Perhaps Cahill's words and arrogant attitude would upset Chinese fans—everyone could hear the implied meaning—but in fact, Cahill wasn't wrong. The Chinese team's strength really wasn't good enough. That was what upset everyone the most: knowing that someone was humiliating you, but you couldn't refute it because what he said was true…

This feeling was extremely unpleasant.

Five minutes into this semi-final, Harry Kewell scored the first goal for Australia.

Kewell was one year older than Australia's current star, Cahill, but he became famous much earlier. Back when the white-clad Leeds United youth team stirred up a storm in English football and Europe, Cahill, Viduka, Rio Ferdinand, and others in the team were highly regarded. Kewell also entered the field of vision of Chinese fans.

Later, at Liverpool, he won the Champions League with the team, becoming the first Australian-born player to win the competition.

However, due to injuries, his performance declined, and he has now left the mainstream of European football. He currently plays for Galatasaray in Turkey, which is clearly not the center of European football.

Although Kewell has been plagued by injuries, his skill is still there.

This could be seen from his goal just now.

A beautiful left-footed curling shot broke through Yang Zhi's fingers and flew into the Chinese team's goal.

Trailing by a goal only five minutes into the game was a huge blow to the Chinese team.

Many players held their heads in their hands when Australia scored, showing extreme disappointment.

Zhou Yi, on the other hand, looked calm.

They felt pain and disappointment because it was unexpected; they didn't think Australia could score so early.

But Zhou Yi had simulated many games in the virtual world and had experienced situations like this before.

With Australia's strength, it wasn't surprising that they could do this.

Anyway, in those simulated games, the Chinese team lost more than they won against Australia.

Although Cahill's words were unpleasant, he was telling the truth.

The Chinese team's overall strength really wasn't strong.

However, Zhou Yi believed that strength and victory were not absolutely proportional.

The key was still on-the-spot performance.

Losing a goal early was actually a good thing, because at least the Chinese team had plenty of time to equalize. If there were only five minutes left in the game, then they should cry.

Now, the main thing was to prevent Australia from scoring consecutive goals in a short period of time, as that would be a devastating blow to the Chinese team's morale and confidence.

Thinking of this, Zhou Yi raised both hands and clapped them together forcefully. He kept clapping until more and more teammates looked up at him.

"We still have eighty-five minutes to do something, so conceding a goal now isn't a big deal. We need to be more vigilant next; they'll definitely attack fiercely, so we must hold on. Don't panic when you handle the ball, just be decisive. If you don't know where to pass the ball… just pass it to me!"

In the somewhat noisy environment, Zhou Yi's voice reached the ears of every Chinese player.

Although Zhou Yi was the youngest in this national team, when he said this, no one would question or oppose him. Instead, they would involuntarily listen to him and feel reassured that he could stand up and speak.

It was as if they suddenly knew what to do in the midst of confusion.

Because Zhou Yi didn't just say nice-sounding platitudes, he also gave a very practical solution—if you don't know where to pass the ball, just pass it to him!

Gao Hongbo, who was also anxious after the goal, was planning to shout something to the players from the sidelines, but when he saw Zhou Yi speaking in the crowd, he dismissed the idea.

Although he didn't hear what Zhou Yi said at all, he could see the other players' expressions. They stared intently at Zhou Yi, forgetting the anxiety and tension after losing the goal.

In fact, what he was going to say from the sidelines was also to let the players let go of their nervousness and not take the goal to heart.

Now that Zhou Yi had completed his work, why would he waste his breath?

So he turned around and sat back down.

※※※

When the game restarted, as Zhou Yi had said, Australia, leading by a goal, launched a fierce attack on the Chinese team's goal.

If the Chinese team was still immersed in the frustration and annoyance after losing the goal, they would inevitably become distracted in the intense competition.

At this time, it would be easy to lose the ball.

Such situations were common in football matches.

Australia also planned to take advantage of this opportunity to extend their lead.

But they didn't expect that Zhou Yi's words would calm the Chinese team's players down. Facing Australia's aggressive attack, they handled the ball very decisively. If it didn't work, they would just kick a long ball to the frontcourt, as long as they didn't let the ball stay in the backcourt for too long.

And what if they had the ball at their feet but were facing a siege from Australia and didn't know what to do?

They would think of Zhou Yi's words—“Pass the ball to me!”

So they passed the ball to Zhou Yi.

And it was indeed remarkable, because no matter where the player received the ball, he didn't need to try too hard to find Zhou Yi and have a relatively easy passing route to him.

Zhou Yi was practically ubiquitous on the field.

Those who were playing on the field were shocked, but perhaps the degree of shock wasn't as great as that of the onlookers.

Whether it was the spectators at the venue, the coaches on the coaching bench, the reporters in the media, the commentators in the commentary box, or the viewers in front of the television, they could all see that Zhou Yi was the most active member of the Chinese team in the face of Australia's fierce attack. He was running non-stop, running non-stop.

Sometimes it was sprinting, but most of the time it was jogging. Anyway, he wasn't seen standing on the field with his hands on his hips, watching the show.

It was his tireless, unstoppable running that allowed him to always appear in the right place at the right time, then catch the ball and transfer it out of the danger zone. If he could organize an attack, he would organize it. If he couldn't, he would send a long pass directly to the front, harassing Australia and preventing them from attacking recklessly.

And it had to be said, this approach was quite effective.

Faced with Australia's aggressive attack, the Chinese team's passing and control style of play performed like a dense and resilient net. When Australia's fist swung over, it was caught by the net. The soft net didn't seem as strong as a wall, but it could dissolve the force of the fist, making the person throwing the punch feel as if their strength had sunk into the sea, unable to be released at all.

As a midfielder, Zhou Yi was not the kind of defensive midfielder who could intercept the opponent's ball in a one-on-one situation or make beautiful and accurate tackles in defense.

Zhou Yi himself once thought that he couldn't defend, because when he used to play as a forward, he never participated in defense.

However, after coming to Dortmund, especially after being promoted to the first team, defense was also a very important part of training, and Klopp attached great importance to it, so he also began to learn to defend. However, he always felt that his defense was more of a show, just to show the coach that he had the correct and positive attitude towards the game, and couldn't really play a defensive role.

But this season, Zhou Yi had a different view on this.

Especially after a few games where the team conceded goals after he was substituted off.

If his defense wasn't good, then after he came off and a defensive midfielder was substituted on, the team's defense should have improved, so why did they concede goals instead?

Zhou Yi began to re-understand the concept of "defense."

Not like before, simply thinking that defense was something that defenders and defensive midfielders did, and that defense was tackling, intercepting, close combat, and positioning.

In fact, defense didn't specifically refer to certain technical movements, but was a tactical concept.

Directly intercepting the opponent's ball in a one-on-one situation was considered defense. But Zhou Yi believed that also using overall advantages to control the ball on one's own team's side and not giving the opponent more and better offensive opportunities was also a kind of defense.

Contracting in one's own thirty-meter zone was naturally considered defense, but wasn't expanding the formation and passing the ball around, not letting the ball fall into the opponent's feet, also defense?

Zhou Yi thought it was also defense.

Moreover, compared to being compressed by the opponent in the thirty-meter zone, this kind of defense was active defense. The initiative was in one's own hands. When there was no opportunity, or when the opportunity wasn't good, that was defense. Once a good opportunity appeared, it could immediately be transformed into a deadly attack, directly killing the opponent and completely ending this defensive situation.

However, the prerequisite for doing this was that the team must have one or several core players with clear heads, and the whole team must have good passing and receiving abilities. If one stopped the ball ten meters away, then any tactic would be useless.

Thanks to Gao Hongbo, the current Chinese team could barely meet these requirements.

Because Gao Hongbo's coaching philosophy was mainly passing and control. Some people said that he was copying Barcelona, but Barcelona was now the most successful club in the world, and Spain, with Barcelona's football as its foundation, had won the European Championship and the World Cup, so there was no problem in copying Barcelona.

The key was that the coach's mind was clear and he knew what tactics to play, so he would naturally choose players with abilities in this area when selecting players. In terms of passing and receiving skills, the players in this national team could be considered among the best in the country.

In addition, Gao Hongbo emphasized various passing and receiving coordination training in training. It was often seen that Gao's army of the Chinese team could play smooth one-touch passing in the front and middle of the field, with various triangular passes.

With such a foundation in passing and receiving, plus a Zhou Yi with ninety-nine vision… they could really pass the ball continuously for thirty touches without being intercepted.

In team training, the rondo "teasing the monkey" was actually a kind of training for fast passing under pressure. Players from Barcelona and the Spanish national team loved to conduct this kind of entertainment-oriented training. Gao's army, which emphasized passing, cutting, and running for coordination, would naturally practice it often.

With Zhou Yi's connection everywhere, the Chinese team's passing and control played very smoothly, so Australia quickly discovered that the situation was not what they had imagined.

As long as the ball possession fell into the Chinese team's feet, it was difficult to snatch it unless they committed a foul, and the Chinese team even had the remaining strength to counterattack.

Australia knew that if they continued to play like this, don't even talk about scoring another goal, they might even be in danger of conceding a goal.

So they also adjusted their tactics, slowed down the pace, and no longer pursued scoring consecutive goals in a short period of time.

The Chinese team's alarm was temporarily lifted…