Chapter 1235: The Crucial Second Battle (Part I)
After the first round of the group stage of the World Cup, only Ghana, which is in the same group as the Chinese team, won the African team. The Asian teams www.biquge.info Japan beat Cameroon 1-0 and South Korea beat Greece 2-0, showing the world fans the style of the old Asian powerhouses.
The overall performance of European teams is average, only Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Slovenia have won four teams, while the American teams have won three games, although there are few, and Paraguay has drawn with Italy, Uruguay has drawn with France, and the United States has drawn with England.
The Chinese team is the second time to participate in the World Cup finals, with a superstar like Chen Yu in charge, and was beaten by the German team 4:1, before the game, many people regarded the Chinese team as a dark horse, and now they are also disappointed, thinking that the Chinese team as a whole is too poor, even if there is a Chen Yu, it is not enough to make a qualitative change in China, which is very different from Shevchenko's Ukraine, don't look at Ukraine did not enter the World Cup finals before the 06 World Cup in Germany, but the level of the players is very high, and the personal ability of the Chinese team is too bad.
Originally, in Group D, the Chinese team's qualifying odds were the penultimate one, and after a round of games, the Chinese team's group qualifying odds were almost on par with North Korea, New Zealand, and Algeria.
There are three games in the group stage, and if you don't play well in the first round, the second round is very important, and if you don't play well in both rounds, your fate will not be in your own hands.
The host South African team faced the South American powerhouse Uruguay in the second round, the South African team drew with Mexico in the first game, and this round was desperate to win, but Uruguay played very old, making full use of the South African team's eagerness to score a goal, playing a counterattack by South Africa, and after the score lead, the defense was solid, and two goals were scored in the 80th minute and stoppage time, defeating the host 3:0, the South African team lost one and drew one in two games, and in the other game, Mexico defeated France 2:0, so that after two rounds, Mexico, Uruguay have the initiative to qualify from the group, while the fate of South Africa and France, who are also drawn and lost, is no longer in their own hands.
South Korea, who beat Greece in the first round of Group B, had their ambitions to reach the round of 16 again, but they were beaten by Argentina with a score of 1:4 for the Koreans to finally understand what a world powerhouse is.
In the other game, the Greek team defeated Nigeria 2-1 and greatly increased their hopes of qualifying.
After two rounds, Argentina, which won two games in a row, basically qualified, while South Korea won one and lost one, Greece won one and lost one, and there was still a fight in the last round, Nigeria lost both games, and the hope of promotion could only be pinned on beating South Korea, while Argentina beat Greece at the same time.
The second round of Group C was friendly, with both games drawn, with favourites England drawing two games in a row, which was a real surprise, while Slovenia, with one win and one draw, took their fate into their own hands.
Group D Germany and Serbia took the lead in the game, originally thought that this was a game without suspense, the German team defeated Serbia to qualify in advance, but the Serbs did not believe in evil, they defended tenaciously, and finally succeeded in the upset, defeating the German team 1:0, seizing the first hand to qualify.
Serbia's upset has turned the tide of Group D into disarray.
Originally, it was thought that the German team would steadily occupy a qualifying place, and when Germany played Ghana in the last round, it may not be hard to fight, so Ghana does not have to beat the Chinese team, and a draw is acceptable, but now Ghana must beat the Chinese team to ensure that the group qualifies, if Ghana can't beat the Chinese team, and Serbia defeats the Chinese team, Ghana can't beat the German team in the last round, then Germany and Serbia will qualify.
The match between Ghana and China was moved to the Royal Bamphoken Stadium in Rustenburg, which was built just this year and can only accommodate 38,000 people.
This is the life-and-death battle of the Chinese team, although the strength of the Chinese team is weak, but many fans of the Chinese team still very much want to see Chen Yu lead the Chinese team to create a miracle, so there are still more than 10,000 fans of the Chinese team, more than the fans of Ghana.
The starting line of the Chinese team is exactly the same as the starting point of the German team in the last game, but the formation in the actual game is not the same, Gao Fei, Zheng Hua, and **** are still in front of the two central defenders, but the positions of Chen Yu and Shao Gang are slightly advanced, forming a 4321 formation.
This is a Christmas tree formation, of course, the technical and tactical ability of the Chinese team is much worse than that of AC Milan, and the purpose of this is only to further increase Chen Yu's threat to the Ghana goal.
Ghana fielded a 4231 formation: 22-Kingston/4-Panthiel, 19-Adi, 8-Honasan Mensa, 2-Sarpe/6-Annan, 12-Tago, 21-Asamoah, 23-P-Boateng, 13-Anyu/3-Gian
This formation is exactly the same as the one that Ghana beat Serbia used in the first round, not to mention that there is only one striker, but because of the speed and impact of the black man, he is actually a big threat to the opponent's goal.
Ghana's strength is undoubted, to beat Serbia, by no means the Chinese team can be compared, but this is not Ghana's strongest lineup, Ghana's biggest star Essien missed this World Cup due to injury, and another star Muntari because of the injury recovery, poor form, can only play a substitute, now Ghana's most famous stars are Boateng and Asamoah.
But even without Essien, only half of Muntari, the overall strength of the Ghana team is stronger than that of the Chinese team.
Affected by the score of the German team and the Chinese team, the Ghanaians did not take the Chinese team too seriously, they attacked fiercely from the beginning, and were very eager to finish the game with an early goal, and firmly grasp the initiative of qualifying in their own hands.
The Chinese team is very aware of their situation, they have lost a game, and conceded a lot of goals, whether this game is a loss or a draw, they can not be ranked behind Ghana, if you want to qualify from the group, you must win Ghana, in the pre-match team meeting, Forado and the coaching staff clearly put forward the goal, this game to strive for a win, to keep the hope of qualifying.
The tactics of the Chinese team against Ghana are, of course, defensive counterattacks.
The Chinese team's defensive counterattack is not useful to the German team, it is almost like a paper paste, that is because the German team is tall, the header is excellent, and the physical strength and technology comprehensively suppress the Chinese team, the Chinese team really can't hold it, but Ghana is different.
The Ghanaian's technique is indeed good, his physical fitness is strong, and his explosiveness and speed are good, but after the Chinese team's intensive defense, the Ghanaian's speed and individual breakthrough are not of much use.
Even if they can get the opportunity to take set-pieces, Ghana's players' header ability is not comparable to that of the German team, even if it is not much better than the Chinese team, and the title of China's top team is not given in vain, so that the Ghana team will not have much threat to get set-pieces.
After the opening of the Chinese team, they honestly occupied their own half of the court to play defensive counterattacks, fouled once they encountered danger, and resolutely did not give the Ghanaians a chance to break through to their own penalty area.
In the face of the stubborn defense of the Chinese team, the Ghanaians did not have any good chances, they watched a lot of time on the ball, and often had beautiful breakthroughs in the midfield, and from time to time they had to play the players of the Chinese team at their feet, but once they reached the 30-meter area of the Chinese team, they could no longer attack, and could only harass them outside with their boots.
This scene is very familiar to Chinese fans, because in the 08 Olympic Games, the Chinese Olympic team was so grinding to death the African eagle Nigeria.
Of course, the Chinese team will not just defend and not attack, there is no defense without counterattack, the Chinese team has been looking for opportunities to counterattack, but after the start, Ghana is still more cautious, and the Chinese team has not found a chance to counterattack.
Fifteen minutes later, the score was still 0-0, and the Ghana team only had three long-range shots, which did not pose any threat to the Chinese team's goal, which made the Ghanaians a little anxious, and they increased their attacking efforts, storming around the Chinese team's penalty area, and increasing the number of breakthrough crosses from the wing.
Under Ghana's strong attack, the Chinese team's defense struggled, and the Ghanaians continued to get the opportunity to shoot, and there was a push shot in the penalty area against goalkeeper Zeng Lei, but Ghana's striker shooting skills were average, and he didn't grasp one of the three good opportunities.
Although there was no goal, but the continuous killing still made the Ghanaians a little carried away, the Africans were already free and loose, lacked discipline, played up, and soon forgot about defense, thinking about breaking through the door of the Chinese team as soon as possible, causing a disconnect between the three lines, the midfielder and the striker pressed in front and the back line dragged behind.
In the 23rd minute of the game, Ghana hit the wall at the front of the Chinese team's penalty area, and the ball was cut off by the Chinese team and passed to the feet of Sun Hai, Sun Hai did not hesitate to make a long pass to the gap between Ghana's midfielder and defender, he didn't even look at the position of Chen Yu and Qu Bo, he believed that these two people must have someone to run this gap.
Sure enough, Qu Bo ran this gap, Chen Yu had just retreated to defend and was running at high speed, but one step slower than Qu Bo.
Qu Bo gave Chen Yu a header, and he turned around and ran forward, wanting Chen Yu to play him a through ball or an overhead ball.
However, the Ghanaian defender's turn and chase speed is very fast, and although Qu Bo is known for his speed in the Chinese team, he can't get rid of the Ghanaian defender Adi.
Qu Bo couldn't shake off Adi, Chen Yu didn't dare to pass the ball, he could only break forward with the ball.
Gnathan, Ghana's other centre-back, did not dare to step up and quickly retreated to wait for support from the full-backs.
Hornassan was worried about Chen Yu's breakthrough, retreating a little fast, and the fullback was also very fast, Chen Yu wanted to break through the black defender with excellent physical fitness, it was not easy, he advanced to within 30 meters, and decisively chose to shoot from a distance.