Chapter 112: Advancement Finals

  Zeng's steady performance can be said to be one of the highlights of this game, not just him, but also other players who came from the youth tournament did not appear lax and complacent. It is clear that the journey of winning the youth championship over the past two years has made them more calm and composed.

  It must be acknowledged that this well-tested Chinese youth team, even in terms of absolute strength, can definitely squeeze into the top few places in this World Youth Championship. It's not just a matter of luck that they can defeat Morocco, which made it to the semi-finals. Even when the Moroccan head coach asked his players to fall back and defend, China still scored two goals, one from Gao Lin in each half, to win 2-0!

  Yu Hai, who performed well in the previous match, did not score again in this game, but still had multiple successful breakthroughs and made a brilliant assist. Unfortunately, in the 67th minute of the game, Yu Hai suddenly fell to the ground injured after jumping up with an opposing player to compete for the top, which made Gao Jun's hair stand on end, and he was so nervous that he almost died.

  Fortunately, after the team doctor's examination, Yu Hai only sprained his ankle and had no major problems, which made Gao Jun breathe a sigh of relief. However, four days later in the final match, Yu Hai would not be able to recover in time to play, and the Chinese youth team was about to challenge the strongest team in this World Youth Championship - Argentina's youth team, who had defeated Brazil the day before and advanced to the finals!

  Although Lu Lin, who replaced Yu Hai, also has a good breakthrough ability and a foot of excellent free kicks, his defensive ability is pathetic. However, Argentina, China's next opponent, has the strongest right-wing attacking ability in this World Youth Championship...

  Although Messi, who is only 17 years old this year, has not yet played as a main force in Barca due to his physical strength, but in the U20 World Cup where physical confrontation is much weaker, it is no longer a big problem. His super-fast footwork, rare dribbling skills that few can match, and absolute speed of running 100 meters in 11 seconds make every Argentine opponent headache, although his goal count is not as many as Haoyun, but the fear factor is not necessarily inferior.

  Although Messi played in the middle road in the Argentine youth team, he was very flexible in his position during the game and often ran to the side of the road. The right road that facilitated his inner cutting shot was one of his main activity areas. In the final, Yu Hai, who defended well, couldn't play, and Messi would not let go of the loophole on China's left road. What should we do then?

  If following the general idea, since the left front guard can't defend, then the left back guard should choose to replace the main left back guard Rong Huang with Yuan Weiyi, who is better at defending, to balance the offense and defense on the left side. However, after careful consideration, Klinsmann decided to continue trusting Rong Huang, not because "offense is the best defense", but because Messi's breakthrough ability was too strong, and although Yuan Weiyi's defensive ability was slightly stronger than Rong Huang's, it didn't make much difference against Messi, who would still be able to score easily. Relatively speaking, Rong Huang could at least keep up with Messi's speed, and even if he couldn't defend, being able to slow down Messi's advance was a good thing...

  To let the team members fully understand Argentina's strength and characteristics, Klauder also arranged for the young players of the national youth team to watch his specially edited Argentine team match during the training break. However, as he worried, the previously confident Chinese team players were tight-lipped after seeing Argentina's brilliant performance, especially those defensive players, who were all frowning, obviously the Argentine team's front-line players' super personal ability and tacit cooperation gave them a huge psychological pressure.

  "The Argentine team is indeed very strong, but their weaknesses are also very obvious!" However, Gao Jun said something that surprised Klauss at this time.

  Gao Jun's speech at this time was naturally to restore the team's confidence, but he also conducted a detailed analysis of the Argentine team. "Actually, I have been paying attention to the performance of the Argentine team before, and this team not only has superstars on the front line that far exceed the youth team level, but also has a very solid defense. Did you notice? They lost at most 1 goal in each game, such a defense is indeed called solid as gold...

  After hearing Gao Jun's words, everyone realized the problem, and even the attacking players were embarrassed, but this was obviously not the effect Gao Jun wanted to see. So he immediately continued, "However, I have always been puzzled that Argentina's goal count has never been many, despite having the strongest front line in this World Youth Cup. The strong front line scores few goals, and there are only a few possible reasons. Let's take a look at the video..."

  Their biggest problem is that they lack an excellent organizer in the midfield, which makes it difficult for the players on the front line to get good shooting opportunities despite their strong personal abilities and tacit cooperation. To solve this problem, Messi often has to fall back to the midfield to organize (this didn't start after the South Africa World Cup, he had to do this frequently during the Holland Youth Tournament...), but this makes him farther away from the goal, reducing his threat to us.

  Gao Jun first pointed out Argentina's biggest problem that has been troubling them for the past decade - their weak midfield. Klinsmann nodded in agreement and proposed a tactical countermeasure: "Although our midfield doesn't have great organizational ability either, at least we can strengthen our running and pressing to further suppress Argentina's midfield play."

  Gao Jun continued, "The second reason why Argentina doesn't score many goals is that they are famous and other teams will tightly defend against them when playing against Argentina, which greatly increases the difficulty of scoring for the Argentine team. This method is also worth learning from, and our personnel configuration is most suitable for counter-attacking."

  "Gao said it's right, but we can't let Argentina easily enter our penalty area. Being passive and taking a beating is easy to lose the ball, and Messi's breakthrough ability is very strong. If they enter the penalty area, it's not good to adopt a foul tactic, that would be even more dangerous."

  Klinsmann supported Gao Jun's suggestion but also perfected and supplemented it based on his own rich coaching experience. "My requirement is to increase the pressing intensity in the area from 30 meters outside to the top of our midfield circle arc, and if necessary, don't hesitate to foul, so that Argentina can't comfortably control the ball and attack..."