ahead of Cambridge United.
Chen Huan was also included in the roster for this game, but was replaced by the head coach after playing half the game.
The reason for replacing Chen Huan was not because Chen Huan played badly, but to protect Chen Huan's physical fitness.
Van Gaal only sent out a semi-main lineup for this game. After all, it was just against a low-level league team, and Manchester United's main players were all out, which seemed a bit too important.
The game was just as Van Gaal expected. Even if the main players were replaced one after another, Cambridge United still had no way to face the semi-main Manchester United. After three minutes of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle without any pause and ended the game.
The score at the end of the game was 5:0.
In this game, Fellaini, who had not had a stable chance to play for Manchester United before, was arranged by Van Gaal to the center position, and the opponent actually relied on his physical advantage to score a hat trick, which can be said to be the first hero of the victory over Cambridge United.
Manchester United advanced to the next round of the FA Cup without any trouble.
A few days after the FA Cup, the Asian Cup group draw finally came.
That afternoon, Chen Huan specially asked for a few hours' leave from the club and returned home to watch the live broadcast of the draw.
This Asian Cup will be held in Australia, so the draw will be held at the Sydney Opera House.
At this moment, the live broadcast of the draw has begun, but before the official draw, there was a local Australian dance performance.
Chen Huan and the players of the Dragon National Team did not watch the performance at all. At this moment, the WeChat group of"Dragon National Winning Team" in WeChat became more and more lively as the draw time got closer.
Liang Dai: I hope we can be assigned to the same group with Uzbekistan, Jordan, Oman and Bahrain.
Seeing this, other people in the group smiled one after another.
According to the grouping rules of the Asian Cup, the Asian Football Confederation will divide the competitive strength of the 16 national teams that have passed the qualifiers into tiers 1, 2, 3, and 4 from high to low. The four teams in tier 1 are the most competitive teams among the 16 participating teams, and are also called"seed teams".
The four tiers of teams will be divided into four groups in turn according to the principle of mutual avoidance among the four seeded teams.
Among them, the teams in the first tier are: Australia, Fuso, South Korea, and Uzbekistan.
The teams in the second tier are: Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
The teams in the third tier are: Oman, Longguo, Qatar, and Iraq.
The teams in the fourth tier are: Bahrain, Kuwait, North Korea, and Palestine.
So the grouping situation that Liang Dai"hoped" for just now actually put the Longguo national team in the group that is most likely to qualify.
Everyone joked in the WeChat group, and the draw ceremony on the TV screen had already begun.
The first group to be drawn was Group A. After a round of drawing, the group was as follows: Australia, Iran, Oman, Kuwait.
The results of the Group B draw were also released soon. They were Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Longguo, and Bahrain.
When Longguo was drawn on TV, the WeChat group was like a pot of boiling water.
Even the calmest Zheng Jun couldn't help but speak: Although Liang Dai didn't guess all of them correctly, he still guessed two in the end, which deserves praise!
Everyone gave a thumbs up.
The reason why everyone was so excited was that Uzbekistan was the weakest team in the first tier. If they were drawn in the same group as Uzbekistan, they would have a great chance of appearing in the group stage!
While Chen Huan and others were discussing the situation of the group stage, the draws for Group C and Group D had also come out.
Group C: South Korea, UAE, Qatar, North Korea.
Group D: Japan, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine.
After the group stage draw, the draw for the knockout stage began.
The winner of Group A will play against Group C in the quarter-finals.
The winner of Group B will play against the winner of Group D. Finally, the two teams that advance to the finals will play a single-round match to decide the final champion.
"Good signing!"
"Xiao Liang, your mouth is really blessed today. I hope your feet can also be blessed during the Asian Cup!"
"Brother Huan, Captain Zheng, I'm going to training first. Bye."
"Let's go, see you in Australia!"
After the group stage draw, the group chat that was active just now soon became quiet again. Chen Huan also put away his phone and got up to go to the Carrington training base.
This time, he must win the Asian Cup for Dragon Country!
And four years later, he will also lead the Dragon Country national team to the World Cup.