Chapter 494 The focus of the international match day
Chapter 494 The focus of the international competition month
Author: Ant who watches football ruthlessly
After the fifth round of English League One, we entered the first international match month of the new season.
Just ask whether the Premier League and Championship teams will take a two-week break at that time, but it will have no impact on the League One teams.
After all, teams in lower-level leagues generally rarely have national players from various countries.
Of course, York City doesn’t have it.
York City's Westmann is a former German international, Karlström and Isaksson have also officially withdrawn from the national team after the European Cup. Now the only player in the team who can truly be called a national player is Kulusevski.
one person.
He was also recruited by the new Swedish national team coach Jan Andersen to participate in the European Group A of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
The 53-year-old coach led Norrköping to win the Swedish Super League championship that season, and therefore also gained the favor of the Swedish Football Association. He took over as coach after Pan Yi resigned.
Of course, taking over as the new European Cup champion Jan Andersen will be very challenging. After all, Pan Yi has indeed brought Sweden to a historical high point.
For Jan Anderson, the safest plan now is to maintain the main goal framework of winning the European Cup and add some new players.
Young people like Kulusevski and Isaac who were promoted by Pan Yi and performed well in the European Cup will naturally not be the illusions he relies on and will definitely seek to enter the national team.
In the first round, they had to face the powerful Dutch team! In the same group, there is also the powerful French team, so Sweden needs to go all out in every game if it wants to break out of the group.
For York City, the impact of Kulusevski's absence is not great.
On the one hand, Gary Fletcher, Joe Partington and others, who are the main players in League Two this season, can also take up their positions. On the other hand, York City does not want to play in the league at the beginning of the international competition month, but in the league.
No English League Championship.
This competition is actually a cup competition, but it is not as familiar as the FA Cup and League Cup, because there are no top league teams participating in this competition.
The English League Championship is referred to as the English Championship. There are 64 participating teams, including all 48 teams in League One and League Two, as well as the 16 best-performing youth teams of Premier League or Championship clubs (new rules added this season).
The competition is divided into two divisions, North and South, with 32 teams participating in each division. The teams in the two divisions are divided into 8 groups, with 4 teams in each group, and the top 2 teams in the group advance to the top 16.
The group stage adopts a single round-robin system. A tie will directly enter the penalty shootout. A winning penalty kick will be worth 2 points, and a penalty kick failure will be worth 1 point.
After entering the top 16, each team will compete in a single knockout round, with the winner advancing to the Eastern Round until the Southern and Northern division champions are determined.
The champions of the North and South divisions will decide the final championship in a single-game tie-breaker at a neutral venue (Wembley Stadium).
The fact is that in England, such low-level competitions are more than just the British Championship.
Between the FA Cup, the League Cup, and the English Championship, there is the English FA Challenge Cup (or FA Championship), which is participated by teams from the 5th to 8th tiers in England.
To the east of the English FA Challenge Cup, there is still a competition called the FA Vase, and the only clubs that can participate in the competition are the 9th to 10th level clubs.
Of course, being called an FA bottle does not mean that the final champion will get a bottle. In fact, it is also a trophy...
Even if it is such a low-level match, their finals will all be held at Wembley Stadium!
Think about it, as a non-professional league player, you also have the opportunity to compete in the most advanced stadium in the world. How exciting is that?
And that's endless.
In addition to the cup competitions at each level mentioned above, lower-level regional league organizations have their own cup configurations.
The players participating in the Chengdong Horizontal Cup are looking for children who have just participated in football training, and they are looking for middle-aged uncles who play football hotly.
For example, will the FA Cup, which started in 2003, be participated by teams from the 11th level and above?
Of course, they also have a lot to achieve, because the team that wins the FA Cup can represent England in the UEFA Regional Cup, which is also considered a European competition.
The teams that can participate in the UEFA Cup are selected from various regional cup competitions in England.
There are too many regional cup competitions to mention. All the participants are non-league teams, and most people come to participate out of selfishness.
For example, members of the Sunday League have their FA Sunday Cup, and the Amateur Football League also has their Amateur Football Senior Cup...
In short, in the huge system of English football, players of all levels can have appropriate participation opportunities and financial support. This is the secret of the long-lasting prosperity of English professional football, and also whether football in England can be so popular.
One of the reasons for re-seeking is a strong mass base.
Going back to the British Championship that York asked to participate in, due to the flow mechanism between League One and League Two, it is difficult to have a long-term hegemony in the British Championship. After all, the strong teams at that level are more willing to participate in the competition for the British Championship seats, or
Can we strive to go further in the FA Cup and the league?
York City's attitude towards the British Championship was almost the same.
They basically used the offensive lineup to cope with this game, just as if they could keep the substitute players in game condition.
However, their first-round match against the Swansea U23 team was still vulnerable. York City had already won a complete victory 3:0.
A few days later, York City ushered in another cup match, this time a more challenging first-round match of the League Cup.
The wrong leg that time also came from Peterborough United in League One.
For York City, the most important goal this season is to break into the English Championship, so all cup competitions are dispensable.
Of course, it doesn’t mean to give up. Most games require serious play, otherwise the level of attention will indeed be slightly lower, and the players will not be able to play the main force.
Obviously, York City's Peterborough United team will play harder.
The two sides kicked off a goal battle. Peterborough United, who initially played at home, defeated York City 3:2 and knocked them out of the competition!
This was York City's first loss since the start of the season.
——
For Pan Yi, he really has no interest in the cup matches that York City participated in. He only needs to know the score and progress.
He has left it to chairman Jason McGill and head coach Scaloni to handle the team's affairs.
During that international match month, he took Valentina back to Sweden and watched Sweden's home game against the Netherlands in the first round of Group A of the World Cup qualifiers in Stockholm.
Pan Yi's arrival certainly aroused cheers from all Swedish fans, but the Swedish team was unable to win at home.
In the 34th minute, Lustig's breakthrough caused a foul from Dutch team Van Dijk, and Pan Yi's thug soon received a yellow card.
The Swedish team took advantage of that meeting and Guidetti headed the ball into the goal, 1:0.
But in the east half of the game, Swayder also used a man-made attack to score directly and equalize the score.
The score of 1:1 remained until the end.
That was not a good start for Sweden, but it wasn't particularly bad either.
The same is true for the Netherlands.
Whether Sweden or the Netherlands will qualify, whether they qualify or not depends on the match against France...
In that international competition month, the World Cup qualifiers in Asia attracted Pan Yi's attention even more.
First of all, in the first game of the Asian top 12, the Dragon Kingdom team challenged the South Korean team away.
This is a very crucial battle, and it is also a head-on duel between Pan Yi's two disciples, Wu Lei and Sun Xingmin.
In that game, the performance of both players was average.
At half time, Zheng Zhi accidentally scored an own goal, and the Long Guo team fell behind 0-1.
After changing sides, the South Korean team connected the two cities with Li Qinglong and Gu Zizhe 4 minutes away. The Dragon Kingdom team once fell behind 0-3.
However, the tenacious Long Guo team scored two goals in three minutes due to Hai and Hao Junmin. However, in the remaining time, the Long Guo team failed to score another goal, and it was a pity that they lost.
Five days later, the Dragons drew their first point in the top 12 with a 0-0 draw with Iran, the highest-ranked team in Asia, at the Shenyang Olympic Sports Center Stadium.
Compared with the first away game against South Korea, head coach Gao Hongbo made major adjustments to the starting lineup, especially in the midfield and frontcourt. Zheng Zhi, Wu Xi, and Sun Ke were all on the bench, and they were replaced by No in Seoul.
Hao Junmin performed amazingly and young forward Zhang Yuning.
And whether such a change of formation had a good effect, the powerful Iranians did not find an effective way to score goals in the past, and the two sides had a scoreless draw in the past.
After two rounds of the top 12, the Dragon Country team has 1 draw, 1 loss and 1 point. Although the points are not high, due to the theory of whether the first two wrong legs are the strongest, the fate of the Dragon Country team is very much in their own legs.
In the Eastern International Month, which is October and June during the National Day holiday, the national football team will face the third Syrian team in Xi'an.
"The first game in the East is the real key."
In an exclusive interview with Ma Fanbing of "Earth Football", Pan Yi also offered advice for the national football team.
"They can see the progress of the national football team in the games where they miss South Korea and Iran in the frontcourt."
"Especially Wu Lei, after several years of traveling in Europe, he has become more confident on the court."
"Just because I'm on the court, sometimes my teammates can't see his movement in time and send the ball to his feet."
"This also shows the importance of going global, so that we can be in line with international standards in terms of football consciousness."
"In the game against South Korea, on the one hand, he saw that all the players on the team were not too nervous and did not let go. Moreover, the team had a lot of deficiencies in defense;"
"But on the other hand, he also saw that their players had their own ideas on the offensive end, and he also saw that the team did not lack opportunities and could even beat South Korea ten minutes away. That is gratifying."
"As long as the coach sticks to his own ideas and doesn't have to change the tactics on a large scale, let the players let go and fight. If they play against Syria behind them, Uzbekistan has no hope of winning."
"Wrong. Including the goalkeeper position, he also suggested not to make too many changes, so as to avoid the increase in mistakes caused by the decrease in mutual familiarity of the entire back line..."
The reason why Pan Yi made an exception to comment on the national football team's game was actually because in his previous life, the national football team did have regrets during the 2018 World Cup qualifying journey.
The away game started with 2:3 in South Korea, and even when they were three goals behind, they caught up and almost overtook, which showed the good spirit of the team;
In the second home game, Iran was 0:0, which meant that they faced two major opponents, and neither of them showed themselves vulnerable;
After those two games, foreign media and fans praised the performance of the national football team. They believed that the team was at a disadvantage in terms of strength, perfect opportunities, ball possession rate and other aspects, but it did not hesitate to fall behind.
Being discouraged and actively counterattacking reflects the rare tenacity of Longguo football.
But precisely because of this, the national football team's confidence is soaring and they are a bit unable to position themselves correctly.
Head coach Gao Hongbo made major lineup adjustments when he missed playing against Syria, which ranked lowest in the group.
The defense line was changed from the five-back system in the first two rounds to four-back system, and the offensive line included the combination of Gao Lin and Zhang Yuning. Zhang Xizhe entered the starting lineup, and the goalkeeper was also replaced by Gu Chao.
It turned out that the lineup that showed its attitude of grabbing points was misfired, and goalkeeper Gu Chao also made a fatal mistake in the attack, resulting in the loss of the ball to the Dragons team to Syria, and the situation suddenly changed.
After all the games in Group A of the top 12 were played, the Dragon Kingdom team initially ranked fifth with 12 points, but the South Korean team, which ranked second in front, actually only had 15 points, and then Syria was third with 13 points.
Four Uzbekistan 13 points…
In other words, if the Dragon Country team can get enough three points, it can at least get third place in the group and play in the play-offs. It is even possible that it can directly overtake the South Korean team and get second place in the group and directly enter the World Cup!
If all the games were reviewed, it would be the home game against Syria that was the most embarrassing.
The 3 points that I originally thought would go to the leg turned into 3 points for the wrong leg. The difference is huge.
More importantly, due to the excellent performance in the first two games, the unexpected defeat caused a huge psychological gap, which also affected the national football team's performance, which originally led to the subsequent games getting worse and worse.
.
In other words, if we can play well in the home game against Syria, the national football team is really very promising!
Therefore, Pan Yi secretly handed a small note to Gao Hongbo:
We don’t want to change the lineup, we don’t want the goalkeeper to change, we don’t want to think we can win against Syria, just play the two games against South Korea and Iran!
He can help me get there!
——
After the international break, York City played two more league games.
In the sixth round of the league, York City defeated Walsall 3-1 away from home.
The team's high center forward Baker once again scored a goal, and Kulusevski, who returned to the team, was also in good form and also scored a goal.
In addition, the team's young left back Alphonso Davies also scored his first goal for York City.
After the game, the York City youth team once again received praise from the media.
Then, just a week later, York City was held to a 1-1 draw at home by Chesterfield in the seventh round of the league.
In that game, the starting young shooter Aman repeatedly wasted scoring opportunities. It was not without Karlström's long shot that York City evened the score.
After the game, Amon's poor performance became the focus of media attention.
(Funker County Post) compared Armang and Baker, and criticized the Cameroonian young man.
(The Windsor County Post first recognized Pan Yi’s excellent eye for people when Baker was there. The 22-year-old unknown center was brought to the team by Pan Yi in the first season, and he immediately made use of it.
The ball repaid his trust and played a key role in York City's promotion.
This season, although the game has changed from League Two to League One, and the wrong leg has become stronger, the tall Mark Baker has not adapted at all and can still kill in the game.
But soon (Funke County Post) changed the subject and mentioned Amon's recent performance, "Obviously, Pan Yi made a mistake that time. He actually spent 200,000 euros in transfer fees to bring in someone other than
A Cameroonian kid who’s got nothing but speed.”
"In the first two rounds, maybe because the guy who was new to England was not familiar with the wrong leg, he scored the goal by sneak attack. But after the teams started to study carefully, Aman played
No more switching to League One."
"He is indeed very fast and physically very strong, but his dribbling skills, passing level, and shooting accuracy are all very disappointing. It even feels like he has just graduated from the rugby program.
He turned around, doesn’t he look like he can play football?”
"It can also be said that Amang is not at the level of League One! After thorough research, he has not scored a goal for five consecutive rounds."
"Although I don't want to admit it, it is obvious that Pan Yi messed up when Amang was there. It was a failed investment."
Because of such remarks, Pan Yi was actually a little worried.
Of course, his doubts were not denied. Pan Yi asked whether he was afraid that those critical remarks would have a negative emotional impact on young Amang.
A young man left his hometown and came to England to play football. His performance in a few games was mediocre, and he was labeled as a "parallel importer." Isn't that very malicious? I wonder if a young man with a fragile personality would even be labeled as a "parallel importer".
Devastated.
After all, Thomas Amon is not a star who was very popular in Pan Yi's previous life, but he is the kind of player who can definitely have a big heart.
A positive example is Modric. When he first arrived at Real Madrid, he was criticized as a parallel import and wanted to return the goods immediately.
But everyone also knows what kind of performance he performed at Real Madrid later.
There are even more negative examples. For example, the Barcelona prodigy Bojan was burdened with excessive expectations, but he would be severely criticized for his slight poor performance. This made him nervous, and he even couldn't even step on the court.
Feeling extremely scared.
Of course Pan Yi didn't want Armang to become like that, so he recently went to the club to observe something to see if there was anything unusual.
Later, he found that Amang's performance during training was normal.
No, to be precise, I worked harder.
Is this a good sign? It shows whether the boy is a person who studies hard, practices hard, and pushes himself. He will not be defeated so easily.
The media’s comments actually stimulated his fighting spirit!——
On September 16, York City is making initial preparations. They will miss Sheffield United away from home in the eighth round of the league.
At noon that day, in the club, Pan Yi chatted with Scaloni first, and then went to the gym to meet Amon. The Cameroonian young man who had just completed strength training was sweating profusely.
"How do you feel?" Pan Yi asked.
"It's great, boss, he's ready for the game." Aman said immediately.
"Very good." Pan Yi nodded, "I know what the media is saying."
"No, coach." Amon's mood immediately dropped.
"What did I think?"
"He will use goals to tell them that Amon has the ability to help the team." Aman immediately expressed his stance.
"Just ask me for that attitude." Pan Yi praised, "Thomas, I will have a great career. I have the talent, and the most important thing is that I work hard. I believe what he said
If so?"
"Believe it." Aman nodded, "I am the best coach in the world, and I am also the best boss in the world!"
"So, I don't have to worry about what the media says. If I am not wrong, I am confident that he will not bring me there from Norway. So, what I want to do now is to be ready for everything tomorrow
They need my goals. And I just want a good performance..."
"The media will immediately start praising him! They won't do that." Aman answered first.
"Yes, I will also praise him one more thing by the way, saying that his vision is still not that sharp, and Amango is still an excellent kicker..."
Pan Yi said, and both of them laughed.
"Go and prepare for the game. Remember to think about how to celebrate after scoring tomorrow!" Pan Yi patted Amang on the shoulder, but Amang showed a silly smile, then said goodbye and left.
"Am I so sure that the Cameroon boy can score a goal tomorrow?" Scaloni asked from the sidelines.
"Of course I'm not sure." Pan Yi chuckled, "But just ask him to believe it."
Scaloni shrugged his shoulders, which was indeed one of Pan Yi's psychological motivation methods.
What players need most now is confidence, not only their own self-confidence, but also the recognition and support from the team in the East.
This is especially important for a striker.
"No, he really thinks Thomas's footwork is quite rough..." Scaloni said.
"He is just an African child who grew up playing football, and his basic skills are definitely not very solid." Pan Yi looked at Amang's back and said, "But his physical condition is very good, and he also has good mental attributes. That is enough. In
Technically, they can just do some extra strengthening on him during normal training."
Scaloni nodded.
In League One, sometimes technology is not the most important thing.
Good physical fitness and excellent teamwork ability are the foundation for many players to gain a foothold in League One.
There are many teams in English League One that play a simple long pass game and rely on a bunch of tall and powerful players to rush the game.
And York City is already very technical. This style of play has caused a certain degree of dimensionality reduction in English League One, but it has also exposed Amon's technical shortcomings.
But as Pan Yi said, that's not a big problem.
Amon is only 18 years old and has great potential to improve his skills.
As for Thomas Amon, Pan Yi actually has the same mentality as when he introduced Mark Baker.
Can those players who were not famous stars in their previous lives make rapid changes under the guidance of the best coach in that life?
At least for now, Baker has indeed made great progress. Not only can he kill in League Two, but he can also handle it in League One.
Now it’s time to see whether Amon can withstand the pressure and become a qualified English League One player... (End of this chapter)