Chapter 261 The strongest midfield combination in the history of the Chinese national football team! October 10, King Abdullah Stadium, Amman, Jordan. The fifth round of Group E of the 2007 Asian Cup qualifiers - the Chinese men's football team VS the Palestinian men's football team is underway. This was the second time the two teams met in the Asian qualifiers group stage. Eight months ago, in the first round at the Tianhe Stadium in Guangzhou, the Chinese national team was defeated 2-0 thanks to headers from defenders Du Wei and Li Weifeng. Compared with that game, there were major adjustments to the starting lineup of the Chinese national football team. On the defensive line, except for goalkeeper Li Leilei, all four defenders were replaced. Cao Yang, Zhang Yaokun, Xu Yunlong and Sun Xiang started. In midfield, the starting lineup of the Chinese national team is: Zheng Zhi, Zhao Junzhe, Chen Tao and Lin Feng. There were also major adjustments on the front line. Li Jinyu, the starting striker in the previous game, was replaced by Gao Lin. The main center forward Han Peng is still in the starting lineup. He and Gao Lin are responsible for the task of defeating the Chinese national team. Zhu Guanghu originally planned to arrange Mao Jianqing to start, but the latter suffered serious physical discomfort before the game, forcing him to adjust the starting roster.
For the Chinese team, they had won three and tied one in the previous four group matches and had 10 points, and had already qualified for the group stage two rounds in advance. Therefore, the last two games will only determine the winner of the group and will not affect the Chinese national team's qualification. However, the Chinese national football team still attached great importance to this game and did not let up just because the opponent was a weak team. After all, the harsh words made by the Palestinian Football Association before the game made it difficult for them to show mercy. Due to receiving a red card in the match against Singapore, Chinese national football team captain Li Weifeng faces a suspension, so the captain's armband of the Chinese team was worn by Zheng Zhi in this game. For Palestine, this game is a life-and-death battle. They currently have only 4 points and are ranked at the bottom of the group. If they cannot beat the Chinese national team, they will be eliminated one round early. To this end, Palestine urgently planned a number of players and sent them all on the field. To be honest, although planning for foreign players is a good way to improve the team's combat effectiveness in the short term, in such a short time, the players are not familiar with each other and lack tacit understanding with each other. If they are rashly sent on the field, it is likely to not have much effect and may even backfire. After the game started, the Chinese national team did not launch an attack rashly, but chose to pass the ball back and patiently pass it back in their own half, intending to lure out the opponent first. The Palestinian players were really honest. After seeing the Chinese national team passing the ball back and forth in the midfield and backcourt, they rushed up without saying a word. Just then, his teammate passed the ball to Lin Feng's feet. Seeing this, Lin Feng immediately started to speed up. After passing the opponent's player, he immediately passed the ball to Gao Lin who was active in the right rib area. After receiving the ball, Gao Lin did not stick to it, but immediately passed it to the middle and gave it to Han Peng who was at the front. Han Peng received the ball with his back to the goal, attracted the opponent's defender's attention, and then passed it back to his teammate who was in the middle. Zheng Zhi received a pass from Han Peng, drew his bow and shot from outside the penalty area. With a loud bang, the ball hit the crossbar and bounced out of the bottom line. Less than a minute into the game, the Chinese national team threatened the opponent's goal with a long shot. Zheng Zhi's shot made his opponent break out in a cold sweat. The Chinese fans who saw this scene felt sorry that the ball did not go in, but at the same time they couldn't help but applaud the Chinese team's fresh spirit.
"Smooth coordination, beautiful positioning, and decisive shots, this is what we want to see from the Chinese team!" "It's true that changing players is like changing knives. After replacing the overseas players, the temperament of the national football team is really different!" "In fact, many of the players on the field are the same as in the previous game, with only a few positions adjusted. But it is obvious that this Chinese team is not the same team as in the previous game!" "Well, let's not talk about anything else, just talking about the midfield position, this Chinese team's midfield is at least two levels stronger than the last game!" “Actually, I think the reason why these internationals didn’t perform well in the last game was because they lacked a backbone on the field. When they are in the club, they only need to pass the ball to foreign players, but in the national team, there are no foreign players and they need to rely on themselves, and they don’t have this ability, so naturally they can’t play football! ” "Yeah, that makes sense. With Lin Feng, Chen Tao and the others back for this game, everyone instantly understood how to play. It's like returning to the script they are familiar with. They treat Lin Feng, Chen Tao and other overseas players as the club's foreign aid, and just play around them!" You know what, the fans' analysis does make some sense. Due to the limitation of foreign player quotas, in order to win the game, the club is accustomed to recruiting foreign players in key positions, such as forwards, midfielders or central defenders. The strength of these people is obviously much higher than that of domestic players, so they naturally become the backbone of their respective teams. The entire team's skills and tactics revolve around foreign players. Over the long term, domestic players have become accustomed to playing supporting roles and have lost the ability to carry the main responsibility. Once the foreign players are withdrawn and pushed to the front, they will not play. After the game entered the pattern they were familiar with, their condition collectively improved, and they even became bolder and dared to make moves on the court. In the 3rd minute of the first half, Sun Xiang dribbled the ball and assisted. After a beautiful dribble on the wing, he decisively chose to cut inside. The Palestinian defender who came to make up for the defense seemed to be afraid to get too close after seeing his teammate being passed, which gave Sun Xiang space to pass the ball. After seeing Han Peng's position, he decisively kicked the ball and sent a cross. It's a pity that the ball was passed a little too high. Although Han Peng jumped, he still couldn't reach the ball. But Sun Xiang was very active today. After a few minutes, he dribbled forward again. This time, he chose to cross the ball from the bottom, but the ball still did not land well and was cleared by the opponent's defender. Seeing that the two crosses were ineffective, Zhu Guanghu stood up and shouted at the players, asking them to play more on the ground. Han Peng and Gao Lin are both only about meters tall, which does not give them an advantage over the opponent's defenders. Although Han Peng has good heading ability, it is difficult for him to score goals with this ability when he is at a disadvantage in physical confrontation and height. Instead of stubbornly passing the ball from the wing, it is better to use the advantage of neutrality and play more short passes. During last year's training camp in Europe, especially after communicating with those Spanish teams that adhere to the technical style, Zhu Guanghu also began to gradually strengthen the ground coordination tactics. He feels that this may be the future direction of football development. If the Chinese national football team continues to stick to the old tactics, it may be eliminated by the times. Therefore, even when facing weak teams like Singapore and Palestine, he does not use header bombing as the main tactic. Lin Feng strongly supports Lao Zhu's approach. Spain's tactical style is actually very suitable for the Chinese national team or Asian teams. The Chinese national football team is not really good at heading. They can still take advantage against weak teams, but it is hard to find opportunities against top Asian teams, not to mention European and African teams that have stronger physical confrontation abilities. If the Chinese national football team could only head the ball, they would suffer a great loss when facing these teams.
If the ground coordination is good, it can effectively make up for the gap in physical fitness. After playing for a few minutes, the Chinese national team had already tested the opponent's strengths and weaknesses. Although the Palestinian team has added several naturalized players, its overall strength has not improved. On the contrary, some mistakes occurred due to lack of tacit understanding, giving the Chinese national team opportunities to attack. In the first five minutes of the game, the opponent couldn't even get across the center line, let alone shoot. In that case, the Chinese team will not be polite! The Chinese national football team's formation began to press across the half court, using constant passing and coordination to pull the opponent's defense line, and frequently looking for opportunities from both sides of the ribs to threaten the opponent's goal. Although most of the fans who came to the scene were neutral fans, they were emotionally more inclined towards the Palestinian team. After all, Palestine is their neighbor, and China is very far away from them. What's more, East Asians and West Asians look different, so it is naturally difficult to gain their recognition and support. However, the sparse cheers from the stands did not bring any encouragement to the Palestinian team. On the contrary, under the huge offensive pressure from the Chinese team, their players made frequent mistakes. In the 7th minute, Lin Feng made a cross pass in the frontcourt. Chen Tao got the ball in the middle and cut sideways, changed direction, dribbled past the defensive player in front of him, and made a fake shot. Palestinian goalkeeper Saleh jumped up and saved the ball. One minute later, Gao Lin received a pass from Han Peng outside the penalty area, took a few steps along the diagonal line, and completed a low shot in the upper left corner of the penalty area. Gao Lin was lucky. Not only was the ball not blocked by the defender, but it also went through the legs of several defenders in the penalty area. Palestinian goalkeeper Saleh was unable to react and was half a beat slow in his save, so he could only watch the ball go into the net. The score became 1:0, and the Chinese national football team took the lead and scored the first goal. After scoring the goal, Gao Lin seemed very excited and ran to the corner area and made the number three gesture. The fans in the stands were confused and didn't know what this Chinese man meant. A Jordanian thought it was an unfriendly gesture and booed Gao Lin. The Chinese fans who were watching the live broadcast of the game were also a little surprised when they saw Gao Lin's gesture. "What do you mean, is Gao Lin going to do a hat trick?" "Gao Lin? Hat trick? Sorry, I recognize these two words separately, but I can't recognize them when they are put together!" In the fans' impression, Gao Lin's shooting skills have always been unreliable. He was even made fun of by fans before and was called Gao Feiji. Of course no one would believe that such a person could actually complete a hat trick. "Don't be quick to laugh at me. I think Gao Lin has made great progress this year. He is no longer a nobody. He has also scored a lot of goals in Dortmund. Maybe he can even complete a hat trick against Palestine!" "I also think Gao Lin has a chance. After all, standing behind him are Lin Feng, Chen Tao and Zheng Zhi, the strongest midfield combination in the history of the Chinese national football team. As long as he can seize the opportunity, let alone score three goals, I wouldn't be surprised even if he scores four goals!" "You are so proud of yourself. Have you all forgotten the last match where the Chinese national football team was tied 0:0 by Singapore? Based on my many years of experience in watching football, don't have too much hope for the Chinese national football team. Every time you think the Chinese national football team has hope, they always give you a big boost!" It is normal for fans to have such prejudices. After all, the Chinese national football team never disappoints people. But this national football team is really different!
Gao Lin's goal did not stop the Chinese team's attack, but instead further aroused the players' fighting spirit. In the 9th minute, seeing Sun Xiang on the left so active, Cao Yang also rushed forward with the ball. He originally planned to pass the ball from the right, but when he saw Lin Feng coming over to receive the ball, he immediately changed his mind and gave the ball to Lin Feng. Lin Feng did not catch the ball, but passed it to his teammate in the middle. This time the move was very beautiful, and he successfully took away the midfielder who was defending him. Zhao Junzhe followed up and got the ball, he decisively dribbled into the penalty area, and after a wall pass with Han Peng at the top of the arc, he received the ball again on the right side of the penalty area. This position was very close to the goal, and the Palestinian defenders were shocked and rushed forward to intercept. But their eyes were only focused on the ball and they forgot to watch the players. Gao Lin broke in from the left side of the penalty area and no one noticed him along the way. Zhao Junzhe could have shot the ball himself, but he did not take the credit and instead passed the ball to Gao Lin who was in a better position. After receiving the ball, the latter pushed the ball at a small angle and sent the ball into the goal again. 2:0, the Chinese national football team scored two goals in the first ten minutes, and the goals were scored by the same person! "Damn, Gao Lin's positioning is amazing!" "Another goal already? It's only been a few minutes since the last goal?" "Is Gao Lin so good now? I remember him as a nobody in Shenhua. How come he suddenly became so good?" "When you've been away for three days, you should look at him with new eyes. Now I really believe Gao Lin can complete a hat trick in this game!" "Brother, you are being too conservative. Only 10 minutes have passed and Gao Lin has already scored two goals. Looking at his current form, I think as long as he doesn't get injured or get substituted, there is hope that he can score three more goals in this game!" "It's too much, too much. Competition comes second, friendship comes first. Palestine has suffered enough, don't kill them too much, just score seven or eight or ten goals on them!" After the Chinese national team took a two-goal lead, the fans' mentality obviously changed. The state shown by the Chinese national football team in the game and the huge lead they achieved early on made them extremely relaxed. Many people even lost focus on watching the game and instead focused a lot of energy on chatting and bragging with netizens and fans. At this moment, the fans of the Chinese national football team experienced the feelings of the fans of the top teams: It turns out it feels so good not to have to worry about the outcome of the game! I really hope that the Chinese national football team can maintain this form! They never want to see a match like the last one against Singapore again! (End of this chapter)