Golden Greenery

Some people say that the most moon-like place on earth is the small island called Reunion. But when Zhuo Yang came here, he didn't find anything about it that looked like the moon, but the scenery was indeed extremely beautiful.

French Reunion is located in the southern Indian Ocean near Madagascar, Africa. It is a small island that cannot be found on a large map without a magnifying glass. It is more than 2,000 kilometers away from the coast of South Africa, the nearest continent. The beautiful scenery has a deep sense of escapism and exoticness. Perhaps it is such loneliness and abandonment that makes it feel like the moon that can be seen but cannot be touched.

As a French overseas province, Reunion is actually not small. It is as big as Chongming Island, the third largest island in China. There are more than 800,000 people in four cities on the island, and there are two airports. Here, of course, football is indispensable.

Zhuo Yang and the Chinese national team came here for a warm-up match with the French team. This is also the penultimate game of the Chinese team's first five warm-up matches in the World Cup. In 6 days, the World Cup in South Africa will begin, and there are only 10 days left before the Chinese team's first game against Paraguay.

Before Zhuo Yang's season in Spain ended, the Chinese national team began training at home. According to FIFA requirements, all participating teams submitted their 30-person roster on May 11 last month, and today, June 5, is the last time to submit the final roster of 23 people.

On May 19, the day before the Copa del Rey final, in the absence of Zhuoyang, the national team defeated the visiting Bayer Leverkusen, fourth in the Bundesliga this season, 3:0 in Guangzhou, which was very relaxing. Leverkusen did not come here just for fun. They sent all their main players to play, and the starting lineup included former Madiburg player Helmers.

Perhaps due to the fatigue and travel fatigue just after the season, the decadent Leverkusen gave the Chinese team a good start in preparing for the World Cup.

After the Champions League final ended on May 23, Beijing time, the next day Zhuoyang flew directly from Madrid to Montevideo, South America, to join the national team.

Paraguay and Uruguay, many people who don’t have good geography and don’t watch football can’t tell the difference between these two countries. In order to get a feel for Paraguay in the first game, the national team flew halfway around the world to warm up with Uruguay.

More than a week ago, Zhuoyang easily defeated Atletico Madrid's Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan in the Copa del Rey final, but at the Central Park Stadium, Forlan led his team to return Zhuoyang 3:1. Uruguay's three top strikers Forlan, Suarez, and Cavani each scored a goal. Zhuo Yang looked grim and was not in the mood to exchange jerseys with Forlan.

After returning to China to continue training for a few days, the team transferred and flew to Reunion Island. This flight lasted nearly 30 hours. This time, the number of players has been reduced from 30 to 25, leaving only two mobile spots just in case.

At the Saint-Michel-Vorneuil Stadium,

Zhuoyang briefly hugged Henry, Evra, Tularan and others, nodded to each other with Abidal, ignored Gourcuff, and finally had a playful chat with Scar Ribery and Potato Valbuena. Too light.

Judging from the warm-up match results alone, France is not much better than China. It tied with Paraguay 0:0, defeated Costa Rica 1:0, and lost 0:2 to Spain. There are so many well-known shooters, and only one of them is among the underdogs. Penalty kick. Besides, compared with China, how degenerate France is! As we all know, the Chinese team came to the World Cup to ‘preserve relegation’, but France was the runner-up last time and is an active member of the championship group.

In the national team rankings, France ranks ninth, and the Chinese team is still outside the 70th place.

France's first World Cup match is four days earlier than China's, and today's match against China is their last warm-up game, which is in line with the style of a wealthy club. Finally, find a weak brigade and defeat it to boost morale, similar to the old days of killing a chicken to sacrifice the flag before setting off for an expedition.

The Chinese team cannot learn this style, because for the Chinese team, where the hell is there an underdog? Is it possible to find Guam or Mongolia? The contrast with the opponents in the World Cup is too big and I'm afraid it will hurt my wrist. If you go to the likes of Thailand and Hong Kong, and you are not sure of winning, it will be very unlucky if you lose.

In the eyes of France, China is the bowl of wine before departure and the appetizer before the banquet. In the eyes of China, France is a highly imitated version of its group opponent Italy, a behemoth that loses less but wins more.

At this point, the main lineup for the World Cup has basically been determined. In this campaign, the two sides will use the main force to fight against the main force. In the Chinese team's 361 formation, there are relatively many veterans. Goalkeeper Wang Dalei, three defenders Li Weifeng, Du Wei and Sun Hai. Center backs were really scarce, so after much deliberation, Rijkaard withdrew Sun Hai to the back line.

Midfielders Zhuo Yang, Li, Zheng, Shao Jiayi, Hao Junmin, and Deng Shuixiang, among these six, are all five overseas players in China. They are the backbone and strength of the national team. Single forward veteran Li Jinyu.

Prior to this, China and France had only had one confrontation, almost four years ago today. There was a lot of story in that game on June 8, 2006 at the Chagier Stadium in Saint-Etienne, France.

Only 10 minutes into the game that year, Liverpool forward Cisse was competing for speed with Zheng Zai. Their legs got entangled. When Cisse landed, his right ankle showed a strange angle, commonly known as a 'broken leg'. This time it was broken, causing Cisse to miss the subsequent World Cup in Germany.

In fact, Zheng's foul was not serious, it was just a normal fight, and Cisse was unlucky to catch it. It is said that there were media reports later that Zidane was very dissatisfied with the Chinese team and believed that if Cisse had not been injured, the French team would have won the World Cup in the end. Zidane also said that he would never play a game with the Chinese team again in his life.

During the Spanish National Derby in La Liga, Barcelona was a guest at the Bernabeu. After Zhuo Yang remembered this, he specifically asked Real Madrid B team coach Zidane if he had said this. Qi Zu firmly denied it on the spot. He slapped the table and swore that he never said that. Whoever said it had a bad nose.

Of course, Qi Zu has indeed not played with any Chinese team since then, but it was not because of rumors, but because he retired.

In the 30th minute of that game, Trezeguet, who came on as a substitute for Cisse, flicked the instep of his right foot into the empty net and easily broke the net, giving France the lead. When he scored, Cisse was carried into an ambulance after emergency treatment.

In that game, Qi Zu also missed a penalty kick in the last local game of his career, and Zheng's penalty equalized the score for the Chinese team.

Seeing that a bullying game was about to end in an embarrassing draw for the French team, in the 89th minute of the game, Ribery made a breakthrough pass from the wing. Wang made a huge clearance on the line of the penalty area, but under the pressure of Henry, he made an extremely weird move. Hu Xuan kicked the outside of the instep with his posture, and the football spun directly into the blind spot of the Chinese team's goal.

With this unique own goal, Wang was never called up by Zhu Guanghu again. In stoppage time, Henry pushed the empty goal from 35 meters to fix the score at 3:1.

It is unknown whether the French team and the Chinese team are destined, but Zhuo Yang and Dao Scar are definitely destined. The most famous brothers in football, their mutual character and opportunities are indispensable. Today on the enchanting island of Reunion, Zhuo Yang will meet his brother for the first time at the national team level.