Chapter 29: Anti-gambling and anti-mafia operation was advanced
To say that the Dongfang team has made a qualitative leap in youth training after receiving support from Arsenal Football Club, as long as they work hard, staying with the team can also continue to progress...
Originally, Gao Jun and other national youth team players were still worried about the first stage of the 2003 China League Two, but Dongfang's performance was unexpectedly good. Although the young age of the frontcourt players affected the team's attacking power, resulting in a small number of goals scored, with Fan Jiang and Jiang Hong, two A-level generals, guarding the defense against the attack at the level of China League Two, they seemed to be in control. Moreover, Fan Jiang's notorious reputation made it rare for any player in China League Two to dare to commit malicious fouls on Dongfang's young players, which undoubtedly made it easier for Dongfang to play well despite being physically disadvantaged. As a result, when Gao Jun and others returned to the team, they had already advanced to the next stage with the first-place finish in East China...
It must be acknowledged that although the World Youth Championship is a youth competition, its level is much higher than that of the Chinese League Two. Winning the "World Championship" has greatly boosted the confidence of these young players. As a result, after the main players returned to their respective teams, they found it exceptionally easy to cope with the Chinese League Two matches, even if there was still a physical gap between them and their opponents. The team's strong attacking power was fully demonstrated by their average of 3.7 goals per game, with the majority of the goals coming from the main players who had returned from the World Youth Championship.
However, while the Eastern team was celebrating its victory, there were also hidden worries within the team. Although General Fan was actually one year younger than Hao Dapao and had better physical fitness from birth, his lifestyle was far less disciplined than Hao's, and his training was not as rigorous. As a result, when Hao was getting older and stronger, General Fan found it increasingly difficult to cope with high-intensity training and competition. After the national youth team players returned to their respective teams, he announced that he would officially retire at the end of this season and focus on being a good head coach.
And another veteran of the team, Jiang Hong, also decided to leave the team due to Zeng Cheng's rapid growth and return to Shaanxi Guoli, which has already fallen into China League Two. As for the goalkeeper coach problem, anyway, Dongfang Club now has a European connection, it should not be difficult to find a better one.
But at this time, no one expected that Jiang Hong's return to his mother team would stir up a huge wave. In history, after Wang Bao took over Shaanxi Guoli Club, he adopted the approach of "boiling frogs in warm water", gradually increasing his control over the club, and Jiang Hong was also controlled by him with poison, so he couldn't come out to testify in time; but in this space-time, when Jiang Hong returned to Shaanxi Guoli, the team had already been thoroughly messed up by Wang Bao, and after staying at Dongfang Team for a year, Jiang Hong became even more intolerant of ugly phenomena such as fake balls, and he immediately erupted on the spot. Due to Jiang Hong's extremely high prestige in Shaanxi Guoli Team, some players who had not completely fallen also stood up to support him, and they took out some evidence that they had secretly kept...
King Wubao's attempt to silence people through his connections ended up exposing his own crimes. This incident immediately caught the attention of the central government, resulting in the premature eruption of the "Anti-gambling and Anti-mafia" storm that would not officially begin until 2009, which had a profound impact on the development of Chinese football...
Gao Jun couldn't help but sigh at the magnitude of the butterfly effect caused by his time-travel, but this was undoubtedly a great thing. Although it had started early and might not catch as many people as in history, many of those historical criminals were only led astray due to their polluted environment and weren't inherently bad people. It wasn't a bad thing to let them avoid taking the wrong path.
And under the deterrent of the "anti-gambling storm", the leaders of the Football Association, and even the true helm of Chinese football - the Sports Bureau's Football Management Center, will be more cautious in their actions, even if they hold a negative idea of "not doing anything wrong". The erroneous policies that violate the laws of football will be fewer. In addition, with the storm coming, at least for the next two or three years, the black whistles will not dare to be as reckless as before, which is absolutely good news for Dongfang team who relies on their skills to play football......
As expected, good news came soon. Perhaps due to the mentality of "not seeking merit, only avoiding demerits", the Football Association appointed Liu Chunming, who led the national youth team to achieve excellent results in the World Youth Championship, as the head coach of the next U21 national youth team. This way, Gao Jun has the possibility of influencing the list of national youth teams...
Under Gao Jun's suggestion, those players with poor personal character and sportsmanship (often unnecessarily getting cards) in the original big-name list were eliminated by more than half (a small number of positions lacked people and couldn't be helped), and those who did not meet Gao Jun's tactical requirements were also removed from the list or relegated to substitutes. This led to a lot of controversy, but due to the excellent performance in the previous World Youth Championship, as long as there were no major problems with the results, Coach Liu Chunming's position was still very stable...
In addition, the Chinese Football Association originally planned to restrict young players from participating in the China League One and Super League to curb the phenomenon of overage players. However, Liu Chunming pointed out that "letting youth team members participate in the league can provide more training", so the association officials made an exception for political performance and agreed to allow selected youth team players to participate in the league. They also considered the physical insufficiency of young players like Gao Jun and lowered the YOYO physical test standards accordingly. However, the association required the U20 team to achieve good results in the World Youth Championship, and Liu Chunming reluctantly accepted the performance indicator of "at least advancing from the group stage, striving to enter the quarterfinals, and fighting for a place in the semifinals". In his heart, he was complaining, "Little Gao, I've been wronged by you! If you can't help me complete the indicator, I won't forgive you!"
The second division league ended relatively early, giving the young Orient team more time to prepare for next season. The French youth technical coach recommended by Arsenal Football Club took advantage of this period to correct some incorrect kicking habits of the Orient players. Among them, Au Yeung Yiu Chung and Yu Hai, who frequently kicked high balls, received special attention from the coach.
