Chapter 304: The Olympic team was completely suppressed, the Blues coach's observation The National Olympic Team's overseas training has received great attention in China, especially the previous victory over Marseille, which greatly increased the popularity of the National Olympic Team. In addition, there were no matches in the Chinese Super League or the top five leagues in mid-February, so CCTV-2 chose to broadcast the warm-up match between the National Olympic Team and Chelsea. It was the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month in China at this time. Many units had already gone on holiday and most of the migrant workers had returned to their hometowns. With nothing to do, a lot of fans watched and discussed this game. "The National Olympic Team played with all their main players in this match, and the opponent didn't seem to have arranged the strongest lineup. In this case, does the National Olympic Team have any hope of winning?" Although everyone knows that the hope of winning is slim, they still can't help but look forward to it. "No, even if Chelsea didn't send out all their main players, the lineup on the field is no match for the National Olympic Team!" "Yes, the total value of the other team's 11 players on the field is close to 2 million euros. If they were in other leagues, they could win the championship!" Although Chelsea's money-driven football has been criticized by many people, you have to admit that money can indeed significantly improve the strength of a team in a short period of time.
If there wasn't so much money, how could Chelsea's bench be so deep? "Don't even think about winning. Today's goal is to score a goal and keep the number of goals conceded under three. That will be considered a success!" This goal proposed by the fans is actually quite difficult. Chelsea's defensive quality has declined this season, but it is still one of the best defensive teams in the Premier League. In this game, Mourinho made extensive rotations in other positions, but there were not many adjustments in the defense. Blues captain Terry is among the starting 11. As for the forwards of the National Olympic Team, they will probably not get any good results if they meet Terry. It will be extremely difficult to get opportunities from Terry. Moreover, since Buffalo Essien was also on the field, it was difficult to expect midfielders such as Lin Feng and Chen Tao to score as usual. In short, this game is a big test for the National Olympic Team, testing both their defensive strength and their offensive firepower. At 7:00 ., the game officially began with a whistle from the referee. The National Olympic Team, wearing red jerseys, was on the left side of the court, attacking from left to right. Chelsea, wearing blue jerseys, were on the right side of the pitch, attacking from right to left. Chelsea had the ball after the opening. The Blues wasted no time testing the defense. After the striker knocked the ball back, the player in the middle immediately passed the ball to the wing. Robben, the little flying man who had been ready for a long time, broke through as soon as he got the ball on the wing. Robben was very fast at this time, but his cutting-in technique was not as mature as it was when he was at Bayern. Moreover, he played as a left winger instead of a right winger, which prevented his invincible left foot from fully exerting its power. But for the Olympic Team's wing defenders, even the Peter Pans in their growth stage are already an unbearable burden for them! After just one encounter, the right winger of the National Olympic Team was completely left behind by the opponent's speed. Seeing the situation was not good, the right back did not dare to rush forward. Instead, he called on his teammates to come over for assistance while he stayed inside and fought and retreated. This gives the opponent a chance to cross the ball from the bottom, but does not give the opponent a chance to cut inside and shoot. However, Robben has one characteristic when playing football, which is that he is quite unique.
When he is running long distances with the ball, if he has a chance to shoot, he will never give the ball away easily! So when faced with the side channel opened by the defense, he did not take it, but still chose to cut inside and shoot unreasonably! There is a saying that goes, "I'm not afraid of Robben's speed, I'm afraid of Robben running sideways." The speed he suddenly increased and the direction he changed when he dribbled the ball were so fast that most defensive players couldn't keep up with him. As a result, he can always use this trick to find space to shoot. However, because the game had just begun, the National Olympic Team's defense line was still relatively neat. When Feng Xiaoting saw the opponent was about to shoot, he decisively stepped forward to block it. Due to his interference, Robben's shot finally missed. At this time, less than fifteen seconds had passed since the start of the game! If Feng Xiaoting's block had not been timely enough, the opponent might have scored a goal in this attack! Chelsea's attack after the opening was a warning to the National Olympic Team, and also allowed the fans who were watching the live broadcast to clearly feel Chelsea's strength. "When I watched the Premier League and the Champions League before, I didn't think Robben was that strong. How come when he met the Olympic team, I felt like he had evolved and was a bit unstoppable?" "What you said, how can the strength of the Olympic team be compared with those teams in the Premier League and the Champions League? Chelsea's matches with those teams were very intense, and Robben was restricted more, so naturally he didn't have such a brilliant performance. It's like playing with people of similar level, it's hard for you to take advantage, but if you play with a bunch of little brats, then you're the king of football!" “In fact, we can’t think that the National Olympic Team is strong just because it has Lin Feng and Chen Tao, a few slightly more famous stars. In fact, the other positions of the National Olympic Team are only second-rate in Asia. They would definitely suffer a loss if they were placed in the top five leagues. However, the existence of Lin Feng and others has raised the ceiling of this National Olympic Team!” Someone has calculated the value of the National Olympic Team, and the total value of the more than 40 recruited players is about 7500 million euros! It seems like a lot, higher than the value of many teams in the top five leagues. But if we remove Lin Feng, Chen Tao and other players who are studying abroad, it is a question whether the remaining players selected from the domestic league have a total value of 1000 million euros! This shows that the actual strength of the National Olympic Team is not as strong as imagined. The tempo of the game was completely controlled by Chelsea. Under the opponent's fierce counterattack, the Olympic team's passes were not safe even in the backcourt, let alone crossing half court. They often made mistakes or lost the ball under the opponent's pressing. When the National Olympic Team played against Queens Park Rangers before, they had already felt the pressure brought by the opponent's physical impact. But Queens Park Rangers is nothing compared to Chelsea! Chelsea players have better physical fitness, faster speed, and more tacit and unified cooperation among the players. Their tackling is not a mad act by one player, but an organized group of players acting together, pressing together, and taking advantage of the opportunity when the National Olympic players pass the ball to quickly tackling. Under such strong pressure from the opponent, the football seemed to have become a hot potato. The players of the National Olympic Team did not dare to dribble the ball. After receiving it, they had to pass it out immediately for fear of losing the ball under their feet. Increasing the speed of passing the ball is indeed a good way to resolve pressing. But the prerequisite is that you have the ability to do so! Even a top passing and controlling player like Barcelona would lose control of the ball and even make mistakes under the desperate scramble of Liverpool players! What's more, the National Olympic Team's ball control ability and footwork are so much weaker. Under the crazy pressing of Chelsea players, the more anxious the National Olympic Team players are to pass the ball, the more likely they are to make mistakes. Because the opponent's tackling and pressure are purposeful. When they press forward, they have blocked most of your options for passing the ball, forcing you to pass to the person the opponent wants you to pass to, and then there is nothing else! When the passing route is predicted or even ambushed by the opponent, it is normal for the ball to be intercepted! Moreover, this kind of interception is very deadly, because the passer and the party waiting to receive the ball will lose their defensive position in an instant, causing their own center gate to open, creating offensive opportunities for the opponent! For top teams, seizing opportunities during transitions between offense and defense is almost their instinct. At the moment of getting the ball, he does not need the cooperation of his teammates behind him. Just the cooperation between several players in the frontcourt is enough to complete a shot! Shevchenko, who had been frustrated at Chelsea before, seized such an opportunity in the fifth minute of the game and scored with the assist from Mikel. Wang Dalei really tried his best in this game. He anticipated that his teammate was going to lose the ball, so he moved his position in advance. However, the quality of Shevchenko's shot was too high. Wang Dalei quickly fell to the ground and just touched the edge of the ball, but could not change the direction of the football. He could only watch his own goal being broken. Shevchenko, who scored the goal, did not seem too excited. He just high-fived and hugged his teammates who came to celebrate.
The Chelsea fans in the stands only gave a little applause and didn't cheer loudly or anything. The opponent was relatively weak, and defeating such an opponent was not something worth writing about, so their reaction was so calm. But after seeing this goal conceded, the domestic fans were silent, as if they had been hit by a hammer. "Alas, the gap in strength is too big!" "I was beaten so hard that I couldn't fight back!" "So far in the game, we haven't even had a single shot on goal, right?" "Let alone shooting, we rarely even get into the opponent's half!" "The opponent's pressing and physical confrontation were too strong. Our players couldn't hold the ball at all. The only one who could hold the ball was Lin Feng, but as soon as he got the ball, the opponent double-teamed him and he couldn't even rush forward!" Before the game started, many Chinese fans imagined that the National Olympic Team would rely on Lin Feng's speed to replicate the last goal against Marseille, steal another goal from Chelsea, and then retreat as a whole, park the bus and defend to the end. However, the cruel reality dealt them a heavy blow. Under such fierce pressing from the opponent, Lin Feng couldn't get the ball at all. Even if he got the ball, he couldn't rush forward. How could he launch a sneak attack? Now, the opponent scored the first goal, and the dream of the National Olympic Team to steal a goal and miraculously defeat the opponent was completely shattered. "In fact, it's normal to play like this. After all, the opponent is Chelsea. Even with the substitute lineup, the Olympic team can't deal with it. Let alone the Olympic team, even if you replace them with the national football team, I'm afraid it won't be much better!" The gap between the two teams is so huge that even people who don't understand football can see the difference. "To be honest, Chelsea really didn't let up today. Their players played very hard and were very daring. On the contrary, our players were a little bit restrained!" "Chelsea didn't just let us win. Look at their players, especially Robben. It's as if he has a grudge against the Olympic team. I see a strong desire to win in him!" After the opening, there were two most active players on Chelsea's side. One is Robben on the offensive end, and the other is Essien on the defensive end. Robben would break through as soon as he got the ball and shoot. Although he had not yet scored a goal, his attacks on the wing had already put tremendous pressure on the Olympic team's defense. Supporting Essien, this guy is like a mad bull, sweeping back and forth in the midfield. The Olympic team's midfield was originally the fans' hope, but under the joint attack of him and Makelele, the Olympic team's midfield collapsed directly, without any sound at all. There’s no way, I can’t hold the ball at all! Seeing that the National Olympic Team was at a disadvantage in all aspects, everyone on the Chinese coaching bench was worried. But the old coach Krauchen's face was extremely calm. He had prepared to lose this game, and it was completely within his expectations that they would play like this. If there was anything that surprised him a little, it was probably Chelsea's attitude towards the game. Normally, in this kind of friendly match, the stronger party would not take it particularly seriously. They would usually conserve their strength and just give it a try! In fact, in the previous warm-up matches of the National Olympic Team, the opponents were suspected of letting the game go. But I don’t know whether Mourinho had specifically reminded them before the game or for some other reason, but the Chelsea players on the field treated the Olympic team with the same attitude as they treated the league or even the Champions League. The National Olympic Team was not as strong as the other side, and since the other side was so serious, it was not difficult to understand why they played so ugly. Thinking of this, Krauchen turned his head and glanced at Mourinho not far away, who was whispering something with his assistant. "It seems that the opponent's No. 8 is not as powerful as imagined!"
Mourinho's assistant Villas-Boas knew that this game was actually a window for Mourinho to observe Lin Feng closely, so after the game started, he also paid close attention to Lin Feng's every move. But after watching for nearly ten minutes, he still couldn't see anything special about Lin Feng. Perhaps compared with other Chinese players on the field, he is a little stronger and has a stronger physical confrontation ability, so he is not as easily knocked down as the other Chinese midfielder. But other than that, he really didn't see anything special about Lin Feng. "Don't be impatient, just observe slowly!" Mourinho did not jump to conclusions too early, and he had already seen some valuable qualities of Lin Feng. For example, he has a good defensive awareness. Although he plays as an attacking midfielder, his task is that of a central midfielder, and he does a pretty good job in defense. As for the offensive end, because he did not have strong support from his teammates, and Mourinho had paid special attention to Lin Feng in the defensive tactics formulated before the game, he has not had the opportunity to show his talents. But even for Chelsea, it is unlikely to maintain this high-pressure offensive rhythm. The opponent will attack sooner or later! (End of this chapter)