People who are familiar with Xiong Jian have always compared him with Lin Feng, because the characteristics of these two are too similar, they are both midfielders, they can also play both right and middle positions, and they also rely on non-stop running and passing to organize attacks on the field, and they also spare no effort to participate in defense.

It can be said that in addition to Lin Feng's stronger organizational ability and his long-range shooting skills, Xiong Jian is almost the same as him, of course, in defense, Xiong Jian is more ferocious.

The difference between the two of them is also clear in terms of their potential value and ability value: Lin Feng is 83/83, and Xiong Jian is 77/78, the difference is not big.

After Lin Feng left the team, Zhang Sheng also thought about using Xiong Jian to replace Lin Feng's position to play the B2B midfielder, but Xiong Jian had several places that made Zhang Sheng finally give up his plan, one is that Xiong Jian's running consciousness and passing ability are different from Lin Feng, and the other is that Xiong Jian's physical fitness is not as good as Lin Feng, unlike Lin Feng, who can at least ensure that under the confrontation at the AFC Champions League level, he can still play the whole game at both ends.

In view of this, Zhang Sheng made a plan for Xiong Jian in the game, that is, let him participate more in defense, and only give him more than 70 minutes of high-intensity game time, so that he can take out all his abilities.

This time, it was Zhang Sheng's regulations that had an effect.

In the eighth minute of the first half, Xiong Jian, who had not stopped running up and down and sprinting from the beginning, put great pressure on the left side of Urawa Red Diamonds, and as an important means of attack for Urawa Red Diamonds, the threat of an assist from left central defender Tomoaki Makino was eaten to death by Xiong Jian on the right side.

This time it was Makino Tomozhang who inserted the assist, and was cut off by Xiang Tiange and Xiong Jian, and Xiong Jian's reaction was the same as Lin Feng before, after getting the ball, he quickly passed the ball to Tao Wentao, who was receiving the ball with his back, and the latter handed it to Xiong Jian with a non-stop oblique knock, Xiong Jian directly distributed the ball to Xiang Tiange, who had just joined forces with himself to break the ball and quickly plugged in the attack.

Xiang Tiange saw Zou Weijia in the center of the penalty area running and beckoning, and crossed directly at the edge of the penalty area, at this time, because Makino Tomozhang had not returned to the defense in place, the back Abe Yuki was completely passed by Tao Wentao and Xiong Jian's two-one, and only Endo Hang was defending Zou Weijia, who was 1.92 meters tall, in the penalty area.

Zou Weijia met the ball with a beautiful header, and the ball flew straight to the top right corner of the goal, but Shusaku Nishikawa showed his strength as a Japanese goalkeeper, and his kicking sideways volley saved the ball off the line.

The gap between Zou Weijia's header and Chavez's previous goal came out.

Originally, according to a more reasonable way of attacking the goal, it should be to shake the head to attack the left side of the goal, because the attack of the Longteng team is concentrated on the right side, and the position of Nishikawa Zhouzuo is also on the right, if you spend more effort when shooting, hit Nishikawa Zhouzuo's backhand, the opponent can't reach the ball no matter how he pounces, and Zou Weijia just chose the right side that Nishikawa Zhouzuo can save, in fact, there is only one player who is much shorter than him in the penalty area to defend Zou Weijia has enough time to think about this problem in the penalty area.

Of course, this has something to do with Zou Weijia's lack of comparative experience, and it is also related to his eagerness to score goals.

Regarding the attack of the Longteng team this time, He Wei was also extremely sorry: "Oops, this ball was actually saved." However, the Longteng team's combination of long and short play is right, and Zou Weijia and Xiong Jian, who started the game, also let us see their strength. ”

"The tactical basis of the Dragons is in the fast passing and the change of tempo, which I have learned from the previous games against them. Gong Lei had a proud expression, "Since the beginning of this season, they have strengthened the pressure and pressing of the whole court, once they practice this skillfully and cooperate with their personnel reserves, it is really a step forward, and the offense just now has such signs." ”

In the next corner kick, Zou Weijia once again showed his heading ability, his height and bounce far exceeded most of the players on the field, but under the interference of the opponent, the top of the ball was deflected.

"Zou Weijia is a strong high school striker, we rarely see it now. He Wei admired his face, "And he is very comprehensive, willing to defend actively in the front court, and runs very frequently, which is very in line with the playing style of a modern center." ”

"If he is more refined in shooting, he will be a big hammer in the national team's forward line, and he will still be very useful when he encounters difficult bones. As a representative of the obscene style of play, Gong Lei, who likes to put a high school striker on the front line, likes Zou Weijia more and more, and even raises him to the tactical level of the national team.

After the end of this wave of attack of the Dragons, the defenders of Urawa Red Diamonds inserted assists to converge a lot, and they made more use of the two wingbacks and the combination between Yosuke Kashiwagi and Tsukasa Umezaki to play the ribs of the Dragons' central defenders, full-backs and wing-backs.

In the system of four backs, the gaps in the ribs are mostly created between the fullbacks and the central defenders, and the gaps naturally caused by the three backs, central defenders, fullbacks, and wingbacks are more difficult to make up, because it involves three people to coordinate, which is far more difficult than two people to coordinate.

Among them, Urawa Red Diamond's Takadai Sekine was particularly active.

Pedlovic is not a manager who likes to promote newcomers by leapfrogging, he is more of a plug-and-play player bought from the J-League team, as for the echelon of talent, most of them are loaned out to hone slowly, and only a very few players can go from the bench to the main team step by step, of course, this is also in line with the practice of the giant club.

The exception is Takadai Sekine, who has taken the out-and-through Urawa Red Diamonds academy player very seriously, having played his first league game at the age of 18 and scoring his first league goal at the age of 19, the player who has the pace, good passing and shooting ability has now become a regular regular for Urawa Red Diamonds, even though he is still a few days away from turning 21.

In this game, Guan Gen Guida as a right winger, did not focus and defend, that is, behind Ben Alpha, Pedlovic also knew that it was not realistic to prevent Ben Alpha, it was better to let Guan Gen Guida and Ben Alpha explode, betting that the Longteng team had to let the left back Qi Ming to help Ben Alpha defend, to open up the space for the Longteng team's midfield defense.

In the fourteenth and twenty-second minutes of the first half, Takadai Sekine attacked the gap behind Ben Alpha, the left winger of the Longteng team, twice in a row, so that Qi Ming had to come over to make up for the defense, and Takadai Sekine gave the ball to Yosuke Kashiwagi in the middle, and let the latter, one of the top ball control organization masters in the J League, organize the attack and play the position of left central defender guarded by Lu Zhihui.

Yuki Muto and Shinzo Ko also got the opportunity to shoot from near the penalty area in succession, but fortunately, Huang Dawei performed very well, saving the ball off the bottom line on both occasions and not giving the opponent a chance to score.

Seeing the situation on the field, He Wei was also a little worried: "Urawa Red Diamonds are attacking a little fiercely, Sekine Guida's speed is too fast, and the Longteng team must be careful of the huge space between the wingers and the fullbacks." ”

However, not only He Wei saw this situation, but Zhang Sheng on the sidelines knew that after discovering this self-harming style of play on the side of Urawa Red Diamonds, Zhang Sheng was still prepared to be safe, and used the tactical adjustments discussed before the game, so that Ma Yongli returned to the center back from the back back, and then Lu Zhihui went to play left wingback, Qi Ming went to play left wingback from the left back, and Ben Alfa simply played winger to get him closer to the opponent's goal.

This adjustment also changed the previous 3-5-2 formation of the Longteng team into a 4-3-3 formation, allowing the two players of Qi Ming and Lu Zhihui to break through and lock up the side of Guan Neguida, and let Ben Alpha have no worries to attack the right side of Urawa Red Diamonds.

In fact, this approach is exactly the same as the opponent of the Dragons in the Club World Cup, Mexico América, bullying Pedlovic is a dead old-fashioned player, clinging to 3-6-1.

Zhang Sheng's side of the formation did get the effect quickly.

In the thirty-first minute of the first half, Sekine Guida did use speed to pass Qi Ming, but he himself was forced to the point that the side was about to go out of the sideline, Lu Zhihui's upper snatch squeezed away the not strong Sekine Guida, and then chose the ball.

Lu Zhihui, who got the ball, sent the ball directly to Ben Arfa on the left winger, who used his beautiful stopping and passing movements to make Ryota Moritaki's defense useless in one go.

After taking the ball, Ben Alpha went directly into the penalty area of Urawa Red Diamonds, and after seeing that he could not shoot directly, he attracted the defensive attention of Endo Hang and handed the ball to Zou Weijia, this time Zou Weijia was much smarter, and did not rush to turn around and shoot, because he knew that Abe Yuki, who came back from the defense, was very experienced and did not have too many opportunities, so he turned directly to the ball without stopping the ball, and handed the ball to Tao Wentao, who had been cruising in front of the big penalty area.

Tao Wentao faced the foot kicked by Yosuke Kashiwagi, and shot with a light horizontal flick, because Tao Wentao shot after a feint, and even Urawa Red Diamond's goalkeeper Shusaku Nishikawa was deceived, and when Tao Wentao shot the goal, he took the action to save.

But on the court, such a move can only be useless, and the ball has long passed his palm and flew directly into the net.

The Dragons took a 0-1 lead away from home.

"The ball went in, and it came to Tao Wentao. He Wei shouted happily, "Beautiful cooperation, the Longteng team should have adjusted the formation just now, and it became a four-back formation, and the effect was really immediate." ”

"Urawa Red Diamonds are a little slow to react. Gong Lei also admires Zhang Sheng's adjustment very much, "But being able to seamlessly switch formations, switch tactics, and play immediately in the game like the Longteng team can only show that the coaches and players of this team have gone through countless training and running-in, which requires too much from the ability of coaches and players, which reminds me of the previous Guangzhou Evergrande and Lippi." ”

At this time, Zhang Sheng was also proud, not relying on the strength of the players in the game, not relying on the replacement of players, relying on tactical adjustments, and relying on the existing resources at hand to defeat the opponent is the most rewarding.

Most of the time, the resources in the coach's own hands are fixed, after all, there are only so many local tyrant clubs, and it is impossible for all clubs to buy you the best players according to your requirements, not to mention the head coach of the national team.

Whether you can use the resources in your hands to achieve good results can best reflect the level of a head coach.

Historically, there are so many people in the Chinese national team, Perrin coached one achievement - almost brought the national team to the ditch; Gao Hongbo coached another achievement - barely qualified from the group and was beaten in the top 12; and when Lippi coached, the results were different - except for Iran, which really can't win, not only for South Korea, all are rubbish.

Zhang Sheng can only say that he is trying to get closer to Lippi.

This goal of the Longteng team forced Urawa Red Diamonds into a corner.

Now the situation in Group H where the Longteng team and Urawa Red Diamonds are located is very complicated, in the first three rounds, except for the Longteng team, which is obviously higher and wins all three games, the other three teams actually played beast chess - all of them won one win and two losses, and each won one game against each other.

Therefore, the game against the Dragons at home is extremely important, and once they lose at home, they are likely to be eliminated from the group.

In such a situation, the pressure on Pedlovic is enormous.

It's been four years since Pedlovic came to Urawa Red Diamonds, but Urawa Red Diamonds are hard to get a crown. With such a big investment every year and such a good football atmosphere, it is not a "good name" of an "uncrowned king" that can prevaricate the past.

The club won't let him spend another year empty-handed, so this season could be his last chance.

In this AFC Champions League grouping, although there is the defending champion of the Longteng team in the group, the other two teams, whether they are Sydney FC or Pohang Steelers, are not strong. Urawa Red Diamonds, as the team with the deepest bench depth in the J-League, can be said to be the minimum requirement to qualify from the group, so there is really a lot of pressure on Pedrovic right now.

With a goal down and an unfavorable situation on the field, Pedlovic broke with his usual tradition and began to be forced to change formations.

In the 39th minute of the first half, Urawa Red Diamonds' usual thunderous back three changed, and the position of Endo Hang, which had always been a defender in the playmaking organization, made a presupposition, and the two wingbacks were properly recycled, and the formation became 4-1-4-1.

Pedlovich's change is exactly the same as the previous change of the Dragons, that is, to use a central defender as a drag back, protect the ribs of the two wings, let Tomoaki Makino stay in the position of central defender honestly, and let Endo Hang participate in the attacking organization.

Zhang Sheng, who was on the sidelines, was very keenly aware of the changes on Urawa Red Diamonds' side, but he still needed time to verify whether this was a temporary strain or a real radical change in tactical play.