192 Gerard Piqué Part 1 (1/2)
Chapter 192: Gerard Piqué Part 1
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
When the final was over, the city of Lisbon was silent for a few seconds. Tang En stood in the stands and applauded the Greek national football team. Everything had happened exactly as he had known it would, and there was no change in the course of events. In this tournament, it could be said that only Otto Rehhagel's Greek national football team could completely restrain the official host team.
Luiz Felipe Scolari's Portuguese national football team not only wanted to win the championship, but also wanted to win beautifully on their home ground. But their offense did not work in the face of the Greeks' well-fortified defense. It was as if a beautiful crystal dagger was used to stab a boulder; the final result was only a white scratch was left on the boulder, and the crystal dagger was smashed into countless pieces.
The score was 1:0. The low-key Greeks defeated their overly confident hosts. They achieved the greatest victory in the history of their national team.
Watching the ecstatic Greek players, Tang En was not as excited as he had been when he had seen this scene for the first time. While he was clapping, he said to Dunn beside him, ”I can already imagine what the major media's headlines will be for tomorrow. They may be the most unconvincing champions in the history of the European Cup; even the Denmark national football team was more credible than they are.”
”Because of Peter Schmeichel and Michael Laudrup?” Dunn asked.
Tang En nodded. ”The Portuguese must be upset by the loss. They lost to a team with no star players. The total value of the entire team might not even be higher than the value of Luís Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo... It really is ironic. Dunn, we're not going back to England tomorrow. We're going somewhere else first.”
”Where?”
”Spain. Barcelona.” Tang En glanced back at the lively scene in the middle of the field and turned to leave the stands. ”Let's go, the game is over.”
Whether it was the ecstatic Greeks or the frustrated Portuguese, or those people with views on and understanding of the Greece national team taking the European championship and going as far as the FIFA World Cup, none of these things had anything to do with Tang En and his assistant manager, Dunn.
Their busy summer had officially kicked off.
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The next day, while the two men were on the plane flying from Lisbon to Barcelona, Dunn was reading the latest published newspapers; the European Championship final that had ended last night was naturally the focus of the media. Tang En was right. The media reaction to the Greeks winning the championship was fascinating. The local media in Portugal was almost unanimous in thinking that the Greeks had stolen the championship. They thought that the tactic of having ten defensive players and only one attacking player was despicable.
And other European media, such as that of Spain, also thought that the Greeks' revelry was not a good thing for the future of European football.
Utilitarian football would sweep across Europe again, and the viewing pleasure of football would be greatly reduced. This might make the already shrinking football market more challenging. No one enjoyed dull and boring games, so the fans would not like it, and neither would the sponsors.
Tang En glanced at it a few times; he could not understand Portuguese at all. But he was not surprised that Dunn could understand it. Dunn was very keen to learn; he spent all his spare time on his studies, so it was not surprising that he knew Portuguese.
”What does it say?” Tang En asked casually.
”It was the same as what you said yesterday.” After living with Tang En for a while, Dunn had begun to talk more. When living with someone who was constantly chattering, one would gradually get more talkative. ”Nothing new.”
Tang En smiled. ”The losers always have all sorts of excuses to justify their mistakes. Is the whole world going to start talking about defense now?”
Dunn put aside the newspaper and looked at Tang En's smug face. ”I don't think defense will become a mainstream tactic for many teams in the future. But all the managers will start studying how to break this type of defense.”