World First Church started from the 02 World Cup

Chapter 8 A Wasted Talent's Translation

With a crisp whistle from the referee.

This match, which could be watched by two to three hundred million people simultaneously, has officially begun!

As everyone expected, Brazil, who kicked off first, took control of the ball from the start.

The Chinese team, dressed in red jerseys, quickly set up their defensive formation.

In midfield, Ronaldo passed the ball to Ronaldinho, who then passed it back to Juninho.

At this moment, Ma Mingyu and Zhao Junzhe, midfielders for the Chinese team, immediately closed in on Juninho, forcing him to pass the ball to the left wing and give it to Carlos, who was making a run forward.

But Qi Hong immediately blocked his path, forcing Carlos to pass the ball to Gilberto Silva again.

Gilberto Silva then passed the ball back to center-back Lucio to handle.

Lucio made a few simple passes with another center-back, Roque Junior, but found that no Chinese players came up to press him.

Seeing this, Scolari on the sidelines began to frown.

As the head coach of the Brazilian team, he could certainly imagine that the Chinese team would have to focus on defense when facing them.

Therefore, he devised a corresponding strategy, namely, to use the Brazilian players' skillful ball control to lure out the Chinese players.

This stretches the Chinese team's defense, creating more space behind them, which makes it easier for fast players like Ronaldo to perform.

However, judging from the start of the game, most of the Chinese players seemed to be just standing in their own half and did not actively come up to press the Brazilian defenders.

"A pure ironclad defensive formation?" Scolari shook his head, but he wasn't surprised.

In that case, Brazil will have no choice but to attack head-on.

It doesn't matter. With the individual abilities of Brazil's forwards, it's only a matter of time before they break through China's solid defense...

On the field at this moment.

The ball has been passed to the middle, and the Brazilian team's entire formation has begun to push forward.

Lucio has the ball in a position close to the center circle.

He glanced ahead and noticed that each of the three players was being closely watched by Chinese players, making it difficult to receive the ball.

Left with no other option, he had to split the ball and hand it over to Cafu, who was making a run down the right flank.

Cafu tried to connect with Ronaldinho, who had already switched positions to this side, but his forward pass was tackled by Li Tie and rolled directly out of bounds.

After Brazil took the throw-in, Cafu chose to cross the ball directly into the penalty area this time.

Ronaldo was already standing there.

But Li Weifeng, standing next to Ronaldo, had already physically dominated him, making it difficult for Ronaldo to comfortably head the ball.

Li Weifeng is physically very strong, and he is nicknamed "Big Head" because of his strong heading ability.

Ronaldo's heading ability, however, is the "alien's" weakness.

Even so, Ronaldo still managed to make a forward run and deliver a diving header even though Li Weifeng had already blocked his position!

However, due to Li Weifeng's constant interference from behind, the ball didn't have much power, and Chinese goalkeeper Jiang Jin easily caught it with a light touch.

The Jeju World Cup Stadium erupted in enthusiastic applause.

Part of this was the applause from Brazilian fans for their team's first shot on goal in the match.

More than anything, these were dedicated by Chinese fans to goalkeeper Jiang Jin!

……

The first attack failed, and the Brazilian team quickly launched a second one.

Gilberto Silva, the future Arsenal midfielder, received the ball and passed it to Ronaldinho, who came over to receive it.

Just as Ronaldinho was about to start his run with the ball, Li Tie, who was close behind, suddenly made a sliding tackle, taking the ball out of Ronaldinho's control.

Ronaldo got the ball.

But Li Tie had already gotten up immediately and stuck close to Ronaldo.

Despite Li Tie's rough technique, his running ability and defensive coverage are truly impressive.

Ronaldo was unable to shake off Li Tie's entanglement for a while, so he passed the ball back to Gilberto Silva, preparing to reorganize the attack.

However, at this point, five Chinese midfielders and forwards, including Yang Chen, had already pressed into the midfield area, and the distance between them and the five defenders behind them was very short.

This caused great trouble for the Brazilian players in passing and moving in the midfield and forward areas, making it difficult to successfully deliver the ball to the forwards.

After several crosses in the area between the center circle and the edge of the penalty area, Juninho opted for a low-threat long-range shot to hastily complete the attack.

……

"Wow, the Chinese team's defense has been pretty good these past few times," Huang Jianxiang said with a hint of surprise in his voice.

"That's right. Although the Brazilian team maintained possession and launched constant attacks, they couldn't find any good shooting opportunities." Zhang Lu agreed, adding, "The Chinese team's defensive positioning was very compact, and their timely cover made the Brazilian team feel somewhat helpless."

Huang Jianxiang: "Coach Zhang, did you notice that Ye Xian was frequently standing in the command area and shouting orders today, while Milutinovic didn't seem to be standing up at all?"

Zhang Lu: "Yes, I saw it. In the past, the two of them would stand up, and Milutinovic would say something, and Ye Xian would translate and relay the message, but today was completely different."

Huang Jianxiang: "Was the tactical approach for today's game really orchestrated by Ye Xian?"

Zhang Lu: "It looks like it's working really well. If that's really the case, then this Ye Xian is truly something else; it's a bit of a waste to only have him as a translator..."

This is the coaching bench for the Chinese team.

"Li Tie, run this way, block Ronaldinho's passing lane, don't give him a chance to turn around!"

"Xu Yunlong, stick close to Carlos, don't let him kick out of nowhere!"

"Retreat! Retreat even more, don't kick recklessly, reduce fouls!"

Standing on the sidelines directing the team, Ye Xian kept issuing instructions.

Milutinovic, sitting comfortably in his seat, watched Ye Xian's retreating figure and smiled with satisfaction.

The current situation on the field is developing as Ye Xian predicted.

This also proves the success of Ye Xian's 5-4-1 bus tactic!

By blocking space, the Brazilian team could only easily receive the ball in front of the midfield line.

As long as the Chinese team maintains proper spacing between its four defenders and five midfielders, even if the Brazilian team has a bunch of talented players, they will only be able to stay far away from the goal!

This is truly a brilliant design!

Milutinovic is not one to seek fame or fortune. Since Ye Xian proposed this strategy, let him carry it out to the end!

There's no need to pretend that you're in command.

This will definitely cause problems in information transmission and is even less efficient.

Results are the most important thing.

If Milutinovic can actually get points against Brazil, he will still truly deserve the title of a magical coach...

Time flies.

In this "half-court offense and defense", the Chinese team had unknowingly blocked the Brazilian team's attack for 15 minutes.

Ye Xian raised his hand to look at his watch and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

In the original timeline, the 15th minute was when Brazil scored their first goal.

"At that time," Ronaldinho received the ball in the attacking third and broke through, but was fouled by Li Weifeng, giving Brazil a free kick opportunity.

Then, Carlos scored that cannonball-like free kick with a speed of 149 kilometers per hour!

But now that time has passed.

In this life, Li Weifeng did not commit a foul in this dangerous area.

Brazil did not get a free kick opportunity, nor did they score a goal to take the lead.

History has undergone a substantial change.

This is very important to Ye Xian.

This at least proves that his tactics were effective, and that history really can be rewritten!

Ye Xian clenched his fist involuntarily:

"The gears of fate begin to turn from here!"