Even though Urawa Red Diamonds has the strength of a top team in the J-League and a deep enough bench, they are still within the category of Asian teams.
At the sixth minute of the first half, Longteng's two forwards, Chavez and Nie Jiang, plus Ben Alpha and Qi Ming on the left, formed a pressure on the right side of Urawa Red Diamonds.
Facing the layered press and trap of up to four players from the Dragons, their right center back Moriwaki Ryota made a mistake. In order to avoid Chavez's press, he gave the ball to Aoki Takuya with too much force and the ball passed out. out of bounds.
Next, Moriwaki Ryota was only 1.77 meters tall, and his shortcomings were fully exposed. After Qi Ming's throw-in, the confrontation between Moriwaki Ryota and Chavez was completely defeated, and the latter's header was missed. Ben Alpha, who inserted from the wing to the center.
After Ben Alpha got the ball, he broke through Urawa Red Diamonds' defense in front of the penalty area with a simple change of direction and acceleration. Then Ben Alpha and Nie Jiang's one-two combination broke through Urawa Red Diamonds' defense. , the former, faced with a save from Japanese national goalkeeper Nishikawa Shusaku, successfully shot from the far corner with the inside of his foot, turning the score into 1:0.
This is a perfect embodiment of Zhang Sheng's tactics this season. Pressure in the frontcourt causes the opponent to make mistakes. The subsequent offense is simple and efficient, allowing the players to choose the most threatening offensive method. Break out when they can, pass when they can, and in the end, this Alpha He solved the battle with his superhuman personal ability.
After scoring the goal, Ben Alpha ran to the sideline with a proud look on his face and patted his chest. The meaning was very clear - I am the strongest.
"Ben Alpha's state is so hot." Liu Jiayuan, who was responsible for commentating the game, praised: "Four goals in two rounds of the Chinese Super League, including a hat trick, two goals in the Super Cup, and two goals in the first two games of the AFC Champions League. There were also three goals in the game, and now the third game helped the team break the deadlock. This kind of scoring efficiency is simply appalling."
"After Pato left, many people originally speculated that Ben Arfa would have a harder time without anyone to help him in the frontcourt. Unexpectedly, he broke out completely." Liu Jiayuan could only lament that the signing of the Longteng team was too cost-effective. .
The speculation from the outside world is actually justified. Pato's departure has indeed reduced the Dragons' frontcourt hot spots, but Pato's departure to Chelsea also stimulated Ben Arfa even more.
As a rebellious genius, Ben Arfa basically refused to accept anyone. Although he didn't say anything on the surface when Pato was here before, after all, Pato had more seniority than him, and it was not easy for him to go. He competed with Pato for the position of the team's number one star, but in his heart he always compared himself with Pato.
Now that Pato has been spotted by a Premier League club, Ben Arfa's thoughts have come alive: "You can be spotted by a Premier League team, why can't I? I've played in the Premier League before."
Thinking of Zhang Sheng's promise when he bought him from the Premier League - that if a European team is interested in him, as long as the price is right, he will never stop him. Ben Alpha felt that he should use his actual performance to tell Zhang Sheng: "I I am also qualified to return to Europe and return to the Premier League to play football!"
Gradually returning to his peak ability and state, his extremely high morale made Ben Alpha completely explode.
Of course, Zhang Sheng's current crazy attack tactics have indeed given Ben Alpha more opportunities to participate in the offense, and the chances of scoring goals have also increased accordingly.
In response to Ben Alpha's arrogant celebration, Zhang Sheng gave him a thumbs up.
After the goal, the Longteng team pressed even more crazily, and Urawa Red Diamonds completely fell into a passive position.
In the eighth minute of the first half, the pressure of the Longteng team caused the Urawa Red Diamonds' offensive error again. This time, the center back Tomoaki Makino was eager to attack. After being interfered by Tao Wentao when he was dribbling the ball forward, he was blocked from the goal. Nie Jiang, who came back from the front line, intercepted the ball.
The three main central defenders of Urawa Red Diamonds, Tomoaki Makino, Ryota Moriwaki and Hiroshi Endo, have an interesting combination. Among the three, Ryota Moriwaki is a full-back. Hiroshi Endo, as the core player of the Japanese Olympic team, is actually a defensive midfielder and defensive lineman. The only orthodox defender, Tomoaki Makino, is also a central defender who is very keen on attacking.
Among them, Tomoaki Makino is the most special, because simply calling him a central defender who likes to attack is completely insufficient to describe his characteristics. He is actually a "forward defender" - his offensive and scoring ability is the best among defenders. In the past few years in Urawa, he has scored an average of 5 goals a season, and his scoring method is not the traditional central defender who uses headers in the penalty area or long shots and set kicks outside the penalty area. He is more Most of the time, he cooperates with his teammates and gets into the penalty area to get shots with his feet.
So he asks the club for the No. 10 jersey every year. Of course, his request is rejected immediately by the club every time.
In this game, the Longteng team's formation also gave Makino Tomoaki the conditions to attack, because the Longteng team is 3-5-2, but among the two forwards, Nie Jiang is more on Chavez's side. Behind him, there is a shadow striker, which makes it too wasteful for Urawa Red Diamonds' three central defenders to only defend Chavez alone. Petrovic also asked Makino Tomoaki before the game to participate more in the attack.
It's just that Petrovic's idea is very good, but the tactical arrangement is indeed too monotonous. He is extremely keen on short passes and never attempts long passes. He arranges Ljubijankic on the forward line who is a J-League player with few players. Some high center forwards don't use it. This offensive method of passing from the backcourt to the frontcourt and advancing through layers is extremely disadvantageous when encountering the crazy dog version of the pressing style like the Longteng team.
This is exactly what Tomoaki Makino did in his attack this time. It would have been better if he had chosen to drive forward with a big kick to look for Ljubijankic, and then back to Yuki Muto or Takuya Aoki to counterattack, but he failed. Due to the pass at the feet, the result was that the Longteng team deployed a large number of "defensive forwards" and "defensive frontcourt" in the midfield and frontcourt.
After successfully stealing the ball, the Longteng team launched an attack in the midfield with Nie Jiang. Seeing that Ben Alpha was being stared at by the opponent, Nie Jiang chose to pass the ball to Xiang Tiange, who came up from the right for an assist.
While Xiang Tiange took the ball, Takuya Aoki from Urawa Red Diamonds followed him. After Xiang Tiange pretended to pass the ball, he suddenly accelerated.
Xiang Tiange, who had just been selected for the national team, seemed extremely confident. He resisted Takuya Aoki's interference while dribbling the ball at high speed, and then threw away the opponent.
From the competition between these two people, it is not difficult to see some differences in the selection of players between Chinese and Japanese clubs. The most important thing for Japanese clubs to select players is the players' foot skills, running savvy, and the basic skills of passing and receiving, so the physical fitness requirements of the players are not the same. I don’t care too much. Aoki Takuya is a midfielder and frontcourt player who has just reached 1.8 meters. He is not heavy and not fast. If he were in China, it would be impossible to enter the top club of the Chinese Super League and play the main role. , but in Japan, he naturally got a main position.
Xiang Tiange is the complete opposite. Although he is only eighteen years old, his height, weight, and speed are all extremely outstanding. Now he has reached 1.83 meters tall and weighs 74 kilograms. He comes from a good family.
The environment was rich in nutrition since he was a child, and he entered the echelon of Longteng Club very early. He was carefully cared for by top nutritionists and physical fitness teams, allowing his body to grow extremely strong.
In addition, in recent years, China's domestic football has always had a tradition of selecting players who are tall and fast. Although there are a lot of "rough guys" on the field who are clumsy and have rough feet, once they are well trained,
, that is still very promising, especially when facing Japanese players.
The selection of players is related to the basis of selection of China, Japan and South Korea.
In fact, when it comes to the average height of young people, there have been rumors on the Internet that among the three countries in East Asia, China, Japan and South Korea, China is the shortest. Among them, Wu Zhengxian, a representative of the National People's Congress and the Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences, claimed as early as 2014: "In recent years,
In the ranking of average male height in the world, South Korea ranked 18th, with an average height of 1.74 meters; Japan ranked 29th, with an average height of 1.707 meters; Chinese men ranked 32nd, with an average height of 1.697 meters. The average height ratio of Chinese boys aged 7 to 17 years old
Japanese boys of the same age are 2.54 centimeters shorter.”
After studying his words carefully, we can trace that the source is just the "three noes" information on the Internet, and it was flooded on the Internet as early as 2006 or even earlier. In fact, people with a little bit of intelligence can tell the fallacy of this information, not to mention the North and the South.
Among the countries in the United States and Africa, there are 45 countries and regions in Europe alone. How can South Korea be ranked 18th, even though the average height of young people in so many European countries is higher?
The real reliable source of data comes from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Youth Research Institute, the Japan Youth Research Institute and the Korea Youth Research Institute, which jointly conducted a survey on the physical and mental health of high school students in three countries in October 2010. The Chinese samples were Beijing, Shanghai, and Ningxia.
, 1,280 students from 10 high schools in six provinces and cities in Liaoning, Shaanxi and Hunan, Japan surveyed 1,113 people, and South Korea surveyed 3,933 people. The ratio of boys and girls is basically the same.
The conclusion is that the average height of Chinese high school students is the highest - 168.17 cm, Korean high school students are 167.61 cm, and Japanese high school students are 164.70 cm. The average weight of Chinese high school students is 58.19 kg, South Korea is 59.26 kg, and Japan is 56.18 kg.
From this conclusion, it is easy to see why Japan chooses flexible and technical players, because they are really at a disadvantage compared to China and South Korea in terms of size, let alone compared to European, American and African players.
The teams competed.
In addition to a good foundation, China also has an even more powerful point - a huge number of young people and a small population, so it is completely possible to select players with good flexibility and good talent while taking into account physical conditions. Of course, this
This is under the premise that a young person is willing to play football, his family agrees with him playing football, and the club and relevant departments use scientific methods to select talents.
When it comes to Zhang Sheng, it's even more different. The system mostly selects players with both physical fitness and talent, which saves Zhang Sheng a lot of trouble.
Specific to this game, the confrontation between Xiang Tiange and Aoki Takuya was a true manifestation of the physical confrontation between high-level players from China and Japan. Aoki Takuya pushed Xiang Tiange to the sideline, but was rushed by the latter.
past.
Xiang Tiange, who gained the space to sprint, only took two steps with the ball. The opponent's midfielder Yuki Abe rushed over. Facing this "old iron man" who had played in the Premier League but had passed his peak period, Xiang Tiange
Instead of dribbling the ball more, he directly passed the ball to Chavez in the penalty area.
This operation of Xiang Tiange was something Zhang Sheng had firmly warned before the game.
When Yuki Abe was young, he was good at both offense and defense, and had the ability to head the ball. At the same time, he had a tough style of play and could not get out of the firing line even with minor injuries. Although he is almost 35 years old now, his ability to score and assist has declined to nothing, but he is in the midfield
His interception and sweeping abilities are still very strong. Before the game, Zhang Sheng had always emphasized not to tangle with him in the midfield. Being able to quickly pass down the field is the wisest choice.
When Xiang Tiange's pass found Chavez, the latter easily crushed Endo Hang, who was only 1.76 meters tall, and made a beautiful header towards the goal of Urawa Red Diamonds.
Fortunately, although Shusaku Nishikawa is short, his reaction and jumping ability are first-class. Facing the ball flying at high speed, he jumped diagonally upward and lifted the football over the crossbar with his hand. Urawa Red Diamonds dodged it.
One calamity.
Seeing the Longteng team suppressing his team so crazily, Petrovic was extremely anxious on the sidelines. He waved his hands vigorously to get his players to concentrate and show their fighting spirit, but then the Longteng team's corner kick came again.
The Urawa Red Diamonds were so frightened that they broke out in a cold sweat. Chavez was like a monster in the penalty area. His whole body was completely pressed against Tomoaki Makino and he headered the goal. However, this time the header was a bit wide, directly.
Flying beyond the bottom line.
Urawa Red Diamonds, who got the ball, were also frightened by the pressure from the Longteng team. After the kick-off, they fell down in the backcourt until the Longteng team felt that the formation was too high and retreated a little.
The attack began.
It has to be said that the outside world's comments on Petrovic are spot on - he is a specialized tactician in the 3-6-1 formation, but he does not know how to be flexible. He has been playing this formation defensively to the point of being willful.
.
Although their usual style of play is more focused on fierce fighting in the midfield, and then making short passes to penetrate and attack, they do not focus on ball possession but tend to attack. It seems to be better than those in Japan who pursue passing and controlling the opponent's goal.
The team is better, but the current situation is completely different. Urawa Red Diamonds have been suppressed for almost half-time, and they are still determined to advance into the Longteng team's backcourt through positional offense.
This situation is what Zhang Sheng wants to see most.
In the 20th minute of the first half, Urawa Red Diamonds took this tactic to its extreme. Six players in their midfield plus a forward passed 11 good balls in a row under the pressure of the Longteng team, and among them
There were also two consecutive one-twos, but in the end Ljubijankic made a back-and-forth on the penalty area line. Muto Yuki took a long shot from outside the penalty area, but Huang Dawei saved it.
It can be seen from their attack this time that the Longteng team's defensive formation is stable, and the two wing-backs recovered in time. Urawa Red Diamonds cannot penetrate the Longteng team's defense. The area of attack can only be outside the penalty area, and the goal is
The threat was far less than that of the Longteng team who shot in the penalty area.
And such precise passes under close pressure coupled with on-the-spot brilliant passes were at most a continuous one-two from outside the Longteng team's 30-meter defensive zone. With the Longteng team's positional defensive capabilities, it was still far away from a goal.
It's far away, not to mention how many times such a wonderful pass can be played in a game.
