Watching Football During Morning Reading

Football is the king of sports in the world. But it has never been the king of sports in the Long Country!

Hearing the news of the men's national football team's crushing defeat on the radio, Xu Jie felt no ripples in his heart, and even wanted to laugh a little.

This was the attitude of an ordinary Long Country citizen toward the men's national football team. No regret, no grief, no anger. Only calmness. Along with the jeers: "What a disgrace, refund our tickets!"

Why couldn't Long Country men's football improve?

As a PE teacher and a former member of the national long jump team, Xu Jie had naturally thought about this issue.

Was it because of a lack of talent? Don't be ridiculous! The Long Country had over a billion people! Among them, there were definitely geniuses with extraordinary physical builds born to play football! Just like Chu Xiaoran!

Children with heaven-defying football talent were definitely not limited to Chu Xiaoran alone! On this point, Xu Jie had never doubted and always firmly believed!

And not just football, but also basketball, track and field, high jump... all sports, with the Long Country's massive population, there were bound to be people with heaven-defying talent appearing!

But what was the use of talent if it couldn't be developed?

Just like Chu Xiaoran, born with monstrous football talent. But since childhood, he didn't like football, and his surroundings didn't provide conditions for his development. In the end, wouldn't that monstrous talent have been wasted?

If he had been born in Argentina or Portugal? He would definitely be the next Messi or C. Ronaldo! Was there any doubt?

The development of Long Country football had long fallen into an extreme vicious cycle. No players, poor results, terrible reputation, even fewer players... repeating like this, generation after generation!

Tracing back to the roots, football was invented by our ancestors! Even if modern football originated in the West, we Long Country people don't lack arms or legs compared to them!

What "reach out to Asia, head to the world"? Now they were even at the bottom of Asia!

Play football? Play what football!

The most fundamental problem was not that there were no players, nor was it a lack of talent, but that there was no environment to discover these talented children!

The youth training of Long Country football had never been done well! There was a lack of good coaches at the grassroots level, and the basic skills of young players were not solid. Once they grew up and their techniques were set, they couldn't adapt to high-intensity competitive environments.

Looking at those sea-cucumber-eating, beer-bellied, heavily tattooed guys, it would be a miracle if they could play football! But ironically, such a bunch of useless freeloaders was the national team selected from the entire Long Country?!

Truly speechless! Absolutely outrageous!

This problem of having no players, in Xu Jie's view, required state-level intervention to scrape the bone and cure the poison! The entire system had to be purged from top to bottom, selecting virtuous and capable people to have a future.

Unfortunately, this first step was completely stuck!

Scrape the bone to cure the poison? Drinking poison to quench thirst was more like it! Now they were even naturalizing foreign players; if that wasn't drinking poison to quench thirst, what was? From top to bottom, everything was rotten! If the first step couldn't even be taken, there was no need to discuss the subsequent steps!

Xu Jie listened to the post-match commentary on the radio, then thought of Chu Xiaoran's monstrous talent, and an idea popped into his head!

Chu Xiaoran was his class's sports representative and had trained in long jump, so Xu Jie felt a natural closeness to him. This kid was terrible at academics, but his personality was very good.

At this age, someone with an eccentric personality couldn't possibly become the leader of a small group. Unless that entire group was made of eccentrics! Wang Siyuan, a young master from the Imperial Capital who came to audit classes, also had to call Chu Xiaoran "Brother Ran," which showed how good his personality was.

That day, after seeing Chu Xiaoran's talent on the basketball court, Xu Jie had actually been thinking about how to nurture him.

After all, Xu Jie was once a genius youth recruited into the national team at age 17. Whether at the city or provincial sports bureau, he had senior and junior brothers working there. If he wanted to put Chu Xiaoran into some football team, it wouldn't be difficult.

But he never had that thought! Wouldn't that be ruining him? With the domestic training mechanism as it was, Xu Jie feared that not long after Chu Xiaoran entered, his talent would be completely ruined! On this point, Xu Jie had no doubt!

Now Chu Xiaoran was 17! At this age, if he really didn't get in touch with football, no matter how high his talent was, it would be meaningless! What use was peerless talent when you were 80!

Domestic training was definitely unrealistic! Then go abroad! And the sooner, the better!

Xu Jie made up his mind, and a grand training plan gradually formed in his head!

...

The classic quote from General Fan went viral overnight across the entire network.

On Monday morning, during the morning run, Xu Jie heard a few students in the class chatting.

"Did you see the video yesterday? The men's national football team was crushed, and General Fan became a god overnight!"

"I saw it, I saw it. Last night, Douyin was full of meme videos."

"Sigh, I didn't expect our vast country couldn't find a few people who know how to play football!"

"Do you play football?"

"I don't!"

"Who among decent people plays football?"

"Being a fan of the men's national football team in the Long Country is worse than being a prostitute!"

"Damn! Your analogy is top-tier!"

"Hahahahaha!"

...

After the run, Xu Jie led the class back to the classroom.

Standing on the podium, he smiled and said to the students:

"Class, today during morning reading, we are going to do something else."

"Ah?"

"No reading today?"

"Then what are we doing, Teacher Xu?"

The students of Class 9 curiously looked at Xu Jie.

Xu Jie smiled and said: "Watching a football match!"

"What?"

"Watching a football match?"

"Did I hear wrong?"

As soon as Xu Jie's words fell, the students began to buzz with discussion.

He ignored the noise below, turned on the projector, and played the match recording he had downloaded last night.

The image was black and white, with snowy static. A match between the Long Country men's national football team and the Japanese team was playing.

The commentator's voice was full of emotion, and even across a distant span of time, it still made people feel excited.

"Utilize the width of the field, attack the space behind, make more direct passes!"

"Yes, exactly like that!"

"Goal! Beautiful!"

"There was originally no path on the football field, but he used his feet to create a path!"

"Beautiful! We won!"

"Long Country 3 - 0 Japan!"

...

The video Xu Jie played wasn't very long. These matches were precious footage from the 1980s when the Long Country men's national football team campaigned in Asia.

These images were older than the students' parents.

Match after match.

Defeating Japan, defeating Qatar, defeating South Korea...

With absolute dominance, sweeping Southeast Asia!

The Long Country men's national football team of the past was also a formidable force in Asia.

But such history, let alone the students, even Xu Jie was completely unaware of it!

He chose to play these videos during morning reading to strike while the iron was hot. Taking advantage of the lingering aftermath of the crushing defeat, he wanted to teach the students a lesson!