Chapter 69: Infighting and Hope

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  Yu Hai made a run forward, but Li Yi was unwilling to fall back, and the Chinese team's formation suddenly changed from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3. The midfield lost its previous thickness, and Sun Jie on the left flank was forced to defend against the hot Madavikia alone, feeling extremely overwhelmed.

  In the 29th minute, Madavikia broke away from Sun Jie's defense and made a straight pass into China's penalty area. Karimi, known as "Asian Maradona", timely inserted himself in front of the ball and shot low with one foot. Liu Yunfei, who was not in good shape today, reacted slowly and could only watch as the ball flew into the net from under his arm...

  Seeing the situation on the field becoming increasingly unfavorable, Huang Jianxiang blurted out without reserve, "It's not even 30 minutes yet, and the Chinese team is already two goals behind. This performance is worlds apart from the one that swept Iran in the Asian Cup. Is it really true that the national football team can only defeat Iran with the help of referees?"

  Guest Tao Wei then opened a way for the national football team, "When Iran's state is good, it's really impossible to play. Even the Korean team has lost 2:6."

  It is not known whether it was Tao Wei's words that came true, 7 minutes later, Madavikia shook off Sun Jiehai's defense and suddenly shot from a distance of more than 35 yards from the goal. Liu Yunfei, who was not focused enough, jumped up with all his might, but still couldn't stop the ball from entering the net. The score on the field was rewritten again, and before the end of the first half, the Iranian team had already taken a three-goal lead, while the Chinese team hadn't even made a shot on target so far...

  The two people in the broadcast room couldn't help but look at each other, and Tao Wei secretly scolded himself for being a jinx. "It can't be that we're really going to lose 2:6, it seems like there's really a possibility of that happening, and with the current situation on the field, it looks more like we're going to get kicked into a 0:6 rhythm!"

  But less than half a minute after the World Wave in Madagascar, the suppressed atmosphere in the studio changed suddenly. Huang Jianxiang, who had been silent for more than ten seconds, suddenly became excited and shouted loudly, "The ball is in! The ball is in! It's Gao Jun, our magical boy has performed another miracle!"

  Originally, after Iran's third goal, the Iranian goalkeeper rushed out of the penalty area with excitement and raised his arms in celebration. However, thinking that the game was already won, this goalkeeper inevitably relaxed a bit, and only slowly walked back to the goal after the restart. Gao Lin saw this scene from afar and immediately chose to shoot from distance. The Iranian goalkeeper realized something was wrong and rushed towards the goal, but ultimately was half a step too late, and together with the ball, fell into the net. China unexpectedly narrowed the score to 1:3, making the outcome of the game suspenseful again!

  "Unbelievable, too unbelievable! This is a super long shot from over 50 meters away! Gao Jun was really decisive and confident! Such a goal in Chinese football history is not the first time (note 1), but it appeared in such a heavyweight international tournament, at such a difficult moment for the team, it's unprecedented in Chinese football history......" Huang Jianxiang couldn't hold back his excitement, praising Gao Jun's goal to no end.

  And once an excellent football player, guest Tao Wei noticed more technical details and was shocked more than Huang Jianxiang, "Jianxiang look, slow motion playback, notice this ball, only has up and down spin, and almost no left and right spin..."

  Huang Jianxiang, although not having received professional football training, has been commentating on football matches for many years and naturally knows that it's not easy to make the ball spin a lot, but making it not spin at all is even more difficult. After seeing this detail, I suddenly had a deeper understanding of Gao Jun's shooting technique and why his shooting accuracy is so high. Because a non-spinning football will not have unpredictable deflections in the air, the possible deviations are much smaller. Of course, if the opponent's defense is too tight and there are no dead angles, this type of shot would be less effective than curved shots or falling leaf shots. However, such situations are rare, so Gao Jun's shooting technique still has a great advantage...

  Although they were lucky enough to tie the score, it also stimulated the Iranian team to further strengthen their offense. However, no matter how tight the defense was, Gao Jun never allowed Yu Hai to return to defense, and Li Yi also stubbornly refused to retreat and defend. At this time, Ali Han finally discovered the problem on the field and realized that his frontcourt players were actually at odds with each other!

  But now it's too late to handle, can only support one side in the two parties for the time being. Gao Jun's importance to the national football team is obviously far greater than Li Yi, so although Ali Han was annoyed with Gao Jun because of this internal conflict, he still decided to support Gao Jun instead of Li Yi.

  Who would have thought that the irascible Li Yi suddenly blew up when he saw the assistant coach gesturing for him to return to defense, stubbornly sticking to the front court and refusing to go back. Arihan was furious on the spot, immediately signaling substitute right-back Wei Xin to prepare to replace Li Yi, which can release Xu Yunlong's excellent intercepting ability. The latter's defensive ability is much stronger than Li Yi, and he is also a versatile winger. Even if he is pushed to the front line, his physical quality is equally good, and his impact force will not be inferior to Li Yi by much.

  Just then, Li Datou again gave the opponent a penalty kick because of his large movement while defending Ali Daei in the forbidden zone. Karimi of Iran scored with one stroke, expanding the score on the field to 4:1. Seeing this scene, Arihan sat down dejectedly, feeling that the game had lost hope of winning, and it was not necessary to change people on the court to stimulate Li Yi, so he dispelled the idea of changing people and began to think about how to restore the team's morale after this big defeat and the upcoming life-and-death battle with Japan at home.

  However, young Gao Jun and his two companions did not give up. In the 43rd minute, after a big kick by the Chinese defender, the ball flew high into the front court. Gao Jun saw the trajectory of the ball and suddenly lit up, shouting "Yu Hai, run forward!"

  "I'm already running!", Yu Hai spoke as he shot forward like an arrow, and since Madavikia was still in the Chinese team's backcourt at this time, the Iranian player who was defending him was clearly slower than Yu Hai. So when the Chinese team unexpectedly passed out this overhead ball, Yu Hai accelerated and completely left him behind, then strode towards the flying ball that was still in the air...

  Note 1: In the 1991 First Division League match between Beijing and Liaoning at Beijing's home stadium, the Beijing team was trailing by a large margin at one point. Liaoning goalkeeper Fu Yu-bin, thinking that victory was already certain, ran to the sidelines to chat with reporters after Liaoning scored another goal. He only slowly returned to the penalty area after the kickoff, and as a result, Beijing's Guo Weiwei directly kicked the ball into the goal from afar, setting the record for the longest distance shot in Chinese football history...