The strongest blade in football

Chapter 157 A Short Journey (5000-word chapter)
On January 1th, the third round of the FA Cup started. As a Premier League team, Manchester City joined the battle. Their opponent is Leicester City, a mid-range team in the English Championship.

This game is regarded as an Asian derby by Japanese fans.

Because Leicester City has the Japanese international Abe Shuyong, who has been selected to the best team of the Japanese J-League 4 times and is a versatile midfielder.

But in the eyes of domestic netizens, Abe Shuyong is not qualified to be compared with Wang Nuo at all.

Leicester City is just a middle-lower team in the English Championship. Even though the Thai boss expanded his army last summer, his strength is still very average.

Wang Nuo is now one of Manchester City's double picks. His recent outstanding performance in the Premier League has raised the expectations of domestic fans for him.

Looking around the entire Japanese football world, there is only one young player in the same age group who is regarded as his opponent!
That is, Shinji Kagawa.

Last summer, when Manchester City and Dortmund played against each other in the warm-up match, domestic netizens still laughed at his transfer fee of 35 euros, which was worthless compared with Wang Nuo.

After just half a year, the whole of Europe knew this Japanese player who was less than 22 years old.

Because with 17 league goals in 8 games, he was elected as the best player in the half of the Bundesliga!
In the past six months, Kagawa Shinji has often been compared with Wang Nuo, and everyone is looking forward to the contest between Wang Nuo and Kagawa Shinji in the European arena.

And Abe Shuyong, a middle-aged mature man, obviously does not have the qualifications.

Wang Nuo was basically an iron-clad starter in the cup before, and this game is no exception. Mancini arranged a 442 formation, and Wang Nuo and Carlos Tevez partnered up front.

Speaking of which, the coaches of the two teams are quite related.

Leicester City coach Eriksen had coached Manchester City three years ago, and Mancini not only played for Leicester City, but also worked with Eriksen in Sampdoria and Lazio. .

Before the game, the two embraced and shook hands warmly, and greeted each other cordially under the camera, all in harmony.

But once the game started, the atmosphere was not so friendly.

In the FA Cup, there are often upsets where low-level clubs eliminate high-level clubs. Leicester City is more eager for this championship honor than Manchester City.

In just 1 minute of the opening, Leicester City, who were playing at home, took the lead in scoring.

Bamba succeeded in outflanking the corner kick from the left and rewritten the score to 1-0.

But the good times didn't last long, and Manchester City quickly retaliated.

In the 22nd minute, Manchester City's midfielder intercepted the ball and counterattacked. Milner, Wang Nuo and Carlos Tevez made a series of exquisite cooperation in the frontcourt.

Then, Milner dodged the opponent's defender and scored a low shot from the far corner more than 20 meters away from the goal to equalize the score.

After that, Manchester City clearly took the initiative on the field, and Wang Nuo also played well, creating frequent threats.

In the 44th minute, Manchester City overtook the score. Manchester City used corner kick tactics. Wang Nuo passed the ball low from the right to the near post. Milner's arched shot was blocked by the goalkeeper.

Carlos Tevez immediately followed up and slammed the ball into the goal with his back heel to make it 2-1!

Next, Manchester City had many chances, but they all came back in vain. Wang Nuo also had a very high-quality kick, but it was a pity that the goalkeeper flew away.

The 2-1 score was maintained until the end, and Manchester City smoothly advanced to the fourth round of the FA Cup.

After the game, Wang Nuo received a call from Gao Hongbo.

Before that, Gao Hongbo and Wang Nuo had talked on the phone several times, and they valued Wang Nuo very much.

He first asked about Wang Nuo's recent physical condition, and then chatted for a while. After a while, the topic shifted to the Asian Cup group match that had already started.

"Xiao Wang, hurry up and pack up, come back quickly, at least you have to practice twice with your teammates."

To be honest, Gao Hongbo was a little anxious.

At the end of last month, after many communications, Wang Zhongshi reached an agreement with the Football Association and the club on Wang Nuo's Asian Cup participation time.

In this Asian Cup, Wang Nuo will not participate in the first game against Kuwait, and will join the team after the FA Cup against Leicester City.

In this way, it is possible to ensure that the club's events will not be delayed to the greatest extent, so as to ensure that the chain will not be lost at the critical moment of competing for the main position.

Mancini was a little unhappy about this, but agreed to let it go.

Because he understands what Wang Nuo means to the Chinese team, and he doesn't want to embarrass Wang Nuo.

At the same time, he also knows that even if Wang Nuo is added, the Chinese team may not be able to go very far.

As long as he didn't make it to the finals, Wang Nuo would only miss two games at most.

And the opponents in these two league games are big, one Aston Villa, one Wolves, Dzeko has already trained with the team, Wang Nuo's departure has little impact on the club.

So, on the night of January 1, Wang Nuo took a special plane from Manchester to Qatar.

After nearly 8 hours of flight, he finally arrived in Doha. Fortunately, the time difference between Manchester and here is not serious, and there is no need to be jet-lagged.

Wang Nuo was still a member of the national youth team last year, and after just a few months, he will represent the senior team again, which feels a little different.

Before this Asian Cup, Chinese football has experienced a series of rectification campaigns, and a large number of people have been sacked. People have no hope for this tournament.

The slogan Gao Hongbo shouted before was also the Asian Cup training for the world preliminaries. Those older players were not recruited. The average age of the first game was 25.5 years old.

Of course, this is not young for Standard Liege and Manchester City, but for the Chinese national team, it is already very valuable.

In this Asian Cup, the national football team is set as the third Asian team, and they are in Group A with Kuwait, host Qatar, and Uzbekistan.

In the first match of the group stage two days ago, the Chinese team relied on Zhang Linpeng and Deng Zhuoxiang's two goals in the second half to beat Kuwait 2-0 and get off to a good start.

The qualifying situation is very good.

The arrival of Wang Nuo caused optimism in the country.

Fans still remember that a few months ago, Wang Nuo's completely crushing performance in the Asian Youth Championship, with six goals in six games, led the National Youth Championship to the World Youth Championship.

Everyone believes that with Wang Nuo's sharp knife, the Asian Cup will definitely perform much better than expected.

In this Asian Cup, there were not many fans on the expedition to Qatar, but after hearing that Wang Nuo would be recruited to participate, the expedition team suddenly increased by nearly 2000 people.

Wang Nuoyuan plays in the Premier League, domestic fans want to see the style, only to watch the national team's game.

Wang Nuo arrived at the airport at 9:[-] in the morning, and was greeted enthusiastically by a team of hundreds of fans, which was more popular than the entire national team.

Cao Jingwei, director of the National Management Department of the Chinese Football Association and team leader, personally took Wang Nuo away with a driver.

Half an hour later, Wang Nuo saw the coach and teammates.

The teammates of the national team are a little colder than the teammates of the national youth team, and it may be because of the first meeting.

Wang Nuo tried to make two jokes, and the atmosphere became a little lively.

For this Asian Cup, Gao Hongbo's 23-man roster included players from 13 domestic clubs. The selection was very scattered, and there were no major players in the national team.

Even Guoan, which has the largest number of people, only has three players, Yang Zhi, Yang Hao, and Huang Bowen, so the phenomenon of small groups in the team is not serious.

In addition to Wang Nuo, there is another overseas player who was recruited into the team, and that is Hao Junmin from Schalke 04.

Compared with Wang Nuo, Hao Junmin did not gain the absolute trust of the head coach.

Hao Junmin, who has been an offensive player since his career, tried hard to adapt to Magath's requirements at the full-back position, but he has always been a marginal player.

He was a little warmer towards Wang Nuo, and took the initiative to come over to say hello to Wang Nuo.

From the afternoon of that day, Wang Nuo practiced with the team.

The schedule of the Asian Cup is very tight. On January 1, the match against the host Qatar will start. Wang Nuode hastened to get in touch with the team.

At the end of last month, Wang Nuo watched a lot of video games and training videos of the Chinese team sent to him by Gao Hongbo in advance, so he is quite familiar with everyone's style of play.

Gao Hongbo told Wang Nuo before the game that he would replace Yang Xu as the starting center forward.

At the same time, Gao Hongbo also hinted to Wang Nuo that the match against Qatar will most likely be "difficult".

At first, Wang Nuo thought that Gao Hongbo was saying that Qatar was strong and difficult to deal with, so he was a little confused——

Before this game, the national football team had a dominant record against Qatar, with 12 wins, 6 draws and 3 losses in 3 matches, and all three matches in the Asian Cup finals were won. What does it mean to be difficult?

Later, it was Hao Junmin who answered his questions.

"Qatar lost 0-3 to the Uzi in the last game. The host, it must be embarrassing, so think about it, can we win in all aspects and eliminate the host early?"

Wang Nuo understood what they meant after listening, but he still couldn't agree with it.

In the football field, strength comes first, how can there be so many twists and turns!
Whether you win or not is not decided by others, the ball is at your feet!

But after he practiced with the team twice, he didn't know what to do.

What the teammates of the national team showed made him very heartbroken. Whether it was tactical discipline or personal ability, they were far behind.

What's even more speechless is that the big guys' ability to support each other in business is quite strong, and their training performance is poor, but everyone's mentality is very good.

Although Wang Nuo is recognized as No.1 in Chinese football, but limited by his age and qualifications, he doesn't want to be too public in front of these teammates. He just does what he should do.

Familiarize yourself with tactical play as soon as possible and contribute to the team.

Time passed quickly, and the second match of the group stage came as scheduled.

The weather in Doha is very good. Compared with the wet and cold mid-January in Manchester, it is warm like spring here, refreshing and pleasant, which is a good weather for playing football.

The Chinese team formed a 4231 formation, with Wang Nuo at the forefront as a center forward.

After the start of the game, Qatar, which lost the first game, quickly entered the state amidst the cheers of [-] spectators.

In the first 15 minutes, the Qatari players received a very clear order from the coach, which was to attack the Chinese team's backcourt.

Under the leadership of naturalized striker Sebastian, the Qatari players relied on their physical advantages and high-intensity running to make many threatening shots in the frontcourt.

In order to implement the "training" principle put forward before the game, the Chinese team did not completely revolve around Wang Nuo. The offense of the national football team is still maintained by Deng Zhuoxiang and Rong Hao, who is the main attacker on the left.

Wang Nuo couldn't get the ball for a long time, and he was a little anxious, so he simply retreated to get the ball, and then got the chance to hold the ball.

When the Qatari players saw Wang Nuo, their eyes lit up and they were very excited.

Wang Nuo is a big name, not only for China, but also for Qataris.

They all wanted to "take advantage" of Wang Nuo, so they worked very hard to defend.

But Wang Nuo is not a person with a false name. After playing in the Premier League for half a season, facing Qatar's defense full of loopholes, it is not too easy to create a threat.

The body of the West Asian is not enough in front of him. When he breaks through with the ball, it is often only three Qatari players can completely limit him.

Of course, sometimes it is not the opponent who restricts Wang Nuo.

The Korean referee team's enforcement style in this game is obviously very strict. Wang Nuo, who is used to confrontation in the Premier League, only feels that the whistle is too dense.

What?Is this considered pushing people?
What?He took the initiative to bump into me, and he fell down, so it is my foul?

What?it's me again?Why are you blowing me this time?
Wang Nuo couldn't understand the brain circuit of the South Korean referee.

Fortunately, Gao Lin on his left and Hao Junmin behind him are quite conscious and can basically keep up with Wang Nuo's rhythm.

After 10 minutes of the first half, Wang Nuo simply stopped kicking, reduced physical contact, and passed more passes and runs to help his teammates.

Wang Nuo's hard work paid off quickly. At the end of the first half, he received a coquettish pass from Hao Junmin, volleyed near the penalty spot, and directly broke through the goal of the Qatar team!

The Chinese team took the lead into the second half.

Qatar launched a fierce counterattack in the second half.

Although the presence of Wang Nuo in the frontcourt of the Chinese team has made Qatar extremely afraid, but the poor defense of the Chinese team is always playing with fire.

In the 59th minute of the game, Qatar used a quick counterattack to equalize the score.

What Wang Nuo couldn't understand was that the quality of the ball played by the opponent was not high, and the speed of the ball was very slow, but goalkeeper Zeng Cheng's sideways save was even more worrying.

Anyway, the ball went in.

The cheers from the white-robed fans in the auditorium were louder and louder. After the goal, Qatar's momentum was so strong that the Chinese team couldn't breathe.

Wang Nuo looked more and more lonely in the front. He obviously felt that the offensive and defensive speeds on both sides had slowed down, as if their movements were half a beat slower, especially the players on his side.

To make matters worse, Zhao Peng was injured in the 65th minute and couldn't keep playing...

However, Gao Hongbo had already used up his three substitutions in the first half, halftime and the beginning of the second half, and there was no one left.

This situation has exceeded Wang Nuo's cognition.

The premature substitution made it impossible for the injured player to change after leaving the field. The Chinese team had to fight with 10 people, and it was only the 65th minute!
There is nothing to say later, the 10-man Chinese team can't provide any support to Wang Nuo at the front, except for kicking his feet.

Facing Uruguayan striker Sebastian, it was difficult for Dewey and Zhao Peng to gain the upper hand on him. This directly led to the need for support from teammates in front and side at all times in the middle of the backcourt, and also directly affected the team's strength. The formation unfolded.

In fact, Wang Nuo single-handedly singled out Qatar's entire defense line and still had a certain effect, but he still failed to grasp the two key opportunities.

Once, the ball was poked off before a shot from the penalty area line, and another time after a long-distance attack, the shot missed the goal by a hair.

On the contrary, Qatar scored another goal in the last 10 minutes and completely killed the game.

In the end, the Chinese team lost to Qatar 1-2. Wang Nuo played the whole game and scored 1 goal, but failed to help the team win.

After the game, Gao Hongbo, who had been widely recognized by the fans before, was directly sprayed to pieces.

There are also those who scold the South Korean referee, it is true that the home whistle is too obvious.

But in the final analysis, they still lost. The originally good qualifying situation has become unpredictable.

After one win and one loss in the first two games, the prospect of the Chinese team is very clear——

In the third game against Uzbekistan, the Chinese team must win in order to firmly grasp the initiative of qualifying in their own hands.

In the previous games, Uzbekistan was proficient in basic skills and tactical abilities, but their confrontation ability was a bit average, but they actually won Qatar 3-0, which shows their strength.

In this game, Gao Hongbo directly replaced the goalkeeper Zeng Cheng, let Yang Zhi start, and adjusted the midfield to a certain extent.

The frontcourt is still Wang Nuo's partners Gao Lin and Hao Junmin.

Uzbekistan put up a 442 formation in this game.

Among them, Ahmedov served as the left central defender, Jeparov played as the left midfielder, and Heinrich was cruising around the frontcourt as the second striker.

In this game, Wang Nuo got more support, and the referee stopped blowing his whistle frequently, which made him play very comfortably.

Wang Nuo scored a goal in the first and second half with overhead kicks, which once helped the Chinese team lead their opponents 2-1.

But the congenital deficiencies of the Chinese team are still exposed.

Uzbekistan's 442 formation has outstanding advantages in offense. A striker can pull the side to support, thereby rushing to support the full-backs and full-backs to form an offensive team.

This is very difficult defensively for the Chinese team, which mainly plays a 4231 formation, the distance between the full-back and the full-back is too large, and the width of the midfield can only be covered by the double midfielder.

Not only that, Uzbekistan will consciously make tactical changes.

For example, let a midfielder drop back to join the defense, so as to push the two full-backs forward to the wing-back position, further strengthening the use of offensive width.

Wang Nuo can clearly feel that the opponent's tactical play is more proficient, and his personal ability is also slightly stronger.

Sure enough, in the 70th minute, Uzbekistan took advantage of Jeparov's ball, and Ahmedov scored an equalizer goal.

Wang Nuoxin sank to the bottom of the valley in an instant, feeling very bad.

In the last 20 minutes, he tried his best to help the team, but his personal strength was limited after all, and he failed to make new contributions.

In stoppage time, the linesman raised the flag for offside when Wang Nuo received the ball and broke into the penalty area. The Chinese team was completely sentenced to death.

Wang Nuo was so angry that he couldn't bear to roar loudly!

Also received a yellow card.

Since then, the Chinese team has made no further achievements, and the score is fixed at 2 to 2. The Chinese team with Wang Nuo failed to qualify from the group.

The journey of the Chinese team in the 2011 Asian Cup also came to an end.

Wang Nuo scored three goals in two games, which was a good statistic, but before the team came out, it looked pale.

The team was immersed in a loss.

All kinds of voices emerged on the Internet, and the torrent of critical posts could completely drown the players.

On January 1, just 17 days later, Wang Nuo's trip to the Asian Cup came to an end.

Before Wang Nuo came to Qatar, he imagined that he could help the team break into the knockout round, and then fight all the way to the final, completing a historical feat.

But the reality slapped him in the face mercilessly, and Wang Nuo realized that relying on himself alone was not enough.

He's not strong enough yet, he has to keep improving and keep improving.

At the same time, he also needs the help of his teammates. After all, football is an 11-man sport.

One person can't beat a team.

After the game, Wang Nuo didn't read the comments on the Internet. He only dragged his suitcase and left Doha silently.

The competition experience this time is completely different from last year's Asian Youth Championship. Wang Nuo tasted the taste of failure and also had some inner thoughts.

What he has to do now is to play well in Manchester City, play the main force, and establish a bridgehead for young Chinese players in the top European leagues.

The Chinese football in the wind and rain needs such an existence too much, otherwise, the fans will gradually lose their enthusiasm and hope.

Do what you should do, and then wait quietly, looking forward to whether there will be new changes in domestic football in the future.

(End of this chapter)