Chapter 480: Gold Medal
The media called this national Olympic team "the strongest Olympic team in history", and it is not blind touting. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ļ½ļ½ļ½Uļ½Eć infoBecause this national Olympic team is actually very strong in terms of player strength.
Looking at the players, they have five outstanding overseas players, which is the key to why they are the "strongest in history".
Zhou Yi, who plays for Borussia Dortmund and is the absolute main core of the team.
performed well in Atletico Madrid and secured Sun Pan, the main goalkeeper of Atletico Madrid.
Schalke 04's midfielder Yang Muge.
Siena's defensive stalwart Guo Nu.
Valladolid's main striker, the silver boot scorer of La Liga, and the hero who helped Valladolid finally promote success.
These five are absolute mainstays at their respective clubs, which is rare among previous foreign players. In the past, Chinese players stayed abroad, and being able to play as a rotation player in their club is the highest achievement, and it is not bad to be able to play as a substitute. But these five people are all the main force, and the five of them account for half of the national Olympic team.
In addition, the national Olympic team also has outstanding young players in China, including Wang Dalei, Wu Lei, and Zhang Linpeng, who are also main players in their respective clubs and have been honed in the professional league early.
Before this national Olympic team, the strongest national Olympic team in history was the team led by Xu Genbao in 1992, although the team finally suffered a black three-minute miss to the Barcelona Olympics, but that team finally emerged a number of stars, Hao Dong and Fan Zhiyi were well-deserved Asian best in their respective positions at that time. In addition to the two of them, Li Bin, Peng Weiguo, Xu Hong, Jiang Jing, and Hu Zhijun were also stars in the early days of the establishment of the A League at that time.
But even in that team at that time, no one was able to play in the teams of the five major European leagues, or even become the core.
Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that this national Olympic team is the strongest national Olympic team in history, and it is well deserved.
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The Chinese Olympic team took time to go to the Great Hall of the People on July 10, which was also the first time that Zhou Yi and his team entered the Great Hall of the People in order to participate in the inaugural meeting of the Chinese Olympic sports delegation.
Except for 1988 and 2008, the inauguration ceremony of the previous Olympic team has little to do with the Chinese men's football team. Compared with those famous players who have participated in many Olympic Games, Zhou Yi is a complete newcomer.
They saw a lot of sports stars who could only be seen on TV before, and although they were stars themselves, many players were still star chasers in front of the Olympic stars. Zhou Yi got the autograph and group photo of badminton world champion Lin Dan, and then ran back to show off to his teammates.
The others also gained something, so Sun Pan looked around, frowning and not acting.
"What are you looking at?" Zhou Yi asked.
"I'm looking for Ai Fukuhara......"
"Ai Fukuhara?" Zhou Yi was very strange.
"yes, why didn't she come?"
"it! they're Japanese!"
Sun Pan was stunned when he heard Zhou Yi's words, and it took a long time to react and pat his head: "Damn! I always think she is a standard Northeasterner!"
"It turns out that you like Ai Fukuhara's type of girl......" Zhou Yi looked at Sun Pan with thoughtful eyes.
"No, no, no!" Sun Pan hurriedly waved his hand. "I like any type of girl!"
"......" Facing such a shameless Sun Pan, Zhou Yi was speechless.
Yang Muge squeezed through the crowd and returned to them.
"How's the harvest?" Zhou Yi asked.
Yang Muge picked up a photo and said, "I want a photo of Director Liu." ā
Zhou Yi took the photo and looked at it: "Liu Guoliang?"
Yang Muge nodded: "It's a little pity, I actually want Zhang Yining's autograph, but she has retired......"
Many players of the National Olympic team have gone to the stars of other sports to ask for autographs and group photos, compared to the National Olympic team, which is relatively deserted, and no one has come to them for autographs and group photos. After all, in comparison, the image of Chinese football is too far from those Olympic stars.
There are exceptions.
Zhou Yi was chatting with his friends when a tall figure suddenly appeared in the National Olympic team, he was so eye-catching that everyone stopped chatting and turned their attention to him - Sun Yang, a young teenager who won the World Swimming Championships in Shanghai last year and broke the world record.
"Hi. Sun Yang raised his hand to say hello to everyone, and then went straight to Zhou Yi. "Zhou Yi, let's take a group photo?"
Zhou Yi pointed to himself with some surprise: "Me?"
"That's right. Sun Yang grinned. "I'm your fan!"
With that, he pulled out his phone.
"I'll help you. Yang Muge took the initiative to say. Sun Yang handed him the phone.
Then he leaned down slightly, put his arm around Zhou Yi's shoulders, and the two stood together and completed a group photo.
After the group photo, Sun Yang took the mobile phone, and then gave Zhou Yi a thumbs up: "I watched your game in Dortmund, it's really super powerful! I used to think that only Xavi and Pirlo could play football like that, but I didn't expect us to have it in China! Come on in the Olympics, as long as I have time, I will also watch you play!"
After speaking, he waved goodbye to the other players of the national Olympic team.
"Oh! amazing!" As soon as Sun Yang left, some players of the National Olympic team exclaimed. When Sun Yang broke the world record at the World Swimming Championships last year, it was a beautiful time, and even athletes in other sports have heard of his name. He is known as a talented teenager in the world of swimming.
I didn't expect him to be a fan of Zhou Yi?
Everyone's exclamation was not over, and someone came over to take a photo with Zhou Yi. This time came Ma Long, a player from the Chinese table tennis men's team.
Next, people came to Zhou Yi one after another to take photos and sign autographs.
The teammates next to them were dizzying, and at this time, many of them suddenly realized that in fact, there were also big stars in their national Olympic team whose influence exceeded that of this sport!
This makes the players of the national Olympic team a little proud.
Zhou Yi is indeed the number one star of the national Olympic team, although there are five foreign players, but the most dazzling is obviously Zhou Yi. Even in the media interview after the inaugural meeting, Zhou Yi was interviewed by a national TV station as a representative of the national Olympic team.
When asked how he felt about participating in the Olympics for the first time, he said: "I was very excited and excited, I could only watch the Olympics in front of the TV before, and I didn't expect to have the opportunity to participate in the Olympics in person. ā
This answer is actually quite decent.
However, his answer to the next question surprised the reporters and teammates present.
When the reporter asked Zhou Yi what his goals or prospects for participating in the Olympic Games for the first time, Zhou Yi smiled and said: "Play against excellent teams and players from all over the world, and then win the championship." ā
After Zhou Yi finished speaking, the reporter who interviewed him was stunned, and the teammates behind him were also stunned.
Except for the five little dragons, they were all stunned.
If they heard it right, Zhou Yi just said "champion"?
"This ...... I'm sorry, I can repeat it again......" The reporter was also a little confused, and she confirmed to Zhou Yi.
"Well, champion, I hope we can win it at the Olympics. That's my personal vision for the Olympics. Zhou Yi repeated, and this time he said it more clearly. Everyone heard him say, "I hope we can win gold at the Olympics."
Is Zhou Yi crazy?
The reporter was shocked and suddenly realized that it might be a big news, so she hurriedly asked: "Why do you bring it up like this, so ...... Such a high goal?" She stammered in fright.
Zhou Yi continued to smile and answer reporters' questions: "I think this is a goal that is in line with the Olympic spirit, right? Higher, faster and stronger, if the gold medal is the highest goal, then we should work towards the highest goal." The Olympic Games, which are held every four years, are once in a lifetime for us who play football, and of course we must strive to do our best. ā
"So...... This goal of the gold medal is a kind of self-motivation?" the reporter asked.
Zhou Yi nodded.
She saw Zhou Yi nodding and breathed a sigh of relief - this explanation is normal, not that Zhou Yi really wants to win the championship, but regards the championship as a motivation to struggle. That's much more acceptable.
This is the end of the interview with Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi and his teammates are about to leave the Great Hall of the People and return to the training base in Xiangshan to continue the training.
His teammates surrounded Zhou Yi on the way back: "Zhou Yi, the goal of that championship is for you to tease reporters, right?"
This situation is actually quite common, and in the face of the media camera, everyone will involuntarily or painstakingly say something beautiful.
"Nope. Unexpectedly, Zhou Yi shook his head.
"Huh?!" Everyone was shocked - could it be that Zhou Yi was serious?"Are you serious?!"
"Otherwise, what do you think?" Sun Pan next to him couldn't help but ask rhetorically.
For a while, everyone looked at each other, and they were a little unacceptable.
Olympic gold medal!
Everyone loved it, but everyone knew how far away it was. It is never easy to win a gold medal at the Olympics, and even table tennis, China's traditional dominant sport, is often very nervous.
Not to mention that football is a traditionally weak sport in China......
"Don't look at me like that, it's not impossible to win a gold medal, as long as we keep in good shape and play well, I think there is still a chance. Zhou Yi said to everyone. "We are not the first Chinese team to participate in the Olympic Games, but we can be the first Chinese team to win a gold medal, isn't it cool?"
"Cool is cool, but Zhou Yi, it's too difficult, right?"
I think that's the case, first of all, we have to believe in ourselves, and secondly, we can really do what others think we can't do. If we think it's impossible, how can we really achieve it? If our goal is to qualify from the group, will everyone think that this is the end of the group?"
Someone said, "How can it end here? Who wouldn't want to go further?"
"That's right!" Zhou Yi slapped his face. "If you want to go further, would it be better?"
Now everyone looked at each other and roughly understood what Zhou Yi meant.
Zhou Yi continued: "The knockout round is the quarterfinals, and the further is the semi-finals, and then the ...... Damn, isn't this the final? Now that we're all in the final, why don't you try to win the championship?"
There was silence in the carriage of this rhetorical question.
Everyone seemed to be lost in thought.
Zhou Yi didn't continue to explain, he sat down, and Sun Pan next to him leaned over and asked him: "Isn't the Olympic spirit focused on participation?"
Zhou Yi glanced at him: "That's just an excuse made by losers to comfort themselves." ā