Chapter 568 Wang Li and the Goalkeeper
Italian team.
This team is definitely the most brilliant team in the history of the World Cup. They have won four World Cup titles, two runner-ups and one third place. In the overall ranking of World Cup historical results, Italy ranks third, only behind Brazil and Germany.
Italy's traditional jersey is blue shirt, white pants and blue socks. Its nickname is azzurri (blue, Italian), and its Chinese nickname is "Blue Warriors".
Due to historical war reasons, the team did not participate in the first World Cup in 1930. They then won the 1934 World Cup held in their home country and the 1938 World Cup in France without losing a single game, becoming the first defending champion of the World Cup.
However, the subsequent outbreak of World War II had a huge impact on Italian football. After World War II, the Italian team failed to qualify from the group stage for four consecutive World Cups, especially in the 1966 World Cup, where they lost 0-1 to North Korea in the last game of the group stage, creating one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history, and the performance of the two-time champions fell into a trough.
It was not until the 1970s that Italian football began to rise again.
In the 1970 World Cup, Italy advanced all the way and defeated the German team led by Beckenbauer in the semi-finals to reach the final. However, facing the Brazilian team led by the King of Football Pele, the Italian team's defense seemed fragmented. In the end, they were defeated by Brazil 1:4 and only won the runner-up.
For Italians, the 1982 World Cup was a very strange one.
In the group stage, they drew three games in three and only accumulated three points to barely qualify as second in the group. In the subsequent rematch, the Italians were grouped with two South American giants, Argentina and Brazil. At that time, almost no fans were optimistic about the prospects of the Italian team, but the Italians still created a miracle.
The main central defender Gentile successfully marked Maradona and Zico in two consecutive games. Golden boy Rossi also broke his goal drought in the match against Brazil, scoring all three goals for the team and performing a hat trick.
After passing the two most difficult levels, the remaining games were easy for the Italians. They beat Poland 2-0 in the semi-finals (Rossi scored both goals again). In the final, Italy defeated West Germany 3-1 (Rossi scored the first goal) and won the World Cup for the third time.
Italy gained a lot from this World Cup. The team's top scorer Rossi was named the top scorer with 6 goals, and the 40-year-old goalkeeper and captain Zoff became the oldest player to win the World Cup.
In 1990, Italy failed to win the World Cup held in their home country. They lost to Argentina in the semi-finals and finally finished third. In 1994, the Italian team advanced directly to the final with the help of superstar Baggio's 5 goals in the knockout round. Unfortunately, they lost to Brazil on penalties in the final and could only get runner-up.
In 1998, Italy faced the host France in the quarter-finals. After 120 minutes of battle, Italy was eliminated on penalties. In the last World Cup, the Italian team was the most miserable.
Perhaps these Koreans bribed the referee privately. In short, the referee was seriously biased towards the host country and even disallowed Italy's goal. As a result, the Korean team dragged Italy into overtime, and Italy lost to South Korea with a golden goal.
It is worth mentioning that this game is also considered one of the darkest games in the history of the World Cup.
And now, this favorite to win the championship in recent decades has appeared in the final again.
Serie A has always been known as the "Little World Cup". Even though the rise of the Premier League and La Liga has had some impact on Serie A in recent years, according to FIFA's assessment, Serie A still surpasses the Premier League to become the most influential league in the world.
The Serie A league is absolutely star-studded, and with the influence of some policies of the Italian Football Association, the Italian stars emerging in the league are fully capable of meeting the requirements of the national team, and they are even capable of switching to playing offensive football.
After Lippi took over as coach of the national team, he has publicly stated many times that he wants to bring "fresh air" to the Italian national team. He did it, and Italy safely qualified for the World Cup qualifiers.
But the biggest test for the "Silver Fox" has just arrived. This final is a test of Italy's strength. For Italy, which is full of top players, failure to win the championship almost means failure.
However, their opponent is the so-called 'unbeatable' England team.
This filled Italy with a tense atmosphere, because they were not absolutely sure of beating the current England team, but the game was about to start, and head coach Lippi could only try his best to prepare the players before the game. Success or failure would only depend on their performance at that time.
For the media, everyone is still optimistic about the England team in this game, because the England team has a superstar whose player has surpassed the hundred-year history of football, and such a star will have a huge impact on the game.
No one can deny Wang Li's strength.
The reason why Italy's head coach Lippi is not sure of victory is that the England team has a super shooter like Wang Li.
According to the statistics, Wang Li could score almost 3 goals in a game in the previous World Cup.
This means that Italy is playing against a 10-man England team, but they are three goals behind at the start. They must ensure that they can score four goals against such an England team in order to have any hope of winning.
Just hope.
What if this black-haired kid explodes and scores 4 goals?
Lippi really has no guarantee for this because he does not know Wang Li. Wang Li has never been to Serie A, and Lippi can only see Wang Li's performance from the video, which is no more direct than watching it live.
He only knew that this black-haired boy was very strong, really very strong!
He has first-rate dribbling skills, is very strong in physical confrontation, has outstanding long-range shooting ability, is very good at scoring in front of the goal, and has almost unlimited physical strength. Perhaps his only shortcomings are his average awareness and heading ability.
This is not a disadvantage at all.
Facing such a super player who is at least equivalent to two Maradonas, Lippi had no idea how to defend him. He could only ask the players to pay more attention to Wang Li during the game.
Perhaps, with the help of Italian-style zone defense, we can somehow limit this kid.
Maybe.
Anyway, AC Milan didn't do well in this regard during the European Champions League, and Lippi was not sure what the effect was. However, Lippi was confident in the team because Italy's all-star lineup was very complete, while this England all-star team was already full of injuries.
That’s right, before the final, England team received another piece of bad news – Ashley Cole was injured in a training match!!
This is extremely bad news for the England team, which already has a poor defensive line.
Now on England's defense line, main player Ferdinand is injured, midfielder Lampard is injured, goalkeeper Thomas Clarke is also injured, and now it is Ashley Cole's turn.
At this time, Campbell and Jamie Carragher didn't have to compete for the starting lineup at all.
As England was short of players, they would definitely be able to start at the same time, but this made McLaren pull his hair in frustration. No one would feel good after hearing such news before the final.
How to arrange this lineup?
At least on the defensive line, McClaren has no choice at all. Terry, Campbell, Carragher and Neville, these four people will definitely become the main force.
As for the midfield, Joe Cole will definitely get a chance, and the others are Gerrard, Wang Li, Beckham, Hargreaves and others. However, Beckham's form has been very poor in recent training matches and games, and Hargreaves' form is also not satisfactory.
The only thing that makes McLaren feel at ease is the forward line.
Rooney has returned from suspension, and with the addition of Owen, Harrison, Wang Li, Crouch and others, England's forward line even seems very crowded compared to the two positions.
As for the goalkeeper, he has no choice except Paul Robinson who often makes small mistakes. As for the third goalkeeper?
He couldn't even pronounce his name.
As for Italy
At the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, the capital of Germany, the live commentator has begun to introduce the starting rosters of the two teams.
"Italian team next!"
"The Italian team is a 4312 formation, with Gilardino and Toni as the starting strikers, Totti as the attacking midfielder, Gattuso, Pirlo and Camoranesi as the three midfielders, Grosso, Cannavaro, Nesta and Zambrotta as the defenders, and Buffon as the goalkeeper."
As soon as this lineup appeared, it caused cheers from the entire stadium.
The England team still uses a 442 formation, with goalkeeper Robinson, defenders Terry, Campbell, Carragher, Neville, midfielders Joe Cole, Wang Li, Gerrard and Jenas, and Rooney and Owen as the forwards.
This time, David Beckham sat on the bench, his condition was really worrying, and McClaren chose Jenas to replace him.
Jermaine Jenas is only 23 years old this year and currently plays for Aston Villa. As early as 2001, he became famous in the Forest team. At the age of 19, he was spotted by the wealthy Newcastle United Football Club (the Magpies were once a strong team ranked in the top three of the league, with more prestige than Chelsea) and bought him for 5 million pounds. That season, he helped the team to enter the top three and won the PFA Best Newcomer Award.
In 2002, Eriksson promoted him to the adult national team.
Although such a player seems to be a little immature in experience and skills, he is definitely more trustworthy than Beckham who is in unstable form.
In this England team's starting lineup, except for Gerrard, Wang Li, Rooney and Owen, the others are much less famous. Compared with the Italian team's all-star lineup of Totti, Buffon, Cannavaro, Nesta, Zambrotta and Pirlo, they are obviously inferior.
Therefore, many fans at the scene were shouting the name of the Italian team.
Before the game even started, England had already lost an advantage in terms of star players, but this did not seem to have much impact on the game, as England's attack still looked very powerful.
The England team had the right to kick off and the first attack was very successful. After a few brief cooperations, Wang Li shook off Zambrotta with his right foot in the penalty area and shot directly at the goal!
Unfortunately, the football hit the post and flew out of the bottom line.
But this also made all the players of the Italian team break out in a cold sweat. Some of them came from AC Milan and had actually played against Wang Li in a match, so they knew Wang Li's strength. Some of them came from other clubs and had never met Wang Li on the field.
After this attack, the players immediately became much more wary of Wang Li. They realized that the coach's instructions before the game were definitely not aimless. This black-haired boy is not just two Maradonas, but three Maradonas.
A shot from such a long distance almost resulted in a goal. It was really dangerous.
However, such thinking did not hinder Italy's attack.
England's attack looked really powerful, but there was a big gap in defense. When Italy started to attack, it was really difficult for this defense line to stop Italy's attack with the aging Campbell, the unstable Carragher, and Manchester United's supporting player Gary Neville.
Fortunately, there was still Chelsea captain John Terry. This time, Italy's attack was cleanly blocked by Terry directly on the penalty area line. As a result, the England team launched another powerful attack.
It's Wang Li!!
After receiving the pass in the midfield, Wang Li dribbled past three Italian players in a row, then dribbled past his opponent on the penalty area line and made a very powerful and accurate shot. Unfortunately, the ball was saved by Italian goalkeeper Buffon and hit the crossbar.
Don’t forget the Italian goalkeeper!
Buffon!
This name that people will always remember as a goalkeeper, maybe Kahn has been defeated by Wang Li, but the younger Buffon has emerged! !
Seeing this save, Wang Li grinned and felt that he had met his match again.
The feeling of beating up your opponent is really refreshing...
Maybe.
The Italian players thought so too. At least their all-star offensive line was very powerful in crushing England's back line. In the 11th minute of the game, Italy scored the first goal. The goal was scored by forward Alberto Gilardino.
It was a very accurate shot.
But the goal seemed unimportant because England's goalkeeper Paul Robinson was injured!!
This guy might have been too excited just now. When he tried to catch the ball, he fell directly on the grass, and then he held his head with both hands and struggled in pain.
This scene made England head coach McClaren's heart sink to the bottom of the abyss.
The main reason was that in this game, he did not arrange the third goalkeeper Carson on the bench. This might be a mistake on McClaren's part, but it was also a helpless move, because England's defense was really worrying. He placed the only few substitute spots on the midfield and defense lines.
Who would have thought that after Thomas was injured last time, Robinson would be injured again in this game???
The awkward atmosphere continued to spread.
For this reason, the referee even stopped the game for 3 minutes to allow the England team to discuss countermeasures. This scene made all the media who were optimistic about the England team before the game start to favor the Italy team.
The game had only been going on for more than 10 minutes when the England team lost their goalkeeper. The importance of the goalkeeper is unquestionable, and this position is even more important than Wang Li.
Wang Li can only score goals, but the goalkeeper can concede goals.
After a sweaty discussion, McLaren finally made a decision. He asked Phil Neville, who had nominated himself, to put on the goalkeeper's uniform and stand in front of the England goal.
At this time, Lippi finally saw the hope of victory. The old man even laughed out loud in the coaching booth! !
In the eyes of most people, the England team has no goalkeeper, so how can they win the game? !
It can almost be said that as long as there is a chance, Italy can score a goal. The importance of a goalkeeper is really much greater than that of a striker. A professional goalkeeper can save all kinds of dangerous balls, while a non-professional defender can act as a temporary goalkeeper. Maybe he is lucky not to throw the ball into his own goal.
Did Italy win like this? Of course not. At least on the court, Wang Li didn't think Italy would definitely win.
Just now, Wang Li wanted to recommend himself to be the goalkeeper.
Although he has almost never been a goalkeeper, this does not hinder Wang Li's goalkeeping level. In fact, Wang Li is best at the goalkeeper position.
Tianshan Zhemei Hand, Great Compassion Thousand Leaves Hand, and even the most basic Luohan Fist are all martial arts moves using the hands. What will happen when these internal martial arts that can even catch bullets with the hands are used on the football field?
What if we add the martial arts of Qinggong from the Tianshan Coffin Palace?
Nobody knows.
But Wang Li is very confident. If he stands in the position of goalkeeper, will the Italian team still be able to score a goal? ? ?
Dream on!!!!
Although Wang Li didn't like the goalkeeper position, this was the World Cup final, and the England team and himself were almost able to touch the World Cup trophy. At this moment, how could he give up the victory just because of his reluctance! !
This is an opportunity that only comes once in four years.
However, England is now one goal behind.
Even if Wang Li were to be the goalkeeper now and ensure that no goals were conceded throughout the game, this would not solve the problem at all, because he could not guarantee that the England team could equalize the score.
Without him on the field, he did not have much faith in England's so-called 'luxury attacking line'. These teammates had relied too much on themselves. Without him on the field, it would be very difficult for them to rely on their ability to break through Italy's defense and score.
(To be continued)