Fox in the Penalty Area

A side attack routine is being practiced on the training ground.

Farrek Quinn passes the football to Ismail Kamara who pulls back to meet him.

The latter turned and dribbled the ball towards his full-back Danny Dixon.

Kamara made a gesture to go to the side, and everyone accelerated. After Dixon ran over, he slammed the football from behind to the center with the heel of his left foot, and at the same time made an emergency stop and change direction!

Dixon slammed on the brakes, but slipped and fell to the ground. He couldn't keep up, and could only watch Kamara cut inside without defense.

Kamara, who knocked down the defender, passed the football to the back point during the lateral dribbling process, and gave it to Hou Lai who ran to the back point to outflank.

Then Hou Lai jumped up and headed the goal.

The football was pushed towards the goal by him in the opposite direction, and the goalkeeper Van Dewen was beyond his reach and missed it.

The football flies into the net...

If placed in the game, this must be a wonderful offense that can make everyone cheer and applaud.

But on the training ground, Quinn yelled dissatisfiedly: "Kamara!! You should pass the ball to me!"

It doesn't matter whether Kamala can understand or not, he just complained so bluntly.

Tony Clark also blew his whistle, paused the practice, and then walked to Kamara, and at the same time hooked Hou Lai, motioning for him to come over and act as an interpreter.

"Kamala, according to our training requirements, after you cut inside, you have to pass the football to Quinn who is going forward from the wing..."

The training requirements are indeed like this. Kamara wants to lead Dixon to the center to leave space on the side. At the same time, Quinn can go forward along the side.

Then Kamara distributed the football to Quinn on the wing, and Quinn made a cross after receiving the ball.

In the middle, Hu Lai and Lorenzo completed a cross-run in the penalty area. The one who was at the back went to the front, and the one who was at the front went around and went to the back, forming a "double ghost hit the goal" in front of the outflank .

As a result, after Quinn advanced from the wing just now, Quinn passed the ball directly in the middle, and did not pass it to Quinn on the wing. That's why Quinn complained.

This does not meet training requirements.

After listening to Hu Lai's translation, Kamara defended himself: "But boss, no one will defend after I cut inside..."

Clark said to Kamara very seriously: "We are training now, so after you pass Dixon, there is no one in the middle. You can get such a passing opportunity. But the problem is that in the official game, the middle is impossible. No one came to defend, so you still have to pass the ball to the side... This is the purpose of our training. Since it is a training with preset goals, you must strictly follow the training requirements."

When Hu Lai translated what the boss said, he was not as concise as before, directly refining the central idea, but repeated Clark's words exactly, and his expression was as serious as the boss, as if the boss was possessed.

After listening to these words, Kamara shrugged: "Okay, boss, I understand. But he was knocked down by me just now, and there is no time for the wing..."

He pointed to Dixon who just got up from the ground.

Clark sighed in his heart: "It's empty if you shake it, you still have to pass it on, do you understand?"

Kamara nodded: "Understood, boss."

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Pete Williams, who was waiting for training on the sidelines, commented: "That kid Ismail really has two brushes. The sudden stop and change of direction just now was really precise and ruthless. He still has good control over his body coordination during high-speed running. so tall……"

Charlie Potter spread his hands and whispered, "That's because Dixon is so bad..."

Williams turned to look at him: "How about you replace Dixon's defense?"

Porter quickly waved his hand: "I'm an offensive player..."

Williams laughed silently.

The physical training was over, and Williams invited his team-mates to have a meal out of his own pocket. The dinner party was a success.

If there is a data-based visualization, you can see that everyone's bond with the team has deepened.

Although not every player will like Kamara, at least the situation that everyone doesn't like him like before has eased a lot.

In addition to Hou Lai, Charlie Potter and Williams, some teammates are also willing to communicate with Kamara-of course, they will basically call Hou Lai together to translate for them.

So Hu Lai became the busiest person in the team during this time.

In addition, after the tactical training officially started, everyone gradually realized Kamara's talent.

As Williams said just now, in terms of personal ability, Kamara does have two brushes.

The first brush - speed. In fact, everyone discovered this during the physical training stage. In the team's speed test, Kamara was the fastest player on the team.

At that time, the team conducted a 30-meter sprint speed test and found that Kamara ran 30 meters in only 3.85 seconds.

This result is not only the fastest in the Leeds City team, it may be ranked among the top five in the entire Premier League.

The second brush is his footwork. Kamara, who has been playing street football since he was a child, has a very strong street football style, that is, his movements are fancy, dazzling and imaginative.

After seeing his performance in training with the ball, Hou Lai, Williams and Porter all believed that he could play tricks on the opponent's old players on the first day of training with the Flemish French team. It's a real thing...

During this period, Leeds City also played warm-up matches with two other Championship teams who also trained in the national training camp.

In the warm-up match, Kamara performed outstandingly. His speed made the left side of Leeds City where he was located become the most threatening offensive side, because there was Kamara there, and there was also Quinn with a strong assist ability. .

But sometimes being too fancy and sticky has also become his shortcoming.

But Kamara doesn't care, it can be seen that he is really proud of his skills.

In the game, you can always see him not passing the football easily to the defense of two or three people after taking the ball, but dodging and moving, trying to break out from the encirclement.

Sometimes he can pass the opponent's defensive players in a row under the amazed gaze of everyone, and successfully bring out the football.

But sometimes, he was still cut off by the opponent after tossing for a long time, and the attack stopped here.

For his situation, Clark will emphasize to him in training that he must learn to pass the football to his teammates anyway, instead of waiting for a particularly good opportunity to pass the ball.

In addition, he also asked Kamala to reduce unnecessary fancy moves after taking the ball. Those moves that can especially win applause and cheers on the street court are not so useful on the professional football field. If he sticks to the ball too much, it will reduce the rhythm and speed of Leeds City's attack, and it will also increase the risk of losing the ball.

After Clark finished his instructions, he exited the training area and blew his whistle again to start training.

This time after Kamara took Dixon to the center, he decisively passed the football to the side.

Quinn, who came in from behind, received his pass and then sent a cross. In the penalty area, Hu Lai and Lorenzo crossed positions. Finally, Lorenzo who ran to the front point hit the football with a header. towards the goal.

Slightly higher than the beam.

Although he didn't score a goal, Clark was satisfied with everyone's performance in this training. He slapped his hands vigorously on the sidelines and shouted: "That's it, keep going!"

※※※

Before the official start of the league, the English Community Shield kicked off, with last season's league champion Stan Park Rangers facing last season's FA Cup champion Manchester Athletic.

The Community Shield Cup is similar to China's Super Cup. It is the opening whistle before each season. After the game has finished playing the Premier League, it will officially enter the countdown to the opening.

The two teams drew 1:1 in the 90 minutes of the game. The Community Shield Cup did not go into overtime for 30 minutes. After the 90 minutes of the game, it went directly to the penalty shootout.

In the penalty shoot-out, Athletic Manchester made five of five penalties, but Stan Park Rangers captain Harry Burgard kicked the football off the field in the most crucial fifth penalty.

In the end, Athletic Manchester defeated the defending champion Stan Park Rangers 5:4 in the penalty shootout and successfully won the trophy.

On the same day, after returning to Leeds, Leeds City played the last warm-up match before the season with visiting Northumbria.

Northumbria, from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, is a newly promoted Premier League team this season. They were successfully promoted to the Premier League last season as runners-up.

It is also their purpose to play a warm-up match with Leeds City, so that the team can feel the level of the Premier League team in advance and find out their own positioning.

The reason why Clark chose to play the warm-up match with the newly promoted team was obviously because he didn't want the team's morale to be affected by the failure of the warm-up match when the league was about to start.

Based on Leeds City's relegation performance last season, the newly promoted polo team is naturally a safe choice.

This warm-up match was held at the Flanders Stadium, and tickets were sold to the outside world, and it was televised at the same time.

What Clarke didn't expect was that Leeds City played very hard against the newly promoted Northumbria.

Northumbria's tenacious and fierce style made it difficult for Leeds City, as if they were stuck in a quagmire, unable to extricate themselves.

Under their desperate press, it was difficult for Leeds City to organize an effective offense.

The head coach of Northumbria asked the whole team to play this game as an official Premier League before the game, so the whole team worked very hard.

The players of Leeds City still only regard this game as an ordinary warm-up match.

The difference in the mentality of the players of the two teams determines their performance in the game.

Ismail Kamara, who started the game, was completely unable to perform at his normal level, or even half of his performance in training, under the opponent's fierce defense and siege of physical strength.

His performance in the first half was nothing short of disastrous...

He was substituted at halftime.

Leeds City restored the tactical configuration of last season's Premier League relegation.

In the end, Leeds City beat the newly promoted 2:1 at home with a goal each by Hu Lai and Lorenzo in the second half.

Finally, I didn’t lose to the newly promoted team before the opening of the Premier League, but such a result and the process of the game obviously did not help the team to build confidence and boost morale...

At the post-match press conference, Clark was asked by the media about Ismail Kamara. The reporters asked him to comment on Kamara's performance and explain why the team signed such a player.

To put it bluntly, it is all questioning and criticism of Kamala.

In this regard, Clark chose to stand on the side of his players: "Kamara does not have the experience of playing in the top league. But I don't think this is a big problem. Experience can be accumulated, but talent is innate. .In Kamara, we saw talent, that's why the team signed him. It's true that he wasn't good enough in this game, but he played very well in the first two warm-up games. He didn't perform well. There are many reasons, definitely not their own problems... I hope everyone can give a young man more patience, and the coaching team and I will help him, we will not give up on anyone..."

A reporter asked persistently: "Coach Clark, do you really believe that Kamara can succeed in the Premier League like Hu did?"

Clarke said: "Kamala is not Hu, but he can be successful."