Before returning to China, in order to prepare for this national team call-up, Li Liang had done a lot of homework.

As for his first opponent, the Syrian team, he felt more and more incredible as he got to know him better.

Due to the ongoing fighting in the country, Syria's home stadium must be placed in a FIFA-approved third-party venue for security reasons, and the draw against South Korea was played in Malaysia.

In other words, Syria is playing the round of 12 without a home stadium.

Syria's head coach Ayman Hakim's monthly salary is equivalent to about 2,000 yuan, and the main players of the team earn about 1,300 yuan per month.

Their training clothes are copycats of Nike, and even the game clothes often have broken numbers.

There are also reports that the only one of the top 12 who did not fly on a charter flight was Syria. In order to save money, they consider the fare first when flying long distances, and for this reason they do not hesitate to choose cheap economy class with long times and many connections.

In the first round away to Uzbekistan in the capital Tashkent, the Syrian team departed from Damascus and flew to Beirut and then to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The team then travelled from Dubai to Moscow, from Moscow to Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and then again to Almaty, Kazakhstan, and from Almaty to Tashkent.

There were six stopovers during the entire flight, and for a professional footballer, such a long flight was nothing short of a disaster.

Li Liang also saw that this time the Syrian pair went to Chang'an City, and the itinerary "only" needed to make four transfers.

After the Syrian team successfully advanced to the round of 12, each team member received a bonus of 310 yuan......

In addition, Li Liang also noted that the Syrian team is now ranked 114th in FIFA, which is also the team's highest ranking in the last two years. The Chinese team is currently ranked 78th.

What also puzzled Li Liang was that in the face of such an opponent, Gao Bohong still chose the 532 formation that focused on defense.

At home against the opponent who is considered to be the weakest opponent in the group, and still play 532? What about 4231 that has been practiced for so long in the past?

At Tianjiang Airport, team leader Gao Bin seemed to be full of confidence in winning Syria, and Li Liang couldn't help but think, how to win? Defending and counterattacking?

If Syria doesn't press out to play, can we prevent 3 points?

……

On October 6th, the game that domestic fans have been looking forward to is finally about to start at the Qinxi Provincial Sports Center.

Li Liang took a bus to the stadium with everyone, and he had already seen that under the brilliant lights, the outside of the stadium had become a sea of red.

Li Liang couldn't help but get excited at first, but soon realized that he was also a spectator in this game.

After entering the stadium, the stands were almost full, and the stadium was already full of enthusiastic fans from all over the world.

Everyone still remembers the national team in the first half of the year after defeating the strong rival Qatar here and being lucky to enter the top 12, and Chang'an is also known as the "blessed land" of the national football team.

Li Liang, accompanied by Gao Jianxin, sat in an inconspicuous corner of the VIP seat, and in the face of the fans who rushed up to ask for autographs, Li Liang promised everyone that it was not appropriate now, and he would definitely sign everyone after the game.

Counting the game against Nice, this is the second time that I have sat in the stands and watched my teammates play.

Li Liang was angry and funny, and found that he had flown back all the way, but he had just changed from the stands of the Allianz-Rivera Stadium in Nice to the stands of the Qinxi Provincial Sports Center.

The match is about to begin, and the national team responds to the away team's 4411 with a formation of 532.

Goalkeeper No. 12 Ge Chao started in place of Zhong Cheng, who was injured, Feng Xiao, Zhao Linpeng, and Cheng Hang served as the back three, and Xu Hai and Zhang Mingjian were on the left and right.

This is also what makes Li Liang puzzled, why don't Jiang Peng, the left back who is the team's real card, not use, and let Xu Hai, who plays as a fullback, be used as a left back?

Moreover, in the tactics class, Gao Bohong explained on the stage for a long time, Li Liang didn't understand what this arrangement was for, and he didn't know whether Xu Hai understood it.

The three midfielders are Zhang Xinzhe, Hao Jingmin and Hong Bowen, and the forward line is played by Geng Lin and teenager Jiang Yuning.

At the beginning of the game, the national team emphasized that the ball control was mainly based on ground passing, and after the opening, it first took the initiative on the field.

When the two sides warmed up, Li Liang found that the total rating of Syrian players was not as low as imagined, and it was completely comparable to the starting 11 of the national team, most of them between 70 and 73.

In the majestic chorus of "Singing the Motherland" by more than 50,000 fans, the players of the national team all looked very positive.

But soon, Li Liang found in the VIP seat that there was a big difference between the state and training of his teammates.

In the 14th minute, Jiang Yuning pulled the side to the right side, and after continuously getting rid of the defense of the opponent's fullback Al Ayan, he crossed the ball low, and the follow-up Hong Bowen appeared on the rolling route of the ball on the right side of the penalty area in time.

Gao Jianxin immediately jumped up like the surrounding audience, Li Liang didn't move, at this moment he was very surprised, Hong Bowen, who often plays world waves in training, how did this ball stop like this? !

Hong Bowen stopped the ball with his left foot in front of him with an emergency stop, and the Syrian defender Haji who followed him made a mistake in judgment and was completely out of position, but Hong Bowen stopped the ball too heelly!

Even from a distance, Li Liang saw that it was very real, and Hong Bowen had to make another adjustment, but even so, he still had plenty of time and space to complete the shot.

But Hong Bowen's shot was disappointing. When the opposition returned to the back two metres from him, he swept a shot that flew high over the crossbar.

The fans exclaimed loudly, and then applauded warmly, and everyone was very satisfied with the momentum played by Hong Bowen.

Li Liang felt extremely regretful, you know, how can you win the game just by momentum?

Others may not be able to see it, but Li Liang's eyes observe it very clearly - Hong Bowen's movements are very stiff when he shoots, the speed of swinging his legs is not enough, and his force is not decisive and resolute.

The most important thing is that Hong Bowen has been leaning back throughout the shooting, and usually only controls the center of gravity of his body backwards in order to ensure the stability of the final touch of the ball when passing.

If the ball is too close to the body, when hitting the goal, the center of gravity will generally be pressed down as much as possible, and the waist and abdomen will be folded as much as possible, so that the shooting leg will be as backward as possible, so as to get enough distance to improve the swing leg speed.

Li Liang realized that Hong Bowen's first reaction when he saw Jiang Yuning's pass should be to continue passing the ball after he got the ball.

Shooting was just a make-of-the-minute decision, and his body was still running with the passing trend.

This fully shows that Hong Bowen has not adjusted his mentality at all, and now his thinking state is very chaotic.

Soon Li Liang found that Hong Bowen was far more than the case, and his teammates were all acting in a very abnormal state of excitement.

In the 20th minute, Zhang Mingjian made a wonderful change of direction on the right side, passing Syria's left forward Karfa and left wingback Al Ayan in a row.

But Li Liang helplessly found that in the cheers of the audience, Zhang Mingjian, who had completely gotten rid of the defense, immediately swung his leg to complete the cross, but during the whole process, Zhang Mingjian never raised his head!

This meant that after completing the breakthrough, he didn't even want to observe the position of his teammates in the penalty area......

Such an aimless pass was easily disrupted by the lively centre-back Al Saleh.

After withstanding the national team's three-board axe, Syria stabilized its position and immediately began to instigate a counterattack.

In the 34th minute, the Syrian team's forward midfielder Khribin was on the right side, receiving a pass from the right midfielder Almawas, and directly used his speed to break through Xu Hai, who had a problem with his position.

Li Liang gasped, Xu Hai's position mistake was almost fatal.

The Syrian team began to frequently lead the flames of war to Xu Hai's defense area, and gradually regained the initiative with a highly targeted attack.

At the beginning of the game, the national team was able to dominate with possession, but as they played, the Syrian team gradually regained the initiative. At half-time, neither side achieved anything.

Gao Jianxin said to Li Liang regretfully: "It's a pity, we should have at least 2:0 in the first half!" Li Liang remained silent, his views were completely different from those of Gao Jianxin.

The Syrian team was impressive defensively, with their positioning being very secretive, their overall movement unusually well could, and the interplay between several defenders was not noticeable.

The most important thing is that Li Liang found that the eyes of these Syrian players were extremely tenacious.

There is the indescribable momentum that he has seen in the eyes of the Maldivian players in the video; There is something familiar and indescribable.

After a long time, Li Liang understood that it was the appearance of concentration, that is, what he looked like in the eyes of others during the game.

The 15 minutes of the break passed quickly, and Gao Bohong finally took the lead in making adjustments, replacing Hong Bowen with left-back Jiang Peng, and pulling Xu Hai back into midfield.

Li Liang shook his wrist and sighed, the so-called "surprising" style of play in the first half did not "win", but achieved nothing. Now such an adjustment is actually a negation of its own tactical play in the first half.

What did you do earlier?