Chapter 120: National Team's Stunning Performance Shakes Manchester City Boss!
Time flies, and before we knew it, February had arrived.
On February 2nd, Werder Bremen hosted Hannover 96 at home. In this game, Lin Quan scored and assisted, helping the team easily defeat their opponents and secure a second consecutive victory.
After this match, it was time for FIFA's international match day.
Lin Quan boarded a plane directly to the Qatari capital, Doha, where Spain would play a friendly match against the South American football powerhouse Uruguay.
Originally, Spain wanted to invite Argentina, but Argentina had already scheduled a match with Sweden, so Spain's plans fell through.
Since Uruguay is one of the participating teams in this year's Confederations Cup, Spain initially had no plans to invite them either.
Normally, teams don't schedule friendlies with each other before major tournaments begin.
But after they tentatively extended an invitation this time, they didn't expect Uruguay to agree.
Uruguay initially scheduled a friendly with France, but France stood them up, leaving them without a match.
Coincidentally, Spain's invitation came up, and when Uruguay saw that Spain had sponsorship from Middle Eastern tycoons, with a sponsorship fee of over 2 million euros for the friendly match, they couldn't pass up the opportunity.
So, they gladly accepted.
Because the opponent was one of the participating teams in the Confederations Cup and a traditional powerhouse in South America, Spain attached great importance to this match. Vicente del Bosque approached it with a mentality of giving some players experience while also testing the opponent's strength, fielding a lineup consisting mostly of regular starters and a few substitutes.
In this match, Chelsea's Juan Mata replaced David Silva, Arsenal's Santi Cazorla replaced Xavi, and Barcelona's Victor Valdes replaced Iker Casillas, while the captain, Carles Puyol, returned from injury to start and find his match fitness.
However, Lin Quan's starting position remained secure, as del Bosque chose not to experiment with rotation in the attacking midfielder position.
In fact, there were no rotational players in Spain's lineup.
After the match started, Spain played cautiously and did not immediately launch attacks.
Instead, Uruguay seemed eager to try their luck, pressing high when Spain had possession, attempting to win the ball and counterattack in Spain's half.
This tactic might work against ordinary teams, but against Spain, it wasn't as effective.
Seeing Uruguay's three forwards charging forward, Spain's defenders showcased their passing skills.
With his balanced footwork and no weak foot, Cazorla commanded and distributed the ball in midfield, effectively denying Uruguay's forwards any chances to touch the ball.
As they watched their forwards struggle to retrieve the ball and be led on a merry chase, Luis Suarez's eyes turned red! He stared at Cazorla's shoulders, licking his lips.
Having experienced Cazorla's prowess at Arsenal, Suarez was scared stiff, and the ball was stolen by Edinson Cavani.
After Cavani won the ball, he quickly passed it to Rodriguez and made a run towards Spain's penalty area.
As Rodriguez received the ball, he was about to dribble down the wing when he ran into number 30 of the opposing team.
Seeing that the player defending him was Lin Quan, Rodriguez appeared very disdainful.
Having played for Atletico Madrid, he was well-versed in defending under Simeone's tutelage.
The opponent's defensive movement looked amateurish, and he felt he could easily get past him with a feint.
That's what Rodriguez thought, and that's what he did.
Watch me fake, then go! Hey!
Isn't he already gone? Wait, where's my ball? Rodriguez had passed the defender, but the ball was nowhere to be seen.
Turning back, he saw that the ball had been stolen by the opponent at some point, and now they were racing towards their own half with it!
"Stop him!"
Uruguay's head coach, Oscar Tabarez, saw number 30 of the opposing team steal the ball and jumped up from his seat with a gasp.
The biggest threat in the opponent's lineup was number 30. Allowing him to easily win the ball was very dangerous for Uruguay.
Tabarez's shout was drowned out by the cheers of tens of thousands of spectators at the scene, and the players on the field did not hear his call.
But even if the coach didn't shout, they knew the threat posed by Lin Quan.
Their left-back, who played for Inter Milan, Pereira, immediately rushed forward.
Pereira had heard of Lin Quan's reputation, but he thought, he's only 17 years old, how impressive could he be? With so many goals in the Bundesliga, that's only because Bundesliga teams can't defend. We come from Serie A.
Against the defensive steel of Serie A, defending against these Bundesliga forwards is child's play. Just then, when Lin Quan was dribbling, the force was slightly stronger, and the ball was a bit far from him.
Seeing this, Pereira saw an opportunity!
Without hesitation, he extended his foot to steal the ball! Lin Quan didn't expect the opponent to fall for it so easily. This move had already become less effective in the Bundesliga, as defenders there had learned to deal with it.
As Pereira lifted his foot, Lin Quan preemptively tapped the ball, sending it to his left foot.
With a light flick of his left foot, the ball rolled forward.
These two movements were connected very naturally and very quickly! As he kicked the ball away, Lin Quan also accelerated, rushing past Pereira's right side.
Pereira was like a clown, kicking at thin air.
The ball wasn't touched, but he lost his balance and fell to the ground with a snap.
It wasn't until he fell that he realized:
How did I get past? Seeing their left-back being easily dribbled past like a clown, Tabarez couldn't help but cover his face with his hand.
Before the match, he had warned the defensive players to be careful of number 30's dribbling and feints.
This guy's dribbling skills are excellent, and his feints are very convincing.
To steal the ball from him while he's dribbling, you need to double-team him or engage in physical confrontation.
Pereira didn't do anything, he just went for the ball directly, making a huge mistake and being easily bypassed was only normal.
After dribbling past Pereira, Lin Quan immediately cut inside. Seeing Muslera rushing out to block his shot, he feinted a shot and made a true pass, knocking the ball into the open space in the middle.
Iniesta, who had made a run from behind, easily tapped the ball into the empty net, changing the score to 1-0!
After scoring, Iniesta smiled and pointed to Lin Quan, indicating that the goal was mainly thanks to him.
Lin Quan also gave Iniesta a thumbs up. Iniesta's positioning and timing of the run were excellent, otherwise he would have passed the ball to the opposing defender.
For Lin Quan, playing for the Spanish national team was a completely different feeling from playing for his club.
In his club, his teammates were generally weaker in terms of strength, except for De Bruyne, the other players had a gap in awareness and technique, often resulting in coordination issues.
This forced them to change their style of play to adapt to their teammates.
But on the national team, all his teammates were world-class players.
They didn't need much communication; they could easily understand each other's intentions.
This made their cooperation easy to achieve, and it was also visually pleasing.
Playing in such matches felt very relaxed.
The feeling was the same for Lin Quan's teammates; they also felt very relaxed playing with him.
At least now they didn't have to worry about the firepower in the frontcourt. With Lin Quan there, Spain didn't have to worry about not scoring.
Let alone his dribbling, feints, and shooting being top-notch, even if you take away his dribbling and feints and just keep his shooting ability, as long as he stays in the frontcourt, Spain's top midfield masters can feed him until he's full!
...
The goal was scored very easily, and del Bosque only applauded from the sidelines, his expression looking quite calm, not very excited.
He was still puzzled: Uruguay, ranked third in South America, is this their level? They're not that strong!
Although their forwards like Suarez and Cavani looked intimidating, their midfield wasn't that strong.
And the left-back seemed like a fool, being so reckless when facing Lin Quan.
Del Bosque was curious; when Uruguay played against Argentina, would Pereira be so careless when facing Messi? With an early goal, Spain began to relax more and more.
After gradually gaining control of the midfield, Spain started to attack towards the opponent's half.
In the 19th minute of the match, Lin Quan received the ball in the frontcourt, and after a series of one-two passes with his teammates Iniesta, Fabregas, and others, he stormed into the penalty area.
Facing the goalkeeper charging out, he chose to shoot to the far corner.
This shot was very fancy, the ball carried a beautiful arc, bypassing the goalkeeper's fingertips and flying towards the left side of the goal.
After Lin Quan kicked the ball, he felt it right away. Watching the ball flying out with its arc, he raised his hands ready to celebrate.
Who would have thought, with a clang, the ball hit the post of the near corner.
Ah, this...
Watching the ball bounce out from the post, Lin Quan was dumbfounded!
Didn't that go in? Beside him, Little Fabregas saw the ball flying out and came over to ruffle Lin Quan's head.
"Hehe, it was a beautiful shot, but the arc was too big. Next time, when you shoot, try to lift the ball slightly higher!" Lin Quan nodded, feeling a bit embarrassed.
He intended to aim for the far corner with that shot, but the ball's arc was too exaggerated, flying back towards the near corner.
Since one goal didn't go in, then let's try another one.
Five minutes later, Spain launched another attack.
Iniesta saw Lin Quan running into space, and with a precise through pass, found him.
Lin Quan received the ball in almost the same position as the previous shot, so he repeated the same move, another shot towards the far corner.
This time he took Little Fabregas' advice, swinging his leg when making contact with the ball, using the inside of his foot close to the arch to apply force, kicking a ball with not much speed but a relatively large arc.
The goalkeeper, seeing the opponent's shot, felt a chill in his heart: Again?
He reacted quickly, after a quick step on the ground, he leaped up high and made a side dive.
But like before, this time he still didn't touch the ball, the ball almost grazed his fingertips and flew past.
The fans at the scene were curious, would this ball go out of bounds?
The arc of the ball was still very large, but ultimately it didn't fly back like the last time and bounced out from the near corner.
Seeing the ball hitting the net, Lin Quan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
If this ball didn't go in, he would have started to doubt life.
Lin Quan didn't doubt life, but the opponent's goalkeeper started to doubt life.
Is shooting to the far corner so hard to save?
I've saved other people's shots to the far corner before, why have I never encountered such a weird arc like this kid's? On the sidelines, Del Bosque saw Lin Quan score and finally showed a smile on his face.
He smiled and hugged his old partner Toni: "Why does it feel like this kid is using Uruguay as his practice field to practice his footwork?"
Toni nodded: "I do feel that way. The main reason is that the opponent didn't put enough pressure on us, so the players are playing more relaxed, right?"
Uruguay is not a pushover, being scored twice by Spain within 25 minutes made their players feel somewhat humiliated.
We know you are the world champions, but we are not nobodies, we won't tolerate you being so arrogant.
After the restart, Uruguay's tackling became more aggressive, and their attacks became more direct.
Their midfield was indeed lacking, but their forwards were strong!
Suarez, Cavani, and Fran, these three super forwards, no matter where they are placed, they are intimidating!
Uruguayans stopped playing fancy stuff with the Spanish, they went directly from the back to their forwards.
Relying on the individual ability of their forwards to score! And it turns out, this move is quite effective.
With their strong individual abilities, Suarez and Cavani stirred up Spain's defense.
However, without midfield support, they easily fell into double-teaming when attacking upfront.
Although they caused some trouble for Spain's defenders, they couldn't create goals.
Del Bosque saw the opponent's forwards attacking fiercely, so he instructed the midfield to fall back, get closer to the defensive line, protect the defense, and further compress the opponent's attacking space.
Tabarez saw Del Bosque's adjustment and his eyes lit up.
Great opportunity!
Spain's midfield is strong, but they are all technical players, not the type of physically strong players.
If they stand far apart, it's hard for Uruguay's players to steal the ball from them.
But if they retreat to their own half, then Uruguay has a chance.
So he waved his hand, signaling Uruguay's players to press up.
As long as they compress the passing space on the field and combine it with high-intensity physical confrontation, even a strong team like Spain can't continue their possession play.
This move worked, Uruguay's players aggressively pressed, harassing Spain's ball carriers like mad dogs.
At this point, the football became like a hot potato, no one dared to dribble too much, they wanted to pass it away immediately upon receiving it.
And such hasty passing is prone to mistakes.
In the 32nd minute, taking advantage of a passing error by Cazorla, Uruguay quickly counterattacked and scored a goal through Rodriguez, changing the score to 2-1.
After scoring this goal, Uruguay's morale soared, they saw hope of winning.
Although this was just a friendly match for training, winning against the world champions was still very attractive to them.
So after the restart, they continued to play this way, pressuring, physically confronting, and tackling fiercely.
Spain's players felt that this was just a friendly match, the opponent's actions were too aggressive, making them worried about getting injured.
If they got injured in such an unimportant match, affecting their performance at the club, it wouldn't be worth it.
With such a mental burden, they played more and more awkwardly.
And the more so, the more powerful Uruguay's tactics became, the situation suddenly turned against Spain.
Leading in the score, Spain lost the initiative on the field, feeling a bit suppressed by the opponent.
This can't go on!
On the sidelines, Del Bosque was getting a bit anxious.
He realized that his previous adjustment had completely backfired and only made things worse.
"Alonso, Martinez, warm up, get ready to come on!"
The first half wasn't over yet, and Del Bosque was already impatient to make substitutions.
The reason Spain was passive now was because the midfield wasn't strong enough, Cazorla was afraid of getting injured, and played too cautiously.
And his physical confrontation was indeed lacking, he couldn't hold onto the ball under the opponent's pressure, and didn't dare to hold onto the ball.
If this continued, they might concede another goal, so Del Bosque decided to substitute him.
Both Javi Martinez and Xabi Alonso were tough and strong defensively.
With them on, Spain's midfield could withstand the opponent's pressure.
As long as they could regain control of the midfield, the game would return to their familiar rhythm.
By then, winning would be simple for them.
...
On the field, Lin Quan also felt the team's problems.
So when Cazorla received a pass from his teammate again, he immediately moved closer.
Cazorla was harassed by the opponent, and seeing Lin Quan approaching, he immediately passed the ball to him like finding a lifeline.
After Lin Quan received the ball, two Uruguayans rushed out to pressure him immediately.
After ten minutes of pressure, they had gained some insights.
Spanish players were afraid of physical confrontation and injury.
As long as they showed a bit more aggression, the opponent would hesitate or even back off.
In that case, they would have a chance to steal the ball from their feet.
In their view, Lin Quan, being so young, must be more afraid of getting injured than the average player.
So as long as they scared him a bit, this kid would mess up on his own.
But what surprised them was that, facing the pressure from two Uruguayans, Lin Quan remained calm.
After receiving the ball, he calmly adjusted his steps, dodged the first player who came to pressure, elegantly performed an Anthony turn to avoid the second player.
This move was very splendid, eliciting waves of applause from the fans at the scene! Anthony's turn was actually quite aesthetic. The reason it was criticized was because he kept turning like a compass, turning it into a showy but impractical performance, naturally attracting criticism from others.
But in Lin Quan's hands, Anthony's turn was not a showy performance, but a gorgeous and effective dribbling technique.
The Middle Eastern tycoon audience didn't understand these things, they only felt that Lin Quan's dribbling was like an elf dancing on the field, using graceful movements to resolve the opponent's fierce pressure, as if a gentle prince tamed a wild beast.
This scene excited them, and they couldn't help but applaud and cheer for Lin Quan.
In the VIP box, Mansour, who bought Manchester City and invested billions of pounds, saw Lin Quan's splendid dribble, and couldn't restrain his excitement, applauding Lin Quan! Such an excellent player, why doesn't he come to our Manchester City?
It must be that we didn't offer enough money, it must be!