Chapter Thirty-One: Brilliant Counterattack
And on April 10, the FA Cup match against Super League powerhouse Shanghai International in an away game became a touchstone to test the true strength of Shanghai Dongfang. As it was a derby, Dongfang lined up their strongest squad, with young players in the front line, but in the eyes of coach Gao Hongbo, who knew his team's strengths well, the personnel configuration of Dongfang's front line was actually very strong, and even compared to Super League teams, they were not inferior at all.
The two full-backs of the Dongfang team, Yu Hai and Hao Haidong, have now reached the domestic first-class level. Compared with the big-name players in the Super League, they are only inferior in terms of fame. Among them, Yu Hai is more comprehensive, excelling in both offense and defense, with excellent strength, height, speed, and physical fitness. He is also very sharp at dribbling past opponents, meeting the requirements of modern football for full-backs. Hao Haidong, on the other hand, is a standard winger, whose defensive ability is poor, but his ability to break through opponents is more impressive than Yu Hai's. Currently, there are only a few players in the country who can defend against him one-on-one. Additionally, his passing technique is better than Yu Hai's, and he also has excellent long-range shooting and free kick skills, which are not possessed by Yu Hai.
As the game experience accumulates and bad habits are corrected, center Ao Lin makes rapid progress in training. Now that he is 18 years old, he is also the only physically strong player among the team's frontcourt players who can compete with most of the Super League teams' defenders. His technique and speed are also excellent, especially his ball control ability is very strong. Moreover, Ao Lin's teamwork coordination ability is not bad, but he still lacks experience, especially in front of the goal, where he needs to be more calm...
Of course, everyone knows that the real attacking core of the Eastern team is actually Gao Jun hiding behind Aolin. Due to his incredible ability to grasp super-strong scoring opportunities, his teammates trust him extremely and will try their best to pass the ball to him for shooting whenever possible. At the same time, although Gao Jun is a winger rather than an attacking midfielder, his excellent one-foot passing skills and the large space created by attracting the opponent's defenders still allow him to frequently send out deadly through passes during the game.
The Guangdong team's four-man defense line is already capable of threatening the backline of all Super League teams, and their two full-backs, Rong Hao and Zhang Chenglin, also have strong assisting abilities. However, in other positions, the Guangdong team is not generally weak due to lack of funds for recruitment, and the two crucial defensive midfielder positions can only rely on young players from the base, namely Zhang Linpeng and Cai Huikang, who are both only 15 years old and lack experience.
Compared to the two central defenders, the two centre-backs are even more worrying. Their age is similar to that of the two full-backs, but their technique and physical ability are far inferior. It's clear that they will be completely outplayed by their opponents. In fact, throughout history, the centre-back position has been a huge weakness for Dongfang team. They have long used a double foreign centre-back configuration, even though these two foreigners have always been criticized by fans as "water goods", which is enough to illustrate this point...
The goalkeeper Zeng Cheng, although gained confidence and grew rapidly in the Finnish youth tournament, is only 17 years old and not a super genius like Buffon who appears once every ten years. His lack of experience makes his performance unstable. Furthermore, the active forward runs of the two full-backs enhanced Dongfang's attacking power but also made their already weak defense even more vulnerable, which is really worrying...
Compared to the Shanghai Oriental team, which is made up of young and inexperienced players, the International team's lineup is luxurious. Jiang Zhen, Shen Si, Qi Hong, and Wu Chengying are all current or former national team members, and among the team's young players, there are also top-notch domestic players such as Wang Yun, who was at the center of the "Four Young Masters" controversy at the previous National Youth Championship. However, the International team's French head coach LeRoux did not expect that it would be the Oriental team that would launch a surprise attack first...
The game started with the Eastern team kicking off. To the surprise of the International team, Gao Jun kicked the ball directly with a big foot and sent it flying out. Yu Hai, who was in sync with him, suddenly sprinted forward at incredible speed, touched the ball with his foot, and then accelerated to chase after it. Within two or three seconds, all the players on the International team except for the goalkeeper were left behind. At this point, no matter how he passed the ball, he didn't have to worry about offside anymore. This is also the key reason why a through pass from the back is more threatening than a 45-degree pass.
Due to the opponent's left-back being left behind, Yu Hai had time to make adjustments before making the cross, resulting in a high-quality cross. Jiang Zhenjie, who is nearly 2 meters tall, rushed out of the goal but failed to catch the ball and was instead beaten by He Chao's quick follow-up, who scored from a tight angle at the far post, giving Dongfang a 1-0 lead just 22 seconds into the game.
This raid was discussed by everyone before the game, Gao Jun estimated that as the home team, the probability of winning by guessing the side is very high. Their right back's speed is average, and they can take advantage of Yu Hai's speed to attack this side. So he took the kick-off himself, first because Gao Jun's passing technique is more excellent than others, secondly to confuse the opponent, because the opponent will definitely regard Gao Jun as Dongfang Team's number one threat and focus on defense, so that other teammates' scoring opportunities are greatly increased...
The international team strengthened their attack immediately after falling behind and equalized in the 27th minute of the first half by taking advantage of a mistake by an Eastern defender, but just five minutes later, Gao Jun scored easily with a textbook counter-attack to put Eastern ahead again. In the stoppage time of the first half, Eastern got a corner kick opportunity, Zhang Linpeng shot from outside the penalty area, and the international team's goalkeeper made a great save, but Gao Jun appeared on time to expand the score to 3:1!
In the second half, the international team's offense was more fierce, and they took advantage of a header and a direct free kick to score two goals. However, Dongfang team seized the limited opportunities for quick counterattacks and set pieces, with Yu Hai, Gao Jun, and Huo Jianmin each scoring one goal, changing the score on the field to 6:3. The international team lost their will to fight, while Dongfang team did not want to provoke them into committing retaliatory fouls, so the final score was fixed at this number.
