Chapter 49: Football Night (Part 1)

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  After finishing the interview with his most hated reporter, Gao Jun followed head coach Arijan back to the national team. In the following days, the national team started closed training to avoid media distractions and prepare for the final match.

  But what made the national players feel suffocated was that some FA leaders, who had seen the team's previous victories, suddenly raised their tails and shouted "If we don't win the championship, what's the point of being alive?" This remark did not take into account Japan's strong strength at all, and unnecessarily increased everyone's psychological pressure. Even Brazil didn't dare to guarantee a 100% victory over Japan! The mental quality of Chinese players has always been a major problem, and as an official in charge, instead of providing guidance, they added more pressure on the players, isn't this causing trouble? Fortunately, Ali Han made his best effort to compress the pre-match rally to the shortest time possible, otherwise, I'm afraid that before the final match even started, everyone would have already been dizzy...

  What made Gao Jun speechless was that at this time, CCTV's "Football Night" program actually sent someone to invite Hao Dapao and Gao Jun as guests for the latest episode. Because the leadership agreed, Gao Jun had no choice but to go, and head coach Arihan also understood what it means by "China's national conditions".

  Fortunately, as Gao Jun expected, the protagonist is not him. Perhaps due to Ali Han's poor relationship with many players since he took over as the national team coach, the host surprisingly asked Hao Haidong about his views on Coach Ali Han first. However, now that the championship is within reach, Hao Haidong would naturally not be foolish enough to trigger internal conflicts at this time. He praised him, saying, "The results can prove a coach's ability, and everyone has seen it now. He may lead the Chinese team further, and I also believe he has many ideas that will be implemented in the World Cup campaign after this Asian Cup."

  Host Zhang Bin then asked Hao Haidong, "Will this Asian Cup become a turning point for Chinese football?"

  "Should have a very positive impact. We should take this Asian Cup to give all Chinese people, Chinese fans a good understanding that Chinese football can be played well, let everyone enjoy the joy of football. Moreover, we Chinese people can also do a good job in the Asian Cup and make the game exciting."

  Gao Jun furrowed his brow and secretly sighed. The 2004 Asian Cup was indeed a turning point for Chinese football, but it wasn't a surge towards the peak of Asia, but rather a slide into the abyss. However, although many underlying problems had already taken root, they weren't as irreversible as they would later become. Moreover, with the anti-gambling and anti-corruption storm having started ahead of schedule, all was not lost yet...

  The host noticed the change in Gao Jun's expression and immediately began to deliberately guide the conversation, asking Hao Dapao a question: "This team's age composition is an interesting situation. There are those who are very old, such as you and Li Ming, and those who are 26 or 27 years old, like Jia Yi, and also young players like Zheng Bing and Zhou Huakai, and even 16- or 17-year-olds like Gao Jun and Yu Hai. Is this beneficial?"

  Hao Haidong did not realize the host's intention, and smiled in response, "Actually, there is nothing special about this. Everyone is still quite harmonious. Maybe some of the younger players have been watching us play soccer since they were young, and after they joined the team, the main focus now is on training and improvement. We need to provide them with this environment. As older players, we can't scold them. This is very important. Fortunately, the team atmosphere is very good right now, so the younger players are also very dedicated to training and competition. Relatively speaking, us older players haven't criticized them too much, even when they make small mistakes. So everyone gets along quite happily."

  The host seized the opportunity to ask maliciously, "Isn't it just about training and improvement? Look at Yu Hai in our team, he's already a main player at 17 years old, and our little genius Gao Jun is even younger. The number of goals scored by this Asian Cup has already broken the highest record in the history of the Asian Cup... Big Cannon, you can't even score as many goals as those kids..."

  Gao Jun was shocked by what he heard and hastily waved his hand, saying "I just got lucky."

  Hao Dapao also realized the host's malicious intention to provoke, and his eyebrows suddenly rose. He thought, "You just want some sensational material, right? Well, I'll give you something to make your head spin." "Xiao Gao is different from them, Coach Xu said he's 'China's Maradona', I didn't believe it before, but now I do. At 16 years old, apart from passing, dribbling and heading, his attacking skills are all better than mine. His runs into the box aren't bad either... you can't handle the truth..."

  Not only the host, but also Gao Jun was shocked and opened his mouth wide. In his impression, Hao Dapao's arrogance is famous. If Li Yi's sentence "My dribbling is like Henry" was maliciously hyped up and not self-aggrandizing, then Hao Dapao's sentence "If I were in Real Madrid, I would be stronger than Raul!" is the original words without any modification or deletion. How could such a person admit that he is inferior to a 16-year-old kid in an exclusive interview with a national audience?

  It turns out that Hao Haidong's boasts were before the 2002 World Cup, when he was still unaware of the huge gap between Chinese football and the world's top level. He was "fearless due to ignorance", but after being thrashed in the World Cup, he realized the gap and never spoke like that again. So although Hao Haidong is arrogant, as long as he recognizes that his opponent is indeed stronger than him, he can still lower his head and admit defeat. However, this requires a face-to-face serious match. If it's just a warm-up match broadcast, his highlight reel would also look great, and in warm-up matches, China's national team and club teams have not been without victories over world powers...

  Although being criticized by Hao Dapao, the host quickly recovered and turned to talk about the opponent in the final match, "Japan is the fastest developing team in Asia. How do you view the China-Japan final?"

  "In Asia, China, Japan, South Korea and Iran, including Saudi Arabia, the five teams are at the same level. There is no good or bad team, it's just who seizes the opportunity to win. No one is much stronger than others."

  "Due to special historical factors, when playing against the Japanese team, the emotions of fans and players may change. How will you view this emotion?" The host continued to ask.

  "Football is football, not two people holding guns and cannons to fight. If you carry a certain emotion, it's hard to play good football. Just like yesterday, the Iranian player pushed Gao Lin, this is his mentality change, actually he didn't need to do that, he clearly knew that in China's home stadium, the referee wouldn't even find such an opportunity, aren't you giving others a chance to penalize you? At this time, you must focus your energy on football, one misjudgment by the referee can't decide the game. One out-of-bounds ball, whether it's awarded to you or me, can it decide the game?" This is Hao Haidong's answer, and also Gao Lin's consistent view, but after all, people are emotional animals, there will always be times when they can't stay calm.