Chapter Ninety-Eight: The Youzhou Derby (I)

The national team competition is just a warm-up game, and although it means a lot to Wang Shuai, it can only be regarded as a small episode of his season. When the national team match is over, Wang Shuai has no time to reminisce about his debut, and then he has to prepare with the team for the next league and AFC Champions League group stage.www.biquge.info

In Group B of Youzhou Institute of Technology, Polytechnic ranked first with 9 points after winning all three games, Hanseong FC defeated Hanoi TT and Urawa Red Diamonds respectively after losing to Polytechnic and ranked second with 6 points, Hanoi TT won Urawa Red Diamonds with one win and two losses and ranked third with 3 points, and Urawa Red Diamonds ranked at the bottom with three defeats. In other words, as long as Youzhou Institute of Technology gets one more victory in the next game, it will be able to secure a qualifying place.

However, although Youzhou Institute of Technology's qualifying situation is very good, this does not mean that the next game of Youzhou Institute of Technology will be easy. The fourth group stage game is at home to Urawa Red Diamonds, who are now only theoretically left to qualify, but they will also give it their all for this possibility. In the same way, there is also the opponent of the sixth group stage, Hanoi TT, this team that has defeated Jeju United and Urawa Red Diamonds, it is certainly not enough to rely on one opponent to adapt to the soil, if you underestimate this opponent, it is not impossible for Polytechnic to capsize in the gutter.

Then there is the opponent in the fifth round, Hancheng FC, Polytechnic and Hancheng have already occupied the advantage of qualifying, and now the two teams are only fighting for the first place in the group stage. According to the schedule, the first and second teams in Group B will face the second and first teams in Group F in the round of 16, and if nothing else, the top of Group F will fall to Etihad FC. The Saudi Arabian team, which won the AFC Champions League in the 03-04 and 04-05 seasons, returned to the top of the Asian team after more than a decade, reaching the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League in the first two seasons. For such a team that is faintly sitting at the top of West Asia, Polytechnic and Han Cheng obviously do not want to meet each other too early, which means that the battle for the top spot in Group B will become more and more intense.

In addition to the AFC Champions League, Youzhou Institute of Technology's league schedule is not easy. In the previous rounds of the league, in addition to Songjiang Tianyun and Wucheng Guoning, the other opponents of Polytechnic are not very strong, after eight rounds of league play, Polytechnic has seven wins and one draw to accumulate 22 points, and with a goal difference advantage over Yangcheng Hengyuan temporarily ranked first. However, in the next games in the first half of the season, Youzhou Institute of Technology will face strong teams such as Youzhou Trust, Yangcheng Hengyuan and Songjiang Hongshen one after another.

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The word derby originated in England in the 19th century. The small town of Derbyshire in the United Kingdom is the place where horse racing is held in the United Kingdom, and the horses produced by Derbyshire are also famous throughout the country. In 1870, the British Derby Club was founded, and the vast majority of the horses in the race came from Derbyshire, so this horse race is also known as the "Derby Battle", which is used to describe "the race between horses in Derbyshire".

Over time, the term "derby" has been extended to other competitions, and now usually refers to a match between two teams in the same city, such as the "Manchester derby" between Manchester United and Manchester City, or between two of the strongest teams in the same region or country, such as the "Spanish derby" between Real Madrid and Barcelona, or the "Argentine derby" between River Plate and Boca Juniors.

Youzhou has four professional teams, but it wasn't until last season that two Youzhou teams appeared in the Chinese Super League, Trust and Lotte. However, due to the huge disparity in the strength of Youzhou Trust and Youzhou Lotte, the term "Youzhou Derby" is rarely mentioned in the game between the two teams. At the same time, in the round of 16 of the FA Cup last season, Youzhou Institute of Technology and Youzhou Trust also played each other, but the game between the Chinese Super League team and the Chinese League team did not receive much attention. Until this season, Youzhou Institute of Technology also rushed into the Chinese Super League, and at the same time showed the strength of the top team in the Chinese Super League, and the derby battle between Polytechnic and Trust began to be highly anticipated.

On November 4th, in the ninth round of the Chinese Super League, Youzhou Trust played at home against Youzhou Institute of Technology, and the "Youzhou Derby" officially kicked off.

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The last time Polytechnic and the Trust met, relying on the Trust's unfamiliarity with Polytechnic, Wang Shuai led the team to a small victory over the other party. Now that this advantage no longer exists, the management team has made reinforcements, but it is not yet known who will die in the end.

Wang Shuai's half a season in the trust has greatly improved the trust's dominance in the middle, and after Wang Shuai left, the trust head coach Gao Haitao also moved his tactical play closer to the middle, no longer relying solely on the side to break through, and at the same time strengthened the position of the central midfielder.

The target of reinforcements is Spain's foreign player Saxton, with the 33-year-old taking over his former position. Saxton and the 30-year-old Zhang Qi form the main central midfield partner of the current trust, but both of them are facing physical problems, so Gao Haitao promoted a 20-year-old Miao Lihua from the youth team to increase bench depth.

Compared to last season's squad, the trust has not changed much, so there is no problem with the lineup running-in. On the basis of the previous tactics, the trust has integrated a local tactical system in recent games, which has greatly improved the strength of the trust, and the 12 goals scored in the last five games are the best proof. In the face of a strong trust, Polytechnic is under unprecedented pressure.

Youzhou Trust can be regarded as one of the toughest opponents that Polytechnic have faced this season, having managed only one draw in their previous match against Matsue Tianyun. In today's game, the whole team of Polytechnic, including Wang Shuai himself, was not very optimistic about the situation.

At the end of the third round of the group stage of the AFC Champions League, some media asked Nangong Zheng and Wang Shuai why the three teams of Wucheng Guoning, Tiangang Qinda and Urawa Red Diamonds all "played abnormally" in the face of Youzhou Institute of Technology, and both of them answered this question "Polytechnic has its own defensive and tactical system, and now it seems to be working very well". This answer can indeed explain the problem of the opponent's strength dropping by 10%, but it will also make other teams wary, they will obviously play more steadily when they face Youzhou Institute of Technology again, in this case, even if the attribute is reduced by 10%, the impact will not be as great as before.

Wang Shuai's "suppression" skill only reduces attributes, but it will not reduce the player's awareness and experience, in fact, after the attribute reaches a certain value, the impact of the attribute on a player's strength will become very small. Therefore, once Polytechnic's opponent is not affected by the decline in attributes, then the effect of Wang Shuai's "suppression" skill will be greatly reduced.

But in any case, Wang Shuai knows that the 10% decline in attributes is real, especially the decline in the two attributes of "speed" and "strength", which cannot be compensated for by player awareness and game experience. And if the players of the trust are not so seriously affected by the "suppression" skills, relying on speed breakthroughs and physical confrontation will become the killer weapon of Youzhou Institute of Technology, which is also a tactic that Wang Shuai discussed with Nangong Zheng before the game.

Polytechnic's tactics have been laid out, the trust is well prepared, and all that remains for the two teams is now waiting for the whistle to represent the start of the game.