Golden Greenery

( ) The turning point of World War II was not Pearl Harbor, Normandy, or Li Yunlong’s siege of Ping’an County, but the defense of Stalingrad.

It is said that there was once a riddle: Japan surrendered - name an ancient Chinese person.

There are three answers: Su Wu, Qu Yuan, and Gonggong. Which answer you choose depends on which side your butt sits on. You taste it, you taste it carefully.

People must have a conscience. Seventy-six years ago, the Soviet Red Army held back the most powerful army in human history for half a year and wiped out more than 1.5 million fully mechanized Germans at the cost of two million casualties.

Coupled with the subsequent Battle of Minsk, this turned the German army from prosperity to decline, from offensive to declining. Let me ask you, who could stop the German military front in Stalingrad without blood?

Stalingrad is a tragic city and a heroic city.

It is now called Volgograd, but unlike what people think, the name 'Stalingrad' has not stopped being used. There are six days each year, namely -

On the day when the defensive war begins, the day of victory, the day when Germany surrenders, the day when Japan surrenders, the day when the Soviet-German war begins, and the day when the defensive war Uranus plan is launched, the city will be called back to Stalingrad to commemorate that heroic history. .

The Chinese team arrived here and just missed the anniversary of the start of the competition, so it was still Volgograd.

Since it is called Volgograd, it is naturally located on the banks of the Volga River. The Volga River is the mother river of Russia, equivalent to the Yellow River in China. We have "Yellow River Cantata" and Russia has "Trackers on the Volga River".

In terms of length, among the top ten rivers in the world are the Yangtze River, Yellow River, and Heilongjiang, but not the Volga. But the Volga River is the largest in Europe and the fourth in Russia. This is not surprising. The top three rivers, the Ob River, the Yenisey River, and the Lena River, are all in Siberia, which is Asia.

Volgograd is a small city, smaller than Kazan and Yeburg, but the arrival of the Chinese team still caused a sensation in this city with a population of just over one million.

After putting down their luggage, Zhuo Yang and the entire Chinese team dressed in formal attire, collectively came to the famous Mamayev Hill and laid flowers to the Heroes Monument here, accompanied by thousands of Chinese fans.

Volgograd has already hosted two group matches, but four teams have visited before, but no one has held such a formal event. The Chinese team did not want to please anyone, but their heartfelt actions quickly won the favor of all city residents.

More than seventy years ago, the Soviet Red Army suffered two million casualties here.

The residents of Stalingrad also went to funerals every household, and no one had a few deceased ancestors.

Mamayev Hill is a small hill and a huge tomb. The Mongolians of the Kipchak Khanate were first buried here, and more than 7,000 Red Army soldiers were buried here 76 years ago.

At the top of the hill is Volgograd’s landmark statue, the 85-meter-tall ‘Motherland is Calling’ with a sword in hand. Standing here, you can clearly see the Volgograd Athletic Stadium one kilometer away at the foot of the mountain.

There is no Russian Super League team in Volgograd. The stadium was originally the home stadium of Volga Rovers of the Russian League and is quite old. For this World Cup, the stadium was completely demolished and rebuilt in 2014. A professional football stadium with a capacity of 45,000 people was built, which was completed only two months ago.

The Russian Football League is the second-tier league in Russia, but it is also the football league with the largest geographical span in the world. Almost all of the sixteen Russian Premier League clubs are in western Russia, which has a relatively prosperous population and economy. The 20 Russian Premier League teams are truly spread across Russia.

From Club Baltica in Kaliningrad in the far west to Vladivostok Engia, the flight spans 7,500 kilometers across nine time zones, and the jet lag will be lost when you get there.

The European giants keep complaining about the fatigue of the Champions League away teams all day long. The Russian League One teams are competing across continents every day. To be honest, just the air tickets are a big burden. The income of the Russian subdivision itself is very meager.

Especially in the Asian part of Russia, the predecessors of professional clubs are former corporate, factory and mining teams, so the Russian League teams have a very difficult life, and clubs often change hands or simply disband.

The sponsor of the Volgograd Rotors is the local metallurgical factory, but now that the metallurgical workers are often owed wages, how can the team do better?

The original Volgograd Stadium was a famous rotten vegetable patch in the Russian League, but there was no money to repair it. If it weren't for the luck of the World Cup and Russia's financial allocations covered the cost of new construction, the stadium would have continued to rot forever.

Although China is not as empty as Russia, it is still dazzlingly large compared to Europe. Once upon a time, a Chinese League One team would take a 20-hour train ride to play away games in order to save travel expenses.

A small person has a small life, and a big person should have a big way of playing. You can't be too big and let the world be big for you. You have to bear with me for a long time.

Zhuoyang and the Chinese Football Association are investing in reforming the competition system of the domestic league. The deformities of the Russian Super League and the Russian League have very good negative reference significance for the new competition system.

China and Russia are both big, but the two "big" are not the same. Russia's area is equivalent to 1.8 times that of China, but its population is only 1% of China's. All of them are concentrated in Europe.

In the Asian part that occupies 34% of the land area, Russia is truly extremely vast and sparsely populated. The distances between cities are very long. In many places, there is nothingness outside the city.

Even in China's relatively remote Xinjiang and Qinghai, there are urban agglomerations of different sizes, not to mention the central and eastern regions. Football is a sport that relies on population and cities, so China cannot be like Russia, only big but without technology.

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The Chinese team will play in the third round of the group match against Denmark in Volgograd. This match is full of mysteries.

The Danish and Chinese teams arrived here, and Schmeichel, the father of the famous Danish player and now the national goalkeeper Schmeichel, also came to cheer the team.

23 years ago, Lao Shu was the goalkeeper of Manchester United. In the first round of the UEFA Cup that year, Manchester United was tied 0:0 by their opponents in an away game. Returning to Old Trafford, they were beaten twice by their opponents in the first half.

In the second half, Scholes got the first goal back. The game entered stoppage time and Manchester United got a corner kick. Schmeichel ran across the court and scored a 2:2 equalizer in the opponent's penalty area.

Although Manchester United was eventually eliminated due to away goals, that scene was one of the most classic scenes in Schmeichel's career. Manchester United's opponent in that game was Volgograd Rotors, which was also the furthest they had ever played in a European competition.

The elder Schmeichel once set a record of 470 minutes without conceding a goal in the Danish national team, and his son Kasper Schmeichel, as the current Danish national goalkeeper, after the team drew 0:0 with France , rewriting the clean sheet record to 480 minutes.

The son broke up with me, and the father and son were both in trouble.