Chapter 1046 It’s hard to sleep
Hu Lixin turned over and vaguely felt a bright light beside him. He opened his sleepy eyes and saw his wife lying next to him looking at her mobile phone.
That bright light is what the phone screen emits in the dark.
"What time is it?" he asked.
"Two thirty."
Hu Lixin complained: "Then you still won't sleep?"
"Can't sleep. Don't want to sleep."
"Tsk..." Hu Lixin stood up slightly and saw clearly what was on the screen of his wife's phone - she was scrolling through Douyin.
"Don't look at Douyin, they are all criticizing the national football team." Hu Lixin reminded his wife.
"I watch funny jokes to make myself feel better."
"So are you in a better mood now? Can you sleep?"
Xie Lan put the phone aside, turned around and looked at her husband, her eyes wide open in the darkness: "You can actually sleep?"
"What else should I do? I have to go to work tomorrow..."
"You went to school after lunch. What are you pretending to be? I have to go to work tomorrow morning and no one said anything!"
"Yes, won't you go to work tomorrow morning?"
"I asked for leave from the director, saying that I was in a bad mood after losing the national team and was not in the mood to work, so I asked for a day off."
Hu Lixin grinned, the words "good guy" were stuck in his throat and he didn't dare to say them out.
He knew that his wife had been in a very bad mood since watching the Chinese game at night. If he said the wrong thing at this time, he would not be able to sleep until dawn.
"I'm just wondering, Lao Hu, why can you fall asleep after watching such a game?" Xie Lan propped up his head with one hand and looked at her husband in the darkness with wide eyes.
"Because I was mentally prepared. Ever since Lin Zhiyuan retired from injury, I had no hope for this Asian Cup." Hu Lixin explained.
"I'm unhappy not because we lost the game today, but because we played too poorly. What does this have to do with whether Lin Zhiyuan is here or not? Didn't you see the performance of the Chinese team today? The frontcourt attack was restricted by Iraq, and there was no solution. There is no way, but the backcourt cannot prevent the opponent's counterattack, and the opponent hits him accurately..."
When Hu Lixin heard his wife's series of questions, his sleepiness disappeared and he couldn't fall asleep for a while.
So he sighed:
"I think you have too high expectations for the team's performance before the Asian Cup. Although it is the Asian Cup, all you can think about is their performance in the World Cup. There are also people on the Internet, such as you on Douyin Those marketing accounts that were posted, opened and shut up and said, 'The national football team is the only undefeated team in the World Cup', as if we If you can draw with Brazil in the World Cup, you will be able to sweep Asia... Football is not an upgrade game. If you are high level, you will definitely be able to beat the low level - just because you can beat or tie the world champion in one game does not mean that you can. Beat a weaker team in another game.”
At 2:30 in the middle of the night, the couple lay in bed and talked seriously about football.
"Don't compare me with those trolls on Douyin who don't understand football! The problem now is that compared with the one in the World Cup, both the personnel and tactics of this national team have basically remained unchanged. The same staffing , the same tactics, the opponent is not as strong, so why did they play poorly? I am not saying that the result of the game was unexpected, after all, football is round, but from the perspective of the scene, the performance was still very bad, which is a bit unjustifiable. ”
Xie Lan contradicted her husband.
When Hu Lixin heard his wife's words, he was unable to refute them immediately.
Because he thought about it and realized what his wife said made sense.
The result is accidental. A tie with the former world champion half a year ago does not mean that he will be able to win against an Asian-level opponent half a year later.
But the game scene is really telling.
You can lose, but you can't lose in a way that looks bad to everyone.
In last night's game, unfortunately, the Chinese team lost their first Asian Cup in exactly this way.
In this game, head coach Dong Jianhai used all his main players and came up with the strongest lineup that Chinese football can currently produce.
Formation 433, starting goalkeeper Hao De, starting center backs Yao Huasheng and Wang Guangwei, left back Qu Lu, right back Bai Di. The three midfielders are Xia Xiaoyu, Zhang Qinghuan and Jiang Wanqing. On the front line, Hu Lai is in the center, Chen Xingyi is on the left, and Luo Kai is on the right.
Except for the goalkeeper position, the other ten players cannot be said to be no different from those in the World Cup, they can only be said to be exactly the same.
With such a mature lineup and playing style, it stands to reason that even if Iraq is the second-tier team in this group, there should be no suspense for the Chinese team to win them.
Even if it is more pessimistic, considering that this is the first game of the Asian Cup, the players did not enter the rhythm and find the state of the competition so quickly, and their performance was somewhat ups and downs. A draw with Iraq is not unacceptable.
After all, the remaining two opponents, whether they are the Philippines or Palestine, are not opponents of this Chinese team.
So qualifying for the group is not a problem. The important thing is to get first place in the group and have an easier time in the knockout rounds.
If we accidentally draw with Iraq, we can just get more goal difference from Palestine and the Philippines.
The official goal for this Asian Cup is to reach the semi-finals, but fans and media opinion believe that the Chinese team is capable of competing for the championship.
Qualifying as first in the group and meeting an easy opponent in the knockout round will help the Chinese team go further in the Asian Cup and realize everyone's high expectations for them.
As a result, the Chinese team, which played with the strongest lineup and the most familiar tactics, was unable to deal with Iraq's intensive defense during the game.
Although Hu Lai scored a goal in the game, the goal was invalid because Zhang Qinghuan fouled first when he stole the ball.
After being unable to attack for a long time, the Chinese team allowed Iraq to successfully attack in the 31st minute and was the first to concede the goal.
The mentality of the players has changed.
The more you kick, the more urgent you become.
Even after halftime adjustments, there was no improvement.
In the 77th minute, Iraq once again used a quick counterattack to score.
Although Dong Jianhai replaced Zhou Zijing after losing the ball to strengthen the Chinese team's offensive fulcrum in the penalty area, it did not help.
Trailing by two goals with only ten minutes left, with the state shown by the Chinese team in this game... the situation is over.
In this game, Iraq obviously made very thorough and detailed preparations. They almost studied the Chinese team thoroughly.
Defensively, they restricted the breakthroughs of Chen Xingyi and Luo Kai by setting up a tight fence in the penalty area. When dealing with Hu Lai, they also ensured that there were at least two Iraqi players around him at all times. Blocking and filling up all the possible openings in the penalty area, leaving Hu Lai, who is good at finding openings, to face the embarrassing situation of having no openings to exploit.
As for Zhang Qinghuan and Xia Xiaoyu, they did not press too much and allowed them to pass the ball outside the penalty area. This seems a bit negative, as it is letting the ball go to the Chinese team. But it actually ensures that there will be no breaches in the tight fence they have built in the penalty area.
As long as there is no space in the penalty area, Zhang Qinghuan and Xia Xiaoyu's passes will not be able to perform no matter how good they are.
At the same time, in terms of offense, Iraq chose two fast and impactful young forwards, specifically targeting the Chinese team's left back Qu Lu.
Dong Jianhai may have chosen Qu Lu, who has stronger offensive attributes, in the starting lineup for this game because he wanted to win in Iraq.
Qu Lu did indeed advance forward to participate in the attack many times according to the coach's tactical arrangements.
Iraq took advantage of this to attack the space behind Qu Road.
Qu Lu had many situations in the game where he could not come back after attacking. This happened every time Iraq attacked. The Chinese fans watched with fear.
Iraq's first goal was a counterattack from Qu Road.
Dong Jianhai also saw the problem on Qu Lu's side.
So a substitution was made at halftime, with Jiao Qirui, who was more defensively sound, replacing Qu Lu.
However, at this time, the Chinese team was already one goal behind and had to continue attacking in the second half.
So replacing Qu Lu has no effect.
After they pressed hard, the entire backcourt was empty, and it wasn't just a problem on the left wing.
Generally speaking, after watching this game, even a person who doesn't understand football will feel aggrieved and unhappy.
Our strongest lineup surrounded the young Iraqi national team and couldn't score a goal, but was taken away by the opponent's two sneak attacks.
There is no exciting football at all in the World Cup, and the energy seems not as good as in the World Cup.
Could it be that the Asian Cup is not as exciting to the Chinese team players as the World Cup?
As soon as the game ended... no, before the game ended, criticism of the Chinese team appeared on the Internet.
Some of the things said were quite ugly.
For the same group of players, the evaluation they received in the World Cup was completely different from the evaluation they received in the Asian Cup. In an instant, many people regained the feeling of watching national football games in previous years.
I have to say, this is football.
Just because you were able to draw with Brazil half a year ago doesn't mean you can beat Iraq six months later. Half a year ago you were praised by public opinion, but half a year later you will be trampled into the mud by public opinion.
Hu Lixin didn't know how to evaluate this game. Was it the players who had a problem? Or is there something wrong with the coach's tactical arrangements? Or is there something wrong with the Football Association's preparations?
From a football coach's perspective, he cannot simply vent his emotions like those fans online.
In the end, he could only say to his wife: "What you said makes sense. But the game has been lost. The next step is to see whether the Chinese team can learn from it and play well in the remaining two group matches."
Changing the topic from the game that has been lost to the two games that have not yet been played can help the wife to extract her emotions so as not to stay angry.
Sure enough, Xie Lan's attention immediately turned to the future: "Hey, Old Hu, do you think we won't even be able to get out of the group stage this time?"
Hu Lixin shook his head, his hair rubbing against the pillow.
"No, there is still no problem qualifying from the group. Losing this game is not a bad thing for the Chinese team. At least it will allow them to pay more attention to the next opponent, so as not to... capsize in the gutter."
"That's good. It would be really embarrassing if you can't even make it out of the group..." Xie Lan said.
"Go to sleep, it's almost three o'clock." Hu Lixin once again advised his wife to sleep.
This time Xie Lan didn't get into trouble with him anymore, but just hummed softly.
Neither of them spoke anymore, and the bedroom became quiet again.
After an unknown amount of time, another long and steady breathing sounded in the room.
The first match day of the Asian Cup for the Chinese team is over.
I don’t know how many people will be unable to sleep this night because of this game.
But the reason was completely different from the night after the first World Cup half a year ago. (End of chapter)