Chapter Thirty-two: Selected for the National Team

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  The news of the China League One team beating the Chinese Super League powerhouse shocked the entire Chinese football world. At this time, no one was more regretful than Shen Xiangfu, the domestic famous coach who had just led the National Olympic team to another defeat in the Olympic qualifying match (at that time, the Olympic qualifying match had not yet ended, but the Chinese team had already been eliminated). If he had known earlier that several young players of Dongfang team were so powerful, even if they were not his own players, he should have called them up to the National Olympic team!

  But now it's too late to say anything, and the national team can still skip levels. With a try-and-see attitude, Alihan, the head coach of the national team who is still searching for guns, has called up Shanghai Dongfang's "frontcourt trident" with an average age of less than 17 years old (poor A Lin was ignored) into the national team...

  However, many Chinese fans who were expecting to see Gao Lin, this "golden boy", perform in the national team were surprised and disappointed. In the first warm-up match against Andorra, Yu Hai unexpectedly started and played as a left forward, while Hao Haidong came on as a substitute for Li Ming, the main right forward of the national team, in the second half. Gao Lin, who is undoubtedly the core player of his club, sat on the bench throughout the game...

  However, Gao Jun, who has been a coach for over a decade, is quite understanding of this. Yu Hai's current competitor is Yan Feng from Dalian. The two have different strengths in attack (Yan Feng's dribbling is better and more suitable for positional attacks, while Yu Hai is faster and more suitable for quick counterattacks). However, Yu Hai's defensive ability is stronger than Yan Feng's, and he works harder in training and competitions, making it inevitable for Arihan to reuse him. As for Huo Jiamin, his attacking ability is not inferior to that of veteran players Li Ming and Li Xiaopeng, and his dribbling past people is unparalleled in the country. However, those two veteran players have a significant advantage in terms of defensive ability and competition experience. Additionally, Huo Jiamin is new to the national team and is not familiar with its tactical system, so it's normal for him to start as a substitute. Moreover, although Huo Jiamin is young, his physical fitness is not great (historically, his endurance was trained by Ma Guangtong, and previously, he was only at the average domestic level, with an average running distance of only 7-8 kilometers per game), which is also one of the reasons why he is not reused. As for Gao Jun, due to his age, he can hardly participate in defense and has no personal attacking ability, making it difficult for him to gain recognition from Arihan, who values all-around players.

  But in fact, Ali Han still attaches great importance to Gao Jun, because currently the national team's striker only has one Hao Da Pao who is getting older and more cunning, which satisfies him. However, Ali Han's playing style requires two strikers, and Hao Da Pao's advanced age may be a fatal problem at any time. Therefore, Ali Han still appreciates Gao Jun's quick start speed and super strong grasping ability. But Gao Jun ran too little in training, which is seen as laziness by Ali Han, so he deliberately left Gao Jun out of the game, not even giving him a chance to substitute...

  Gao Jun is not lazy, but because his physical ability, which was even worse than that of ordinary people back then, determined that he couldn't waste energy unnecessarily during matches. This led to the development of his extremely high energy utilization rate (i.e., most of his runs were effective and threatening), while also forming a habit of emphasizing efficiency in his running during matches. When he felt there was no opportunity, he rarely made runs without the ball, wasting what little physical strength he had.

  After more than a decade of playing football, the habit has become deeply ingrained. Even though his physical ability is now much stronger than before, Gao Jun still subconsciously resists ineffective running. This left a very bad impression on Ali Han, a coach who emphasizes team discipline. If training and competition are not fully invested in, no matter how strong one's abilities are, he will not be wanted. Even Sun Ji Hai, the biggest star in the Chinese team, and Zhang Yuwei, beloved by fans, were relegated to the bench for this reason. What about a young player who has just risen to fame?

  After realizing where the coach's dissatisfaction with him lay, Gao Jun had also tried to change, but he found that this habit was already deeply ingrained. Forcing a change would likely be counterproductive, after all, running less but being more efficient wasn't necessarily a bad thing. If he had excess physical ability, participating in front-court pressing and assisting with defense could also work. Moreover, off-ball movement to help teammates create space was also physically demanding, but because Gao Jun had always been the one having space created for him by others, this kind of dirty work hadn't been done before, and it would take a process to slowly get used to it.

  Although he was very angry after Gao Jun stubbornly refused to change, compared to those big-name players, Alihan was still more tolerant of this young man. He decided to give Gao Jun another chance and let him substitute in the warm-up match between China and Barcelona, to see if his performance would be better in a game, after all, some players are competition-type.

  But when Ali Han saw Gao Jun being substituted on the field for more than ten minutes, running or walking a distance of less than 500 meters, he finally couldn't bear it and decided to take him off immediately and never give him another chance. However, at this moment, Gao Jun suddenly discovered the opponent's defender's slackness, quickly intercepted the ball, took a step into the penalty area, and kicked the ball with great force, scoring China's only goal in the game, making the score 1:5 between China and Barcelona, and the final score was fixed at 1:6.

  This shot made Ali Han hesitate, deciding to give Gao Jun another chance. As a result, in China's last warm-up match, Gao Jun seized the only shooting opportunity in an unfavorable situation where most of the old national team members were unwilling to pass the ball to him, scoring a goal and helping China win 2-0 against North African powerhouse Algeria, showcasing his precise and divine shooting skills.

  Such an outstanding performance made Ali Han hesitant for a while, anyway, there is still some time before the Asian Cup, he can continue to observe Gao Jun's performance in various competitions. If he really has the strength beyond the Asian level, then Ali Han may not be able to make concessions. Although Ali Han emphasizes team discipline, he also has to admit that super-class talented players have privileges. Maradona was notorious for not following rules back then, which Argentine coach dared not let him play?

  Because of the previous match, "Trident" participated in the national team's training and missed three matches in the China League One. Shanghai Dongfang only got one draw and two losses in these three matches, and dropped to fourth place in the China League One standings. The poor performance of the central defender led to a major personnel adjustment by head coach Fan Zhiyi...