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Chapter 300 The Deisler Incident

The German team was placed in the ninth group in the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup European qualifiers. The opponents in the same group were the arch-rivals England and Greece, Finland and Albania.

The rules of the World Cup European qualifiers are that the No.1 of each group will directly enter the World Cup finals, the No.2 of the second group and the No.3 of the Asian region will participate in the play-offs, and the other eight groups will fight each other to determine the final four finals.

Therefore, the German team must not lose in the first game. At the same time, they must try their best to score points on the Finnish and Albanian teams, and then they will have a showdown with the England team.

The first opponent of the world preliminaries, the Greek team, is really not good in the football field, but Nick knows that this second-tier European team also created "Greek mythology" in 2004.Many players in this team are playing in the European League, and the core player in the team is Karagunis of Bremen.

The German team's lineup is mostly young players, which shows Völler's determination.

September 9, Berlin Olympiastadion.

In this game, the German team sent a 3-5-2 formation, goalkeeper Enke, three defenders Metzelder, Friedrich and Ramello, double midfielders Nick, Frings, midfielder Ballack, Deisler and Sauer on the left and right, forwards Neuville and Jankel.

For the national team, the enthusiasm of German fans is still very high, and the attendance rate at home exceeds 90%.

At 18:30, players from both sides officially entered the field. Nick took the captain's armband and started his first official game as the captain to lead the German team.

From the beginning of the game, the German team took the initiative on the field, and this scene was maintained until the end of the game.

The Greek team defended with all their strength, but the German team's frontcourt and ground coordination played very skillfully, which made the tall defenders of the Greek team exhausted.

Only 19 minutes into the game, Nick dribbled the ball up. His long shot from 25 meters away from the penalty area forced the Greek goalkeeper Nikopolidis to throw the ball away. Neuville quickly stepped forward and knocked on the goal of the Greek team. The score became 1:0.
Opening up the situation so early made Völler on the sidelines and the German fans in the stands very happy. Nick's pressure caused loopholes in the Greek team's defense, and Neuville's reaction was also very fast.

After conceding the ball, the Greek team tried to launch a counterattack, but Karagounis was restricted to death, and their two forwards, Charisteas and Frizas, could not get effective support.

Therefore, even if the Greek team attacked the frontcourt, they conceded the ball very quickly.

This is also convenient for the German team to counterattack. Nick and Frings pass the ball very clearly, either directly to Ballack, or to find Sauer and Deisler on both sides.

In the 33rd minute, after receiving a pass from Nick, Sauer used his personal technical breakthrough to cause a foul by the opponent. The German team won a free kick facing the goal in front of the penalty area.

After deliberation, Nick decided to let Sauer take the free kick himself. Although Deisler, Ballack and even Nick himself could do it, Nick believed that Sauer had the ability to score.

In fact, this is also the case. Sauer made a very tricky penalty. The ball went straight into the dead corner and the score became 2:0.
Sauer suffered a lot of injuries in his career, which made him miss too many opportunities to perform in the national team, so he was very excited to score this goal.

"Nick, thank you for giving me this opportunity!"

"Haha, Mehmet, your footwork is great, keep going, you will play even more exciting football."

The teammates gathered around to celebrate. Of course, Deisler was a little lonely.

Seeing this scene, Völler off the court looked a little unhappy. He hoped to build an unprecedentedly united German team, but Deisler let him down.

In the subsequent games, Deisler's performance made Voller even more dissatisfied. He began to occupy a large number of possessions, and even refused to pass the ball even when Nick shouted loudly.

Worrall got up quickly and signaled Hitzlsperger to warm up, because he had already noticed that Nick rushed to reprimand Deisler loudly.

But Desler didn't take it too seriously. Although he didn't talk back to Nick, he could tell from his expression that he was dissatisfied.

With Nick's temper, he definitely couldn't stand Deisler doing this. Possession of the ball is not a crime. The key is that Deisler doesn't know how to observe the situation on the court. His teammates ran out of a reasonable position, and Deisler didn't pass the pass. This is a bit unreasonable.

Soon, Deisler was replaced by Hitzlsperger.

After Deisler left the field, he was swearing and swearing, which made Nick almost rush over to kick him, but fortunately he was stopped by Barakla.

"Fuck, what the hell, I just want to finish the game by myself. I have never met someone so selfish." Nick couldn't help cursing.

"Forget it, Nick, you are the captain, don't affect the emotions of your teammates, the game is more important." Ballack persuaded.

"Don't worry, we will definitely win this game."

Nick did what he said, and in less than 3 minutes, he drove straight in after stealing the ball at midfield, broke into the penalty area and scored with a low shot, extending the score to 3:0.
This goal also basically established the victory, leading by three goals, and it is a home game. If the cooked ducks fly like this, the German team will stop playing football.

The halftime score was 3:0. After returning to the locker room, in the locker room of the German team, Deisler became the object of complaints from the German team teammates.

Waller also unceremoniously criticized Deisler for disregarding the overall situation.

This made the withdrawn Deisler even more uncomfortable, and angrily slammed the door and left.

"I'm sure Sebastian has no future. Hey, that's all. One less player like this won't hurt the strength of the German team. Let him do it." Nick secretly thought, thinking about the bleak ending of Deisler in another time and space, Nick still hopes that this time and space can see Deisler's rise, but Deisler wants to be the protagonist and doesn't care about other people's feelings, so his life can only end.

The second half of the game was still under the control of the German team. The Greek team could not threaten the German team's goal at all, and it was useless to play long shots.

On the contrary, in the 68th minute, Neuville received Jankel's header in the penalty area and scored another goal. The score of the game was 4:0, and the German team won the first World Cup preliminaries.

Although the game was victorious, the 'Deisler incident' was exposed and expanded by the media.

"Kicker" magazine believes that Deisler's approach is disappointing. A talented player is likely to lose the opportunity to play for the country, which will damage the strength of the German team.

Of course, the magazine is also worried about whether the German team will be affected by this and will be affected to qualify from this group.

"Bild" believes that the conflict between Deisler and Nick can be completely resolved. As the captain, Nick should express his views more tactfully. It seems that Nick is still too young. Worrall should consider whether it is suitable to be the captain.

Some other foreign media supported Nick, and some supported Deisler.

For this reason, Nick did not take it seriously. When interviewed by reporters, he said: "Although Sebastian is talented, he has an aloof personality and always wants the world to revolve around him. Therefore, as long as I am in the German team for one day, he will not want to come in again unless he takes the initiative to admit his mistakes."

And Deisler also accepted an interview with reporters. He said: "Nick is a Hitler-like figure. With him, the German team is like his team. Other players can only play supporting roles. With him in the future, don't want me to play for the German team again."

The conflict between the two was finally made public. For a while, German fans also began to talk about it, but the majority supported Nick. First, the German team won the first round of the game beautifully, and Nick had already been deeply rooted in the hearts of fans in the 2000 European Cup.

Wöhler then expressed his opinion: "The German national team can live without Sebastian, but not without Nick."

Faced with such a point of view, both Nick and Deisler also showed their strength in the next round of the league, seeming to prove their own strength.

(End of this chapter)