The atmosphere of football in China in the 1990s was unforgettable.
I have a college classmate, Lao Zhao, who is in a different department than me. Old Zhao is a Liaoning Fushun person, when he was in high school, he was a sports stick, his body was tall and strong, and he ran and jump shots. When he first went to college, Lao Zhao did not play football, but his physical condition was good, and he was selected by their department to enter the football team.
Old Zhao just started playing football, he would only run all over the field, and was slipped like a mad cow by players with good skills. They played in teams, and Old Zhao became our laughing stock. However, Lao Zhao was very hardworking, practicing his skills hard for the first two years of college, and in his junior year, he became the captain of their team. The varsity league, all the way to the finals, competed with our department for the championship.
Our team was the school's five-year triplet, and the main team of the treble was there. In that final, Lao Zhao was already the engine of the midfield, and his midfield possession and splitting were a great threat to our backline. We relied on our experience and the old Zhao Zhouxuan until the penalty shootout was decided. Old Zhao's last penalty, the audience of our department deliberately coaxed, angered Old Zhao, the result of the penalty penalty flew, painfully lost the championship.
In the senior year of the league, our two departments met in the semi-finals, and the final was basically the championship. Because the main force of our two departments is the last one, both sides are very hard. Old Zhao turned out to be a faint move and found a sports student to play. There are rules in the varsity league that sports students cannot participate. As a result, in the second half, we caught the evidence. The sports minister of our department rushed all over the field to catch the sports student. In the end, the referee group ruled that Lao Zhao was fouled and disqualified from the game. Our department eventually won consecutive championships.
Originally, Old Zhao's story should have ended. I didn't expect old Zhao, I don't know if it was really hanging up the subject, or just to compete for the championship, that year actually did not graduate, and repeated the grade for another year.
In the school league the following year, Lao Zhao finally defeated our department in the final and fulfilled the dream of winning the championship. According to our students who stayed at the school, after the old Zhao competition, he held up his student ID card in front of the audience in our department. That night they sold out all their beers at the nearby commissary.
When I heard this, I suddenly had a deep respect for Lao Zhao, the "opponent". Although his behavior is not advisable, his desire for football and victory is what Chinese football lacks most today.
