Football: Starting from the 05 World Youth Championship

Chapter 373 Asian Cup goal: win the championship!

Although there were all kinds of rumors flying around from the outside world, Lin Feng did not pay any attention to them.

This is what the news media does for a living. Can you really shut them up?

On June 6, the Chinese team arrived in Denver and played a friendly match with another MLS team, the Colorado Rapids.

In this game, Zhu Guanghu made a large-scale rotation of the national team's lineup. The overseas players who had played in two games before sat on the bench to rest in this game.

The starting lineups were mainly young players and players playing in the local league.

Among them, the most notable one is the former genius boy Qu Bo!
The Chinese national football team's consecutive victories over the US national team and Real Salt Lake City caused quite a stir in the North American football world.

Therefore, the home team seemed to attach great importance to this game.

The Colorado Rapids are currently ranked second in the MLS. In terms of overall strength, they are much stronger than the Real Salt Lake City team that was defeated by the Chinese team in the last game.

In addition, the Chinese national team made a major change in its lineup in this game, replacing a group of substitutes, which weakened their strength a lot.

Therefore, the situation in this game was more tense and not as one-sided as the previous game.

In the 21st minute of the first half, Colorado Rapids' No. 7 Kirovsky successfully made an offside move and got a one-on-one opportunity.

Facing the Chinese national team's substitute goalkeeper Yang Jun, he calmly pushed the ball into the goal, helping Colorado team take the lead.

The opponent is strong and we are behind in the score.

In the past, at this time of time, the Chinese national football team would often collapse because they could not bear the psychological pressure.

But in this game, the substitutes on the field did not get anxious even when the situation was unfavorable.

They played very patiently. Seeing that the opponent had accumulated a large number of troops in the middle, the Chinese national team players tried to break through from the flanks.

But unfortunately, the two substitute wingers were of average strength, their speed and breakthrough ability were not outstanding, and they failed to achieve the expected results.

After seeing this problem, Zhu Guanghu decisively replaced the player.

He replaced Zhang Shuai with Qu Bo and Li Yan with Zhou Haibin.

This substitution immediately produced miraculous results.

In the 52nd minute, Zhou Haibin made a straight pass from the backcourt and found Qu Bo on the wing.

After receiving the ball, Qu Bo used his speed to get rid of the defender, dribbled the ball down the bottom and broke into the opponent's penalty area, completing a shot at a small angle.

This breakthrough was eye-opening. Qu Bo's speed and footwork were clearly superior to those of others.

And this is not his true strength. In his heyday before he was injured, such a breakthrough was just commonplace for the former wind-chasing boy!
No wonder he was noticed by Premier League teams. With such strength, he can definitely gain a foothold in the top five leagues.

Although Qu Bo's shot was blocked by the opponent's defender and went out of bounds, it won a corner kick for the Chinese national team.

Zheng Bin took the corner kick and Xin Feng rushed to attack in front of the goal, but the ball was saved by the goalkeeper and fell into the feet of another national football player Wang Dong.

Wang Dong shot the ball with great force, but this time the goalkeeper was powerless and could only watch the ball go into the net.

The score became 1-1, and the Chinese national team equalized the score shortly after the start of the second half.

Wang Dong's goal greatly boosted the morale of the national football team!

Just five minutes later, Zhou Haibin made another key pass, Qu Bo started quickly, shook off two defenders and scored with a low shot.

2 is better than 1!

The Chinese team took the lead.

After that, the two teams attacked and defended each other, but after both sides missed several opportunities, the score of 2:1 remained until the end of the game.

Although it was just a victory in a friendly match, this victory gave a huge boost to the morale of the national football team.

This is especially true for the young substitutes in the team!

Although they had defeated many opponents under the leadership of overseas players, and even tied with top teams like France at one point.

But once they lost their overseas players, they immediately fell to a third-rate level, drawing with Singapore and losing to Thailand.

This dealt a heavy blow to their self-confidence, and many people even fell into self-doubt:
Am I really a loser?
Can’t win the game without the leadership of big brother?

But this victory proved that they are still very strong.

Even without their big brothers in charge, they were able to beat a strong team like Colorado.

If the opponent's strength were in Asia, it would definitely be stronger than third-rate teams like Singapore and Thailand.

I think the only four top Asian teams that can beat them are Japan, South Korea, Iran and Australia.

In other words, the Chinese national football team that defeated them has already acquired the strength of a second-rate team in Asia.

Zhu Guanghu was also very happy, as he had originally thought that the training camp in North America would be difficult.

He had even prepared himself for the difficult situation of winning, but he didn't expect it to be so smooth.

Since defeating the US team, the Chinese national football team, from top to bottom, feels like it has been reborn.

The players are more confident in their own abilities and are more daring in their actions on the court.

Even as a substitute player, he can keep his composure in adversity and firmly believe that he can equalize or even reverse the situation.

This kind of mentality is rarely seen in Chinese teams in the past.

Perhaps only Milu's Chinese national football team, which believes in happy football, has achieved this briefly?
So, after the game.

In an interview with reporters, Zhu Guanghu expressed confidence:
The Chinese team is already strong enough to win the Asian Cup, so in this Asian Cup, the national football team has only one goal, and that is the championship!
As soon as this statement was made, it immediately attracted attention from all over the country and even Asia.

[Damn, how dare Lao Zhu say that? If he didn't win the championship, wouldn't he be scolded to death by the fans? ]

[Good job, Lao Zhu. Only by daring to draw your sword can the brave win when they meet on a narrow road! ]

[If Lao Zhu can really lead the Chinese national football team to win the Asian Cup, Lao Zhu will be deified in my eyes! ]

[I think Zhu Guanghu is not exaggerating. This Chinese national football team does have the strength to win the championship.]

[Just from the perspective of market value, the Chinese national football team ranks among the best among all Asian teams! ]

[That's true. Lin Feng alone is worth more than 90% of the entire team! ]

Fans who support the Chinese national football team were very excited by Zhu Guanghu's statement.

However, those who do not support or even belittle the national football team stood up and poured cold water on it as usual after seeing Zhu Guanghu's statement:
[Haha, with the rubbish level of the Chinese national football team, they still want to win the Asian Cup. They should first beat Japan and South Korea! ]

[Only Lin Feng is a decent player in the Chinese national football team. The others are all useless. When facing the Japanese and Korean teams, as long as the opponents keep a close eye on Lin Feng, the Chinese national football team will be helpless! ]

[Zhu Guanghu is just a rubbish domestic coach, he has no skills at all and can only talk big. I think we still need to hire high-level foreign coaches to save Chinese football! ]

Nowadays, there are quite a few people who worship foreign things and fawn on them.

Chinese football is indeed not doing very well. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the national team has had more losses than wins against traditional strong teams such as Japan and South Korea.

Over time, people naturally have the impression that the Chinese team is no match for Japan and South Korea.

However, this situation has been greatly improved in the past two years, but these people still look at the Chinese national football team with the old perspective.

Unless the Chinese team really beats the Japanese and Korean teams head-on on the field, their rhetoric will last for a hundred years. Of course, in addition to these people, there are also some rational voices among the opponents:

[The Chinese national football team's hard power is actually no longer far behind Japan and South Korea, and may even be stronger. However, sometimes, if you want to win the championship, strength alone is not enough. It's too early for Lao Zhu to say this. If West Asia makes some small moves, no matter how strong the Chinese national football team is, it will be useless! ]

This is also a problem that many people are worried about.

"What are you afraid of? There are people over in Xia, don't we have anyone?"

When the players told Zhu Guanghu about the concerns of online fans, Zhu was not panicked at all and looked confident.

"I'll tell you guys a secret, don't tell anyone else!"

Zhu Guanghu looked around like a thief, then lowered his voice and said:

"Vice Chairman Zhang will most likely be promoted to a full-time employee by the end of the year!"

Everyone was quite surprised when they heard this. The Vice Chairman Zhang that Lao Zhu mentioned was none other than the current AFC Vice Chairman Zhang Jilong.

"Old Zhu, is this news true?"

Zhu Guanghu glared at Li Weifeng. He was probably the only guy in the team who dared to treat him so disrespectfully.

"Can I still lie to you, kid?"

Seeing that Lao Zhu's expression did not seem like he was lying, everyone started talking about it.

This news is so shocking that they need to digest it.

But Lin Feng on the side was not surprised by this result at all. After all, he had already known this result in advance last year.

"Old Zhu, you boasted that you would win the championship before. Was it because you learned about this news in advance and knew that no one would dare to target us?"

"I knew it. How could the always cautious Old Zhu suddenly change his personality?"

Whoever dares to play tricks on the Chinese team at this critical juncture, aren't they afraid of being retaliated against in the future?
Therefore, the outrageous penalties like those in the last Asian Cup will not happen again this time.

Maybe they can even enjoy the feeling of being cared for by the referee.

Tsk tsk, it turns out that it’s easy to get things done if you have someone higher up!

……

On June 6, the Chinese national football team arrived in Los Angeles and faced the last match of this North American training camp - the Los Angeles Galaxy!
The Los Angeles Galaxy is a long-established powerhouse in the MLS and won the 2005 MLS championship.

Although its performance has declined slightly in recent years, it is still a strong team in MLS and is as strong as the Colorado Rapids, which the Chinese national team just defeated.

As the most prosperous city on the West Coast, Los Angeles has a large population and an extremely developed economy.

This place and California, to which it belongs, are also the preferred regions for Chinese immigrants.

In addition to attracting a large number of American fans to watch the international superstars, this game also attracted a large number of overseas Chinese to watch the game.

Among them, some people even drove for several hours and came from places hundreds of kilometers away, such as San Francisco.

These people may not watch football on weekdays, but they are willing to bring their families to watch the Chinese team's games.

The Chinese national football team did not disappoint them. Zhu Guanghu did not put Lin Feng on the bench in this game.

Instead, he was arranged to go into battle with most of the main players to face the Los Angeles Galaxy with the strongest lineup.

Although the Los Angeles Galaxy team already knew how powerful Lin Feng was and had arranged for him to be marked by special personnel and double-teamed by multiple people, they were still unable to stop Lin Feng from performing.

In the first half, Lin Feng used his outstanding personal ability to break through the wing and then cut inside to score a goal.

In the second half, Lin Feng scored a free kick with a very spectacular falling leaves ball, winning the applause of the fans on the scene.

Even some fans of the Los Angeles Galaxy couldn't help but applaud and cheer for Lin Feng, as if the Chinese national team was playing against other teams and not their home team.

It’s a pity that the performance they most wanted to see, Lin Feng dribbling the ball alone through the levels, did not appear.

But this cannot be blamed on Lin Feng. The only thing to blame is the Los Angeles Galaxy’s poor strength, which did not give the Chinese team any chance to launch a counterattack.

In this game, the Chinese national football team has a huge advantage.

Throughout the game, the Chinese national team had a ball possession rate of 72%, 25 shots, 8 of which were on target, and scored 4 goals.

The Los Angeles Galaxy only had 5 shots, 2 of which were on target, and no goals.

Throughout the game, they were suppressed by the Chinese national team, and the strength of the two teams was completely not on the same level.

Although it is a bit unfair for a club to compete against the best players in a country.

But the LA Galaxy can spend money on players, while the national team can't.

The reason why they are so weak is entirely because the MLS is too weak.

With their level, they are already capable of winning the MLS championship, so there is naturally no need to continue spending money to improve the team's strength.

The Los Angeles Galaxy is a very famous team, so before the game the Chinese players were preparing for a tough battle.

However, they did not expect that the opponent was not strong at all, so much so that in the eyes of the Chinese players who played, the level of the MLS was about the same as that of the Chinese Super League.

If the Los Angeles Galaxy were to play a game against the Chinese Super League's dominant team, Shandong Luneng, Luneng might win because Luneng's foreign players are more powerful.

In fact, this feeling is correct. In the 2007 global league rankings, the Chinese Super League, which had experienced the anti-gang and anti-illegal campaign in the previous two years, has improved its ranking rapidly, jumping 37 places from 12th in the world last year to currently 25th in the world.

The MLS is ranked 9 places lower than the Chinese Super League, at 34th.

The best league in North America is the Mexican League in the southern United States. They are ranked 8th in the world, higher than the Portuguese Super League.

The national team players only expressed their feelings a little, but the boss of the Los Angeles Galaxy was deeply stimulated.

Losing four goals at home is embarrassing enough.

What's even more embarrassing is that the home stadium, which was never full in the past, was full today, but they didn't come to support the Galaxy, but to support their opponents. Even their own fans turned against them.

It seems that it is not that the fans do not like to watch football, but that there is a lack of big stars that are attractive enough, which is why the football market cannot be supported.

Come to think of it, Los Angeles is a big city with a population of four million.

If it were in Europe, a city of this size would be able to support not only one team, but even ten!
How many people are there in Manchester?

Just five hundred thousand people!

Aren’t Manchester United’s games still packed?

Isn't Manchester United still the world's most valuable football club?

As one of the founders of the Major League Soccer, Philip Anschutz, the major owner of the Los Angeles Galaxy, is a man with great business acumen.

In his opinion, as long as they can increase the popularity of the Los Angeles Galaxy, they can take over the huge sports market in Los Angeles.

The way to increase popularity is very simple, just buy a big-name star with enough influence and commercial value!
In the past, he had his eyes on the British heartthrob Beckham, but now, he has set his sights on the supernova Lin Feng from China!

After the game, the billionaire called his assistant:

"Sign that Chinese guy, no matter what the cost!"

(End of this chapter)