Ultimate Demon Sword

Chapter 358 Take the golden boy and the golden ball together?

In terms of the difference in strength between the two teams, Griezmann's goal only kicked off Atletico Madrid's goal. Wen Zhihao's wonderful performance in this game was by no means limited to a very imaginative pass to the ground.

As this year's Champions League silver boot and World Cup golden boot, Wen Zhihao's various scoring methods are what everyone is really looking forward to.

In this game, everyone really doesn't care about the outcome, the only expectation is that the more wonderful goals the better.

And Wen Zhihao seemed to know what the audience was thinking. Just 3 minutes after Griezmann opened the scoring, he pierced his old club's goal with the iconic world wave.

The fans at the scene saw the whole process of the goal, and they all involuntarily let out a burst of exclamation.The real beauty of this goal, apart from the fact that Wen Zhihao resisted Jin Yingquan's physical pressure and hit a curve ball towards the dead corner, which reflected the wonderful sense of the ball, was more important. Before Wen Zhihao shot, he and Costa, Griezmann, and Saul played consecutive kicks. , directly to Saul who plugged in from the midfield.Guangzhou Evergrande's defense line has actually been torn apart by Atletico Madrid's series of running positions and short passes. The first 30 meters of the penalty area has completely opened the door, completely entering Saul's long-range shooting range.

However, the Spaniard was not greedy for merit, but passed the ball straight to Wen Zhihao who had already rushed into the penalty area. Wen Zhihao grabbed the ball in front of Jin Yingquan from a small angle on the left side of the penalty area.

Wen Zhihao didn't celebrate when he broke the goal of his old club. He went to pick the ball out of the net and explained to his teammate Zeng Cheng with a smile: "Hey, it's a coincidence! I didn't mean it."

Zeng Cheng's expression was speechless.Not intentional?Then you still shoot so accurately!Could it be that you were fooled?

He really wanted to ask Wen Zhihao: Anyway, in the national team, look down and see you, is that okay?

In fact, Atletico Madrid was enough to expand the score to 3:0 or even more in the first half, but the headers of Costa and central defender Godin missed the goal post by a hair.

However, Simeone is still satisfied with the performance of everyone on the field. He thinks it is nothing to waste opportunities. No one can hit every shot. The key is that the performance of several core players he values ​​​​on the field shows that their state is obviously getting better.For Simeone, this is the biggest good news in the preparation period before the start of the season.

At the end of the first half, Atletico Madrid led by two goals.

In the second half of the game, Atletico Madrid's offensive slowed down, and both sides began to change players. For Evergrande, Cannavaro replaced Zheng Zhi, Gao Lin, Feng Xiaoting and other main players one after another. Simeone also replaced a large number of young people.This is also due to the fact that the International Champions Cup is a friendly match with no substitution rules, and it also gives these giants coaches a chance to test their lineups for the new season.For example, last year in the United States of the International Champions Cup, in Real Madrid's 1:4 defeat to Manchester City, Zidane simply changed nine players when the team fell behind 0:2, which is equivalent to changing a lineup!
Although Simeone is not as big as Qi Zu, Atletico Madrid's substitutions are enough to excite Chinese fans.

Because, one of the substitutions was at the goalkeeper position. He played soy sauce in front of the goal for half the time. Oblak, who had nothing to do, was replaced in the second half. Yan Junling ushered in his Atletico Madrid career debut!

"Yan Junling played and Wen Zhihao was not replaced! Two Chinese players played for a UEFA Champions League club at the same time! This is a very meaningful moment. Wen Zhihao's debut in Atletico Madrid is not amazing, but it is very steady. What about Yan Junling's debut? Maybe this is not a good time for him to make his debut, because he should not have many opportunities to appear in this game. Haha!"

When Yan Junling walked onto the court, his footsteps were still a little tight. Obviously, he himself was not ready for his debut so soon. When he walked towards the goal, he kept his head down and avoided it as much as possible, so as not to let the camera capture his inner tension.

Simeone's expression was slightly wrinkled behind him. Yan Junling's performance seemed to him a kind of lack of self-confidence, and as a goalkeeper, if he didn't have a strong mentality, it would be difficult to stand alone in front of the goal.

But it stands to reason that players who can perform absolutely brilliantly against the defending champion in the World Cup

Seeing Yan Junling's strange behavior, Wen Zhihao immediately thought of Yan Junling's mental activity, and walked over to help him relieve the pressure in a half-joking way: "Dayan, you should be considered a very lucky substitute goalkeeper. Your first show came so quickly, but you probably don't have much chance to be photographed. Go ahead and stay in front of the door honestly to make soy sauce! For the rest of the time, you just need to make up the number!"

"Soy sauce? Make up the numbers?" Yan Junling frowned slightly, just about to refute who Wen Zhihao was looking down on!But he soon saw Wen Zhihao blinking at him with some meaning, and after thinking about it again, he found that what Wen Zhihao said was actually right!
This is Atletico Madrid. With such a strong defense, I am afraid that there are not many opportunities for me to touch the ball. Most of the time, I only need to be a spectator on the field and watch my teammates kick.

In this case, what is there to be nervous about, and what is there to worry about?

In fact, the process of the game is also the same. Yan Junling basically just excited the fans for a while when he came on the field, and there was nothing wrong with him in the following games. If it wasn't for a few backcourt kicks and the central defender deliberately passing back to the goalkeeper, I am afraid that Yan Junling really didn't have much sense of participation in this game. He really became a spectator on the field and watched a half-time offensive and defensive drill without any suspense.

The competition of young players in the second team of the two teams is actually far greater than the gap in the main lineup, because the level of youth training in the two countries determines the overall level of young players.

Of course, Wen Zhihao was an exception.

Atletico Madrid had a lot of chances in the second half, but the young players' finishing touches were almost too late. In the end, Atletico Madrid's two forwards Torres and Giovanni scored a goal. The whole game ended 4:0. Wen Zhihao was replaced by the 70-year-old midfielder Olabe of Team B in the No. 21 minute.The focus of discussion between Simeone and his assistant Boggs is the 19-year-old striker Giovanni.Including Singapore's first International Champions Cup, the young striker scored three goals in three games, with both head and foot kicks. Simeone saw in him a very good finishing ability in front of the goal. Unexpectedly, the pre-season warm-up really found a treasure.

Sometimes opportunities are also indispensable for the growth of young players. For example, Giovanni's outbreak is at the right time.Gameiro and Vietto have left this season, and Torres is one year older. Since last season, he has had few opportunities under Simeone, and Atletico Madrid has a tradition of cultivating young strikers.Simeone is already considering whether to promote Giovanni as Costa's first substitute this season, just like Real Madrid's Mayoral. After all, this forward has exactly the same body template as Costa, and he is two centimeters taller than Costa. Seeing the current Costa, Simeone is also very optimistic about the future of this young striker.

……

In the match between Atletico Madrid and Evergrande, the result of 4:0 was completely in line with everyone's expectations, and all four goals were very exciting. Wen Zhihao contributed a pass and a shot, which proved that he recovered well after returning from the holiday. The Chinese media are even more looking forward to the upcoming European Super Cup.

But just after this game, Italy's "Turin Sports Daily" announced the 25-person shortlist for this year's European Golden Boy Award.The Chinese media paid special attention to this year's selection of the Golden Boy Awards, just because they are extremely confident that Wen Zhihao will win the European Golden Boy Awards.This year is the World Cup year, the performance of the national team will account for a large proportion, and Wen Zhihao led the Chinese team to become the biggest dark horse of this World Cup as the Golden Boot of the new World Cup, which undoubtedly gave him a great advantage in the entire selection.Although the last Golden Boy Award winner Mbappe still made the shortlist with a strong performance, he only won the Ligue [-] championship last season, and only reached the top eight in the Champions League and World Cup.Regardless of personal performance or team performance, this year he should be the golden boy.

Some of the 25 candidates for this year's Golden Boy Award have been shortlisted for two consecutive years. In addition to the golden boy defending champion Mbappe, there are also young heroes who are powerful in Europe such as Jesus, Dembele, Pulisic, etc., especially Gabriel Jesus who played for Manchester City and Barcelona's "Mr. Yiou" Dembele.But compared with Wen Zhihao, their light is not so dazzling.

In fact, not only the Chinese media, but even the Spanish media very much hope that Wen Zhihao can win the "Europe's Strongest Young Player" award. Since Isco won the Golden Boy award in 2012, La Liga has missed the Golden Boy award in the final selection for five consecutive years.This is something that the Spanish media cannot accept anyway.Although the Bundesliga has always been advertised as a fertile ground for the growth of young players, the Spanish media have never been convinced. They always believe that the Spanish youth training is the top existence in Europe!
The most outstanding symbol of youth training in Spanish football is Barcelona’s La Masia youth training camp. Of course, the youth training strength of the top three in La Liga has never been weak. Real Madrid’s Castilla youth training camp provides more than half of the fresh blood for the entire La Liga every year.

As for Atletico Madrid, being good at cultivating excellent forwards is the most famous part of Atletico Madrid's youth training. It only needs one sentence to explain: Atletico Madrid's product must be a boutique!

Although it sounds like an advertisement, this is the accumulation of Atletico Madrid's eight sharp strikers in the past 20 years. Not to mention, in this Atletico Madrid team, Costa, Griezmann, and Torres are all fruitful proofs.

Of course, Wen Zhihao's scoring efficiency is higher than that of a striker, but his position in Atletico Madrid belongs to the midfield sequence, so let's ignore it here for the time being.

All in all, the Spanish media feel that it is time for La Liga players to regain the Golden Boy Award and justify the name of the Spanish youth training.Compared with Dembele, who joined Barcelona from Borussia Dortmund with a lot of attention, Wen Zhihao was unanimously favored by most Spanish media due to his outstanding performance.

Judging from the votes of the 25 candidates on the shortlist, Wen Zhihao was indeed the one with the highest number of votes.A selection team composed of [-] well-known European media and [-] journalists, including the Dutch "Telegraph", the German "Bild", and the British "The Times" not only firmly listed Wen Zhihao as the first choice for this year's Golden Boy Award, but also created momentum for Wen Zhihao. Paul Jansen, editor-in-chief of The Telegraph, said bluntly in an interview with reporters: "As long as the media participates in the selection with a fair position, they should understand that Wen is the most outstanding young man in world football this summer and even in the past year. It should be undisputed that he won the European Golden Boy Award, because he is almost destined to become the leader and king of the field in the era after Messi and Ronaldo. No young man has done better than him."

Paul Jensen's praise of Wen Zhihao was not just a subjective favoritism because he was a player who came out of the Eredivisie, but was based on facts. According to the rules, after calculating the comprehensive score of 25 players, Wen Zhihao ranked first among the 25 players without any suspense.

Apart from the Spanish media, the most restless is the Chinese media.It happened that Atletico Madrid was training in China during this period, so the Chinese media was close to the water, and rushed to contact Wen Zhihao himself at the first time, wanting to hear his feelings at the first time, but Wen Zhihao saw the situation and hid directly!
He naturally understood through the news channels that he probably won the Golden Boy Award, but are they as excited as the reporters downstairs?

Wen Zhihao really can't bear the enthusiasm of the Chinese media now, so he hides as much as he can.

The point is that he doesn't understand, what is there to be excited about?The media should be aware of their own performance, isn't everything going to happen naturally?
……

It was Wen Zhihao's teammates and Simeone who expressed their views during the interview.Griezmann, as one of the WCG iron triangle, naturally supports Wen Zhihao's attitude. He said: "I don't think anyone is more qualified to win this award than Wen. If he can't be elected, then this award can be canceled directly, because the selection has lost justice."

It sounds very useful for Griezmann to go online directly on the Chinese media. This is the real status and recognition.

At the press conference before Atletico Madrid’s second game against Chelsea, when it came to the selection of the Golden Boy Award, Simeone was even more astonishing: “Golden Boy Award? Of course there is no suspense! In terms of Wen’s performance from the past year to the present, this award is not enough to show his excellence. I think he is not only the best young player in Europe, but also the best of all players in the past year... I will be surprised if Wen is not one of the last few candidates for the FIFA Ballon d’Or this year.”

The cameras of various media immediately recorded Simeone's original words, and even the Chinese reporters looked at each other and discussed in a low voice.

I have confidence in the Golden Boy Award, but for the Golden Globe Award, Wen Zhihao's opponents are Messi and Ronaldo. Is it really... possible?

(End of this chapter)