In the pre-match CCTV game preview program, the famous football commentator Zhang Lu and Zhang specially invited the famous football commentator to make predictions about the game.

Zhang Lu mentioned that although it is amazing to eliminate Brazil, the young men of the Chinese team should be cautious of being arrogant and impetuous, and the Japanese team should not be underestimated.

Of course, in the end, he is still very much looking forward to the performance of the Chinese team in the finals.

"...The strength of this national Olympic team is actually very strong. I don't think the Chinese team is weaker than Japan. On the other hand, I think they are stronger than Japan. So as long as you perform normally, have enough patience, don't worry, I believe that the young men will bring us a gold medal in the end."

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When both players stand in the player channel and are ready to play, Zhou Yi is the focus of attention of the entire Japanese team.

As the captain, he stood at the front of the team wearing the captain's armband, and everyone could only see his back.

Many of these players from the Japanese team play in the Bundesliga. Due to the special number of foreign players in the Bundesliga, many non-EU players are the former stations of Europe. It has become a tradition for a large number of Japanese players to land in the Bundesliga.

In Asia, Japan has the most overseas players, and among these overseas players, there are the most overseas players. Some agents even specialize in working for Japanese players to come to the Bundesliga.

However, so many Japanese players are not as good as Zhou Yi in the Bundesliga.

As long as a Japanese player playing in the Bundesliga, he cannot be unaware of Zhou Yi.

Shinji Kagawa is an outstanding representative of Japanese overseas players, but he is also under the Zhou Yi in Dortmund.

This ordinary player who doesn't look strong enough or fast enough has used his wisdom and mind to put a world into the Bundesliga. This is simply an idol of those Japanese players who are also not in outstanding physical conditions.

But this time, in the Olympic finals, the Japanese players looked at Zhou Yi not with admiration or envy, but with... murderous aura.

If they want to win the gold medal, they must defeat Zhou Yi. Of course, they could no longer be affectionate when they looked at Zhou Yi.

However, their murderous aura did not last long, because Zhou Yi turned around.

Zhou Yi, who was standing in front, was not honest and stood still. He would always twist and twist and keep looking back, and might not have a clear goal. His eyes just swept around like this, just like ADHD.

Most Japanese players dare not look directly at Zhou Yi face to face, so as long as Zhou Yi turns back, they will quickly turn their attention away.

There is only one person who is the exception.

Yamaguchi Firefly.

The main midfielder of the Japanese Olympic team.

When Zhou Yi turned his head, he did not lower his head with other teammates or divert his gaze, but continued to look at him.

But Zhou Yi didn't look at him later, his eyes swept over and turned away. It was really just a "sweep". In this process, he might not have any focus at all.

After Zhou Yi swept over, Yamaguchi Firefly lowered his eyelids and refused to continue to look at Zhou Yi.

He was thinking about the fact that coach Kanzuka called him alone to talk a few days before the game.

At that time, Takashi Kanzuka gave him a task with a serious look: "Be sure to keep pace with Zhou Yi in the game."

This is to let him guard Zhou Yi. Yamaguchi Takashi was not surprised by this task, but Kanzuka's words surprised him later.

"It is the literal sense of 'indefinition of step'. Holding him, pulling him, wherever he goes, wherever you go."

"Defensive position..." Yamaguchi Teng was puzzled.

"Don't worry." Takashi Katsuka waved his hand. "That's not something you should consider. Your task is to follow Zhou Yi and don't let him escape from your control. What kind of control range? You can hold his arms, jersey and shoulders with just reaching out."

Only then did Yamaguchi realize that this guarding mission seemed to be a little different from usual...

"Does Zhou Yi need to do this?" He couldn't help asking the coach.

"It's totally needed." Takashi Katsuka nodded with a serious look on his face.

Yamaguchi's thoughts returned to the present.

Since the head coach said that this is necessary, he just did it. He didn't need to ask too much why, the head coach's arrangement must have his own reason.

Sometimes it’s not a good thing to think too much on the football field.

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When the referee team comes out, it means that the players are about to play.

Volunteer little caddies raised the national flags of the two teams, and they led their respective teams to the stage.

There was already a lot of people outside.

Although there were no favorites to win the championship, Brazil and Spain, and no host Britain, which affected the attendance rate of this final, at first glance, there were still half of the stadium sitting there.

The main ones are Chinese and Japanese fans, who gathered in the stands behind the two goals, and in addition to this, there are some neutral fans.

During the group stage, the Chinese team fans were mainly Chinese students in the UK, employees of some Chinese institutions, as well as Chinese overseas Chinese, and not many people came because there were more interesting events than football in the Olympics. In traditional Chinese advantageous events, such as table tennis, weightlifting, diving, and badminton, there were always many Chinese spectators. Swimming was also attracted by a large number of Chinese people because of the outstanding performance of Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen.

Football is relatively less attractive, and only real fans will watch it.

However, as the Chinese National Olympic Team performs better and better in the Olympic Games, more and more people pay attention to them. In addition to fans, there are many people who don’t usually watch the game. There is only one reason for them to watch the national Olympic Team, that is, to support China.

Chinese football has not had a very good reputation in the past, and everyone feels embarrassed when they mention it. When it comes to the four words "Chinese football", it is full of contempt. However, at this Olympic Games, the National Olympic Team won back everyone's respect and trust with its actual performance.

After eliminating the South Korean team 3:1, not only Chinese in the UK, but Chinese in the whole of Europe were even attracted to the UK. They came to the UK from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, etc. and other countries on the European continent to watch the match between the National Olympic Team and Brazil.

Of course, at that time, many people had the idea that if I didn't come to watch the scene, I might have to watch the third and fourth finals. At that time, not many people thought that the Chinese Olympic team could beat Brazil and enter the finals.

After the Chinese team really defeated Brazil, everyone was surprised. Unexpectedly, the Chinese team made it to the finals. Now, they have more reason to stay in the UK to cheer for the Chinese team.

The situation on the Japanese team is not very similar to that on the Chinese team. Because the image of Japanese football is much better than that of Chinese football, there is no lack of attention and supporters in the group stage.

However, it still made Japanese fans ecstatic that they were able to reach the finals. In addition to the Japanese in Europe, many local fans in Japan also flew to London to cheer for their country.

So although Wembley Stadium was not full, the atmosphere on site was absolutely fine.

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"Okay, the players on both sides are out!" He Ping, who was doing live broadcasts on the spot, raised his voice and shouted.

The first ones that came out were the national flags of both sides, China's five-star red flag and Japan's red sun flag. For these two teams and countries, this was a historic moment. Because this was the first time the national flags of their respective countries appeared in the Olympic men's football finals.

Players following both sides behind the flag.

On the Chinese side, captain Zhou Yi takes the lead. On the Japanese side, the captain is their over-age player, the 24-year-old defender Maya Yoshida.

Behind them, players from both sides followed one after another.

The appearance of each player has won the support of his own fans. At this time, no one is booing his opponent, and they are busy cheering for their players.

After appearing, Zhou Yi, as the captain and Ma Yoshida, went to perform their captain duties.

In picking the side, Zhou Yi lost to Yoshida Maya, so Yoshida Ma got the right to pick the side.

When the referee signaled that Yoshida Ma would also pick the side, Yoshida Ma seemed to have thought about it for a long time. He raised his hand and pointed at the stadium behind Zhou Yi and said, "We want this."

That was the eastern half of Wembley Stadium, which was originally the warm-up half for the Chinese team.

Generally speaking, if the team has no special reasons for picking sides, they will choose the half-court they were in when they warmed up. On the one hand, it will avoid trouble, and on the other hand, it will be more familiar.

But Yoshida Ma also chose to make trouble.

Zhou Yi looked back in the direction of his finger and found that most of the Chinese team's penalty area was exposed to the sun and had a good view. Everything seemed to be normal, nothing strange, or something worth caring about.

But Zhou Yi frowned slightly.

When he was at Dortmund, Zhou Yi was not the captain and had never participated in the side picking. In the National Olympic Team, he was the captain. He had participated in the side picking in several previous games. He never paid much attention to side picking. Instead, he cared more about the right to kick the ball because his style of playing football prefers to control football on his own side.

But in this game, he actually wanted to take the edge.

He raised his head and looked at the sky above him.

It is now 2:55 p.m. in the local Greenwich time in London. The sun is high in the sky, which is closer to the west than noon, but it can still be considered overhead.

But fifty minutes later, at 3:45 pm, the first half ended, and the sun would further sink. A fifteen-minute halftime break was at 4:00 pm. If there was no accident at that time, the sun would be just above the west stands of Wembley Stadium. Without deliberately looking up, you could feel the dazzling sunlight from the ceiling and diagonally into your eyes.

At that time, the Japanese team in the second half will be switched to this half, and the Chinese team will attack with the sun with a diagonal shot.

This is why Zhou Yi wanted to take the sidelines - he wanted the Chinese team to be replaced in this half in the second half!

But now, Yoshida Mai also snatched it.
Chapter completed!