Chapter 13 The Group Is the Strongest

The match between South Korea and Russia was the last game of the first round of the group stage.

After the game, the second round of the group stage will follow.

Group A teams are back on stage.

This time the host will face Mexico. As long as the Brazilian team can defeat Mexico, they will have the right to qualify from the group in advance after having won two consecutive games.

However, amidst the cheers of Brazilian fans, the Brazilian team, which is famous for its offense, collectively misfired. After 90 minutes of fighting, the two teams ended up tied 0:0, with no one scoring a goal!

The two teams are tied on four points, but Brazil tops the group on goal difference, followed by Mexico.

The other match in this group, between Croatia and Cameroon, will have to wait until the afternoon of the next day, so it is not yet clear what the final qualifying situation of this group will be like.

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On June 18, the first match of the day was between the Chinese team and the Dutch team.

The game time is one o'clock in the afternoon local time in Brazil. Although it is winter in the southern hemisphere at this time, for Brazil, which is located on the equator, there is no difference whether it is winter or summer. The sun at noon is still very bright.

This makes fans of the Chinese team even more worried about how the team can perform.

In the home team's locker room at Bellario Stadium, the Chinese team players are making final preparations.

In this game, the Chinese team got the home team draw. It stands to reason that the Chinese team's home jersey is actually a white one, so the Chinese team should wear a white jersey to face the Dutch team. The Dutch team's home jersey is orange, which does not conflict with the colors and can be easily distinguished.

But there was a vote within the Chinese team because everyone was not satisfied with the white jersey. In superstitious terms, it was like mourning clothes and was too unlucky. Everyone hates this white home jersey sponsored by Adidas.

Zhou Yi is also someone who dislikes white jerseys, but his dislike of white jerseys started when he was a fan. At that time, the Chinese team's home jersey was white.

He never understood that our national flag is red and our people’s favorite color is red. Why is the home color of our national team’s jersey white? White is synonymous with "mourning clothes" in most places in China. Only during funerals can you see large areas of white...

He always thought that the red one was the home jersey.

Later I found out that he had made a mistake, white was the color!

He prefers the red Chinese team jersey to white.

There are many people in the national team who think the same way as him. As a result of that vote, the vast majority of people wanted red to replace white as the home jersey color.

In the last game against Chile, the Chinese team won the visiting team's lottery. If according to Adidas's regulations on the Chinese team's jerseys, white is the color of the home jersey and red is the color of the away jersey, then the Chinese team should wear red. As a result, the Chilean home jersey that won the home team's lottery draw was red. Of course, Chile chose red as their representative color - their national flag also has red. So in order to avoid color contrast, the Chinese team can only wear white jerseys.

As a result, the game that should be won was not won...

So this time, even though the Chinese team won the home team lottery, they still chose to pass on the red "away jersey".

As a result, the Dutch team had to give up their favorite orange jersey and wear a white one.

Now, the Chinese team players wearing red jerseys are in the locker room, listening to coach Lippi: "The Dutch team is very strong, there is no doubt about it. It can be said that they are the strongest team in this group. But but This is not a reason for us to admit defeat. If we want to qualify, we must not lose this game. For us, this is a battle of survival. If we lose, we will die. The situation is very critical, but I heard there is a saying in China It’s called ‘put yourself to death and live again’, and I think there’s no time more appropriate to use this phrase than at this time.”

"Let the Dutch team see our belief!"

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In this game, Lippi made one adjustment to the Chinese team's starting lineup, which was to replace center Gao Lin, who started the previous game, and replace him with Wu Lei.

Then let He Ying go to the middle, with Yan Min and Wu Lei on the left and right.

This is a typical counterattack lineup. He Ying, Yan Min and Wu Lei all have speed and have certain individual combat capabilities.

In addition, He Ying is also a very versatile forward. He can also serve as an offensive fulcrum in the frontcourt.

For the Netherlands, Van Gaal maintained the same starting lineup as the previous 5:1 victory over Spain and did not make any adjustments.

The Dutch team performed really well in the game against Spain. As the team's head coach, Van Gaal had no reason to make any adjustments to such a smooth-running lineup.

When winning, adjustments are not necessary.

This Dutch team is in great shape and they are confident of sweeping any opponent that stands in their way. Whether it's Spain or... the Chinese team.

This Chinese team does have some players who have performed well in the European leagues, but the most important Zhou Yi is not there. In fact, in the eyes of the Dutch team, the threat level of the Chinese team has dropped a lot.

Before the game, Van Gaal carefully studied the video of the match between the Chinese team and the Chilean team, especially the first fifteen minutes, to see how the Chilean team led the Chinese team by two goals in a short period of time.

He believes this has reference significance for his team.

Of course, the Chinese team came back in the end, but Van Gaal believed that it was because of the Chilean team's own problems. They made mistakes. In addition, the Chilean team's strength did not have an advantage over the Chinese team. The two teams were equally powerful. , then it is normal and fair to end up in a tie.

The Netherlands is not Chile. Once the Dutch team takes a two-goal lead, it is absolutely impossible for the Chinese team to equalize.

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After the game started, the Dutch team did launch a fierce attack on the Chinese team's goal. Their goal was very clear, which was to use their speed to break down the Chinese team's defense at the beginning of the game, catch the Chinese team by surprise, and then try to win in a short time. Leading by two goals. Just like Chile.

And then the game never went the way it did in Chile.

Five minutes into the game, the Chinese team controlled the ball in the midfield. Yang Hao was hesitant when he took the ball. He should have passed it forward, but he didn't know who to pass it to and was immediately passed by De Jong.

De Jong's reputation is well-known. Yang Hao was a little shaken and quickly turned around to protect the football. As a result, just as he turned around, Sneijder pressed forward again.

These Yang Hao couldn't care about anything else and could only pass the football back in a hurry!

However, because the return pass was too hasty, Zheng Zhi did not receive the ball, and Yang Hao missed the pass. Instead, Robben behind Zheng Zhi intercepted the ball!

Robben, who intercepted the ball, turned around and kicked the football forward hard!

Then he started to accelerate and relied on his own speed to forcefully break through the Chinese team center back Feng Xiaoting in front of him.

Although he was still some distance away from Feng Xiaoting, his speed was so fast that he came first and caught the football on the line of the penalty area.

"Robben - dangerous!" He Ping exclaimed.

However, during this process, Feng Xiaoting did not give up. He was also sprinting with all his strength, forcing Robben.

In his hot pursuit, although Robben received the ball, he did not completely get rid of him.

So when Robben got the ball on the line of the penalty area, he found that Feng Xiaoting had chased him back!

This was somewhat unexpected.

Maybe I was shocked by this accident,

Next, Robben made a mistake when handling the ball again. He threw the football out, but when he was about to speed up, his foot went weak and he did not kick off...

Feng Xiaoting quickly protected the football and gave it to Sun Pan who came out.

A false alarm.

"It's so dangerous, so dangerous... Robben's foot was weak at the last moment, otherwise this ball would be really dangerous... The Chinese team should be careful, we can't make such mistakes again in the midfield return pass..." Commentary on the Chinese team's game. There was a new person, He Ping, who usually commentates on La Liga and the Champions League.

His partner is Gong Lei, a domestic football commentator and coach.

"Yang Hao is too sticky when handling the ball. He should know his position. He is not an organizer. He must be decisive in handling the ball. Just give the ball to his teammates around him. Don't think about sending a fatal pass with one kick... Later The best is to handle the waist cleanly..." Gong Lei also criticized Yang Hao's way of handling football just now.

"Fortunately, Feng Xiaoting did not give up on the defense of this ball. Although Robben was thrown away by speed, he still pursued him and finally caught up in the penalty area..."

"Actually, Feng Xiaoting's speed is not slow. He is one of the few domestic central defenders with excellent sprint speed." Gong Lei is the head coach of a Chinese Super League team. He certainly understands the situation of players playing in China. "Lippi must have also strengthened the team's defensive requirements, and the defensive players' attention was obviously focused. The ball just now was an accident, but Feng Xiaoting's reaction was also very fast. Our bottom line in this game is that we cannot lose. So defense is very important..."

Robben, who missed this opportunity, laughed helplessly in the close-up shot.

The commentator on Dutch TV couldn't understand why Robben's legs went weak at the most critical moment...

"...But it doesn't matter, the game has only started five minutes, we still have plenty of opportunities!"

In the end, he gave confidence to the Dutch fans in front of the TV.

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