Full-Level Pass, Please Call Me The Boss Of The Three Lions

The first time, the most important thing.

Chapter 109: The Three Lions’ first show! [4,000-word chapter]

Compared to the packed FA Cup final, the number of spectators in the Three Lions’ warm-up match was more than half less.

Even so, the cheers of tens of thousands of English fans still gave the lions on the field a lot of momentum.

The Peruvian national team, ranked 64th in the world, is not a strong team.

However, there are also stars in the small teams.

For example, Claudio Pizarro, the center forward of Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, Jose Paul Guerrero, the wing winger of Schalke 04, and Juan Vargas, who plays for Genoa in Serie A.

These four players are called the “Fantastic Four” of Peru.

Even though they haven’t produced many famous stars.

But in the 1970s, Peru was a football powerhouse in South America second only to Brazil and Argentina.

It’s a pity that Peru has never entered the World Cup since 1982.

In this World Cup in Brazil, Peru is still a full ten points away from entering the World Cup.

The national team is also particular about choosing opponents for warm-up matches.

If they are too strong, they will lose face and hit the players’ confidence;

If they are too weak, they will be completely one-sided and have no training value at all.

Therefore, a mid-level team that is neither strong nor weak can maximize the benefits of the warm-up match.

And this South American powerhouse that focuses on defensive counterattacks is not a soft persimmon that is easy to pinch.

If the Three Lions don’t take it seriously, they will capsize in the ditch…

So, Hodgson directly put out the strongest lineup in his mind:

Joe Hart guards the goal, and the four defenders from left to right are Baines, Jagielka, Cahill, and Glen Johnson.

The two central midfielders are the Liverpool combination of Gerrard and Henderson, and the front midfielder is Rooney.

On the left and right sides are Welbeck and Sterling.

At the forefront is Sturridge, the Premier League Silver Boot.

It is worth mentioning that the five Liverpool players selected for the national team all started!

From this starting lineup, it can be seen that Hodgson wants to try to extend Liverpool’s excellent performance in the Premier League this season to the national team.

However, this has nothing to do with Ling Feng sitting on the bench.

He just chewed gum while watching the situation on the field carefully.

Although he did not start. However, he still had to observe his teammates’ running habits on the bench.

Only in this way can he strengthen the tacit understanding with his teammates as soon as possible, and pass the ball comfortably to his teammates after coming on as a substitute.

Moreover, he will meet most of the Premier League stars on the field in the Premier League next season.

Therefore, this is also a good opportunity to observe and understand the opponent closely

With the cheers of tens of thousands of home fans at Wembley Stadium, the Three Lions took the initiative on the field as soon as they came up.

Peru also directly gave up the ball, put on a 451 defensive posture, and waited for England to attack.

However, in a dense defensive formation, the difficulty of passing and connecting will also increase exponentially.

England is not Arsenal. Most of the frontcourt players have very rough skills and can’t play smooth ground passing and cutting cooperation.

They can only pass the ball to the side, let the two wingers break through and cross the bottom, or shoot from the outside.

Whenever England attacked with the ball in the midfield or on the wing, Ling Feng noticed that Rooney, who was in the attacking midfield, would not come out to support his teammates, but would directly dive into the penalty area and form a double striker with Sturridge.

I don’t know whether it was Hodgson’s tactical arrangement or his habit as a striker.

Therefore, rather than saying that Rooney was an attacking midfielder, it would be better to say that he was a shadow striker.

He was responsible for ambushing behind Sturridge, connecting the frontcourt and shooting at the second point.

Gerrard in the midfield pressed to the position of the attacking midfielder to dispatch and shoot from a distance.

In other words, Henderson was the only one left in the huge midfield.

Facing an opponent with weaker strength and unable to organize an effective counterattack, it is normal to press like this.

However, the opponent is not a European fish like Luxembourg and Moldova!

Once England loses the ball in the frontcourt, Peru only needs a quick counterattack to quickly pass through the midfield and directly face the back line!

Just as Ling Feng was thinking this, the situation on the field suddenly changed:

Left winger Welbeck failed to break through on the left side, and was intercepted by two people, and the ball was quickly transferred.

Peruvian midfielder

After a straight pass, he came to Farfan on the right side.

As the fastest player in Peru, Farfan is the only explosive point of Peru in the frontcourt.

At this time, Henderson, who stayed in the midfield, was still three meters away from Farfan!

Seeing that the midfield was as wide as the sea, Farfan directly threw Henderson, who came to assist in defense, behind him, and then advanced from the middle.

At the same time, Peru’s left winger and midfielder also followed at high speed!

With the center forward Pizarro next to the central defender, Peru actually formed a four-on-four situation during the transition between offense and defense!

This scene attracted cheers from the few Peruvian fans at the scene.

From the arc of the center circle all the way to the outside of the penalty area, Farfan passed the ball to the center forward Pizarro.

The 36-year-old Bayern center forward leaned against the central defender Cahill with his back, held the ball steadily, and then knocked the ball back to the midfielder teammate who followed at high speed on the left.

The latter directly met the ball and shot it, and with a “boom”, it was a ground-level slash.

The ball shot out and flew to the near corner of the goal!

Fortunately, Joe Hart was focused and went down to press the ball steadily under his armpit, defusing this threatening attack.

Although such scenes are rare.

But it is a microcosm of the entire first half.

England pressed Peru in the half court and bombarded it, but it was not as threatening as Peru’s one or two sporadic quick counterattacks.

Perhaps seeing this problem, Hodgson specifically pointed out Rooney’s problem in the locker room during the halftime break, asking him to retreat more to the outside of the penalty area to receive the ball.

It was not until this time that Ling Feng realized that entering the penalty area was not Hodgson’s tactical arrangement, but Rooney’s forward instinct!

This is normal.

Although in Manchester United’s tactics, Rooney also retreated and became a shadow striker.

But in the Three Lions, he has always been the first choice for the striker.

It was only because Sturridge was in great form and considering the number of midfielders that Hodgson asked Rooney to retreat a little.

However, the habit of advancing forward cannot be changed in a short time.

Of course, after the old coach’s reminder, Rooney nodded and said he understood.

Afterwards, the old coach did not forget to ask Gerrard to reduce the frequency of long-range shots and coordinate and organize outside to avoid the opponent’s counterattack.

There is no strictly defensive midfielder in this England team.

Gerrard, Milner, Lampard, and Henderson are all so-called all-around midfielders, who can advance and shoot long shots and intercept and defend.

Ling Feng, Lallana, and Wilshere are more inclined to organize offensive midfielders.

Among the seven midfielders, Henderson may have the best defensive ability.

Therefore, Hodgson planned to push Gerrard up from the beginning and let Henderson stay in the midfield alone.

However, after the tactical experiment in the first half, he found that Henderson’s midfield defense was too weak!

But he couldn’t leave Gerrard in the midfield defense to do the dirty work of intercepting and stealing.

This would waste his offensive talent, and Gerrard himself would not play well.

As for the option of simply not letting Gerrard start and replacing him with a young man with better physical fitness to ensure the defensive coverage of the midfield.

This is even more impossible!

As the captain of England, Gerrard is the soul and core of the Three Lions.

As long as he doesn’t take the initiative to say he is tired or give up his position, Hodgson will definitely let him start.

Rooney is also for this reason, it is impossible not to start.

Hodgson can’t take these two people down.

Once this is done, let alone the English Football Association, the media will write a lot of news to spray him to death the next day!

Therefore, he can only make some subtle adjustments according to the playing styles of the two as much as possible, so as to make the team’s offense and defense more balanced.

The halftime break of fifteen minutes passed in a flash.

The two sides did not make any substitutions and went straight to the second half.

In the final analysis, there is still a certain gap in strength between the two sides.

After adjusting the details of the tactics, England played more freely and methodically on the field.

Gerrard did not make frequent insertions, but only distributed the ball on the periphery to make the central space less empty.

Rooney’s retreat to receive the ball also gave the two wingers an additional receiving point for the cross,

The offense improved, and the midfield defense became more stable.

Peru’s counterattack basically did not pose much threat.

Under pressure, in the 53rd minute of the second half, the “Happy Boy” successfully broke through the full-back on the right side and sent a low inverted triangle ball from the bottom.

Rooney, who received the ball in the middle, shot the ball low to the lower right corner of the goal and broke the deadlock first

!

As Rooney came to the corner flag area with his iconic “boxer” celebration, enthusiastic cheers broke out in Wembley Stadium.

As a young genius and the current top star of the Three Lions, Rooney’s popularity in England is the highest in the team.

“The goal was scored by Wayne.”

Accompanied by the DJ’s elongated tone, tens of thousands of English fans in the stadium shouted in unison:

“Rooney!!!”

After taking the lead, the Three Lions relaxed even more.

In the 63rd minute of the game, seeing that the situation was very good, Hodgson turned around and glanced at the bench, and then whispered to the assistant coach.

The latter immediately came to the bench and called out the names of five people in one breath:

“Ling! Jamie! Luke! Jack (Wilshere)! Chris (Smalling)!”

“Go warm up!”

Hearing this, Ling Feng and others immediately put on their substitute vests and came to the sidelines to warm up.

Seeing Ling Feng and others come to the sidelines to warm up, the nearby stands could not help but cheer from the fans.

Especially when Ling Feng’s handsome face appeared on the big screen of the stadium, the cheers of the female fans in the stadium were even louder.

There is no way, handsome people are like fireflies in the dark night, so bright and outstanding.

During the warm-up, Vardy suddenly approached Ling Feng and whispered:

“Ling, how do you think I can score a goal later, and what kind of celebration action will be more handsome?”

“Are you so confident that you can score a goal later?”

“With you passing the ball to me, how can I not score a goal?”

Hearing this, Ling Feng immediately felt in a good mood.

Second brother’s words are good. After being my teammate for half a season, his emotional intelligence has also increased.

“That’s true. However, depending on the coach’s arrangement, we may not be able to appear on the court at the same time.”

“What about you, if you score a goal, what kind of celebration action do you plan to do?”

Faced with this question, Ling Feng couldn’t help but fall into deep thought.

To be honest, he really didn’t think about what kind of celebration he would make if he scored in his national team debut.

Because the Three Lions are different from Leicester City.

In Leicester City, he is the core of the midfield and the initiator of the attack, with unlimited firing rights.

But in the Three Lions, he is just a little Karami.

There are many big men in the team, and his position is moved back, which will only make him farther away from the goal.

There will definitely not be many opportunities to shoot in each game, and it will not be his turn.

He did think that he might be able to make an assist in his national team debut.

After thinking about it, Ling Feng finally came up with an answer:

“If I score, I will wave to my parents in the stands.”

Because he is likely to make his national team debut today.

Therefore, he had already asked his parents to come to the stadium through the staff to witness this moment with him.

When the game time came to the 68th minute, Gerrard suddenly shot a cold arrow outside the penalty area and pierced the Peruvian goal with a powerful long-range shot.

The score came to 2-0.

At this time, Ling Feng and Vardy, who had finished warming up, took off their vests and came to the sidelines, ready to come on as substitutes.

“Ling, when you come on the court later, don’t go forward, use the pass to hit the rib space between the central defender and the full-back.”

“Jamie.”

After the tactical coach quickly explained the tactics to the three people, the fourth official on the sidelines held up the substitution card and signaled the substitution.

England used up three substitutions in one go!

Replaced Gerrard with Ling Feng, Baines with Luke Shaw, and Welbeck with Vardy.

Basically, they were positional substitutions.

Looking at Ling Feng, who was standing on the sidelines wearing a 15-year-old pure white jersey, the on-site director was very tactful and aimed at the young player who was about to make his national team debut.

In the stadium, there was a burst of warm applause.

The fans were happy that the Three Lions had injected new strength.

At the same time, Ling Feng’s parents, who were sitting in the VIP viewing stands, were waving the Three Lions scarves and flags in their hands to cheer for their son!

“Come on, Xiao Feng!”

“Go!”

The commentator on the scene introduced this handsome black-haired young man to the audience with a passionate voice:

“Ling Feng, a young midfielder from the newly promoted Leicester City in the Premier League, became the eighth youngest player to debut for the England national team at the age of 18 years and 357 days.”

“This young man, who is less than 19 years old, has been a force to be reckoned with in the past season in the Championship League and the FA Cup, helping the team win two championships, and personally won the best awards in both Championships.”

“His teammate, the Championship gold medalist who broke the Championship goal record, also made his national team debut together.

“Jamie Vardy.”

When Gerrard high-fived and hugged, Gerrard did not forget to send his blessing to Ling Feng:

“Do a good job!”

“I will!”

And the scene of the two hugging was captured by the photographer on the scene, who took a very memorable photo in the future.

At this moment, no one would have thought that this would be the handover between the old and new eras of the Three Lions

(End of this chapter)