Chapter 8: The light of the fireflies cannot be hidden ()

Benfica's opponent in the first round of the Portuguese Super League in the 2003-2004 season was Ferreira. The overall strength of this team is not strong and they have to fight for relegation almost every season. Even if Benfica wants to play away, they have huge psychological advantages for this team.

However, for the UEFA Champions League qualifier on August 13, Fatty Ka still made some necessary reservations for the team. The team's top scorer Nuno Gomez was placed on the bench, and only Croatian striker Sokota and Brazilian Giovani were sent on the front line.

But even so, Benfica slaughtered the poor Ferreira with a score of 6:0 on the away game!

After the game, Fatty Ka looked very happy, and his face became a little rosy because he was too excited. He was not excited because the team won the big score. Even except for assistant coach Celsillon, no one was excited because he knew why.

Benfica's pass success rate in this game is only 65%, which is one fraction worse than his opponent's 72% success rate. Even when it comes to successful crosses, he is not as good as Ferreira's team in terms of headers. In addition to the number of shots and scores, there is only one thing that Benfica performs better than his opponent, that is, the interception success rate!

In the whole game, Benfica intercepted his opponents 31 times, while Ferreira only had 18 times, and in terms of tackle success rate, it reached 100%. On the scene, Benfica also used its strong interception ability to exert a fierce murderous aura, completely suppressing his opponents without taking advantage of technical indicators.

Such performance is what really satisfy Ka Fatty!

At the same time, the outstanding physical condition of Benfica players was fully demonstrated. The players ran at high speed for 90 minutes on the court and showed no signs of exhaustion. This is very rare for a Portuguese team. The Portuguese, who has always played artistic football, has never been strong in physical fitness. Of course, this credit must be remembered on the physical coaches Lopez and Chen Chao.

If this game is just what the Portuguese media calls "sudden outbreak", then the performance of Benfica's away challenge to the Czech Republic's Slavia team three days later is enough to show that a shocking change has happened to Benfica.

On August 13, Benfica was a visit to the Czech Evzena Rosicho Stadium. After showing a positive and hard-core style in the last game, Benfica once again played a "barrassing" style of successfully intercepting up to 51 times in this game. In the end, he defeated Slavia Prague 4-0 with the hat trick of Brazilian boy Giowani and the goal of Mozambique Armando.

Two consecutive games are enough to illustrate many problems. For a time, Benfica's playing style changed from elegant art to iron-blooded heroicism, becoming the center of debate in the entire Portuguese media.

"Jose Camacho, the Spaniard, is destroying Portuguese football!"

"Benfica holds high the banner of modern football, and Portuguese football ushers in an opportunity for change!"

"Ka's modern football philosophy is Zhagenfika!"

"The conspiracy behind the Benfica transformation: The Spaniards are going to destroy our football!"

All kinds of comments, praise or criticism, without exception, are discussed around the change in Benfica's style of play. No one even doubts whether the transformation of Camacho's hard-core football has really been successful in Benfica?

At this time, there will be no voices questioning Camacho. After all, both games have won by big scores. While scoring ten goals, you can also ensure that your team will not lose a goal. Even a fool can see the scores and know that Benfica's reform has been successful.

However, in the Porto training base, a middle-aged man with white hair on his temples frowned and looked at a newspaper in front of him with deep eyes. This man is Mourinho, the current coach of Porto. After leading the team to win the league championship last season, he is ambitious to make a fortune in Porto.

Standing opposite Mourinho was a young man who looked very young: "Jose, what do you think of Camacho and Benfica? I always feel... Benfica's performance is a bit abnormal!"

Mourinho raised his head and sent an encouragement and admiring look to the young man in front of him: "Villas, why not just tell me your opinion, haha, the boy who dared to write a note to Bobby for accusing him of being wrong in tactics should not lack courage, right?"

"Hehehehehe!"

Villas Boas smiled awkwardly. He used some tricks to attract Bobby Robson's attention, but it cannot be denied that he is a hardworking and talented young man. Otherwise, with Mourinho's strictness, he would not have used this junior brother as his assistant.

"Jose, I think with Camacho's coaching ability, he would not have trained Benfica team so quickly. As far as I know, that fat man is a lazy guy who is too lazy to deal with daily training. How could such a person be trained in Benfica? I have seen the videos of their two games this season. The physical condition of this team is really good! Very good! I even think... their physical condition is no worse than our team! Their physical condition is not so strong, otherwise he would have trained this team as our strong rival to Porto!"

Facing Mourinho with aggressive eyes, Boas's eyes were still very confident. He knew Porto's biggest opponent in China, Benfica, and even knew what each player had minor problems. In terms of paying attention to details, the young Boas and his senior brother Mourinho were almost exactly the same.

After Boas finished speaking, Mourinho just smiled and said nothing. He didn't believe that his junior brother would just say such a remark. Since he sent this newspaper to him, he obviously wanted to remind himself that the changes in Benfica team may have threatened Porto's dominance in Portugal, and at least he would find out the cause of the incident and come to talk to him.

"Hey--Okay, Jose, I found the fundamental reason why Benfica's physical fitness has become stronger! It's funny to say that all this is because about a month ago, the fat man Camacho found an assistant from somewhere, a young Chinese named Chen. This person is a rookie in football, but he can shock all the players of Benfica. He has a good time in punishing players. Benfica's players are afraid of him, so when completing the training plan for their physical coach Lopez, the quality of the training was amazing, so he achieved the current results!"

In the match against Mourinho, the young Boas finally lost, but even Mourinho didn't believe that the young Boas really wouldn't be patient to play a game of keeping a close eye with him. He just remembered how to respect himself very smartly.

Frowning, Mourinho thought for a while and said, "Villas, do you think this matter is really that simple and ridiculous? No matter how authentic the remarks are, we will only talk about the Chinese man named Chen. If he can really shock the players of Benfica, will he be a simple person?"

"Shock?" Boas was stunned for a moment, and straightened his back with some horror: "Jose, are you talking about...Shock?"

"Yeah!" Mourinho nodded solemnly: "If Camacho or Lopez has any new tricks to improve the player's physical fitness, it's not scary, but if it's really just because of Chen's existence that Benfica's players' physical fitness is greatly improved, I think you should understand what this means, right?"

Boas nodded with a dull expression. He is only twenty-six years old this year. Although this age is considered very young for many people, especially in the football coaching industry. Twenty-six is ​​not even a staggering little doll who learns to walk, but Boas is different because he had already started to work in football coaching nine years ago, when he was seventeen years old. In 1994, Boas at the age of seventeen became Boby Robson's assistant and assisted the coach with Mourinho.

It is precisely because of this that Boas can better understand what a coach is most important in a team, that is... prestige!

Prestige is very empty. To put it simply, it means prestige and trust. If a head coach does not have prestige and trust in a team, it is impossible to lead the team to achieve good results. Prestige requires past experience to accumulate, while trust requires work ability and team-leading performance to make players fully obey their orders.

However, the young Chen obviously had no glorious past experience. As a newcomer, he was able to suppress all the players and completed all this in just one month, which is very intriguing.

This person...is not simple!

Almost at the same time, Mourinho and Boas gave a high evaluation of Chen Chao, whom they had never met before. They even became curious about Chen Chao, the Chinese. What method did this Chinese do?

Camacho's slaughter of Giovani was given by Camacho, so Boas couldn't find out about this. If Mourinho and Boas knew about it, they would probably fall out of their eye sockets. Football coaches used force to deter players, which has never happened before. Those who work as football coaches are usually middle-aged men outside the thirty years old. Even if a young coach like Boas, they can compete with players who exercise all day long, which is similar to the scholar's sword and military competition.

Mourinho and Boas increased their attention to Chen Chao, but Porto himself soon encountered trouble. In the first round of the game, they defeated Maridimo 4-0 away, but in the second round of home match against Morillens, they tied 1-1 with their opponents.

At the same time, Benfica team defeated Maridimo with a score of 3:2 at its home court, Bright Stadium. Benfica team once again showed their advantages in interception defense and physical fitness in this game. They successfully intercepted their opponents 34 times in the game, giving the team a chance to score ten shots in the 90-minute game, which directly led to Benfica's victory.

With strong physical support in the game, he showed strong interception ability to create chaos and murderous intent. This is also the key to Benfica's success in winning streaks in recent games.
Chapter completed!