Football: My AI System Provides Max-Level Predictions-Chapter 715 - 506: Manchester City Searching Worldwide for Goalkeepers, Who Will Be Selected—Alisson, Edson, or Onana?
After Tang Long scored, he looked up, his gaze passing directly over the dumbfounded Borussia Monchengladbach fans, towards the stands where over a thousand Manchester City fans opened their arms!
The piercing screams hit Tang Long’s eardrums, sounding to him like the most beautiful music in the world.
And at Tang Long’s feet.
Were two Borussia Monchengladbach players clutching their heads, rolling on the ground. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚
Fabian and Nico.
Two tall guys, one American, one Swiss, were screaming in agony, rolling at Tang Long’s feet.
Their heads had collided heavily, and their vision went black instantly, with nothing but stars flying in the darkness, buzzing noisily.
At night, the breeze by the Rhine gently brushed Tang Long’s jersey, taking away the steamy heat from his body.
Tang Long glanced down at the two people on the ground and silently walked away.
He was only responsible for scoring goals.
Everything else, leave it to Borussia Monchengladbach’s team doctors.
The main referee blew the whistle to indicate a pause in the game and quickly called for the medical team to enter the field.
On the sidelines, Guardiola watched the replay on the big screen at the venue, seeing how Tang Long unbelievably flew through the air to almost kick the ball down, and then how he forced the breakthrough amidst the covering of two defending players, finally scoring a goal.
"This is the god of war, Christian, this is the god of war, haha!" Guardiola’s eyes shone brightly as he rubbed his bald head.
Chiwo clenched his fists excitedly and gave a heavy punch towards the distant Tang Long, thinking, "Mancini, if you saw Tang Long’s goal, you’d know what I meant by those words I said to you that day!"
This flying air kick to stop the ball was something that Chiwo mentioned to Tang Long one day casually.
During training, they happen to talk about the flexibility of Premier League black forwards.
Unlike Serie A, the Premier League has many black players, especially on the front line, because blacks have great flexibility, often capable of making moves that other races can’t, like saving balls.
Chiwo took out a video recording and showed Tang Long how Crystal Palace’s forward Zaha stopped a ball on the baseline.
"Zaha is the kind of peak-level black English forward, their technique might not be very delicate, but their physical flexibility is very strong. Look at this ball stop, clearly, the pass from his teammate was way off, the defenders gave it up, but Zaha stretched out a leg and hooked the ball back, watch Zaha’s moves carefully, this season you’re playing forward, you’ll encounter situations like this..."
In combination with Chiwo’s analysis, after regular training ended, the two practiced on the field.
Chiwo deliberately passed the ball very deep, letting Tang Long stop the ball near the baseline.
Back home, Tang Long couldn’t get enough of it, so he immediately went into the AI Cloud Training Ground, continuing to practice extreme ball stopping with Chiwo, improving rapidly.
Sure enough, it was used in the Champions League match against Borussia Monchengladbach, except the passer turned from Chiwo into Ranocchia.
Borussia Monchengladbach suffered their worst loss of players since the start of the new season.
Whether Nico or Fabian, both could no longer continue the game and were directly substituted off.
Nico’s situation was the most severe, with a fractured brow bone, bleeding on the field, requiring a period of recovery.
Fabian didn’t fare much better, with a mild concussion, having trouble focusing his eyes.
With three substitution quotas, using two within the first 20 minutes, Borussia Monchengladbach’s head coach Schubert was frightened out of his wits, and Borussia Monchengladbach’s players were also too scared to make moves in defense, fearing a reckless charge might lead them to follow their two teammates’ footsteps.
Borussia Monchengladbach finally realized that at this stage of the Champions League group stage, as they ranked third, rather than trying to score against Manchester City, it would be better to give up and focus their energies on facing Barça, the second-placed team, with a greater chance for victory!
Thus, the former ’Guardiola nemesis,’ Borussia Monchengladbach, forfeited the game, and in the second half Agüero scored a penalty, with a 2-0 score maintained until the end of the match.
...
After the match, Chiwo went to the hospital to visit the injured Borussia Monchengladbach players.
He wasn’t worried about Nico, because Nico’s brow bone injury was a hard injury.
Chiwo was instead more concerned about Fabian, whose back of the head was hit by Nico.
As a player who had undergone skull surgery, Chiwo understood best how much head injuries could harm a player!
Such harm is not merely physical but works more on a psychological level, leaving a mental shadow even after a player recovers and returns, making them shy away from intense scrambles.
But, being a professional player, how could one fear physical contact?
Fortunately, neither player blamed Tang Long, after all, their collision was self-inflicted and had nothing to do with Tang Long;
Thus, in the hospital room, Chiwo’s words of encouragement were well received by Nico and Fabian, and when Chiwo lifted his hair to show them the visibly pink craniotomy scar on the top half of his head, they curiously asked Chiwo how he overcame his fear after recovery.
Chiwo said, "To be honest, when I first came back after recovering, I wore a tank hat on the pitch, feeling very uncomfortable and fearing getting injured again, but later I realized, the more scared you are, the more you’ll suffer, because opponents are cunning, they will bully you based on your psychological state."
"Then I just acted like my tank hat didn’t exist, played normally, fought, scrambled, and once I scored with a header, all my fears disappeared."
Fabian nodded thoughtfully, saying, "Alright, if we face Manchester City again, going one-on-one against Tang Long, I still won’t fear him."
Nico laughed and said, "You’re thinking too much, where’s the chance? Both legs of the group stage are over, brother, we’re probably not advancing."
Seeing Fabian pout with an unresigned look, Chiwo encouraged him saying:
"Come on kid, knock Barça down, let Manchester City and Borussia Monchengladbach advance together, hope we meet again in the knockout stage!"
Fabian looked at Chiwo gratefully and said, "If that day comes, I will definitely take the field!"
...
...
"Raymond, such a long journey, it’s been hard on you!"
"Ah, not hard, just my fate."
Guardiola enthusiastically grabbed Raymond’s suitcase, the two headed upstairs and into the Manchester City manager’s office.
Guardiola was not satisfied with the current first-choice goalkeeper Bravo, so his trusted scout Raymond had to fly all over the world, scouting goalkeeper candidates.
This indeed exhausted Raymond because although Manchester City had quite a few scouts, more than a dozen people, when it came to crucial positions, Guardiola only trusted Raymond’s opinion, ignoring what others said.
Raymond, with a weary face, pulled out a scouting notebook from his bag, licked his fingers, opened to a certain page in the middle, and presented several names to Guardiola.
"Alisson, Brazilian, currently with Rome, 191 cm tall, solid goal-line techniques, quick reactions, broad vision, accurate long passes, extensive range, a versatile goalkeeper who likes to attack."
"Edson, 23 years old, also Brazilian, 188 cm tall, with Benfica, first-class goal-line saves, good footwork, especially daring to control the ball under opponent pressure and find suitable passing routes."
"Onana, a black goalkeeper, Cameroonian, the youngest at 20 years old, 190 cm tall, playing for Ajax, he is young but shows great confidence in matches, very rare among peers. At one of the games I scouted, he passed two players in the penalty area, making a long pass that directly assisted his team’s forward in scoring, making me laugh out loud."
