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

Chapter 920 Klinsmann: Even Jordan can lose.

The Seoul Daily's front-page headline reads: South Korea's new coach, Jürgen Klinsmann, is German, and fans are worried he will become a weak point for the team.

"South Korea hopes to upset China and advance to the semifinals, but the coach's German nationality is a concern for them. So far, TY remains undefeated against Bayern Munich and the German national team."

As is well known, Tang Ye has a reputation as a German striker, which makes many German fans very afraid when they face the Chinese team.

With the Asian Cup at such a crucial time, South Korea is facing a title favorite, China, and their own coach is German. It's as if South Korea has a full stack of buffs.

However, from another perspective...

This is an opportunity for Klinsmann and the German and Bayern Munich fans behind him!
"Germans are very afraid of China; they are afraid of all players from China."

At the pre-match press conference, Klinsmann appeared very disappointed: "I even had this feeling of fear before, but then I did some research. In the last 5 years, China and Germany have only played each other twice. Although we have never beaten China, China has only beaten us once."

"There was too little data to refer to, so I stopped feeling anxious after confirming the situation."

"German fans don't need to be anxious. In the end, football still depends on strength. Curses and so-called 'mysticism' can't last forever. TY is the best player, and I'm willing to admit that, but even the best player can't win every game."

"Even Jordan can lose."

Click, click, click!

……

Forwarded: Starting lineups for the China-South Korea match announced: South Korea 4-2-3-1, Son Heung-min plays as attacking midfielder against Tang Ye, Jiang Guangtai vs. Kim Min-jae, Dai Weijun on the bench.

Klinsmann: TY is the greatest of all time, but even the greatest of all time can't win games all the time, like Jordan.

The Koreans are barking again.

[Fun fact: Klinsmann is not Korean, he is German, and he previously coached Bayern Munich.]

[He coached Bayern Munich? No wonder, I always felt this guy was hostile towards me, Tang. He probably doesn't know the value of my 20-21 Dortmund Champions League title.]

Why is Dai Weijun still a substitute? Give him a starting spot, sir! (Why is Dai Weijun still a substitute? Give him a starting position, coach!)

[My attempt to stake out Tang Ye failed, but I did run into Qing Shu. I can attest that Qing Shu is even more attractive in person than online (.jpg)]

"China Central Television! This is a live broadcast of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup quarter-final match between the host nation, China, and South Korea!"

"As you can see, both teams' players are ready!"

Tang Ye and Son Heung-min stood at the front of the team, one on each side, and the two team captains shook hands and hugged.

They're all Premier League players, so they're all pretty familiar with each other.

"Give my regards to Harry."

"Haha."

Tang Ye was amused that Son Heung-min would say something like that: "Harry often talks about you to me."

"Perhaps I need to apologize to you on behalf of Manchester United. Tottenham has lost a great center forward."

"Ugh."

Son Heung-min stood by with a smile, one hand on Tang Ye's back, as the two led their respective teams into the arena.

"Team China!"

"Long live!"

"Team China!"

"Long live!"

"Tang Ye is awesome!"

That's how it is at home games. At least 95% of the people in the Workers' Stadium are Chinese fans, leaving no room for fans from other countries.

The South Korean expeditionary force, consisting of fewer than 1000 players, huddled in the away stands, surrounded and protected by a group of university student volunteers.

I wonder if any of these college student volunteers are Tang Ye's seniors or juniors?
"Beep!"

“The game begins!”

"..."

South Korea (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Zhao Xianyou
Defenders: Seol Young-woo, Kim Young-gwon, Kim Min-jae, Kim Tae-hwan
Midfielders: Hwang In-beom, Son Heung-min, Park Yong-woo
Forwards: Hwang Hee-chan, Cho Kyu-sung, Lee Kang-in
Head Coach: Klinsmann
The South Korean team used the same formation as the Chinese national team, exactly the same.

However, the differences between Xi Shi and Dong Shi are very pronounced and cannot be compensated for by a single formation.

The starting lineup of the South Korean team is worth a mere 1.7 million euros, less than half the value of the Chinese team!
Go Tang Ye!

The South Korean team played conservatively from the start of the match. Hwang Hee-chan didn't even launch an attack after receiving the ball on the wing, which infuriated Chinese football fans.

So Klinsmann is a fraud too, right?

What happened to saying they weren't afraid of China?!

"Hwang Hee-chan...aren't you leaving?"

"Oh, we're waiting for Hwang In-beom on the left!"

Once his teammates were in the right positions, Hwang Hee-chan passed the ball to Hwang In-beom, who then decisively initiated his own attack.

The teammates in the middle and right lanes reacted quickly and accelerated to catch up!

It's up to Zhang Linpeng!

Zhang Linpeng retreated little by little, while Zhang Xizhe moved closer beside him.

It's difficult for someone to take on two opponents on the flank, and Hwang Hee-chan probably wouldn't be able to...

Snapped!
"Oh!!!"

Exclamations erupted from the fans as Hwang Hee-chan, cutting inside, used his speed to overtake Zhang Xizhe, leaving Zhang Linpeng, in a poor position, helpless.

Something is going to happen!

Snapped!
Hwang Hee-chan is rumored to be Lee Kang-in!
Give it to Son Heung-min again!
boom!
Son Heung-min's shot and Zhu Chenjie's block happened almost at the same time, but fortunately Zhu Chenjie's block was successful.

wow！

so close!

Although South Korea maintained possession of the ball, they were able to seize the opportunity when it truly came.

Tang Yechao, Zhang Xizhe, and Hao Junmin made a few hand gestures to signal their teammates to focus: "Watch their flanks."

8 minutes.

boom!
Zhang Yuning headed the ball over the crossbar. About a minute later, the camera panned to the away team's stands, where a familiar face appeared on screen.

"This is……"

"This is Faker Lee Sang-hyeok, a professional e-sports player from South Korea, who plays for T1. I didn't expect Faker to be here today."

Zhan Jun activated his facial recognition system, and Faker gave a thumbs-up to the camera at that moment.

Not only Faker, but other T1 players, such as Zeus, Oner, and Gumayusi, were also present.

"T1 Club's sponsor, Hana Bank, is also a sponsor of the South Korean national team. They must have been invited by their sponsor to come and watch the game today."

"Yes, it seems that South Korea is very confident in its own football team. They probably think they can beat China away from home?"

"Well... objectively speaking, it's possible, but I don't think it's an easy thing."

T1's presence at the South Korean men's football team's stadium is seen as a move by the sponsor.

Indeed, T1's presence was due to an invitation from Hana Bank, but Zhan Jun guessed wrong about the reason why Hana Bank invited T1.

Rather than saying that Faker and others came to cheer for the Korean team, it would be more accurate to say that they came to limit Tang Ye.

早在2017年的时候韩国媒体《ESK》就报道了一篇文章，曼联2亿欧亚洲新援在一场LOL排位赛中和Faker相遇，在一场比赛中被Faker对位单杀整整5次，干出了1/8/5的逆天战绩。

It's worth mentioning that after this Korean server ranked match, the Manchester United player's rank dropped from Challenger to Grandmaster.

So who is this Manchester United player?
It's so hard to guess!

……

"Sang-hyeok hyung, I hope we can take down TY!"

"The South Korean fans shouted."

The incident of Tang Ye being utterly destroyed by Faker in a League of Legends ranked game was extremely popular in South Korea at the time; almost everyone knew about it.

Dongqiudi live match report: The camera pans to the stands, Faker is watching the game and supporting South Korea, seemingly trying to suppress Tang Ye?
21 minutes.

Currently, the Chinese team is still in the lead. Tang Ye and Wu Lei are cooperating very well, helping the team to gain a lot of possession.

"Come!"

Snapped!
The through ball was passed to Wu Lei, who cut inside. After completing the pass, Tang Ye ran to the right wing to cover for him.

"Watch out on the flanks!"

Klinsmann is too familiar with the Chinese national team's cross-running style, making it impossible for Wu Lei and Tang Ye to have any chance to combine.

Wu Lei wanted to pass the ball, but found that Huang Xichan had tracked back to defend Tang Ye's defense, so he had no choice but to pass the ball to Zhang Yuning first.

boom!
Someone bumped into him from behind, but Zhang Yuning still passed the ball to Fernando.

Fernando made an inside cut and was ready.

Snapped!
Wow!!!

A long-range curler from Fernando.

However, the ball's speed was too slow, and Zhao Xianyou easily pushed it away.

"Oh!" "What a pity!"

"Actually, I think Fernando should have made some adjustments. There was no need to rush this ball, because there weren't any defenders pressing him nearby..."

"..."

"Cao Guicheng, what do you want?"

boom!
A shot was taken, and Cao Guicheng directly hit the ball into Wang Dalei's hands.

However, Wang Dalei made a mistake, and the Chinese goalkeeper failed to catch the ball!

The ball fell to the ground, and Cao Guicheng reacted quickly, immediately stepping on the ball and pulling it back, passing possession to Huang Xichan who was ready behind him.

"Wow!!!!"

Huang Xican dodged Zhang Linpeng and decisively cut into the penalty area.

Wang Dalei got a little anxious and rushed out.

boom!
"Eh!"

"This! This could be a penalty kick!"

"Beep!"

The referee blew the whistle as soon as the commentator finished his analysis.

In the 29th minute of the first half, South Korea won a penalty!
"Wang Dalei! This shouldn't be happening, Wang Dalei!"

"Sigh, let's see what Wang Dalei can do with his save."

To be honest, there was little controversy surrounding this penalty. The Chinese players didn't have much of a chance; they could only try to encourage the goalkeeper.

"It's okay, it's okay. Just play it safe. It's fine if we're only down by one goal."

Wu Xi gave Wang Dalei a heads-up.

Wang Dalei stood on the goal line, but then something surprising happened to the Chinese national team players: Hwang Hee-chan stood up but did not pass the ball to Son Heung-min. Instead, he walked into the penalty area himself.

Hwang Hee-chan, who won the penalty, will personally take the penalty kick!

"You're not going to give it to him, Son Heung-min?"

"Hwang Hee-chan's penalty kick was actually quite good. Klinsmann probably wanted to catch China off guard."

"Let's take a look at this penalty opportunity..."

"Hwang Hee-chan, take your running start..."

"Break the door!"

The ball went in!
The scene was very quiet for a moment, and the big screen changed a few seconds later.

【29'55''】

[China 0:1 South Korea]

"what!!!"

Hwang Hee-chan slid off to her knees and hugged Lee Kang-in.

"hiss……"

Taking a deep breath, Tang Ye quickly ran back to comfort Wang Dalei.

"Hwang Hee-chan scores a penalty, South Korea is in the lead!"

"Yes, I really didn't expect that, but it's not a big deal. Wang Dalei's mistake was really inexcusable."

"The Chinese team still needs to try to get the ball forward as much as possible; the frequency of turnovers in the backcourt is too high!"

The director was very astute; after showing a replay of the penalty kick, he immediately chose a camera angle featuring Faker.

Faker doesn't usually watch football much, but after the South Korean team scored, the League of Legends pro player showed a long-lost smile.

But that's enough!

[I was so scared I cried]

[No way, can Faker really punish my Tang King from a distance?]

[You know how Koreans understand football! This move by the sponsor is something else, isn't it?]

[Damn it!]

[66666, is South Korea really that awesome? Come on, China! Japan is still behind us, don't cause an upset!]

Chinese football fans are panicking!

They were really panicked!

"!! (Oh! Victory Korea! Republic of Korea!)"

"!!!"

"Son!"

Boom!

"Heung-Min!"

Bang bang bang!
"..."

Korean Radio

"Hwang Hee-chan's penalty kick has given us hope! Today will be the first day of South Korean football's rise. We might really be going to defeat China!"

"Yes, defeat the Chinese team!"

"Oppa (everyone), if we really beat the Chinese team, then can we be considered the runner-up in the World Cup, since China is the third place?" The female host put forward a very interesting point of view, which completely stunned her colleague next to her.

"..."

"You can say that!"

"Faker (Sang-hyeok) has indeed brought a lot of help to the Korean team!"

"..."

With the host nation and a strong lineup, the Chinese national team was naturally unwilling to lose this match, so after falling behind, Escriva immediately criticized the players on the field.

"What kind of game are you playing? You know we're going to lose?"

"Focus! This is only the quarterfinals, are you not planning to win the trophy?"

"..."

"Zhang Linpeng, a 45-degree cross, he's looking for Zhang Xizhe!"

"Didn't they contact Tang Ye about this?"

"Oh, Tang Ye has reached his bottom line."

"Zhang Xizhe, can you pass the ball?"

Snapped!
A through ball from Zhang Xizhe rolled past Kim Tae-hwan and finally reached Tang Ye's feet.

Wow!!!

Have the opportunity!
Tang Ye tensed up and dribbled the ball with the outside of his foot, pushing it directly into the penalty area.

Let's change the rhythm!
In fact, Tang Ye didn't make any feints, but his ball control near the penalty area was enough to put enough pressure on the opponent.

spike!

boom!
A short, angled shot was delivered, and Tang Ye's cross passed perfectly between Kim Min-jae's feet.

Wu Lei arrived at the far post.

boom!
"The ball is in!"

"The ball is in!"

"Wu Lei!"

"China scores!"

"1:1!!!"

"China has tied the score!!"

[China 1:1 South Korea]

It was a back pass, so Wu Lei couldn't have been offside, and his goal meant that the Chinese team had equalized.

"Brilliant!"

"Brother Lei is awesome!"

Wow!!!

boom!
Wu Lei went down to the stands and shouted at the home team fans.

Wu Lei had the idea of ​​taking off his clothes, but Wu Xi noticed and stopped him.

Live Match Report: Tang Ye nutmegs Kim Min-jae, Wu Lei makes a clever run and scores, China equalizes!
[Lee Sang-hyeok, why can't you carry anymore, Lee Sang-hyeok?!]

……

(End of this chapter)