Xu Zhu's Successor's Football Journey

Chapter 527 Contradictions
The World Cup in Germany is about to begin!

After the Champions League final, the praise for Real Madrid came to an end immediately, and then all the media immediately shifted their attention to Germany. On June 6, the world football's highest level event - the World Cup will be held there.

The World Cup, the full name of the World Football Championship, is the highest level of football competition in the world. It is also known as the world's three top events along with the Olympics and F1.

In history, the World Cup is the 1928 FIFA special prize for the winner.It was cast by Friel, a famous jewelry technician in Paris. Its model is Nikai, the goddess of victory in Greek mythology. She wears a tunic in the style of ancient Rome, with long and straight arms and a large bowl in her hand.The statue is made of pure gold, weighs 1.8 kilograms, and is 30 centimeters high. It stands on a marble base.

At that time, FIFA stipulated that the first World Cup was a mobile prize. Whoever won the championship can keep the gold cup for 4 years and return it to FIFA before the next cup to be awarded to the new world champion.In addition, there is an additional stipulation: which team wins the world championship three times, which team will always get the cup.

Such a regulation will definitely make the World Cup belong.

In 1970, during the ninth World Cup, Uruguay, Italy, and Brazil had won two championships.Therefore, they all have the opportunity to occupy this cup forever. As a result, the Brazilian team took the first-footed and occupied the cup.
To this end, FIFA had to prepare a new trophy to be awarded to the next champion.

In May 1971, FIFA held a review meeting for the new cup. After reviewing 5 plans, it decided to adopt the design plan of the Italian Gazania: the design plan of two wrestlers holding the earth with both hands. The power and scale of sports.

This new World Cup was named "Hercules Cup".The trophy was 36 centimeters high, weighed 5 kilograms, and was worth $2 at the time. In the 1974th World Cup in [-], West Germany received the new cup for the first time as the champion.

Therefore, FIFA immediately changed the system and stipulated that the new cup is a mobile prize. No matter how many championships a team wins, it cannot occupy this cup. Instead, the champion's name can be engraved on the base of the Hercules Cup. According to this process , the new cup is expected to last at least until 2038.

In this way, a trophy can be used for decades, and FIFA has saved a lot of money.

Of course, these are irrelevant.The World Cup is the top season in the football field, and its significance and value are much greater than a gold cup.

Looking back at the history of the World Cup, the team that has won the most times is Brazil. They have won five championships, followed by Italy and Germany tied for three times, Argentina and Uruguay twice, and England and France each won once.

However, in recent years, due to the decline of English football, the team's competitiveness in the world has become weaker and weaker, and they seem to have been unable to win trophies.

This made many England fans heartbroken.

In the last few World Cups, the England team always fell in the knockout rounds of the top sixteen and the top eight. Except for No.14 in the 4th World Cup, they even sometimes fell in the World Cup qualifiers, which made them As the birthplace of football, England fans feel deeply helpless and annoyed.

And this time, the England team came back to life.

The joining of Wang Li has boosted the momentum of the team. Now England has the most gorgeous lineup in the world, which has greatly increased the confidence of England fans.

They desperately hope that the England team can achieve good results in the World Cup, soothe their fragile hearts.

Therefore, when the entire England team was still training at Wembley Stadium, there were already many fans outside the stadium cheering for this team in Germany. They hoped that the England team could regain its football glory and reach the top again !
In the week before the World Cup, the England team can't just be training. The team needs to do a lot of work, at least for McLaren and the FA.

On June 6, the foreign affairs press officer of the England team announced the song "The World is Under My Feet" written by the British rock band "Hug" for England during the World Cup. This team song passed through many officials of the FA Review, and the opinions of the fans, became the team anthem of England's competition.

After the press conference, Danny, the main singer of the British rock band 'Hug', was very excited. He obviously didn't expect that the song written by the band when he was just passionate could become England's team song for the World Cup. Facing the media reporters, he said: Laughing: "This is the first time in my life that I feel that the England team will win the championship. I hope this song will bring them good luck."

Since then, the singing of English fans outside Wembley Stadium has become a beautiful landscape. On the first day, the singing and writing were messy. On the second day, the fans began to spontaneously organize rhythmic singing. They want to use this kind of singing to cheer for the English players, hoping that they can train hard and maintain their best condition to welcome the World Cup.

At this time, the FA also announced the team's jersey numbers. Wang Li got his No. 21 jersey. Among other commemorative jerseys, No. 7 is still the captain Beckham, and No. 10 is taken by the golden boy Michael. Owen got it, and the number 9 became Rooney's jersey.

Except for Wang Li's unique No. 21, these numbers are very meaningful and are the center of the team. Unfortunately, just like the comments of the "Sun" media, the chances of playing No. 9 jersey and No. 10 jersey together is very small', in other words, if Wang Li is not injured, this situation is almost impossible.

For Wang Liben, getting injured is almost impossible.

It is worth mentioning that Halerson, who joined the England team for the first time, got the No. 23 jersey. This jersey number has no special meaning. Obviously, in McLaren's mind, he is an incidental player. After all, England's forward line It's so gorgeous, even though he is very strong, his chances of playing are still a bit slim.

All in all, it doesn't matter what jersey number Halerson gets in the eyes of the fans, and it doesn't matter to him personally, because he has a very accurate positioning of himself. Online, he is indeed just a rookie.

The media all over the world are very concerned about these messages. Among the 32 teams participating in the World Cup in Germany, the media paid the most attention to the England team.

This is mainly because the overall value of the England team is too high.

Among all the 32 teams participating in the World Cup in Germany, there are four teams whose players have a total value of more than 3 million euros, namely England, Italy, Spain in Europe and Brazil in South America.At the same time, the total value of the four teams accounted for 48% of all participating teams.

The second-ranked Italy is relatively close to Brazil in total worth, but they have a difference of nearly 5000 million euros from the England team, which is mainly due to the existence of Wang Li.

According to the evaluation of football professionals, Wang Li's worth alone can reach at least [-] million euros. And more.

If Wang Li himself is not counted, the England team can only be ranked No.3, and the overall value is worse than Brazil.However, even so, do not underestimate the England team.

In the England team, there are four players from Premier League champions Chelsea, Joe Cole is worth 1300 million euros, John Terry is worth 2800 million euros, Lampard is worth 3500 million euros, goalkeeper Thomas is worth 3800 million euros , but the sum of the worth of these four people is already high, directly supporting the appearance of the England team.

Spain also has a similar situation. The combined value of the three players (Puyol, Xavi and Iniesta) from Barcelona, ​​​​the double champion of the league and the Champions League, also reached a height of 6700 million.In addition to the league championship, England's Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Spain's Real Madrid, Villarreal and other teams are hotbeds for contributing high-value international players.

However, despite the high value, the world media is not the most optimistic about England's ability to win the World Cup. This is mainly because the performance of the England team in the competition is really poor.

According to the odds offered by the gaming company, the team with the lowest odds of winning the championship is the Italian team. The odds are 1 to 5. The performance on the field has always been very good, but this time it is playing at home, it is normal to have a good performance.

England and Brazil are tied for second place, with odds of 1 to 7. Such odds are mainly due to Wang Li.In the evaluation of the mass media, England's striker strength ranks first in the world.

Whether it is the combination of Rooney and Wang Li, or the combination of Owen and Wang Li, they are almost all very powerful, and even if it is only Wang Li himself, the media do not think that any team's forward line is better than this black-haired kid. greater threat.

However, the media's evaluation of the other fronts of the England team is not surprising. Except for the goalkeeper position, which ranks No. 2 behind Italy with Buffon, almost all other positions have dropped to five places.

It seems that whether it is the "double virtue combination (Gerrard, Lampard)" or the strength of team captain Beckham, it is difficult to win the trust of the media. After all, such a combination has never been seen in the previous England team. Can play too much role.

For the England team in this World Cup, "French Football News" commented like this——
"Looking back at history, as the originator of modern football, the England team has a very special position in international football. At the beginning of the World Cup, European Champions Cup and other competitions, England teams disdain to participate because they think that the center of world football is in Great Britain In 1950, when England sent a team to participate in the World Cup for the first time and suffered a disastrous defeat, the proud British lowered their high heads."
".For England, the 1966-4 victory over former West Germany in the 2 World Cup final to win the World Cup is a memory to cherish forever. It is the only weighty championship in English football to date; Among them, England's best result is only two semi-finals, for a country with a lot of superstars, such a result is really not worth mentioning."

".Long pass and lobbing, advocating physical confrontation is the tradition of English football. However, this year's England national team has gathered superstars with excellent skills and physique such as Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham, and Owen. Superstar Alan Wang and steady goalkeeper Thomas, how well this combination can play in McLaren's 4-4-2 crossing tactical system, still needs to be tested in this year's World Cup."

In the vigorous reports, the training camp of the England team did not seem to be affected in any way. This morning, the head coach McClaren still came to the stadium very early to watch the team's training.

He feels that his luck is really good, at least much better than the previous Eriksson, because his players are really good, and he just caught up with the World Cup just after coaching.

Compared with Eriksson's England team, McLaren's England team is younger.

In addition to Wang Li, who has returned to the England team, the goalkeeper of the team has also been replaced by young player Thomas Clarke. With his wonderful performance at Chelsea, Thomas has undoubtedly squeezed out Paul Robinson's main position and became England's No. [-] goalkeeper.

On the forward line, there is Halilson filling the bench, plus Wang Li, Crouch, Rooney and Owen. It can be said that the two strongest positions in England are forward and goalkeeper, which makes McLaren feel at ease. The same is true for these two positions.

But for defense, McLaren doesn't have much confidence, because in the midfield, the lineup he can take is the same as Eriksson's. Although these Premier League giants are expensive, they are also good. But their traditional English style football always makes the team look not strong, and the game is often in crisis because of this.

"However, fortunately there is Allen." McLaren said with a little peace of mind as he watched the confrontation on the training ground.

He has great trust in Wang Li.

"Maybe there is a real chance."

McLaren thinks this way, of course he also desires the championship and desires to win, and this World Cup, the task assigned to him by the FA is to at least enter the semi-finals.

Top four! !
Or this task may not seem onerous, but you must know that the England team has fallen to the top 16 several times in the World Cup, and the World Cup is held only once every four years. That is to say, the England team has not entered the top four for many years. Strong, such a result looks really messed up.

On the other hand, it also shows the weakness of the England team in the World Cup.

But this time, the main reason why the FA is so confident is the joining of Wang Li. Wang Li has performed so well in Chelsea and Real Madrid. I feel that the strength of the England team, at least on the front line, will definitely increase greatly.

The addition of another young player, Thomas Clarke, also made the FA feel at ease. This young player won the Premier League's best goalkeeper for four consecutive months and was selected into the Premier League's best team. This performance is definitely the best in the world. that's it.

With these two players joining the England team, the FA's confidence is not unreasonable. They did not want to win the Hercules Cup directly, but only gave McLaren a task of the semi-finals. It can also be seen from this , the FA is still very sensible.

The most important thing is that Wang Licai is only 20 years old, and Thomas is only 22 years old. The two can play for the England team for at least 10 years. If they can win the World Cup semi-finals this time, how can they not have the chance to win next time? What about the supreme trophy?

This is an opportunity, but also a test.

For McLaren, his pressure and motivation are also great, so he is also very serious about the training requirements of the players.

Listening to the singing of the fans in the distance and watching the serious training of the players in the stadium, McLaren felt that the England team had at least made a good start, which seemed to be a perfect start, and he was looking forward to this World Cup trip even more .

But in fact, what he didn't know was that the internal harmony of the England team was not very harmonious. This was mainly due to the internal conflicts among the players, but this time the protagonist was Wang Li.

Yes, Wang Li.

Whether in Wolverhampton, England in 2004, Chelsea or now Real Madrid, Wang Li's interpersonal relationship has always been very good. After all, his strength lies there, and he has a friendly face , teammates will unconsciously have a good impression of him.

But this time there was indeed a contradiction in the locker room, and another object was Jamie Carragher from Liverpool.

Even if everyone has forgotten it, Carragher will not forget that in the Champions League final a year ago, the black-haired kid kicked himself into the hospital.

The opponent was banned for half a year, while Carragher was recuperating for half a year. If he had to choose, he would rather choose the former, because that would be almost the same as a half-year vacation.

With such a criminal record, how could he get along with Wang Li?
Not to mention good, the two of them didn't talk at all in the locker room, and even on the training ground, they couldn't pass the ball to each other. Their conflicts were really not easy to resolve.

Such an atmosphere between the two of them would of course make the inside of the locker room somewhat strange, and the teammates soon discovered the reason, and began to worry instead.

In the England team, Wang Li must be an indispensable member. This World Cup will depend on him to win for the team. He is the most important person in the England team.Similarly, Jamie Carragher is also very important, at least he is the main defender of the England team.

Perhaps without Jamie Carragher, the strength of the England team will not be greatly affected, but it is simply unreasonable to fire Carragher for no reason, at least even if the head coach McClaren knows about it, for his own sake Prestige, he would never do that.

As the captain of the team, David Beckham feels that this kind of matter should be resolved in private. It would be great if the conflict between the two can be reconciled. If not, he can only go to the head coach to force it. Fire one person.

Needless to say, compared with Wang Li's importance, Carragher is nothing at all, and he must be the one who was expelled.

This may be the last World Cup that Beckham participated in. He will never allow the England team to decline due to conflicts within the team. Seeing this situation, he feels that it must be resolved.

Only with concerted efforts within the team can we better welcome the World Cup.

PS: Xiao X's new book "The First Generation of Warcraft" is still about football, I hope you have time to click it.

It has just started to be updated, and it can be fattened and then killed.

Well, the collection is still indispensable~~~~Thank you for your support~~~~.
(End of this chapter)