Chapter 291 Jiang Yuan starts to criticize

After singing the national anthem, the referee blew the whistle and Zhang Linpeng clapped his hands: "Come on, everyone! Come on, come on!"

"come on!"

"come on! Come on!"

Jiang Yuan high-fived his teammates one by one, and then ran to his position on the court.

I don’t know why, even though it’s just a U23 group match, the pressure is greater than playing in the Champions League.

In the camera, Jiang Yuan grabbed his ankle, stood on one leg, and stretched his quadriceps. The fans at the scene had already started cheering.

"Jiang Yuan!"

Boom!

"China!"

"Boom!"

"Woo!!!"

After the national flag and the association flag left the field, the referee Orredo blew the whistle to start the game.

"China Media Group, China Media Group!"

"..."

"We can see that the Mexican team is wearing green jerseys and white shorts on the field!"

墨西哥U23（4-1-2-1-2）

Goalkeeper: Talavera

Defenders: Jorge Torres, Carlos Salcedo, Cesar Montes, Eric Aguirre

Midfielders: Michel Perez, Eric Gutierrez, Cisneros
Forwards: Arturo Gonzalez, Bueno, Eric Torres

"Then it's our... Chinese team! Wearing red jerseys and red shorts!"

China U23 (4-3-3)

Goalkeeper: Wang Dalei
……

At the start of the game, both sides fought very fiercely at the beginning.

Just as Li Yi said in the locker room before the game, although Mexico is the football overlord in Central and North America, many strong players cannot play due to the U23 restrictions.

This age limit is advantageous for weaker teams. The U23 age group is very clever and perfectly blocks almost all the current superstars in the world.

Moreover, football players generally reach their peak at the age of 27 or 28. In the U23 age group, many players are still in an upward period. Their football skills are okay, but their physical confrontation ability is really very average.

Taking this situation into consideration, Li Yi's approach was very simple and crude, which was to let Jiang Yuan and Wu Lei rush forward as much as possible.

Speaking of the three over-age players of the National Olympic Team, they were not actually chosen by Li Yi. At that time, the coach who was ready to lead the team was Fu Bo, the champion coach of the U23 Asian Cup. Li Yi later wanted to change the list, but failed.

But Li Yi has played in the Premier League after all, so there is definitely no problem with technical and tactical things.

Now, the one who wants to win the most in the entire National Olympic Men's Football Team is this head coach!

"Go forward! Do you see the empty space in front of Wu Xinghan? Fill it up, fill it up!"

At this time, Li Yi was giving orders loudly outside the court, which was in stark contrast to his calmness when he led the team in the China League One match.

On the court, Xie Pengfei ran to the position in front of Wu Xinghan as Li Yi requested, and worked together with Shi Ke to directly push Gonzalez who was dribbling forward.

Gonzalez fell to the ground, but Xie Pengfei's physical confrontation was very clever, using his chest muscles, and he had already gained position advantage before the confrontation, so the referee did not call a defensive foul on the Chinese team.

"Go!"

Wang Dalei urged from behind, and Xie Pengfei passed the ball back to Wu Xinghan, who decisively kicked the ball to Liu Binbin who was in the front.

"Look at me, look at me!"

Liu Binbin turned around to receive the ball, Jiang Yuan quickly ran to Liu Binbin's wing, and the latter headed the ball to Jiang Yuan.

The position of the pass was not very good. Compared to Jiang Yuan, the ball was closer to Mexico's central midfielder Cisneros.

Damn it!
Jiang Yuan cursed inwardly, pushed off the ground with his left foot and rushed out. In order to touch the ball before Cisneros, Jiang Yuan stretched out his right foot, pushed it towards the baseline with his toes, and then followed with his body.

Snapped!
The two men collided. Cisneros was 1 meters tall and had very well-developed muscles, but unfortunately, he met Jiang Yuan.

"Jiang Yuan is very strong, Cisneros was knocked away!"

"Go to the baseline, Jiang Yuan is signaling Liu Binbin to move, Liu Binbin, come to the left"

"Jiang Yuan cuts inside, the two switch positions, Wu Lei is on the right, but his position is watched by the Mexican player, Liao Lisheng is behind, he can try to pass back"

"Jiang Yuan, keep going inside! Montes wants to defend, Jiang Yuan, just go to the far corner!"

"This shot was just a hair's breadth away!"

Oh shit!

Jiang Yuan held his head in his hands, a little dissatisfied with his shot. Goalkeeper Talavera's reaction was slow, if he could have held the ball, the shot would have gone in.

"oh my god!"

In the VIP stands, Bolt, who was wearing the Chinese team scarf, hugged the back of his head with both hands, just like Jiang Yuan. This guy really treated Jiang Yuan as a buddy, and he came to watch without hesitation.

If Bolt had been in charge of the attack just now, he should have been able to dribble the ball directly into the penalty area, but as for shooting...

Let’s not even talk about shooting.

While running back, the fans in the east stands were cheering Jiang Yuan crazily.

There were more than 1 spectators from China, 8000 of whom came specifically to watch football, and the remaining 2000 came to watch other Olympic games. However, the Chinese men's football team was very popular this year, so we also came to watch.

In 13 and 15, Evergrande won the AFC Champions League twice. Everyone said that Chinese football was on the rise. We had to come and see what was happening at the Olympics today.

"Go China!"

"Jiang Yuan! Goal!"

"Jiang Yuan!"

"One in!"

The voices in the stands were uniform, and the fans' expectations undoubtedly added a little pressure to Jiang Yuan.

Fortunately, for Jiang Yuan, who has been in a stadium with more than 5 people all year round, this kind of pressure is really just a drizzle.

Jiang Yuan's strength has not declined, it is mainly a problem of rhythm. Fans who know the business have already seen that there are now three channels in the Chinese team. The four people in the frontcourt, Wu Lei, Zhang Linpeng, Liu Binbin, and Liao Lisheng, each have one channel, the rest of the people have one channel, and Jiang Yuan himself has one channel.

The rhythms of the three channels are very different, which means that the Chinese team's possession rate is destined to not be too high.

The rhythm of the Chinese team made the Mexican players on the field a little fierce, so it is hard to say whether it is good or bad. Anyway, judging from the current situation on the field, China still has a lot of advantages.

As the U23 Asian Cup champion and the number one seed in the group, the strength of the Chinese team is unquestionable.

The game reached the 19th minute and it was still the Chinese team's attack. Before this wave of attack, the Chinese team controlled the ball for almost 2 minutes, which can be said to be fully prepared.

Snapped!
Liao Lisheng sent a straight pass forward to Wu Lei in the midfield. The latter had started half a second ago, but because of the offensive initiative, Perez was unable to catch up in the first time, and finally the ball went directly to Wu Lei at the bottom line.

Have the opportunity!
Wu Lei was in a good position, and Jiang Yuan quickly ran into the penalty area to prepare to receive the ball. Along with him was Liu Binbin, whose heading technique was also pretty good.

"Wu Lei... pass!"

"Torres cleared the ball out of the baseline. China's corner kick. Xie Pengfei takes it!"

"The corner kick is coming, go to the back post. There are many defenders at Jiang Yuan's position. Let's see if Liu Binbin can take this opportunity to head the ball."

"Hmm! Jiang Yuan ran out and headed the ball directly!"

"The ball is in!"

"The ball is in!"

"It was a huge, huge mistake by Mexican center back Montes!"

"In the 21st minute of the game, Jiang Yuan scored a header from inside the penalty area and the Chinese team took the lead 1:0!"

He Wei and Zhan Jun were both blushing. The National Olympic Team had performed miracles in the U23. Did they have to show miracles in the Olympics as well?

"Good shot! Good shot!"

Li Yi outside the field clapped wildly, wishing he could rush onto the field and give Jiang Yuan a kiss on the forehead.

Because when Xie Pengfei took the corner kick, Jiang Yuan was surrounded by three Mexican defensive players. In order to score this goal, four conditions were indispensable: sense of smell in front of the goal, positioning, heading technique, and of course defender Montes' defensive mistake.

It can be said that Jiang Yuan’s performance in this offensive wave was impeccable!

"call!"

"call!"

Li Yi stretched his lower jaw forward and blew air upwards with his mouth to blow up the hair in front of his forehead.

As expected, the next day, the posts on Baidu and Weibo were all filled with words like “Li Yi is awesome”!
"nice shot!!!"

"Brother Yuan!"

The players of the National Olympic Team surrounded Jiang Yuan. Since it was his first goal in the Olympics, Jiang Yuan himself was quite excited.

"China!"

Boom!

"China!"

"Boom!"

Amid the cheers of the fans, the second goal of the first half was scored by Mexican striker Bueno.

Because of the one-goal lead, the Chinese players became bolder. The importance of self-confidence in team competition is self-evident. Jiang Yuan's goal became the lubricant of the Chinese team. It is obvious that after taking the lead, the passing and control of the Chinese team became much smoother, especially the cooperation between Jiang Yuan and Liao Lisheng and Liu Binbin in the frontcourt. Now Jiang Yuan can integrate into the team's rhythm.

Of course, no coach will let a star player fully adapt to the team's rhythm, and Li Yi is no exception. In the eyes of the Chinese team's coaching staff, Jiang Yuan's explosive ability in the frontcourt, which is comparable to that of a bomber, is indispensable. In order to gain an explosive point on the left, it is acceptable to sacrifice ball possession appropriately.

Especially in U23 competitions like the Olympics, due to age restrictions, the strength gaps among participating teams are similar.

This can be seen from the Brazilian Olympic team. As a traditional football kingdom, Brazil has never won a gold medal in football in the Olympic Games!

The pace of the game began to get faster and faster. In the 38th minute of the first half, Mexico took advantage of Wu Lei's offensive foul and found an opportunity to counterattack.

"Go back! Go back!" Liao Lisheng shouted in the middle. His position was very good and his voice could cover the entire Chinese team's half.

Snapped!
The Mexican player sent the ball to the frontcourt with a long pass from the backcourt, and the ball was received by Arturo Gonzalez, the core player of the team's frontcourt.

"Gonzalez! Catch the ball and turn around!"

"Mexico wants to launch a quick counterattack against China to see if the Chinese team can come up with any countermeasures."

"Torres and Bueno are on the sidelines, Shi Ke and Zhang Linpeng are following very closely, not wanting to give Mexico a chance to score!"

"Gonzalez, cooperate with Cisneros and force the ball to Torres at the right baseline!"

"Zhang Linpeng and Torres played one-on-one on the wing! Look at the performance of our Olympic captain in today's game"

"Hmm! Zhang Linpeng's defense is very solid. Torres should be helpless. He uses an inverted triangle!"

"Top of the arc! Gonzalez!"

"Just take a long shot!"

Snapped!
Wang Dalei flew to save the ball before it reached the goal line.

"Wow!"

Gonzalez's shot really scared the Chinese fans at the scene and in the live broadcast room. Fortunately, Wang Dalei was in really good shape today and was able to protect the national goal behind him.

[Is Da Lei so awesome? ]

[We definitely need an awesome goalkeeper. There are only three over-age player spots, one for the forward, one for the defender and one for the goalkeeper. Those who can participate in the Olympics are not ordinary people.]

[Other countries have over-age players who are weak in the Olympics, but our country has awesome players who are strong in the Olympics]

[Just tell me whether we are leading 1:0 or not. What's so bad about that? ]

[I feel like Xiao Jiang’s headers have gotten stronger. He was able to find the spot just now. If it were someone else, they would definitely have no chance.]

【China 666】

[1:0 Mexico, good, let’s see if we can keep this score until the end]

[So many comments, are so many people watching football? ]

[I am scolding you, and I am also watching you, alas]

[Don’t say it, I feel like we have a great chance today, China, let’s go for it! ]

[I'll set a goal for the Chinese team. As long as they can get into the knockout stage, I'll never criticize the National Olympic Team again in my life, okay? ]

[It’s hard to say who will qualify. Mexico and Germany are both very strong. There’s also Fiji, but I heard that Fiji’s players are all amateurs and are rubbish, so they are eliminated by default.]

[Stop talking, let’s go! ]

Mexico took a corner kick. Zhang Linpeng headed the first ball out. Liu Binbin got the second ball and cleared it with a big foot.

After finally taking a 1-goal lead, no one wants to be equalized by the opponent at this time.

On the court, Li Yi was blowing his hair, concentrating on observing the game situation, and secretly keeping in mind the points that needed to be paid attention to in the second half.

If nothing goes as expected, this should be the most serious work he has ever done in his life.

Leading the Chinese Olympic team to qualify for the Olympics, how can such a glorious event as this one allow for any carelessness?
"Beep!"

At the end of the first half, China finally held on to the score of 1:0, and both the players and fans were quite excited.

"Jiang Yuan is awesome!"

"Brilliant!"

“China is awesome!”

The fans were really enthusiastic. When returning to the player tunnel, Jiang Yuan received a small red flag thrown by fans in the stands. The world's attention was focused. Jiang Yuan did not dare to be careless and hurriedly picked up the national flag and waved to the stands.

Visiting team locker room.

clap clap clap!
"We did really well in the first half. The ball control was as expected, but Xiaoyuan and Xiaolei's wing breakthroughs were very sharp and brought us several very effective attacks."

Li Yi stood in the middle, and the players listened to him with their shirts off. The Manaus Stadium itself is a professional football stadium, and the locker room is also configured according to football, with benches + personal wardrobes, everything you need.

“But you can’t be happy too soon.”

Li Yi said expressionlessly: "We exposed a lot of problems in the first half. It was okay when two people cooperated, but once three or four people cooperated, our defense was very open. Wu Xinghan, Liao Lisheng, and Mi Haolun, especially the three of you, there was such a big gap in the middle. If the opponent's offensive player suddenly ran into the gap, who among you could follow?"

"And in the frontcourt, Xiaoyuan..."

When Li Yi called his name, Jiang Yuan was stunned for a moment, put the national flag in his hand into the closet, and then looked at Li Yi in front of him: "Coach Li"

Li Yi came over and touched Jiang Yuan's shoulder: "Xiao Yuan, you played very well. Just try to find the team rhythm as much as possible. If you can cooperate well with your teammates, our ball possession rate will be much higher."

"I am trying, but I think I can ask Brother Bin to move a little closer to me. There are too many defenders on the left side, and it's tiring for me to handle it alone."

Jiang Yuan expressed his thoughts. Li Yi hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded in agreement: "That's right. In the second half, Xiaobin, try to get closer to Jiang Yuan and help attract some defense."

Liu Binbin nodded quickly, but he also had a question: "Coach Li, if I run to the left, there will be no one in the middle to support me..."

"Ouch!"

Li Yi was speechless and cursed directly: "You are also an idiot. Jiang Yuan can't run out from the left. Do you still have a chance to get the ball in the middle?"

"It seems to be the same..."

……

At the beginning of the second half, Mexico, which was behind in the score, made the first substitution adjustment, with No. 8 Lozano replacing No. 11 Bueno.

In terms of technical characteristics, there is actually no difference between Lozano and Bueno. The problem is that Bueno already had a yellow card in the first half. Mexico's substitution not only refreshed its frontcourt, but also protected Bueno, which was a two-pronged approach.

Just as the Chinese coaching staff had expected, Mexico took the initiative to speed up the tempo of the game when they fell behind, determined to pull the score back.

There are a total of 4 teams in Group C. Excluding Fiji, which is a mixed team in this Olympics, China, Germany and Mexico are competing for 2 places in Group C.

Germany is the second favorite to win the Olympics. So if Mexico wants to qualify, it must beat China.

In the 60th minute of the game, the Chinese team made a passing error in the frontcourt, giving Mexico an opportunity to launch a counterattack.

Although it was a U23 match, the awareness of both sides was still quite good. Counterattack after defense is often the easiest time to score a goal.

"You guard against him!"

Jiang Yuan pointed at Torres in front of him and motioned Chang Feiya to go over and mark him, while he ran towards Cisneros, defending while also being ready to rush forward at any time.

The director's camera turned to Gonzalez who was dribbling the ball. As the core of the Mexican team's frontcourt, the performance of this player will directly determine the team's offensive firepower. Coincidentally, this player is in very good shape today.

"Gonzalez, pass to Lozano on the left. This Mexican player was substituted in the 50th minute of the second half. He hasn't had many shots so far. Let's see if he can be effective in this attack."

"Shi Ke is defending and has already pressed his body against him. From this point of view, Lozano really has no chance. He should wait for his teammates on the spot."

"Jorge Torres runs up from behind and Lozano passes back"

"Torres, cross! Ugh! Torres chose to pass back in an inverted triangle!"

"From the top of the arc, Gonzalez shoots directly!"

"Wang Dalei saved the ball, but didn't handle it cleanly. Eric Torres... shot and the ball went in!"

"Oh my God! The two Torres launched a very fast attack, one in front and one behind, and the Mexican team tied the score!"

Damn it!

Wang Dalei yelled at Wu Xinghan and Mi Haolun in front of him: "That guy was right at the top of the arc, and you just put him in that position? Are you stupid?"

wow！

Zhang Linpeng saw that the situation was not good, and hurried over to hold Wang Dalei back: "Dalei, forget it, forget it, stop arguing, the game is still going on!"

"What the hell! F**K!"

Wang Dalei was a little unhappy and couldn't swallow this breath. He pointed at Wu Xinghan and cursed a few more times. Wu Xinghan didn't grow up eating free food either, so he immediately cursed back: "No, I'm a center back. You want me to defend him, what can I defend?"

"Forget it!"

Zhang Linpeng tried to stop the fight, but it didn't work.

Jiang Yuan and Wu Lei in the front field saw that the situation was not good and hurried back. Wu Lei pushed Wang Dalei away and Jiang Yuan pushed Wu Xinghan away.

Seeing that the two were about to curse at each other, Jiang Yuan got angry: "F*ck, you two idiots, stop yelling!"

Jiang Yuan immediately made Wu Xinghan and Wang Dalei behave themselves.

It is said that problems should be solved in a friendly manner, but now we are on the court after all, and the efficiency of swearing is still as good as ever.

"My My"

Wang Dalei blew his nose, touched his hands and apologized. Wu Xinghan quickly said that he also had a problem.

"Kick well, okay?"

Jiang Yuan looked at the two of them, then ran back to the frontcourt with Wu Lei.

"There seemed to be some conflict between the Chinese team's defender and goalkeeper, but we can see that captain Zhang Linpeng stepped in to mediate immediately, and there should be nothing wrong now."

"Mexico equalized the score with Eric Torres' goal, now it's 1:1"

"Wu Lei is on the right and wants to break through. Hey, the Chinese team seems very dissatisfied with the score. Let's see what kind of results they can achieve next."

The director's camera was on the right side of the Chinese team. Wu Lei did a half bicycle kick and shook off Gutierrez in the front court, but he didn't shake off enough space and was immediately caught up. Wu Lei had no choice but to pass the ball back to Zhang Linpeng who ran up to help. Zhang Linpeng looked up and kicked a long pass with his right foot, directly looking for Shi Ke on the left.

The Chinese team made a lateral pass, and the operation was completed by two central defenders Zhang Linpeng and Shi Ke. It has to be said that Zhang Linpeng's choice of pass was very good, and he directly found the weak side of Mexico's defense.

Shi Ke used his chest to stop the ball and passed it to Chang Feiya, who had a physical confrontation with Perez but finally got the ball out.

Chang Feiya walked forward with the ball in his arms, and when he reached a safe place, he immediately passed it to Jiang Yuan in front of him.

"It's him again!"

This was the first reaction of all the Mexican defensive players. They were all professional football players, and they all knew the level of the opposing player. The moment Jiang Yuan got the ball, Aguirre, Cisneros, and Gonzalez from the Mexican backcourt all ran over, ready to double-team Jiang Yuan.

Three defending one, it can be said that this gives Jiang Yuan enough face.

……

(End of this chapter)