Midfielder Ruler

Chapter 40 Traveling lightly

Salvador is the third largest city in Brazil. It is a coastal city located in the northeast and is also the capital of the state of Bahia. Perhaps not many people know about Bahia, but when it comes to "Robinson Crusoe" it will make people Still fresh in my memory, the British writer Daniel Defoe simply called it Bahia.

"Team China! Team China!! Team China!!!"

When the Chinese team walked out of the domestic flight exit of El Salvador Airport, the Chinese fans who had been waiting for a long time shouted loudly in unison.

The high-spirited Chinese players smiled knowingly and waved to the enthusiastic fans, thanking them for their support.

As the biggest contributor to the Chinese team's advancement to the quarterfinals, Tang Zheng was naturally the most popular. Even if Tang Zheng was wearing a pair of headphones, he could clearly hear the cheers from the fans.

Tang Zheng knows how to repay the fans' support.

The Netherlands is powerful, but it can give it a try.

Losing is normal, winning is unexpected.

The 1/8 finals of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil continued. In the two 1/8 finals that day, France defeated Nigeria 2:0 with Pogba's goal and Yobo's own goal, and the German team narrowly defeated Algeria 2:1.

The remaining two 1/8 finals were held on the second day. In the first game, Argentina and Switzerland were tied for 90 minutes. At the end of overtime, Argentina relied on Messi to assist Di Maria to score and beat Switzerland.

Belgium defeated the United States 2:1 and became the last team to advance to the quarterfinals.

All eight 1/8 finals are over, and the spots have been settled. The qualifying teams are Brazil, Colombia, Netherlands, China, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium.

The four quarter-finals first kicked off at 1 pm on July 4th, local time in Brazil. The two sides of the game were France and Germany, the old enemies.

Four hours later, Brazil will face Colombia at the Estadio Castelao.

The quarter-finals between the Chinese team and the Netherlands is the latest of the four quarter-finals to kick off. It will be played at 5 pm local time on July 5th in Brazil at the New Water Source Stadium.

The Chinese team and the Dutch team had a confrontation in history, but that game was of no reference value because the first confrontation was in 1996.

The Dutch team arrived in El Salvador later than the Chinese team, but this had little impact on the Dutch team. Their overall strength is strong. Media who follow the World Cup know that the Dutch team has basically advanced to the semi-finals of this World Cup.

Of course, this does not mean that the Dutch team does not pay attention to the Chinese team as an opponent, but it needs a relaxed environment and a good mood during the preparation period.

In particular, Dutch star Robben is very fearful. Robben, who has a strong voice in the Dutch national team, often instills the concept of Tang Zheng's superior strength to his teammates because he is afraid that the situation in Bayern Munich's game against Dortmund will happen again.

In the four years since Tang Zheng played for Dortmund, Bayern Munich failed to defeat Dortmund in all competitions, and there were very few draws, so the memory is particularly vivid.

The media who follow the Dutch team's preparations can easily find that Robben's training these days is not related to his famous stunt of cutting in and shooting, but crosses from the left and right.

It is not difficult to find that Robben is afraid of Tang Zheng as a defensive midfielder.

There is a saying that is very true, once bitten by a snake, you will be afraid of ropes for ten years.

The match between the Chinese team and the Dutch team is directly beneficial. The Dutch team is the team with the most goals in the quarter-finals, and its offensive ability is quite amazing. The Chinese team, which has no strength in the first place, should do a better job of defense.

Coupled with the accumulated yellow card suspension of captain Zheng Zhi, even if Feng Xiaoting returns from the ban and returns to the starting lineup, he will not be able to fill Zheng Zhi's vacancy.

Facing the powerful Dutch team, Italian head coach Lippi's priority is naturally defense, but which player to partner Tang Zheng in the double midfielder has become the biggest headache for Lippi's coaching team.

Wu Xi's ability is relatively comprehensive, he can attack well and defend well, and he also has a certain ability to attack from behind. However, the shortcomings caused by being good at offense and defense are also obvious.

His defensive ability is definitely not as good as that of a professional defensive midfielder.

Cai Huikang has outstanding defensive ability and good physical fitness. However, his movement speed is slow and he has no offensive ability. He can only do transitional work. This means that Tang Zheng, who is a defensive midfielder, will bear more game responsibilities.

In this way, sacrificing offense has become inevitable.

※※※

Time flies very fast, and in a blink of an eye, it is the first match day of the quarter-finals of the 2014 Brazil World Cup. The old enemies of Germany and France will have a focus battle at the Maracanã Stadium.

The two teams have met 25 times in history. France has the upper hand with 11 wins, 6 draws and 8 losses, but has scored one less goal than Germany. There have been three confrontations in the World Cup, namely the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, the 1982 World Cup in Spain and the 1986 World Cup. Mexico World Cup, but due to its age, it no longer has any reference value.

The most recent match came in February last year, when the French team lost 1:2 at home to Germany.

It was Valbuena who helped the French team score, while Thomas Muller and Khedira helped the German team score.

Due to time constraints, the Chinese team had to conduct appropriate strength recovery training at the hotel where they were staying, and then go to the New Water Source Stadium to adapt to the venue, so Tang Zheng did not have time to watch the live broadcast of the game.

After ninety minutes, the German team defeated the French team 1:0 with a header from Tang Zheng's former Dortmund teammate Hummels.

Tang Zheng also had no time to pay attention to the quarter-final match between Brazil and Colombia, because the Chinese team's adaptation time was exactly 4:30 local time in Brazil.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch"

When the Chinese team bus arrived at the designated parking spot outside the New Water Source Stadium, the Chinese fans who had been waiting for the game burst into loud cheers in unison.

The Dutch national team's adaptation to the field ended half an hour ago. Except for captain Van Persie and head coach Van Gaal, he went to the stadium press conference hall to participate in the regular pre-match press conference. The other players were led by assistant coach Blind. The team took the bus and prepared to return to their hotel.

The sudden loud shouts attracted the attention of a large number of Dutch players, who all looked up.

A bus in red and yellow colors was parked not far away. There was a five-star red flag on the windshield in the upper right corner of the bus.

The Dutch players know that this is their opponent, the Chinese team, at the New Water Source Stadium tomorrow.

Dutch players look down upon the Chinese team.

They believe that the reason why the Chinese team was able to enter the quarterfinals is entirely due to good luck.

The group stage matches can only be described as extraordinary performance. The top team in Group D they faced in the 1/8 finals was not the traditional strong teams Uruguay, Italy or England, but the super dark horse Costa Rica.

A duel between two dark horses, the Chinese team just happened to win the game.

Robben has indeed been instilling in his teammates that Tang Zheng is very strong, but professional football players are a group of energetic people who like to be competitive and never easily agree that others are better than themselves, not to mention that football is a team sport.

No matter how strong Tang Zheng is, can he still be better than a team?

Only Robben has truly experienced this feeling, and other teammates cannot empathize with it.

Robin van Persie and Huntelaar also had records of confrontation with Tang Zheng, but due to their position, they rarely had direct contact with Tang Zheng, so their impressions were not as good as Robben's.

Tang Zheng is the well-deserved number one star of the Chinese team, and he naturally walks at the back of the team.

"You are in very good condition today. Can you score a goal in tomorrow's game?" Sneijder was walking and talking to Robben, only to find that Robben stopped where he was, looking in the direction of the Chinese team's bus in a daze, so he reached out and asked Robben His eyes flickered twice: "Alger, huh?"

Only then did Robben react, with a forced smile on his face: "Hurry up and keep up with everyone."

After that, without giving his friend Sneijder a chance to speak again, he walked straight to the team bus and signed autographs for several fans who were surrounded by security personnel.

Sneijder looked at Robben and shook his head with a wry smile. Robben's training state today was very hot, even better than the first-day victory over Spain in the group stage. However, Robben's mental state seemed to have dropped significantly after seeing Tang Zheng.

Sneijder has never had the opportunity to interact directly with Tang Zheng, but as Tang Zheng is one of the hottest stars in world football today, and his position is similar to Sneijder, he will be compared to some extent by the media.

The two numbers 10 in the World Cup quarter-finals between the Netherlands and China were compared by a large number of media. The result was no suspense. The media believed that Tang Zheng's ability was far better than Sneijder.

This is why Tang Zheng was able to thrive in Real Madrid, while Sneijder had to seek a transfer at Real Madrid.

People cannot be compared with each other, because without comparison, there will be no harm.

Sneijder doesn't really care about media comparisons. He has his own characteristics and the two have nothing to do with each other.

However, his friend Robben was too influenced by Tang Zheng, so he had to face Tang Zheng squarely.

Could it be that... Tang Zheng is really as strong as Alger said?

Wouldn't it be too mysterious?

※※※

It took about an hour and a half for the Chinese team to adapt to the venue before the game. The first half hour was for public training and taking photos for the media.

The last hour is when the Chinese team practices game tactics. During this period, it is closed.

Not long after, the hour and a half of pre-game acclimatization was over, and Lippi took Tang Zheng to the press conference hall of the New Water Source Stadium for a regular press conference.

Due to the suspension of captain Zheng Zhi's accumulation of yellow cards, the routine press conference before the game must bring a player who will definitely start tomorrow night. After much deliberation, Lippi decided to bring the star Tang Zheng.

First of all, Tang Zheng has very rich experience with domestic and foreign media reporters, and then Tang Zheng will play as the captain of the Chinese team in the quarter-finals starting tomorrow. It is crucial for both Tang Zheng and the Chinese team. of.

In fact, Tang Zheng already knew that he would play as the captain of the Chinese team in the quarter-finals of the World Cup. The media was not surprised that Tang Zheng became the captain of the Chinese team in the quarter-finals, because Tang Zheng has a higher reputation as the captain of the national team and serves as the captain. The captain Zheng Zhi is due to seniority.

The press officer of the Chinese team announced that the second captain was also Tang Zheng. Therefore, Tang Zheng deserved to be the captain when captain Zheng Zhi accumulated yellow cards and was suspended.

The questions asked at the regular press conference before the game were very simple, nothing more than about confidence and outlook for the game.

The strength gap between the two teams made most of the Chinese players mentally prepared to be eliminated. But then again, as the captain, Tang Zheng participated in the regular pre-match press conference and naturally he would not let others downplay his own prestige. He said loudly: " At this stage of the game, no one can retreat. Even if the overall strength is indeed not as good as the strong Dutch team, it does not mean that we will lose! I believe in my teammates, because they are all the best!"

The language of Tang Zheng's interviews with the official media of the Brazil World Cup is Mandarin, so except for the Chinese domestic media who can know it immediately, other foreign media need to go through a translator to know the specific meaning.

Tang Zheng deliberately spoke to the media in Mandarin. Even though he knew many languages, when he represented the national team in the World Cup, he would use Mandarin if he could.

Is English the universal language?

That doesn’t exist either!

Through translation, foreign media finally knew the specific meaning of Tang Zheng's expression, but Tang Zheng's words were very organized and impossible to refute.

In another quarter-final held later, the Brazilian team finally defeated Colombia 2:1. It is worth mentioning that James Rodriguez scored again, which means that his World Cup goal number was finally determined. At seven goals.

Currently ranked second in the scorer list, Tang Zheng, Muller, Messi and Neymar all scored four goals, three goals behind James Rodriguez's seven goals.

It is very likely that Tang Zheng's number of goals will not be able to increase, because the Dutch team is overall strong and is the strongest opponent that the Chinese team will encounter in this World Cup. By then, the game will definitely be too tired to defend and have no time to attack.

The German team took the lead in entering the semi-finals. Muller still has at least two games left, but scoring three goals in two games is very difficult.

If Messi can lead Argentina to the semi-finals, it is not impossible to score three goals in three games, but it can only be said that the chance is slim.

There is no weak team in the World Cup, especially in the quarterfinals. Argentina's quarter-final opponent Belgium is not weak, so it is difficult to determine whether they can win.

Named goal?

The suspense is a bit high.

Neymar was injured and was substituted in the quarter-finals. It is not known whether he can return in time for the semi-finals against Germany, and it is even harder to say whether he will score a goal.

If you can't play the game, how can you score a goal?

Looking at the past ten World Cups, scoring seven goals was the only one that could not win the Golden Boot in the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan. He could win the Golden Boot in the other nine World Cups, which means that he scored a penalty in the quarter-finals. Metz Rodriguez has a great possibility of winning the Golden Boot in this World Cup.

Of course, this has nothing to do with the Chinese team, it's just the latest World Cup news that Tang Zheng paid attention to when he returned to his hotel.

That night, Tang Zheng and captain Zheng Zhi had a tacit understanding and hit it off immediately. They took the other 21 teammates to a meeting at the hotel to unify their thoughts before the game.

Tomorrow at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, they will play the quarter-finals against the Dutch team at the New Water Source Stadium. Tang Zheng and Zheng Zhi both hope that their teammates can put aside all distracting thoughts, travel light and focus entirely on the future games.

Even if you lose in the end, at least you have fought hard!

The next day, head coach Lippi and his coaching team discovered that the players' mental outlook had changed a lot from what he had imagined.

If this kind of mental outlook can be brought to the game, even if the game cannot be won in the end, the Dutch team will be choked!

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