Chapter 144 Thank you for watching me play football
"Judging from the roster announced by the Chinese team before the game, the Chinese team played a three-back formation in this game. Now as the game progresses, we can clearly see the positions of the Chinese team players on the court. Indeed,
That’s 352!”
About five minutes after the game started, He Feng and Yan Kang spoke to the audience based on the full picture of the Chinese team's formation that was just shown on the game screen.
"Yes. The goalkeeper for this game is Hao De. Lin Zhiyuan, who was injured before the Asian Cup, is now back from injury, but he is still in the recovery period and is looking for form. So this time coach Dillon did not recruit Lin Zhiyuan.
Yao Huasheng, who was injured in the Asian Cup, also did not enter the current national team's roster. So the three defenders are Wang Guangwei, Mao Junzheng and Liu Yan."
Yan Kang introduced.
"The defensive midfielders are Jiang Wanqing and Xia Xiaoyu, who are the captains of the Chinese team in this game. The attacking midfielder is Zhang Qinghuan. To everyone's surprise, Luo Kai and Chen Xingyi, who were originally playing winger, appeared in the position of winger in this game.
They are further back... Hu Lai and Zhou Zijing are partnering up front..."
In front of the TV, Shi Wuyin's wife was a little surprised: "Luo Kai and Chen Xingyi don't play wingers, but full midfielders?"
Shi Wuyin stared at the 352 formation clearly visible on the screen and nodded: "The famous coach is indeed a famous coach. This arrangement is very clever. Letting the two wingers retreat solves the problem of Zhou Zijing and Hu Lai being unable to play together at the same time...
Dillon is truly the right person to lead this team."
"But are Luo Kai and Chen Xingyi willing to accept it? They are forwards. They have always been forwards, and now they suddenly become midfielders... And looking at this position arrangement, I am afraid they will have to go back when defending.
Being a full-back. This requires a lot of physical fitness for them, right? Are they willing?" After all, my wife has watched football with Shi Wuyin for so many years, and she can still see some things.
Shi Wuyin smiled and shook his head: "If it were Lao Dong, he would definitely not be able to do it. But Jorge Dillon can. Only a big-name coach like him can make Chen Xingyi and Luo Kai accept the arrangement of changing positions.
.With their position retreating, they will of course assume more defensive tasks, but at the same time they will have room to display their characteristics. After all, it can be seen in the Asian Cup that their opponents will no longer give them so much room to break through with the ball...
…
"In my previous set of 433, both Chen Xingyi and Luo Kai still had to keep cutting in to get closer to Hu Lai. But now in this set of 352, Chen Xingyi and Luo Kai don't have to go to the middle. They can just go in the middle.
Wing activities, making full use of the width of the court to open up the opponent's defense line and increase the distance between the opponent's defenders. Zhou Zijing, Hu Lai... and even Zhang Qinghuan created one-on-one situations with the opponent's defenders, and even played with multiple defenders.
If you have few opportunities, you can say that you are quite clever."
After hearing Shi Wuyuan's explanation, his wife stopped asking questions and continued watching the game.
In the TV broadcast, the Chinese team was controlling the ball past halftime.
※※※
Chen Xingyi and Luo Kai occupied two wings of the court, one on the left and the other on the right. They stood almost close to the sidelines and were very wide apart.
So the South African players had to spread out their defensive formation to take care of the wing defense.
This is like spreading pancakes, not only spreading them wide (can be spread out), but also spreading them thin (the formation is compressed very tightly).
The middle lane is not that dense.
Xia Xiaoyu, who was in possession of the ball, passed the ball back to Wang Guangwei and started to advance forward.
After Wang Guangwei received the ball, he directly passed the high ball to Zhou Zijing in the middle!
On the line of the penalty area, Zhou Zijing turned his back to the direction of the attack, spread his arms, and firmly blocked South African center back Sanele Visul behind him, and then jumped up to fight for the top.
Visul blocked him and prevented him from pushing the football towards the dangerous area. But Zhou Zijing did not want to do this. He directly headed the ball back and pushed the football back to Zhang Qinghuan outside the penalty area.
As soon as Zhang Qinghuan caught the ball, a South African midfielder blocked him in front of him.
Hu Lai, who was on the line of the penalty area, suddenly started running forward and raised his hand to ask for the ball.
He attracted another South African centre-back, Ricardo McAvery, to follow him and retreat, and also attracted the attention of most South African players.
"Hu Lai penetrated me!"
The commentator He Feng shouted, drawing the audience's attention to Hu Lai.
As a result, Zhang Qinghuan didn't pass the ball to him, but knocked it sideways!
Xia Xiaoyu rushed in from outside the TV broadcast screen and shot the ball!
"Xia Xiaoyu takes a long shot!"
Hu Lai, who was running forward, turned around and saw the football shot by Xia Xiaoyu flying towards him. He was right in the flight path of the football!
He quickly lifted his belly and tightened his waist, barely able to let the football pass behind his waist!
The football slipped through the gap between him and South African centre-back Ricardo McAvery!
Suddenly came to South Africa goalkeeper Seri Sangre!
It was too late for him to make a save, and he could only watch as the football flew into the goal not far from him!
"Eh?! This goal... This goal was scored?!" The wife pointed at the TV and turned to Shi Wuyin to confirm.
But she found her husband staring at the TV screen dumbfounded, looking like he didn't expect it.
Commentator He Feng's voice was delayed for about half a second before ringing: "What a beautiful goal! The Chinese team scored in just six minutes of the game!!"
※※※
Xia Xiaoyu himself was stunned for a moment. After seeing the football flying into the goal, his first moment was not to raise his arms and shout, but to confirm whether it was true.
This has just begun!
Did we score a goal?
Could it be that Brother Hu was offside?
It’s no wonder that Xia Xiaoyu was so unsteady. No one expected that the Chinese team would start so smoothly.
After the high-intensity training in the past few days, the physical strength of the national team players is not that good. If there is data visualization, the current physical strength of the national team players may be around 70%.
Playing this game in such a state, many people dare not have high expectations for the game.
Although South Africa is not very strong, the Chinese team is not in its best condition either.
The players came on the field mentally prepared to fight South Africa for ninety minutes...
As a result, it was just the start of the game... six minutes later, they actually took the lead!
If the referee hadn't pointed his finger at the center circle after blowing the whistle, no one would have believed it.
Even the cheers from the stands were delayed for a beat.
After it sounded, it was like a surging river, continuous and continuous.
Amidst the huge roar, Hu Lai took the lead and rushed towards Xia Xiaoyu, hugged him and shouted: "Nice shot, Xiaoyu!"
Xia Xiaoyu was still a little confused: "Brother Hu, did you touch the ball?"
Hu Lai patted his head hard: "What are you thinking! I didn't touch it, you entered it!"
Xia Xiaoyu's eyes widened: Go ahead, I scored a goal?!
Everyone swarmed up and surrounded the two of them.
※※※
"The goal was...did Hu Lai touch the ball?"
He Feng did not dare to give a conclusion. He was in the commentary box and could not see clearly from a distance.
I just saw Xia Xiaoyu suddenly taking a long shot. The football passed Hu Lai and finally flew into the goal... I don’t know whether it was Xia Xiaoyu’s goal or whether it was slightly changed when it encountered Hu Lai. Because the South African goalkeeper Sangre’s performance was like
I didn't expect that the flight trajectory of the football would be the same. This behavior usually occurs when the football changes its line.
However, they soon saw that Hu Lai did not run to the corner flag area to do his signature celebration, but turned around and ran towards Xia Xiaoyu.
At the same time, other teammates also ran towards Xia Xiaoyu.
So He Feng came to the conclusion based on experience: "This goal was scored by Xia Xiaoyu! A long shot directly penetrated the South African team's goal! The first goal of Jorge Dillon's Chinese team came from Xia Xiaoyu!"
Soon the replay of the televised goal confirmed his "experience":
In the slow motion shot from behind Xia Xiaoyu, you can clearly see that Hu Lai made a move to dodge the ball. His move just let the football pass. It beat South African center back Ricardo McAvery and the goalkeeper.
Ri Sangre was caught off guard!
Therefore, the latter's strange performance when losing the ball was not because the football hit Hu Lai and the change of direction caught him off guard, but because he did not expect that the ball would leak from Hu Lai's waist!
He might have been trying to prevent the football from changing the line on Hu Lai...
He must have studied Hu Lai and knew that he might suddenly appear on the flight path of the football, slightly change the ball's line, and catch the goalkeeper off guard.
But I didn't expect that this time, he would give in...
What did you give in to?
At this moment, South Africa goalkeeper Sangre may be madly complaining about Hulay.
※※※
When the Chinese team players finished their goal celebration and returned to their own half, the live radio broadcast:
"The Chinese team leads the South African team 1:0!"
The fans at the scene responded with huge cheers.
"The scorer is Xia Xiaoyu!!"
The cheers continued, even louder.
However, in a certain area of one of the stands, a dozen cheering fans were stunned.
"Did I hear it correctly?" Xia Wu confirmed to his relatives, "The one mentioned on the radio just now was 'Xia Xiaoyu, the goal scorer', right?"
The other party nodded: "It seems..."
"Quick, quick, quick!" Xia Wu reacted and quickly pulled up the rope in his hand. At the same time, he motioned to his companions to raise their hands high, and a red banner was raised in their stand.
These people are Xia Xiaoyu's relatives and friends, including relatives and friends of Xia Xiaoyu's parents in Dongchuan and Jincheng.
The China Cup was held in Jincheng, which gave Xia Xiaoyu's relatives and friends the opportunity to come and cheer.
They also hope that Xiaoyu can perform well in the game and their support at the scene will be worth it.
But even they themselves didn't expect that Xia Xiaoyu would score a goal in this game, and... take the lead!
The goal was so early that they didn't even have time to hang up the banner. Now they can only use their hands as temporary railings and display them with their hands raised.
Xia Xiaoyu's parents were also behind this banner, trying hard to raise their arms and raise the banner as high as possible, then higher.
Although this completely blocks them from seeing the stadium, it is not important. What is important is that this banner can be seen by his son!
As if telepathically, Xia Xiaoyu, who was in the field, suddenly turned his head to look this way. He looked straight over and saw the banner that was obviously larger than the ordinary banner.
Being lifted and floating.
On a banner more than ten meters long, he could clearly see the big words:
"Come on Xiaoyu! Let's watch you play football!"
The banner was held high, covering the faces of those holding the banner. He could not see their faces.
But he knew that his lovely relatives must be behind this banner.
So he raised his arms and waved towards the banner in the stands and the people behind the banner.