Chapter 331 True Cooperation

Xinhua News Agency, October 10 (Reporter Liu Wenwen, Correspondent Wu Fang): When interviewed in Tashkent, Jiang Yuan responded positively to the fans' doubts and said that he would demonstrate the teamwork in the match against Uzbekistan.

The first thing the Chinese men's football team did after arriving at their hotel was to have dinner in the lobby on the 7th floor. They then returned to the accommodation area on the 11th floor, where head coach Li Yi held an internal team meeting.

The main problem is Uzbekistan's tactics. In Li Yi's opinion, the strength of Uzbekistan and Syria is not much different, but because of the particularity of its tactics, Uzbekistan will pose a greater threat to the Chinese team.

In fact, the threat mainly comes from Uzbekistan's offensive line, including Shomurodov, Sergeyev, and Bikmayev... Uzbekistan's three forwards are all super big men over 185cm tall, which is a very big adjustment for the Chinese men's football team's defense line.

When playing against Syria, Feng Xiaoting and Ren Hang could defend very easily because of their height advantage, but now that the opponent's forwards are taller, the Chinese men's football team no longer has an advantage in the confrontation.

"So we have to play very conservatively in the next game, and the more densely the defenders are positioned, the better."

Li Yi said that in this situation of physical confrontation and non-possession, the defensive burden of the Chinese team's guards will increase exponentially. In order to defend a center, the Chinese team may need to deploy two players at the same time, which is very uncomfortable.

"Then here's the starting lineup: goalkeeper Yang Zhi, defenders Ren Hang and Feng Xiaoting..."

Li Yi read out the starting lineup of the Chinese men's football team in front of all the players. It is worth mentioning that he changed the original 433 formation to 442, presumably in an effort to focus on defense.

However, after the announcement of the starting 11, the Chinese men's football players present remained silent, and Wu Lei's eyes kept glancing at Jiang Yuan.

"..."

Li Yi pursed his lips. He knew what these guys meant. After hesitating, Li Yi handed the notebook to Jiang Yuan and said very politely: "Xiao Yuan, you are our captain. Can you take a look at this starting lineup and see if there is anything that needs to be improved?"

"Let me see"

Jiang Yuan took the notebook. The starting lineup was handwritten, and Jiang Yuan immediately recognized it as Li Yi's handwriting.

Chinese men's football team (4-4-2)

Goalkeeper: Yang Zhi

Guards: Ren Hang, Feng Xiaoting, Du Wei, Zhao Mingjian
Midfielders: Sun Ke, Cai Huikang, Jiang Ning, Hao Junmin
Forwards: Jiang Yuan (C), Wu Lei

Compared with the previous game against Syria, there are many changes in the players in this 442 system, even the goalkeeper has changed from Yan Junling to Yang Zhi.

“I think this is fine.”

Jiang Yuan nodded. He seldom watched domestic leagues, so he didn't know his teammates in the national football team very well. When it came to arranging the starting lineups, he had to leave it to the professional Li Yi.

Li Yi reached out to take the notebook back, but Jiang Yuan made a strange request: "Brother Tie, can you tear this piece of paper for me?"

"what?"

Li Yi was stunned for a moment, then he reacted and immediately waved his hand and said: "It's nothing, just take it."

Although he didn't know why Jiang Yuan wanted this piece of paper, Li Yi would definitely not refuse Jiang Yuan's request in public.

When Jiang Yuan returned to the room at night, he sat at the table, turned on the desk lamp, and put the paper with the first list of shoe polish under the light and looked at it carefully.

Jiang Yuan had no interest in this starting lineup. What really attracted him were the three words "Cai Huikang".

Of course, it’s not that there is anything wrong with Cai Huikang’s first release, but there is a not particularly clear mark next to the three words "Cai Huikang".

Jiang Yuan knew that when one wrote too hard with a pen, the content written on this page would leave a deeper or shallow mark in the same place on the next page. Li Yi was born into a sports family, and athletes generally write with more force than ordinary people, so the marks left behind will be deeper.

But because the notebook was of good quality, even though Li Yi used a lot of force, the mark left was not particularly obvious. If it weren't for the uneven surface around the three words "Cai Huikang", Jiang Yuan would not have been able to notice the mark.

I looked left and right, up and down, and finally recognized the words on the print.

Liu Yuntao

?

Jiang Yuan immediately typed these three words into Baidu on his mobile phone and found the entry about Liu Yuntao.

PS: A fictional character, no prototype, no prototype!
[Liu Yuntao, born on October 1994, 10, is a player of Hebei China Fortune Club, playing as a midfielder and winger]

"What the hell?"

Jiang Yuan was stunned for a moment, and then searched for some information about Li Yi on the Internet. Official data showed that Li Yi had resigned from his position as head coach of the China Fortune Club before participating in the Olympics in August, and he also paid the club a penalty of 8 million yuan.

If Li Yi left Hebei China Fortune, then there should be no Hebei China Fortune players in his notebook, and not on the front page.

The conflicting clues before and after made Jiang Yuan a little confused. In his memory, Li Yi brought three players from Wuhan Zall to the national team in 2019. At that time, Li Yi and Wuhan Zall had broken up, but the two parties also signed a secret contract of 6000 million yuan.

Looking at it this way, Jiang Yuan could roughly guess that Li Yi's action was probably advanced because he became the head coach of the national team ahead of time.

The original Wuhan Zall has become the current China Fortune Land Development, and the original four tools of Zall have also become tools of China Fortune Land Development. Liu Yuntao must be one of them.

"I wipe..."

Jiang Yuan touched his head. This Li Yi is indeed a talent. For others, the environment determines their character, but he directly determines the environment. Whichever club he goes to, he will lead that club to fix matches, and later he will even lead the national team to do the same.

However, things are not so absolute. The only information Jiang Yuan has now are the three imprinted characters "Liu Yuntao" and his memory before he was hit and killed by Mei Jingjing's truck.

The timeline has changed, and Jiang Yuan is unsure of what Li Yi will do.

The only thing we can do is to play well in every national team game, and we can worry about the rest later.

Let the bullets fly for a while longer!
……

乌兹别克斯坦时间下午5点40分，也就是北京时间的晚上8点40分，距离中国男足在客场面对乌兹别克斯坦男足的亚预赛比赛还有20分钟开始。

At this time, the Milliy Stadion was full of local die-hard fans and, of course, the expeditionary force from China.

Today's match is very important for both teams, because the ecology of Group A is very clear. Iran will definitely take one spot, and the remaining two spots will be decided among Syria, China, South Korea, and Uzbekistan. For Uzbekistan, winning against China is equivalent to getting 2 points, and vice versa for China.

The photographer on the scene slowly walked into the player tunnel with a camera. Standing at the front of the two teams were Uzbekistan men's football captain Ahmedov and Chinese men's football captain Jiang Yuan. Seeing the photographer coming, Jiang Yuan glanced at the camera with his peripheral vision, and then looked straight ahead.

"Beep!"

……

"China Media Group, China Media Group!"

"This is the live broadcast of the Russia World Cup Asian qualifiers Group A, Uzbekistan men's football team vs. China men's football team"

"The referee for this match is Perera from Sri Lanka. Now let me introduce the starting lineups of both teams. First up is the Uzbekistan men's football team playing at home."

Uzbekistan (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Lobanov

Defenders: Tutahudzhayev, Klimets, Hashimov, Denisov

Midfielders: Haidarov, Akhmedov (C), Deparov

Forwards: Sergeyev, Shomurodov, Bikmayev
Head coach: Babayan

The game was broadcast live simultaneously by CCTV5 and CCTV16. 12 hours before the game started, the term #UzbekistanChina ranked first on Baidu's hot search list.

9pm is the perfect time. Many people are lying in bed, and it is the most comfortable time to watch the game on TV. In addition, with the media hype before the game, even some people who are not used to watching the game want to join in the fun.

In Shenzhen, Guangdong, Xiang Yunbo, who had just returned home from overtime, lay on the sofa and turned on the TV immediately: "Mom, help me cut the watermelon in the refrigerator!"

Two minutes later, his wife came over with a sliced ​​watermelon. Seeing what was playing on TV, she showed a surprised expression: "Yunbo, you haven't watched football for a long time, what are you doing today?"

Xiang Yunbo looked at the TV screen seriously and murmured, "I heard from my colleagues that the Chinese men's football team has been resurrected."

"I want to see what's going on."

……

The official language of Uzbekistan is Uzbek, which belongs to the Turkic language family and is a relatively unpopular language, so the cheering at the scene sounded strange.

Millily Stadion has a total of over 3 seats, with about 3000 for the visiting team. The seats were full of Chinese fans, but due to the more than 10-fold difference in numbers, the scene was basically filled with Uzbek.

Not being able to understand what the opposing fans are saying may not be bad news for the Chinese men's football players on the field, because even if the opposing fans are scolding them, the Chinese players on the field will not know and it will not affect their gaming status.

"We can see that the Chinese team used a 442 formation today, while in the previous three games, the Chinese team used 3. Coach Huang, do you think there is any profound meaning behind Li Yi's deployment of troops?"

"This……"

Zhan Jun's question made Huang Jianxiang fall into deep thought. Of course, such a small question would definitely not be difficult for a professional sports commentator like Huang Jianxiang.

"Let's make a horizontal comparison between Syria and Uzbekistan. Obviously, Uzbekistan's offensive ability is stronger, so the Chinese team's formation is likely to strengthen its defense. After all, if you put a defensive midfielder like Cai Huikang who is good at stealing in the starting lineup, it is obvious that you want to put pressure on the opponent's offense."

"Well, what Coach Huang said makes sense, but I can't fully support it. Because of the presence of players of Jiang Yuan's level, it is impossible for the Chinese team to play purely defensively."

The two have different opinions, but how China will play depends on the situation in the game.

After changing to a 442 formation, Jiang Yuan's threat on the left was obviously less, but this is also a small matter. After all, Jiang Yuan's strength lies in his ability to create opportunities.

By the 15th minute, the originally relaxed Chinese fans gradually became nervous, because anyone with a discerning eye could see that the Chinese men's football team was generally at a disadvantage.

In the first 15 minutes alone, Uzbekistan had two shots on target. If it weren't for the good cooperation between Feng Xiaoting and Yang Zhi, the home team might have taken the lead.

Jiang Yuan was a little anxious. He had tried to cooperate with his teammates many times in the past few minutes, but there was no obvious effect. Either Wu Lei failed to keep up with the rhythm or Cai Huikang could not guess Jiang Yuan's intention. As a result, Jiang Yuan could not get the pass every time he went to the bottom line, and it was completely in vain.

In the 18th minute, left midfielder Sun Ke was stepped on the hand by Haidarov and was unable to continue the game. Li Yi could only make a substitution with Jiang Zhipeng.

The score is still 0:0, but everyone knows that the scales of victory are tipping towards the home team!
"it's okay no problem!"

Jiang Yuan quickly calmed his teammates: "Play together, pay attention to the cooperation! Look at my gestures!"

As he said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency reporters a few days ago, Jiang Yuan wanted to give a teaching lesson in today's game to let Chinese fans see what 11-man football is.

No matter what, Jiang Yuan must show his tacit understanding with his national team teammates today!
"Give it directly, give it directly!"

Jiang Yuan ran to the middle and stretched out his hand for the ball. Wu Lei did not dare to neglect it and quickly passed the ball out, then began to run to the right. This was what Jiang Yuan emphasized before the game. If he occupied the middle, Wu Lei would run to the right. Wu Lei's awareness was average, but his tactical execution was still very reliable.

After that ball, Jiang Yuan took the ball and pushed forward in the middle, and Haidarov and Ahmedov rushed up together.

Everyone knows that Jiang Yuan has the ability to shoot from long range, and Uzbekistan, as the opponent, certainly knows that too. In order to prevent Jiang Yuan from using his long-range shooting ability, captain and midfielder Ahmedov will never let Jiang Yuan run to the top of the arc.

Seeing two defensive players on the opposite side moving towards him, Jiang Yuan immediately gestured to the midfielders to come up and create more passing points for him. Jiang Zhipeng, who had just come on the field, went down the left side and Jiang Yuan's eyes lit up.

Isn't this coming if we cooperate?

In the camera, Jiang Yuan took the initiative to approach Ahmedov, and when the two were less than 3 meters apart, he made a horizontal pass to Jiang Zhipeng on the left.

After completing the pass, Jiang Yuan was not idle either. He pushed the ground with his right foot and prepared to move to the left.

"There!"

Jiang Yuan pointed to the baseline, indicating that Jiang Zhipeng should run to the baseline and pass the ball to the bottom line. However, Jiang Zhipeng misunderstood the meaning and passed the ball directly to the baseline.

What the hell!

Jiang Yuan sighed and rushed to the end line, but he was still a little short. The ball was protected by Tutahudzhayev with his back, and the goal kick was awarded to Uzbekistan.

"Fuck, Brother Peng, what is this?"

Jiang Yuan spread his hands and asked Jiang Zhipeng, who raised his hand with an embarrassed expression.

It was a bit uncomfortable, but there was really nothing he could do. For some reason, in Jiang Yuan's eyes, his teammates in the national team just couldn't perform some very basic positioning and cooperation.

If it was Azpilicueta, Jiang Yuan might have already shot from outside the penalty area.

Jiang Yuan’s mood now can only be summed up in three words.

Why! ?

Why play football like this?

Is this how football is played?

"Brother Yuan, I'm sorry!"

Jiang Zhipeng ran over and high-fived Jiang Yuan. Jiang Yuan had no choice but to say that the ball didn't matter.

So far, the game has been played for more than 20 minutes. Jiang Yuan has taken the initiative to cooperate with his teammates no less than 10 times, but the success rate is less than 30%.

As long as the passing pace becomes faster, Jiang Yuan and his teammates don’t know what to do.

"Come on!"

"come on!"

"Jiang Yuan, play by yourself and don't worry about others!"

The Chinese fans in the south stand cheered in unison. Not only the Chinese fans, but also the two commentators from CCTV could see Jiang Yuan’s current embarrassing situation.

"Hiss... There were some problems with the Chinese team's frontcourt coordination just now. Jiang Zhipeng and Jiang Yuan were not in sync. It's a pity to waste an offensive opportunity..."

"I remember Jiang Yuan mentioned in the pre-match interview that he wanted to put on a textbook performance of cooperation?"

Huang Jianxiang obviously lacks emotional intelligence, which has made the atmosphere in the live broadcast room a bit awkward.

"Ahem, actually it's not that there is no coordination at all. When advancing in the frontcourt, Jiang Yuan, Wu Lei and Cai Huikang's two-on-one play is still pretty good. But it's around the penalty area, at the most critical moment, the Chinese team's coordination will have some problems. But this is understandable. After all, the leagues everyone plays in have differences in rhythm, so the offensive ideas will also be different."

Zhan Jun forced himself to explain, and it seemed like he said a lot, but it also seemed like he said nothing.

Chinese fans watching the game right now have just one question.

Can the English Premier League champion and the Chinese Super League players really play in harmony?

In fact, the most embarrassed person now is not the two commentators from CCTV, but Jiang Yuan who is playing football on the field.

Damn, I wouldn’t have said anything about “cooperation” if I had known this.

He never expected that he was the one who set a trap for Jiang Yuan!

The game lasted until the 30th minute and neither side had scored a goal, but Uzbekistan slowly began to take control of the situation with its home advantage. Jeparov dribbled the ball forward in the frontcourt, trying to use his speed to penetrate the Chinese team's central defense line.

But I can only say that Jeparov is dreaming. The most solid part of 442 is the midfield defense. When all the defensive players are in place, going through the middle is totally impractical.

As expected, Cai Huikang and Jiang Ning both rushed to grab the ball at the same time, and Jeparov passed the ball in a panic, and the final short pass went directly to Hao Junmin's feet.

!!!

"The Chinese team regained the ball, and now the ball is at Hao Junmin's feet. Let's see what Hao Junmin will do with the ball."

"Pass it to Wu Lei, and make a one-two!"

"Beautiful! Hao Junmin dribbled the ball towards the Uzbek baseline, Jiang Yuan ran to the middle, and Wu Lei was there too"

"Jiang Yuan is asking for the ball! Hao Junmin passes the ball back directly!"

"Jiang Yuan, in the middle, facing Haidarov and Ahmedov..."

"Wow! Jiang Yuan rushed out from between two defensive players. He was very fast and ran to the front to stop the ball!"

"The two Uzbek midfielders were a bit careless!"

Huang Jianxiang was right. Hao Junmin's pass back seemed to be too far forward...

Well, actually it’s just given too far forward.

This was a mistake in Hao Junmin's back pass, but it happened to be passed to the position that Jiang Yuan liked.

Originally, if Jiang Yuan had the ball and faced two defensive players at the same time, he would have no chance, but now, he can pass the ball directly without the ball.

There is no worry about losing the ball, so can't he just pass the ball easily?
"No!"

Ahmedov stretched out his hand to pull Jiang Yuan, but because Jiang Yuan accelerated faster, Ahmedov finally lost his grip. He didn't catch him at the first time, and it was too late to chase him later.

Jiang Yuan came to the edge of the penalty area, and Hashimov rushed out, wanting to double-team Jiang Yuan with captain Ahmedov.

"here!"

Jiang Zhipeng ran to the left side and reached out for the ball. Jiang Yuan originally planned to pass the ball to Jiang Zhipeng, but after thinking it over, he decided not to do so. He pretended to pass the ball, but actually accelerated laterally to the left with the ball.

Look at the left side of the goal post, lift your right foot, and rub the outside of your foot.

As the camera focused, Jiang Yuan's shot flew over the head of center back Klimets and flew towards the goal post in a strange arc.

Lobanov pushed off the ground with his left foot and jumped out, but Jiang Yuan's shot was in a blind spot, and Lobanov was unable to get the ball in the end.

"GOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! (Uzbek)"

“GOOO—LLLLLLLL!!!!”

“Golni Xitoy terma jamoasining 7-raqamli Tszyan Yuan kiritdi!!!!”

"The ball is in!"

"A world-class goal from Jiang Yuan, a world-class goal with the outside of his foot, the ball went straight into the upper left corner of the goal!"

"The Chinese team scored the first goal!"

The two commentators in the commentary room were extremely excited. The Chinese team was under pressure for nearly 30 minutes, but in the end it was the Chinese team that scored the first goal.

"Haha, that's a good pass!"

After scoring the goal, Jiang Yuan opened his arms to welcome Hao Junmin who was running towards him. When Hao Junmin arrived, Jiang Yuan hugged the Taishan star tightly and said, "Fuck, Brother Hao, your kick is really smart!"

I thought Wu Lei understood me the best, but I didn't expect Hao Junmin to score one more goal. This kind of pass may not even be possible in club games!
"Ha ha ha ha……"

Although he was excited, Hao Junmin smiled awkwardly.

In fact, he didn't use enough strength on this ball, it was a mistake...

In addition to Hao Junmin's "precise" pass, Jiang Yuan just inspected the Uzbek defense line directly outside the penalty area, once again making the Chinese fans watching the game go wild.

[Awesome! The familiar feeling is back. I said it had to be Jiang Yuan. With this outside instep, Buffon can’t help.]

[You can win with your individual abilities, why do you have to cooperate? 】

[Jiang Yuan: Football is a game for 11 people, I will play with coordination]

[Other teams’ cooperation: everyone was thinking alike; Chinese team’s cooperation: teammates made a mistake in passing the ball, which turned out to be exactly what Jiang Yuan intended]

[Jiang Yuan, I beg you, stop playing with each other, can you just play by yourself? ]

[I found that as long as Jiang Yuan doesn’t pass the ball, the Chinese team will be ahead. Otherwise, he should not pass the ball…]

[Enough of you haters! Isn't it true that Hao Junmin and Xiao Jiang played well together? ]

[You can't blame this, this is real cooperation. Even if you ask William to come, he may not be able to pass this kind of ball. Hao Junmin is invincible! ]

[I understand. If Uzbekistan wants to win, they must give up marking Wu Lei and Jiang Zhipeng, because as long as Jiang Yuan tries to cooperate with his teammates, China will not be able to score! ]

[Fuck, buddy upstairs, are you really a genius? ]

……

(End of this chapter)