After the fifth round of English League One, we entered the first international match day of the new season.
However, the Premier League and English Championship teams will take a two-week break at this time, but it will have no impact on the English League One teams.
After all, teams in lower-level leagues generally rarely have international players from various countries.
Of course, York City still has them.
York City's Westerman is a former German international. Karlström and Isaksson have also officially withdrawn from the national team after the European Cup. Now the only one in the team who can truly be called an international is Kulusevski. .
He was also recruited by the new Swedish national team coach Jan Andersen to participate in the European Group A of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
The 53-year-old coach led Norrkoping to win the Swedish Super League championship last season, so he also won the favor of the Swedish Football Association and took over the coach after Pan Yi resigned.
Of course, taking over as the new European Cup champion is still very challenging for Jan Anderson. After all, Pan Yi did bring Sweden to a historical high point.
For Jane Anderson, the safest plan now is to maintain the main framework of winning the European Cup and add some new players.
Young people like Kulusevski and Isaac who were promoted by Pan Yi and performed well in the European Cup are naturally the ones he relies on and will definitely enter the national team.
They will face the powerful Dutch team in the first round! There is also a strong French team in the same group, so Sweden still needs to go all out in every game if it wants to break out of the group.
For York City, the impact of Kulusevski's absence is not great.
On the one hand, players such as Gary Fletcher and Joe Partington, the main veterans of last season's League Two, can also take up their positions. On the other hand, York City's first priority on international matches is not the league, but the league. English League Championship.
This competition is actually a cup competition, but it is not as familiar as the FA Cup and League Cup because there are no top league teams participating in this competition.
The English League Championship is referred to as the English Championship. There are 64 participating teams, including all 48 teams in League One and League Two, as well as the 16 best-performing youth teams of Premier League or Championship clubs (new rules added this season).
The competition is divided into two divisions, North and South, with 32 teams participating in each division. The teams in the two major divisions are divided into 8 groups, with 4 teams in each group, and the top 2 teams in the group advance to the top 16.
The group stage adopts a single round-robin system. A tie will directly enter the penalty shootout. A winning penalty kick will be awarded 2 points, and a penalty kick failure will be awarded 1 point.
After reaching the top 16, each team will compete in a single knockout round, with the winner advancing to the next round until the Southern and Northern division champions are determined.
The champions of the North and South divisions will decide the final championship in a single-game tie-breaker at a neutral venue (Wembley Stadium).
In fact, in England, there are more such low-level events than this British Championship.
Under the FA Cup, League Cup, and English Championship, there is also the English FA Challenge Cup (or FA Championship), which is participated by teams from the 5th to 8th tiers in England.
Under the English FA Challenge Cup, there is still a competition called the FA Bottle, and those who can participate in the competition are clubs from the 9th to 10th level.
Of course, being called an FA bottle does not mean that the final champion will get a bottle. In fact, it is also a trophy...
Even for such a low-level competition, their finals are all held at Wembley Stadium!
Think about it, as a non-professional league player, you also have the opportunity to play in this most advanced stadium in the world, how inspiring it is.
And it's not over yet.
In addition to the above-mentioned cup competitions at each level, lower-level regional league organizations have their own cup configurations.
The players participating in the remaining level cup matches are either children who have just participated in football training, or middle-aged uncles who love playing football.
For example, the FA Cup, which started in 2003, is participated by teams below the 11th level.
Of course, they also have a lot to achieve, because the team that wins the FA Cup can represent England in the UEFA Regional Cup, which is also a European competition.
The teams that can participate in the Federation Cup are selected from various regional cups in England.
There are too many regional cups to mention, and all the participants are non-league teams, and most people come to participate out of hobby.
For example, members of the Sunday League have their FA Sunday Cup, and the Amateur Football League also has their Amateur Football Senior Cup...
In short, in the huge system of English football, players of all levels can have corresponding participation opportunities and financial support. This is the secret of the long-lasting prosperity of English professional football, and it is also the reason why football has such a strong mass base in England. One of the important reasons.
When it comes to the British Championship that York will participate in, due to the flow mechanism between League One and League Two, it is difficult to have a long-term hegemony in the British Championship. After all, strong teams at this level are more willing to compete for seats in the British Championship, or It is to strive to go further in the FA Cup and the league.
York City's attitude towards the British Championship is almost the same.
They basically use a rotation lineup to cope with this game, just as a substitute player to keep the game in shape.
However, their first-round opponent, the Swansea U23 team, was still vulnerable. In the end, York City won a complete victory 3:0.
A few days later, York City ushered in another cup match, this time a relatively important first round match of the League Cup.
This time the opponent is Peterborough United, also from League One.
For York City, the most important goal this season is to break into the English Championship, so all cup competitions are dispensable.
Of course, it doesn't mean to give up. The game still needs to be played seriously, but the emphasis will indeed be slightly less, and the players will not be the main force.
Obviously, York City's opponent Peterborough United will play harder.
The two sides played a goal battle. In the end, Peterborough United, playing at home, defeated York City 3:2 and knocked them out of the competition!
This is also York City's first loss since the start of the season.
——
For Pan Yi, he really has no interest in these cup matches that York City participated in. He only needs to know the scores and progress.
He has let chairman Jason McGill and head coach Scaloni handle the team's affairs.
On this international match day, he took Valentina back to Sweden and watched the first round of Group A of the World Cup qualifying match between Sweden and the Netherlands in Stockholm.
Pan Yi's arrival certainly aroused cheers from all Swedish fans, but the Swedish team still failed to win the opponent at home.
In the 34th minute, Lustig's breakthrough caused a foul from Dutch team Van Dijk, for which Pan Yi's disciple received a yellow card.
The Swedish team took advantage of this free kick opportunity and Guidetti headed the ball into the goal, 1:0.
But in the second half of the game, Sneijder also took advantage of a free kick opportunity to score directly and equalize the score.
The score of 1:1 remained until the end.
This is not a good start for Sweden, but it is not particularly bad either.
The same is true for the Netherlands.
Whether it is Sweden or the Netherlands, whether they will qualify or not depends on the result of the game against France...
On this international match day, the World Cup qualifiers in Asia attracted Pan Yi's attention even more.
First, in the first game of the Asian top 12, the Dragon Country team challenged the South Korean team away.
This is a very crucial battle, and it is also a head-on confrontation between Pan Yi's two disciples, Wu Lei and Sun Xingmin.
However, in this game, the performance of both players can only be regarded as average.
In the first half, Zheng Zhi accidentally scored an own goal, and the Long Guo team fell behind 0-1.
After changing sides, the Korean team won two games in a row within 4 minutes by Li Qinglong and Gu Jizhe. The Dragon Kingdom team once fell behind 0-3.
However, the tenacious Long Guo team scored two goals in three minutes due to Hai and Hao Junmin. However, in the remaining time, the Long Guo team failed to score another goal and ultimately lost with regret.
Five days later, the Dragons drew with Iran, the highest-ranked team in Asia, 0:0 at the Shenyang Olympic Sports Center Stadium, earning the first point in the top 12.
Compared with the first away game against South Korea, head coach Gao Hongbo made major adjustments to the starting lineup, especially in the midfield and frontcourt. Zheng Zhi, Wu Xi, and Sun Ke all sat on the bench. Instead, they played in Seoul. Hao Junmin performed amazingly and young forward Zhang Yuning.
This change of formation also had a good effect. In the end, the powerful Iranians did not find an effective way to score goals, and the two sides ended up with a goalless draw.
After two rounds of the top 12, the Dragon Country team has 1 draw, 1 loss and 1 point. Although the points are not high, since the first two opponents are theoretically the strongest, the fate of the Dragon Country team is still in their own hands.
On the next International Day, October 6 during the National Day holiday, the national football team will face their third opponent, the Syrian team, in Xi'an.
"The next game is really the key."
In an exclusive interview with Ma Fanbing of "On Ground Football", Pan Yi also offered advice for the national football team.
"In the frontcourt games against South Korea and Iran, we can see the improvement of the national football team."
"Especially Wu Lei, after several years of traveling in Europe, he has become more confident on the court."
"It's just that sometimes on the court, teammates still can't see his movement in time and deliver the ball to his feet."
"This also illustrates the importance of going abroad so that we can connect with international standards in terms of football awareness."
"In this game against South Korea, on the one hand, I saw that all the players on the team were still too nervous and did not let go. Moreover, the team still has a lot of work to do in terms of defense;"
"But on the other hand, I also saw that our players had their own ideas on the offensive end, and I also saw that the team did not lack opportunities and could even defeat South Korea in ten minutes. This is gratifying."
"As long as Coach Gao can stick to his own ideas, don't have to change tactics on a large scale, and let the players play freely, there is still hope of winning against Syria and Uzbekistan."
"By the way, including the goalkeeper position, I also recommend not to make too many changes, so as to avoid an increase in mistakes due to the decline in mutual familiarity of the entire back line..."
The reason why Pan Yi made an exception to comment on the national football game this time is actually mainly because in his previous life, the national football team did have regrets during the 2018 World Cup qualifying journey.
The away game started with 2:3 in South Korea, and they caught up after being three goals behind and almost overtook, which showed the team's good spirit;
In the second home game, Iran was 0:0, which meant that they faced two major victims, and neither of them showed themselves vulnerable;
After these two games, the domestic media and fans also greatly praised the performance of the national football team. They believed that even though the team was at a disadvantage in terms of strength, absolute chances, ball possession rate, etc., it was not discouraged when it fell behind. The active counterattack reflects the rare tenacity of Longguo football.
But precisely because of this, the national football team's confidence is overwhelming and they are a bit unable to position themselves correctly.
Head coach Gao Hongbo made major lineup adjustments in the next game against Syria, which ranked lowest in the group.
The defense line was changed from the five-back system in the first two rounds to four-back system, and the attack line included the combination of Gao Lin and Zhang Yuning. Zhang Xizhe entered the starting lineup, and the goalkeeper was also replaced by Gu Chao.
As a result, the lineup that showed the attitude of grabbing points was misfired, and goalkeeper Gu Chao also made a fatal mistake in the attack, resulting in the loss of the ball and the Dragon Country team lost to Syria, and the situation suddenly took a turn for the worse.
After all the games in Group A of the top 12 were played, the Dragon Kingdom ranked fifth with 12 points, but the South Korean team, which ranked second, actually only had 15 points, followed by Syria in third with 13 points, and fourth Uzbekistan 13 points…
In other words, if the Dragon Country team can get three more points, they can at least get third place in the group and play in the play-offs. They may even directly overtake the South Korean team to get second place in the group and directly enter the World Cup!
If we review all the games, it may be that the loss against Syria at home is the most regrettable.
The 3 points that I thought I could securely get turned into giving 3 points to my opponent. The gap here is too big.
More importantly, due to the excellent performance in the first two games, this somewhat unexpected defeat caused a huge psychological gap, which also affected the national football team. As a result, the subsequent games became worse and worse.
In other words, if the national football team can play well in this home game against Syria, the national football team is really very promising!
Therefore, Pan Yi can be regarded as secretly passing a small note to Gao Hongbo:
Don’t change the lineup, don’t change the goalkeeper, and don’t think you’re going to win against Syria, just play the two games against South Korea and Iran!
I can only help you so far!
——
After the international break, York City played two more league games.
In the sixth round of the league, York City defeated Walsall 3-1 away from home.
The team's high center Baker once again scored a goal, and Kulusevski, who returned to the team, was also in good condition and also scored a goal.
In addition, the team's young left back Alphonso Davies also scored his first goal for York City.
After the game, the York City youth team once again received praise from the media.
However, just a week later, York City was held to a 1-1 draw at home by Chesterfield in the seventh round of the league.
In this game, the starting young striker Aman repeatedly wasted scoring opportunities. In the end, York City evened the score with Karlstrom's long shot.
After the game, Amon's poor performance became the focus of media attention.
The Yorkshire Post compared Amon and Baker and criticized the Cameroonian young man.
"Yorkshire Post" first recognized Pan Yi's excellent eye for people in Baker. This 22-year-old unknown center was brought to the team by Pan Yi last season, and he immediately rewarded him with goals. Because of his trust in him, he played a key role in York City's upgrade.
This season, although the game has changed from League Two to League One and the opponents have become more powerful, the tall Mark Baker has not adapted at all and can still kill in the game.
But soon the "Yorkshire Post" changed the subject and mentioned Amon's recent performance, "Obviously, Pan Yi made a mistake this time. He actually spent 200,000 euros in transfer fees to introduce this player who has nothing but speed. A Cameroonian boy who is good for nothing outside."
"In the first two rounds, perhaps because the opponent was not familiar with this guy who was new to England, he scored a sneak attack. But after the teams began to seriously study York City, Aman couldn't play. Switched to League One."
"He is indeed fast and physically strong, but his dribbling skills, passing level, shooting accuracy and other technical indicators are all disappointing. It even feels like he has just transferred from the rugby program. Yeah, doesn’t he look like he can play football?”
"It can also be said that Amon may not be at the level of League One! After thorough research, he has failed to score a goal for five consecutive rounds."
"Although I don't want to admit it, it is obvious that Pan Yi messed up with Amang. This is a failed investment."
Pan Yi was actually a little worried about such remarks.
Of course, it's not a question about him. Pan Yi is mainly afraid that these critical remarks will have a bad emotional impact on young Amang.
A young man left his hometown and came to England to play football. After a few games and his average performance, he was labeled as a "parallel importer."
After all, Thomas Amon is not a star who became famous in Pan Yi's previous life. He is the kind of player who can definitely have a big heart.
A positive example here is Modric. When he first arrived at Real Madrid, he was criticized as a parallel import and wanted to return it immediately.
But then everyone knew how he performed at Real Madrid.
There are even more negative examples. For example, the original Barcelona prodigy Bojan was burdened with excessive expectations, but he would be severely criticized for his slight poor performance. This made him nervous, and he even couldn't even step on the court. Feeling extremely scared.
Of course Pan Yi didn't want Amang to become like this, so he recently went to the club to observe and see if there was anything unusual.
However, he found that Amang's performance in training was normal.
No, to be precise, I worked harder.
This is a good sign, indicating that this kid may be a hard-working, self-motivated person, and he is not easily defeated.
The media's comments actually stimulated his fighting spirit! ——
On September 16, York City is making final preparations. They will face Sheffield United away from home in the eighth round of the league.
That afternoon, in the club, Pan Yi first chatted with Scaloni, and then went to the gym to meet Amon. The Cameroonian young man who had just completed strength training was sweating profusely.
"How do you feel?" Pan Yi asked.
"Excellent, boss, I'm ready to compete." Amon said immediately.
"Very good." Pan Yi nodded, "You know what the media said."
"Yes, coach." Amon's mood immediately dropped.
"what are you thinking?"
"I will use goals to tell them that Aman has the ability to help the team." Aman immediately expressed his position.
"That's the attitude you have." Pan Yi praised, "Thomas, you will have a great career. You have this talent, and the most important thing is that you work hard. Do you believe what I say? ?”
"Believe it." Aman nodded, "You are the best coach in the world and the best boss in the world!"
"So, you don't have to worry about what the media says. If I didn't have confidence in you, I wouldn't have brought you here from Norway. So, what you have to do now is to be ready for everything, tomorrow we need Your goal. And as long as you perform well..."
"The media will start praising me right away! That's what they do." Aman answered first.
"Yes, by the way, I will praise me again, saying that my vision is still so sharp, and Aguo is indeed an excellent shooter..."
Pan Yi said, and both of them laughed.
"Go and prepare for the game. Remember to think about how to celebrate after scoring tomorrow!" Pan Yi patted Amang on the shoulder, and Amang showed a silly smile, then said goodbye and left.
"Are you so sure that the Cameroon kid can score tomorrow?" Scaloni asked from the sidelines.
"Of course I'm not sure." Pan Yi chuckled, "But as long as he believes it, that's all."
Scaloni shrugged his shoulders. This was indeed Pan Yi's psychological motivation method.
What players need most now is confidence, not just confidence in themselves, but also recognition and support from the team.
This is especially important for a forward.
"However, I really think Thomas's footwork is quite rough..." Scaloni said.
"He is just an African child who grew up playing wild football, and his basic skills are definitely not very solid." Pan Yi looked at Amang's back and said, "But his physical condition is very good, and he also has good mental attributes, which is enough. In terms of technology, In terms of performance, we can just do some extra strengthening for him in normal training."
Scaloni nodded.
In League One, sometimes technology is not the most important thing.
Good physical fitness and excellent teamwork skills are the foundation for many players to gain a foothold in League One.
There are still many teams in English League One that play simple long-passing, which relies on a bunch of tall and powerful players to rush.
And York City is already very technical. This style of play has caused a certain degree of dimensionality reduction in English League One, but it also exposed Amon's technical flaws.
But as Pan Yi said, this is not a big problem.
Amon is only 18 years old and still has great potential to improve his skills.
As for Thomas Amon, Pan Yi actually has the same mentality as when he introduced Mark Baker.
Can these players who were not famous stars in their previous lives make rapid changes in this life under the guidance of the best coaches?
At least for now, Baker has indeed made great progress. Not only can he kill in League Two, but he can also do it with ease in League One.
Now it’s time to see if Amon can withstand the pressure and become a qualified English League One player... (End of this chapter)
