Chapter 146 The Strength of the Golden Boy Award Players At the end of the first half, the two sides were tied 0:0. Although the score looked like a draw, the actual situation was more one-sided. Navarra had a great advantage in the game, while the Chinese team had many loopholes in defense. After watching the first half of the game, the reporter from European Sports gave the following evaluation to the Chinese national football team: Judging from the game, the Chinese team is a loosely organized team and gave Navarra many opportunities in defense. But the biggest problem is not defense, but China's offense. Unable to organize an effective counterattack, it is difficult for the Chinese team to pose a threat to Navarra's goal. If this continues, Navarra's formation will move further forward, and the Chinese team's defensive pressure will be further increased! In the opinion of the reporter from Eurosport, the strength of the Chinese team is in line with their ranking. Currently, the Chinese national football team is ranked 61st in the world. Due to its poor performance in the two warm-up matches with Serbia and Bulgaria, the national football team's ranking has dropped again and fallen back to 60th. The next three warm-up matches are not A-level matches stipulated by FIFA, so winning or losing will not affect the current points of the Chinese national team. If the Chinese national football team wants to improve its ranking, it will have to look at next year’s friendly matches and the Asian Cup qualifiers. Although the Chinese national football team missed the World Cup next year, it has arranged to play friendly matches with some strong teams.
Both the Brazilian and French teams have taken the initiative to extend olive branches to the Chinese national team, inviting them to play a friendly match in May or June next year before the World Cup starts. With all the friendly matches played, the Chinese national football team still has many opportunities to improve its points next year. Before the start of the Asian Cup, the Chinese national football team needs to increase its points as much as possible so that it can avoid some strong opponents and be placed in a better group. There are only four spots in the Asian Cup's number one seed pool, and the Chinese national football team is unlikely to make it. Then we must squeeze into the second-tier pool no matter what. Otherwise, the Chinese national football team is likely to meet teams such as Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Qatar and others in the group stage. These teams are not only very strong, but also very good at using tricks, especially the teams from West Asia. The Chinese national team has almost never gained an advantage when facing them. …… "The Spanish players have really good skills with their feet. The cooperation in a small area, wow, they are just making fun of us!" "Don't just focus on the opponent's footwork. The Spanish are good at physical confrontation. Our midfielders can't hold the ball at all. The opponent's counterattacks in the first half were almost all launched after the frontcourt pressed!" "In my opinion, we still have to play long passes. Otherwise, if we keep being pressed like this, we'll lose the ball sooner or later!" In the locker room, the national team players were talking about it. The first half of the game gave everyone quite a shock. Although the opponent was a team that no one had ever heard of before, their strength was really strong! "Spanish football is really full of hidden talents. I feel that if they continue to play like this, they will dominate the world football sooner or later!" Lin Feng looked at the person who said this in surprise, and found that it was the national team's main midfielder Zheng Zhi, so he retracted his gaze. The old captain still has vision. Spain's passing and controlling football really dominated the football world in the four years from 08 to 12. The two European Cups and one World Cup championships are strong evidence of their dominance. "Okay, be quiet for a moment, let me talk about the tactical adjustments for the second half!" Zhu Guanghu clapped his hands, stopped the players' discussion, took out the tactical board, and began to arrange the tactical plan for the second half. Although the first half was ugly, it was not completely without gain. Navarra's attack was mainly concentrated on the wing. After the Chinese team contracted their defense line, the defenders in the middle were too dense and the opponent could not find any decent opportunities. The flanks can indeed create threats, but compared to the attack from the middle, the flanks have an extra layer of transmission, giving the Chinese national team more time to defend.
In addition, like the Spanish team, the players of the Navarra team are generally not tall and their heading ability is average, which makes it difficult for their crosses from the flanks to pose a threat. If you use ground attack, it will be difficult to be effective in the narrow space of the penalty area. This resulted in Navarra creating many opportunities in the first half but failing to score a goal. That penalty was their best chance to score, but they wasted it. “What you need to do in the second half is to further compress the space between the midfield and the back line, pay attention to protection and assisting defense, and be careful of the opponent’s direct shots after cutting inside and long shots outside the penalty area!” Zhu Guanghu judged that the opponent had learned from the lessons of the first half and would definitely adjust the team's offensive tactics in the second half. But as long as the Chinese national team does not leave too much space for the opponent, their offensive tactics will be difficult to work. "As for offense, I will replace Lin Feng in the second half. All you have to do is grab the ball and pass it safely to Lin Feng's feet!" The Chinese national football team's tactic of relying on Lin Feng to launch quick counterattacks has become quite mature. From winning the East Asian Cup to defeating Germany in a friendly match, everyone has seen the power of this tactic. Therefore, there was no need for Zhu Guanghu to explain too much. Just when the players heard him say that he wanted to substitute Lin Feng, they knew how to play in the second half. …… "Lin Feng is on the stage!" "Where, where?" "That's the player with number eight in the white jersey!" The Chinese national football fans who arrived at the scene were the first to discover Lin Feng. Their screams and cheers alarmed the Spanish fans nearby. Although they couldn't understand what these people were saying, they quickly spotted Lin Feng by following the Chinese fans' line of sight. It's finally here! The Spanish fans who were originally drowsy suddenly perked up and focused their attention on Lin Feng, wanting to see what this guy was capable of. Although the fans reacted strongly, Navarra's players and coaches did not modify the team's established tactics because of Lin Feng's appearance. Through the first half of the game, they have already figured out the strength of the Chinese team. To put it bluntly, if the Chinese team were to play in La Liga, it might even be difficult for them to avoid relegation. What's the use of putting a star player into a team with such limited strength? Football is a team sport. The entire team is weak. Is it possible to expect one or two players to change their fate? Besides, the Golden Boy Award is not the Golden Globe Award! If the opponent won the Golden Ball, they might even look at him with more respect. The Navarrese continued to carry out their tactics step by step. The second half was almost exactly the same as the first, with Navarra completely dominating the field. They controlled the tempo of the game, and patiently used ground passes to test and pull the Chinese team's defense, trying to tear open a gap and find a chance to give the opponent a fatal blow. The Chinese team was as passive as in the first half. Under the siege of the opponent, the players played very awkwardly. Even Lin Feng, who had just come on the court, focused his main energy on defense. "What? This guy doesn't seem to be anything special. He's no different from the other players on the Chinese team!" "That's right. I really don't know what's wrong with the judges of the Golden Boy Award. How could they give the Golden Boy Award to such a guy?" The Spanish fans at the scene were very disappointed. They thought that Lin Feng, who defeated Messi, was a player as impressive as Messi.
But after watching for more than ten minutes, they were disappointed to find that they seemed to have overestimated the opponent's strength. "The Chinese team has been a bit passive on the field recently. Even Lin Feng was forced to return to defense!" "No way, the defensive pressure is too great!" "But this won't work. Defense is not Lin Feng's strong point, offense is. If we replace him just to strengthen defense, then we might as well replace him with a defensive player!" In the studio, the two commentators were also worried about the Chinese national football team. Navarra's attack in the second half was more patient and more threatening than in the first half. Under the siege of opponents, the Chinese national football team's goal was in a state of panic. In the 61st minute of the second half, the opponent's shot caused Li Leilei to lose his grip, but he reacted quickly and blocked the opponent's follow-up shot with his feet. But the ball bounced out and still fell into the feet of the Navarra player, and Li Weifeng almost scored an own goal when he stepped forward to block it. Fortunately, the ball hit the post and bounced out of the bottom line, otherwise the Chinese team’s goal would have been breached. The Chinese fans watching the goal at the scene and in front of the TV were terrified. Many of them felt as if their necks were being strangled and they could hardly breathe. The opponent's offensive pressure is too great! A corner kick was taken and Li Leilei rushed out of the goal and punched the ball out with both fists. The ball fell into the Chinese team's half. Under the scramble of the opposing players, Zheng Zhi risked injury and kicked the ball to the front court with his legs and feet. At this time, Navarra's half was so empty that horses could almost run through it! The players from both sides were almost all near the Chinese team's penalty area, so when they saw Zheng Zhi's big kick, the Navarra players didn't pay attention at first and thought it was the opponent clearing the ball. But they soon realized that they were wrong, and very wrong! Because on Zheng Zhi's passing line, there was a white figure speeding. "The opportunity has come, the Chinese team's counterattack!" In the commentary booth, the two commentators couldn't help but get excited after seeing Lin Feng's sprint. This scene is so familiar to them! "Retreat quickly!" "Stop that guy, don't let him catch the ball!" The players of Navarra obviously realized that something was wrong. While loudly reminding their teammates, they accelerated and ran towards their own half. Zheng Zhi kicked this ball very thoughtfully. He did not kick it directly to the middle, but chose to kick it to the side of the opponent's half. There are two advantages to doing this. First, kicking the ball to the side prevents the opponent's goalkeeper from controlling the ball in the first place. Second, when passing the ball diagonally from the center to the wing, the distance the ball flies in the air and the vertical distance it is projected onto the court is actually not very far, giving the team's players a chance to catch up with the ball. Navarra's goalkeeper was originally in the middle, quite forward. If Zheng Zhi had kicked the ball towards the middle, the ball would definitely fall into his feet. But because the ball was heading towards the wing, Navarra's goalkeeper didn't dare to take the ball. He could only ask his teammates to defend while he quickly retreated to the penalty area. Like the goalkeeper, the defender was also positioned in the middle. He could only watch the ball fly over his head. He even hesitated for the first moment, not knowing whether he should chase the ball himself or pass it to his teammates on the wing. But after seeing Lin Feng's terrifying speed, he didn't dare to hesitate any longer. If he didn't chase the ball, the opponent would get it.
But it was this moment of hesitation that made him lose the opportunity to fight for the ball. Lin Feng ran in a straight line along the sideline, and he ran diagonally from the middle to the sideline. It seemed that his position was closer to the ball, but in fact Lin Feng's running distance was smaller than his. If he didn't hesitate, there was a high probability that he would have gotten in position before Lin Feng and made the ball go out of bounds. But it's too late now! With more than 10,000 fans at the scene as witness, Lin Feng caught up with the bouncing football at lightning speed as if he was riding a Hot Wheels. "That's it!" "We have the ball!" Seeing Lin Feng catch up with the football, even though he was still far away from the goal, Chinese fans in front of the TV had already started celebrating in advance! What does it mean that Lin Feng got the ball in a high-speed counterattack? Only those who understand will understand! The moment he received the ball, Lin Feng pushed the ball to the inside and started cutting inside! Navarra's defender ran halfway and saw that it was too late, so he had to change direction and run towards his own penalty area. At this time, players from both sides were running towards Navarra's half, but even the Navarra players who were closer were still at least seven or eight meters away from Lin Feng and their own defenders! It’s too late in time. Whether we can stop the opponent from scoring depends entirely on the goalkeeper and the last defender! Lin Feng's speed has been greatly improved, but the most terrifying thing is not his speed, but his ability to connect with the ball while dribbling at high speed. Although it is different from Messi's high-frequency dribbling, where he takes one dribble with each step and each kick is no more than one meter away, Lin Feng's dribbling is like Kaka's dribbling with big strides. But the ball was always firmly under his feet. Navarra's defender tried to press from the side, but found that he couldn't get the ball at all. Instead, his running rhythm was completely disrupted by the opponent and he couldn't keep up after running a few steps. Seeing that the opponent was about to overtake him, he was forced to commit a foul. But Lin Feng had anticipated his move. After dribbling the ball out, he dodged the opponent's foul and then got the ball again before the goalkeeper could attack. Seeing the goalkeeper coming out, Lin Feng calmly aimed at the far corner and completed the shot. The Navarra goalkeeper reacted very quickly and even predicted the opponent's shooting direction in advance, but his action was still half a beat slow. Lin Feng's shooting action was too smooth and did not give him much time to react. Before his legs could reach out, the football had already rolled past his side and into the goal. The score became 1:0. The first team to score was not Navarra who had the advantage, but the Chinese team who only had 2 shots! There was a dead silence at the Sadar Stadium, as more than 10,000 Spanish fans looked in disbelief at their own goal being breached. “This guy on the opposite side who won the Golden Boy Award seems to be quite powerful!” (End of this chapter)