Chapter 7 Ten Rising Stars
Zhou Yi is not unwilling to reveal his next business in advance, but he really has no time to think about this matter. He has told his agent Shurtze that before the national Olympic team's game ends, don't bother him with any transfers. In other words, even if there is transfer information, it will be pushed until after the national Olympic team's game ends.
His goal is to lead the team to win the championship in the Olympics. This task is difficult to complete. It requires all your efforts and concentration. How can he be distracted to consider transfers?
At 9:30 p.m. on July 26, Beijing time, the first game of the Chinese Olympic team in the London Olympics men's football match against Mexico opened the curtain.
Before the Chinese team and Mexico started, countless fans and audiences in China were on TV to watch the live broadcast of the game. People's expectations for this national Olympic team were much higher than those for the last Olympic team.
Before the game, Chinese media and fans also analyzed the prospects of the Chinese Olympic team in very detailed manner.
The saying of champion is naturally not mentioned, it is Zhou Yi's "exclusive goal". To be more realistic, everyone thinks that the Chinese team can qualify from the group stage to win, and if they can still reach the semi-finals, they will exceed the task.
The Chinese team's opponent in this game, the Mexican National Olympic Team, is one of the four seed teams in this Olympics.
Although Mexico is not the best team in the world in the adult football world, Mexico is definitely one of the top teams in the world in the field of youth football. In the 2012 London Olympics qualifiers, they won all five games in the North American division, and the 2012 Toulon Cup Mexico's age team, that is, the National Olympic Team, won the championship. In the 2011 World Cup, they won the championship with perfect performance, and won the third place in the subsequent 20 World Cup.
Having such outstanding and dazzling results fully demonstrates Mexico's youth training strength.
With Mexico's performance in youth football, it is normal to be listed as a seed team.
Chinese media analyzed that if the National Olympic Team wants to qualify from the group, if it wants to surpass Mexico and become the first in the group, it will have to defeat Mexico, but this is very difficult. But if it loses to Mexico, it will encounter trouble in the group.
In addition to Mexico, there are also Gabon and Switzerland who are assigned to the same group with the Chinese team.
To be more rational, if the Chinese team wants to ensure that they qualify in the group, fighting with Mexico is not a good choice. They can completely settle for the next step. Maintaining a draw in the confrontation with Mexico is the most likely and most favorable result. Then, as long as the remaining two opponents can win and draw, five points should basically be guaranteed to qualify as the second in the group.
If you lose to Mexico, the Chinese team will have to win in the next two games, which is the safest.
Therefore, the strategy and tactics against Mexico in the first game determined the result, and the result determined the tactics that the Chinese team will adopt in the next two group matches.
Facing Mexico, Brazevic chose a tactic to counterattack.
In fact, it is not only against Mexico, but also the main defensive counterattack under the leadership of Brazevic.
Because this national Olympic team has two fast forwards, He Ying and Wu Lei.
He Ying and Wu Lei have excellent personal abilities, and have strong individual combat capabilities. Especially He Ying, in addition to being fast, is also very comprehensive, has excellent pass and leadership, and has outstanding scoring ability.
The ability of the National Olympic Team to obtain Olympic tickets from Asia is inseparable from He Ying's outstanding performance.
Having two fast forwards, a goalkeeper who often has a magical help, a defensive core with extremely abnormal physical fitness, a midfielder who is as difficult as a candy, and a pass accurately hits wherever you pass. The rhythm control is comparable to the top midfield core. Isn’t it a waste of personnel configuration?
So since Zhou Yi joined the team, Brazevic only did one thing during this 20-day training session, which was to train the team's defensive counterattacks in a crazy manner.
He doesn't need the team to play very well, what he needs is the result.
This also fits the Chinese people's expectations for this team. In an Olympic Games, the scene doesn't matter, winning is the bottom line.
Before the Olympics began, the British media made a list of "the ten most anticipated new stars in this Olympics".
Mexico's winger Javier Aquino is among them. He currently plays for the Blue Cross Club, a domestic giant in Mexico, and plays as a winger and has excellent skills. He is one of the many unknown young players in this Olympics who have great potential.
However, the Chinese team is the biggest winner on this list. As many as three of them are on the list, He Ying, Yang Muge and Guo Nu.
He Ying, who played for Valladolid last season, was the silver boot scorer in the Spanish Second Division last season. The British media also had a high opinion of him. He ranked seventh in this eight-man list. The British media believes that Barcelona may have to consider He Ying's future carefully this summer.
Guo Nu performed well in Siena last season and is already the core of defensive defence that Siena cannot do without. Although his figure is not tall, his excellent defensive awareness, super strong confrontational ability and bounce have made up for his lack of height.
Yang Muge got the chance to play at Schalke 04 at the interruption of the season, and then it went out of control. At the end of the season, he was already an iron gate in Schalke 04's midfield.
However, there is no Zhou Yi on this ten-person list. Logically speaking, when you see this list, you will definitely feel that Zhou Yi is definitely ranked first.
But unfortunately, the Brazilian genius Neymar is ranked first, not Zhou Yi.
Where is the Zhouyi?
How did the British media who selected this list explain why Zhou Yi was not selected: "In the eyes of our reporters, Zhou Yi has already left the concept of a new star. Yes, he is not a new star. As a core player of Dortmund, he led the team to win two league championships and reached the quarterfinals and semi-finals in the Champions League. Everyone can see his potential and ability clearly. There is no need to put it in this list to grab the headlines, right?"
Another person who did not make the list is Sun Pan. The media gave similar reasons. They don’t think Sun Pan should be considered a "new star". He won the Europa League championship at Atletico Madrid! He also came to grab the guns of those geniuses who have not even played in the European League yet?
So in this way, Zhou Yi and Sun Pan are destined to become men with the title of "the top ten most anticipated new stars in the Olympics".
But then again, if Zhou Yi and Sun Pan are also on the list, isn’t the Chinese team dominating the list? Will they leave a way out for others?
Before the Chinese team's match with Mexico, in the locker room of the stadium, Brazevic is making the final mobilization of the players.
"Children, there are ten minutes left, and your first game in the Olympics will be. Are you ready?"
"I think you all know that I am a very strict head coach. Thank you very much for sticking with my training. Now it's time for you to taste the fruits."
"When we were still in China, Zhou Yi publicly expressed that his goal was gold medals. I thought it was not only his goal, but also our goal. So you made extraordinary efforts in training. All efforts will gradually show their value from this moment. I hope that each of you will not have any regrets or reluctance when recalling your experience in the Olympics in the future. I hope that this Olympics can leave you with an incredible memory."
"Mexico is our first opponent and the seed team of this group. The media rated them as the favorite to win gold in this Olympics. Sorry, we are not among them. Although we have many excellent players, Chinese football may have left them with a bad stereotype in the past and made them ignore us. But this is not important, because we can prove to them through this Olympics that you have nothing to do with the past of Chinese football. You are a team full of vitality and an unlimited future. Each of you can write a different future for Chinese football."
"And this future will start from this game, defeating Mexico not only for the three-pointer to qualify, but also for the firming of your dreams!"
Brazevic did not set the goal of this game as a "draw", he only wanted a victory.
No one was surprised by this, because it was their goal too.
Otherwise, why would they have to undergo such hard training? You should know that Brazevic is a head coach with very strict requirements in training.
When the game started, Mexico launched a fierce offensive against the Chinese team's goal by obtaining the kick-off.
Faced with their fierce attack, the Chinese team shrank its defense. Both forwards, He Ying and Wu Lei, retreated to the central circle.
Judging from the scene, it is indeed very bad. The Chinese team was completely beaten by the opponent.
When Mexico was bombarding the Chinese team's goal, the Chinese fans in front of the TV were a little nervous, fearing that the young team would not have been baptized by the World Championships and would be nervous in the first game. Isn't this a normal performance for Chinese football?
If Mexico scores the goal, the team may collapse.
Mexico's offensive momentum seems quite huge, but if you want to say what threats it has brought to the goal guarded by Sun Pan
In the tenth minute of the game, Sun Pan yawned.
"Damn!" After yawning, Sun Pan pointed at Guo and shouted angrily: "Old Guo, can you put some water? At least you let them shoot within the door frame!"
He feels that the Olympics are not as exciting as La Liga.
Chinese commentator He Ping saw Sun Pan pointing at the defender and shouting, "Sun Pan is commanding the defense line to defend."
Guo Nu heard Sun Pan's roar, but he ignored Sun Pan because he knew that Sun Pan was just making a fool of himself and whether the opponent's shot was within the range of the goal frame, which was not something he could control.
The opponent's Aquino dribbled the ball and killed him again. This time, Guo Nu did not defend his position and asked his full-back teammates to deal with him. Instead, he directly used an extremely fierce sliding tackle and shoveled Aquino's ball out of the sideline. Aquino was so scared that he jumped up on the spot, and then he barely avoided Guo Nu's tackle.
After landing, he reached out to protest to the referee, indicating that Guo Nu's actions were fouls.
But the referee ignored his neat tackle, how could it be a foul? You think I'm stupid!
After tackled the ball, Guo angri got up and ran back, and turned his head to look at Aquino who was complaining to the referee.
Chapter completed!