Chapter 37: Triumph and Frustration
Zinedine Zidane's bravery and Ronaldo's aberrations made the French team the seventh team in history to win the World Cup.
The Brazilian players sat helplessly on the ground, perhaps many of them tried their best, but they could not escape the team behind the scenes.
The Stade de France is chanting the slogan Viva France, and the French players are running around the stadium draped in the flag.
This night belongs to the whole of France.
"Let's go," Lao Ma said to the Chinese team members around him, "their victory does not belong to us, and we will be standing on this podium in four years." ”
All the players of the Chinese team, including the old horse, have come to watch the game until now - this has to be said to be the blessing of Tuo Siyue, and she is the only one who has the ability to make 24 tickets to the World Cup finals, including herself, and they are sitting together.
With the captain Deschamp lifting the Hercules Cup, which represents the highest honor in world football, the 16th World Cup has also come to an end, and the rest is the award ceremony.
The Chinese team won the fourth place in the World Cup, but they were not for nothing, at the FIFA awards ceremony that night, Ling Feng picked up the Golden Boot of the World Cup's top scorer with crutches, and the Chinese team won the World Cup Fair Play Award - because the Chinese team has the least cards among the teams that entered the knockout round, and only Zhao Jun was suspended for two yellow cards in the whole team, it can be said that there is no red card, and this award is deserved.
The Ballon d'Or for the best player was awarded to Zinedine Zidane, who had performed well in the World Cup final – a controversial but barely plausible award – after all, scoring two crucial goals in the World Cup final alone would have been enough to award the Ballon d'Or to Zidane.
What's more, this guy also scored a winning goal in the semi-finals, which can be called the most outstanding player of the French team in this year's World Cup!
Juventus fans and Moggi couldn't help but shout out - because Lippi did not replace Zidane in the Champions League final because of selfishness, forcing Qi Bald and Juventus generals to be incompatible, coupled with Ling Feng's temptation, Qi Bald did not renew his contract and came to the Fiorentina team to make up for the vacancy after Ling Feng left.
Before the World Cup, Zidane could only be regarded as a first-class player at best, but with the two goals in the final and the Golden Ball Award, it is not an exaggeration to say that Zidane is worth a hundred times overnight!
Such a player ran to his rival without getting a penny, which made Old Moji angry and almost admitted to the hospital!
Almost all the media questioned Ronaldo's abnormal form, but the Brazilian team refused to answer detailed questions, only saying that Ronaldo was abnormal due to physical reasons, but he asked to play in the final.
Anyway, except for a few parties and Ling Feng and them, I'm afraid this secret will be kept forever.
The Team of the Year for this World Cup has also been selected, which is not official, but only selected by several major football media, and the results are only slightly different.
Forwards: Batistuta, Ronaldo, Bergkamp, Davor•
Midfielders: Ling Feng, Zinedine Zidane, Da Laudrup, Davies, Deschamps, Dunga, Rivaldo;
Defenders: Maldini, Campbell, Desailly, Thuram, Robert•Carlos, Frank•De Boer, Blanco;
Goalkeepers: Chilavert, Barthez.
The difference in the selection of the best team lies in a very small number of players, and the only players who make the list in "Team Newspaper", "Bild", "The Sun", "Milan Sport" and "Torino Sport" are Ling Feng, Rivaldo and Thuram.
As a French media, the "Team Newspaper" naturally favors French players, Desailly, Blanco and Thuram account for three of the four defenders, but Blanco, who scored two goals in the World Cup, is only mentioned by the "Team Newspaper", and several other media believe that Blanco has serious problems in defense.
Ling Feng's selection was well deserved, and Rivaldo and Thuram also won the unanimous approval of the five because of their outstanding performances.
Batistuta has also appeared on the pages of the other four in addition to England's "Sun", as for "The Sun", it is difficult to guarantee that it is not the English who have a grudge and hook Barty down, after all, he scored five goals in the quarterfinals, and Barty is worthy of the title of "God of War".
Zinedine Zidane, who was also not on the list because of his grudge, was well deserved, but because he "defected" to Juventus and went to Fiorentina, Torino Sport ticked his name.
Ronaldo, on the other hand, was due to an erratic performance in the final game, and only two Italian media outlets listed him in the best team.
Vieri was named No. 1 of the three, with the exception of Newspaper Les Corps and Kicker Magazine, and the reasons for their rejection are unknown.
It is also worth mentioning that the selection of the best goalkeeper was awarded to Chilavert by FIFA, but the newspaper was not convinced that the guy who was eliminated by France in the quarter-finals was given to Barthez of his country.
In fact, the French team conceded the fewest goals in the top 32 this year, but it has nothing to do with Barthez, because the French team's back line is too strong!
The best team is generally controversial, and even the commentators are not considered authoritative, and the media in various countries are biased towards some players in their home country or their league.
And some other media rated the most disappointed lineup of this World Cup, and it was led by two players who were selected for the best team!
Ling Feng and Ronaldo!
It stands to reason that Ling Feng's inclusion in this frustrated lineup is a bit far-fetched, or a bit of a spoof.
After all, as one of the most watched players in this World Cup, Ling Feng's performance is still enough to reflect his true level - leading the rookie Chinese team to the fourth place in the World Cup for the first time, becoming the youngest World Cup Golden Boot winner, breaking the 20-year curse that the best scorer in the World Cup cannot score more than six goals, successfully scoring a hat trick and so on.
According to this achievement, how can Ling Feng be regarded as disappointed, I am afraid that it is not enough to describe it as proud!
But the problem is that Ling Feng was injured in the semi-finals against France and was not able to play at his best level, which is the reason for being on the list!
Ling Feng, who dragged a broken leg, forced the French team into overtime, so what if Ling Feng was in good shape?
No one can say, the situation on the football field is ever-changing, and a little factor can affect the outcome of the entire game, even if Ling Feng is in good shape, the strength of the Chinese team is not necessarily the opponent of France.
But this assumption is always just a hypothesis......
In fact, some people are saying that the grouping situation of the Chinese team is really good - although it is the group of death, but after all, Yugoslavia and aging Germany are not as strong as the Netherlands, Argentina, England, and Brazil in terms of strength, Ling Feng won the first place in the group, avoiding the strongest teams in the world today.
If China are second in the group, they will face the mighty Netherlands in their first game, and even if they barely win, they will face the mighty Argentina in their next game.
The Netherlands and Argentina, this is a notch higher than Mexico and Croatia!
If that's the case, will the Chinese team still be able to make it to the semi-finals?
The answer is not necessarily, so the Chinese team lost the horse and was divided into the group of death, but it took advantage of this group of death to avoid the strongest opponents in the knockout round, which is really lucky!
Anyway, all in all, most of the reason why Ling Feng was on the list this time was because of the media's show, in order to attract more attention.
Ronaldo's inclusion on the list is well deserved, the whole world was optimistic about Brazil and aliens, but in the final he became the sinner of the Brazilian team.
It is not too much to say that he is a sinner, after the game, the Brazilian media launched a fierce bombardment of the head coach Zagallo, claiming that since Ronaldo's condition is not good, he should never be put on the field, if it is the beast Edmundo on the field, then the Brazilian team still has hope to win the game!
Ronaldo dragged the Brazilian team back!
This sentence is really a very heavy blow to Ronaldo, who is full of hope, and now Ling Feng and Djokaeff are comforting him in the hotel where the Brazilian team is staying, and the alien is crying like a child at this time.
Looking at such a good relationship between Djokaeff and the mule, Ling Feng felt a strong sense of disgust in his heart for those black hands behind the scenes, who ignored the feelings of the players, ignored the feelings of the fans, and manipulated the game with their own interests - shameful!
As the line-up was also a 4-4-2 lineup, the other disappointed striker was awarded to Germany's golden bomber Jurgen Klinsmann.
A few years will be the last time Klinsmann will play in the World Cup, from the troika in '90 to failing to qualify from the group this year, the German team has fallen from the top to the abyss.
The Golden Bomber scored his last goal of the World Cup against the United States, and after a last-minute mid-air collision with Ling Feng against China, the Golden Bomber was forced to land early, and the German team, without Klinsmann, was eliminated in the subsequent match against Yugoslavia.
The four midfielders in the Frustrated squad are David Beckham, Ortega, Enrique and Savicevic.
Among them, Xiaobei and Ortega were ousted because they were irrational and got red cards, which directly or indirectly led to the elimination of the team, while Enrique and Savicevic were full of ambition but powerless, Spain went home after the group stage, and Savicevic lost at the feet of the Dutch after a few rounds of substitutes.
If Enrique and Savicevic have fought hard, and Ortega is purely stealing chickens and rice, then Comrade Xiaobei is the most wronged and unlucky.
The Anglo-Argentine war is no longer just a knockout match of the World Cup, and the grievances accumulated between the two countries for generations make this game more like a duel without gunpowder.
David Beckham was knocked out by Hoddle in the group stage and was forced to start by the media and scored a brilliant free-kick against Colombia, but England were forced to go to penalties for the next 70 minutes due to his irrationality.
Facing Argentina, who had never lost a penalty in a World Cup, the English were psychologically unproductive.
England's out, Beckham became an innocent victim, almost all the media pointed the finger at him, Beckham, who has returned home, stayed at home in Manchester, and there were angry fans outside the door every day to protest to him, it is conceivable that the next year, Beckham's life will definitely not be easy.
The defenders of the disappointed squad are as follows: Cameroon's captain Song, who received a red card for irrationality, which caused Cameroon to be forced to draw by Chile and lose the right to qualify from the group, and Song's red card was also obtained after teammate Etami was sent off - this is the first time in this World Cup that there have been two red cards in a single game, and all of them are for one team.
Although Cameroon, which had nine players, had Ling Feng's former teammate Mboma, they were powerless to return to the sky and finally shook hands with the Chilean team.
Nesta. Nesta, who is known as Italy's new generation of talented defenders, was injured in the third game of the group stage, which made him miss all the next games, otherwise if he joins, with his tacit understanding with Cannavaro, maybe in the quarter-finals Italy vs. France, Vieri can be more comfortable and bold to assist, Italy may not be dragged to the most feared penalty shootout.
Sierro, the pillar of the Spanish team's backline, unfortunately did not have a chance to perform, in the first game Spain was beaten by the momentum of Nigeria, Milou's African Eagles defeated Spain, it can be said that the three goals at that time were almost directly related to Siero.
Jairni, Croatia's fullback has a strong ability to assist, but it is too strong for a defender - the Brazilian team has Carlos, but there is also a top defender Dunga who is responsible for supplementing the defense, Giarni did not make up for his leaks after the assist, and the Chinese team seized the opportunity to score a goal to expand the score, and finally Croatia was eliminated, which is directly related to him.
The goalkeeper of the disappointed lineup was awarded to the only Asian other than Ling Feng, and that was Kim Byung-ji, the goalkeeper of the South Korean team.
He conceded nine goals in three games, which can be called the most of the tournament, including five goals in a row in the game against the Netherlands, and the most frustrating thing is that the Dutch team scored five goals in different players, which has to make Kim Byungji even more depressed.
On July 16, 1998, the rested Chinese team flew back to Beijing from Paris on a special plane, and hundreds of millions of cheering fans were waiting for them......