Football: Starting from the 05 World Youth Championship

The news that the Chinese national football team defeated Japan and advanced to the quarterfinals sparked a nationwide celebration in China.

Countless veteran fans were moved to tears upon hearing the news.

Since the 1980s, fans have been hoping that the Chinese national football team could qualify for the World Cup and compete with the world's top teams.

After nearly thirty years of waiting, this wish has finally come true.

Reaching the quarterfinals of the World Cup! This is the best result ever achieved by an Asian team in the World Cup, excluding South Korea's fourth-place finish in the 02 World Cup!
Chinese football not only broke through its own limits but also equaled the Asian record, standing at the top of Asia as fans had hoped!
How could this not be exciting?

Driven by the performance of the Chinese national football team, this World Cup has generated an extraordinary amount of buzz in China.

During the entire World Cup, at least 8 million people across the country watched the World Cup.

This number not only far exceeds that of the 06 World Cup, but is even more terrifying than that of the 02 World Cup!
Whenever major TV stations broadcast the Chinese national football team's matches, even if it's a rebroadcast rather than a live broadcast, the viewership ratings remain consistently high.

As a result, advertising slots on CCTV and local sports channels during the World Cup were in high demand and short supply, with people still flocking to them even at double the price.

Moreover, the fans' support wasn't limited to online channels; offline stores selling national team jerseys and related merchandise also sold out due to this surge in popularity.

The World Cup has dramatically raised the ceiling of the domestic football market, making people realize for the first time the enormous potential of the Chinese football market.

It's not that Chinese people don't like watching football, but rather that they lack high-level matches and viewing opportunities for fans to enjoy.

If one day they can enjoy a match of the same caliber as the World Cup right at their doorstep, how could they not love watching football?
……

Reaching the quarterfinals of the World Cup has also brought many benefits to the national team players.

Although the latest market value has not yet been released by Transfermarkt, it is already predicted that thanks to their outstanding performance in this World Cup, the market value of national team players such as Lin Feng will increase significantly from their previous levels.

Take Lin Feng as an example. His current market value is 1.2 million euros. It is expected that after the World Cup, his market value will continue to rise to 1.3 million or even 1.4 million euros, continuing to lead the Transfermarkt market value list!

Besides Lin Feng, the team's core player, the market value of other key players such as Gao Lin, Chen Tao, Hao Junmin, and Han Peng has also increased to varying degrees.

Gao Lin's current Transfermarkt value is €1200 million, and it is expected to rise to €1500 million;

Chen Tao's current market value is €2200 million, and it is expected to rise to €2500 million after the World Cup.

Hao Junmin saw the largest increase in value. His current market value is 700 million euros, and it will exceed 1000 million euros after the World Cup, reaching 1100 million or even 1200 million euros.

Compared to these players who play overseas, Han Peng, who plays in the domestic league, has seen his market value skyrocket thanks to his three goals in this World Cup – from 1.5 million euros to 5 million euros!

It is said that some European league teams have shown interest in Han Peng and want to bring him away from Shandong Luneng.

In 2010, Han Peng reached the peak of his professional career.

In this season's Chinese Super League, he has scored 11 goals in 14 appearances. On the national team side, he has been a consistent contributor in the World Cup, becoming a major scoring point for the Chinese team.

A market value of 500 million euros might have been a bit high for Han Peng last year, but for him this year, it's definitely worth it!
Unfortunately, he was too old and missed the best opportunity to play abroad. If he had gone abroad at that time, he would probably have ended up like Wu Lei in later years, playing for three or four seasons before leaving European football and returning to China due to age and form issues.

However, for Han Peng, this is not necessarily a bad thing.

He won't have to suffer on the bench, and he can also fulfill his dream of playing abroad.

In addition, salaries in European leagues are much higher than in China. Even in the lower half of the top five leagues, the annual salary of the main players is basically around 140-170 million euros, which is nearly three times higher than the 500 million RMB maximum salary in China after the salary cap was implemented.

You can earn in three or four years what you would earn in ten years in China by playing abroad. Why not?
……

The final match of the round of 16 was between Portugal and Chile. This match was closely related to the Chinese national team, as their next opponent would be decided between these two teams.

Portugal and Chile are evenly matched and both favor an attacking style, so this match unsurprisingly turned into an offensive battle.

In the first half of the match, Chile's high-pressing tactics made it very difficult for Portugal.

Portugal's midfielders struggled to link up with the forwards, leaving Ronaldo isolated and unable to pose a threat to the opponent's goal.

On the other hand, the Chilean team frequently threatened the Portuguese goal with their quick counter-attacks after intercepting the ball.

However, just when everyone thought Portugal was about to collapse, Portugal scored a goal.

In the 22nd minute of the first half, Ronaldo unleashed a high-quality free kick that nestled into the top corner of the goal.

Portugal, having scored first, seemed a little overconfident.

After taking the lead, they intensified their offensive, attempting to crush the Chilean team in one fell swoop.

Unfortunately, their high-pressure attacking strategy failed to work. Instead, Chile capitalized on counter-attacks, with Suazo and Vidal scoring two goals in the 28th and 31st minutes of the first half to take the lead.

The Portuguese went from heaven to hell in just ten minutes!

Despite Portugal's desperate attacks in the final stages of the first half, with Ronaldo, Nani, Quaresma, and others taking shots, Chilean goalkeeper Bravo made several brilliant saves to thwart them all.

"Is Portugal going to lose? They have more than twice the number of star players and their player values ​​are more than double that of Chile!"

To better understand their opponents, the Chinese national football team organized a group viewing for this match.

After watching the first half of the match, many people began to feel a bit worried for the Portuguese team.

Chile's high press was very aggressive, with timely counter-pressing and fouls, making it difficult for Portugal to organize effective attacks.

Although Portugal had the most shots on goal, Chile posed a greater threat to the goal.

Although they don't have a big-name star like Cristiano Ronaldo, the players have excellent teamwork and frequently execute smooth attacking combinations in the frontcourt, making it a pleasure to watch.

Lin Feng did not agree with his teammates' assessment because he had identified the weaknesses of the Chilean team during the first half: the players were young and their form was not stable enough; the defense was too short and lacked aerial ability.

Portugal fell behind in the first half entirely because they failed to find the right attacking approach and were caught off guard by the opponent's high pressing. Chile has the youngest average age of any team participating in this World Cup.

Under the leadership of Argentine coach Bielsa, they unleashed a youthful storm in South America, overpowering a host of strong teams and qualifying for the World Cup as the fourth-placed team in South America.

But the youth storm was both its strength and its weakness.

These young players are not very resilient under pressure. If they get into a good rhythm in the game, they will become more and more aggressive and overwhelm their opponents with a tidal wave of attacks.

However, if they fall into adversity, the players' mental issues will be exposed, and they may make basic mistakes.

The second half of the story unfolded exactly as Lin Feng had predicted.

After learning from their mistakes, the Portuguese team changed their strategy. Since the midfield was unable to organize effective attacks, they decided to launch quick counter-attacks from the flanks, or simply launch long balls from the back to find the strikers and let them fight alone.

Using this simple tactic, Ronaldo scored two headers in the second half.

Chile's two center-backs, one only 1.79 meters tall and the other only 1.82 meters tall, were completely helpless against Portugal's aerial bombardment!
They could only watch helplessly as Ronaldo's header completely shattered their defense.

Cristiano Ronaldo became the third player in this World Cup to complete a hat-trick, following Gonzalo Higuain and Lin Feng!

Ultimately, thanks to two headers from Ronaldo in the second half, Portugal came from behind to defeat Chile 3-2, becoming the last team to advance to the quarterfinals.

Portugal's victory was unexpected, and the Chinese national team players, especially the defenders, looked very serious after watching the game.

Chile's air defense is weak, and China's air defense is also only average.

Feng Xiaoting has never been the kind of guard who is particularly strong physically. If you put him in a physical confrontation with the opponent's tall center, he won't have much of an advantage.

In his early years, Li Weifeng was considered a top player in Asia for his excellent jumping ability and ability to predict the landing point of high balls.

But at 32 years old, his jumping ability, explosiveness, and physical fitness have all declined significantly compared to his peak years.

His declining physical abilities have diminished his effectiveness in aerial duels within the penalty area.

Moreover, the Chinese national team's defense is about to face Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the top players in the league in terms of heading ability!
If the opponent continues to bombard the Chinese national team's penalty area with such impunity, the Chinese team's fate will likely not be much better than that of the Chilean team.

"Starting tomorrow, we will increase training in defending against high balls!"

Old Zhu was clearly aware of the huge threat posed by the opponent's headers, and proactively increased the amount of targeted training content.

Even though it's just last-minute cramming, sharpening your spear at the last minute can still be effective!

Practice the opponent's attacking patterns more often, and the players won't be so nervous during the game.

However, to stop the opponent from frequently launching aerial attacks in the penalty area, it is necessary to cut off the opponent's passing channels.

Chile has already shown the Chinese national team that relying solely on applying pressure through the middle is unreliable. Portugal has the ability to get the ball into the penalty area quickly without going through the midfield, by combining play on the wings and in the middle.

This requires the two defensive midfielders to increase their coverage area and cooperate with the full-backs as much as possible to block the opponent's attacks from the flanks!

……

"The Chinese team played against us earlier this month, so everyone knows a bit about them!"

Just as the Chinese team began practicing tactics against the Portuguese team, the Portuguese team was also studying the weaknesses of the Chinese team.

Head coach Carlos Queiroz had the players gathered together and played the video footage of the Chinese team's matches that he had previously collected. After the camera focused on Lin Feng, Carlos's voice rang out:
"The biggest threat to this Chinese team is obviously their number 8 player. As long as we can limit Lin Feng's performance, defeating the Chinese team will be a piece of cake!"

Carlos sounded very relaxed. In his view, the Chinese team had both very prominent strengths and weaknesses, and the Chinese team's strengths were precisely its weaknesses.

As long as Lin Feng's performance can be limited, he doesn't know who else on the Chinese team can step up and save the team.

Perhaps it was because Portugal drew with China in the friendly match that Ronaldo missed that gave the Portuguese players a boost of confidence.

The vast majority of the Portuguese national team players present believed their coach's words without a doubt, thinking that this was the key to their elimination of the Chinese team and advancement to the semi-finals.

However, Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe, who had been teammates with Lin Feng, couldn't help but frown after hearing the coach's words.

If we can limit Lin Feng's performance, we can freeze XX team's offense!

Why does this sentence sound so familiar?
Back when they were at the club, Real Madrid's opponents seemed to say the same thing.

In the end, however, no team was able to completely shut down Lin Feng.

If the world's top football clubs can't do it in the league and the Champions League, how can they possibly do it in the World Cup?

Group F consists of the other three teams, including the defending champions Italy. Don't they understand this?
But why don't they do that?

They actually tried, but failed!

Even the Italian team, which boasts a defense as solid as reinforced concrete, couldn't completely contain Lin Feng's performance.

For a player of his caliber, if your defense is even slightly lax, he could deliver a fatal blow!
Portugal's midfield is actually quite average; apart from Deco, they don't have a single well-known midfielder.

If they had even a little bit of outstanding ability and talent, they wouldn't still be playing in the Portuguese league; they would have been discovered and poached by the top five leagues long ago.

Do you think you can freeze Lin Feng with such a bunch of insignificant soldiers?
Ronaldo felt that the head coach was overthinking things. He thought that instead of focusing on limiting Lin Feng, it would be better to think more about how to optimize the team's attacking strategy and deliver the ball to his feet or head in the most efficient and stable way so that Lin Feng could complete the shot.

Since scoring a hat-trick at the World Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo seems to have unlocked his full potential and feels incredibly strong!
They are about to face the Chinese team led by Lin Feng, but Ronaldo is still confident that he can defeat them.

On July 2nd, while the Chinese and Portuguese teams were busy preparing for the quarterfinals, the quarterfinals had already quietly begun.

First up is the most anticipated match of this World Cup so far – Netherlands vs. Spain! (End of Chapter)