Chapter 35: The Nordic Pirates

  Thanks to book friend "Fang Yun's subordinate" for the reward, continue to ask for recommendation votes and member clicks ^_^

  Liu Chunming looked at the Swedish players, each one tall and strong with bulging muscles, and felt a little intimidated in his heart. So although he thought changing their playing style temporarily was a bit risky, he gritted his teeth and agreed to it. As a result, after just one match, they discovered that the team's coordination was surprisingly smooth, and thinking about it made him feel at ease - after all, 7 out of the 11 main players were from Dongfang Team!

  The Swedish players, on the other hand, felt very uncomfortable. As soon as they got the ball, two or three Chinese players would rush up to surround them. With their rough ball control and slower movement frequency, they would easily lose the ball if they weren't careful. Even trying to play traditional long passes was not easy, because the opponent's formation was pressing too far forward. Directly passing long to find a striker not only risked offside, but even if the pass was successful and received by their own striker, it couldn't immediately threaten the opponent's goal. They would still need to bring the ball forward another ten or so meters to enter the danger zone. And that defensive core of theirs, although very tall, had surprisingly agile footwork and quick recovery speed, and his positioning and tackling were also very accurate. With him as the last line of defense, it was really not easy for Sweden to get past (Note 1)...

  But what's even more deadly is that the Swedish team also got very few attacking opportunities, because the ball was mostly under China's control. If there were no good chances, they would rather pass the ball back and forth in their own half of the field, this slow playstyle not only increased China's possession rate but also naturally reduced Sweden's possession time, which greatly reduced Sweden's attacking opportunities.

  The Swedish team had hoped to force China's defenders into mistakes through fierce front-court pressure, but it didn't have any effect and instead wasted their own energy. This is not surprising, the two full-backs are not worth mentioning, as for Feng Shuo Ting, his technique is even better than most of the Chinese youth team's attacking players (note 2), simple backcourt passes are no pressure on him...

  While the Chinese youth team's pseudo-tiki-taka style is still stuck in the stage of controlling the ball for the sake of controlling it, and the most lethal sudden acceleration that Barcelona's tiki-taka is known for can't be achieved, just the excellent agility and decent technique of several frontcourt players from the Chinese youth team are enough to make the Swedish players, who are generally not agile enough due to their tall stature (this can be largely overcome through long-term specialized training, but given the current average age of the Swedish youth team, it's impossible unless they have a talent like Ibrahimovic), suffer greatly.

  In addition, considering Yu Hai's tall stature, Gao Hongbo specially asked Cong Hao to make assists for him, while Yu Hai frequently retreated to provide supplementary defense. On the one hand, this enhanced the team's ability to defend against high balls, and on the other hand, it fully utilized Cong Hao's technical strengths of being agile, quick, good at dribbling, and fast at passing the ball out.

  However, the final decision of this game was made by Hou Jiamin on the right road. Facing the tall Swedish defender, Hou Jiamin's first-class dribbling skills in the team were fully demonstrated, and he repeatedly shook off the defense and sent out high-quality passes within 40 minutes of the first half. Although the Swedes also imitated Turkey's "2+1" defensive strategy, their height was too great to prevent the short, agile and extremely fast Hou Jun from shaking off the defense and scoring two goals. If it weren't for the left-wing Rong Hao's shot being incredibly bad, wasting three perfect opportunities, this game would have been completely suspenseless...

  The disadvantage of the two goals was not enough to make the Swedish team give up ahead of time. In the second half, they seized an opportunity in the front court free kick and used a high-altitude bombing to open the door of the youth team, tying the score 1:2. Gao Jun could only sigh at this, if it were a mobile war, the opponent's height advantage could be restricted by tactics, but in the defense of the set ball, the overall height is shorter and really difficult to deal with, especially the central defender Feng Xiaoting and goalkeeper Zeng Cheng both exposed their weaknesses in defending high balls (Feng Xiaoting lacked strength and bounce, while Zeng Cheng had poor judgment on the landing point of high balls). It's a pity that they wasted their good height.

  Fortunately, not long after, Hao Jiemin made a powerful long shot in front of the restricted area, breaking the net and expanding the score to 3:1, completely crushing Sweden's fighting spirit (mainly because the game was nearing its end, tying one goal was still possible, but tying two goals was too difficult). Otherwise, the final result would have been unpredictable.

  Anyway, the Chinese youth team finally defeated Sweden and advanced to the final. The opponent in the final was the host France team, which had been beaten by China in the group stage, so everyone was full of confidence. However, not long after the game started, the Chinese youth team fell into a passive situation. The reason is simple: under the indulgence of the referee, the French players played very roughly, which made the Chinese youth team, who were already afraid of physical confrontation, very uncomfortable.

  To be objective, the referee was not entirely biased at this time, but he used the standard of the French professional league to judge the Toulon Cup, a youth competition, which is undoubtedly a disguised bias. The physical strength of Chinese players is generally much weaker than that of the French team, and they are at a disadvantage under such lenient standards.

  The game had just started for 3 minutes, and Hou Jiamin, who was breaking through with the ball, was knocked to the ground by a French player, but the referee signaled the game to continue, Hou Jiamin couldn't help but argue with the referee, but immediately received a yellow card.

  In the 11th minute, the French team attacked to the front of China's penalty area. The back waist Cui Peng had a small movement on his hand, and the French player who held the ball immediately fell to the ground with an exaggerated expression. The referee ran over and gave France a free kick in a very good position, and showed a yellow card to Cui Peng...

  Today, Zeng Cheng, who was in good condition, blocked the opponent's free kick and then took advantage of a brief dead ball opportunity to tell his teammates, "This referee tends to judge actions that may cause injury lightly, but judges tactical fouls that stop attacks heavily, so everyone be careful."

  Note 1: In 2004, Feng Xiaoting had the strength of a world-class central defender in his age group. Historically, he was even selected for the best lineup at the 2005 Holland Youth World Cup, although it's likely that he changed his age and not just by one or two years...

  Note 2: In her youth, Feng Xiaoting's skills were extremely comprehensive. As a central defender, her dribbling skills could even be compared to those of wingers. Unfortunately, she was plagued by injuries throughout her career, unlike Yu Hai who suffered from severe and continuous injuries. Feng did not suffer any particularly serious injuries, but the problem was that she would get injured several times every year. Although she didn't become a complete waste, her growth was severely limited due to this, and in the end, she could only become one of the best central defenders domestically, and even this statement cannot be fully convincing...