Chapter 2 New Teammates, Return Early

In the 2014 Brazil World Cup final held at the Maracana Stadium, Mario Gotze's accurate goal helped the German team defeat Argentina 1:0, becoming the third team in the history of the FIFA World Cup to win four championships. , the other two are five-star Brazil and Italy.

After the World Cup, Tang Zheng also started his vacation trip.

I kept full attendance during the past 2013-2014 season, and after finishing a busy and arduous season, I started preparing for the World Cup. There is still almost a month until the 2014-2015 league season is coming, so I must take a good rest during this short holiday. Enjoy life.

At the same time, the European transfer market is in full swing.

Compared with previous summer transfer windows, transfers in the World Cup year are likely to be more interesting.

Because many players performed well in the World Cup, according to the market situation, the value of these players will only be higher and not less.

Among them, the biggest transfer rumor is undoubtedly James Rodriguez, the most popular player in this World Cup. There are countless wealthy clubs interested in him.

Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and other teams all extended an olive branch to him, but the extremely popular James Rodriguez disappeared while playing, enjoying it as much as Tang Zheng The fun that comes with the holidays.

Of course, Tang Zheng has also been favored by major media and made headlines in major media.

However, Tang Zheng's transfer possibilities are incomparable to James Rodriguez's. First of all, Tang Zheng transferred to Real Madrid last year for a world-record transfer fee and has five years left on his contract with Real Madrid. , other wealthy clubs must come up with huge buyout clauses if they want to buy out the remaining five years of Tang Zheng's contract.

According to "Marca", Tang Zheng's buyout clause is as high as 550 million euros, which is even as much as 300 million euros higher than Messi's 250 million euros break clause.

No team would dare to spend 250 million euros on a player with such a high cost-performance ratio like Messi. Tang Zheng's buyout clause of 550 million euros is naturally impossible to trigger.

But then again, just because no team has triggered the buyout clause does not mean that there are no transfer rumors. As long as the two parties agree on the conditions, everything is possible.

After all, there are no absolutes in anything.

The 2014-2015 La Liga season will kick off on August 23, local time in Spain, and Real Madrid's first round of the league will be at 8:00 pm on August 25 against newly promoted Córdoba at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

Before this, there were two Spanish Super Cups and the European Super Cup.

As in past seasons, a series of warm-up games will inevitably be arranged before the start of the season.

As the first International Champions Cup came out last year, attracting the attention of fans around the world, the second International Champions Cup also went smoothly, so Real Madrid's warm-up match this summer is still in the United States.

Real Madrid was placed in Group A of the International Champions Cup and competed in a single round-robin group stage with Inter Milan, Roma and Manchester United respectively. The top team in the group entered the final.

Real Madrid's first match in the 2014 International Champions Cup will be against Inter Milan at the California Memorial Stadium on the University of California campus on July 26. For this reason, Real Madrid players will conduct recovery training one week in advance.

It is worth mentioning that players participating in the World Cup can get sufficient rest time, and Real Madrid players entering the knockout stage can get longer rest time. Representatives are Tang Zheng, Di Maria, Marcelo and other players.

They were allowed to return to the team in early August to prepare for the 2014-2015 season.

※※※

During Tang Zheng's vacation, he also paid close attention to the European transfer market news. Two of the transfer news made him regret and look forward to it.

The first one is that friend Sanchez has reached an agreement with clubs Barcelona and Arsenal to transfer to Arsenal for 35 million pounds. This news has refreshed another transfer information in only half a day.

'Suarez' Suarez, who caused a stir at this year's World Cup, moved from Liverpool to Barcelona for £75 million.

It is a pity that his friend Sanchez transferred to Arsenal Tang Zheng, because if he wants to play against Sanchez in the future, he can only do it through the national team level or the European competition. The national team level has only played against him this year, so the chance of playing against him again is not high.

It will be even more difficult to play against each other in the European war, unless UEFA deliberately does so.

The expectation is that Suarez's ability will be recognized around the world, and coupled with Neymar and Messi, the striker's ability is enough to break any goal.

Suarez had just moved to Barcelona, ​​and the media couldn't wait to give Barcelona's latest striker combination a new nickname-MSN combination.

In addition, Barcelona has many other purchases in the transfer market. They signed German young goalkeeper Ter Stegen for a transfer fee of 12 million euros, Rakitic for 21 million euros, and Rakitic for 1,200 euros. Signed Chilean goalkeeper Bravo for 10,000 euros.

If there are no accidents, central defender Mathieu, who plays for Valencia, is also likely to join Barcelona.

On the other hand, Real Madrid, where Tang Zheng plays, has a lot of thunder but little rain. There are only transfer rumors about German midfielder Toni Kroos and popular star James Rodriguez, but the actual progress is very slow.

Even before signing strong reinforcements, forward Morata, a forward with unlimited potential, transferred to Juventus for 20 million euros.

Tang Zheng was helpless about this.

He wondered if Real Madrid had lost their ambition after winning their tenth Champions League trophy in history.

Just when Tang Zheng took a flight from Hawaii to Phuket with his family, a transfer rumor caught Tang Zheng off guard.

"The club has reached an agreement with Bayern Munich on the transfer of Toni Kroos, signing a six-year contract."

The German team's ability to win the World Cup this year is directly related to Toni Kroos's organization and scheduling in the midfield. Bayern Munich can be said to be a huge threat to Real Madrid in the Champions League, so Toni Kroos paid 25 million euros A move to Real Madrid is confusing.

However, I was relieved after seeing the detailed reports that followed. There was a conflict between Toni Kroos and the Bayern Munich club's top management. There was only one year left in the contract between the two parties, and 25 million euros was very reasonable.

After playing in Phuket for less than two days, Tang Zheng saw an exciting transfer news released on the official website of Real Madrid Club.

"The club has reached an agreement with Monaco Club on the transfer of James Rodriguez. The two parties signed a six-year contract and will wear the No. 11 jersey in the new season..."

Just saw that James Rodriguez joined Real Madrid, Tang Zheng's Twitter notification sounded.

The corners of his mouth raised slightly after seeing the content of the prompt, and his girlfriend Zhao Lina asked curiously: "Why are you laughing?"

"Here~"

Tang Zheng handed the phone to Zhao Lina: "You will know after you see it."

"Oh? James's handsome brother has joined Real Madrid? Does that mean you will be club teammates in the future?" Zhao Lina lightly covered her red lips with her right hand, surprised.

"Handsome brother?" Tang Zheng turned to look at Zhao Lina and said meaningfully: "I remember that James is two months older than you."

"I'm your girlfriend, of course..." Zhao Lina noticed Tang Zheng's playful smile, glared, and rolled her eyes: "You're teasing me again."

※※※

Real Madrid gave Tang Zheng a holiday until mid-August, which is a week before the European Super Cup, but Tang Zheng had already had enough rest by the end of July.

Even though he consciously continued to exercise during the vacation, his body still felt like it was missing something without systematic training, so Tang Zheng flew to the United States at the end of July to meet up with his club teammates who were preparing for the International Champions Cup.

As soon as he arrived in the lobby of the hotel where he stayed at Real Madrid, Tang Zheng saw a familiar face.

After hugging his teammates one by one, Tang Zheng looked specifically at new teammates Toni Kroos and James Rodriguez who had just joined the team.

During his time at Dortmund, Tang Zheng and Toni Kroos had a bad relationship with the clubs of Leverkusen and Bayern Munich. Although the relationship with Toni Kroos could not be said to be bad, it was definitely not good. It was just a nod.

Tang Zheng and James Rodriguez have a very good relationship. Ever since they started training together at Boca Juniors, their tacit understanding seems to be innate. They were always rivals before, but now that they are teammates, they naturally have a good chat. Have a chat.

Toni Kroos looked at Tang Zheng with mixed emotions. The reason why he agreed to move to Real Madrid was because his home team Bayern Munich could not meet his salary extension because he wanted to come to Real Madrid to challenge Tang Zheng's position.

However, Tang Zheng's performance in the past few seasons has been stable and amazing. On the World Cup stage, he even led the Chinese team to the quarterfinals of the World Cup with one fell swoop.

If not for bad luck, maybe the Chinese team could have entered the semi-finals!

And Tang Zheng's status in the team seems to be very high, even though Tang Zheng has only been in Real Madrid for just one season.

It seems... there is a long way to go to replace Tang Zheng's position in Real Madrid.

But Toni Kroos did not give up on this idea because he is a professional player with a dream.

※※※

Since Tang Zheng had just resumed training with the team, his physical condition was not yet suitable for playing. Therefore, he did not play in the first two International Champions Cup group matches, and was not even included in the squad.

However, the opponents Real Madrid encountered in the first two rounds of the 2014 International Champions Cup group stage were not strong, they were Inter Milan and Roma from Serie A.

Tang Zheng was unable to make his debut, but Real Madrid's two new players, Toni Kroos and James Rodriguez, both got opportunities to play, and they were the starters.

James Rodriguez, who just joined Real Madrid, is obviously very popular among local fans. He scored seven goals in his first World Cup at a young age and almost single-handedly led the Colombian national team to the quarterfinals of the World Cup. Coupled with his handsome appearance, he has great ability to attract fans.

Toni Kroos, as a core member of the new World Cup champions, also receives a lot of support from American fans, but he is much inferior to James Rodriguez.

The first game played at the California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley was a little surprising. Real Madrid, which had an obvious overall advantage, drew 1:1 with Inter Milan, which had suffered a serious decline in strength.

If it weren't for James Rodriguez, the savior of the world wave, Real Madrid would probably lose 0:1.

Then he also scored a key penalty in the penalty shootout, helping Real Madrid win the game with a total score of 4:3 and take all three points.

Three days later, there was an upset in the second round-robin group stage at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Real Madrid lost to Roma 0:1.

The main reason why Real Madrid lost was that Toni Kroos, who took over Tang Zheng's position as the attacking midfielder, was somewhat out of tune with Real Madrid's overall tactical rhythm.

Tang Zheng sat in the VIP seats of the stadium and watched the entire game. His comment on Toni Kroos was that he was too impatient.

Logically speaking, Toni Kroos's playing style should be very stable, but he played too fast in these two games and was not as comfortable as the German national team and Bayern Munich.

Toni Kroos, who wanted to prove himself too much, put shackles on himself instead. Real Madrid bought Toni Kroos with the intention of replacing the 33-year-old veteran Xabi Alonso, but Toni Kroos' performance There is a huge gap between the performance of veteran Xabi Alonso, so Toni Cross's poor performance has become the target of criticism by major media.

Real Madrid had one win and one loss in the first two rounds of the group stage. If they want to reach the final, they must defeat Manchester United, who have won both games.

Real Madrid was in the third round of the International Champions Cup group stage. Tang Zheng, whom Real Madrid fans were looking forward to, finally appeared in the match roster. It was a pity that he did not appear in the starting lineup.

Manchester United qualified in advance by winning both games in the first two rounds. There was no pressure, and the game was a warm-up match. Van Gaal, who took over Manchester United after the World Cup, made extensive adjustments to the team's starting lineup, focusing on young players.

The same is true for Real Madrid. In the first half, some of the main players played with new players and young players. Tang Zheng sat on the bench and was on standby.

Surprisingly, in the focus battle at the Arabian Michigan Stadium, Real Madrid trailed Manchester United 0:2 in the first half.

At the beginning of the second half, Real Madrid made two consecutive substitution adjustments. Tang Zheng and Jese, who had returned from injury, came on as substitutes to replace Toni Kroos and Isco respectively.

After Tang Zheng replaced Toni Kroos, Real Madrid's offense has improved significantly. Whether it is smoothness or threat, it gives people a pleasing feeling.

The fans at the scene and in front of the TV were enjoying watching it. The Real Madrid players on the field also changed from the 0:1 loss to Roma in the previous round and launched waves of fierce attacks on the Manchester United defense.

Tang Zheng and James Rodriguez trained together for a short time, but they cooperated quite well in the game.

Both of them also performed amazingly in the World Cup, making it difficult for Manchester United's defensive players to guard against them.

In just five minutes, Tang Zheng assisted James Rodriguez and Benzema to score, leveling the score at 2:2.

The on-site director was obviously very good at finding trouble, and immediately gave Toni Kroos a close-up shot.

Toni Kroos's facial expression changed significantly, but he quickly adjusted.

Van Gaal, who had just taken over Manchester United, felt bad when he saw Tang Zheng showing off his power again, so he replaced a large number of main players.

Ancelotti also made adjustments to the team's lineup to give more players opportunities.

After Tang Zheng made consecutive assists, he was also closely monitored by Manchester United players. He failed to find his best form in the first warm-up match of the new season, so the score did not change until the end of the game.

2:2

Immediately, the two sides started a penalty shootout.