Lin Hai Ting Tao
Chapter 748 Dominating the Field
Of course, the main reason the fans were cheering wasn't the back-and-forth attacks, but the fact that the home team, China, had the upper hand!
As soon as the Japanese team came out to attack China head-on, the Chinese team took advantage of their home field advantage and momentum to put the Japanese team's penalty area on high alert.
Such a scene would have been hard to imagine in the previous decade or so of Sino-Japanese clashes.
How could the Chinese fans in the stands not be excited?
There weren't many times when China could pin down Japan and beat them. Even when they won, the match was usually evenly split in terms of performance.
Not to mention that since the beginning of the twenty-first century, China seemed to only lose when they met Japan.
But now, China has more shots than Japan, and more shots on goal as well.
This is very rare.
Not to mention distant history, but just the most recent match – China's away game against Japan in the Top Ten – they didn't have the upper hand.
But in less than a year, China was able to gain an advantage against Japan at home.
This had to make the Chinese fans extremely excited.
There are two reasons why the Chinese team has the advantage: the first is on defense.
In this game, Sun Pan, Guo Nu, and Yang Muge, three overseas players, all started. Their defense in the backfield made the Chinese team's offensive players feel safe.
Especially Sun Pan, who made high saves and kept the goal from being lost. It wasn't that the Japanese team didn't have good attacking opportunities – since it was a back-and-forth attack, the Chinese team couldn't possibly shrink back into their own thirty-meter area, so there were bound to be gaps. And when the Japanese team got these gaps and shot, Sun Pan would appear in front of them.
Among the five players playing abroad, Zhou Yi's strength is recognized as the strongest.
And the person recognized as the second strongest is Sun Pan – if it wasn't for the fact that Zhou Yi led Dortmund to defeat Sun Pan's Atletico Madrid in the recently concluded Champions League, I'm afraid this recognized number one might still be up for debate...
Sun Pan's strength doesn't lie in how good his goalkeeping skills are, but in his quick reflexes and excellent physical fitness. A Chinese player with the physical qualities of a European and American player, which makes up for his lack of goalkeeping skills.
After Sun Pan guarded the last line of defense in front of the Chinese team's goal, it was the Chinese team's turn to perform well on offense.
And the Chinese team's offensive power is mainly reflected in Zhou Yi and He Ying.
It's not that the Japanese team didn't think about tightly marking Zhou Yi, but how could Zhou Yi be so easily frozen? As long as European giants meet Dortmund, they will try their best to contain Zhou Yi, but was Zhou Yi simply contained?
Judging from the result of Dortmund winning the Champions League, no.
So it's not easy for the Japanese team to contain Zhou Yi either.
Plus He Ying, who is all-around and has excellent speed.
The Chinese team's offense is impressive.
The defense is reassuring, and the offense is exciting.
It's only natural that the Chinese team has the upper hand and suppresses the Japanese team.
Logically speaking, with such an outstanding performance before, it is normal to come to such a result.
But such a normal result fell into the eyes of Chinese fans, and still made them feel shocked and have infinite emotion.
This is Japan!
No matter how much you despise the Japanese, in football, they are undoubtedly a top Asian team.
The level of Chinese football is not the same as theirs.
But now, the Chinese team can really suppress the Japanese team at the national team level.
It feels like a dream...
Some older Chinese fans couldn't help wiping their tears.
But soon, they were back to cheering for the Chinese team.
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Since it's a back-and-forth attack, it means everyone has a chance. But obviously the Chinese team's offense is more threatening.
In the twenty-ninth minute of the game, the Chinese team launched an attack.
This attack started with the goalkeeper. First, Sun Pan saved Shinji Okazaki's shot, then threw the ball to start the attack. He didn't throw it to Yang Muge, but threw the ball with force to a place near the center circle.
There was He Ying, who was at the very front.
When He Ying was facing away from the direction of the attack, he jumped up and headed the ball back.
The headed ball fell at Zhou Yi's feet.
After Zhou Yi stopped the ball, facing Yasuhito Endo who came up to press him, he pulled the ball horizontally with his left foot, towards the middle.
At the same time, other Chinese team players were actively moving forward.
Wu Lei was sprinting forward on the right wing, where there was a gap.
Zhou Yi only ran two steps before raising his left leg and using the outside of his foot to cut the ball to the right wing!
The ball flew in an arc and landed right in front of Wu Lei. Wu Lei is also a very fast player. This is why the Japanese team initially chose to slow down the pace and speed, because there are too many fast players in China, and if they don't slow down, they might fall into China's trap...
"Good ball! Zhou Yi's transfer is very beautiful!"
Of course Zhou Yi's pass was beautiful, but not only was the ball cut with the outside of his left foot, but also because Zhou Yi passed the ball in front of Wu Lei, not directly at his feet.
If Zhou Yi passed the ball directly to Wu Lei's feet, then Wu Lei would have to slow down, which would be a great loss for the Chinese team who were on a counterattack, and maybe they wouldn't even be able to launch a counterattack.
So Zhou Yi passed the ball a few meters in front of Wu Lei, which allowed Wu Lei to take advantage of his speed.
Wu Lei did not slow down, but accelerated and directly dribbled the ball away.
This dribble left Japan's left back Yuto Nagatomo behind by half a body length – Yuto Nagatomo probably didn't expect Wu Lei to break through so decisively...
Fortunately, the experienced him immediately turned around and ran back, but not directly to chase Wu Lei, but to retreat into the penalty area. He had to make up for the defense, because Maya Yoshida, who was originally playing as a center back, was going to the wing and was stuck on Wu Lei's advance route.
Seeing that the Chinese team's counterattack had advanced to the Japanese team's thirty-meter area, the Chinese fans in the stands shouted desperately, creating a huge wave of sound to cheer for the Chinese team's attack.
When Wu Lei broke through on the wing, He Ying had already rushed to the front, and another Japanese center back, Yasuyuki Konno, was next to him.
Wu Lei did not pass the ball to He Ying. He made a move to cross from the wing, and Maya Yoshida stepped forward to block him from crossing.
But when Wu Lei's right foot landed, he passed the ball to the diagonal behind his body!
A back pass!
Yoshida Maya was caught off guard, and when he looked back, he found that the ball was passed to Zhou Yi who was coming up from behind!
At that time, Wu Lei's breakthrough attracted the attention of most of the Japanese players, and they were all running with Wu Lei. Yoshida Maya came up to block Wu Lei, and Yasuhito Endo chased back Wu Lei.
Few people cared about Zhou Yi.
Until this time, with the ball, everyone's attention turned back to Zhou Yi.
Less than five meters away from Zhou Yi, Japanese midfielder Makoto Hasebe pounced over, intending to block Zhou Yi.
Yasuyuki Konno also pounced up with him – the area where Zhou Yi ran up was the area responsible for Yasuyuki Konno's frontal defense. If he was still staring at He Ying, Zhou Yi would have a very relaxed environment and shoot directly.
He was not afraid that no one would care about He Ying after he came up. On the one hand, Yuto Nagatomo had already returned, and on the other hand, wouldn't it be possible to create an offside by coming up to block Zhou Yi?
As long as Zhou Yi dares to pass the ball to He Ying, then He Ying will definitely be offside!
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"Wu Lei passes the ball! It's Zhou Yi!! He is about to receive the ball!" Duan Xin shouted excitedly.
Even though he was wearing soundproof headphones, he could still hear the cheers erupting from the stands, which were all from the Chinese fans!
The game has been going on for thirty minutes, and this may be the best offensive opportunity for the Chinese team so far!
Seeing Yasuyuki Konno rushing up, He Ying also realized that he would be offside, so he immediately moved horizontally, running to the left side of the box, while also creating space so that Zhou Yi could easily pass the ball to him.
While running for space, He Ying also looked back, observing the situation behind him.
What he saw was Zhou Yi with his head down, raising his right foot towards the ball passed by Wu Lei. Was he going to shoot directly?!
At the same time, when Zhou Yi raised his right foot, Makoto Hasebe also rushed in from the middle, and then tackled from the side, intending to block Zhou Yi's shot with his body!