Chapter 270 Playing a Big Role?

The players from both sides finished their warm-up and returned to their respective locker rooms. The time for the start of the game was getting closer and closer, and there was not much time left for the two teams to make final adjustments. ┡　E┡『『Ω novelＷｗΔＷ. 1XIAOSHUO． COM

Although this game is not related to qualifying or not, it is related to the dignity of the two teams.

Especially the Chinese team. They just got the right to qualify. If they lose to their archrival Japan at home, wouldn't it be too off-putting?

This game is tantamount to the Chinese team's qualifying celebration. How can they allow Japan to cause trouble?

In the Chinese team's locker room, the returning international players were wiping the sweat from their bodies with towels and then changing into dry jerseys. The shin guards were stuffed into the shoes and socks, the shoelaces were untied and retied, and everyone was inspecting them carefully.

Like soldiers checking their weapons before going out into battle.

After Gao Hongbo came in, he was not in a hurry to speak. Instead, he stood in the corner of the door and quietly watched the players do their thing.

It wasn't until everyone was almost ready that he spoke: "Actually, I originally planned to compete with the Japanese team at home for qualifying rights, but the plan couldn't keep up with the changes, and there's no need for it now." He said with a smile.

"It's a good thing, now you can put down some baggage and enjoy more pure football."

He did not emphasize the significance of the Sino-Japanese football match. He was worried that it would make the players nervous and lead to abnormal performance.

He was not worried that his actions would make the Chinese team players careless. The Chinese people will not take the competition between China and Japan lightly, no matter what the sport is, and the same goes for football. When the strength was not good before, the matches between China and Japan attracted much attention, not to mention that the strength of the Chinese team has improved now.

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On the other side, Italian Zaccheroni was passing his instructions to the Japanese players in the locker room through a translator.

"I read the reports in Japan, and some people think this is a revenge game. But I think you are too nervous, relax a little. We have already qualified, just treat it as a warm-up match before the World Cup."

The Italian said it easily, with a smile on his face.

He uses his expressions and words to infect the players, asking them to relax and not be too nervous.

Although outside,

Everyone believed that this game was very important and critical, but the head coaches of the two teams unanimously chose to give their final instructions by cooling down the team.

In this regard, the head coaches of the two teams have a consensus - they are not afraid of not paying enough attention to their players, they are afraid of paying too much attention.

Paying too much attention will lead to nervousness, and if you are nervous, you will not be able to perform at a normal level, which may lead to losing.

Although the coaches of both teams seemed indifferent, neither one wanted to lose to the other.

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In the south stand of Helong Stadium, a huge TIFo has been displayed. On the huge picture, a winding road extends from the lower left corner to the upper right corner, and beside this road are some pictures. These pictures are all related to the Chinese team. If you look carefully, you can see that they are all pictures of the national team's games in the top ten, expressed in a hand-painted way.

The shot of the road is the statue of Jesus on Mount Jesus, a landmark building in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Below the frame is a sentence: "Brazil, we are coming!"

After this TIFo appeared in the stands, it attracted almost everyone's attention. The director of the live game ordered the camera to focus on the TIFo. In today's domestic competitions, such a huge TIFo rarely appears. In line with the enthusiasm of Chinese fans , this is really a wonderful picture.

But the enthusiasm of Changsha fans is not limited to this.

When players from both sides came on the field, there was thunderous cheers.

Chinese players have also noticed TIFo. It is so big that it is impossible not to notice it.

Under everyone's attention, something shook at the top of the stands, and then with cheers, a five-star red flag the same size as TIFo poured down from the top like a waterfall, slowly unfolded, covering TIFo.

Supported by the fans, this huge flag undulated in the south stand, as if the wind was really blowing it.

Seeing the national flag fully appearing in front of everyone, the scene erupted with cheers like a mountain roaring and a tsunami.

Duan Xin, who was commentating on the game at the scene, also said excitedly: "It's really amazing! Changsha fans use such a creative way to cheer for the Chinese team!"

Later, when the players from both sides stood still and the national anthem was played, the flag was "flying" in the stands.

All fans stood in front of their seats and sang the national anthem, as did the national team players on the court.

After the national anthem was sung, the national flag slowly folded down.

When the Japanese national anthem played later, there were sporadic boos in the stands, but overall, the Chinese fans still gave their opponent full respect.

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Next, the two sides shook hands. When Zhou Yi and Shinji Kagawa shook hands, the two patted each other's arms and shoulders.

Yang Muge and Uchida Atsuto said two more words when shaking hands - they are both players who played for Schalke O4, they are teammates, and they are familiar with each other.

After the handshake, there were procedures such as exchanging team flags, choosing sides...China won the right to choose sides, so Japan got the right to kick off.

Players from both sides have stood in their respective positions and the game is about to begin.

The Helong Stadium, which had been very noisy before, suddenly became quiet, so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

In this silence, the referee's whistle was particularly clear.

"Ah, the game begins!"

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The Japanese team took advantage of the kick-off opportunity to keep possession of the ball on their own side and were in no rush to attack forward.

They are playing away from home. Although they want to win, they must also pay attention to methods. You can't just rush in and attack and win, right? The spirit of Bushido is not used in this kind of place...

In the tactics Zaccheroni arranged for them, the Japanese team must first slow down the rhythm of the game and not let the game fall into the rhythm that the Chinese team hopes and wants. He imagined that the Chinese team must be eager to win at their home court, so they will find ways to speed up the game after the start, which is in line with their definition of playing at home.

If the Japanese team is confident in its own strength and attacks the Chinese team, it might fall into the opponent's rhythm.

In that case, it would be equivalent to being led by the nose by the Chinese team.

Zaccheroni certainly wanted to avoid this situation.

So he asked the team to slow down the game and use slowness to counter the Chinese team's speed.

It would be even better if we could attract the Chinese team out and play behind them.

The Japanese team's midfield has always been very strong. In this regard, Japan is also confident.

They were dealing with the Chinese team in the midfield.

The Chinese team did show a strong fighting spirit at the beginning of the game. When the Japanese team fell in the backcourt, they rushed forward to put pressure.

Logically speaking, at this time, the Japanese team should engage in defensive counterattacks, right?

But it's not that simple.

Because the Chinese team's frantic grabbing in the frontcourt clearly exceeded the Japanese team's expectations - the Chinese team's players were like a group of mad dogs, running tirelessly on the court, and sometimes two people even grabbed one person.

This caught the Japanese team by surprise, and they did not expect the Chinese team’s pressing intensity to be so intense...

Starting from He Ying, the forward at the front, they are all running, from point a to point B, from point B to point c, or back to point a.

The only exception was Zhou Yi, who did not run directly towards the Japanese players who had the ball.

Compared with his teammates, he seems not active enough.

This is very strange. Zhou Yi has never been the kind of player with a negative attitude towards the game. When he was in Dortmund, he was someone who would fight until the last second. Of course, there were times when he "walked" on the court in Dortmund, but those were times when he reached a physical bottleneck in a game. He was saving energy for the final sprint. This was not a negative game or laziness.

And now? The game has only started for more than a minute. Zhou Yi's physical fitness is far from reaching its bottleneck, right?

Could it be...

A bad word came into someone's head.

"Play big time".

This word is definitely not a compliment.

Of course, with Zhou Yi's status in Dortmund and his achievements in Europe this season, it is absolutely no problem to say that he is the number one star of the Chinese team. He also has the qualifications to be a big star.

But it's still surprising that this happened to Zhou Yi.

Just when everyone was thinking wildly, on the court, the anxious Yasuhito Endo passed the football under his feet in a direction where he thought he could pass the ball.

The stands of He Long Stadium suddenly burst into cheers because the football was passed to... Zhou Yi's feet!