Chapter 13: Defeat in the first battle
Although the performance of the Chinese team is not bad, and the rhythm of the offensive and defensive ends has not made major mistakes so far, it is still a little immature compared to the experienced major players of the Argentine team. It was obvious on the field that the national football players were a little nervous, their technical movements were stiff, and there was some hesitation to play the ball.
It is this seemingly insignificant difference that has led to the fact that the national football team has been at a disadvantage, the Argentine team's offense is very smooth, and the Chinese team players can only be exhausted on the field. Keeping the backline solid for a short period of time is not a big problem, but it is bound to make mistakes over time.
In the 19th minute of the first half, the Argentine team's right side of the wing Ott blessed the ball to break through, the left back Sun Jihai and the left back Wu Chengying stepped forward to attack, the old horse stepped forward to respond, Li Byrne could only follow Maradona from the middle. The latter received Ortega's ball and then half-turned and passed back to Redondo, who was inserted forward, this time Redondo took advantage of the gap left by Li Byrne and Maradona to find the retreating Batistuta who retreated, Jia Wenpeng gave up the side of Veron to make up for Li Byrne's position, the god of war Barty bounced the ball to Veron on the outside of his right foot, and then Veron passed the ball to the far point of the Chinese team's penalty area, Crespo had already started when Batty retreated to receive the ball, and Fan Zhiyi followed the defense in a timely manner.
Who knows that Crespo jumped up and struggled to push the ball back to the big penalty area line, Ortega and Maradona started to cut forward at high speed at the same time, Wu Chengying and Sun Jihai first time double side shovel little donkey Ortega, but when the ball did not land, it was already passed by Ortega towards the middle of the penalty area, Li Bern was also very focused, and did not leave the old horse a chance to break through the penalty area. Na Cheng thought that Argentina's fast-paced and fluent attack in the end, the final kick was reserved for Batistuta, and the old horse leaked the ball to Batty on his side with a false shot in the middle, who met the ball and volleyed hard.
Fortunately, it was the first shot on goal after the opening, and Batistuta's kick went over the crossbar, and the Chinese team was lucky.
Obviously, even with up to three people in front of the Chinese team's back line, it is still difficult to stop the Argentine team's attack, which is why running without the ball has been emphasized in previous training, and the Pampas Eagles, who have a team-low of 77, undoubtedly know this. In the next 15 minutes, under the stormy offensive of the Argentine team, the national football players gritted their teeth and tried their best to defend every time, and the intensity of the warm-up game was really incomparable with the official game.
On the other hand, the Argentines were also surprised by the tenacious defense of the Chinese team, and they did not expect a team to participate in the World Cup for the first time to hold out for so long without making a big mistake. So immediately after the World Cup, the Chinese team suffered a big loss.
Time passed minute by minute, and seeing that the national football team survived the long first half in a few minutes, the players relaxed a little and were seized by the Argentine team. Maradona played more of a drop back to receive the ball, reduced his own ball-carrying breakthroughs, and played the role of the team's playmaker in the midfield. In the 39th minute of the first half, Li Burn steals and fouls and puts down the old horse, the latter sits on the ground and smiles and stretches out his hand to signal Li Burn to pull him up, and then the two just hold hands together, Maradona, the dead man, pulls hard, borrows his strength and runs forward, and at the same time Almeida next to him quickly sends a free kick.
This time, the old horse finally got rid of Li Boen's dogskin plaster like a close marking, first passed Sun Jihai, who made up the defense, and then faked the side in front of Wu Chengying, the center of gravity turned to the middle, and then used Crespo's cover and Barty's running position to pull the Chinese team's back line, the old horse in front of Fan Zhiyi a Marseille maneuver, and then pulled and shook off Zhang Enhua's defense, Maradona, who broke into the penalty area, easily pushed the near point in the face of Ou Chuliang, and the Argentine team finally took the lead before halftime.
At halftime, the coaching staff in the locker room of the national football team tried to make some targeted changes according to the situation in the first half. The players were asked to go on the attack in the second half, and the backline was changed from the previous man-to-man defense to zone defense. Lee Bern moved up from midfield to central midfield, with the aim of using his individual ability to play a few effective counter-attacks.
After the start of the second half, the Chinese team launched an offensive as soon as the ball kicked off, and the continuous inverted foot passes between Li Boen, Peng Weiguo and Zheng Dongqi on the right side also appeared to be smooth. The main reason is that Argentina's starting defensive intensity in this game is average, the old horse in the middle is a foot that can be stretched if the ball is around, and basically will not spend excess physical energy on defense, and Veron is not known for his defensive ability, which is to have the entire left side of the Argentine team's defense pressed on Almeida and Zanetti. What's more, Argentina's 3 central defenders also limited the defensive range of the teenager Zanetti, and basically the three people on the right side of the Chinese team easily broke through Almeida's defense.
Taking advantage of the loopholes in the Argentine team's lineup, the Chinese team completed a threatening attack in the opening 4 minutes. Li Byrne sent a straight ball over the top to the right side across Almeida, and Zheng Dongqi himself pulled extremely wide, which is also the coaching staff's deliberate play style of the Argentine team's 3 central defenders, making full use of the width of the field to tear apart the opponent's defense. Lao Qi received the ball in the vacant position and rushed to the baseline defense line, and observed that Zanetti had pounced towards him in the high-speed run, Zheng Dongqi crossed the ball with a low flat foot, the timing of the ball was still okay, but unfortunately the quality was poor.
Peng Weiguo, Li Jinyu, and then Li Byrne, sandwiched Argentina's Almeida, Chamot, and Redondo in the middle. As a result, the ball was too close to the goalkeeper and no one touched it, giving Moa, the actor of the game, a chance to appear in vain.
Without waiting for these people to get up, the veteran Moa rushed to the penalty area line with the ball and threw it out, and the ball went to the old horse in the middle. Lee Byrne had just gotten up at this point. The Chinese team's defense is going to play less and more this time, there is no way, who let their own offense not play more and less before.
Jia Wenpeng posted it for the first time and planned to give Maradona a moment and delay the time through tactical fouls, but the old horse ran a few steps back against the incoming ball, widening the distance between himself and Jia Wenpeng, and at the same time bounced the ball to Redondo behind him with his pectoralis major muscle. The latter pressed the ball high with the outside of his left foot and gave a precise pass to find Veron.
The white wizard Veron cut in horizontally with the ball, and Batistuta and Crespo on the penalty line also ran to the left side at the same time, Fan Zhiyi and Zhang Enhua followed, and the gap behind them came out. Veron crossed the gap behind Zhang Enhua diagonally, Ortega quickly stepped forward to receive the pass along the sideline of the big penalty area, and then a horizontal pass penetrated the defense of the national football team, and Batistuta in the middle swept the goal, Argentina 2:0 China.
In the following game, the national football team also completely let go of its hands and feet and began to press up and attack Argentina, Passarella quickly made adjustments when he saw this, replacing Veron, Almeida and Crespo, and Simone, Worm López and Vivas, the right wing-back who played for the Swiss powerhouse Lugano. Argentina's formation became 4-3-3.
Lopes and Ortega on either side of the front line have good breakthrough ability, plus two full-backs and Redondo insert assists, the old horse still plays the role of the team's brain in the midfield. This change has made the Chinese team's three backs become chicken ribs, which is equivalent to becoming the target of the Argentine team's attack, everyone is plugged in the back row, Ortega and the worm López's retreat responds, although there are fewer people in the midfield, but Argentina's offense has been revitalized, and the old horse also has more space to break through, and at the same time, it also involves more China's defensive energy.
In the end, the Argentine scored another goal in the 32nd minute of the second half, and the worm Lopes scored a single knife against offside, and Argentina led by 3 goals.
However, the Chinese team also achieved a breakthrough of 0, and in the 41st minute of the second half, Li Boen's overhead pass was hit into the corner of the goal by Li Jinyu's difficult half-turn volley.
The 1:3 score is still acceptable for the national football team participating in the World Cup for the first time, especially our opponent is the strong Argentina team.