Football: The immortal legend on the green field

The coin was thrown up and then rolled down onto the grass. The three of them looked down at the same time, and then the referee pointed at Shen Bin. "Serve." Yang Pan answered concisely in English.

Thiago Martins asked for the right to choose the side.

The two sides shook hands with each other again, and then shook hands with the three referees. After completing this set of procedures, the two captains returned to their own half and waited for the kick-off.

"Dear viewers! What you are watching now is the second quarter-final of the World Youth Championship in the Netherlands. In the first quarter-final that just ended, the European powerhouse Italy unexpectedly lost to Morocco. The two teams were tied 90:2 in 2 minutes. Neither team scored in overtime. In the penalty shootout, Morocco scored four out of four penalties, while Italy only scored two out of four."

"The two teams in this game are the Chinese National Youth Team and the Brazilian National Youth Team."

"The Chinese team won four of the previous four games, scoring 18 goals and conceding six. My young players swept the top three in last year's European Under-17 Championship, and this game is the first time that the Chinese team faces a South American team."

“巴西队在小组赛中0：0平尼日利亚、1：0胜瑞士、2：0胜韩国，在八分之一比赛中，他们1：0淘汰了叙利亚。”

"The Brazilian team has changed people's previous impression of it. Their attacking power has been greatly weakened, but their defense is impeccable. Among all the 24 participating teams, they are the only team that has not conceded a goal so far."

"Before the game, Brazil's head coach Alemão told reporters that Brazil's World Youth Championship had just begun with this match, and they were very confident of winning. And Krautzen, who is now in good health, also said in an interview with the media that the Chinese team would not give up easily. It seems that this match will be a very exciting and fierce one!"

After Liu Jianhong briefly introduced the situation of both sides, the game kicked off after the referee blew the whistle.

The Chinese national youth team launched an attack right after the kick-off, which surprised many people because they thought that Krauchen would definitely test the situation in the opening stage. Unexpectedly, the Chinese team launched a fierce offensive from the start, trying to catch the Brazilians off guard.

Brazil took a defensive stance against the Chinese team, while taking advantage of the weak links in China's central defense to launch effective counterattacks.

No one thinks Alemao is joking, and no one dares to underestimate the Brazilian team. Their profound football foundation is fully capable of supporting a strong youth team.

They don't seem to score many goals, but every step they take is very steady. The Chinese team seems to have unparalleled offensive power, but they have conceded six goals in four games, which shows that there are still many problems on the defensive end.

An interesting trend has emerged in world football today. Most of the regions with poor football skills are learning from Brazil. Since the millennium, when Scolari became the head coach of the Brazilian national team, the Brazilian team has tended to shift towards the pragmatic European Latin style.

The Brazilian team that entered the knockout stage was different from the team that played in the group stage. After entering the quarterfinals, Aleman also changed the formation. He pushed Paulinho, who had better breakthrough ability and accurate passing, to the front midfielder position, shortening the distance to the forward line, avoiding the situation of Marcelo being isolated and helpless in the first four games, and making better use of David Luiz's ability to pass the ball and shoot from a distance. The formation also changed from the 4-4-2 diamond formation in the midfield in the first three games to a 4-1-3-2 formation.

Facing a more aggressive Brazil, a defensive mentality would not work. Krauschen's idea was to use Shen Bin's personal dribbling ability to put enough pressure on the Brazilian defense to limit the Brazilian team's offense.

Try to score early to gain a score advantage. Make a quick decision and don't fight a protracted war with Brazil. After all, the national youth team fought too hard in the last game, and they are afraid that their physical disadvantage will be infinitely magnified.

But doing so is actually a bit risky. If Shen Bin's position is moved up, the pressure on the defense will be greater. If the Chinese team fails to open up the situation in the first half, he will not be able to predict how the game will turn out in the second half as their physical strength declines.

This is a dilemma: should we passively take the beating or fight for a future? However, if we don’t take risks, how can we know whether we will get gold or scrap metal in the end?

Shen Bin got the ball in the middle and found that there was a man in front of him who was blocking his way. It seemed that he was the man specially selected by the Brazilian team to defend him. He glanced at the other person but could not see his number and appearance clearly.

The two are approaching.

Thiago Martins kept a proper distance from Shen Bin while looking at him nervously. This Chinese man who had made a big name in the world football in the past year should not be underestimated. This Chinese man who looked very strong would be his opponent today.

"Try to keep a reasonable distance when defending. He is not fast, but his footwork is definitely among the best in the world. Getting rid of the ball is his forte. Don't let him get close to you. If you really have no other choice, just foul him resolutely, but try not to foul within 35 meters, because the opponent also has a terrifying free kick skill." This was the coach's advice to himself before the game.

This is too difficult. Why do I feel that the person opposite me is not an East Asian with yellow skin and black hair, but more like a stronger version of Ronaldinho!

Shen Bin found that the opponent did not rush forward, but instead retreated a bit. Then as he moved forward, the opponent always maintained an effective defensive distance.

Normally at this time, if Deng Zhuoxiang was on the field, he would retreat and provide support in a timely manner, but now he is the attacking midfielder, and Dong Fangzhuo and Yang Xu in front of him are already standing in a fixed position, being held back by the Brazilian defensive players, while Chen Tao and Hao Junmin on both wingers are running to what they think is an appropriate position.

At this time, he had only two choices: either pass the ball back to the defensive midfielder Zhou Haibin to reorganize the attack, or dribble the ball to get rid of the opponent. While the two were playing back and forth, Shen Bin had already brought the ball to an area about 40 meters away from the goal.

Thiago twisted his body and leaned forward suddenly, and their bodies were entangled with each other.

Shen Bin felt the pressure from his opponent and felt his opponent's toughness in the physical confrontation. The physical competition was about 50-50. He raised his left hand, then used the outside of his right foot to stop the football backwards, and his body turned at the same time!

Thiago didn't expect Shen Bin to brake so suddenly, catching him off guard. He lost his balance in shock and fell forward.

The Chinese fans in the stands cheered loudly, now is a great opportunity!

Shen Bin bypassed the fallen Thiago, then kicked the ball to Hao Junmin who was in a better position!

When Shen Bin knocked Thiago down, Hao Junmin started to make a diagonal move towards the opponent's ribs, but he soon found that his movements were very slow and difficult.

The reason was that the Brazilian full-back who was defending him kept pressing him with his body. He felt like there was a sandbag hanging on his body, and he had to expend a huge amount of energy every time he took a step forward.

Brazilian Amber was blocking the inside line, so Hao Junmin had no chance of dribbling the ball to the bottom. The only way was to move towards the crowded middle. Hao Junmin quickly brought the ball into a dead end. Under Petro's double-teaming, he might soon lose control of the ball if he didn't pass it.

The harmless pass was eventually caught by goalkeeper Tsitsipas.