Chapter 105 Facing the Chinese team, the Germans panicked After the failed offensive attempt in the first half, the Chinese national team immediately adjusted its strategy and no longer tried to fight back against Leverkusen. At the beginning of the second half, the Chinese national team launched a familiar defensive counterattack. Sure enough, after adjusting to the style of play that the national team players were familiar with, their performance on the field was much better than in the first half. "That's right, this is the Chinese national football team we are familiar with." "If Zhu Guanghu doesn't play a defensive counterattack, I feel it's not right." "Let Lao Zhu play offensive football. Can he do it? He can't do it at all!" "Haha, you are worthy of being the man who used a 451 stance when playing against Malaysia. From now on, you should just practice defensive counterattacks!" Seeing the Chinese national team change its formation, fans began to make fun of it. But unlike the complaints from fans of top clubs like Real Madrid and Manchester United, the fans of the Chinese national football team will not belittle Zhu Guanghu or the national football team just because he chose the defensive counterattack tactic.
Because from the very beginning, everyone put themselves in the position of the weak. When a weak team plays against a strong team, it is natural for them to choose to defend and counterattack. But those top giants are different. They are at the top of the league in terms of strength and lineup. If they also play defensive counterattacks, it would feel inconsistent with their status as a wealthy club. The fans of these giants also have higher demands. They not only want their teams to win the game, but also want them to win beautifully. Among them, the Galacticos Real Madrid is the most typical. Even when signing big-name stars, this team only wants to sign those who are handsome and have good looks and temperament. A strong defensive midfielder like Makelele was even rejected by Real Madrid fans just because he was black. Fans of the Galacticos felt that his skin color was not right and did not fit in with Real Madrid's aristocratic temperament. When he first joined, whenever Makelele got the ball, the fans at the Bernabeu booed him, treating him like an enemy, which was outrageous. I don't know how these fans would view the Real Madrid team 20 years later, which was made up of all black people and nicknamed the Real Somali Team by the fans... …… After the Chinese national team switched to defensive counterattacks, the offensive space left for Leverkusen was greatly compressed. Leverkusen's offensive threat, which relied on short passes and quick counterattacks after stealing the ball, suddenly dropped. Although Berbatov was still brave, he was a little powerless when the opponent's penalty area was full of people. What's more, the captain of the Chinese national football team, Li Weifeng, is no pushover. As one of the best defenders in the history of the Chinese team, Li Weifeng has very strong frontal defensive capabilities. In addition, after the Chinese national team's formation has been shrunk, he no longer needs to fight alone, and the room for error has been greatly increased. So, with the help of his teammates, Li Weifeng relied on tough defense to hold off Berbatov, and even gained the upper hand in the physical confrontation with the opponent. Berbatov cannot easily turn around in the penalty area, and the space left for him to move after receiving the ball is very small. Often, the ball is intercepted by other defensive players before he can shoot. This greatly reduced his threat to the Chinese team's goal.
It’s no wonder that Li Weifeng really found the trick to defend Brother Xiaosha. Although Berbatov is nearly meters tall, he looks like a big center forward. But what he is good at is actually his footwork, not physical confrontation. To some extent, Berbatov's physical confrontation ability is quite poor. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t want to mess up his hair, but Berbatov rarely engages in physical combat with opposing defenders on the court. He doesn’t like to use his body to attack the opponent’s defense, but prefers to use his excellent footwork to solve problems. The main focus is elegance! After defending Berbatov and curbing Leverkusen's attack, the Chinese national team's counterattack power began to show. In the 66th minute of the second half, taking advantage of the opportunity when most of the opponent's players were running to take a corner kick, the Chinese national team launched a quick counterattack from the backcourt. Lin Feng dribbled the ball quickly from the middle to the opponent's half, passed Leverkusen's last defender and broke into the penalty area. Facing the goalkeeper who was coming out, he calmly shot the ball into the bottom right corner. The score became 1:2, and Lin Feng helped the Chinese national team to score a goal. Lin Feng has scored this kind of goal many times in the World Youth Championship, the national team and the club. But the fans still felt they hadn’t seen enough. Every time Lin Feng performed this kind of one-man show, they felt very shocked and extremely excited. However, Lin Feng brought them more surprises than just that. In the 85th minute, just as the game was entering its final stage, Lin Feng again completed a counter-attack near the center circle and quickly dribbled the ball into the opponent's penalty area. Two Leverkusen defenders in the midfield tried to intercept him, but he used his speed to leave them far behind. When he dribbled the ball into the penalty area, the opponent's two central defenders tried to close the door on him. But Lin Feng was not fooled at all. Seeing that the opponent focused their defense on himself, he did not choose to act recklessly. Instead, he seized the opportunity to send a straight pass, assisting Zhou Haibin on the left side of the penalty area to score. The score became 2:2, and the Chinese national team tied the score. The score remained the same until the final whistle. Both sides played well in the first half. In the first half, Leverkusen taught the Chinese national team a lesson with their excellent fast break. In the second half, the Chinese national team used their defensive counterattack, and the two teams finally shook hands and made peace. Zhu Guanghu and Leverkusen's head coach were both quite satisfied with the result and even exchanged a few more words when shaking hands after the game. Leverkusen fans who came to the stadium also applauded the two teams for their wonderful performances. For Leverkusen fans, this game refreshed their understanding of Chinese football. In the past, they always heard that China was a football desert and the football level was very poor. But after watching the game, they felt that the media's evaluation of Chinese football was somewhat biased. This team is not weak at all, they have clear tactical ideas, play very well and have their own characteristics. Especially young players such as Lin Feng left a deep impression on Leverkusen fans.
…… In this warm-up match between the Chinese national team and Leverkusen, not only Chinese fans were paying attention to it, but German fans were also paying attention to it. After unexpectedly suffering two consecutive defeats, the German team was caught in a whirlpool of public opinion and could not extricate themselves. Facing the last and weakest warm-up match opponent, the German team must win. They cannot lose this game, and they cannot afford to lose. If they lose, they will be criticized and explode on the spot. As the runner-up of the World Cup, they lost three consecutive warm-up matches, and the last one was lost to the Chinese team, a weak team that couldn't even enter the World Cup. If this kind of thing really happened, I don’t know what kind of uproar it would cause in German football. Even Germany's current head coach Klinsmann may lose his position because of this defeat. It is no wonder that German fans care so much, because next year is the World Cup year, and the German team is the host of the World Cup. Many German fans are also looking forward to the German team to avenge the previous defeat and win the World Cup in their home stadium! But looking at their current performance, let alone winning the championship at home, I'm afraid even qualifying for the group stage will be a problem! Therefore, this is not just a warm-up match, but also a battle for the German team to prove its strength to the outside world. If they lose, it will prove that Klinsmann is completely unqualified for the position of head coach of the national team. He must be fired as soon as possible and replaced by a new, capable person to turn the tide. Against this backdrop of public opinion, many Germans began to pay attention to the Chinese team, a weak football team that they had never taken seriously before. However, after watching the match between the Chinese national team and Leverkusen, many German fans were shocked: Is this still the hopeless Chinese team they remember? Tight defense, sharp counterattack, distinct characteristics and clear playing style! This Chinese team feels much stronger than the one we saw in the World Cup three years ago! In the current state of the German team, can they really defeat their opponents? The Germans are becoming somewhat unconfident, and some are even starting to panic. Unlike the Germans, the Chinese national team and Chinese fans have no psychological pressure at all about this game. The opponent is the runner-up of the World Cup. The gap in strength on paper between the two teams is huge. It is reasonable for the Chinese national team to lose to the opponent. Even the haters can't find a reason to criticize the Chinese national team. But if they draw or even beat Germany away from home... That might cause a carnival in the entire Chinese football world! Even in next year's Spring Festival Gala, the program crew may bring it up. The Chinese team defeated the world runner-up. Wow, how rare and proud it was! …… The Chinese national football team's preparations are proceeding step by step, but what makes them curious is that many German reporters and German fans have come to the national football team's training base. This kind of thing has never happened before. After all, after being accustomed to the high level of German football, German fans should look down on the garbage level of the Chinese national team. But I don’t know what was wrong with these German fans. They actually ran to the outside of the Chinese national team’s training base to watch the training of the Chinese national team. "What are these people doing? What do their signs say?" Zheng Zhi approached Shao Jiayi curiously and asked this teammate who had studied abroad in Germany for many years. Shao Jiayi has stayed in Germany for a long time and has a good command of German. He can not only understand German, but also understand the other party's text. After hearing Zheng Zhi's question, Shao Jia laughed: "You may not believe it, but they are actually cheering us on." "Oh ah?"
Zheng Zhi and other national team players who heard Shao Jiayi's words just now had a brief brain short circuit. "What kind of operation is this? Why are they cheering for us instead of cheering for the German team?" Shao Jiayi shrugged: "How would I know? Maybe it's love turning into hate!" The German team's performance was so bad that its own fans were disappointed, causing them to develop a rebellious mentality and start cheering for Germany's opponents? The national team players did not react much after hearing such an abstract thing. Because this kind of fan defection has happened to the Chinese national football team before... They became even more curious. How badly did the German team perform to excite their fans like this? …… Before the game, in order to relax the players and relieve psychological pressure. Zhu Guanghu also specially arranged a circle-grabbing game. He divided the players into several groups and set up a 15×15 meter scrambling circle. When stealing the circle, the team being robbed sends 6 players onto the field, while the team stealing the ball sends 3 players. "Pay attention, you must pass the ball twice when passing it. You can't be sneaky or you won't be able to show the difficulty of the game." Before the battle for the circle began, Zhu Guanghu stood in the center of the circle to explain the rules of the game to the players. In fact, the rules are very simple. They mainly involve two-foot pass and cross pass, and you cannot pass the ball to the person next to you twice in a row. The so-called two-foot ball means receiving the ball first and then passing it. This will increase the time the ball is controlled under the player's feet, making it easier for the party trying to grab the ball. A cross pass is when a player passes the ball and then receives a return pass from a teammate, he cannot pass the ball to the same person the next time. This prevents them from taking advantage of loopholes in the rules to pass the ball back and forth between two players, and forces them to find space between the three defensive players and pass the ball to the receiving players in other positions. This also increases the difficulty of passing the ball and creates opportunities for players to grab the ball. "Do you understand everything?" "Understood!" The team members were in high spirits, and everyone enjoyed the game. Especially those who were watching the fun on the sidelines, they were even more excited and shouted louder than anyone else. The first group to appear was the guard trio of Li Weifeng, Du Wei and Sun Jihai. The three of them cooperated very well. They used their positioning to compress the opponent's passing space, and then they seized the opportunity and quickly snatched the ball from the feet of the passer. Their group completed the task in a very short time, succeeding in less than 1 minute! "Captain is awesome!" "Captain is mighty!" Seeing that Li Weifeng and others took so little time, the international team players on the sidelines applauded. "Haha, you young guys still need to practice more. Your passing skills are not even as good as us old guys. This is not acceptable!"
The praise from their teammates made the veterans straighten their backs subconsciously, and they couldn't hide their pride at all. Although the Chinese national football team has always given people the impression that they play rough and have poor footwork. But in fact, the skills of these veterans are not bad. The bad thing is that these abilities cannot be displayed under fierce physical confrontation. The second group to appear were Lin Feng, Gao Lin and Chen Tao. The three of them also quickly completed the ball grabbing process, taking less time than Li Weifeng and the others. "It seems that we can't say that each generation is inferior to the previous one. Xiaolin and Xiaochen are also very capable!" "Captain, why don't you praise me? I'm also very good!" When Gao Lin saw that Li Weifeng had eliminated Lin Feng and Chen Tao but had missed his name, he immediately protested. "You? Well, you played a big role. At least your height blocked a lot of the opponent's sight." "Hahahaha!" "Captain, you are so mean!" "What a refreshing and refined scolding!" Li Weifeng's words made others laugh, and the team was filled with a happy atmosphere. The German fans who ran over to watch the fun became even more worried after hearing the laughter of the Chinese team coming from the training ground. The morale of the Chinese team is so high and the morale of the German team is so low. There won't really be any accidents in the game, right? (End of this chapter)