Chapter 149: Asian Cup

When Hu Lai trained under the scorching summer sun for a month, the 18th Asian Cup opened in South Korea.
Twenty-four teams decided through the qualifiers will gather in South Korea. They will determine the final championship in eight stadiums in six cities in the country in the next month.
The Chinese team had undergone some changes after the World Cup qualifiers last year. Many veterans who have reached the age have retired and added some Mesozoic and young players.
In this Asian Cup, the average age of the Chinese team is 27 years old. It is not the oldest nor the youngest among all the 24 participating teams.
Before the game, the head coach of the Chinese team, Marcel Wilson, said in an interview that the task of the Chinese team in this Asian Cup is to reach the quarter-finals. In the last Asian Cup, the Chinese team finally reached the quarter-finals, but Many players of that Chinese team at that time are no longer in this national team. The two teams have different staffing and experience levels, so there is no simple comparison.
The quarterfinals can be considered a very pragmatic goal.
The Chinese team managed to break into the top 16 and then met the host South Korea in the eighth-finals.
The game was arranged at the Seoul World Cup Stadium.
For a time, the online marketing account began to circulate a saying that this was done deliberately by the Koreans in order to avenge the 0:3 loss to the Chinese team in the East Asian Cup at the beginning of the year.
Many Chinese fans yelled at South Korea for being careful.
But this time they really wronged the Koreans.
The schedule and venue of the game have been determined long ago, and the venue is not arranged temporarily until the top 16 is released. How do you prepare for the game?
The South Korean team is the host, and their home stadium must be the Seoul World Cup Stadium where the opening ceremony of the World Cup was held.
In the end, why did the Chinese team only get second in the group, so they can only go to the Seoul World Cup Stadium to face the South Korean team?
This is not a deliberate arrangement of the Koreans, but an arrangement of fate.
Three months ago, the Korean National Olympic team, which was named as the "Korea National Team," was defeated by the Chinese National Olympic Team, which was the "Chinese National Team", 0:3.
Three months later, destiny arranged for the real South Korean national team to avenge the real Chinese national team here.
Before the game, the Korean media clamored, "Let them see the real South Korean national team!"
For this reason, the South Korean team also put out the strongest lineup when the strength was already dominant, and sent all the overseas players, including their number one star, the main forward Park Chun-tae. The striker who played for the traditional La Liga team Sevilla Navigator is currently one of the best players in Asia.
In the Qatar World Cup that ended at the end of last year, he scored two goals for the South Korean team. Although he failed to help the South Korean team reach the knockout round, he was already the top scorer in the South Korean team.
He is now 28 years old and he has participated in three World Cups, two of which were the main players. He scored four goals in the World Cup, making him the second goal in the World Cup finals in Korean football history. Many players. Now all South Korea has high hopes for him, hoping that he can lead the South Korean team to reproduce the brilliant results of the 2002 World Cup in the World Cup.
But to be honest, after knowing that there is such a man, Hu Lai felt that unless the South Korean team hosted another World Cup, it would be almost impossible for Park Chun-tae to lead the South Korean team to reproduce the World Cup semi-final results of the South Korean team that year... That result is not based solely on performance in the arena.
Of course, it may be difficult for Park Chuntae to lead the South Korean team to reproduce the top four results of the 2002 World Cup, but they are still a top-notch team in Asian football.
In three group matches, Park Chun-tae scored three goals and currently leads the Asian Cup shooter list temporarily.
In this Asian Cup held in China, the Korean team has one and only one goal, which is to win the Asian Cup again in twelve years.
If they win the championship, all players in the team will be exempted from military service. Of course Pu Chuntai doesn't need it, because he has already been exempted from military service by winning the Asian Games championship.
Compared with the star-studded South Korean team, the Chinese team's lineup is much shaky. Not only did there not have a player studying abroad, but after Qin Lin left the national team, he also lacked a big brother who could support the scene.
After finishing the World Cup qualifiers and retiring a group of veterans, the current national team is dominated by young players from the Mesozoic era. There is no big boss who can convince everyone like Qin Lin. This makes them face When there is a South Korean team with players like Park Chun-tae leading, it seems a little vacant and not very confident.
After all, in the past, the Korean team brought Park Chun-tae, and the Chinese team and Qin Lin, who have won the Asian Footballer, came out to line up.
And now... even the Chinese football media are particularly embarrassed. What is their reporting angle, "The light of Asia" Park Chun-tae is worth more than the national football team players combined."...
The morale was lost before the match was played.
"Our media is also weird enough." Hu Lai who saw the news complained to Wang Guangwei. "How can anyone use this method to boost others' prestige and destroy one's own ambition before the game? It's collaborating with the enemy and treason!"
The two of them watched this game in the restaurant of the training base.
In addition to them and all the players of the youth team, Xia Xiaoyu was among them-this was specially requested by Shi Jisheng, the director of youth training, to ask everyone to stay in the restaurant after dinner at night and wait to watch the live game.
With Hu Lai and Wang Guangwei as the core, everyone sat behind them and watched the war between China and South Korea through the projection of the restaurant.
"It's just a habit of complaining about the national football team, it may not be as serious as you said..." Wang Guangwei shook his head.
"Gao Chen is on the bench..." Xia Xiaoyu recognized one of them when the TV broadcast scanned the bench of the Chinese team.
Hu Lai was stunned for a moment before remembering the story behind this name.
He was injured by the Koreans in this stadium. After he was shoveled by Sun Haomin, domestic public opinion repeatedly mentioned this matter.
And what was the name of the person who shoveled Gao Chen back then...prostitution?
While Hu Lai was searching for the name in his mind, Wang Guangwei next to him said: "Park Sung-hung started this game..."
There was a commotion among the youth team players: "He has the face to start!"
"Maybe the stick was deliberate? It deliberately disgusts us and affects Gao Chen's state..."
"So Wilson didn't let Gao Chen start..."
"It's useless to start. Gao Chen has been tortured by that serious injury a long time ago. Alas, he was also a forward with a promising future. As a result..."
Hearing everyone’s indignation, Wang Guangwei said to Hu Lai next to him: "Now, Hu Lai, your kid was really lucky at the beginning. If Sun Ho-min really shoveled you, then all the performance after this season will be lost. Up."
Hu Lai nodded: "Yes, I'm so lucky..."
He sincerely thanked the salted fish system in his heart.
After using the [Broken Giant Bear Legguards], it also entered the official store. Hu Lai later went in to see it and found that this legguard can be bought again after 30,000 points. Compared with the [Lover’s Red String], which only requires 10,000, 30,000 points are not cheap. But compared with my future career, 30,000 points is definitely not expensive.
Hu Lai even felt that as long as he had enough points, he should buy one and put it in a safe place.
Therefore, after receiving the East Asian Cup task reward, he found that the points system alone had rewarded as many as 100,000. He immediately used 30,000 points to buy a [Broken Giant Bear Legguards] and put it in the warehouse, ready for use. .
Then he went into the system space from time to time to take a look. As long as he saw the leg guards with the giant bear pattern placed in the system space properly, he felt extremely safe as if he saw his bank account balance with eight digits.
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Back to the game itself, the strength of the Chinese team is completely behind the South Korean team, plus this is the home of the South Korean team, some people know how to operate it is also normal.
So even though the Chinese players are very hardworking, this kind of fighting spirit is still difficult to shorten the gap between them and South Korean football.
In the end, the Chinese team lost to their opponents 0:2 amid the deafening cheers and boos of the Korean fans, and was eliminated just after reaching the first round of the knockout round, ending their journey to the Asian Cup.
After the game, the depressed Chinese team players sat on the court, looking at the South Korean players cheering and celebrating, their eyes lost.
CCTV commentator He Feng is saying: "...Chinese football has owed too many debts in the past. Although we have begun to reform and catch up, the debt we owed in the early stage is too huge. The past few years have been catching up. It’s not enough for us to catch up with opponents like Japan and South Korea... But after the failure, please let us have a glimmer of hope for the future... Think about the East Asian Cup in March, how our Olympic team boys are doing Those young people who defeated the Korean Olympic team on this field... They are the future of Chinese football. Their victory makes me believe that Chinese football should be on the right path this time. on……"
Listening to the voice of the commentator, the players of the Star Youth Team in the restaurant turned their eyes to Hu Lai and Wang Guangwei, of course, mainly to Hu Lai. Because the protagonist who won the game 3:0 is right in front of them!
When everyone looked at Hu Lai, Xia Xiaoyu straightened his chest and sat upright, proud of Hu Lai.
Shi Jisheng, the club’s youth training supervisor, stood up and slapped his slap: "Okay, okay. If you lose, you will lose. There is nothing to say... What should I do if my skills are not as good as others? Practice! Now go back to rest and train normally tomorrow morning!"
Everyone left the restaurant one after another. When they walked to the youth team dormitory, they couldn't help but talk.
"...If Hu Lai were there, maybe the result would be different?"
"Hey, the gap between our national team and the South Korean team can't be made up by just one Hulai? That's all-round backwardness..."
Someone turned his attention to Xia Xiaoyu: "Xiaoyu, aren't you familiar with Hu Lai the most? What do you think?"
"Ah? Me? I don't know..." Xia Xiaoyu said, "And there is no point in discussing this topic. Let's train hard. The national team is too far away."
"Xiaoyu is right, it's good if we can do our own thing."
"That's right, you guys, I'm too impatient! Didn't the narrator say everything? We owe too much, and we have to pay back a little bit. It's not so fast... Is it, Xiaoyu?"
"Yeah." Xia Xiaoyu nodded, but clenched his fists where no one else saw it.
Only one year...only one year!