On February 14, the 2017 Laureus World Sports Awards ceremony was held in Monaco. Willard attended the ceremony as a nominee for the Male Athlete of the Year Award and the Breakthrough Award of the Year.
The Ballon d'Or honors the best football player of the year, while the Laureus Award honors the best athlete in all sports over the past year. Therefore, the Lawrence Award can be regarded as the best athlete award at a higher level than the Golden Globe Award.
However, because football is the number one sport in the world, and the Golden Globe Award has a longer history than the Lawrence Award, the Golden Globe Award is more famous. It seems that Lawrence is not famous enough, but in fact the Lawrence World Sports Award is more prestigious than the Golden Globe Award. The prize is a higher prize.
To win the Lawrence Award, a football player must not only win the Golden Globe Award and World Footballer, and become the best player of the year in the field of football, but also beat the annual winners of all other sports such as track and field, basketball, swimming, cycling, and FI racing. The best performer will receive the Lawrence Award.
Therefore, although Willard was nominated for the Best Male Athlete of the Year, he failed to win the final award because in terms of honors, he did not win the most valuable Champions League, league, World Cup, etc. Although the personal data is very dazzling, it does not have the crushing performance of other athletes in other sports.
Perhaps, only in the year when Willard wins the Champions League and his personal performance continues to be such an outstanding year can he win the Lawrence Award.
The winner of the 2017 Best Male Athlete Award is Jamaican sprint superstar Bolt. At the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, he once again won three sprint gold medals, defeating athletes in all other sports with a crushing performance and winning the award for the fourth time. Laureus Male Athlete of the Year Award.
Willard did not win the Laureus Best Athlete Award, so there was no systematic experience reward. According to the rules, the experience reward of the Lawrence Award is definitely higher than that of the Golden Globe Award, but it is a pity that Willard failed to win it this year.
However, since the best athlete award is not for him, there is no suspense about the best breakthrough award.
For the first time in football history, he broke through the 100-goal mark in the year and reached a record of 132 goals in total for the year, making Willard a well-deserved winner of the Laureus Breakthrough Award of the Year.
If Willard is not awarded the Breakthrough Award of the Year without winning the Best Male Athlete Award, then the Lawrence Award will not be able to convince the public. Velarde's 132 goals in the year are not only known by the football media and fans, but also by sports fans who are not football fans, and even ordinary people and citizens. Many people know Velarde's terrifying record.
The Breakthrough Award of the Year is well deserved.
It's just a pity for Willard that the system does not reward experience for the best breakthrough award. Only the best athlete award has rewards, so he can only wait until next year.
This year he helped Liverpool win major honors such as the Premier League, Champions League, and even the Triple Crown. If his personal performance is better and the annual total goal record improves, then next year it should be stable.
At that time, it will depend on how many times the experience reward of the Lawrence Award is that of the Ballon d'Or/World Footballer.
Back in England, on February 15, Liverpool sat at Anfield at home and faced the challenge of Chelsea in the FA Cup 1/8 finals.
The two sides just fought in the 23rd round of the Premier League, and Liverpool won 4-1 at home. If Liverpool plays with all their main players, they should be able to win easily.
But when the next game was the first leg of the Champions League 1/8 finals, Klopp chose to focus on the Champions League, and this FA Cup chose a half-main and half-substitute lineup. It's best to win. If you can't win, you can give up the FA Cup and focus on the league, the Champions League, and the EFL Cup, which has entered the final.
Chelsea's performance last season was poor due to the fierce conflict between Mourinho and the locker room. Not to mention the Champions League and the Europa League, Chelsea could go all out to conquer the domestic league.
Therefore, the Blues still played with all their main players in this game, trying to defeat the Red Army Liverpool who did not go all out in an away game and advance to the quarterfinals of the FA Cup.
After the game started, this time the two sides still directly launched a 433 offensive battle. No one shrank their defense and waited for opportunities to counterattack.
With Liverpool playing half substitute and half main lineup, Chelsea's performance this time was even better than the last time the two sides met in the league.
Especially the three-forward lineup composed of Hazard, Diego Costa, and Willian, plus Fabregas in the midfield to organize the attack, Chelsea took the lead in breaking through Liverpool's goal in the 18th minute.
This ball was passed diagonally to the right by Cesc Fabregas when facing Velarde's pressure. William made a pass from the bottom, and Diego Costa competed in the middle and headed the ball into the Liverpool gate.
Chelsea led the Red Army Liverpool 1-0 away from home, and a small number of Chelsea and Blues fans suddenly celebrated wildly at Anfield.
This is a rare scene for Liverpool. Usually Liverpool gets the ball first, then takes control of the game, and finally wins a big victory.
The situation where the opponent can score the goal first has become increasingly rare after Willard joined. Chelsea is indeed in good shape in this game.
After scoring the first goal, Chelsea did not shrink its defense. Instead, they took advantage of the opportunity they had just scored and their morale was high to continue to attack, trying to score another goal and continue to expand their lead.
However, Willard led his teammates in the midfield and backfield to withstand Chelsea's fierce attack and did not allow Chelsea to continue to score goals to widen the point difference. Instead, they successfully launched a quick counterattack a few minutes later.
In the 25th minute, center back Matip anticipated Coutinho's pass, suddenly rushed forward, and intercepted the ball halfway before Diego Costa could catch it. Then, before Costa could counterattack, he intercepted the ball. The ball was passed to Arnold who came in from the wing.
The 18-year-old Arnold has no stage fright at all, nor is he honest. He sprinted along the wing with the ball. Even when faced with the interception of Chelsea left back Ake, he pretended to pass the ball to the center, but the result was a fake dunk. Then he broke through Ake's interception from the outside.
Ake was deceived by Arnold and failed to stop him immediately. Arnold broke through from the side and successfully passed the ball into the penalty area.
Velarde, who followed up from the middle and rushed into the penalty area, grabbed the first point and hit the goal with a powerful header, heading the ball into Chelsea's goal.
Villard, who scored, did not rush to the sidelines to celebrate. Instead, he ran to Arnold on the wing to thank him for the assist.
Arnold was naturally very excited to receive praise and thanks from Willard. This assist fully demonstrated his speed and offensive ability. He believes that he will get more and more playing opportunities in the future.
