Chapter 363: Chapter 362 Crown Prince Progress 2/3
Speaking of Jia De’er and the Brazilian national team, this year has been a blissful one for Jia De’er.
At the beginning of the year, he received a call-up to the Brazilian national team.
However, Jia De’er also received a notice from the Portuguese Football Federation.
Portugal was interested in naturalizing Jia De’er, hoping he would join their golden generation to challenge for the next year’s Korea-Japan World Cup.
Jia De’er didn’t even take a second to think about it; he decisively refused the Portuguese Football Federation.
And in an interview with the media, he disclosed this matter, expressing disdain for the Portugal team with his words.
Frankly speaking, if you were to compare the Portugal team with the Brazil team, you’d definitely choose Brazil, even with your eyes closed.
But you’re still playing in Portugal, can’t you at least be a bit more polite when you speak?
However, Jia De’er’s words were far from polite; his disdain and mockery infuriated the Portuguese fans.
Otherwise, why would Deco be the most popular player in Porto this second half of the year, instead of Jia De’er?
Since invitations were sent to Jia De’er, the Portuguese Football Federation simply also communicated with other outstanding players regarding naturalization.
That includes people like Deco.
Most of them refused to be naturalized by the Portuguese Football Federation, but their words were relatively tactful.
Deco said he wanted to wait for next year’s World Cup.
He has been in the spotlight for the past two years, and if he performs well with Porto in the Champions League next year, the Brazilian national team would have no reason not to call him up.
It’s the same old story; if there’s hope for Brazil, there’s really no need to consider Portugal.
The Portuguese Football Federation accepted Deco’s thoughts, as their real naturalization target wasn’t the next year’s World Cup but the 2004 European Championship held in Portugal.
They have high aspirations for that European Championship.
With their golden generation at its peak, plus some naturalized top-tier players, they would definitely be able to provide a satisfactory answer to the Portuguese fans.
However, the anticipation for next year and the 2004 tournaments means the Portuguese Football Federation has mainly been selecting players in their prime in their drafts for the last two years, giving little opportunity to the younger players.
Even when they were given a chance, the results weren’t very good.
This year, the rise of C Ronaldo and Deng Kai, being too young, whether it’s the Portuguese Football Federation or Portuguese fans, they never considered them for the Korea-Japan World Cup roster that’s right in front of them.
Even the boldest and most devoted fans of C Ronaldo and Deng Kai think that it would be quite an achievement for them to be selected for the Portugal squad at the European Championship in 2004. If they could even get some play time and become important substitutes, that would be even better.
...
May 18, at the Portugal National Stadium.
The Portugal Cup Final will kick off today.
The expressions of the players on both sides are quite serious.
They weren’t very satisfied with their clash four days ago.
Porto, who lost the game, believes they did not perform well.
Sporting Lisbon, who won, thinks their physical condition was too poor at the time, and they were disadvantaged. Otherwise, they should have won by more.
Today, both teams are in good condition, finally able to play a proper game.
But the match isn’t as exciting as they had imagined.
Due to being more understanding and cautious, both sides made targeted arrangements against their opponents today.
Deco of Porto was heavily restricted.
Similarly, Deng Kai of Sporting Lisbon didn’t get many opportunities to perform.
Though other players could create chances, the quality of the balls they delivered were clearly not as good as those from the two of them.
This affected the performance of forwards like Jia De’er and C Ronaldo, which wasn’t very impressive either.
On the side of Sporting Lisbon, C Ronaldo was very active today; he always exerted extra effort in every game that involved Jia De’er, not letting any shooting opportunity slip to his teammates.
In the first half, Jia De’er had a total of four shots, two on goal.
One of those hit the post, nearly scoring a goal.
On the other side, Ronaldo was not to be outdone. He missed a one-on-one opportunity after miscontrolling the ball.
However, he managed to win a penalty kick shortly after.
Facing the championship, Quaresma was unable to withstand the immense pressure and sent the penalty flying, missing the chance to help Sporting Lisbon take the lead.
The entire first half, both sides played fiercely, with threatening attacks occurring constantly, but there was always something lacking to find the back of the net.
In the second half, both teams returned to the field, ready to battle anew.
Deng Kai, now accustomed to Porto’s blockade, began to exert his influence, with both of his long shots hitting the target.
One was saved by the goalkeeper, and the other was blocked off the line by the body of a Porto center-back.
It proved that Deco wasn’t all talk, no action.
In the second half, Deco also adjusted to Sporting Lisbon’s targeted strategy and started to get involved in threatening attacks more frequently.
He even had a chance to score into an open goal.
At least it looked like an open goal.
But in reality, the football, having been slightly touched by Terry’s toe, had a strong spin, and was moving at a high speed, making the shot extremely difficult.
Deco skied his shot from in front of the goal, provoking laughter from the Sporting Lisbon fans.
It even did some damage to the team’s morale.
But Deco quickly shook off the setback and with a brilliant one-two, moved the football into the penalty area.
However, this time Deco sought perfection to a fault, trying to pass to a completely unmarked Jia De’er when he had a clear shot on goal.
As a result, Pepe, fearless as a calf unafraid of tigers, successfully tackled and thwarted the ball within the penalty area, ruining this excellent opportunity.
Jia De’er, Deco, and Pepe—these three could be the subject of a documentary with the title "Beijingers in New York"... Er, it should be "Brazilians in Portugal"!
The three were born in 1973, 1977, and 1983 respectively, representing three generations of players.
Jia De’er grew up in Brazil and only moved to Portugal when his career started to improve. He held a deep affection for Brazil, and even though the Portuguese football federation invited him several times, he staunchly chose to play for Brazil.
As a result... most fans in the future won’t know his name, let alone that there was a time when Jia De’er could have been a contender to replace Ronaldo on the national team.
Deco also grew up in Brazil but moved to Portugal earlier and had a more embracing mindset. For him, choosing between Portugal and Brazil was already settled. And later, his fame and achievements proved the correctness of his choice.
Joining Portugal and reaching the finals with the golden generation in the 2004 UEFA European Championship was one of the highlights of his career.
Pepe, the youngest, moved to the Portuguese league even earlier and was more optimistic about playing for the Portugal team.
And among these three Brazilians, he had the longest career, the highest overall achievements, and the greatest fame.
...
The game reached the 88th minute.
Quaresma took the ball down the right flank, fooled defenders with a fake shot after a successful breakaway, and then made a backward triangle pass.
Near the right side of the penalty box, Deng Kai received the ball and played an ultra-fast pass that kept accelerating.
Ibrahimovic, who had played the entire game, anticipated Deng Kai’s pass, sprinting ahead of time to be in position for the cross.
As the football soared through the air, Ibrahimovic ran from behind the two center-backs to the front and leaped over them despite their interference.
Although he didn’t jump very high due to the disturbance from the opponents, we mustn’t forget that he stood at a towering 1.95 meters.
The vertical leap of most ordinary people doesn’t exceed twenty centimeters, which would essentially be as tall as Ibrahimovic when jumping with full force, not to mention that Ibrahimovic had also jumped a bit.
Bang!
Ibrahimovic headed the ball towards goal.
Faced with such a close and sudden header, the Porto goalkeeper was helpless.
The score changed, one to zero!
Ultimately, thanks to Ibrahimovic’s goal, Sporting Lisbon defeated Porto for the second time in four days.
The last victory reclaimed the top spot on the Portuguese league leaderboard for them, and this one brought home the Portugal Cup Championship Trophy!
