Hu Lixin turned over and vaguely felt a bright light around him. He opened his sleepy eyes and saw his wife lying next to him looking at her mobile phone.
That bright light is what the phone screen emits in the dark.
"What time is it?" he asked.
"Two thirty."
Hu Lixin complained: "Then you still won't sleep?"
"Can't sleep. Don't want to sleep."
"Tsk..." Hu Lixin stood up slightly and saw clearly what was on the screen of his wife's mobile phone - she was scrolling through Douyin.
"Don't look at Douyin, they are all criticizing the national football team." Hu Lixin reminded his wife.
"I watch funny jokes to make myself feel better."
"So are you in a better mood now? Can you sleep?"
Xie Lan put the phone aside, turned around and looked at her husband, her eyes wide open in the darkness: "You can actually sleep?"
"What else should I do? I have to go to work tomorrow..."
"You went to school after lunch, what are you pretending to be? I have to go to work tomorrow morning and no one said anything!"
"Yes, won't you go to work tomorrow morning?"
"I asked for leave from the director, saying that I was in a bad mood after the national team lost and was not in the mood to work, so I asked for a day off."
Hu Lixin grinned, the words "good guy" were stuck in his throat and he did not dare to say them out.
He knew that his wife had been in a very bad mood since watching the Chinese game at night. If he said the wrong thing at this time, he would not be able to sleep until dawn.
"I'm just wondering, Lao Hu, why can you fall asleep after watching such a game?" Xie Lan propped up his head with one hand and looked at her husband in the darkness with wide eyes.
"Because I was mentally prepared. Ever since Lin Zhiyuan retired from injury, I had no hope for this Asian Cup." Hu Lixin explained.
"I'm unhappy not because we lost the game today, but because we played too poorly. What does this have to do with whether Lin Zhiyuan is here or not? Didn't you see the performance of the Chinese team today? The frontcourt attack was restricted by Iraq, and there was no solution.
There is no way to prevent the opponent's counterattack in the backcourt, so the opponent will hit you every time..."
When Hu Lixin heard his wife's series of questions, his sleepiness disappeared and he couldn't fall asleep for a while.
So he sighed:
"I think you have too high expectations for the team's performance before the Asian Cup. Although it is the Asian Cup, all you can think about is their performance in the World Cup. There are also people on the Internet, such as you on Douyin
Those marketing accounts that are posted are saying, 'The national football team is the only undefeated team in the World Cup', as if we can draw with Brazil in the World Cup and sweep Asia... Football is not an upgrade game, the level is high
You will definitely be able to beat a lower-level team - being able to beat or tie the world champion in one game does not mean that you can beat a weaker team in another game."
At 2:30 in the middle of the night, the couple lay on the bed and talked seriously about football.
"Don't compare me with those trolls on Douyin who don't understand football! The problem now is that compared with the one in the World Cup, both the personnel and tactics of this national team have basically remained unchanged. The same staffing
, the same tactics, the opponent's strength is not as good, so why did they play poorly? I'm not saying that we lost, the result of the game was unexpected, after all, football is round. But from the perspective of the scene, the performance was still very bad, which is a bit unjustifiable.
Alright?"
Xie Lan refuted her husband.
When Hu Lixin heard his wife's words, he was unable to refute them immediately.
Because he thought about it and realized what his wife said made sense.
The result is accidental. A tie with the former world champion half a year ago does not mean that we will be able to win against an Asian-level opponent half a year later.
But the game scene really speaks volumes.
You can lose, but you can't lose in a way that everyone can see is bad.
In last night's game, unfortunately, the Chinese team lost their first Asian Cup in exactly this way.
In this game, head coach Dong Jianhai deployed all his main players and came up with the strongest lineup that Chinese football can currently produce.
Formation 433, starting goalkeeper Hao De, starting center backs Yao Huasheng and Wang Guangwei, left back Qu Lu, right back Bai Di. The three midfielders are Xia Xiaoyu, Zhang Qinghuan and Jiang Wanqing. On the front line, Hu Lai is in the center, Chen Xingyi is on the left, and Luo
Kai is on the right.
Except for the goalkeeper position, the other ten players cannot be said to be no different from those in the World Cup, they can only be said to be exactly the same.
With such a mature lineup and playing style, it stands to reason that even if Iraq is the second-tier team in this group, there should be no suspense for the Chinese team to win them.
Even if we are more pessimistic, considering that this is the first game of the Asian Cup, the players did not enter the competition rhythm and find the state so quickly, and the performance was a bit ups and downs. The draw with Iraq is not unacceptable.
After all, the remaining two opponents, whether they are the Philippines or Palestine, are not opponents of this Chinese team.
So qualifying from the group is not a problem. The important thing is to get first in the group and have an easier time in the knockout rounds.
If we accidentally draw with Iraq, we can just get more goal difference from Palestine and the Philippines.
The official goal for this Asian Cup is to reach the semi-finals, but fans and media opinion believe that the Chinese team is capable of competing for the championship.
Qualifying as first in the group and meeting an easy opponent in the knockout round will help the Chinese team go further in the Asian Cup and realize everyone's high expectations for them.
As a result, the Chinese team, which played with the strongest lineup and the most familiar tactics, was unable to deal with Iraq's intensive defense during the game.
Although Hu Lai scored a goal in the game, the goal was invalid because Zhang Qinghuan fouled first when he stole the ball.
After being unable to attack for a long time, the Chinese team allowed Iraq to successfully attack in the 31st minute and was the first to concede the goal.
The mentality of the players has changed.
The more you kick, the more urgent you become.
Even after halftime adjustments, there was no improvement.
In the 77th minute, Iraq once again used a quick counterattack to score.
Even though Dong Jianhai replaced Zhou Zijing after losing the ball to strengthen the Chinese team's offensive focus in the penalty area, it did not help.
Trailing by two goals with only ten minutes left, with the state shown by the Chinese team in this game... the situation is over.
Iraq obviously made very thorough and detailed preparations for this game. They almost studied the Chinese team thoroughly.
Defensively, they restricted the breakthroughs of Chen Xingyi and Luo Kai by setting up a tight fence in the penalty area. When dealing with Hu Lai, they also ensured that there were at least two Iraqi players around him at all times. They blocked and filled all the possible gaps in the penalty area.
Hu Lai, who is good at finding openings, faced the embarrassing situation of having no openings to exploit.
As for Zhang Qinghuan and Xia Xiaoyu, they did not press too much and allowed them to take the ball and pass the ball outside the penalty area. This seemed a bit negative and allowed the ball to be handed over to the Chinese team. But in fact it ensured that they would stay in the penalty area.
There will be no breach in a tight fence.
As long as there is no space in the penalty area, Zhang Qinghuan and Xia Xiaoyu's passing skills will not be able to function no matter how good they are.
At the same time, in terms of offense, Iraq chose two fast and impactful young forwards, specifically targeting the Chinese team's left back Qu Lu.
Dong Jianhai may have chosen Qu Lu, who has stronger offensive attributes, in the starting lineup for this game because he wanted to win against Iraq.
Qu Lu indeed made several forward moves to participate in the attack according to the coach's tactical arrangements.
Iraq took advantage of this to attack the space behind Qu Road.
Qu Lu was unable to come back after attacking many times during the game. This happened every time Iraq hit him. The Chinese fans watched with trepidation.
Iraq's first goal was a counterattack from Qu Road.
Dong Jianhai also saw the problem on Qu Lu's side.
So a substitution was made during the halftime break, with Jiao Qirui, who was more defensively sound, replacing Qu Lu.
However, at this time, the Chinese team was already one goal behind and had to continue attacking in the second half.
So changing to the next Qu Road has no effect.
After they pressed hard, the entire backcourt was empty, and it wasn't just a problem on the left wing.
Generally speaking, after watching this game, even a person who doesn't understand football will feel aggrieved and unhappy.
Our strongest lineup surrounded the young Iraqi national team and failed to score a goal, but was taken away by the opponent's two sneak attacks.
There is no exciting football at all in the World Cup, and the energy seems not as good as in the World Cup.
Could it be that the Asian Cup is not as exciting to the Chinese team players as the World Cup?
As soon as the game ended...no, before the game ended, criticism of the Chinese team appeared on the Internet.
Some of what was said was quite ugly.
For the same group of players, the evaluation they received in the World Cup was completely different from the evaluation they received in the Asian Cup. It instantly made many people feel like they had watched the national football matches in previous years.
I have to say, this is football.
Just because you were able to draw with Brazil half a year ago doesn't mean you can defeat Iraq half a year later. You were praised by public opinion half a year ago, but you will be trampled into the mud by public opinion half a year later.
Hu Lixin didn't know how to evaluate this game. Was there a problem with the players? Or was there a problem with the coach's tactical arrangements? Or was there something wrong with the Football Association's preparations?
From a football coach's perspective, he cannot simply vent his emotions like those fans online.
In the end, he could only say to his wife: "What you said makes sense. But the game has been lost. The next step is to see whether the Chinese team can learn from it and play well in the remaining two group matches."
Change the topic from the game that has been lost to the two games that have not been played to help the wife extract her emotions so as not to stay angry.
Sure enough, Xie Lan's attention immediately turned to the future: "Hey, Old Hu, do you think we won't even be able to get out of the group stage this time?"
Hu Lixin shook his head, his hair rubbing against the pillow and making a sound.
"No, there is no problem in qualifying for the group stage. Losing this game is not a bad thing for the Chinese team. At least it will make them pay more attention to the next opponent, so as not to... capsize in the gutter."
"That's good. It would be really embarrassing if you can't even make it out of the group..." Xie Lan said.
"Go to sleep, it's almost three o'clock." Hu Lixin once again advised his wife to sleep.
This time Xie Lan didn't get into trouble with him anymore, but just hummed softly.
After that, neither of them spoke anymore, and the bedroom became quiet again.
After an unknown amount of time, another long and steady breathing sounded in the room.
The first match day of the Asian Cup for the Chinese team is over.
I don’t know how many people will be unable to sleep this night because of this game.
But the reason was completely different from the night after the first World Cup half a year ago.
