Chapter 1,228 The Battle of Doha (1)

Doha

The capital and largest city of Qatar.

Here, the Chinese team has no good memories. It has no wins against Qatar and has also lost against Saudi Arabia, Iran and South Korea.

On November 9, the Chinese team came to Doha again. This time they faced the West Asian powerhouse Iraq.

At home, due to Gao Xiaodong's absence, the Chinese team lost to Iraq 0:1.

Currently, the Chinese team, Iraq and Jordan all have three wins and one loss.

There is no suspense in this round between Jordan and Singapore. It is almost 100% sure to get three points.

In this way, the showdown between the Iraqi and Chinese teams has become a key battle for who advances from the group.

Due to the civil war in Iraq, Iraq had to play the Chinese team in Doha, a neutral country in Qatar. Before the game, this was seen as weakening Iraq's advantage. However, it turned out that this was just a beautiful fantasy of the Chinese.

Previously, the Chinese national team sent staff to Doha and booked the Al Arabi Stadium training ground for daily training. However, after the team arrived, the stadium suddenly informed the Chinese team that they could not use the Al Arabi Stadium. The Iraqi side obtained the consent of the Qatar Football Association and obtained the right to use this training ground.

The Chinese national team's protest was ineffective and they had to change the training to the Technical Committee Stadium. The Technical Committee Stadium is far away from the Sheraton Hotel where the national football team is staying, and the quality of the turf is also poor, which has a certain negative impact on the Chinese national team's training.

The Chinese team is not worried about just unfair treatment at the training ground. What they are worried about is the refereeing issue. The AFC is basically controlled by West Asians. Not to mention the Chinese team, even Japan and South Korea are often treated unfairly.

If the referee blows the home whistle, the Chinese team will be very dangerous in this game.

Gao Xiaodong's return will definitely greatly improve the strength of the Chinese team, but it is difficult to say whether it can offset the referee's unfair penalties.

The Chinese people are not paranoid about being persecuted. The poor performance of the Chinese team is certainly due to their own incompetence, but it is not uncommon for them to be unfairly treated by referees in key games.

At 22:15 on November 11, the fourth round of Group A of the top 20 Asian qualifiers for the Brazilian World Cup kicked off. The Chinese team challenged the Iraqi team at the Al Arabi Stadium in Doha.

The Iraqi team's starting lineup basically copies the starting lineup that Shenzhen defeated the Chinese team in the last round away game: 12-Kasder; 19-Hashim, 15-Hussein, 14-Shaqir, 16-Saeed; 4-Mu Neil, 20-Khalid; 17-Abduzhahir, 5-Akram, 9-Karim; 10-Younis.

The Chinese team's starting lineup changed a lot compared to the home game against Iraq. It was very similar to the game against Jordan, except that center back Li Feng was replaced by Du Wei.

Goalkeeper 22-Yang Zhi; the four defenders are 3-Sun Xiang, 4-Du Wei, 6-Feng Xiao, 13-Liu Jian; the four midfielders: 7-Zhao Xu, 16-Huang Bowen, 23-Zheng Hua, 10 -Gao Xiaodong; forwards: 11-Qu Bo, 9-Yang Xu.

The referee of this game, Green, is from Australia and is only 31 years old.

Green only became an international referee five years ago. In the 2009 Asian Cup qualifiers, the Hong Kong team played against the Japanese team at home, which was Green's first time to officiate an international A-level event.

Green's officiating game is relatively loose. In the 57 games he officiated, Green showed a total of 166 yellow cards, including 68 for the home team and 98 for the away team; 6 red cards, all for the away team; and 10 penalty kicks. Give 6 to the home team and 4 to the away team.

Judging from this data, Green's law enforcement is fairly fair and is not particularly unfriendly to the visiting team.

The first to kick off was the visiting team Hua Guo.

Yang Xu passed Qu Bo back to Gao Xiaodong, and the Iraqi player quickly passed through the center circle to press.

Before the game, the Iraqi players and coaches stated that they would not seek a single point, but three points. The Iraqi team would never be conservative and seek a peace.

Judging from the momentum of Iraq at the beginning, they really hope to win the Chinese team in Doha and take the initiative to qualify.

Facing forward Younis' fierce pressing, Gao Xiaodong did not pass back. When Younis rushed less than three meters in front of him, Gao Xiaodong suddenly dunked the ball horizontally.

Younis did not expect that Gao Xiaodong would not pass the ball back. His speed did not slow down and he was ready to directly attack the Chinese team's center back. Gao Xiaodong's dunk shook Younis so much that he almost fell to the ground.

There were many players in Iraq pressing across the midline. Just as Younis was passed by, Karim rushed over again.

Gao Xiaodong made a move to pass the ball horizontally, then dunked the ball again and shook Karim over.

Gao Xiaodong took advantage of the Iraqi players' misjudgment and used two identical moves to get past the press of two players. This wonderful performance made the Chinese fans who traveled thousands of miles very excited. They all applauded and shouted: Gao Xiaodong did a great job!

However, He Hui, the commentator of Huaguo, did not agree with Gao Xiaodong's dribble in his own half. "Xiaodong's dribble is very beautiful, but it is unnecessary. It does not pose a threat if he is intercepted. If he is intercepted, the defense will It’s in danger.”

Of course what He Hui said made sense, but he didn't understand Gao Xiaodong's thoughts.

Gao Xiaodong knew that the Huaguo team was failing in key matches. He hoped to use his actions to boost the confidence of his teammates and get the game off to a good start, so he made a pass at the beginning.

This is why Gao Xiaodong is so brave. He is not worried that these second-rate players from Iraq can steal his ball. Even if they do, the three lines of the Chinese team are there, and he can return to defense, but Iraq will not be able to create any. What a threat.

Gao Xiaodong's two dribbles really inspired the players of the Chinese team. Seeing Gao Xiaodong dribbling the ball across the center circle, the players of the Chinese team quickly moved forward to meet Gao Xiaodong.

Iraq's forward pressing was blocked. When he saw Gao Xiaodong crossing the center circle, he immediately moved closer to Gao Xiaodong and surrounded Gao Xiaodong from three sides.

At this moment, Zheng Hua was also in the middle. It was a safe choice for Gao Xiaodong to pass the ball back to him and then run. However, Gao Xiaodong did not pass the ball to Zheng Hua. Instead, he split the ball in the gap and passed it to Qu. Wave.

This is a very unexpected pass. The passing line is too small and it is easy to be intercepted. But as long as it is passed, it is a good ball because the full midfielder is surrounding Gao Xiaodong.

After Qu Bo got the ball, he quickly walked along the wing to the baseline.

Iraq's bald left-back Abbas was suspended due to a red card, and his replacement was substitute full-back Hashim.

Qu Bo pulled the ball to the right, thinking that Iraq's left back might be Iraq's weak link.

At the beginning of the game, Hashim was forced to accept a one-on-one challenge from the opponent's forward before he got into the state, which made Hashim a little nervous.

Seeing Qu Bo's speed at the bottom, Hashim quickly retreated to prevent Qu Bo from using his speed to overwhelm him.

Qu Bo's speed has slowed down as he gets older, but he is more experienced. Seeing Hashim retreat, he dribbled the ball to the side of the penalty area and passed the curved ball directly to the penalty area.

Qu Bo made a good pass, but the forward players of the Huaguo team had not caught up. Only forward Yang Xu was outflanking the penalty area. The opponent's two central defenders blocked the ball and grabbed the point, and cleared the ball. restricted superstar