Chapter 856 How far are we from the top in the world?
The World Cup stadium in Paris, France, was full of people. French fans in the stands waved the red, white and blue flags in their hands to cheer for their national team.
What is going on is a pre-World Cup warm-up match between the French team and the Chinese team.
The reason why the Chinese team can play a warm-up match with the French team is because the French team was assigned to the South Korean team in the group stage of the World Cup finals. They need an East Asian team to do a targeted warm-up.
The Chinese team is in a group with Brazil, Russia, and Algeria in the World Cup finals.
The opponent in the first warm-up match was France, and the second warm-up match was against Ukraine.
Choosing Ukraine as the opponent in the warm-up match, naturally, I hope to understand the Russian team under the same system by playing against Ukraine.
France, the warm-up opponent, was not chosen by the Chinese team, but by France. None of the three opponents in the group stage have the same characteristics as the French team. If you insist on saying so, Algeria may have something to do with French football. After all, there are many Algerian descendants in France. However, the styles of the two teams are still very different.
But the Football Association finally agreed to France, mainly because it wanted the Chinese team to play against the world's top teams, experience the strength of the world's top teams, and see how far the current Chinese team is from the world's top level.
Now they know how far they are from the world's top level...
The real-time score of the game is displayed on the big screen in the stadium:
3:0
The game only lasted an hour, and the French team led the Chinese team by three goals.
Forward Mendy Payet, who plays for Paris Eger, scored twice in the game and also assisted one goal. He is the French player who has performed the best so far in the game, and he is indeed the number one star in French football.
His sharp breakthrough made it difficult for the Chinese team players to resist.
Only 12 minutes into the game, Paye took advantage of the opportunity when the Chinese team's frontcourt attack was interrupted and sprinted more than 50 meters with the ball. He used his speed to break through Yao Huasheng's defense at the front of the penalty area. After entering the penalty area, he faced the attacking goalkeeper Hao De. He faked a shot and made a dunk, passing Hao De and shooting into the empty goal.
The whole process seemed extremely relaxed and comfortable, and even made people feel that he still had some energy left.
When he jogged to celebrate with open arms, he left a group of staggering Chinese team players behind him, who stared blankly at Payet's figure.
This is their first time playing against this player who can always be seen on TV. Although they have all watched Payet play through live TV, they also know that he is good at straight-line breakthroughs, fast, explosive, and capable of breaking through. Strong ability to combine man and ball.
Before the game, Shi Wuyin also repeatedly warned the players to avoid being stretched by the opponent's defense line when defending, and then break through one by one, to maintain a suitable distance and to keep the defense line intact...
You know, you know.
When it comes to competitions, many times it’s not like daily training where everything just matches the training conditions...
It is said that the defense line must be kept compact, but when the opponent really charges, the players of the Chinese team will either fight and retreat collectively, but they cannot retreat indefinitely. They must meet the enemy, and once they meet, they will be passed... …
Either someone steps up to block it or someone retreats, it is inevitable that they will be challenged by the opponent with the ball and defeated one by one.
In short, the Chinese team players know what Payet is good at and how to defend against him, but when they are actually one-on-one with him on the court, all the things they know have lost their effect and are meaningless.
People simply move the football forward and then accelerate. The Chinese team players were thrown away.
When you turn around, Paye is five or six meters in front of you. You can only watch your teammates go up, only to be easily passed by them...
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"I'm powerless..." Yong Jun in the box looked away from the scoreboard on the big screen, shook his head and murmured.
This game was played in Paris, France, and they were in Leeds. They were so close and they definitely had to come to watch the game.
Next to him, Li Qingqing said calmly: "It's normal, Uncle Yong. The French team was the runner-up in the last European Cup."
As someone who plays football in France, she understands the level of French football very well-even though in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the French team did not even make it past the group stage and went home. However, after the past two years of hard work and upgrading, the French team's strength has greatly increased. In the 2024 European Cup, the French team reached the finals and lost to Germany.
Therefore, the current French team is very strong, which is completely different from the French team four years ago that returned home after completing the group stage.
Moreover, the French team did not come into the match with the Chinese team with the mentality of underestimating the enemy.
This may have something to do with Hu Lai.
After all, Hulay is the Chinese national team player that French players are most familiar with, and if you take Hulay's performance in the Premier League as a reference... you can understand why the French team players performed so actively in the game.
In this game, Houlet was defended by French players at the highest level.
Julien Lame, the main goalkeeper of the French team, has been scored by Hulay for a total of six goals in the league. As a result, he has not allowed Hulay to score so far in this game.
Has Lame suddenly become more powerful?
Of course not, Hu Lai was more tightly defended. At the same time, the strengths of his teammates in the national team and those in the club were also different, which affected his performance to some extent.
The game lasted sixty minutes. Hu Lai had a total of four shots, but only one hit the goal frame.
This shows how much defensive pressure he faced.
Yong Jun naturally knew that Li Qingqing was right. He sat back in his seat, shook his head and said: "That's good. At least let those blindly optimistic people in the country see how big the gap is between us and the world's top teams. Lest they I have been thinking wildly all day long... I just saw it on the Internet today. It turns out that some fans have already set the Chinese team's results in the quarterfinals of this World Cup... What do you think they think?"
Li Qingqing laughed when he heard Yong Jun's complaint.
She also knows this.
Ever since the Chinese team's World Cup grouping results came out, fans have launched various speculations on the Internet...or predictions. Predict the final result of the Chinese team in this World Cup.
What is surprising is that with the strength of the Chinese team, it stands to reason that it will not be easy for the group to qualify. But qualifying for the group has become the lowest goal for many fans.
According to their analysis, although Brazil is the seeded team in this group, its strength is not what it used to be. Today's Brazil is no longer the "kingdom of football" it once was. Although the team has star players such as Kendall Kabangka, Dudu Carlos, and Victor Lemos who are firmly established in European giants, In the eyes of Chinese fans, it is just the end of a strong effort.
By then, Brazil will be proud and underestimate the enemy, and we may not be able to get a point from the only "six-time champion" in world football.
The other two opponents in the group, Algeria, like them, are both entering the World Cup for the first time in history. Russia's strength is average, and it is only in the middle of the pack in Europe.
In the group qualifying roadmap planned by Chinese fans for the Chinese team, they first defeated Algeria, the weakest team in the group, in the first round and scored three points.
Then when they faced Russia in the second round, fans had different opinions: Some people thought that given the strength of the Chinese team, it might not be impossible to defeat Russia, so they should strive to win in the second round. After scoring six points in this way, the Chinese team qualified for the group ahead of schedule. The outcome of the final round match with Brazil did not matter.
Some people think that Russia's strength is not outstanding, but it is not bad, especially its physical strength, which is very restrained by the Chinese team. If you seek to win, you will most likely lose. It's better to play slowly, put the bus in front of the goal, and try to draw with Russia and get a point. With four points in this way, as long as the Chinese team can draw with the Brazilian team, which is "at the end of the competition" and "proud and underestimating the enemy", it will still have a high chance of qualifying in the group with five points.
But no matter which route it is, qualifying from the group is everyone's default result.
The discussion on the Internet is in full swing. If you just look at the fans' speeches, you will think that there are only a few heroes in the world. As long as our Chinese team is serious, we can beat anyone!
Now Yong Jun can't help but wonder how the fans in front of the TV will feel when they see such a score...
This is the gap between us and the world's top teams. Without any beauty filter, it is so real, cruel and naked in front of everyone.
Whether it is Yao Huasheng or Wang Guangwei, the top players in the Chinese Super League seem vulnerable in front of the players from the world's top teams who are serious about it.
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He Feng seemed to be afraid that this game would damage everyone's confidence, and he kept emphasizing during the explanation: "...because the World Cup is getting closer, the French team also attaches great importance to this game...to what extent? ? They didn't even let reporters film the training... It can be seen that they really treat this game as the main game of the World Cup, so the French team went all out in this game, and with the home field advantage, it is actually not easy for us to win like this. The players have tried their best, and there is nothing to say about their attitude towards the game..."
Yan Kang glanced at He Feng from the side and hesitated. After hesitating for a while, he said: "But actually this is what we will encounter in the World Cup. The French team is certainly not Brazil, but Brazil is not weak either. Never assume before the game that the opponent will be proud and underestimate the opponent. That is not the right approach... After all, this is our first time to enter the World Cup. If we want to make progress, facing the gap is the first step.”
His words were specifically aimed at those arguments on the Internet. In his opinion, the Chinese team's historic first appearance in the World Cup seemed to have made many people get carried away. They did not realize that the world is so big and the Chinese team is just an insignificant little one. Just shrimps. He believes that allowing such emotions and thoughts to spread will definitely not be a good thing for Chinese football.
If you cannot correctly understand yourself and the world, you will suffer a big loss.
"Yes, the reality is cruel. But we cannot live in a dream forever because of this... Chinese football has long returned to the world football family, but it has never officially entered the world football stage. And now is the first time , for the first time, we can’t ask for too much..."
He Feng and Yan Kang sang together and started their "traditional arts" again, pouring cold water on Chinese fans and letting them "normalize".
But this time what they said is actually quite right, and it can’t even be considered as “deliberately pouring cold water on”.
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"Okay, let's change."
In front of the Chinese team coaching bench on the sidelines, head coach Shi Wuyuan said to assistant coach Li Zhifei next to him.
"Call back the players who are warming up."
Li Zhifei nodded, turned around and ran out.
After all, it is a warm-up match, and Shi Wuyin still hopes to allow more players to get the opportunity to play in the game. In addition, the Chinese team is now so far behind in the score, there is no need to insist on the staffing on the field, otherwise the opportunity of this warm-up match will be wasted.
He knows that there are actually many Chinese fans in front of the TV, just waiting for Hulay to get a goal back - now they no longer expect the Chinese team to defeat the French team in the away game, or draw with the French team. The standard has been lowered again and again. As long as Hu Lai can score a goal and save some face, they will be satisfied...
But Shi Wuyin still had to make a decisive substitution.
Of the two warm-up matches, Shi Wuyuan didn't care about the result or process of the match in this one. He just wanted the players to compete with the world's top teams in person and feel the atmosphere. The real test of the team's tactics will have to wait until the next warm-up match against Ukraine.
He doesn't care what the outcome is or what the situation looks like.
In the 63rd minute, after the French team's shot missed the baseline, the referee made a substitution gesture.
The Chinese team changed five players on the sidelines in one breath.
Hu Lai, who started the game, was replaced by Gao Chen under the regretful gaze of Chinese fans.
He failed to score until he was replaced.
Li Qingqing in the box kept watching Hu Lai's end and said to him in his heart:
It's okay, Hu Lai. This is just a warm-up match, your real stage is in the World Cup! (End of chapter)