Chapter 279 Restricted Superstar (Congratulations to the National Youth Team for advancing in advance!)
After committing the foul, Li Weifeng felt that he would definitely be sent off with a red card, so without waiting for the referee to take action, he started to take off the captain's armband, intending to give it to Zheng Zhi and then leave the field.
As expected, the referee did not surprise him and took out a striking red card, sending the captain of the Chinese national football team off the field.
Li Weifeng was too lazy to argue. After stuffing the captain's armband into Zheng Zhi's hand, he walked out of the court, applauding the fans in the stands as he walked.
The fans in the stands responded with warm applause and cheers, which surprised some neutral fans who didn't know what was going on:
He doesn't look like a sinner who was sent off with a red card, but rather like a hero returning victoriously, surrounded by flowers and applause along the way.
After Li Weifeng left the field, the Chinese national football team immediately made substitutions.
Li Jinyu, who had just scored a goal, was replaced by substitute defender Zhang Yaokun.
Being substituted so early, Li Jinyu looked a little unhappy.
He felt that he was in good shape today, and he had finally met top passers like Lin Feng and Chen Tao who were rarely seen in the domestic league to feed him the ball. It would be a pity if he could not show his skills with such a good opportunity in front of him.
But there is no way, the integrity of the defense line is more important.
In terms of tactical priorities, forwards are expendable, especially when they are leading in the score, the importance of offense must give way to defense.
After a striker was substituted, the Chinese national team's offense was greatly affected. Gao Lin was alone in the frontcourt and was easily double-teamed by the opponent's defenders when attacking. When defending, because he was standing alone in the front line and had no teammates to assist him laterally, his pressing was mostly in vain and it was difficult for him to threaten the opponent's passing point in the backcourt.
Thanks to the advantage in numbers and the reduction in the intensity of the Chinese national team's frontcourt pressure on the Iraqi team's passing point, the Iraqi team's backcourt conduction and offensive organization began to gradually improve.
At the end of the first half, the Iraqi team's attack caused chaos in the Chinese national team's penalty area. In the chaos, the Chinese national team made a mistake. Zhang Yaokun, who had just come on the field, accidentally kicked the ball to his teammate when clearing the ball, and the ball bounced back and flew into his own goal.
The goalkeeper had no way to deal with this and could only put his hands on his hips and look at his teammates helplessly.
"The Chinese national football team still lost the ball. The Iraqi team's forward pass from the backcourt was not effectively contained. I felt something was going to happen, and it did!"
"The red card for Li Weifeng was too expensive. Zhang Yaokun was substituted in without even having time to warm up. His body may not have adapted to the game yet. And his luck was really bad. Feng Xiaoting had just competed for the ball with the opponent's forward and had no way to avoid the clearance of his teammates behind him when he landed, so he caused this own goal."
The goal conceded in the final moments of the first half had some impact on the mentality of the Chinese national team.
During the half-time break, the players were not in high spirits and the atmosphere in the locker room was a bit depressing.
"What are you doing? Keep your heads up. It's just a lost ball. It's not the end of the world!"
When Zhu Guanghu walked in from the locker room, he quickly noticed that the players were in a bad mood, so he clapped his hands vigorously to attract the players' attention, and then said:
"Besides, we are still in the lead, not behind in the score. Why are you so anxious?"
Zhu Guanghu's words had a good effect, at least stabilizing the morale of the troops.
Yes, we are the leading side, and we have already qualified for the group stage. No matter what the result of this game is, it will not have much impact. On the contrary, for the opponents, this is a game they cannot afford to lose!
As if he had guessed what the players were thinking, Zhu Guanghu coughed lightly and said:
"I just checked, the score between Singapore and Palestine is 2:0, Singapore is leading!"
As soon as these words came out, the players' eyes instantly regained their spirits, and many players couldn't help whispering. The heavy and depressing atmosphere that had lingered in the locker room was instantly swept away.
"I think you all should know what this score means, right?"
Zhu Guanghu said with a smile.
The players nodded one after another. If both games ended with the current score, it would mean that the Iraqi team would be eliminated due to the slight disadvantage in goal difference, and the Singapore team would advance to the Asian Cup finals!
Seeing that everyone's morale had been restored, Zhu Guanghu's expression turned serious:
"Now let's talk about the tactics for the second half. This is how we'll play in the second half..."
……
After the half-time break, players from both teams returned to the field.
Some sharp-eyed fans soon discovered that the mentality of the national football team players seemed to have adjusted. The slightly tense and uneasy state before disappeared, replaced by a calm and even faintly transcendent demeanor.
"That's right. Whether we win or lose this game, it won't have any impact on us. So don't take it too seriously. Just treat it as a friendly match!"
"You're right. It's their business if the opponents fight desperately. We don't need to be bothered by the final result. For us, the process is the most important. After all, you won't encounter such an opponent who will fight you desperately in a friendly match!"
The Iraqi team also noticed the change in the Chinese national team. Their head coach looked at Zhu Guanghu with some suspicion, wondering what kind of magic potion the other side had given to the players during the half-time break that made them adjust their mentality so quickly.
Thinking of this, he felt a vague sense of uneasiness in his heart, as if something bad was going to happen.
But even so, they had no way out and could only go ahead!
After the start of the second half, the Iraqi team continued to play as they did at the end of the first half. After getting the ball, they kept attacking the Chinese team's defense, trying to equalize the score as soon as possible.
For the Iraqi team, they only need one goal, and then no matter what the result of the other game is, they will get a ticket to the Asian Cup finals.
The difficulty now is how to get the ball into the Chinese team's goal while doing a good job of defense and not giving the opponent the opportunity to expand their lead?
After one player was sent off, the Chinese national team's formation changed.
Under the opponent's massive attack, the Chinese national football team's formation retreated somewhat, and when defending, Lin Feng's position would move forward, forming the first horizontal interception line with Gao Lin.
They do not try to steal the opponent's last central defender who has the ball. Instead, they press forward the moment the opponent's central defender passes the ball to the sides, and take advantage of the opponent's opportunity to receive the ball to steal the ball, so as to get a chance to counterattack in the frontcourt.
While they are pressing forward, the positions of Chen Tao, Zheng Zhi and Li Tie will also move forward as a whole, and Feng Xiaoting's position will fill the vacancy of central midfielder in advance.
The full-backs on both sides will advance or retreat according to the position of their teammates with the ball. The one advancing can join the attack at any time, and can also retreat to the middle to fill the space left by the forward movement of the midfield.
Those who retreat can fill the space behind Feng Xiaoting and prevent the opponent from attacking the national team from behind.
After this adjustment, although the Chinese national team was at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, the intensity of its defense increased instead of decreasing.
The Iraqi team had a very difficult time from the beginning of the attack.
Since the central defenders are unable to pass the ball steadily, it takes a lot of effort for them to push the attack to the frontcourt.
Moreover, it was easy for the opponent's multiple defense lines to intercept or even steal the ball in the midfield. Therefore, although the Iraqi team attacked very hard in the second half, the effect was not as good as before. Instead, their formation pressed too far forward, exposing the gap behind them, and the Chinese team seized the opportunity to use long passes to hit them from behind several times.
Unfortunately, none of these attacks resulted in a goal, otherwise the morale of the Iraqi team would have been crushed.
But even though the Chinese national team did not score a goal, the Iraqi team was still frightened.
The opponent's counterattack was too threatening. If it weren't for the fact that the Chinese national team striker Gao Lin was not fast enough and could not use his speed to get rid of the defensive players after receiving the pass from his teammates, those counterattacks just now might have sentenced the Iraqi team to death.
How to do?
Should they first stabilize their position and strengthen their defense to avoid being ambushed by their opponents and thus completely destroying their hopes of qualifying?
The head coach of the Iraqi team was very conflicted and he couldn't help but look up at the time.
The second half of the game had already reached the 65th minute. Even if injury time was included, they only had 30 minutes at most.
Given the defensive strength of the Chinese team, to be honest, he was not very confident of scoring a goal within thirty minutes!
As long as the opponent keeps playing defensively, the Iraqi team can really be said to have little chance.
On the contrary, if the opponent takes the initiative to attack, even if it is just a counterattack, they can pull out their formation, which actually gives the Iraqi team a chance to score.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but ask the assistant beside him:
“What’s the situation in Palestine?”
The assistant had been watching the situation of another game, and immediately replied after hearing this:
"Palestine scored a goal in the second half, and now the score is 2:1!"
This news made him feel relieved. If the game ended with this score, the Iraqi team would advance to the Asian Cup finals.
Although Singapore also had 7 points and a goal difference of -1, and even the match between the two teams ended in a 4:4 draw, Iraq had the advantage in total goals. They scored a total of 11 goals in six group matches, while Singapore only had 6 goals, which was only half of Iraq's.
With this slight advantage, they will get through the test.
"Keep checking and report back. If there are any changes in the score over there, notify me immediately!"
Since the situation on the other side has changed, shouldn't we seek stability on our side?
For a moment, the Iraqi head coach became even more hesitant.
However, you never know which will come first, an accident or tomorrow!
In the 69th minute of the second half, the Chinese team launched another counterattack.
Although the pattern is almost the same as before, it is a long pass from the backcourt to find teammates in the frontcourt and play behind the opponent.
But the difference is that this time they were not looking for the forward Gao Lin, but Lin Feng who was moving on the right wing.
Lin Feng is much faster than Gao Lin, and the wing is more open, with a much lower defensive density than the middle.
After receiving the ball, Lin Feng easily got rid of the opponent's full-back with just one move.
He did not try to fight with the opponent, nor did he try to dribble past him. It was not that he did not have the ability to do so, but he did not want to waste time!
The faster the counterattack, the greater the threat to the opponent's goal. Every second of delay is buying time for the opponent to return to defense.
So Lin Feng used Bell's famous skill - passing the ball to himself three seconds later!
I saw him make a strong move on the outside of the wing, then accelerate quickly, and in the blink of an eye he overtook the opponent's full-back on the curve.
This unreasonable scene of relying solely on speed to win the game excited the fans at the scene and also stunned the coaches and substitutes of both teams who were standing nearby.
"Isn't that too violent? Just relying on speed to eat him alive!"
"Fuck, this speed, this curve overtaking, it makes my blood boil!"
"I can't catch up, I really can't catch up. I can see that the opponent's full-back is trying very hard to catch up, but Lin Feng is too beastly. Is this speed for a human?"
"I think that players of Lin Feng's level are simply bullying in the Asian arena. This weapon is similar to a nuclear weapon. The Asian Football Confederation, oh no, the West Asian Football Confederation should legislate to restrict the Chinese team from using it!"
"I support that, funny JPG!"
Lin Feng received his own pass after overtaking on the curve. Instead of continuing to move to the wing, he decisively cut inside.
After seeing Lin Feng's actions, the opponent's central defender who was returning to defense immediately gave up restricting Gao Lin and rushed towards Lin Feng at the fastest speed along a straight line.
If no one was sent to intercept Lin Feng, he had no doubt that the other party would shoot on his own.
Not to mention him, even the goalkeeper of the Iraqi team thought so.
However, it turned out that they were all wrong.
Seeing that the opponent's central defender was rushing in a hurry, Lin Feng used a simple spiking and changing direction to easily get rid of the opponent. At this time, he could already shoot.
But Lin Feng did not do so. After seeing that the goalkeeper was defending in his direction, he faked a shot and passed the ball horizontally to the middle of the penalty area.
Gao Lin, who was outflanking, faced an empty goal so close to him. He did not waste Lin Feng's assist and scored his second goal of the game with an easy shot, also changing the score to 3:1!
broken!
The Iraqi team's head coach's face changed instantly. Although both teams lost, the consequences of 3:1 and 2:1 were completely different.
If they lose to the Chinese team by two goals, then their goal difference will become negative 2. If Palestine on the other side cannot continue to score goals, then Singapore's goal difference will exceed theirs, and then they will be eliminated!
Thinking of this, he wanted to slap himself. He shouldn't have hesitated just now.
Or be more decisive and invest all your forces in a massive attack, trying to score another goal to equalize the score.
Either they retreat and consolidate their defense, maintaining a 2:1 score until the end of the game, and then hope that the score of the other game remains unchanged and they advance based on their total goal advantage.
Now, neither of us can attack nor defend, and we have forced ourselves into a desperate situation.
I looked at the time and it was already the 70th minute. There wasn't much time left for the Iraqi team!
(End of this chapter)
