Champion’s Heart

As Zhou Yi said, no matter how many off-the-table moves or verbal wars are made before the game, it is actually of no use.

The outcome of a football match is mainly determined by the game.

Of course, extravagant moves and verbal spats may affect the players' performance on the field.

For example, if Qatar's adjustments to the Chinese team's hotel can make the Chinese team's players more tired, then they will not be able to achieve 100% performance during the game.

However, it seems that Qatar really just doesn’t want the Chinese team to stay in their lucky hotel. The hotel they arranged for the Chinese team to stay in is actually better than the previous one in terms of conditions and location...

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The match between the Chinese team and Singapore kicked off at 11:15 pm on November 11th, Beijing time. For domestic fans, this is not too late a kick-off time. They can watch this without staying up late. game. After reading it, it was almost midnight, just in time to go to sleep.

Of course, how many people will be willing to sleep at that time is another matter.

Ten o'clock in the evening Beijing time is seven o'clock in the evening local time in Qatar. There is a five-hour time difference between the two places.

For Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries with a tropical desert climate, except for the mild winter period from December to February, the daytime temperature is very high at other times and can rise to more than 40 degrees, and the air The humidity is high and it's very muggy in the summer. Therefore, football matches will not be held in the afternoon at this time.

Like the Premier League, where the kick-off is after one o'clock at noon, it is almost impossible to happen in the Qatar League.

The only advantage of this place is that although the temperature is very high during the day, because the surface is mainly gravel, the temperature difference between day and night is large. It is still very cool in the morning and evening, and with the sea breeze blowing, the body temperature is not high.

The match between the Chinese team and Iraq was scheduled during this time period.

In the western sky, there are still some red clouds near the horizon, but that is already the last ray of sunset.

There are seabirds flying over the stadium from time to time.

There were many fans wearing Arab-specific white gauze robes sitting in the stands. Not many of these people were actually Iraqis, and many were actually Qataris.

Zhou Yi is no stranger to this scene.

When he was in the Asian Cup, almost every game was like this.

In addition to the fans from Qatar and Iraq, there are many Chinese people holding the five-star red flag and wearing red clothes in the southern stands. It is difficult to say that they are all fans, but they are all Chinese and they are all in Qatar. Employees of Chinese companies and international students. Many of these people may not watch football at all, but they are not here to watch football. They are here to support the Chinese team. When you are abroad, sports can represent your motherland to some extent.

After the game started, Iraq launched a fierce attack on the Chinese team's goal, hoping to score an early goal.

They almost beat the Chinese team in the away game. When they return to the home court, their goal must be victory.

In response to this idea in Iraq, Gao Hongbo formulated a defensive counterattack strategy.

In the first half, Gao Hongbo's tactics were half successful, because Iraq did not score a goal.

However, the Chinese team was not able to threaten Iraq's goal.

The two sides tied 0:0.

During the halftime break, Gong Lei, the guest commentator in China's domestic studio, analyzed the Chinese team's performance in the first half and believed that they put too much energy on defense, resulting in a slight lack of investment in offense. But this is not a big problem. After all, it would be good if the Chinese team can get a draw in the away game.

...It would be better if we can win, but I think for the Chinese team, the most important thing is not to think too much now. The fear is that if you think too much, you won't know how to play football... …”

Gong Lei's statement was agreed by commentator Liu Hong.

Yes, we always thought too much before. In fact, simpler football would be better...

Yes, unity of thought.

Liu Hong thought for a while and felt that something was wrong: Hey, Teacher Gong. But we also have too many precedents of thinking too much and being afraid of losing, and in the end we really lost the game. If this game is too conservative, will it happen? What if we lose again in the end?”

Gong Lei seemed to be stabilized. After a few ums, he finally thought of what to say: That's it... The Chinese team is not blindly defensive, there will still be counterattacks. But it must still focus on defense. Yes, unless there is a good counterattack opportunity, the Chinese team will not attack at will. As for the opportunity to counterattack... I think Zhou Yi will definitely grasp it well.

Liu Hong also echoed: That's true, I believe Zhou Yi will not let us down - when has he ever let us down?

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In fact, Gong Lei was right. During the halftime break, Gao Hongbo did emphasize to the Chinese team that they should still play defensive counterattack in the second half and not attack easily, otherwise the space behind them would be easily exploited by their opponents.

But when should we move forward and fight back?

However, he did not go into details, but said to all the players: It was decided by the Book of Changes.

He completely believed in Zhou Yi's judgment of the situation, which was also a kind of delegation of power. In fact, the head coach on the sidelines will never know more about what is happening on the court than the players on the court. However, the head coach has an advantage, that is, they are deep on the sidelines and can see the overall situation and use a macro Observe the game from a different perspective, so although they are not on the front line, they can direct the game. Although the players are on the front line, they are unable to understand the full situation because they are in the mountains.

But such a problem does not exist for Zhou Yi at all, because he even has an observation angle beyond the head coach's perspective, he has a God's perspective! Therefore, he can not only understand the situation on the front line and experience the changes in the game situation immediately, but also has a better overall vision than the head coach.

So when it comes to things on the court, he makes decisions better than the head coach. The main head coach is willing to delegate authority.

Gao Hongbo is willing to delegate power. In fact, he didn't want to do this at first, but after he observed Zhou Yi's training and games at close range, he found that Zhou Yi knew the situation on the court very well, even to the point of being terrifying. Everyone knows that the game format is constantly changing, and the twenty-two players are constantly changing every minute and every second.

But Zhouyi was able to grasp them all.

After discovering Zhou Yi's characteristics, Gao Hongbo felt that Zhou Yi could be a mobile command hub on the court, and there was no need for him to yell and direct the game from the sidelines.

In this way, he gradually delegated power, and the Chinese team players gradually became accustomed to Zhou Yi's arrangements for matters on the court.

As for Zhou Yi, he actually likes the head coach's arrangement. Because it will make things simpler. It is not easy to simplify the complex. If you do it well, you can reap huge results. Although other players in the national team are not as strong as his Dortmund teammates, Zhou Yi does not feel that playing in the national team is a painful thing, just because he has such a privilege in the national team, but he does not in Dortmund.

Because Dortmund's head coach Klopp will not do what Gao Hongbo did. He wants to have everything under control and only allow players to play freely within the limits he stipulates, but not completely free to play.

This is also the result of different systems.

Of course, this approach actually places high demands on the players' sense of responsibility and self-confidence.

People who have no sense of responsibility are unwilling to take on such responsibilities, because it is also a huge pressure. When something goes wrong, the head coach used to be responsible, but now the players who make decisions are responsible.

People who lack confidence are not qualified for such a job. People without confidence will doubt themselves and be hesitant, thus wasting excellent opportunities and may even bring danger to their team.

As it happens, Zhou Yi is a person who has both a sense of responsibility and self-confidence.

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In the second half of the game, the two sides changed sides and fought again. Iraq still launched a fierce offensive towards the Chinese team's goal, even more fiercely than in the first half. Because they knew that there were only forty-five minutes left for them.

Facing the aggressive Iraq, the Chinese team, led by Zhou Yi, played very calmly and not in a hurry, as if they really wanted to get a draw in the away game.

Even when they had the ball at their feet, they did not rush to pass it forward. Instead, they moved back and forth and slowly pushed forward, allowing the Iraqi players to fight back to defend as if they could not see it at all. .

At first, Duan Xin felt sorry for the Chinese team that missed counterattack opportunities again and again, but then she stopped talking.

After the Iraqi team sprinted and ran back to defend several times, they found that the Chinese team had no intention of counterattacking quickly. They passed the ball leisurely there, but they were half exhausted from trying to defend. This was really a bit strange. accurate.

So when the Chinese team got the ball again, they were not in a hurry to run back. Instead, they stayed in the midfield and tried to steal the ball to counterattack on the spot.

But when the Iraqi team did this, Zhou Yi suddenly passed the football to Hao Junmin on the wing with a long diagonal pass!

The Chinese team's counterattack!! Liu Hong, who had been holding back for a long time, could finally shout this sentence. (To be continued.)