Champion’s Heart

After the Chinese team lost, Zhou Yi was surrounded by Chinese reporters based in Germany the next day outside the club's training base, wanting to hear his views on yesterday's game.

I watched the game. Zhou Yi said at the beginning. He first showed that he was not talking nonsense without even watching the game, and then he came to his conclusion. I don't have any thoughts.

Is it because you are disappointed with the failure? a reporter asked.

Zhou Yi glanced at him in surprise: How is that possible? What's so disappointing about losing a game? This is the top ten games. Each team has to play eight games. Half of the group stage has been played. We We only lost one game, what's there to be dissatisfied about? This is the top ten, the highest level competition in Asia. To be honest, it's higher than the Asian Cup. There are only a few teams that can participate in this kind of competition. Which one is easier to play? It’s normal to lose to anyone, so I don’t have any feelings.”

But some people say that if you were here yesterday, this game would have been won...

Zhou Yi shook his head repeatedly: This is too amateurish to say. I can't guarantee that we can win when we play. Football is round. What if we fly thousands of kilometers back and the jet lag doesn't change? Playing on the court will be like sleepwalking. , how can we explain why we lost the game? It’s not that there is no such possibility. We are also human beings, not robots. How could we not have any headaches, fever, and accidents? I understand and agree with Director Gao’s decision not to call us back to play football in China. I If it were him, I wouldn’t call a bunch of exhausted, sleep-deprived people to play.”

So losing to Qatar at home is normal?

Otherwise? Zhou Yi asked back. The reporter was so choked that he couldn't say anything.

But the key is not this result. It's not that we are not allowed to lose, but that losing like this makes people lose hope...

Zhou Yi sighed, and then said: It's just a game, there is no need to go online. The top ten games are a long schedule, and the top ten games like this game, which is sandwiched between two European leagues, are not a game. They are all. I think instead of questioning this and why that one lost, you should ask the AFC why it arranged an upright World Cup qualifier between two European leagues, making it as sneaky as a thief. Europe, Africa, South America, North America and Oceania have not arranged national team games at this time, so why is Asia so special? I personally think that such a schedule is simply inexplicable.

After speaking, he waved his hand, stopped answering the question, and turned around and walked away.

In fact, what he was thinking about the last question was different from what he finally said. He sighed and suppressed the true words in his heart. Because he knew that what he said would offend many people and cause internal divisions, so it was better not to say it. He will still have to return to China to get along with his national team teammates in the future.

What he has to say is nothing new, nor does it reflect the depth of his insights. Saying it will change nothing except offending people. Since he is not in that position, there is no use worrying about it.

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On this day, not only Zhou Yi was asked about the new defeat of the national team in an interview, but other Chinese team players who had not returned from overseas were also asked almost the same questions by reporters.

Their answers were similar to Zhou Yi. First of all, they did not think that the loss was because they did not go back. Secondly, they did not think that the failure of this game would have any impact on the Chinese team's goal of qualifying for the World Cup. During the interview, the most low-key and humble Yang Muge found it strange that everyone was so brooding about the failure of this game, and didn't understand what the big deal was.

What domestic public opinion saw as a shocking defeat seemed to them to be ordinary. So some people have a conspiracy theory. Is this an excuse collectively made by the returning players who have not returned to China?

Of course, there is no market for this kind of conspiracy theory, because it is too ridiculous.

Anyone who believes in this conspiracy theory can basically be classified as brainless.

But since all the returning players have said this, everyone can only put aside their restlessness for the time being and wait patiently for the next national team game. When all the returning players return to the team, we will see what their performance and results will be like.

But they will have to wait a little longer. Because the next top ten game will have to wait until June next year. On June 4, 2013, the Chinese team challenged Oman away.

Of course, it is not that there will be no national team games before this, there will also be some warm-up matches, friendly matches and so on. However, the gold content of this kind of competition is very low, and the performance and results in this kind of competition cannot explain anything. Gao Hongbo's national team is famous for performing well in warm-up matches and friendly matches, but the main match is completely different from the warm-up matches and friendly matches.

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On the afternoon of November 17, Dortmund welcomed their opponent Fürth in the twelfth round of the league at home. Zhou Yi, who did not have to worry about returning to China, started the game and played the entire game. There was no problem with his physical fitness.

Dortmund defeated Fürth 3:1 at home.

In another game at the same time, Bayern Munich unexpectedly drew with Nuremberg 1:1 on the road.

The point difference between the two teams suddenly changed from four points to two points!

... Bayern Munich has made some mistakes recently, and Dortmund just seized such an opportunity. Now it seems that it is too early to say that this season's league championship belongs to Bayern Munich. Klopp's team has not given up. , and they have already ranked first in the Champions League group stage in advance, which will help them devote more energy to the league. German media commented.

They are right, the next step is Dortmund's away game against Ajax in the Champions League group stage. Because they have already qualified as the first in the group, this game is actually meaningless for Dortmund.

Klopp didn’t even take all his main players away.

He left some of his main players in Germany.

But even such a Dortmund team still defeated Ajax 4:1 on the road. They took a three-goal lead in the first half, ending the suspense of the game.

Dortmund's defeat of Ajax can be regarded as helping Real Madrid. Because originally Ajax had four points and Real Madrid had six points. There was not much difference in points between the two teams. In this round of the league, if Dortmund deliberately loses to Ajax, Real Madrid will be in danger of even second place in the group - in the same round of the group stage, Real Madrid shook hands with Manchester City 1:1 away from home.

This group of death looks like a real joke now...

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Back in the league, Dortmund rotates again. After two seasons of experience in the Champions League and domestic leagues, Klopp knows that if he wants the team to maintain a level in multi-line competition, it must rotate. Rotation is the key to measuring whether a team can become a giant.

Basically, small teams don't rotate. Firstly, it's not necessary, but because they don't have the ability. Rotation has high requirements on the thickness of the bench.

To be honest, Dortmund's bench is not as thick as Real Madrid and Barcelona, ​​but if you want to perform well, you must rotate.

In this rotation, basically all the players from the Champions League game played in midweek were replaced, including Zhou Yi.

All players who had a break during the week started.

Dortmund encountered tough resistance from Mainz on the road. In the end, with a goal and an assist from Mark, they defeated Mainz 2:1 in the away game, maintaining their winning streak and continuing to put pressure on Bayern Munich.

Under the pressure of Dortmund, Bayern Munich defeated Hannover 96 5:0 at their home court. There is still a two-point gap between the two teams, and the competition is very fierce.

However, in the fourteenth round of the league, Klopp's rotation had problems. Dortmund, who still used rotation, was tied 1:1 by Dusseldorf at home.

Because of the rotation, Dortmund has never assembled a complete set of the strongest lineup in these games. They always play half a set and a half set. Frequent rotations still make the players uncomfortable.

After all, they are not a traditional powerhouse like Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona... Dortmund was still a mid-range team in the past few years, and there was no rotation at all.

Both rotation and non-rotation have their own advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage of rotation is that it allows everyone to play the game, maintain game condition, and reduce physical wear and tear. But the disadvantage is that the lineup is not stable enough, the players are prone to lack of tacit understanding, and the status will fluctuate.

The advantage of not rotating is that the lineup is stable, the players cooperate with each other tacitly, and the tactical completion is higher. As long as there is no problem with physical fitness, it is the strongest lineup. But the shortcomings are also obvious, that is, the main players have a heavy workload in games and lose their physical fitness quickly. In the later stages of the season, they are prone to collapse due to lack of physical fitness. At the same time, the substitute players lack game training and cannot step up when they are needed. The main players and The strength gap between the substitutes is too big.

From the club's management perspective, the shortcomings of rotation are very obvious, that is, the club needs to purchase more high-level players, and there must be at least two players of the same level in one position, which increases the club's financial burden. Buying people requires more money, and the cost of wages after buying people is also a big factor that cannot be ignored. And if you spend a lot of money to buy someone, but find that this player does not adapt to the team's tactics, does not adapt to Dortmund's life, and cannot perform to his own level, wouldn't the money be wasted?

Not rotating has no disadvantages for the club's finances, because it saves money. One lineup can conquer the world, and there is no need to invest too much in the substitute lineup.

In the previous two seasons, Dortmund had few rotations and mainly relied on a main lineup to play. It can be said that the non-rotation approach has made Dortmund successful in the first two seasons, allowing them to win the league championship for two consecutive seasons, and also reached the quarterfinals and semifinals of the Champions League.

But the practice of not rotating has also become a bottleneck that Dortmund cannot break through. It is precisely because of the lack of rotation that Dortmund's players suffered too much physical loss after they eliminated the Cosmos Team Barcelona in the semifinals last season. Finally, they lost to Chelsea in the semi-finals and stopped in the semi-finals.

If Dortmund could have the capital to rotate, maybe this wouldn't happen.

This is why Klopp has been rotating from the beginning of this season.

If you want to make a breakthrough in the Champions League and not give up in the domestic league, you must rotate.

Even if you encounter some difficulties, you must stick to this path.

So after being tied by Dusseldorf, Klopp said in an interview that he would not change the current rotation policy. (To be continued.)