Zhou Yi didn't continue arguing with Caijing.com online, but reporters still ran to ask him directly about the feud between him and Caijing.com.

Zhou Yi was unwilling to answer this, because it was a question unrelated to football and unrelated to the final.

He simply said, "Please don't ask me about these irrelevant people in the future. Our time is precious, right? It's not worth wasting time on irrelevant people. You guys may have time, but I don't. Sorry, I'm very busy."

Thus, after being called "salted fish," Caijing.com gained the title of "irrelevant people."

Online, this manifested as everyone forwarding and commenting "irrelevant people" under Caijing.com's Weibo.

The editors at Caijing.com must have been very unhappy, but they couldn't retaliate. No matter how dissatisfied they were, they could only hold it in...

At the same time, deep down, they certainly hoped that the Chinese Olympic team would lose to Japan in the final, because only failure on the football field could give Zhou Yi the heaviest and most fatal blow. Caijing.com understood that a player's foundation lies on the field, and Zhou Yi's confidence to challenge them was related to his performance on the field.

But without results, he would just be a pile of ****. This had been proven countless times by Chinese football in the past. As long as a Chinese player had some controversy, there were definitely more criticisms than praises. Because Chinese football naturally has a negative image, and Chinese players naturally can't escape the blame.

So people like Caijing.com who were unhappy with Zhou Yi and the Olympic team could only hope that the Olympic team would lose in the final.

But in fact, for more people who support the Olympic team, reaching the final was already a victory. Even if they lost the game in the end, winning a silver medal would still be something to be very happy about.

If someone wanted to criticize the Olympic team based on their performance at that time, it would be difficult to gain ground.

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The Chinese Olympic team's opponent in the final was the Japanese Olympic team.

It was somewhat surprising that these two teams reached the final.

Before the Olympics started, everyone thought that Brazil and Spain would meet in the final, but Spain was eliminated in the group stage, and Brazil stopped in the semi-finals.

The Japanese team was very excited to learn that their opponent in the final was the Chinese team.

"...The Chinese team is a strong team. We will do our best in the final because we are determined to win the gold!" Japanese player Yuki Otsu said to Japanese reporters. "We will not give up easily! If the Chinese team thinks they can easily defeat us, then we are ready to teach them a lesson!"

Unlike the Chinese team's low profile, the Japanese team seemed much more high-profile. Yuki Otsu's words, after being translated by Chinese media and transmitted back to China, also aroused various kinds of mockery and ridicule from Chinese fans.

But there was a reason for the Japanese players to say this, because they were in the position of challengers, of course they had to say some bold words to boost their courage.

For those who haven't paid attention to Chinese football for a long time, if they only started watching the Olympic team's games from this Olympics, they would definitely be very surprised, because from a theoretical point of view, the strength of the Chinese Olympic team has actually surpassed the Japanese team. This can be seen from the odds offered by Western bookmakers for the two teams to win the championship. The Chinese team is ahead of Japan.

This is mainly reflected in the five outstanding overseas players of the Chinese Olympic team.

They all performed well in this Olympics and are the biggest contributors to the Chinese team's ability to reach the final.

Especially Zhou Yi, He Ying, and Sun Pan, they are very important to the Olympic team.

On the other hand, although the Japanese Olympic team has as many as six overseas players, one more than the Chinese team, the quality is not as good.

Zhou Yi is the midfield core of Dortmund and led the team to win the league championship for two consecutive seasons. Sun Pan is the starting goalkeeper of Atletico Madrid, helping the team win the Europa League title. He Ying is the team's top scorer, helping the team qualify for La Liga and winning the silver boot in the Segunda Division. Only Yang Muge and Guo Nu's achievements are relatively poor, but they are also absolute starters in their respective clubs.

What about Japan?

The six overseas players, defender Maya Yoshida, plays for VVV-Venlo in the Dutch league, Hiroki Sakai plays for Hannover 96, Takashi Usami plays for Hoffenheim, Gotoku Sakai plays for Stuttgart, Kiyotake Hiroshi plays for Nuremberg, and Yuki Otsu plays for Borussia Monchengladbach.

The teams that these players play for cannot be compared with the teams that Zhou Yi, Sun Pan, and Yang Muge play for. They are not all starters in their respective clubs, let alone the core players.

In fact, for the Japanese team, they should be very clear about the strength of Zhou Yi and Yang Muge, because most of them play in the Bundesliga, and they are naturally deeply impressed by Zhou Yi's brilliant performance in the Bundesliga.

So when they encounter Zhou Yi, they are actually in a weak position. If they don't find a way to boost morale, then this game will be even more difficult to play.

And what makes the Japanese media most depressed is that Zhou Yi actually made a prophecy!

At that time, when the Japanese team had only played one group stage game and narrowly defeated Spain 1-0, Yuki Otsu shouted the bold words of aiming for the gold medal, and Zhou Yi responded that if the Japanese team wanted to win the championship, they had to pass the Chinese team first.

At that time, everyone analyzed that if the Chinese team and the Japanese team wanted to meet, it must be the final. Everyone felt that the chances of the Chinese team and the Japanese team meeting in the final were too low. No Asian team has ever reached the Olympic final in history, let alone two.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Yi was right! The only possible chance for the Chinese team and the Japanese team to meet actually came true!

After the Chinese team defeated the Brazilian team and became the Japanese team's final opponent, a Japanese reporter interviewed Shinji Kagawa, asking him to offer advice to the Japanese Olympic team, because he and Zhou Yi had been teammates for two seasons, and he knew Zhou Yi the best.

Shinji Kagawa was very candid and told the Japanese reporter everything he knew about Zhou Yi.

But the more the Japanese reporter listened, the more frightened he became: "Kagawa-san, listening to you, Zhou Yi seems difficult to defeat? Is he really as powerful as you say?"

Shinji Kagawa rolled his eyes while holding the phone, but still had to try to explain clearly: "I'm just telling the truth, without any exaggeration. This is what I saw of Zhou-san, he is really that powerful, otherwise why would he be the core of Dortmund, and not others?"

These words reminded the Japanese reporter that when Shinji Kagawa first joined Dortmund, Zhou Yi moved back his position, from attacking midfielder to defensive midfielder, and gave the attacking midfielder position to Shinji Kagawa. At that time, some media in Japan believed that this was a sign that Klopp had entrusted the core responsibility of the team to Shinji Kagawa, and Shinji Kagawa would take over the core position from Zhou Yi.

What was the result?

Zhou Yi, who moved back his position, was still Dortmund's immovable core, and Shinji Kagawa could only assist him.

Coming back to his senses, the reporter said to Shinji Kagawa with some embarrassment: "But Kagawa-san, we can't publish what you said, I'm afraid it will lower our morale..."

Shinji Kagawa also realized this. He thought for a while and thought of the match between Dortmund and Schalke 04, where Zhou Yi's performance was limited under Yang Muge's close marking. Although Dortmund still won the game in the end, Yang Muge's close defense of Zhou Yi in the game left a very deep impression on Shinji Kagawa.

So he said: "Zhou-san is not completely without weaknesses. If we can conduct a more strict close defense against him, no matter where he goes, we will have people follow him closely... When I say 'closely,' I mean really 'closely,' like the distance between lovers holding hands and shopping. I think it should bring some trouble to the Chinese team's attacking organization. But this is only to make the Chinese team's attack encounter trouble. If you want to score a goal, you still need to face Sun Pan, who was the best goalkeeper in the Europa League last season."

"It doesn't matter, I think what you said is good enough!" The reporter was very happy, because Shinji Kagawa really came up with a solution, although he didn't know how the solution would be implemented, at least it provided an idea.

Just when the reporter finished thanking Shinji Kagawa and wanted to hang up the phone, Shinji Kagawa stopped him: "Wait... are you planning to publish all the things I said?"

"Yes, Kagawa-san..."

"Then I suggest you don't do that," Shinji Kagawa said.

"Huh, why?" The reporter didn't understand.

"If you publish it publicly, are you hoping to tell the Chinese how we are going to deal with their core?"

"Ah, this..." The reporter suddenly realized that he had not thought of this at all before.

"I suggest you contact the Olympic team's head coach, Takashi Sekizuka-san, and relay my words to him. I think this might be of some real help to the Olympic team," Shinji Kagawa said finally.

"This... we will seriously consider Kagawa-san's opinion!"

"No, don't consider it, just do what I said. For the first Olympic champion in Japanese football history, what's the big deal about sacrificing a little sales?"

The momentum suddenly displayed by Shinji Kagawa in the end overwhelmed the other party, and the other party agreed on the phone to do as Shinji Kagawa said.

Don't publish what he said, but relay it directly to the Olympic team's head coach.

As a reporter who follows the team, he definitely has this channel.

After hanging up the phone, Shinji Kagawa thought of what Zhou Yi had said to the Japanese Olympic team at that time.

He knew that Zhou Yi definitely wanted to use the Olympics to get revenge.

But no matter how good his relationship with Zhou Yi is usually, this is a national competition, and he will definitely stand on the side of his own country without hesitation.

He didn't want Zhou Yi to succeed in his revenge.

He personally may find it difficult to surpass Zhou Yi, but his country still has a great chance.

I'm sorry, Zhou-san.

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ps, declaration: I said before that the Chinese team would meet the Japanese team in the semi-finals. I didn't seriously study the Olympic schedule rules at that time. Later, I found out that this was a Bug. The Chinese team could not meet the Japanese team in the semi-finals, only in the finals. So the Chinese team, which defeated the Brazilian team, will face Japan in the final.