Soccer: The Road to Extraordinary

Chapter 54 Seeing Hope
When the first half finally ended under the whistle of the referee, the players of the Shenzhen team walked off the field with their heads down, their faces full of confusion and frustration, and a hint of relief.

This kind of negative expression is also on the faces of Yan Feng and Lin Fan, the two people who have always had the most fighting spirit.This is really unimaginable.

In fact, the period from conceding a goal to the end of the first half was a torment for the players of the Shenzhen team.A foreboding with no hope in sight.

The conceded goal in the 10th minute of the first half caused the morale of the Shenzhen team to drop to the bottom.They all put their focus on defense, and even conceded the ball.Conceding goals is fine, but the problem is that the Yanbian team has maintained a very fast rhythm, oppressive style of play regardless of physical strength, and the rhythm has not changed throughout the first half.Who can stand this?
After conceding the goal, the Shenzhen team, whose spirit and morale were all lost, could not organize a decent defense at all.Worse than the defense before conceding the ball.It's like a person who has been knocked down to the ground, allowing his opponent to sit on him and throw punches at will, but he doesn't know how to fight back.

In this case, no matter how hard Yan Feng and Lin Fan tried to defend in the defensive midfielder position, it was useless.In the end, they could only watch the Yanbian team bombard the Shenzhen team's goal continuously from all directions.

If it weren't for the help of the goalposts at home, two goals that were bound to be scored were blocked.Then the Shenzhen team would concede three goals in a row in just 10 minutes in the first half, and that would be completely hopeless.

Now, although the Shenzhen team was lucky enough to escape the catastrophe, the hopeless game made the players desperate.

In the locker room, Li Yi looked at the dejected looks of the players, feeling helpless but without any expression on the surface.When he saw that Lian Yanfeng and Lin Fan, the two players who had the most fighting spirit in previous matches and would never give up easily, looked down with disappointment on their faces, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

Park Tae-ha, this opponent is really not easy.A relegated team suddenly turned into a super team.

In the mid-to-late 90s, Park Tae-ha was the main force of the South Korean team, and his South Korean team had never lost to the Chinese team once.It can be said that 'Korea-phobia' started during that period.

Now Park Tae-ha has become the head coach of the Yanbian team, leading a group of Korean players to play in Korean style.Does he want to bring another wave of 'Korea-phobia' to Chinese football?

Li Yi thought about his opponent, the Yanbian team's style of play, and the strength of the Shenzhen team, and he also felt powerless about the situation at this time.

Although I feel powerless, as a team coach, anyone can despair, but he can't.

He can't despair, so he must find a way to find hope.And where is the hope?

He knew from the very beginning that with the current strength of the Shenzhen team facing the imposing Yanbian team, they were no opponents at all, as long as they could defend it, it would be a victory.The problem is that they are already unable to defend and are already behind. If they want to keep a point, they have to launch more offenses.However, today's Shenzhen team simply does not have the capital to play against the Yanbian team.If you continue to defend, you will surely die, but if you attack, you will die even worse.

Is it really only to admit defeat?

No!Never admit defeat!The Yanbian team is not invincible, there must be hope, but where will it be?
Li Yi kept cheering himself up, his eyes scanning back and forth on the players.When his eyes subconsciously stayed on Yan Feng and Lin Fan, a flash of light flashed in his mind.

Li Yi's biggest discovery and hope this season lies in these two people.Lin Fan, with comprehensive skills and good overall situation; Yan Feng, with extraordinary body and strong mopping power.One offense and one defense, is a tacit and complementary powerful combination.At the same time, they all have one thing in common, which is super fast.In the current Chinese League One, Li Yi has not found any faster players than these two.

high speed?That's right, this is the only advantage of the Shenzhen team.There are no super-fast players in the Yanbian team, and no one can catch up with Yan Feng and Lin Fan.This is the only point I can take advantage of.

Li Yi finally sorted out his thoughts, and a firm expression appeared on his face.He clapped his hands to draw the players' attention.

"Heads up, I don't think I need to say more, have we experienced this kind of first half behind this season? I can't remember how many times I have said the same thing in the locker room."

Um?yes!Haven't we experienced this kind of situation?The players are thoughtful.If it weren't for the fact that they played so hard today that they felt hopeless, they wouldn't be so frustrated.

"Being behind in the first half, and recovering or even overtaking in the second half, I think you must remember many times, right?"

Yes, this kind of thing has happened many times.The players seem to have some hope.

"I know that today's Yanbian team's game rhythm makes you very uncomfortable and makes you feel powerless. Isn't it?" Li Yi looked around at the players and continued after seeing the players nodding. "However, is this Yanbian team invincible? I think, absolutely not."

"Last season, they were still a relegated team. The Rizhiquan team was unable to register, so they were lucky to stay in the Chinese League. Although they are now the leaders, they seem to have become very strong."

"Yes, they did become stronger this year, and they have remained unbeaten until now. But they are by no means invincible. They just changed a Korean coach and a Korean style of play, but they are still those people, and they are not invincible. There is no fundamental change. We beat these guys last year, so are we absolutely no match for them this year?"

"That's right, they are still the same people, but they have changed coaches. No matter how powerful the coach is, they can't make them all become super gods. They are not as scary as we imagined. We definitely hope to defeat them .” Captain Wang Dong also encouraged everyone in a timely manner.

"Your captain is right, they are not terrible at all. They can maintain this rhythm for half time, even five 10 minutes, six 10 minutes, but can they maintain seventy, eight 10 minutes? That is absolutely impossible. Yes." Li Yi was very happy that Wang Dong could come out in time to boost morale.

"Yes." "That's right." "We still have hope."~~~
The players finally regained some confidence and got rid of their fear of the Yanbian team.What people are most afraid of is not seeing hope, not how strong the opponent is.

"And we have an advantage that they don't have, that is, we have two super fast players." Li Yi said, looking at Yan Feng and Lin Fan who were sitting together.

Yan Feng and Lin Fan had already regained their confidence when Li Yi boosted their morale. At this time, facing the emperor's eyes, their eyes were full of fighting spirit.

"In the second half, we must make good use of the speed of Yan Feng and Lin Fan, and resolutely play a defensive counterattack. Next, we will arrange in this way``````"

After the encouragement and rearrangement of the intermission, the Shenzhen team, which had recovered a little bit of morale, finally stopped being downcast.They walked into the stadium again, with a little more fighting spirit on their faces.

In the second half, the Shenzhen team completely set up the bus and formed a denser defensive formation than in the first half.The forward midfielder Fei Yu moved back, forming a midfield iron triangle with the waists of Yan Feng and Lin Fan not more than ten meters apart.The two forward fullbacks also moved back significantly, forming the two wings of the middle triangle.And only Wang Zihua was left in front of him.

"What is the Shenzhen team doing? They are all behind, but they actually set up the bus instead?" Park Taixia, the head coach of the Yanbian team, felt a little unbelievable when he saw the Shenzhen team put up such a dense defensive formation in the second half.

He originally thought that the lagging Shenzhen team would definitely attack in the second half, because if the lagging team doesn't think about making progress, it will undoubtedly lose.As long as the Shenzhen team attacks, then the Yanbian team will have more opportunities, and at the same time they don't have to maintain the high intensity and high rhythm of the first half.After all, it is impossible to maintain such a style of play for too long. If it continues to be like this, the decline in physical fitness will soon drag him down.

Unexpectedly, in the second half, the Shenzhen team not only failed to attack, but also placed five players in the midfield to defend. What is this trying to do?This made Pu Taixia have no idea for a while, he really couldn't figure out what Li Yi wanted to do.

The Yanbian players on the court felt even more incomprehensible.They continued their style of play in the first half, but they soon discovered that they couldn't attack at all in the face of a denser defense than in the first half.There is a feeling that a dog bites a hedgehog and has nowhere to bite.

Due to the denser formation of the Shenzhen team, so many troops have been invested in a small space, which greatly reduces the space for the Yanbian team to display.There's less room to run and pass the ball.Coupled with the frantic strangling of five Shenzhen players in the midfield, the Shenzhen team's defense became very stable for a while, but the Yanbian team's offense could not be used.

Without space, the running and fast pace of the Yanbian team will not be able to play.Slowly, the rhythm began to slow down.As soon as the rhythm slowed down, Yan Feng's sweeping power came into play, and he could easily foul and destroy the ball.

In 5 minutes, Yan Feng finally succeeded in stealing the ball from the Yanbian team's forward Steve.

Yan Feng immediately gave the ball to Lin Fan, and after receiving the ball, Lin Fan dunked it calmly against Li Hao, the Yanbian team player who had pressed in time.

After dunking Li Hao, remember Lin Fan who Li Yi ordered during the intermission, stick to the ground and push the ball forward.And the faster and faster it is, and the speed is quickly raised.Facing another Yanbian team player who was defending, he easily dunked in a change of direction, and then continued to charge forward firmly.

The players of the Yanbian team did not expect Lin Fan to break through with the ball himself, and he broke through so resolutely and quickly.For a while, the defensive formation was a little chaotic.

Taking advantage of this short-term confusion, Lin Fan actually dribbled the ball across the center circle, and then dunked the defense of the Yanbian team's midfielder.

When Lin Fan used his speed to pass three players in a row and rushed to the frontcourt, the Yanbian team's defense finally stabilized.In this situation, Lin Fan did not continue to rush forward, but suddenly took a long shot before the defensive players surrounded him.

"Bang!" The football flew out like a cannonball and shot straight at the Yanbian team's goal.

This long-range shot was very sudden, powerful and fast, beyond the expectations of the Yanbian team's backcourt players.When Yin Guang, the goalkeeper of the Yanbian team, reacted, the ball had already flown into his eyes.

It's a pity that the shot was still a bit on the right track. Yin Guang failed to catch the ball at the first time and dropped the ball.It is a pity that there are no Shenzhen team players in the penalty area at this time, and the ball was quickly pressed into Yin Guang's arms.

"Oh, I almost got in, what a pity." Lin Fan held his head in regret.

"It's okay, Lin Fan, there is still a chance, next time you will definitely get in." After running back to the midfield, Yan Feng came to comfort Lin Fan.

Although the goal was not scored, it also shocked the Yanbian team into a cold sweat.But more importantly, this goal gave the players of the Shenzhen team hope, the hope of scoring a goal, and the hope of regaining the score.With hope, there is fighting spirit, and with fighting spirit, there is fighting power!
(End of this chapter)