The Midfield Master

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On January 4, 2015, at two o'clock in the afternoon, there were crowds of people outside the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne. Saudis in headscarves, Chinese fans in red jerseys, and some local Australian fans were all outside the stadium .

This stadium can accommodate nearly 50,000 people, but the fans outside the stadium seem to be far more than this number.

Although the Asian Cup is not as attractive as the European Cup and the World Cup, it is still a grand event in Australia, a land where football is relatively barren.

The Chinese students studying in Australia and the Chinese who have settled here are all gathered outside the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne at this time, beating drums to the sky.

Every Chinese fan holds a national flag in their hands. Most of the fans have national flag makeup on their faces, and some even have their entire faces covered in national flag paint.

Chinese fans occupy most of the positions outside the stadium. Although the Saudi fans are not as popular as the Chinese team, they still try their best to build momentum for their team.

The Australian fans in the neutral position enjoyed the warm atmosphere brought by the eve of the competition, chatting and laughing with the fans of both sides.

There is also a group of special people outside the stadium, that is, the reporters who are responsible for reporting this game.

Australian local media, Chinese CCTV reporters, and Saudi media all used microphones and cameras to record every detail of this tournament.

A bus slowly made its way to the stadium. From the small Chinese flag planted in front of the bus, people could know that the players on board were the players of the Chinese team, including the world famous coach Lippi.

With the appearance of the Chinese team player bus, the atmosphere on the scene set off a small climax.

"Chinese team, come on! Chinese team, come on..."

When the bus passed by, the Chinese fans all turned towards the direction of the bus, cheering for the players who hadn't played yet.

And when the Saudi team's player bus arrived at the stadium, although they were not as numerous as the Chinese fans, all the Saudi fans put their right hands on their chests and sang the national anthem to welcome their heroes.

Xia Ze was also in the bus. He finally recovered from a cold two days ago, but his physical strength has not recovered, so he may not be able to participate in this match.

Looking at the Chinese fans cheering for himself and his teammates outside the window,

These overseas Chinese who are far away from the motherland still do not forget to support the teams of the motherland, even though many of them are already Australian internationals.

No matter how bad it is, it is our own team!

Xia Ze thought of this sentence. In recent years, Chinese football has been in a sluggish trough. Although the national football team has lost many times, the fans have never left them. He is quite moved.

But just being moved is not enough. Now that I have become a player of the national team, I must make up my mind to lead the rise of Chinese football.

Now the national team has 7 players who play in the top European leagues. The four major leagues of Italy, Spain, England and Germany all have Chinese players. It is time for Chinese football, which has been sunk for so long, to rise.

Xia Ze thought so in his heart, and the other Chinese team players also had ambitions in their hearts.

Although Xia Ze was unable to play in this game, he still followed the team to the stadium. As a member of the national team, he should stand with the team at all times.

After entering the locker room, Fu Bo replaced Lippi and reiterated the tactical deployment of this game to the players in front of the tactical board. Although it has been rehearsed for a few days before, it is the practice of every game to tell the tactics again before the game.

Xia Ze sat in his seat and also changed his equipment. Although he has been told by Lippi that he will not be sent to play in this game, warming up with the team is still conducive to his recovery of physical condition.

At the Etihad Stadium, the audience basically filled the stands at this time. This game is the opening game of this Asian Cup, so there will be a kick-off ceremony before the game.

When Xia Ze entered the stadium to warm up, Chinese fans wearing red jerseys occupied most of the seats in the surrounding stands, and the remaining half was occupied by white Saudi fans and Australian neutral fans of various colors.

When the players of the Chinese team entered the field, the red ocean in the stands immediately boiled, and the uniform cheers of the Chinese fans enveloped the entire stadium. Before the game even started, they were already fighting!

"CCTV, CCTV! Welcome to the opening match of the 2015 Asian Cup in Australia. I am Duan Xuan." Duan Xuan's deep and deep voice came from the front of the TV.

There are hundreds of millions of viewers watching the live broadcast of the game in front of the TV at this time, which happens to be Sunday.

"Today's match is between the Chinese team and the Saudi team. I have already received the starting lineup here. As predicted before the game, Xia Ze, who was attacked by a cold virus a week ago, did not appear in the starting lineup. The position is Sun Ke, a player of the Jiangsu Sainty team."

Sitting in the commentary booth of the Etihad Stadium, Duan Xuan introduced the starting list of the Chinese team for this game to the audience.

And next to him are colleagues from other Asian countries, who also commented on this highly anticipated opening match for their own TV stations.

"Today, the Chinese team formed a 4231 formation. The goalkeeper Zeng Cheng, the back line from left to right are Jiang Zhipeng, Zhang Wei, Mei Fang, Zhang Linpeng; the two defensive midfielders are captain Zheng Zhi and Cai Huikang, Wu Lei, Sun Ke and Ai Hui. Huang played three attacking midfielders, and Gao Bo stepped forward."

"It can be seen from Lippi's lineup today that he still wants to win this game. Well, the game begins!"

When the referee whistled, the first game of the 2015 Asian Cup began, and the Chinese team kicked off first.

In the ten minutes after the opening, the competition between the Chinese team and Saudi Arabia in the midfield was fierce. Originally, Saudi Arabia has always been one of the top teams in Asia, and the strength of the Chinese team should be said to be inferior to the opponent.

However, in the past one or two years, six or seven players from the Chinese team have played in Europe in a row. These overseas players are the main lineup of the team, which has improved a lot compared to before.

In this period of time after the opening, taking advantage of half of the home court, they competed fiercely with the powerful Saudi team for the possession of the ball.

But the current strength of the Chinese team is not as good as that of the Saudi team after all. In addition, Xia Ze, who was originally regarded as the core of the team by Lippi, was unable to play because of the flu, which made the team's midfield organization look a bit chaotic.

Although the 34-year-old veteran captain Zheng Zhi can sort out the midfield and backcourt, he can't devote too much energy to the frontcourt, making the two wings of the Chinese team seem to be fighting alone. c