Chapter 174 An Unimportant Game?

The Chinese team's final top ten match was an away game against Australia.

This game was meaningless for China. But for Australia, it was very important.

Because they were competing for a third-place spot in the group, which would give them a chance to participate in the playoffs. The playoffs were a home-and-away battle between the third-place teams from the two groups. The winner would then play two more playoff games against the fifth-place team from South America, and the winner of that would qualify for the Brazil World Cup.

This path was not easy for Australia, but it was the only path they could take.

The good news was that Oman, the original third-place team in the group, had lost to the Chinese team at home, which meant that Australia hadn't been left behind by Oman.

At that time, Australia had drawn 1-1 with Japan in an away game, accumulating four points, only one point behind Oman.

With two rounds of qualifiers remaining, Australia had two games, while Oman only had one. This gave Australia a chance to overtake Oman.

But first, they had to defeat another competitor, Qatar.

In the round of matches in which the Chinese team defeated Japan, Australia defeated Qatar 4-0 at home, accumulating seven points and surpassing Oman to become third in the group.

In the final round of group matches, Australia only needed to draw with the Chinese team, and if Oman didn't beat Qatar by a large margin away from home, Australia could qualify for the group stage.

But to be on the safe side, Australia's goal was still to defeat the Chinese team at home.

The absence of five overseas players from the Chinese team gave Australia hope of winning.

If the Chinese team had come with their full strength squad, Australia wouldn't necessarily have had the confidence to defeat the Chinese team. They had already witnessed the strength of this Chinese team when they challenged them in China.

Fortunately, heaven helped Australia. Because China had completed its goal in advance, it rotated the team阵容, and the overseas players led by Zhou Yi didn't even come to Australia.

Although some Australian media outlets made sour comments about the Chinese team's approach in their reports, saying that the Chinese team looked down on Australia, after this report was posted online, countless Australian fans immediately left messages in the comment section below the report, saying: "We just hope the Chinese team looks down on us!" "Your newspaper shouldn't talk nonsense. Will angering the Chinese team help us qualify?"

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Yan Min, the "intern" of the national team, finally got a chance to play in the match against Australia, albeit as a substitute, and only when there were ten minutes left in the game.

But for him, it was a milestone ten minutes.

His appearance meant that he officially became a "national team player" because he had a record of playing for the national team.

When Yan Min came on, the score was 1-0, with the home team Australia leading.

So Yan Min wasn't just there to gain experience. Gao Hongbo really hoped that he could use his dribbling and breakthroughs to create chances for the Chinese team to equalize.

Yan Min was very active after coming on, but unfortunately, his individual activity couldn't drive the whole team.

In the end, the Chinese team lost to Australia 0-1 away from home.

This was an insignificant game, and it was also an away game. In addition, the Chinese team that played was a "remnant squad" – Zhou Yi and others didn't come, but many young players did.

In the eyes of many people, such a game could be described as "training the team."

So losing was losing. The important thing was to train the team and accumulate experience.

Chinese fans and media were particularly tolerant and understanding after the team had already secured a World Cup spot.

Even the Chinese team players themselves didn't think there was anything wrong with losing the game.

Only Yan Min was very unhappy, feeling that if everyone worked harder, there was still hope of equalizing the score.

He was very dissatisfied with this result.

When they had just lost the game, the national team players were still a little depressed and frustrated. But after returning to the locker room, everyone's mood was different. It was unclear whether it was because they had spent some time digesting the failure, or because there couldn't be cameras filming in the locker room, so they didn't have to hide their thoughts and expressions anymore.

In short, everyone was talking and laughing in the locker room. Some people were excitedly looking forward to what kind of treatment they would enjoy when they returned home, which aroused everyone's interest, and the locker room launched a large discussion on this topic.

Everyone enthusiastically discussed whether businesses would come to them to shoot commercials after returning home, and whether they could renegotiate their contracts with the club. After all, some of them could already be considered "national team players," their status was different, and their worth was naturally different, so their annual salary and bonuses had to increase.

There were also people who cared about whether they could secure a place in the official twenty-three-man squad for the World Cup a year later. This became a "stage" for the younger generation of players to praise the older generation of players.

Facing the lively locker room that was like a vegetable market, one person remained silent, and was constantly accumulating his anger.

In the end, he finally couldn't suppress it anymore.

Yan Min shouted loudly at the teammates who were discussing enthusiastically, "What are you thinking!"

Everyone was originally talking enthusiastically, and their spirits were high. Yan Min's roar made them a little dazed, and they didn't understand what had happened.

Looking at his confused teammates, Yan Min said angrily, "How can you be like this? We lost the game, we didn't win!"

Someone was confused, feeling that Yan Min's anger was simply inexplicable. They spread their hands and said to Yan Min, "What's wrong, Yan Min? This is just an insignificant game, we've already qualified, and the coach doesn't care, otherwise why would Zhou Yi and the others leave early..."

Yan Min interrupted the other person loudly, "For Zhou Yi and the others, this may indeed be an insignificant game! But for us, it's not!"

Yan Min's tough attitude aroused dissatisfaction from others in the locker room – what qualifications do you, a national team "intern," have to teach us a lesson?

Someone said, "This is an away game, half of the main players didn't come, and we only lost by one goal. It's already very good. What are you dissatisfied with, Yan Min?"

"Of course I'm dissatisfied, because we originally had a chance to win!"

Yan Min's words shocked everyone, and everyone looked at Yan Min like he was an idiot.

"Pfft!" Some of them couldn't help but laugh.

"Even if Zhou Yi and the others came, they wouldn't dare to say that they could definitely win against Australia away from home. Our 'intern' actually talks about winning all the time, what big words!"

"Why can't we win? We only lost by one goal. If we can score two goals in the game, can't we win 2:1!" Yan Min said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Someone rolled their eyes, "A soccer game isn't as simple as one plus one equals two! How do you know that if we score two, they can't score three?"

Yan Min stared wide-eyed at the teammate who said that, "No way? Li Yang, why are you always helping our opponents talk? Don't you want us to win?"

Li Yang was speechless by Yan Min's retort. He was stunned for a moment and then said angrily, "I'm not going to talk to you, you idiot!"

Then he turned around to do his own thing, ignoring Yan Min.

Others also felt that it was impossible to reason with Yan Min, who was famous in the national team for being "stupid," so they simply ignored him. Otherwise, the more they paid attention to him, the more energetic he would become. They also didn't want to argue at this time.

And who knew if there would be Yan Min, this idiot, the next time the national team gathered?

He was lucky to be able to enter the national team this time.

He had stayed in the national team for three games, and only played the last ten minutes, and didn't have any decent performance. Maybe there wouldn't be a next time.

It wasn't worth arguing with an idiot they wouldn't see again in the future…

With these thoughts in mind, everyone stopped arguing with Yan Min and instead treated him like air.

Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, Yan Min really couldn't understand his teammates' reactions.

Why didn't these people understand? For Zhou Yi and the others, this may have been an insignificant game. But Yan Min believed that for them, these young people, this game should have been a must-win game. They didn't have many opportunities to represent the national team, and any game was very crucial and important to them. Of course, they had to seize the opportunity to show themselves.

As a result, such an opportunity was squandered and wasted.

Yan Min only hated that he was a substitute, and only had ten minutes to perform. If he could be given the full ninety minutes, let alone forcing a draw with Australia, he would have the confidence to defeat Australia. That was why he said there was hope of winning.

As a result, no one could understand his good intentions.

He cursed in his heart, "These fellows are not worth planning with!"