Chapter 916 The opening of the World Cup
After the afternoon training, all players of the Chinese national team conducted post-training relaxation training under the leadership of the coaching staff to relax their body muscles and avoid physical discomfort after training.
This is the routine after every training session.
The amount of training under Shi's guidance is not small, so relaxation after training is particularly important. If anyone wants to be lazy in this session, the fatigue accumulated in each training session may explode at some point.
No international football player wants to have all his teammates in the United States, only to miss out on the World Cup because of an injury during training, and return to his hometown in China in despair...
Two days ago, bad news came from the Dutch team:
Maxi Carey, a Dutch football superstar who plays for Madrid Pirates and captain of the Dutch national team, injured his knee after a collision with a teammate during training and was unable to recover in a short period of time. He had no choice but to withdraw from the Dutch national team and bid farewell to the World Cup.
For the 31-year-old Carey, it is really unknown whether he will be able to participate in the World Cup in the future.
In other words, Maxi Carey, a big brother in Dutch football, is likely to bid farewell to the World Cup completely in this very unexpected way.
Although Kyrie was still acting cool during the interview at the airport and said something like "Do you regret missing the World Cup? No, it is not my regret that I can't participate in the World Cup, but the regret of the World Cup." But on his face Hidden by sunglasses that even the flash couldn't penetrate, no one knew whether his eyes were already red.
The tragedy of Maxi Carey has sounded a wake-up call to all players participating in the World Cup, especially the Chinese team players, because they cherish this opportunity very much.
For many people, this may even be their only chance to participate in the World Cup in their careers.
So everyone is very careful about avoiding injuries.
Not two days after Kaili's accident, when the Chinese team was training, Jiang Wanqing and Gao Chen had a conflict because they made too many moves during a team confrontation.
At that time, Gao Chen picked up the ball in the midfield and turned around to take it forward, but was tackled to the ground from behind by Jiang Wanqing.
Although Jiang Wanqing went for the football, and he did tackle the ball first. But Gao Chen, who was brought to the ground, still got up from the ground unhappy and pushed Jiang Wanqing. Not to be outdone, Jiang Wanqing immediately pushed back, and the two sides just faced each other.
Fortunately, there were no reporters on the sidelines of the training ground, otherwise this matter would have been a big deal...
The coaching staff and other players quickly intervened and pulled the two away.
Gao Chen was seriously injured when he was tackled by South Korean player Park Sung-hyung in a game with the Korean team, which directly led to his career plummeting - from being a promising future forward in Chinese football to now being a front-line player for Hu Lai, Chen Xingyi and Luo Kai played the role of substitutes.
After returning from injury, Gao Chen lost his explosiveness and became less confident in playing football than before. Moreover, he now obviously has a psychological shadow and is particularly concerned about this kind of physical confrontation. Especially before such an important game as the World Cup.
So his sensitivity is understandable.
And Jiang Wanqing once failed to be selected for the national team after Shi Wuyuan came to power. When he returned to the national team this time, there were rumors that he was able to return to the national team through a prestige relationship. Therefore, he wanted to show his attitude and ability to Shi Wuyin, so he was particularly active and hard-working in training.
This mentality is also understandable.
In the end, under the mediation of Shi Wuyin and the national team leader Hong Renjie, in front of all the players, the two shook hands and made peace.
Jiang Wanqing first apologized to Gao Chen, who was younger than him. After all, he tackled from behind first, which was indeed a very dangerous move.
Gao Chen also apologized to Jiang Wanqing for his irrational behavior.
On the surface, this matter is over.
But the aftermath echoed in the hearts of every player who witnessed this scene.
Everyone is feeling the tremendous pressure of the World Cup approaching. Even the 33-year-old veteran Jiang Wanqing and the well-known good-tempered Gao Chen in domestic football have turned into irrational beasts in the face of this pressure...
Although the conflict was pulled apart not long after it started, the way the two men yelled and yelled at each other and waved their fists was still deeply engraved in the hearts of every player.
This is the World Cup!
It is the World Cup that each of them is looking forward to, but it is also the World Cup that makes them feel afraid...
Will I get a chance to play? What if I don’t perform well on the field? If I lose to Algeria, will I become a sinner of Chinese football?
Various similar thoughts linger in the minds of many people, making them breathless.
After the conflict between Gao Chen and Jiang Wanqing, it was obvious that everyone did not dare to do moves during training. On the one hand, they were afraid of injury, and on the other hand, they were also afraid of causing another conflict.
Gao Chen and Jiang Wanqing were lucky that time, as reporters were not present.
If there is a commotion next time when reporters are present, let alone how the Chinese team performs in the game, the person who had the conflict on the training ground will definitely be labeled a scapegoat, and the Chinese team will be eliminated by then. , if the performance is not good, then it is all due to the internal strife in the team!
Then whoever provokes internal strife is the culprit, the sinner of Chinese football!
This situation is actually seen by the coaching staff, but they have no good way to solve this problem.
Let everyone go all out in training? Who is responsible if a player is really injured?
Fortunately, the most critical part of the training was completed during the domestic training camp. The training camp in Atlanta was mainly for adaptation training, and then various set-piece tactics.
As the weakest team in the entire group, if the Chinese team really wants to do something in the World Cup, it has to count on set kicks.
To this end, Shi Wuyin also took out all the set-piece tactics that Hu Lai taught to the Olympic team and asked the whole team to train them in the hope that they could come in handy during the game.
When training this set of set-piece tactics, many people on the training ground burst into laughter. Everyone rushed to make a joke about Liu Yan, the only representative of the Poseidon team: "Liu Yan, do you look familiar?"
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Facing a group of big guys, Liu Yan had no choice but to cover his face and smile bitterly.
This may also be one of the few relaxing and happy moments in the Chinese team's training before the World Cup, apart from socializing with the local Chinese and overseas Chinese organizations in Atlanta.
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After the relaxation training, all the players gathered together, and assistant coach Li Zhifei announced something: "Don't procrastinate when eating dinner. Go to the conference room after dinner. Watch the opening game of this World Cup together!"
The team members looked at each other, not quite understanding why they were allowed to watch the opening game of the World Cup.
Li Zhifei continued to explain: "Understanding the details of the World Cup and feeling the atmosphere of the World Cup by watching other teams' games will help us adapt to the World Cup faster. Watching football is also a kind of learning! As long as there is no conflict in time, we will try our best. Arrange for everyone to watch the World Cup live broadcast! ”
Someone raised his hand, it was Chen Xingyi.
"Say!"
"Um...just watching the game?"
"Of course not. You can also discuss it while watching the game. The coaching staff is here. You can ask any questions you have. If you don't understand, the coach will answer it for you. You can also discuss it with each other. As a professional Players, of course you can’t just watch the game, you have to watch the door!”
Xia Xiaoyu, Wang Guangwei and Zhang Qinghuan looked at each other again.
They are no strangers to this kind of learning method, because when they were playing in Flash Stars, they were called by Brother Lin to watch Hu Lai's Premier League games together. As long as it's not a game in the middle of the night, they will watch it.
While watching the game, everyone can also speak freely, ask questions and discuss with each other about the situation during the game.
Accumulate experience in this way and "increase the ball" in disguise.
They are already very accustomed to this way of watching and learning.
Unexpectedly, they reached the front of the national team...
"Does anyone else have any questions?" Li Zhifei asked three times in a row. When no one raised their hands, he clapped his hands and said: "Dismissed!"
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After dinner, the Chinese team players came to the hotel conference room one after another.
The projection screen in the room has been opened, and the staff is debugging the equipment.
Soon an aerial shot of the Pasadena Stadium in Los Angeles appeared on the screen. The maroon stands were packed, and enthusiastic American fans filled this super stadium that can accommodate 100,000 people to the fullest.
This is a match for the host team, the United States, and Americans with strong patriotic enthusiasm will naturally not be absent.
The game hasn't even started yet, but they have already created a terrifying momentum in the stands.
The World Cup kicks off on June 15th. There is only one game today, the opening game, and the whistle blows at 6 pm local time.
The United States team, one of the hosts, faced the South Korean team.
The reason why we want to watch this game is that the Chinese team's coaching staff also hopes to use this opportunity to quickly find the World Cup feeling for the team.
After all, the South Korean team is a familiar opponent they have played against in the World Cup qualifiers.
Then through the Korean team as a reference, they can quickly establish their understanding of the World Cup in their minds.
When Park Soon-tae wore the captain's armband and led the players of the Korean team onto the turf of the Pasadena Stadium. The Chinese team players in front of the projection clearly saw the solemn look on the face of the experienced Korean captain, and the... nervousness displayed by the other Korean players behind him.
Of course, this may also be because the South Korean team's first game of the World Cup is the opening game against the host country, so it is more tense than usual World Cup games.
The momentum generated by the nearly 100,000 American fans at the scene can indeed make people feel huge pressure.
But in any case, the tense faces of the players of the Korean team, who have participated in nine consecutive World Cup finals, still shocked the players of the Chinese team who participated in the World Cup for the first time - they had never seen this before in Asia. Such a Korean team!
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Ninety minutes later, the happy shouts of the American television commentator and the cheers of the American fans were transmitted to the conference room of this hotel in Atlanta through television signals.
The Chinese players in the room were silent.
They all stared blankly at the projection screen.
Up there, their old rivals and mortal enemies, the players of the Korean team were crying.
The score of 2:0 actually does not fully reflect the strength gap between the United States, ranked 20th in the world, and South Korea, ranked 31st.
In this game, the South Korean team faced the aggressive hosts who had a good start and chose a defensive counterattack. In Asia, the South Korean team's opponents have always adopted defensive counterattacks. In the World Cup, it was the South Korean team's defensive counterattack, which shows the difficulty of the World Cup - trying to rely on Park Suntae's personal ability and speed to fight back.
But even so, their defense could not withstand the indiscriminate bombardment of the American team.
Only conceding two goals was actually pretty good.
Park Soon-tae basically didn't get a good chance in the whole game. As a counterattack forward, he mostly had to actively retreat at the front of his penalty area to help defend, and then sprint dozens of meters to run up to counterattack - like this. After most of the game, I had no energy at all.
In the end, he simply suffered cramps from running, but by that time the South Korean team had used up three substitutions, so he could only limp on the court.
In fact, the Korean team has no chance to counterattack. They retreated across the board, facing the American team that continued to attack despite the crazy cheers of the host fans, trying hard not to concede the third goal.
Although they succeeded in the end, when the final whistle sounded, many Korean team players still covered their faces and cried.
The Asian team faced a defeat in its first appearance at this World Cup.
The players of the Chinese team, who basically never empathize with Koreans, felt that after watching such a game, they felt that "one thing hurts another". The Korean team is like this, what about us?
(End of chapter)