Chinese player Zhang Jiabin (Guangdong, No. 6) scrambled in the match.
The goalkeeper will direct the direction of his own players by commanding the defenders.
On September 4, in the bronze medal battle for futsal blind football at the Tokyo Paralympic Games, the starting players of the Chinese team appeared.
The Chinese players and opponents are scrambling.
Blind football is flying in the dark; blind footballer is a warrior in the dark.
There is a Chinese football team that has won the Asian championship 7 times and the world cup runner-up once. This is the Chinese blind football team.
Founded in 2006, the Chinese blind football team has won many awards in international competitions since then, and Chinese blind football has been at the forefront of the world.
At the Tokyo Paralympic Games, the Chinese blind football team defeated the French and Japanese teams to reach the semi-finals and finally won the fourth place.
The Chinese team participating in the Tokyo Paralympic Games has a total of nine players, including three Guangdong players, namely Zhang Jiabin, captain from Lianjiang, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, Liang Zhongzhi from Zhaoqing Huaiji, Guangdong, and Wang Zhen from Dongguan, Guangdong.
01 No player needs to keep speaking
Athletes who do not hold the ball also need to constantly shout on the field, both to inform their teammates of their position and to remind the opposing players to avoid collision injuries.
Football for the blind is one of the most interesting events at the Paralympic Games. Except for the goalkeeper, who can be a player with normal vision, the other four are all B1 level blind players. Players wear blindfolds during the game. The football used for blind feet is a low-pinball ball, with six iron boxes in the inner tank and small bells in the iron box, and the ball will make a sound when rolling, and the athletes will judge the trajectory of the ball on the field by sounding.
As for the direction, it mainly relies on three "points" to guide: one is his own goalkeeper, who will provide information through the command defender; one is the coach of the midfield, and the overall situation of the game is directed by him; and the other is that the opponent will stand behind the goal of a guide of his own side, usually the assistant coach of the team. When a penalty is awarded, the facilitator can knock on the door frame to remind the player of the goal position. At the Tokyo Paralympic Games, Zhu Ruiming scored a free kick against France with the help of the guide.
In addition, athletes who do not hold the ball also need to constantly shout on the field, both to inform their teammates of their position and to avoid collision injuries. Athletes must also make a sound as they move, tackle, or seek the ball to an opponent. The game's message is conveyed by sound, which requires spectators to be quiet while the game is in progress until the ball flies into the goal.
Goalkeepers can only move within a small penalty area and cannot save the ball at the opponent's feet.
02 How hard is it to play football in the dark?
Able-bodied people can rely on vision and physical perception to control the running line of the football, but if blindfolded, even if you have world-class ball control ability, you can't normally complete basic actions such as passing, controlling, belting, and shooting.
In complete darkness, people lose their sense of direction. There have been able-sighted volunteers who have experienced this sport, and after putting on the blindfold, they instantly lose their sense of direction and can only move small steps on the field.
Blind athletes stand on the green field, the first thing to overcome is the fear in their hearts, they have to learn to run with the ball and fight for the goal in the dark. Zhang Jiabin, the captain of the Chinese blind foot team, said: "It is all black in front of you, you still have to run, at the beginning you were really scared, and you did not dare to run at all." ”
"The most critical requirement of blind football for players is not personal football skills and passing cooperation between players, but first of all, you must have courage and courage, especially for blind people, every step they take, they must overcome their inner fears, because their front is always unpredictable." Dong Junjie, coach of the Chinese team, said that blind football can be said to be a sport for the brave.
From not daring to dare to go, from not daring to running to daring to run, some team members even need two or three years to open their hearts.
To solve the inner fear, it is not easy for players to learn the skills under their feet - each technical action must rely on the coach to demonstrate, and then hold the player's hands on their waist, let the players feel the strength of the waist, let the players touch their thighs, feel the changes in the movement and the point of force. Through hundreds of repetitive exercises, muscle memory is formed.
The coach will repeatedly guide the players to touch the football again and again, touch every device on the football field, including lawns, nets, railings, baffles, etc., and touch them with their bodies to feel them. An ordinary soccer ball, they have to touch it repeatedly with their hands.
Blind players must take the ball step by step, unlike able-bodied people, who can touch and run a few steps. "Some of the movements of normal people are not suitable for blind people, blind people need to control the ball between two feet with the ball, (if you change direction) The appropriate action is to step on the ball, and the ball must be under the feet."
"We play football with a change of center of gravity, and people have a center of gravity movement, but blind people can't understand and can't see, so to break their feet and body (to do the action), let them learn and experience, a fixed action takes a long time." 」 Dong Junjie said.
03 This is the movement of the brave
Because of the invisibility, it is not uncommon for two sides to collide or even their own teammates in the game, and even because of this injury, there is no chinese blind footballer who has not been injured.
During more than 400 days of closed training in Qingyuan, Guangdong Province, before the Tokyo Paralympic Games, captain Zhang Jiabin had a new scar on his forehead and was missing half of his front teeth.
Five years ago, when preparing for the Rio Paralympic Games, Zhang Jiabin collided with his teammates during training, resulting in a rupture of the eyeball and bleeding, and finally had to undergo emergency surgery to remove the eyeball. As for the knees and forehead, I don't know how many times they have been broken.
"Some people say that blind football is a brave sport, and in fierce confrontations, players collide, injuries and bleed are commonplace." Zhang Jiabin said.
Wang Fuji, a classmate of Zhang Jiabin, said that collisions and injuries are more common for blind footballers. Whether it is the beginning of blind football, or in the international arena, it is common for players to collide with each other and hit the railings around the stadium. Injuries to the knees, ankles, nose bones, and foreheads are always difficult to avoid.
Although goalkeepers can try to avoid collisions between players' bodies, because blind football has built-in steel bells, which are much heavier than ordinary footballs, they are often hit by the ball.
Zhiduo D
Chinese blind football team
In 2008, at the Beijing Paralympic Games, China defeated the superpowers of blind football such as Argentina, England and Spain to reach the final, and lost 1-2 to Brazil to win the second place. He has since finished fifth and fourth in the two Paralympic Games.
At the 2014 FifaLe for the Blind, China finished fourth. From 2007 to 2019, the Chinese team won the championship a total of 6 times. At the 2010 Asian Para Games in Guangzhou, China's blind foot won the championship.