"Dingling, Dingling, Dingling..."
On October 5, 2019, Pattaya, Thailand, the semi-finals of the 2019 Asian Blind Football Championship entered a white-hot stage, and the Chinese team was tied with Japanese team 2:2.
Although the players on both sides were sweating and extremely tired, they did not dare to relax for a moment, chasing each other on the green field.
Liu Meng , wearing a red uniform and eye mask, with the sound of the special football, scored a goal with all his strength. The Chinese team won the championship and successfully got the ticket to the Tokyo Paralympic Games in Japan.
talked about that game, Liu Meng was so excited. He recalled: "Every of our teammates played very tenaciously in that game."
Who is Liu Meng?
He is the No. 3 defender of China's blind foot and a visually impaired person who has lost all his vision. By chance, he came into contact with blind football. From a blind young man to a football player, what did 27-year-old Liu Meng experience? Let's start with the characteristics of the blind football.
01, "Desperate Sanlang" on the green field
Blind football originated in Europe. In 2004, the Athens Paralympic Games established five-a-side football for athletes with vision disabilities for the first time. my country formed the first national team for the blind football in 2006.
Blind football is quite different from conventional football. Blind football is a five-a-side system. Except for the goalkeeper, the other four players are all visually disabled.
They judge the position of the ball by the sound made by the specially made football; teammates need to keep shouting "Hey, Hey, Hey" to seek cooperation and help; at the same time, there are guides off the field to assist them in the offense.
Playing blind football is more difficult than playing regular football.
Even the world star Messi was busy and messed up in a match against blind players, and he couldn't even catch the ball several times, while the blind players all calmly and nervously and orderly catch the ball, pass the ball, and shoot. Seeing the wonderful performance of the blind players, Messi and others praised it repeatedly and admired the hardships and difficulties of the blind players.
The first and most difficult level that all blind players have passed is to overcome fear and move their legs - run. But for them who are in the dark and usually need a blind stick to walk, it is tantamount to being in the blue sky.
Liu Meng still remembers that when the coach asked him to run, he was very scared, afraid of meeting his teammates and the baffle. After a difficult ideological struggle, he took his legs tremblingly and ran in small steps. As a result, the coach shouted loudly: "Why are you doing high-leg hiccup ?"
With the encouragement of the coach, Liu Meng and his teammates gradually gained the awareness of stepping on the legs by playing with stones, scissors, and cloth on the spot, and gradually went from jogging to running quickly to speeding. He finally overcomes the darkness and embarks on the first step in his dream journey of football for the blind.
is far from enough to be able to run on football. You also need to know professional movements such as stopping the ball, dribbling the ball, passing the ball, shooting, etc. These seemingly simple movements require coaching to guide them step by step and let players perceive each movement with their feet.
Liu Meng kept every movement taught by the coach in mind, and practiced it thousands or even tens of thousands of times, without resting when it was windy or rainy, until the movement was skillful. He has practiced the action of receiving the ball for two or three years, tens of thousands of times.
In order to keep himself in the best condition, under the guidance of his coach, he was able to run 12 kilometers in less than 65 minutes. He said: "I was very tired at the beginning, but now I am adapting and the more I run, the easier it is."
Every step a blind player takes requires great courage and perseverance. Blind football is more susceptible to injury than regular football. There is a piece of iron wrapped in a steel ball inside the specially made blind football, so the ball is heavier than ordinary football and it hurts more when hitting people. Because the team members cannot see it, collisions or stampedes often occur.
At the beginning, the players' foreheads and eyebrows were open on both sides, and their noses were often crooked, spraining their ankles and kicking their toes were common.
Liu Meng was inevitably injured.During the Rio Paralympic Games, his foot was kicked to the bone and the bone was slightly ruptured, but he held on until the end.
More than 0 years have passed. As long as the exercise intensity is too high, his ankles still hurt slightly, but Liu Meng never affects his training due to injuries.
Someone said: "Treat without saying anything is a kind of growth, pain without saying something is a kind of training."
Relying on the spirit of not being afraid of hardship and fatigue, Liu Meng finally played into the national team in 2014 and became the No. 3 guard of the Chinese blind football national team. He is a real "desperate threesome". He is one step closer to his dream.
For football, Liu Meng often said proudly: "The world is a dark hut. Only when I run hard on the court can I feel like a normal child and feel the light of life."
As a visually impaired person, how did he embark on the road of blind football?
02. From a blind guy to a football player
July 1, 1995, Liu Meng was born in Shuitangpu Village, Shilin County, Kunming City, Yunnan Province. His parents are ordinary farmers, living a life facing the loess and facing the sky. Liu Meng has a sister. Although she lives in poverty, her family of four is harmonious and happy.
However, when Liu Meng was born, his mother found that he was different from other babies. He had blood in his eyes, white eyes, and a lot of eye poop.
After the doctor diagnosed that the boy who was just born had congenital keratitis, which means that the baby will live in the darkness and cannot see the colorful world from now on.
Hearing this bad news, the parents were extremely sad and devoted all their love to this incomplete child.
The little Liu Meng did not feel the sadness of his parents. He thought everyone was the same as him. His parents intentionally protected him, but did not tell him the truth.
Until one time he went to school with his sister, all the children could see the words on the blackboard, but he couldn't see them. Only then did he realize that he was different from others and that his eyes couldn't see them.
Learning the cruel truth, Liu Meng did not feel sad or inferior because of this. He was still happy every day, learning to touch everything with his hands and feel the earth with his feet.
When he was in the third grade, Liu Meng was even more idle. His mother asked him, "Why can't you stay idle?"
He replied, "Mom, my eyes cannot see, I can only recognize it when touching."
Liu Meng is cheerful and humorous. He often jokes that he is the "busiest (blind) person" in the village. While constantly exploring the world, he strives to take care of himself and not worry his parents. At the same time, he also helps his parents do some farm work within his ability.
As a child of the Sani tribe, Liu Meng’s favorite thing since childhood is to watch bullfighting performances.
Every day, people dressed in costumes, and when gongs and drums beat, bullfights entered the field, and the two strong and powerful bulls immediately entered the battle. Although Liu Meng could not see the intense scenes of bullfighting, the shouts and screams of people, the roars between cows and cows when they were running and chasing, and the confrontation between cows and cows all satisfy all his imaginations of competitive sports.
Liu Meng also wants to run freely like a cow and enjoy the fun of sports. But he could only move forward carefully in the dark world.
Although Liu Meng's family lived a very poor life. In 2003, the family's annual income was only 200 to 300 yuan. In order to get a better education for his son, his parents pieced together 600 yuan and sent him to a blind school in Kunming. It was this decision that changed his son's destiny.
Time comes in 2008, when the Beijing Paralympic Games opened, my country's first national blind football team showed its charm on the international arena for the first time. After fierce competition, China's blind football, which has been established for only three years, won the runner-up.
on the field. The blind players' courage to take risks and fight hard makes people realize that blind people can also play football, so the desire to play football has taken root in Liu Meng's heart.
In 2009, Liu Meng was 14 years old and had become a vibrant and elegant boy.One day, he and a few classmates kicked mineral water bottles on the playground. The bottles rolled on the ground, making a ping-pong sound. Although no one could see the bottle, Liu Meng could always find the position of the bottle as fast as possible with his voice.
His every move attracted the attention of the physical education teacher, "Maybe Liu Meng is a good seedling of blind football." Afterwards, he was recommended to the Yunnan Provincial Blind Football Team.
teacher said to Liu Meng: "Since you want to play, I will take you out for a walk."
But no one expected that many years later, this physical education teacher became the coach of the Yunnan Blind Football Team, and Liu Meng became the main member of the Chinese Blind Football Team.
Even if you don’t have wings, you must learn to fly hard.
Although Liu Meng's eyes cannot see and can only live in the darkness, football has become the sun in his heart, illuminating his own life path.
03, "Don't look at the world, there is a bright light in your heart"
"Terrently fight, unite and cooperate, and win glory for the country, come on, come on, come on, come on!"
This is the slogan shouted by Liu Meng and his teammates in various competitions. Isn't this slogan a true portrayal of theirs?
Although they cannot see the green stadium, the perfect curve when scoring, the color of the medal, or even their own face, they run in the dark with a sense of unyielding spirit, fight in the dark, fight in the dark, and stand on the podium with blind feet again and again.
From 2006 to 2021, in just 15 years, the Chinese blind football record has been quite good: 6 times Asian Cup championship, 1 Paralympic runner-up, and 1 World Cup third place. One golden trophy and one heavy medal, is the best monument for blind-footed young men.
The young men of the Chinese blind football team are all excellent in football skills and dare to fight and rob. They are called "the most respectable Chinese men's football team." Liu Meng made an indelible contribution to the fact that China's blind foot has such strong strength.
Liu Meng, who has been with football for 13 years, has his favorite sentence: "Don't look at the world, there is a bright light in his heart."
On the court, Liu Meng is a dream-seeking eagle, who tries his best to win the blind foot medal. In life, Liu Meng is a happy bird, free and happy flying.
Usually he likes to whistle and walk without panic. If he doesn't look carefully, he is like a normal person. Liu Meng said he is lucky. He found his own excitement in football, while most visually impaired people can only grop in the dark.
There are 17.31 million visually impaired people in China. Liu Meng is one of the few people who can get rid of the blind stick. He has been to many countries, allowing more people to see him and more people with disabilities to see hope.
He hopes that these people like him can also go out of the house, find their own dreams, love life, and enjoy life.
His biggest dream is that China can have a club for blind football. When Liu Meng was not playing football, he formed a band with his teammates to draw strength from the music.
The last sentence of the song " The Lonely Brave " is sung like this:
"Go, go, go, with the humblest dream,
fight, fight, with the loftiest dream,
to the sobs and roars in the darkness,
Who says that standing in the light is a hero? "
is the Lonely Brave, a hero in the darkness.
Liu Meng, come on!
For your dream, fight hard!
-END-
【Text｜Miss Zemu】
【Edit｜Gu】
