The sixth professional football player who started with Manchester United

Chapter 42 Newly Promoted National Football Team
On October 10, the Welsh Football Association officially announced that Jack John, who played for Manchester United, had agreed to join the Welsh men's football national team.

After the news was released, it did not cause any waves in Europe. Indeed, as Jonathan said, this kind of situation is very common in Europe, and everyone thinks that it is a matter of course for Dabao to join Wales, even among some fans. It seems that this is not news. To be honest, it would be considered news if Dabao joined the Huaguo national team.

But when this incident spread back to China, it caused an uproar.

According to FIFA rules, if a player wants to change his nationality to play for the national team, he must have never played for any national team before, so now that Dabao has chosen Wales to play in the 2014 World Cup, it means Dabao's entire career None of them can play for the Chinese national team.

The Football Association, which had previously refused to recruit Dabao into the national team, actually stood up and started to take the lead at this time, claiming that they just felt that Dabao was still too young and needed to train for a few years. However, they fully affirmed Dabao's talent, but they did not expect this young man. People have no patriotism at all.

Some media that are influenced by the Football Association have also begun to set the pace.

For a while, the fans were divided into two factions, the left and the right. The one was sober, and agreed that joining Wales was the best choice for Dabao. As for the quagmire of the national team, if he came in, sooner or later he would either be isolated or killed. It's like being in the same boat, and after joining Wales, maybe you can stand on the stage of the World Cup in the future. Even if the national team can't get in, at least you can see a Chinese on the field.

This at least proves that it's not that the Hua people can't play football well, but that there are always some moths that damage the national team.

The other faction was influenced by some media and also shouted slogans to boycott Dabao and even boycotted Manchester United.

Fans are also arguing online.

But the culprits, the Football Association, got away with it. As for the performance of the national team, that's not important. What's important is whether their own pockets are bulging or not.

There are a total of 2014 places in the European region of the 13 Brazil World Cup, and the qualifying rounds are also divided into two stages. In the first stage, 53 teams are divided into 9 groups, and the No. 1 in each group directly enters the World Cup finals. In the second stage, the eight best performing groups out of the nine groups will compete in home and away knockout rounds to determine the four best places.

Because there are 9 teams in the first 8 groups among these 6 groups, and there are 5 teams in the last group, so the second place in the 8 groups participating in the play-offs, the No. 8 of the first 2 groups will be reduced. Go to the last place score and then rank.

So far, the European qualifying group stage has reached the third round.

Wales didn't get off to a great start.

This time they are in Group A with Belgium, Croatia, Serbia, Scotland, and North Macedonia. In the past two rounds, Wales also lost both games, and in the second round, they played away. 1 to 6 defeat to Serbia.

After two rounds, they were even ranked ahead of themselves by North Macedonia in the standings.

This also puts a lot of pressure on the head coach Koeman who just took office in 12.

On October 10, Dabao came to the Welsh national team training base to report that according to the schedule, Wales will play against Scotland at home in the next third round of the match. This game is also a battle that will determine the fate of Wales. Once the game continues If they lose, it can be said that Wales basically lost the chance to advance.

However, considering the performance of Wales in the first two games, many media in this game still have a very pessimistic attitude towards Wales.

On October 10 at the Millennium Stadium in Wales, the game between Wales and Scotland will be played as scheduled.

Although Dabao appears in the squad, considering that Dabao has not practiced with his teammates after all, and this game cannot be lost for Wales, Koeman also clearly informed Dabao that this game will not be possible. Give him no time unless the team can take a big lead.

A big lead?That is impossible.

In this home game, Wales played very hard.

Although they won the final game, in fact, Wales did not have the advantage from the scene. Many people no longer had any hope for Wales. If Scotland can play like this, how can they face the two strongest teams in this group? It is also conceivable how Belgium and Croatia will play against each other.

Dabao sat on the bench bored for 90 minutes.

In the end, Wales narrowly defeated the visiting Scotland with a score of 2-1. In the other two games in the same group, Belgium defeated Serbia 3-0 away from home, thus taking the top spot in the standings back from Serbia.

Belgium is currently ranked first with 2 wins and 1 draw and 7 points. Croatia defeated North Macedonia 2-1 in an away game and also has 7 points with 1 wins and 1 draw. It is behind Belgium in terms of goal difference and is ranked second. , Serbia ranks third with 1 points with 4 win, 3 draw and 2 loss, Wales ranks fourth with [-] points from [-] win, [-] losses, Scotland ranks fifth with [-] points from [-] draws and [-] loss, and North Macedonia ranks [-]st with [-] point. sixth.

After passing the Scottish hurdle with difficulty, Wales can't relax, because the next hurdle is more important, and the strength of the opponent is not comparable to Scotland.

According to the schedule, four days later, Wales will usher in the fourth round of the World Cup qualifier group stage. The opponent is the favorite of this group, Croatia, which is currently ranked second in the group.

On the second day after the game against Scotland, Wales also started a closed training camp.

The outside media have also begun to make predictions about this game. Judging from the prediction results of these media, most people are not optimistic about Wales.

After all, there is still some gap in strength between the two sides on paper.

Moreover, the gap between the two sides' World Cup records is even greater. The Welsh national team has only reached the quarter-finals in the 1958 World Cup in history, and has not entered the World Cup finals since then.

Croatia finished third in the 1998 World Cup, and subsequently entered the World Cup finals continuously. However, it is a pity that Croatia failed to enter the top 32 in the last World Cup.

So it is natural for Wales to be looked down upon.

But fortunately, the Welsh fans are very open to it. Koeman encountered a big battle after taking office. Although the record is not ideal, the Welsh Football Association has repeatedly stood up to show that they are willing to give Koeman more time.

(End of this chapter)