Chapter 69: Hiddink's Gamble
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After watching the opening game, the national football team has entered the final stage of the World Cup preparations, and their first opponent will be the weakest Australian team in the group except for the Chinese team.
Compared with the time of Gao Jun's crossing, the current Australian team is much stronger, there are many world-class stars in the team, and the Australian Football Association also invited the world-famous coach Hiddink, under his tutelage, the potential of the Australian team has been fully explored, especially the physical fitness and tactical discipline have been significantly improved, the team's original height and strength advantages can be more fully exerted in the game.
But what is surprising is that in the days before the start of the Sino-Australian battle, Hiddink took the initiative to show weakness in an interview with the media, saying, "The Chinese team is a team with very distinctive characteristics and great strength, and their fast counterattack is of the world's top level, so in this game, we must first ensure that the defense is solid, although the draw is not good for qualifying, but it is not completely unacceptable, at least it is better than the French team to lose"
"This is obviously a ploy of arrogance, and by the way, it hacked France", although Gao Jun couldn't help but be speechless for a while after learning about it, but he didn't pay much attention to it, although Australia really shrinks its defense, it will indeed increase the difficulty of the national football team to win, but this is expected, after all, it is impossible to expect other teams to adopt the Chinese team's preferred style of play, and people are not stupid
And the head coach of the national football team, Alihan, is even more concerned, if Hiddink really plays defense, he is even a little happy, because the strong offensive formation of 343 is more conducive to dealing with dense defense. Compare to Hiddink's psychological warfare. Not long ago, this guy said in an interview with the media that he was optimistic that the Chinese team would become a dark horse in this World Cup, and Alihan was shocked into a cold sweat when he saw this report
In fact, Pele paid attention to the Chinese team after the Chinese youth team won the championship at the World Youth Championships in the Netherlands. Like Mueller, he also feels that Gao Jun is very much like himself back then. If the dribbling technique is powerful, it will be more similar, anyway, it is not at all like his arch-rival Maradona, which is the most important thing
After the surprise defeat of the Chinese team last week, Pele was more optimistic about the Chinese team's World Cup prospects, so he said that to reporters in an interview. To say, Pele also has good intentions, but obviously no one in the Chinese team is willing to accept it
The first Asian team to start the tournament is Japan in Group B. Their first opponent was Sweden, a very different and stronger "Viking" team. Whether it is the overall strength of the team or the fame and value of the core players, the Swedish team is far above the Japanese team at this time, but the Japanese team, which has been practicing defensive counterattacks for more than half a year, unexpectedly drew 0:0 with the opponent and broke out a big upset. The Iranian team, the "nemesis" of the national football team for many years, had a bad start, and they lost 1:3 to the Mexican team in the first game, and the prospects for qualifying were not optimistic.
The Chinese team is the third to start the competition, although most Chinese do not take the concept of "Asia" seriously (we only have the concept of "China" and "foreign"), and there is no sense of collective honor in Asia. But even if it's just for yourself, the first game is a must-win.
However, the leaders of the Football Association grabbed credit for the convenience of the World Cup. Unexpectedly, before the game, there was a mobilization meeting that the international players hated the most, and as soon as this thing was opened, it was definitely in no state when the game was played. Fortunately, after the arguments of core players such as coach Alihan and Gao Jun, several leaders of the team shortened the time of the mobilization meeting to a quarter of an hour, and Gao Jun took the lead in listening to the Walkman without giving face, and those overseas players who were not too afraid of the Football Association have followed suit. The leaders of the Football Association spoke happily on the stage. Everyone just regarded it as a fart, and the negative impact of the mobilization meeting was reduced a lot
Gao Jun and other overseas international players will inevitably make the leaders of the Football Association, especially the chairman Xie Yalong, unhappy, but they are not too afraid. First, they all play overseas, and the Football Association can't reach it, and they don't have as much power as the Basketball Association. It's impossible to block it, at most it's just not allowed to enter the national team, but if those masters really do this, the national football performance will definitely decline sharply, which is tantamount to self-destruction. You must know that the national football performance is at its best now, if it suddenly declines sharply, the contrast is too obvious, and the above will definitely blame, which is different from the historical results that have been completely rotten anyway and can be broken.
Second, after all, everyone is just passive confrontation, and they did not openly stand up and slap their faces, these officials are very thick-skinned, just turn a blind eye, as long as the national football team can play a good game for them to win political results, this anger can still be tolerated
However, the reduction of negative impact does not mean that it is eliminated, and it is still difficult for the national football team, which has received some impact, to show the best state immediately after the start of the game. And Hiddink, who kept saying before the game that he wanted the Australian team to play defense, boldly discharged a three-forward formation, which was completely unexpected by the Chinese team coach Alihan
"Hiddink's starting line-up today was a bit of a surprise, not only did Cahill, who is rumored to have not fully recovered from injury, start, but he sent three strikers at once, is this going to play against us? Didn't Hiddink know the horror of the Chinese team's rapid counterattack? Huang Jianxiang was a little surprised.
"The rapid counterattack of the national football team is really powerful, but the 343 formation they use now is also afraid of strong attacks, especially the height and strength advantages of the Australian team are very obvious, and the three on our back line except for Yu Hai are all a little shorter, and the goalkeeper is also short. If Australia adopts the strategy of quickly passing through the midfield and directly attacking our penalty area with high-altitude bombing, it is actually more dangerous. The guest Zhang Lu's face was even more worried, but he didn't say anything to death, "But this style of play is also conducive to our quick counterattack, it depends on which side scores first, Hiddink is really a bet!" ”
At 15 o'clock local time on June 12, the match between the Chinese team and the Australian team in Group F of the German World Cup group stage finally started at the Fritz-Walter Stadium in Kaiserslautern, which was also the first game of Group F
The starting line of the Chinese team is not much different from the previous game against the French team, except that Xu Yunlong replaced Feng Xiaoting, who was injured and returned to China early, but he played right central defender after playing, and Feng Xiaoting's original dragging central defender was played by Zheng Zhilai, which can be said to have been completely unexpected.
The starting lineup of the Australian team stunned almost everyone, and the reported 433 formation is already terrible, and if you analyze it carefully, you will find that it is actually more than that, because the two fullbacks are offensive fullbacks with strong assist ability, and the three midfielders are still the inverted triangle configuration of double forward / shadow forward, so when attacking, the formation of the Australian team is actually 2144, and maybe even 307
"It's crazy! Usually only when the score is down, or when there is not much time left in the game, does anyone dare to do this, what is Hiddink thinking? Even many Australian journalists were frightened, and some even suspected that Hiddink was mentally wrong
Although he was a little unprepared for Hiddink's sudden change of formation, Alihan was unforgiving, and when he shook hands, he stared at this compatriot and colleague who was far more famous than himself and sneered, "I didn't expect you to be so jealous of our team!" But is it really okay to take such an adventure? ”
"To be able to score five goals against France in one game is something I can't help but fear, and your paper-like backline is also an irresistible temptation. I really can't imagine it, but you, a defender, are the first to put on a 343 formation in a key game like the World Cup", Hiddink said frankly with a calm face, with sarcasm in his tone, but also a little admiration.
However, the result of guessing the side made Hiddink's heart tighten suddenly, if the Chinese team kicks off first, can his starting lineup of only three pure defensive players withstand the opponent's first round of attack? Concentration is generally not good at the start of the game, but will the players be able to resolutely implement the targeted defensive strategy he developed before the game? Is the referee the same as he usually is, and will it change because this is a World Cup match?
The huge psychological pressure caused by these problems made Hiddink's palms soon drenched in cold sweat, and after Gao Jun of the Chinese team received the ball, Hiddink's pupils immediately constricted, because it was precisely because of this wonder boy's survival that the Chinese team was worth his risk
After Gao Jun got the ball, he was trying to make an unexpected personal breakthrough, who knew that he took a step forward with the ball, and the opponent's back waist directly shoveled him to the ground unceremoniously like a log, if it weren't for Gao Jun's strong sense of self-protection, nine times out of ten he would be injured. What is infuriating is that although the referee blew the whistle to stop the game, he only gave a verbal warning to the Australian team's back, and did not even take out the yellow card. This naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of the national football players and the sideline coach Alihan, but the Australian coach Hiddink breathed a sigh of relief and a calm smile appeared on his face (to be continued......