Cambridge United, who have always had bad luck with draws, drew Premier League Stoke City in the third round of the English League Cup.
Unfortunately, Cambridge United was playing away this time.
Even so, this draw still gave Huang Hao a feeling of turning the corner. He didn't dare to hope that Cambridge United could draw a League One or League Two team; such good fortune had never come Cambridge United's way.
However, this meant that Cambridge United would face two consecutive away matches.
Including the Liverpool match, Cambridge United was experiencing its first three-game away streak.
Two days later, Cambridge United would travel to the DW Stadium to challenge Wigan Athletic.
Spanish Head Coach Martinez joined Wigan Athletic from Swansea in the summer, replacing Bruce. Known for his attacking football, he aimed to keep Wigan Athletic in the League, and they were currently ranked tenth.
Premier League legend Chris Sutton even stated directly on a BBC program that Wigan Athletic would definitely be relegated this season.
"Before appointing former Swansea Head Coach Martinez, Wigan Athletic was heading in the right direction under Bruce. I don't know why Wigan Athletic management replaced Bruce. Martinez's attacking football cannot succeed in the Premier League."
"I might be proven wrong in May next year, but I want to say that if they had stuck with Bruce, Wigan Athletic would have had a better chance of avoiding relegation from the Premier League."
However, Martinez was not someone to be trifled with. When a reporter asked for his opinion on Sutton's remarks, Martinez directly stated:
"I didn't know Sutton was a Wigan Athletic fan before. Perhaps he should learn to control his mouth."
But these were clearly not concerns for Huang Hao and Cambridge United.
At the Cambridge United Training Base, the players were undergoing their final day of pre-match training.
To ensure the players had sufficient physical stamina, Huang Hao finally changed the team's four-year tradition of arriving on match day. Instead, they would arrive at the away venue a day early to avoid the fatigue of travel and its impact on the players. Today, Huang Hao also personally joined the training, which was rare in the past.
Since Huang Hao was not a professional player, he usually only participated in the deployment of training programs and rarely demonstrated on the field himself.
After all, Cambridge United now had a coaching team of up to 12 people, and these matters did not require his personal involvement.
However, today's training program was not complicated, and Huang Hao, on a whim, participated. This also allowed him to feel the players' condition up close, providing a reference for the starting lineup for the match the day after tomorrow.
Cambridge United's training this morning mainly included shuttle runs, rondo, directional sprints, and group confrontations. The afternoon was dedicated to tactical analysis of their opponents.
Among the warm-up drills, the most important was rondo training.
Rondo is an indispensable part of Cambridge United's training. Although it is a very basic and simple training method, it can improve players' core football skills such as passing, ball control, and tackling.
This simple training can not only train offense but also improve players' ability to win defensive ground battles in specific areas on the field, forming a local formation for defense, giving the opponent no chance for penetrating passes.
Unlike other teams that treat this training as just a regular item, Cambridge United's emphasis on rondo made even new players feel a bit unaccustomed.
And Huang Hao's core philosophy is to do the simplest things to the extreme.
At Cambridge United, rondo training is mostly 6V2 and 8V2, rarely with only one attacker.
This is also related to Huang Hao's emphasis on zonal defending and small-scale team cooperation.
The combination of two attackers is mainly based on combinations such as two forwards, wing midfielders, and two central midfielders.
In terms of rondo rules, Cambridge United also had many variations.
Attackers must successfully steal the ball within 45 seconds, otherwise, they will be judged as failures and receive punishment.
As for defenders, they can only touch the ball once after at least three passes, and the shortest interval between two touches cannot be less than 15 seconds, otherwise, they will also be judged as failures.
As a result, Cambridge United's rondo training, besides group confrontations, became the most exciting part of each session. Players had to maintain a high level of concentration to complete this training.
More importantly, Huang Hao came up with so many alternative punishment methods from who knows where, making the players with the lowest scores in each training session miserable.
Common punishments like the entire team having to run extra laps were considered the lowest level at Cambridge United. Even more exaggerated, failed players had to take off their shorts, stick out their butts in front of the goal, and become targets for the entire team's penalty kick training.
Only after the player was hit three times could the punishment end.
For professional players, hitting such a large target is not difficult.
However, players with exquisite footwork, such as O'Connor, often missed by a hair on their first or second attempts.
As a result, the time failed players spent enduring punishment was greatly extended. And the feeling of hearing the ball whizzing past them, in Mahrez's words, was worse than running 10 extra laps; they would rather not endure such hellish torment.
Huang Hao changed such methods almost every week, and under such perverse punishments, the players' small-scale passing cooperation and tackling skills also significantly improved.
Cambridge United sets scores for each training session, deducting points for failure and adding points for success. At the end of a training session, Grenier unfortunately came in last.
Huang Hao looked at Grenier, who had a hint of fear in his eyes, with a mischievous smile. And upon seeing Huang Hao's characteristic smile, Grenier trembled even more.
"Boss, how about I just go to the goal?"
At least this was a punishment whose consequences he could predict. Grenier felt that choosing it proactively might be better, after all, judging from Huang Hao's expression, today's punishment didn't seem like a good thing.
Huang Hao slowly extended his index finger and wagged it in front of Grenier, which completely chilled Grenier's heart.
Soon, Darren, at Huang Hao's signal, brought a bag from the sidelines.
Darren, suppressing a laugh, walked up to Grenier. Then, slowly, he pulled out a pink ballet skirt from the bag!!!
Grenier's eyes were instantly filled with terror!
The team then burst into huge laughter. Some players even fell to the ground laughing.
Thus, in the subsequent group confrontation, there was a player on the training ground wearing a pink ballet skirt, becoming the most dazzling star on the field.
Martinez set up a somewhat special 4-4-2 formation for Wigan Athletic. Unlike the conventional winger and attacking midfielder setup, Wigan Athletic's attacking midfielders all dropped back, returning to their midfield positions.
While this would allow opponents to easily cut off the connection between Wigan Athletic's forwards and midfielders, in defense, Wigan Athletic would have an absolute numerical advantage.
Cambridge United's strengths were nothing more than high pressing and sharp through balls down the flanks. Wigan Athletic's strategy was to retreat and then advance, and Martinez believed that as long as he countered these two points from Cambridge United, three points would be within easy reach.
On October 3rd, the 25,000 seats at the DW Stadium were filled with watching fans.
Less than two minutes into the match, Suxi intercepted Wigan Athletic's pass at the top of the box and immediately kicked it to Smith on the right side of midfield.
Smith only took two steps forward before directly lofting the ball into Wigan Athletic's attacking third!
Gohouri and Boyes, who joined Wigan Athletic on a free transfer from Borussia Mönchengladbach this season, made Wigan Athletic's center-back pairing look quite impressive.
However, this seemingly strong center-back duo made a direct mistake right after the kickoff!
Boyes, wary of Lewandowski behind him, did not push up to mark Jordan Ayu closely.
And Gohouri kept turning his head to look at the incoming ball, mistakenly thinking Boyes would cover Jordan Ayu.
And so, Ayu, with no one to interfere, naturally sped towards the ball!
When Gohouri tried to bring down the ball, Ayu suddenly darted out from behind him, intercepting the ball!
Ayu, having picked up speed, immediately left Gohouri a body length behind after getting the ball!
Fortunately, Boyes, sensing trouble, had already quickly closed in!
Ayu, having reached the edge of the six-yard box, still attempted a chip shot towards the near post, despite being sandwiched by two center-backs!
Kirkland, who was blocking the near post, used both hands to push the ball out for a goal kick!
Martinez angrily waved his hand at his assistant coach, clearly displeased that his center-backs almost conceded a goal!
After all, he had repeatedly emphasized before the match that Cambridge United was good at playing through balls!
It seemed his aura still needed to be stronger, otherwise, it felt like he couldn't quite control the Wigan Athletic players!
Fortunately, Cambridge United's subsequent corner kick did not pose much of a threat.
Wigan Athletic, leveraging their home advantage, began to launch attacks deep into Cambridge United's territory.
However, Rodallega quickly found himself surrounded by opponents, which also made Martinez scratch his head.
In the 19th minute of the first half, Cambridge United won a throw-in on the right side of Wigan Athletic's attacking third.
Suxi tried to throw the ball to Paul Smith, but Melchiot, who was behind Smith, directly pressed Smith and headed the incoming ball away!
May intercepted the ball behind and immediately passed it to the center.
Van Dijk, who had surged forward, gently hooked the ball, and it obediently stuck to his feet.
Facing Ben Watson's press, Van Dijk passed the ball to Andre Ayu at the top of the box, and Andre Ayu then distributed the ball to Mahrez on the left side of the box.
Ayu held off Diame behind him, while also signaling to Suxi with a slight nod to the right.
Suxi understood immediately and ran towards Wigan Athletic's left byline!
And just as Suxi started his run, Ayu, with his back to the goal, directly sent the ball through!
Suxi dribbled the ball to the byline and sent a perfect cross, a standard curling ball, directly to the far post!
Gohouri was tightly marking Lewandowski in front of him, completely unaware that Paul Smith was rapidly sprinting towards the goal behind him! Smith extended his right foot and volleyed the ball directly!
Kirkland, facing the close-range shot, could only clench his fists and punch the ball out of the goal!
However, Smith was the closest person to him, and facing the rebound, Smith struck again!
The ball went directly through Kirkland's armpit and into the net!
0:1!
Cambridge United struck first!
After the restart, both teams immediately engaged in a midfield battle. Cambridge United's zonal defense quickly put Wigan Athletic in a difficult position. Soon, under Cambridge United's tight pressing, Gomes made a passing error, and the ball rolled directly out of bounds.
Suxi threw the ball to Lewandowski, and Cambridge United patiently passed the ball around in midfield, looking for an opportunity.
Mahrez quickly advanced with the ball to the edge of Wigan Athletic's box, saw Lewandowski in the box, and immediately tried to send the ball into the box!
However, the experienced Gohouri directly anticipated Mahrez's passing route and easily intercepted the ball midway!
Gohouri launched a long ball to Gomes in midfield. Gomes then distributed the ball to the right, giving it to Enzobia, while he himself accelerated towards Cambridge United's goal! At this point, Mahrez was still in his own half, and Suxi, marking Enzobia alone, dared not press rashly, only maintaining a certain distance to prevent Enzobia from directly dribbling past him.
Seeing that Suxi did not press, Enzobia sent the ball directly to the top of Cambridge United's box with a curving shot! Scotland successfully interfered with Lovren's judgment, and just as Lovren slowed down, Rodallega accelerated and charged directly towards the ball!
After gaining possession, he took three steps in two, quickly breaking into Cambridge United's penalty area!
Facing Pantilimon's charge, Rodallega concentrated all his frustration into the tip of his boot, forcefully kicking the ball towards the goal!
The ball, leaving Rodallega's foot, was like a cannonball, whistling past Pantilimon's ear and straight into the net!
1:1!
Less than two minutes after Cambridge United's goal, Wigan Athletic equalized the score!