Football: Starting from the 05 World Youth Championship

A few days passed in a flash, and the much-anticipated Asian Cup finally kicked off.

On July 2007, 7, the opening match of the 7th Asian Cup kicked off at the Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.

The two teams facing off are Thailand, one of the host countries, and Singapore.

The two teams met in the final of the Southeast Asian Championship half a year ago. On that occasion, Singapore defeated Thailand with a total score of 3:2 and won the championship.

Now the two teams meet again, and in the higher-level Asian Cup.

The Thais are trying their best to avenge their previous defeat at home.

In the fifth minute of the game, the Thai team entered the opponent's penalty area.

Veteran Senamang fell to the ground after a slight physical contact with the opposing defender in the penalty area. The Korean referee Kwon Jong-chul directly awarded a penalty kick, which caused great dissatisfaction among Singaporean fans.

But the Thais were unmoved, and their striker Susongkit easily scored a penalty to help the Thai team lead 1-0!

The Thai people at the scene were dancing with joy, and they all felt that they would be able to successfully get revenge this time.

However, the Singapore team, which replaced Iraq and broke out of Group E, is not an easy opponent. At the beginning of the year, they were able to defeat Thailand, which shows that the strength gap between the two teams is not big, and Singapore even has certain advantages.

After falling behind, the Singapore team launched a fierce attack on the Thai team.

The Thai team also retreated and adopted a defensive counterattack posture.

However, before they could launch a counterattack, their own defense collapsed first.

In the 32nd minute, the Singapore team equalized the score with a header from a free kick.

After that, the two teams attacked and defended each other, but neither side scored any more goals.

The score remained 1:1 until the end of the game.

This draw was bound to leave the more than 50000 Thai fans at the scene disappointed.

Although it was just a civil war between Southeast Asian teams, it still attracted many fans to watch.

After watching the game, the fans also had a heated discussion.

[You know what, the Thai team's quick and agile style of play is quite something, no wonder the Chinese national team lost before! ]

[Their footwork is really good, and they are good at ground penetration and quick counterattacks, but their weaknesses are too obvious! ]

[The Thai team is afraid of headers, or rather, all Southeast Asian teams are afraid of headers! ]

[Southeast Asians are too short, there is nothing we can do about it! ]

[Haha, it is said that when the Chinese national football team met them before, they could subdue them completely by sending high center forwards to bombard them from the air.]

[Don’t talk about the height of the Chinese team. Let’s just talk about this match. The Singapore team’s footwork is not as good as the Thai team, but they have a clear height advantage. They used their height advantage to equalize the score with a header! ]

[Speaking of the three goals scored by Singapore in the final of the Southeast Asian Championship, weren't two of them headers? ]

……

At this time, Chinese fans still looked down on Southeast Asian teams.

Although Southeast Asian football has made great progress in recent years, the gap compared with several teams in East Asia is still very obvious.

The strength of the Chinese national football team has been declining, and it has gradually shown a trend of being unable to suppress the Southeast Asian teams.

But the rise of Lin Feng and his group has given the Chinese national football team a new lease of life.

Let the Chinese national football team regain confidence in Southeast Asian teams!
As a result, domestic fans generally look down on Southeast Asian teams.

In their eyes, the only four teams that can really compete with the Chinese national football team are probably Japan, South Korea, Iran and Australia. The others are just small fry and cannot stand a single blow!
However, after watching the next game, Chinese football fans even looked down on the Australian team.

After the opening match, another match in Group A started soon.

As the only Asian team to advance to the knockout stage in the last World Cup, Australia is the favorite to win this Asian Cup.

However, such a favorite team was upset in the first game.

Facing the Oman team, which is of mediocre strength, has only participated in the Asian Cup once before and has never advanced from the group stage.

The Australian team lost the ball at the beginning of the game and fell behind for the entire game. It was not until the injury time that Cahill scored the last second to equalize the opponent and achieved a thrilling draw.

They have 150 overseas players, including stars like Kewell, Viduka, Swarzer and Cahill, but their performance is so poor that the outside world's optimism about them has suddenly become much smaller.

As a result, the chances of Japan, South Korea, Iran and China winning the championship have increased significantly.

However, there seems to be some kind of curse in this Asian Cup, and the favored teams have all suffered upsets.

After Australia was unexpectedly tied by a West Asian team, another favorite to win the championship, defending champion Japan, was also tied by 10-man Qatar in the second day of the game.

This was different from the previous game, where the Australian team showed little ability to adapt to the hot weather in Southeast Asia.

The players of the Japanese team were not greatly affected by the climate of Southeast Asia. Of course, it may also be related to the fact that their competition location is in Hanoi, which is at a higher latitude, rather than in Bangkok.

The problem shown by the Japanese team in this game is that the forward is weak!
Although Japan's top star Shunsuke Nakamura tried very hard to help his teammates create many scoring opportunities, the forwards in the frontcourt were too rough. They wasted countless opportunities and only scored one goal in one game.

Moreover, in the final moments, the two defenders simultaneously got sick and lost the lead.

In desperation, the Japanese team could only accept the outcome of being tied by their opponents.

After watching this game, Chinese fans were both happy and worried.

[The Japanese and Australian teams don't seem to be in very good shape. Does this mean that the Chinese national team's chances of winning the championship have increased? ]

[The Japanese team is still very strong, but the forward line is a little flawed. Let's see how they adjust next. Qatar is not a weak team either. This draw is not a surprise in the strict sense! ]

[Brothers, I am a little confused. Why did all the strong teams fail in this Asian Cup? ]

[I am also a little panicked. The national football team will play tomorrow. Several previous favorites to win the championship have all failed. Could the national football team also be cursed? ]

[Damn, the Chinese national football team's luck in the draw is also very bad. There is also an Iranian team in our group. If we fail tomorrow and the Iranian team holds on, then won't we be in trouble? ]

[That can't be right. Our opponent tomorrow is the Malaysian team, and Iran's opponent is Uzbekistan. We can't say that our winning rate is 100%, but it's at least 99%. On the other hand, Iran's opponent is Uzbekistan, and I don't think their chances of winning are even 60%! ]

[The Australian and Japanese teams were defeated by West Asian teams before. West Asian teams have referees to take care of them, but Malaysia does not have this treatment, so don't worry, the Chinese national football team will definitely get off to a good start! ]

...Although the Chinese national football team is in Group C, they are ranked last in this group.

Before the match between the Chinese national team and Malaysia started, the first round of Group D ended, and Indonesia, one of the hosts, unexpectedly defeated Bahrain 2:1 at home.

Originally, because they were not in the same group, the Indonesian team's upset had little to do with the Chinese national team.

But after Indonesia won, the Malaysians seemed to have found the confidence to fight against the powerful Chinese team and even opened champagne before the game.

After a little inquiry, I found out that the reason they opened champagne was the so-called host advantage.

This Asian Cup was jointly hosted by four Southeast Asian countries, and the three hosts that had previously appeared in the tournament all remained undefeated, with Vietnam unexpectedly defeating the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia unexpectedly defeating Bahrain.

This makes Malaysians feel that they are good enough!
Because they are the fourth host country, if there really is some kind of away team curse or host advantage, then in this game, the worst they can get is a draw. If they are lucky, maybe they can win!
But they obviously overthought it!

The Chinese team is not one of those second-rate teams that were upset by Southeast Asian teams before, and they will not make the same mistakes as those teams.

In this game, Zhu Guanghu did not hold back at all and directly arranged the strongest lineup of the national football team.

Goalkeeper Li Leilei, the back line from left to right is Sun Xiang, Zhang Yaokun, Li Weifeng and Sun Jihai.

The midfield consisted of five key players: Lin Feng, Zheng Zhi, Chen Tao, Shao Jiayi and Zhou Haibin.

On the front line, Zhu Guanghu chose Han Peng, an aerial master who has special attacks against Southeast Asian teams!

The Chinese team's tactics in this game were clear and to the point, they took advantage of the midfield and passed the ball over Han Peng's head, letting him head the ball hard and that was it!
After the game started, the Chinese national football team quickly got into the game!
Just one minute into the game, the Chinese team created a good scoring opportunity.

Zheng Zhi made a long pass to Han Peng in the backcourt. The latter competed for the header and passed the ball to Lin Feng, who took advantage of the opportunity to break through after receiving the ball.

He broke into the penalty area while being trapped by two opposing defensive players, but unfortunately his shot near the penalty spot was blocked by the goalkeeper who fell to the ground.

Otherwise, the Chinese national football team will break the fastest scoring record in this Asian Cup.

But it doesn’t matter, the Chinese national football team has already shown its momentum.

They then continued to launch a fierce attack on the Malaysian team, firmly suppressing the opponent in their own half, preventing them from taking even a single step beyond the line.

Many Chinese fans came to the game and were delighted to see the Chinese team perform so vigorously and suppress their opponents to the point where they could not catch their breath.

They were so happy watching it!
Is this what it feels like to bully a weak opponent?
When we played against Bayern before, I felt that the Chinese national team was still very weak and was overwhelmed by the opponent's powerful offensive.

I didn’t expect that after changing the opponent, the Chinese national football team would be so strong.

Looking at the Malaysian players, they were all sweating and gasping for breath after just a few minutes of playing.

Obviously, he was under tremendous physical and psychological pressure under the attack of the Chinese national team.

But even though they were trying their best to defend, they still couldn't stop the Chinese team's attack.

In the 4th minute, the Chinese team took advantage of the numerical advantage in the midfield and played a series of short passes in the middle.

The Malaysian players were completely unable to keep up with the rhythm of the Chinese team's dazzling passing and cutting, and the entire defensive formation was in chaos.

Seeing that the opponent had revealed a flaw, Lin Feng made a fatal pass and sent the ball to the feet of Shao Jiayi who was making a forward run.

The latter took advantage of the situation and pushed the ball into the goal.

The score became 1:0, and the Chinese national football team finally scored the fastest goal in this Asian Cup.

clap clap clap!
The Chinese fans at the scene clapped their hands vigorously. This pass, this cooperation, this mercurial attack...

Is this really the Chinese national football team they know?

It's amazing!
This gorgeous offensive coordination is so good that if you don’t know, you would think it’s the Spanish team playing on the field!
[It must be my illusion. How could the Chinese national football team be so strong? ]

[I am stunned. This offensive coordination is so smooth! ]

[Continuous wall-to-wall cooperation, continuous passing, the opponent's players couldn't even touch the ball, and the ball was passed into the opponent's goal. This goal is definitely the most spectacular goal in this Asian Cup so far! ]

[However, I am uneducated, so I can only say "wow" to everyone. This goal deserves three "wows"! ]

[Don't be silly, don't be silly, haha, the opponents are mediocre, it's not surprising that we can play this kind of cooperation against them. If the Chinese national football team can also play such smooth cooperation when facing Iran and Uzbekistan next time, it will be really commendable! ]

……

After scoring the goal, the Chinese team played more relaxed. The players were confident and calm on the field. Some moves that they usually only dared to use in training matches could now be used confidently on the field.

On the other hand, the opponent was already under a lot of pressure, and became even more nervous after losing the ball.

The players of the Malaysian team have deeply felt the gap in strength between the two teams. Facing such a strong opponent, the host advantage and the visiting team curse are probably going to be ineffective!
Under full pressure, Malaysian players began to make more mistakes.

In the 6th minute, Zheng Zhi intercepted the ball on the right and passed it to Zhou Haibin, who made a diagonal pass into the penalty area.

Lin Feng, who had just been active in the middle, suddenly appeared in the penalty area, received the pass from his teammate and shot the ball, helping the Chinese team score another goal.

The score became 2:0!

The Chinese fans in the stands, who had just celebrated the previous goal and were still sitting down, jumped up from their seats again and started singing and dancing in celebration in front of tens of thousands of fans of the home team.

This is the right ticket to buy!
In just six minutes, the Chinese national football team scored two goals.

If they continue playing at this pace, I can’t imagine how many goals the Chinese national team can score in this game.

They might just witness the Chinese national football team’s biggest victory in the Asian Cup!

After scoring the first goal in his Asian Cup career, Lin Feng also celebrated symbolically.

He ran to the sidelines and struck his classic celebration pose.

The Chinese fans around the stands were very considerate and cooperated by making the "siu" sound, which made the Malaysian fans at the scene look as black as the bottom of a pot.

It's so humiliating and embarrassing.

The game had just started, and many fans who arrived late might not have taken their seats yet, but the scoreboard on the big screen had already changed to 0:2.
This made them wonder if they were hallucinating. How could they have lost two goals when the game had just begun?
But sadly, this is not an illusion.

And they lost more than just 2 goals!

Everything has just begun! (End of this chapter)