Fox in the Penalty Area

"Hu Lai...a long shot!! Beautiful!! Great goal! With seven minutes left in the game, the Chinese team recovered a goal! Now the score is 1:2, we still have a chance! Come on, Chinese team! do not give up!"

Hu Lai, who had just scored a long-range shot, did not run to the corner flag area to celebrate this time, but called Zhou Zijing, who was right in front of the goal, to pick the football out of the goal and let the Iranian team kick off quickly.

Zhou Zijing rushed into the goal before he did this, and even almost had a conflict with the goalkeeper of the Iranian team-he wanted to pick up the ball, but the football was kicked away by the goalkeeper of the Iranian team, letting him I missed it.

This made Zhou Zijing very upset, but he just gave the other party a hard look, and didn't really go up to find the other party's theory.

He knew that if he really made trouble for the other party, it might cause a riot, and wouldn't it be the Chinese team that would suffer the damage? Because it was the Chinese team's game time that was delayed...

"The game is over...the Chinese team still failed to score another goal...The score was finally fixed at 1:2. The Chinese team regrettably lost to Iran and missed the semi-finals of the Asian Cup..."

Following He Feng's low-pitched explanation, the Chinese players on the field gave up running.

Hu Lai appeared in the close-up of the game broadcast, and He Feng continued: "Hu Lai was very active in this game. He scored a goal for the Chinese team in the 83rd minute and once let us Seeing hope...he looks very depressed in the camera, but in fact he has performed very well..."

Hu Lai really looked very frustrated. He was standing on the court with his hands on his hips, panting heavily, his eyes were dull, and he didn't know where he was looking.

A player from the Iranian team came up and wanted to shake his hand, but he just perfunctory, without even a polite smile on his face.

It can be seen through this lens that he really regrets and is sad that the team stopped in the quarterfinals.

Before this Asian Cup, he and his teammates had high hopes.

The final four is the official goal, and winning the championship is what everyone thinks the Chinese team should accomplish.

As a result, they went home in the quarterfinals.

In fact, Hu Lai himself performed very well in this Asian Cup, scoring seven goals and ranking first in the scorer list. He may be the most qualified person in the entire Chinese team to leave the Asian Cup with his head held high...

"Hu Lai, although he didn't advance to the semi-finals this time.

But if you participate in the Asian Cup for the first time, you can hope to get the top scorer, which is still a good result..." When Hu Lai was standing in front of the background board to accept the interview, the voice of CCTV beauty reporter Wang Shanshan sounded.

She should have comforted Hu Lai, who could tell at a glance that she was unhappy.

But Hu Lai, who is always very polite, didn't accept her favor this time. He interrupted her directly and said in a blunt tone: "I don't care if I can get the golden boot. Compared with this, I hope we can get the golden boot." Go further in the Asian Cup..."

The picture is frozen here.

Li Qingqing, who pressed the pause button, stared at the frowning face on the phone screen, and also frowned.

※※※

"Ugh……"

While waiting for their respective luggage at the luggage carousel at the airport in Frankfurt, Xia Xiaoyu sighed and said, "I don't know if the Internet has scolded us so badly..."

Since the 0:2 loss to Iraq in the first match of the Asian Cup, there have been endless criticisms against the Chinese team on the Internet. Although most of them criticized Dong Jianhai, many people also criticized the players. It was at that time that Xia Xiaoyu stopped surfing the Internet and closed herself off.

"Not really." Zhang Qinghuan shook his head and said, "On the contrary, everyone was surprisingly tolerant this time, and they all felt that we did our best..."

Before he finished speaking, Wang Guangwei who was next to him suddenly said, "I don't think I tried my best."

The others turned to look at him.

Wang Guangwei, who was watching everyone, continued: "I feel like I played like shit in this Asian Cup..."

"Old Wang, don't say that..." Chen Xingyi tried to comfort him. "You scored a goal anyway, why did you perform poorly?"

Wang Guangwei shook his head and refused to accept the consolation: "What's the use of scoring a goal? I'm a central defender, and defense is my job. I concede goals every game, and it's indeed the defender's problem. The Yao team is getting older, so I should take the lead. I went up. But I didn't... so my performance in this Asian Cup was just bad."

"You have objective reasons..." Hu Lai also comforted him, "You basically didn't play much in Eldrea. There is no rush, this is a stage that must be experienced.”

Others also nodded. As overseas players, they are all very empathetic. After going abroad, they face a completely unfamiliar environment, language barrier, different eating habits, no friends, no one to talk to, anxiety about the future... these are tormenting them all the time.

At the same time, as players studying abroad, they have pinned the high expectations of domestic fans. Any trouble can immediately attract the attention and discussion of millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of people. The pressure is not ordinary.

Others only see the scenery of overseas players when they are officially announced to play abroad, but they cannot see or are unwilling to see their hardships in Europe.

They have all gone through the "must-pass stage" in Hu Lai's mouth, but the length of time is different.

Offensive players are better off because chances are more readily available. Defensive players are different. As a defensive player, Wang Guangwei, this process will be extremely long.

This is also why Lin Zhiyuan chose to refuse when he received an invitation from a European team - everyone admired that kid, despite his usual ignorant appearance, he was still very cautious and kind when dealing with his overseas studies. sane.

As a goalkeeper, if he goes abroad to play, I am afraid he will not find a chance to play. It's possible to sit on the bench for years.

Wang Guangwei still disagrees with Hu Lai's statement: "It doesn't make sense. Some players can't play games when they are in the club. Why can they perform well when they return to the national team? We have seen many such examples in the World Cup, right? "

This time, Hu Lai was speechless, not knowing how to respond to Wang Guangwei.

"Speaking of the World Cup..." Wang Guangwei seems to have a lot to say today, and the chatterbox can't be closed when it is opened.

He was obviously taciturn on the plane before...but maybe the silence at that time was just accumulating the desire to talk.

"Speaking of the World Cup... I always think back to our first World Cup many times in the past six months. What do you think of our performance in the first World Cup?"

Wang Guangwei looked up at his friends, asking them to answer this question.

Everyone looked at each other, not knowing how to answer Wang Guangwei's question, because they didn't know what Wang Guangwei's question meant.

Seeing that they were silent, Wang Guangwei continued: "Do you think we were unbeaten in the World Cup for the first time, and we drew with Brazil 3:3 in the last game, which is not bad? After that World Cup, we came back from the plane. Going all the way to the airport, and then back to our respective hometowns...Which one doesn't have a non-stop celebration? Everywhere you go, you are welcome, and if you go out and be recognized by the fans, you don't even want to run away...The grand occasion at that time is the one I have never seen since I played football. What has never been experienced is even more exaggerated than after we entered the World Cup."

When the others heard what Wang Guangwei said, they also showed dazed expressions. The original scene was replayed in front of their eyes like a movie, and it was indeed "unprecedented".

As professional players, they have never enjoyed such exaggerated treatment before—even after returning from the Olympics, they have not reached this level—it is considered popular if they are not scolded. After all, there is no difference between the former Chinese male football players and street mice, and they can be classified as the same type of people as rapists and murderers. When it comes to men's football players, everyone gnashes their teeth and belittles them as much as possible.

"I'm not saying our results in the World Cup weren't good enough. I just felt that we could have done better, and we ended up... giving up the chance to win. After Hou Lai equalized, there were actually six more games left before the end of the game. Seven minutes. At that time, the Brazilian team was already in a panic. If we can press out and fight them hard, maybe we can beat them and replace them as the qualifying team?"

Wang Guangwei's words stunned everyone present.

Chen Xingyi recalled the dream he had on the plane back to China. He shot a goal but hit the post, and missed the chance to kill Brazil.

The annoyance and pain in the dream at that time were not like a dream at all in reality.

"...but we didn't do that. All of us were content to draw with Brazil in the end and go unbeaten in the group...but what's the use of this unbeaten for us? Didn't we go home in the end? If we If you press everything up, even if you can't score, the final result will definitely not be worse than getting out of the group, right?" Wang Guangwei continued, saying that he really "killed" today.

"After the World Cup, everyone was praising us, praising us, affirming our achievements and performance in the World Cup. So we thought so ourselves, as if it was such an amazing achievement... But I often think about it now. , but only feel regret and regret. Regret why we didn't think about fighting again, we may have missed the best chance to beat Brazil... The outside world said that this is our first World Cup, so we were able to achieve this result Fine. True, but who said that a first-time World Cup should be content with three group games?"

Everyone present, Hu Lai, Chen Xingyi, Zhang Qinghuan, Luo Kai, and Xia Xiaoyu listened to Wang Guangwei in silence.

"I still feel ashamed when I think about it now. I didn't take the victory as the goal, but was satisfied with the draw. I don't think it's right. The fans understand us and say that, but if we also forgive ourselves, we will find a lot of blame for the poor performance. As an excuse... In the next World Cup, shall we be satisfied with only playing three group games before going home? Our career is limited, how many times can we participate in the World Cup? Every time we play three group games? Don’t want to play a few more games in the World Cup? I know some words are not good, but I still want to say them today. Everyone has gone abroad to play football, and they should know what level we are in Europe. Don’t look at Hu Lai..."

Seeing that everyone turned their heads to Hu Lai, Wang Guangwei said hastily.

"Exclude Holly."

"Hey, why did Lao Wang exclude me?" Hu Lai protested.

Wang Guangwei ignored his protest, but looked at other people and said: "So far, Brother Huan can still play in Sarria, but now I don't know what happened when I go back after the Asian Cup. Because the original position was taken by others. Although Luo Kai played a lot of games and performed well, he played in the second division of the Netherlands..."

Luo Kai remained expressionless and did not express any objection.

"Little Xingxing, you can only play occasionally, and you don't have much playing time. Let's not talk about Xiaoyu in the reserve team. I am the worst. I can't even play in official games... If this continues, we will be able to compete in three years. How much better was our performance last year? We scored six goals in the last World Cup, and Hu Lai scored five. In this Asian Cup, we scored ten goals, and Hu Lai scored seven alone. The World Cup in three years And the Asian Cup four years later, do we still count on Hu Lai alone?"

During Wang Guangwei's questioning, everyone's expressions became very serious.

Hu Lai opened his mouth, but in the end no words came out.

"When I played football in China, I didn't have a clear understanding of my own level. I felt that I was very good. Later, in the World Cup, I played against high-level opponents. I was a little desperate-to defend against a Romano at the end of his career. Husband, I have to do my best, and I still have to rely on some outside moves...Now I am playing abroad, and I have seen the gap in all aspects..."

As he was speaking, Wang Guangwei caught a glimpse of his two suitcases being delivered on the conveyor belt.

He took a step forward, lifted the two suitcases separately, put them on the luggage trolley, turned around and said to his teammates: "The media says we are young players every day, but we are not young anymore. Don't feel that going abroad As long as everything is fine, we... may be returned!"

After speaking, he pushed the luggage cart again, turned and left.

The remaining five people looked at each other and fell into an embarrassing silence.

In the end, Zhang Qinghuan, who was the oldest, sighed and said: "What Lao Wang said is also reasonable...Everyone should work hard, we really don't have much time left. Don't let Hu Lai throw us further and further away."

"Brother Huan, what's the matter with me..." Hu Lai was very wronged, he stood here without saying a word, not pretending to be aggressive.

Then he saw everyone looking at him.

Among them, Luo Kai's eyes seemed to have flames about to burst out.

He grinned, well, for the future of Chinese football, I will sacrifice a bit...

So he held his head high and stood like a target.