Golden Greenery

Zhuoyang's performance in the Asian Cup in Qatar was not very good. He only scored two goals in the first four games, which was obviously inconsistent with his traditional image of killing people thousands of miles away. There was a lot of talk in the media that he was affected by his missed FIFA Golden Goal, but Zhuoyang himself and Jieshuai knew very well that the national team's personnel had been adjusted too much, which had caused the strength of the midfield and frontcourt to drop by two levels. Zhuoyang often had to rebuild. It becomes a helpless and disorderly singles mode.

Asia is a vast country and is the largest and most populous continent among the seven continents, with 29.4% of the landmass and 61% of the population. The AFC has 47 football association members, but only 16 teams participated in the 15th Asian Cup. They advanced to the quarterfinals after qualifying from the group stage.

The Chinese team's opponent in the quarterfinals is Jordan. It is said that many working-class Americans cannot understand why an Arab country has to plagiarize our basketball player when it names its country. Jordan expressed his innocence, and Jordan expressed his helplessness.

It is said that there are no weak teams in West Asia, which refers to teams like Jordan, Syria, Yemen, and Oman. It is not surprising that they can defeat Iran and South Korea when they are crazy, and lose to Thailand and Vietnam. Jordan, whom the Chinese team met in the quarter-finals, had a higher ambition than paper.

With Zhuo Yang in charge, Jieshuai continued large-scale training. In this game, he sent young players such as Sun Ke, Yu Dabao, Zhang Xizhe, and Zeng Cheng to start. Sitting on the bench were veterans such as Shao Jiayi, Qu Bo, and Yang Jun. Zhuoyang took over the midfield, and Jordan's little quickie couldn't get up and failed, but the Chinese team still had a strong frontcourt and couldn't score.

The Chinese team had six must-goal opportunities throughout the game. The 'must-goal' here means that if it were the Chinese team in Barcelona or even South Africa, it would basically be 6:0. But the final score was only 1:0. It was another opportunity that was not a chance. After a chaotic scuffle in the penalty area in the 79th minute, Zheng Zhi stabbed the goal. It can be attributed to him through camera analysis, otherwise even Zheng Zhi himself would not be sure.

After this game, the domestic media, who are accustomed to touting, also saw the chaotic and jerky nature of the national team's frontcourt. It's not that they don't understand the game, but they just didn't dare to say it before. The media cautiously asked whether Deng Shuxiang, Wang Dalei and Rong Hao were not recruited by the national team this time. Was this a mistake?

Therefore, Cheng Hao published "Please Cherish Your Jersey". The article did not criticize anyone by name, otherwise they would be completely dead and would never be able to make a comeback. Zhuo Yang has a chance to save lives by avoiding past mistakes and avoiding future ones, but they need to save themselves.

In the article, Cheng Hao also disclosed to domestic fans for the first time Jieshuai's long-term strategy for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, making it clear that this Asian Cup is just a training trip. Zhuoyang and Rijkaard are playing chess. It is a very big game, and it is still in the pawn stage.

Zhuo Yang didn't want to worry about whether those tentative noises had ulterior motives or whether there was someone behind it. After Cheng Hao's article appeared in the newspaper, all doubts were immediately silenced. The media are all smart people. To go against Zhuo Yang, who is at the height of his power, is to seek death.

Four days later, the Chinese team ushered in their semifinal opponent Australia.

The teams representing Asia in the World Cup in South Africa were China, Japan, South Korea and Australia. West and Central Asia were completely wiped out in the qualifying rounds. In the Asian Cup half a year later, although the West Asian teams were fighting at home, after the quarter-finals, the semi-finals of the Asian Cup were still China, Japan, South Korea and Australia, and West and Central Asia were defeated collectively again.

The Chinese team defeated Jordan 1:0, which was the most inconspicuous. South Korea defeated its old enemy Iran 1:0 in overtime and was much more energetic. Australia also eliminated the previous champion Iraq 1:0 with an overtime goal, which can only be said to be quite satisfactory, while Japan defeated Uzbekistan 6:0, which was shocking.

The Chinese team has just finished playing against Uzbekistan. We know how difficult the Central Asian wolves are, but why are they like paper in front of the Japanese? Japan's six goals were scored by different players.

Such comprehensive and evenly distributed offensive firepower makes the Chinese team envious.

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After the World Cup, Australian head coach Welbeck resigned after three years of coaching the team, and German Holger Osijek was appointed as the new Kangaroos coach. Osijek is not an ordinary person. When the German team won the world championship in Italy in 1990, he was Beckenbauer's chief assistant coach. He is very famous in Germany. Zhuo Yang has long heard others talk about it.

The 62-year-old Osijek later served as the head of FIFA's technical department and senior lecturer for a long time, and also coached in the K League and J League. The Australians favored him. I don't know if it was because he was beaten 4-0 by Germany in the World Cup. It hurt so much that he was beaten.

Maybe the Australians had the right idea, because at the Khalifa International Stadium, Osijek's Australia led the Chinese team 3:0 in the first half.

In the 5th minute, after the Chinese team failed to attack in the frontcourt, the Australians launched a quick counterattack. Matt McKay, a forward who had played for Changchun Yatai, easily dodged Hao Junmin on the wing and then dribbled the ball horizontally and pulled Zheng Zhi out of the ribs. Direct transmission from the Ministry. The famous player Kewell received the ball and walked into the penalty area. Before Li Weifeng fell to the ground to tackle, he shot through Zeng Cheng's wicket and the gate behind him, 1:0.

Falling behind at the beginning, the Chinese team was inevitably a little anxious and wanted to get the score back immediately. This played into Australia's hands, and the Kangaroos played a vigorous defensive counterattack.

In the 24th minute, Australia once again launched a high-quality counterattack. It was McKay who used two beautiful combinations to reverse the attack. After hollowing out the Chinese team's defense on the left with Jedinak, he passed the ball diagonally to the fast forward. Defender Karni.

Facing the empty defense in the middle, although Karni's furious shot was blocked by Zeng Cheng with one hand, it still rolled slowly into the net after the change, 2:0.

Not to mention other people, even Zhuo Yang was anxious: Are you fucking planning to have a deadly feud with me? The furious FIFA Silver Ball player immediately launched a duel mode, causing the Australians to feel uneasy everywhere. However, if there is no goal, everything is fake.

In the 39th minute, the Chinese team suffered another blow. It was an unusual corner kick. After McKay took it, Feng Xiaoting, who was marking Cahill, slipped when he was fighting for the top, allowing Cahill to easily send a header. The new Asian Footballer of the Year Ognenovski took advantage. He pushed the ball with his left foot in the open space to expand the score to 3:0.

Since Zhuo Yang returned to the national team, this was the most unsuccessful half for the Chinese team. These 45 minutes of frustration even ranked among the top three in Zhuo Yang's nine-year career. 3:0 beat the few Chinese fans at the scene speechless and silenced mainland China in the early morning.

You can lose the ball, but you can't lose so miserably, let alone lose completely in the first half, because this will hurt your self-esteem and lose face. Not to mention facing the aggrieved looks of the fans, those sluts who turned around and hung them up, even if they spoke back forcefully, would inevitably feel guilty.

How about trying to pick up the lost face from the ground in the second half?