At the press conference before the game, Zhang Sheng seemed very low-key. He kept emphasizing: "Now my 21 team is in a bit of difficulty. There are many injuries in the team. Our opponent is now the leader of the K-League.
The state is also very good, but we will not be afraid of them, we will try our best to show our best state and score points here.』”
The head coach of Ulsan Hyundai, Cho Min-guk, seemed very confident: "I know that our opponents are the latest talents in China. They have many good players and world-class stars like Pato. I think we will take it seriously."
When it comes to this game, winning is our only goal.”
From the words of the two people, Zhang Sheng gave people a feeling of fierceness and inner weakness. Although he said he wanted to take away points, he obviously lacked confidence; while Cao Minguo was hiding something behind the scenes. On the surface, he praised the Longteng team fiercely, but in fact, the last sentence said
His actual idea was to take all three points.
In fact, Zhang Sheng's behavior was very much a performance. The reason is that Zhang Sheng knew that Cao Minguo was a Korean head coach who looked down on Chinese teams. As one of the 23 best players in the 32 strongest national teams in history announced by FIFA,
1 - A member of the Korean national team, Cao Minguo was very outstanding as a player, and he is also very senior in Korea. In Korea, where seniority and seniority are very important, Cao Minguo has a very arrogant temper, but when it comes to coaching,
In terms of experience, he does not have much experience. Before coaching Ulsan Hyundai, he had been leading Korean college teams and low-level teams.
Historically, in this season's AFC Champions League, Cao Minguo led Ulsan Hyundai to victory in the first two games. In the third game, they were tied by the Guizhou Renhe at home, and once ranked first in the group.
Name. The result was very arrogant. When Cao Minguo challenged Guizhou Renhe away from home in the fourth game of the group stage, he sent a lineup with no foreign aid and most of the main players staying in South Korea. This lineup was basically composed of Ulsan Hyundai’s substitute players and young players.
As a result, they were defeated by Guizhou Renhe 3:1 at the Guiyang Olympic Sports Center in Guizhou. I don’t know who gave him the confidence to think that after being tied at home, he could win with substitutes in the away game.
After this defeat, Cao Minguo was asked in an interview who will eventually qualify in this group. He said: "I think the qualifying team in this group is still our Ulsan Hyundai and Kawasaki Frontale."
In the end, he was slapped in the face again. After losing to Guizhou Renhe, Ulsan Hyundai lost to Western Sydney Wanderers and Kawasaki Frontale by big scores in a row. In the end, they could only be eliminated as third in the group.
Therefore, facing the team led by Cao Minguo, Zhang Sheng's plan was very clear, that is, to show weakness first, and then wait for the opportunity to strike a fatal blow.
At the pre-game tactical arrangement meeting, Zhang Sheng said to the players: "Are you confused by what I said before the game? Haha, that was just my way of showing weakness. Although we have encountered some difficulties now, I think
We can overcome them."
Next, Zhang Sheng began to make specific tactical arrangements. He said: "In this game, what we need to focus on is their forward Jin Xinyu. This player has been in very hot form recently. A total of four games in the AFC Champions League and domestic leagues averaged
He has scored goals, and he scored 19 goals last season, tied with Dejan as the top scorer in the K-League. Everyone must be careful about this player who is in good form."
Kim Shin-wook is a powerful center that has emerged in Korean football in recent years. This super-powerful center who is 1.96 meters tall and weighs 93 kilograms has not actually played in the forward position before. He has always been physically strong since he was a child.
He was playing as a center back. Since the team's forward line was full of injuries at that time, the team had to make him use his size advantage to play as a center. The results were unexpected, especially when he was defeated at home and away in the AFC Champions League.
In the match between the Chinese team Beijing Guoan, Jin Xinyu made the Beijing team at a loss when competing for high points.
After scoring 13 goals in the 2o12 season to help Ulsan Hyundai win the AFC Champions League, he performed even better in the 2o13 season. After the season, he was overwhelmingly elected as the Most Valuable Player of the Korean top league K-League. Kim Shin-woo won a total of
9o of the 113 media votes were cast, defeating the other two candidates with an absolute advantage.
But Zhang Sheng knew that Jin Xinyu's performance after that could only be said to be okay, and he never returned to the peak of the 2o12 and 2o13 seasons. The main reason was because his ability with his feet was too weak. After he later transferred to Jeonbuk Hyundai,
Jin Xinyu also failed to show any more progress.
Regarding the defense of this player, Zhang Sheng feels that the current center back in his team, whether it is McGowan or Lu Zhihui, will have no problem. In this game, Zhang Sheng is prepared to play McGowan because McGowan's body is
Stronger and able to withstand Jin Xinyu's header attack.
As for the defense of Ulsan Hyundai's other forward, Zhang Sheng is ready to leave it to Ma Yongli.
Ulsan Hyundai's partner with Jin Xinyu on the front line is Rafinha. This is a very fast Brazilian player. This player who is just over 1.7 meters tall has a very strong combination of man and ball, and he can match most of the players.
Like the Brazilian players, his personal footwork is very strong. In the AFC Champions League match against Beijing Guoan in the 2o12 season, Rafinha can be said to have completely destroyed Guoan's wing.
Ulsan Hyundai's playing style is stable and focuses on counterattacks. They have always been one of the best defensive teams in the K-League. They are not strong in offensive ability but are good at precise strikes. The scariest thing about this team is that they are good at attacking
Discover and seize the opponent's weaknesses, and then carry out crazy bombings. Just like the GPS global positioning system, it firmly locks the opponent's hinterland and continues to launch attacks to attract the opponent's attention. Then carry out precise strikes to inflict physical and mental damage on the opponent.
They were tired and collapsed. At this time, they quietly retreated, carried out a protracted battle, and stabilized their defense. This has been the main strategy of this team that has remained unchanged in recent years.
When it comes to tactics, Cao Minguo's team's tactics are also very simple. When counterattacking, they rely on the two wingers to rush in quickly, and then pass the ball down to let Jin Xinyu score a header in the middle. When Jin Xinyu has no good chance,
At the same time, he would pick up and ferry the ball in the center position, distribute the ball to the wing to organize the second attack, and in the attacking midfielder or shadow forward position, they would put a player with good footwork and strong long-range shooting ability.
The team looks for the opponent's openings to score goals.
Once the opponent's midfielder is strong, they will directly make a long pass from the backcourt, find Jin Xinyu at the front point, and use him as a fulcrum to launch the attack. At the same time, positioning the ball is one of their trump cards, and Park Donghyuk in the backcourt also has
Head ball bombing, and the ability to seize opportunities to score.
Facing a team with this style of play, Zhang Sheng thinks it is the best to deal with. As long as Jin Xinyu's play is restricted, half of the team's offensive ability will be eliminated. After protecting the second point, Ulsan Hyundai
There is basically no threat in the offense. In the end, it is necessary to concentrate on the set piece, so that Ulsan Hyundai's offense will be completely wasted.
Because they do not have strong technical ability to support them, they are ineffective against the Chinese team's most powerful weapons - high-intensity pressure and strong aggression. The players of the Longteng team are generally players with strong foot skills.
Moreover, this kind of foot skills is not the static skills of other Chinese players, but the foot skills that can be displayed in confrontation. Therefore, when dealing with teams with average skills like K-League teams, the Longteng team has a great advantage.
After all, most of South Korea's technically capable players now play in Europe.
Cao Minguo's speech in the locker room before the game was very confident: "Our opponent today is a very young team. They don't have much experience in the AFC Champions League and their confrontation ability is not strong. We just need to use our rich AFC experience.
With championship experience, while maintaining the high level of pressure and aggression against the Chinese team, they cannot organize an effective offense. The only thing everyone needs to pay attention to is their forward Pato, who is a very strong player.
, His personal ability can change the score at any time. The goals of the Longteng team before came from him, but he is not the kind of player with good physical fitness. As long as he is cut off from the league with the midfielder, he will have no ball rights.
There are no good scoring opportunities. We will not use foreign players in this game first, we want them to know how good our Korean players are."
Sure enough, when we got the rosters of both sides before the start of the game, Shao Shengyi from CCTV 5, who was in charge of the commentary, also said: "Before the game, we didn't hear that Ulsan Hyundai's foreign players were injured. They actually ranked players from all over the country for this game.
The lineup, it seems they are very confident."
At the same time, when commenting on the Longteng team’s lineup, Shao Shengyi said: “Due to the injuries of Ivo and Shu Jun, the captain of the Longteng team in this game is Wen Kai, who is on the forward line, and Shu Jun’s replacement is the young player Xiao Yunfan.
We know whether this player who just participated in the AFC Champions League for the first time at the age of 20 can withstand the pressure of the opponent."
After the game started, Ulsan Hyundai, who kicked off first, hit a high ball into the frontcourt, hitting the left wing where Xiao Yunfan was. In this game, Zhang Sheng took full advantage of Zhou Zhou and Xiao Yunfan being able to play on both sides.
, placed Xiao Yunfan on the left, while Zhou Zhou played on the right.
Zhang Sheng has his own reasons for doing this, because Zhang Sheng is playing a defensive strategy first, so Yu Bo is on the left. At the same time, Xiao Yunfan is characterized by strong offense and weak defense. Xiao Yunfan, who is playing in the AFC Champions League this time, can
Under the protection of Bo's strong defensive ability, Xiao Yunfan and Yu Bo's advantage of playing together since childhood can also play a good role.
Sure enough, after the game started, facing Ulsan Hyundai's high-pressing style in the frontcourt, the Longteng team played very cautiously. They used their strong passing and receiving abilities in the midfield and backfield to reverse the ball, which was not easy.
Attacking into the frontcourt, this made Ulsan Hyundai players and coaches even more convinced that the Longteng team would focus on defense. (To be continued.)
