Chapter 46: Semi-final 1 Japan VS South Korea
Lee Bourne received a call from club teammate Peng Er the next morning. This guy said that he was here to report on the team's results in the last three rounds, but he said something after a long time. The young man said angrily: "What's the matter?" Don't dare to say anything? Can you still make a three-game losing streak? Hehe, if that's the case, sell you all to Tanzania next year to play in the African professional league."
Peng Er said in a hurry: "No matter how bad it is, you can't lose three times in a row, this Wanda tenacity is really enough.6 We won Yanbian 3:1 away, and Wanda was kicked 2:2 by Bayi away, which is two points ahead of us. Took the 13th and flew to Dalian to play away, and the last 10 minutes of the draw in hand let the sunspot (Zhang Enhua) top one, but they were one point behind them. Wanda played Shenhua two days ago, and it was a draw, we played with Quanxing at home, leading 1:0 for 78 minutes, and then... And then..."
"And then what's wrong? Look at your aggrieved look, and then what? Say, you're kicking yourself in the door, and it's not good to spit out."
"Holy! You know this, I've been brewing for a long time. Don't blame me! Quanxing's free kick in the frontcourt, Wei Qun didn't know what to think and ran up and kicked it, I was smothered in the face on the side of the human wall, took this shit luck, and actually entered! It's unreasonable."
"Oh, I think you played it yourself, then it's nothing, it's just bad luck. Wanda and Shenhua are even, and we are also flat, which is still 1 point behind. There's one last round, it's over, what are you afraid of."
"In the last round, we played Tianjin away, and Wanda flew to Chengdu to play Quanxing. We are confident in winning Samsung, but I'm afraid this Quanxing can't stop Wanda."
"I said that you guys are very interesting, just play your own, if Wanda wins, it means that the championship should be someone else's. Instead of thinking so much, prepare yourself. Do you really think Samsung is a soft persimmon? Look at the standings, it is estimated that Samsung is also playing on the relegation line, I can remind you, be careful Yu Genwei, don't overturn in the gutter. Wanda didn't win then, and you ended up playing blind by yourself. Go back and tell everyone that we have to concentrate more when it is critical, and we can't decide what is going on off the field."
"I know, I knew I wouldn't call you. A group of people didn't push me to call. Hang up, and train in the afternoon. I'm going to take a nap."
In fact, in the last round, the teenager knew that Wanda drew 2:2 away to Quanxing, but in his previous life, the Sun God lost to Tianjin Samsung 1:2 away, so he reminded his teammates to concentrate on playing the last round of the league. Sometimes life is like this, when it's time to win or lose, do everything you can do well, and the rest depends on whether God gives you this opportunity. But if you don't even do what you should do, and you still unrealistically fantasize that you are the pride of the sky and can have everything, then you are not far from losing. The boy actually watched it himself, and it was not easy to catch up with Wanda in the second half, you must know that the sun god in his previous life was only ranked seventh this season. I am fortunate to have gained, but I have lost my life. Being able to do it calmly and losing calmly is the winner in life. Now that I'm in South Korea, the only thing I need to focus on at the moment is the Asian Youth Championships.
In 1996, Syria's per capita GDP was basically the same as ours, about 900 US dollars. So their football team environment is much better than it is now. It's just that Syria and the national football team in the 90s really didn't have to play.
There was basically no suspense in the last group game, although Zheng Dongqi, the core of the wing, did not play, but the Chinese national youth with a large rotation still won the opponent 2:0. Wang Peng also took a rotational break, and Tian Ye and Zheng Zhi scored respectively. So far, the national youth has won all four games in the group stage, scored 15 goals, and entered the semifinals with a crushing momentum. The other teams that qualified were hosts South Korea and the United Arab Emirates.
In the semi-finals, the two group winners will face the other group runners-up. China vs UAE, South Korea vs Japan.
The match between South Korea and Japan was shaky, one was known as Asian Germany, full of tenacity and strong impact, and the other was under the tutelage of Brazilian football, focusing on ball control and overcoming rigidity with softness. The Japanese team learned the lesson of the first round of the group stage against China, and they no longer dared to put on a 3-5-2 formation, basically Atsushi Yanagisawa himself in front, Shinji Ono also retreated to the midfield, and added a defender.4-5-1 lineup plus their strong control in the midfield, the last three games of the group stage were also smooth sailing to get a winning streak. South Korea's national youth team played well with 3 wins and 1 draw in the group stage, but they didn't win the game against Saudi Arabia.
The lineup of the Japanese team has been introduced earlier, and the same South Korean national youth is not bad at all, the main lineup is left back Lee Young-pyo, central defender Cho Se-kwon, right back Park Jae-hong, the back is Song Jong Kook and Kim Nam Il, the center forward Park Ji-sung, the front is Ko Jong-so, the left and right wingers Xue Qixuan and Lee Tianxiu, and the center Lee Dong-guk. It can be said that the lineup of these two teams, after 5-10 years, is basically these 20 people on the field, and they can be regarded as loving and killing each other for a lifetime.
The game was quite a bit of a Mars hitting the earth, the Korean team's style of play was already strong, and the madness in the bones of the Japanese was also stimulated. In the first half, both sides received 4 yellow cards, and the score was 1:1, from this half alone, the South Korean team took the initiative, the pace of the game was successfully accelerated by them, and Japan's possession advantage was basically not brought into play. It was probably also the first match between China and Japan, and the Koreans were inspired by it, and it was Hidetoshi Nakata who scored the goal, and the Japanese team, which did not produce many good strikers, lost the rhythm of the game, and the forwards received even less support. The fragmented athletic battle eventually changed the score with a free-kick in the 33rd minute, but the Japanese were not happy for long, as the game was equalised by the South Koreans in the 40th minute. Xue Qixuan took advantage of the cover of his teammates from the left side to dribble the ball horizontally to the front of the penalty area in the middle, and hit an earth-shattering world wave with his backfoot, which flew straight to the upper right corner of the goal with strong external spin.
After the halftime adjustment, the Japanese team stabilized the rhythm in the second half, in this situation that requires more patience, it is obvious that the Japanese are more dominant, and they have many opportunities in front of the goal, if it were not for the extraordinary performance of several players in the backfield of the South Korean team, this game is estimated to have no suspense. But I often walk by the river, how can I not get my shoes wet. In the 27th minute of the second half, Hidetoshi Nakata retreated to the midfield to get the ball, and after observing a moment, a through ball that penetrated the opponent's defense line of 4 people was accurately handed over to Atsushi Yanagisawa on the front line, who also lived up to the efforts of his teammates, took a step forward after receiving the ball, and fired a low shot before the defender interfered with the foot, and the score became 2:1 Japan lead. In the next 37th minute, Shunsuke Nakamura on the left side made a 45-degree diagonal pass to the back of the penalty area, and Motoyama Ya Ya volleyed the ball from a small angle without stopping, and the Japanese team took a two-goal lead. After that, the Japanese team began to slow down the tempo and deliberately consume time, while the South Korean team pressed on the army, and even left-back Lee Young-pyo also mentioned the midfield position. The South Korean team frantically played around the Japanese team's penalty area, they couldn't accept such a result when they played at home, and they heard that the brothers on the other half of the island were sent to dig coal if they didn't perform well, and after the first game of the group stage barely beat Malaysia, some fans proposed not to win the championship and send this group of people to North Korea to find their cousin to dig coal together. In the end, the Koreans still couldn't do it, and even the Japanese team almost rewrote the score to 4:1 on a counterattack, but unfortunately Shinji Ono's final shot hit the far post and bounced off the bottom line. After the game, Shinji Ono said in an interview that the shot was interfered with by the South Korean players, when he clearly heard Song Jong Kook's desperate shouts behind him, and he was also frightened, but the ball did not score.
The Japanese team took the lead in the final, and Li Bourne, who witnessed the whole game in the stands, and his teammates felt that the Japanese team played more calmly than the first game of the group stage, and this final was afraid that it would not be easy to play. In the end, it was Coach Tang Pengju who reminded everyone that we still haven't played in the semifinals. It was only then that the focus was back on the semi-final against the UAE.