Chinese champion

Chapter 277 The Brilliant Road Knockout Tournament Begins
Menotti was right. Sure enough, no media dared to criticize the Chinese team’s holiday action at this time. Instead, they were full of praise. You can only fight when you rest, and Zhang Youchi is king...

Sure enough, history is written by the victors...

Looking at the players who looked like dragons and tigers after a day's rest, Menotti smiled with satisfaction.

He could see that after successfully entering the top sixteen, the psychological burden of the players had basically disappeared, replaced by soaring pride.

Now that we have reached this point, every step forward is a new history, so there is nothing to be afraid of!

Winning is a surprise, losing is expected, and sometimes this mentality can make people play to their full strength.

But to be honest, this kind of thinking is no different from the mentality of "kill one to earn money, kill two to earn one"...

"Everyone already knows that our next opponent is the Swiss team. Maybe we should feel lucky. We didn't meet traditional strong teams like France and Brazil. Before the start of the World Cup, we played against the Swiss team and we won. So..." He looked around at the players: "We have to win this time! The Swiss team is not our opponent at all!"

He Jin was stunned when he translated this sentence. In the previous conversation, Menotti valued the Swiss team very much...

But he immediately saw the players respond in unison, and Menotti clapped his hands: "Okay, now free to move, go and warm up!"

The players scattered on the field, Menotti blinked at He Jin: "Sometimes there are some things that should be said when and some things can't be said. It is a skill, like now." He pointed to the players on the field They: "They are out of the line and their spirits are high, so we can't exaggerate the strength of our opponents. We should let their momentum accumulate so that they can have fighting spirit."

"Then... aren't you afraid that they are too proud?" He Jin asked with some doubts.

"He, you know, the game won't start until the day after tomorrow, and then just hit them again!" Menotti laughed.

It is only now that He Jin feels that this old man with nearly 40 years of coaching experience is indeed a treasure, and it depends on how much treasure he can take away from this treasure!

"Good news!" Feng Yu ran over waving a newspaper: "Their main central defender, Sandros, who played for Arsenal, has returned to China for treatment due to an injury in the match against South Korea. the match of!"

"Really?" Menotti couldn't help but beam with joy: "This is really great news!"

"Sandros is the core of the Swiss team's defense! His absence must be very beneficial to us!" He Jin was also sincerely happy. The knockout round was about to begin, but the opponent lost a general. The staff is well-organized and the morale is high. It seems that after entering the knockout round, the Chinese team really began to change their fortunes.

******************************************
"The absence of Sandros will definitely have a decisive impact on the Swiss team." During the tactical discussion in the evening, Menotti said to the coaching staff: "You know, he is in very good form this year. The main central defender Campbell squeezed onto the bench, and the Swiss team's entire defense line revolved around him. Switzerland kept a clean sheet in the group match, and he contributed a lot! Now that he can't play, it's a big deal for us. It's a very good opportunity."

"It's not very important, is it?" Feng Yu said, "It's just a central defender. Their offense is still very threatening."

"Very important," said Menotti. "Without this news, we would have had a 60.00% chance of winning, but now, I have 80.00%."

"Why?" He Jin also became interested. The opponent's loss of a central defender can increase the probability of winning by [-]%, which is too high, right?

"The only striker in our team who scored a goal is Zhanfeng. From the last game, his condition is the best among the four forwards, and he is a high center forward with a height of 1.9 meters or more." Menotti Pointing to the tactical board, he said: "The Swiss team has two substitutes for the central defender. One is Grehedin, who plays for Auxerre in Ligue 1.8. He is older and more experienced, but his height is only 19 meters five. It is Jiu Nuo who plays for Arsenal. He is only 1.9 years old, but he is [-] meters tall and has strong frontal defensive ability, but he has the problems of slow turning and inexperience. With the wind, who do you think their coach Kuhn will send to replace Sandros?"

"Jiu Nuo!" He Jin and Feng Yu's eyes lit up at the same time, and they called out.

Menotti didn't say anything, just proudly took out a cigarette and lit it, and then took a good puff.

"No wonder you have always practiced the routine of passing the ball behind you after a quick breakthrough in these two days of tactical exercises..." He Jin sighed: "You have thought of this step a long time ago, right?"

"That's right!" Menotti said: "Their other central defender, Magnin, is only 1.8 meters five, so Kuhn will definitely send Jiunuo to increase the height of the backcourt, and we will catch their defenders who turn slowly. Weakness, catch him off guard!"

"Their kid, Feng Lantang, didn't come this time. The forward threat is Frey. This guy has already scored two goals." He Jin said.

"Let Li Min stare at him, I have confidence in him." Menotti said lightly: "They also have a threat that is Yakin, pay attention to his free kicks, of course Vogel can't ignore them, Although he is only a substitute for AC Milan, his strength is also very strong."

"In short, although we have an advantage in tomorrow's game, we should not underestimate the enemy. How to adjust the mentality of the players, Feng, depends on you." Menotti looked at Feng Yu and said.

"Don't worry, I will beat them well." Feng Yu laughed, this villain, of course, the older Feng Yu is the most suitable one.

********************************************
Kuhn is the only local coach hired by the Swiss national team since 1989. He once led the Swiss national team under the age of 17 to win the European Youth Championship. After he took office, he made drastic changes to the national team Reform, Sforza and Chapuisat, the two veteran players who once led the Swiss national team to the top 94 in the 16 World Cup in the United States, were abandoned by him. Although this move was unanimously criticized by the industry, but He quickly proved his actions were correct with the facts, as evidenced by his continuous promotion to the finals of the European Cup and the World Cup.

The contest between the Chinese team and the Swiss team is undoubtedly a contest of spear and shield. The Chinese team has won one and two draws in three games, scoring seven goals and conceding six goals. The attack power is quite strong, but the defense is relatively strong. The Swiss team is weak, while the Swiss team has three games, two wins and one tie, scoring four goals and conceding zero goals. The attack power is not outstanding, but the defense is very good. Originally, Kuhn was not afraid of the Chinese team, but as Menotti said As expected, the absence of the defensive core Sandros did have a key impact.

The seven goals scored by the Chinese team in the group stage were scored by six players. The number of scoring points is overwhelming, but five of them were scored by midfielders. For the midfielders of this team, Ku En has a lot of confidence.

The right midfielder Cabanas who played for Cologne, the left midfielder Barnetta who played for Leverkusen, and the midfielder Wiki who played for Hamburg, this "German central axis" is not bad in defense. Coupled with the support of Vogel and Yakin, Kuhn has the confidence to deal with any strong team's midfielder.

The key is at the back.

Zhanfeng's header ability and height are a great threat to any team. Originally Sandros was a good target to defend him, but he was injured. Although Magnin's air defense ability is good, but his height The gap between them determines that he is not a good candidate to mark Zhanfeng.

After much deliberation, only Jiu Nuo is the only one. Although he is very young and inexperienced, his frontal defense and air defense capabilities are quite good. Otherwise, Wenger, who is known for being good at discovering young players, would not have taken a fancy to him. Carrying the wind, no one in the current Swiss team is more suitable than him.

As long as the defense is done well, Kuhn believes that scoring goals should not be a problem. The main forward Frey is in very good condition, and the Chinese team's defense has exposed a lot of problems in the group stage. It is also possible to drag into the muddy pond of the penalty kick.

He didn't think of the possibility of Zhan Feng not playing. In this kind of World Cup, few coaches will not send the forward who just scored the goal. The main reason is that the schedule of the World Cup is too short. When players are in good form, they will not suddenly lose their form.

But Menotti dared to do this. There is a coach who dared to abandon Maradona before the World Cup but still won the World Cup. What else would he not dare to do?
It can be said that in the pre-match preparations, Menotti was already one step ahead.

************************************************
On the 24th, Germany defeated Sweden and Argentina defeated Mexico. The two teams will meet in the quarter-finals.

On the 25th, England defeated Ecuador and Portugal defeated the Netherlands. As above, these two teams will also meet in the quarter-finals.

On the 26th, it was the turn of the Chinese team to play.

The game was held at the Rhein Energy Stadium in Cologne. The game was scheduled to be held at 04:30 pm local time. Converted to BJ time, it was [-] pm, not too late.

Today's weather is very good, cloudless, but the temperature is not too high, about 28 or [-] degrees, very suitable for playing football.

Among the 2 spectator seats, the fans of the Chinese team only accounted for less than 6. Fans accounted for nearly 0 people. Among the remaining local fans in Germany, most of them are fans of the local team Cologne.Since the Swiss right forward Cabanas happened to be playing for Cologne, in the Bundesliga last season, Du Wei's Bremen "slaughtered" [-]-[-] at home in the penultimate round of the Bundesliga. Cologne directly led to Cologne's early relegation, so Cologne fans overwhelmingly supported the Swiss team, making this stadium almost the home of Switzerland.

"What did you say that you worked so hard in that game and scored a goal, which made the Cologne fans hate the whole Chinese team!" Li Min smiled and pushed Du Wei, teasingly said.

"Who knew it would be like this today." Du Wei was full of grievances: "At that time we were also fighting to directly enter the Champions League..."

"Come out to mess around, you'll have to pay it back sooner or later..." Zhu Jun said sternly from the side.

"No problem, so what if it's their home court? The game still depends on the players, so what if there are more spectators supporting them, isn't it eleven vs. eleven? Could it be that the fans can come down and beat us up?" Wu Qi said disdainfully.

Looking at the players who were talking about it, Menotti smiled: "Don't talk about it, everyone. It is true that most of the fans today support the Swiss team, but what can we do? We have strength, so we should be confident , Isn’t it better for the fans to object? Let them see our performance and use our performance to silence them!”

The players quieted down, and Menotti went on to say: "I think, after these two days of training, everyone should have understood the tactics we will use in this game, that is to use fast to beat slow, and use speed to break their defense. , Zhu, Zhang, your experienced opponents are very fast, so your task is to keep them on the side, so that they can't help the defenders in the middle, Dong, Zhong, you use more speed to break through the opponent's defense, they The two centre-backs turned very slowly, I think this should be your favorite defender to deal with."

"Pei, your task today is very heavy. How to pass the ball enough to tear the opponent's defense is what you have to do. Today our tactic is to hit their middle!"

Speaking of this, Menotti suddenly smiled: "But today I feel wronged by Zhanfeng, and I have to sit on the bench!"

The team members laughed one after another, Zhan Feng scratched his head, and smiled honestly: "It doesn't matter, coach, as long as it is good for the team, even if you put me in the stands!"

Menotti nodded in relief. A player like Zhan Feng who can obey orders and put the overall situation first is a valuable asset in any team.

"You two have to behave well today, otherwise you will not only be sorry for us, but you will also be ashamed to talk to Zhanfeng after the game!" Pei Wei said, patting Zhong Yan and Dong Yuzhuo on the shoulders.

"Don't worry! If you can't complete the task, I'll come and see you!" Zhong Yan said proudly.

He Jin smiled at the side. Now that the entire Chinese team has been twisted into one rope, is there anything scary about the cohesive Chinese team?
**************************************
"Friends from the audience, good evening everyone, welcome to the 'I Love the World Cup' column, today we are broadcasting live the fifth match of the 2006 World Cup quarter-finals, the two sides are the No.2 Chinese team in Group H and The No.1 Swiss team in Group G, the Swiss team did not concede a goal in the three group matches, ranking first among all teams in defense ability, while the Chinese team scored seven goals in the three group matches, tied with the Brazil team No.2 in the number of goals, this game can be regarded as a conflict of contradictions. Is the spear of the Chinese team sharper or the shield of the Swiss team stronger? Let us wait and see!"

"Now let's cut the screen to the live broadcast, and let our commentator Wang Jianxiang in front of us introduce the live situation of this game!"

"Hi everyone, I'm Wang Jianxiang, the front reporter of CCTV-5. I'm in the RheinEnergia Stadium in Cologne. The fans have basically filled the entire stadium. Among them, there are about [-] to [-] Chinese fans. And the others are all the Swiss team and Cologne fans who support the Swiss team! Although the number is disadvantaged, the Chinese fans are not inferior to the opponent in terms of momentum! Each of them holds a red flag in their hand and dyes a corner of the stand Red ocean!"

"Now the players from both sides have already played! The Chinese team members are wearing white jerseys. Today, the head coach Menotti returned to the 4-4-2 lineup. The goalkeeper is still Wu Qi, and the defenders Sun Chenghai, Du Wei, Li Min and Wang Xiaomin. Hu Yong, Zhu Jun, Zhang Qi and Pei Wei, the striker has changed a bit, the single arrow Zhanfeng in the last game sat on the bench, replaced by Zhong Yan and Dong Yuzhuo! The Swiss team wore Red jerseys, their formation is consistent 4-5-1! Goalkeeper Zubrughler, four defenders are Philip Degen, Jiu Nuo, Müller and Magnin, of which Jiu Nuo is a substitute Sandros, who bid farewell to the World Cup due to injury, played with double midfielders Vogel and Vicky, left midfielder Barnetta, right midfielder Cabanas, and midfielder Hakan Yakin. The single forward scored two goals in the group stage. Frey of the ball, the players are lined up and the game is about to begin!"

When Kuhn saw Zhan Feng sitting comfortably on the bench and joking with other players, he finally found out where the uneasiness before the game came from.

Menotti, the old fox!You can actually read my mind!
In terms of leading the team and trying to figure out the psychology of the opponent, Kuhn, who is more than ten years younger than Menotti and has been leading the youth team, is certainly not an opponent.

Although Kuhn is also an excellent coach, compared with Menotti, a world-class coach, there is still a big gap.

In a game with a tournament system like the World Cup, often a coach's arrangement before the game can influence the entire process of the game.

(End of this chapter)