Football: He suffered a broken leg at the start of the game, but partnered with Haaland!

Asian Cup final day.

The streets of major cities across the country are deserted.

Unable to go out, fans found their only outlet for their emotions: the television and computer screens in their living rooms. A popular football forum's servers crashed three times just an hour before the match started due to a surge in concurrent users.

This group of Chinese U23 boys has once again secured their ticket to the Tokyo Olympics after a twelve-year hiatus.

This marks the third time the Chinese Olympic team has broken through in Asia, following their victories in Seoul in 1988 and Beijing in 2008. The sheer fervor is palpable, even through the screen.

National Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

The situation is quite the opposite.

The organizers implemented the strictest rules for playing games without spectators.

The massive stadium, capable of holding 60,000 people, was empty. The huge three-tiered stands were packed with empty seats. Apart from a few dozen reporters on the sidelines, the broadcasters' cameras, and a handful of masked staff from both football associations, there was no one else.

It was exactly 4 p.m.

The players' tunnel entrance.

The Chinese team faced their final opponent in the tournament, Saudi Arabia's U23 team.

The players lined up. There were no cheers from the fans, no deafening chants; the atmosphere was somewhat subdued.

Sun Yang stood at the front of the line and stretched his ankles. His legs felt a little heavy.

After five intense, do-or-die matches, coupled with the very short rest intervals during this special period of the tournament, most players have reached their physical limits. These young men, all under 23, have not yet developed their muscles to the peak condition of adult professional athletes, and the intensive, high-pressure schedule over the past few days has led to severe lactic acid buildup.

Even Sun Yang, who possesses the "perpetual motion lungs of Kanté" and "accelerated muscle recovery," felt physically and mentally exhausted. In these few games, he shouldered more than 80% of the team's offensive and defensive pivotal tasks, often running all over the court, resulting in severe physical exhaustion.

The Saudi players on the other side were also having a tough time. Left-back Al-Dubaish, number 13, was repeatedly pounding his outer thigh with his fist in the tunnel.

beep!

With a long whistle from the Japanese referee, the match officially began.

Saudi Arabia kicked off first.

Their starting formation was 4-2-3-1. The lone striker, Hamdan, stood in the center circle. Upon hearing the whistle, instead of launching the ball forward as usual, he turned and passed it back to defensive midfielder Hassan.

Hassan stopped the ball and glanced ahead.

Zhang Yuning, the striker for the national Olympic team, stood at the top of the center circle, but didn't even make a pressing gesture; he simply took two symbolic steps forward.

Hassan understood immediately and passed the ball across to the left center-back, Cindy.

Cindy then passed the ball to right center-back Tambati.

The ball began to be slowly passed around by the four defenders in Saudi Arabia's backfield.

For a full three minutes, the ball didn't even cross the midfield line.

The pace was unbelievably slow.

The two head coaches seemed to have reached some kind of unspoken understanding.

Both sides secured their coveted Olympic tickets and fulfilled the tasks assigned by their respective football associations. With only the Asian Cup title remaining, neither side wanted to fight tooth and nail when their physical condition was exhausted. The possibility of suffering a serious injury like a torn cruciate ligament in such a fatigued state, missing the Olympic Games a few months later, would be a huge loss.

By the tenth minute of the match, Saudi Arabia's possession rate had reached an astonishing 75%.

However, their formation made no real progress. The two attacking midfielders, Garib and Esa, took turns dropping back in front of the defensive line to receive the ball. After receiving it, they would turn around, look around, and find no way forward, so they would continue to pass it sideways.

For the Chinese team, Cannavaro's tactics were also extremely conservative.

Zhang Yuning was positioned at the very front, his movement limited to a ten-meter distance between the opponent's two center-backs.

The midfield line dropped very deep. Sun Yang was in the center, with Huang Zhengyu and Hu Jinghang on the left and right respectively. The three of them formed a wall about 15 meters in front of the penalty area.

The two wingers, Yang Liyu and Duan Liuyu, simply dropped back to a position level with the full-backs.

He Wei sat in the CCTV broadcasting studio, looking at the static formation diagram on the screen, and coughed twice to cover up his embarrassment.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as we can see, fifteen minutes into the game, neither side has made a single pass into the opponent's 30-meter danger zone. The game is being played very... restrained."

Xu Yang took a sip of water and continued, "That's completely understandable. With a match every three days, and the finals in the middle, the players' legs feel like lead. Right now, nobody wants to make mistakes and is focused on defense. Besides, playing in an empty stadium, without the stimulation of an audience, has a huge impact on the players' excitement."

In the 22nd minute, the Saudi team finally organized a decent attack.

Right-back Abdulhamid slowly advanced along the sideline with the ball.

Yang Liyu stepped forward to block him. He kept his center of gravity low, but his steps were noticeably slow.

Instead of making a strong run, Abdulhamid pulled the ball back and passed it across to Hassan, who was making a run into the middle.

Hassan controlled the ball and looked up. Sun Yang was positioned right in the passing lane between him and striker Hamdan.

Sun Yang's positioning was very strategic. Unlike against Australia, he didn't run and press all over the field today; instead, he maintained a defensive distance of about three meters. This position both cut off through balls and gave himself enough space to retreat and defend.

Hassan tentatively took two steps forward with the ball.

Sun Yang remained as steady as a mountain, refusing to even attempt a shot.

Hassan was getting impatient and swung his right foot, unleashing a long-range shot from 35 meters away from the goal, with absolutely no aim.

boom.

The football flew slowly through the air, high and graceful, and flew directly onto the empty second-floor stands.

Chen Wei didn't even bother to make a save; he turned around and went behind the goal to find a spare ball.

On the sidelines, Saudi Arabia's head coach, Saad, sat on a plastic chair in the coaching bench with his legs crossed. He showed no reaction to the absurd shot, even picking up a water bottle and taking a sip.

On the other side, a dozen meters away, Cannavaro was equally quiet.

Assistant coach Mario stood to the side, covering his mouth and whispering, "Fabio, they don't want to speed things up either. That makes things easier. Dragging it out to penalties is to our advantage. Chen Wei has been practicing saving penalties a lot these past two days."

Cannavaro nodded: "Keep the formation compact. Go to the sidelines and tell Huang Zhengyu not to make unnecessary tackles, to conserve his energy."

The match continued peacefully amidst the exhaustion.

The time has reached the 35th minute.

China won a throw-in on the right side of their own half. Dilimulati held the ball with both hands, searching along the sideline for a while. His teammates in the attacking third were all walking slowly.

He reluctantly tossed the ball to Zhu Chenjie, who was closest to him.

Zhu Chenjie chested the ball down and passed it to Wei Zhen on the right.

Wei Zhen glanced at the field ahead. Zhang Yuning was strolling with his back to the goal, surrounded by two Saudi center-backs.

Wei Zhen had no choice but to pass the ball to Sun Yang, who had retreated to the middle.

Sun Yang receives the ball. The opposing attacking midfielder, Garib, runs over to block him.

The sense of pressure was a bit weak, and the speed was even slower than in the usual lap training.

Sun Yang stepped on the ball with the sole of his right foot and swayed his body from side to side. Garib didn't react at all and remained stationary.

Sun Yang used the instep of his right foot to launch a long pass, looking for Duan Liuyu on the left wing.

The ball landed precisely, but Duan Liuyu was a fraction of a second too slow. The ball bounced off the ground and went out of bounds.

Duan Liuyu stopped, put his hands on his knees, and gasped for breath.

"It's okay, let's retreat to defense," Sun Yang called out, and slowly walked back to his half of the court.

The match was riddled with errors, completely lacking the tension expected of a final. With both sides running less, the resulting technical lapses due to severe fatigue were glaringly obvious. Several simple five-meter passes ended up behind teammates.