Had anyone heard of the need to adjust to jet lag when playing away games in a domestic league?
This is what happened in this magical land of Russia.
Although Chen Yingxiong and his teammates had no sleep, under the supervision of head coach Advocaat and assistant coach Porter, all the players stayed in their rooms obediently and slept as required.
Denisov tossed and turned in bed but couldn't fall asleep. The quilt on the hotel bed was a bit hard and rough, and it made a very obvious rustling sound whenever he turned over.
He slept for a long time on the plane, so he was not sleepy at all now.
The team arrived in Vladivostok at 4:00 pm. After arriving, the whole team went to the hotel to put away their luggage and then rushed to Dinamo Stadium for training to adapt to the venue. At the same time, it was also to adjust the players' jet lag and condition.
After all, there was a seven-hour time difference between Vladivostok and St. Petersburg...
St. Petersburg was almost at the westernmost tip of Russia, bordering the Baltic Sea. Vladivostok was in Russia's Far East, at the eastern tip of the Asian continent. The two cities were so far apart that they seemed to be in two different continents.
When he arrived, Chen Yingxiong realized that this place used to be a disputed territory which was later occupied by Russia. Speaking of it, there was still a lot of hatred between Russia and China, but that was all historical and had nothing to do with him.
Chen Yingxiong was just a football player. He had been playing football since childhood to college. He knows nothing about politics, history, etc.
But of course, he also strongly wished that China hadn't lost Vladivostok, because if so, he would not have to fly here with the whole team to play the away game today.
…
All Zenit players spent their first night in Vladivostok half asleep and half awake. The next day, when they had breakfast in the hotel restaurant, everyone yawned when they greeted each other.
"Hello—ha—"
"Morning--heh--good!"
"I want to continue sleeping..." Denisov supported his cheek with his hand and nodded his head.
But he couldn't go back to bed. Today was Friday, their last chance to practice before the match.
In the afternoon they were allowed to use the Dynamo Stadium for a two-hour training session.
The reason why they chose to fly to Vladivostok overnight on Wednesday night was that there were only scheduled flights from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok on Wednesday and Saturday during summertime. So after playing the game on Saturday afternoon, they had to rush directly to the airport and take the evening flight back to St. Petersburg, flying for another thirteen hours across seven time zones, and then continue to adjust to the jet lag after returning...
This back-and-forth process did make many people feel uncomfortable.
FC Light Energy Vladivostok was ranked in the middle of the Russian Premier League. Chen Yingxiong thought that the geographical location of the home stadium must have helped a lot...
…
The home stadium of Vladivostok was called the Dynamo Stadium. This name was very common in Russia. The well-known teams using the name in Europe included Dynamo Moscow and Dynamo Kyiv. In the former Soviet Union, the police teams were basically all called Dynamo. So Dynamo was very common in the sports field.
The Dynamo Stadium of Vladivostok could only accommodate 10,000 people. It was a very small stadium, much smaller than the Kirov Stadium which could house 80,000.
However, Chen Yingxiong had played on smaller courts than this one, so he didn't think there was anything wrong with it.
Yesterday the whole team came to the Dynamo Stadium for training to adapt to the field, and will continue training on this field today. The quality of the grass on the field is not very good.
Although the sponsor of Vladivostok is LUCH, Russia's largest independent oil production company, the stadium did not quite match the strength of this company.
Unlike Zenit St. Petersburg, which immediately prepared to start building a new stadium after receiving sponsorship from Russia's largest industrial group, Gazprom.
Of course, a small team in a remote area like this could not be compared with a big team in the "Northern Capital", and Zenit's top fan was Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, the current First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government. In addition, it was said that a Zenit senior official fan club has been established in Moscow, consisting of Patrushev, Director of the Federal Security Service, Gryzlov, Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament, and Serdyukov, Minister of Defense.
Russian officials had the habit of supporting football. Although the current President Putin (still...) was also from St. Petersburg, he did not support the team from his hometown. According to rumours within the Kremlin, President Putin was also not interested in Dynamo Moscow, which the government had always protected, but rather had a good impression of CSKA Moscow. As a result, during his administration, CSKA Moscow won the UEFA Cup in the summer of 2005, becoming the first team in Russian football history to win the honour of a European club competition.
This beautiful story was very tempting - now there was a lot happening politically, and Putin had publicly supported his partner and friend Medvedev in his presidential campaign. If this was true, then Medvedev would have no rivals. Once he became the leader of Russia, would his beloved Zenit St. Petersburg take off like CSKA Moscow?
…
When Zenit was training at the Dynamo Stadium, three people were sitting in the shadow of the stands: Sergey Pavlov, the head coach of the Light Energy Team, and two assistant coaches, Yury Shishlov and Yury Saukh.
"Is that big guy the No. 99 who scored a goal in the match against Spartak Nalchik?" The fifty-year-old coach Sergei Pavlov turned and asked his two assistants.
Assistant coach Yuri Shishlov, who was responsible for collecting and analyzing opponent data, nodded.
"Judging from his size...it should be him."
"But..." Pavlov frowned. "From the training, we can see... his level is very average, no?"
This was in fact true. As long as he did not do header training, Chen Yingxiong's performance made people feel that he was not worthy of the first team. Fortunately, his teammates were used to it. Everyone knew that Advocaat recruited this person literally for only one thing.
But outsiders didn't know that. So anyone who hadn't seen Chen Yingxiong show his heading ability in training would be confused - Was it true that Zenit St. Petersburg had too much money to spend after Gazprom took over, so they hired some rookies like this to waste their salaries?
"Is there any video of Zenit St. Petersburg's last game?"
Shishlov shook his head. "That match wasn't broadcast nationally, so I'm sorry… no."
Pavlov watched for another ten minutes, then stood up. "I don't think there is any need to continue watching. The most threatening players in Zenit are still Arshavin and Radimov. Oh, and that Kerzakov also needs special attention. As for No. 99..." Pavlov shook his head. He felt that he was too mediocre.
The technical statistics of that game showed that player No. 99 scored a goal, so the technical statistics should be correct. But judging from this performance, player No. 99 was probably just lucky... a guy who played for the first team for the first time, and because of good luck, he scored a goal... From this point of view, although No. 99 was tall and strong, he was not to be feared.
…
Advocaat knew without even checking that the home team would be watching his team from the stands, so he didn't practice any set-piece tactics. Unexpectedly, this led the opposing coach Pavlov to misunderstand Chen Yingxiong's ability and think that he represented no threat.
In fact, after knowing that the next round of the league would be played away in Vladivostok, Advocaat adjusted the training plan and moved all the set-piece training to Tuesday and Wednesday, and completed it in St. Petersburg. After arriving in Vladivostok, the team mainly conducted simple passing and shooting exercises. There was no secret in such exercises, and there was no need to worry about being spied on by others.
Although Chen Yingxiong had worked hard on his shooting and had made some progress, he was still far from being an excellent striker. Naturally, Pavlov had misjudged him.
…
After the afternoon training, the team took the bus back to the hotel where they were staying. After dinner, Advocaat held a tactical meeting.
According to the rules, the starting lineup had to be announced at the meeting. This was the highlight.
When the starting list was announced, Chen Yingxiong felt a little nervous and expectant.
It turned out that he had predicted his inclusion correctly. However, this time, he did not stand up from his seat and shout enthusiastically.
He was once again selected for the starting lineup, partnering with Drink, Eat and Fun member Kerzakov as a striker.
After hearing his name on the starting list, Chen Yingxiong thought to himself - another mission completed, one step closer to promotion!
Now Chen Yingxiong was working very hard, waiting to get a talent point after upgrading, so that he could continue to spend on the "knockdown" talent. The 5% chance was not high enough, so he wanted to max out all five points. This required another four levels... Before, Chen Yingxiong thought the upgrade was fast, but now he thought it was too slow...
Yesenin did not follow Chen Yingxiong to the away game. Hero's Russian level has improved rapidly and he could already communicate with his teammates and coaches at a basic level. He even accepted interviews from reporters, so Yesenin felt that he did not need to come.
Otherwise, Chen Yingxiong would definitely use his laptop to open the website after returning to the room to check his upgrade status.
He found himself addicted—addicted to the system, obsessed with it.