Chapter 17 Asia Cup

Before heading to the Asian Cup, Zhou Yi and Kagawa Shinji had one more league match to play for Borussia Dortmund.

The seventeenth round of the league saw Borussia Dortmund challenge Eintracht Frankfurt away.

However, perhaps because they had already secured the halfway championship, or perhaps because it was the last game before the winter break, everyone's thoughts were not on football, but on their holiday aspirations.

So in this match, Borussia Dortmund lost 0:1 to Eintracht Frankfurt away.

Ending their winning streak on the road this season.

After the game, Klopp did not criticize his players. Although he was disappointed to lose the game, he also knew that the players had performed well enough in the first half of the season to win the halfway championship, and he couldn't demand too much from them. At this time, the most important thing was to rest and relax during the holiday, as the second half of the season would keep them busy.

Anyway, in the previous round of the league, Mainz lost 0:1 to Schalke 04 at home, and now the gap between the two sides is thirteen points.

However, a little later after Borussia Dortmund's game ended, Mainz's game also ended, and they defeated St. Pauli 4:2 away, narrowing the point difference to ten points again.

Failing to maintain a thirteen-point lead to end the first half of the season was a pity for Borussia Dortmund. But a ten-point gap was scary enough.

In any case, the players and coaches of Borussia Dortmund could have a good Christmas.

Zhou Yi and Kagawa Shinji were not so lucky. The next day, they both appeared at Dusseldorf International Airport. They would part ways here, one to China and one to Japan.

There were also a large number of reporters from both countries at the airport.

After the two lined up together and passed through security, they waved goodbye in the long-focus lenses of the reporters, and then went to two different boarding gates.

The next time the two of them meet, it may be at the Asian Cup.

※※※

In fact, before the end of the first half of the Bundesliga season, the Chinese national team's training and preparation work had already begun.

A dozen hours after Borussia Dortmund lost 0:1 to Eintracht Frankfurt away, the Chinese team also ushered in a warm-up match against Estonia.

In the end, Gao Hongbo's team, without Zhou Yi, still defeated this team from Europe with a score of 3:0.

The entire year of 2010 can be regarded as a glorious year for the Chinese team, because the national team's performance was very good this year.

Under the leadership of Gao Hongbo, the team achieved nine wins, four draws, and three losses in sixteen national team matches, with a winning rate of 60%, which is definitely the best result in the international matches of all previous national teams.

The highlight of the national team this year was naturally the 2010 East Asian Four Nations Cup, also known as the East Asian Cup. In Japan, the Chinese team first drew with the Japanese national team, and then surprisingly defeated the South Korean national team 3:0, and finally won the East Asian Cup.

The second highlight was the warm-up match before the World Cup, where the Chinese team defeated the invincible World Cup champion French national team 1:0.

However, these two highlights actually have nothing to do with Zhou Yi...

Although the national team performed well in 2010, the Chinese people still care more about the results of official matches.

Next is the first official competition of Gao’s army, the Asian Cup. What kind of answer this team can give in the Asian Cup is the most important thing.

Especially since this Chinese team has Zhou Yi. With Zhou Yi's outstanding performance in Borussia Dortmund, it is indeed easy to make people place more hope on him. So should a team with such a player as its core also raise its goals in the Asian Cup?

Faced with the expectations of fans and public opinion, Gao Hongbo's performance was different from what everyone imagined.

When he was interviewed, he threw out the "Asian Third-Rate Theory" and the "Asian Cup Training Theory," which really shocked the media and Chinese fans.

It also pushed Gao Hongbo to the forefront.

For a time, the media, public opinion, and fans criticized him, and some even conspired that Gao Hongbo had already found an excuse for the failure of the Asian Cup.

Faced with these controversies, Gao Hongbo was unwilling to say more, only saying: "As a head coach, what I have to do is to do my best to lead the team and work hard according to the previously set goals. As for other things, I don't care, and I don't have the time and energy to care. What's important to us is to do our own work in a down-to-earth manner, and let others comment on the rest. Nothing can change the direction of progress."

※※※

Even Zhou Yi was affected by this controversy. After arriving in Guangzhou, he was asked about this issue by reporters.

Zhou Yi's performance was very... ordinary.

"Just a normal way to relieve pressure." He waved his hand, unwilling to talk more about it.

He wasn't stupid either, knowing that there was no point in getting involved in this kind of controversy.

As for whether the Chinese team is really a third-rate team in Asia, it shouldn't be the focus of discussion, because there is a conclusion - when the draw for the group stage of this Asian Cup was made, the Chinese team was assigned to the third-tier team, so what is it if it's not a third-rate team in Asia?

He didn't really care what level the team's strength was positioned at, it didn't matter at all. Because that's just a saying, the victory or defeat of a game does not depend on whether the team is of a certain level, but on the performance of the players.

A third-rate team can still beat a first-class team, and a first-class team can also lose to a non-ranked team.

This is football, full of all kinds of accidents and surprises.

※※※

Zhou Yi and Hao Junmin are the only two overseas players in this national team, and everyone else is from the domestic league.

Although Sun Pan became famous in the German Cup match between Offenbach Kickers and Borussia Dortmund and quickly became well-known, Gao Hongbo did not choose to include him in the national team's training list. After all, as a goalkeeper, Sun Pan is still too young, and the time from becoming famous in one battle to now is too hasty to be transferred to the team for training. However, according to Gao Hongbo himself, he has indeed begun to pay attention to this outstanding young goalkeeper.

Moreover, Gao Hongbo had another consideration - since Sun Pan performed well in the German Cup, he has become the main goalkeeper of Offenbach Kickers, and has been performing well. For him, it is more important to play steadily in the club than to come back to the national team as a substitute and experience an Asian Cup...

Besides, in just two days, Beijing time on December 20th, Offenbach Kickers will face Nuremberg in the round of sixteen of the German Cup.

At this critical moment, it would be meaningless to recall Sun Pan to the national team, it would purely be adding to the chaos.

In the past, many Chinese players playing abroad had enough of this meaningless call-up behavior by the national team - it was clear that it was an unimportant friendly match, but they had to make the players playing abroad fly thousands to ten thousand kilometers back to China to participate in the game, and then play half a game before flying the same distance back to the club.

Doing so can only make the players lose their position in the club, and also fail to perform at a better level in national team matches due to fatigue.

Why didn't Magath use Yang Chen back then? Wasn't it because Yang Chen always had to return to China to participate in matches, which delayed things?

Therefore, for not very important matches, Gao Hongbo is unwilling to cause trouble for these young Chinese people who are just starting out in European football.

He knows that there is a young defensive midfielder named Yang Muge in the Schalke 04 youth team, and he also knows that there is a short central defender named Guo Nu in Inter Milan's youth team, not to mention He Ying in La Masia's youth training camp, who is the main striker of the national youth team and he is also a fellow villager, it is impossible for him not to know this person.

He has started to pay attention to all of these people.

He believes that they are the future of Chinese football.

Gao Hongbo is indeed very concerned about these young players. For example, the German Cup match between Offenbach Kickers and Nuremberg was at 2:15 a.m. Beijing time on the 20th, and Gao Hongbo actually got up to watch the live broadcast online...

You should know that even Zhou Yi didn't get up to watch this game.

Offenbach Kickers used the same tactics as in the previous match against Borussia Dortmund, shrinking back across the board and then playing counter-attacks.

In this match, Sun Pan's performance was still very good, fully demonstrating his advantages of being tall, having long arms, and having a fast second reaction speed, shutting out the opponent with the cooperation of his teammates.

Offenbach Kickers relied on Sun Pan's performance and a sneak attack in the 78th minute to once again upset the odds and eliminate Bundesliga team Nuremberg!

Gao Hongbo believes that if Sun Pan can maintain this state and performance, and can go to a team participating in a top European league next season, then the main goalkeeper of the Chinese national team may be him sooner or later...

※※※

Sun Pan's outstanding performance in the German Cup naturally caused another heated discussion among domestic media and online fans. To some extent, it also reduced the pressure on the Chinese national team from being constantly watched.

Some media have already begun to call on the Chinese Football Association to let Sun Pan enter the national Olympic team to prepare for the Olympic Games qualifying tournament that will begin in June this year.

And not only Sun Pan, but if the other young players playing abroad perform well in their respective clubs, they should also be called up.

Although some of them are in the 90, 91, and 92 age groups and are not the most suitable 89 age group players for the London Olympics, if their strength is really outstanding, they can be promoted exceptionally. Because the current 89 age group of the national Olympic team really has no talent worth mentioning.

The only one who is a bit famous is probably their goalkeeper Wang Dalei, who became famous very early and was selected for the national team in 2006. He was also a talented goalkeeper who went to Inter Milan for a trial training that year, but his professional career did not develop very smoothly later. At the Olympic Games held at home in 2008, he was not selected for the national Olympic team. Affected by injuries and personality, his state also fluctuated.

If Sun Pan can really be promoted to the national Olympic team, I am afraid that his position as the main goalkeeper will not be guaranteed...

He Ying was originally the closest player to this national Olympic team. Born at the end of 1990, although he is not a particularly suitable age group player, because of his outstanding strength, he originally had the opportunity to be selected for this national Olympic team - then called the national youth team - to participate in the Asian Games before the 2008 Guangzhou Asian Games. However, it is a pity that one month before the Asian Games started, He Ying suffered a serious injury, which not only directly missed the Asian Games, but also rested for five months. This is also the most serious blow in He Ying's football career.

Therefore, he missed the opportunity to join the national Olympic team. Until now, he has not been selected for the national Olympic team. Of course, since he recovered from his injury, there have not been many opportunities for the national Olympic team to play, so it is meaningless to be selected...

However, I believe that when the Chinese national Olympic team starts to compete for the London Olympics this year, He Ying will definitely be selected for the national Olympic team as a matter of course.