World Cup of Great Powers

The Chinese team defeated the French team to win the Confederations Cup. This was something that most fans had never thought of before the game.

Especially when the "unofficial world champion" brand is used, the Chinese team's international reputation has reached an unprecedented height.

Saudi head coach Santraqi: "Fortunately, we are not in a group with the Chinese team. This is our greatest luck."

Iran head coach Blazevich: "It is undeniable that the Chinese team must be the biggest obstacle for the Iranian team to advance to the World Cup. Looking at it now, the Iranian team should consider how to play the play-offs."

Xiaotian head coach Troussier: "In the recent friendly match, Xiaotian lost 0-4 to the French team. From this point of view, the gap between Xiaotian and the Chinese team has become wider and wider."

South Korea coach Hiddink: "This is just an act and cannot be taken seriously. I believe that under my guidance, South Korea's performance in the World Cup will be better than that of the Chinese team!"

France coach Le Maire: "I don't have anything to say about this defeat. The players worked hard, but it's a pity that luck was not on our side. However, after the loss, most of the players relaxed.

tone. Because we heard that if you win the Confederations Cup, you cannot win the World Cup. Judging from the current situation, our players are more confident in defending the World Cup champion."

Former Cameroon head coach Le Chante: "Did you see it? The Chinese team is very powerful! Even the French team lost... Why should I be dismissed from get out of class early?"

AFC official: "Judging from the performance of the Chinese and French finals, Chinese football no longer belongs to Asia!"

"Qilu Evening News": "The Chinese Dragons are going global!"

...

Winning this Confederations Cup has had a huge impact domestically.

Under the slogans of "defeat the world champion" and "we are the world champion", the fans could not help but get excited.

In the streets and alleys, the word football frequently appears in the mouths of citizens.

"Lao Li, have you heard? We defeated the world champion yesterday!"

"I've heard it, I've heard it! Liu Laosan's house is in a commotion. He probably broke the dishes."

"I really didn't expect that in just a few years, we would become world champions!"

"World champion? Isn't it right? Isn't the World Cup just next year?"

"The World Cup is the World Cup, and the world champion is the world champion. You see it is written in the newspaper, we are now the unofficial world champion!"

"Unofficial world champion? What the hell is that?"

"Whatever it is, he is the world champion anyway..."

On TV, in newspapers, and on the Internet, there are videos of interviews about this game and players everywhere.

The walls of shops in the streets and alleys are also covered with posters of players.

The sports goods dealer seized the opportunity and purchased a batch of uniforms and footballs.

As soon as the goods arrived, they were sold out.

As a result, the factory workers had to work overtime to produce.

In addition to sporting goods, store owners of cultural goods were also so worried that they scolded their mothers.

"Sorry, sorry, I'll be there in the afternoon, I'll be there in the afternoon."

"How about you take a look at these foreign stars again?"

"This is Ronaldo, this is Batistuta, this is Raul, and they all played well."

"Ah, yes, yes, you are right, I shouldn't worship foreigners and favor foreigners, I shouldn't worship foreigners and favor foreigners..."

After sending away batch after batch of students who bought posters, the stationery store owner picked up the microphone again and said, "Hello? When will the batch of national football posters I want be delivered to me?"

...

Affected by the championship, in addition to the sell-out of football and peripheral products, the public's attitude towards football has also undergone a qualitative change.

From last year’s Asian Cup to this year’s Confederations Cup.

The popularity of football among the people has skyrocketed.

Local governments have received many letters from citizens, hoping to build more public football fields in the city.

Football has also become a popular form of entertainment for young people.

Fortunately, major universities have their own football stadiums;

Those private teams that want to play football but have no place to play, in addition to borrowing venues from schools, have also made suggestions to the county, city, and province through their respective relationships to expand private football fields.

The members of these private teams are mostly successful entrepreneurs from various regions. Together, they usually represent the economic power of a region.

Therefore, their ideas and suggestions have also been valued by leaders at all levels.

Finally, at the end of 2001.

After the red-headed document was issued, the central government allocated funds and Zhu Xie took the lead in selecting venues in regions above prefecture-level cities across the country to build more than ten national-level football venues and more than 100 civilian football venues.

The most important thing is that these venues are not comprehensive stadiums with a track outside, but special football stadiums with spectators on the sidelines like England.

Construction teams from various places selected sites and started excavation, which triggered a chain reaction.

The economic benefits brought by the stadium have led businessmen and bosses from all over the country to start building commercial centers around the football stadium.

In terms of real estate, the concept of "ball area housing" has even been proposed.

Commercial and residential areas built around the football field are slowly taking shape.

Under the city's leadership, some local bosses in small counties and prefecture-level cities under its jurisdiction also began to collectively invest.

Those who have money provide money, those who have materials provide materials, and those who have money provide people.

Use a piece of waste land from the government to build a private football field.

Although the conditions of this kind of football field are very simple, there are neither stands nor night lights.

But as long as the sun rises, you will see people running on the football field with the ball, rain or shine.

The establishment of more than 100 official football fields and hundreds of private football fields also reflects the popularity of football and the importance attached to it.

Even at the year-end meeting, some people proposed replacing table tennis with football as the national sport.

The increase in stadiums has also led to a surge in the number of private football teams.

Faced with the crowded registration list for the second-division league, Bamboo Shoes even began to consider expanding the size of the domestic league and bringing forward the date of establishing the Chinese Super League.

Many years later, when foreign scholars came to China to learn about football experience and summarize the successful experience of Chinese football, they came to a unified conclusion:

The 2001 Confederations Cup championship was a historical turning point that brought about qualitative changes in Chinese football.

...

After leading the team to win the Confederations Cup, Zeng Zheng finally got some breathing time.

The next step is to plan how to lead the team to the top ten games.

Zeng Zheng’s suggestion was of course to qualify first in the group, and he also formulated a series of strategic plans with this goal in mind.

Of course, everything has its surprises.

In addition to a detailed plan to win the group championship, Zeng Zheng will also submit an alternative plan for how to play the qualifying rounds if the group is second.

The two plans contain tens of thousands of words.

Seeing such a detailed battle plan, Zhu Xie was also very satisfied.

After all, before Zeng Zheng, no head coach would plan in detail how to play every game and how to win every game.

After the Confederations Cup, the national football team was disbanded.

Zeng Zheng, who was on vacation, traveled 20 hours to fly to Mendoza, Argentina, to watch the China Youth Team play in the World Youth Championship.

After getting off the plane, Zeng Zheng took a deep breath of air.

“It feels quite similar to Kunming here.”

"That's right, Mr. Zeng." Han Tao read while holding a travel guide. "It's quite warm at more than 20 degrees during the day, but it gets cold at night. The temperature difference between morning and evening is a bit big."

"It is precisely because the climate here is similar to that of Kunming that the Chinese youth team's previous training location was placed in Kunming."

Before Zeng Zheng arrived, the staff of the Chinese Youth Team had already negotiated a training venue with the amateur team of the local tax bureau.

The turf of the training ground is well maintained, and Zeng Zheng praised it after stepping on it a few times.

Zeng Zheng went to Argentina this time as an individual tourist and did not inform the authorities.

So when Zeng Zheng was mixed in with the crowd watching the training match of the China Youth Team, these young players from the China Youth Team had no idea that Zeng Zheng was watching not far away.

Two days before the main game, Chen Jingang led the team to conduct a public training session in front of the Argentine media.

As the favorite to win this World Youth Championship, a large group of Argentinian local media came.

The last World Youth Championship championship, coupled with the just-won Confederations Cup championship, makes it impossible for teams around the world to ignore the Chinese team.

After watching the Chinese youth players once again demonstrate ordinary return running training in front of everyone, the local media in Argentina were a little disappointed.

They came here not to watch the Chinese youth team members run back, but to spy on the military situation.

Especially the new stars in the team.

These reporters even brought color photos and compared them one by one at the scene.

Like a group of bounty hunters.

But Chen Jingang is quite smart.

What he showed to the media was just the most ordinary training, even for "stars".

Even in front of reporters, Chen Jinggang lectured loudly:

"Don't think you'll become a star just by playing in the World Youth Championship."

"Those achievements in the Confederations Cup are the real stars."

"If any of you perform well, maybe you can be transferred to the national team after the game!"

"Look at Shao Jiayi!"

"He was the MVP of the last World Youth Championship."

"What happened to this Confederations Cup? I scored two goals in the final!"

The team members heard this with excitement.

Winning the Confederations Cup is like a shot in the arm, inspiring these young people to compete in foreign countries.

As in previous years, the host country is the favorite to win the championship.

This time, the Chinese team and the Brazilian team are promoted as the host country's biggest opponents to win the championship.

Especially the Chinese team.

Not to mention the last World Youth Championship champion.

In the previous friendly match with Boca Juniors, they even defeated their opponent by a huge score.

Therefore, local residents also attach great importance to the China Youth Team.

The Aconcagua Hotel where the Chinese Youth Team stayed was located in a troubled area and was extremely noisy.

In order to ensure rest, many team members use cotton to plug their ears when sleeping at night.

In fact, the treatment of teams in other countries is similar.

But the China Youth Team must have received "key care" from local residents.

On June 17, after the opening ceremony of the World Youth Championship, Argentina defeated Finland at home with a score of 2-0.

After the game, Seviola, the star player of this tournament, said a statement that set off the media when being interviewed by reporters:

"...In this cup, Argentina's only opponent is the Chinese team!"

"I will do my best to defeat this powerful opponent..."

Good guy!

You said that the Chinese team is Argentina’s biggest opponent?

What do you think of the Brazilian team next door?

No one knows whether this was a deliberate statement by Seviola, or whether the Chinese team really holds such an important position in his heart.

One stone stirs up a thousand waves.

The popularity of the China Youth Team has once again been pushed to the forefront.

As the referee blew his whistle, the Chinese Youth Team's first match against the United States officially began.

In the 3rd minute of the game, Xu Liang shot a lob from the left sideline, but it was confiscated by the opponent's goalkeeper.

Using the midfield passing and movement control taught by Zeng Zheng, the Chinese youth team gradually took advantage of the midfield, making it impossible for the American team to organize an effective attack.

It wasn't until the 19th minute that Martino made a pass from the left and forced a corner kick.

But this corner kick did not pose any threat to the Chinese Youth Team.

So far, the Chinese Youth Team has made 5 successful attacks and had 3 shots on goal.

The two teams are very competitive in terms of strength.

This American team is also known as the strongest youth team in history.

But it was simply vulnerable to the Chinese Youth Team.

Its strength is not even as good as its opponents in last year's Olympics.

Soon, the Chinese Youth Team scored a goal by relying on its overwhelming tactical advantage.

Through simple continuous passes on the ground, the American team defender was thrown around.

Taking this opportunity, Qu Bo ran out of space.

After receiving a pass from Hu Zhaojun, he easily "passed" the ball into the goal, opening the scoring for the China Youth Team.

After scoring a goal, the Chinese youth team became more and more skilled as they played.

In the 39th and 67th minutes, Xu Liang and Yan Song each scored a goal, getting a good start with a score of 3-0.

On the other side, Ukraine in Group C defeated Chile 4-2.

Judging from the score, this European powerhouse is the biggest opponent of the Chinese Youth Team in the group.

On June 20, the Chinese Youth Team played against Ukraine in the second round of Group C at the Malvinas Stadium.

As a strong Eastern European team, Ukraine was selected for the World Youth Championship as the second place in the European Youth Championship, and its strength should not be underestimated.

Speaking of Ukraine, the first thing all fans think of is the Ukrainian nuclear warhead - Shevchenko.

Sheva has almost reached the peak of his career in Milan this season. His success has also been called the rise of Ukraine's young generation by the media.

"But this season's Serie A champion is still Roma."

Zeng Zheng hugged his shoulders in the stands with some disdain on his face.

In the just-concluded Serie A finale, Roma defeated Parma 3-1. Not only did it not give the chasing Juventus a chance to counterattack, it also won the third title in history after 18 years.

Serie A champion.

After the game, fans rushed into the stadium and stripped Totti of his clothes.

There were even fans who cut up the nets, cut the turf, and took away whatever they could.

For Chinese fans who like Serie A, this season's Serie A season can be said to be full of climaxes and excitement.

Although Roma's victory was unexpected, it was also reasonable.

However, with the help of Roma, Hidetoshi Nakata became the first Asian player to win the Serie A championship.

After seeing the news, Zhang Xiaorui immediately made the decision to accept Juventus' invitation.

While chatting about Serie A, I watched the China Youth Team's game.

After 90 minutes, the two sides shook hands with each other 0-0, as if they had colluded long ago.

Zeng Zheng touched his chin and said, "Old Chen and Old Li play a bit conservatively."

"If we lose the next game, we will be in trouble."

There are a total of 24 participating teams in this World Youth Championship.

While the top two teams from the six groups will qualify, the four third-placed teams with the best results will also qualify.

This can also be understood why after winning a big victory in the first round, neither Ukraine nor the Chinese Youth Team wanted to fight against the strongest opponent in the group.

But the problem is that Ukraine will face the weakest team in the group, the United States, in the third game, while the Chinese youth team will face the powerful South American team Chile.

Although you still have a high chance of qualifying if you lose, you will be very passive in the quarterfinals.

After a brief analysis, Zeng Zheng decided that it would be best to give Chen Jingang and others a warning.