Seeing Nie Jiang's mission, Zhang Sheng couldn't help but think of him who was currently competing in the World Junior Championships in faraway South America.
The opening match of this World Junior Championship is October 17, but the Chinese national junior team led by Rick Linke arrived in Chile, the host country, in early October.
As the champion team of last year's Asian Junior Championship, the Chinese national junior team was placed in a not too strong group - Group E. In addition to China, this group also includes South Africa, Costa Rica and Russia.
In fact, the World Junior Championship and Chinese football are very close, because the first World Junior Championship was held in China in 1985. As the host, the Chinese national junior team became the seed team in Group A. The Chinese team won 2 games in the group stage.
An impressive record of 1 draw and qualifying as first place. Although they lost 2:4 to the world's top West Germany team in the quarter-finals, Xie Yuxin, Cao Xiandong and other players from the National Youth Team at the time later became national players.
The mainstay of the team, the team finally finished eighth.
Since the first World Junior Championship, although the Chinese national junior team is not as good as Nigeria (4 championships) and Brazil (3 championships), the results are still acceptable.
Although they did not qualify from the group in the four years of participation in 1989, 1991, 1993 and 2003, they qualified again in 2005 and finally won seventh place, and in the 2005 World Junior Championships
Outstanding players such as Wang Dalei, Yang Xu, Yu Dabao, and Deng Zhuoxiang have appeared. Among them, Wang Dalei has also been favored by Inter Milan and received a trial training opportunity.
Of course, this is not without some nonsense. For example, in the 2000 Asian Club Cup, the AFC officials in charge of the World Junior Championship in 1993 suddenly discovered that Li Xiaopeng, Song Lihui and others from Shandong Luneng were also participating that year.
After passing the junior tournament, and judging from the age of registration, these players are all over-age players, and China's reputation for using over-age players has completely spread.
The issue of overage players was not only a true portrayal of the dark side of Chinese domestic football at that time, but also paved the way for the subsequent failure to enter the World Junior Championships for five consecutive years, because the domestic football environment became even worse after that.
After the host Chile was held to a 1:1 draw by Croatia, the first round of competition began in full swing. Soon a big upset occurred. The Korean national junior team from Asia defeated the three-time champion Brazil national junior team 1:0.
Next, with the attention of Chinese fans, the match between the Chinese national junior team and the Russian national junior team began.
This Russian team inherited the style of the previous Soviet team, with a sharp attack from the wings, a center with strong impact ability at the forward, and a typical No. 10 player in the midfield.
This team has a tough style and pays attention to physical confrontation, but overall the tactics and player styles are relatively backward. However, one thing that must be considered is the special nature of the World Junior Championship. In such a low-age competition, there are one or two
Players with outstanding abilities will greatly affect the outcome of the game.
For example, Russia's left winger Rebrov, center Fedor Charlov and midfielder Galalin, as well as the even more outstanding Nie Jiang of China's national youth team.
The same is true for the game. Shortly after the start, the Russian national junior team took advantage of its stronger body to strangle the Chinese national junior team's midfielder. Among them, Zeng Fusheng, who was the core of the national junior team's midfielder, was "taken care of".
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In the eighth minute of the first half, Russia's extremely fast winger Rebrov broke through Xiang Tiange. His cross from the wing found Galalin who came in from behind the midfield. Fortunately, the center back
Liming was very focused on defense, and he used his body to block Galalin's shot from the baseline.
Rick Link's reaction was also very quick. He asked Zeng Prosperity to retreat slightly. The Chinese national junior team began to slowly use passing and controlling methods to wear down the opponent's patience.
This tactical adjustment of the Chinese national junior team made Russia very uncomfortable, because it was very difficult for them to grab the ball, especially Shen Jun and Cao Jinghao on the left side of the national junior team. These two players are all about running and short passing.
Players with excellent tactical execution ability, coupled with the cooperation from Zeng Prosperity, make Guo Shao's left wing very strong.
The Russian team had to let a large number of players come over to compete with the left wing of the national junior team.
As a result, when a large number of their defensive resources were tilted to the left, Cao Jinghao's characteristics of long passes were reflected.
In the 22nd minute of the first half, as many as five Russian players were attracted to the left. As a result, after Cao Jinghao received Zeng Wengrong's back pass, he made a long pass without stopping and suddenly found the right wing.
Xiang Tiange speeds up the frontcourt.
Xiang Tiange, who was "bullied" by Rebrov once before, succeeded in revenge. When he caught the ball, he threw the ball away from the opponent. Then he increased his speed to the extreme and once again broke through the Russian team.
left back.
Seeing Xiang Tiange's beautiful long-distance run, which passed two people, LeTV commentator Miao Lin, who was in charge of the commentary, exclaimed: "Xiang Tiange's speed and breakthrough, maybe Rebrov himself didn't expect it."
The speed is actually faster than me'. Xiang Tiange made a pass, and Nie Jiang's header was beautiful. The deadlock was broken. Nie Jiang scored with a header, and the Chinese national junior team took a 1:0 lead."
"Nie Jiang's movement was so smart. He first started on the right, saw Xiang Tiange speeding up, leaned towards the middle, and even retreated a little, eliminating the risk of offside. Then he used the cover of his teammates to
He walked diagonally from the penalty area to the front point, and then headed the ball towards the near corner after receiving the pass from Xiang Tiange. The opponent's defensive player was completely confused by his movement. Xiang Tiange rode as fast as flying, riding thousands of miles alone.
, Nie Jiang, on the other hand, conducts his troops in deceitful ways, and is sure to hit with one blow." Miao Lin, the general, was always talking about storytelling and reciting a poem when nothing happened.
The next game entered the rhythm that the Chinese national junior team wanted - the national junior team seemed to be struggling with the opponent in the midfield. The opponent ran a lot, kept grabbing, and often passed the national team's passes.
Pressing back to the backcourt, they even made a few long passes from the midfield to the backcourt, looking for the wingers and forwards in front to attack the 30-meter area of the national junior team, so the scene looked like a vigorous fight, but in fact
The actual threat to the goal of the Chinese National Youth Team is not great. On the contrary, it charges fiercely, grabs fiercely, and consumes a lot of physical energy.
On the contrary, the offense of the national junior team seems to rely on layer-by-layer advancement and is not very passionate, but the actual situation is more stable.
After nearly twenty minutes of struggle, the national junior team took advantage of its long possession of the ball and less physical exertion to launch a successful attack near the end of the first half.
The offensive organization this time came from the careful planning of midfielder Zeng Prosperity. He took advantage of the opponent's severe physical exhaustion and suddenly accelerated past a person in the midfield, and then handed the ball to the player who had high hopes in history.
Li Ming.
After receiving the ball, this player with little actual combat experience but full of agility turned around beautifully and got rid of the opponent's defensive center back. Then his long shot forced the Russian team's goalkeeper to save the ball. Nie Jiang
He alertly found the second spot and successfully pushed the shot into the empty goal. While scoring twice, he expanded the score to 2:0.
Shortly after the goal, the first half of the game ended. The ability displayed by the Chinese national junior team on the court made the scouts on the sidelines excited. Nie Jiang's performance in particular attracted much attention. Many scouts were watching.
Looking at him, he also recorded it in his notebook.
After the second half, Russia also gave up its previous rushing and attacking style, completely handed over control of the midfield, and honestly began to play defensive counterattacks.
If they had used this tactic at the beginning, it would have been a wise choice. It was already too late to use it until they were two goals behind.
The national junior team steadily controlled the situation on the court. It was not until the 13th minute of the second half that their forward Chalov used his physical advantage to crush the center back Zhu Chenjie trained at Genbao Base. However, he
After being supported by Huang Dawei, the header hit the goal post of the national junior team and bounced out of the baseline.
As a player valued by coach Xu Genbao, Zhu Chenjie has always been the captain of the team. This player has a very reserved personality and is focused on playing football. However, he has certain weaknesses in stealing, especially filling in and heading the ball. This time Chalov
He took advantage of this and almost scored a header.
After slowly figuring out the situation of China's national youth team, Russia began to fight high and low, looking specifically for Zhu Chenjie.
Fortunately, Liming has rich experience. As a player with outstanding heading ability, although he is still on the task of "concentrating", he has made great progress in concentration. Seeing Chalov
Wanting to bully his teammates, he took the initiative to take over the task.
In many high-altitude ball confrontations with Charlov, Li Ming never lost, and Russia's 45-degree oblique play also lost its effect.
Unfortunately, in the 30 minutes of the second half, Liming's weakness of poor positioning was exposed again. In a corner kick from the Russian team, he misjudged the ball's placement, allowing Charov to score a header.
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The Russian team evened the score to 2:1.
The Russian team was greatly encouraged by this goal and mustered up their last remaining strength to launch the last few waves of attacks.
Just when their attack was booming, too many troops were invested in the attack, and the weakness of lack of physical fitness was once again seized upon by Nie Jiang.
After Sun Qinhan, the midfielder of the national junior team, intercepted the ball from Galalin, he passed a big shot to Nie Jiang. Nie Jiang ran at high speed and passed two Russian players before decisively kicking far away.
After the ball was saved by the opponent's goalkeeper, Zeng Prosperity successfully stepped in and the gap once again widened to two goals.
After this goal, the Russian team completely lost hope of equalizing. They replaced a defensive midfielder and a forward. They gave up the game and hoped to lose a few fewer goals to prepare for the subsequent games in the group stage.
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In the end, the Chinese national junior team ended the first game of the group stage with a comprehensive advantage of 3:1. It scored all three points against the recognized strongest opponent in the group and completed its pre-match task.
After the game, Costa Rica in the same group defeated South Africa 2:1, so the Chinese national junior team ranked first in Group E with a goal difference advantage.
It's just that the South Korean team's upset victory over Brazil was so disappointing that everyone focused on this team from Asia, and the Chinese team's complete victory was ignored.
After the start of the second round, the South Korean team won the game again, defeating Guinea 1:0. In this way, they had declared their success in qualifying and once again attracted everyone's attention. Everyone agreed that this team
Will be the biggest dark horse in this World Junior Championships.
As the Chinese national junior team entered the World Junior Championship after defeating South Korea to win the Asian Junior Championship, they did not disappoint. When facing the weakest opponent in the group, the South African team, the national junior team easily defeated them 2:0.
opponent.
In this game, even though the South African team put great restrictions on Nie Jiang - no matter whether he was in the penalty area or withdrawing from the penalty area, there would be people watching him closely, they still found opportunities for Nie Jiang.
In the first half, Nie Jiang used his skills at his feet to continuously pass the South African team's midfielder and central defender, and then broke the deadlock with a long-range shot from the edge of the penalty area.
In the second half, it was Nie Jiang who once again attracted the defensive attention of the other two players. Xiang Tiange made a pass and found Li Ming in the middle. The latter's push shot locked the score at 2:0.
In this way, the Chinese national junior team has also won two victories and successfully qualified.
The qualification of China and South Korea made the world football world exclaim that the future of Asian football is promising.
Another advantage of the Chinese national junior team in this group is that in addition to China's two wins, Costa Rica drew with Russia in this round, so the Chinese team is now determined to be first in the group. In the third game, they
It is absolutely possible to line up some substitute players to check the status of these substitutes, and at the same time give them a chance to warm up in the game.
In the third game, the Chinese National Junior Team made Nie Jiang, Zeng Fansheng, Shen Jun and Xiang Tiange sit on the bench, while Zhong Yangyang and Wang Xing came on.
Because Wang Xing, a famous high school forward, was on the court, the national junior team used a pass from the bottom and a 45-degree slant tactic this time. Defensively, the national junior team put two defensive midfielders in the midfield.
Constantly sweeping in front of their own 30 meters, the two full-backs who are good at speed and breakthroughs kept counterattacking.
In the end, the national junior team relied on the defense commanded by Liming, Huang Dawei's excellent performance and Wang Xing's header from a corner kick to draw with Costa Rica 1:1.
After three group matches, China and Russia ranked first and second in Group E, respectively. In the next quarter-finals, the Chinese team will face the Ecuador national team.
According to the analysis of outside media, if nothing unexpected happens, the Chinese national junior team will have a greater chance of winning if most of the main players have a rest.
Before this game, Rick Link also organized the players to watch a quarter-final match between South Korea and Belgium. The dark horse team South Korea, which was unanimously optimistic by the outside world, lost in the physical crushing of Belgium.
In the end, Belgium defeated the South Korean team 2:0.
At the same time, another Asian team, the North Korean team, was eliminated. Nigeria, the favorite to win the World Junior Championship, swept the North Korean team with a big score of 5:0, maintaining its fiery state in history.
Just when the Chinese national junior team qualified, the Longteng team was also competing in the Chinese Super League.
