Chapter 224: 6 points

Although Tony Clark announced the team’s goal for the rest of the season in front of the team, he specifically urged everyone after the training to keep them from revealing this goal to the outside world:
"...The reason is simple. We don't need to expose ourselves to everyone's attention and firepower so early. If you don't want to be treated specially by your opponents in the game, then take care of your mouth. Don't promote it on social networks. …To know how many teams will change their views and tactics when we announce that we are going to win. If we can hide, we will hide until we can't hide again!"
"Tony, do you really think the players can really pay attention to their mouths if they don't say anything?" After finishing training and returning to the office, assistant coach Sam Randyll questioned Clark's arrangements. "Know that not everyone is tight-lipped. This goal will be known to outsiders sooner or later as soon as you announce this goal in front of the team..."
"It doesn't matter, Sam. If the players say anything, I have to take a stand. There is always someone who can control their mouths. But if someone doesn't control... it doesn't matter, we just don't admit it." Clark laughed. It doesn't seem to be a problem with what Randy said.
"Hey Tony, I know it's common for this kind of person to make a set of rhetoric before, and that of the latter set of rhetoric is very common. But I think you can say so confidently, and it still makes me very speechless..."
"Sam, because it's not a shame. War is the art of deception, and so is football. What's the point of telling a little lie in order to achieve our goals?" Clark smiled and said in a very good mood.
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After announcing that the team's season goal was to win the championship, Leeds then defeated Burleigh 2:1 at home. The victory in this game can be regarded as the normal play of Leeds City.
But to be honest, with Leeds City currently eight points behind the top Stan Park Rangers, whether Leeds City can win the championship, in fact, it is not Leeds City's performance, but its competitors.
In this round of the league, the opponents of the Stan Park Rangers are the league's lowest-ranked Petersburg United. Although it is an away game, with the strength of the two teams, it should be no suspense for the Stan Park Rangers to win.
As a result, after ninety minutes of the game, the Stan Park Rangers failed to win the opponent.
In the end, the two teams shook hands 0:0 and made a peace!
After losing to Leeds at home, the Rangers were tied with Petersburg United on the road.
Perhaps the last round of home defeat and Bernard's injury have had a greater impact on the Stan Park Rangers than others thought...
Before the two teams met in the 25th round, the Stan Park Rangers led Leeds by as much as eleven points. Now after two rounds of the league, the lead has shrunk to six points:
The Stan Park Rangers ranked first with 66 points, followed by Leeds at 60 points.
When Tony Clark announced that the team was going to win the championship, many people, whether they were coaches or players, were actually dubious-not everyone wanted the Internet, Williams, Camara, and Porter like young people. Excited and looking forward to it.
They also looked at the Stan Park Rangers and Leeds City with their old eyes. They always felt that even if the Stan Park Rangers lost to Leeds City, they still had a huge advantage in the long season. After all, the Stan Park Rangers had a thicker bench.
The depth of the lineup is the most important thing in the long league.
Even if the Stan Park Rangers lose a game to Leeds City, they will win or lose next, how can Leeds City be controlled?
As a result, the performance of the Stan Park Rangers so quickly surprised many people who thought this way-they were even tied by the newly promoted team in the away game!
And anyone who has watched this game will have a question: Is this really the Stan Park Ranger we are familiar with?
"...Until the referee blew the whistle at the end of the game, the Stan Park Rangers did not find a way to win the game. They had no choice but to accept the result of the draw. Compared with the league, Brooks did a little bit of the starting lineup. Adjusted, but they seemed to lose their offensive direction all of a sudden... The offense of the Rangers in this game was very hard, like a trek in a swamp quagmire. Every fan who is familiar with Stan Park Rangers can bear it. Can't help shaking his head..."
This is at the end of the game, the commentator Cox made a summary of the performance of the Stan Park Rangers in this game, which can be described as sharp.
If it weren’t for the fact that the St. Petersburg United team is too weak—the current ranking is the bottom, and it is likely to be relegated early—change to a middle-ranked team, maybe the Stan Park Rangers could lose the game away.
After the game, some media believed that this was because Bernard's injury had a great impact on the Stan Park Rangers' offense, but the head coach Brooks denied this statement in the post-game press conference. He said that Bernard is indeed very important to the team, but the team's offense is a whole, not to say that the lack of anyone will completely lose it.
There are also speculations that almost all members of the Stan Park Rangers are out of this game, and may have a lot to do with their home loss to Leeds in the last round of the league. That game really had a great impact on the players of the Stan Park Rangers:
In the past nearly five years, the status of Stan Park Stadium in the minds of Rangers players has been a myth. But this almost superstitious effect is a double-edged sword. They can indeed get a bonus to fighting power here, play a beautiful game, and score three points. But if they lose here, the blow to them is obviously fatal...
Because it's not just losing a game, it's also faith!
So after losing the game, the Stan Park Rangers players collapsed to the ground, as painful and frustrated as they were eliminated in the Champions League.
It can even be said that it was not the three-pointers of the Stan Park Rangers that Leeds destroyed, but their souls.
This also explains why the next away challenge to the league "deputy squad leader" (Note 1) Peterborough United, the players of the Stan Park Rangers performed as if they lost their souls on the field.
But no matter what caused the Stan Park Rangers to fail to win St Petersburg United on the road, the facts are in front of everyone.
The fact is that the Stan Park Rangers originally led Leeds by 11 points, but now they are only six points ahead.
People in the Leeds City team who were still skeptical about the goal of the head coach are now mostly dispelled-they seem... they really have the hope of breaking their wrists with the Stan Park Rangers in the league championship!
Six points is not an unattainable gap. Working hard, coupled with a bit of good luck, might really lift Stan Park from the throne.
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After determining the goal of the league to compete for the championship, Tony Clark did not hesitate to give up the FA Cup.
In the next fifth round of the FA Cup, they challenged Manchester Athletic at away, and Clark let many of the main players, including Hulay, take a rotation.
Leeds, who went to the shuttle stadium with a semi-main and semi-substitute lineup, lost without suspense to Manchester Athletic. The score was 0:2. Leeds, who is known for offensively, missed a goal.
Manchester Athletic, which is 12 points behind the Stan Park Rangers in the league, obviously vented all the fire in their league's poor state into the FA Cup, in a posture to win the FA Cup championship.
Leeds didn't have to face them head-on, and they lost cleanly.
At the same time, this result also put an end to the debate among Leeds City fans on the Internet about what goals Leeds City should pursue this season.
After all, the FA Cup, one of the options, no longer exists-it has been eliminated, and it is impossible to go to the FA Cup anyway.
The Leeds City fans ushered in a moment of unity.
If the FA Cup champion is no good, then try to keep second in the league. Although there is no championship, it is also very good to be able to qualify for the Champions League next season!
Of course, after seeing the current difference between the two teams, the Leeds fans said: "Why can't we compete for the league championship? The FA Cup championship is hopeless, but isn't the league championship right in sight?"
Fans who just said that were quickly ridiculed and criticized by others:
"Don't go too far! When you look at the league championship in the distance, you will forget to pay attention to the way under your feet. Is the league championship so easy to get? With the depth of our lineup, we want to be like a marathon Outperform the Stan Park Rangers in the league... Do you really think that we can win the championship by winning them once in Stan Park? Be pragmatic, man, don't put too much pressure on the team. I am about the current team's performance I'm so satisfied that I can't be satisfied anymore!"
The above statement has been recognized by the vast majority of people.
Down to earth, it is still the consensus of this team's supporters.
After all, in the first two seasons, they both had to struggle to relegation. Now let them compete for the league championship... Many people think it is magical and unrealistic-they are not sure whether they can keep their current league rankings cautious.
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On the training ground of the Stan Park Rangers, everyone was surprised to see the captain Harry Bernard, who had just performed the meniscus removal operation a few days ago.
He stood beside the head coach Brooks on crutches.
"I will be back in April, UU reading www.uukanshu.com. I hope that by then what we will see is not the situation where we were pulled down from the league standings. That would be embarrassing, guys. Now we only lead. Leeds City has six points. This is not a reassuring point difference. But fortunately, we are still leading, not them. So next we only need to win one game after another. In me Before returning, I ask everyone to keep the six-point difference!"
Bernard came to the training field just to say this to his teammates.
After speaking, he left, turned and left, walking very simply, without turning his head back.
It seems that I feel relieved that all hopes of winning the league are pinned on the teammates.
In the twenty-seventh round of the league, Leeds defeated Holt 2-0 at their home court.
A day later, the Stan Park Rangers returned to their home court, which was no longer an "undefeated home court". After 90 minutes of fierce battle, they defeated London Mars 3:2.
At the end of the game, a video was broadcast to the VIP box in Stan Park-the game their captain Harry Bernard accompanied his family to watch the game.
The performance of his teammates finally did not disappoint him. Without the help of crutches, he stood in the box and cheered for the team's victory.
So the difference between Leeds City and Stan Park Rangers is still... six points.
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Note 1: Considering that not all readers are fans who are familiar with football knowledge, so explain. "Deputy squad leader" is used to describe the bottom-to-last team in sports events. Because in a squad in the military, the squad leader usually stands first in the team, and the deputy squad leader stands at the end of the team. Later, this concept was borrowed from sports competitions, and the team with the bottom of the league was called the "deputy squad leader."