Zuo Lin noticed a very strange thing, the league was over, but his games were getting more and more.

The more conventional is the North-South Star Match, where he will play as the main goalkeeper of the Southern team.

Subsequently, the national team will have a week-long training camp in Shanghai, followed by a somewhat inexplicable six-nation invitational tournament. There was no such competition before, but there were too few games for the national team this year, and the new head coach needed some practical opportunities to get to know the team and make a training plan, so after spending quite a lot of time, he invited South Korea, Japan, Spain, Ghana and Mexico to participate in the Six Nations Invitational Tournament. The competition is divided into two groups for a single round-robin, with the first place in the two groups then playing the final, and the second place finisher going to the third place. It is not known what kind of changes the new head coach will bring to the Chinese team, but it is clear that the luck he brought to the draw was not very good, at least not the kind of luck that Football Association officials and many fans would like to see draw weaker opponents to get a good result. The Chinese team, which is in Group A, will play against Spain and Japan, and the media is not optimistic about the prospect of qualifying.

However, in any case, this Six Nations Invitational Tournament is still a relatively high-level competition, and everyone is still looking forward to the quality of the competition.

"Boring ......" When he learned that he was afraid that he would not have the freedom to come and go at will when he was training in the national team, Zuo Lin frowned there and complained. He has a lot of things to do now, and he really doesn't want to stay in the stadium for inexplicable training, not to mention that the training of the national team can neither improve his performance nor improve his physical fitness, so it can be said that it is of no value at all. As for team-mates or something, what does it have to do with him as a goalkeeper? If it weren't for the bad influence, he would almost be ready to refuse the call-up to the national team.

The competition schedule lasts only a few weeks, and the impact is not huge, but the commercial event is not. During the nominal study time between the end of the league and the All-Star Game, Zuo Lin attended 9 events, 4 banquets, took a commercial and two sets of photos, and was half tired to death.

North and South Stars Saizolin only played half time. When Zuolin was in goal, the Northern Stars seemed to be very lacking in attacking hope, and the result of the negative organization of the attack was that the Southern Stars led by 2 goals at the end of the first half.

Fans, commentators and sideline reporters blamed Zolin for the phenomenon. A record of not conceding a goal in a season is truly terrifying, especially when it has nothing to do with luck. For goalkeepers, things like the ball changing direction when it touches their own defenders, irregular rebounds because of uneven turf, encountering a ball that spins strangely, and being obstructed and interfered with by opposing strikers and players who rush to grab high-altitude balls are almost endless, and mistakes such as throwing the ball out of their hands, misjudgment, and deformation of movements are understandable as long as they are within a certain limit, and do not hinder the overall evaluation of a good goalkeeper.

However, none of the mistakes seem to have occurred in Zuolin. No matter how potholed the turf is, it will not embarrass Zuo Lin, as long as he wants to catch the ball, no one can stop him, and what makes all the forwards desperate is that these performances are not Zuo Lin's full play, only when he encounters an unexpected sudden change of direction of the ball, Zuo Lin will show his true strength. According to the videos of those rare appearances of him suddenly starting with extremely explosive power, flying over a considerable distance and grabbing the ball in his hand, his explosive power in those moments was much higher than his usual performance. Even, Zuo Lin seemed to have some kind of foresight of those accidents that were about to happen, and several times Zuo Lin had already moved in the right direction before the ball suddenly changed direction.

When encountering such a goalkeeper, the strikers have to consider themselves unlucky. Since the North-South Star Game is basically a performance-based charity match, Luo Xianjie, who served as the coach of the Southern Star Team, did not care about himself, and replaced Zuo Lin when he practiced at halftime and let him practice on the sidelines. Zuo Lin couldn't ask for it, and he read there with a book in his hand throughout the second half, oblivious to anything that happened on the field.

After a very short day of training after the game, the national team was concentrated. The new head coach, Englishman Edward, took the helm of the Chinese national team for the first time. It is unknown how this somewhat raunchy Englishman was discovered by the Chinese Football Association, and it is not quite the style of the Football Association that has always selected the head coach. He is neither a famous manager, nor does he have a pretty-looking coaching record, and he doesn't even have a lot of years of coaching record. Edward is a coach who is known for his tactical theories, and has served as a tactical consultant for several mid-table teams in Europe's top five leagues, assisting the head coach in tactical designation, giving full play to the strength of each player, and using a variety of tactics to contain strong opponents. In addition to the tactics on the court, he also has a great imagination and execution ability to fully mobilize various forces on and off the pitch to gain advantage before the game. Since he became a coach, he has always enjoyed the title of a conspirator on the court.

The choice of Edward as the head coach of the Chinese team makes people can't help but have this association: with the kung fu on the field, the Chinese team has little hope. But Edward is indeed a capable coach, and has done a lot of desk work since signing the contract, and he has also sent people to investigate the situation clearly for all capable players in China. After the concentration of the national team, Edward did not give a long lecture, and did not even allow the team leader and the FA officials to give a lecture, but simply said a few polite words and then conducted a basic physical fitness test according to the scheduled schedule.

Although the Football Association has given Edward a table of physical data collected from various clubs and a report on the current physical condition of the national team members, Edward does not seem to have a high level of trust in this thing. And Edward's test did have some effect, and the fitness of the national team members was indeed a little better than the data on those tables. What surprised Edward more was that Zuo Lin, as a goalkeeper, had extremely luxurious data for a goalkeeper: 10.44 seconds in the 100 meters.

"Zuo Lin," when the test was over, Edward gathered all the team members together again, and put forward his opinions one by one, and the first one he called out was Zuo Lin, "Of all the training courses, I only ask you to participate in the tactical class, and you can arrange the time for other courses." However, you are not allowed to leave the stadium and have no contact with the media. ”

Edward's words surprised everyone. The national team has never treated a player so specially. No matter how big-name players are in the club, they must be conscientious when they arrive at the national team, otherwise they may lose their main position, playing opportunities or international status at any time. But now, Edward has exempted Zolin from almost all training tasks in one sentence, and as for tactical lessons, this kind of subject is of little meaning to the goalkeeper in the first place.

Zuo Lin said lazily, and "thanks" no longer had any expression. Although he is not sensitive in dealing with people, he also knows that this is a preferential treatment of heaven and earth. Anyway, his idea is very simple, so many teammates in the national team don't like him, and there is no need to insist on having anything to do with them. Anyway, they can't pass the ball in the game over their own goal.

As soon as he was disbanded, the team leader immediately questioned Edward why he had made such a special deal with Zuo Lin.

Edward smiled slightly and said, "I will ask the assistant coach to slowly tell those guys that as long as the strength is strong enough, anyone can enjoy special treatment." And Zolin, in my opinion, is the only one in the team who is entitled to this kind of treatment. I'm not afraid that there is a privileged class in the team, but I am afraid that the special class does not have the ability to match it. ”

The team leader said angrily: "You are destroying the unity of the team like this. ”

"Is there any unity within the Chinese team?" Edward asked with a smile. Almost half of his coaching and consulting experience has been spent battling internal instability. Whether it is to deepen the instability of his opponents or to consolidate his own internal stability, it is a common trick used by him. And the Chinese team is not even the worst team he has coached. "Zolin has performed far more than what a good goalkeeper needs. I sent someone to the Shenbao team to find out that Zuo Lin has the physical fitness to run a marathon in two and a half hours, you see his 100-meter time: 10.44 seconds, maybe it's normal for track and field athletes, but this is a goalkeeper. Sometimes I can't help but wonder which idiot made him go to the goalkeeper in the first place? This kind of physical condition, he can play in any position. Anyway, our goalkeeper coach is like an idiot in front of him, so it's better not to train. I would suggest that the coach of the Shenbao team try to let Zuolin play other positions from next season, as a reward for their loss of results, I will select one more person from the Shenbao team to enter the national team, anyway, they only have 3 people in the squad, which is really a little less for a double champion. ”

The team leader was dumbfounded, he was not the one who understood the logic of choosing Edward as the head coach this time, and there has never been such a head coach in the history of the Chinese national team. Edward's calculations inside and outside the team earned him the title of "The Conspirator". “…… Isn't that a bad thing? How can a team like that win?"

Edward shrugged his shoulders meaninglessly and said, "It may be difficult to win until I have a full picture of the situation, but it is just as hard to lose. Having a goalkeeper like Zolin is a manager's greatest happiness. Chinese football is used to judging the value of a manager by his results, and that's good, Zuo Lin has bought me plenty of time. I have enough time to make China a team that can win. ”

"You believe in Zuo Lin so much, he's just a better goalkeeper. The team leader was a little unimpressed by Edward's blind trust in Zuolin.

"Peter!" Edward snapped his finger at his assistant coach, who had been on the sidelines of the FA Cup final, quickly pulled out a disc from his pocket and respectfully handed it to the team leader.

"This CD is confidential information provided by the Shenbao Club. But it's not a secret now, there are about 9 clubs who got this CD, and this time the Six Nations Invitational, they all sent scouts and even club officials. Edward said nonchalantly.