Xu Zhu's Successor's Football Journey

Chapter 544 McLaren's Tactical Mistake

"The goal has been scored!! Goooooooooooooooooooooooal!!!" The live commentator fell into madness for a moment——
"Only 5 minutes into the game, Allen Wang opened the scoring with a precise long shot! Beautiful! Wonderful! This is Allen's sixth goal in this World Cup, and his number of goals is far greater Much higher than Irving's three."

"From here we can see that Allen is outstanding. In the first five minutes, Owen got two very good shots, but he couldn't score, and Allen just broke Ecuador with one shot. This is the strength of the world's number one shooter!"

"Efficiency, his efficiency is too high! Also as a forward, Owen, who seems to be extremely good, has no competitiveness in front of Allen."

The on-site commentator is not an England fan. In fact, this is a German. He is the queen commentator of Stuttgart. His views may represent the views of the public.

Wang Li's shooting efficiency is too high!

The fans in the audience looked at the opening goal, and they became very popular in an instant, and the original worries of the fans who supported England disappeared without a trace. From this goal, it can be seen that at least the black-haired boy on the field The state is not bad, they don't have to worry about problems in today's game.

Was there a better start than taking the lead in the opening five minutes?

Next, the fans of the England team are looking forward to the game even more. They like to see a hearty victory. Perhaps such a game is boring for neutral fans, but as supporters of the England team, the team wins more The easier it is, the stronger the team is, which will make the fans feel a kind of sincere pride from the bottom of their hearts.

McLaren was also full of smiles. He felt that there was no suspense in this game. Since England scored the first goal, how easy is it for Ecuador to equalize the score?
Because England will definitely score more goals than their opponents.

This has always been the purpose of McLaren's team building, and it is also Wang Li's purpose in the game: no matter how many goals the opponent scores, as long as we score more than them, we will win.

Obviously, this view is something Thomas does not want to see, because he is England's goalkeeper.

As a goalkeeper, if the team's game policy is like this, then the goal he guards will definitely encounter crises again and again, which is definitely not what Thomas wants to see.

The World Cup is indeed a platform to showcase yourself, but even the best goalkeepers hope that they can relax on the court, because FIFA prefers to use the number of goals conceded as a criterion when judging the best goalkeepers.

A goalkeeper who concedes 10 goals is obviously uncompetitive in front of a goalkeeper who concedes 1 goal, because everyone doesn't care about the playing styles and tactics of each team.

Of course, this has nothing to do with Wang Li, and now he is excited about scoring goals on the court.

"Haha, Allen, congratulations!" Halerson also shouted from the bench.

At this time, after Wang Li scored the goal, he ran directly past the team's bench and ran in the direction of the England fans. After reaching the east stand, he waved his hands at the fans, releasing the pain in his heart. excited.

This is his first goal in the World Cup knockout round, and it is indeed worth celebrating.

However, the game still had to go on. After 2 minutes, the referee urged the England players to stand up and the game restarted.

Wang Li's goal just now had some impact on the mentality of the Ecuadorian players.

Before the game, every Ecuadorian player was indoctrinated with the idea that the opponent's No. 21 black-haired boy is very strong, but they never thought they would be so strong.

The cold shot from outside the penalty area, such a long distance, such a sudden kick, but still able to hit it so powerfully, this level of shooting is a shock to every Ecuadorian player.

So, each of them was a little surprised!
If this black-haired kid can always have such a state of play, no matter how they perform, the team's goals will not be able to catch up with him alone.The team's main striker, Delgado, is the pillar of Ecuador, but after seeing Wang Li's performance, they feel that Delgado is almost worthless compared to Wang Li.

How can this allow them to play the game wholeheartedly?

They had to allocate part of their energy to mark Wang Li to prevent Wang Li from continuing to behave like this. If England scored another goal, today's game would really become a tragedy for Ecuador.

Although Delgado is 32 years old, this veteran still looks very strong. He also saw the whole process of scoring just now, at least he knew in his heart that it was impossible for him to score that kind of goal.

But this does not affect Delgado's mentality.

Having been in the professional league for 15 years, Delgado has seen too many scenes. His rich experience has made his mentality firm as iron. He knows that only when his mentality is stable can he find opportunities to score goals and hope to win the game.

Although there are some doubts about Wang Li's strength, Delgado is a striker and a sharp knife at the forefront of Ecuador.

In the game, he did not have any defensive tasks. As a veteran with declining physical fitness, his task, like Wang Li, is to score goals, and only scoring can increase the team's hope of victory and the confidence of his teammates in the game.

After the game restarted, Delgado has been standing at the forefront of the formation, ready to receive a pass and launch a counterattack at any time.

Yes, fight back.

The offense of the England team is still going on, and it is impossible for Ecuador to launch a fierce attack, because they have to pay attention to defense at all times.Their tactics can only be defensive counterattacks.

After Wang Li's goal, the England team's offense looked more intense, and the cooperation between the players was also very smooth.

However, when Ecuador adapted to England's offense, their defense became better and better!
Seeing this scene, McLaren on the coach's bench looked very helpless.

The football level of the England team has always been the top in the world, but compared with teams like Spain, Brazil, and Argentina, they will be much worse. Against such teams, England rarely wins.

why is that?Could it be that the level of England players is not good enough?
of course not!

The level of England players is by no means bad. Most of the players in the entire team come from the Premier League, from European clubs, and the Premier League has now surpassed Serie A and La Liga to become the number one competition in the world. It is impossible for the main players of the club to be poor.

However, the team composed of the main players of these European giants has performed in a mess in the international arena.

The root cause is England's offensive style.

Most of the players trained by England, the country's bottom-level clubs, focus on body rather than technology, which makes these players always have outstanding physical confrontation ability after they become talents.

This kind of player is very popular in other leagues.

However, when so many superstars who pay attention to their body are all gathered in one team, there will be some problems in the team, that is, it is difficult to implement complex tactics, so McLaren's tactical style follows England's simple tactics. traditional style of attack.

It's not that he doesn't want the England team to play a beautiful Spanish-style offense, but it's impossible for the England team to play this kind of offense, and there will be many, many problems with the cooperation of the players.

And now, such an England team is at war with Ecuador in South America. After more than ten minutes of the game, Ecuador has completely seen through England's simple offensive method, and their defense has become more and more stable.

Because they know which direction England will attack from, their defense only needs to be well targeted.

Maybe there is also a variable in the England team, and that is Wang Li.

There is no doubt about Wang Li's skills. Perhaps he is the only player in the England team who pays attention to skills. Under his dribbling, most Ecuadorian players have become puppets.

However, with this little variable, it is not easy to break through Ecuador's goal again. At least within 20 minutes of Wang Li's goal, the England team failed to get any good chances.

Then, the next step is Ecuador's counterattack.

The delay in scoring made the England players a little impatient, so Ecuador found an opportunity. Taking advantage of a goalkeeper holding the ball with both hands, Ecuador launched a wave of fierce offensive.

This time it was the attack launched by defender Ambrosi. This player who played in the Argentine League is the pillar star of Ecuador's backcourt. Although he is only a defender, Ambrosi has a very good sense of the overall situation. After the goalkeeper Bellaforte held the ball, he yelled for the ball directly, and then let the ball accurately find Mendes on the left with a big foot.

Mendes is 26 years old this year. He plays for the Quito University Athletic League. In the entire South American football, Mendes is a very famous player.This is mainly because of his excellent footwork and superb free kick skills.

In the 2005 South American Copa Libertadores match against Bolivia's Bolivar, he kicked a wonderful arc from 37 meters away, the ball with a strong spin and drop, straight to the upper left corner of the goal.Later in another game he was almost in the same position and scored a powerful instep curve ball.And in the match against Argentina, before the middle circle, he shot a powerful bottom shot directly and hit the goalpost of the Argentine team, making the goalkeeper Abang Danchery break out in a cold sweat.

This kind of long-range shooting and free kick ability made Mendes flourish in South American football. Before the World Cup, it was rumored that Eindhoo of the Eredivisie wanted to introduce Mendes, and the transfer fee was as high as more than 600 million pounds.

Such a player will of course be the core of the Ecuadorian team's midfield, and this time, Mendes showed this ability again. After receiving a pass from Ambrosi, he made a second pass with Ayovi As soon as he cooperated, he quickly laid the ball forward twice, and then directly completed a long-distance strong shot on the right side of the penalty area.

It's a pity that the football rubbed against the post and drew the bottom line.

Even so, this shot still shocked Thomas, who fell to the ground, into a cold sweat. It was too dangerous!

Mendes’ shot seems to have kicked off Ecuador’s counterattack frenzy. Perhaps the Ecuadorian players found it not very difficult to score goals, so their counterattacks became better and better. After England’s attack was weak again, Ecuador finally ushered in a good opportunity .

This time it was Tenorio on the wing, a player who really didn't change his name. He played for a newly promoted team in the Ecuadorian league, but this time he happened to be the main player in the team's offense.

After receiving a pass from his teammate at the center line, Tenorio made a long pass and let striker Delgado successfully counter-offside. The latter directly faced the goalkeeper Thomas to form a single-handed ball, and then made a kick to the left. A strong shot equalized the score for the team.

1: 1.

In the 36th minute of the first half, Ecuador relied on Delgado's single-handed goal to equalize the score.

This situation made the supporters of the England team slightly worried. This was not all because of Ecuador's goal, but because the team's offense was really weak.

The England team's offense seems to be very strong recently, but it is difficult to find a chance to insert into the penalty area of ​​Ecuador. Michael Owen in the penalty area has been hanging around for a long time, and Wang Li on the right has not got the ball for a long time.

This is largely due to the fact that England's attacks in the middle are frequently blocked.

In this game, Wang Li was placed in the forward line, and the two players in the middle were Gerrard and Hargreaves. The strength of these two players is certain, but they are not good at dribbling.

Ecuador's defense in the center is mainly based on area blocking, which makes it difficult for England's simple cooperation to penetrate into the Ecuador penalty area, and the midfielders of the England team, except for Joe Cole on the left, are hardly good at dribbling. Maybe a fast player.

This is the reason why England's offense was blocked.

In Eriksson's era, the English mid-lane duo has always had this problem. Gerrard and Lampard have similar styles. They are not good at dribbling, and they are both trained by English clubs. The powerful midfielder, which made the double virtue advantage in the middle completely unplayable, and the two of them could only use long-range shots to threaten the opponent's goal.

In terms of dribbling and technology, Hargreaves is better than Gerrard, but Hargreaves has problems with his teammates. He was born in Bayern Munich and has never been in the Premier League. The style of play is completely different from that of the England team.

This makes it difficult for Hargreaves to play his strength.

This form is really worrying. Wang Li didn't see this problem. His tactical level can only reach the level of ordinary players, but McLaren understands it very clearly.

After realizing the problem, he wanted to drop Wang Li to the middle and let Gerrard play forward, so that England's offense would definitely be more threatening.

But looking at the time, it was about 40 minutes, McLaren still shook his head and gave up the idea.

"Wait for the halftime break to arrange tactics." McLaren thought so.

So, after 3 minutes, he regretted it, because Ecuador scored again, this time it was Cavides.

Cavides is currently 28 years old. He plays for the Argentine youth team. He is the main shooter with relatively comprehensive skills in the Ecuadorian team. He has a very prominent awareness of grabbing points in front of the goal.As a South American player, his footwork is very delicate and his technique is also very good. In the World Cup qualifiers, he has repeatedly created good scoring opportunities for his teammates on the forward line.

In the Ecuador team, his reputation is not as good as Ajinaga, and he is not as popular as Delgado, but he has repeatedly contributed key goals for the team.

So before the game, the media called him and Delgado a 'Gemini'.

This time, Cavides showed his superhuman awareness. After Delgado's header was punched out by Thomas, Cavides ran to the left corner of the small penalty area and easily completed the push. Scored a goal.

1: 2.

At the end of the first half, England fell behind!
No one expected this result before the game. Even the English players and many Ecuadorian players thought that the England team would win easily. However, after half the game, the England team fell behind by one goal. This result is really surprising.

The England supporters in the audience also watched the game in shock, and they couldn't believe it.

"England is behind! Just now Cavides scored another goal for Ecuador. It was a follow-up shot. It was beautiful."

After Cavides scored the goal, all the Ecuadorian players cheered. Facing the leading result, they seemed to have seen the moment when the team entered the quarterfinals. They dared not think about this situation before the game.

In fact, the gap between Ecuador and the England team is too big. This is only the second time to enter the World Cup after 2002. The second time the World Cup can enter the top 16 knockout round. This result is enough for Ecuador players to return to the country to receive the prime minister. The 'Medal of Heroes' is gone.

Yes, Ecuadorian fans are already happy with the result.

But what if we go one step further?

No one thought about this issue, but when they saw a one-goal lead at halftime, many Ecuadorian fans had begun to expect the team to reach the top 8. It was a historic moment.

Unpopular!

Will this game be an upset?

No one can make it clear, but England fans are still very confident. When they saw the black-haired boy with a slight smile on his face, their confidence was even stronger.

Since the black-haired kid didn't care, why didn't they have confidence in the England team?
In this unfavorable form for England, the referee blew the whistle to end the first half after the England team failed to attack again.

The England players all returned to the locker room with a look of disappointment. This is the first time in the World Cup that they will go from hope to loss, especially when Wang Li is on the field.

It's not that they don't have confidence in the game, but they feel disappointed with the current score. They all feel that they didn't perform well and didn't show their strength, and everything was their fault.

When everyone thinks that way, a sense of loss spreads across the team.

However, when they walked into the locker room, the head coach McLaren did not criticize any player, but directly admitted: "This is my tactical mistake!"

(End of this chapter)