Chapter 259: Weird Things about the Chinese National Football Team
Lin Feng learned the news from his teammates on the plane and was speechless for a long time after reading it.
It seems that the mentality problem of the national football players is really a deep-rooted disease!
I thought only old players would have this problem, but I didn't expect it to be common among young players, and even more serious.
Judging from the strength on paper, the Chinese national team should have won big in the two games against Singapore.
However, the players had no confidence on the court. They did not dare to take the ball or make any moves. They just wanted to play it safe, which led to missing many opportunities.
However, they were like a frightened bird when defending. It was obvious that the opponent's attack was still far away from threatening the goal, and they could easily control the ball under their feet, but they chose to clear the ball out of the sideline or even the bottom line, giving the opponent a chance to attack.
This situation is exactly the same as the weakest national team in history 20 years later, but that team's own strength did not meet the requirements and lacked a midfielder who could control the ball and pass the ball, so it was forced to give up the ball and concentrate on defensive counterattacks.
But this national football team does not have such a problem. Even though many overseas players have not returned, the national football team's lineup can still be described as full of talents.
In addition to long-established veterans such as Zhao Junzhe and Tao Wei, the Chinese national team's midfield also includes Mesozoic players such as Wang Dong, Yan Song and Xu Liang.
There are also younger players such as Wang Yongpo and Wang Yun who are under 23 years old.
Perhaps facing the top strength in Asia, they are not strong enough and may have problems holding onto the ball under the opponent's high-intensity pressing.
But they are facing the weak Singapore team. If the Singapore team had this strength, they would have gotten rid of their status as a weak team long ago.
So, the problem can only lie with themselves.
The reason why these players, including some veterans and most of the new players, performed so badly in the main competition is because their psychological quality was not up to standard.
Thinking too much and doing too little, you can't even use half of your full potential.
It would be fine if they themselves cannot perform well, but the key is that they will still affect others.
After all, football is a team sport, and the mentality of players can easily be contagious. Especially when there is still a seniority system within the Chinese national football team, young players dare not go against the old players, but choose to quietly integrate into the team, and are assimilated over time.
Of course, this problem is not unique to the Chinese national football team. Even a strong team like Argentina has numerous factions within the team, and it is common for players to not get along with each other.
But the Argentine team has a strong foundation. Even if internal strife has squeezed out a large number of top stars, they can still form a strong team with the remaining stars.
But the Chinese national football team obviously cannot do this, so they can only change the atmosphere within the team as much as possible.
On October 10, the plane Lin Feng was on landed at the Capital International Airport.
After a long journey of more than ten hours, he was already exhausted. After getting off the plane, he just wanted to get to the hotel as soon as possible to rest.
But I don't know who leaked the news in advance, and hundreds of fans ran to the airport to pick him up.
As soon as Lin Feng came out, he was surrounded by enthusiastic fans.
At first, Lin Feng tried his best to stay strong and satisfy the fans who came to pick him up at the airport and asked for autographs and photos.
But as the news spread, more and more fans rushed to the scene, and Lin Feng was so scared that he quickly called Lao Zhu for help.
Upon learning that Lin Feng was trapped at the airport, Zhu Guanghu immediately arranged for people to rescue him and took him to the BJ Dabao Hotel where the national football team was staying.
When Lin Feng arrived at the hotel, it was already past two o'clock in the afternoon.
I thought the Chinese national football team players were all in training at this time, but I didn't expect that everyone was actually sleeping.
"The coach told us to adapt to the time difference in advance, so today's training is scheduled after 8 o'clock in the evening."
Seeing Lin Feng's surprised expression, the team leader began to explain.
Lin Feng nodded with a strange look on his face. He had heard of jet lag before, but this was the first time he had heard of jet lag like this.
He was definitely not going to be able to make it to today's training, so after washing up and eating something simple, Lin Feng fell asleep.
I slept until eight o'clock the next morning, and slept for almost seventeen hours.
It’s great to be young. If I were older, I probably wouldn’t be able to sleep so long.
After eating something at the restaurant, Lin Feng and the team leader went to Xianghe base to report.
The entire Chinese national football team had already set off early at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon. Since Lin Feng was resting at that time, Zhu Guanghu did not disturb him. He just told the team leader to bring him to report the next day.
After arriving at the Xianghe base, I didn’t see anyone inside the base.
Perhaps because the training last night was too late, the teammates were still sleeping and had not gotten up at this time.
However, forcing the players to adjust to the time difference like this may affect their mental state, and the effect of the afternoon training may not be ideal.
Lin Feng didn't care about that. He moved some equipment out of the equipment room, did some stretching exercises on the sidelines to warm up his body, and then started today's training.
He was the only one on the training ground for the entire morning, and it was not until the afternoon that his teammates started to get up one after another.
As expected, many people had dark circles under their eyes and yawned from time to time, looking like they had not gotten enough rest.
After seeing Lin Feng, several familiar teammates greeted him listlessly:
"Morning, Xiaolin!"
"Good morning, Brother Lin!"
Lin Feng said speechlessly: "It's past noon, it's late!"
"You don't know this, right? We are following the time in West Asia. Just tell me whether it is morning in West Asia now!"
Lin Feng rolled his eyes and didn't want to get involved with these guys.
It's only the 4th now, and the Chinese national football team will not send troops to West Asia until the 8th at the earliest. They have to start adjusting to the time difference four or five days in advance. Lin Feng can only say that these people are crazy.
“Who told you this method?”
Lao Zhu was not the kind of person who acted foolishly before, why did he suddenly become like this this time?
Is it because they didn’t play well in the previous games and were under too much pressure from public opinion?
Although this possibility cannot be ruled out, given Mr. Zhu's qualifications, it shouldn't be the case.
After all, after he took over the Chinese national football team, he led the team to win the East Asian Cup and East Asian Games, and defeated old rivals such as Japan and South Korea many times. He even defeated Germany and tied with France in international friendly matches. This record is unique in the history of the Chinese national football team in the past few decades. The fans want to worship him, so how could he turn against them so easily?
There must be something fishy here!
As time went by, more and more players appeared on the training ground.
The list of national team players participating in this training camp is very long. The number of national team players in the entire Xianghe base exceeds 40, far exceeding the normal roster of 23 people.
The young players who had participated in the match against Singapore before were also brought along this time by Zhu Guanghu, and he did not kick them out just because of the return of the overseas players.
He did this ostensibly to treat everyone equally and give young players the opportunity to compete for jobs.
In fact, we hope that during this training camp, we can let young players communicate more with these overseas players and learn from their strengths.
Even if they cannot make the final 23-man roster, it will allow them to know where their shortcomings lie, and then find ways to improve their own strength and make up for the gap between them and the main players.
Obviously, Zhu Guanghu has seen the dilemma of China's lack of successors for young football players, and this is to train the team for the future national football team in advance.
After these young players came out, they saw Lin Feng, Zheng Zhi, Chen Tao, Sun Jihai and other overseas players. Their eyes lit up. The braver ones ran over to say hello, calling them Brother Lin, Brother Zheng, and Brother Chen.
Those who were less courageous hid in the distance and peeked, and only followed closely after seeing others greet them.
Lin Feng is not arrogant and is friendly to everyone, which makes many young players feel flattered.
"As expected of a top star, he is much easier to deal with than those senior players in our country!"
"That's right, what level is Brother Lin, what level are they, they are not even worthy of carrying Brother Lin's shoes!"
"That's right. These old Bidens only dare to act pretentiously in front of us, but they don't dare to act pretentiously in front of Brother Lin!"
"Haha, what do they have to brag about? Although they have a long history in China, who will recognize their credentials abroad? Brother Lin has been recognized by countless experts and celebrities abroad, and even won the Golden Boy Award. This resume beats theirs a hundred times over!"
"It would be great if we could become international stars like Ringo in the future!"
"Then you have to go to bed early, because dreams can contain anything!"
……
Lin Feng didn't know what the young players were saying in private about him and the old veterans in the national football team. His attention was attracted by the coaching staff coming out of the training base.
Head coach Zhu Guanghu seemed to be uneasy, with a frown on his face, as if he was thinking about something. Even when the players greeted him, he seemed not to hear them.
Just now, the Football Association sent someone over. The person's identity was not ordinary. He was Vice Chairman Nan of the Football Association.
Although the other party came here under the pretext of visiting the team, Zhu Guanghu knew very well that their appearance here was actually a military order to him.
The Football Association shouldn't be so anxious and angry when playing against a team of the level of Palestine.
But the Chinese national football team’s recent form is indeed too bad, and the Palestinian Football Association has made a tough statement, saying that it will defeat the Chinese team at home.
To this end, they planned to recruit four powerful foreign players, Pablo, Francisco, Bashar and Catron, who played in the Chilean league, to form the strongest lineup in history to face the Chinese national team.
Although there is still a big gap in the overall strength of the two teams, given the poor performance of the Chinese national team in the first two games, coupled with the consistent home advantage of West Asian teams (referee), they really have the possibility of an upset.
Although the Chinese national football team is not the strongest team in Asia, it is at least a goalkeeper of a first-class team.
Being tied by Singapore was embarrassing enough, but if we lose to such a small country that has been in war for many years, we will really be ashamed to face the public.
Although the Football Association does not care much about the results of the league and clubs, the results of the national team are related to the reputation of the Football Association. If the loss is too ugly, it may even affect the future of many people, so it has to be taken seriously.
In order to motivate the team, Vice Chairman Nan even prepared to hold a mobilization meeting at the Xianghe base.
Zhu Guanghu used all his persuasion to finally dissuade the other party from holding such a formalistic mobilization meeting.
Professional matters should be left to professionals. Always coming over to interfere with the coach's work not only wastes time but also easily affects the morale of the team.
The most outrageous thing is that because a player did a fancy move on the field, such as a flower-foot kick, the leaders of the Football Association would criticize the player after the game.
This is simply treating the players like elementary school students, expecting everyone to discipline them like good children, grinding away their personalities and edges, and then expecting them to play with passion and creativity on the court.
Isn't this embarrassing?
Zhu Guanghu believes that the poor performance of the Chinese national football team in the first two games, in addition to its own poor psychological quality, has a lot to do with the Football Association's overreaching.
The players not only have to bear the pressure from external public opinion, but also have to bear various unreasonable requirements and restrictions from the Football Association. Naturally, they play with their hands tied and are unable to display their true level.
On the contrary, warm-up matches without the intervention of the Football Association and the pressure of performance can allow them to perform at their proper level.
But unfortunately, this state cannot be carried over to the main competition.
Thinking of this, he looked at Lin Feng and others who had just returned.
I hope these players who have experience in European football can help the Chinese national team get out of the quagmire!
Although he was extremely reluctant, he still couldn't escape the military order.
Moreover, the military order that the Football Association required him to sign was not only for the next game against Palestine, but also for the final round against Iraq.
The first game was okay, but the second one is hard to say, even though the last game against Iraq was at the Chinese national team’s home stadium.
However, national team players with poor psychological quality are more likely to perform poorly in their home court.
This is what worries Lao Zhu the most!
In fact, the group that the Chinese national football team is in seems to be of mediocre strength. Except for the Iraqi team, the Palestinian and Singaporean teams are recognized by the outside world as weak teams, and almost no one takes them seriously.
But in fact, the strength of these two teams is not weak now, because they were the first to start the naturalization movement.
Take the Singapore team as an example. They have many naturalized players, most of whom play in European leagues. They have good personal strength and rich competition experience.
The addition of these mercenaries has greatly enhanced the strength of these two teams, and they are no longer the weak teams in everyone's perception.
Although it was embarrassing that the Chinese national football team was tied by the Singapore team in an away game, considering that the Singapore team had lost 2:0 to the Iraq team at home, this result seemed normal. After all, the Chinese national football team used the second-line lineup, not the absolute main force.
Of course, it's enough for him to keep this matter in his heart. If he tells others about it, the fans may not listen, and they may even think that he, as the coach of the national football team, is trying to shirk responsibility.
Zhu Guanghu sighed, then forced himself to cheer up, clapped his hands, and gathered the players to prepare for today's training.
(End of this chapter)
