Thanks to the tips of "Thief Death", "Qingqing Little Wolf", "Who Hasn't Tried Two Times", "Ivjun" and "Sansen Weilin"! ――

The England national team is stationed in Tokyo, Japan, and all the matches they could theoretically participate in, except for a 3/4 place final in South Korea, all other games, group stage, and the knockout stage after promotion will be played in Japan, so they chose to prepare in Tokyo.

Although the games are played in different stadiums in different cities, it is obviously impossible to change places and cities back and forth, first of all, it will cause the players to travel tirelessly and adapt to the new environment every day, and secondly, Japan itself is not big, for example, their first game is in Saitama against Sweden, from Tokyo to Saitama, it is only half an hour's drive, and they will have the help of the World Cup organizing committee, this time will be shortened.

Japanese football in the past few years, Aldridge led Millwall to play the Toyota Cup, there was a brief exchange with the top management of the Japanese Football Association, then Japanese football began to flourish, to 02, the emergence of Nakata Hidetoshi, Nakamura Shunsuke as the representative of the golden generation is not accidental.

The training camp that the England national team chose to stay in this time is to live in a hotel, but the training ground is borrowed from the training base of a local football club in Japan, and the facilities are quite complete, and other aspects will also be handed over to the team of the England national team to make up.

Three meals a day, the national team is in charge, the players train and restore the bathing facilities, and the national team greeted the hotel in advance.

With a day to go before the World Cup, England are already getting used to their surroundings at their training grounds. The players adjusted to the jet lag. Training is on track.

On the periphery of the training base. Naturally, the most observed of them were the Fleet Street reporters, and then, there were the South American journalists, with Argentina being the most numerous.

This is to find out the enemy's situation!

Aldridge has never been more serious, meticulous in training but a little stingy in words, and he is more often observant and carefully examines the condition of his players.

The England national team had a poor record in warm-up matches before the World Cup. There are congenital reasons for this.

The team is incomplete!

Scholes, Becky didn't play, and even Irving was put on the bench by Aldridge to rest, these three, if you talk about importance, have the greatest impact without Scholes, followed by Irving, and finally Becky, and all three are absent at the same time. It is conceivable that the England team can play well in the warm-up game. Hell yes!

To be exact, Aldridge took over the national team for a year and a half, no more, no less.

And at this stage, he will no longer instill tactical concepts in the players, this job has been done in the past year and a half, and should be done well!

At this time, if you talk about any tactics, then there is no hope for this team, you don't go to the league, you can adjust if you lose one or two games, you need to play steadily from the beginning to play what you are good at and get used to.

However, at the end of the day's training, Aldridge looked worried.

Jenson saw it and asked curiously, "What are you worried about?" ”

"Scholes."

"He? He looks fine. ”

"The reaction he gave me was a little worrying."

"What's the reaction?"

Aldridge sat at the dining table, raised his head and said lightly: "I tell him, we need to observe the change of rhythm of the game on the court, seize the invisible rhythm difference, cooperate with our counterattack, and give full play to the offensive power." Then, he just nodded, very ordinarily nodding. ”

Jensen was stunned when he heard this, and then laughed and said: "It's because you're too nervous, in the past year and a half, he's like this, what you say to him, he nods when he understands, and he won't ask anything more, on the contrary, if he doesn't understand, he will have other reactions." ”

Aldrich rolled his eyes, as if that was the case.

scold

So I'm nervous?!

Back in the hotel room in the evening, most of the players stayed in their rooms, either talking to their families on the phone, or watching the news in the room, learning about the other teams participating in the World Cup, they will make their World Cup debut three days later, all the players are calmly waiting for the arrival of this game, probably, there is only one exception, Lu Xiaopang, he lay on the bed after talking to Colin and his family in the room, the excitement of taking the last train of the World Cup has subsided a little, looking at the strange world outside the window, He wanted to go out and see the cultural landscape of the Eastern country, but Joe Cole, who was in the same room, did not want to accompany him, Joe Cole's mentality was very different from Rooney, he was looking forward to the game, hoping that he could make his appearance, while Rooney, he felt that his chances of playing were slim.

Aldrich leaned back on the bed, in his own room, holding his laptop and video chatting with his family, who had also come to the East.

"Hey Dad, am I cool?"

Looking at the video footage of Earl wearing a toad mirror and wearing an England jersey, Aldridge smiled and nodded: "Well, cool! Do you have my share? ”

"Yes! Look at. ”

Earl picked up a brand new sunglasses and shook it in front of the camera, while Bert next to him was not dressed up in a different way, the two brothers had opposite personalities, Earl was lively and active, Bert sometimes made people feel dull, Aldrich understood that as quiet.

The two sons, who were led by their grandparents to watch the World Cup, did not make it to Japan, and their first stop was South Korea, where they planned to watch the opening match of tomorrow by defending champions France.

After Aldridge finished talking to them, he picked up his mobile phone and called Evan, who was far away in London.

By 11 p.m., Aldrich had fallen asleep.

The next day, in Seoul, South Korea, the opening ceremony of the World Cup was held in a grand manner, after which the defending champions France took on their opponents Senegal in the same group.

Zidane did not play due to injury, Senegal, which is very unfamiliar to the world, surprised the world in the first World Cup!

With Diop's goal, the new African army defeated the defending champion France team by one goal!

2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, from the first day of the opening ceremony. It kicked off with a subversive opening.

Winner of the last World Cup. In addition, the new European Cup champions, France, suffered a waterloo. After a night, the World Cup craze really started to heat up.

People are talking about the impact of Zidane's absence, discussing the path of the French team to qualify, and reassessing the strength of the new African army.

After the shocking upset of the French team's debut, England's players are more serious in their preparations, as if someone else's experience has sounded the alarm bell for them to treat the World Cup. We really can't be careless and underestimate the enemy.

On Children's Day, the second match day of the World Cup, Aldridge attended the pre-World Cup press conference for the first time.

He swept away his breezy demeanor and changed it to a stern expression.

Journalists from all over the world were brought together on the scene, whether England was looked down upon by the outside world or not, but at least in terms of fame, they had the most famous coaches and players, Aldridge and Becky.

As Aldridge expected, there were still many reporters at the scene who asked about the transfer of Millwall's four Italian stars, and he ignored them. It was only when the reporters on the scene were a little angry that he said: "I am now the manager of the England national team. I only answer topics related to the England team. ”

Fleet Street, and some European mainstream media reporters are not surprised, and most of those who are boring are reporters who do not understand Aldrich's style.

"What are England's goals for this World Cup? Is it true that the British media says that the FA is asking you to at least reach the quarter-finals? ”

Aldridge said in a deep voice: "We came to the World Cup with only one goal, to achieve our dream. If you can't realize your dream, what difference does it make if you fall to the top 8, the top 4, or even the final? Nothing but the championship. ”

"Huh? Is England trying to win the title? ”

An Asian journalist had a clear look of sarcasm on his face.

Many other reporters also felt that Aldridge's words were a little too full.

Aldrich looked at the Asian reporter and asked, "Are you Korean?" Japanese? ”

"I'm Korean!"

"Okay, Mr. Journalist from South Korea, then let me ask you, what is the goal of South Korea to participate in the World Cup?"

"Reach the round of 16."

"Well, that's what you're aiming for? It's realistic, it's utilitarian. But what if you make it to the round of 16? ”

"Of course, try to get into the top 8!"

"Well, it's still very realistic. Take it one step at a time, this is South Korea's plan. But not England, we want to go to the end, try to get to the end, from the very beginning, we have our eyes on the final in Yokohama 30 days later, if we fail halfway through, it doesn't matter, we come back in four years, we will still aim to go to the end and fight for it forever until we achieve our goal of getting there. ”

The reporter on Fleet Street nodded frequently, and the South Korean reporter suddenly realized that Aldrich's words were not sarcastic, but they reflected the difference between the football landscape of England and South Korea, which did not mean any ridicule, but just reality.

Maybe England doesn't have a champion, but England has always had championship dreams and ambitions, but countries with backward football levels don't have this kind of ambition and dreams, and they don't even have the courage to fantasize! You can only look at one step at a time.

For example, the Chinese team went to the World Cup in South Korea and Japan, and it is also the most ideal plan to advance to the round of 16 with Brazil with one win and one draw, if it can enter the round of 16, it can be called the most brilliant in history, and Argentine coach Bielsa said that "if you don't win the championship, you will fail", the Chinese team will be more than the mainstream power to win the runner-up, the semi-finals, it is more of a victory!

What is the Champion Phase? It doesn't appear out of nowhere.

France have a championship because they were champions four years ago and European champions two years ago.

Spain, Argentina have champions, just look at their qualifiers crazy table xiàn to know why.

Italy has a champion, and the peak of the squad is the confidence.

Even the declining German team, and the Brazilian team, which stumbled out of the qualifiers, are more championship-oriented than England, the former is the heritage, and the latter is the talent.

What does England have?

Got Becky? Got Owen? Got Aldrich?

That wasn't enough to put this team in the top five favourites for the championship, especially since they were in the Bracket of Death!

But even so, England's championship dream cannot be lost, and the pursuit cannot be reduced because there is no champion, and this kind of regression of ambition will have a huge impact on the national team of an era, unless it really reaches the point where high-rise buildings become ruins and need to be rebuilt brick by brick.

Aldridge's stern remarks won the admiration of Fleet Street, and in their eyes, Aldridge is the best manager of the Three Lions.

They weren't too him, and even when he wasted a spot with a 16-year-old Wayne Rooney, they were lenient with him.

Why?

Because he made the Three Lions even in a bad situation, people have to look forward to the future, with that most precious expectation!

Aldridge was reluctant to argue with reporters, and when talking about tomorrow's first game, he still had a stern expression, saying: "People are saying that England has not beaten Sweden for 34 years, 34 years, a long time, but in fact, the two teams have not officially played each other many times in the tournament, in the past on the stage of the World Cup, the number of times the two teams have played each other is zero, the record is a record, but that only represents the past, Sweden will be a strong opponent, in this group of death, to qualify, 3 points are very important, but the first game, Nobody wants to lose, so we don't want to be passive, and tomorrow will decide the outcome of the game, I think it may be in the use of set-pieces, England have a star with great free-kick ability like David, and we will have a little bit of an advantage. ”

The reporters were stunned.

Even the Fleet Street reporter couldn't figure out whether Aldrich's words were true or not.

Is there any mistake?

The first game was a bit more conservative, it's not hard to guess.

You tell the outside world directly, England will focus on set-pieces tomorrow?

Is it true or not? (To be continued......)