Chapter 30: The Opening Match

Robert. Baggio, Romario, Maldini, Batistuta, Rui. Costa, Effenberg, Laudrup Jr., Ortega, Redondo, Alain. Shearer......

This will be their last World Cup match.

After this World Cup, even if they don't retire, at least they won't have a chance with the national team.

There are talents from generation to generation, and a generation of new people replaces old people.

New stars are coming on one by one, and the old players will slowly fade out of people's sight, and in the future, needless to say, in ten years, how many players will new fans remember this generation of players?

Perhaps, there are only top players such as Ling Feng, Ronaldo, Zidane, etc., just like the fans of our generation, how many can remember that ten or twenty years ago, in addition to famous stars such as Beckenbauer, Zico, and Platini?

The top superstar who cannot participate in the World Cup and is recognized by fans is none other than Stefano.

So the World Cup has become a stage for players to make a name for themselves!

Finally, it was June 7th.

At 18 o'clock Beijing time, at the Beijing Workers Stadium, the opening ceremony of the 17th World Cup finally kicked off!

Due to the lack of symbolic flames, the opening ceremony of the World Cup was much more shabby than the Olympic Games, but fortunately, China has been preparing for this World Cup for a long time, and the program has already been arranged by special personnel.

At the beginning of the opening match, a giant dragon appeared out of thin air in the field, showing a majestic figure in a cloud of mist.

Suddenly, the whole body was shocked, and the gringos looked at the hovering dragon in the venue one by one, and the artificially created clouds and mist were like a fairyland.

The mysterious oriental characteristics are the key to the opening match of this World Cup.

Hundreds of people in ancient costumes, each kicking a very strange-looking leather ball, walked into the stadium, and the juggling performance dazzled people - these players are the elite of various football schools, and the meaning of the expression is that the birthplace of football is in China, the former Keju.

The artificially created fog gave people a hazy fairyland beauty at this time, and the production staff put a lot of effort into this fog.

After all, it's a big stadium!

It's not an ordinary stage, and the fog can't be too thick, which will make fans can't see clearly, and it will affect the next game, so how to form such a fog wonderland in such a large stadium is a very troublesome problem.

Ling Feng didn't know how to solve this problem in the end, anyway, it was solved, this smoke was very even, and it would completely volatilize within twenty minutes, and it would not affect the clarity of the next game.

Next is the beauties in Hanfu palace costumes, with long sleeves fluttering, clothes and ribbons flying, in this fairyland-like atmosphere, as if they are immortals......

The opening ceremony of the World Cup passed quickly in half an hour, billions of foreigners are still immersed in it, the mysterious and ancient oriental culture, has always been praised as a myth and legend by the West, and now seeing this scene with my own eyes, how can the excitement in my heart be described in words?

The next thing is to sing the theme song and announce the start of the World Cup.

Although the opening ceremony is grand, but it is very short, after all, it is different from the Olympic Games, the fans are to see the game, not to see the cultural performance, the Olympic Games because of the many competitions, and the World Cup has won the recognition of the fans with its single-mindedness, so just this one event, the income of the entire event is even higher than the Olympic Games!

You must know that the World Cup is hosted by one country, which drives the economy of more than a dozen host cities, and the Olympic Games have only one city, so naturally they cannot be compared.

After a short opening ceremony, it was finally time for the main event.

World Cup opening match, France vs Senegal.

Senegal, the former dark horse brothers, did not have the luck of history in this game.

Zinedine Zidane's presence gave the French team a full squad with an excellent midfield engine, and under the traction of this engine, the French team played the momentum of the defending champions.

Many people blame Zidane's injury in the 02 World Cup, and the reason why the French team went home without scoring a goal in the group stage is Zidane's injury and Henry can't pick a lot of reasons alone.

In fact, the defeat of the French team at that time was multifaceted.

First of all, there is the head coach Le Maire.

Jacques is very smart, he chose to retire after winning the European Cup, he won the World Cup and the European Cup for France, and the results have been skyrocketing, and choosing to withdraw at this time can make his achievements remain in the hearts of French fans forever.

And Lemaire, who took over him, is a big step behind Jacques in terms of fame, coaching level and confidence.

You must know that it took nearly ten years for Jacques to take over the French team and win two top tournament championships, and in these ten years, he can even withstand the pressure and not recruit Canton into the national team, and Zidane, Djokaeffe, and Henry are all brought out by Jacques himself.

In terms of prestige, Le Maire is far inferior to Jacquet.

So in the French team at that time, Lemaire had to discuss many things with Zidane, and although Zizou was injured, he became almost half of the head coach.

It's not an easy task to let the players manage the players.

One of the more important points, arguably crucial, is that Henry and Zinedine Zidane, who are not calling the top stars of the French team!

Only once in France's history has Thierry Henry scored with an assist from Zinedine Zidane – that goal against Brazil in Zidane's final World Cup.

Some people say that the two are not compatible, some people say that one mountain cannot tolerate two tigers, and the fans of the two even blame each other for this.

In fact, as the top player in the team, it is absolutely impossible to say that he will not play for the other party, and although the relationship between the two in private is not intimate, it cannot be called a hostile relationship.

Whether it is Qi Bald's bad character or Heng's bald character's bad character, it's impossible to say.

But now, Thierry Henry is not the only top striker in the French squad.

Anelka and Henry have been working together in the Arsenal team for many years, and the tacit understanding between them can be described as clever and smart, even if Zidane and Henry do not call, and Anelka is sandwiched in the middle as a conductor, this electricity will always come.

Now that's it for the opening game.

Zidane, Djokaeff, Anelka and Henry, the four of them played half of the Senegalese brothers in the front court, although the first half of the game has not scored, but compared to the history of the Senegalese team that could not find the north, there is no doubt that the current France is more champion.

Seeing this, people are predicting that the European Championship curse is probably going to be broken by the French.

The so-called European Championship curse is one of the top ten curses of the World Cup - among which Pele's crow's beak is also impressively on the list.

Whoever wins the European Championship will not perform well in the World Cup two years later – that's the curse of the European Championships.

Far from it, starting with the cursed Dutch Three Musketeers in 1988.

In the 88 European Championships, the Three Musketeers won the European Championships, and two years later in the World Cup in Italy, they lost to West Germany in the quarterfinals and went home early.

At Euro '92, the Danes created beautiful fairy tales, and two years later at the World Cup, they didn't even qualify.

In '96, he arrived in Germany, but the aging German tank suffered a 3-0 defeat in the quarter-finals at the feet of the short-lived Croats - of course, it was even worse in this book, and the group did not qualify......

Then, the poor Frenchman in history went home without scoring a goal in the group stage; Then in the 04 European Championships, the dark horse Greece won the championship and was also not eligible for the World Cup in 06......

The curse of the European Championships, like the pair of black wings behind Pele, has shrouded the sky over the previous World Cups......

He continues to be optimistic about the Chinese team, the Argentine team, the Italian team and the French team, saying that these four teams are the most promising teams to win the championship, as for his own Brazil, Pele is not so optimistic, he claims that the Brazilian team has a fatal loophole, which is the biggest obstacle for the Brazilian team to win the championship.

Day...... Again ...... The next day...... Did the crows come out specifically to clear the way for Brazil? cursed the four strong teams in one breath, what is his intention?

Anyway, I don't know anything else, it's a miracle that Shell Crow can come out of the press conference alive after saying these words!

It seems that the French team has a heavy responsibility for history!

The task of breaking two spells in a row!

In the second half, the French team continued to play with passion, and finally in the thirteenth minute, Zidane crossed from the left, Anelka quickly cut in the bottom line to ferry the ball to the middle, and Henry at the back post followed with his toe and stabbed into the net.

Sure enough, if you want to make a call between Zidane and Henry, you really need a conductor!

The group stage is usually a place for players to preserve their strength, especially for teams with ambition and hope to go further - winning one or two goals in a game is enough, scoring too much is not necessary, it is just a waste of physical strength.

As game time ran out, the Senegalese launched a frantic counter-attack, but against a French backline led by Patrick Vieira, who was already among the best defenders in the world, their attack was largely in vain, with the occasional shot or two not causing Barthez much trouble.

In the final moments, when the Senegalese were pressing hard, Anelka received a through ball from his former team-mate Djokaev and scored with ease, and France did not create an upset in the first game, and they won comfortably 2-0.

How to say, the World Cup welcomes the underdog, but refuses to be the underdog.

The World Cup without upsets is boring, it will always be just those few countries competing for it, and the others are just cameos in the World Cup, but there are too many upsets, but it has become a trouble, and the major teams have fallen in advance, and in the end the game that should have been wonderful has become boring.

In general, the unpopular relies on strength, not on conspiracy!

Of course, it is not that the Senegalese defeated the French team in history by conspiracy, the state of the French team at that time was indeed quite poor, but the history is different, the trajectory of history is also different, and this year's French team will become a strong contender for the championship!

The second match of Group A was then played at the Hongkou Stadium in Shanghai, where the Danes, led by Laudrup Jr., won 2-1 against a disheartened Uruguay side.

In this game, the teenager Recoba did not play as well as he should at the Hongkou Stadium that he was familiar with, because the Dane was very closely marked against him, and almost did not give him a chance to get the ball, while Tomasson's two shots helped the fairy tale kingdom win the game without danger.

The most commendable thing about this game was Rodriguez's long-range shot, which can be called a classic - he received a high pass from a teammate and pulled out his foot to shoot angrily, and the ball hung straight into the corner of the goal - this goal, even if Schmeichel came, could not be defended.

Rodriguez? It's Rodriguez again!

Well, just referring to the name, fans should remember the long-range shot scored by Rodriguez in extra time in the match between Argentina and Mexico in the 06 World Cup, right?

It seems that this surname really has the potential for long-range shooting!

The soap bubble of revenge of the Uruguayans burst.

As early as sixteen years ago, Laudrup Jr.'s brother, Michelle. Laudrup led Denmark to a 6-1 massacre of the Uruguayans in the group stage of the World Cup, and after 16 years, Uruguay still lost to Denmark.

The matches in the other groups are as follows: in Group B, Spain beat Slovenia 3-1, after which Jugovic was kicked out of the national team by the head coach and became a topic of discussion; South Africa drew 2:2 with Paraguay led by Chilavert, and there is still a good hope of qualifying from the group.

In Group C, Brazil defeated Turkey 2:1, although the score was not large, but it could be seen that the Brazilians did not exert themselves; Peru, which substituted for the Chinese team, lost 0:2 to Costa Rica, and perhaps the team that came up as a substitute is not very strong.

It's finally time for Group D.

On June 11, 2002, at the Beijing Workers' Stadium, China will face the first opponent of the group stage of this World Cup - Poland!