Chapter 121 He Ying Scores Again

He Ying's goal truly put the Japanese team in a dire situation.

They had done their homework before the match, and they anticipated the difficulties of challenging the current Chinese team on their home turf.

But when the game actually started, they realized that their pre-match preparations didn't seem adequate enough…

Sun Pan's extraordinary performance foiled their attacks time and time again.

Zhou Yi's outstanding play made the Chinese team's offense very active, and Zhou Yi even scored a goal himself, putting Japan in a very passive position.

Now, He Ying had emerged, making them completely defenseless…

Faced with this situation, Zaccheroni couldn't come up with a better solution.

The restrictions on Zhou Yi had been strengthened in the second half, but this came at the cost of weakening the defense against other Chinese players. Sure enough, He Ying's excellent performance earned China another goal.

There were only so many defensive players, and with most of them focused on Zhou Yi, they faced a shortage of troops when defending against other Chinese players.

Moreover, it wasn't as simple as just strengthening the defense—after falling behind by two goals, should the Japanese team launch a counterattack or focus on offense?

If they wanted to attack, they would have to invest more troops in the offense, which would make the defense even more stretched.

What if they were caught by a Chinese counterattack at that point?

If they chose to strengthen the defense, with the goal of not conceding any more goals, what about the 0-2 deficit?

Even if they didn't concede, they wouldn't be able to equalize the score, so would they just end the game with this score?

That would be somewhat unacceptable to Zaccheroni…

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The Japanese players also found this result difficult to accept.

They knew that the Chinese team had become stronger, but no matter what, the Japanese national team had never lost to this team before. They defeated the Chinese team in the Asian Cup final, and they tied with this Chinese team in the first leg of the Top Ten qualifiers.

So when they came to play away, they were full of confidence and wanted to avenge the Olympic team.

But who knew… it would turn out like this.

Not only were they two goals behind in the score, but the Japanese team was also at a disadvantage on the field.

This made the always proud Japanese players feel very hurt.

They always believed that the Japanese team was the strongest team in Asia, which seemed to be the case in terms of the number of Asian Cup titles. In the early years, Japanese football had been seeking to "escape Asia and enter Europe," hoping to get rid of the low-level Asian football and go to the higher-level Europe, where they could compete and compete with those strong teams, so that the level of Japanese football could be further improved.

They felt that there was nothing fun to be had in Asia anymore, the opponents were too weak, not worth mentioning, and playing against them was simply a waste of time. Over time, always playing against low-level opponents would only lead to a decline in their own level.

As a result, this Chinese team gave them a solid blow.

The commentator for Japanese television didn't know what to say about this second goal conceded, and sighed, repeatedly saying "Too bad."

For Japanese football, this was indeed very bad. The opponent they once looked down upon had now knocked them to the ground.

The Chinese fans in the stands were ecstatic and soon a full stadium sing-along began, the song being "Defend the Yellow River":

"The wind is howling, the horses are neighing! The Yellow River is roaring! The Yellow River is roaring! The hills west of the river are ten thousand feet high, the sorghum is ripe east and north of the river! In the mountains, there are many heroes of the Anti-Japanese War! In the green gauze tents, the guerrilla warriors show their heroism! Taking up rifles and foreign guns, wielding broadswords and spears…"

Many Chinese people may know the name of "The Yellow River Cantata," but it's hard to say how many people can still sing it completely now. Even "Defend the Yellow River," which is the most widely sung song in "The Yellow River Cantata," is not necessarily something that everyone can sing completely. Obviously, the Changsha fans had made special preparations for this game, and this song had been practiced repeatedly. At the very least, the lyrics had been sent to the vast majority of fans.

So this choral song, now sung in unison by 60,000 Chinese fans, was truly magnificent and resounding throughout the universe.

"...Defend the Yellow River! Defend North China!! Defend all of China——!!!"

The last three sentences were "shouted" by the fans in the entire stadium. After they finished shouting, cheers rang out in the stadium.

It had been a long, long time since Chinese fans had felt so proud in front of the Japanese team.

Although the Olympic team defeated the Japanese Olympic team at the London Olympics, that was after all in London, England, thousands of miles away, not in China.

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The Japanese players couldn't understand what the Chinese fans were singing, but the fans' rainbow-like momentum still made them feel a little nervous.

This was the pressure of playing away.

On the bench, some Japanese players lowered their heads and said worriedly, "They won't tear us apart, like in the TV series, will they?"

"You're thinking too much, that's fake, special effects…" his teammate comforted him, but his own brow didn't relax either. Although the Chinese might not directly tear the devils apart by hand, it might not be easy to get out of here unscathed.

During the 2004 Asian Cup final, when the Japanese team defeated the Chinese team, angry Chinese fans overturned cars and burned the Japanese flag after the game… causing riots.

What if it happened again now?

They were here to play football, not to fight a war…

Perhaps the only thing they could use to comfort themselves was that the Chinese team was leading now, and it was better for the Chinese team to win than to lose…

Wait, it doesn't seem like losing the game is something to feel relieved about, right?

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The Japanese players on the bench were very conflicted.

The Japanese players on the field were also very conflicted—should they attack or defend?

Zaccheroni didn't give a countermeasure immediately.

After the game restarted, they could only do what they thought was right.

The attacking players almost all advocated attacking, while the defending players felt that it was right to first stabilize the defense and avoid conceding another goal in a short period of time.

As a result, the Japanese team showed a state of division in the game.

A Japanese team going all out would have to work hard to defeat the Chinese team, let alone a divided Japanese team.

In the following game, the Chinese team took the advantage.

During this time, Eiji Kawashima became the busiest person.

This made Sun Pan a little unhappy…

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Zaccheroni finally made a decision—attack!

Anyway, they were already two goals behind, so what was there to worry about? Even if they didn't concede any more goals, it would still be a 0-2 defeat. But if they counterattacked, there was still hope of equalizing the score—at this time, he no longer hoped to defeat the Chinese team.

He would be satisfied as long as he could escape from the away game unscathed.

As for whether the Japanese media and fans were satisfied with this result, he didn't care.

He was an Italian, so what did he care about the past and present grievances between Japan and China?

The Japanese team went all out to attack, and of course the Chinese team wouldn't back down—the current Chinese team was in high spirits, everyone was full of confidence, how could they shrink back when facing the Japanese team's attack? Of course they had to face the Japanese team head-on.

The two sides attacked each other like this, playing very beautifully.

After all, the Japanese team's attacking firepower was also among the best in Asia.

As the Chinese team's goalkeeper, seeing that the Japanese team's attack finally looked like something, Sun Pan became happy and used one brilliant save after another to show his presence.

As a result, until the end of the game, the Japanese team failed to equalize the score, not even scoring a single goal…

In the end, the Chinese team defeated the Japanese team 2-0 at home and won the top spot in the group.

"The game is over——!" Duan Xin shouted excitedly when the referee blew the whistle to end the game. Although this result was actually not suspenseful, he was still very excited.

"The Chinese team defeated the Japanese team 2-0 at home! Not only did they get the World Cup qualification, but they also ensured that they became the first in the group! The victory over the Japanese team is very important! I think this victory is even of historical significance!"

The Japanese commentator was very frustrated: "The game is over… The Japanese team lost 0-2 away, and we were at a disadvantage in terms of both score and field. Unconsciously, Chinese football has re-emerged and become a force that can threaten Japanese football…"

In the field, the Chinese players were celebrating the victory. Zhou Yi found Shinji Kagawa and exchanged jerseys with him.

"I hope we can meet again in the World Cup. It won't be so easy for you to win then." Shinji Kagawa took Zhou Yi's jersey and said to him.

Zhou Yi smiled: "That has to be in the knockout stage. For us, reaching the knockout stage is creating history. We will have no desires at that time. Kagawa, have you heard of something called 'being firm when you have no desires'?"