Chapter 227 Red Devil 07 Asia Tour, China

After Manchester United equalized the score, the fans at the scene cheered even more enthusiastically than when the home team scored a goal. Although this goal was not too exciting in Li Qi's opinion, after all, Ronaldo and Rooney made consecutive mistakes, but it was the mistakes that led to the goal...

However, after equalizing the score, Manchester United's morale was boosted and they fought more aggressively. Less than 5 minutes after Manchester United equalized the score, Manchester United changed the score again, and this time it was Li Qi who had just come on the field who instigated the attack.

In the 52nd minute of the game, Li Qi relied on his explosive moment and his height and long legs to score half of the goal against Ono Shinji, and once again launched a counterattack directly in the heart of Urawa Red Diamonds' half.

Li Qi passed the ball to Ronaldo who was lying in wait in the corner of the penalty area. This time, Ronaldo did not show off his awkward tricks after stopping the ball, but directly shot the ball from the spot. Moreover, Ronaldo did not dribble the ball wide again, but relied on his excellent explosive power and physical fitness to dodge the gap and shoot a low shot. The ball brushed the goal post and went into the near corner of the goal, which the goalkeeper could not block in time!

Manchester United scored two goals in five minutes and immediately overtook the score...

Not long after the goal, both teams made a lot of substitutions again, with many starting players coming off the field around the 60th minute. Alan Smith replaced Giggs, O'Shea replaced Carrick, and the second team's young player Simpson replaced Ferdinand.

The two sides fell into a stalemate. Although the game's offense and defense switched quickly and the fans were very excited to watch, Manchester United kept making mistakes while trying to find the rhythm, while Urawa Red Diamonds were suppressed physically. In addition, half of the team was replaced with substitutes who were also looking for a way to break the deadlock. As a result, both teams did not have many threatening shots.

However, Urawa Red Diamonds, who were in the middle of the season and in better overall condition, took the lead in seizing the opportunity. When the game came to the 78th minute, Urawa Red Diamonds finally succeeded in a continuous pass in the middle, dodging Li Qi's steal and O'Shea's replacement.

Shinji Ono received a direct pass from Soma Takato and headed straight into the Manchester United penalty area. He then dribbled past Simpson's reckless tackle and calmly shot the ball into the far corner of the goal, once again piercing Van der Sar's line of sight, which was blocked by Sylvester. The two sides were back to the same starting line again.

It must be said that both goals scored by Urawa Red Diamonds were very exciting, especially the shot that was aimed at the blind corner of the goal. This made Van der Sar very depressed. He had few opportunities to show his ability in the whole game, but he was still shot through the goal by two blind corner world waves.

Just when both sides and the fans thought that the game would end amicably with a score of 2-2, Li Qi stood up in the 86th minute of the game.

Li Qi was excited as soon as he arrived in East Asia. He felt like he was home. Although the long flight and jet lag made Li Qi's passing and receiving of the ball not feel very good, his mind and body were excited. He reached the breaking point several times. This was completely different from the other Manchester United teammates who had confused minds and weak bodies.

In addition, when playing against the Japanese and Korean teams, Li Qi was also very serious. He started warming up from the 10th minute of the first half, just to make Sir Alex notice his desire to fight and also to contribute as soon as he came on the court.

The two previous steals gave Ronaldo two goals, both of which eventually led to goals. Urawa Red Diamonds also knew that Li Qi was not easy to deal with, and tried to bypass his side to organize attacks, or not give Li Qi the opportunity to steal the ball, and were extremely conservative and cautious in passing the ball in Li Qi's defensive area. Although Li Qi also had some steals, they were not in the dangerous area, and it was difficult to directly launch a threatening attack.

But the inability to launch a threatening attack does not mean that Li Qi cannot participate in the attack. Wouldn't it be better if he could change from instigating to ending the attack?

So when the game was about to end, while Rooney was pulling to the side to receive the ball, Li Qi secretly inserted behind Ronaldo at high speed. After Rooney received the ball, he looked at the penalty area and directly sent a cross.

Ronaldo, who was outflanking the middle, attracted most of Urawa's defensive players, but they were unable to head the ball, so Li Qi, who sneaked in from behind, got the ball. Li Qi, who was sneaking in at high speed, met Rooney's cross, stretched out his long legs, and used his right foot to kick the ball into the goal that was just a stone's throw away!

In the end, Manchester United scored a goal in the last minute of the game and reversed the score to 3-2 against Urawa Red Diamonds who were playing at home.

After the game, Sir Alex was very satisfied with the team's first game after the holiday. After all, there was a training session in the morning of the game. The team's daily exercise volume was quite large. It was not so easy to adapt at the beginning. It was normal to affect the performance in the evening game. However, this was also to reserve physical strength for the new season.

At the press conference, Sir Alex Ferguson first of all affirmed the strength of Urawa Red Diamonds as the Asian Red Devils, and did not make excuses for his boys. He believed that the home team caused a lot of trouble for Manchester United throughout the game, and the passing, cutting and final goal were very exciting. Then Sir Alex Ferguson also responded to questions from the Japanese media and focused on the performances of Ronaldo and Li Qi.

Needless to say, Ronaldo's charming playing style always makes fans and the media unable to stop. Sir Alex Ferguson also thinks that Ronaldo's performance is remarkable and he played very hard, and he deserves the title of the best player of the game.

As for the new player Li Qi, Sir Alex Ferguson smiled and joked: "He understood Urawa's tactical arrangement, so he successfully intercepted the ball in the midfield. In the end, he may have reached a consensus with Urawa's defender, so he picked up the missed ball. Li Qi's performance in this game tells us how important it is to learn a foreign language!"

The whole audience burst into laughter...

@

On the second day of the game, the whole team will stay in Tokyo, Japan for one day. In addition to the morning training session, the team will have free time at noon and in the afternoon. In the evening, they will take a flight to the second stop of this Asian trip, Seoul, South Korea.

So in the afternoon before and after attending the Nike commercial event, Ricardo took Julian for a walk around Tokyo, and happened to visit the Sensoji Temple and the Tokyo Tower in the evening.

Before returning to the hotel to meet up for the airport, I helped Julian pick out some inexpensive Japanese souvenirs, the more expensive of which were two sets of kimonos - just like the souvenir package I had with Sarafina two years ago. However, unlike Sara, who preferred the cherry blossom pink color, Julian preferred the more mature violet color...

@

On the night of July 7, the entire Manchester United team arrived in Seoul, South Korea, which is 18 kilometers away from Tokyo, Japan and a flight time of about 1200 and a half hours.

This is the first time that Ricardo has come to this city in the heart of South Korea, formerly known as Seoul. It is a city with charming natural scenery, long history and culture, and at the same time a highly digitalized young city...

Just like the schedule in Tokyo, on July 7th, there was an open training session first, and then the team went their separate ways in the afternoon to take charge of different club commercial tasks.

Originally, Ricardo wanted to apply to participate in the activities organized by UNICEF, but the club required everyone except Sir Alex Ferguson to take turns to participate in different activities. So this time it was Ronaldo and Evra who were responsible for visiting the orphanage, Rooney and Carrick went to the local Manchester United football school in Seoul, and Ricardo was in a group with Hargreaves and Vidic to accept a TV interview.

The TV station interviewed him this time, and they knew that Ricardo knew Japanese, so they directly tried to find out if he could speak Korean, even if he could only speak a few words. However, when they found out that Ricardo could only speak a few words of Korean, like a beginner, the professional in charge of the interview seemed to have suffered a blow to his national self-confidence, and they kept trying to find out why Ricardo chose to learn Japanese instead of Korean, and whether he would choose to learn Korean again when he had time, etc.

Ricardo was also helpless, thinking that you should at least ask older brothers Irving and Nemanja, whose faces were almost green with boredom, because the two of them didn't say anything except a simple self-introduction.

As for the topic of learning Korean, Ricardo also pondered it in his heart: After all, the development of Japan's small action film industry cannot be put on the table. Although South Korea also has restricted film masterpieces such as "Sex is Zero", there are only a few of them, which are not enough to learn Korean... It is better to use the reason of being a fan of "Captain Tsubasa" and "Slam Dunk" for 20 years. I just hope that they will not be too sad when they know that I can speak Chinese.

@

2007年7月20日，同样是在早上先进行体能训练，晚上20时曼联才在首尔世界杯体育场与FC首尔进行本次曼联亚洲巡回热身赛的第2场比赛。

As the team gradually recovered from the long-distance flight, most of the players also overcame the jet lag and gradually adapted to the intense training and competition. Therefore, after Manchester United arrived in Seoul, the team's overall condition recovered very well, especially the younger second-tier youth team players.

So Sir Alex changed the formation to 4-4-1-1 according to the players' physical condition, and also adjusted part of the starting lineup. Bardsley, Sylvester, O'Shea and Eagles replaced Wes Brown, Giggs, Scholes and Fletcher in the starting lineup.

Li Qi sat on the bench with fellow rookie Hargreaves. However, Li Qi received a notice from Sir Alex Ferguson before the game that he did not need to warm up too early and could warm up after the second half. Today's game would give Li Qi 30 minutes of performance time...

After the game started, the home team FC Seoul was obviously not as tough as Urawa Red Diamonds. Contrary to the enthusiasm of local fans, the champion team of the 2006 Korean League Cup could not muster the energy to fight against the Premier League champions.

I don't know if it was because of the Koreans' admiration for Manchester United that they were hesitant during the game, or if it was because they also valued physical confrontation and were suppressed by Manchester United, who had better physical fitness...

Of course, Li Qi knew that due to preparations for and participation in the Asian Cup, half of FC Seoul's main players were on the national team and would miss this game, so it was understandable that their form and strength declined and they adopted a conservative tactic.

So in the 6th minute of the game, Manchester United, who had the advantage in the game, took the lead through Ronaldo.

Evra threw the ball out of bounds on the left side, Rooney chested the ball and passed it directly to the middle. Ronaldo received the ball and rushed to the edge of the penalty area. He shot directly with his right foot, and the ball went through the goalkeeper's fingers and went into the lower left corner of the goal.

The home team, which was behind in the score, did not launch a counterattack immediately after the next kick-off, but continued to be suppressed by Manchester United in the half.

So Manchester United extended the lead in the 19th minute. After protecting the ball in front of the penalty area, Ronaldo made a wonderful pass with his heel. Eagles, who came in from behind, took the ball and cut close to the center of the penalty area and shot low into the lower right corner of the goal from 18 yards, scoring again.

The Red Devils, who were leading by two goals, saw that the home team had not yet recovered, so they took advantage of the situation and made a comeback two minutes later.

In the 21st minute, Evra made a long pass, and Ronaldo cleverly stopped the ball and made a diagonal pass to Rooney who was lying in ambush at the front of the penalty area. The latter received the ball and changed direction to shake off the defender, then broke into the right side of the penalty area and shot into the near corner from 12 yards in front of the goal, changing the score again.

Before the first half was halfway through, Manchester United was already leading the home team by 3 goals.

At this time, the home team seemed to have just woken up from a dream and realized that it was a friendly match, but they could not just surrender without any resistance, especially under the watchful eyes of tens of thousands of home team fans - although most of them might have switched sides to support the visiting team.

So when the game was about to enter the 30th minute, FC Seoul began to intensify its fight and attack, but it was still difficult to threaten Manchester United's goal. However, Manchester United, who was a little relaxed, began to slow down the pace and control the game more, so both sides failed to create any scoring opportunities at the end of the first half.

After the half-time break, Manchester United coach Ferguson made a lot of adjustments to the starting lineup, just like in the previous warm-up match. Giggs, Scholes, Kuczak, Simpson and Alan Smith replaced Ronaldo, Carrick, Van der Sar, Bazley and Rooney respectively.

After the break, Manchester United clearly strengthened their defense and midfield control. The Koreans were unable to put enough pressure on their opponents and create more threats at a slow pace.

So despite the fierce competition, the first 15 minutes of the second half were actually a relatively dull period of the game.

When the game was about to reach the 60th minute, the Jazz arranged for Li Qi to play for 30 minutes as promised. And the first time Li Qi touched the ball after he came on the court, he created another goal.

Manchester United extended their lead again in the 61st minute. As soon as Li Qi, who came on as a substitute, came on the pitch, he cleverly intercepted the throw-in thrown by FC Seoul; Li Qi jumped up and headed the bouncing ball to Wang Laoji in the middle.

After Giggs stopped the ball in the middle, he did not pass it to Alan Smith who was surrounded by a group of defenders. Instead, he made a fake move and sent a straight pass to the corner of the penalty area on the other side.

Evra, who came in from behind, dribbled into the left side of the penalty area without being marked, and shot a low shot into the far corner from 8 yards in front of the goal, making the score 4-0.

In the subsequent games, FC Seoul fought even harder. Losing by a large margin was not a problem, but the key was to score a goal. However, under Sir Alex's attention and strict requirements, Manchester United could not easily let the opponent break through the defense, because Sir Alex's requirement for the second half lineup was not to lose the ball...

The game became a bit fragmented after that, with both sides constantly committing fouls and using more set pieces to threaten the opponent's goal.

In the 79th minute of the game, perhaps because Vidic failed to mark the opponent accurately during a set-piece defense, Sir Alex Ferguson replaced Vidic with Evans. As a result, the Manchester United team became more nervous and took the set-piece offense and defense more seriously.

As the 90 minutes were about to end, when the game had reached the 86th minute, Li Qi's breakthrough won Manchester United another frontcourt set piece.

Giggs' free kick went high into FC Seoul's penalty area, but in the middle of the penalty area, Ferdinand, Evans, O'Shea, Alan Smith and FC Seoul's defenders and goalkeeper were tangled up in a mess, and the ball was cleared several times but did not leave the threatening area...

The ball bounced after several refractions and landed in front of Li Qi who was lying in ambush at the edge of the penalty area! Facing the defensive players who were desperately rushing over to block or clear the ball, Li Qi, who had reached the breaking point, calmly lifted the ball over the top...

So everyone, including the goalkeeper who was surrounded by the crowd, could only look up and watch the ball fly over their heads at a slow speed, brush against the bottom edge of the crossbar, and fall into the net in the upper right corner of the goal...

In the end, FC Seoul's strength was greatly reduced due to many international players participating in the Asian Cup. The only shot outside the penalty area and the header inside the penalty area failed to cause much trouble to Van der Sar. Manchester United easily controlled the game with a big score of 5-0 and won the second warm-up match of the new season...

@

The situation after the game was still that both sides were complimenting each other without any meaning. After all, it was a commercial warm-up match without any interests involved. The key was to satisfy the fans. The score was not important - of course, some FC Seoul players might not think so.

But it doesn’t matter anymore. After all, the day after the game, apart from training, is also free time for teammates and their families to travel and do activities.

This time, Ricardo formed a six-member family activity group with Ronaldo and Rooney, and they tasted authentic Korean barbecue together and visited and toured famous attractions such as Gyeongbokgung Palace, Myeongdong and Seoul Tower.

Mainly, Ronaldo and Rooney’s girlfriends secretly visit the world-famous Yeongdeungpo, Itaewon and Cheongnyangni and other more famous red zone attractions in Seoul in order to restrict their men…

……