Chapter Twenty-Four Unexpected

  On August 14, the day before Torino's Italian Cup match, the team's official website torinofc.it published the list of 21 players who will take part in the competition. The most striking aspect of this list is not the absence due to injury of captain Bianchi and key player Gasbarroni, nor the presence of two young newcomers from the youth team, Comi and Miello, but rather the unexpected appearance of a name that is completely unknown to all Torino fans: Chu Jiang!

  On the Bulls' fan forum, everyone was asking who the strange goalkeeper was. Those who were particularly concerned about official news finally found a piece of news about Chujang from the club's website several days ago: "After three days of negotiations, we reached an agreement with Chievo Club to introduce young goalkeeper Chujang from Chievo, and both parties hold half of the ownership of this player. Welcome Chujang from China to Turin, wishing him a wonderful career." There was no more news about Chujang except for this.

  Young genius? Such words have been seen by fans many times. In this era, as long as a football player is young, he will be called "genius", and some even call him "XX the second". Fans have become numb to such false titles.

  "Chu Jiang? Chinese goalkeeper? Probably just a spectator."

  Most fans have this view on the news. With or without experience, with or without fame, what is a spectator? Fans of Dalian have heard of such players many times before. So, after a brief excitement and satisfaction of freshness, everyone lost interest in that unfamiliar Chinese goalkeeper.

  At the same time, in China, some editors familiar with Italian football also noticed Chujang's name. However, like the last signing of Chievo Youth Team, those media only reported the news that a Chinese teenager entered Torino team with a few short sentences.

  Torino FC has never been the focus of Chinese media; the Italian Cup qualification match was even less attractive to them. Chou Chiang, an unknown name, was probably just a passing figure. Considering all these factors, the media showed little interest in reporting on that piece of news from Torino's official website. If it weren't for the fact that Torino's official website mentioned that Chou Chiang came from China, I estimate that no journalist would have bothered to translate that Italian message.

  The simple news of those few sentences was not enough to interest the reporter, but it made Chu Jiang's parents extremely happy. They even called Chu Jiang across the ocean and told him to work hard and perform well.

  As for his parents' instructions, Chu Jiang naturally responded with a yes. He didn't tell his parents that although the coach had put him on the big list, it didn't mean he would have the opportunity to make his professional debut.

  Actually, Lillard's coach has been hesitant about how to use Chu Jiang. Although he wrote Chu Jiang into the big list, he also recruited two other goalkeepers, Moreira and Bashi, at the same time. Which goalkeeper will be the main force in this game, and which one will be eliminated from the final 18-man roster, the coach still can't make up his mind.

  According to his own ideas, dealing with the weak team of Kosenza in the third-tier league is a great opportunity to test the ability and integration speed of new players. However, as the prelude to the official start of the league, he also wants to let the main players hone their skills, better adapt to his tactical play, and lay a solid foundation for the upcoming B-League season.

  As for the goalkeeper position, although Lierdal strongly demanded that the team buy Rubinho, as a professional coach, he also had to prepare for the possibility of a failed transfer. If Rubinho couldn't come, Lierdal would have to choose one of the three existing goalkeepers to be the team's main player.

  In addition to the two goalkeepers, Lillard has a certain understanding of them. They are suitable substitutes in the second division league, but as the main force of the team, they all have some shortcomings. Only for Chujang, Lillard is not very familiar with him. From the training alone, this player has a positive attitude, good ability and great potential, and the coaching staff is quite recognized by him. However, training after all is just training, and there is a big difference between formal matches.

  So, from Lyle's own thoughts, he wanted to take this opportunity to weaken the team and carefully examine Chu Jiang's ability to play professional matches. However, if a newcomer like Chu Jiang is sent as the main force in an official match, it will easily cause dissatisfaction among old team members, and even lead to conflicts in the locker room.

  This is where Laila has been stuck all along.

  After the final training session before the match, Lierd finally made an ambiguous decision: the starting goalkeeper would be determined by 32-year-old Italian Morello, Chu Jiang as his substitute to go with the team, while Bashi was left out of the big list. To soothe Bashi's emotions, Lierd specifically talked to him and promised that in Serie B, Bashi would still be in the first substitute position, and when choosing a goalkeeper, he would prioritize over Chu Jiang.

  So Lierda coach finally determined the expedition list of Turin new season's first game.

  The Stadio Olimpico, home of Torino FC, has a seating capacity of 27,500. Due to the rebuilding of Torino's other stadium, the Stadio delle Alpi, Juventus will share this stadium with Torino in the new season. On August 6th, the famous Irish rock band U2 rented out the Olimpico for their Italian concert, so Juventus' first match of the new season, a UEFA Cup qualifying match, had to be temporarily moved to Modena's neutral ground.

  However, Torino was much luckier than Juventus. Thanks to the cooperation between the municipal government and related companies, the Olympic Stadium quickly restored its playing conditions in a short period of time. Therefore, Torino's first match of the new season was held at the Torino Olympic Stadium, without having to travel far like Juventus did.

  This match was the debut of Torino's new season and also the first appearance of coach Lelj Da?i? after his transfer from Crotone to Torino. Despite the weak opponent, it being only an Italian qualification match, it still attracted nearly 5000 fans who bought tickets to cheer on their beloved team.

  Although Cosenza is only a third-tier league team, the team still has a great star, that is the Italian midfielder Fiore, nicknamed "Flower". Fiore is one of the few technical midfielders made in Italy, who was once famous in Apennine and played for many Serie A teams, and also won several honors such as UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and European Super Cup. However, time flies, even the best players can't stop the erosion of years, now Fiore is already 35 years old, at the end of his football career.

  Before the match, Torino's website optimistically declared: "It is hard to find another team like Cosenza, who only bring joy to the Bulls because Torino have never lost to them." However, the actual game did not go as smoothly as the Bulls had imagined.

  The away team, Cosenza, had long planned to "park the bus" in front of the goal, and from the start, they set up an iron barrel formation. For them, losing to the Bulls, who were much stronger than themselves on their home turf, was not shameful, but if they could score one or two goals through counterattacks, it would be even more delightful. Therefore, the whole team left only Fiore and a forward in the frontcourt, while everyone else was ready to defend in their own penalty area at any time.

  Although the Bulls dominated the field, they were unable to open the door to victory and instead repeatedly encountered danger in their opponents' counterattacks. After 45 minutes of fierce battle, the score remained 0:0. On the sidelines, Lillard could already faintly hear the boos from the Bulls fans.

  This match was much more difficult than the Torino people had imagined before the game.

  In the second half, Torino got off to a good start. In the 54th minute, Ogbonna, who was the captain of this match, was knocked down in the opponent's penalty area and the referee awarded a penalty kick. Ivenko scored with one stroke, Torino successfully broke through the opponent's goal, 1:0!

  Generally speaking, after a strong team breaks the deadlock on the field, the game will proceed in a direction favorable to the strong team. Because this is a single-elimination match, losing one goal and losing ten goals make no difference in the outcome. This also means that Kosenza had to abandon the "parking bus" tactic and engage in an open attack with a powerful opponent who had never won a ball before. Such an open situation often favors strong teams more, as they usually take this opportunity to score a second goal, or even a third or fourth goal, staging a massacre amidst the cheers of the home team's fans.

  However, Bulls did not expect that just thirteen minutes later, their opponents equalized the score!

  In the 68th minute, Cosenza's right winger Dibari kicked a soft and weak cross, the ball flew high and floated, looking harmless. However, it was this clumsy cross that caused goalkeeper Morello of the Bulls to make a fatal mistake!

  Morello's shot not only didn't get the ball, but also hit the ball into the penalty area in front of the opponent's forward. Facing an empty goal, Cosentino's center back Bianchini pushed the ball towards the goal before Ancelotti. Although it wasn't accurate, although it wasn't fully powered, the football still rolled towards the empty goal.

  1: 1, the weak Cosenza forced a draw against the strong Bulls on away field! Such a score made everyone completely unexpected. The players and coaches of Cosenza celebrated wildly in front of the home fans in Turin, as if they had already won the game!

  The Olympic Stadium was filled with boos and some radical fans even chanted "Lillard get out".

  Facing such a goal, Lillard's face turned iron blue. He stared at Morrell, who was holding his head in despair on the field, and quickly turned around to walk back to the substitute bench.

  "Go, Heat Removal!"