Football: Starting from the 05 World Youth Championship

With the arrival of May, the La Liga schedule has become more congested once again.

The competition has changed from once a week to once every four days.

Fortunately, there were no Champions League matches during this period, and Real Madrid were eliminated early from the Copa del Rey.

Therefore, the schedule of one game every four days did not pose much of a pressure for Real Madrid at this time.

In the final stages of the league, Real Madrid, having already secured the title, were not concerned with winning or losing, but rather focused on maintaining the form of their key players and training and developing young players.

Gago, who was injured in the first half of the season, has recently recovered and returned to action. Mourinho has included him in the 18-man squad for the away game against Osasuna.

However, having missed most of the season, the Argentine's situation within Real Madrid has become quite awkward.

Unlike the first half of the season when Real Madrid lacked players in the defensive midfield position, they now have three defensive midfielders to choose from: Diarra, Mascherano, and Pepe.

Gago's defensive abilities are relatively weak, and he is also physically fragile, making it difficult for him to compete with these strong men.

As for his strength in organizing attacks, that task has been assigned to playmaking attacking midfielders like Lin Feng, Sneijder, and Guti, so he is not needed.

This has put Gago in a somewhat awkward position within Real Madrid. If he cannot impress Mourinho with outstanding performances, he may not be able to play for Real Madrid next season.

Gago was also very anxious and tried his best to perform well on the field.

He knew Mourinho liked players with a positive attitude, so he forced himself to do defensive work, which he wasn't good at, and tried to prove his worth to Mourinho.

Unfortunately, defense, though seemingly simple, is actually not easy at all.

Defense requires not only extensive experience, but also skill, physical ability, and even talent.

Gago was never known for his defense; he lacked defensive skills and experience, and his body was also injury-prone, which made his efforts have little effect.

In this match, he was quite overwhelmed by Osasuna's midfield, and Real Madrid's only goal conceded in the game was largely due to his rash tackle and subsequent being beaten.

Although Real Madrid ultimately secured victory thanks to a last-minute winner from substitute Lin Feng, they still managed to win the match.

However, Real Madrid played rather poorly in this match. They were even tied with a relegation-threatened team in terms of possession and shots on goal, which was embarrassing to admit.

Mourinho was naturally very dissatisfied with the players' performance and gave them a half-hour lecture in the locker room.

Many players were puzzled and even dissatisfied with Mourinho's overreaction. Real Madrid had already won the title, and the last few games were meant for training purposes.

It doesn't matter if we win the final match or even lose.

But Lin Feng knew exactly why Mourinho was angry.

After defeating Liverpool and securing the league title early, Real Madrid players were visibly relaxed.

In recent days, the players have been reporting to the training base much later than last month.

Many people seem to have been blinded by the hype from the media and fans, already predicting the Champions League final will be won before it even starts.

Some people have even started thinking about how to win over the pretty girls during the championship celebration and parade.

Mourinho's criticism was not about the players' performance in the match, but rather their arrogant and complacent attitude.

Media hype is a sweet poison; too much of it can really kill you.

He battled Ferguson and Manchester United in the Premier League for three years, and no one knows the strength of this Red Devils team better than him.

Mourinho may look down on Liverpool, but he certainly doesn't underestimate Manchester United.

If Real Madrid approaches the Champions League final with this mentality, the chances of failure are as high as 60%.

The reason they have a 40% chance of winning is entirely because Lin Feng, the team's core player, has not been affected by the praise from the outside world and has maintained the same mentality as before, which makes Mourinho very gratified.

If Lin Feng gets cocky like the others, Real Madrid will probably only have a 10% or 20% chance of winning.

……

During the second day of training, after all the players had arrived, Mourinho announced a message to everyone:
The next match is the El Clásico, and he will determine the starting lineup based on the players' attitude in training over the past few days and their performance in intra-team training matches.

If a player is not serious enough in training and performs poorly in practice matches, then even a key player will be dropped from the starting lineup.

Conversely, even substitute players, if they perform well in training, have the opportunity to replace the starters and get a starting position.

These words invigorated the substitute players, while the starters all wore serious expressions.

The Spanish El Clásico is jokingly referred to by fans as the "Spanish Super League" because its significance far surpasses that of ordinary league matches.

If you can appear on such an occasion and leave a deep impression on fans all over the world, it is easy to become famous overnight.

Therefore, the promise Mourinho is making is really tempting for young players.

For key players, not being able to represent the team in El Clásico would be a disgrace and could even jeopardize their starting position.

Therefore, they had no choice but to take this matter seriously.

Lin Feng glanced at Mourinho, whose attitude seemed very serious.

But if the main players really do tank, Lin Feng doesn't believe Mourinho has the guts to change the entire starting lineup.

So in the end, this is just another tactic used by PUA players.

Mourinho is using this method to set rules for the players and, incidentally, enhance his own prestige within the team.

For many coaches, the biggest challenge in managing a top club is not having enough prestige to command respect from the star players, and this problem is particularly serious at Real Madrid.

From the moment he took over as manager of Real Madrid, Mourinho has been establishing his prestige.

However, because he lacked any notable achievements, he adopted a relatively mild approach.

But now, after leading the team to the Champions League final and breaking the league record by winning the title five rounds early, Mourinho feels he can use some slightly tougher methods.

Of course, it cannot be ruled out that Mourinho wants to take this opportunity to purge the team in order to make room to buy some of his trusted players to help him control the team.

Regardless of Mourinho's true intentions, his move was quite effective.

The team members' attitude towards training is much better than before.

Before winning the Champions League final, Mourinho was the father of Real Madrid.

From the top management to the fans, everyone at Real Madrid practically worshipped him, begging him to lead the team to that crucial tenth championship trophy.

At this point, if any player were to oppose Mourinho due to a problem with their training attitude, even if he were Raul, he probably wouldn't receive the club's support. Seeing that the players' attitudes had become more upright, Mourinho nodded in satisfaction and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Actually, there are people in the team who can threaten him. If Lin Feng were to stand up against him, it would be hard to say whether the club would side with him or with Lin Feng.

As Lin Feng delivered phenomenal performances for Real Madrid, repeatedly breaking club records, the Real Madrid management treated him like a treasured heirloom, wanting nothing more than to cherish him.

Not long ago, after Di Stéfano publicly praised Lin Feng, he was regarded by countless Real Madrid fans as the second Di Stéfano. Real Madrid, from top to bottom, is counting on him to lead the team to create a new dynasty!

If you fall out with him at this point, it's hard to say whose side the club will take.

Mourinho even thinks Real Madrid is more likely to choose Lin Feng because he is not only strong but also very young and can continue to play for Real Madrid for many years.

Fortunately, the two have a good relationship, and Lin Feng has been the most disciplined and hardworking player in the team since joining Real Madrid.

Mourinho's rule is not targeted at Lin Feng, but at other players, so it's impossible for Lin Feng to go against him at this time.

But the presence of a superstar in the team who could challenge his position made Mourinho, who has an extremely strong desire for control, feel somewhat uneasy.

……

Unlike Real Madrid's recent impressive form, Barcelona's form has been quite poor lately.

Starting from the 31st round of the league, Barcelona experienced a five-game winless streak.

In five league matches, Barcelona had three draws and two losses, managing only three points.

If Barcelona hadn't been in such poor form, Real Madrid would never have been able to win the title so many rounds early.

However, after losing to Manchester United, Barcelona seemed to have finally broken free of their shackles. In the last match against Valencia, Messi scored four goals, leading the team to a 6-0 thrashing of Valencia.

Valencia is no weak team. At the beginning of the century, they reached the Champions League final for two consecutive years. Although their strength has declined compared to then, they are still a strong team in La Liga.

For a team like this to lose to Barcelona by six goals away from home is still quite alarming.

There were concerns that Barcelona's recent poor form might make the El Clásico a foregone conclusion.

But now, with Barcelona's strong resurgence and Messi's outstanding performance, the outside world is full of expectations for this El Clásico.

Currently, the top two scorers in La Liga are none other than Lin Feng and Messi.

So far, in the first 35 rounds of the league, Lin Feng has scored a total of 39 goals and provided 19 assists, topping both the top scorer and assist charts.

And the second place on both of these lists happens to belong to the same person, none other than Messi.

Perhaps it was because of Lin Feng's provocation, or perhaps it was because he had avoided the effects of injuries.

Messi has entered his breakout season ahead of schedule. After scoring 4 goals and 1 assist in the last round, Messi's league goal tally this season has reached 31, along with 16 assists.
If this had happened last season, Messi's statistics would have been enough to win the La Liga Golden Boot.

But this season, even though he has scored 30+ goals, he is still nearly 10 goals behind Lin Feng.

With only three rounds left in the league, there is almost no hope of catching up unless he can score four goals like in the last game a few more times.

With both the league and the Champions League out of the competition, perhaps only by defeating Real Madrid head-on on the field and surpassing Lin Feng in individual honors can Messi slightly reverse his decline!

So, in a rare interview before this El Clásico, Messi made some bold statements, saying he would beat Real Madrid away from home to avenge the loss he suffered at Camp Nou in the first half of the season.

Lin Feng rarely responds to other players' pre-game trash talk.

Because he's so famous, there are just too many people who want to challenge him and ride his coattails; if he had to respond to each one, he'd be exhausted.

But since Messi has made his statement, Lin Feng naturally has to respond.

"Mr. Messi seems to have forgotten the lessons learned from the last game. No problem, I'll help him review them!"

This powerful response won unanimous praise from Real Madrid fans and Lin Feng's fans.

"Lin Feng is right. What kind of team is Barcelona? They dare to challenge Real Madrid. I think they're asking for trouble!"

"We beat them 3-0 in the last away game, let's beat them 3-0 again in this game to calm them down!"

"This is the Bernabéu. We at Real Madrid are very hospitable and never let our guests leave empty-handed. Scoring only three goals seems a bit stingy. I think we should double it and let Barcelona leave with a full load!"

Three days passed in the blink of an eye amidst the verbal sparring between the players and the flame war between the fans.

May 8, Bernabéu Stadium.

The highly anticipated second leg of the Spanish El Clásico is about to take place here.

Before the match, Barcelona players refused to give Real Madrid a guard of honor as they entered the stadium, which angered Real Madrid fans, who booed them loudly.

For Barcelona, ​​it was a huge disgrace to have Real Madrid win the title so many rounds early.

Making them line up to welcome their opponents is worse than killing them.

With the referee's whistle, the match officially began.

Both teams are very familiar with each other, and even know their opponents better than they know themselves.

Therefore, both teams skipped the probing phase and launched their attacks from the very first minute.

Mourinho did not choose to play a defensive counter-attacking style, but instead set up an attacking formation to go head-to-head with Barcelona.

If it were the Barcelona team from last season or the season before, he definitely wouldn't have dared to do that, because Ronaldinho was unstoppable back then, and with Messi on the other side, going head-to-head with Barcelona would have been suicide.

However, due to the "Black Sheep Gate" incident, Ronaldinho chose to tank in the second half of the season.

Barcelona can only rely on Messi now!
Mourinho deployed two defensive midfielders in this match; he was determined to keep Messi, that little flea, under control.

However, at the very beginning of the match, Messi surprised Mourinho and the 80,000 Real Madrid fans at the Bernabéu with an unreasonable dribble.

As it turns out, once a flea jumps up, it's really not easy to hold it down.

Fortunately, Real Madrid also has its own superstar.

In the 7th minute, Lin Feng won the ball back in midfield and launched a long-distance run at incredible speed, giving the Barcelona players a real scare.

If Puyol hadn't fouled in time, this ball might have gone in.

But what was bound to happen eventually did happen. Using the free kick he had created, Lin Feng delivered a high-quality dipping shot.

Barcelona goalkeeper Valdes didn't even have time to make a save before the ball went in. (End of Chapter)