"Dick once again brings a trophy to Dortmund's hall of fame."
The championship won by Dortmund this time has made the media a little tired of it. Of course, this is also related to the fact that this Toyota Cup championship is not the first Toyota Cup championship won by Dortmund. At the end of 1997, the Dortmund team was second.
They defeated Brazil's Cruzeiro and won the Toyota Cup. Those years were also the craziest years for European teams in the Toyota Cup. Starting from Ajax and ending with Manchester United, they became the European champions.
They have won the Toyota Cup for five consecutive years, tying the number of championships won by South American teams. This time Dortmund won the Toyota Cup, making both European and South American teams ten in the Toyota Cup.
The second time, it happened to be a draw.
After returning to Germany, Dortmund continued their good form before the winter break. Perhaps the continuous campaign made them feel tired, but the next two league opponents were not strong teams, Monchengladbach and Kaizer.
Although Slauten is a traditional strong team in the Bundesliga, they are now deep in the relegation zone. Dortmund cleanly defeated their opponents two to three games. As Leverkusen and Stuttgart gradually fell behind, Dortmund defeated them with 30 points.
With eight points, he has rushed to the second position, only one point behind the first-ranked Werder Bremen!
Behind them are the three teams Bayern, Bayer Leverkusen and Stuttgart with the same 35 points. The competition in the Bundesliga this season has begun to become more and more intense.
After the seventeenth round of the league on December 20, the entire Dortmund team was disbanded, but Dick could not go on vacation immediately because he also had to attend FIFA's annual awards ceremony and the championship
Cup knockout draw ceremony...
Because of a series of achievements, Dick once again deservedly became the best coach of the year. This is different from the European coach of the season. That selection was only within Europe, but now it is worldwide!
Of course, this is also related to the fact that there is no major competition this year. If there is a major competition, the best coach of the year will probably be the head coach of the championship team. FIFA will hardly make any changes in this regard.
This year's World Footballer is Real Madrid superstar Zidane, Henry ranks second, and Ronaldo ranks third. Dick also presented the trophy to Zidane as a guest of honor. Although Zidane was very unhappy with Dick,
Zidane was always very polite in public places like this. After smiling and shaking hands with Dick, Zidane accepted the trophy.
He won the World Footballer of the Year because he helped Real Madrid win the league championship after six years. Although Dortmund's results are also very good, they are mainly outstanding as a whole, not as individuals. Rivaldo is very important, but he has not started from scratch.
In other words, Dortmund's most dazzling star is their head coach.
This can be regarded as the tragedy of the team coached by Dick. It is difficult for them to produce any absolute top superstars, because only Dick is the most important person on this team.
Participating in the award ceremony put Dick in a good mood. However, after participating in the Champions League knockout match draw, Dick's mood was not so good. This time, the top 16 of the Champions League was full of strong players, and Dortmund won another
When it comes to second place, except for AC Milan who are in the same group with them, the other seven group toppers are not ordinary people, whether it is England's top three Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea, or Juventus in Serie A, and Real Madrid in La Liga.
, even Lyon and Monaco in Ligue 1 are not easy opponents to deal with.
Relatively speaking, Lyon and Monaco are naturally easier to deal with, but Dick doesn't think he will have such good luck. Among the other five teams, Real Madrid and Juventus were both victims of Dortmund's championship last season.
Dick believes that most of the opponents in the knockout rounds will be one of these two teams.
However, UEFA assigned them another team, Arsenal led by Arsene Wenger!
On the surface, Arsenal seems to be easier to deal with than Real Madrid or Juventus. However, after Dick saw it, he just smiled bitterly. Arsenal this season is unprecedentedly powerful because this season, they have created an undefeated record.
That season of record!
More importantly, Dortmund was able to qualify in the Champions League group stage this season. In addition to relying on their relatively stable tactics, they also relied on their fast-playing tactics, which gave many teams a headache and eliminated them.
Ajax's game proved this, but Arsenal...they are a Premier League team, are they still afraid of playing fast?
As for the technical content of the midfield, Arsenal is also better than Dortmund. Arsenal, with Vieira, Pires and Ljungberg, plus Gilbert Silva, is definitely not as technical as the midfielder.
Worse than any top team.
A quick attack cannot defeat the opponent, and positional battles cannot defeat the opponent. Even if it is a defensive counterattack, Arsenal's current ability to defend and counterattack is not bad. Campbell is not slow to turn around. Toure has excellent physical fitness. Although Cole and Lauren are good at defensive counterattacks.
Offense is the main focus, but the defense is not bad at all. Now Cole is one-on-one to the budding Cristiano Ronaldo, who is helpless and powerful!
If it's Juventus, Dick can still find a way to break up the chaos and win. If it's Real Madrid, Dick can compete with them physically and try to overwhelm the opponent. Although the odds of winning are not great, it's not impossible.
Opportunity, but against Arsenal... Dick thought about it initially, and it seemed that there was really no good way...
It's just that the knockout rounds won't start until the end of February, and there might be some changes by then. Now is not the time to have a headache.
"If we don't draw Arsenal, we will also draw the first place in another group, so no matter what opponent we encounter, it will be the same for us, there is no difference. We will find a way to win by then. No one is competing.
We had the confidence to win before. Last season we were not sure, but we still won the Champions League in the end. Football is unpredictable." Dick accepted an interview with reporters immediately after coming out of the draw.
He knew that UEFA had exhausted all its mechanisms this time, so it was okay to arrange a group of death in the group stage. The opponents for this knockout stage had been carefully selected, but Dick would definitely not show weakness during the interview.
At the very least, I have to disgust them. Isn't it because I am worried that I will defend the Champions League title and make the competitiveness of the Champions League much weaker? Then I will disgust you!
"So do you regret not being able to beat Ajax in the last round? After all, if they beat Ajax, Dortmund would rely on the goal difference to become first in the group. In this case, the situation would be much better.
..." The reporter asked the second question.
Dick glanced at the opponent: "Being able to qualify in the group is our greatest success. After all, at that time, we could not consume too much in the game. If we can use the least labor-saving method to obtain the right to qualify, why not? Next?
We have to fly tens of thousands of kilometers to compete in the Toyota Cup. Please tell me, should I choose to save some energy and compete for the Toyota Cup, or should I choose to reduce the possibility of winning the Toyota Cup for the sake of the glimmer of hope?
?You know AC Milan will lose to Celta Vigo, but our only chance of becoming first in the group!"
The reporter was speechless. Indeed, at that time Dortmund had almost no hope of winning the first place in the group. When AC Milan did not confirm the first place in the group, the possibility that they would lose to Celta Vigo was indeed very small. You must know that Celta had no one at the time.
The chance is out! However, if such a small probability thing happened, who can blame Dick?
After leaving Switzerland, Dick flew directly to Milan, where he wanted to discuss the details of the contract with Moratti before starting his vacation.
What Dick didn't expect was that when he went to Milan, the reporters were not alarmed, because it was no longer news that Dick would run around and have fun during the winter break, so no one followed him and didn't think about him.
He would go directly to Milan instead of going to a tourist resort. However, he did not go to Monaco, but it made a little girl feel that he had let a pigeon fly...
"Where has this guy gone? Isn't he on vacation? Why not come to Monaco?"
Charlotte went on a rampage in the VIP room of the Monte Carlo Casino: "Did you really not see him?"
"Miss, I have checked the entry list in recent days, and his name is not there at all... He probably didn't come to Monaco, maybe he went somewhere else..." One of the subordinates said with a grimace.
Charlotte waved her hand, and the two men escaped as if they had received amnesty. However, Charlotte did not continue to be angry. Instead, she played with the amethyst bracelet on her wrist and smiled slightly.
"Don't you plan to come? Hum, if you don't come, I will go to Germany to find you!"
Of course, Dick didn't know that he came to Milan to negotiate a contract and actually made this young lady unhappy with him. It's not that he didn't think about going to Monaco for vacation and gambling with that cute little girl, but after all, the business was ahead.
After the contract is finalized, it won't be too late to go to Monaco for a few days. The winter break lasts for more than a month. He has more than 20 days of vacation, which is enough.
So after landing at Milan Airport, he found a remote hotel to stay, and then called his two assistants. The next thing was to wait to discuss the details of the contract and sign the specific contract.
Well, only by confirming this point can Dick's next work be carried out. Now Inter Milan has a lot of problems, not only the problem of buying people, but also the problem of selling people. Only after confirming the contract can Dick be able to control the situation.
Take command and try to identify a few players that you are optimistic about, and then count the number of players and clubs that need to be purged, so that the work for the next season can be carried out better.
When he came to Milan, it happened to be the traditional Western Christmas. Dick naturally would not disturb Moratti and was not in a hurry for these few days. It happened that these two days also allowed him to take a rest and sort out his thoughts.
, making subsequent communication easier.
Dick didn't feel much about Christmas. After all, he was Chinese and had no Christmas atmosphere since he was a child. Even if he spent Christmas alone in a hotel, he didn't feel lonely.
Two days later, Moratti finally ended his affairs and secretly came to the hotel, accompanied by the club's vice president Facchetti.
