Chapter 618 Preparing for the 2018 World Cup
It has been 5 days since the Champions League final.
It is already June, and the 2018 Russia World Cup is getting closer and closer.
The 32 participating national teams are now making intensive preparations.
Since they had just participated in the Champions League final, Lin Quan and David Silva reported to the national team much later than others.
Bosque took care of Lin Quan and others who had just finished a big battle and whose physical strength had not yet fully recovered, so he allowed them to rest for three days before reporting to the team.
But three days are not enough to erase the fatigue of the entire season.
After all, there is no winter break in the evil Premier League! "David's injury is quite troublesome, and he may need to rest for three to four weeks, so he may not be able to catch up with the group stage."
David Silva was accidentally injured in the Champions League final, which made him miss the team's pre-match training.
"Should we recruit someone new?"
Other coaches on the coaching staff asked Bosque for advice, saying that since the World Cup has not started yet, there is still time to make personnel adjustments. Once the World Cup starts, it will be impossible to make substitutions.
"Forget it, just take him with you. It's not easy to change people in this position!"
Bosque shook his head. The only one who could rotate with David Silva in his position was Iniesta. The strength of the others was a level lower than these two and there was no way they could replace them.
What's more, Xiaobai is already 34 years old, and his physical fitness and condition are no longer enough to support him to play the whole game.
Therefore, the importance of David Silva is highlighted.
Moreover, he and the core of the team, Lin Quan, have been cooperating with each other in the same club for a long time, and the tacit understanding between the two is the highest in the entire national team.
Sending him on the court will make it easier for him to create sparks with Lin Quan, which will be of great help to the team's offense and may even save the team at critical moments.
So even if he might not be able to play in the group stage, Bosque would still take him with him.
As long as he recovers from his injury, he will be useful in the knockout stage.
"Okay, if that's the case, then we'll submit this final list without making any adjustments?"
The national team's roster must first be uploaded to the Spanish Football Association, and then uploaded by the Spanish Football Association to FIFA for confirmation.
"Um!"
Bosque nodded absentmindedly, his attention now entirely focused on the training ground.
This team on the training ground made him feel somewhat unfamiliar, even though these players were all carefully selected by him after observing them one by one.
However, after the absence of many familiar faces, Bosque always felt as if he had lost some confidence in his heart.
Only when he saw the familiar figure of Lin Quan did he feel a little relieved.
This national team, in terms of overall lineup, is not as good as those in the previous two World Cups.
But fans in Spain and around the world have high expectations of the Spanish team because they are the defending champions.
Many people regard the Spanish team as the biggest favorite to win the championship, but in the view of people who are familiar with the inside story of Spain, such as Bosque, it is very difficult to win the championship with such a team.
Bosque is 68 years old this year. After coaching this World Cup, he will definitely retire.
He will be 70 years old at the next European Cup and 72 years old at the Qatar World Cup.
He really can't lead the team at this age. Even though the work in the national team is slightly easier than that in the club, he can't hold on.
Besides, even if he failed to lead the team to defend the title this time, he still won two World Cup titles.
There are so many famous coaches in the world of football, but how many of them can lead their team to win two World Cups? A man should be content. He is already satisfied with so many honors and achievements.
Next, the burden will be handed over to the young people. Guardiola of Manchester City is the candidate he prefers.
Of course, Enrique, who resigned from Barcelona last year, is also one of the alternatives.
The reason for choosing these two people is very simple.
Because they have all coached Barcelona and know Barcelona's tactical style of play.
The main force of the Spanish national team is the Barcelona gang. If the head coach of the national team is not familiar with Barcelona's technical and tactical play, he will not be able to lead the national team well.
Of course, this situation may change in the future. After all, Barcelona is no longer as strong as before in La Liga.
After the golden generation of players from the La Masia youth training camp retire, the number and influence of Barcelona in the national team will gradually decline, and the national team coach will then have a much wider range of choices.
…
After Lin Quan reported to the team, Bosque immediately arranged confrontational training between the main players and the substitute players.
During the team training phase, the so-called main players are not the final starting lineup. The head coach will consider multiple factors including the players' performance and status in the team training games and their attitude in daily training, and finally select the team's 11-man starting lineup.
Of course, there are a few positions that will not change easily.
For example, Lin Quan on the front line, Iniesta in the midfield, Ramos as defender and De Gea as goalkeeper.
As long as these four players do not suffer major injuries, their starting positions will be very stable.
After several team training sessions, in order to test the team's training results, the Spanish team arranged a friendly match with the Swiss team.
The Swiss team is also a participating team in this World Cup. They are placed in Group E, which includes Serbia, Brazil, Costa Rica and other teams.
These teams are all strong, especially Brazil, which is also one of the favorites to win the World Cup. Although not as popular as four years ago, the Samba Army has always been a strong team and no one dares to underestimate them.
Considering the strong offensive strength of the Brazilian team, the Swiss team is eager to find a strong team with equal or stronger strength than Brazil to compete with and test their defensive capabilities.
The Swiss team is not strong in offense, but has outstanding defensive capabilities.
During the World Cup in South Africa, the Spanish team suffered at their feet.
In this game, the Swiss obviously played more seriously than the Spanish.
After all, with Spain's strength, it is not difficult to qualify from the group stage.
But the situation faced by the Swiss team is not so good. They most likely cannot beat Brazil, so their main targets for scoring points are the other two opponents in the group, Serbia and Costa Rica.
These two teams are quite strong, and Switzerland's offensive ability is not strong. They can only do their best in defense, based on defense, seize the opponent's mistakes, and then wait for an opportunity to steal one.
After half an hour of the first half, the score was still 0:0. Although it was just a friendly match, winning or losing was not important.
However, seeing that the team's offense was so unsmooth, Bosque on the sidelines couldn't sit still.
In a friendly match where there is no limit on the number of substitutions, it is difficult for the Spanish team to consume the opponent's physical strength through passing and controlling the ball, and then seize the opportunity of the opponent's physical strength decreasing and increasing mistakes to launch a counterattack.
Therefore, in this game, the Spanish team mainly practiced the offensive tactics of positional warfare.
However, in order to be effective in positional warfare, a high level of tacit understanding between the players is required.
On weekdays, everyone plays for different teams, and each team has a different style.
The players have different habits, so they need to observe and adapt to their teammates' habits while playing, adjust while playing, and finally get everyone on the same channel so that they can play ideal cooperation.
This kind of thing is actually not difficult, and there is no trick to it. All it takes is time.
But for a team like the national team that is assembled temporarily and has a relatively short training period, time is exactly what they lack the most.
So there is nothing to complain about such a terrible result. Instead of wasting time complaining, you might as well think about how to improve it.
Bosque watched for a while and made a decisive substitution.
He replaced Iniesta with Atletico Madrid's central midfielder Saul.
Saul is very comprehensive and can play in multiple positions in midfield.
At the age of 23, he has abundant physical strength and strong running ability, and covers a very wide range.
In addition, his speed and explosiveness are also excellent, and he can be used as a winger when necessary.
In this national team, Saul is a young player that Bosque is very optimistic about. If he can continue to maintain his current form, he will definitely become the main force of the team in the next World Cup.
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Of course, in Bosque's positioning, Saul is mainly used to assist Lin Quan.
The purpose of replacing Iniesta with him is to help the Spanish team create space in the middle, making it easier for Lin Quan to better complete the organizational and offensive work.
As for the other midfielder Isco, his task is very simple.
He is only responsible for passing the ball, using his broad vision and creativity to do everything possible to get the ball to the feet of the striker and feed it to his teammates.
After reorganizing the team's midfield, the Spanish team's offensive quality immediately improved.
In the 38th minute, Lin Quan assisted Diego Costa to score a goal.
After seeing the goal, Bosque showed a relieved smile on his face.
It seems that this combination is quite effective. You can write it down in a small notebook and maybe use it when you get to the World Cup in a few days.
After the Swiss team lost the ball, they played slowly and did not launch a blind counterattack.
There is still a big gap in strength between the two teams. If they dare to attack, the empty defense will be shot into a sieve by Spain's powerful firepower.
Since winning or losing doesn't matter, just continue to play the role of defender.
The Swiss didn't expect to win or even draw with Spain, but sometimes things just work out that way.
In the 62nd minute of the second half, the Swiss team took advantage of Spain's mistake and launched a counterattack. They scored a goal in just one counterattack.
This was the only shot on target for the Swiss team in the entire game, and they scored with just one shot on target. This efficiency is simply outrageous.
De Gea looked unhappy. It was not because he didn't try hard, but because the opponent's play was too tricky.
Neither side scored a goal in the remaining time, and Spain's first warm-up match ended in a draw.
Compared to the tepid 1:1 draw of the Spanish team, the French defeated Italy 3:1 at the Stade de France. Mbappe, Griezmann, Dembele and other young French players scored goals, demonstrating the powerful strength of the French Youth Guard!
Although it was just a warm-up match, the opponent was the veteran powerhouse Italy.
This made the game very valuable. After the game, all parties rushed to praise the French team, and many celebrities believed that the French team had the potential to win the championship.
No wonder they brag like that, just look at who is on the French team!
Dembele, Griezmann, Mbappe, Pogba, Kante...
Which one of them is not a famous figure in the football world in recent years? Except for Kante, the other four players are all worth more than 100 million euros.
Their combined value exceeds that of most of the participating teams in this World Cup.
Kante, who has the lowest price, is recognized as the best midfielder in the world by international football! This French team has both the price and strength, and most importantly, they are young. They are too young! Even if they fail to win this World Cup, they will still be the favorites to win the next World Cup.
The French team, which is bursting with talent, will sooner or later stand on the championship podium and lift the World Cup trophy.
…
Bosque ignored the criticism from the outside world and continued to carry out his preparations step by step.
On June 10, with less than four days left before the opening match of the World Cup, the Spanish team played its final warm-up match against Tunisia.
Because this is the last game before the World Cup, many impatient Spanish fans rushed to the scene, wanting to witness with their own eyes the results of the team's preparations during this period.
However, to their disappointment, the Spanish team played even uglier in this game than in the previous one.
The Spanish team's attack can only be described with words like simple, rough and clumsy.
You can see that the players tried very hard, but their cooperation was simply appalling.
Bosque quickly replaced six or seven players in succession, trying various combinations one by one as if he was solving a permutation and combination problem.
The final results were not very ideal. Finally, Shui Ye couldn't stand it anymore. When the game was nearing the end, he rushed into the penalty area and headed the ball, helping the team win the game.
Although the final result was that the Spanish team won, the expressions on the faces of the fans who watched the entire game looked as if they were the losing side.
This is no wonder. Before the game started, they had extremely high expectations for the team, but after actually watching the game, all these expectations were dashed.
Spanish fans are now starting to panic.
How can the team play in the World Cup in this state?
They were all a little worried that the team would be eliminated in the group stage! Fortunately, Spain's luck in the draw was actually quite good, as the remaining three opponents in Group B were not very strong.
In addition to the old rival Portugal in the European Cup, the remaining two opponents are Iran and Morocco, one from Asia and the other from Africa.
These two teams are not very strong and their records in the World Cup are not good.
Although Iran has participated in five World Cups, it has never advanced beyond the group stage.
Morocco has only reached the round of 16 once, and failed to qualify from the group stage in the other five times.
Facing such an opponent, even if Spain is not in good shape, it is still certain to advance to the round of 16.
But Spanish fans are not going there for the round of 16, what they are looking forward to is the World Cup.
But the team's current state shows no hope of winning the championship.
This is the fundamental reason why the fans are so disappointed.
No wonder no team has ever won three consecutive World Cup titles. It turns out that it is so difficult to achieve this feat! (End of this chapter)