Chapter 188 The Scapegoat [Merry Christmas·Fourth update, begging for monthly ticket subscription! ]
Francisco Pavon, a 23-year-old central defender, is a typical Madridist.
He has been trained in Real Madrid's youth training camp since he was a child, climbing up one echelon after another and finally entering the first team.
He still clearly remembers that on the night of October 6, 2001, head coach Bosque replaced youth player Raul Bravo with him in the 70th minute. It was his first appearance in Real Madrid's first team, and the team defeated Athletic Bilbao 2-0.
Two months later during the winter break, Real Madrid signed a seven-year contract extension with him.
Almost at the same time, Real Madrid president Florentino formally proposed the [Zidane + Pavon] policy.
Overnight, the young youth player became famous all over the world and caused a huge response.
Who is Paveen?
Why is his name listed alongside Zidane's?
Paven never thought that he would become famous in this way, let alone that the pressure brought to him by this way of fame would be so great, even great enough to destroy a person's self-confidence.
Bosque is a good man. He has coached the Real Madrid youth team for a long time. He loves Real Madrid very much and often uses his rest time to observe the training and games of the youth team. He understands Real Madrid's youth training and trusts the youth training players.
Playing under Bosque, Pavon worked diligently and tread carefully. Although there were some controversies, his performance was still quite satisfactory.
But who would have thought that even a Real Madrid player like Bosque would be sacked.
Although Florentino has repeatedly emphasized that he brought in Queiroz because he valued his ability to train young players and hoped that he could train Real Madrid's youth players into talents, everyone knows that it is empty talk.
In fact, Real Madrid chose Queiroz after failing to poach famous coaches such as Wenger and Ancelotti.
The addition of a new superstar every year has brought Real Madrid a lot of benefits. The team has eased the financial pressure in 2001, especially with the joining of Beckham this summer, Real Madrid's future financial income is even more promising. In this case, in the blueprint of President Florentino, what is needed is more Zidane, where is the need for Pavon? Therefore, this summer, there are constant calls to introduce world-class central defenders such as Nesta and Samuel.
Although it did not succeed in the end, it also sounded a wake-up call for young players such as Paven.
In the past, the team's finances were limited and the transfer budget was invested more in superstars in the frontcourt. But from now on, Real Madrid will have enough financial resources to introduce superstars in the frontcourt and strong reinforcements in the backcourt.
If Paven wants to continue to gain a foothold in the team, he must perform well enough.
As a native of Real Madrid, Pavon has a very clear understanding of his situation, so he has been particularly diligent and hard-working throughout the summer training camp.
But things did not get better despite his efforts.
Old captain Hierro is gone!
Elguera began to become Pavon's partner in central defense.
This player from northern Spain plays tough and bravely, but he comes from a midfield background and is not tall, only 1.84 meters. He lacks physical confrontation, and his playing habits as a midfielder make his defense in the center back position very problematic.
In the season when Elguera gained a foothold in Real Madrid, he actually played as a central defender, but that central defender was not this central defender.
In 2000, Bosque came to the rescue of Real Madrid's first team and made drastic changes to the team's tactics, adopting a five-back tactic. The most thoughtful move was to withdraw Elguera from midfield to center back to serve as a sweeper.
This style of play completely reversed Real Madrid's sluggish performance that season, and they made it all the way to the Champions League final, eventually defeating Valencia to win the championship. Elguera also became famous overnight and established a firm foothold in the first team.
As superstars joined one after another, Helguera's position was hovering between defensive midfielder and central defender, but his problems always existed, so much so that some Spanish media joked that "Helguera is Casillas' best goalkeeper coach."
Pavon is good at stealing the ball and fighting one-on-one with opponents, but no defender can ensure that every steal and every defense will be successful, especially a young central defender like Pavon in a team like Real Madrid that focuses more on offense than defense.
In the past, there was the experienced Hierro, but now there is the latecomer Elguera.
What's worse is that Makelele, the defensive midfielder, is gone! From the pre-season warm-up matches, Pavon has clearly felt the increasing defensive pressure. He has also reported it to head coach Queiroz several times. The Portuguese head coach gave positive feedback and said that he would consider letting Beckham play as a defensive midfielder.
Will the combination of Cambiasso and Beckham work?
Parveen didn’t know.
But tonight, facing the fierce Valencia away from home, Queiroz's single defensive midfielder and small diamond midfield undoubtedly added a mountain of pressure to Real Madrid's defense, especially Pavon and Elguera.
Cambiasso is no Makelele at all.
With the superstars in the frontcourt not actively defending, Makelele could only hold on with difficulty, and Cambiasso had an even harder time.
Perhaps Cambiasso is worse than Makelele in passing and controlling the ball in the midfield and in controlling the game situation, but in defense, especially when the opponent counterattacks quickly, Cambiasso's effect is far inferior to Makelele.
So much so that Paven had to steal the ball again and again to make up for the weakness in the midfield.
He knew it was dangerous, and every time he tried to steal the ball, it might cause a mistake behind him, but he had no choice.
If we don't block the midfield, do we have to let the opponent take the ball directly and face the back line and the goal?
Pavon's only hope is that Ronaldo and Zidane in front of him can break the opponent's goal as soon as possible.
…
Real Madrid controlled the tempo of the game and the ball, and created several chances.
First, Figo received a wonderful pass from Zidane and shot in the penalty area, but Palop flew to save it.
But soon, Valencia changed its color.
It was Su Dong who retreated again, took the ball with his back, overpowered Elguera and turned to pass the ball behind him. Aimar quickly followed up and shot in the penalty area, but the goalkeeper Casillas flew to save the ball.
Left winger Vicente followed up with another shot, and Casillas made a second save, again pushing the ball out of the baseline.
Facing Valencia's attacks twice in a row, Casillas made two saves to keep Real Madrid's goal intact.
But after Casillas got up from the ground, the first thing he did was to yell at Pavon and other teammates who were chasing back, showing his dissatisfaction with the defense line.
Pavan and Elguera could only lower their heads and take the blame.
Four minutes later, the superstars in the frontcourt created another chance. It was another straight pass from Zidane. Ronaldo successfully made an offside and received the ball in the penalty area. Facing the attacking Palop, the Brazilian failed to control the ball when he stopped with his left foot and missed a great opportunity.
Everyone could see that he had gained weight and was running slower.
If it was Ronaldo in his prime, Palop would have no chance at all.
Of course, as the team with the best defense in La Liga, Valencia's goal is not so easy to break.
When Pavan and Elguera saw Ronaldo miss the opportunity, they looked at each other and then turned their eyes to Su Dong.
This kid is Valencia's most troublesome player.
…
The game goes on.
After Valencia stabilized its position, it gradually gained strength.
They did not chase the ball, the whole team maintained a compact formation, and once they grabbed the ball, they quickly launched a counterattack.
This made it particularly difficult for Real Madrid to cope with the situation because the superstars in the frontcourt basically did not participate in the defense.
Valencia's counterattacks either involve long passes to the frontcourt to find Su Dong, or to the wing.
This time, Albelda made a long pass to Vicente on the left.
Vicente dribbled the ball forward along the left and quickly attracted Salgado over.
Paven kept in touch with Salgado, while also keeping an eye on Sudong.
When he saw Su Dong retreating and raising his hand to ask for the ball, he followed him immediately.
Vicente did not challenge Salgado directly, and obviously did not have the confidence to eat the Spanish international. He stopped suddenly and dribbled towards the middle, and quickly sent the ball to Su Dong who retreated to receive the ball.
Paven rushed to Su Dong immediately, trying to stand behind him and prevent him from turning around.
But Su Dong was prepared. Without stopping the ball, he directly knocked Vincent's pass back and turned around and sprinted forward without hesitation.
Paven's attention was first focused on the ball. When he realized something was wrong, he went to look for Su Dong, only to find that Su Dong had already started accelerating, which shocked him.
Especially when he saw Aimar chasing up from behind, facing Su Dong's return pass, he directly passed the ball behind him.
Damn it!
It turns out that this is the coordination routine!
Paven shouted his teammate Elguera's name [Ivan] and turned around immediately.
But at this time, Su Dong had already rushed to the front of the penalty area and used his chest to pass Aimar's ball towards the penalty area.
…
Amid the exclamations of Valencia fans, Su Dong passed Pavon at the fastest speed, rushed to the front of the penalty area, chested the ball into the penalty area, and then chased forward.
In the penalty area, Casillas decisively left the goal to attack.
The Real Madrid goalkeeper is not tall but is very flexible, and he is very fast in both reaction and attack.
But Su Dong was well prepared.
He had already experienced Casillas' ability when he was knocked down in the penalty area by Casillas with the ball just now.
But he won't make the same mistake a second time.
This time he stopped the ball with a little less force, and the ball fell on the left side of the penalty spot. Su Dong rushed up at the fastest speed and stopped the ball just before Casillas arrived.
The Real Madrid goalkeeper was determined to succeed in this attack, but he did not expect Su Dong to be so fast.
Especially when he stopped the ball first, his whole body stopped abruptly and moved to the right.
Just like this, very simply, yet very practical, Su Dong shook off Casillas' attack.
The desperate Real Madrid goalkeeper fell to the ground and tried to stop Su Dong in vain. He could only watch Su Dong go away and pin all his hopes on Elguera who returned to defense.
But before Elguera arrived, Su Dong had already caught up with the ball near the penalty spot, and with a furious shot with his right foot, he pumped the ball hard into the Real Madrid goal, bringing a wave of balls to the net! It was not until this moment that the Mestaña Stadium burst into thunderous exclamations!
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(End of this chapter)
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