Chapter 174 Does Treating to Dinner Really Work?

Whether treating to dinner would be effective would only be known in the weekend's match. During daily training, Popovich, in order to give Chen Hero and the team more time to mesh and increase their understanding, even made Chen Hero the core of the training, specially designing a set of tactics to exploit his strengths.

Although he only planned to give Chen Hero twenty-some minutes of playing time, these twenty minutes might be crucial for Chen Hero.

In training, Chen Hero was still fully invested, never stingy when it was time to exert himself. He often sent his teammates sprawling.

But as time went on, Popovich found that his defenders had improved to some extent in terms of control and physical confrontation. It wasn't very obvious yet, and maybe they didn't even feel it themselves, but that was because Chen Hero had only been training with the team for a short time. If it went on longer, the results would be significant…

Time flew by quickly, and a week of training passed in the blink of an eye. Chen Hero worked hard, but in Popovich's opinion, it wasn't enough. Because his understanding with the team couldn't be developed in just one week of training. Language barriers made communication on the field difficult. Sometimes Chen Hero would turn and run towards the middle, but his teammates would pass the ball to where he had been before. Other times, his teammates would pull out to the wing, and Chen Hero, thinking they were going to cross, would rush into the penalty area, only for his teammates to hesitate when passing, and he would be offside… There were many similar situations.

If he had a choice, Popovich would rather the first team coaches "forget" about Chen Hero for another two months. In those two months, Popovich would work hard to get Chen Hero to mesh with the team, training and playing matches at the same time.

But clearly, Advocaat and that Potter couldn't wait.

Popovich guessed that Advocaat was definitely planning a purge of the team. Although Chen Hero was considered a youth player, he had signed a professional contract, so he was naturally within the scope of the purge.

If he didn't perform well… it would be too easy to purge a player with no power, no influence, and no background.

The night before the match was very peaceful for Chen Hero. His dorm room still lacked any entertainment facilities, so he followed the routine he had developed over the past few weeks, washing up at ten-thirty and lying in bed at eleven o'clock sharp, listening to music for half an hour before falling soundly asleep with his headphones on.

Of course, he also thought about the match tomorrow, but it was just a thought, not enough to keep him tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

He didn't actually know that the first team's head coach and assistant coach would be watching the match tomorrow. He simply thought that if he performed well in the match, he would attract the attention of the youth team coach and have a higher status in the team, which would make his days at Zenit Saint Petersburg go more smoothly.

He seemed so calm about this match that he didn't even call his parents in China to tell them that he was about to play his first official match for Zenit.

Anyway, they couldn't see the match, so he would spare them the worry.

The home stadium of the Zenit Saint Petersburg youth team was not in the Udelny Park training base, but in the Smena Football School in the city, which had an indoor football field that served as their home stadium.

This was the first time Chen Hero had played in such an indoor football field. It was a square building that looked like a large warehouse from the outside, but when you walked inside, you found that it was a whole different world.

There were stands, billboards, and a football field, everything you could want. Except the grass here wasn't natural grass, but artificial turf.

In Russia, there were many such indoor football fields. Because most of Russia's territory was in high latitudes, outdoor sports were almost impossible in winter. Football, a sport that was very dependent on the weather, could only be moved indoors to continue. The weather was cold, and natural turf was difficult to grow, and the cost of maintenance was too high. Even many outdoor stadiums of the Russian Premier League teams were covered with artificial turf, so it was even less surprising that indoor football fields were covered with artificial turf.

Chen Hero had played on artificial turf before. Nowadays, many high schools and universities in China had started to lay green artificial turf, which looked very good. But compared to the artificial turf in China, the artificial turf at Smena was much better, and it was already quite close to the feel of real grass.

There were some people sitting in the stands, all of whom were fans who had come to watch the match. There was also a group of small children wearing uniform jerseys, probably students from the Smena Football School.

This football school had provided Zenit Saint Petersburg with many excellent talents, the most famous of which was Andrei Arshavin, a midfielder currently playing for Zenit's first team. These children clearly regarded Arshavin as their goal and idol.

Besides these children, there were also some people holding posters of certain youth players and signs with their names on them.

Chen Hero looked around roughly and found that there were quite a few people sitting in the stands, maybe several hundred spectators. He didn't expect that there would be so many loyal fans in this kind of league… He was a little emotional.

When he played youth team matches for clubs in China, the stands were empty, and the few fans who were there made the players unable to muster any energy. The stadium was so quiet that they could only hear their own shouts and the muffled sound of the ball colliding with their feet.

If Chen Hero could understand Russian, he would have realized that many of these people were not die-hard fans, but relatives and friends of the youth players on the field…

In addition to these spectators, there were also several people on the sidelines who could be identified as reporters at a glance. They were holding cameras and notebooks, and they were also sitting in the stands.

If I could score a goal in the match, maybe I could become a news figure!

Chen Hero thought as he looked at the reporters.

Becoming a news figure, increasing media exposure, maybe I could attract the attention of the domestic media, and then my parents could see my news in our hometown in China… Chen Hero thought this made a lot of sense.

Suddenly, he saw the reporters change their target. They got up from their seats and ran towards the entrance.

Chen Hero followed their gaze… He saw two more people at the entrance.

He didn't recognize those two people. He turned his head to look at his teammates next to him, and they were also looking at the two people with confused expressions.

However, their coach Popovich went up to them and was talking to the two visitors.

Club executives?

Or… a thought flashed through Chen Hero's mind, and he felt excited by his idea—the team's head coach!

Although he watched the World Cup, he hadn't watched any of South Korea's matches, so he didn't recognize Advocaat, who was the coach of the South Korean team at the time. As for his assistant coach, Kor Pot, he didn't recognize him even more.

If it really was the team's head coach, what would that mean? It meant that if he could score in the match, score more goals, he could win the head coach's appreciation! Maybe he would even have the opportunity to be transferred to the first team!

Chen Hero firmly believed that he should be in the first team. The youth team was just a stepping stone for him to become familiar with this new team. After he was familiar with the team and gradually showed his strength, he should still go to the first team. He didn't come to Zenit to be a youth player.

He didn't know if his teammates had guessed it, but he was ready.

He had to seize every opportunity to climb up. He wanted to play in the real professional leagues! To become a real professional player! To score goals! To become famous! To win! To win championships! To become a hero on the field!

Just like I promised my father.

To make my name known to the world!

He turned around and started warming up, no longer paying attention to the mysterious visitors.

He didn't see that after he turned around, Advocaat and Pot turned their eyes to him.

Advocaat and Pot didn't plan to hide their identities, so they weren't surprised when the reporters surrounded them.

They were here to see Chen Hero's performance.

"Which one is him?" he asked Popovich.

Popovich pointed behind him: "He's easy to recognize, the tallest one, black hair and yellow skin."

The two of them cast their eyes on Chen Hero.

Just looking at his physique, he did look like the type who was full of power.

"How tall is he?" Pot asked.

"One meter ninety-two, ninety-three kilograms," Popovich replied.

Pot was shocked by this data, he was indeed considered strong.

After Popovich showed Chen Hero to them, he said goodbye, as he still had to arrange tactics.

And Advocaat and Pot were surrounded by reporters.

"Excuse me, Mr. Advocaat, did you come to the youth team's match because you have taken a fancy to a youth team player?"

"No, no… we just came to take a look as a matter of routine…" Assistant coach Pot helped Advocaat fend them off.

"What are your thoughts on taking over Zenit halfway through the season?"

"You brought three South Korean players as soon as you arrived at Zenit. Will the team continue to sign players this summer?"

"You brought in three South Koreans at once. Aren't you worried about the problem of nepotism?"

All kinds of questions were thrown at Advocaat. These media reporters had originally come to report on the youth team league. This match should be said to have no great reporting value, and they only came as a matter of routine—so there were only five reporters in total. Two of them were from Zenit's official website.

Because of Advocaat's arrival, these reporters swarmed up like a pack of hungry wolves. They had the opportunity to get opportunities that others didn't have. You should know that many media outlets had wanted to interview Advocaat during this time, but he had turned them down because he was too busy with work. Now that they had blocked him at the edge of the stadium, how could they let him run away?

Advocaat reluctantly answered a few questions, and then told the reporters that the match was about to begin and he wanted to watch the match. If they had any questions, they could ask him after the match. Now, please give him a quiet space…

Only then did the reporters let him go.

Today, Zenit Saint Petersburg's opponent was the Tom Tomsk youth team. In the first group of the youth league, Zenit was currently first, Dinamo Makhachkala was second, and Tomsk was third. The scores of the three teams were 42 points, 41 points, and 39 points respectively.

Chen Hero stood on the sidelines, forming a circle with his teammates, with coach Popovich in the middle.

Borovikia and Petzela stood next to the coach's seat, and behind them were the reporters who were ready to discover news at any time—they all knew that the first team coach's sudden arrival at the youth team's match must have a purpose. Maybe he had taken a fancy to a youth team player? And was preparing to conduct an in-depth inspection. So which person in the youth team was worth such a big fuss?

Because the first team coach was next to them, all the players stood up straight and listened to Popovich's tactics very seriously.

Popovich was writing and drawing on the tactical board, explaining the tactics for this match to the players.

The tactics of youth matches are relatively simple, mainly encouraging everyone to play at their normal level and show their talents and abilities to the fullest. Unlike adult matches, there are so many tactical confrontations.

Youth matches rely more on the brilliant performance of a certain talented player to determine the outcome of the match. The media's attention to youth matches will never praise a certain youth team coach for how sophisticated and experienced his tactics are, but will instead praise how well a certain young player performed in the weekend's match. Because Advocaat and Pot appeared in this match, those youth team players would definitely work harder to show themselves in the match.

While Popovich was arranging tactics, he raised his head and glanced at Chen Hero, and found that this kid looked very excited, with an eager expression.

This kid doesn't seem nervous at all…