Chapter 54: FA Cup Semifinals (Part 1)

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  Actually, Gao Jun had already gained this confidence during the Toulon Cup, and after this Asian Cup, he is even more convinced that he has completely surpassed Hao Haidong, who is currently one of Asia's top three super strikers. However, Gao Jun modestly replied, "Just a few games' performance can't explain everything, and it's not just about the number of goals scored, but also about the player's contribution to the team. Other players can assist, pull, organize, and defend, while I can only score goals for now. If I don't score enough goals, what is the coach going to use me for?"

  "Even so, the first substitute did not have a chance to play, but now he has scored 11 goals. Such performance, this Asian Cup, or even any other Asian Cup, no other player can be compared with him." Liu Jianhong continued to ask.

  "This might be me taking advantage of Qibing's kindness." Gao Jun could only answer like this.

  "At first, it may have been underestimated, but just now the Japanese team had two or even three players defending against you! " Liu Jianhong was obviously not satisfied with Gao Jun's answer and immediately retorted with an example.

  "There are many people, but the Japanese team doesn't understand my characteristics, and their defense lacks targeting, just piling up is useless." Gao Jun smiled and said, "Moreover, this Asian Cup, most of the strong teams didn't send out their strongest lineup, especially Japan. So my performance looks quite impressive, but actually has a lot of water content."

  "Are you saying that this Asian Championship title is not convincing enough?" Liu Jianhong asked, but as soon as the words left his mouth, he felt that saying so would offend everyone on the national team. He quickly changed the subject and asked Gao Jun when he would go abroad to play. Gao Jun still insisted that it would be at least after next year's World Youth Championship. This made Liu Jianhong and other fans who thought that going to Europe would greatly improve his level very disappointed, and some people even began to point fingers at Xu Genbao, thinking that he must not have let Gao Jun go abroad, which is why Gao Jun said so...

  It wasn't until he finally got rid of Liu Jianhong, who was also a famous "high black" back then, that Gao Jun managed to escape and return to the national team's base. And in the little time before the national team disbanded, many media outlets came to interview him, and he even signed autographs for many fans as a keepsake, feeling more tired than playing football...

  During the interlude, the French youth coach of the Eastern team helped Ribery correct several technical flaws, which greatly improved his strength. Gao Jun only then realized that even in a football power, excellent youth coaches are not as common as they seem, especially for lower-level teams (except for a few teams that excel at cultivating young players). Of course, compared to Chinese teams, the situation is still much better. It's worth noting that the Chongming base was already one of the top domestic youth training bases before the French coach arrived.

  At this time, the domestic competition schedule is still very unreasonable. The FA Cup often conflicts with the national team's training matches, and even has matches during the interval period, which greatly reduces the value of this event. Due to the absence of Gao Jun and Yu Hai, coupled with their own lack of strength, on August 8th, the first leg of the Chinese Football Association Cup semi-finals, Dongfang team lost 2-4 away to Super League powerhouse Shandong Luneng, wanting to advance to the final must win at least two goals at home and not concede more than two goals, this difficulty is indeed not small...

  But even so, due to Gao Lin and Yu Hai's outstanding performance in the Asian Cup, the second leg of the FA Cup semi-final on August 14, Dongfang's home game still refreshed the new high of attendance rate, with more than 30,000 fans coming to the stadium expecting "Magic Boy" and his teammates to create another miracle.

  To be objective, Shandong Luneng was not in its strongest period at that time. There wasn't a domestic super star with absolute dominance like Hao Haidong in the team. However, the personnel configuration of strong offense and weak defense perfectly matched the head coach Slobodan Santra?'s emphasis on offensive football, producing a "1+1>2" effect, making them one of the strongest teams in China soon.

  Even in the more result-oriented cup competition, Tubat's requirement is "attack, attack and attack again", and it is unbelievable that all previous opponents were crushed to pieces. If they hadn't encountered the prematurely rising Dongfang team, they should have won this FA Cup championship. However, Gao Jun's technical characteristics are most effective against teams that like to press forward with an attacking style. When he saw Shandong Qilu team holding a two-goal advantage but still launching a large-scale attack after the opening, and not even assigning someone to specifically mark him, the corners of his mouth suddenly curled up into a smile...

  Only 3 minutes into the game, Dongfang team gained a free kick on the right flank. After the ball was kicked out, Gao Jun flew in like an arrow and scored before Shandong goalkeeper Deng Xiaofei could react, putting Dongfang team ahead 1-0 and tying the aggregate score at 3-4.

  Less than 5 minutes later, Ribery made a breakthrough into the penalty area of Shandong Qilu and was knocked down. The famous "Qilu Black" referee Chen Guoqiang did not hesitate to award a penalty kick. Gao Jun scored with one kick, tying the score at 4:4. This way, because the away team scored more goals, if the score does not change again, Dongfang will smoothly advance to the final of the FA Cup. The outstanding performance of Dongfang in just 8 minutes, regaining control of their own destiny, also completely ignited the passion of all the fans in the stadium, who began to loudly chant Gao Jun's name, without stopping for a long time.

  A two-goal lead was gone in less than ten minutes, which was undoubtedly a huge blow to Shandong players, but they did not give up. Under the loud shouting of Tu Ba, Shandong team began to use their physical advantage to strengthen the front court's pressing and more crazily pressed forward.

  However, the Oriental team's sharp counterattack soon made Shandong team eat the bitter fruit of being caught off guard. In the 25th minute, Korneev sent a strong through pass from near the midfield line, and the ball slid tens of meters on the grass before accurately finding Yu Hai, who had made a timely run into the opponent's penalty area. Yu Hai then used his left foot to shoot from a small angle near the corner of the penalty area, scoring a goal and expanding the lead to 3-0!

  But in this case, Shandong team did not give up. 2 minutes later, Dajiang received Anichi's wonderful pass and shook off the defender with his left foot, shooting a powerful shot to tie the score at 3:1. Although Shandong team still needs to score another goal to enter the final, at least they saw a glimmer of hope.