Chapter Eighty-One: Necessary Tuition Fees
New book rushes up the charts, seeking recommendation votes and member clicks ^_^
With the current strength of Dongfang team, it is not too difficult to beat a lower-ranked team in the Chinese Super League. Even if the opponent adopts a defensive strategy, with players like Ribery and multiple attacking players who are good at dribbling and ball control, as well as Gao Lin, a super striker who excels at seizing opportunities, the chances of winning are still quite high. However, Dongfang team's second match in the Chinese Super League is against Shandong Luneng, a traditional strong team in the league. The current Shandong team has undergone significant changes compared to last year's FA Cup, giving coach Tu Ba enough courage to adopt an attacking strategy on Dongfang team's home turf. This was also partly due to Dongfang team having played an AFC Champions League group match in Indonesia just four days ago (which they won 2-0), which further exacerbated their already poor physical condition...
In terms of foreign aid, Shandong Qilu introduced Bulgarian Predrag Pa?i?. This excellent central defender quickly became the leader of Shandong's defense line after joining, making Shandong gradually balanced in attack and defense. Although the other two foreign aids were labeled as "water goods" early on, Pa?i? alone was enough to greatly enhance the strength of Shandong Qilu.
What's more, Shandong Luneng brought in the most important domestic aid in the team's history before the season, that is, Zheng Zhi, the midfielder core of Shenzhen Jianlibao. Measured by the standard of CSL, Zheng Zhi is first-class in terms of shooting, passing, defense and physical quality, although his ball delivery is not decisive enough, which is a weakness for midfielders, but Shandong team happens to be an attacking team that does not pursue speed, so after Zheng Zhi joined Shandong team, he can make the best use of his strengths while avoiding his weaknesses, thus performing extremely well.
Zheng Zhi, as one of the most powerful players in the country, not only can deliver good passes from midfield at the right time but also effectively pin down the opponent's defensive forces, thereby fully activating Da Wei, who excels in shooting techniques but lacks dribbling ability. With Zheng Zhi's extraordinary personal abilities, even under the opponent's tight defense, he can still find opportunities to showcase his excellent shooting skills from time to time.
The attacking combination of Zheng Zhihe and Da Wei in the Shandong team's frontcourt, combined with the team's consistently excellent wing play, is enough to pose a severe challenge to Dongfang's backline, which has been almost completely rebuilt this season. The obviously still very inexperienced right-back Wang Shengchao was particularly targeted by Shandong, and his right flank was breached several times in just over 10 minutes after the opening kickoff. If not for Caballero's supplementary defense, Dongfang might have fallen behind by more than one goal...
"I've never liked the Eastern team's commentator, Tang Meng, who couldn't help but smile at the sight, 'Shandong's current midfield doesn't have traditional wingers, but their full-backs frequently make runs and assist in attack. The Eastern team's young right-back, Wang Shengchao, has clearly become a key target for them. From the first 15 minutes of the game, it's clear that Wang is still too young. A 16-year-old boy, no matter how talented, can't possibly be a starting player in the Super League... Looking at this, the Eastern team letting go of their main right-back Zhang Chenglin during the transfer period was a huge mistake. Although they strengthened their central defense with Du Wei, it's just a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul... Of course, Coach Xu probably didn't have a better choice either. For a Super League newcomer like the Eastern team that lacks both money and players, selling people to balance the budget is unavoidable..."
However, Shandong team's aggressive pressure also gave Dongfang team many counterattack opportunities. But due to Shandong team's obvious physical advantage, today the referee's whistle was relatively loose, and they were very poor at grasping advantageous timing, often blowing the whistle to stop the game, which made them successfully dissolve most of Dongfang team's counterattacks before they even started by using non-foul violations.
However, the two wings of the Oriental team were still very active, but Li Bei, Yu Hai and Ao Lin obviously didn't wear shooting boots today, missing many scoring opportunities. Gao Jun was also greatly disturbed by Shandong Qilu's foul tactics today, even when he was running without the ball, he was often knocked to the ground by Shandong players, but the referee thought it was just a reasonable collision in the confrontation, and the foul location was far from the goal, so they didn't even give a yellow card. In addition, Shandong players secretly pulled Gao Jun's jersey to hinder his high-speed start, but the blind referees didn't see anything. If not for the current anti-gambling storm sweeping across the country, and Gao Jun also knew about the drastic decline in the level of domestic referees after the storm, he would have suspected that the referee had taken bribes. In any case, Gao Jun's performance in this game was greatly restricted, and once he was silenced, the Oriental team's attacking ability was at least halved, plus Shandong goalkeeper Li Leilei was in a state of divine bravery, making it difficult for the Oriental team to equalize the score.
In the 42nd minute of the first half, the two central defenders of Dongfang team, who had not played together for a long time, made a mistake in their cooperation, and the two collided while competing for the ball. Shandong team's shooter, Daway, took advantage of the opportunity to score again, helping Shandong team take a 2-0 lead away from home. Just before the end of the first half, young Wang Shengchao was given his second yellow card for pulling an opponent down again, resulting in him being sent off with a red card and giving Shandong team a free kick in a good position...
Although Qizhong team did not seize this opportunity, the unfavorable situation of 0;2 still had to fight with 10 men, which had already pushed the young Dongfang team to the end. This is also a necessary tuition fee for the youth of Dongfang team. At this time, even Xu Genbao, who has never admitted defeat, was mentally prepared to lose at home, but he did not expect that the passive substitution of Wang Shengchao would change the situation on the field...
As the main force, Wang Shengchao's strength was already weak enough, and his substitute was naturally weaker. Therefore, the old coach Jiang Bingyao, who replaced the old coach Xu Genbao on the substitute bench, took Gao Jun's suggestion and did not send anyone to the field. Instead, he let Zhang Linpeng, who was playing in the right back position, change to play as a right-back, while the right back position was given to Korir alone. The formation on the field also changed to 4122 from then on.
