Chapter 78: The Road of the Ball King
New book rushes into the charts, seeking recommendation votes, member clicks and collections ^_^
However, to be honest, Gao Jun's speed is fast, but it can only be considered as one of the best among domestic players. Compared with Messi, a super genius who appears once in a decade, there is still a significant gap. As for ball control skills, it's even more impossible for him to fully grasp Messi's unique techniques. On the other hand, if Messi wants to learn Gao Jun's way of shaking off defenders, it would be easy for him. Although his shooting accuracy is also very good, compared with Gao Jun, there is still a significant gap. So even if he learns it, the power will be far less than when Gao Jun himself uses this technique.
In fact, if it weren't for his extremely poor physical condition back then, Gao Jun would have definitely practiced various techniques more comprehensively and wouldn't have been so obsessed with practicing shooting accuracy to the point of perfection. Although Gao Jun always said "Rather than making up for weaknesses, I'd rather improve my strengths", he also knew that even if he had talent in this area, any skill is harder to improve as time goes on. Shooting technique had reached his level back then, and it would take a lot of time and effort to improve further. If possible, practicing other techniques would be more cost-effective, but who let him have no choice back then?
However, after having the opportunity to play football in two lifetimes, the time Gao Jun spent on it became worthwhile, because he still had enough time to make up for those technical shortcomings one by one, and the extremely high shooting accuracy he practiced in his previous life was a free gain.
The accuracy of shooting is obviously crucial for a shooter, and the extremely comprehensive shooting method has equally significant meaning. As a result, Gao Lin can choose to handle the ball in many more ways than other forwards, and all of them are very threatening, making it naturally much harder to make an accurate prediction. Gao Lin's self-created unique way of getting rid of the opponent also greatly increases his success rate.
But all of these are not possessed by Messi either, so for him, having only one position to shake off is not enough to ensure the completion of shooting and guarantee the success rate of shooting. Moreover, the possibility of succeeding with this shaking method is far less than that of Gao Lin...
That is to say, Gao Jun's skills are easy to learn, but it's impossible to master them unless there's another player with the same talent and experience as him. The former might be possible, but the latter can only be expected if Gao Jun himself time-travels again...
Possessing an unreplicable signature move, considered one of the important symbols of a super giant star at the level of a ball king. Later generations of fans also regarded this quarter-final match as the true beginning of Gao Jun's road to becoming a ball king. However, they all overlooked one point: Gao Jun's shooting accuracy with any part of his feet was exceptional, and almost every time he shot, he had a perfect mindset like still water. In the world at that time, these could also be considered signature moves, and these were also forced out by his extremely poor physical condition back then...
After discovering that he had lost his position, Nakazawa Yuji, who knew how formidable Gao Jun was, suddenly felt a chill in his heart. The explosive passion of the entire stadium instantly made him confirm without looking back that his team had conceded their first goal. Amidst the depression, he couldn't help but feel a sense of respect for Gao Jun. "Being able to pull out almost an entire position so simply is enough to illustrate his rapid growth in physical ability and technique over the past six months. Generally, forwards can be praised for having 'shooter's intuition' if they can complete a shot without hesitation in that situation, rather than thinking about how to handle it and wasting the opportunity. But Gao Jun can actually confirm the position of the goalkeeper and the goal, find the dead angle that cannot be saved, and shoot the ball into it... This is really an unbelievable gift! With such an absolute technique, not to mention in Asia, even in the world, I'm afraid no defender can single-handedly guard this kid to death..."
"This young Chinese shooter is really amazing." Japanese coach Osim exclaimed after seeing the goal, but his face also darkened as a result. The high defense of the Asian Cup alone made it difficult for him to get a chance to shoot from an empty position, and now that someone was always entangled with him, it was even more difficult to deal with. Especially since China's Aolin, Yu Hai, Huo Jiamin, and even Shao Kei all had good ball-handling skills, it was no longer possible for the defense to completely shut down China's attacking power.
In the end, Osim could only let his players take turns committing fouls to suppress China's offense. Although they had the referee's favor (note 1), they still gave China several good free kicks in the front court. Unfortunately, neither Shao Jiayi nor Hao Haidong were lucky today, and except for a direct shot that hit the crossbar and flew out of bounds, they couldn't pose any substantial threat to Japan's goal.
After China wasted several scoring opportunities, Japan, who had been passive for a while, unexpectedly equalized the score with a brilliant direct free kick from Nakamura Shunsuke, which was also his first direct free kick shot in the entire game. The "Asian Free Kick King" indeed lived up to his name. Meanwhile, the core competition between Japan's two ace players, Nakamura Shunsuke and Nakata Hidetoshi, seemed to have already surfaced.
However, the protagonist of this game was destined to be Gao Lin, who had just made his debut. Shortly after the start of the second half, Gao Lin took advantage of the Japanese defender's fear of his shooting ability and made a surprising breakthrough, sending a high-quality cross into the box without any interference. His club teammate Yu Hanchao timely inserted himself into the middle road, almost as soon as the ball arrived, and headed it into the net with a header. The score on the field changed to 2-1, and China took the lead again!
Zhang Lu was shocked by Gao Jun's outstanding performance and forgot his original stance for a while, reflecting on whether it was correct to encourage Gao Jun to go abroad to play football earlier. "He has grown again, and in a low-level league like China League One, he can have such amazing growth, which is enough to show how excellent his talent is. Moreover, not only him but also the young players of Dongfang team who played with him, such as Yu Hai, have also had rapid growth. It's true that outstanding players beyond their level can bring up the young players in the team. Maybe Gao Jun didn't go abroad to play football for a long time because he considered this issue. If only one player is particularly excellent, it is impossible to revive Chinese football, but if there are a group of excellent players, even if they are not at that level, the actual significance will be much greater."
Note 1: It must be acknowledged that the Japanese are cunning, although they do not compete for the position of AFC Chairman, but have long controlled the AFC Referees Committee in their own hands. As a result, except for the 2011 Asian Cup knockout stage against Qatar and a few other rare occasions, the Japanese team has rarely been disadvantaged by referees in Asian competitions, while benefiting from numerous instances. In the 2004 Asian Cup, not only was the decision to award Japan's handball goal valid in the final, but also relied on the help of referees to knock out dark horse Jordan in the knockout stage. In fact, if it weren't for the constant protection of referees, with the weakest lineup of the Japanese team in the past decade at that Asian Cup, winning the championship would have been impossible...
PS: In the 2011 Asian Cup match between Japan and Qatar, the opponent had AFC Chairman Hammam supporting them from behind, and as the host country, even if the Japanese controlled the referee committee, they couldn't withstand it. That game can only be considered a general black whistle, much better than the one that blacked China.
