Chapter 58: Confronting Kuwait
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After winning the Asian Youth Championship, Gao Jun, Yu Hai, Huo Jiamin, Zhou Hua Kai and Zhao Yi Jia immediately took a plane to Kuwait overnight to join the national team. Even if their physical strength is not enough to recover to play a full game in 4 days, Arihan also hopes that the five players with distinct characteristics can bring more tactical changes on the bench.
The conflict between the Asian Youth Championship and the World Cup qualifiers has happened before, but in the past, there were only 1-2 players under the age of 20 who could become national team players, so generally, the youth team would give way. However, among this group of so-called "08 stars", five have already entered Ali Han's national team list. If the youth team still makes sacrifices like before, next year's World Youth Championship will be in danger of being eliminated. Due to China's special national conditions, the importance of the Olympics has always been greater than that of the World Cup in the eyes of leaders, especially since the 2008 Olympics are held in China, it is even more unacceptable to lose face. Therefore, although Ali Han was very dissatisfied, he finally had to agree to let the five players help the youth team finish the Asian Youth Championship before flying directly to Kuwait to join the national team.
Of course, the leaders of the Football Association and the Football Management Center are not going to give up on the World Cup qualifiers. They made this choice largely because they believe that the away game against Kuwait on October 13 will not be unexpected, as the national football team has always been "overcoming" traditional West Asian teams like Kuwait, even in away games, China has not lost for over a decade.
Moreover, since the Chinese team had already won against Kuwait at home and was leading by 3 points in the standings, according to the competition rules of the Asian zone group stage (note 1), the Chinese team only needed to draw with Kuwait away from home to secure a spot in the final eight. Therefore, the leaders believed that not starting Gao Lin and Yu Hai, who had become the main force in the Asian Cup, would not have too much impact on the national football team's qualification for the World Cup, and the influence of the other three players was even smaller. In fact, Arihan himself also thought so, so he just expressed his dissatisfaction but ultimately agreed with the leaders' arrangement.
However, on the day of the match, Alihan still asked Gao Jun if he could play the whole game. Gao Jun replied, "If I don't need to participate in defense and too many meaningless movements, it's okay." Alihan frowned upon hearing this, but ultimately gritted his teeth and put Gao Jun in the starting lineup.
At present, the most important player in the national football team's backline, Zheng Zhihong, is suspended. Alirhan had to let Li Dake and Zhang Yaqun form a defensive partnership, but in Gao Lin's view, these two are both strong in positive defense, but slow in turning and chasing back. Alirhan's playing style emphasizes pressing and controlling the ball, leaving a lot of space behind them, which is an obvious huge hidden danger. Of course, it's easy to say that excellent central defenders who are quick at turning and chasing back are rare, and domestically, only Zheng Zhi and Feng Xiaoting meet the national team's requirements. Now that the former is suspended and the latter is injured, Alirhan is also "a skilled woman cannot cook without rice".
"In fact, there isn't a completely inflexible way to do things." When Gao Jun came on the field, he specifically whispered a few words to right back Sun Jihai, telling him to reduce the number of times he made runs forward to assist in attacks and to provide defensive cover for the two central defenders when necessary, making up for their lack of speed in turning around and chasing back. It can be said that it was also thanks to Sun Jihai and Ali Han putting aside their past differences during the Asian Cup period that China's team was able to take the field with a different pair of fullbacks; if they had still been using the original two, their speed would have been sufficient, but their defensive abilities were insufficient, making them unable to bear this responsibility.
At present, Sun Ji Hai has not yet transformed into the "ball emperor" of later years. Gao Jun's performance in the Asian Cup has fully demonstrated his strength, and with the support of head coach Hao Da Pao, the spiritual leader of the national team, Gao Jun is still able to listen to him.
And at this time, CCTV5's commentator Liu Jianhong stared at Ali Han's deployment and shouted, "Xu Yunlong was originally a forward player, later became one of the best defenders in China, but that doesn't mean he can play well in midfield. Ali Han putting him on the field to try out the left wing position in such an important match, is this treating the World Cup qualifiers as a warm-up match?"
Gao Jun understood Ali Han's intention, he should be trying to utilize Xu Yunlong's excellent physical quality and intercepting ability to strengthen the midfield's hardness, while disrupting Kuwait team's ball control rhythm. In fact, Gao Jun had also implemented similar strategies when he was a coach, when he coached Guizhou team, there was no suitable player for the front waist position, so he arranged Yu Hai, who had been playing on the wing and had almost no organizational ability, to this position, utilizing his top-notch intercepting ability in China to disrupt the opponent's organization, while also gaining many opportunities for counterattacks from the front court, achieving a good effect. Of course, this strategy can only be used as a surprise tactic, it cannot be used for a long time, but Ali Han just did it once and was scolded by Liu Jianhong, who is really fearless in his ignorance!
Of course, at this time, Gao Jun on the field could not hear Liu Jianhong's commentary. As soon as the referee blew his whistle, he put all his energy into the game. What made him happy was that the opening of this game seemed to be going well. As soon as the game started, Shao Jiayi won a free kick in the right corner of the penalty area, but unfortunately, his curved ball hit the post and flew out. Later, China got another chance with a corner kick, but failed to pose a threat, while Kuwait strengthened its attack and was more deadly than China's offense. However, Chinese goalkeeper Liu Yunfei performed bravely and resolved them one by one.
In the 8th minute, the Chinese team launched a high-quality attack. After intercepting the ball on the left flank in the front court, they quickly passed it to the center. Xu Yunlong made a return pass at the top of the penalty area, and Gao Jun touched the ball without adjustment and sent it directly to the side with one foot. Hao Dapeng, who had inserted in time, got a direct face-to-face opportunity with the goalkeeper, but unfortunately his shot slipped past the post. Arihan was disappointed by this scene and became increasingly worried about Hao Dapeng's condition.
In the following period of time, the Chinese team strengthened their midfield interception, successfully intercepting the ball multiple times and creating counter-attacking opportunities. However, due to either high passes or passes that were far from the penalty area from teammates, and being closely guarded by the Kuwaiti team, Gao Jun did not get a good opportunity to shoot directly. Although Kuwait's offense continued to strengthen, they still couldn't break through Liu Yunfei's defense. It must be acknowledged that although Liu Yunfei is not tall, before his career was ruined by addiction, he was absolutely the best goalkeeper in the country, without exception.
Note 1: At that time, the rules were to compare points first, and if they were tied, then compare the win-loss relationship between the two sides. Therefore, even if the Chinese team lost their last match and Kuwait won, with both teams having the same total score, China would still advance because of their 1-1 record against Kuwait in the two matches.
