Grass roots glory

Chapter 352 First Battle

Sixteen participating teams gathered in Doha, which means that the Asian Cup has entered the final time.Bookmakers have also updated odds for each team.

The Japanese team and the South Korean team ranked the top two.Putting aside prejudices, these two teams are indeed the most comprehensive Asian teams. Last year, both reached the top 1 in the World Cup. The South Korean team lost 2:4 to Uruguay, No. [-] in the World Cup.The Japanese team even went to a penalty shootout with Paraguay, and lost by only one penalty in the end.

With this strength, there is nothing wrong with being the top two favorites to win the championship.

The third place is Oceania's "outsider" Australia, the West Asian cavalry Iran ranks fourth, the last runner-up Saudi Arabia ranks fifth, and the defending champion Iraq is seriously underestimated, only sixth.The West Asian team as a whole is seriously underestimated.The change of the Asian Cup from summer to winter is not good for the West Asian teams as a whole.It just happened to collide with the Gulf Cup, a traditional event in the Gulf region, and the combat effectiveness of the West Asian team was greatly reduced.

But the irony is that even so, the top six still have nothing to do with the Chinese team. The Chinese team and the host Qatar tied for eighth, lower than the rival Uzbekistan in the same group.The odds are as high as 1 to 52...that is to say, from the point of view of the gaming company, it directly vetoes any possibility of the Chinese team winning the championship.And the cryptic news is that the Chinese team will be eliminated by the direct group.

Although the Chinese team has several major overseas players, the bookmaker odds ranking is based on each team's record in major tournaments in recent years.In this regard, the Chinese team really can't make a move. Whether it is the Asian Cup or the World Preliminaries, they are out early.Although Zhou Tiancheng exists and there are a group of brigades in Europe, but before they show their real strength, they must not expect the gaming company to take a high look. They don't dare to mess around without thinking-that is a real benefit. !
However, compared with gaming companies who dare to tell the "truth", the AFC is very face-saving.Among the top ten rising stars in Asia expected from their official website, Jiang Hao, Ming Tao, Chen Pengfei, and Gao Hongbo's young right back Zhang Linpeng took four seats!
This list is actually very controversial, because these four players rank second to fifth respectively, and Dortmund's Japanese midfielder Shinji Kagawa ranks first.Even the Japanese media thought it was good luck, but the Chinese media couldn't bear it: even the underdogs were selected, what about Zhou Tiancheng?The AFC is indeed selectively blind.

Although they generally bad-mouthed the Chinese team, Zhou Tiancheng's personal achievements are two different things. Even his defeated player Shinji Kagawa was able to qualify, so why is Zhou Tiancheng not among them?

However, an article was soon updated on the official website of the AFC: The five favorites to win the Asian Cup are completely different from the gaming companies. Among the popular teams in the AFC version, there is a place for the Chinese team.

In their outlook, they wrote: "Although the Chinese team coached by Gao Hongbo is one of the youngest participating teams, they have enough competitiveness in Asia. The core of Schalke 04's midfielder Zhou Tiancheng is their and Asian teams. The biggest confidence for the team to compete...Although Zhou Tiancheng is under 22 years old, he is no longer at the level of a rising star in Asia. With his own efforts to help win the Champions League, his height is already comparable to that of Park Ji-sung. The performance of the Chinese team It will depend on his performance, and his recent form can make the Chinese team have top competitiveness in the Asian arena."

……

In the first round of Group A of the Asian Cup, the pre-match press conference between China and Kuwait, basically all the Chinese journalists who arrived in Qatar were present. The national team has been closed for so long, and finally they can get first-hand news materials. They all want to come and see Whether Gao Hongbo's attitude will change before the game.Generally speaking, even if the head coach is weak before the game, he will not give in, and he has to say a few words of encouragement.Actually journalists like to listen to this.Even the AFC rarely gives such a big face, why should we keep pretending to be ostriches?

But Gao Hongbo has such a personality. Even in front of a large number of foreign reporters, he is still very humble, saying: "Kuwait is the runner-up of the Gulf Cup, a strong opponent. And we are a young team. In the big competition, we are here to train the team and learn and grow experience."

As soon as Gao Hongbo said this, the Chinese reporters at the scene were so angry that they wanted to drop the camera on the spot.We know that our strength is not enough, but in front of so many foreigners, is it so difficult to say a few words of encouragement?

You don't even want to lose face, you still represent the country, which is an insult to the country's prestige!
Reporters from many other countries whispered at the scene, and they had already crossed the Chinese team from the list of potential threatening opponents in their hearts.

Originally, they thought that with Zhou Tiancheng around, they might need to be wary of facing the Chinese team. Now they have returned to their usual mentality, eager to face the Chinese team. Nothing to fear at all.

Gao Hongbo left the meeting after hastily answered a few questions, which made people feel even less confident, and there was even a burst of laughter at the scene.

……

But in fact, looking at the state of the faces of the Chinese team players now, it is completely different from what the reporters imagined.

On the faces of individual international players who are still inexperienced, there will be a trace of tension, but the common expression written on everyone's face is excitement.

Gao Hongbo looked at the players and said to everyone: "This training camp has not asked everyone to hand in their mobile phones. You must know what image we have in the eyes of the media now. I think you can all think that I did this on purpose. Now that your image has deteriorated to such an extent, I don’t think you can do anything worse. But, you’re all men, don’t you want to lose face? You’ll still have to show up in front of the media, If you don’t want to endure being scolded as rubbish every day, go up and do it with him! Let go of your guts! Anyway, with Zhou Tiancheng around, you should trust him, right?”

The corner of Zhou Tiancheng's mouth twitched, suddenly he felt that Gao Hongbo threw him a big thunder, but at this time he had to continue, the captain was to take the thunder and lead the team forward.So I stood up and said, "That's right, what kind of team is Kuwait? To beat him! Our task now is to step down every opponent we encounter!"

……

When the Chinese team entered the field, the broadcast signal stayed on Zhou Tiancheng's face for a long time, and then it was sent to the stands. Today, the protagonist in the stands is red. Thousands of local students in Doha came to the scene to support the Chinese team Cheer.

The Australian referee Williams blew the whistle to start the game on time, and Zhou Tiancheng received the kick-off from the middle circle. Although he had seen too many big scenes, he was a little flustered at the moment.

The first intercontinental competition of the national team!
Start!
(End of this chapter)