Football: I am only 16 years old, and you want me to retire and make a comeback?

Chapter 899 If I had played a little better, I might have advanced.

"Roar--!!!!"

This was Hernandez's second goal of the match. After scoring, Hernandez made the same armpit-in-arms celebration gesture as Mbappe, paying tribute to Mbappe's superhuman performance in the last World Cup.

The final score is now 2-4, with China trailing by two goals!
"In that case... sigh, I think the Chinese team should have made substitutions earlier in this match, and made use of the momentum after the 1-2 penalty kick."

"Yes, but after 1-2, we couldn't launch any further attacks, so there's nothing we can do about it."

Commentators expressed their regret for the Chinese national football team.

That said, Griezmann's red card was a really smart move.

Griezmann's red card not only cost him the chance to advance, but it also gave China a chance to win!

The game continues!

The stadium in Lusail is now filled with cheers for France, while the Chinese football fans have been silenced.

The first two matches had made everyone a bit overconfident, but the semi-final against France really woke the fans up.

France can consistently launch good attacks, while the Chinese team always fails to achieve the desired results when they counterattack.

Because the gap in strength is indeed too large.

Moreover, it seems like the French team has a knack for beating the Chinese team.
"Wu Lei".

"Pretty!"

"Pass the ball to the middle, Tang Ye!"

boom!
Without stopping the ball, Tang Ye made a through pass, and his precise pass found Elkeson, who had made a run into the penalty area.

Break down the door!

boom!
"The ball is in!"

"But this looks like an offside goal? Varane didn't even try to intercept it?"

"Oh, yes, that ball was offside."

Elkeson held his head in his hands, while Tang Ye kept shaking his hands.

The players on the field were confused about what was happening, but the commentators could watch the replay.

The replay shows that Varane moved forward immediately the moment Wu Lei passed the ball to Tang Ye, which caused Elkeson to be in an offside position.

Varane seemed to know exactly what Tang Ye would do next!
"come on! Come on!"

Tang Ye raised his hands to signal his teammates to stop spacing out: "Hurry up, come back!"

"Get ready to counterattack! You can kick it!"

"..."

Escriva had already sat down, and together with Matti, they watched Tang Ye on the field, who was constantly shouting to his teammates. They felt a little sorry for him.

call……

"On est en finale! (We've made it to the finals!)"

“On est en finale!”

“Ole~~”

"Ole! Ole! Ole! Ole!"

“On est en finale!”

"Beep, beep beep—!!!"

"Alright, the match is over."

"It was truly a pity that the Chinese team, which had reached the World Cup semi-finals for the first time, ultimately lost to France 1-4 and failed to qualify for the final next week."

"Although the score difference was quite large, and France almost completely dominated the Chinese team, we could also see that the Chinese players performed quite well in this match, even finding a penalty at the beginning of the second half."

"It can be said that the Chinese team had a chance to catch up. If they had had more time to prepare before the semi-finals, perhaps the result would have been different."

This sounds a bit like making excuses for the Chinese national football team, but overall, the Chinese team's performance in this World Cup was indeed very impressive.

"...Coach He and I have been commentating on football for many years, and it's fair to say that this year is the best year in the history of the Chinese team. We say that when discussing progress, we shouldn't always compare ourselves to others; we should compare ourselves to our past performance..."

"Losing a game doesn't necessarily make you a loser. I always believe that, especially for the Chinese team today."

"..."

The camera pans to the French players celebrating.

With both Russia and Qatar having successfully advanced to the finals in the previous two World Cups, France's performance in the World Cup is truly impeccable. After all, given the strength of their squad, it's virtually impossible for them to encounter any upsets.

"bravo!"

Mbappe, Deschamps, and Hernandez embraced each other, surrounded by France's substitutes.

The director only showed Mbappe for a short time before finding a camera specifically pointing at Tang Ye.

The Chinese team captain had been sitting on the grass for some time now, hugging his knees and staring blankly at the French players celebrating in the distance.

Dembele, Giroud, Mbappe, Varane and Lloris are all familiar players and friends, but that joy doesn't belong to me.

"call……"

Turning his head, Tang Ye seemed to notice that a camera was filming him, and turned his head back.

"Tang Ye, it's alright!"

"It's alright, Tang Ye!"

"It's already great!"

"That's good! We'll play the third-place match! We're very satisfied!"

Everything was fine until Tang Ye heard the noise from the stands, and he suddenly couldn't hold back anymore.

"..."

"Grass!"

He gritted his teeth, clenched his right fist, and smacked the lawn.

"Grass!!!"

……

[Sigh, congratulations to France, they played really well. We couldn't stop either Dembele or Mbappe, what can you do if they play together? Even if you bring on Jiang Guangtai, it won't help, they're not even in the same league.]

I feel a little sorry for Tang Ye... He was still urging his teammates to get back on defense in the 88th minute, he really wanted to win...

[Damn, my King Tang has swept through the Premier League and the Champions League, how could he accept such a defeat? It's normal not to want to lose, but I'm just speechless. Why aren't we in the lower half of the bracket? Either Portugal or Argentina would be easier to beat than France. Aren't Messi and Ronaldo easy targets for Tang Ye?]

[Boomerang, guys, wouldn't it be better to finish second in the group? Maybe we'd be in the lower bracket and advance to the finals.]

[The second-placed team in the group, qualifying for the quarterfinals is GG. England also has explosive wing play; if Rashford and Saka combined with a burst of speed, we would have been completely overwhelmed.]

[Stop talking, stop talking! Aren't you satisfied with reaching the semi-finals? Anyway, I think we're already awesome! Long live Team China! Long live Escriva!]

"Beep beep beep!!!"

“Ole Ole~~”

"..."

The stands were filled with the cheers of French fans.

Defeat the biggest dark horse and advance to the finals!
Most importantly, they also defeated four-time Ballon d'Or winner TY in the semi-finals!

Undoubtedly, this match will greatly boost the morale of the French players, who will go to the final in better form to face their opponents!

"Kill the god!"

"Kill the god!"

"Kill the god!"

"Wow!!!!"

In stark contrast to the bustling stands was the Chinese team's locker room.

No one spoke.

Since the start of this World Cup, the Chinese team has never suffered such a major setback. In all other matches, they have been able to keep pace with their opponents by utilizing their tactical switching of attacks down the left and right flanks. They struggled slightly against Spain and the Netherlands, but were still capable of putting up a fight.

Today's match was a complete and utter defeat.

The kind where there's no chance to resist!

"...Tang Ye?"

Zhang Yuning glanced at Tang Ye, who was sitting in his seat without saying a word.

Hearing Zhang Yuning's voice, Tang Ye looked up at his teammate and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Are you OK?"

"……fine."

Zhang Yuning placed her hand on Tang Ye's thigh. Just then, Eskeriva and Matti came in together, and Tang Ye suddenly stood up.

"No, we can definitely fight."

Tang Ye confronted Escriva: "It's already 1-2 shortly after the start of the second half, so we can still play, right?"

"..."

Eskribá was a little startled, took a step back, and immediately began to explain: "Yes, I saw it, Tom, I saw the penalty go in, and then I made the substitution immediately. I know what you're trying to do, I'm cooperating with you!"

"But you shouldn't have said those things at halftime, otherwise we would have had more opportunities."

"..."

Escriva glanced at Matti and took a deep breath.

Her gaze returned to Tang Ye: "I think you need to calm down right now."

“I know you saw an opportunity, but you should be more objective. You know that making substitutions won’t make much difference. After two rounds of knockout matches, many of our key players are no longer able to perform at their full potential. You should be clear about that.”

"Tom, not everyone can recover to 99% in 3 days like you. Not everyone has this talent. You should know that!"

"..."

"If you want to blame me, that's fine. This game was my problem. I had a problem. Our tactics were completely shut down."

"So what I mean is, Tom, if you're going to blame me, you should blame me for not figuring out a good way to deal with the French team, not for what I said at halftime."

Eskeriva gave himself a thumbs-up: "I made this judgment based on the most objective facts! I don't think I was wrong!"

"..."

Tang Ye shook his head and walked towards the door.

"..."

Escribá watched until Tang Ye left, at which point the Spanish coach let out a long sigh, looking aggrieved, with tears welling up in his eyes.

……

"Tom."

Tang Ye wanted to go out alone to calm down, but as soon as he turned the corner, he ran into Dembele and Mbappe, who were hiding. The two of them were sneaking around and looked a little embarrassed when Tang Ye discovered them.

“Osman…shouldn’t you be in the locker room?”

“That’s not important. Oh, I mean, we’ve already been to the locker room before we came out to find you.”

Dembele and Tang Ye bumped fists: "Pretty loyal, huh?"

"...Um, thanks, but I don't think I need any comfort."

"Oh, I know, we're not here to comfort you. Well... what I mean is, Tom, you played really well, really well, so I don't think you need to be too upset."

Dembele shrugged: "I know how much you want to play in the final, and I really want to play in the final too, but... anyway, don't blame yourself too much. Football is a team game, you said that. It really is, so don't be too hard on yourself, okay?"

Dembele and Tang Ye bumped fists again: "If you had faced Portugal or Argentina in the semi-finals, you would have won. I can see it, I guarantee it."

"Well, then..."

Good luck in the bronze medal match!

"Good luck in the finals."

Tang Ye embraced the two French forwards in front of him.

After Tang Ye walked away, Dembele suddenly chased after him around the corner and shouted, "Hey, Tom! If anyone says you didn't play well, they're lying. Don't be fooled by them!"

"……I see!"

……

Dongqiudi Match Report: Tang Ye's penalty kick attempt to turn the tide failed, Elkeson's offside goal was disallowed, China lost 2-4 to France and failed to advance to the final, Hernandez scored twice and won the MVP award. (1058239 comments)

ESPN: Two Chinese players declined interview requests after the game; their identities are currently unknown.

Pinned Post: After a heartbreaking defeat to France and missing out on the final, will the Chinese national football team face Argentina or Portugal in the third-place match?

Forwarded from Thescoerd: Is the overall strength too weak? Against France, the Chinese team only had 28.7% possession throughout the game, and after excluding Tang Ye's data, the national team only had 2 effective attacks throughout the game.

Click, click, click!

"Our tactics were completely suppressed, which was actually expected."

"Before the World Cup started, our preparation plan did not include the knockout stage, so we only studied our group stage opponents. Now it seems that this approach was wrong."

Escriva admitted, "From the round of 16 to the semi-finals, all our strategies for dealing with our opponents were made on the spot. So before playing France, we actually only had 4 days to prepare, which wasn't enough time to do anything."

"Of course I know that a large part of the reason we lost the game was my mistake. I should have studied the other teams in the upper half of the bracket as soon as we advanced to the knockout stage."

Eskeriva was also pitiful.

They had a record-breaking honor all to their name, but then the Chinese national football team broke two records in a row and made it to the semi-finals, which no one expected.

What can we do?

Eskeriva conducted specialized training as planned, but from the first group stage match to the semi-finals, the Chinese team did not follow the plan in any of their matches.

"Without any preparation? But sir, I don't think it's your fault."

A Chinese reporter chimed in, saying, "This is indeed quite unexpected."

"However, we should be aware that if Portugal is the team that loses in the lower half of the draw and advances to the third-place match, then you need to make some preparations."

"Argentina is China's group stage opponent, and you have experience dealing with Argentina. But you lack experience against Portugal."

"Yes, it is."

Eskeriva shrugged: "Now we can only cheer for the third place match."

……

In the underground parking lot, the Chinese team players, carrying large and small bags, walked towards the bus, and the entire team remained very quiet throughout.

"Tang Ye!"

A female voice came from behind them, and the team members turned around.

A fan wearing a red support jersey somehow entered the parking lot and was quickly approaching Tang Ye at the front of the group, but was soon stopped by several security guards.

"Tang Ye, don't cry, Tang Ye!"

"Tang Ye, please, stop crying! Waaah, Tang Ye!"

"It's okay, we've played very well, there will be another chance in 4 years, we will make it to the final."

"Tang Ye, please, please stop crying!"

Hearing the noise, Tang Ye hesitated to turn his head and look directly at the fan, and unconsciously quickened his pace.

"Tang Ye, we will always believe in you!"

"forever!"

……

Interview with Escribá: Willing to take responsibility for the loss; the team might encounter some trouble if the opponent in the third-place match is not Argentina.

When a reporter stopped Tang Ye to ask about the reasons for the loss, he said: "The French team's attack put a lot of pressure on us; if I had played better, we might have been able to drag the game into extra time, but I didn't."

(End of this chapter)