Chapter 68: The final battle, China vs. North Korea September 2005, 8, 7:16 . There are only fifteen minutes left until the final round of the East Asian Cup, and the players of both teams are already in the player tunnel, ready to play. There is good news for the Chinese national football team. In the women's football match held last night, the stronger South Korean women's football team was tied by the Japanese women's football team. This means that South Korea's current points are only 1 point higher than China's. As long as the South Korean men's football team cannot defeat the Japanese team tonight, the Chinese national football team will get the $10 as long as they beat the North Korean team in this game. In the stands, all the women's football players who had played all the games came to cheer for the men's football team. The outcome of this game has little impact on the men's football team as they have already secured the championship, but it has a huge impact on the women's football team. If the men's football team loses, their bonus may be gone...
So after the game started, the women's football players cheered for the men's football team very hard, and they almost turned into a professional cheerleading team for the men's football team. The venue for this game was almost entirely filled with Chinese fans, and there were almost no fans from North Korea. In China, because it was Sunday, countless fans were watching the live broadcast of the game on TV. On forums and BBS, there are countless fans excitedly discussing game-related topics. The popularity of the Chinese national football team and the East Asian Cup has exploded in China. The scene of thousands of people emptying the streets to watch the Chinese national football team seems like going back to the World Cup three years ago. This scene made many old fans sigh with emotion. In recent years, the Chinese national football team has had a very poor record, losing more than it wins, which makes many people feel that watching the national football team play is just asking for trouble. Naturally, fewer people are willing to watch the Chinese national football team's games. Life is hard enough, who would want to watch the Chinese national football team's games and make themselves upset? Just like the first day of the Chinese New Year, which is supposed to be a festive day, but the Chinese national football team lost 1:3 to Vietnam... The old fans were so excited when they saw this result, let alone the new fans. But this Chinese national football team withstood the pressure when almost everyone was pessimistic about it, and defeated the South Korean team when the opponent used all kinds of despicable means, thus rebounding from the bottom. Afterwards, in front of countless fans, they continued their efforts and defeated the Japanese team, which was the top team in Asia and was much stronger than their own team on paper! This was beyond everyone's expectations and completely ignited the fans' long-suppressed enthusiasm for watching the game. It’s not that Chinese people don’t like watching football games, they just don’t like watching the Chinese national football team lose all the time! If the Chinese national football team can keep winning like it did in this East Asian Cup, the people of the whole country will probably become die-hard fans of the national football team. Just like during this period, the news of the Chinese national football team's victory over the South Korean team and the Japanese team dominated the front pages of major media, and related topics became a hot topic of discussion among all citizens. Even the elderly who don’t watch football on weekdays know that the Chinese national football team defeated strong teams such as Japan and South Korea and brought glory to the country. For the vast majority of citizens, the East Asian Cup championship is not important at all. As long as the Chinese national football team can beat Japan and South Korea, that will be enough to satisfy the fans. The championship is just an incidental trophy, and few people really care.
Now the Chinese national football team has exceeded its target, and fans will not care too much even if they lose to North Korea in the next game. It's just that we have finally managed to arouse the enthusiasm of the Chinese people to watch the game. If the Chinese national football team really suffers a setback in the last match and loses to the North Korean team, it will be very embarrassing. What's more, there is the attraction of the $10 prize money, so in this game, the Chinese national football team is gearing up to defeat the opponent. The other party had similar ideas. For the Chinese national football players, the $10 was a bonus, but for the North Korean players, it was valuable foreign exchange. Therefore, their belief in winning may be even stronger than that of the Chinese national team! …… At 16:15, under the attention of everyone, the final round of the East Asian Cup, the match between China and North Korea officially started. At the beginning of the game, the North Korean team took the initiative and launched a fierce attack on the Chinese national team. In the second minute, the North Korean team's attack hit the right side, but was blocked by the Chinese team out of the sideline. However, they took advantage of the out-of-bounds ball and made continuous headers, forming an aerial relay between multiple players. The football was passed into the Chinese national team's penalty area by a North Korean player using this kind of aerial relay header. The North Korean striker Park Sung-gwan, who had been lying in ambush, got the ball but missed the target due to interference from Chinese national team captain Li Weifeng. Although the ball did not go in, the North Korean attack sounded the alarm for the Chinese national team's defense line. Judging from the fighting spirit shown by the opponents, it will not be easy to defeat them in this game. "Wake up, everyone. Are you all still asleep?" The hot-tempered Li Weifeng was very dissatisfied with this defense and started cursing directly. His partner Feng Xiaoting didn't dare to say a word, for fear of angering this bad-tempered boss. But to be honest, with such a brave and reliable partner by his side, Feng Xiaoting felt it was easy to play. Captain Li Weifeng's scolding seemed to wake up the Chinese national team players. After the North Korean team's offensive round ended, the Chinese national team immediately retaliated. In the 4th minute, Lin Feng launched an attack on the right, and Gao Lin headed the ball into the penalty area from outside the penalty area. Xie Hui rushed towards the landing point at full speed, but unfortunately the North Korean goalkeeper Kim Myong-gil attacked too decisively and confiscated the ball before Xie Hui could score. Two minutes later, it was Lin Feng again who made a straight pass outside the penalty area, and Gao Lin scored the goal in one fell swoop. However, Gao Lin fell into the opponent's offside trap, and the ball was offside and was blown off by the referee. Judging from the opening period, the performances of Lin Feng and Gao Lin of the Chinese national team were quite active. The connection between the two put the North Korean team's defense under tremendous pressure. So the North Korean team immediately adjusted their defensive strategy and began to closely guard Lin Feng and double-team him in an attempt to restrict Lin Feng. Seeing that the opponent chose to target him, Lin Feng wisely gave up the ball and began to change his playing style, turning himself into a forward instead of an organizing midfielder. This obviously exceeded the expectations of the North Koreans. They foolishly used the same method to deal with midfielders to deal with Lin Feng, but ignored the real midfield core of the Chinese national football team - Zheng Zhi! In the 9th minute, after receiving a through pass from Zheng Zhi, Lin Feng suddenly accelerated and broke into the penalty area of the North Korean team. The North Korean midfielder did not dare to let him in and was forced to commit a foul in front of the penalty area, giving the Chinese team a free kick in the frontcourt.
Lin Feng discussed it with Zheng Zhi and finally decided to take the free kick himself. When he was at the club, he saw Mihajlovic's free kicks and tried to imitate them. Unexpectedly, the quality of the penalty kick was quite high, and the ball went straight to the dead corner. The North Korean goalkeeper had already surrendered, as he judged that he could not save the ball. But unfortunately, the angle of the ball was slightly off and it almost hit the crossbar and flew out of the bottom line. Although it didn't go in, it gave a shock to the opponents and even teammates. Everyone knows that Lin Feng is fast, has good footwork, and can play different roles in midfield. But I didn't know that his free kicks were so powerful. Is there anything this guy can't do? "Xiao Lin, you are really good at free kicks! How about letting you take the free kicks in the team from now on?" After watching Lin Feng's free kick, Zheng Zhi even gave him the penalty kick directly. Lin Feng wanted to decline modestly, but thinking that he really needed a chance to improve his free kick skills, he agreed. Ever since the North Korean team completed the first round of attack, the rhythm of the game has been completely under the control of the Chinese team. In the 10th minute, the Chinese team played a tacit cooperation of continuous short passes on the left. Zheng Bin's cross from the bottom was very well placed. Unfortunately, Gao Lin and Xie Hui's positions overlapped, and as a result, neither of them got the ball. One minute later, the Chinese national team made a comeback from the right, and Wang Liang's cross from the bottom of the right once again threatened the North Korean defense. The Chinese national football team's continuous attacks from both sides put tremendous pressure on the North Korean team's defense line. In the 13th minute, Zheng Zhi seized the opportunity to send a long pass over the top, Gao Lin passed the ball into the penalty area on the penalty area line, and Xie Hui was fouled and pushed down by the opponent from behind when competing for the point. The referee blew the whistle and pointed to the penalty spot! (End of this chapter)