At three o'clock in the morning on September 4, 2003, Beijing time, at 9 o'clock in the evening on Wednesday, September 3, local time in Spain, Deportivo La Coruña played at home against the Basque Lion - Athletic Bilbao.
At a press conference before the game, a reporter asked whether the Chinese foreign player who had just won many awards in Finland would appear in this game. Irueta was vague, but it proved that Wang Ai was selected for this game.
The 18-man squad for the match.
Just this sign made the Chinese media happy. This means that Xiao Wang has the opportunity to land in La Liga for the first time as a Chinese player!
CCTV Sports Channel also made a serious analysis saying: Xiao Wang's status has been recognized by the club, otherwise he would not be included in the 18-man roster, because Xiao Wang has hardly practiced with Deportivo, so he can only rely on his outstanding personal performance
status.
But Wang Ai didn't know what Irueta actually considered.
Of course Wang Ai is happy to be selected into the squad so quickly, but he doesn't have high hopes for whether he will be able to appear. He is not in a hurry anyway. He is still at a disadvantage at his age. It doesn't matter if he plays one game earlier or later.
To put it bluntly, being able to enter Depor's first team at this age is a victory, and being able to train with players like Belleron every day is a victory.
"You can't hide me anyway!" Wang Ai is quite sure of this. Not only is it a matter of personal ability, but also the impact of his arrival on Depor's popularity, advertising cooperation, etc., determines that Depor cannot give up on himself.
Unless the performance is very bad.
Sure enough, before the start of the game, Irueta announced through captain Pablo that Wang Ai was not in the starting lineup. Wang Ai was sitting on the bench on the sidelines, quite far away from the coach's position. As the last one to arrive, he had not yet participated in the pre-game
In the training camp, although he is well-known, he is a player who has not yet proven himself in La Liga. Wang Ai consciously guards the water dispenser.
Needless to say, this feeling is quite novel.
While watching the game between Athletic Bilbao in crimson jerseys and Deportivo in blue and white jerseys, Wang Ai wondered, when was the last time he came on the bench? Oh, it’s not that few. In the Asian Games, it was the whole process.
He was a substitute, well, he was also a substitute in the World Cup. But in those days, Wang Ai had the ability to come on at any time, unlike now, whether he can play or not is almost a matter of a word from the head coach who is still unfamiliar with him.
The two sides played very fiercely on the field. Although Depor's peak period has gradually passed as the personnel aged, they are not too old to play after all. And Athletic Bilbao promoted Valverde from the second team to the head coach this season.
He performed well in the warm-up matches before and has great ambitions for this season.
Moreover, this pure-blooded Basque team has never lacked fighting spirit, so the competition on the field between the two sides was very fierce.
In the 22nd minute of the first half, the home team's right winger Luque received a header from Belleron's pass, leading 1:0.
Back in the second half, despite frequent attacks by Athletic Bilbao's two forwards, Julan Guerrero and Esquero, they failed in front of the solid defense line led by Mauro Silva and Pablo. On the contrary,
In the 31st minute of the second half, Pandiani received a pass from Dejaminha and hit the goal into the dead center.
Deportivo fans waved blue and white flags in the stands as always and gave out tsunami-like cheers. Counting the last narrow victory over Zaragoza, Deportivo has won two consecutive games.
Seeing that the time was almost the same, Irueta replaced Belleron and Pablo and replaced Scaloni and Sergio. Although it was just the beginning of the season, Depor on three fronts had a heavy task in the game.
, often need to be rotated.
At this time, the Chinese fans watching the live broadcast in the early morning were impatient to wait, and the head coach standing on the sidelines did not even look at Wang Ai.
Wang Ai was very happy to be at leisure, and he was enjoying watching from the bench. It was a bit cold, and he was wrapped tightly in a thick coat. It seemed that he was not prepared to play at all, and he didn't even do any warm-up actions.
But Irueta's train of thought was incomprehensible to most people. Just when the time reached the 40th minute and everyone was no longer looking forward to Wang Ai's debut, he called a timeout and suddenly turned his head, looked at Wang Ai, and stretched out his hand.
.
The courtside camera accurately captured his substitution, and even though there were five minutes left on the clock, it still aroused a small response from the fans.
There are so many famous stars in Depor, but none of them has won the silver boot in the World Cup. Depor fans originally thought that they could see Wang Ai in the pre-season warm-up matches and training matches. It was not until they inquired with the club that they found out that Wang Ai was far away in Finland in Northern Europe.
, It has been two months since the news was announced, and Wang Ai has never performed in front of Depor fans.
Depor fans have been looking forward to Wang Ai for too long.
Wang Ai took off his coat and jumped on the spot to Irueta's side. The substitution was so sudden that Wang Ai didn't have time to warm up. After saying hello to the right winger Luke who scored a goal in this game,
, Wang Ai ran onto the lawn lightly.
No matter how much was said about Wang Ai's debut before the game, Wang Ai has played in too many games after all. His mood at the moment was very calm, and he didn't even think about trying to score goals to shock Deportivo.
The left midfielder is Forlan, who has played for Deportivo for many years, so Wang Ai moved to the right midfielder position.
Wang Ai is really not familiar with this position. Although Wang Ai is good with both left and right feet and has consciously trained his left foot since he was a child, there is no problem with his right foot. He just has to choose the left midfielder in order to take care of his teammates in each team.
I don’t know what Irueta was thinking, but it was his first appearance and he came to a relatively unfamiliar right midfielder.
At this time, both sides have basically given up the idea of continuing to attack. Athletic Bilbao, which is two goals behind, has no ambition to chase two goals in five minutes. Facing the experienced Depor, it is basically impossible.
Deportivo also wanted to save some energy, so the offensive and defensive rhythm slowed down.
Just wait for the referee's whistle and everyone goes home to eat.
Wang Ai ran back and forth on the right wing, trying to steal the opponent, but there was no chance. At this time, Sergio, who also came on as a substitute in the second half, passed the ball through the middle with a diagonal pass.
Wang Ai could clearly hear the low cheers from Depor fans in the stands behind him. Sergio in the middle was running forward while looking in Wang Ai's direction.
Wang Ai understood and rushed forward with the ball. His movement startled the opposing Bilbao defender. This Chinese boy was really rushing forward.
He hurriedly stepped forward to intercept. Wang Ai bullied him because of his age. He pushed the football along the sideline with his right foot and passed around him to the left. When he turned around, the light ball passed by and opened up the air.
files.
The screams of Depor fans became even louder.
Wang Ai did not choose to go down, but rushed diagonally towards the penalty area at high speed. When the central defender stepped forward to intercept, Wang Ai dribbled the ball horizontally, shook the opponent's center of gravity, and went straight in front of the goal.
There was a chaos in front of the Bilbao goal. Just when the goalkeeper thought Wang Ai was about to take a shot, Wang Ai suddenly made a cross pass in front of the goal. Sergio and Forlan both hit it, and Sergio grabbed it.
The shot was blocked by the opponent's goalkeeper after he fell to the ground. Forlan on the other side made a follow-up shot.
