Grass roots glory

Chapter 964 The Second Home Team
Every day at nine o'clock in the morning and two hours after three o'clock in the afternoon, the outfield of the Brisbane Stadium is used by the Chinese team.

Although the Chinese team behaved very low-key in front of the camera after their arrival, the organizing committee gave enough generous treatment.The two best times of the day are assigned to the Chinese team, and the other three teams in the same group can only use it once. Even if Saudi Arabia has "someone in the court" in the AFC, it can only be arranged to step on the field at night under the lights of the stadium.

Although the Saudi media thinks that the organizing committee is treating them differently and calling them unfair, it is not because the Chinese team is the defending champion. This name is just a media gimmick. The organizing committee is very smart. important.

Every day the Chinese team trains, there will be a large number of fans holding five-star red flags waiting outside the field, even arriving earlier than the team, just to ask for an autograph.

Of course, Zhou Tiancheng is the most sought-after, and Zhou Tiancheng naturally does not refuse anyone who comes, and fans who get autographs will also shake their fists at the Chinese team: "Come on! Beat the minimum consumption in Saudi Arabia!"

The Chinese fans are so relaxed. They can shout the minimum consumption of 3:0 against Saudi Arabia, without any sense of disobedience.

The coach of the Saudi team, Romanian Cosmin Olaroiu, specifically mentioned the injustice they encountered in the pre-match press conference: "The Chinese team is the defending champion of the Asian Cup. Now their strength is respectable, but this should not be done. It becomes a reason for them to receive special care. If it is only for the sake of a larger number of Chinese fans that they have one more chance to step on the field during the day, what about our fans?"

The Chinese reporters present couldn't help but giggle, why is this rhythm so familiar?

Did you find a good reason for the loss in advance?
This routine is so familiar, we used to play it a lot in the past - looking for the weather, talking about the venue, in short, I felt that I had no idea, so I counted all external factors.

Olaroyu went on to say: "But we will never surrender, even if the opponent is the Chinese team, they are the goals of all Asian teams, including us of course. It is the greatest honor for us to beat No.4 in the World Cup."

The Chinese reporters covered their mouths, and almost couldn't hold back their laughter on the spot. Looking for reasons, talking about it, stealing from us is thorough enough!

But now it's not playing this game anymore.

Even though he was highly praised by the outside world, Lippi's attitude at the press conference was quite low-key: "Spain is the only team that can win the World Cup and European Cup consecutively in history. This is true in Asian football. The same applies to the international arena. Even if we are the best team in Asia in the World Cup, we have no capital to underestimate our opponents. The Saudi team is a strong team in Asia, and it has also made the Chinese team suffer. It is our responsibility to maintain our focus. The first thing to do."

Compared with Olaroyu's statement, Lippi's attitude is superior.

Although the Saudi team did teach the Chinese team the most painful lesson in the Asian Cup, beating the Chinese team 1984-2 in the 0 Asian Cup, but it has no reference value at all. If Lippi said this, then the Chinese reporters can only It can be said that we have gone too far.

With the current lineup, Lippi doesn't need to talk about tactics. With the main starting lineup, except for a few teams that are capable of participating in the World Cup, this Saudi team is not considered at all.

Even the Romanian coach Olaroiu, who is present at the press conference, only took office a month ago. Saudi Arabia has just suffered a disastrous defeat in the Gulf Cup, a traditional event in West Asia. Olaroiu is a firefighting coach. of.

As a coach, he is not at the same level as Lippi. He has coached in West Asia for a long time and has won several league championships in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, but he is far worse than Lippi in terms of quality.

No matter how you look at it, this former Asian overlord cannot pose a threat to the Chinese team.Olaroiu talked about the fans... the Brisbane Stadium on the day of the game, he really saw the power.

An hour before the game, CCTV cut the broadcast signal into the game site. The whole stadium was full of red, and the five-star red flags were flying in the stands around.

Where can you see the shadow of Saudi fans?
Even if there are a few sporadic ones, from a distance, the green flag of Saudi Arabia is not as conspicuous as the red one, and it is swallowed up directly.

The two long-lost CCTV commentators, He Wei and Xu Yang, were clearly prepared for this situation. They were not shocked, but just said with a smile: "This is the first Asian Cup outside of Asia, but in Australia, it is very important for the Chinese team. Favorable. Looking at the formation, can you see any difference from our home court? Where there are Chinese people, there will be no lack of voices cheering for the Chinese team, especially in Australia!"

There are 120 million overseas Chinese living in Australia. In recent years, there has been a joke in China that as traveling abroad has become a new trend of Chinese people’s consumption, no matter where they go, they have the feeling of “occupying the world”. In fact, Australia has long been This is the case now.

In a big city like Brisbane, the scale of Chinatown is naturally not small.For the current Chinese team, the biggest advantage is that they don't have to play the game with harsh boos.

After the opening, there was only one voice in the audience: the rhythm of cheers changed according to the offense and defense of the Chinese team.

Lippi arranged Zhou Tiancheng and Hao Junmin in the midfield, and then partnered with Guangzhou Evergrande midfielder Huang Bowen's lineup.

This set of starting midfielders is stronger in offense than defense, but in terms of the intensity of the Asian game, Zhou Tiancheng alone is enough to play a single midfielder.

Although Lippi is very humble on the surface, this set of starters exposed the truth.In fact, he also wanted to solve the problem quickly.

Alhamrani, the top star of the Saudi team, is a wide attacker, but the Chinese team completely controlled the midfield, and he could only be forced to retreat to defend.

But besides him, the hardest part is the Chinese fans on the scene.

Wave after wave of cheers followed the Chinese team's attacks around the opponent's penalty area one after another.

In the 5th minute of the opening game, the Chinese team had the closest chance to score. Jiang Hao received Huang Bowen's diagonal through ball in the penalty area, inserted into the penalty area and hit the post with a blast.

"boom!"

"Oh!"

Accompanied by the crisp sound of the pillars, the regretful voices of the fans in the stands grew louder.

Saudi defender Osama Hausavi made a hasty barb clearance.

He Wei is not a pity at all: "We can now proudly say that the strength of the Chinese team is obviously higher than any opponent in Asia. Even in the face of the quasi-first-class Saudi Arabia in Asia, they have accumulated advantages in the first 5 minutes, and the data is comprehensive. Dominant, it doesn't matter if you put up the post once, and if you keep kicking like this, you will definitely score goals!"

Xu Yang also nodded in agreement: "And the atmosphere is quite good. I can't imagine such an atmosphere in foreign games. It's no different from home. The Chinese team here is completely the home team."

In the stadium, you can even hear the singing of the motherland clearly and loudly. The Chinese team is not the home team in Australia, it is better than the home team...the second home team, there is nothing wrong with it.

(End of this chapter)