Chapter 293 The first goal: survive!

Immediately after the game, Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhao Yan walked straight towards Jiang Yuan and Li Yi who had just come out of the locker room.

Seeing the reporter coming from afar, Li Yi's first reaction was to put his arm around Jiang Yuan's shoulder, pretending that they were very good friends.

"As you can see, standing behind me is the head coach of the Chinese Olympic men's football team, Li Yi, and the star athlete Jiang Yuan."

"Li Yi, Jiang Yuan, hello. I would like to ask you, what do you think about this first victory in the Olympics?"

Li Yi looked at Jiang Yuan, who hesitated for a moment and said casually: "Well, of course, this is a very good victory. Brother Lei and I both scored goals. We will continue to work hard."

Jiang Yuan had already prepared some simple words.

There are words to say after victory, and if you fail, Jiang Yuan also has special words to say to deal with it. Of course, if you fail, it is better not to accept interviews.

"Well, congratulations to you and to the fans of our Chinese team. However, while watching the game, I noticed that our backcourt players seemed to have some... um, conflicts. What happened at that time?"

Jiang Yuan was about to speak, but Li Yi spoke first: "Because our defender made a mistake at that time, there was a quarrel between the goalkeeper and the defender. This is very normal in football matches. Now the conflict between the players has been resolved and it will not affect the next game."

Zhao Yan nodded. After all, he was a reporter from China, so he would not make things difficult for Jiang Yuan and Li Yi.

This was actually specially designed. If the National Olympic Team has already accepted an interview with Xinhua News Agency, then everyone would have a reason to refuse if they meet foreign reporters on the road.

After all, Europeans and Americans would not be as polite as Chinese reporters.

"Before our match against Mexico today, the German Olympic team defeated the Fiji U10 team 0-23, and our Olympic team will face the German Olympic team in the third round of the group stage. What do you think about this?"

There are four teams in Group C, China, Germany, Mexico, and Fiji. If they are to be divided, they can be divided into three tiers. The strength of China and Germany is similar, and then Mexico is in a tier of its own. The worst is Fiji.

Fiji U23, the weakest team in the Olympic men's football event, is what Li Yi calls a "goal-winning machine."

However, this time the reporter's questions were mainly directed to Germany, not Fiji.

"We have to admit that the German Olympic team is very strong"

Zhao Yan's hands were waving, so Li Yi simply took the microphone from him: "I remember that before the Olympics, the German Olympic team played a warm-up match with the Korean Olympic team, and the result was a 1:1 draw. We and the Korean Olympic team had a match experience in the U23 Asian Cup. If I have to say, I think we have a chance to draw or even win."

Chinese people are generally more tactful in their speech. Li Yi always prefixes every sentence with "I think" or "there is a chance". If it is Mourinho or Lopetegui, they like to belittle the opponent first and then promote their own team. The change in the head coach's speaking style made Jiang Yuan a little unresponsive for a while.

"The last question is for Jiang Yuan"

After hearing what Zhao Yan said, Li Yi handed the microphone of his mobile phone to Jiang Yuan.

"Neymar, the Brazilian football star, said on social media that he is looking forward to playing against you..."

"Oh, I know about this. I talked to him for a while yesterday. I am also looking forward to playing against Neymar, but I hope it will be the final, not the semi-final, because Brazil is too strong, haha!"

……

Special Issue of Rio Olympics (Editors: Sports Intern Lin Fanchu and Hu Xuerong) - Let courage take off on the wings to soar high into the future. In the first round of the group stage, the Chinese Olympic men's football team defeated the Mexican men's football team 3:1 and won the first victory in the Olympic men's football event since the founding of the People's Republic of China!

Chelsea FC Twitter - Chelsea's number seven, Fight!

Usain Bolt instagram——interaction with friends, (with Jiang Yuan flying man celebration.jpg
Xinhua News Agency, August 8: In the first round of the women's volleyball group stage, the Chinese women's volleyball team defeated the Dutch women's volleyball team 7:3 and temporarily ranked first in the group.

CCTV: The overall ratings of the Rio Olympics were 2.83%, of which the match between the Chinese National Olympic Men's Football Team and the Mexican National Olympic Men's Football Team received a rating of 4.77, currently ranking first in the ratings of all CCTV events.

CCTV1: CCTV reporter reported that two days have passed since the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics. Domestic media have compiled the hot words of this Olympics as follows: #Bolt three consecutive championships#Neymar#Gisele Bundchen catwalk#Go women's volleyball#Van Niekerk 2 meters#Chinese football changes#Jiang Yuan Bolt linkage#Neymar looks forward to playing against Jiang Yuan.

Front page second headline: Chinese women's 4×100m athletes Ge Manqi and Liang Xiaojing were robbed in Rio, but fortunately no one was injured.

Rio Olympic Organizing Committee spokesman Andrada said: We apologize to the Chinese athletes and tourists who were robbed in Rio, and remind everyone to remain vigilant at all times in Rio for safety reasons.

……

After the afternoon game, teammates and coaches returned to their rooms to rest one after another, but Jiang Yuan still had other things to do.

Although he came to play in the Olympics, the club's physical coach Rozovic assigned him a task. Jiang Yuan needed to go to the gym in the Olympic Village for some professional training.

“Hello, I would like to use the gym here.”

Jiang Yuan walked straight to the front desk. The gym in the Olympic Village was sponsored by Technogym. There were 15 training centers in total, as well as 50 professional coaches.

Because he was not sure what language the other party spoke, Jiang Yuan spoke English.

“I need to see your ID.”

The uncle at the front desk stretched out his hand and motioned Jiang Yuan to hand him the blue athlete card issued by the Olympic Committee.

"Um...I don't have my ID with me."

Jiang Yuan looked a little embarrassed. He had already been checked once when entering the Olympic Village, so he asked Wu Lei to help him take the backpack back to the dormitory. He didn't expect that he would have to be checked again in the gym.

"it does not matter"

The uncle glanced at Jiang Yuan and said, "I know you, Jiang, you are very good. But unfortunately, I am Brazilian, so I will not support you."

The uncle at the front desk took Jiang Yuan to the equipment area: "The equipment and coaches are free. Jiang, do you need a coach to assist you?"

It is of course good to have a coach to assist. Jiang Yuan asked the uncle for two people. One coach is free, but if two coaches are needed, they will be charged. Technogym has set up special regulations to prevent a shortage of coaches. For a company of this level, it is really unnecessary to make money from the top athletes in the Olympic Village.

For an additional coach, Jiang Yuan paid 1 reais (about 500 RMB), which was the fee for 1000 hours.

"Ok, Jiang, you go in first, the coach will make arrangements for you later"

Looking at the dazzling array of professional equipment in the equipment room, Jiang Yuan walked straight to the elliptical machine.

Regardless of what you are going to practice, you must make sure to warm up properly.

Jiang Yuan stepped on the pedal, and with a "beep" sound, Jiang Yuan began his warm-up.

Not to mention, there are quite a lot of athletes using the gym. Jiang Yuan met Condides here, as well as the two Brazilian guys who were watching the CSGO live broadcast at the opening ceremony. Those two guys should be track and field athletes, but Jiang Yuan didn't know them.

Soon, "bang" and "bang" sounds were heard from the side. Jiang Yuan turned his head and saw Su Bingtian doing pedaling training under the guidance of the team coach. He had an elastic band on his calves and a 90KG barbell on his shoulders.

The combined weight of the barbells is estimated to be almost 2.5 times Su Bingtian's body weight. This guy's thigh strength is no joke.

"what!"

Su Bingtian shouted, and with the help of his coach, he put the barbell back on the rack. He looked up and breathed a sigh of relief, and his eyes met with Jiang Yuan who was riding the elliptical machine.

"Jiang Yuan!"

Just as a set of training was over, Su Bingtian untied the elastic band and walked towards Jiang Yuan.

"Brother Tian, ​​is your training so intense?"

Jiang Yuan stepped on the pedal and pointed at the barbell that Su Bingtian had just used, marveling at the strength of this international 100-meter athlete.

If Jiang Yuan is asked to lift a 90kg barbell on one side, he can only do a half squat at best, and he may not be able to do even a few half squats. For Jiang Yuan, 90kg on one side is more suitable for 1/4 squats, but this training method is not very effective.

“Is this fierce?”

Su Bingtian put his hand on the monitor of the elliptical machine: "But there is a big difference between football and sprinting. You are very comprehensive, which is much better than sprinting."

Jiang Yuan disagreed: "There was a time when my football coach was out for a competition in junior high school. I didn't want to stay in the classroom so I went to practice track and field. This thing is so damn tiring."

This is what Jiang Yuan really thinks. In track and field events, especially running events, from the beginning of training to the end of training, football players only have endurance training once every two weeks, and runners only train once every two days. Every training session ends with vomiting.

Anyway, no matter what, Jiang Yuan admires Su Bingtian from the bottom of his heart.

"Get used to it"

Su Bingtian took a sip of Jiang Yuan's mineral water: "Ge Manqi and Liang Xiaojing were robbed. Do you know about this?"

"What!?"

Jiang Yuan's legs on the elliptical machine suddenly stopped: "Robbery...Robbery?"

Looking at Jiang Yuan's shocked expression, Su Bingtian probably knew what was going on. Jiang Yuan had just finished a game and hadn't had time to touch his phone before coming to the gym.

So, Su Bingtian asked Jiang Yuan to take out his mobile phone and saw the group chat message forwarded by Li Yi.

[Recently, Chinese athletes and Chinese citizens have been robbed many times in Rio. We remind all athletes not to walk alone outside and stay away from slums, gang bases, etc. If you are robbed, please do not panic and cooperate with the robbers to hand over all your belongings to prevent possible physical harm from the robbers. During the Olympic Games, please take care of your health. Thank you for your cooperation! ]

Jiang Yuan flipped through the pages and saw the team members discussing the kidnapping of Ge Manqi and Liang Xiaojing.

The only good news is that neither of them was injured and can participate in the competition normally.

Jiang Yuan put the phone back on the shelf and stared at Su Bingtian blankly: "Damn, Brazil is so dangerous?"

"Well, the leader emphasized this at the meeting in mid-July, but you were still in the UK at that time. Now, except for going out for competitions, I stay in the Olympic Village all the time."

Because of the robbery of Ge Manqi and Liang Xiaojing, the track and field team members are now extra cautious. For the Olympics, they have been preparing for four years to meet the performance standards and get the points. If they are beaten by robbers before the competition, wouldn't all the efforts before that be in vain?
"Is that an exaggeration?"

Maybe because of his living habits in London, Jiang Yuan was not as surprised by the robbery as the other Chinese teammates. After all, there are many gangs in London.

"It's the Olympics now, so the Brazilian police will definitely focus on patrolling, so there won't be any major problems..."

"boom!"

"Boom!"

Jiang Yuan was halfway through his words when the sound of an explosion was heard in the distance.

"Fuck, what the hell?"

Jiang Yuan got off the elliptical trainer and went to the balcony with Su Bingtian to watch. In the distance, several plumes of smoke rose from the Olympic Park, which looked a bit scary.

In the gym, the athletes looked at each other.

Jiang Yuan looked at Su Bingtian beside him and asked, "What... is this?"

Before Su Bingtian could speak, Condides on the side spoke first: "It seems to have exploded, the Olympic Park exploded..."

I go!

There was an indescribable shock in Jiang Yuan's eyes.

It seems that in this Olympics, athletes have a more important task besides winning medals.

That is... to survive!

Today's headlines: At 8 pm local time on August 7, an explosion occurred in Rio's Olympic Park, killing one police officer and injuring several others. The Olympic Park is less than 5 meters away from the Olympic Village where athletes from various countries live.

……

In the evening, Jiang Yuan, Su Bingtian and some Chinese athletes went to visit Ge Manqi and Liang Xiaojing.

Since they were all athletes and couldn't eat a lot of things, Jiang Yuan and Su Bingtian bought a few bunches of bananas at Zona Sul. Of course, they didn't go there themselves, but paid someone to buy them for them.

“Sister Qi, how did your luck get robbed?”

After getting permission, Jiang Yuan sat on a chair in the room. Ge Manqi and Liang Xiaojing simply decorated the room, making it look much more refined than Jiang Yuan's room.

"Oh shit!"

Ge Manqi got angry when talking about being robbed: "Those two Brazilians, damn it, they asked me and Sister Jing to help take a photo, and after taking the photo, they said that our photo was not good. Sister Jing and I were there figuring out how to take a good photo, but when we turned around, our bag was gone! I wanted to chase them, but Sister Jing held me back."

“I really can’t chase you.”

Su Bingtian leaned on the windowsill: "If you chase them, the two robbers might attack you. The slums are too dangerous. Even the local police in Brazil don't dare to go there."

“No, no, not the ghetto”

Ge Manqi waved her hands repeatedly: "It's next to a supermarket, called Zona sul!"

what?
Jiang Yuan and Su Bingtian looked at each other.

Su Bingtian had previously said that it would be better to go to the supermarket to buy bananas in person, but Jiang Yuan simply paid someone to buy them for him. Now thinking about it, it was really a good choice to spend money at the time.

Ge Manqi was just unlucky to be robbed in Zona Sul. After all, the safety factor of that supermarket was relatively high.

"If I were a man, I would definitely rush up and beat up those two idiots!"

Ge Manqi gritted her teeth. She was still unhappy about being robbed.

Losing 800 reais is a small matter, but the main thing is that I was robbed, which is really infuriating.

"Hey, hey, hey, even if you're a man you can't chase me."

Zhang Peimeng quickly dispelled Ge Manqi's dangerous idea: "If they dare to rob like this, I think they must have knives or guns in their hands. There was an explosion in the park next door this afternoon and a policeman was killed."

“I know, I’m just saying.”

Ge Manqi hugged the pillow.

"Sister Qi, don't think about it. Don't let this matter affect your performance in the game, otherwise you will lose a lot of money."

Jiang Yuan was not very good at comforting people, so he could only ask Ge Manqi to adjust her mindset as soon as possible. After all, the women's 4×100m preliminaries would begin in a few days.

To be honest, there is not much you can do if you get robbed in Brazil. At most the government will apologize, but the lost items will definitely not be recovered.

The fact that Brazilian gangs can survive until now has a lot to do with their strength. After all, those guys doing illegal trade have military strength that is equal to that of the government army.

In preparation for the Olympics, the Brazilian government has done its utmost to reduce the influence of gangs in Brazil, and it is hard to imagine what Rio was like before the Olympics began.

After coming out of Ge Manqi's room, Jiang Yuan went to the sauna room, not to take a sauna, but to receive some simple muscle relaxation.

China will play against Fiji on the 8th. According to Li Yi's plan, Jiang Yuan will be a substitute in tomorrow's game and most likely will not play.

According to Li Yi, let alone Jiang Yuan, even if Fiji wore spiked shoes to play, it might not be able to beat China.

From this perspective, China's main rival is still Germany.

Brazil on the other side was not having an easy time either. The favorite to win the championship was tied by South Africa U23 in the first round.

According to the IOC's schedule, if China wants to avoid Brazil in the semi-finals, both teams must win first place in the group at the same time, or win second place in the group at the same time, so as to avoid appearing in the same half zone.

Brazil wants to play China in the semi-finals, but China definitely does not want to play Brazil in the semi-finals.

There is also the issue of security. Jiang Yuan searched for some local Brazilian security companies on Google. Unfortunately, due to the large number of well-known athletes entering the country for the Olympics, the local Brazilian security companies are a little short of staff.

In desperation, Jiang Yuan could only seek help from Neymar to see if Neymar had any special channels to arrange a private bodyguard.

The two chatted for a while, and Neymar invited Jiang Yuan to come to his villa. According to Neymar, a helicopter would fly to the top floor of Building 20 in 17 minutes, and Jiang Yuan just needed to say hello when he went up.

Jiang Yuan took the helicopter to Neymar's luxurious villa in Mangaratiba. The helicopter was very fast and arrived in less than half an hour.

"Hey, Jiang, my friend!"

As soon as he got off the plane, Neymar, shirtless and wearing floral shorts, opened his arms to Jiang Yuan and said, "I have a lot of friends, and they all want to meet you."

"Wow, you really know how to enjoy yourself!"

Jiang Yuan expressed his heartfelt emotion. Neymar's villa includes an open-air cinema, pool party facilities, and a go-kart track. It can be said to be really luxurious.

"That's nothing. Houses in Mangaratiba are not as expensive as in London. Here they only cost 700 million pounds."

Neymar said indifferently, and Jiang Yuan nodded. Indeed, the housing prices in Mangaratiba are generally quite good. If you want to build a go-kart track villa in London, it is probably impossible without 1000 million pounds.

"We have a pool party later, you can hang out here for a while."

Neymar pointed to the swimming pool at the far end. Seven or eight staff members were changing the water. The pool party had not started yet, but many people were already waiting.

Neymar grabbed Jiang Yuan's shoulders and said with a smile: "Just bring any one you like to the room. Don't worry, they are all top models, you will definitely like one!"

“There’s a game tomorrow.”

Jiang Yuan reminded that not only him, but Neymar also has a game tomorrow. The opponent is Japan U23, which is stronger than South Africa U23.

“Separate work and life”

As Neymar walked towards the villa, he shared his understanding of life with Jiang Yuan: "We have a game tomorrow, which does not conflict with our happiness today. Moreover, you need to stay happy enough to play well in the game. Do you think I am right?"

"Uh... maybe. But I still have to go back tomorrow."

Jiang Yuan frankly said that although he already knew that he would not have to play tomorrow, in order to prevent Fiji from suddenly exploding, he still had to sit on the bench and wait as the ace.

This is Jiang Yuan's first time participating in the Olympics, and it may also be his last time. It would be a huge loss if he was eliminated due to failure in the group stage.

“You don’t need to worry about this.”

Neymar took Jiang Yuan to the villa and said, "I have many guest rooms available, and we can take a plane to the stadium together tomorrow at noon. Our stadium is very close."

"I've already told my friends that you're coming. Wouldn't it be embarrassing for me if you weren't here?"

Jiang Yuan considered it carefully and finally decided to stay.

Snapped!
"That's great!"

Neymar clapped and cheered: "I promise you won't be disappointed, I promise!"

"By the way, I want to ask about private security. Rio, um... how should I put it, it's a little hard to describe."

Because Brazil is Neymar's hometown, Jiang Yuan didn't know how to describe the environment in Rio for a while, but Neymar didn't care about it.

"Rio is in chaos, not just Rio, the whole of Brazil is in chaos. Look at me, I came from the slums. People who stay in that place for a long time will go crazy. There are guns, drugs, sex trade... everything."

"But now?"

Neymar opened his arms, as if to embrace the whole Mangaratiba: "I have everything!"

Neymar's current personality is closely related to his childhood experiences. Jiang Yuan didn't know what to say and stated his purpose.

"That's no problem at all. I can lend you two private security guards. They are both armed with pistols. You can trust their level."

Sure enough, just as Jiang Yuan thought, it was not just that private bodyguards were not available on the Internet. For someone like Neymar who has been in Brazil for many years, there must be plenty of channels for this.

"Taliy said they don't have bodyguards. Did you bring these bodyguards from abroad?"

"No, they are gang members. Don't worry, the guy I arranged for you is definitely reliable, much more reliable than the Brazilian police!"

Jiang Yuan had planned everything, but he never guessed that Neymar's bodyguard team also included gang members.

But let's be honest, in areas like this, ruthless gangster bodyguards might be more useful than regular bodyguards?

……

(End of this chapter)