Football: Starting from the 05 World Youth Championship

"How come the Japanese team won too?"

"What a pity!"

Just as the Chinese team defeated Uzbekistan, news came from next door that the Japanese team, playing on home soil, defeated Bahrain 1-0, raising their points to 8.

As a result, China's lead over Japan remained at 5 points, without widening further, thus losing the opportunity to qualify for the World Cup two rounds early.

So when the national football team heard the news, they generally felt it was a bit of a pity.

If the qualifying spots can be determined earlier, they can face the upcoming matches more calmly and without psychological pressure.

Because these matches in the final round of qualifying for the World Cup involved qualifying spots, the players were constantly under pressure.

In such a nationally watched competition, any mistakes or errors made by players on the field will be widely reported by the media the next day, and they may even be subjected to online bullying by fans.

This kind of thing is not without precedent. In the past, when the Chinese national football team failed to qualify for the World Cup, the players were verbally abused and attacked by fans after the matches, and some even received personal threats from radical fans.

Fortunately, the Chinese national football team is in a much better position than its predecessors. Although they failed to advance in advance, their lead is huge. As long as they don't make any fatal mistakes in the next three games, advancing should not be a big problem.

On March 29, after resting overnight in Tashkent, the Chinese national football team set off, leaving Uzbekistan and flying to Bahrain.

Bahrain is a small island nation with a total area of ​​just over 700 square kilometers, smaller than a county in China.

It has a small population of just over one million, which is about the size of a county in China.

Although the country is small, Bahrain's football team is quite strong.

Like many countries in the Persian Gulf, Bahrain has abundant oil resources buried beneath its land, ranking among the top ten in the world in both oil and natural gas reserves.

By exporting oil and natural gas, Bahrain has made a fortune in recent years amid soaring international oil prices.

With money, Bahrainis, like other Gulf states, started playing football.

However, because their domestic market is too small, they cannot establish a domestic league like Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Therefore, they spend money to naturalize a large number of players from other countries, mainly from a group of Muslim brothers in Africa.

Bahrain currently has a total of 7 naturalized players, covering the team's midfield, defense, and forward lines, forming a "foreign player axis" that is the core framework for Bahrain's bid for the World Cup.

Unfortunately, Bahrain had bad luck and was drawn into Group A, a group of death.

The group included established powerhouses like Australia and Japan, and unfortunately, they also faced the rising Chinese team, which has been on a meteoric rise in recent years.

This makes it extremely difficult for Bahrain to secure one of the two direct qualification spots, and even the possibility of competing for third place in the group and qualifying for the playoffs is slim.

Bahrain has played five matches so far, with a record of 1 win and 4 losses. Their only victory came against Uzbekistan, who are at the bottom of the group.

Bahrain lost to all three of the top teams in their group, demonstrating they simply lacked the strength to compete with them.

This match is a do-or-die game for Bahrain. If they lose again, their chances of advancing will be purely theoretical.

Therefore, the Bahrain team's head coach made a bold statement early on, saying that he would defeat the seemingly invincible Chinese team on home soil and take back control of their destiny.

At the pre-match press conference, when an aggressive Bahraini journalist posed this question, Zhu Guanghu nonchalantly replied:

"Many people want to beat us, but no one has succeeded so far, so I can only wish him good luck."

This dismissive tone and attitude broke down the Bahrainis' defenses, and they all angrily denounced the Chinese for being arrogant and impolite.

[Are Bahrainis really that sensitive? How could they be so easily offended?]

[Heh, is that so rude? You'll see what humiliation really means once the competition starts!]

I was indifferent to this match at first, but now I'm rooting for the Chinese national team to score more goals and thoroughly thrash their opponents!

Zhu Guanghu didn't care much about what the Bahrainis thought of him; the strong don't care about the feelings of the weak.

Moreover, Bahrain is hardly a match for the Chinese national team. In the same group, only Japan and Australia can be considered opponents for the Chinese team.

Who does the Bahrain team even belong to?

However, despite his thoughts, when it came to actually taking action, Old Zhu showed no mercy.

The Chinese national football team faces tough opponents in their last two matches: the next game is a home game against Australia, and the final game is an away game against Japan.

Because the opponents in the last two matches are very strong, in order to put pressure on the players and avoid them having too much psychological pressure when facing them.

Therefore, the Chinese team must secure these three points in this game.

However, bad news came before the game: Gao Lin, who performed well in the previous game and contributed three assists, missed the game due to a fever and was not included in the team's starting lineup.

"It must be because my talent and abilities are too dazzling that even the heavens are jealous!"

Gao Lin, who was running a fever, was talking nonsense, saying that he had only 'slightly made a move' in the last game and still managed to get an assist hat-trick.

If he plays normally in this game, a hat trick should be a piece of cake.
He even said that an assist hat-trick is still a hat-trick, and he is still the man with the most hat-tricks in the history of the Chinese national football team.

Watching Gao Lin sneeze and boast at the same time, occasionally putting on a pitying and jealous look, everyone couldn't help but roll their eyes inwardly.

This guy is such a braggart; he doesn't stop even when he has a cold.

However, Gao Lin's absence will indeed have a certain impact on the Chinese team's forward line.

Although this kid's shooting skills aren't top-notch, his ball-setting ability and football intelligence are still very high.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to get three assists in the last game.

After Gao Lin's absence due to illness, Zhu Guanghu was in a bit of a predicament.

There are still quite a few options in the forward line. In addition to Gao Lin, Han Peng, Dong Fangzhuo, and Yu Dabao can all start.

But he couldn't decide between Dong Fangzhuo and Yu Dabao for a while.

The two players have different styles. Dong Fangzhuo is closer to a traditional center, and his function overlaps with Han Peng to some extent.

Yu Dabao is an opportunist with good technique; he can use his excellent goal-scoring instinct to lure players into the penalty area and create opportunities through his dribbling and breakthroughs. Taking all factors into consideration, Zhu Guanghu chose to include Yu Dabao in the starting lineup.

Yu Dabao made his debut for the national team in the last game, and started in the second game. His promotion speed is like a rocket, which makes many fans exclaim that it is outrageous.

Does Lao Zhu really think so highly of Yu Dabao?

[It's probably still related to Gao Lin's illness. If Gao Lin weren't sick, Yu Dabao would most likely not be able to start.]

Sigh, in some unnoticed corner, King Dong has already spent two games on the bench. I wonder if he'll get a chance to play this time.

Among the forwards of the Chinese national football team, Gao Lin is the one most accepted and recognized by the majority of fans.

It's not just because he can score goals and has a lot of hat-tricks, but more importantly because his functionality is so strong that no one can replace him.

In terms of shooting skills, Dong Fangzhuo is no worse than Gao Lin, but there is a significant gap in their ability to set up the ball.

As for Han Peng, his shooting skills are not even as good as these two younger players, but his heading ability is the strongest among the forwards. With similar functions, having him means that the national team has one more attacking option. Therefore, Zhu Guanghu usually prefers to arrange Gao Lin to partner with Han Peng.

This would not only enrich the team's tactical options, but also allow Gao Lin's strong support ability to set up Lin Feng, the true "big dad" in the middle, and act as a supporting player.

It's a bit unrealistic for Dong Fangzhuo to compete with Gao Lin, but if he practices his heading and shooting skills more, it shouldn't be difficult for him to replace Han Peng in the future.

After all, Han Peng is already 26 years old, and he will probably gradually fade out of the national team in the next World Cup cycle.

……

4月1日，当地时间17：15，国内时间22:15，巴林国家体育场。

With the referee's whistle, the fifth round of the World Cup Asian Qualifiers Final Round, the match between China and Bahrain, officially kicked off.

After the start of the match, with the cheers of more than 30,000 fans at the stadium, the Bahrain team launched a fierce attack on the Chinese team.

Bahrain included all seven of its naturalized players in the starting lineup for this match, including Nigerian midfielder Fatavi.

This person had previously represented Nigeria's U17 national team in official international matches, so when the Chinese team learned that he was on Qatar's roster before the match, they filed a complaint with FIFA, questioning his eligibility to represent Bahrain.

However, the Chinese team's complaint disappeared without a trace. The Football Association contacted AFC President Long Ge to find out what was going on. They learned that the Bahrainis had lobbied FIFA and blocked the Chinese team's complaint.

Given Bahrain's financial resources, FIFA is unlikely to immediately approve the Chinese national team's protest application.

By the time they start dealing with this matter, the final round of World Cup qualifiers may have already been completed, and the Bahrainers' scheme will have succeeded.

But this thing weighs less than four ounces on the scale, and even a thousand pounds on the scale.

Currently, FIFA's regulations regarding naturalized players do not include a patch allowing them to participate in national youth tournaments for players under the age of 21.

This patch won't be released until 2020, so if this matter is strictly investigated, it will definitely be a violation by the Bahrain team.

That's why the Bahrainis are so nervous and sent people out early to make deals and lobby.

Even if Bahrain does benefit from the financial offensive, FIFA may not necessarily impose the most severe penalties on them.

Not to mention Bahrain's current predicament of being eliminated. If they are indeed eliminated, FIFA's punishment will only be lighter if the situation does not cause any greater negative impact.

After all, it's quite obvious why they're not in a hurry to patch such obvious vulnerabilities.

Despite the attack from the Bahrain team's mercenaries, the Chinese national football team did not lose their composure.

Although Zhu Guanghu did not expect the Bahrainians to be so brave, he was prepared for the opponent's tactic of taking advantage of their home field to seize the initiative at the start.

Therefore, at the beginning of the game, the Chinese national team players were positioned relatively far back, and the distance between the defensive lines was well maintained.

In the first five minutes, Bahrain managed two shots, but neither hit the target. Their passes were also difficult to get into the penalty area, and Bahrain's early game strategy failed.

Seeing this, Zhu Guanghu sat back down on the coaching bench with peace of mind, glancing at the Bahrain team's head coach next door with a hint of disdain.

They boasted that they would defeat us, but all they came up with were these three tricks?

If that worked, the Chinese team's undefeated myth would have been broken long ago.

Moreover, he felt that although the opposing team had many naturalized players, they did not seem to have a good working relationship with each other and did not look like a cohesive unit at all, but rather like a disorganized mess.

Frankly, it would have been better to use Bahrain's original lineup, at least the previous group of players didn't have problems with team cohesion and understanding.

In the 7th minute of the match, we saw that the Chinese team's frontal defense was very tight, and we couldn't find any good opportunities.

Ayesh, a naturalized midfielder from Morocco, passed the ball to the wing, but his intention to pass was too obvious and was anticipated and intercepted by Lin Feng.

Just as Lin Feng was about to launch a counter-attack, another midfielder, Omar, who was naturalized from Chad, rushed forward to try to stop Lin Feng and clean up his teammate's mess.

Before anyone could get close, Lin Feng passed the ball out and then rushed out himself.

Hao Junmin, who received the ball on the wing, passed it back to Lin Feng with perfect understanding, completing a wonderful one-two pass.

Omar was stunned for a moment, and he failed to defend the man, the ball, and even lost his defensive position.

He could only sprint after Lin Feng, hoping to catch up and have a chance to cover for him.

But Lin Feng's speed is something that ordinary midfielders can't catch up with.
Fatavi, the player accused by the Chinese team, tried to stop Lin Feng, but Lin Feng easily bypassed him with a feint. The full-back tried to close in on Lin Feng, but as he moved laterally, Lin Feng had already dribbled the ball to the center, leaving him behind.

As his teammates were getting beaten one after another, Adnan, the naturalized defender from Sudan, cursed under his breath.

This bunch of idiots didn't even manage to slow down the opponent. Lin Feng's speed was completely unaffected, preventing his teammates from getting back in time to defend. He was left to defend against the world's number one player all by himself!
With a hint of determination and a touch of tragic grandeur, Adnan bravely charged forward, only to be outmaneuvered by Lin Feng, just like his teammates.

The Bahrain fans who arrived at the scene were completely dumbfounded; it felt like a million alpacas were stampeding through their minds.

Isn't this guy a midfielder?
How come he's so good at dribbling past people?

However, they had no time to think about that at this moment, because Lin Feng dribbled into the penalty area, and only the goalkeeper was left in front of him. (End of Chapter)