Chapter 120: A Surprise Surprise
Cheng Hai, who played a full 90 minutes for the first time, did not disappoint, scoring a total of five goals and three assists with an overhead kick against Singapore, directly creating 8 of Huaguo's 10 goals and giving Huaguo a 10-1 double-digit scoreline.
So far, Cheng Hai's goals in the official match in 2011 have reached a terrifying 91.
After the game, Cheng Hai's five goals in a single game set his annual total goal record to 91 goals caused a sensation around the world again.
Now Cheng Hai can cause a huge sensation in almost every game and continue to be exposed in front of the media.
Perhaps, after he raises his annual total goals to 100 goals, the FIFA Golden Ball Award at the end of the year may really be able to wrestle with Messi!
After playing the match against Singapore, the Chinese team flew to Jordan to prepare for the second round of the away group stage.
After beating Barcelona to win the UEFA Super Cup and setting a record for total goals of the year, Cheng Hai's influence in Asia has exceeded his own expectations, Chinese media and fans.
In Amman, the capital of Jordan, Cheng Hai saw many fans or children wearing the Dortmund No. 9 jersey or with Cheng Hai's face printed on the clothes.
At the pre-match press conference, the Jordanian head coach and team captain were also very low-key, claiming that Cheng Hai is the No. 1 superstar in Asia and the Huaguo team is the No. 1 team in Asia.
However, what Cheng Hai and the Huaguo team did not know was that the Jordan Football Association offered the team a high appearance fee, winning awards, draw awards, goal awards, assist awards, key defense awards, goalkeeper save awards and other bonuses before the game.
As a Middle Eastern country, Jordan is also very wealthy, and it has this capital to give high bonuses to the players.
Since 1993, the Jordanian team has played a total of 8 times against the Chinese national team, and the Jordanian team's record is 3 draws, 5 losses, and no wins.
Speaking of which, Jordan has been invincible against China for 18 years, and the word "Sinophobia" may have appeared in some people's minds.
So this time the World Preliminary Tournament faced the Huaguo team at home, the Jordanian team didn't dare to say that they wanted to win the Huaguo team, and they didn't even dare to think about a draw, but in fact, they were holding back a lot of energy in their hearts and wanted to use huge bonuses to stimulate the players to fight bravely and beat Huaguo.
Of course, they also know that this is difficult, otherwise there is no need to offer a very high bonus, and the types of bonuses are also very detailed, and even the key defense has a separate bonus, just to let the midfielders and backfielders actively defend Cheng Hai.
Cheng Hai and his teammates and coaches were deceived by what they saw when they arrived in Amman, as well as the statements made by the Jordanian coach and captain in their pre-match press conference.
Of course, more importantly, the 10-1 against Singapore in the last game really gave the team too much confidence, and everyone inevitably had the mentality of being invincible in Asia.
On the day of the game, the weather was also very unfavorable for the Chinese team.
In the last game in Chuncheng City, Caiyun Province, Huaguo, the weather was very comfortable and very suitable for kicking.
As a result, the game was changed to the Middle East, and the sun was shining brightly that day, and the temperature was as high as more than 30 degrees. Even though the game was played at 19:00 in the evening, it was not yet dark.
After a day of exposure, the temperature did not drop much in the evening, it was still very hot, but there was no direct sunlight.
The half-hour warm-up before the game already made everyone sweat.
As natives, the players of the Jordanian team feel okay, not as uncomfortable as the players of the Chinese team.
During the warm-up before the game, a large number of Jordanian fans in the stands held up portraits of Cheng Hai and shouted Cheng Hai's name, which also made Cheng Hai and his teammates feel a little cordial, as if Jordanian fans also supported them.
Every time Cheng Hai waved his hand to greet the stands, he could cause the Jordanian fans to cheer.
However, when at 19:00 on the evening of September 6, with the referee's whistle, the 2014 Brazil World Cup Asian Qualifiers Jordan VS Chinese team officially began, those Jordanian fans who shouted Cheng Hai's name all stopped shouting, and the portrait of Cheng Hai was also put down and replaced with Jordanian flags or slogans.
The Jordanians abandoned Cheng Hai and began to cheer on their own team, and some people could even be heard booing when Cheng Hai took the ball.
Cheng Hai patted his head and smiled bitterly: People just like him, but when it comes to the national team competition, how can people support him in turn to lead the Chinese team to defeat Jordan?
I'm a little self-righteous.
In the game, Cheng Hai and his teammates found that the Jordanian team was completely different from what they said before the game, they didn't dare to win, and they didn't even dare to think about a draw.
During the game, the Jordanian players were very tough.
Jordan is a West Asian man, tall and strong, much taller than the players in Singapore. Except for a few people such as Cheng Hai and Zheng Zhi, the physical fitness of the other team members is not as good as that of Jordanians.
In addition, Jordanians dare to fight under the stimulation of bonuses, and many half-to-half fighting opportunities have been robbed by Jordanians.
Even when Cheng Hai got the ball, knowing that his physique was difficult for Europeans to behold, the other party dared to rush up and fight with him.
One person may not be able to grab Cheng Hai, but if there are two or three people, Cheng Hai will lose the ball most of the time.
Coupled with the weather, stadium and other away disadvantages, the Huaguo team did not score in the opening 20 minutes.
Cheng Hai naturally has desperate breakthroughs, assists, and shots.
But as mentioned earlier, the Jordanians' defensive strength is much higher than that of the Singaporeans, and even Cheng Hai is difficult to break through smoothly in the face of the two or three people who rush up to the other side every time.
If he was a diver, he could take advantage of the situation to fall down and deceive the opponent's fouls and free kicks, but Cheng Hai is not that kind of person.
Therefore, Cheng Hai's breakthrough and shooting were not smooth. There was only one dangerous shot in the first 20 minutes, and it was also played at a slightly correct angle due to the interference of the opposition defender, which was saved by goalkeeper Shafi.
As for assists, some teammates were able to run out of the gap to receive his pass and shoot, but their teammates' shooting skills were too far worse than Cheng Hai's.
Coupled with the opponent's active scrambling and their own overall form, the teammates had two shots on goal in the first 20 minutes, but neither of them hit the frame of the goal and missed the post.
On the contrary, in the 22nd minute, the Jordan team used a strong forward press to force the Chinese team to make a passing error in the backfield, and Ahmad broke the ball and assisted Alah Dib to score.
The Jordanian team scored the first goal in the contest with the Asian champion Huaguo, and tens of thousands of Jordanian fans throughout the Harman International Stadium immediately burst into earth-shattering applause and cheers.
The more famous Cheng Hai became, the more excited they were to score a goal ahead of the Huaguo team.
The faces of the players of the Huaguo team are a little unsightly.
Before the game, everyone didn't expect this game to be so tough.
Because Jordan is ranked 92nd in the world, which is a little better than Singapore, but it is also only a limited good.
Unexpectedly, from home to away, from East Asia to the Middle East, the opponent's performance will be so different, and what is even more unacceptable is that Cheng Haidu has not scored yet, and the Jordan team actually took the lead in scoring and led the Huaguo team.
This goal boosted the morale of the Jordan team at the same time, but also made the Chinese team feel tormented.
In the next game, the players of the Huaguo team became more impatient and began to want to form a counterattack through technical advantages.
But the Jordanians don't know how long they have been practicing against the Chinese team, whether it is against Cheng Hai or other players of the Chinese team, the Jordanian team has defended extremely tightly.
Moreover, after scoring the first goal, they were more confident and played better, making it more difficult for the Chinese team to score in the penalty area and form a goal.
Of course, there is a common practice around the world when it comes to breaking dense defences, and that is to strengthen long-range shots from outside the penalty area.
And Cheng Hai happens to have full value of archery and shooting power, which is enough to hit a long shot with enough power, fast speed, and awkward angle.
For the rest of the first half, Cheng Hai hit five long-range shots from outside the box.
But what is surprising is that Cheng Hai's five powerful long-range shots did not form a goal, which has never happened in Cheng Hai's games so far.
In addition to two shots that were interfered with by the opposing defenders and missed the goal frame, the other three shots that hit the goal frame were all saved by Jordanian goalkeeper Shafi as if possessed by a goal god.
In addition, Huang Bowen, Yu Hai, and Zheng Zhi each had a shot on goal, but none of them scored.
The Huaguo team, which bombarded the Jordanian team for 45 minutes in the half, not only did not score, but was scored by the opponent, and the Huaguo team, which has Cheng Hai, the world's top striker, fell behind 0-1 at the end of the first half to the Jordan team, an Asian third-rate team that has not lost in 18 years.
This is a rare big upset.
Although the game is not over yet, the Huaguo team definitely has the strength to reverse the tables, but the score in the first half alone is enough to be regarded as a super upset.
Therefore, at the end of the first half, the players, coaches, fans, journalists, commentators, etc., of the Jordanian team were quite excited.
On the Huaguo team's side, the face is like ashes. Even the most confident Cheng Hai is depressed in the face of this situation where he can't score in 45 minutes.
Today is not only the reason why the Huaguo team is not in good shape and the opponent is hard enough, but Cheng Hai feels that his luck is not very good.
Some balls can usually form a breakthrough or shoot opportunity, but there is always an inexplicable deviation, which is a little bit worse.
At halftime, after Cheng Hai fell asleep, Gao Hongbo reprimanded the other players of the Chinese national team.
This is Gao Hongbo's rare anger.
Because of qualifications and the lack of support from the Football Association, Gao Hongbo's voice and prestige within the national football team may not even be as good as Zheng Zhi, Li Weifeng and other old players.
Therefore, he rarely puts on a face to the players, and communicates with good words.
As a result, today's situation made Gao Hongbo, who has always been good-tempered, angry, and reprimanded the other ten starters other than Cheng Hai, and reprimanded everyone so much that they couldn't raise their heads.