Chinese champion

Chapter 253 The Road to Glory
"Well, their strength is good, especially in the midfield. I think you are all familiar with that guy Pei? What do you think of him?"

The person who spoke was the current head coach of Argentina, Pekerman. He also has an indissoluble bond with this Chinese team. In the World Youth Championship six years ago, it was the Chinese youth team that led him to the host in the final. The Argentine team has been kicked off from the championship. Now the Chinese national team has ten players from that time, and the Argentine national team also has Saviola, Burundisso, Ke Rocini, Rodriguez and other players, Chinese football really has some indissoluble bond with Argentine football.

"Pei's strength is unquestionable, and I have suffered a lot from him in training!" Cambiasso said with a smile, and several other players who played for Inter Milan nodded in sympathy: "However, I I think Javier Jr. should be able to deal with him!"

Javier Javier in his mouth is Javier Mascherano, known as the "monster". Since Zanetti's name is also Javier, Javier Mascherano, who was born in 1984, naturally became a little Javier.

Mascherano nodded. Although he is one year younger than Pei Wei, he is very calm. Pekerman smiled. He has always been very satisfied with this young and mature disciple: "Their midfielder is very strong. But both forwards and defenders have a lot of flaws, but the height of No. 18 is a big threat to us. Robert (Ayala) you have played against him in La Liga, are you sure to mark him dead? "

Ayala frowned: "Although he is fifteen centimeters taller than me, football does not rely on height. I think I can deal with him by predicting in advance, and his skills are not very good. Just pay attention It’s enough to get a good position.”

"Wow, we haven't won the Hong Kong team yet, and the seniors are starting to discuss the opponents in the final?" 19-year-old Messi said with a smile, and everyone else laughed, the Hong Kong team?Doesn't seem like enough of an opponent for us to make it to the finals, does it?

At this time, the game on the field was over, and the Chinese team scored another goal before the end of the game. After receiving a pass from Zhu Jun, Dong Yuzhuo used his personal skills to volley past two defenders in the penalty area. The goalkeeper couldn't make a save, and the Chinese team beat Togo 4:1.

"Okay, it's our turn!" Pekerman clapped his hands: "Let's win this game and accept the challenge from the Chinese team! To be honest, among these teams, only the Chinese team can probably lead Give us a little test..."

The Argentine players laughed one after another, revealing a strong self-confidence, but indeed, they have this capital pride.

**************************************
All the members of the Chinese team saw a massacre in the stands. The score of 6:0 made the Hong Kong team feel ashamed, but this is the result of the Argentine team keeping their hands. They will attack with three goals in the first half. Players Saviola, Crespo, and Riquelme were all replaced, but the substitutes on the field seemed to have no intention of keeping their hands. Messi, Tevez, and Aimar each scored another goal in the second half, showing the It proved the deep bench strength of the Argentine team.

"Hey, I'm really envious of Argentina's forward line..." Menotti murmured while rubbing his chin, but he was smart enough to speak in Spanish, and the players were far away from him, so it didn't matter. Hearing this sentence hurt the self-esteem of the Chinese forwards.

"Tomorrow's game is really nerve-wracking..." He Jin also muttered in his mouth. Although the outcome is not very important, no team is willing to accept defeat, so this nerve-wracking problem naturally falls to the ground. on the heads of the coaches.

"What tactics are you going to use tomorrow?"

It was already late at night, but the coaches were still awake. He Jin asked Menotti this question. Over the past year, he had already admired Menotti, the "football theorist". I have never seen a coach who can play tactics so superbly. Think about it, there are as many as [-] tactics for corner kicks. What kind of concept is this!
Of course, if he can smoke less, it will be more enjoyable to be with him...

Menotti cruelly shattered He Jin's little wish, he lit another cigarette and took a deep breath, the smoke immediately filled the whole room: "Tomorrow I will not use any special tactics, only one , That is to fight with all the main force, use our most accustomed formation and best staffing, and have a confrontation with the Argentine team."

He flicked the ashes in the astonished eyes of He Jin and Feng Yu: "I just want to know how the strongest lineup of the Chinese team can be ranked in the world. In the confrontation with Argentina, which is also full of main players, can they What kind of level is played, I think, after this game, we can make an accurate judgment on the positioning of the Chinese team."

He Jin and Feng Yu immediately understood what he meant, but Feng Yu felt a little worried about it: "Wouldn't this expose our true strength prematurely? Will other opponents take precautions against us in advance?" ?”

"It doesn't matter." Menotti shook his head, "Those teams won't care too much about the result of such a game, and for Spain and Ukraine, there is no secret about our strength. Playing in the big leagues, we are too, and the positioning of our own strength is very important, so that we can arrange tactics according to the comparison of the strength of the enemy and ourselves in the World Cup."

"But I can almost predict the result of tomorrow's game." Maradona, who had been silent by the side, said suddenly. When he saw the other three people looking at him, the ball king lazily opened Mouth: "In the first half, the Chinese team might be able to fight Argentina hard, but in the second half, when both sides began to make large-scale substitutions...Argentina's advantage will be revealed."

"Diego is right." Menotti nodded: "But even if I lose this game, I will do the same. The strength difference between Argentina's main force and the substitute is not that big. The players also have to endure more tests, so that they can grow quickly."

He Jin and Feng Yu looked at each other, and He Jin even started to pray for the players who will play in the second half tomorrow.

********************************
The first game on the second day was the match between Hong Kong and Togo. Adebayor, who was depressed throughout the second half yesterday, finally found a punching bag today. He kicked the head and kicked two cities in a row to help the Togo team. 3:1 defeated the Hong Kong team.

This game is just an aperitif before the dinner, and the next game is the main event. This can be seen from the number of fans on site. The Hong Kong Stadium, which can accommodate 5 people, only had a few seats in the game between Hong Kong and Togo. There were more than 1 fans, and half an hour before the final between China and Argentina, the stadium was full of people, and there were even many fans who had not bought tickets wandering around the sidelines.

Among Hong Kong fans, these two teams are quite popular. Needless to say, the Argentine team can be said to be the most famous team to participate in the Lunar New Year Cup in recent years, and the recent performance of Chinese players in Europe has also made Hong Kong The fans placed a lot of hope. In addition, Hong Kong is also a part of China. Among the fans at the scene, the fans who support the Chinese team accounted for the vast majority.

When the rosters of the two sides were announced, the enthusiasm of the fans reached a peak. The two teams obviously did not want to be perfunctory in this game. They both sent the strongest lineups to compete at the Hong Kong Stadium.

Pekerman is the successor of Menotti's tactics. In fact, every Argentine coach has more or less shadows of Menotti and Bilardo in his coaching style. They are the two pillars of Argentine football. There are two peaks, two peaks that no one can surpass.

What made the fans even more excited was that the game reached a climax almost from the very beginning. Players from both sides fought fiercely in the midfield, but it was only fierce and did not rise to violence.

Mascherano really followed Pekerman's instructions and followed Pei Wei's side every step of the way. Even though Pei Wei had already adapted to this kind of marking, he still felt a little headache about Mascherano's defense.

Mascherano is not tall, only 1.7 meters five, a little shorter than Pei Wei, but he is very flexible, he is not the traditional tall and strong midfielder with strong frontal defensive ability, but that This kind of midfielder is very flexible and relies on anticipation and positioning to defend. Of course, his body is still very strong. At least in this regard, he is a level higher than Pei Wei.

What should a forward midfielder do when facing a fast, good body and excellent technique defensive midfielder?

Head-to-head?What the wise don't take, Pei Wei will never do something that kills one thousand and loses eight hundred. Although he dares to use his body to score a goal at the critical moment, in this general situation he will Find another way.

Just when the two of them were entangled, Argentina took the lead in attacking. Under the close defense of Hu Yong, Riquelme still passed a very penetrating pass, which was accurately passed to the only one in the Chinese team's defense. In a gap, Saviola quickly jumped in knowingly, facing Wu Qi who was attacking, he stabbed ahead of time, and the ball rolled into the empty goal.

"Riquelme..." Pei Wei thought in his heart, he has played against Riquelme more than once in La Liga, he is a typical classical attacking midfielder, with excellent ball control, dribbling and passing, But the speed is too slow. Originally, Pei Wei thought that Hu Yong's defensive ability and turning speed could kill him very well, but he didn't expect that Hu Yong could make Riquelme unable to surpass others, but he couldn't stop his pass. .

"I can do the same." Pei Wei suddenly found that he seemed to have been relying too much on his own speed and impact to play football, so much so that he ignored that the first task of a midfielder is to help his teammates score.

In Pei Wei's mind came the shocking pass that Maradona passed to Caniggia in 90. What a dazzling pass it was. Compared with this pass, Caniggia That goal is hardly worth mentioning.

Five minutes later, Zhu Jun failed to make a breakthrough from the side, and pushed the ball to Pei Wei's feet. Pei Wei touched the ball before Mascherano. He did not give Mascherano a chance to steal, but Facing the incoming ball, he gently pushed it with the arch of his foot, and the ball flew forward immediately. Unfortunately, Dong Yuzhuo's start was a bit slow, and the ball was caught by Abundan Sheri, who attacked in advance.

Although the goal was missed, Mascherano began to feel that his defense was struggling. Now he not only had to prevent Pei Wei's quick breakthrough, but also beware of Pei Wei's possible pass at any time.

Defense is always passive, as offense can take many forms.

"Pei seems to have started to change his way of playing football." Menotti said to Maradona with joy.

Maradona stretched his waist: "Useless boy... I just discovered this now. You must know that his physical fitness is still higher than mine. If he could play like this earlier..."

Menotti smiled, but didn't speak.

Hu Yong made a direct pass in the midfield, Pei Wei pretended to catch the ball, missed it cleverly, then turned around and ran forward, the ball rolled to the front of the penalty area, and Zhanfeng, who withdrew from the penalty area, sent the ball back, using his speed to temporarily Pei Wei, who shook off Mascherano, took a shot to meet the ball. The ball was blocked by Ayala with his body. Dong Yuzhuo followed up and shot again.

Zhang Qi made a pass from the bottom, and Zhanfeng headed the ball down. Pei Wei knocked the ball behind him with his heel after receiving the ball.

Mascherano really can't see Pei Wei now. His speed was originally slower than Pei Wei. At the beginning, he was able to stick up and defend before Pei Wei had a good control of the ball, but now Pei Wei doesn't let him The ball stays at his feet more, but he makes full use of his overall view to mobilize other people's offense, which makes the Argentine defenders feel that they are neglecting the other.

"Change to zone defense! Don't play man-to-man!" Pekerman yelled from the sidelines. His approach was correct. With the strength of Argentine defenders, as long as they stand in a good position, the team that can break their defense is really true. not much.

But Peckman overlooked one point. Pei Wei is more able to display his full strength when no one is pressing close to him. The fear of a player like him is that he does not have enough space to play.

And now that Zhanfeng is on the field, his height is unmatched, and he has become a standard beacon in the penalty area, giving the Chinese team a goal to attack.

Just like playing volleyball, the offensive players of the Chinese team continuously hoist the ball into the penalty area, and then Zhanfeng uses his height to pass the ball to the supporting teammate. In this stance style of play, Ayala's Experience has lost its effect, and he can only watch Zhanfeng continue to bully people with his height.

"It seems that our defenders are still short." Pekerman wondered in his heart, should Samuel be recalled to the national team?You know, he played very well at Inter Milan this year.

While Pekerman was thinking about it, the Chinese team launched a very threatening attack.

Zhu Jun forced the bottom, but instead of passing the ball into the penalty area, he knocked the ball with his heel to Wang Xiaomin, who had put in the assist. Wei, Pei Wei made a clever miss, the ball rolled to the right, Zhang Qi received the ball and passed it back, Hu Yong hoisted the ball back from Zhang Qi directly into the penalty area, Zhanfeng headed the ball to the front of the penalty area, Pei Wei volleyed the goal, Ah Bondan Cherry narrowly saved the ball, and Dong Yuzhuo grabbed the ball ahead of Heinze and made it into the goal.

This wonderful goal made the audience cheer. This goal is the perfect embodiment of the cooperation of the Chinese team's midfield. During the attack, a total of seven players participated in the attack. The whole process is as natural as flowing clouds and flowing water. It would not be surprising to score such a goal against the Maldives, but it would be a miracle for the Chinese team to score such a goal against Argentina.

The first half of the game ended amid the cheers of the fans, and the two sides drew 1:1, which is somewhat of an upset.

After the start of the second half, the coaches of the two sides changed the players on the field in a tacit understanding, so that the fans thought they were watching another game.

Maradona's words came true. The Argentine team's strength did not drop much after replacing Messi, Tevez, Aimar and others, but the Chinese team was miserable. After the main players left the field, the players on the field were old. How can they fight against Argentina, the tiger and wolf division?

The second half became an offensive and defensive drill. The Argentine team had thirteen shots, while the Chinese team had only six shots. If Menotti hadn't replaced Wu Qi, and Wu Qi's performance was exceptionally good, after the game The score will never be 3:1.

In the end, in the Lunar New Year Cup competition, the Argentine team won the final championship, and the Chinese team ranked second. The domestic media and fans felt sorry for this result. The team definitely has a fight, and Menotti dismissed it: There is no need to fight in such a friendly match. What if a main player is injured?Isn't that more worth the candle?

This Lunar New Year Cup has gained confidence and experience for the main players of the Chinese team, and for the substitute players, they have clearly understood the gap between themselves and the world's top teams. In this sense, China The team's warm-up match this time was completely successful.

(End of this chapter)