In the following matches, Cambridge United became more cautious.
Although Sunderland occasionally had chances to score, their final shot was always slightly off, and Cambridge United maintained a one-goal lead.
With Cattermole coming on, Bruce re-adjusted Sunderland's formation to a traditional 4-4-2, intending to strengthen the attack.
When the game time on the electronic scoreboard reached 80 minutes, Huang Hao became a little restless.
The time to test Cambridge United had come again.
But sometimes, the development of things is just so subtle.
The famous Murphy's Law was verified at this moment.
In the 82nd minute of the match, Tadić successfully intercepted Sunderland's pass, cutting off their attack.
Tadić passed the ball directly to Lewandowski in midfield, and Sunderland immediately launched a counter-press.
Facing Cana's pressing, Lewandowski chose to dribble horizontally, but at this moment, Lewandowski, focused on dribbling, somehow collided with O'Connor!
The sudden collision caused the ball to roll away from Lewandowski's feet.
Cana, who was nearby, faced with the sudden surprise, unhesitatingly kicked the ball to Richardson upfront!
After Richardson received the ball with his back to goal, he turned and directly sent the ball behind Lovren!
At this moment, Cattermole flashed past Lovren!
Cattermole, who had burst into the penalty area, calmly curled a shot towards the far corner of the goal, facing Pantilimon!
The ball once again landed in Cambridge United's net!
After scoring, Cattermole first looked at the linesman to confirm the goal was valid, then excitedly rushed towards his teammates!
1:1!
The 80-minute rule appeared again!
Selhurst Park fell into a depressing silence at this moment.
With Marriner's two short and one long whistle, both sides finally shook hands and made peace.
Cambridge United's winless streak in the League also extended to five games.
After a hurried handshake with Bruce, Huang Hao turned and walked towards the player tunnel.
Just then, sparse boos rang out from the stands.
Although the sound was not loud, it still reached Huang Hao's ears.
Huang Hao, who was in a hurry, suddenly stopped and looked somewhat bewildered in the direction of the boos.
At this moment, it was as if time had gone back four years, when Mikel angrily threw down his family heirloom club scarf and shouted, "Listen, oriental! Get back to your youth team!"
For a moment, Huang Hao became a little dazed.
Huang Hao, dragging his somewhat tired body, walked into the press conference room at Selhurst Park.
Although this was an inconspicuous match, there were still more than a dozen reporters sitting below the stage.
However, Huang Hao had long been accustomed to such a scene.
Seeing that Huang Hao and Bruce were both seated, the host officially began the post-match press conference.
Their speeches were both brief, the content being nothing more than praising the opposing team, saying the players worked very hard, and so on, and the reporters below were clearly not interested in such clichés.
When the host announced the reporter's questions, Connor, a reporter from "442" magazine, eagerly raised his hand.
After getting permission, Connor immediately threw out his question:
"Mr. Huang, your team has been winless for five rounds.
I think fans May have already forgotten what victory tastes like.
Can you talk about when the team will be able to break free from this stalemate, which is like constipation?"
A stalemate like constipation.
When their colleagues heard Connor's creative description, they all burst into laughter.
Even Huang Hao, who had seen many battles, praised the phrase.
It seems that the reporters attending Cambridge United's press conference are clearly not easy to deal with!
"OK, I have to say, the reporter from 442 really gives me a refreshing feeling."
Huang Hao smiled meaningfully and nodded.
"Cambridge United is just a Premier League promoted team.
Perhaps in this rookie season, it will often be constipated."
Huang Hao had learned to humble himself in front of these reporters.
"Mr. Huang, do you mean that the team's embarrassing winless record will continue to extend?"
"Mr. Reporter, do you know when you will be constipated? And when it will end?"
Huang Hao tilted his head and looked at Connor, clearly dissatisfied with him clinging to Cambridge United's winless streak.
"We just want to know when Cambridge United can get out of such a bad state."
"First of all, I want to say that whether it's Sunderland today or Wigan Athletic, they are both Premier League veterans.
It's not a bad result for Cambridge United to draw with them."
"Secondly, I can tell you for sure that Cambridge United will soon taste victory again, perhaps, in the next match."
Connor's eyes lit up when he heard Huang Hao's answer!
The next day, the online edition of 442 generously gave its headline to Cambridge United.
It was written in bold, large letters:
"Huang Hao: We will defeat Arsenal!"
The content below was no longer important.
Just this title, after being reposted by domestic media, caused a sensation.
"Is little Cambridge United so arrogant now?
Beat my club?!"
"As far as I know, Cambridge United has been winless for five rounds, right?
What are they going to win Arsenal with?"
"Buy against the football lottery, and the villa will be by the sea.
Brothers, I'll put some money on it first."
"Don't forget Cambridge United used to be a professional giant-killer!"
"Upstairs, I really forgot if you didn't mention it!
Liverpool shivered and won three times!"
When Huang Hao found out about this, he was truly impressed by these reporters.
He had only casually said that Cambridge United could end their winless streak at any time.
But Connor sensitively grasped the key point.
Cambridge United's next opponent was Arsenal, currently ranked fourth in the League table!
So, in the eyes of the uninformed, Cambridge United's Head Coach was already uncontrollably arrogant!
If the media's public pressure would not cause any actual harm to Huang Hao, then what truly gave Huang Hao a headache was Cambridge United's upcoming brutal schedule.
In November, Cambridge United had a total of 7 matches.
Apart from the League Cup fourth-round knockout match whose opponent was yet to be determined, the remaining 6 opponents were Arsenal, Newcastle, Chelsea, Manchester City, Wolves, and Blackburn.
Even Premier League giants would gasp at such a schedule.
This was not a brutal schedule; this was clearly a super brutal schedule!
Although Cambridge United is currently ranked 13th, they are only 3 points away from the relegation zone.
If they were to truly face a winless streak or even a losing streak, they would undoubtedly fall into the relegation zone!
And the first opponent was Arsenal, the Gunners, who had a group of talented young players and a bright future!
Arsenal, also in the North London area, was the undisputed boss of this region.
13 times England top League champions, 9 times runners-up.
14 times FA Cup champions, 2 times English League Cup champions.
1 time European Cup Winners' Cup champions, 1 time runners-up.
1 time Champions League runners-up, 1 time Europa League champions, 1 time runners-up.
Especially in the 1990s and early 21st century, under the leadership of their first foreign Head Coach, Wenger, Arsenal achieved a series of brilliant accomplishments.
Double winners, 49 consecutive League matches unbeaten in the England top League, Wenger left an indelible mark on Arsenal during his 22 years as a Gunner.
Facing such a strong team with a huge disparity in strength compared to Cambridge United, it was not surprising that the media fanned the flames and distorted Huang Hao's words into a definite victory over Arsenal, leading to such a strong reaction from everyone.
Just as Huang Hao was racking his brain for a solution, Darren brought this week's Cambridge United training schedule.
Such routine work was always handled by Darren and the coaching team, and basically, giving it to Huang Hao was just a formality.
But today, Huang Hao, upon receiving the training schedule, examined it carefully.
Darren looked at Huang Hao, who had not put down the training schedule for a long time, and even felt a little guilty, his mind racing to confirm that there were no omissions in this schedule.
Physical confrontation, ball distribution training, physical conditioning, offense-defense transition, tactical reinforcement, practice matches, defensive training, off-ball movement, offensive drills, tactical analysis.
Darren and the coaching team had arranged Cambridge United's training plan for the coming week in a standard manner, with no errors.
"Old buddy, for daily training, add one hour of attention reinforcement training."
The stone in Darren's heart finally fell, but at the same time, he was somewhat surprised.
Huang Hao, the hands-off manager, was actually participating in the training!
"One hour every day?"
"That's right.
Immediately arrange for the coaching team to create detailed training programs and start implementing them tomorrow."
"In addition, the deduction points for attention training will be doubled compared to other items, and the punishment will also be doubled.
This week's punishment items will cancel all entertainment punishments and all be changed to aerobic exercise."
Darren's face couldn't help but twitch when he heard this.
"Tomorrow morning, add 10 sets of 30-second full-speed run tests, and have the physical coach conduct an endurance assessment for all players."
Only then did Darren understand why Huang Hao had stared at the schedule for so long without saying a word.
The brutal schedule had not yet begun, but Huang Hao's brutal training had arrived out of the blue, catching them off guard.
O'Connor and May stared intently at Coach Corbet in front of them, their bodies slightly leaning forward, ready to sprint at any moment.
Corbet's hands were hidden behind his back, and he suddenly extended his left hand!
The two instantly launched, rushing directly to Corbet's right side!
Beep!
The staff member next to them immediately pressed the stopwatch in his hand after the two completed their sprint.
"2.8 seconds!"
After reporting the results, the staff member recorded this set of results in the manual, which was already densely filled with the results of various groups.
At this time, the five-person group where Tadić and Suxi were located was performing a completely different exercise.
"Tadić!"
While shouting this name, Darren threw the ball to Mahrez!
Mahrez was stunned, and before he could react, the ball had already arrived in front of him.
Out of instinct, Mahrez caught the ball with both hands.
Beep! "Error!"
Mahrez cursed inwardly, full of annoyance.
The name Tadić, at this moment, did not mean the name of Cambridge United's right winger.
Instead, it meant that Mahrez needed to head the ball thrown by Darren back.
But Mahrez performed the opposite operation, and so, he was deducted two points on the score sheet.
In this training group for Mahrez, Darren would simultaneously give several people ten completely different words.
Five of them represented headers, and the other five represented catching the ball with both hands.
In a short period, the players needed to firmly remember these two sets of unconventional words, associating them with the two commands.
Then, they would wait for Darren's command and perform the corresponding operation.
This way, players must maintain a high level of concentration during this training, otherwise, they will drag down their teammates in the entire group and become a training black hole.
At this time, there were still two days until the match between Cambridge United and Arsenal.
And this week, for the players of Cambridge United, felt like living hell.
Through 10 sets of full-speed run tests, the physical coach made individual training and punishment plans for each person's endurance.
This was to ensure that Cambridge United players would not become soft-footed after a week and be unable to play.
The coaching team, on the other hand, added an extra hour of intense and stimulating attention reinforcement training to their daily sessions.
It was precisely this item that made the players complain endlessly.
Especially for players like Mahrez, who are a bit scatterbrained, this hour was like a nightmare.
However, after a few days of intensive training, the players' performance improved significantly, from being unbearable to barely acceptable.
As for the effect, it can only be seen in the next match.
