Manchester City Scours the World for a Goalkeeper: Who Will Be Chosen Between Alisson, Ederson, and Onana?
After scoring, Tang Long looked up, his gaze sweeping over the bewildered Monchengladbach fans, and then towards the higher stands, where over a thousand Manchester City fans had their arms outstretched!
The piercing scream pounded against Tang Long's eardrums, sounding to him like the most beautiful music in the world.
And at Tang Long's feet.
These are two Monchengladbach players who are clutching their heads and rolling around on the ground.
Fabian and Nico.
Two tall men, a United States and a Switzerland, were screaming and rolling around at Tang Long's feet.
Their heads collided heavily, and both of them went black for a moment, with only Venus flying around in the darkness, buzzing.
At night, the wind Rhine River gently blew against Tang Long's jersey, carrying away the steam rising from his body.
Tang Long glanced down at the two people on the ground, then silently walked away.
His job is only to score goals.
Ignore everything else and leave it to the Monchengladbach team doctor.
The referee blew his whistle to stop the game and quickly called the team doctor onto the field.
Guardiola, watching the replay on the big screen, saw how Tang Long miraculously kicked the ball out of the air to stop it, and how he forced his way through the encirclement of two defenders to finally score.
"This is the God of War, Christian, this is the God of War, haha!" Guardiola's eyes lit up as he rubbed his bald head.
Chivu clenched his fist excitedly and swung it forcefully at Tang Long in the distance, thinking, "Mancini, if you saw that goal by Tang Long, you'd understand what I meant by what I said to you that day!"
This mid-air flying kick to stop the ball was something Chivu mentioned casually to Tang Long one day.
During training, they casually discussed the flexibility of the black striker in the Premier League.
Unlike Serie A, the Premier League has many Black players, especially in the forward line, because Black people are very flexible and can often do things that other races cannot, such as making saves.
Chivu showed Tang Long a video recording of the Crystal Palace striker Zaha controlling the ball on the byline.
"Zaha is the kind of peak England black striker. Their technique may not be the most refined, but their physical flexibility is extremely strong. Look at this ball control. His teammate passed the ball very far, and the defenders all gave up, but Zaha stretched out his leg and hooked the ball back. If you watch Zaha's movements closely, you'll encounter this situation when you switch to playing as a striker this season..."
Based on Chivu's analysis, the two practiced on the field after the regular training session.
Chivu deliberately passed the ball very deep, forcing Tang Long to stop it near the byline.
Back home, Tang Long, still full of energy, immediately went to the AI Cloud Training Ground to continue practicing his extreme ball control with Chivu, making rapid progress.
Sure enough, they used it in the UEFA Champions League match against Monchengladbach Mönchengladbach, except the passer changed from Chivu to Ranocchia.
Monchengladbach suffered their worst player loss of the new season.
Neither Nico nor Fabian could continue the match and were substituted off the field.
Nico suffered the most serious injury, with a fractured brow bone that bled profusely on the field, requiring a period of recovery.
Fabian wasn't much better off; he suffered a mild concussion and had difficulty focusing his eyes.
With three substitutions allowed, two were made within the first 20 minutes. Monchengladbach's coach, Schubert, was immediately terrified, and Monchengladbach players dared not make any moves in defense, fearing that they might follow in the footsteps of their two teammates if they charged too aggressively.
Monchengladbach finally realized that, having reached this stage in the UEFA Champions League group stage and currently ranked third, it would be better for them to give up on Manchester City and instead focus their energy on battling against second-placed Barca, where their chances of winning are much higher!
And so, Guardiola Borussia Monchengladbach, once Guardiola's nemesis, gave up the game. In the second half, Agüero scored a penalty, and the score remained 2-0 until the end of the match.
Chivu visited two injured Monchengladbach players in the hospital after the match.
He wasn't worried about Nico, because Nico's brow bone injury was a serious one.
Chivu was more worried about Nico, who had been hit on the back of the head by Fabian.
As a player who has undergone skull surgery, Chivu understands best how much damage a head injury can cause to a player!
This kind of injury is not only physical, but also has a greater psychological impact. Even after the player recovers from the injury, he will still be left with psychological trauma and will avoid intense competition.
But how can professional athletes be afraid of physical contact?
Fortunately, neither player blamed Tang Long, since they had bumped into themselves and it had nothing to do with Tang Long.
So in the ward, Nico and Fabian listened to Chivu's encouraging words. When Chivu lifted his hair to show them the visible pink scar on the top half of his head from the craniotomy, they asked Chivu curiously how he overcame his fear after recovering from his injury.
Chivu said, "To be honest, in my first match after my comeback, I wore a tank helmet and felt very uncomfortable. I was also afraid of getting injured again. But later I realized that the more afraid you are, the more you suffer, because your opponents are very cunning. They will take advantage of your mental state."
"Then I pretended my helmet didn't exist and just played normally, fighting and tackling until I scored a header, and all the fear disappeared."
Fabian nodded thoughtfully and said, "Alright, if I run into Manchester City again and face Tang Long one-on-one, I still won't be afraid of him."
Nico laughed, "You're overthinking it. What chance do you have? Both group stage matches are over, bro. We probably won't make it out of the knockout stage."
Seeing Fabian pout and look unwilling, Chivu encouraged him, saying:
"Come on, kid, beat Barca! Manchester City and Monchengladbach will advance together, and I look forward to seeing you again in the knockout stage!"
Fabian looked at Chivu gratefully and said, "If that day ever comes, I will definitely play!"
"Raymond, you must be tired from your long journey!"
"Sigh, it's not hard work, it's just bad luck."
Guardiola ingratiatingly pulled Raymond's suitcase over his shoulder, and the two went upstairs into the Manchester City manager's office.
Guardiola is not satisfied with the current first-choice Bravo, so his trusted scout Raymond has to travel all over the world to scout goalkeeper candidates.
This really exhausted Raymond, because although Manchester City had quite a few scouts, more than a dozen, Guardiola only trusted Raymond's opinion when it came to key player selections, and wouldn't listen to anyone else's opinions.
Raymond, looking exhausted, pulled his scouting notebook from his bag, licked his fingers, flipped to a page in the middle, and suggested a few names to Guardiola.
"Alisson, Brazil, currently plays for Roma. He is 191cm tall, possesses solid goalkeeping skills, quick reflexes, excellent vision, accurate long passes, and a wide range of movement. He is a versatile goalkeeper who frequently comes out of his goal."
"Ederson, 23 years old, Brazil, 188cm tall, from Benfica, has excellent goal-line saves, good footwork, and is especially adept at controlling the ball under pressure and finding suitable passing lanes."
"Onana, this is a black goalkeeper, from Cameroon. He's the youngest, only 20 years old, 190cm tall, and plays for Ajax. Although he's young, he shows a lot of confidence in the game, which is very rare among his peers. In the game I observed, he dribbled past two players in the penalty area and delivered a long pass that directly assisted his own striker to score. It made me laugh out loud."