Chapter 38 Zhou Yi, Public Enemy of Brazil?

When Zhou Yi arrived at the restaurant for breakfast, he found everyone watching TV, which was showing footage of his media interview from the previous afternoon.

"What's going on? Watching TV instead of eating breakfast. Do you even understand what they're saying?" Zhou Yi asked from behind the crowd.

Hearing his voice, everyone turned around. Some even made way for him, so Zhou Yi saw the national team's Portuguese translator inside the circle.

Since the World Cup was held in Brazil, where Portuguese is the common language, the FA had specifically equipped the national team with two Portuguese translators to help with preparations and training, as they would need to interact with a lot of locals. Both were found in Brazil. One was an overseas Chinese businessman who had been doing business in Brazil for many years, and the other was a university student studying in Brazil. Both were soccer fans and were perfectly competent for the job. Their performance after the Chinese team arrived in Brazil proved this.

The translator in the crowd now was the younger university student, Geng Zhe.

He turned around and saw Zhou Yi, quickly standing up. "Hey, Brother Yi, you're here?"

Even though he was older than Zhou Yi, he always called him that. At first, Zhou Yi felt awkward and told him not to, but he insisted, saying that calling someone "brother" had nothing to do with age, and those with talent were always his elders and seniors.

So, with his insistence, Zhou Yi could only accept this "younger brother"…

"What's Brazilian TV saying?" Zhou Yi asked, pointing at the TV.

"The Brazilian Football Confederation just issued a statement saying that your remarks are a huge insult to Brazilian soccer… They say this issue is a contempt for the referee. FIFA is a world-class organization that has been established for a hundred years. During this period, Brazil has never engaged in unorthodox practices, so please… please, uh, respect the Brazilian Football Confederation." Geng Zhe honestly translated what he had just heard on TV to Zhou Yi. "...They also said that your words have angered Brazilian fans. When the game comes, as long as you get the ball, you may hear huge boos..."

Zhou Yi waved his hand. "You scared me. I thought I was going to be banned from the game."

With that, he turned to get breakfast, no longer concerned about what was being said on TV.

Seeing Zhou Yi leave, the other players lost their interest in surrounding Geng Zhe to listen to the translation. They all followed Zhou Yi, expressing their concerns about the matter.

"Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi, I saw in the news that they gave you a new nickname, 'Public Enemy of Brazil'..."

"What a terrible nickname..." Zhou Yi expressed his dissatisfaction with the name.

"That's not the point, is it? The point is that you might be booed by Brazilian fans throughout the game, which is a lot of pressure..."

"Hey, is that all? I thought they were fighting over eggs… I'm used to boos. Haven't you ever been booed in an away game in the league? When we go to Lao Yang's home stadium for the Ruhr derby, my ears never get a break." Zhou Yi laughed. "I don't care about boos anymore, and there's no such thing as pressure."

Zhou Yi was full of confidence, but some of the Chinese team were still worried about him, hoping that he wouldn't lose his composure in the face of the Brazilian fans' madness. He was the backbone of the Chinese team, and if something happened to him, the whole team would be in trouble.

But Zhou Yi didn't take it seriously at all. He got his breakfast, sat down, and chatted with his teammates.

Until head coach Lippi arrived. He stood at the entrance of the restaurant, looked around, and then walked straight toward Zhou Yi's table.

Everyone tensed up again. The head coach suddenly came to find Zhou Yi. Was this because he was under pressure from above?

Everyone was Chinese, so they naturally knew that under the guidance of officialdom, even someone as strong as Lippi could not completely get rid of the leadership and influence of the Chinese Football Association and the State Sports General Administration on the Chinese team.

What if the Brazilian Football Confederation reported this matter to FIFA, FIFA then put pressure on the Chinese Football Association, and finally the Chinese Football Association put pressure on Lippi to take Zhou Yi down?

Some of the players with quick minds had already thought about how they would face the consequences if Zhou Yi was taken down by Lippi and the Chinese team lost to Brazil…

Just when these people's minds had already raced ahead several days, Lippi walked up to Zhou Yi, pulled out a chair, and said to Zhou Yi in English, "I saw the news and found out what you said."

"It's not a big deal, is it? Besides, my concerns are reasonable." Zhou Yi said. "In the opening match, Brazil vs. Croatia, the Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura gave them a controversial penalty kick, which was an opportunity for Brazil to overtake the score."

What Zhou Yi said was true. When Fred fell in the penalty area, Yuichi Nishimura ruled that Croatian player Lovren had pulled down the Brazilian center forward, awarding Brazil a penalty kick and giving Lovren a yellow card. But slow-motion replays clearly showed that Lovren only lightly touched Fred's shoulder and even showed signs of pulling back, but Yuichi Nishimura still insisted that it was a penalty kick.

This penalty decision made the Croatian side very dissatisfied. Because if that was a penalty kick, then Alves' action of kicking down Croatian striker Olić in the penalty area earlier should also have been ruled a foul and given Croatia a penalty kick.

But Yuichi Nishimura didn't say anything, which caused the Croatian players to argue with him for a long time.

After the game, Croatian coach Kovač specifically talked about the controversial penalty: "If anyone here thinks it was a penalty kick, please raise your hand. But I won't raise my hand. Everyone knows it wasn't a penalty kick. That penalty kick was ridiculous. It wouldn't be a penalty kick in any game. If that kind of ball is judged to be a penalty kick, then we might as well play basketball..."

In the rules of basketball, physical contact is prohibited under the basket. As long as there is physical contact, the referee can justifiably call a foul.

But soccer does not completely prohibit physical contact. That's why the Croatian coach had such a complaint.

Kovač continued to bombard Yuichi Nishimura: "Does playing against the host in the opening match affect performance? If the penalties in future matches between other teams and Brazil are still the same as in the opening match, it will be a disaster. The referees in the opening match need to be more professional and higher-level... It's normal to encounter away games in soccer. I don't want to criticize the referees, but the referees are too ridiculous..."

Although Brazil and Croatia are one South American team and one European team, so it is normal to find an Asian referee to officiate this game. But in the minds of those who are slightly conspiratorial, the arrangement of this referee is still meaningful—there are a large number of Japanese immigrants in Brazil, as well as descendants of Japanese immigrants, about one and a half million people. Both at the folk and government levels, the relationship between the two countries is very good.

Japanese soccer is focused on learning from Brazilian soccer, and finally became the Samba school in Asian soccer, and even won the reputation of "Asian Brazil".

So in this opening game, there were so many non-South American and European referees to choose from, but in the end a Japanese referee was chosen...

One can't help but have conspiratorial thoughts.

In addition, Yuichi Nishimura's controversial penalty in the game made people even more imaginative.

Lippi nodded. "It's not a big deal. The only problem is the pressure you're going to face. I didn't expect the Brazilian Football Confederation to issue a special statement… Kovač didn't see the Brazilian Football Confederation issue a statement after saying those words. I think they're doing this probably to put pressure on you and cause you some trouble. Since the game against Spain, the whole world knows how important you are to the Chinese team."

Zhou Yi laughed. "Haha! Maybe it's because I was unfortunately right? Don't worry, coach, I'm not under pressure, and boos can't cause me any trouble."

"I know, I knew you were a man with a big heart." From Zhou Yi's smile, Lippi felt that Zhou Yi's composure was not fake, but that he really didn't take these things seriously.

He stopped talking, patted Zhou Yi on the shoulder, and got up to leave his seat to get breakfast.

As soon as Lippi left, the other players surrounded him, wanting to find out what Lippi had talked to Zhou Yi about.

The two of them used English the whole time, and not all of the Chinese team's players were good at English.

"Hey, it's nothing. Why are you all so nervous..." Zhou Yi waved his hand. "We talked about the refereeing issues in Brazil and agreed that Brazil was indeed taken care of by the referees. For example, the opening match..."

When Zhou Yi said this, everyone thought of the media reports about the controversial penalty in that game after the opening match, and suddenly became nervous: "Damn, Brazil won't play tricks on us in this game, will they?"

Zhou Yi waved his hand again: "I don't think the possibility is high. The Brazilian Football Confederation has already issued a statement, saying such definitive, righteous words. If something like the opening match happens again in the game, wouldn't that be a slap in their face? So don't worry, since their Football Confederation has spoken, I think the game will be a normal game."

Lippi was worried that the Brazilian Football Confederation's statement was causing trouble for Zhou Yi, but in Zhou Yi's opinion, the Brazilian Football Confederation's statement was helping the Chinese team. At least this game could definitely be played in a relatively fair environment.

When he said that at the time, he was not sure whether Brazil would be taken care of by the referee, but he just wanted to give a preventive shot in advance and say the ugly things first.

As a result, the effect was unexpectedly good, because the Brazilian Football Confederation did not sit idly by and directly issued an official statement.

Now, when the Chinese team plays against the Brazilian team, it is like holding a Shangfang sword (imperial sword).

This is probably something that the Brazilian Football Confederation never expected...