Chapter 196 The Northern Bear Opens His Eyes

Chen Yingxiong didn't go to nightclubs or bars, so what was he doing?

He was working hard to improve the technique he had been practicing in January and February—learning how to receive the ball with his back to the defender and then take them on in a one-on-one situation, like a true center forward.

The match against Marseille had exposed his weakness as a pure header specialist. When the wings weren't effective, his performance plummeted. With Hiller still unavailable for the next game and few suitable crossers on the wings, his heading threat would naturally be greatly reduced. To win by two or more goals at home against Marseille, Chen Yingxiong needed to play his part.

The reason they lost to Marseille so thoroughly in the previous game was because Chen Yingxiong, the team's sharpest scoring weapon, had failed to deliver. If he could score goals, how could Marseille have played so smoothly?

Therefore, Chen Yingxiong received criticism from the media after the match against Marseille.

Although he scored a goal, expectations for him were immense. Everyone felt that scoring just one goal wasn't enough. At a time when the team's survival was at stake, how could he be satisfied with just one goal?

That's the kind of treatment Chen Yingxiong gets. If you score goals consistently, everyone takes it for granted. But if you don't score in a particular game, or score less in an important match, you can expect to be criticized. And most likely, it'll be tied to things like going to nightclubs.

Chen Yingxiong not going to nightclubs this time made many people feel satisfied—they said that Chen Yingxiong had finally learned to grow up, knew how to control his desires, avoided places like nightclubs, and focused all his attention on soccer… But in reality, they all overlooked one thing—Chen Yingxiong hadn't been to a nightclub in a long time.

Since establishing a relationship with Sharapova, Chen Yingxiong had become well-behaved.

Unfortunately, the media didn't know what connection his relationship with Sharapova had with going to nightclubs, so no one cared.

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During the regular training sessions, Chen Yingxiong still followed the team and completed all the training tasks assigned by the coaching staff.

But when he returned home, he entered his own world, doing very specific training. In this world, he was often surrounded, facing all the defenders alone, with only himself on his side.

He was surrounded by defenders, in front, behind, left, and right. He was all alone, without teammates coordinating runs or receiving passes. Everything depended on him.

Of course, in a real match, such an extreme situation rarely occurred, or even never occurred—no matter what, you can always find one or two of your teammates in the vast half-field, right? Unless they are all dead.

Now, that's the situation. Chen Yingxiong assigned everyone to his opponents, and he was alone in front of the penalty area with his back to the goal, with Skrtel pressing him from behind, Erik Hagen watching him from the left, his enemy Li Hao on the right, and Tymoshchuk waiting for a chance to intercept the ball in front.

This lineup was truly magnificent, all excellent defenders. And here, Li Hao perfectly replicated Chen Yingxiong's perception of him in reality, with a more hateful tackle than when they competed against each other in the team.

He couldn't cooperate with his teammates because there were no teammates—Denisov, Anyukov, Arshavin, Kerzhakov… all these people were on his opponents' side now.

That's the benefit of the copy. Such a training scenario would never occur in reality. Because he wasn't the coach, and the real coach, Advocaat, wouldn't make such an extreme arrangement. It had to be targeted enough; it wouldn't work without being extreme.

Chen Yingxiong could conduct highly targeted training in this virtual space according to his own wishes.

Create the most extreme situation, the most troublesome scenario, and then demand that he train in such a scenario. Under such extreme conditions, under such tremendous pressure, see what kind of performance he could achieve. Only in this way could he achieve real improvement in a short period of time.

Chen Yingxiong thought that if the situation wasn't extreme enough, wasn't bad enough, what was the point of such training? If I can't beat them, I'll pass the ball to my teammates and then make a run… I can practice that in daily training, and I can do it now. What's so great about that?

He needed to see if he could solve the problem in a situation where he couldn't ask for help from anyone, where no one could help him, where he lacked support, and was fighting alone.

However, if Advocaat knew about his training plan, he would probably be shocked—such a crazy training arrangement, he felt, violated the laws of sports…

What's more, in this copy environment, Chen Yingxiong was still in a weight-bearing state, making the training difficulty imaginable.

So, for the better part of a week, Chen Yingxiong was completely crushed in the copy.

He often only paid attention to Tymoshchuk's movements, forgetting that Li Hao was coming in with a vicious tackle from the side, knocking him down along with the ball. Or he paid attention to Li Hao, but forgot that Skrtel extended his long leg from behind and poked the ball away. Or he focused on Li Hao and Skrtel, barely dodging Tymoshchuk's extended leg, only to turn around and collide head-on with Erik Hagen.

In such a situation, he deeply felt the consequences of his rough footwork—under the siege of four people, he couldn't control the ball at all, let alone create space, then turn and shoot, or dribble the ball out…

Many times, it was already difficult enough for him just to protect the ball and prevent the opponent from snatching it.

He had activated the "My Ball Protection is Like Adriano" talent, but this talent was mainly aimed at protecting against tackles from behind and the rear. Facing the siege of three or four people, it was impossible to protect the ball with just his body.

Since he started this targeted training, he hadn't tasted victory even once.

The match was the day after tomorrow, and tonight was his last chance to use the copy for training. Tomorrow night, he would definitely be staying in a hotel with Denisov again. He couldn't possibly disappear into thin air in front of everyone and enter the copy for special training, right? By the time he returned from the copy, the outside world would probably have changed beyond recognition…

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Chen Yingxiong fell to the ground again and again, and got up again and again.

He was taking a huge risk.

Because it was easy to get injured here. He was covered in scars when he took off his clothes, and many of them weren't from training and matches in the real world, but were left in this copy.

He knew that such extreme training could lead to accidents, but he couldn't worry about anything else. Time was running out, and he had to find a solution to the problem now.

Hiller couldn't play in the next game, weakening the wings significantly. If he wanted to be more like a center forward, he couldn't always rely on his teammates to pass him high balls for him to head into the goal.

Heading was fun and impressive, but if he always did that, it would be easy for people to figure him out. And he couldn't use long-range shots too often, as a center forward needed to look for opportunities.

So, he had to be more well-rounded, especially his ball-handling skills had to be good.

Chen Yingxiong had been practicing these two months, and Advocaat had even adjusted his training plan to specifically train his footwork and back-to-goal technique.

But relying solely on training at the club wasn't enough. Others might need a season to master something, but Chen Yingxiong demanded that he do it as quickly as possible, because he needed it urgently.

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When Chen Yingxiong fell to the ground again, he felt a faint pain in his buttocks—it must have been Skrtel's knee…

He lay on the ground, grimacing in pain.

Assistant coach Potter's voice rang out beside him like a harbinger of death: "You can't take this little bit of contact, Yingxiong? Aren't you supposed to be some Northern Bear? That's hilarious!"

Chen Yingxiong lay on the ground, panting heavily. He still had the strength to roll his eyes.

These "programs" seemed to be constantly evolving as well. Before, their dialogues were very simple and never as appropriate as they were now.

He gritted his teeth and got up from the ground again.

He looked at the time and estimated that he wouldn't be able to hold on for much longer with his stamina. There was a match the day after tomorrow, and he didn't want to injure himself at this time. If he missed such an important match because of an injury in the copy, not only would Advocaat kill him, but he would commit suicide first…

"This is the last time!" He held up one finger and said to Potter.

Potter nodded: "I'll spare you this time!"

※※※

Chen Yingxiong faced away from the direction of the attack, with Skrtel about one meter behind him, Erik Hagen on the left, Li Hao on the right, and Tymoshchuk directly in front.

Potter passed the ball to Chen Yingxiong.

Chen Yingxiong leaned his body back, resting against Skrtel, with his right foot on the ball, his body at an angle, trying to keep the ball as far away from his body as possible to avoid being swept by Skrtel's long legs.

But in doing so, his center of gravity shifted backward. If Skrtel withdrew his force slightly, he would lose his balance and fall to the ground, naturally losing possession of the ball.

At the same time, because it was too far away from his body, it would be difficult for him to react quickly and accurately if Tymoshchuk reached out to intercept the ball. His footwork wasn't very good to begin with, and now he was required to quickly pull the ball back in front of him, dodging Tymoshchuk's interception, then wave the ball outward to avoid Li Hao's opportunistic grab, and then use his hands to fend off Skrtel and take on Erik Hagen… That was a bit too demanding for him right now.

Tymoshchuk rushed up and swept his foot, trying to intercept the ball. He quickly pulled the ball back.

At this moment, he felt Skrtel moving behind him—after practicing together for so long, if he didn't know what Skrtel would do at this time, he could go die.

Since he didn't have the ability to perform very smooth footwork movements to flick the ball away, he could only choose the method he was best at… He stuck his butt out, leaned his body backward again, and stepped on the ball slightly outward, thus returning to the previous situation… The defenders were still in their positions, and he still couldn't break through the encirclement, couldn't turn around.

It was all for nothing.

But now Chen Yingxiong was thinking about another problem…

When he stuck his butt out, he felt that Skrtel had been pushed away a little, and then his back slammed against him, Skrtel had originally planned to come up and intercept the ball from behind, but was instead suppressed by him.

This detail made him realize something he had always overlooked.

He did need to work hard on his footwork, after all, he couldn't rely on his body alone to conquer the world in the future.

But now that time was running out, he didn't need to always dwell on footwork…

I have a body, I have a very strong body, why don't I use it?

Just like just now, I can force Skrtel to retreat with my body—Skrtel took a small step back when I stuck my butt out—why can't I play like this?

Just like Shaquille O'Neal in basketball, receiving the ball with his back to the basket, not rushing to turn around at the beginning, but constantly arching back, pushing the defender behind him little by little, eventually squeezing them under the basket.

Then suddenly turn around and shoot, and the ball goes in.

Chen Yingxiong's mind was as if it had been enlightened. I have an advantage and I don't use it, but I insist on dwelling on my weakness. Isn't that just making trouble for myself?

Thinking of this, he pulled the ball back under his body and stuck his butt out!

He felt Skrtel grabbing his body with both hands, taking a small step back to avoid being hit by his butt. He was quite confident in the power of his butt, because it was right where Skrtel's little brother was located. If he was hit directly… hey, don't blame me if you become infertile!

Satisfied with the results of his experiment, Chen Yingxiong was no longer polite. This time, he slammed his body backward, like hitting a mountain.

Skrtel had just withstood his push, and his butt was sticking out again…

※※※

Chen Yingxiong stood in the penalty area with his hands on his hips, laughing up to the sky. The ball was in the goal, and goalkeeper Malafeev made the exact same movement as Marseille's goalkeeper Mandanda.

And Skrtel was lying crookedly next to Chen Yingxiong. The others, Tymoshchuk and the others, were watching from the side, without any movement.

Under their encirclement, Chen Yingxiong had just blasted the ball into the goal guarded by Malafeev.

A hahaha, I finally succeeded!

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ps, I've been out all day today, so both guaranteed updates were automatically uploaded.

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