Thanks to "Thieves", "Qingqing Little Wolf", "Who hasn't tried Ershi", "ivjun" and "Three Forests for Forest" for their rewards!
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The England national team is stationed in a well-prepared training base in Tokyo, Japan. In theory, all the games they may participate in, except for one 3/4 finals will be played in South Korea, all other games, group stages, after promotion
The knockout rounds will all be held in the Japanese division, so I chose to prepare in Tokyo. ()
Although the games are held in different stadiums in different cities, it is obviously impossible to change places in one shot. Changing cities back and forth will first cause players to be tired from traveling and adapt to new environments every day. Secondly, Japan itself is not big. For example, they first
The first game is against Sweden in Saitama. It is only half an hour's drive from Tokyo to Saitama, and they will have the help of the World Cup Organizing Committee, so this time will be shortened.
Japanese football In the past few years, when Aldridge led Millwall to play in the Toyota Cup, he had a brief exchange with the top management of the Japanese Football Association. At that time, Japanese football began to develop vigorously. By 2002, Hidetoshi Nakata emerged,
The golden generation represented by Shunsuke Nakamura is no accident.
To develop football, infrastructure must keep up. The England national team chose to stay in a hotel for the training camp this time. However, the training venue was borrowed from the training base of a local Japanese football club. The facilities are fairly complete. In other aspects, it will also be
Leave it to the England national team to make up for it.
Three meals a day are provided by the national team, as well as bathing facilities for players to train and recover. The national team has informed the hotel in advance.
There is one day left before the World Cup kicks off, and England are already familiar with the environment at the training base. The players have adjusted to the jet lag and training is on track.
Outside the training base, the reporters who observed them the most were naturally the reporters from Fleet Street, and then there were also reporters from South America, with Argentinian reporters the most.
This is to find out about the enemy!
Aldridge is unprecedentedly serious, meticulous in training, but somewhat stingy with his words. He mostly observes and carefully examines the players' status.
The England national team had a poor record in the warm-up matches before the World Cup. There are inherent reasons for this.
The team is incomplete!
Scholes and Beckham did not play, and even Irving was put on the bench to rest by Aldrich. If we talk about the importance of these three people, the absence of Scholes would have the greatest impact, followed by Irving, and finally
Beckham, and the three of them are absent at the same time. It is conceivable that it would be damned if the England team can play well in the warm-up match!
To be precise, Aldridge took over the national team for a year and a half, no more, no less.
At this stage, he will no longer instill tactical concepts into the players. This job was started in the past year and a half and should be done well!
If we talk about tactics at this time, then the team has no hope. You are not going to play in the league and you can adjust after losing one or two games. You need to steadily perform what you are good at and accustomed to from the beginning.
But at the end of the day's training, Aldridge looked gloomy.
Janson saw it and asked curiously: "What are you worried about?"
"Scholes."
"He? He looks fine."
"The reaction he gave me made me a little worried."
"What's the reaction?"
Aldridge sat at the dining table, raised his head and said calmly: "I told him that we need to observe the changes in the rhythm of the game on the court, seize the rhythm difference invisible to the naked eye, cooperate with our counterattack, and maximize the offensive power.
.Then he just nodded, a normal nod."
Jan Sen was stunned when he heard this, then he laughed and said: "You are too nervous. He has been like this for the past year and a half. If you tell him anything, he will just nodded and won't ask any more questions. On the contrary,
If he doesn't understand, he will have other reactions."
Aldrich rolled his eyes, it seemed like this was the case.
Oh......
So it’s me who’s nervous?!
Returning to the hotel room at night, most of the players stayed in their rooms, either making phone calls with their families, or watching the news in the room to learn about other participating teams in the World Cup. They will usher in the first World Cup in three days.
Show, all the players were calmly waiting for the game to come. Probably, there was only one exception, Lu Xiaopang, who was in the room with Colin and his family
After making the phone call, he lay on the bed. The excitement of catching the last train of the World Cup faded a little. Looking at the unfamiliar world outside the window, he wanted to go out for a walk and experience the humanities of the Eastern countries, but his roommate Joe Cole did not want to accompany him.
He, Joe Cole's mentality is completely different from Rooney. He is looking forward to the game and hopes that he can make an appearance, while Rooney feels that his chances of playing are slim.
Aldrich was lying back on the bed. He was in a separate room, holding a laptop and video chatting with his family members who had also come to the East.
"Hey dad, am I cool?"
Looking at the video showing Earl wearing a pair of toad glasses and wearing an England jersey, Aldrich smiled and nodded and said: "Well, cool! Do you have my share?"
"Yes! Look."
Earl picked up a brand new sunglasses and waved it in front of the camera, while Bert next to him did not dress up in an unconventional way. The two brothers have opposite personalities. Earl is lively and active, while Bert sometimes makes people feel dull. Aldrich will
That is understood as quietness.
The two sons were accompanied by their grandparents to watch the World Cup, but they did not come to Japan. Their first stop was South Korea, where they planned to watch the defending champion France's opening match tomorrow.
After Aldrich finished talking to them, he picked up his cell phone and called Yiwen in London.
Until 11 o'clock in the evening, Aldrich fell asleep peacefully.
The next day, the opening ceremony of the World Cup was held grandly in Seoul, South Korea. After that, the defending champion France made its debut to face its group rival Senegal.
Zidane did not play due to injury. Senegal, which is very unfamiliar to the whole world, played in the World Cup for the first time and shocked the world!
With Diop's goal, the new African army defeated the losing defending champion France with a goal!
The 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup kicked off with a subversive start from the first day of the opening ceremony.
The French team, the last World Cup champion and the new European Cup champion, suffered a defeat. After one night, the excitement of the World Cup really started to heat up.
People are hotly discussing the impact of Zidane's absence, discussing the French team's path to qualifying, and reassessing the strength of the new African army.
After the shocking upset of the French team in their debut, England's players became more serious in their preparations, as if the lessons learned from others had sounded the alarm for them to approach the World Cup. They really could not be careless or underestimate the enemy.
On Children's Day, the second match day of the World Cup came, and Aldridge attended the pre-World Cup press conference for the first time.
He swept away his usual calm demeanor and put on a serious expression.
Media reporters from all over the world gathered at the scene. Regardless of whether England is looked down upon by the outside world, at least in terms of reputation, they have the most famous coaches and players, Aldridge and Beckham.
As Aldridge expected, there were still many reporters at the scene asking about the transfer of Millwall's four Italian stars, but he ignored them. When the reporters at the scene became a little angry, he said: "I am now an English national.
The coach of the team. I only answer topics related to the England team."
Fleet Street and some reporters from mainstream European media are not surprised. Most of those who are asking for trouble are reporters who do not understand Aldrich's style.
"What is the goal of England's participation in this World Cup? The British media said that the FA's internal requirement for you is to at least reach the quarterfinals. Is this true?"
Aldrich said solemnly: "We came to the World Cup with only one goal, to realize our dream. If we can't realize our dream, what difference does it make if we fall in the top 8, top 4, or even the finals? Except for the championship, everything else is meaningless."
"Haha? Does the England team want to win the championship?"
An Asian reporter had an obvious look of ridicule on his face.
Many other reporters also felt that Aldrich's words were a bit too full.
Aldrich looked at the Asian reporter and asked: "Are you Korean? Japanese?"
"I'm Korean!"
"Okay, Mr. Korean reporter, let me ask you, what is South Korea's goal for participating in the World Cup?"
"Enter the top 16."
"Well, this is your goal? It's very realistic and utilitarian. But what if you reach the top 16?"
"Of course we will try our best to enter the top 8!"
"Well, it is still very realistic. Take it one step at a time. This is South Korea's plan. But it is not England's. We want to go to the end and work hard to go to the end. From the very beginning, our eyes have been set on Yokohama in 30 days.
In that final, if we fail halfway through, it doesn’t matter. If we come back four years later, we will still aim to get to the end and fight for it forever until we achieve our goal of getting there.”
The reporter from Fleet Street nodded frequently, and the Korean reporter suddenly realized that Aldridge's words were not sarcastic, but they reflected the difference between the football patterns in England and South Korea. This was not meant to be ridiculing, but just stated the reality.
Maybe England does not have the title of champion, but England has always had championship dreams and ambitions. However, countries with backward football standards do not have such ambitions and dreams, and they do not even have the courage to fantasize! They can only take one step at a time.
For example, when the Chinese team competes in the World Cup in South Korea and Japan, it is also making the most ideal plan to advance to the top 16 with Brazil with one win and one draw. If it can advance to the top 16, it can be called the most glorious in history. With Argentine coach Bielsa's bold words, "If you don't win, you will win."
"It is a failure", the Chinese team will win the runner-up and semi-finals than the mainstream powers, which is even more like a victory!
What is a champion? It doesn’t appear out of thin air.
The French team looks like a champion because they were champions four years ago and European champions two years ago.
Spain and Argentina have the potential to be champions. Just look at their crazy performance in the qualifiers and you will know why.
Italy looks like a champion, and its strong lineup is its confidence.
Even the declining German team and the Brazilian team that stumbled out of the qualifiers are more likely to be champions than England. The former has the foundation and the latter has the talent.
What does England have?
Is there Beckham? Is there Irving? Is there Aldridge?
This is not enough for the outside world to include this team in the top five favorites for the championship, especially since they are placed in the group of death!
But even so, England's championship dream cannot be lost, and it cannot lower its pursuit because of the lack of championship. This regression in ambition will have a huge impact on the national team of an era, unless it really takes a long time for the high-rise buildings to turn into ruins.
A point of rebuilding brick by brick.
Aldridge's serious words won the admiration of Fleet Street. In their eyes, Aldridge is the best coach of the Three Lions.
They won't be too harsh on him. Even if he brings a 16-year-old Wayne Rooney to waste the quota, they will still be tolerant to him.
Why?
Because he makes the Three Lions even in a bad situation, people have to look forward to the future and have the most precious expectation!
Aldridge did not want to argue with reporters. When talking about tomorrow's first game, he still looked serious and said: "People are saying that England has not beaten Sweden for 34 years. 34 years is a long time, but in fact
The two teams have not officially played against each other many times in major competitions. In the past, on the World Cup stage, the number of times the two teams played against each other was zero. The record is a record, but that one
It represents the past. The Swedish team will be a strong opponent. In this group of death, 3 points is very important if you want to qualify. But in the first game, no one wants to lose to avoid the situation becoming passive. The game will be decided tomorrow
As a result, I think it may be in the use of set pieces. England has a star like David with excellent free kick ability, so we will have a little advantage."
The reporters were stunned.
Even Fleet Street reporters couldn't figure out whether what Aldrich said was true or false.
Is there any mistake?
The first game is more conservative, it's not hard to guess.
But you directly told the outside world that England will focus on set-pieces tomorrow?
