N-A-A Chapter 9 Fair Luck
Chapter 9 Fair Luck
When the game had been going on for 20 minutes.
Brazil's head coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has stood up from the bench several times and yelled at his players.
Although he had not yet coached in Europe at this time, his two Copa Libertadores victories were enough to place him among the best head coaches in Brazil.
He could certainly see the situation on the field.
Brazil seemed to have complete control of the game, with a much higher possession rate than China, but most of their play consisted of passing the ball around from their own midfield to their own backfield, with few truly threatening attacks.
As soon as they advance into the Chinese team's half, they will be immediately surrounded and unable to move an inch!
Moreover, he could sense that the star players under his command were becoming somewhat restless and impatient.
As representatives of the footballing nation and a strong favorite to win the World Cup, Brazilian players would certainly want to devour their opponents in one fell swoop when facing a weak team like China.
But what I didn't expect was that from the start of the game until now, the Chinese team has completely shut them down!
If the team can't break through the deadlock, the players will inevitably become impatient, which will affect their performance on the field.
So Scolari was on the sidelines trying his best to keep the players calm, maintain their rhythm, and look for opportunities to attack.
He was also a little curious.
The individual abilities of the Chinese team players are undoubtedly far behind those of the Brazilian team.
But they managed to hold the goal by working together to defend it.
This defensive tactic of compressing space to the extreme seems quite advanced!
Scolari has also studied the Chinese team, and I don't recall Milutinovic ever using this tactic.
Where did you learn this trick?
When he glanced at the Chinese team's coaching bench, he became even more curious.
Why is it that the young Chinese man is always standing on the sidelines directing the team?
Milutinovic, on the other hand, sat on the coach's bench and did not interfere in any way.
Who exactly is the head coach?
……
On the field at this moment.
Near the center line, Li Tie intercepted the ball and quickly moved it to the left flank.
After receiving the ball, left wing-back Wu Chengying did not run across the halfway line, but instead made a through pass forward to left winger Ma Mingyu.
At this moment, Brazil's right-back Cafu had already moved forward into the attacking third and was no longer in his defensive position.
As soon as Ma Mingyu received the ball, Brazilian center-back Lucio blocked his path.
Ma Mingyu did not force a breakthrough.
On the one hand, his dribbling ability is not enough to beat Lucio, and on the other hand, Milutinovic and Ye Xian have repeatedly emphasized before the game that he must reduce his dribbling!
This would speed up the attack and reduce the risk of Brazil launching a counter-attack after the ball is intercepted.
Ma Mingyu quickly moved the ball to the other side, to Qi Hong's feet.
Qi Hong was even more decisive, launching a cross with his right foot!
At that moment, striker Yang Chen had already cleverly slipped into the Brazilian penalty area!
However, Roque Junior still anticipated the landing point of Qi Hong's pass and headed it on.
The ball fell near the penalty spot, and Yang Chen followed up with a right outside-of-the-foot volley!
The ball was moving very fast, and Brazilian goalkeeper Marcos had no chance to react at all.
But the ball didn't go in.
With a loud "duang," the ball struck the inside of the left post and bounced out!
The Chinese team is just centimeters away from scoring their first-ever World Cup goal!
This attack was extremely dangerous.
Brazilian fans throughout the stadium gasped in relief, while Chinese fans gave Yang Chen a warm round of applause!
This was China's first shot of the game, but it was more threatening than all of Brazil's previous shots!
Yang Chen, who almost scored, clutched his head in disappointment, but quickly rallied and sprinted back to his own half.
The other Chinese players did the same, quickly getting back into their 5-5-0 formation.
At this moment, Scolari's brow furrowed even deeper on the sidelines.
He discerned the Chinese team's tactical intentions from this attack.
While maintaining a solid defense, they were constantly looking for gaps in the Brazilian backfield, especially those left by Carlos and Cafu's attacking runs, and then using the speed of their forwards to launch counter-attacks.
If it weren't for Brazil's good fortune, China's counterattack would have already bitten them hard.
He had to respond immediately.
Otherwise, if things continue like this, the Brazilian team might not be so lucky next time.
It's entirely possible to capsize unexpectedly!
Scolari then waved to captain Cafu, who was standing right next to him, and relayed his latest instructions:
The two full-backs should reduce their forward runs and focus on maintaining their positions before making any moves!
Such instructions will undoubtedly make Brazil's defense more solid.
But at the same time, the defensive pressure on the Chinese team also decreased significantly.
With the Brazilian team lacking the support of two superb full-backs, their attack now mainly relies on the four players: the 3Rs (R, R, and Juninho), resulting in fewer forward options.
The Chinese team had a total of ten players involved in the defense!
With ten players guarding four, and legs densely packed inside and outside the penalty area, it became even more difficult for the Brazilian team to find good shooting opportunities.
The game suddenly became much more dull.
But this was exactly what Ye Xian wanted.
This is exactly the effect he wanted!
Why put Yang Chen up front to launch counter-attacks? Isn't it to make the Brazilian team wary and thus reduce the number of attackers?
The goal has now been achieved.
"Keep your formation, maintain distance from your teammates, and don't let your guard down!" Ye Xian kept reminding the players.
After all, Brazil's attacking players are all historical superstars, and a flash of inspiration could lead to a goal.
Sometimes, even the best tactics can't stop Ronaldo and Ronaldinho.
Soon, the game proved this to be true.
42 minutes.
Ronaldinho used a clever feint to get rid of Li Tie's close marking, and then sent a through ball forward!
Ronaldo suddenly accelerated after receiving the ball, slipping between Ma Mingyu and Zhao Junzhe.
Two Chinese football players hurriedly closed the door to intercept, and all three of them made physical contact, but they still couldn't stop this sprinting alien!
Just as Ronaldo was about to break into the penalty area, center-back Li Weifeng quickly came over to cover.
He anticipated the direction Ronaldo was about to dart and prepared to intercept the ball in Ronaldo's path.
But unexpectedly, Ronaldo chose to shoot directly with his right foot!
His leg swing was small, and his shooting motion was very concealed, but the ball he kicked was fast and sharp, heading straight for the bottom right corner of the goal.
Ye Xian, standing on the sidelines, was also taken aback!
This could be considered Ronaldo's signature move; he scored a similar goal in his previous life when playing against Türkiye.
If you look closely, this shot was actually made by poking with the toe, with no casting animation, making it very difficult to predict!
Jiang Jin also didn't react at all, and just stood there stunned.
Fortunately, Ronaldo's extremely dangerous shot was also blocked by the Chinese team's goalpost!
With a crisp "clang," Zhang Enhua followed up by kicking the ball out of the penalty area, and the hearts of all the Chinese fans in the stadium finally settled down.
Ye Xian also breathed a sigh of relief and turned around to give Milu a high five.
We survived a disaster.
Both he and Milutinovic knew that if this ball went in, the Chinese team would be in serious trouble.
The Brazilians will get better and better as the game goes on, while the Chinese team will be under pressure to commit more players to attack.
If this continues, we'll concede even more goals...
All I can say is that Lady Luck was fair today, giving each side a goalpost!
The ball hasn't been lost yet, and the Chinese team has regained their composure and continued their defense.
The remaining minutes of the first half quickly came to an end.
Beep, beep, beep—
The referee finally blew the whistle for halftime.
The score remains 0-0.
The Chinese team held on for this half.
Ye Xian clenched his fist again, turned around and walked towards the players' tunnel with Milutinovic.
His confidence grew even stronger.
Because in my past life, the score at halftime was...
China 0-3 Brazil!