Chapter 1515 The opponent before the Japanese team
"What? Tonight's game is not against the Japanese team?"
"Huh? There is another Syria? Where did this come from?"
"I checked, the Sino-Japanese War will have to wait until next Monday, October 9th... Alas!"
……
Xie Lan couldn't help laughing when he saw comments like this on the Internet: "Wow, I didn't even know the specific opponent after doing this for a long time..."
"It's normal." Hu Lixin said. "Most people just join in the fun and don't even watch the ball..."
"Hey, don't say you don't watch football, maybe you don't even know the rules of football."
"Didn't you do the same before? There has to be a process. From not knowing and not caring, to understanding and paying attention. Besides, compared with the game in Syria, of course the 'China-Japan War' has more gimmicks."
This national team match day is actually two games.
But many people only focused on the "China-Japan War", so that when they came closer, they discovered that the top 12 match on Thursday, October 5th was not between China and Japan, but the Chinese team played at home. The match in Syria...
This is embarrassing. Many people are waiting to watch the match with the Japanese team. They don't care about Syria at all.
And this is still a common phenomenon at present.
As the influence of Chinese football continues to increase, more and more people who don't usually watch football are paying attention to the Chinese team's games.
These people may not even fully understand the rules of football, and they don't usually watch games.
It is only because of the Chinese team's impact on the World Cup that I pay attention to the national football team.
There are actually many such people. What often caused quarrels on the Internet in the past was the dissatisfaction of those "real fans" with these people who were not even fake fans:
"Real fans" believe that it is these trolls who have messed up the public opinion environment of Chinese football. Abuse cannot solve the problem, but can only leave Chinese football with no successors.
And these people who don't usually watch football accuse Chinese football of being able to survive. It's you "real fans" who can still provide traffic to Chinese football and make them confident. Since Chinese football is so bad, let's just curse it to death.
The "real fans" scolded the trolls for treating Chinese football like a spittoon, while the other side mocked the "real fans" for treating their spittoons like treasures.
Neither side can convince the other, so they can only curse each other online.
But things are obviously much better now.
Because after the Chinese team's performance improved, many of those "trolls who don't watch the game" disappeared.
In other words, it is too late for the broad masses of the people to transform into "trolls who don't watch football."
In fact, they are all just interested in the football team that can represent this country out of simple emotions.
In the past, when the national football team performed poorly, of course they would scold them.
Now that the performance of the national football team has improved a lot, there is nothing to criticize.
And as Hu Lixin said, if the group of supporters of a sport wants to expand, there will inevitably be many people who knew nothing about the sport before. They will be interested and pay attention to it for some reason.
There is a process from not understanding to understanding.
Just like Sheran.
In the beginning, she was an ordinary person who knew almost nothing about football. Her impression of Chinese football was actually the people's basic impression of Chinese football - nothing nice to say.
But now she knows more than most so-called fans on the Internet.
It’s just that Chinese football in the past had poor results and a bad reputation. Therefore, many people have just learned about Chinese football, and all they know are all kinds of infamy. Naturally, they just come and spit, and they have no interest in learning more about it, let alone liking it. Since everyone spits, what is it if it’s not a spittoon?
How can you say something?
"You can tell if it's shit by just looking at it. Do you have to taste it yourself to know it's shit?"
After years of deepening reforms and improving performance, Chinese football's image in front of the public has been greatly improved.
So ordinary people who might have just taken one look and left with a curse word will be attracted by football, gradually understand it, and finally become a real fan.
This is a virtuous cycle from football environment to football culture.
As long as this virtuous cycle can be maintained for a period of time, such as two or three World Cup cycles, many of the previous problems in Chinese football may be solved.
※※※
After two rounds of the top 12 group stage, the rankings of Group A where the Chinese team is located are very polarized - the top three are three teams with six points, and the bottom three are teams with zero points.
The Chinese team, the Iranian team and the Japanese team ranked in the top three.
Syria, Iraq and Thailand are the bottom three.
Among them, Syria ranks first among the bottom three. Although they have lost two games, they are ranked ahead of the other two brothers because of their goal difference.
The two games Syria lost were a 0:1 away defeat to Japan in the first round and a 0:1 home defeat to Iran in the second round.
Judging from these two games alone, Syria is a very tenacious team.
Facing the strongest opponent in the group, it is remarkable to lose only one goal.
So in fact, Chinese fans are not qualified to ignore this opponent, skip it directly, and look forward to the game with the Japanese team.
If the Chinese football team and these fans have the same thoughts, then they may capsize in the gutter, even in their own home court...
Fortunately, the Chinese team has a clear-headed head coach.
Jorge Dillon, a famous European coach, has led his team to win two Champions League championships. What situation has he not encountered?
When the outside world was hyping up the "China-Japan War", he kept telling his players to focus on the game against Syria.
After the game started, Syria, which knew it was weaker, set up a bus in front of its own door and started a defensive counterattack with the Chinese team.
They hope to use defensive tactics to wear down the patience of the Chinese team players.
After all, sometimes playing at home is not always an advantage.
Especially playing a home game in a country with a population of 1.5 billion... How huge is the pressure of 1.5 billion people?
Everyone in Syria believes that as long as they can entangle the Chinese team and prevent the opponent from scoring goals, the home fans will lose their patience. Then the cheers in the stands will turn to boos.
The Chinese players became more and more impatient amidst the boos, and there would definitely be loopholes in the defense, allowing them to seize the opportunity to counterattack.
In fact, Syria played this way in the previous two games, and this is what they expected.
Although they all failed in the end, Syria still insisted on this tactic. It was not that they did not know how to adapt, but that they were not qualified to adapt. Facing a strong team, they really had no better way except to play like this.
After doing their best, all they can count on is luck.
In the first two games, they fell short. They don't know what their luck will be like in this game, but they still have to keep doing it.
In the 45 minutes of the first half, Syria's defense was indeed very successful. Their targeted defensive tactics caused a lot of trouble for the Chinese team's offense.
In particular, their goalkeeper Hassan Mansour made seven saves and was the busiest player in Syria in the first half.
Mansour is not a famous player, he is just an ordinary player in Asian football. But in the last two top 12 games, the performance has been outstanding.
He is also an important contributor to Syria's ability to lose only one goal in two consecutive games.
It is said that "weak teams are the best", and it is not without reason.
Because the goalkeepers of weak teams will always face a large number of shots in the game, they will of course get many more training opportunities than the goalkeepers of ordinary teams. As long as the mental quality is excellent and the basic skills are passed, there will be many more highlight moments than the goalkeepers of ordinary teams.
However, Mansour's efforts failed in the 63rd minute - when Chen Xingyi broke into the penalty area and passed, the football hit the Syrian defender's open arm.
Without waiting for the VAR reminder, the referee decisively blew the whistle for a foul on the Syrian player and sentenced the Chinese team to a penalty kick!
The penalty kick was taken by Hu Lai.
Syrian goalkeeper Mansour also tried to have a "match of wits" with Hulay on the goal line - he moved a step to the side and gave up more of the goal.
This is to increase the choice of the penalty kick player and make the opponent hesitate when taking the penalty kick.
When taking a penalty kick, the most important thing is not technique, but psychological quality and concentration. If you hesitate in this situation, you will lose.
The goalkeeper stepping to the side will cause confusion and hesitation for the penalty kicker, and he can't help but guess what the goalkeeper is going to do...
The goalkeeper bets on whether the player will be hesitant to kick a "big goal" or a "small goal."
Although Hassan Mansour is not famous, he is an excellent goalkeeper. He has done everything he can do. Although he was awarded a penalty kick, he did not give up, but tried every means to save the situation.
But he chose the wrong partner for a battle of wits and courage.
After Hu Lai, who was standing at the penalty spot, heard the whistle, he took a deep breath, took a run-up, and volleyed!
He whipped the football toward the "big goal"!
Mansour simply guessed the wrong direction - he rushed towards the small goal.
The football flew into the goal without any suspense!
"Hu Lai! Beautiful! The ball is scored!! There is no suspense! This is Hu Lai's second penalty kick in the top 12! As the top penalty kicker of the national team, Hu Lai has a big heart beyond ordinary people. , despite Mansour's psychological warfare, he still scored the ball steadily! The Chinese team finally broke the deadlock! "The 80,000 people in the Shanhai Stadium cheered in unison, as magnificent as the mountains and the sea!
(End of chapter)