Chapter 88 is bullying you
New book on the rise, still seeking recommendation votes and member clicks ^_^
Ribery was also very sorry for his mistake, and immediately spread his hands to apologize to Gao Lin, while Gao Lin just shrugged his shoulders, indicating that he didn't mind it much. This made Ribery, who had always been proud, even more uncomfortable. Therefore, in the following game, Ribery significantly increased the frequency of his dribbling breakthroughs, making the Yokohama team's defense line chaotic and forcing the Yokohama Waterbirds to quickly increase their defensive intensity against him.
In this way, just Ribery and Gao Lin alone can hold down at least 5 defensive players of the Yokohama team, and Dongfang team still has Yu Hai and Rong Hao, two breakthrough experts, it is impossible to defend normally. However, Okada Takeshi had expected this, he originally planned to launch a surprise attack for 5-10 minutes after the opening, regardless of success or failure, and then let the team shrink its defense and switch to counterattack, now it's just right.
But soon Ogata Takeshi found that something was wrong. Under the opponent's fierce attack, Yokohama's formation was compressed too much, and after losing the ball, there was no effective counter-attack point in front of them. Even if they managed to pass the ball out, with the opponent having absolute air superiority with two tall center-backs defending forward, Yokohama's lone striker had no chance of getting the ball. If a counter-attack couldn't be launched, even if the defense was tight, it would only lead to a draw at most, which would be equivalent to sentencing Yokohama F. Marinos to death in advance. Moreover, even if Yokohama F. Marinos' defense was tight, they might still concede goals. Eastern had several players with good long-range shooting, and their huge aerial advantage made their set-piece threats particularly powerful. These two attacking methods were precisely what the Japanese team, which was not tall enough on average, feared most...
Being beaten passively like this on the field now is obviously not the intention of Okada Takeshi's shrinking defense, but in order to avoid being taken advantage of by the opponent when adjusting and creating a gap, Okada Takeshi still decided to make adjustments at halftime.
However, Kougun, who was once an excellent head coach and had clashed with Ogata Takeshi multiple times, easily saw through his current thoughts. "Your plan is indeed thorough, but do you think I'll let you succeed? If anyone's to blame, it's the Japanese players' lack of height and strength!"
When the Eastern team got a corner kick, not only Yu Hai and other frontcourt players, but also Du Wei and Caballero, two tall center-backs, came to the front court to compete for headers, making the Eastern team completely dominate the aerial advantage in the penalty area. This made hundreds of Japanese fans who came to watch the game at the scene complain, "It's too unfair, so many big guys squeezed into our penalty area, isn't this taking advantage of their height to bully us?"
Indeed, Du Wei is 1.89 meters tall, Yu Hai is 1.87 meters tall (and still growing), Gao Lin is 1.85 meters tall, and Caballero is 1.84 meters tall. These four players have strong physiques and excellent jumping ability compared to Japanese players. As soon as they enter the penalty area, they make the Yokohama players feel like they are facing a great enemy, with basically two players taking care of one, only then can they feel slightly at ease.
"They really fell for it, but this is a clever plan. The devils may have guessed our intentions, but they wouldn't dare not guard those four big guys! ", Gao Jun couldn't help but sneer in his heart, but on the surface, he just looked calm and normal, doing what seemed like "cover-up" work.
However, after the corner kick was taken by Korner (note 1), the ball did not fly towards the four big men in the middle and front of the penalty area, but instead flew unexpectedly to the back post. Gao Jun, who had been waiting there early, directly kicked the ball into the net with one foot, easily helping the team take the lead! Because the four big men drew away most of Yokohama's defensive players, Cai Huikang also used his "wide" body to block a Yokohama player who wanted to rush over and defend after the corner kick, allowing Gao Jun to shoot without interference. With his unparalleled shooting skills, it was impossible for this ball not to go in...
"Damn it!", Takeshi Okada gritted his teeth and cursed, but was completely helpless. Although the goal was scored by Gao Jun, it ultimately had to be attributed to the huge intimidation of the four tall players in the set-piece tactics against Yokohama FC. This problem cannot be solved through tactics, even world-class coaches can't do anything about it, let alone Takeshi Okada. His only countermeasure is to buy a powerful and rebounding foreign center-back to strengthen the defensive line's aerial defense during the next transfer period, but this Asian Champions League has clearly come too soon. Moreover, given Yokohama FC's performance this year, whether Okada will still be the team's head coach by the time of the next transfer period is a big question...
And in the 41st minute of the first half, Kawasaki Frontale conceded again on a corner kick. Du Wei jumped high in the penalty area and headed the ball into the net with his powerful header, fully proving that his "air dominance" attribute is at least universally applicable in Asia. However, as CCTV-5 commentator Zhang Lu said, it was because of Gao Jun's previous success in scoring goals despite being a small player that distracted Kawasaki Frontale's defense against several tall players from Eastern, allowing Du Wei to be guarded by only one person. Otherwise, he would have been sandwiched between two defenders like before, and even with great jumping ability, it would have been difficult for him to control his posture in the air and head the ball correctly. So, "multiple points opening up" is always the hardest to defend against!
In the unfavorable situation of being two goals behind, Kawasaki Frontale had to desperately push forward with their offense. However, due to the overwhelming pressure, they were unable to organize an effective attack in the remaining time of the first half and almost conceded another goal to Eastern. If not for the referee's mercy considering Kawasaki was already trailing by two goals, the action of Nakazawa Yuji pulling down Ribery would have definitely been awarded a penalty kick. Once falling behind by three goals, given the strength and characteristics of both teams, Kawasaki Frontale might have lost even the slightest glimmer of hope.
Ogata Takeshi, who had barely managed to boost the team's morale during halftime, repeated his tactics at the start of the second half, instructing his players to immediately launch a pressing attack, aiming to quickly counterattack and disrupt the opponent's formation, thereby lifting their own low morale, and if they were lucky enough to steal the ball, that would be even better.
Note 1: Both Yu Hai and Ribery are not good at taking corner kicks. Yu Hai has never been good at it from the start, and only started taking responsibility for this task in club matches after no one else was good at it. Ribery also had the opportunity to take corner kicks in history because Bayern lacked a good corner kick taker, and it is said that he had his first assist after 165 times of taking corner kicks, and was once evaluated as the worst corner kick taker in history...
