Lin Hai Ting Tao
Chapter 189 A Group Photo as a Souvenir
It was five minutes before people realized the rain was getting heavier and heavier. In those five minutes, they were still shocked by the repeatedly replayed shots on the big screen.
From any angle, Zhang Jun's Dragon Soar was incredible. Adriano kept muttering to the television, "How did he do that? How is that possible?" For someone of Adriano's build, Zhang Jun's light movements were indeed a bit unbelievable.
It wasn't the first time Zhang Jun had made such a move, but doing it in the Eredivisie and doing it on the World Cup stage were completely different in meaning and impact.
Just like in 2002, when Turkey's İlhan Mansız famously backheeled the ball past Roberto Carlos, he instantly became famous. Backheeling the ball isn't difficult, but because it was on the World Cup stage and against the famous defender Roberto Carlos, it felt completely different.
Now, Zhang Jun's name had also become known worldwide with this amazing move. All the fans remembered the name of the person who dared to play with the Italian defense, beat three players in a row, and tease Buffon like that.
Zhang Jun achieved global fame with the Dragon Soar.
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As the saying goes, old ginger is spicier. After the initial panic of being tied by the Chinese team, Italy regained its composure. They began to organize a counterattack, striving to regain the lead.
And Lippi also replaced Cassano with Vieri at this time.
Cassano was a little dissatisfied when he was substituted. He believed that Italy's equalizer was the time for him to play a role, and he was about to flex his muscles when he received the order to leave the field.
He ignored Lippi and sat alone on the bench, sulking.
Vieri quickly ran onto the field. Due to his condition and injuries, he was no longer able to secure a starting position in the Italian national team, but Lippi used him at this time, instead of Inzaghi or Gilardino, because he believed in his ability and hoped to use his tank-like impact to blast open the door of the Chinese team.
Naturally, he didn't want to disappoint the coach, and of course, he himself hoped to regain a starting position through his performance.
After Vieri came on, Italy reduced their ground passing coordination and significantly increased high balls, especially crosses from both sides. Vieri's strong body and 1.86-meter height were a very big threat to the Chinese defenders.
During this period, everyone except Zhang Jun retreated to defend. They believed that as long as they survived the first ten minutes, Italy's momentum would decline, and the game would return to their control.
Piero crossed from the left, and Wang Liang failed to stop it. The ball flew towards the goal. Liu Peng jumped in front of Vieri, preparing to clear the ball, but he quickly felt a huge pressure behind him, which made it almost impossible for him to shake his head. In a hurry, he had to head the ball out of the baseline. Only when he landed did that pressure disappear.
The creator of this pressure was Vieri.
With Vieri, Italy's corner kicks also became extremely threatening. In the Korea-Japan World Cup, in the match between Italy and South Korea, it was a corner kick. The South Korean players almost tore Vieri's jersey with their hands, but they couldn't stop him from jumping and heading the goal, and then everyone watched the ball enter the net.
With the lessons of the South Korean team, the Chinese team didn't dare to be careless. Liu Peng jumped to compete for the ball, but Yang Pan inserted a leg between Vieri's legs, preventing him from jumping with all his strength.
Without pressure, Liu Peng easily headed the ball out, while the depressed Vieri glared at Yang Pan. Yang Pan ran outwards as if nothing had happened. The Chinese team created an offside trap.
Totti passed the ball to Vieri again, and the linesman raised the flag, offside.
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During this period, Italy changed its usual conservative style and pressed forward to attack, so An Ke got a lot of opportunities to show off.
Every time An Ke saved an Italian shot, there was a deafening cheer from the stands. Sometimes, before the previous cheer stopped, the second one came.
An Ke had the illusion that he was not on the World Cup stage, but in a Bundesliga match. The stands were full of yellow and black Borussia Dortmund fans. Bayern Munich launched an attack, Ballack passed to Zé Roberto, Zé Roberto passed back to Ballack, and the two made a one-two pass. Then Ballack passed straight to Makaay, Makaay shook past Wörns, and shot powerfully!
He jumped up and pressed the ball firmly on the ground, then stood up and looked proudly at the disappointed Dutchman.
Cheers rang out again from the stands...
"Vieri! Shot! An Ke! An Ke! His close-range shot was saved again! Buffon performed very well, and An Ke was not to be outdone. His excellent saves made Italy's attack fail time and time again. The cheers throughout the Westfalenstadion are dedicated to him alone!"
An Ke got up from the ground, and while waiting for everyone to retreat, he shouted loudly, "Don't let Italy enter the penalty area casually! Make the defense harder, collide with Vieri! Fight him head-on! Have you all not eaten?!"
"Damn it! Easy for you to say, try fighting him..." Li Suisheng spat on the ground. He had been competing with Vieri all the time. Although he was taller than the opponent, he was too thin. It was very disadvantageous to compete against Vieri, who was like a heavy tank. Several times, he had been forced in by Vieri's physical strength. "This guy is just a tank, not a human!"
In the blink of an eye, Vieri attacked again. This time, he forcibly kicked the ball in the middle of Li Suisheng and Liu Peng's double-teaming, hitting the goalpost and scaring An Ke into a cold sweat.
Li Suisheng lay on the ground, looking at An Ke innocently. He and Liu Peng couldn't hold him back. What else could An Ke say? He had to spit hard at Vieri's back. "Damn it, why don't you play rugby if you're so strong?!"
Qiu Suhui had a very bad premonition that the Chinese team was going to lose the ball if this continued. Vieri alone turned the Chinese team's defense upside down. And the others, Totti and Piero, hadn't even made a move yet. There were too many loopholes in the Chinese team's defense. Qiu Suhui himself was frightened watching from below. Any one of these loopholes could be fatal if caught.
But what could he do? Substitution? The eleven players on the field were the strongest lineup. The Chinese team's bench wasn't deep enough, and the bench on the defense was even weaker. Change the formation? If four defenders couldn't defend, would five defenders work?
He looked down at his watch. It was the twenty-fifth minute of the second half.
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Klu's pass was destroyed by Gattuso. Pirlo received the ball, and he immediately passed it long to Piero in front.
Facing Wang Liang's defense, Piero seemed to be more than capable. He easily stopped Pirlo's long pass and began to consider breaking through the Chinese defender.
"Wang Liang! Hold him!" Yang Pan shouted loudly as he chased back quickly. As long as Wang Liang could successfully hold Piero and wait for him to return, a pincer attack would give Italy no chance.
Vieri raised his hand in the penalty area, he was very conspicuous like a lighthouse.
Wang Liang didn't make a move, but lowered his center of gravity, staring at the football under Piero's feet. He was waiting for Yang Pan to return.
Piero didn't want to wait. He swayed his feet, pretending to break through, and Wang Liang quickly shifted his center of gravity back, preparing to intercept. But Piero was just making a feint. He pulled the ball back with his left foot, took a step back, and suddenly crossed!
Wang Liang didn't expect it and couldn't defend anymore. He could only watch the football pass him and fly to the penalty area behind him.
An Ke originally planned to attack, but he took a step and retreated, because Piero's ball was very cunning. The football was spinning outwards, flying to the far corner of the goal. He couldn't guarantee that he could catch the ball if he attacked, so it was better to retreat and defend the goal.
While retreating, he followed the ball towards the far post.
Vieri was behind, but as long as he blocked his shooting angle, this ball wouldn't pose much of a threat.
Vieri jumped, and it was still Li Suisheng who was defending him, but this time he lost to Vieri even in the jump. He was squeezed behind, and he had no choice but to pull Vieri with his hand, hoping to make him lose his balance and not head the ball.
At first, he didn't dare to use too much force, for fear of committing a foul. But soon he realized that if he didn't use force, he couldn't pull the big man at all. He had to pull hard, and this time he pulled him.
Vieri only felt empty behind him in the air, and he was about to fall down. At this time, the ball came. He could get a penalty if he fell down exaggeratedly, but he wouldn't be the one to take the penalty... He needed to score himself. Determined, he didn't want to miss this opportunity. His strong desire to score supported his body. He straightened his back in the air, and used only the strength of his neck to head the ball towards the goal.
But he didn't put much force on this ball. It would be more appropriate to say he "grazed" it.
An Ke jumped up and prepared to catch this weak header. He stretched out his hands, but suddenly found that his hands couldn't reach the ball!
Vieri grazed the football, but instead grazed the football out of an arc, bypassing An Ke's defense and falling straight into the far corner of the goal!
This was the scene An Ke least wanted to see.
Man proposes, God disposes. Li Suisheng tried his best but instead helped Vieri a lot!
The football fell into the empty goal.
"Fuck—!!!" An Ke roared unwillingly.
"GOAL!! GOAL!! Vieri! Christian Vieri! Italy takes the lead again! They lead China 2:1! Vieri scored his second goal in this World Cup!"
Italian fans cheered like crazy. If there weren't iron nets, they would have rushed into the stadium. This game was much more difficult than they expected, and being able to take the lead again was worth celebrating like this.
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When Wu Shangshan saw the ball falling into the empty goal, his feet softened, and he sat down on the ground. Zhang Jun's goal had greatly boosted everyone's morale, and he also wanted to perform well, but now Italy took the lead again, and it was a lead under siege, which made him suddenly feel that Italy had never been behind, or even been tied. They had always been in front. No matter how hard you tried, they were still in front of you. You could see their backs, but you could never catch up with that back.
He was discouraged and didn't want to chase anymore.
Even Yang Pan stood in front of the penalty area in a daze. He knew how strong Italy was. With less than twenty minutes left, it was almost impossible to tie the score again. After being fooled by Zhang Jun once, Buffon and Nesta would never be fooled a second time.
Was the Chinese team's World Cup journey coming to an end?
An Ke knelt on the ground, still cursing to himself, "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it..."
Suddenly, someone ran to him without saying a word, bent down to pick up the football in the goal, and then turned and ran towards the center circle. He bypassed the celebrating Italian players, his steps were still a bit staggering, as if he had been tripped by something. An Ke looked at that back, his mouth open, but he forgot to curse incessantly.
He didn't curse like An Ke, nor did he use his voice to boost morale. He didn't say a word from beginning to end. He put the football on the kickoff point in the center circle and waited there, panting heavily, for the kickoff.
He was Zhang Jun, who had almost disappeared in Italy's relentless attack on the Chinese team's penalty area.
He shouldn't have run back, or rather, he didn't need to run back. Because running from the Italian half to his own goal would consume a lot of his energy. He only needed to stand in the center circle to rest and wait for his teammates to kick the football over for the kickoff, but his teammates seemed to have forgotten that there were still more than ten minutes left in the game, that they hadn't finished yet.
It wasn't that he didn't want to remind everyone loudly, but he didn't have the strength to speak loudly. Difficulty breathing caused him to consume energy faster than usual. He could only pick up the ball himself. It wasn't that he didn't want to rest, but he, they didn't have time to stand still and catch their breath.
Sophie filmed the whole process of Zhang Jun running towards the center circle with the football. In the lens, she found that Zhang Jun's face was expressionless. Unlike the other players who looked depressed or even desperate, he looked calm.
What are you thinking, Zhang Jun?
Losing a goal is nothing, we'll tie it back. With your complicated feelings for Italy, you must be thinking that. But do you know? Your opponent is Italy, is Buffon! Even you have to use the Dragon Soar to break his goal, how can you do it in the remaining time? Your stamina doesn't allow you to do the Dragon Soar again, does it?
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Seeing Zhang Jun's performance, Yang Pan woke up as if from a dream. He clapped his hands hard and shouted loudly, "Don't be in a daze! We still have more than ten minutes, the game is not over yet! Stand up, everyone stand up!"
In fact, it wasn't just him who was touched. Zhang Jun's silent back was like a model standing in front of them, silently telling them what to do.
An Ke stood up from the ground, took off his gloves, wiped the sweat from his palms, and put them back on. "Okay, okay. I swear, I really swear, I won't let you score another goal. Damn it, this is my home field!" He muttered while putting on his gloves.
Xiang Tao said to Li Suisheng and Liu Peng, "I'll defend Vieri, who of you will cover my position?"
The two looked at him in surprise, "But you are a left back..."
"I can play center back too. At Anderlecht, I played both center back and full back, I can play all positions on the defense line. Who of you can play full back?"
"How are you going to defend Vieri?" Liu Peng asked.
"How to defend? Hey, doesn't he like to use his body? I'll satisfy his request."
Liu Peng then remembered that in the national team, if you want to talk about who has the most developed muscles and the least amount of fat, it must be Xiang Tao, who is only 1.83 meters tall. Don't look at his small size, but his whole body is muscles, with almost no fat. When he tightened his muscles, they were hard to the touch, and even the strong Yang Pan wasn't his opponent. Maybe, he really could do it.
Liu Peng raised his hand, "I'll go, I think I have no problem being a full back who only defends." He wasn't talking nonsense. Liu Peng, who had excellent explosive power, was fast and didn't turn slowly. He could really be a full back, and his height wasn't a problem at all. The German full back Metzelder was 1.9 meters tall and did a great job.
Li Suisheng also had no objection, and the three of them immediately switched positions.
Wu Shangshan didn't want to lose to Zhang Jun, he gritted his teeth and stood up, came to the center circle, and stood face to face with Zhang Jun, preparing to kick off. Although Zhang Jun could be regarded as Wu Shangshan's "senior" in terms of age and qualifications, Wu Shangshan had always regarded Zhang Jun as a competitor. Since the time of the national Olympic training, when Qiu Suhui held the newspaper of Zhang Jun performing a hat-trick in the Netherlands and asked him how he could do compared to Zhang Jun, he had set Zhang Jun as the goal to surpass and listed him as the number one competitor.
Zhang Jun was a genius, and he was also called a genius. Zhang Jun's physical fitness was good, and he was spotted by Manchester United because of his body. Then what Zhang Jun could do, he could definitely do too.
He was afraid of Yang Pan, because Yang Pan always had a straight face towards him, and he was the captain. But he wasn't afraid of the "good guy" Zhang Jun in the team at all.
Klu also stood silently outside the center circle, waiting for the kickoff. In this game, he was caught in the Italian defense quagmire, and his performance could only be described as average. And the goal that the Chinese team had just conceded originated from his mistake, but you couldn't see any apology or guilt on his face. He was always expressionless like this. Outsiders even rumored that Klu came to the Chinese team for money, because the Chinese Football Association gave him a large "transfer fee." He didn't care which country's jersey he wore, as long as they gave him money, he could even represent Qatar.
Some teammates had asked him this question, but he never answered. Instead, Zhang Jun, who was often with him, seemed very angry. "The Chinese sports media is shameless, don't believe it!" he told the person who came to verify.
After Li Yongle stood in position, he said to Li Yi on the side, "You go to help Wang Liang defend Piero and Totti, I'll be fine alone."
Li Yi looked at him and then nodded. He didn't know where Li Yongle got the confidence and strength to defend Totti alone, but anyway, the game was about to end, so let him go alone, maybe that was his wish.
Qiu Suhui originally planned to shout a few words to the field to remind the players. But after he saw Zhang Jun's series of performances, he sat back down.
Maybe these kids could learn a lot from it themselves? Italy was really a very good teacher.
Sophie found that her eyes were blurred. She wiped her face with her hand and wiped off the rainwater on it, and then realized that the rain was really getting heavier, turning into a moderate rain.
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Zhang Jun shook the rain off his hair and gathered his wet hair together with his hands. Not counting stoppage time, there were still fifteen minutes left in the game. He had to score at least one goal in these fifteen minutes to tie the score. At the very least, he had to keep the team in the game until extra time.
The opponent was still the Italian team, which was best at defending. This sounded more like an "impossible mission."
But this had to be done. They didn't want to lose this game, whether the opponent was Italy or some other team.
He wasn't thinking about creating the history of Chinese football or winning glory for Chinese football. He simply wanted to win the game. At this moment, probably not many of the eleven players on the field were trying so hard with the belief of winning glory for the country, were they?
In a rapidly changing football game, thinking about these messy things was a very dangerous thing.
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After scoring a goal, Italy didn't shrink back to defend as people expected, but insisted on combining defense and offense. While consolidating their defense, they still didn't forget to use offense to harass the Chinese team's defense. Qiu Suhui had to admire Lippi. He was very good at grasping the situation, analyzing the situation, and using tactics.
With this, the Chinese team didn't dare to go all out. They always had to worry about their backs when attacking, so how could the offense be efficient?
Totti suddenly took a long shot from twenty-five meters!
After An Ke got into position to catch the ball, he didn't expect that his hand would be a little slow, and the football hit his chest directly and bounced out, a fumble!
All the Chinese hearts were cold, because Vieri appeared at the point where the ball fell, and he swung his foot... shot!
A hand stretched over and patted the football out of the baseline!
"An Ke! His second reaction is so fast!"
"Damn it! I just took a nap, don't think you can take advantage!" An Ke said to Vieri, but in fact he was talking to himself, because Vieri couldn't understand what he was saying in Chinese.
Italy's corner kick, Vieri naturally became the top priority of the Chinese team's defense. Li Suisheng originally wanted to double-team Vieri with Xiang Tao, but Xiang Tao insisted on doing it alone. His reason was that too many people would get in the way.
So he wrestled with Vieri.
Relying on his weight and height, Vieri kept leaning on Xiang Tao, hoping to squeeze him away and grab a favorable position in front of the goal. But after a few times, he suddenly realized that the Chinese defender who was easy to squeeze away in the past was different this time. He didn't move an inch!
Pirlo looked at the Chinese team's goal. He was waiting for Vieri to get into position. In the past, when taking corner kicks, Vieri would raise his hand to signal after grabbing a favorable position. This was a signal that the kick could be taken. But this time, Vieri never raised his hand.
Xiang Tao lowered his center of gravity, turned his body sideways to Vieri, and used his shoulder to support him. In the fierce battle in front of the goal, he didn't take a step back.
Pirlo didn't mind wasting time, but the referee certainly wouldn't agree. Helpless, he had to take the corner kick. He hoped that Vieri could grab it.
It became chaotic in front of the goal. Vieri wanted to jump, but found that the Chinese team's number 13 player defending him was pulling his clothes, making him unable to jump. He was about to raise his hand to signal to the referee, but suddenly felt that the force pulling him was gone. Before he could react, he rushed out due to inertia, but happened to bump into his teammate Nesta.
Nesta was preparing to jump up to compete for the ball at the time, but he was only focused on looking up at the ball and didn't pay attention to the situation around him. He was just about to start when he was hit head-on by someone, and could only watch the football be easily obtained by the Chinese team's goalkeeper.
He also wanted to appeal to the referee that the Chinese team had committed a foul by bumping into people, but found that it was Vieri who bumped into him. He could only admit that he was unlucky.
But Vieri didn't give up. It was clear that the Chinese team's defender had committed a foul. He got up and complained to the referee, but the referee ignored him and ran forward - An Ke kicked the ball out.
Helplessly glaring back at the number 13, the "culprit" looked at him as if nothing had happened. That look was as sincere as it could be, and as innocent as it could be.
After Vieri left, Xiang Tao turned to Li Suisheng next to him and said, "See, that's how you defend him, and he doesn't even have a temper."
Li Suisheng was dumbfounded: This was clearly a clever foul, it was just that he was lucky and the referee didn't see it.
Of course Xiang Tao knew what Li Suisheng was thinking, and at this time he didn't forget to taunt him a few words: "You've wasted these dozen years as a defender. Fouls and small actions are also an important part of defense, you idiot!"
"Hey! Who are you calling an idiot?" Li Suisheng was about to refute, but was pushed forward hard by Xiang Tao: "Idiot! They're coming again!"
Li Suisheng turned his head, and sure enough, he saw Italy's Camoranesi breaking through Liu Peng and turning to the center, killing towards his defense zone.
"Damn it!" He cursed and greeted him, not caring about your feints or real moves. He went up and made a fierce tackle, not even wanting the ball, and quickly jumped up to dodge.
Damn it, these Chinese people will mess around if they have no hope of advancing. I still have to play.
The ball was tackled away by Li Suisheng. Liu Peng apologized to him and passed the ball out.
Li Suisheng got up and turned to look at Xiang Tao with a smug look.
Unexpectedly, Xiang Tao cursed again: "Idiot! That's hurting people, not fouling! If he didn't jump, you would definitely get a card! Idiot!"
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Klu planned to dribble past Gattuso. He dazzled Gattuso with dazzling and breathtaking feints, which caused bursts of cheers from the audience. But facing such a hard-working opponent, Gattuso was not appreciative and directly shoveled him down. At the end, he glared fiercely at Klu lying on the ground.
The referee blew his whistle for Italy's foul and awarded the Chinese team a free kick thirty meters away. Zhang Jun glanced at the angle and distance and decided to give up. He gave the penalty opportunity to Yang Pan.
Yang Pan was also not polite. After he put the ball in place, he stepped back, while stepping back, he observed the Italian wall.
A wall of five people. Italy still gave him enough respect. Vieri, Piero, Camoranesi, Pirlo, Totti. Which one wasn't a well-known name in European football or even world football? Now they were like canned goods in a supermarket, letting him aim around. He was thinking about hitting which one... uh, no, which one to hit through.
By the time he decided, he had retreated a full ten meters, an ultra-long running distance.
The rain was still falling, sliding down his hair, from his forehead to the tip of his nose, where it condensed into a water droplet. Yang Pan imitated Bruce Lee's posture to flick off the water droplet from the tip of his nose, and then began his run-up.
Small steps, small steps, small steps... accelerate, accelerate, accelerate again!
Then his left foot was firmly planted next to the ball, and his rounded right leg was drawn out with all his strength. This force carried his whole body up, his body leaning to the right, and the football roared out.
The wall jumped up, and cracks appeared between people. The football drilled into this crack. The next second, it slammed hard on the billboard behind the goal, making a loud noise.
The whole process took less than a second. Buffon was in the same posture before Yang Pan's penalty kick and was still in the same posture now - he didn't react at all that Yang Pan had already shot.
After the game, some media reported that, after testing, the speed of Yang Pan's shot had reached 171 kilometers per hour! Even Carlos had to admit defeat to this ball speed. This was also Yang Pan's fastest shooting speed at the moment, and he wouldn't be able to shoot it again for a long time, not even close to a speed of twenty kilometers. God knows how he shot it that day.
"If this ball had gone in, I believe it could have shot through the net," a reporter sighed after the game.
Seeing that the ball didn't go in, Yang Pan cursed in a low voice. He only paid attention to the power, but not the arc, causing the football to shoot out in a straight line. Although it successfully broke through the wall, it didn't turn towards the goal.
Perhaps Carlos' free kick in the 1997 France Four-Nation Tournament was really something that could only be encountered but not sought. Carlos himself had never shot it again, and Yang Pan couldn't do it either.
Although Italy's defense was still as solid as a rock, and although time was passing minute by minute, Yang Pan's shot strengthened the Chinese team's belief in tying the score.
Now that it had come to this, they couldn't give up. The further they went, the more they couldn't give up. From beginning to end, they couldn't give up.
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Qiu Suhui was also infected by the atmosphere on the field. He stood on the sidelines, trying to remain calm, but his slightly trembling body still revealed the tension in his heart.
As a coach, it was also the first time he had experienced this kind of situation. This was the World Cup knockout stage. Taking a step forward was heaven, and taking a step back was hell.
He turned to Hu Li to ask for water to drink. Hu Li threw the water bottle to him, and he almost didn't catch it. It took some effort to unscrew the bottle cap, and he felt a little better after taking a sip of water.
He looked down at the watch on his wrist again. There were five minutes left before the end of the game, and the fourth official was already counting the stoppage time.
The time left for them to create a miracle was very limited.
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Sophie took her hand away from the camera body, because she found that everything in the lens was constantly shaking.
Too nervous. Sophie muttered to herself. She closed her eyes, clenched her fists, and raised her head to take a few deep breaths.
She really wanted Zhang Jun to get enough rest, but she also didn't want the Chinese team to lose.
Playing football was a very happy thing, but losing the ball was not happy at all.
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Italy won a free kick. The fourth official also raised the sign for stoppage time: three minutes! Three minutes of stoppage time! The Chinese team only had less than four minutes left.
The score still seemed to freeze, and there was no change on the 2:1 above.
At the same time, Lippi made a substitution, using up the remaining two substitution spots in one breath. De Rossi replaced Pirlo, and Ambrosini replaced Piero. Inzaghi never got a chance to play.
Looking at the two of them slowly walking off the field, Li Yongle couldn't wait to push them off the field. In the last game, he and Yang Pan joined forces in the corner flag area to delay the Ukrainians' time. He didn't expect the retribution to come so quickly. The Italians were also delaying their time.
The referee ran over and warned the two walking Italian players that if they didn't leave quickly, they would each get a yellow card. They reluctantly ran off the field.
Totti took three times to place the ball before stepping back to take the free kick. The referee had just blown the whistle, and Li Yi, who was arranging the wall, rushed out, even before Totti had moved. He was too nervous, and his body was out of his control. As long as he heard the whistle, he wanted to rush up to intercept.
Without saying a word, the referee raised his hand and gave him a yellow card.
Yang Pan was afraid that Li Yi would rush out again, so he had to hold his clothes tightly. This was wasting his own time!
Totti righteously placed the ball three times before getting up. He was going to shoot directly.
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People on the Italian bench stood up one after another and stood in a row on the sidelines. They were waiting to rush into the field to celebrate.
Some people on the Chinese team's side also stood up, too nervous to sit down. Even Zheng Jun, who was not qualified to play, was praying for the Chinese team in the stands.
Everyone focused their attention on Totti and An Ke. If this ball went in, then the game would be declared over in advance. If it didn't go in, then there would still be three minutes of suspense.
"The fourth official is too stingy, he only gave us three minutes!" Wang Jianxiang was complaining. In fact, three minutes was correct, because there were no frequent substitutions on both sides in the second half, and the game was rarely interrupted. It was just that in Wang Jianxiang's eyes, in the eyes of countless Chinese fans, giving them thirty more minutes would be about the same.
An Ke sank his waist down, and his heart also calmed down. Now in his eyes, there were only two people on this field, he and Totti, and that football.
He stood at the far corner, and the wall didn't block his view. Vieri originally wanted to interfere with his vision, but was squeezed away by Xiang Tao.
They left him a space, a space big enough for him to fly freely.
Totti ran up and swung his leg!
Almost at the moment he kicked the football, An Ke started to pounce towards the near corner.
Don't ask him why he knew that Totti would shoot at the near corner instead of other places. Sometimes, a man's intuition is very terrifying, let alone a man who is a goalkeeper.
The football drew an arc, bypassing the wall high, and then suddenly fell, only to drill towards the upper near corner of the goal!
An Ke only took one step before leaping into the air - he had no time to take a second step - the length of the goal was more than seven meters, and he was only 1.9 meters tall. Even with his hand, it wouldn't exceed 2.4 meters. He could only use the greatest force when pushing off the ground to jump.
Then, he really flew up.
How should this flying An Ke be described? He was 1.9 meters tall, but he stretched out very well in the air, as if he had no weight himself. That's right, he was very much like the frigatebird, whose wingspan was 2.4 meters when opened. The frigatebird was famous for being able to fly well, and An Ke really seemed like a bird free from gravity at this moment, a big bird.
The football accurately drilled into the place where the goalpost and the crossbar intersected - the theoretical dead corner.
An Ke was flying in the air, his eyes still staring at the football, his left hand reaching out towards the ball with all his might. The two were approaching rapidly.
This is my territory, so whether the ball goes in or not is naturally up to me. So this ball... get out of here!
At the moment his fingertip touched the ball, An Ke pushed hard, and the football spun and flew out of the crossbar!
"He did it, he really did it! He saved Totti's free kick! An Ke kept the suspense of the game! He kept the hope for the Chinese team!"
"Damn it! He actually saved it!" The Italian commentator couldn't help but curse.
Italy's corner kick, the Chinese team's danger had not passed, and Vieri squeezed in again.
Xiang Tao found that this time it was much more difficult than the last time, and he was already starting to retreat.
"Damn! The best center forward in the world... one of them is really not a joke! Not only does he have a body, but he also knows how to use his brain..." he gritted his teeth and said to himself.
The corner kick was taken, and Xiang Tao suddenly withdrew his strength and then jumped up hard to compete for the header with Vieri. He was 1.83 meters, and Vieri was 1.86 meters. Vieri was a real center forward, and he was just a center back who was filling in.
But he won!
He really overpowered Vieri and headed the ball out. Li Yongle quickly made a big clearance, and he directly kicked the football into the stands.
"Damn you ancestors! You little bastards, you think I'm easy to bully if I don't show my power?!" After beating Vieri, Xiang Tao cursed as if there was no one else around. He wasn't really trying to scold Vieri, it was purely to vent. Moreover, Vieri couldn't understand Sichuan dialect anyway, he couldn't even understand Chinese, so Xiang Tao didn't have to worry about Vieri turning around to make trouble for him.
※※※
Qiu Suhui simply squatted on the sidelines, holding the ground with one hand to maintain his balance. He looked at his watch again, and it had already entered stoppage time.
Before the game, he had told them to play with a learning attitude, and that winning or losing didn't matter. But now, he hoped they would win more than anyone else. For no other reason than that these kids, they were all trying so hard, and losing the game would be too cruel