Chapter 761: Su Dong regretted it!
In the first warm-up match in the United States, Manchester City beat Philadelphia Union 1-0.
This team is not considered a strong team in the Major League Soccer. Manchester City controlled the ball throughout the game but just couldn't score a goal. Finally, in the injury time of the game, Adam Johnson's cross assisted Santa Cruz to score a goal.
New signings such as Sudong, Pepe, Marcelo and others did not appear on the field.
…
In the second warm-up match, Manchester City faced Sporting Lisbon of the Portuguese Super League.
This is the old club of Sudon, Pepe and Moutinho, but among these three players, only Moutinho came on as a substitute in the second half.
In the end, Manchester City lost 0-2 to Sporting Lisbon.
The situation remained the same as before, Manchester City firmly controlled the ball and Sporting Lisbon scored two counterattack goals.
…
If the loss in the second game against Sporting Lisbon was barely acceptable, then the score of 1-2 in the third game against New York Red Bulls made Manchester City look very embarrassed.
Henry made an assist and scored a goal, helping the New York Red Bulls reverse the defeat against Manchester City.
It was Sanchez who scored for Manchester City.
Su Dong still did not show up, which made many people puzzled.
…
In the fourth game, Manchester City moved to Central America and played against America in Atlanta. The two sides drew 1-1, but in the penalty shootout, Manchester City won 5-2.
Su Dong did not appear in this battle.
In other words, in the four warm-up matches in the United States, Su Dong did not play for even a minute.
All other players have already appeared in the game, some have even started, but Su Dong is still on the bench.
There are no injuries or conflicts, so why not play?
After the game against America, Guardiola said in an interview with the media that the club attaches great importance to Su Dong's playing time.
"We are in close communication with his personal coaching team. We hope that he can face the new season in the best condition. This is my responsibility as the head coach."
Some media believe that the reason why Guardiola is reluctant to let Su Dong play too early is mainly to preserve his strength and avoid exposing his true level to Premier League competitors too early. This is also in line with Guardiola's usual style.
You know, he is a guy who has to be locked up even during training.
But this argument is hard to sustain because Su Dong needs to work with his teammates.
When all other players were practicing repeatedly and running in actual combat, Su Dong was still sitting on the sidelines watching, which was obviously inappropriate, so some media pointed out that there were some disputes and conflicts between Guardiola and Su Dong.
"After joining Manchester City, Su Dong found that Guardiola's tactics were not as good as he had imagined."
"As we all know, Guardiola is a notorious tyrant, just like the iron-blooded Van Gaal. He is very demanding of his players, especially Su Dong. He even wants Su Dong to follow the running routes he designed, which makes Su Dong feel humiliated."
"According to an anonymous player in the locker room, the two had even almost come to blows on the training ground. Soriano and Begiristain had flown from the UK to the US under the guise of commercial sponsorship in order to ease the internal conflict."
"It is said that in the face of Guardiola's tough demands, Su Dong questioned Guardiola face to face, asking him how many Champions League titles he had won? How many Ballon d'Or awards he had won? How many World Footballer of the Year awards he had won?"
The media believes that it was precisely this kind of conflict that made Guardiola decide to take drastic measures and ban Su Dong for a period of time, in order to curb his arrogance and make him more obedient.
At the same time, the British Sun also broke the news that Su Dong’s fiancée suddenly appeared in London and Munich, leading many reporters to suspect that she was actively working for Su Dong, hoping to leave Manchester City.
"In less than two months, Su Dong has already regretted his decision to join Manchester City!"
The media reported a lot of news about this. There are such cases, such as Robinho.
But Robinho and Su Dong are not at the same level at all. Now Su Dong has also made such rumors, which immediately shocked the media and fans around the world.
For this reason, when the team left Atlanta and arrived in Baltimore, Su Dong specially held a press conference and attended it with head coach Guardiola.
When walking into the press conference, Su Dong and Guardiola walked side by side, talking and laughing all the way, completely shattering the rumors from the outside world that the two were strangers. Their subsequent intimate interaction also showed that they have a very good relationship.
Su Dong made a clarification, saying that he was very happy in Manchester City and had no problems with Guardiola and other teammates.
"I'm still the captain of Manchester City!"
Su Dong also patiently explained a series of recent rumors.
Soriano and Begiristain flew to the United States to discuss sponsorship. The contract will be announced to the public in a while. Manchester City signed two sponsorship contracts in the United States this time and is negotiating another one, which can be said to be a fruitful harvest.
Su Dong found it even funnier that his fiancée showed up in Munich and London.
"You reported earlier that she was studying at Oxford University, and she used to study at the University of Munich. When she needs to return to her alma mater to handle some formalities, I would like to ask, should she go to Munich from London?"
Su Dong said that he has great respect for the media, but also asked the media reporters not to make groundless accusations.
Guardiola once again explained why Su Dong did not play. The reason was that he felt that Su Dong did not need to test himself through warm-up matches. As for running-in, it could be done through training, and he and the coaching staff were helping Su Dong adjust to the best condition.
"This season, we have a lot of new players and we need to help them integrate into the team in the shortest possible time. Through training, I think Su has no problem integrating into the team at all."
Guardiola also mentioned that the media always likes to create panic, but in fact, Manchester City has very detailed preparations and plans for its new season, and everything is going according to plan.
"We can choose to play our best in the warm-up matches and satisfy everyone, but when it comes to the official matches, other teams will know how to deal with us, which will make the start of our new season more difficult."
What Guardiola meant was that Manchester City was actually intentionally hiding its strength.
And Su Dong is the biggest suspense for Manchester City this season.
Regarding the new Premier League season, Guardiola said that the team is full of confidence.
"As I said just now, we don't value the results of the warm-up matches, so we are running in every game and observing the players. We need to find a lineup and tactics that best suits the current players, rather than scoring a few more goals in the warm-up matches, which is meaningless to us."
"In the past ten years, the Premier League has been monopolized by the four major families. Only they have the strength to challenge the championship. But I want to say that from now on, Manchester City will become a team with the strength to challenge the championship. This will overturn the pattern of the Premier League in the past ten years."
In the first round of the new Premier League season, Manchester City will travel south to London to challenge Tottenham Hotspur away.
This is also the reason why Redknapp has been talking about Manchester City frequently recently. He previously said that Manchester City has the strength to challenge the championship, and now he exaggeratedly stated that Manchester City’s owner is so rich that he will buy the entire Premier League sooner or later.
All the talk is geared towards the Premier League opener in mid-August.
…
Su Dong and Guardiola's clarifications can only slightly calm the outside world's doubts, but it is still difficult to eliminate the conspiracy theories.
Then, in Baltimore, Manchester City welcomed Inter Milan.
This is a warm-up match sponsored by Pirelli and is called the Pirelli Cup.
The game still went poorly, with Mancini's team facing Manchester City with tenacious defense.
In the 22nd minute, Materazzi and Santa Cruz jumped at the same time in the penalty area to compete for the header. As a result, Materazzi fell to the ground with his face covered. The referee showed Santa Cruz a red card and directly sent the Paraguayan center forward off the field.
But according to Santa Cruz, he didn't try to elbow hard, he just accidentally hit it when he jumped.
Manchester City was forced to play with ten men and eventually lost 0-3 to Inter Milan.
The team suffered a series of defeats in the warm-up matches, which once again sparked various conspiracy theories.
When will Su Dong make his debut for Manchester City?
…
The trip to the United States ended with a terrible record. Su Dong did not play for even a minute, which made many American media and fans dissatisfied and felt that Manchester City seriously lacked sincerity.
After returning to Europe, Manchester City went directly to Dortmund, Germany, and played a warm-up match with Dortmund away.
1-3, Manchester City lost again.
Su Dong still did not play in the game, but Manchester City gained a lot from this game.
This is mainly because Dortmund's full-court pressing and oppressive style of play caused Manchester City considerable trouble, especially in the midfield.
More importantly, the counterattack of the big Huang Feng was also quite sharp. Players such as Shinji Kagawa and Lewandowski also scored goals and performed very well. They put a great test on Manchester City's defense.
Guardiola even said after the game that this was the game in which Manchester City gained the most among this summer's warm-up matches.
…
After playing against Dortmund, Manchester City returned to England.
At the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, we faced Valencia, our final warm-up match opponent.
After the opening, Manchester City dominated the attack. In the 20th minute, Jerome Boateng made a cross from the right, and Gareth Barry, who was unguarded, headed the ball into the goal, scoring the first goal for Manchester City.
The game didn't progress after that.
It was not until the 75th minute that Su Dong, who was sitting on the bench, suddenly stood up and walked to the sidelines to replace Sanchez, who was playing as a center forward. This immediately made the Manchester City fans in the entire Etihad Stadium feel extremely surprised and delighted.
Nine minutes into the game, David Silva made a one-two pass with Adam Johnson and sent the ball into the penalty area. Su Dong quickly ran to the open space and shot from a small angle, scoring another goal for Manchester City.
This was his first appearance since joining Manchester City. He scored his first goal before his body was warm and he hadn't even sweated.
It looks so easy, just like going home for dinner.
(End of this chapter)
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