Football: Starting from the 05 World Youth Championship

The moment the referee blew the final whistle, the entire Bird's Nest stadium went completely wild.

Exhausted from the exertion, Zheng Zhi lay sprawled on the grass, panting heavily, but with a satisfied smile on his face.

Li Weifeng clenched his fist and gave his partner Feng Xiaoting a warm hug.

The rookie goalkeeper Zeng Cheng, with a bruised face, smiled like a fool. Zhou Haibin, who scored a goal in the final, knelt on the grass, covered his face, and tears streamed down his face uncontrollably. But these were not tears of regret, but tears of joy.

Gao Lin, who also scored a goal, had a completely different style. The moment he heard the whistle, he jumped up from the bench, somehow got hold of a national flag, draped it over himself, and ran onto the field.

The moment the whistle blew, Lin Feng felt a sense of relief and satisfaction. He stood in the center of the field with his hands on his hips, looking around as if he wanted to remember this scene and the feeling of this moment.

In the past three years, Lin Feng has won seven or eight championship trophies, but none of them have been as difficult as this Olympic Games.

Even in his first season at Inter Milan, with his incredible comeback that ultimately snatched the league title from Juventus, it wasn't as difficult as this one.

Argentina truly lived up to its reputation as a top team, bringing unprecedented pressure to the Chinese team and Lin Feng.

But it is precisely because of this that China's Olympic gold medal is so valuable and precious.

It is precisely because the opponent is so strong that the joy of victory is so intense.

If the final opponent were Nigeria instead of Argentina, even if the Chinese team defeated them and won the championship, the players probably wouldn't be as excited as they are now.

The greatness of one team needs the contrast of another.

With that thought in mind, Lin Feng strode towards the loser's half of the court.

When the final whistle blew, the Argentine players seemed to have all their strength drained away, collapsing to the ground one by one, with many of them sobbing uncontrollably.

Messi didn't cry. He half-squatted on the ground, staring blankly at the lawn in front of him, feeling extremely bitter.

He was defeated by Lin Feng once again, and it seemed that the other party wanted to have the words "Messi's nemesis" engraved on his forehead.

Messi hasn't read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, otherwise he would probably be saying something like, "Why did Heaven create both Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang?"

The series of defeats dealt a heavy blow to Messi's confidence. He used to be extremely confident in his abilities and believed that he would become the next Maradona.

However, although Messi is still confident in his abilities, he no longer has the confidence to become the next football king.

"Ahem, let's exchange jerseys! I don't think you'd be so angry and refuse my request just because you lost a game, would you?"

A sudden voice rang out from the side. Messi looked up and saw that it was Lin Feng who had taken off his jersey and draped it over his shoulders. It seemed that he had come specifically to exchange jerseys with him.

"Yeah, no problem!"

Messi is certainly not the kind of person who can't accept defeat. Although he was holding back his anger, he remained polite on the surface.

He had already lost the game; he didn't want to lose face as well.

After saying that, he took off his jersey and handed it to Lin Feng.

After exchanging jerseys, before Lin Feng could speak, Messi said:
"Congratulations on winning the championship. Your performance deserves this gold medal."

To hear such heartfelt praise from one's opponent is a form of affirmation and commendation for them.

Lin Feng shrugged: "Do you need me to congratulate you on winning second place?"

Messi rolled his eyes at him, annoyed: "Mr. Lin, don't joke about our sad stories. It's not funny at all!"

Messi stared at Lin Feng and said, "The next time we meet on the international stage will be the World Cup. I hope to run into you guys then, so I can get my revenge on you!"

"Then you'd better pray that we get drawn together with so many teams, otherwise the chances of us being drawn together are not very high!"

The Argentine national team is far stronger than the Argentine Olympic team. Given the strength of the Chinese team, they really have no chance of winning against them on the field. It would be a success if they didn't suffer a crushing defeat.

While Lin Feng was chatting with Messi, his teammates were celebrating wildly in their own half of the field.

When Lin Feng finished talking and went back, they were still celebrating. When they saw Lin Feng return, they surrounded him, holding hands and jumping around in circles.

A short while later, head coach Klaus Toppmöller was also pushed in.

When Lin Feng saw Klaus Toppmöller, he took the initiative to step forward and give the veteran coach a hug.

After this match, the national Olympic team will be disbanded, and Klaus Toppmöller's term as head coach of the national Olympic team will also come to an end.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the old man will most likely return to Germany to live out his remaining years.

Lin Feng is very grateful to the meritorious coach who promoted him and led him and the team so far.

The World Youth Championship and the Olympic Games are two rich gifts he brought to Chinese football, and the huge impact of these two championships is a valuable legacy he left to Chinese football.

If Chinese football successfully rises to prominence someday in the future, then Klaus Toppmöller's name will surely be on the list of credit.

Thinking of this, Lin Feng called to his teammates, and together they lifted the old man up and tossed him high into the air.

The old man was terrified and shouted for the team members to put him down.

Considering the old man's advanced age, the team members let him go and then turned their attention to another major contributor who led the team to victory in the championship—Lin Feng.

The moment Lin Feng was tossed high into the air by his teammates, a phrase came to mind: "He who has spun his own cocoon is trapped in his own web!"
Just as the national Olympic team was celebrating on the field, the news of China's victory in the final spread rapidly throughout the country via telephone, text message and the Internet.

[I must have been too tired last night and didn't get enough sleep, because I actually saw the news that the Chinese national football team won the championship?]

Many people who didn't watch the game thought it was a prank when they saw the message, and they obviously didn't believe it was real.

Because in their minds, Chinese football has always been weak, so how could it suddenly win the championship?

However, when they turned on the TV or searched for related news online, they were dumbfounded!
At this moment, major portal websites are flooded with news of the Chinese football team's victory, and even the pop-up windows at the bottom of computers are filled with news of the Chinese team's victory.

Even though the match had long ended, the live broadcast on CCTV-5 continued uninterrupted.

The guests were still chatting animatedly about the competition, and it seemed the broadcast wouldn't end until the Chinese team received their national flag and medals. Inside the VIP box at the Bird's Nest, Liu Xiang was as excited as a child, waving his arms and shouting "Awesome!" more than a dozen times.

"Lin Feng is amazing! He actually led the football team to the championship!"

Yao Ming, who had arranged to watch the game with him, was equally shocked after watching the match.

Although he doesn't know much about football, if we draw an analogy with basketball, it's roughly equivalent to him leading the Chinese team to defeat the American team and win the Olympic gold medal.

This was an almost impossible task, which is why he failed, but Lin Feng succeeded.

That's why Yao Ming felt genuine admiration. As a core player in a team sport, he knew all too well how difficult it was to lead a team to victory against strong opponents.

There are more players on a football field, and the influence of a single player is smaller. It is much more difficult for a single player to lead a team to a comeback than in basketball!
"Now that we have the Olympics and the Asian Cup, it's time to look forward to the World Cup!"

As a true football fan, Liu Xiang has long yearned for the World Cup.

This Chinese team is very likely to qualify for the World Cup again, but simply making it to the finals is not enough to satisfy the appetite of the vast majority of fans. Everyone hopes that this strongest Chinese team in history can make a breakthrough on the World Cup stage.

Although the probability of the Chinese team winning the World Cup is lower than winning the lottery, they don't have that much ambition. Winning one game and getting one point in the group stage is the minimum requirement in their minds.

If we were to raise the bar even higher, perhaps most people would hope that Lin Feng could lead the Chinese team out of the group stage and into the knockout stage!

If we take this Olympic team on the field as the main force for making it to the World Cup, then in 2010, this Chinese team was still very young, with most of the players being under 25 years old, and probably not at their strongest.

By the time of the 2014 Brazil World Cup, most of them were at the peak of their careers, and each had accumulated a wealth of experience in the competition. Their skills, physical condition, and experience had all reached their zenith.

Perhaps by that World Cup, fans will have even higher expectations for the team's performance.

Thinking about this, Liu Xiang and his team were incredibly excited and couldn't wait to travel back to 2014 to watch the Brazil World Cup!

……

The staff on site worked quickly and set up the podium on the field in no time.

The Chinese team, which won the championship, the Argentine team, which won the runner-up, and the Brazilian team, which won the third place the day before, all appeared at the stadium.

However, compared to the Chinese team members who won the championship, the players from the other two teams seemed somewhat uninterested in the award ceremony.

The Brazilian players are in a better position, since it has been three or four days since they were eliminated, and they have already adjusted their mentality.

Argentina had just lost a game and was still basking in the pain of defeat; the players wouldn't recover from their negative state so quickly.

So when the award presenters were giving them the awards, they were like zombies, each of them expressionless.

After the awards were presented to the third and second place winners, the special guest who was responsible for presenting the award to the champion appeared at the stadium.

His appearance caused a stir among the crowd.

To everyone's surprise, the guest who presented the award to the champion was none other than FIFA President Sepp Blatter.

"Hehe, Lin, I didn't expect we'd meet again so soon!"

After shaking hands with the other team members and presenting them with medals, when it was Lin Feng's turn, Blatter took the initiative to hug Lin Feng and chatted with him warmly.

"Mr. Chairman, you are my lucky star! I hope to see you every day, so I can win endless championships!"

"That's a good joke, but it's a pity there aren't that many competitions for you to compete for the championship!"

After exchanging a few words, Blatt personally pinned the medal on Lin Feng's head and said to him expectantly:

"The next major international competition is the World Cup, little guy, you'd better work hard! I'm really looking forward to presenting you with an award on that stage!"

Then your wish will probably never come true in this lifetime. For many years to come, Chinese football will likely not have the ability to win the World Cup.

Perhaps it will take another ten or twenty years, until the new generation of players who are currently affected and choose to play football grow up, before they can possibly win the championship.

After the awards ceremony, the most exciting moment arrived.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the national anthem of the People's Republic of China!"

A huge five-star red flag was hung high, flanked by the flags of Argentina and Brazil.

This is the second time the five-star red flag has been raised at the Bird's Nest Stadium. The first time was when Liu Xiang won the 110-meter hurdles.

As the stirring national anthem played, tens of thousands of fans at the stadium joined in singing the March of the Volunteers, creating a truly spectacular scene.

Post-match statistics show that the game attracted more than 95,000 fans to the stadium. Including volunteers, security personnel, and reporters, the total number of attendees has already exceeded 100,000!
The scene of 100,000 people singing in unison is very impactful and shocking.

Being in the spotlight and the focus of attention on the field, the members of the national Olympic team couldn't help but straighten their chests, their faces filled with pride and self-esteem.

The gold medals hanging around their necks were as dazzling as the red scarves they wore as children!
……

After the final, the Chinese Olympic team's historical mission was completely completed.

Some leaders from the Football Association and the Olympic delegation personally visited and commended the members of the national Olympic team, especially the coaching staff.

During this period, the leaders of the Football Association even suggested that Coach Klaus Toppmöller could stay for another year.

Although the Olympic team is gone, the youth team is still here!

However, Klaus Toppmöller was not very interested in taking over the national youth team. The 88-89 age group were far inferior to their predecessors in terms of talent and ability.

However, there are still a few promising talents in this national youth team, such as Zhang Linpeng, who is a defender. Klaus Toppmöller had been paying attention to him before and even considered promoting him to the national Olympic team.

Although somewhat tempted, Klaus Toppmöller, after careful consideration, ultimately declined the Football Association's invitation.

This left the Football Association leaders feeling very regretful. In the end, both sides agreed to appoint Klaus Toppmöller as a development consultant for Chinese football. He would not be required to lead the team in matches; he would only be needed to provide valuable opinions and suggestions for the future development of Chinese football.

The German coach has become the most successful foreign coach in Chinese football history, even more successful than Milutinovic. Such a decorated coach would be useful even as a mascot. (End of Chapter)