Chapter 618 Preparing for the 2018 World Cup
Five days have passed since the Champions League final ended.
Time has arrived in June, and the time for the 2018 World Cup in Russia is getting closer and closer.
The 32 participating national teams are all making intense preparations at this time.
Since they had just participated in the Champions League final, Lin Quan and David Silva went to the national team to report much later than others.
Bosque took care of Lin Quan and others who had just finished a big battle and whose physical fitness had not yet fully recovered. He allowed them to rest for three days before reporting to the team.
But three days are actually not enough to erase the fatigue of the past entire season.
After all, there is no winter break in the evil Premier League!
"David's injury is more troublesome. He may need to rest for three to four weeks. He may not be able to make it in the group stage."
David Silva was accidentally injured in the Champions League final, which caused him to miss the team's pre-match training.
"Should we recruit someone else?"
Other coaches on the coaching staff asked Del Bosque for advice. The World Cup has not yet started and there is still time to make personnel adjustments. When the World Cup starts, there will be no way to make substitutions.
"Forget it, just take him with you. It's not easy to replace him in this position!"
Del Bosque shook his head. The only one who can rotate with him in David Silva's position is Iniesta. The strength of the others is not as good as these two, and there is no way to 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 entire game.
Therefore, the importance of David Silva is highlighted.
Moreover, he and Lin Quan, the core of the team, have been cooperating with each other in the same club for a long time, and their tacit understanding 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 greatly help the team's offense and even save the team at critical moments.
So even if he may not be able to play in the group stage, Del Bosque will take him with him.
As long as he recovers from his injury, he will be useful in the knockout stages.
"Okay, if that's the case, then we can submit the final list without any adjustments?"
The national team's roster must first be uploaded to the Spanish Football Federation, and then the Spanish Football Federation uploads it to FIFA for finalization.
"Um!"
Del Bosque nodded absently, his attention now entirely on the training ground.
This team on the training ground felt a little strange to him, even though he inspected these players one by one and carefully selected them one by one.
However, after missing many familiar faces, Bosque always felt as if he had lost some confidence in his heart.
It was only when I saw the familiar figure of Lin Quan that I breathed a sigh of relief.
In terms of the overall lineup, this national team is not as good as the previous two World Cups.
But fans in Spain and around the world have high expectations for the Spanish team because of their status as defending champions.
Many people regard the Spanish team as the favorite to win the championship, but in the eyes of Del Bosque and other people familiar with the inside story of Spain, it is very difficult to lead such a team to win the championship.
Del Bosque is 68 years old this year. After leading this World Cup, he will definitely retire.
He will be 70 years old at the next European Cup and 72 at the World Cup in Qatar.
He really can't handle it at this age. Even if the work of the national team is slightly easier than that of the club, he can't hold on anymore.
Besides, even if he failed to lead the team to defend the title this time, he still won two World Cup championships.
There are so many famous coaches in world football, how many of them can lead the team to win two Hercules Cups?
A person must be content, and he is already satisfied with so many honors and achievements.
Next, let's give the responsibility to young people. Manchester City's Guardiola is his favorite candidate.
Of course, Enrique, who resigned from Barcelona last year, is also one of the alternatives.
The reason why these two people were chosen is also very simple.
Because they have all led Barcelona and know Barcelona's tactics.
The main team 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 in La Liga as before.
After the golden generation of players from La Masia's youth training camp retire, Barcelona's number and influence in the national team will slowly decline, and then the options for the national team coach will be much wider.
…
After Lin Quan came to the team to report, Del Bosque immediately arranged for confrontation training between the main players and substitute players.
During the team training phase, the so-called main players are not the final starting list. The head coach will consider multiple factors such as the players' performance and status in the team's training matches, as well as their attitude towards daily training, and finally select the players. The team's 11-man starting roster.
Of course, there are a few positions that won't change easily.
For example, Lin Quan on the striker, Iniesta in the midfield, defender Ramos and goalkeeper De Gea.
As long as these four people do not suffer major injuries, their starting positions are still very stable.
After several team trainings, in order to test the team's training results, the Spanish team made an appointment with the Swiss team for a friendly match.
The Swiss team is also a participating team in this World Cup. They are divided into Group E. In the same group are Serbia, Brazil, Costa Rica and other teams.
The strength of these teams is not weak, especially the Brazilian team. They are also one of the favorites to win this World Cup. Although they are not as popular as four years ago, the Selecao has always been a strong team. No one would dare Look down on them.
Considering the strong offensive strength of the Brazilian team, the Swiss team is eager to find a strong team that is equal to or stronger than the Brazilian team to compete and test their defensive capabilities.
The Swiss team's offensive strength is not strong, but its defensive ability is outstanding.
During the World Cup in South Africa, the Spanish team once suffered a loss at their feet.
In this game, the Swiss obviously played more seriously than the Spaniards.
After all, with Spain's strength, it is not difficult to qualify in the group stage.
But the situation faced by the Swiss team is not so good. Most of them cannot win against the Brazilian team, so their main points are the other two opponents in the group, Serbia and Costa Rica.
The strength of these two teams is not weak, but Switzerland's offensive ability is not strong. They can only do their best defensive work first, focus on defense, catch the opponent's mistakes, and then wait for an opportunity to steal one.
The first half lasted for half an hour, and the score on the field was still 0:0.
Although it is just a friendly match, winning or losing is not important.
But seeing the team's offense playing so unsmoothly, Bosque on the sidelines still couldn't sit still.
In a friendly match with no restriction on substitutions, it is difficult for the Spanish team to rely on passing and controlling to consume the opponent's physical strength, and then seize the opportunity to counterattack when the opponent's physical fitness decreases and the number of mistakes increases.
Therefore, the Spanish team mainly practiced offensive routines in positional warfare in this game.
But for positional warfare to be effective, the requirements for tacit understanding between players are relatively high.
On weekdays, everyone plays for different teams, and each team has a different style.
Players have different habits, so they need to observe and adapt to the habits of their teammates while playing, adjust while playing, and finally have everyone on the same channel so that they can achieve ideal coordination.
This kind of thing is actually not difficult, and there is no trick. All it takes is time.
But for teams like the national team, which are assembled temporarily and have a relatively short training period, time is exactly what they lack most.
Therefore, there is nothing to complain about with such a terrible effect. Instead of wasting time complaining, it is better to think about how to improve it.
Bosque watched for a while and made a decisive substitution.
He replaced Iniesta and replaced Atletico Madrid's central midfielder Saul.
Saul is very versatile and can play multiple positions in the midfield.
At 23 years old, he has very abundant physical fitness and powerful running ability, covering a very wide range.
In addition, his speed and explosive power are also good, and he can be used as a winger when necessary.
In this national team, Saul is a young player that Del 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.
Of course, in Bosque's position, Saul is mainly used to lay hands on Lin Quan.
The purpose of letting him replace Iniesta is to help the Spanish team create space in the middle, so that Lin Quan can better complete the organization 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 try every means to get the ball to the feet of the forward players and feed his teammates.
After sorting out the team's midfield, the Spanish team's offensive quality immediately improved.
In the 38th minute, Lin Quan assisted Diego Costa and scored a goal.
After seeing this goal, Bosque showed a happy smile on his face.
It seems that the effect of this combination is pretty good. I can write it down in a notebook and maybe use it when I get to the World Cup in a few days.
After the Swiss team lost the ball, they played slowly and did not blindly launch a counterattack.
There is still a huge gap in strength between the two teams. If they dare to attack, their empty defense will be sieved 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 draw with Spain, but sometimes things are so weird.
In the 62nd minute of the second half, the Swiss team took advantage of the Spanish team's mistakes to launch a counterattack. As a result, they scored a goal after just one counterattack.
This was the only shot on target by the Swiss team in the whole game, but the goal was scored when the shot was on target. This efficiency is simply outrageous.
De Gea looked unlucky. The goal was not because he didn't work hard, but because the opponent played too tricky.
Neither side scored a goal in the remaining time, and the Spanish team's first warm-up match ended in a draw.
Compared with the tepid 1:1 of the Spanish team, at the Stade de France, the French defeated Italy 3:1. Mbappe, Griezmann, Dembélé and other young French players have made progress. The ball showed the great strength of the French Young Guards!
Although it is just a warm-up match, because the opponent is Italy, a veteran team.
This made this game very valuable. After the game, all parties rushed to praise the French team. Many celebrities believed that the French team had the potential to win the championship.
No wonder they brag like this, look at who is in the French team!
Dembele, Griezmann, Mbappe, Pogba, Kante...
Who is not a famous figure in football in recent years?
Except for Kanter, the remaining four of these players are all worth more than 100 million euros.
Their combined worth exceeds that of most of the participating teams in this World Cup.
And Kante, who has the lowest net worth, is recognized as the best midfielder in international football!
This French team needs to be worthy, capable, and most importantly, young, they are really 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, with its talent explosion, will sooner or later stand on the championship podium and lift the Hercules Cup.
…
Del Bosque ignored the criticism from the outside world and still carried out his preparations step by step.
On June 10, with less than four days left before the opening game 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 Spanish fans who can't wait to rush to the scene want to see with their own eyes the results of the team's preparations during this period.
However, what disappointed them was that the Spanish team played even more ugly in this game than in the previous game.
The Spanish team's offense can only be described as simple, rough, and clumsy.
It can be seen that the players are working hard, but the cooperation is simply unsightly.
Bosque quickly changed six or seven players in a row, as if he was solving a permutation and combination problem, trying various combinations one by one.
The final results were not ideal. In the end, Shui Ye couldn't stand it anymore. When the game was coming to an end, he rushed into the penalty area and scored a header, 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 whole game seemed as if they were the losing side.
It's no wonder that before the game started, they had very high expectations for the team, but after actually watching, these expectations have all been dashed.
Now the Spanish fans are starting to panic a little.
How can the team play in the World Cup in this state?
They are all a little worried that the team will be eliminated in the group stage!
Fortunately, Spain's luck is actually pretty good, and the remaining three opponents in Group B they are in are not strong.
In addition to Portugal, the old rival of the European Cup, the remaining two opponents are one from Asia and one from Africa, namely Iran and Morocco.
These two teams are not strong, and their record in the World Cup is not good either.
Although the Iranian team has participated in five World Cups, they have never made it out of the group stage.
Morocco has only made it to the top 16 once, and failed to advance out of the group the other five times.
Encountering such an opponent, even if Spain is not in good condition, it is still very safe to reach the top 16.
But Spanish fans are not going for the top 16, they are looking forward to the Hercules Cup.
But the team's current state shows no hope of winning the championship.
This is the fundamental reason why fans are disappointed.
No wonder no team has ever won three consecutive World Cup titles before. It turns out that it is so difficult to achieve this achievement!
