Chapter 126 Everyone's Focus
The first warm-up match of the Chinese team was Iran, and the venue was in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province.
Henan fans have given high enthusiasm for the Chinese national team's game.
This is not only because the Chinese team has Zhou Yi, but also because of the achievements Gao Hongbo has led the team since taking office.
Especially in the recent competition, the East Asian Final Four, also known as the East Asian Cup.
The Chinese team performed very well in the East Asian Cup at the beginning of this year. Because Zhou Yi was not recruited, almost no one had confidence in them.
However, when the game started, the performance of the Chinese team surprised everyone. They tied the host Japan in the first game, and then defeated South Korea with a score of 3:0 at Ainosu Stadium, ending the Chinese team's 32-year Korean fear.
Especially in this second game, the Chinese team played in a heart-stirring manner, and Deng Zhuoxiang's goal was even more exciting and impressive.
This is the best game played by the Chinese national team since Gao Hongbo took office.
In the end, the Chinese team defeated Hong Kong, China and won the East Asian Cup championship. This was the championship again after 2006.
Next, in the warm-up match before the South African World Cup, Deng Zhuoxiang made a beautiful elevator free kick, allowing the Chinese team to defeat the world champion France 1-0.
These games have brought great satisfaction to Chinese fans.
Therefore, Gao Hongbo has a high reputation among Chinese fans, and this national team has also received great praise.
In the past national team games, there were no people in the stands, there were very few spectators, and the market was bleak.
Now, the national team's game can also make the stands overcrowded.
Chinese fans have passed the darkest moments, and it is actually easy to satisfy them now. As long as the players work hard in the game, even if they don’t win, they are happy and play wonderful football.
Even if it is a friendly match, they will be very happy if they can win.
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Zhou Yi did not participate in the warm-up matches before the World Cup because he wanted special training and had no time and energy to fly around and participate in the competition.
For this reason, Zhou Yi also communicated specifically with the team's head coach Gao Hongbo, and obtained Gao Hongbo's understanding and support.
To the outside world, Gao Hongbo said that Zhou Yi played a successful season, but he was physically tired and needed rest. So he was not recruited in these warm-up matches.
His decision certainly aroused doubts from domestic media and fans, but Gao Hongbo still withstood the pressure. The Chinese team without Zhou Yi performed well in the warm-up match, which also made the doubts disappear.
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In the first warm-up match against Iran, Zhou Yi only played halftime, appeared and was replaced during the halftime break. The entire Chinese team seemed to be out of shape, and it would be useless no matter how powerful Zhou Yi was.
In the end, the Chinese team lost 1:3 to the Asian powerhouse Iran.
I died of warm-up in the second game against Paraguay. Zhou Yi was not on the roster and came on as a substitute in the second half.
Both the Chinese team's mental outlook and personal performance are better than the previous game. In the end, they tied Paraguay 1:1 with the World Cup quarterfinals.
Zhou Yi launched an attack during the game. He passed the football to Feng Renliang. Feng Renliang got the ball forward and then passed it. Gao Lin, who followed up in the middle, headed the ball into the goal.
This goal scored the kind of pass-by football that Gao Hongbo has always emphasized.
It also ignited the atmosphere on the scene.
Commentator Liu Hong was very excited: "This is the Chinese team we want to see! This is the football we want to see!"
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After two warm-up matches, Zhou Yi took a plane to leave China and returned to Germany that night.
Next there is a league game, and then the Champions League.
Because there will be a Champions League game next, and I just participated in the national team game, Zhou Yi was not arranged in this game.
And not only Zhou Yi, but also many players were placed on the bench by Klopp, or were not on the roster at all.
It can be seen that at this time, Dortmund's center of gravity had shifted to the Champions League.
After seven seasons, Dortmund will certainly pay more attention to the Champions League.
Dortmund, who gave up the league, finally lost 0:2 to Wolfsburg in the third round of the league.
Zhou Yi worked on the bench for 75 minutes, but he only appeared in the last fifteen minutes, and he was unable to make up for the situation. At that time, Dortmund was already behind two goals.
The media did not blame this failure. Everyone knows that Dortmund's mind is not at all in the league, and their hearts have already flown to the mid-week Champions League.
In fact, not only the team, but also the media fans' minds have gone to the Champions League. The victory or defeat of a league is not important, and compared with the Champions League, the league is nothing at all.
Everyone is full of expectations for Dortmund's debut in the Champions League after seven years.
Especially... Chinese media and Chinese fans.
They seem more excited than the German media and fans.
After all, this is Zhou Yi's debut in the Champions League and the first Chinese player since Sun Xiang's appearance in the Champions League.
As the highest-level stage in European football and even world football, the Champions League has always been unattainable for Chinese players.
Before Zhou Yi, two Chinese players made appearances in the Champions League. The first was Sun Xiang, who played for Eindhoven at the time. He was also the peak of Chinese players' performance in the Champions League. He played in a total of four Champions League games, playing 168 minutes, and played for the team in the Champions League, playing all over the game... These are the records of Chinese players in the Champions League.
His pinnacle was on March 7, 2007. Einho made a 1-1 draw at the Emirates Stadium, and he played the game and played the whole game. In the 82nd minute, the team had not yet created a frontcourt free kick, and Einhoven used this free kick to tie the score.
In addition to Sun Xiang, there is another Chinese player Dong Fangzhuo. On December 12, 2007, he came on as a substitute in the 72nd minute of the Champions League match against Roma away from home, making him the first Chinese player to appear in the Champions League field for a giant like Manchester United.
Next, no Chinese player can make his debut in the Champions League.
In this regard, Chinese players and Japanese players are a very different gap.
But now Zhou Yi has changed the embarrassing side of Chinese football.
If nothing unexpected happens, he will play in Dortmund's away game against Valencia. He will be the second Chinese player to play in the Champions League after Sun Xiang.
And he will be more worthy of everyone's expectations than Sun Xiang, because he will not just create a free kick for the team, which will make the media and fans excited. If Zhou Yi only performed like that, it would be disappointing.
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The whole Dortmund team left Dortmund two days in advance and flew to Valencia.
When he was at the airport, Zhou Yi, as a core player of Dortmund, was given the focus of Spanish journalists, and they all threw the problem to Zhou Yi.
When Zhou Yi faced the reporters who were surging like a tide, he dealt with them very calmly and calmly, with a general style, and was not at all nervous.
He faced a series of tongue-ticks and repeated in English with a calm expression: "sorry, i_dont_undetand (sorry, I don't understand)."
When Spanish journalists discovered that Zhou Yi would respond to them in English, the dispute style changed to English questions, but they still had a strong Spanish accent.
In response to this, Zhou Yi responded to all changes in the same way and said in Chinese: "I'm sorry, I don't understand what you are talking about..."
The Spanish journalists were completely stunned.
Taking advantage of the opportunity when the reporters were stunned, Zhou Yi calmly passed through them.
People always say that learning more language has advantages. However, for Zhou Yi at this moment, understanding less language will be less trouble.
And Zhou Yi really doesn't understand Spanish...
He did not play football in Spain, and naturally he did not have the need for Spanish. How could he learn it?
How did the Spanish media comment on Zhou Yi's performance that night: "Zhou Yi seemed very cautious when facing the reporter's questions. Obviously, after seven years, Dortmund was not sure. Moreover, we should also note that as the core of Dortmund, Zhou Yi participated in the Champions League for the first time in his life..."
The Spanish media's comments are naturally spoken in Spanish, and Zhou Yi will not be fine and turn on the TV to watch Spanish programs in a Spanish hotel. So in theory, he should not know at all how the Spanish media evaluates him.
But he still knew...
Because, he has a group called "Exclusion Lao Guo"!
In the hotel room at night, Zhou Yi turned on his computer and logged into QQ. He showed off his UEFA Champions League trip in the group.
After all, he is the first person in this group to play in the Champions League.
Zhou Yi: "He Ying He Ying, I will compete in Valencia the day after tomorrow. Would you not come and support me?"
He Ying: "Sorry, I'm in Barcelona."
Zhou Yi: "Aren't that all in Spain!"
He Ying: "Then you and Lao Yang are both in Ruer District, and you haven't seen you go to support him?"
Zhou Yi: "Damn He Ying, are you stupid? Dortmund and Schalke 04 are mortal enemies! How could I support Lao Yang? You won't support Real Madrid, right? Valencia and Barcelona are not mortal enemies, right? Come on. Come and see my heroic appearance with your own eyes!"
Faced with Zhou Yi's "arrogant" arrogance, He Ying responded with neither humility nor arrogantly: "Zhou Yi, the Spanish media can say that you are a coward. You don't even dare to answer their questions at the airport. It's obviously a sign of guilt. Are you really guilty?"
Zhou Yi's "arrogance" has aroused public outrage from other people in the group. This time, even Sun Pan stood on He Ying's side. Everyone laughed at Zhou Yi, and Sun Pan seemed particularly happy and exaggerated.
"Damn, who said it? I can't understand Spanish!" Zhou Yi retorted amidst a ridicule.
"Oh, is that? But the Spanish media also said that they later changed to English, and you didn't answer. Don't you understand English?" He Ying did not let Zhou Yi go. After chatting with them in this group for a long time, his image on the Internet is much more lively than offline...
"Ah haha!" Everyone burst into laughter again.
In response to this, Zhou Yi said without changing his expression: "Of course I can understand English, but I really can't understand English with the same big tongue as the Spanish."
Regarding Zhou Yi’s improper meaning, everyone can only respond to “hehe”.
Chapter completed!