Football: Starting from the 05 World Youth Championship

But before he could make any substitutions, Shao Jiayi gave a brilliant guest performance!

In the 37th minute of the first half, taking advantage of the US team's defense line pressing forward, Shao Jiayi made a wonderful lob pass from the left rib, and Sun Xiang quickly entered the penalty area from the left wing and found Dong Fangzhuo in the penalty area with a cross.

Dong Fangzhuo wanted to shoot himself, but he failed to control the ball. By the time he controlled the ball, the opponent's defender had already blocked it.

However, just when he felt that he had no chance and was about to pass the ball back to his teammates so that they could reorganize the situation, he saw Lin Feng rushing towards the penalty area.

Dong Fangzhuo's eyes lit up and he quickly passed the ball to Lin Feng. After passing the ball, he moved forward, trying to get rid of the defender beside him and run into an open space.

The American team's defensive players were all focused on the people and the ball in the penalty area and did not notice Lin Feng suddenly rushing out from behind.

After Dong Fangzhuo completed the pass, they realized it and wanted to intercept it, but it was too late.

Lin Feng saw Dong Fangzhuo's running position, but he did not choose to pass the ball to Dong Fangzhuo. Instead, he passed the ball directly to the other side, to the feet of a striker who was actually in an open position - Gao Lin!

When Shao Jiayi made a lob pass, Gao Lin realized that this was an excellent attacking opportunity.

Although Sun Xiang's cross did not find him, Gao Lin did not give up. Instead, he took advantage of the opportunity that the opponent's central defender and full-back were attracted by Dong Fangzhuo and Sun Xiang, and found the gap in the penalty area.

Although he did not expect Dong Fangzhuo to see his position and pass the ball to him, Gao Lin knew that there must be someone who could see him and had the ability to pass the ball to him!
This person is Lin Feng!
Gao Lin made the right bet!
As soon as he ran out of the open space, Lin Feng put the ball at his feet.

If it were two years ago, facing such a good shooting opportunity, Gao Lin might have made a mistake or even failed to seize the opportunity, wasting his teammate's wonderful pass.

But after two years in the Bundesliga, he was trained in high-level competitions.

Gao Lin is now much stronger than he was two years ago, both in terms of technique and mentality.

Facing the incoming ball, Gao Lin demonstrated his excellent basic skills as a Bundesliga shooter.

Perfect stop, skillful ball control, careful observation, and calm shooting.

These four actions were completed in one go within half a second, and before the American team's defender could react, Gao Lin had completed the shot.

Even though Howard, the goalkeeper of the American team, was in great shape, he had no way to deal with such an impeccable shot. He could only watch the ball penetrate the goal he was guarding once again.

The score became 3:1!

Maybe someone guessed the score before the game, but they definitely guessed the names of the two teams wrong!
The Chinese team, which was supposed to appear behind number 1, ended up ahead of number 3.

The American team, which was playing at home and was stronger, was the lagging side, and was 2 goals behind the Chinese team!

Even gamblers wouldn’t dare to imagine this result!
[I must have seen it wrong, the score is wrong! ]

[It's not just wrong, it's the opposite of what Tian Gang is! ]

[Isn't it said that the US team is very strong and ranked 16th in the world? Why do they feel so vulnerable in front of the Chinese national team? ]

[The Chinese national football team scored three goals in the first half. I don’t even dare to imagine what will happen in the second half! ]

[Brothers, the Chinese national football team is in such a good state, is it certain to qualify for the World Cup in three years? ]

The score of 3:1 made the fans of the Chinese national football team extremely excited. After the excitement, they began to look forward to the World Cup.

It’s a pity that I missed the 2006 World Cup, but I can’t miss the 2010 World Cup in South Africa!

If we miss the next World Cup again, the current group of domestic players who are in their prime will be delayed.

However, if the Chinese national football team wants to enter the World Cup, it must still pass the World Cup qualifiers.

Fortunately, the opponents in the World Cup qualifiers are all Asian teams. Except for Japan, South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia, there are no particularly strong teams.

The Asian Cup is about to start next month. Whether the Chinese national football team can compete with these top Asian teams will be revealed on the field.

……

After losing two goals in a row, the American team seemed to be stunned.

The players on the field seemed to have lost confidence and fell into self-doubt.

Before the end of the first half, the US team failed to regain its form. Not only did they fail to organize any threatening attacks, but they were also badly beaten by several attacks from the Chinese national team.

This poor performance made the American fans who came to the scene unhappy. When the first half was coming to an end, seeing their own players passing the ball back and forth in the backcourt instead of attacking, the American fans in the stands even started booing their own team.

Losing is not scary, what is scary is losing confidence and only thinking about defensive defense!
The score remained at 3:1 until the end of the first half, and the coach of the American team returned to the locker room with a grim face.

I originally wanted to find a weaker opponent to practice with and win a game before the big competition to boost the team's morale.

I didn't expect to mess it up. The kick didn't hit the soft persimmon, but hit the iron wall instead.

Winning or losing this game doesn’t matter, but the team’s condition is so bad, how can they play in the CONCACAF Gold Cup in five days?
The CONCACAF Gold Cup is equivalent to the Asian Cup in Asia and the European Cup in Europe. It is the highest-level intercontinental competition in North America.

For North American teams, its importance is second only to the World Cup.

The American team is under a lot of pressure, but the Chinese national team is not under much pressure.

Although they also have the Asian Cup to play, there is still more than a month before the Asian Cup, so there is not that much pressure for the time being.

What's more, the Chinese national football team is currently in the lead, so what reason is there to put pressure on ourselves?
“The performance in the first half was very good, especially the offensive end was very eye-catching!”

Zhu Guanghu performed as a team member right from the start, praising them and making everyone feel very happy.

But Lao Zhu changed his tone and began to speak in a strange way:

"However, there were still some mistakes in the first half, some mistakes that shouldn't have happened!"

As soon as this tone came out, everyone lowered their heads.

I recalled the fear of being dominated by Lao Zhu in the locker room after losing to the Thai team.

However, Zhu Guanghu did not let the players off just because they had a good attitude of admitting their mistakes. Instead, he criticized the players one by one and pointed out their shortcomings in the first half.

Faced with Lao Zhu's criticism, everyone could only nod in agreement and promise to correct their mistakes. No one dared to confront him face to face, not even the team leader Li Weifeng.

After the start of the second half, the US team made the first substitution.

They replaced the ball with a speed winger in order to further strengthen the attack on the wing.

This substitution quickly produced results!

In the 53rd minute of the second half, the US team carelessly passed the ball back and forth in the backcourt, which attracted the Chinese team to press forward. The midfielder who retreated to receive the ball suddenly sent a straight pass.

Fayer, who had just come on as a substitute, used his speed to shake off Sun Xiang who was chasing him, broke into the penalty area and calmly completed a lob shot, scoring the ball.

The score became 3:2, the US team recovered a goal and narrowed the score gap to one goal.

Now, the suspense of the game returned. Including the injury time, there were still about 40 minutes left before the end of the game.

Such a long time is enough for the American team to tie the score or even overtake.

In the first half, the Chinese national football players were full of energy and did not feel the impact too obviously.

But after their physical strength declined in the second half, the American players' outstanding physical advantages were revealed.

Under the same circumstances, the Chinese national team players will be at a disadvantage in physical confrontation.

Especially on Sun Xiang's side, Shao Jiayi does not have the ability to return to defense, while the opponent's newly substituted winger is not only fast but also has abundant physical strength.

Just running back and forth with the other person almost made him out of breath.

After tasting the sweetness, the American team specifically attacked the weak left side of the Chinese national team, which for a time caused panic in front of the Chinese national team's goal.

The American players were so excited that they even put on some impressive performances on the court.

During this period, the Chinese national team's defense line was in a very bad situation due to the opponent's breakthrough, and it was difficult to launch an effective attack.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Zhu Guanghu made decisive substitutions, replacing Shao Jiayi and Sun Xiang with Zhao Xuri and Xu Yunlong.

After the two players came on the court, the passive situation of the Chinese national team on the left was slightly alleviated.

But the threat posed by the opponent's wingers was indeed very great, forcing both players to focus all their energy on defending the opponent and unable to free themselves to participate in the team's offense.

Fortunately, the Chinese national football team still has an advantage on the right side!
In the 67th minute, Lin Feng dribbled the ball and broke through from the right. The opponent's full-back couldn't stop his advancement no matter how hard he tried.

However, Lin Feng, who was about to break into the penalty area, gave up and unexpectedly passed the ball horizontally to the empty space at the top of the penalty area.

Was this a mistake?

The fans couldn't help but speculate in their hearts because there was no one in this place at all!

But the next second, a red figure rushed over, received Lin Feng's pass, and made a long shot without any defense.

Chen Tao!

After seeing who was coming, the fans exclaimed!
Chen Tao's shot was of high quality, but his luck was not good as he encountered the nervous Howard.

Faced with this difficult ball, Howard held the ball steadily in his arms as if he was practicing catching the ball.

What's even more terrible is that Howard is not only in very good shape in terms of shot-saving, but also has full offensive awareness.

Seeing that most of the Chinese national team's players were in their own half, the American goalkeeper jumped up from the ground, rushed out of the small penalty area with the ball, aimed at his teammate farthest away, roared and threw the ball out.

The player at the forefront of the American team was the speedy winger who was substituted in during the second half.

Seeing Howard's powerful hand throw, he was ecstatic and had even thought about how he would celebrate after scoring his second goal.

However, just as he adjusted his body posture and prepared to catch the ball, a tall red figure rushed over from the side and intercepted the ball before him.

Feng Xiaoting!
This Chinese national football superstar who plays for Barcelona stood up at the critical moment and intercepted an extremely threatening attack from the opponent.

If the opponent's winger had gotten the ball just now, with his speed and the breakthrough ability he had shown before, Feng Xiaoting would not have been sure he could stop the opponent in a one-on-one match.

The startled Chinese team began to actively shrink their formation and no longer launched attacks as aggressively as before.

After their physical strength declined in the second half, their ability to chase back was greatly reduced.

If the opponent uses speed to attack me again, I may not be able to resist it.

Since we are still leading, there is no need to rush to attack. Just control the rhythm of the game and slowly wear down the opponent.

With Lin Feng, Chen Tao and Zheng Zhi, it is not difficult for the Chinese national team's midfield to control the ball under their feet.

The Chinese team can sit still, but the American team may not.

Seeing that the Chinese national team was slow to take the initiative to attack, the American team realized that the opponent might be deliberately wasting time and was forced to change their style of play. They began to deploy more troops to the Chinese national team's half to press.

But this left their backcourt empty, giving the Chinese national team a chance to counterattack.

In the 75th minute, the fierce competition between the two sides in the midfield resulted in the ball changing hands several times in a short period of time. The American team's attacking midfielder had just grabbed the ball, but before he could pass it out, Lin Feng who was chasing back snatched the ball back again.

As soon as Lin Feng grabbed the ball, the opponent's midfielder rushed towards him like a rhinoceros.

Facing the player who was rushing towards him to intercept, Lin Feng easily passed the opponent with just a chic Cruyff turn.

The American fans in the stands couldn't help but cheer for Lin Feng again!
They have seen Cruyff turn many times, but not many people can use it as skillfully and elegantly as Lin Feng!
The Real Madrid scout hiding in the stands saw Lin Feng's dribble and excitedly wrote in his notebook:

His playing style is elegant and graceful, and his appearance and temperament are excellent, which is very suitable for the temperament of Real Madrid. It is recommended to introduce him with all efforts!
……

After getting rid of the opponent's midfielder, Lin Feng did not continue to move forward.

On the field, the speed of football is always faster than people!
If you want to quickly tear open the opponent's defense, sometimes all you need is a precise through pass!
In front of him, Gao Lin and Dong Fangzhuo were both running desperately.

Both of them are in good positions, so whoever passes the ball to will have the chance to score one-on-one.

For a moment, Lin Feng was happy, but at the same time, he was in a state of happy worry: Who should he pass it to?
He was not an indecisive person and made his judgment in just a split second.

He leaned back, straightened his right leg, and sent a signature 45-degree cross.

The football seemed to have eyes. It bypassed the defending American players and appeared accurately in front of Dong Fangzhuo.

Even though King Dong had seen Lin Feng's move before, he was still extremely shocked when he saw the ball find him like a precision-guided missile!
But from the perspective of the opposing players, it was a feeling of utter despair.

The ball was clearly rolling towards him, but he could not do anything about it. He could only watch the ball roll to the middle, to the feet of the opposing forward, and then he had a one-on-one chance!
Howard chose to abandon the goal and pounced on Dong Fangzhuo fiercely.

He was in great form and felt he could save the opponent's shot from any angle.

However, to his disappointment, Dong Fangzhuo, who was already in a one-on-one situation, did not choose to shoot himself after seeing the goalkeeper coming out, but passed the ball to the other side and gave the ball to Gao Lin.

Facing the empty goal so close, Gao Lin did not waste the opportunity and easily shot the ball into the goal, changing the score to 4:2!

After that, although the US team tried their best to launch a counterattack, they were unable to succeed due to the full defense of the Chinese national team.

In the end, the Chinese team unexpectedly defeated the host United States team away from home, which not only swept away the gloom of the previous defeat in Bangkok, but also set a good start for the Chinese team's training in North America.

What they didn't expect was that this victory made Lin Feng and the Chinese team famous in the United States, and a large number of media and reporters began to pay attention to and report on them.

Apart from the Women's World Cup that year, this is the first time that Chinese football has attracted such great attention in the United States! (End of this chapter)