After the first top-12 match in the capital, the Chinese team went south after a day of training.
Go to Bangkok, Thailand to challenge the second opponent in the top 12.
After the first round of the top 12, the favorite teams have all won, although the process is different for each.
In addition to the Chinese team's 3:0 victory over Iraq, Iran also defeated Thailand 3:1 at home.
The Japanese team struggled. With the largest number of overseas players, they seemed unable to get into the rhythm of the Asian competition. In the end, they relied on Tatsuya Sugiyama's goal to defeat Syria 1:0 at home.
After the first round, the Chinese team ranked first in the group with a three-goal difference, Iran ranked second, Japan third, Syria fourth, Thailand fifth, and Iraq sixth.
It’s really a good start for the road to the 2030 World Cup.
In the second game, the Chinese team must continue this momentum and defeat the Thai team away from home, otherwise the advantage will be lost in an instant.
Thai football started youth training in the early years, and now the strength of their national team has made great progress than before. In Southeast Asian football and Vietnam, they have always competed with each other for dominance.
When Chinese football had not yet carried out in-depth reforms, Thailand could even compete with the Chinese team with their youth training reforms.
The same is true for Vietnam.
At that time, it was very desperate for Chinese fans. I feel why the "small country" in Southeast Asia
Are you able to fight us back and forth?
But in fact, from a football perspective, neither Thailand nor Vietnam is considered a "small country".
At that time, their football population was larger than China's.
However, when China also began to seriously engage in football reform and cultivate the soil of youth training, China's scale advantage began to emerge.
A large population was transformed into a football population, and a large football population gave birth to many football talents. Ultimately, a virtuous cycle was formed.
Southeast Asian football has lost its advantage over Chinese football and has returned to the correct position where the historical gap between the two sides was.
Although the Thai team is qualified to participate in this top 12 tournament, when it comes to tiering, they are in the sixth tier, which is the weakest tier.
For the Thai team, it is almost impossible to reach the World Cup, so they play the top 12 matches as their own World Cup.
The first game was an away game against the powerful Iran, and they played very proactively.
Taking full advantage of the fast and quick characteristics of Southeast Asian football, they caused a lot of trouble for Iran and even scored a goal. In the competition with Iraq, they relied on the goal difference advantage to rank in front of Iraq and did not become the last place. .
Although in terms of the overall football strength of the two countries, Chinese football has the upper hand, in this specific game, the Chinese team cannot take it lightly.
Therefore, in the away game, the Chinese team still showed its strongest lineup.
Facing the fast and fast Thai team, the Chinese team responded to the changes by remaining unchanged amidst all kinds of screams in the stadium.
In defense, they emphasize stability and control, while in offense, they focus on simple and rough crosses from the wing.
At the beginning of the game, the Thai team took advantage of their home court and launched a fierce attack on the Chinese team. Every forward pass they made caused the home fans to scream, which sounded very uncomfortable.
Xie Lan complained in a very politically incorrect way: "It feels like I've been to Monkey Mountain."
Of course, this may be the strategy of Thai fans, who hope to use this high-frequency harsh sound to make Chinese players lose their cool and become impatient, thus exposing more flaws.
But this Chinese team is not the previous Chinese team. They have players who participated in the last World Cup and won the Olympic Games. They are rich in experience, and what scenes have they not seen before?
They were just screaming, but it was hard to do anything about them.
In the 30th minute, Chen Xingyi passed in from the wing, and Zhou Zijing jumped up high in front of the Thai team's goal, looking at the mountains and the small mountains!
Then a lion shook his head and pushed the football towards the goal!
The goalkeeper of the Thai team is only 1.8 meters tall. Although he jumped up hard and fully stretched his body, he still failed to stop the football.
"The goal is scored! Zhou Zijing scored with a header! Well done! This is how it should be played! Simple and crude, the most effective!"
Because the Thai team had the advantage before, the Thai fans in the stands kept screaming. Now that they saw their goal lost, the screams were cut off. Whether it was the Chinese players playing on the field or the Chinese watching the game on the TV
The fans suddenly felt that their ears were much cleaner.
Xie Lan, who was in front of the TV, let out a sigh of relief: "The world is clean...
Then she became excited again: "In order to reduce noise pollution, continue to score goals for them!"
The Chinese team did not disappoint her. After the two sides changed sides in the second half, Dillon pushed Luo Kai and Chen Xingyi to the front line, and the Chinese team played a strange formation of 334.
This is a bit risky, but Dillon believes that it can well train the Chinese team's ability to face various situations.
At the same time, this can completely suppress the Thai team.
The effect was immediate. Only three minutes into the second half, the Chinese team once again launched an attack from the wing.
This time, Zhang Qinghuan pulled to the right to cross, and Zhou Zijing once again scored with a header from the center. The Chinese team led the Thai team 2:0!
Zhou Zijing's height is actually not ridiculously high. The center back of the Thai team is only 1.86 meters tall, which is only two centimeters shorter than Zhou Zijing.
But Zhou Zijing is very strong, which makes it impossible for the Thai team's defenders to compete with him.
In the penalty area of the Thai team, Zhou Zijing got everything he wanted, even overshadowing Hu Lai.
This allowed him to find the feeling of "King of the Forbidden Zone".
The Thai team, which planned to counterattack at the beginning of the second half, was stunned.
This scene is a bit like a duel between Thailand and China. Thailand is very active and agile in jumping around. It keeps holding a sword and flowers in front of China, showing off its flower skills.
When he rushed toward China, he was slapped firmly in the face by China, who was standing still, and was sent flying.
X※The Chinese team, which was two goals ahead, did not stop there, and the 334's strange formation did not adjust.
Dillon even stood on the sidelines and actively made gestures asking the team to continue attacking.
The reason is actually very simple - when the points in the top 12 are the same, the first comparison is the team's total goal difference. After the total goal difference is the same, the total number of goals will continue to be compared.
Only when these two things are the same can we compare the winning and losing relationships between teams with the same points.
It can be seen that if the Chinese team wants to compete with Japan and Iran for direct qualifying spots, it must not only score enough points from weak teams, but also strive for as many goal differences and goals as possible.
Only in this way can we have the upper hand when we need to compare the goal difference and total goals in the end, so that we will not be squeezed into third place in the group due to a few fewer goals or goals.
Since the tactics are against each other and the players are in excellent condition, of course they must score more goals.
Dillon will not consider the mood of the Thai team players and fans, nor does he understand the principle of "leave a little bit in your life so that we can meet again next time".
He only knows that the Thai team is the weakest team in this group. If this team does not score enough goals and goal difference, then this game will be in vain.
Just eight minutes after Zhou Zijing scored, Hu Lai finally scored.
This time it was not a cross from the wing, but a pass from the wing to break up the Thai team's defense, and then suddenly hit the center.
In the end, Zhang Qinghuan sent a through ball in the middle, Hu Lai succeeded in countering offside, and formed a single goal, and then easily pushed the goal.
3:0!
In the 69th minute, the Chinese team won a chance to take a free kick in the frontcourt. After the free kick was taken, Zhou Zijing nodded the ball into the goal. The Thai team goalkeeper failed to make a save and the ball flew into the goal he was guarding for the fourth time.
4:0!
At the same time, Zhou Zijing also completed a hat trick, which was also his first hat trick in the top 12 competition.
After Zhou Zijing helped China lead Thailand by four goals, Jorge Dillon finally made adjustments.
He replaced captain Mao Junzheng with Cai Shuyi, and the captain's armband was worn by Mao Junzheng on Wang Guangwei's arm.
In this way, Wang Guangwei became the captain of the Chinese national team for the first time.
Zhou Zijing and Hu Lai were also replaced one after another before the end of the game.
Despite this, the Chinese team still relied on Wang Guangwei's header to score in the final stage of the game, setting the score at 5:0.
Not only did he get three points, but he also got a five-goal difference as he wished.
During the same period, the Japanese team defeated Iraq 1:0 away from home, and Iran defeated Syria 1:0 away from home.
Although both competitors scored all three points, they were far behind the Chinese team in terms of goals scored and goal difference.
Everyone has six points together, but the Chinese team has eight goals and eight goal differences, the Japanese team has only two goals and a goal difference, and Iran has four goals and three goal differences to compete with them.
, the Chinese team has already taken the lead.
After playing these two top-12 games, the Chinese team was disbanded in Thailand. The overseas players flew directly from Bangkok to Europe, while the domestic players returned to China with the large team.
It will be early October when they gather again, when the Chinese team will face Syria at home.
And an away game to Japan.
That will also be a reunion for Hu Lai and the others and Morikawa Junpei.