Chapter 117 The game that decides the championship
On the last match day of the East Asian Cup, the first game is between the Chinese team and the Japanese team, and the last game is between the South Korean team and the North Korean team.
The reason for arranging the schedule in this way is naturally because South Korea is the host country, and the host country's game must of course be arranged as the last game as the finale.
Another reason is that the organizers of the tournament must have believed that the Korean team could win the East Asian Cup championship, or that they had hope to compete for the East Asian Cup championship.
Then this last "Peninsula Derby" might be the game that determines the championship.
Arrange for the Korean team to play at the end and finish the game. If they win the championship, they can go directly to the award ceremony.
Simply perfect.
Who would have thought that all their fights with Xiao Jiujiu would be in vain.
The South Korean team has not won the championship at all, although they have not yet played the game against the North Korean team.
The South Korean team, which has only accumulated one point so far, is ranked second to last and bids farewell to the championship ahead of schedule.
The champion of this East Asian Cup will be decided between the Chinese team and the Japanese team.
This directly made the last game between South Korea and North Korea meaningless.
It may also be because of this reason that not many Korean fans come to the Seoul World Cup Stadium to watch the game. There are large areas of empty seats in the stands of the huge stadium.
And in those areas where people are sitting, a red square matrix is visible to the naked eye.
"There are so many Chinese fans here today..." In the stands, the players of the Chinese women's football team sighed as they looked at the large swaths of red in the stands opposite.
"After all, it's possible for the Chinese team to win the championship... If it's a draw, they can win the championship. But now the Chinese team is trailing 0:1, as expected..." Xu Wen said, spreading her hands.
"You can't blame them, right? Who would have thought that Sugiyama Tatsuya would hit a world wave?"
What they were talking about was the only goal in the first half.
Because it only needed a draw to win the championship, the Chinese team played very conservatively in the first half, playing steadily and trying not to make mistakes.
As for the Japanese team, due to the lack of effective scoring points, there was no good way to face the intensive defense of the Chinese team.
From this point of view, Shi Wuyin's tactics were successful.
Although most of the game scenes are very boring, who cares about this among Chinese fans?
Even if they fall asleep watching, as soon as they open their eyes and see that the Chinese team is winning, they will never complain.
But who would have thought that just when such a dull first half was about to end, thunder would erupt from the ground.
Sugiyama Tatsuya, the midfield organizer, suddenly shot a very high-quality long-range shot from outside the penalty area, bypassing all the defensive players in the penalty area and also bypassing the fingers of the Chinese team's main goalkeeper Song Kun.
Hitting the inside of the goal post and flying into the goal.
In this way, the Japanese team took a one-goal lead.
"That goal was so demoralizing. After conceding the goal, I could see that the boys of the Olympic team were a little panicked... If it hadn't been for a few minutes in the first half, I might have conceded another one."
"This is the trap of settling for a draw... When you only think about settling for a draw, you will often prepare for a draw, but you will not get the results you want..."
The players of the Chinese women's football team are still discussing the first half of the game.
"By the way, did Hu Lai have even one shot in the first half?" someone from the team asked.
"It seems..." Everyone frowned and thought hard.
"No." Just before they thought about it, Li Qingqing had already given the answer, "Not a single shot."
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"The first half of this game was very dull. Neither side made much offensive achievements. Who would have thought that it was Tatsuya Sugiyama's World Wave that broke the deadlock in the end?" In the studio behind CCTV, He Feng was speaking.
Commentator Yan Kang analyzed the first half of the game.
"That goal conceded was a bit of luck, so we can't say that there was anything wrong with Shi's tactics for preparing for the first half. After all, 99 percent of the time, the Chinese team's defense made no mistakes. Even if it conceded the goal, we can't say that China
What's wrong with the team's defense..." Yan Kang was defending Shi Wuyin.
Like Shi Wuyin, he was once a player for the Chinese national team. He is four years older than Shi Wuyin and retired a few years earlier than Shi Wuyin. Unlike Shi Wuyin who became a coach after retiring, Yan Kang chose to join a TV station and become a football commentator.
member.
He and He Feng have worked together for many years and are very familiar commentators to Chinese fans.
His career has intersected with Shi Wuyin many times, and the two of them can be considered very familiar.
It seems that he is worried that after losing this game, Shi Wuyin will be drowned in the saliva of Chinese fans. Yan Kang is using his job convenience to speak and defend Shi Wuyin.
"It's true. Luck is also very important sometimes in football matches... Like the goal conceded in the first half, we can only say that the Chinese team was unlucky." He Feng said this, thinking of another thing, and added
Said. "In addition, due to tactical arrangements, Hu Lai, who has scored goals in two consecutive games, did not have a shot in the first half... Sato Koichi must have studied Hu Lai carefully before the game. This game
He specially arranged a person to defend Hu Lai during the game, and he was almost there every step of the way."
Yan Kang was speaking for Shi Wuyuan, and He Feng decided to speak for Hu Lai.
After all, Hu Lai really didn't perform well in the first half of this game. Sometimes you may even have the illusion that Hu Lai was not sent on the field?
"Is that Junpei Morikawa?" Yan Kang shook his head and said, "As a central defender, he is not tall, but he is very flexible. He was originally a substitute for the Japanese Olympic team, but he didn't expect that he would be used to guard Hu Lai... This
In each game, Koichi Sato arranged for the Japanese team to play three defenders, which was to contain Hu Lai. It can be seen that he attaches great importance to Hu Lai... I think that in the second half, Shi's guidance should let Hu Lai continue to attract the Japanese team's defense, and then arrange Wang Zijian and Wang
The two of them are looking for opportunities in other open spaces, and we don’t necessarily have to let Hu Lai score..."
He Feng nodded and said: "Yes. In fact, Hu Lai's performance in this East Asian Cup has been very good, beyond everyone's expectations. We can't expect him to solve our scoring problem alone.
.Even if Hu Lai doesn't score a single goal in this game, he can leave the East Asian Cup with his head held high..."
He is already taking vaccinations.
He hoped that if the Chinese team failed to draw Japan as expected and lost the championship, the fans would not scold Hu Lai.
Because there may be many people who should be responsible for the failure of the Chinese team, but only Hu Lai should not.
Even without him, we might not even have a chance to win the championship in this East Asian Cup.
Just for his hat trick against South Korea, he was the best player of the Chinese team in this East Asian Cup, and he enjoyed an opportunity to use the "death-free gold medal".
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When Xie Lan couldn't wait to turn on the TV when he got home from get off work, the first words he heard were from He Feng: "... Even if Hu Lai doesn't score a goal in this game, he can still leave the East Asian Cup with his head held high... …”
what's the situation?
Xie Lan was shocked. Did the Chinese team lose? Will his son take the blame?
Then she said that the guest Yan Kang frowned and nodded: "That's right, He Feng. The fact that he can ask Sato Koichi to change his formation just for him is enough to show how powerful he is. You must know that Hu Lai is only nineteen years old. This
This is his first time representing the Chinese team in an international competition. I think he has a long way to go and there will be many more competitions in the future..."
The more Xie Lan listened, the more frightened he became. These people were trying their best to say good things about Hu Lai, but they still felt bad no matter what they heard.
At this moment, as if to confirm her worries, the score between the Chinese team and the Japanese team in the first half was displayed at the bottom of the screen:
0:1.
The Chinese team is temporarily behind.
She frowned.
At this time, there was a noise at the door. Hu Lixin opened the door and came in. He saw his wife sitting in front of the TV instead of busy in the kitchen. He was stunned and asked: "You didn't cook?"
"Order takeout!" Xie Lan looked at the TV and said without looking back. "No cooking today!"
Hu Lixin heard the anger in his wife's tone, so he turned his eyes to the TV screen, saw the score, and immediately understood why his wife was in a bad mood.
"There's still half a half, don't be too anxious..." He could only comfort his wife.
"What does this have to do with the second half? From what I heard from these two commentators, it seemed like our son played poorly in the first half."
"What? They criticized Hu Lai?"
"No, I'm so boastful!"
"Wouldn't that be nice?"
"Why is it so good? When you suddenly hear everyone praising a person, isn't it because that person died?" Xie Lan turned around and asked her husband.
Hu Lixin was stunned for a moment: "What nonsense are you talking about!"
"Anyway, that's what it meant. As soon as I turned on the TV, I heard these two commentators, one talking to the other, saying, 'Even if Hu Lai doesn't score a goal in this game, you can leave with your head held high.' And
What's so long about the future... If our son hadn't performed poorly, they would have tried hard to make up for it here?"
Hu Lixin understood what his wife was worried about, and he quickly comforted her: "You think too much. It's just a normal conversation. You have to change your old habit of excessive associations. Hu Lai has scored in two consecutive games.
, has caused many people to have high hopes for him. This situation is both a good thing and a bad thing. So the two commentators are trying to cool down everyone's expectations. After all, who can guarantee that he will score in every game? If he doesn't score,
It is normal. It is abnormal to score every game... Especially with this score now, what if the Chinese team loses the game and some fans vent their dissatisfaction on Hu Lai? So the two commentators are helping Hu Lai.
Lai speaks and pours cold water on it in advance..."
After listening to her husband's explanation, Xie Lan realized that she might have been overly preoccupied, and now she felt a little more in the mood to make dinner.
"Let's just have a bowl of noodles tonight." She said as she walked to the kitchen. "I'll boil the water first."
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The Chinese women's football girls in the stands were still discussing the game, and the conversation had already reached the point of speculating on what tactical adjustments head coach Shi Wuyin would make in the second half.
"If I were coaching Shi, I would let Hu Lai be the bait, and then let Wang Zijian, Wang Hua and others try to score goals," Xu Wen said.
Her point of view was quickly agreed by others. At present, this is indeed the best way after Hu Lai is restrained by the other party.
After all, who stipulates that the Chinese team can only rely on Hu Lai to score?
But just when everyone unanimously agreed with Xu Wen, Li Qingqing shook his head and said: "I think it's useless. The Japanese team specially found a defender to follow Hu Lai. No matter where Hu Lai is, this person will stick to him anyway.
he."
"Yes, Hu Lai can take him out of the defensive zone and create an opening..." Xu Wen said.
"But in this game, the Japanese team seems to be playing three defenders, but it is actually a 541 formation - when defending, the two full-backs withdraw and become full-backs. Among their three central defenders, except for Junpei Morikawa,
In addition to defending Hu Lai, the other two central defenders are not responsible for Hu Lai's defense. They only need to defend their own defense zone, which is the same as in normal games. Even if Hu Lai pulls away Morikawa Junpei, how can he do it?
What void is created?" Li Qingqing explained.
Everyone was convinced by Li Qingqing's understanding of game tactics. After hearing what she said, many people frowned again: "Doesn't that mean the Chinese team has no tricks?"
Shi Yuehua asked: "Qingqing, do you have any ideas?"
Her question caused everyone to turn their hopes to Li Qingqing, but to their disappointment, Li Qingqing shook his head in front of everyone: "There is nothing I can do."
"Alas..." Someone sighed.
Some people comforted themselves: "Actually, this result is already very good. Winning runner-up is not bad."
Li Qingqing said nothing, just stared in the direction of the goal.