After the fifth round of League One, it was the first international break of the new season.

It's just that the Premier League and Championship teams will have a two-week break at this time, but it will have no impact on the League One teams.

After all, teams in lower leagues generally rarely have internationals from various countries.

Of course, York Town still has it.

Westermann in York City is a former Germany international, Karlstrom and Isakson have also officially retired from the national team after the European Championships, and now only Kulusevski is the only real international in the team.

He was also called up by the new Swedish national team manager Jane Anderson to play in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers in European Group A.

The 53-year-old coach led Norrköping to the Swedish Superliga last season and was therefore favoured by the Swedish Football Federation, taking over the reins after Pan Yi's departure.

Of course, taking over the new European Championship title will be challenging for Jane Anderson, after all, Pan Yi has indeed brought Sweden to a historical high.

For Jane Anderson, the safest solution now is to maintain the main framework of winning the European Championship and add some new talents.

Young people like Kulusevski and Isak who were promoted by Pan Yi and performed well in the European Championship are naturally the objects he relies on, and they will definitely enter the national team.

They will face a strong opponent in the first round, the Netherlands! There is also a strong French team in the same group, so Sweden still need to give their all in every game if they want to break through from the group.

For York City, the impact of Kulusevski's absence is not huge.

On the one hand, the likes of last season's main League Two veterans Gary Fletcher and Joe Partington can also take the top position, and on the other hand, York City's first game in the international break is not the league, but the English league championship.

This competition is actually a cup competition, but it is not as familiar as the FA Cup and League Cup, because there are no teams from the top leagues in this competition.

The English League Championship, also known as the English Championship, features 64 teams, including all 48 teams from League One and League Two, as well as the 16 best Premier League or Championship club youth teams (new to this season).

The competition is divided into two divisions, north and south, with 32 teams from each region participating. The teams from the two major regions are divided into eight groups of four teams each, with the top two teams advancing to the round of 16.

The group stage adopts a single round-robin format, with a draw going straight to the penalty shootout, with 2 points for penalty wins and 1 point for penalty loss.

After reaching the round of 16, each team will play a single knockout match, with the winner advancing to the next round until the division winner of the South and North divisions is determined.

The winners of the two divisions will be determined by a single-match tiebreaker at the neutral venue (Wembley Stadium).

In fact, there is more than one such low-level competition in England.

Under the FA Cup, League Cup, Championship and there is also an English FA Challenge Cup (or FA Championship), which is played by teams from the 5th to 8th divisions of England.

Underneath the FA Challenge Cup, there is still a game called the FA Bottle, and it is clubs in the 9th to 10th divisions that can participate in the competition.

Of course, calling an FA bottle does not mean that the winner will get a bottle, in fact, it is also a trophy......

Even in such a low-level competition, their finals are all played at Wembley Stadium!

Think about how motivating it is to be a non-professional league player and have the opportunity to play in one of the most advanced stadiums in the world.

And that's not all.

In addition to the cup competitions at each level mentioned above, the lower regional league organizations have their own cup configurations.

The players who participated in the remaining level cup competitions were either children who had just joined football training or middle-aged uncles who loved to play football.

For example, the FA Inter-League Cup, which began in 2003, is played by teams below the 11th level.

Of course, they also have a lot to do, as the team that wins the FA Interfederation Cup will be able to represent England in the UEFA Regional Cup, which is a European competition.

The teams that can participate in the Intercontinental Cup are selected from the regional cup competitions in England.

The list goes on and on in these regional cups, with all non-league teams participating, and the vast majority of them coming for hobby.

For example, the members of the Sunday League have their FA Sunday Cup, and the Amateur Football League also has their Amateur Football Senior Cup......

In short, in the huge system of English football, players of all levels can have corresponding opportunities and financial support, which is also the secret of the longevity of professional football in England, and it is also one of the important reasons why football can have such a strong mass base in England.

And back to the English Championship that York is going to participate in, due to the flow mechanism of League One and League Two, it is difficult for the English Championship to have a long-term hegemony, after all, the strong teams at this level are more willing to participate in the competition for the Championship place, or to fight for further in the FA Cup and the league.

York City's attitude towards the Championship is much the same.

They basically rotated their lineups for the game, as if they were keeping the bench players in shape.

However, their first-round opponents, Swansea City Under-23s, remained vulnerable and York City won 3-0.

A few days later, York City had another cup tie, this time in the first round of the Carabao Cup, which was a little more important.

This time the opponent is Peterborough United, also from League One.

For York City, the most important goal this season is to break into the Championship, so all cup competitions are optional.

Of course, it doesn't mean giving up, the game is still to be played seriously, but the degree of attention will indeed be slightly worse, and the players will not be the main force.

Obviously, York City's opponents, Peterborough United, will play harder.

The two sides played a goal battle, and in the end, Peterborough United defeated York City 3-2 and eliminated them from the competition!

It was also York City's first defeat since the start of the season.

——

For Pan Yi, he really has no interest in these cup matches that York City has participated in, just know the score and process.

He has left the affairs of the team to the hands of chairman Jason McGill and head coach Scaloni.

During the international break, he took Valentina back to Sweden to watch Sweden host the Netherlands in the first round of Group A of the World Cup qualifiers in Stockholm.

Pan Yi's arrival certainly drew cheers from all the Swedish fans, but the Swedes still failed to win the opponent at home.

In the 34th minute, Lustig's breakthrough caused a foul by Van Dijk of the Dutch team, and Pan Yi's lover also received a yellow card for it.

And the Swedish team took advantage of this free kick opportunity and scored the goal with a header from Guidetti, 1:0.

However, in the second half, Sneijder also took advantage of a free-kick opportunity to score directly and equalize the score.

The score of 1:1 also remained until the end.

It wasn't a good start for Sweden, but it wasn't particularly bad either.

The same is true for the Netherlands.

Whether Sweden or the Netherlands qualify, whether they qualify or not depends on the result of the match against France......

And this international break, the World Cup qualifiers in Asia attracted Pan Yi's attention even more.

First of all, in the first match of the top 12 in the Asian zone, the dragon team challenged the South Korean team away.

This is a very critical battle, and it is also a head-to-head duel between Pan Yi's two disciples, Wu Lei and Sun Xingmin.

However, in this game, the performance of both players can only be considered average.

In the first half, Zheng Zhi accidentally put himself in an own long, and the Dragon Country team fell behind 0-1.

Yibian fought again, and the South Korean team won two consecutive cities by Lee Qinglong and Gu Zizhe within 4 minutes, and the Dragon Country team once fell behind 0-3.

However, the tenacious Dragon Country team scored two goals in 3 minutes due to Hai and Hao Junmin, but in the remaining time, the Dragon Country team failed to score another goal and finally lost regrettably.

Five days later, the Dragons drew 0-0 with Asia's highest-ranked Iranian team at the Shenyang Olympic Sports Center Stadium to claim their first points in the round of 12.

Compared with the first away game against South Korea, head coach Gao Hongbo made a big adjustment to the starting lineup, especially in the midfield, Zheng Zhi, Wu Xi, and Sun Ke all sat on the bench, and were replaced by Hao Junmin, who performed amazingly in Seoul, and young striker Zhang Yuning.

And such a change of formation also had a good effect, and in the end, the tough Iranians did not find an effective means to break the goal, and finally the two sides exchanged blanks.

After two rounds of the top 12, the Dragon Country team has 1 draw and 1 loss and 1 point, although the points are not high, but because the first two opponents are theoretically the strongest, the fate of the Dragon Country team is still in their own hands.

On the next international day, that is, on October 6 during the National Day holiday, the national football team will face the third opponent Syrian team in Xi'an.

"The next game is the real key."

In an exclusive interview with Ma Fanbing of "Ground Football", Pan Yi also supported the national football team.

"In the front-court games against South Korea and Iran, we can see the progress of the national football team."

"Especially Wu Lei, after a few years of career in Europe, he has become more confident on the field."

"It's just that sometimes on the pitch his teammates still can't see his movement in time and deliver the ball to his feet."

"This also shows the importance of going out so that we can be in line with international standards in the area of football awareness."

"In this game against South Korea, on the one hand, I saw that the whole team was still too nervous and did not let go of all of them, and the team still had a lot of homework to do in terms of defense;"

'But on the other hand, I also saw that our players had their own ideas on the offensive end, and I also saw that there was no shortage of opportunities for the team, and they could even beat South Korea in under 10 minutes, which is very gratifying.

"As long as the senior director can stick to his own ideas, there is no need to change tactics on a large scale, and let the players go to fight, and there is still hope to win in Syria and Uzbekistan in the back."

"By the way, including in the goalkeeper position, I also recommend not making too many changes, so as to avoid the whole back line due to the decline in familiarity with each other, which leads to more mistakes......"

The reason why Pan Yi made an exception to comment on the national football team's game this time is actually mainly because in his previous life, the national football team did have regrets in the journey of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

2:3 South Korea in the opening game, and when they were three goals behind, they fought to catch up and almost overtake, reflecting the team's good spirit;

0:0 Iran at home in the second game, which is equivalent to facing the two bitter masters when they come up, and they are not vulnerable;

After these two games, the domestic media and fans also praised the performance of the national football team, believing that the team was at a disadvantage in terms of strength, absolute chances, ball possession and other aspects, and was not discouraged when it was behind, and actively fought back, reflecting the tenacity of Longguo football.

But because of this, the confidence of the national football team is bursting, and it is a little bit out of position.

Head coach Gao Hongbo made a big lineup change in the next game against Syria, who are at the bottom of the group.

The back line was changed from the five-back system in the first two rounds to four backs, and the attacking line discharged the combination of Gao Lin and Zhang Yuning, Zhang Xizhe entered the starting list, and the goalkeeper was also replaced by Gu Chao.

As a result, the lineup that showed the attitude of grabbing points in this way was dumb, and goalkeeper Gu Chao also made a fatal mistake, resulting in the loss of the Dragon Team to Syria after conceding the goal, and the situation suddenly took a sharp turn.

After all the games in Group A of the top 12, the Dragon Country team is ranked 5th with 12 points, but the South Korean team, which is ranked second, actually only has 15 points, followed by the third Syria with 13 points, and the fourth Uzbekistan with 13 points......

In other words, if the Dragon Country team can score three more points, they can at least get the third place in the group to play in the play-offs, and it is even possible to directly beat the South Korean team to get the second place in the group and directly enter the World Cup!

If you review all the games, it may really be the home game against Syria that is the most regrettable loss.

I thought that the 3 points that could be safely obtained became 3 points for the opponent, and the gap here is too big.

More importantly, due to the excellent performance in the first two games, this somewhat unexpected defeat led to a huge psychological gap, which also affected the top and bottom of the national football team, and as a result, the subsequent games were worse and worse.

In other words, if you can play well at home against Syria, the national football team is really very promising!

Therefore, Pan Yi can be regarded as secretly handing a small note to Gao Hongbo:

Don't change the lineup, don't change the goalkeeper, and don't feel that you can eat Syria safely, just play South Korea and Iran in these two games!

That's all I can do for you!

——

After the international break, York City played two more league games.

In the sixth round of the league, York City defeated Walsall 3-1 away.

The team's high striker Baker scored a goal again, while the returning Kulusevski was also in form, also netting a goal.

In addition, young left-back Alphonso Davies also scored his maiden goal for York City.

After the game, the Yorktown youth army was once again well received by the media.

However, just a week later, York City were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Chesterfield in the seventh round of the league.

In this game, young goalscorer Armand, who started the game, repeatedly wasted chances to score, and it was only with a long-range strike from Karlström that York City equalised.

After the game, Armand's poor performance was the focus of media attention.

The Yorkshire Post compared Armand to Baker and criticized the Cameroonian boy.

The Yorkshire Post was the first to acknowledge Pan Yi's excellent eye for Baker, the 22-year-old unknown centre-forward who was brought to the team last season and who immediately repaid his trust with a goal, playing a key role in York City's promotion.

And this season, although the field has changed from League Two to League One and the opponent has become stronger, the tall Mark Baker has not been uncomfortable and can still kill in the game.

But soon the Yorkshire Post changed the tone and mentioned Armand's recent performance, "Obviously, Pan Yi has lost his eyes this time, and he actually spent 200,000 euros in transfer fees to bring in this Cameroonian kid who is good for nothing but speed." ”

"In the first two rounds, maybe because the opponent was not familiar with this guy who was new to England, he sneaked into the goal. But after the teams began to study York City seriously, Armand couldn't play League One. ”

'He's really fast, he's physical, but he's dribbling, his passing skills, his shooting accuracy. It even feels like he's just switched from rugby, and he doesn't look like he can play football. ”

"It can also be said that Armand may not be at the level of League One! After being studied, he has not scored in five consecutive rounds. ”

"Although I don't want to admit it, it's clear that in Armand's body, Pan Yi screwed up, and this is a failed investment."

For such remarks, Pan Yi is actually a little worried.

Of course, it is not a question of him, Pan Yi is mainly afraid that these critical remarks will have a bad emotional impact on the young Armand.

A young man who left his hometown to play in England and performed mediocre in a few games was labeled as a "parallel import", which is definitely very malicious, and if a young man with a fragile personality may even collapse.

After all, Thomas Armand is not a star who could become popular in Pan Yi's previous life, he is the kind of player who can definitely have a big heart.

A positive example here is Luka Modric, who was also criticised as a parallel trade when he first arrived at Real Madrid, and he hated to return it immediately.

But then what kind of performance he performed at Real Madrid, everyone also knows.

There are even more negative examples, such as the original Barcelona prodigy Bojan, who was burdened with too high expectations, but the slightest poor performance would be fiercely criticized, which made him nervous, and even felt extremely afraid to even step on the pitch at one point.

Of course, Pan Yi didn't want Armand to become like this, so he recently went to the club to observe and see if there were any changes.

However, he found that Armand's performance in training was normal.

No, harder, to be exact.

This is a good sign, indicating that this kid may be a hard-working, self-spurring person, and he is not so easy to be defeated.

The evaluation of the media stimulated his fighting spirit! ——

On 16 September, York City make their final preparations when they travel to Sheffield United in the eighth round of the league.

That afternoon, in the club, Pan Yi first chatted with Scaloni, and then went to the gym to meet Armand, a Cameroonian young man who had just finished strength exercises, sweating profusely.

"How does it feel?" Pan Yi asked.

"It's great, boss, I'm ready to play." Armand said immediately.

"Good." Pan Yi nodded, "You know what the media said." ”

"Yes, Coach." Armand immediately fell into a downcast.

"What do you think?"

'I'll use the goal to show them that Armand has what it takes to help the team.' Armand immediately spoke.

"That's what you have to do." Pan Yi praised, "Thomas, you will have a very good career." You have the talent and, most importantly, you work hard yourself. Do you believe what I say? ”

"Believe." Armand nodded, "You are the best coach in the world and the best boss in the world!" ”

"So, you don't have to worry about what the media says. If I hadn't had faith in you, I wouldn't have brought you here from Norway. So, all you have to do now is get everything ready and tomorrow we need your goal. And you just have to perform well......"

"The media will start praising me right away! That's what they are. Armand replied first.

"Yes, by the way, you will praise me again, saying that my vision is still so sharp, and Armand is really an excellent shooter......"

Pan Yi said, and both of them laughed.

"Go ahead, go get ready for the game. Remember to think about how you're going to celebrate tomorrow after scoring a goal! Pan Yi patted Armang's shoulder, and Armand smiled silly, and then said goodbye and left.

"You're so sure the Cameroonian kid will score tomorrow?" Scaloni asked.

"Of course not." Pan Yi smiled, "But as long as he believes it, it's fine." ”

Scaloni shrugged his shoulders, this was really another psychological motivation method for Pan Yi.

What players need most now is confidence, not only in themselves, but also in recognition and support from the whole team.

This is especially important for a striker.

"Still, I really think Thomas' footwork is rough...... Scaloni said.

"He's just a kid who grew up playing wild ball in Africa, and his basic skills are definitely not very solid." Pan Yi looked at Armang's back and said, "But his physical condition is very good, and he also has good mental attributes, which is enough." On the technical side, we would have done a little extra reinforcement for him in our usual training. ”

Scaloni nodded.

In League One, sometimes it's true that technique isn't the most important thing.

Good physical fitness and excellent teamwork skills are the foundation of many players in League One.

There are also many teams in League One that play the kind of simple long pass rush, which is to rely on a bunch of tall players to rush.

And York City is already very technical flow, this style of play has formed a certain degree of dimensionality reduction in League One, but at the same time, it has also exposed Aman's technical shortcomings.

But as Pan Yi said, this is not a big problem.

Armand is only 18 years old and has a lot of potential to improve his technique.

As for Thomas Armand, Pan Yi is actually in the same mentality as when Mark Baker was introduced.

Can these players, who were not famous stars in their previous lives, change by leaps and bounds in this life under the guidance of the best coaches?

At least for now, Baker has indeed made a lot of progress, not only in League Two, but also in League One.

Now it's up to Armand to withstand the pressure and become a qualified League One player...... (End of chapter)