Grass roots glory

Chapter 319 Smoke Bomb?
Schalke won without any suspense in the three warm-up matches, beating Cottbus 3-0, followed by two six-goal wins over Oberhausen and Hamburg Victory.

There is no suspense in the result, but two things have attracted the attention of the media. The first is that Raul, who has received much attention, is in good form. He scored three goals in three games, and the scoring methods are exactly the same. Slanting outward into the penalty area, Zhou Tiancheng's pass was just right, perfectly fitting his running rhythm, and Raul could directly face a semi-single-handed opportunity when he received the ball.

Although the opponent's strength is limited, the defense will not cause too much pressure on Schalke, but the long pass over the top of more than 30 meters can form such a cooperation more than once. It is not easy to ensure such accuracy even in training. ... This is the most powerful proof, especially those reporters who watched Zhou Tiancheng and Raul rehearse before the team set up, they were even more excited. The effect came out so quickly, and the attack of the new combination was really exciting.

In addition, the reporters discovered the captain's armband on Zhou Tiancheng's arm through keen observation when he entered the field. Although after Westerman left the team, the media generally believed that Zhou Tiancheng was a popular candidate for the new captain. The pivotal role is far greater than that of Neuer.But when this moment really became a reality, all Schalke fans were very excited, especially the Chinese reporters. The report after the game was directly excerpted or even translated from the report on Schalke's official website: the youngest captain in the century-old team history.In the reports sent back to China by the Chinese media, four words were emphasized: Chinese captain-this is an honor belonging to Chinese players, and it really consolidated Zhou Tiancheng's status as a big boss in the team.

Of course, more tactical things cannot be found out through pre-season warm-ups.In these three games, Magath has been greatly testing the lineup.Due to the tight pre-season training time, there is not much time to polish tactics alone. We can only find problems through the way of training in games, and continue to improve in training and the next game, and gradually find the best lineup in the current lineup. collocation.

Although the new Bundesliga season officially kicked off on August 21, before that, Schalke still has two official games to play, the German Super Cup against Bayern Munich. , this season's Super Cup is a contest between the league champions and runners-up.

Usually the Super Cup is the prelude to the start of the new Bundesliga season. This season's prelude is very suitable for everyone-the main theme of the championship!

If there is no accident, the biggest favorites in the new season are still these two teams that already dominate in the Bundesliga.At the beginning of this season, the direction of public opinion has finally changed. Almost all Bundesliga experts have begun to face up to the fact that Schalke can compete with Bayern. The quality of the "Western Super Duo" is quite different, of course, mainly because Schalke's championship accumulation is not thick enough, but in terms of strength, there is nothing wrong with these two teams being called "German Super Duo" , The strength is indeed stronger than other Bundesliga teams.

In this summer transfer period, Bayern and Schalke have completely different methods of enriching the lineup.Schalke relied on spending money to buy and buy, while Bayern only took back a few youth players who they rented out to train. After all, Bayern has a deep foundation. one.Even Schalke's youth training has to be a little weaker.

Therefore, when looking ahead to the new season, the German media set the main tone of the championship as a confrontation between capital and background, and which of the two can prevail, the Super Cup may be the first clue.

But to everyone's surprise, the lineup Van Gaal brought to Augsburg for the Super Cup had only four substitutes!Moreover, the captain Van Bommel was not injured and sick but did not come with the team. Van Buyten and Robben, who were still recovering from their injuries, and Ribery, who was recovering, were not selected for the match list and stayed in Munich.

Bayern took the initiative to give up the "Roberg" combination, the first official championship of the new season, Bayern just sent out the remnants, giving people a feeling of coping
The explanation given by Van Gaal is: "Compared with a Super Cup, a long season is more important."

It sounds plausible.But the unexplainable part is that Robben and Ribery can be understood as being forced due to injuries, but Van Bommel did not play, which is abnormal no matter how you look at it.

The media in Gelsenkirchen interpreted this as: In the eyes of Van Gaal, this game should be given up voluntarily. He is not willing to get the main force to play out, consume the whole game and end up with nothing!
This kind of statement is domineering, and I completely think that Schalke will win without any suspense.However, a more neutral national media like "Bild" is much more rational. First of all, Bayern has not tasted any championship trophy for two consecutive seasons, which is unimaginable for them.It is impossible for Bayern to be hungry for championships.Although the Super Cup is even more tasteless than the German Cup, and was once ordered to be interrupted by the German Football Association, for Bayern, which has had two seasons of harvest, no matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat.A wealthy family has a championship trophy, just like a normal-oriented man has a normalized demand for the opposite sex. If it is missing for too long, chicken ribs are the Holy Grail, and sows can compete with Diaochan... Therefore, Bayern is not eager to use the Super Cup championship to start. In the new season, that is impossible.

Secondly, even in the lineup Van Gaal brought to Augsburg, the "Bild" reporter sorted out a few players who performed well last season.

For example, Toni Kroos, who was loaned to Leverkusen during the winter break of the 2008-09 season, played for Leverkusen for a full season last season. Verkusen's midfield core, was named the Bundesliga player of the month by "Kicker" magazine in the first month of joining on loan, and was also selected as the best player in a single round by "Kicker" for three consecutive weeks Before that, only Zhou Tiancheng had such a record, he was the second person.

It was precisely because of his explosion last season that Leverkusen finally made it to fourth in the league, qualified for the Europa League this season, and is only one step away from qualifying for the Champions League.Leverkusen wanted to buy him out very much, but was still strongly recalled by Bayern. Judging from the effect of Bayern's pre-season warm-up a few days ago, although Kroos is young, the temperament of the midfield organization is already good. Munich media He and Thomas Muller are regarded as the most anticipated players in the new season.The latter even won the World Cup Golden Boot in the South Africa World Cup in the summer, and has begun to enter the ranks of superstars.

The two most threatening offensive players are on the list, and it is impossible to see Van Gaal's intention to give up strategically.If you want to give up, wouldn't it be more thorough to directly send the reserve team plus substitutes or even the youth team?

Now it seems that deliberately taking down Van Bommel is like a smoke bomb carefully designed by Van Gaal.If Schalke is not vigilant enough, he may be hit.

And from the remarks of colleagues in Gelsenkirchen, the reporter of "Bild" really sweated for Schalke...

PS: One chapter will be updated first, and the second update today may be later.Sorry for the sudden emergency

(End of this chapter)