Chapter 111: Underestimating the Enemy
Because if only Gao Lin is strong, playing matches against youth teams may not be a problem, but the results of the national team will never make a qualitative leap, and only when his teammates become stronger can China's team possibly complete its transformation and jump to a higher level.
But to tell the truth, Yu Hai was the first among his peers to stand out, which was somewhat unexpected for Gao Jun, because he originally thought that Ao Lin, who had better physical fitness and was more favored by the head coach, would be the first to make a name for himself in this World Youth Championship. Ao Lin also worked hard in every match, perhaps it can only be attributed to different luck for each person...
The news that the Chinese youth team eliminated the host Dutch team shocked European football, and Gao Lin's consistent outstanding performance has attracted the attention of many European giants. With two games left to play, Gao Lin has already scored 8 goals and provided 3 assists, a performance that has overshadowed even Lionel Messi, who is considered a treasure by Barcelona. Although not all superstars who emerged from the World Youth Championship have succeeded, such as Brazilian Adilton, who scored 10 goals in the 1997 tournament but failed to become a great player, Gao Lin's future is still highly anticipated by many European sports media and football experts. He is almost certain to win the Golden Boot award at this World Youth Championship and has a good chance of winning the Golden Ball award. Previously, he had already won the best player awards at both the World Under-17 Championship and the Toulon Tournament. If Gao Lin ultimately proves to be a flash in the pan, FIFA may need to reconsider whether these youth international competitions are still necessary...
Moreover, Gao Lin is still under 17 years old now, and judging from his development status, his age should be true, which means that he has great potential. Although there are still prejudices against Chinese football (in fact, it can't be said that they are all prejudices), the helmsmen of European giants are not fools, let alone Gao Lin's huge Chinese market behind him, so they have inquired or quoted prices from Dongfang Club. Coach Xu is naturally very pleased with this, but to avoid affecting Gao Lin's emotions and influencing the last two games of the World Youth Championship, he did not immediately inform Gao Lin, who was still in the Netherlands.
The news of the national youth team's triumphant progress in the World Youth Championship in the Netherlands has been constantly reported back to the country, naturally causing fans and media to sing its praises. Especially when compared with the national football team's dismal performance in the Confederations Cup group stage, where they lost all three matches, scoring only 1 goal while conceding 9 goals, the contrast between the two teams is striking. As a result, many people have come to revere the youth team, and some radical fans and media even suggest that the youth team should replace the national team in competitions.
The national team's head coach, Ali Han, was once again widely questioned, with some media even saying that his good performance in the Asian Cup and World Cup qualifiers was just because he was holding onto Gao Lin's thigh, and not because he had any real ability. Some leaders of the Football Association, who had long regarded Ali Han as a thorn in their side, also began to think about whether they should take advantage of the situation to get rid of this obstacle that was hindering them from making money. However, "Yan Wang" (a nickname for the Football Association) ultimately knew what was at stake, and with the round of 16 match only halfway through and the situation still unclear, if they were to rashly change coaches and fail to advance to the World Cup, they would definitely have to take responsibility themselves. Therefore, they decided to temporarily keep Ali Han in his position...
As for the excellent performance of the national youth team in the World Youth Championship, the leaders of the Football Association are also somewhat entangled. On the one hand, the results are their political achievements and it is natural to be happy about them. However, on the other hand, Kroechen, who has a bad relationship with them, led the team so well that when reorganizing the national Olympic team and hiring a new head coach, what reason should they find?
As a result, the Football Association later promoted this national youth team's personnel strength through its own "appointed" media, especially the role of core player Gao Jun. In this way, no matter how well Krautzig performed, he didn't have much credit to claim, just like when Argentina won the World Cup in 1986, everyone thought Maradona was the greatest contributor, but few people remembered who the head coach of Argentina was at that time.
In addition, they are desperately promoting Gao Lin, which also implies a good intention to win him over. After all, as long as this little guy is still sensible, he will always be the darling of the leaders. For officials, political achievements are always the top priority, and only by being promoted to higher positions can they have more power!
Some football associations have had such a plot, where the association is worried that if the results are too good at once, it will raise the expected value above, and then think it's good to stop, reserve strength and not pursue better results. But in fact? This may be fine for the overall association, but the real decision-makers are those specific leaders. If the national team can achieve far beyond expected good results, they will definitely all be promoted and leave the association. What does it have to do with them whether the latecomers find it difficult or not?
Therefore, if there were no other factors such as personal grudges, the leaders of the Football Association actually also want the national team to achieve results. When they feel that achieving results is hopeless, they will retreat and seek some economic benefits instead. However, it is their bureaucratic style that causes various interferences with more negative impacts, for example, the lengthy political mobilization before the national team's match which made people drowsy.
Fortunately, the youth team's level is low, and even if the Football Association attaches great importance to it, they will not send leaders of too high a level to follow the team. Moreover, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is a head coach with a very strong personality, so the interference from the Football Association is not too severe, which is also an important factor for this National Youth Team to achieve results...
However, the players of the national youth team are young after all, and it's easy to get discouraged when they encounter setbacks. When they do well, they easily become complacent. As a result, in the semifinal match against Morocco, Zhou Hua Kai, who was in a dangerous position, did not transfer the ball out in time. Instead, he wanted to rely on his skills to shake off the opponent's forward, who was rushing over to intercept him. But any team that can make it to the semifinals must have some strength, and you can't underestimate them like that. As a result, the opponent successfully intercepted the ball from Zhou Hua Kai's feet and immediately launched a counterattack. If Zeng Cheng hadn't made a timely clearance to resolve the opponent's single-handed attack, the Chinese team, which has always lacked attacking power, would have faced its most hated situation...
Note 1: As a high-ranking official of the Football Association, it is generally not worth worrying about this amount of money. After all, the total betting amount for the Chinese team's matches is relatively limited, so if you bet too much, it would be easy to get caught, and if you bet too little, you wouldn't make much money. In fact, there are few examples in the anti-gambling storm where high-ranking officials of the Football Association were found guilty of such crimes. Their main offenses were bribery and corruption, and the only case of match-fixing that comes to mind was to cover up their own design flaws in the tournament format to avoid a big joke, rather than for financial gain.
