Chapter 152: The Golden Boy and Tuchel's Yellow-and-Black
Arsenal's match with Liverpool was over.
A man down, Liverpool were powerless in the final moments and could only retreat defeated.
The heat of the match didn't die with the final whistle.
That Xia Qi—a winger—had produced two n-shaped passes in the game left midfield passers feeling utterly ashamed!
The media joked: Xia Qi is a number ten who was delayed by being a striker.
What started as a joke was strangely endorsed by England manager Roy Hodgson.
In the England squad, the Gerrard–Henderson pairing couldn't coexist comfortably; after watching Xia Qi's match the old manager happily sketched out for England:
Left defensive midfielder: Jordan Henderson
Right defensive midfielder: Steven Gerrard
Left central midfield: Frank Lampard
Right central midfield: Xia Qi
Those four in a diamond — a formation that was popular around the early 2000s.
Reporters thought it was outdated and laughed it off as a joke.
But then football's tactical homeland, Italy, returned a different opinion.
Conte, Inzaghi, and others argued: there's no such thing as an obsolete tactic, only whether it fits. They thought England could definitely give it a try.
So reporters interviewed Premier League tactical master Arsène Wenger.
Wenger proposed England should simply play a 3–6–1.
Midfield setup:
Holding midfielders: Jordan Henderson + Steven Gerrard
Midfield libero: Xia Qi
Central midfielders: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Frank Lampard, Raheem Sterling
Wenger's idea was to add Xia Qi between the two Gs to link England together.
Wenger also thought that if Xia Qi started, the right wing should pair Theo Walcott and Xia Qi rather than Raheem Sterling, because the Xia–Walcott connection was already instinctive.
But the latter view was read by some as favoritism — doing a favor for his own protégé.
Even Walcott thought so; after seeing the news he was moved to tears and put in an extra strength session in the gym.
Liverpool's squad, Klopp included, rallied in support of Sterling, saying the boyish Raheem was superior to the "little tiger" in every way — his starting on the right was natural.
After the national team position storm over Xia Qi subsided, the Golden Boy award shortlist was announced.
This year might be the least controversial Golden Boy since the award's inception.
The European Golden Boy is an award established in 2003 by Italian paper Tuttosport.
Every year more than 20 European national sports media outlets select 30 representatives to score and vote on the best under-21 players in Europe for the previous season.
Whoever scores highest wins the Golden Boy.
This award is chosen by professional authoritative media, unlike the Ballon d'Or, which is voted on by national team coaches and captains.
That reduces favoritism and impression-based votes, making it fairer.
Although relatively fairer, there are always different voices each year — Golden Boy and Silver Boy often separated by only a few points — but this year there was no doubt.
Xia Qi led Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku by a wide margin in points… and Xia Qi's performance and importance to his team far outshone the other two.
Silver Boy Pogba said sadly: "It's not that I'm not good, it's that Xia is a freak. But life's a marathon—laughing last is winning."
His view gained support in France and at Manchester United; they thought that had Pogba not run into Xia Qi, he would have taken the Golden Boy.
They also argued Pogba just lost from a bad starting point, citing Pato in 2009 and Anderson in 2008 as examples.
When Tuttosport announced Xia Qi as the 2013 Golden Boy, many media outlets outside the UK and China barely covered it.
Because it wasn't news — it was expected. If Xia Qi hadn't won, that would've been the real news.
The British press were enthusiastic — Xia Qi was the second English-born Golden Boy after Wayne Rooney, and if Xia Qi doesn't fall off, his heights could surpass Rooney's.
Chinese media were passionate because Xia Qi is of Chinese descent. Xia Qi's success overturned the argument that ethnic Chinese aren't suited for football; Chinese soccer was then forced to reflect and national-level figures took heat…
On the eve of the Golden Boy ceremony, Xia Qi did an interview with Tuttosport, and the conversation inevitably turned to next year's World Cup in Brazil.
Xia Qi didn't believe the favorites Brazil and Argentina would win the tournament.
"I fully understand the Brazilians' determination to win on home soil, but I still think this World Cup's winner will be a European team — the final could even be an all-European affair."
"Which two teams do you think will reach the final?"
"Germany and England. England will win."
"Why England?"
"Because I'm a talisman! After millennium-long seconds like Ballack and Van Persie, there has to be a champion talisman like me!"
"Heh… that's something — City win after 44 years with you on the field, Arsenal had European cup droughts, if England wins, no one will argue about you then…"
Xia Qi never imagined that after his interview aired, Chinese feng shui would sweep the football world.
After the TV interview, six potted "money trees" appeared at the gate of the Colney training ground, three on each side.
At the main reception a lucky cat sat on the counter.
Xia Qi wanted to see if Stan Kroenke's office had a money-toad statue…
Wait—
Who placed a Guan Yu statue in the changing room?
From now on,
left Azure Dragon, right White Tiger, chest…???
I, Black Society, Arsenal branch!
Xia Qi found Pat Rice, explained Chinese culture, and had the Guan Yu statue removed.
After the Golden Boy came the Ballon d'Or voting, which wouldn't be revealed until mid-January 2014.
At present the top three nominees with the most calls were Xia Qi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Lionel Messi.
Golden Boy this year, Ballon d'Or next year!
First of all time!
Just thinking about it made him smile!
These days Xia Qi's grin hadn't left his face.
Life must go on.
The Champions League flame was relit!
Borussia Dortmund arrived in London two days early.
"Bayern's tormentors, the Yellow-and-Blacks, arrived at London Airport this afternoon."
"New manager, new atmosphere — Thomas Tuchel: a battle of revenge."
"Last season's Champions League finalists meet again at the Emirates."
Dortmund had become a rising force in recent years, comparable to Atlético in La Liga.
Last season Arsenal beat Jürgen Klopp's Dortmund to win the Champions League.
So the F‑group second round match in the Champions League was dubbed by the media a "revenge match."
Many Dortmund fans and German media followed the team to London.
Dortmund suffered major losses this season: coach Jürgen Klopp had gone to Liverpool, and midfield core Mario Götze had been poached.
But Lewandowski, Marco Reus, Mats Hummels… still remained, and new coach Thomas Tuchel was Klopp's junior — their coaching styles were in the same lineage.
When Klopp coached Mainz, Tuchel was the youth coach at Mainz; when Klopp left in 2008 Tuchel took over the first team.
Now he followed his mentor's successful path to take the Dortmund job.
He and his mentor had many similarities.
Both had unremarkable playing careers but possessed coaching talent.
Dortmund cared deeply about this revenge match; they arrived in London two days early and used Chelsea's training ground.
A reporter asked Tuchel: "Why not stay at White Hart Lane? It's closer to the match."
Tuchel replied: "Spurs lack championship DNA; Chelsea and Mourinho are different — championship aura flows here…"
Xia Qi thought he'd led the foreigners astray — really, when these foreigners start being superstitious, there's nothing Chinese can do.
Colney training ground
Wenger was laying out tactics.
In theory, Tuchel's tactics were similar to Klopp's — high pressing and high line. Copying what beat Klopp last time would have been enough.
But Wenger didn't want to do that.
He had two reasons.
One: Kevin De Bruyne's return meant Xia Qi had to go back to the wing, otherwise the two would occupy the same space.
Two: Wenger didn't want his formation to be predictable.
He redesigned a formation for Xia Qi and others — he wanted to surprise everyone.
Cobham training ground
Tuchel didn't know Wenger would take this unorthodox path.
Tuchel prepared two tactical plans for Dortmund: one for when Xia Qi played in midfield, and another for when Kevin De Bruyne played in midfield.
Standing on Klopp's shoulders, Tuchel could see further; he corrected all the mistakes Klopp had made in previous defeats…
Two days later,
the Emirates in North London.
Large numbers of Dortmund fans converged north from west London,
the yellow army singing marching songs, proudly crossing the Thames… many Chelsea fans felt transported, as if they themselves wore yellow war shirts heading north against Arsenal.
"Victory belongs to Dortmund!"
"The Yellow-and-Blacks will win!"
Chelsea fans revealed their "London treachery" and sent good wishes to Dortmund.
At six in the evening,
North London awoke; streets filled with red and white. As the red increased, the sky over the Emirates slowly took on sunset hues.
This group match was the most talked-about tie this round, and many media came.
At the pre-match press conference, Tuchel and Wenger were polite, praising each other as excellent coaches.
In truth, both were proud men at heart.
Tuchel would hold someone's hand if Conte didn't look him in the eye when they shook, and Wenger, rather sell the captain than complain or jump ship, year after year keeping Arsenal in the top four.
How could people like that not be proud?
So… the politeness was likely masking a fiercer clash to come.
…
The Champions League giant logo at the center circle was slowly unfurled beneath the music of "We beat Barça, we beat Bayern, my club has collapsed…",
and at that moment,
cheers rolled through the sky!
To the music the players — Xia Qi and the others hand-in-hand with ball boys, led by the referee — came onto the pitch in order.
"Penguin Sports!"
"Penguin Sports!"
"Penguin Sports!"
"Dear viewers, welcome to the live broadcast on Penguin for the 2013–2014 UEFA Champions League Group F second round match: Arsenal at home vs Borussia Dortmund."
"I'm your old friend Zhan Jun."
"Hello, viewers, I'm Zhang Lu."
"With the rousing opening music, both teams enter the field…"
"The two teams are very familiar with each other — in last season's Champions League final Arsenal defeated Klopp's Dortmund to win the title."
"So Dortmund calls tonight's match a revenge battle."
"Coach Zhang, do you think Dortmund can succeed in revenge?"
At the commentary desk, Zhang Lu stared blankly at the two sheets in his hand, a little lost and didn't hear Zhan Jun's question.
Zhan Jun nudged his foot under the desk twice before Zhang snapped back. He smiled wryly: "A major match — Wenger will change formation. This time he's moved Xia Qi to striker — I was racking my brain wondering if Xia Qi has ever played as a center forward before?
"Sadly, in my memory he hasn't. Whether this move is good or bad we'll have to wait and see."
"Wenger has Xia Qi at center forward? The referee is checking his watch — the match is about to start. Let's announce the starting lineups to see what Wenger's up to.
"In yellow shirts attacking from left to right on your screen is Borussia Dortmund, playing their usual 4–2–3–1 tonight:
Goalkeeper: Roman Weidenfeller
Left back: Marcel Schmelzer
Centre-backs: Mats Hummels, Neven Subotić
Right back: Łukasz Piszczek
Defensive midfielders: İlkay Gündoğan, Sebastian Kehl
Three attacking midfielders: Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Marco Reus, Jakub Błaszczykowski
Striker: Robert Lewandowski
Substitutes: Langerak, Kirch, Santana, Sahin, Bender, Schieber…
"On the other side in red shirts attacking right to left are Arsenal, also set up 4–2–3–1.
Goalkeeper: Emiliano Martínez
Left back: Luke Shaw
Centre-backs: Per Mertesacker, Samuel Umtiti
Right back: Serge Aurier
Defensive midfielder: Gustavo
Deep-lying playmaker: Santi Cazorla
Attacking midfielder: Kevin De Bruyne
Left midfielder: Aaron Ramsey
Right midfielder: Serge Gnabry
Center forward: Xia Qi
"Wenger makes two changes to the starting XI: Xia Qi plays center forward for the first time, and Gnabry plays on the right for the first time.
"Many wingers can play either flank as long as their weaker foot isn't required — consider Son Heung-min for example.
"I don't doubt Gnabry can play the right.
"But centre-forward and winger are very different roles. Of course, some players can play both, like Wayne Rooney and Mario Balotelli.
"So I believe that if Wenger dares to arrange it this way, Xia Qi must be capable.
"The reason I zoned out earlier was because I was thinking: what is there that Xia Qi can't do?
"Goalkeeper? Maybe Xia Qi would be excellent as a keeper too."
…
"Ding-dong"
"Host, please choose 'Training' or 'Match' mode."
"Match."
"Please choose pitch position: A Striker, B…"
"A."
"Please choose striker type: A Centre-forward, B Winger, C False nine…"
"Detected the team is currently in difficulty. Assigning host the attribute [Majin Buu]."
"Only by devouring the living can one show true heroism…."
"Please choose 'Autonomous Mode' or 'One-Click AFK Mode'."
"Friendly reminder: during AFK, the system will automatically perform all actions to meet metrics."
"One-Click AFK!"
(END CHAPTER)
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