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As the Asian Cup approached, the Chinese team began to be filled with an atmosphere of both tension and excitement. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

This national team is very young, veterans such as Li Weifeng can still "play for the country", but they have not been selected for the national team, and a 27-year-old player like Chu Zhongtian is considered a veteran in the team.

After all, this is a rare opportunity for them to compete. Because he missed the 2010 World Cup, the national team has not had many valuable major opportunities in recent years. This group of players has very little tournament experience. This may be one of the reasons why some people are not very optimistic about the Chinese team.

And in the team, in order to compete for the main position, everyone is still fighting.

After arriving in Doha, the Chinese team played a teaching match with Iraq. You don't see it as a teaching game at all, it's more like an official game. The Chinese players worked so hard that Gao Hongbo asked everyone to take it easy at half-time, and he didn't want to hurt a few more people when the Asian Cup was approaching.

Although Chu Zhongtian has played in European football for many years, he has accumulated rich experience. But the continental tournament of the national team his experience is a pitiful zero.

Since his first selection for the national team in 2006, he has missed two important tournaments, the World Cup in Germany and the World Cup in South Africa. In the 2007 Asian Cup, he was playing, but because of a thigh muscle strain and a broken arm in the League Cup final, he could not participate, and could only watch his national team being humiliated by Uzbekistan 3:0 in front of the TV. Coach Zhu Suishen did something "mad dog theory", and in the end, all the big guys went crazy. As for the East Asian semifinals, Chu Zhongtian was competing in the Bundesliga again and did not participate. As for the Olympics...... He was not considered by the Football Association at all, and the quota of overage players was given to others, but fortunately, he avoided ruining his reputation at his own doorstep.

So after all the calculations, he has been in the national team for four years, and he has not even participated in a major tournament...... This thing is not unaware, but it is shocking, everyone does not believe that Chu Zhongtian, as the most successful player in Chinese football, the captain of the Chinese national team, and the most famous and popular athlete in China, has not participated in a continental competition of the national team. This Asian Cup turned out to be his first maiden game.

The core of the Chinese team is participating in this kind of competition for the first time. This is something that the opponents of the Chinese team can take advantage of and look forward to. They expect Chu Zhongtian, the inexperienced captain, to drop the chain at a critical moment, which is also the "fine tradition" of Chinese football, which always disappoints everyone at the most critical moment. Although Chu Zhongtian is famous and won the Asian Footballer of the Year in 2009 and 2010 for two consecutive years, no one can guarantee that he will not show the shortcomings of inexperience in a world competition such as the Asian Cup.

Football is a very experience-oriented sport, and a wealth of experience can allow second-rate teams that have always been average to beat first-class teams of high level but lack of experience in major tournaments. Cups are a hotbed of upsets.

Before the Asian Cup, the bookmaker gave 16 teams the odds to win the championship, and the Chinese team ranked in the lower middle of the table, which is still the result of Chu Zhongtian joining, if there is no Chu Zhongtian, it is estimated that they will have to count down.

There is only one person that the Chinese team can count on, Chu Zhongtian, and the high hopes of all Chinese fans are all pinned on Chu Zhongtian, and now the Chinese media's reports on the Asian Cup have almost become "Chu Zhongtian reports", as long as the national team is mentioned, Chu Zhongtian will be mentioned, and other people have basically become Chu Zhongtian's foil, passers-by.

Is there a lot of pressure on such a high level of attention? Big for sure! Chu Zhongtian may be the most stressed player in Asia, because he alone has to carry the dream of 1.4 billion people. Therefore, the opponents fully took this into account when analyzing the Chinese team, they think that they can find a breakthrough from Chu Zhongtian, under such great pressure, Chu Zhongtian's performance will definitely be affected, and there are countless players who have performed abnormally under the pressure of the competition, and many of the world's top stars have been planted under this pressure, not to mention a Chu Zhongtian?

※※※ On January 7, the Asian Cup kicked off, and the host Qatar played against Uzbekistan at the Khalifa Stadium, which was the opening match of this Asian Cup.

The next day, the Chinese team ushered in their first game.

There was a slogan on the bus on which the Chinese team was riding: "1.3 billion people, 11 players, one dream: AFC Asian Cup." ”

This is the slogan made by the organizing committee for each team before the Asian Cup. At the beginning, each team had three slogans, put them on the Internet, and the fans from all over the world voted for them, who chose the slogans of their national team, and the selected slogans were spray-painted on the buses that the teams were riding.

At that time, China had three slogans for Chinese fans to choose from. The first is "This is the most eye-catching and correct choice -- China." This is obviously unreliable, the Chinese men's football team has never been the "most eye-catching and correct choice", it is said to be the most blind and humiliating choice. So this one has the lowest percentage of votes.

The second is "China: The Eternal Dragon of the East". This sentence is quite emotional, but it has nothing to do with football. In football, China is definitely not called the "Oriental Dragon", so the vote rate is not high. Although the third article is not very satisfying, everyone has to choose this one.

Riding on a bus with such a slogan, the Chinese team was disappointed in the playing field from the hotel where they were staying. Their first group game was against Gulf Cup winners Kuwait. The team beat Saudi Arabia 1-0 in the 20th edition of the Gulf Cup, which ended just a month ago, to lift the Gulf Cup for the 10th time in their history. At the same time, they won the West Asia Championship in September last year, and have won two consecutive championships in just over two months, and Kuwait are in very good form at the moment.

Playing such a strong opponent in the first game is very stressful for the Chinese team.

Everyone always has high hopes for the first game, and there is a saying in China: "a good start". So what happens in the first game has a big impact on the team.

But to say that in this group, it seems that every opponent of the Chinese team is strong. Not to mention the host Qatar, people take advantage of the right time and place. Kuwait is the champion of the Gulf Cup, and Uzbekistan defeated China 3:0 in the group stage of the Asian Cup three years ago, which directly led to the Chinese team not qualifying from the group under the good situation of one win and one draw and four points.

Each one is easy to deal with.

And looking at the other groups, with the current ability of the Chinese team, there is no group that is easy to mix. Almost all teams are going to play hard and they don't have a good chance of winning.

The players are also feeling nervous.

One of the common problems of Chinese players is that their psychological quality is not strong enough, although the walls of the training base are plastered with encouraging slogans every day, but this does not help their psychological quality.

Playing a team that is weaker than them, at first I think it is easy to deal with, and when I find that it is not easy to deal with, I panic and mess up, and in the end, even if I win, it is very difficult to win. This can be seen from the Guangzhou Asian Games, the second game of the National Olympic group stage against Kyrgyzstan, a team that was recognized as a fish belly before the game, had to be the last minute to win the reversal.

Not to mention the strong team, before the game started, there was no fighting spirit, and the performance on the field was a mess. Or blind self-confidence, they have said that the gap between the other party and themselves is not big, in fact, I went to kick and found that this is not the case at all, the gap between others and themselves is light years, panicked and messed up, messed into a pot of porridge. After scoring a goal, it quickly collapsed, and finally collapsed by a big score.

These are all common problems in Chinese football. Chinese football may only have a little self-confidence when it bullies the small.

From the hotel to the bus, Chu Zhongtian has been observing the performance of his teammates. The self-confidence of this Chinese team is a little stronger than that of their predecessors, and that is also because of their excellent performance in the warm-up matches, drawing with Germany, defeating France, and even defeating the bitter South Korean team 3-0, which has not won for 32 years.

But it's limited.

Their confidence is based on victory and is fragile, and if they lose, that confidence can quickly crumble like a sandcastle built on the beach.

The above and the results observed by Chu Zhongtian.

They are different from Chu Zhongtian, Chu Zhongtian's confidence is really based on trust in himself, no matter what situation he encounters, he always believes in himself. It's naturally good to win, and losing won't shake his self-confidence, it will only make him angry and want to win back what he lost.

This self-confidence is innate and cannot be defeated.

The confidence and morale of the teammates must be further improved, otherwise there is a risk that some minor problems will be shaken in the game.

It's much harder than leading Hoffenheim to the Champions League.

However, Chu Zhongtian did not frown, he enjoyed the fun of this kind of challenge. Is there anything more difficult than leading the Chinese team to the championship? No.

He will rebel against heaven.

※※※ When the team arrived at the locker room, everyone changed their clothes and went out to warm up.

Chu Zhongtian dragged on to the end, he deliberately, he had something to talk to head coach Gao Hongbo.

"Director Gao, I have observed it, and I think everyone's confidence does not seem to be too much...... Chu Zhongtian said to Gao Hongbo.

Gao Hongbo nodded, he also felt this way. The team is in a state of excitement and nervousness. Excitement doesn't mean self-confidence, but nervousness is a sign that a player's self-confidence is not enough. After all, their first game against the opponent was Kuwait, the champion of the Gulf Cup, and now Kuwait's morale is high, what about the national football team? The fiasco of the national Olympic team in the Asian Games was also blamed by the media and the Chinese people on the senior football team, and many people scolded without even understanding the difference between the national Olympic team and the national team. After the FIFA year-end overall rankings came out, some people questioned the authority of the rankings: "How can you rise two places in the ranking after losing so many games in the Asian Games?" "Therefore, it is not an unthinkable thing that the national football team is not confident enough, when 99% of the people in China are not optimistic about them, where can they believe in themselves?

Gao Hongbo has repeatedly emphasized that he does not set specific goals for the team in this Asian Cup, in order to relieve pressure on the players, but at the same time, it may also have the opposite effect, causing the players to feel that even the head coach has no confidence in them, so what is the hard work...... "I want to take some time to say a few words to everyone before the game starts. Chu Zhongtian said to Gao Hongbo. He's no stranger to doing this, he's done it a lot at the club, and the last part before going out is his time, which manager Rangnick doesn't care about.

Gao Hongbo knew what he was going to do, nodded and agreed: "Okay, I'll leave you time, is ten minutes enough?" ”

Chu Zhongtian shook his head: "Five minutes is enough." ”

※※※ During the warm-up, the Garafa Stadium had already made a lot of spectators. Al. The Garafa Stadium is the host stadium of the Asian Cup and will also host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. By then, the stadium will be remodeled and expanded, and the façade will be covered with colorful strips of cloth, and it will look much more beautiful than it is now, and there will be many more seats.

Today's Al. The Garafa Stadium can only accommodate 21,175 people, which is not as big as the home stadium of Hoffenheim, the club where Chu Zhongtian plays.

The stadium of 20,000 people is not full yet, because it is not a game of the host country or a star team, so the enthusiasm of everyone to watch the game is not high. In the past, only about 60 percent of the seats were made, and there were still many empty seats at the top of the stands. The vast majority of those 60 per cent of the seats were occupied by fans from Kuwait. This Asian Cup is held in West Asia, and it is very convenient for West Asian countries to watch the game. Therefore, Kuwaiti fans accounted for the vast majority of this game, and it is not an exaggeration to say that Kuwait is playing at home in this game.

There were not many fans who came to cheer on the Chinese team, only about one or two thousand people. They sat scattered in all corners of the stands, looking as if they were overwhelmed by the Kuwaitis.

Many of these Chinese viewers are not fans at all, they are Chinese employees working in Qatar, specially to cheer for the Chinese team. There are very, very few Chinese fans who really flew to Qatar from China to watch the game. On the one hand, it is too far, and the cost of the round-trip journey is very large, on the other hand, it is natural that the Chinese team's performance in this kind of competition has always been poor, and everyone is not interested, and they can't afford to spend tens of thousands of yuan for such a bad team.

"We have so few people...... "There are players from the national team murmuring behind Kuwaiti flags flying in the stands.

Although I have a lot of infamy and my strength is indeed not good, I always hope to be able to hear the familiar cheers. After defeating South Korea 3-0 in the East Asian semifinals, all the players came to the stands to thank the Chinese students who cheered for themselves in the rain, and listened to them sing "The five-star red flag flutters in the wind, how loud the victory song is", which is still unforgettable until now.

"We're playing away from home." Chu Zhongtian said something beside him, and his teammates turned their heads to look at him.

"Don't look at it, let's warm up!"

Chu Zhongtian turned around and ran away, and everyone also began to warm up. However, there will still be people who can't help but look into the stands, hoping to see more red and more. But each time they were disappointed, there were not many Chinese supporters, and the pace of increase was very slow, but the Kuwaiti fans in traditional Arab costumes grew, and their shouts were deafening, making the Chinese players more nervous.

Chu Zhongtian was calm and relaxed in such a shout. For him, this level of shouting is nothing to mention, and the shouts of the fans there are many times higher than those of the Kuwaiti fans, whether in England or Germany. He played in some of the most frenetic stadiums and was greeted with frenzied boos, but his performance did not take a big break, on the contrary, he did better.

So this kind of interference doesn't work for him, he has reached the point where he takes the boos of his opponents as his own motivation.

※※※ After the warm-up, the whole team returned to the locker room, at this time there was more than half an hour before the start of the game, Gao Hongbo told everyone to make the final advice, more than a month of closed training, to today, to see the results. Whether it is a hero or a bear, from this day on, the answer is gradually revealed.

At the same time, in the Doha press center of the Asian Cup in Qatar, CCTV from China is doing a program before the live broadcast of the game, inviting experts to the studio to analyze the arrangement of the Chinese team and the opponent in this game, and look forward to the performance of the two teams in the game.

Chu Zhongtian is the player they mentioned the most, who made this Chinese team such a star player?

"Let's be honest." Zhang Lu, a specially invited guest, blinked his eyes and said, "The performance of this national team depends on Chu Zhongtian's performance." ”

It's really honest...... "Judging from the pre-match report, Chu Zhongtian's condition seems to be very good, so I think everyone can still look forward to this game." ”

"Kuwait are ranked lower than us, but they are definitely not inferior to us. If the lads of the national team think that the ranking is everything, this game is dangerous. I hope that Gao Hongbo can make the boys' heads clear at this time. To be honest, the biggest problem with our team is that we have too much confidence when we play a weak team, and we have a serious lack of confidence when we play a strong team......"

In the locker room, Gao Hongbo was saying to his players: "Kuwait is ranked one hundred and five internationally, but it doesn't make sense, the game relies on 90 minutes of play on the field, not the international ranking." Fight them as if they were stronger than us! ”

※※※The program in the TV has come to an end for the time being, and the director prompts the host to include the program in the advertisement.

Here in the locker room, Gao Hongbo also finished saying everything that should be said, he left time for Chu Zhongtian, and then leaned against the wall with the coaching staff.

Chu Zhongtian walked up and stood in the middle of the locker room, looking around at everyone.

"I have a few words for you." His expression was calm.

(To be continued)