Chapter 31 Chapter 31 Meeting Again
On the day of the championship, the Meilingge fans followed the Real Madrid bus to the Plaza de Cibeles and watched their prince tie a flag for the Goddess of Harvest.
This is Real Madrid's 30th league trophy. Leandri and his team stood in the middle of the crowd and shouted "hala madrid" with everyone. The league trophy, which had been absent for 3 years, made every fan excited that night. The young players of La Fabrica sang the team song loudly along with the crowd, and there were beautiful fireworks in each other's eyes that were burning to the extreme.
But fireworks fade away, and everything comes to an end.
The 06/07 season is over. Beckham is about to bid farewell to Real Madrid and go to the MLS with an impressive record of 33 goals and assists in a single season. Calderon continues to clean up the team's old players. Carlos transfers to Fenerbahce on a free transfer. In addition to Figo who transferred to Inter Milan and Zidane who retired, the first phase of Florentino Perez's Galacticos has completely withdrawn from the stage of history.
Before Beckham had time to ease his homesickness with the melody of "Because of You", nor could he recover from the news that Capello was sacked again, the Spanish U17 team ended its training and headed for South Korea.
After getting off the plane, the Spanish guys lined up obediently. The long flight made these energetic athletes a little tired. Anyway, they were not particularly famous stars, so they didn't need to pay attention to their image management wherever they went. Look at this group of people with their hair flying up in the sky and drooping eyelids.
The head coach didn't say much. He was also pulling a luggage cart, yawning with his mouth wide open. If a timid child saw him, they might think that the strange uncle who eats children in their mother's stories really came to take them away.
Speaking of which, the entire Spanish team really doesn't have a good impression of this place. When thinking of South Korea, the two goals that were blown off in the Korea-Japan World Cup will emerge from their minds. In recent years, the people who hate South Korea the most are the Spanish and Italians.
Incheon Airport was bustling with people. All around Leandri, the sounds of the songs of Positive, Fan, and U were heard everywhere. Only then did he realize that he had arrived in Seoul.
Leandri, who was standing at the end of the team, scratched his curly hair and raised his hand to rub his stiff neck, then he heard a loud noise coming from behind.
The Spanish players turned around one after another, and wow, a group of blond cool guys swept over.
The head coach and the team leader blinked their eyes vigorously, trying to cheer themselves up. They took the initiative to go up and say hello. It was the German U17 team.
Several middle-aged men stood next to Leandri and praised each other in English, saying things like "Oh, you are very strong, I am optimistic about you", "No, no, we were defeated by you last year", "See you in the final" and so on. Who says foreigners are simple and honest and won’t play tricks? Everybody is respectable now.
While the two teams were being polite to each other, a little hairy girl with blond hair walked out from the German team. He took a quick look in front and saw Leandri who looked tired. Kroos took the initiative to walk over.
"Didn't you tell me before that you got disfigured in a fight?" Cross carefully observed the handsome face of his overseas friend.
Leandri didn't expect that the other party still remembered this. He was very happy to see his friend and took the initiative to hug the German. "That was a long time ago. It's all over now."
Then he pointed to the end of his eyebrow and said, "Someone kicked me there before and it caused a small cut. It healed in a few days."
Cross looked at the place he pointed and indeed there was no scar left. "I'm glad you're okay."
After the polite exchanges, the coaches returned to their own teams. As captain, Kroos could not "collaborate with the enemy" at this time.
Vazquez and Carvajal came over when they saw the German standing not far away and lining up with the coaches.
Carvajal: "You played with him in Munich last year?"
Vasquez was worried: "Ryan, you have to remind him to go see a doctor. I think he might be sick. Look how wide he is now?"
Leandri slapped Vasquez on the back of the neck and said, "What are you thinking? He is in Bayern, which has the best medical team in all European clubs."
Vazquez shrank his neck and continued to line up obediently, but Leandri's words to him could not be shaken off. Kroos' face and neck were even wider than the last time he saw them!
A total of 24 countries participated in the World Youth Championship, divided into six groups. The final round consists of the top two teams in each group and the four third-place teams with the highest scores. If the third-place teams have the same points, the seats will be determined based on the goal difference.
Spain's luck in the draw was average, as they were placed in Group C in the May draw, along with Argentina, Honduras and Syria.
The opening match was between North Korea and England in Seoul. The coaches were analyzing the game data and the players were beginning to prepare for the group stage.
Even though Group C still has Argentina, a traditional South American powerhouse, this year's Spanish U17 is too star-studded, with Nacho, Bojan, Leandri and others. Look at their bench also has De Gea, Carvajal and others. For a moment, Belgium's talented No. 10 Hazard and England's Welbeck could not shift the focus of scouts to their own teams. There are too many young talents in Spain, too many to see them all.
Bojan, who came from the La Masia training camp, has continuously broken the goal records in the youth team in recent years. As the highly-anticipated next little prince of Barcelona, he even played a friendly match on behalf of the first team as early as April this year. In order to affirm Bojan's future, the Black Swan allowed him to participate in the pre-season training of the Barcelona first team before the U17 set off.
With his outstanding performances on both offense and defense as well as those of Nacho, Leandri's goal was hardly threatened in the group stage. Spain won the first two games and advanced to the round of 16 securely. In the last group match against Syria, the head coach replaced most of the main players and gave them rests, and De Gea also played the entire game.
The Spanish U17 team had a smooth journey, and it seemed as if fate had already arranged it. Spain and Germany met at the airport and now meet again in the semi-finals.
The captains of both teams walked in front. For the first time, Leandri walked out of the stadium side by side with Kroos, both of them wearing captain's armbands on their arms.
When he went to the referee to flip a coin, Leandri asked, "Are you going to leave your jersey for Felix today?"
Kroos also smiled and said, "I'll exchange jerseys with you after the game."
Leandri nodded. "Alright, you can take my jersey as a trophy. We will help you to win in the finals."
After guessing the coin and choosing the side, the game officially begins with the referee's whistle.
Five minutes into the game, Germany seized their opportunity.
Kroos found a gap in the ball between two players in front of the arc and made a short pass directly into the Spanish team's penalty area.
Schurrle received the ball on the right side of the penalty spot and shot!
Leandri kept a close eye on the opponent's situation, and when the ball came, he punched it out with both fists. The Spanish defensive players who responded quickly switched from defense to offense.
Nacho made a long pass directly to the middle, and the Catalan prince steadily unloaded the ball and showed his fancy dribbling skills to rush towards the German half.
Bojan was still advancing forward, and Gundogan also retreated at this time, and together with the defender, he used his body to force him down at the front of the penalty area.
The referee awarded a free kick in a good position.
Ter Stegen nervously formed a wall of players, as no one wanted to concede a goal at the beginning of the game.
Run up and touch the ball!
With a bang, to the surprise of the German team, Spain actually made a tactical cooperation in this position. Instead of shooting directly, they knocked the ball across the middle.
It was still Bojan. Facing the misjudgment of the position in the penalty area, he shot directly with his left foot!
1-0, Spain is temporarily leading.
Ter Stegen shook his head helplessly, took the ball out of the net and threw it forward.
After the restart, the German team passed the ball back to Gundogan, who passed it directly to Schurrle in front of him without stopping.
The German team pressed directly towards Leandri's half.
Schurrle dribbled past the defense, causing cheers from the stands. They loved watching this kind of massive attack.
Kroos received the ball, he turned sideways to receive it and directly passed Vazquez, then dribbled towards the Spanish team's goal.
Leandri lowered his center of gravity and was ready to save the ball at any time, while Nacho next to him came over to assist.
Facing Nacho, Kroos faked a shot and then passed the ball. There were already German players running behind him to prepare for a cooperative pass, but the ball was directly blocked by Nacho.
In the 35th minute, the German team made a comeback.
The three players in the frontcourt passed the ball continuously to the Spanish half, and Kroos took a long shot!
When Leandri saw that it was Kroos who shot the goal, he concentrated all his energy and faced the ball coming straight at him. He pushed off the ground with his legs and stretched his body in the air.
The ball was lifted out of the baseline by Leandro with his palm.
At the beginning of the second half, neither side chose to make personnel changes.
In the 56th minute, Schurrle was brought down after receiving the ball on the flank, and the referee awarded a free kick in the frontcourt.
"Far corner, block the far corner!" Leandri directed his teammates to form a human wall.
Beep!
Kroos took the free kick, and just as Leandri expected, the German captain kicked the ball directly to the right side of the goal.
Originally, Leandri wanted to use the human wall to defend the far corner, while he himself would defend the near corner on the left. But Kroos's free kick was directed at the goal, and the ball was a little high. The ball quickly passed over the heads of the wall of people who crossed their hands in front of them and jumped with their eyes closed, and went straight to the right side of the defense.
Leandri quickly shifted his center of gravity and moved to the right side of the goal in a few steps!
"Kroos shot directly! It was saved, Leandri saved the ball! He has such a quick reaction ability and can adjust his position in a short time!" The commentator was also amazed by Leandri's ultimate save at this time.
Leandri folded his hands and blocked the football that was heading straight for his head.
Cross shook his head regretfully; their attack this time was unsuccessful again.
In the 78th minute, Germany had the closest chance to score.
The Spanish boy made a mistake in passing the ball and was intercepted by Gundogan. He just used the instep of his foot to kick the ball like kicking a shuttlecock, and the ball passed lightly over the Spanish midfield. After receiving the ball, Schurrle easily created a position facing Nacho and Carvajal who had just come on the field, and made another wonderful pass on the court.
Gundogan made a forward run and pulled the ball to the right, trying to find a chance to shoot.
Leandri's small steps never stopped. They had been leading for so long, and they couldn't let the opponent equalize at the last minute and let the game go wrong.
Gundogan raised his right foot and shot near the baseline. Leandri stretched out his hand to block the ball, which hit his arm and bounced out. Kroos found the right position and appeared at the end of the ball's flight path, and then shot into the far corner!
Leandri stood up quickly, lunged to the side, took the ball away again, and then fell into the net.
Gundogan wanted to take another shot, so he took the flying ball and shot again!
Leandri used his right foot to gain leverage from the grass, quickly crawled forward, and pressed the ball into his arms directly in front of the goal line.
Who says a goalkeeper’s only friends are the goalpost and the crossbar? The small lawn is obviously very cool!
The German team launched several subsequent attacks in an attempt to equalize the score, but unfortunately Nacholain and others performed really well in the remaining time, and the German team could only fight for the third place like last year.
Leandri was still thinking about waiting a while before going to find Kroos to change clothes. After all, the German had just lost the game and he had to relax for a while. But the German walked towards him on his own.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
