Since creating the miracle of the top 12 matches and returning to the World Cup, the national football team that was popular in the past has once again become everyone's sweetheart. In this year's second China Cup, many cities rushed to host it. Not only include Xi'an and Changsha, which are blessed lands for the national team, but even Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, which have never been interested in the national team, have also joined the competition. In the end, it will be the same as the first session last year, and it will be held in Nanning, Guangxi.

As the day of the competition approached, the Nanning Olympic Sports Center, the venue of the competition, and the Marriott Hotel, where the national team stayed, were filled with a strong atmosphere of the competition.

Even in a city that is not frequented by the national team, you can feel the popularity of the national team right now. The national team has chartered two floors of the hotel, and many local fans have inquired about the location of the national team, opened a room downstairs for the national team, and stayed at the door of the restaurant early every day - it is convenient to ask for autographs.

Of course, such an obsessive fan will definitely be rewarded, not only getting the signed jerseys of returnees such as Wen Zhihao and Liang Xin, who he wants the most. At Wen Zhihao's suggestion, the young fan in his early twenties also got a soccer ball signed by all the members of the national team.

What touched Wen Zhihao even more was that after this fan took over the football, he said: "I can blow this awesome for a lifetime!" ”

The satisfied smile on his face proved that he was telling the truth, but because of this, Wen Zhihao's heart was even more uneasy.

When he was a child, he often heard his father hate the national team. When I first started to contact football, all the news of the national team was accompanied by everyone's scolding. For example, "even Thailand can lose 1:5, and then it should lose to Myanmar and Vietnam" and so on, Wen Zhihao didn't understand it at that time. It's your own national team, does it have to be so harsh? Why is this so?

Now that he is in it, he realizes that in fact, he is really just not good enough, and the fans' requirements are really not high.

This scene is just a small microcosm, in order to maintain the positive image of the national team in the hearts of fans, the World Cup in a few months, like 2002, the ending is too tragic.

And now every point of preparation, every game, let everyone feel that the national team is improving and changing all the time.

……

In the second China Cup, the other three teams that came to China to play against the Chinese team made temporary changes.

The original three opponents were originally two European teams, Wales and the Czech Republic, as well as South American powerhouse Uruguay. But with the Chinese team's grouping in the World Cup released. The Chinese Football Association urgently decided to reshuffle the teams that had already been finalized according to the different styles of the three opponents in the group stage.

After some twists and turns, the three teams that were finally confirmed to participate in this China Cup are Japan, Denmark and France.

The three teams simulated the three opponents of the Chinese team in Group F of the World Cup.

North American powerhouse Mexico, with its diminutive technical style of play, individual ability and excellent team passing, is similar to the style of the Asian team in Japan. In fact, there is a more desirable team in Europe, Spain, but the Matadors are reluctant to travel all the way to China during the short international break. The Chinese Football Association can only settle for the next best thing and invite its Asian neighbors. The Japanese team is ranked 57th in the latest FIFA rankings, and for the benefit of the national team, the "inviting the world's top 30 teams" in the founding purpose of the China Cup has also been torn apart by the Football Association.

Denmark, on the other hand, is an imaginary enemy set up to deal with the Viking Sweden.

The third opponent, the French team, in terms of overall strength, has basically no chance of winning for the national team. The biggest purpose is also to adapt the team to the continuous bombardment in a high-confrontation situation in advance. Facing Germany in the group stage, this should be an inevitable scenario.

After the change of opponents, the quality of the China Cup was significantly higher, and all three opponents were in the round of 32 of the World Cup in Russia. The temporary intention of the Football Association was rarely sprayed and "tossed", but received a lot of praise.

"There is really hope for Chinese football, the results of the national team have improved, and even the Football Association has begun to do practical things without shouting slogans!"

"I just became a dad yesterday. I hope that the Football Association can do more practical things like this, and the environment will be better in two years, and I will also consider sending my son to play football. ”

……

According to the schedule redetermined by the organizing committee, the first opponent of the Chinese team will be the Japanese team.

Although Japan is not the strongest of the three opponents. But the appeal and attention of fans are staggering and unprecedentedly hot. After all, this is a Sino-Japanese confrontation. The feud between the two sides goes beyond football.

And judging from the historical confrontations on the football field alone, China and Japan are also a pair of old enemies.

It is quite difficult for the current national team to win against Japan, but in the childhood of post-80s fans, the national team also had a glorious era when they could press Japan on the turf at will.

Before the 90s, the only opponent of the Chinese team in Asia was Saudi Arabia in West Asia, and at that time, it was easy and enjoyable to win against Japan. In 1988, the national Olympic team led by Gao Fengwen was able to enter the Seoul Olympics for the first time, and the decisive game was a 2-0 away victory over Japan in Tokyo.

It was that game that gradually woke up the Japanese football world. Being defeated by China on their own doorstep has made Japanese football lose face. We began to seek professional reform and a way out for Japanese football.

It was also in that year that Saburo Kawabuchi, known as the godfather of Japanese football, became the president of the Japan Football Association, and from the early nineties, the reform of Japanese football began to accelerate at an accelerated pace.

In 1991, the "Centennial Plan" was promulgated to revitalize Japanese football. Until now, the development path of Japanese football has been steadily moving forward along this path.

Two years later, Saburo Kawabuchi set out to establish Japan's own domestic league. The initial approach is similar to the current Chinese Super League, which is to attract big-name stars to increase the attention of the league. Brazilian superstars Zico and Romario went to Japan to pan for gold.

But the very important thing that the Japanese did more than us was that they did not just pursue the eyeballs and applause for a while, but began to set up their own youth training system, learning the most advanced samba technical flow style of international football at that time, and the familiar characteristics of Japanese football with smooth passing and excellent ball control also began to be finalized at this time.

In contrast, although we have been shouting the slogan "football starts with a baby" for almost 30 years, in the 90s, we gradually began to take detours. Especially after the professionalization of football, the youth training system based on professional teams has collapsed, and the cultivation of reserve talents has been in a state of failure. From the base, it lagged behind Japan.

The gap in youth training has gradually widened, and the direct result is that since the nineties, the confrontation at the national team level, the relationship between China and Japan, the old rivals, has begun to be completely reversed.

Now, the national team has been winless against Japan for two decades. The last time we won was in 1998.

It has been cured of Koreanophobia for more than 30 years, and the Japanesephobia of more than 20 years also needs an opportunity to break it.

If it was before, relying on these international players who played in the Chinese Super League, if they wanted to beat Japan, everyone basically didn't have much hope. In the East Asian Cup at the end of last year, the last time the two sides met, they were also two-team lineups, and the Chinese team lost 1:2.

But this time, with two returnees, as well as a newborn calf, Liu Ruofan, who is also amazingly talented, everyone began to have a little expectation, and the national team may have a chance this time......