Chapter 81: Chapter 81: The French Team Strikes
Chapter 81: The French Team Strikes
This issue hadn't really caught Lin Quan's attention because he wasn't the hot topic of the year.
He had only played for less than half a season. Although his performance was decent, the time was too short compared to those hotshots who had been playing for a year or two.
"The Golden Boy Award selection starts in late October every year and is announced before Christmas in December. Now is the critical period for the Golden Boy Award selection. The Spanish Football Association is making every effort to fight for Isco. I want to fight for you too."
Between Isco and Lin Quan, it was clear that Bosque favored Lin Quan more.
After all, the latter was a player he had personally promoted, while Isco had not yet been selected for the national team. Between the two, he would definitely choose Lin Quan.
"Even if you can't win this year, it's important to create momentum. That way, it'll be easier to win next year!"
"And besides, our team's penalty kicks have always been unstable. Almost all the players on the field have a record of missing penalty kicks."
That was Bosque's reason for insisting on doing this. The players on the team were just too unreliable.
If they were a bit more reliable, he wouldn't have entrusted the responsibility of taking penalty kicks to a young player who wasn't even 17 yet.
Lin Quan had concerns in his mind. Honestly, he was somewhat tempted by Bosque's proposal.
Who wouldn't want the privilege of taking penalty kicks, which could increase their goal tally?
Perhaps by taking more penalty kicks during matches, he could secure the Golden Boot Award for top scorer.
And according to the system's regulations, winning the Golden Boot Award would come with points rewards.
But if he really got this privilege, would the older players in the team accept it?
He didn't want to disrupt the team's atmosphere and upset the older players.
So after some thought, he said:
"Thank you for your kindness, but I think it wouldn't be fair to directly let me take penalty kicks over other players. So..."
Seeing that he was about to refuse, Bosque sighed and changed his approach:
"Alright, since that's the case, let's add you to the list of penalty takers. You and the other players will take turns. Whoever misses will pass it on to the next one. If nobody misses, keep going until someone does. How does that sound?"
This proposal was good. It didn't give him special privileges but provided him with an opportunity to compete with his teammates.
If his teammates missed penalty kicks themselves, then he would have a chance. And his teammates wouldn't have much to complain about.
"Okay, I'll follow your arrangement!"
Bosque shook his head. This kid, while everyone else was eager to take the privilege of taking penalty kicks, he was willing to give it up.
While Spain was nervously preparing for the upcoming match, their opponents, the French team, had already arrived in Madrid by plane.
Because the home team was strong, Spanish fans didn't do anything excessive to the visiting team.
Instead, they mostly gathered near the national team's training base to cheer for their home team.
"Is that our Messi?"
"Wow, what a beautiful dribble!"
"Tsk tsk, such skills, no wonder he came from La Masia Youth Academy!"
A lot of fans who had come specifically to watch Lin Quan gathered outside the training base. Most of these fans had fallen in love with this young man in the team after watching the live broadcast of the Spain vs. Belarus match.
They held up various banners, some wearing Lin Quan's number 30 national team jersey, while others held up his number 10 jersey from Werder Bremen, with excited expressions on their faces.
"Wow, you have quite a few fans!"
Morata was a bit envious and jealous. Why didn't he, a tall and handsome guy himself, have so many fans? It must be because he didn't score enough goals. If he could score three goals, these people would definitely become his loyal fans.
"Compared to the captain and the others, still far behind!"
Lin Quan looked towards the sidelines, where Casillas and Ramos were signing autographs for their fans.
The number of fans for both of them was large, and their arms were sore from signing, and they hadn't even walked out of the crowd of fans yet...
The national team's training base was in Madrid, which belonged to Real Madrid's territory.
Ramos and Casillas were both key players for Real Madrid, so it wasn't surprising that they received a warm welcome from the fans in their home territory.
On the contrary, the players from Barcelona were low-key in Madrid because they knew that even in the national team, there were still many Madrid fans who didn't welcome them.
Just like the boos Pique received when he came in before, although it was somewhat related to him humiliating Real Madrid by holding up five fingers on the field.
But the grudges between Barcelona and Real Madrid in recent years ran deep, and fans from both sides attacking and slandering each other was a common occurrence.
Plus, Catalonia's separatism made things even more complicated.
In this situation, it was better to keep a low profile.
This was also the reason why Lin Quan didn't go out to sign autographs for his supportive fans. Although he hadn't played for Barcelona, he was still technically a Barcelona player.
So he was worried that he would be booed if he went out, especially since he had benefited from Pique's popularity...
Around 6:30 in the afternoon, the Spanish national team players boarded the bus and began their journey to the venue of the match, the Calderon Stadium.
This might be the last time the Spanish national team played a World Cup qualifier at the Calderon Stadium. After Atletico Madrid received investment from Wanda and decided to build a new stadium, the fate of the Calderon Stadium was likely to be demolition.
Therefore, among the several candidate stadiums bidding for this group stage match, the Spanish Football Association deliberately chose the Calderon Stadium, giving up better conditions such as the Bernabeu.
The match between Spain and France was a focal point battle in the third round of the European qualifiers for the 2014 Brazil World Cup.
In addition to many domestic TV stations in Spain choosing to broadcast the match live, Sky Sports also broadcasted the match.
Since the matches between England and Poland were scheduled for the next afternoon, there was also high attention to this match in the UK. Sky Sports even arranged top-notch commentators like Martin Taylor to commentate on the match.
"Spain has won 24 consecutive matches in the World Cup qualifiers. In their last match, they slaughtered Belarus 6-0 away, and the team is currently in great form.
In addition to having members of the World Cup-winning team, they also have some new faces.
Like their number 30 player Lin, who is the attacking core of Werder Bremen, currently ranked fourth in the Bundesliga this season.
He has played 6 games in the Bundesliga so far, scoring nine goals, with an average of 1.5 goals per game, which is the highest efficiency in the entire Bundesliga.
And in the national team, he has only played one game for the Spanish national team but has already scored three goals, as well as three assists.
Although this player is young, he has already shown the potential of a superstar. I believe this winter, there will be no shortage of top clubs chasing after him."
There were many people like Martin Taylor who paid close attention to Lin Quan. For example, the French commentators, in their pre-match analysis, emphasized Lin Quan's threat to the French team in the frontcourt.
And Ribery, who had faced Lin Quan in the league, emphasized in an interview before the match that Lin Quan was the most threatening player in the Spanish team.
With the current state of the French team, facing a Spain team without Lin Quan, their chances of winning weren't great.
And when Lin Quan joined, and Spain began to evolve towards the ultimate body, their chances against Spain would probably be even lower.
"Although I don't want to say this, we have to admit that we are no longer a top team in the world in terms of the team's strength.
The gap between us and the double World Cup and European Cup champions Spain is huge. Our goal for this match should be to secure a draw. As long as we don't lose away, when we return to our home turf for the next round, we will have hope of winning!"
The French commentators were very pessimistic, and their head coach was also very pessimistic.
In this match, they directly adopted a defensive posture and planned to play conservatively.
During the European Cup, they played openly against Spain and ended up losing 2-0.
Now that the opponent's strength had become even stronger, if they still played the same way, wouldn't that be seeking death?
Of course, playing defensively didn't mean they were giving up.
On the contrary, compressing their formation to the back and allowing the opponent's formation to push forward would be more conducive to their counterattacks.
Although Spain's possession system was formidable, the French team pursued efficiency, not possession.
As long as they could score one or two goals on the counterattack, then they would most likely be the ones to win in the end. What was the use of Spain's high possession rate then?
At 7:45, the players from both sides began to enter the field one after another.
Both teams lined up in a 4-3-3 formation, and the starting lineups were:
Spain: 1. Casillas, 17. Arbeloa, 16. Busquets, 15. Ramos, 18. Alba, 8. Xavi, 10. Fabregas, 6. Iniesta, 21. Silva, 30. Lin Quan, 11. Pedro
France: 1. Lloris (the one from the 2022 World Cup final), 2. Debuchy, 21. Koscielny, 5. Sakho, 3. Evra, 6. Cabaye, 17. Gonalons, 12. Matuidi, 14. Menez, 10. Benzema, 7. Ribery
After playing the national anthems and shaking hands, it was 8:00 on the dot.
With the sound of the main referee's whistle, the match officially began.
(End of this chapter)
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