Chapter 1845 What is the "Golden Generation"?
Although he failed to win the "China Cup" championship.
However, the Chinese team's performance in the game still won everyone's praise and recognition after the game.
This is definitely not the previous practice of "digging for gold" or "having a happy funeral".
But it is genuine and worthy of recognition.
Facing Croatia, which is ranked 16th in FIFA, the Chinese team insisted on its own style of play and was not restricted by the opponent to display its own style.
The Chinese team in the past was not like this at all.
If you are good at passing and controlling, you can still perform well against weak teams. Once you encounter a strong team, or a team with similar strength to yourself, and are pressed and pressed by the opponent, you will immediately not know how to play.
Everything I learned in training was instantly forgotten.
Even his basic skills seem to have disappeared. He can stop the ball ten meters away, and can pass the ball to the opponent's feet if he is close at hand.
Don't dare to take the ball, don't dare to break through, and don't dare to shoot.
If you pass the ball more than three times in a row, you will lose it.
This is a sign of both a lack of confidence, a lack of experience, and a lack of ability.
Now the Chinese team lacks neither confidence nor experience, and its capabilities have also been greatly improved compared to before.
More importantly, their mental attributes have greatly improved compared to many years ago.
Not so easy to panic when something happens.
So even though Croatia is very strong, the Chinese team is still dealing with them tenaciously.
After conceding two goals first, they fought hard until the 87th minute and finally got one back.
After Hulay attracted the attention of almost all Croatian defensive players, he passed the football to Chen Xingyi, allowing Chen Xingyi to score a goal with almost no one marking him.
After getting back a goal, the Chinese team continued to attack fiercely, hoping to draw the opponent and drag the game into overtime.
But in the 94th minute, Croatia used a corner kick to kill the ball.
Although they lost, no one blamed the Chinese team, but instead praised them.
In the last twenty minutes of the game, the Chinese team was full of momentum and played beautifully. The Chinese fans in the stands cheered one after another, one wave after another.
After the game, some fans said this online:
"Just with their performance in the last twenty minutes or so, even if they lose this game, I believe no one will be dissatisfied. Because they have tried their best! Croatia is the 16th-ranked team!"
This sentence has been liked by many people.
However, within the national team, not everyone agrees with this view.
It's just that the first person to express his opinion was somewhat unexpected.
"At least I'm not satisfied."
In the national team group, it was Luo Kai who said this.
"I don't agree with those who think that Croatia is ranked higher than us, so it doesn't matter if we lose. We can't win against Croatia, which is ranked 16th, so how can we beat Spain and Italy, which are ranked second? If we lose to these two The team deserves it, so it’s natural that our group can’t qualify. But the problem is, I don’t want to go home after playing in the group stage.”
Luo Kai is a taciturn person in the team. He is very important on the court, but his presence is not high off the court.
He doesn't have many friends in the national team - compared with the "social butterfly" Hu Lai, he can be regarded as a "lonely person".
He won't comment on many things.
So no one expected that he would be the first person to stand up and criticize himself this time...
As a result, no one in the group spoke for a while after Luo Kai said it. Some people were shocked by Luo Kai's words. They didn't know how to answer him, or they didn't expect that these words came from Luo Kai's mouth.
※※※
"Holy shit! What's wrong with Luo Kai?" Chen Xingyi complained in their small group.
"What they said is true. Are you satisfied with the result?" Zhang Qinghuan asked.
"You're kidding, I'm not satisfied either. But Luo Kai was not like this before. I thought I would hear what he said from Lao Wang's mouth."
Wang Guangwei: "I want to say it in our group... I still have to save some face for everyone. But being so straightforward is indeed Luo Kai's style. He doesn't have to worry about other people's face, and he doesn't have to think about saying this. What do you think of him after he..."
Chen Xingyi: "Lao Wang, just tell Luo Kai that Luo Kai is not popular. There is no need to help Duoshui with so many words."
Zhang Qinghuan: "Fuck, little Xingxing, if you hadn't said that, I wouldn't have even thought about it..."
Xia Xiaoyu: "Hey, where is Brother Hu? Why is Brother Hu silent all this time?"
When he said this, everyone reacted. They had said so much here, but Hu Lai, who should have been the one to show off and act mean, remained silent.
"Yes, where is Hu Lai?"
"@Bitch, stop diving, come out quickly!"
At this moment, someone from their national team finally broke the ice and helped Luo Kai "redeem" him.
"Luo Kai is right. Losing to Croatia has no meaning in comforting ourselves. If we lose, we lose. In the World Cup group stage, we lost to Spain and Italy. Judging from the ranking and strength comparison, it should be normal. As long as we perform well enough on the scene, even if we lose in the end, I think the domestic media and fans will still be the same as today. But a loss is a loss. If we lose two games, it will be basically difficult. Qualified from the group.”
The person who made such a long statement is...
Hu Lai.
※※※
"Holy shit!"
Chen Xingyi didn't post this sentence in the group, but he involuntarily made it while holding his cell phone.
Not only him, but at this moment, countless people holding their mobile phones made the same exclamation.
I was shocked and speechless.
What is directly reflected is that in the national team group, no one else answered or echoed.
It became the "duo" of Hu Lai and Luo Kai.
Luo Kai: "I feel that we only broke out in the last 20 minutes, which was a bit late. If we had been able to break out earlier, maybe the goal scored in the 87th minute would not have been the first goal, but the equalizing goal. By that time At that time, the situation will be reversed. Croatia will not have the intention to counterattack at that time. They will shrink to their own 30-meter area because they are afraid of being scored by us. I don’t know if everyone is worried about physical problems, so they are more worried. Showing strength later?”
Hu Lai: "Physical fitness is not a problem. It is a problem of mentality. It seems that I can't get nervous until the last moment. It is good to maintain the mentality, but I think there should still be a sense of urgency. Although before the game, the head coach said We played the game as a real World Cup, but I think our mentality still did not meet the requirements of the head coach. Of course, the 'China Cup' is not a real World Cup, but in fact, you can think about it, if we scored two goals in the World Cup. What to do if you fall behind?”
Luo Kai: "Actually, in the last 20 minutes against Croatia, we were able to get a goal back, which shows that we are capable of competing for victory with Croatia."
Hulay: "Absolutely. Our minimum goal this time is to qualify from the group. If we can't even win Croatia, how can we qualify from the group? We were assigned to the 'Group of Death'."
Luo Kai: "But just qualifying for the group stage is not easy. How many World Cups have teams like Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Iran participated in? How many times have they been able to qualify for the group stage? You still have to try your best. Although you work hard You may not succeed even if you try your best, but if you don’t even try your best, why should you think about the goal of qualifying for the group?”
Hu Lai: "In the last World Cup, we went to see the world for the second time. In this World Cup, it would be too boring to see the world again. The minimum goal is to qualify for the group, and the maximum goal is not capped. We can go as far as we can. I think only in this way can it make sense to participate in the World Cup continuously. Of course, this is my personal opinion. But I hope everyone can work with me to achieve this goal, and then it will not be a waste to participate in the World Cup. I also know that this is difficult, but if we succeed, we will make history. How can it be possible if it is not difficult to create history?”
Luo Kai: "Yeah."
※※※
"Let me go, Hu Lai was abducted by aliens, right? No... Luo Kai was also abducted by aliens, right?"
Zhou Zijing exclaimed while holding his cell phone.
Morikawa Junpei asked: "What's wrong?"
Zhou Zijing naturally handed his mobile phone to Morikawa Junpei: "See for yourself."
Junpei Morikawa also took the phone naturally and looked at the chat history of the Chinese national team’s WeChat group.
When he had finished reading, Zhou Zijing said:
"This is not like Hu Lai's speaking style at all. I even doubted whether he was behind this account. You can see that he didn't make any jokes or act mean during the whole process... To be honest, when I first read what he said, , I have been waiting for him to come up with some kind of magical turning point after saying so much... but it hasn't happened until now. And Luo Kai, too, how can they appear to be like-minded in the group if their relationship is so bad? Come?”
"No, Zhou Sang." Morikawa Junpei shook his head and disagreed with his statement. "I don't know Luo Kai, but this is the real Hulesan."
"What the hell?" Zhou Zijing didn't understand what Morikawa Junpei meant.
"The Hulesan you are familiar with is actually just a cover-up, a mask he puts on himself. Underneath this mask is the real him, as sincere and dedicated to football as a child."
< br>
Zhou Zijing frowned, feeling that this was a bit offensive: "No. Is it a bad thing to be sincere and dedicated to football? Why does he wear an unseemly mask to cover up?"
"Because being too sincere will hurt others like sunshine."
Just as Zhou Zijing was about to refute, Morikawa Junpei continued:
"Have you forgotten that when Hulesan was interviewed, he said that his goal was to lead the Chinese team to win the World Cup? How the domestic media and fans scolded him and ridiculed him at that time?"
Zhou Zijing's mouth that he just opened closed again.
He turned his attention back to his phone screen.
Finally, a third person in the Chinese national team’s WeChat group came out to speak.
It's Wang Guangwei.
He said: "Luo Kai and Hu Lai are right. I think we still don't understand the difficulty of the goal of qualifying from the World Cup group deeply enough."
"I'm not saying that everyone is not working hard enough. I believe that everyone is trying their best."
"But it's just like the last few minutes of the last World Cup game. We all thought we had tried our best, and it would be great to draw with Brazil."
"In hindsight, if we had worked harder and pushed ourselves harder, maybe we could have defeated Brazil? The Brazilian team was obviously panicked at the time... and each of us was in such good shape at that time..."
"Really, it's completely possible. If we had defeated Brazil, we would have definitely reached the top 16..."
"But unfortunately, I can only think about it now. Then every time I think about it, I regret it. We had already created the history of Chinese football, but if we can work harder, we can create an even greater history..."
"Four years ago, we didn't have that awareness. Now, since we all have this awareness, don't regret it again."
※※※
A few years later, Japan's NHK TV station produced a documentary about the golden generation of Chinese football.
In the film, they interviewed many current or retired Japanese players who have deep connections with Chinese football, and wanted to hear what they thought of the golden generation of football in neighboring countries.
Among them, Morikawa Junpei said this:
"Everyone thinks that the so-called 'golden generation' is a group of players of similar age, high level, and outstanding talent that appeared in Chinese football at that time. But I don't think so.
"I think that the golden generation of Chinese football is not a group of high-level players who appeared at the same time, but a group of 'innocents' with a golden spirit. Their hearts have the quality of gold, so... …They are the 'golden generation'" (End of Chapter)