Chapter 438: Get points and qualify
Although the Chinese team defeated the Oman Olympic team with a score of 4:0 in the opening game, fully demonstrating their strong offensive firepower.
But Trident handed in a goalless draw in the second group match.
They played 0:0 with the Uzbekistan Olympic team, the strongest team in this group.
The best performance of the Chinese Olympic team in this game was the defense.
The Olympic team's defense, which had been criticized for conceding goals in each of the three warm-up matches in October last year, withstood the fierce attack of the Uzbekistan Olympic team in this game.
Although this is related to the fact that the Chinese Olympic team’s tactical focus in this game is defense, it is undeniable that the central defender combination of Wang Guangwei and Liu Yan, coupled with the addition of goalkeeper Lin Zhiyuan, has indeed improved the hard strength of this defense line. A lot.
Especially Lin Zhiyuan.
He didn't have much room to play in the last game, and this game almost became the protagonist.
With his help, the Chinese Olympic team and the Uzbekistan Olympic team shook hands and made peace.
After the two group matches, the Chinese team and Uzbekistan both had one win and one draw, accumulating four points. The Chinese team temporarily ranked first in the group with a four-goal goal difference advantage.
There are a total of 16 participating teams in the U23 Asian Cup, divided into four groups. The top two teams in each group advance to the knockout rounds to determine the champion, second runner-up and third runner-up. The U23 Asian Cup is held every two years, but only in the Olympic year it is considered an Olympic qualifier, and the top three are eligible to participate in the Olympic football competition.
Previously, regardless of whether it was an Olympic qualifier or not, except for the first U23 Asian Cup, the Chinese team had never qualified for the group in this event.
In fact, if it were not linked to the Olympic qualifiers, the most practical goal before the Chinese Olympic team should be to qualify from the U23 Asian Cup group stage first.
Although they failed to defeat Uzbekistan in the second round, public opinion is still very supportive and optimistic about this Olympic team.
After all, four points already gave them an advantage in qualifying for the group.
In the next final group match, as long as they get points from Qatar, they can advance to the knockout rounds - whether they get one point or three points, if they don't lose, they will definitely qualify.
To put it bluntly, a draw means qualifying...
However, the media seemed to think this statement was too unlucky, so when promoting it, they said, "As long as the Chinese team gets points in the next group match, they can advance."
Saying this, it really makes people feel more at ease.
※※※
After two rounds of group matches, the current situation of Group A is as follows:
The Chinese team has one win and one draw, with four points and four goal differences ranking first.
With one win and one draw, Uzbekistan has four points and ranks second on goal difference.
Qatar has one win and one loss, with three points and zero goal difference, ranking third.
Oman has lost two games, accumulated zero points, and ranked fourth with a goal difference of five.
In the final round of the group stage, Uzbekistan played Oman. There is no suspense in this game. Judging from the strength and performance of both sides, Uzbekistan has a very high winning rate. The only suspense may be to win a few goals.
Another group match is the match between the Chinese team and Qatar.
Whether it is this time and space or the time and space when Hu Lai came, Qatar can be regarded as one of the sufferers of Chinese football in recent years - of course, Chinese football has always had many sufferers, so it is not a strange thing.
This is why Chinese football started a very determined reform in 2015. If they don't change, based on the performance of Vietnam and Thailand's youth training, they will soon be honored as the "new owners of Chinese football".
The last time Chinese football had a grudge with Qatar at the Olympic level was in the 2016 Olympic qualifiers. At that time, the Chinese team qualified from the group stage in the U23 Asian Cup and Olympic qualifiers, and ended up encountering Qatar.
Then lost.
Disqualified from participating in the Olympics.
The reason why that failure left a deep impression on Chinese fans is that before this qualifier, Chinese football had just undergone a thorough reform, and everyone had high hopes for this reform. As a result, the Chinese Olympic team failed in the U23 Asian Cup in the Olympic qualifiers the next year...
Although football is not a sport that will bear fruit immediately after reform, in such a symbolic qualifying match, the Chinese team was defeated by the Qatar Olympic team and lost its qualification for the Olympics. It was still a huge blow to everyone at the time. Confidence in Chinese football reform.
From then until now, the Olympic team has never met Qatar again - including in warm-up matches.
This sounds like a coincidence, but with careful interpretation, it becomes:
"Chinese football has been heartbroken by Qatar. It can only hide after being beaten again and again, so it deliberately does not arrange a warm-up match with Qatar. This is essentially a cowardly act. They are so cowardly and heartless from top to bottom. , how can Chinese football be better? ”
It's as if Chinese football is scared to death by Qatar.
The U23 Asian Cup and Olympic qualifiers held in our own country this time just let those who hold this view take a look at whether Chinese football is really scared out of their wits by Qatar...
※※※
"Holy shit, this is how we are bragging about our match against Qatar!"
In the Olympic team's U23 Asian Cup WeChat group, Wang Zijian sent a news link.
You don’t need to click on it just to read the title: “The referee of the mid-card battle has been confirmed, and Iranian referee Alireza Farhani will officiate this focus battle...”
"Who is this person?" Hu Lai asked in the group.
"Hu Lai, stop pretending!" Wang Zijian replied quickly.
"I really don't know who this person is, what happened to him?" Hu Lai was confused.
"I'm going, right Hu Lai? Have you forgotten? He was the one who blew the whistle on our East Asian Cup match against South Korea..."
Hu Lai, who was holding the mobile phone, opened his eyes wide with a look of realization: "Oh oh oh, it's him!"
In that East Asian Cup match against the South Korean team, Hu Lai could still feel the referee's bias in refereeing the game. His actions towards the South Korean team players were more tolerant than those of the Chinese team players.
If Sun Haomin's shovel against Hu Lai wasn't too obvious, and Hu Lai's reaction had such a visual impact that it couldn't be ignored, I'm afraid Sun Haomin would still be on the court until the end of the game.
"An Iranian referee blew the whistle on our match against Qatar. The AFC can do that..." someone complained in the group.
"Ahem, don't say that. In our game against Oman, the referee was Japanese, an East Asian referee. Why doesn't anyone say that East Asian referees help East Asian teams?"
"Can it be the same? It's not like we don't know the virtues of West Asian football. West Asians are the best at teaming up. On the other hand, we in East Asia are fighting among ourselves and it's impossible to unite. I dare say if it were replaced by a Korean referee to call our game, who knows what? What does it look like..."
"You can't simply classify relatives based on geographical relationship, right? It seems that various factions in West Asia also dislike each other, and there is even a blood feud... Can they unite so easily?"
"I don't know the reason behind this, but I know that disgusting things like this have been done in West Asian football before!"
Seeing everyone starting to argue, the team captain Guo Junfu quickly put out the fire in the group: "Okay, okay, no matter who the referee is, the game still depends on us. What does football politics have to do with us?" ? Don’t bring your emotions to the referee into the game!”
Hu Lai started: "Roger it!"
Chen Xingyi followed closely: "Roger it!"
Then Wang Zijian, who initiated the topic in the first place, immediately replied: "Roger that!"
Below is the "received" refresh screen where everyone maintains formation.
Guo Junfu finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this scene in front of his mobile phone.
Before the final round of the group stage, everyone's mood seemed to be a little different.
The expectation of qualifying and the anxiety of the unknown mixed together, making the atmosphere inside the team strange.
Therefore, a piece of referee news can cause controversy in the group. In the past, who would care who the referee is?
Anyway, no matter who it is, they can play normally.
Putting these factors together, Guo Junfu felt that his teammates had a somewhat indifferent mentality.
As captain, he needs to help the head coach maintain the atmosphere within the team, which is also one of his jobs.
Today, he felt that his intervention was quite timely. He didn't wait until everyone was competing for hundreds of chat records before he came forward. Then everyone might not be able to hold it back.
This is thanks to him being an "observer" who likes to dive into the group and peek at the screen when nothing happens, so he can detect bad signs in time.
Alas, this captain is not easy to do...(End of Chapter)