Chapter 213 Lin Feng Becomes the Vice Captain of the National Football Team
Generally speaking, a team will only have one captain and one vice-captain.
But from what Zhu Guanghu said, he is planning to implement two vice-captains in the national football team. Zhao Junzhe's position as vice-captain will remain unchanged, and the other vice-captain will be given to Lin Feng.
The assistant coach was stunned for a moment and thought that it might be possible if you play it this way.
But there are many people in the team who covet the position of captain. Even if you can't become captain for the time being, you can still be a deputy captain in line.
So even if you come up with two deputy captains, they may not necessarily be convinced and will still want to snatch the position of deputy captain from Lin Feng.
Unless there are some targeted restrictions.
"Haha, I've already thought of this, just use the U23 system!"
Zhu Guanghu was full of confidence. It was obvious that the idea he just put forward was not something he came up with on the spur of the moment, but was a solution that he had really thought out after careful consideration.
The so-called U23 system is to allocate part of the team's resources to young people under the age of 23 on the grounds of cultivating young talents.
I have two deputy captains. If we really rank them based on seniority, then Lin Feng definitely won't have a place.
After all, Shao Jiayi, Xu Yunlong, Zheng Zhi and others have far more experience than him.
But if a restriction is added to the second vice-captain: the player must be a young player under the age of 23, then these older players who have more experience than Lin Feng will instantly lose the qualification to compete.
Moreover, this deputy captain was originally extra and did not harm their interests. Now that restrictions have been added, it is impossible for them to obtain it, so they will not have any evil thoughts.
Thinking of this, Zhu Guanghu couldn't help but give a thumbs up to his own intelligence!
I am indeed a genius!
Seeing that the assistant coach could not say anything against it, Zhu Guanghu made a decision immediately and announced the result in a subsequent team training speech.
But somewhat to his surprise, the players did not seem to have much resistance to Lin Feng serving as the second vice-captain, even though he announced the appointment of the second vice-captain first and then announced the U23 policy.
What does this mean?
This shows that in the hearts of the national team players, Lin Feng's status is much higher than Zhu Guanghu imagined.
Although he is very young, he was able to secure a starting spot in a Serie A giant at the age of 18 and led the team to win the Serie A championship as an absolute core.
With such achievements and abilities, who wouldn’t give a thumbs up?
Besides, even if we put aside the club’s performance, the national team’s record has improved significantly since Lin Feng joined the team.
Without Lin Feng, can the Chinese team beat the German team away?
Can they easily beat the West Asian powerhouse Iraq away from home?
Everyone has a scale in their hearts, and everyone knows very clearly how strong Lin Feng is.
In competitive sports, strength is respected. Since the opponent is strong, everyone will naturally respect him.
Even many national team players are determined to cling to Lin Feng's big thigh to see if they can follow Lin Feng to the World Cup again!
Even for Chinese players, participating in a World Cup is the dream of many people.
In Milu's national team that year, Li Ming was not selected for the World Cup roster, so he resented Milu for a long time.
However, there are not many veterans in the current Chinese national football team who participated in the 02 World Cup, not even half.
By the time the World Cup in South Africa comes four years later, I'm afraid all the veteran players from earlier years will have retired.
At that time, it will be up to these Mesozoic and younger generation players to step up. Among these Mesozoic players, very few can match the talents and abilities of the older generation players.
It is almost impossible for them to make it to the World Cup relying on their own strength alone, so they can only turn their attention to the younger generation of players. Unfortunately, among this generation of young players, there is a monster who suddenly emerges.
With the talent and fighting power he is showing now, maybe he will really have a chance in four years.
In this situation, only someone with a screw loose would offend Lin Feng. Everyone is eager to please him!
The team members did not show much resistance, which made Zhu Guanghu, who had prepared a lot of speeches, powerless.
So he could only let the players continue training reluctantly, and he and the coaches in charge of training began to adjust the training plan of the national football team according to the technical and tactical characteristics of the opponents in the next warm-up match.
That evening, the Chinese national football team quietly announced a piece of news on its official website:
Lin Feng was appointed as the second vice-captain of the national football team!
The message is not long, but the impact it brings is not small at all.
The domestic football community has launched a heated discussion regarding this personnel arrangement for the national football team. There are many who support Lin Feng, but there are also many who oppose it.
Amid the quarrels in the outside world, Zhu Guanghu turned a deaf ear to what was happening outside and focused only on studying his opponents.
The Chinese national football team’s first opponent is Ecuador. To be honest, the national football team lacks understanding of this opponent.
Ecuador has rarely appeared in international competitions before. Since their first participation in the World Cup last season, they have begun to attract attention from the outside world.
To be honest, it was quite unexpected that they were able to beat football powerhouses such as Uruguay and Colombia in the fierce competition in South America and get the last qualifying spot.
But the fact that Ecuador has successfully qualified for two consecutive World Cups in South America, where there are so many strong teams, shows that its strength should not be underestimated.
However, Ecuador's luck does not seem to be very good. This time they were placed in Group A, in the same group as the host Germany team.
Although the German team is not the favorite to win this World Cup due to its lack of young players in the squad.
But the German team has a good record in previous World Cups, and they are playing at home, so there will be no problem for them to qualify from the group stage.
This means that Ecuador will compete with two other teams for the last qualifying spot.
The other two teams in the same group are Poland and Costa Rica!
One is a strong team in Europe, and the other is a strong team in North America, both of them are very strong.
Given Ecuador's strength, there is no certainty of defeating the opponent, so the qualifying situation of Group A is actually quite vague.
The first round match between Ecuador and Poland may be a life-and-death battle for both teams.
Because the other three teams in this group will most likely lose when they meet the German team, which means they only have two actual effective games, and it will be basically difficult for them to advance if they lose one!
It is also because of this that Ecuador arrived in Germany early to prepare for the World Cup, and made appointments with many teams of similar strength to play friendly matches in advance, so as to keep the team in peak condition before the World Cup begins.
……
The friendly match with Ecuador is scheduled for May 5, which is more than three days away.
Considering that Ecuador's forward line is relatively strong and likes to look for breakthroughs from the flanks, the Chinese national football team has also focused on practicing corresponding defensive tactics in recent days.
In addition, the forwards selected by Zhu Guanghu this time were Li Jinyu, Han Peng and Gao Lin, and veterans such as Xie Hui and Li Yi were not selected.
Li Jinyu is a striker who is good at scoring goals. He is flexible in his movements and has a keen sense of smell in front of the goal, but he is not very good at heading.
Han Peng is known as an aerial master and is very good at heading. The two of them can complement each other on the field.
As for Gao Lin, his characteristic is that he can receive the ball and pass the ball with his back to the goal. He can act as a fulcrum on the front line and assist his teammates.
Among these three, Zhu Guanghu will choose two of them in every game. Li Jinyu should be the main player, and the remaining two will be sent to assist him according to different situations.
However, the real offensive core of the national football team is not on the front line, but in Lin Feng, who is in the front midfielder position. His ability to dribble and pass threatening balls in quick counterattacks will be the most important factor in determining the quality of the national football team's counterattacks.
In order to make Lin Feng play comfortably, Zhu Guanghu consciously arranged several other midfielders to get closer to Lin Feng, support and protect him, so as to prevent the opponent from targeting Lin Feng.
The most famous player in this national football team is Lin Feng. As long as the opponent is not a fool, he will definitely try every means to restrict and target Lin Feng.
If the opponent really does this, Zhu Guanghu has an alternative plan, which is to arrange Chen Tao and Lin Feng to play together as double attacking midfielders.
In this way, the Chinese national team will have two engines in the frontcourt. If we count Zheng Zhi in the midfield, the Chinese national team will have three points to exert force at the same time in the counterattack with the ball. Even if the opponent wants to target them, they will not be able to do so.
However, although Chen Tao has excellent ability to organize offense, he is relatively thin and his defensive ability is not outstanding. He is far less versatile than Lin Feng and Zheng Zhi.
If he is really arranged to play, the intensity of the Chinese national team's on-the-spot counter-attacks and interceptions in the midfield and frontcourt may decrease.
Therefore, in Zhu Guanghu's plan, Chen Tao will be regarded as a backup plan in most cases, sitting on the bench and waiting for the situation on the field to change.
When the team needs him to play, he will let Chen Tao play.
However, Chen Tao is the main player of the Bundesliga runner-up after all. To be honest, even Zhu Guanghu felt a lot of pressure to have such a big-name player sitting on the bench.
So he had to communicate with the players in advance to gain their understanding.
But even if he did the work for the players in advance, since he couldn't communicate with the fans, when the game really started, there would definitely be many fans who would call him an idiot, asking whether he would be able to coach the game by leaving such an excellent player like Chen Tao unused.
Zhu Guanghu has no control over these criticisms.
He is already exhausted from dealing with the next four warm-up match opponents who are stronger than the last. How can he be so thoughtful?
……
Although they were just four friendly matches, major domestic media were paying close attention to the situation of the Chinese national football team.
After the Chinese national football team arrived in Germany, major domestic media outlets began to report on the team's preparations and build momentum for these games in advance.
Because the World Cup, which is held every four years, is approaching, and the Chinese national football team participated in the last World Cup, it attracted the attention of fans across the country and also indirectly popularized and promoted what the World Cup is to the general public.
Influenced by this, although the Chinese team did not participate in this year's World Cup, it still received extremely high attention.
The closer it gets to the World Cup, the more heated it gets.
It’s just a pity that there is no Chinese team in this World Cup, which makes the majority of football fans feel regretful.
But the Chinese team was able to invite four such high-quality teams to whet everyone's appetite before the opening match of the World Cup, and the fans were also very happy.
The day before the game, he could not resist the reporters' soft and hard coaxing and various connections he made.
Zhu Guanghu had no choice but to agree to let the players accept an interview with reporters.
As the biggest star of the Chinese national football team, Lin Feng had the most reporters chasing him, with all kinds of cameras and almost surrounding him.
"Don't crowd, come one by one!"
Seeing a large number of reporters rushing over from behind, Lin Feng's face changed:
No, how many of you came?
He even suspected that he had disturbed the reporters' nest. Could it be that reporters from all over the country had come here? Otherwise, why would there be so many people?
"Lin Feng, the Chinese team regrets missing this World Cup. Do you have the confidence to lead the Chinese team to the next World Cup?"
Lin Feng originally thought that the reporters would ask questions about tomorrow's game, but he never expected that these reporters would not play by the rules at all.
Who can stand asking about the next World Cup right away?
Lin Feng smiled and answered in a joking way:
"If the team still wants me at that time, I will definitely try my best!"
Hearing Lin Feng's answer, the reporters around him also started laughing.
You are the number one player in the national football team, who dares not want you?
Some reporters were dissatisfied with Lin Feng's evasive answer. They did not want to hear that he would try his best, but only wanted Lin Feng to guarantee that he would lead the Chinese team to the World Cup.
But it was obviously impossible for Lin Feng to meet such a request.
Next, he met a few reporters who were still trying to get to the bottom of the matter, but Lin Feng simply ignored them and turned to listen to other people's questions.
As time went by, everyone knew that Lin Feng didn't want to answer this question directly, so they gave up.
"We know that the Chinese national football team's opponents in this warm-up match include Brazil and France, two former World Cup champions. Do you think the Chinese national football team has a chance to beat them?"
This question is also difficult to answer. If you say you have no confidence, you will appear too cowardly and you will definitely be criticized if it is reported.
But if he directly said that he was confident, these reporters would take his words out of context and ignore other details of his answer, only highlighting the three words "confident", giving people the impression that Lin Feng was arrogant and ignorant of the immensity of the world.
Moreover, if the Chinese national football team loses to the French team or the Brazilian team in the future, these reporters will take advantage of the situation and join the fans in criticizing Lin Feng.
Don't think too highly of them. These guys who play word games can sometimes be really outrageous, especially when they have no relationship with you, they will try their best to slander you.
Lin Feng glanced at the reporter who asked the question. He didn't have a very deep impression of him, which meant that they had no friendship.
In that case, let’s practice Tai Chi!
"Both Brazil and France are very strong teams with many top players. Meeting such opponents is a rare experience for me and the Chinese national team, so we will go all out and show our best in these two games!"
Lin Feng's answer once again left the reporter speechless. Just tell me whether you can win or not, why are you talking so much?
Lin Feng thought to himself, if he wasn't careful about this kind of thing, who knows what kind of situation he would be trapped in?
If your credibility was better, and there were fewer reports that took things out of context, would everyone be so wary of each other?
With the experience of the first two answers, when Lin Feng encountered difficult questions later, he started to play Tai Chi, talking about all sorts of things and refusing to follow the reporters' routine.
This caused all the reporters who were planning to take advantage of Lin Feng's youth and inexperience to make a big news out of him to hit a snag.
After the interview, the reporters looked at each other in bewilderment.
So during our interview, we didn't get anything valuable out of it.
This boy is only eighteen years old, how come he is so smooth and sophisticated?
It’s really weird!
Although they did not get what they wanted from Lin Feng, the reporters gained a lot from asking questions to several other young players in the national football team.
The young and energetic King Dong fell into the trap of the reporter's questions without realizing it.
He said nonchalantly: "World Cup? My teammates and I will definitely make it to the World Cup in South Africa!"
"France and Brazil? They are very strong, but the ball is round. I believe we have the ability to beat them!"
(End of this chapter)
