Chapter 65 There has never been such a wonderful start

Chapter 65 There has never been such a wonderful start

Chapter 65 There has never been such a wonderful start
In the World Cup, whether to count points and save strength to avoid being placed in the fiercely competitive half has always been a critical issue that many mid-level teams have to face.

Being assigned to a less competitive half is often more important than a team's explosive performance.

Because that means you can rely on better luck to break into the top 16 or even the top 8 of a single World Cup event.

But for the favorites to win every World Cup and those underdogs who consider qualifying for the World Cup a success.

Scoring or something like that doesn't really matter.

Teams that are strong enough certainly have full confidence. No matter which half of the zone they are divided into, they all want to make it to the final in one go.

Those who are weak enough don’t have to worry about what will happen after the three group matches.

After all, being able to finish these three group matches is a great success. Scoring a goal and getting a point is a breakthrough in history. Who the hell cares whether we advance or not?

The current England team belongs to the former.

When Li Chen took over the England national team, he told all the players that their trip to the World Cup was for the Hercules Cup.

So for the England team, the task of the game is very simple, which is to win.

Win every game!

Doesn't Li Chen know that if he leads his team to first place in the group, they will most likely be assigned to the half that includes France, Portugal, Belgium, Spain or Germany?
Of course he knows it, and not just him, but every England player knows it too.

But they finally decided to win all the games to qualify as the top team in their group.

Then they will face off against the favorites competing with them for the World Cup title.

It takes a lot of confidence and courage to make such a decision.

After entering the new century, the England national team's performance in various world competitions has not been able to give the current players the confidence they deserve.

However, after achieving tactical suppression of the opponents in two consecutive games, the confidence of these players is growing rapidly.

And this confidence and courage comes from their current coaching staff.

It comes from the super young coach who always criticizes them confidently on the training ground and always encourages them passionately on the court.

Since Li Chen made the decision to continue besieging the American team, the English players on the field had no doubts and resolutely carried out his tactical instructions.

The United States team, which drew with Wales in the first round of the group stage, was certainly unwilling to lose the initiative to advance in the group, and continued to look for opportunities to counterattack England very decisively.

However, the England team, which was facing considerable pressure on its defense, remained unmoved and continued to put high pressure and lay siege to the United States team.

This tactical rhythm is almost completely different from the first half hour of the game.

England threw away their patient attempts before breaking the deadlock, and used a fierce offensive to madly suppress the US team, not giving their opponents any chance to breathe.

In a difficult and adverse situation, Pulisic still stood up and threatened Pickford with an inward shot during a counterattack in the 36th minute of the first half.

Three minutes later, he changed direction and dribbled past Trippier, and the cross he sent almost helped center forward Hajinet score with a header.

Unfortunately, this center forward who plays in the Turkish Super League failed to seize the opportunity to change his own fate and the fate of the US team.

He headed the ball so close to the goal that it flew away, and Pickford, who was shouting that he was lucky, almost gave him a hug to thank him for not killing him.

The waste of this great opportunity also seriously hit the morale of the American team.

Seeing this, Li Chen made a rather risky decision and directly signaled Rice and Bellingham to increase their forward momentum.

The result happened just as the game entered the injury time of the first half.

Luke Shaw's precise cross after receiving the ball on the side helped Bellingham and Rice complete a threatening double shot at the back of the US team's penalty area!

Thanks to Kane's defensive restraint on the two central defenders of the US team, Bellingham once again headed the ball into the US team's goal without being marked!
Looking at the England players celebrating in their own half, the American goalkeeper Turner angrily kicked the ball into the stands!
He was tricked by his teammates twice in this game!
Saka's cut-in shot was also completed with almost no one guarding him.

He just couldn't understand how his teammates in the backcourt could make such serious defensive mistakes when they were playing in the same four major leagues.

But his two central defender teammates also had their grievances in their hearts.

Kane's hat trick in the first group match really intimidated the US coaching staff.

During the pre-match training, the US team's head coach Berhalter repeatedly emphasized that the two of them should keep a close eye on Kane, who was in hot form.

To be honest, they completed this defensive task smoothly.

But their abilities are there. You can't ask them to keep an eye on Kane while also guarding other defensive areas, right?

If they could achieve this level, they would have started for the top teams in the four major leagues long ago. Why would they have to wait for the MLS and the Premier League newly promoted team respectively?

The depressed American team entered the halftime break with a two-goal deficit.

They have now placed more hope on the Iranian team. They hope that Iran, which was defeated by England in the first round of the group stage, can help them snipe Wales as much as possible, and it would be best if the two teams draw.

In this way, even if they lose to England in this round, as long as they are not slaughtered by England by a large margin, they can temporarily rank third in the group with the advantage of goal difference.

Wales, who have only one point more than them, will most likely be beaten by England in the final round.

If they are a little luckier, they can just draw and get three points. And as long as they beat Iran in the last round of head-to-head competition, they can also successfully advance to the knockout stage...

The American team, having to start counting points in advance, was essentially putting a shackle on their own performance.

Because they are now focused on not conceding any more goals to England. As long as they can maintain the 0-2 score, they still have a chance to turn things around.

This led to them making the same mistake as the Iranian team after the start of the second half, and they parked the bus directly against England.

Li Chen was also happy when he saw it, and directly replaced Sancho and Bellingham with Wilson and Ward-Prowse.

After the substitution, the England team decisively changed its formation to 442.

The offensive tactics also became the conventional bottom cross and breakthrough to create set pieces.

Maddison and Luke Shaw on the left took turns to pass the ball, while Saka on the right was determined to take the ball and break through.

Once the ball is taken in the frontcourt, it is time for Madison and Ward-Prowse to perform.

In the 64th minute of the second half, Ward-Prowse took a free kick from the right side of the half.

The football drew a rainbow arc and spun accurately to find Kane who was jumping!

Faced with such an opportunity, Kane was not at all soft-headed. He swung the ball and headed it into the half-empty goal of the American team!
At this moment, the two central defenders of the US team are still competing with Maguire, Wilson and Stones.

It can be said that in terms of defensive man-to-man selection, these two guys made the wrong choices today, which also indirectly highlighted the failure of the US team coaching staff to prepare for the game.

Seeing the score successfully changed to 3-0, Li Chen was satisfied and decided to call it a day.

Henderson, Rashford and Gallagher got more than 20 minutes of playing time and were substituted by Li Chen to warm up and find the feeling of the game.

The game finally ended with a long-range shot by Rashford.

The moment the referee blew the whistle, Li Chen, dressed in a black coat, took the initiative to walk towards Berhart, shook hands with him, and then walked onto the court with a smile.

Under the light, his handsome face and handsome temperament are fully revealed.

At this moment, his appearance and his talent combined to conquer countless fans around the world.

Every England player took the initiative to walk towards Li Chen, hug and high-five him.

They enjoyed the joy of victory and the pleasure of defeating their opponents one after another under the command of Li Chen!
The image of Li Chen leading all the England players to thank the fans at the scene also appeared on the covers of many European mainstream media the next day.

"Successive wins, this is the true golden generation of England!"

"Super Li's magic continues, heading for three consecutive wins!"

"England, aiming for the World Cup!"

Lee, England's final piece of the puzzle to win the big tournament

Having enjoyed two consecutive group matches, the English media once again opened champagne to celebrate in advance.

However, this time, not many English fans stood up to accuse the media of being too ostentatious, because they themselves celebrated even more crazily.

Bars across England were doing a booming business, with many of the drinks not even being drunk by the fans but being wasted in their excited celebrations.

As for Li Chen, who brought about all these positive changes.

His personal reputation in England has soared into space like a rocket!
There are even many English fans who launched a petition, hoping that the royal family would confer a knighthood on Li Chen after he led the team to win the World Cup.

Once this news spread, many people came to watch the fun.

After all, the UK has never conferred a knighthood on foreign citizens of traditional Commonwealth countries.

Even though theoretically there is no explicit law in the UK prohibiting the granting of titles to foreigners, some traditions are destined not to be broken.

Unless Li Chen gives up his Chinese nationality and becomes a naturalized English citizen, this would make sense both morally and logically.

But is Li Chen willing to do this?
Many media outlets wanted to seize this opportunity to gain huge traffic and went to Doha to interview Li Chen.

Li Chen, who had been so busy that he had not been online for almost half a month, finally learned about this incident from a South Korean reporter.

"Becoming an English citizen and getting a knighthood? No, no, no, I have never thought about giving up my nationality and citizenship. I am grateful for the love of these English fans, but it is impossible for me to become an English citizen."

"It's too early to say we want to win the World Cup since we haven't even finished the group stage yet, although that's our goal... but I hope the whole team can win every game down to earth."

"The opportunity to be knighted is rare, but I hope that after I lead England to a good result, the royal family will give me more encouragement bonuses. Then I can consider buying a real mansion by the Tyne."

Li Chen expressed his attitude tactfully in a joking tone.

The English Football Association then responded through official media by posting a joke picture saying "write checks at random", which was considered to have confused the matter.

The sensible mainstream media no longer followed up on this matter and hyped it up. Only some English fans are still talking about it.

The emergence of the "knighthood incident" made fans and spectators all over the world turn their attention to Li Chen and the England team he coached.

However, the pressure did not fall too much on the English players in the end.

Because under the strict control of the coaching staff, they have become accustomed to not paying attention to any public opinion the day before the game.

Being watched by too many fans actually affected their last round opponent in the group stage, Wales. Wales, who drew with the United States in the first round, suffered an upset in the second round of the group stage, losing 0-2 to Iran. Currently, they are ranked third in the group due to a slight advantage in goal difference.

They never hold back when playing against England, and vice versa, England will never miss the chance to beat them just because they have qualified early.

Therefore, the players of both teams knew very well that there would be no possibility of tacit cooperation in this game.

The current lineup and condition of the Welsh team are not as good as before, and losing to England is very likely to happen.

In this situation, the Welsh players certainly hope that as few fans as possible watch the game. If too many people watch, wouldn't that be a slap in their faces?

Unfortunately, the emergence of the knighthood incident shattered their hopes.

Plus Li Chen’s own Chinese traffic…

Just think about the billions of fans who might be watching their games live on game day.

The Welsh players, who were already in a bad mood due to the disadvantages in the first two rounds of games, became even more depressed.

On the day of the game, Li Chen was surprised when he saw the Welsh players, most of whom had serious expressions on their faces.

This is very different from the Red Dragon Wales he had in mind.

He didn't know what went wrong within the Welsh team that prevented them from maintaining a calm and composed mentality in the crucial game.

But this is definitely good news for the England team.

"As expected, they chose to play a defensive counterattack. Should we start the game more steadily and then change the tactics in the second half?"

Carrick held the tactical board in his hand and gave Li Chen some suggestions.

It is still not too late to change tactics. During the pre-match training, the England team also developed two tactical plans to target Wales' counterattack.

The players have already adapted to it, so there is no problem in switching tactics. The key still depends on Li Chen's judgment.

Do they want to safely outlast Wales and win three consecutive group matches, or do they want to continue playing offensive football to the end?

Li Chen thought for only a moment before giving Carrick his answer.

"Now is the critical moment to build the confidence of the whole team. If we want to play conservative football, there will be plenty of opportunities in the knockout rounds later... The plan remains unchanged, and Wales is not worth it for us to lose our composure. A Bale who is about to retire cannot make any waves."

Li Chen's confidence infected Carrick and other assistant coaches.

The England team finally chose to launch a massive attack on Wales in this game.

Even though they rotated many of their main starting players in this round of games.

"Compared to Wales, which fielded all its main players, England, which had already qualified, chose to make a large rotation today.

On the front line, Rashford, Greenwood and Foden formed a new trident.

Bellingham and Gallagher sat in the midfield, with Sean Longstaff playing as the lone defensive midfielder.

On the defensive line, Maguire still partners with Stones to form a double central defender, Dan Burn serves as left back and Arnold serves as right back.

Starting goalkeeper Ramsdale..."

As commentators from various countries introduced England's starting lineup today, the referee blew the whistle to start the game as time was up!

The England team, which was still star-studded after the rotation, chose to go all out at the start of the game without any suspense.

Today, the three younger forwards frequently switched positions and held the ball on the offensive end, pulling and attacking the Welsh defense line.

Because the midfield did not send out a core organizer, but instead formed a trio of strong defensive players, Li Chen put the responsibility of organizing the offense on the shoulders of Arnold and Foden today.

This is exactly what they are good at.

However, while Li Chen gave them opportunities to perform, he also put forward more tactical requirements for them.

That is, once you have the right to control the ball and organize the offense, you can no longer waste the right to fire recklessly.

Knowing that Li Chen attached great importance to competition discipline, the two naturally nodded repeatedly before the game.

When they got to the court, the two players who were supervised by Li Chen personally paid more attention to the efficiency of the organization and did not dare to stick to the ball.

This style of play would limit their offensive talent, but Li Chen was quite satisfied with it.

After all, if these two guys play freely without restrictions, Rashford and Greenwood on the other side will have a hard time.

Fortunately, their right to fire was guaranteed today, and with their active rotation attack, they had no shortage of opportunities to create space and shoot.

Strictly speaking, Greenwood is not a traditional No. 9. He is more comfortable playing on the wing and as a second striker.

Therefore, Li Chen did not force him to engage in close combat with the opponent's central defender in this game, so as to provide more tactical support to his teammates.

The same goes for Rashford. Neither of them is a forward who can serve as a tactical fulcrum, so Li Chen simply does not require them to fix their positions.

Run, rotate and intersperse more often, and shoot more when you feel it is appropriate. Even if they are shots from outside the penalty area, you can kill your opponent if you find the feeling.

The England team, with a clear division of labor, is gradually improving their shooting efficiency as the game progresses.

Wales knew that England had fielded a lame lineup today, relying mainly on the right to organize the attack, but they still couldn't come up with a good response plan.

It's impossible to withstand one-on-one defense.

Moreover, Li Chen also specially arranged a Gallagher to clean up the mess for the offensive combination of Foden and Arnold.

It doesn’t matter if Gallagher can’t get through, because there is a Longstaff who runs more diligently behind him.

The two players, who did not have to worry about losing the ball, played extremely freely on the wing.

Just dare to take action and make a breakthrough!

The aging Ben Davies' ability to defend alone is not as good as before. He has a hard time facing either Foden or Arnold, let alone facing the interweaving and cooperation of the two at the same time.

The first one to collapse was Welsh left midfielder Ampadu, who then suffered.

The loss of the wing led to the loss of control of the central defense line.

When Wales chose to frequently double-team England's right-wing attacking players, Bellingham, who was patiently waiting for his chance on the left side of the half, began to shine like a true star.

In the 18th minute of the first half, Foden passed the ball back to Gallagher in time under the opponent's double-team defense, and the latter made a decisive cross pass after receiving the ball.

At this moment, Wales' defensive focus has not returned to the middle. Bellingham, who received the ball, seized the opportunity to move forward and took down Joe Allen who was returning to defense!
And when Wales' right center back Mypham had to make an early interception, Bellingham made a precise diagonal pass, helping Rashford to get ahead of offside!
Welsh goalkeeper Danny Ward left the goal but Rashford calmly shot into the far corner, helping England to successfully change the score to 1-0!

Wales head coach Page grumbled in dissatisfaction to the bench, saying that he had been fooled and thought that England was playing some kind of offensive tactic of feinting to the east and attacking in the west.

But he soon realized that he was just overthinking.

To deal with Wales, Li Chen would not have to design such a complicated covering tactic.

He just wants to attack Wales' left side with his open cards. As for Bellingham's brilliant performance?

That was a wonderful misunderstanding.

Wales, whose goal was breached early on, had to take the risk of pressing forward to look for more offensive opportunities.

But Foden and Arnold, who were in hot form today, quickly tore through Wales' thinner defense with efficient breakthroughs.

In the 26th minute of the first half, Foden cut inside and took away Ben Davies before knocking the ball back to the right. Arnold received the ball and made a quick cross to the back of the Welsh goal.

Greenwood and Rashford followed up with a feint in the middle, and the mighty Denburn headed the ball into the goal at the back post, beating the Welsh right-back Williams!

Williams was completely stunned.

His size is considered relatively "huge" among full-backs. His height of 1 meters and weight of 83 kilograms are enough to ensure his ability to confront on the wing.

But facing Dan Burn, who is 1 meters tall and weighs 98 kilograms, he really has no room to resist.

Li Chen's full-back scoring tactics were successful again, and Dan Burn, who scored a goal in his first World Cup appearance for the England national team, was extremely excited.

You know, he is already 30 years old.

Being selected for the national team to compete in the World Cup at this age is a great achievement and honor for him.

Now, not only has he got the chance to start, but he has also scored a World Cup goal for England, which is a fairy-tale experience for Dan Burn.

He slid on his knees in celebration near the corner flag area, and was then buried on the grass by his teammates who swarmed over him.

But that was not the end of England's attacking performance in the first half of the game.

Wales, which had already lost its composure, was caught in a dilemma between attack and defense.

This resulted in them not being able to quickly unify their tactical thinking after the game resumed.

The English players, who are in great form, will obviously not miss the opportunity to expand their lead.

This time, it was Arnold who pushed forward and attracted a double-team before passing the ball to Foden.

Foden and Gallagher, who was following him, used a series of short passes to shake off Ampadu who was marking him.

But just when Joe Rodon thought he was going to cut inside and shoot and chose to intercept, Foden used his foot to pass the ball towards the back of the Welsh penalty area!
With the help of Rashford's interspersed running and cover, Greenwood calmly adjusted his pace, and then volleyed the ball before it landed!
The football was only one or two centimeters above the grass and flew quickly towards the far corner of the Welsh goal!
Danny Ward stretched out his arms desperately to make the save, but in the end he could only watch the football pass by his fingertips and go into the goal behind him!
3-0 at halftime!

After a major rotation, the England team still defeated Wales!

The fans at the scene - except the Welsh fans - were very excited and started to cheer and shout for England to score another goal.

Foden, who performed really well today, was frequently the focus of live cameras.

Some Manchester City fans who had previously criticized Li Chen for not paying attention to Foden are now speechless.

It’s not that Li Chen doesn’t know how to use Foden.

He really understands it!
Without Madison or Sancho, just let this kid and Arnold share the offensive ball, and then appropriately suppress his desire to shoot. Wouldn't this allow him to play effectively?
England fans, seeing their third consecutive group stage win imminent, were once again having a great time drinking in the bar.

This is truly the best start to a major tournament ever.

(End of this chapter)