Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 189 Nagatomo Yuto, who is too short

The Chinese team and the Japanese team stood on opposite sides, with a caddie standing in front of each of them.

This is the opening ceremony.

Japan has already won the Asian Cup three times. If they can defeat China this time, they will become the first team to win the title four times.

This is a great honor, so Japan fielded its strongest lineup for this Asian Cup. Although Shinji Kagawa was unable to play due to injury, their midfield was still very strong at first glance.

Yasuhito Endo, Makoto Hasebe, Keisuke Honda, and Shinji Okazaki are all renowned generals in Asia.

Japan's main striker, Ryoichi Maeda, is currently ranked third in the top scorers list, demonstrating his considerable strength.

In comparison, the Chinese team's lineup is somewhat lacking.

Apart from Shan Yongzhuo and Hao Junmin, who play in Europe, all the other players play in the Chinese Super League, which is incomparable to the fact that more than 8% of the Japanese team's main lineup comes from European leagues.

However, the Chinese national football team also has a huge advantage, namely Shan Yongzhuo.

This is a formidable weapon that the Japanese team must confront.

However, the Japanese team was not completely unprepared for Shan Yongzhuo. After the match started, they sent their star player, Maya Yoshida, to closely mark Shan Yongzhuo.

Maya Yoshida started his career at Nagoya Grampus and transferred to VVV-Venlo in the Dutch Eredivisie in 2009. However, he did not get any playing time last season and has only gradually been given more playing time since the beginning of this season.

Maya Yoshida is a center-back who is agile with both feet. What's even more remarkable is that he is 189 cm tall, making him a rare tall defender in Japan.

With him guarding Shan Yongzhuo, they can gain an advantage in physical confrontations and not be at a disadvantage in terms of height.

In addition, another center-back, Yasuyuki Konno, was also keeping a close eye on Shan Yongzhuo's movements and was always ready to cover and assist.

This is the strategy of Japan's head coach, Zaccheroni.

Zaccheroni, a renowned coach who has managed three of the top teams in northern Serie A, has led to a significant improvement in the Japanese national team since he took over, with substantial progress in passing, control, and attack.

Gao Hongbo is also a head coach who highly values ​​the passing and possession football philosophy, but compared to others, his level is somewhat lower, and the overall strength of the Chinese national team players is also quite different from that of this group of Japanese players.

Therefore, once the match started, the Japanese team relied on their strong midfield to control the pace of the game, keeping the match largely under their control.

Japan also fielded a 4-2-3-1 formation. The two defensive midfielders, Yasuhito Endo and Makoto Hasebe, ran tirelessly to solidify the defense, while the three midfielders, Jungo Fujimoto, Keisuke Honda, and Shinji Okazaki, were also very capable runners.

Under such strong midfield control, the Chinese team was under pressure and could hardly breathe.

Less than ten minutes into the game, the Chinese team had only launched two official attacks, and neither of them had managed to penetrate the Japanese penalty area. Meanwhile, the Japanese team, with their control of the game, calmly and methodically launched their offensive, continuously threatening the Chinese penalty area.

This kind of competition format isn't very good.

Of course, the Japanese team played very well.

For example, Yoshida Maya, who was defending against Shan Yongzhuo, felt that his job was very easy because Shan Yongzhuo could not get the ball at all and did not run much. He basically just strolled around the edge of the penalty area.

"Even if he's a big threat, he shouldn't be able to do anything if he can't get the ball."

Yoshida Maya couldn't help but think the same way, as did the other Japanese players, such as Konno Yasuyuki, another center-back on the back line, who was responsible for covering Shan Yongzhuo when he realized that the opponent couldn't get the ball at all.

However, the Japanese team was not strong enough to prevent the Chinese team from attacking.

In reality, even the world's strongest team, unless facing an amateur team, cannot prevent another team from attacking. And once the Chinese team launched their attack, Shan Yongzhuo naturally had opportunities to get the ball.

In the 16th minute, the Chinese team finally launched a stable attack. After passing the ball four or five times in midfield, it was passed forward to Shan Yongzhuo, who had his back to goal.

Yoshida Maya kept pressing against Shan Yongzhuo with his body after Shan Yongzhuo. So when Shan Yongzhuo tried to turn around and break through Yoshida Maya, he failed and could only run diagonally.

This dribbling style allowed him to successfully break past Maya Yoshida, but he could only dribble the ball towards the sideline and was unable to penetrate into the penalty area.

Moreover, when he dribbled the ball to the edge of the penalty area, he found himself surrounded.

At this moment, with Maya Yoshida behind Shan Yongzhuo, Yasuyuki Konno in front, and Atsuto Uchida blocking the way on the other side, passing the ball was impossible. The only thing he could do was protect the ball.

However, just when Shan Yongzhuo was in dire straits, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration and casually kicked the ball.

Before the Japanese defenders could react to what Shan Yongzhuo was about to do, the ball was kicked by Konno Yasuyuki and rolled out of bounds.

Corner kick!

When Shan Yongzhuo saw the referee pointing to the corner flag, he happily ran towards it.

Before the Japanese players could react, Maya Yoshida overheard Deng Zhuoxiang talking to Zhou Haibin not far away.

"We probably don't need to go into the penalty area, right? Dan will definitely score that ball."

"makes sense……"

Hearing the conversation between the two, Maya Yoshida suddenly realized something and loudly warned his teammate Eiji Kawashima, "Kawashima, watch out, he's going to shoot directly!"

Upon hearing Maya Yoshida's words, the Japanese team players immediately realized something, and Eiji Kawashima immediately became on high alert, not daring to relax in the slightest.

They were very well prepared for this final match, especially for Shan Yongzhuo, whom they had studied very thoroughly.

They naturally knew that Shan Yongzhuo's specialty was scoring directly from a corner kick.

A corner kick by Dan scores!
Anyone who knows Shan Yongzhuo knows that his corner kick scoring efficiency is ridiculously high.

However, understanding and being prepared are one thing, but being able to hold on is another.

Shan Yongzhuo took the corner kick, which looked like it was heading towards the penalty area and was likely aimed at Zhang Linpeng.

But just as Eiji Kawashima was about to make his decision to attack, the ball suddenly changed direction, spinning wildly as it hurtled towards the near corner of the goal.

Kawashima Eiji was at his wit's end, but Nagatomo Yuto was standing there in that spot.

He aimed at the soccer ball, jumped up, and tried to head it away.

However, the ball's spin was too great, and Yuto Nagatomo was simply too short.

If it were Maya Yoshida, who is 189cm tall, he could reach the ball, but Yuto Nagatomo, who is only 170cm tall, would not be tall enough.

He tried his best, but ultimately fell short.

He jumped, soared into the air, and then saw Yuto Nagatomo fall heavily to the ground, while the soccer ball grazed the post and flew into the goal.

The ball went in!
Thank you "Wulina" for the generous donation, you're awesome!
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(End of this chapter)