Champion’s Heart

When Zhou Yi was preparing for the second round of the league at the Brackel training base, reporters also swarmed in. Everyone wanted to hear what he, the core of Dortmund, thought about the team being assigned to the group of death, and Some reporters came to interview him about his feelings after being included in the ten-man list of the best players in European clubs.

Regarding the list of the ten best people, Zhou Yi seemed very calm, even a little indifferent.

The ten strongest people? I have never stopped saying this. There are only three people who can participate in the award ceremony every year, so the 'ten strongest people' is just a gimmick made up by you, right? There is no official statement like this. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Zhou Yi's words are equivalent to pouring cold water on those excited reporters, but this is a normal approach for a person who has high demands on himself. If he is complacent about being on some so-called Ten Strongest People list, his achievements may end there.

Only some Chinese reporters paid attention to the so-called Top Ten, while more people paid attention to the group stage.

Regarding this matter, Zhou Yi seemed to be very independent. He asked reporters: Do you know the UEFA Champions League Group D in the 1989-1999 season?

This answer is profound. How could these professional football reporters not know about the UEFA Champions League Group D in the 1989-1999 season? They were simply impressed with the group of death that year.

So what does Zhou Yi’s answer mean?

Does it mean that Dortmund can become Bayern Munich or Manchester United that year? But the problem is that Dortmund has to qualify from this group first...

It's not that easy to qualify from this group.

Klopp also seemed as confident as Zhou Yi when being interviewed by reporters: We know that our opponent is very strong, but Dortmund is also a very strong opponent in the eyes of our opponents. We will fight hard against any team that blocks us.

After being assigned to the death group, Dortmund did not show any negative emotions, which made Dortmund fans somewhat relieved...

And there's a change that will make Dortmund fans happy.

After seven seasons, Dortmund returned to the Champions League in the 2009-2010 season. They were placed in a group with defending champions Inter Milan, Valencia, and Twente. That was the death group of the Champions League that season. .

How did the media view the grouping results at that time?

Everyone thinks that Dortmund’s qualifying situation is worrying.

It is not easy to grab a qualifying spot, and you have to rely on luck. I think the most practical thing for Dortmund is to correct their mentality, focus on accumulating experience, and not expect to qualify for the group.

At that time, Dortmund was really looked down upon in the European arena.

And this time, they were also placed in the group of death, and the degree of death was even worse than last time. However, everyone’s evaluation of Dortmund was not negative, but they believed that Dortmund formed the group of death. The important part is that Dortmund can wrestle with any opponent in this group stage, and no one is sure of winning Dortmund.

This is the result of Dortmund reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League for two consecutive seasons, the quarterfinals one season, and the semifinals one season.

In the football world, respect and recognition are earned through strength.

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After the Champions League group draw ceremony ended, Dortmund ushered in the second round of the Bundesliga. They challenged Nuremberg away from home.

Zhou Yi only played half of this game, starting the game, and was replaced during the halftime break. In the end, Dortmund shook hands with Nuremberg 1:1 in the away game.

Zhou Yi was replaced early because he had to return to China to participate in a very important World Cup qualifying match.

The Chinese Football Association has been in constant communication with Dortmund before. Because similar things have happened before and the two sides have had good communication and cooperation, an agreement was reached this time to allow Zhou Yi to play only half of the league to give him Return to China to compete and retain more physical fitness.

Fortunately, there is only one national team game in September. Zhou Yi can come back after finishing the game. There is no need to waste too much time, and the losses suffered by the club are relatively small.

However, Zhou Yi had such privileges, but Yang Muge did not receive such good treatment. After all, Zhou Yi is the core of the club. The head coach will also consider the player's mood. If he is more willing to play for the country, the club will be accommodating.

Although Yang Muge is Yang Muge's main player, he does not have core treatment. It is absolutely impossible for Schalke 04 to only let him play half the game just to let Yang Muge return to China to compete.

In this game, Schalke 04 defeated Augsburg 3:1 at home, and Yang Muge played the entire game.

Fortunately, Yang Muge's physical fitness is much better than Zhou Yi, so even if he plays 45 minutes more than Zhou Yi, it is not a big deal.

In Spain, Sun Pan was not recruited into the national squad for this competition due to injury. He will stay in Spain to continue recuperating from his injury. However, he has already started training, and his comeback is not far away.

He Ying does not have a physical problem, because in the third round of the league, when Barcelona defeated Valencia 1:0 at home, he still was not able to enter the match squad. There was no game to play, how could he not be physically fit enough?

Central defender Guo Nu, who plays for Siena in Serie A, also played the entire game. Unfortunately, Siena lost to Sampdoria 1:2 away from home.

Except for Sun Pan, four of the Five Little Dragons were selected for the national team and will return to China to prepare for the game against the Japanese team.

Among the entire Olympic team, they are not the only four selected for the national team. Forward Wu Lei and full-back Cao Yun were also selected for the national team due to their outstanding performance in the Olympics. However, Wu Lei This is not the first time he has been selected for the national team. As early as the 2010 East Asian Cup, he was selected for Gao Hongbo's national team. However, he has always been a marginal international player and his status in the national team is not stable.

During the London Olympics, the media reported that the national team coach Gao Hongbo was watching the game in London. At that time, some people speculated that Gao Hongbo came to observe the outstanding players in the Olympic team. Maybe after the Olympics, they would be Recruited to the national team one after another.

Unexpectedly, after the Olympic Games, Gao Hongbo moved almost half of the Olympic team into the national team.

This is a very bold move. After all, so many people coming in means that the same number of former national team players will be eliminated. This kind of drastic adjustment is actually very risky, because it will offend people and destroy the original team. Vested interest structure, after all, it is not easy to enter the national team, and no one wants to be eliminated.

Although the National Olympic team won the Olympic gold medal, it does not mean that they will definitely be suitable for the national team. After all, the tactical systems of the National Olympic team and the National Olympic team are different.

If the results are good, then that's it. Even if someone is dissatisfied, there is no excuse to vent. But once the results are not good, the pressure will be overwhelming for Gao Hongbo and the young players of the Olympic team.

And it just so happened that the first game for the Olympic team players was against Japan, the strongest team in the group...

Or away from home!

If he loses this game, I wonder if Gao Hongbo will face pressure from some people in the country? Will the players on the Olympic team also become victims?

In fact, there is no need for Gao Hongbo to recruit so many players from the Olympic team at once. Not only will it be a shock to the national team players, but also to allow the newcomers to adapt to the national team's tactics.

But Gao Hongbo has already recruited so many people, and it’s useless to say anything. Sometimes Gao Hongbo is so stubborn that it’s hard to believe. I can’t understand how this thin and shy man can have such explosive power in his physical fitness...

He was also so stubborn when he was coaching the Changchun team. His stubbornness allowed him to lead Changzhuan Yatai, a civilian team, to a historic victory in the Chinese Super League. But it was also because of his stubbornness that he had irreconcilable conflicts with the players after the championship, and was eventually fired by the club. But the Changchun team, which lost Gao Hongbo, could never regain its lost glory.

Gao Hongbo is not a head coach who is good at handling his relationship with the media. When he just became the head coach and coached Guangzhou Songri Club, he lost the game after a confrontation with Sichuan Quanxing led by Tavares. Gao Hongbo directly accused the opponent of relying on the referee at the press conference, and then got up and left without giving reporters a chance to ask questions.

Because of these characters, Gao Hongbo has never been very popular in the media. When Wanda Group sponsored the Football Association last year, there were rumors that he would be replaced by a famous foreign coach. At that time, there were also some criticisms of Gao Hongbo in the media, believing that he could not bring long-term progress to Chinese football and that his strength was limited. , is not the best candidate the Chinese team needs.

Before the Asian Cup, his Asian third-rate theory and Asian Cup training theory also aroused criticism from many fans and the media. The public opinion environment was very unfavorable to him.

As a result, the performance of the Asian Cup runner-up and the team in the entire Asian Cup was really amazing. Public opinion praised Gao Hongbo more and more. At this time, no one talked about Asia's third-rate and Asia Cup training. It's good or bad, and the matter of changing the foreign coach has been silenced.

What appears to everyone is that Gao Hongbo is still sitting as the head coach of the Chinese national team.

At this time, some media commented again: There is still a big gap between Gao Hongbo and the world-class head coaches. Compared with all the Chinese and foreign coaches who coach in China, he is not the best one, but he is the most suitable for China. The football one, that's enough.

For Chinese football, which is accustomed to aiming too high, it actually doesn't matter whether it is Camacho or Lippi. The world-famous coach is really good and has a high rank. If university professors can teach primary school students, this is not a waste of resources. This is It's simply not the right thing to do.

With the current level of Chinese football, it is useless to invite Mourinho or Guardiola. Gao Hongbo, who was born and raised here, understands Chinese football better and has more motivation to change the current situation of Chinese football.

However, football is a sport that pays more attention to results. If the Chinese team had not won the runner-up in the Asian Cup, Gao Hongbo, no matter how well he understood Chinese football, would have had no choice but to dismiss get out of class, pack up and get out.

Similarly, now he has recruited six players from the Olympic team to join the national team in one go. Such a risky move, if the national team loses too miserably in Japan and touches the self-esteem of the Chinese people, I am afraid he will also His leadership position will be unstable again.

Just at the London Olympics, Blazevic, who led the Olympic team to win the gold medal, is now gaining a high reputation. It seems logical to let him replace Gao Hongbo, and it may not be inappropriate...

Gao Hongbo's fate can only depend on how this team performs. (To be continued.)