King of the Zone

The 2010 Yangcheng Asian Games, the 16th Asian Games, was hosted by Yangcheng City, southern Guangdong Province, and co-organized by several nearby cities. The Games cycle was from November 2010 to November 11, 12. The opening ceremony was held on the evening of November 11.

However, because of the particularity of the relatively long football game cycle, whether it is the Olympic Games or the Asian Games, the football game is played before the opening ceremony.

On November 11, the football group match officially began.However, the Hua Guo team did not participate on the first day.

At noon on November 11th, the Hua Guo Olympic team's competition day, after lunch, countless fans from all over the country and local residents of Yangcheng began to gather at Tianhe Stadium.

The game didn't start until 19 o'clock in the evening, but most fans couldn't wait that long and wanted to go to the scene earlier.

As for dinner, just eat some snacks around the stadium and it will be settled, and there is still time for supper after returning home after the game.

Tianhe Stadium was completed and put into use in 1987, and it has been more than 20 years.

For this Asian Games, the Tianhe Stadium has been remodeled. The number of seats in the stands has been reduced from 6 to 56000, but the seats have become more comfortable and spacious. The turf is also the top football grass that is comparable to the South African World Cup.

As the host, the three group matches of the Hua Guo Olympic team will be held here.The crowd of Huaguo fans must be able to put a lot of pressure on the opponent.

Outside the stadium, there are fans from all over the country.Many reporters wandered outside, randomly interviewing fans, asking them about the game and their views and expectations on Cheng Hai.

Because there were too many people, the security check channel started to check tickets three hours in advance from 16:[-].

Cheng Songquan, who had never been to a football stadium before, looked at the surging crowd and sighed in shock:
"My God, I don't feel anything about tens of thousands of fans in a game on TV and in the news. It's really enlightening to be at the scene today."

Xi Yulin said with joy on his face: "So many people, all came to see Ah Hai play football? It's really great. If the team didn't give us three tickets, we might not be able to buy tickets!"

Xi Huabin said: "Auntie, Uncle, most of these people are here for Ah Hai. I read the comments from online fans. If Ah Hai hadn't returned to China to participate in the Asian Games, Tianhe Stadium's 56000 seats might not have filled half of the seats. The rest of the tickets were all sold on the basis of Ah Hai's fame. Therefore, the Olympic team gave us three tickets, which is basically a steady profit!"

Cheng Songquan waved his hands and said with a smile: "This matter can't be judged as profit or loss. It is also our honor that Ah Hai can put on the jersey of the national team and play for the country!"

Xi Huabin nodded and didn't say anything more.

The three of them took out their tickets and entered the stadium with the crowd.

Cheng Songquan and his wife couldn't find their way at all. It was all thanks to Xi Huabin who led them to find their seats. It was just below the VIP seats and press seats, above the exit of the players' tunnel. The view was very good, and they could immediately see the players coming out and singing the national anthem facing them.

When I got to the seat, there were not many people, but there were already a few people in the nearby seats.

When Cheng Songquan asked, it turned out that they were also family members of the Olympic team members, and everyone chatted cordially immediately.

Cheng Songquan and Xi Yulin, Cheng Hai's parents, are also respected by others, and everyone chatted happily.

As more and more fans entered the stadium, the seats gradually changed from sparse to full.

Half an hour before the start of the game, players from the two teams came out of the locker room in training uniforms, ready to warm up.

And when Cheng Hai's figure appeared, all Huaguo fans in the audience erupted. Everyone stood up excitedly, shouted Cheng Hai's name, and worshiped him.

Cheng Songquan and his wife, who were sitting in the first row of the stands, listened to the deafening shouts, and a sense of pride that was much stronger than watching live TV filled their hearts.

Cheng Hai naturally knew where his parents' seats were. After coming out of the player tunnel, he turned his head to look at the stands, and waved happily to his parents.

Cheng Songquan also yelled at his son: "Ah Hai, come on!"

Xi Yulin shouted more emotionally: "Son, come on, score two more goals!"

Of course, Cheng Hai couldn't come to the sidelines to hug his parents.

Because domestic stadiums are not professional football stadiums, and the stands are relatively high, there is no way to allow players and fans to hug directly through the guardrail like foreign professional football stadiums.

Soon, the two sides finished warming up, returned to the locker room to change their game uniforms, and were ready to play the game.

It is a pity that Cheng Hai is not a starting player, so he cannot sing the national anthem and take a group photo with the starting players.

In the previous two days of training, Cheng Hai and the coaching staff have already tried it. The training intensity of the U23 Olympic team cannot be compared with that of Dortmund's first team, so Cheng Hai can last longer.

The playing time is also limited.

In the official game, everyone estimated that Cheng Hai could play halftime for 45 minutes, but he still couldn't finish the entire 90-minute game.

Therefore, Cheng Hai can only come off the bench during the intermission.

In fact, Cheng Hai could play in the first half of the game.

But then Cheng Hai can only do his best in the playing time, score more goals, and leave more advantages for the second half of the game.

This is not good for preserving Cheng Hai's physical fitness.

The coaches of the Olympic team want Cheng Hai to lead everyone to a higher ranking in the knockout round!

The coaching staff also didn't know about Cheng Hai's physical recovery ability. They just thought it was more appropriate for Cheng Hai to play in the second half and then decide whether to keep his strength in the final stage according to the game situation.

Therefore, everyone decided that Cheng Hai would come off the bench in the second half, just like in the club, and would not start for the time being.

A total of 24 countries participated in this Asian Games men's football, divided into 6 groups, the top two in each group and the four No.3 with the best results, a total of 16 teams advanced to the knockout round of 16, and then followed by a single knockout match until the champion was determined.

The Huaguo U23 National Olympic Team is in Group A with Japan U23, Malaysia U23, and Kyrgyzstan U23. It is no problem to qualify for the group.

However, to get a better schedule in the knockout rounds, you still have to fight hard in the group stage and try to get a higher ranking.

There is no doubt that the biggest opponent of the Olympic team in the group stage is the Japanese U23.

In fact, for an event like the Asian Games, there is no need for the Olympic team to recruit nuclear-weapon-level players like Cheng Hai.

It's just because the Huaguo men's football team has always had poor performance, and they want to recruit all available players to get the best results in any competition.

And this time the Asian Games is still the home court of the Hua Guo team, so they naturally want to play with the strongest lineup and win good results.

On the other hand, Japan U23 did not recruit an overage player, and Shinji Kagawa, who played for Dortmund with Cheng Hai, was not recruited by Japan U23.

Therefore, although the Borussia Dortmund club finally gave Cheng Hai face and let him return to China to participate in the Asian Games, compared with the Japanese Olympic team and Kagawa Shinji, Cheng Hai must have left some bad impressions on the coaches and management.

After the Asian Games, Cheng Hai must use better performance to suppress the coach and management's dissatisfaction with his participation in the Asian Games.

Otherwise, maybe you will be thrown into the cold palace.

Not to mention Shinji Kagawa, the 20 players in the Japanese team don’t even have the main players in the domestic J-League. They are all marginal substitutes in the J-League and J2 League, and even 6 players are college amateurs.

This lineup is simply a rabble to the extreme.

Therefore, before the first Olympic team VS Japan game, Hua Guo team goalkeeper Wang Dalei said wildly that he was confident of keeping a clean sheet against his opponent.

As a result, just 11 minutes into the game, he was slapped in the face.

The Japanese team broke through from the right and made a cross from the bottom, causing a scuffle in the penalty area.

Midfielder Kazuya Yamamura rushed into the penalty area to fight for the high ball and beat Song Boxuan to grab the first nod to ferry. Forward Kensuke Nagai caught the ball and passed it to the back of the Olympic team's defense line without stopping. Midfielder Yamazaki Ryohei volleyed forward and scored from a small angle against Wang Dalei. The Japanese team led 1-0.

The more than 5 fans who were cheering for the Olympic team in the stands were stunned and silent. Only two or three thousand away fans of the Japanese team waved the sun flag to celebrate wildly.

After a while, chants of "National football idiot" and "Wang Dalei idiot" began to be heard sporadically from the stands.

Although the voice was not neat and did not get the response of most people, it was enough to make the Olympic team members lose face on the field.

In the stands, Cheng Hai's mother, Xi Yulin, didn't quite understand the voice, and asked strangely, "What's going on? Isn't it normal to be behind in the game? Why are the fans starting to curse?"

Xi Huabin explained from the side: "Auntie, these scolding fans are not only scolding for the conceded goal, but for the long-term performance of domestic football. This is the long-standing resentment in the hearts of these fans, which exploded at this time."

Xi Huabin's explanation got to the point. These are not unacceptable to lose the ball first in a game, but unacceptable to be behind for a long time.

What's more, the Huaguo team in this Asian Games attaches great importance to it. Not only did they recruit nuclear weapons like Cheng Hai, but they were accompanied by Huachao teams in the previous training camps.

In contrast, Japan's U23 not only recruited domestic substitutes and college players, but also had only two training camps before the start of the Asian Games, each for two days.

Compared with such a lineup and preparations, Huaguo fans are of course full of confidence and desire for victory in the first game.

Although Wang Dalei said before the game that he wanted to keep a clean sheet against his opponents, although some fans were disgusted, everyone did not have the idea of ​​​​supporting Wang Dalei's clean sheet opponents in their hearts.

As a result, unexpectedly, in the first 11 minutes of the game, the Olympic team hadn't scored a goal yet, but the opponent broke through the goal guarded by Wang Dalei.

Coupled with the long-term grievances of the fans against the national football team, it is natural that some people will scold them.

Of course, the first goal was conceded, and the game was not over yet. The Hua Guo team still had hope of equalizing and winning, so only a small number of people scolded, not many.

If you continue to lose the ball later, or perform poorly, it may cause all the fans to scold together.

On the bench, Cheng Hai looked at the game with a heavy expression on his face.

Originally, he thought that the strength of the U23 teams in Asia was similar to that of the Olympic team, but he did not expect that the U23 teams in Japan were so much stronger than the Hua Guo team.

Although Japan's U23 roster is full of J-League substitutes and college players on the bright side, they have real skills. Even if they get Europe, this Japanese U23 team can also play against the German third team.

This was beyond Cheng Hai's expectation.

Whether it is personal skills, passing and cutting cooperation, physical fitness, and physical condition, Cheng Hai can see that Japan's U23 is almost fully ahead of the Olympic team.

Is domestic football really lagging behind to this point?

Sitting on the bench, Cheng Hai was full of worries about domestic football and the good results of this Asian Cup. He no longer had the confidence he had after receiving task 6 and training with his teammates.

The Olympic team is indeed weak, and training with the Olympic team is indeed like training with adults and children, but the Japanese U23s are not weak, much stronger than the Hua Guo Olympic team.

In the next game, just as Cheng Hai feared, the Japanese U23 almost had an absolute advantage and bombarded the half of the Hua Guo team indiscriminately.

They also knew that Cheng Hai, the super nuclear weapon, was sitting on Hua Guo's bench. They had to score more goals in the first half to ensure that Cheng Hai's goal advantage would not be wiped out in the second half.

Therefore, in the next game in the first half, the Japanese team did not feel complacent because of the goal lead, but still pressed hard, striving to continue to score goals.

The Olympic team, on the other hand, had a very difficult time coping.

The strength of Huaguo football is indeed going from bad to worse.

If Asian football is divided into top, first-rate, second-rate, third-rate, and last-rate, then Japan, South Korea, and Iran, which have won the Asian Cup, are undoubtedly the top teams in Asia.

And the Hua Guo team, before the Asian Cup runner-up in 2004, should belong to a first-class team that has not won the Asian Cup championship, but can occasionally cause a little trouble for the top teams and challenge their status.

But after 2004, Germany and South Africa World Cup, two consecutive World Cup qualifiers failed to enter the top ten in Asia, Huaguo football should not even be counted as first-rate, but only second-rate in Asia.

And it is still making great strides towards the third-rate position in Asia. I don’t know when it will be reduced to the third-rate Asia like Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia, which makes the Chinese people both angry and helpless.

It is shown in this U23 level game that it is preparing for the battle with all its strength. As the host, the Hua Guo Olympic team cannot even win the Japanese U23 team composed of motley crews, and the scene is extremely ugly.

Less than 20 minutes from the last goal, the Japanese team scored again in the 28th minute.

Moreover, just like the previous goal, this time it was a bottom pass from the right, but the ball was too close to the goal. Wang Dalei attacked decisively, wanting to punch the ball out of the penalty area.

As a result, under the interference of the top players from both sides, Wang Dalei's punch was not solid. Although the ball was hit by him, it was not hit far, and it still landed in the penalty area.

The No. 11 striker of the Japanese team, Kensuke Nagai, had quick eyes and quick feet. Before everyone could react, he stabbed the ball into the Hua Guo team's goal.

The Japanese team led the Chinese Olympic team 2-0.

The scolding in the stands suddenly became louder, and it is estimated that more than 1/3 of the Huaguo fans started to scold.

The performance of the Olympic team really disappointed many fans who came from all over the country and spent a lot of money on air tickets, tickets, board and lodging.

However, it's not over yet.

The Japanese team with a two-goal lead still did not slow down their attack, because they knew what kind of existence the Huaguo team had sitting on the bench.

From being full of confidence before the game to falling behind 0-2, the starting players of the Hua Guo Olympic team have been completely knocked out of all energy.

Not to mention the counterattack, even the defense is very chaotic, often swarming the ball when they see the ball, completely out of order.

This is the performance of the whole team panicked to the extreme.

No way, the head coach Sun Wei, who was planning to start substitutions at halftime, made the first substitution in the 32nd minute.

Originally, the Hua Guo team's starting lineup was a double forward, but now it seems that the double forward is a useless setup.

Therefore, Sun Wei replaced a forward with a defensive midfielder and played a double midfielder, trying to stabilize the defense and wait for Cheng Hai to play in the second half.

However, even with the replacement of a defensive player, the situation of the Olympic team has not been fundamentally changed.

The players on the field have been completely messed up from psychology to formation.

In the 44th minute, just as the first half was coming to an end, when Huaguo players and fans thought they would finally stop conceding a goal, a player from the Olympic team fouled in the backcourt, and the Japanese team won a free kick from the front side.

Kota Mizunuma, Japan's No. 10 core, dropped a free kick into the penalty area. Defender Yuki Hoto, who stepped up to compete for the top, leaped high, which greatly attracted the attention of goalkeeper Wang Dalei.

As a result, Baoto Yuki fell off the top and failed to hit the ball. The ball rubbed his scalp and leaked into the small penalty area behind the unguarded goal.

Daisuke Suzuki, the full-back of the Japanese team who quietly inserted from the side, pushed the ball into the Hua Guo team's goal with no one to defend.

Wang Dalei, who rushed to the back point in a hurry, was a step too late after all, unable to stop the goal.

The first half is not over yet, and the Huaguo Olympic team has fallen behind 0-3, which can be called a big defeat.

Wang Dalei, the Huaguo goalkeeper who said before the game that he would make a clean sheet for the Japanese team, had his face swollen from the beating.

The more than 5 Huaguo fans in the stands were much more united this time. Except for the family members and friends of the players, almost all of them, under the leadership of some fan leaders, chanted "National Football - Silly`B", "Wang Dalei-Silly`B" and other slogans, and the sound shook the whole field.

In the commentary seat, amidst the excited shouts of the Japanese commentator, the commentator of Huaguo CCTV-5 worriedly commented:

"The Olympic team suffered a serious blow. In the first half, it fell behind 0-3. Before the game, Wang Dalei, who was full of confidence and said that he would make a clean sheet, was conceded by the opponent three goals in 45 minutes."

"The spirit of the Olympic team has been completely broken. Even if Cheng Hai, the Bundesliga top scorer, is replaced in the second half, I don't have the confidence to equalize the score."

The guest next to him nodded and said: "Yes! Three goals behind, the score gap is too big, Cheng Hai has just returned to China, and only practiced with the Olympic team for two days, what cooperation and tacit understanding can there be? It is too difficult for the Olympic team to equalize the score. I am afraid that even if Cheng Hai plays, he will not be able to recover."