The Attack of the French Team
Lin hadn't really paid attention to this question, because he wasn't the hottest topic this year.
He had only played for less than half a season, and although his performance was good, the time was too short compared to those hotshots who had been playing for one or two years.
"The Golden Boy award is evaluated starting from late October and announced before Christmas in December. Now is a crucial time for the Golden Boy award evaluation. The Spanish Football Association is fully supporting Isco, and I want to advocate for you."
Bosque, between Isco and Lin, certainly favored Lin more.
After all, the latter was a player he had nurtured, while Isco hadn't been selected for the national team yet. In this case, he would definitely choose Lin.
"Even if you're not selected this year, it'll still create a stir, making it easier to compete next year!"
"And, our penalty kicks have always been unstable. Almost every player on the field has a record of missing penalty kicks."
This was the reason why Bosque insisted on doing this, as the group of players wasn't reliable at all.
If they were more reliable, he wouldn't have assigned the responsibility of kicking penalty kicks to a young player who wasn't even 17 yet.
Lin had concerns. Honestly, he was somewhat tempted by Bosque's proposal.
Who wouldn't want the privilege of scoring penalty kicks, a privilege that could increase the number of goals?
Perhaps by taking more penalty kicks in the game, the Golden Boot award for the top scorer could be secured.
In the system's regulations, winning the Golden Boot award comes with point rewards.
But if this privilege were truly given to himself, would the older players on the team be unhappy?
He didn't want to spoil the team's internal atmosphere, upsetting the older players.
So after some thought, he spoke up:
"Thank you for your kindness, but I feel that directly being assigned penalty kicks wouldn't be fair to the other players. So..."
Seeing him about to refuse, Bosque sighed, then said:
"Alright, in that case, let's include you in the penalty kick list. You and the other players will take turns in kicking, and whoever misses will rotate to the next one. If no misses, keep going until one happens. How do you feel about that?"
This proposal was good, as it didn't give him special treatment but instead provided him with a chance to compete with other teammates.
If teammates missed their penalties, then he would have an opportunity, and they wouldn't have much to complain about.
"Okay, I'll go along with your plan!"
Bosque shook his head. This kid, while everyone else was eager for the privilege of taking penalty kicks, he instead voluntarily declined it.
While Spain was nervously preparing, their opponents, the French team, had already arrived in Madrid by plane.
Because of the strong host team, Spanish fans didn't behave rudely toward the visitors.
They mostly gathered near the national team's training base to support their home team cheerfully.
"Is that our Messi?"
"Wow, that dribble was amazing!"
"Wow, his skills are so impressive, no wonder he's from La Masia youth academy!"
Fans who came specifically to see Lin arrived outside the training base, with most of them becoming enamored with this young player after watching the live broadcast of Spain against Belarus.
They held banners with various messages, some wearing Lin's #30 national team jersey, while others held his #10 shirts from Werder Bremen, all with excited expressions.
"Wow, you have a lot of fans!"
Morata felt a bit envious and jealous, wondering why, despite his height and good looks, he didn't have as many fans.
He must not be scoring enough goals. If only he could score three goals, these people would surely become his loyal fans.
"Compared to the captain and them, I'm far behind!"
Lin looked towards the sideline, where Casillas and Ramos were signing autographs for their fans.
The two players had a large number of fans, and their arms were sore from signing, not yet able to escape the circle of fans...
The national team's training base was in Madrid, which belonged to Real Madrid.
Ramos and Casillas were key players for Real Madrid, so it wasn't surprising that they received a warm welcome from the fans on their home turf.
On the contrary, Barcelona's players in Madrid appeared low-key, knowing that even in the national team, there were still many fans from Madrid who didn't welcome them.
Just like the boos Pique faced when he entered, although there was some connection to his actions insulting Real Madrid on the field with five fingers extended.
But the grudge between Barcelona and Real Madrid over the years was too deep, leading to mutual attacks and slander between the two teams' fans.
Coupled with Catalonia's separatist movement, things became even more complicated.
In this situation, it was better to remain low-key.
That's why Lin didn't go sign autographs for his supporting fans. Although he hadn't played for Barcelona, nominally he was still a Barcelona player.
He was worried he might also face booing if he went out, considering the previous association with Pique...
Around 6:30 in the afternoon, the Spanish national team players boarded the bus and headed to the venue for the game - the Calderon Stadium.
This could be the Spanish national team's last World Cup Qualifier match at the Calderon Stadium. After Atletico Madrid received investment from Wanda and decided to build a new stadium, the fate of the Calderon Stadium was likely demolition.
Therefore, among the several candidate stadiums for bidding for this group match, the Spanish Football Association specially chose the Calderon Stadium, giving up the better facilities at the Bernabeu.
The match between Spain and France was a focal point battle in the 3rd round of the European World Cup qualifiers in Brazil 2014.
Apart from many television stations in Spain choosing to broadcast live, even Sky Sports broadcasted the game.
Since the game between England and Poland wasn't until the next afternoon, there was high interest in the UK about this match. Sky Sports even had top commentators like Martin Tyler to cover the game.
"Spain has achieved 24 consecutive wins in the World Cup qualifiers. In the last match, they slaughtered Belarus 6-0 on the road, and the team is currently in a fiery state."
They have some new faces in their team besides the members who won the World Cup.
For example, their player number 30, Lin Quan, is the attacking core of Werder Bremen, which ranks fourth in the Bundesliga this season.
In the Bundesliga, he has played 6 matches, scored nine goals, with an average of 1.5 goals per game, making him stand out in the Bundesliga.
In the national team, he has only played one match for Spain but has already scored three goals and provided three assists.
Even though he is young, he has already shown the potential of a superstar. It's certain that top clubs will be after him this winter.
Like Martin Tyler, many people are focusing on Lin. For instance, the French commentators emphasized before the match the threat Lin poses to the French team in the forward position.
Ribery, who has faced Lin in league matches, also highlighted before the game that Lin is the biggest threat in the Spanish team.
With the current state of the French team, facing Spain without Lin, their chances of winning are not very high.
With Lin joining, as Spain moves towards an ultimate form of evolution, their chances of winning against Spain probably get even lower.
"We don't want to say this, but we have to admit, compared to the team's strong skills, we are no longer a top-notch team in the world.
Our gap with Spain, the double champion of the World Cup and the European Cup, is significant. In this match, our goal should be to secure a draw. As long as we don't lose, when we return to our home field for the next match, we have a chance to win!"
The French commentators are very pessimistic, as is their head coach.
In this match, they have decided to adopt a defensive approach, intending to play compactly.
During the European Cup, they played openly against Spain and ended up losing 2-0.
Now that the opponent's strength has increased, if they still play the same way, it would be like asking for trouble.
Of course, playing compactly doesn't mean giving up.
On the contrary, compressing their formation to the back, allowing the opponent's formation to advance, is more advantageous for counterattacks.
Although Spain's possession system is strong, the French team focuses on efficiency, not ball possession.
As long as they can score one or two goals on the counterattack, they have a good chance of winning in the end. What good is Spain's high possession rate?
At 7:45 pm, players from both sides started to enter the field one after another.
Both teams had a 4-3-3 formation for this match. The starting lineup was:
Spain: Casillas #1, Alba #18, Busquets #16, Ramos #15, Alba #18, Xavi #8, Fabregas #10, Iniesta #6, Silva #21, Lin #30, Pedro #11
France: Lloris #1 (from the 2022 World Cup final), Debuchy #2, Koscielny #21, Sakho #5, Evra #3, Sissoko #6, Cabaye #17, Gonalons #17, Matuidi #12, Benzema #10, Ribery #7
After playing the national anthems and shaking hands, the time was exactly 8:00 pm.
With the sound of the referee's whistle, the match officially began.