Chapter 238 This Team Is Difficult to Lead

Zhuoyang is a little worried. The national team in the Asian Cup is obviously not as good as the one in the World Cup half a year ago, and the feeling has returned to the rawness when he returned to the national team.

With the support of Zhuo Yang, Rijkaard did not recruit Deng Shuxiang, Wang Dalei and Rong Hao for this Asian Cup. In addition, Li Jinyu and Li Hao retired, and Sun Jihai was also suspended by Jie Shuai due to status issues. The national team The team immediately lost half of its main players in the World Cup.

The national team in the World Cup in South Africa is undoubtedly the most powerful in the history of Chinese football so far, far surpassing the "strongest in history" of 2002 Milu and 97, not to mention previous countries that have distinct characteristics but also obvious weaknesses. Team. The Chinese team in South Africa is actually the final dividend derived from the first peak era of Chinese football professionalization.

Those who should be retired cannot be retained, and those who should be punished cannot be lenient. Jieshuai and Zhuo Yang did not hesitate to start over and set their sights directly on the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. ** Peng, Yang Xu, Huang Bowen, Li Xuepeng, Zeng Cheng, Liu Jianye and other young players around 20 years old were included in the key training scope of the national team. This time all the selected players came to Qatar.

The drastic reshaping is admirable, but they also have to face the dilemma of declining strength and the difficulty of unfamiliar tactics. Zhuo Yang and Jieshuai are well aware of this, but the domestic media are still immersed in the historic glory of the South Africa World Cup, and We cannot fully realize how difficult it is for the national team to restart.

The World Cup is all about chopping vegetables and cutting melons. It’s just an Asian Cup, and the champion can be easily captured by just playing. This is the common view of most domestic media. Other media in Asia and even international media also regard the Chinese team as the biggest favorite in the Asian Cup, and believe that one Zhuo Yang is enough to make all Asian teams surrender.

In the warm-up match just after New Year's Day in 2011, the Chinese team defeated Iraq 3:2, which seemed to confirm the outside world's opinion. It easily led 3:0 in the first half, showing the outstanding strength of the top 16 of the World Cup. Although it conceded two goals in the second half, it was just It was because Jieshuai replaced nine main players, including Zhuo Yang, at halftime.

However, the Chinese team did not play very well in the first game of the group stage. The 2:0 score at Alfalah Stadium did not satisfy Zhuo Yang and Jieshuai at all.

Because the Chinese team failed to appear in the 2007 Asian Cup group four years ago, when the results were divided this time, the Chinese team was listed in the third pot. In the same group were the host Qatar in the first pot, Uzbekistan in the second pot, Kuwait at the end.

To be honest, maybe except for the host Qatar, the three teams of China and Ukraine should be the strongest teams in their respective grades. Kauko must be jumping around and scolding, indignant at his own misfortune.

In the opening game, Uzbekistan unexpectedly defeated the host Qatar. The 2:0 score showed that the Central Asian Wolves are very experienced in defensive counterattacks. The Chinese team also defeated Kuwait 2:0, which was completely logical. Even without Zhuoyang, China still defeated Kuwait.

In the 1980s, the most famous serial nemesis of Asian football was probably the iron triangle of China, Kuwait, and South Korea. It just didn't make sense to be cat and mouse with each other. Until the advent of the new century, as the Chinese team's characteristics of one high, one fast and two wings flying together were no longer distinctive, and their strength gradually waned, this famous iron triangle no longer had a cycle of retribution.

The result of 2:0 was satisfactory, but the process was really awkward. Everyone was stumbling throughout the game. If not for Kuwait's lack of strength, the Chinese team might not have achieved a good start.

Before the end of the first half, the score was still 0:0. The Chinese team led by Zhuo Yang did not have a clear advantage. In the 44th minute, Kuwaiti center back Moussaad Nadda was sent off with a red card for a rough foul on Zhuo Yang, which made the Chinese team Occupying the numerical advantage,

The trend of the game has just changed.

Only 5 minutes into the second half, Hao Junmin broke through and won a corner kick. After Huang Bowen took the kick, Zhuoyang pushed the football back to the center of the penalty area from the far point. The open **Peng raised his foot and volleyed. The ball did not actually hit the ball, but the clever Kuwaiti defender Fadhil stretched his legs to block it, causing the football to change direction. It went straight to the near corner and turned into the far corner, 1:0.

The moment the football hit the net, Kuwait captain and goalkeeper Nawaf Khalidi was lying on the ground so angry that he wanted to strangle Fadhil. After the game, the goal was still attributed to **Peng, not Fadil's own goal. This was also **Peng's first goal for the national team.

In the 66th minute, Zhuoyang was tackled by Jarrah Atiq outside the penalty area. His subsequent free kick took a perfect arc and rewritten the score to 2:0. After that, Jieshuai replaced Zhuo Yang with Shao Jiayi.

Throughout the game, the only bright spot of the Chinese team was still Zhuo Yang's pass and shot. The smooth routine half a year ago was not achieved at all. However, we won the ball anyway.

A few days later, the Chinese team encountered a strong resistance from Qatar at the Khalifa International Stadium.

The two teams have old grievances. In the top 20 competition more than two years ago, the Chinese team gave the Qataris a hard time at the Water Drop Stadium in Tianjin. Zhuo Yang, who was full of bad intentions, made Qatar, which had aggressively introduced naturalized players, ultimately miss the top ten competition. .

Compared to two years ago when there were still a few local players pretending to be good, the Qatar team two years later was all naturalized players and the bench was full of foreign devils. Of course, all procedures for foreign guns are complete, and no loopholes can be found in the procedures.

The more critical change in Qatar is that French coach Bruno Mechu replaced Uruguayan Jerho Fossati as the national team coach.

The 56-year-old Mechu was not a famous coach at first, but he became famous after leading the little-known Senegal to the quarterfinals of the World Cup in 2002, and was directly promoted to the national team level head coach. After the World Cup that year, Mechu came to West Asia to coach the gold rush, and the next year he led Al Ain to win the AFC Champions League. Then he coached the UAE national team and won the Oiran in the Gulf Cup surrounded by wolves.

The most suitable is the best. Mei Chu is good at leading mediocre teams, good at encounters, and understands Asian football. Although his football concepts are not advanced, he is really good at defensive counterattacks.

The unexpected loss to Uzbekistan in the first game pushed Mechu and his Qatar to the edge of the cliff. If they lose to the Chinese team again in this game, they will lose face as the host. Qatar has spent a lot of money for this Asian Cup. If it loses in disgrace this year, how can it be embarrassed to bid for the 2022 World Cup!

Enemies are particularly jealous when they meet. Qatar, who was in dire straits, burst out with extraordinary combat effectiveness. Taking advantage of the Chinese team's lack of coordination in the frontcourt, they made two sharp counterattacks and led 2:0 in the first half.

Qatar's number one star Sebastian Quintana relied on his physical and technical advantages to assist the 22-year-old demon star Yousef Ali twice, and Ali also used two world-beating shots to penetrate the Chinese team's door.

Zhuo Yang felt that the beginning of 2011 was not very smooth, and maybe this year would not be spent peacefully.