In today's Chinese football, there is a "living fossil" player who has witnessed the glory of the national football team entering the World Cup finals for the first time, and has also led the national football team through the darkest period in history alone, he is the 41-year-old former Captain of the Chinese national team - Zheng Zhi. As early as 2002, Zheng Zhi, who was only 22 years old at the time, helped Shenzhen Ping An win the A-League championship as an absolute main force, and he personally became the Chinese Footballer of the Year in 2002 with his outstanding performance.
In addition to the full of honors in the club, 2002 has a unique significance for Zheng Zhi - it was in this year that the Shenyang boy was selected for the Chinese national team for the first time and began his legendary national team career. Due to injury problems and not much experience in major competitions, Zheng Zhi did not catch the last train to participate in the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, which became one of the biggest regrets of his career.
In 2004, Zheng Zhi, whose technical experience was becoming more and more mature, finally took over the heavy responsibility of his predecessors and became the main center-back of the national team. At the 2004 Asian Cup in China, Zheng Zhi represented the national football team in all competitions and scored three key penalties to help the Chinese team reach the final.
The dream of the Asian Cup to bring the national football team to the 2006 World Cup in Germany does not seem far away. What people did not expect was that Zheng Zhi missed a key penalty in the match against Hong Kong, China, and the ambitious Chinese national team finally failed to obtain a ticket to the top ten due to the disadvantage of the number of goals, becoming one of the biggest unpopular in that World Cup qualifier.
Since then, although Zheng Zhi has started his career in foreign countries as he wished, he has not been able to help the national team to go further on all fronts. Whether it is the 2010 World Cup qualifiers in South Africa or the 2014 World Cup qualifiers in Brazil, the national football team has been eliminated early due to various problems. Zheng Zhi, who gradually grew into a leader in national football, was also criticized by many Chinese fans during this period.
Time came to 2015, when the Chinese men's football team ushered in a new round of the World Preliminary Round. In the top 40 competition, the national football team achieved 5 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss in 8 matches with 17 points, and finally ranked second in Group C and successfully entered the top 12.
In the first 4 matches of the round of 12, the national football team only achieved a bad result of 1 draw and 3 losses under the leadership of Gao Hongbo, who also announced his resignation at a press conference after losing 0:2 to Uzbekistan.
The sluggish performance of the national team made the managers aware of the importance of a world-class coach to the overall transformation of the team. In such a background environment, the top level of the national football team chose the famous Italian coach Lippi as Gao Hongbo's successor after careful selection. It is reported that the Italian head coach has signed a contract with the Chinese Football Association for an annual salary of 4.5 million euros (for a period of three years). At the same time, The Chinese Super League giants Guangzhou Evergrande also signed a contract with Lippi for 15.5 million euros (for a period of three years) in the name of football consultants. As a result, Lippi's annual salary for the Chinese national team reached 20 million euros, ranking first in the world.
After the arrival of Lippi, the overall offensive and defensive integrity of the Chinese men's football team has been effectively improved. They have achieved an excellent result of 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss in the next 5 matches, rekindling their hopes of entering the World Cup. However, considering that the national football team lost too many points in the early stage of the round of 12, Lippi's team still needs to face the eyes of others despite the strength of the back.
On September 5, 2017, Beijing time, the Dohaha Lifa International Stadium, the Chinese men's football team challenged Qatar away. Before the start of this round, the Chinese men's football team scored 9 points in 9 games, while Uzbekistan and Syria each scored 12 points. In other words, if the national football team wants to achieve third place in Group A, it will not only need to beat Qatar as much as possible on the road, but also pray that Uzbekistan and Syria will lose in the final round.
Judging from the starting lineup of the national football team, Lippi still chooses the 442 formation that he highly recommends. The two forwards on the front line are No. 18 Gao Lin and No. 9 Xiao Zhi; in the midfield area, veteran Zheng Zhi and No. 16 Zhao Xuri appear on the central axis, and the two full-backs next to them are No. 20 Yu Hanchao and No. 19 Zhang Xizhe; in the defensive line, No. 6 Feng Xiaoting and No. 2 Ren Hang are the team's double center-backs, and the two full-backs on the left and right are No. 5 Zhang Linpeng and No. 17 Li Xuepeng.
It can also be clearly seen from the starting lineup of the national football team that Lippi's core tactics in this game are still around the wing. The national football team has Yu Hanchao, Zhang Linpeng and other people with good breakthrough acceleration ability on the flanks, and they can bring more layered changes to the team's attack in terms of both crosses on the flanks and shots inside. At the same time, No. 18 Gao Lin and No. 9 Xiao Zhi, who have a pivot effect, can also effectively suppress the Qatari defenders in the penalty area, liberating teammates on the left and right sides.
In this way, the starting lineup of the national football team seems to be "impeccable". However, it should be emphasized that 442, as the most prestigious offensive and defensive balance formation in football, has strict requirements for midfield organizers. The two players used by the national football team on the central axis of the midfield in this game are Zheng Zhi and Zhao Xuri, whose on-field positioning is more inclined to intercept defense and does not have too strong organizational ability. In such a background environment, Zheng Zhi, a veteran who has served as an attacking midfielder, has become a vital organizational figure of the national football team, and his division of the two sides and the direct plug for the forward teammates will determine the upper limit of the quality of the national football team's attack.
At the beginning of the game, the national football team that played away showed a very strong desire to win, and they even completely suppressed Qatar on the road and fully controlled the offensive dominance of the game. In the first minute of the game, Evergrande winger Yu Hanchao used a precise side cross to help the national football team get a chance to break the goal, but unfortunately Gao Lin's header did not hit the goal frame range.
In the 6th minute of the game, veteran Zheng Zhi showed his talent in attack with an excellent perimeter long-range shot. The Evergrande player began to burst forward with the ball from the back position, and the Qatari midfield defender at this time was unable to collect the defensive interference against Zheng Zhi in time due to being involved by two full-backs of the national football team. The Chinese captain saw the situation and shot directly with his feet, and the ball flew to the upper right corner of the goal like a cannonball, but unfortunately Qatar goalkeeper Shib was very focused, and he then used a beautiful fish leap to save the situation.
In the first half, the Chinese men's football team showed a good competitive state in both the side attack and the middle road penetration, but considering that the players' ability to grasp the opportunity was slightly poor, it was delayed in scoring goals. After the game entered the second half, Lippi realized that there was not much time left for the national football team. The Italian coach chose to remove the center-back RenHang and replace him with Jiang Zhipeng, a wingback with strong offensive ability, thus changing to a three-back formation.
The positive change in the half did further improve the offensive ability of the national football team, but it also left hidden dangers for the back line. In the 47th minute of the game, Qatar took advantage of the impatience of the national football team to complete the frontcourt steal. They then used a quick short pass between them to quickly break through the national midfield interception line, thus gaining the opportunity to face the back line. Moes burst into the box with the ball and crossed the middle of the road, Afif wrapped up in place and easily pushed the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal, qatar took the lead in the attack without dominance.
After being scored a goal, the national football team further pressed the three fronts forward in an attempt to quickly equalize. Qatar focused more attention on defensive counter-attacks during this period, forming an effective 3-on-2 attack in the 54th minute with a counter-attack. Fortunately, the national football goalkeeper Zeng Cheng's attention was very concentrated, and he used a wonderful goal-saving save to defuse the inevitable shot of Qatari striker Afif.
In the 56th minute of the match, Lippi replaced Zhang Xizhe, who was playing for Shanghai SIPG, with a winger Wu Lei who was playing for Shanghai SIPG at the time. Less than 10 minutes later, Lippi made further substitution adjustments, replacing Li Xuepeng with Arthur Junmin, hoping to increase the national football team's midfield organization ability. In this context, Zheng Zhi, who was originally a midfielder, was forced to retreat to the back line and become a defender of the team.
The national football team's desperate fight finally paid off in the 74th minute of the game. As shown in the picture above, Wu Lei broke forward with the ball in succession from midfield, and then used a precise long pass transfer to find Jiang Zhipeng who was actively inserted on the left side. Jiang Zhipeng made a slight adjustment after getting the ball, and then sent a low flat cross with extremely fast ball speed, and Xiao Zhi in the middle of the road was astute to shovel and shoot into place.
The equaliser was certainly gratifying, but for the national football team at that time, the 1:1 score was still not enough to ensure that they could regain their hope of qualifying. In order to seize the little time left in the residence to score another goal, the national football team further strengthened the front pressure of the three fronts. However, considering that the Chinese men's football team at that time had a serious physical weakness after more than 70 minutes of high-pressure matches, the players' rebound speed and sense of play had declined to varying degrees, and the defensive counterattack strategy followed by Qatar in the second half of the venue had more room to play.
In the 79th minute of the match, Qatari striker Afif took advantage of a successful anti-offside position to get a one-handed opportunity, in order to give the Chinese team the last hope, the veteran Zheng Zhi snatched Aif before he entered the box to pull him down, and Zheng Zhi was also sent off by the head coach on duty for this foul.
"Jiang Wei alone has high strength, and the Nine Cuts in the Middle Plains are in vain." Zheng Zhi shouldered the beam in the darkest years of Chinese football and undertook the heavy responsibility of the national football team to impact the World Cup. The lonely back of his eclipsed end is not only a helpless interpretation of his national team career, but also tells the tortuous experience of the Chinese men's football team to impact the World Cup.
Fortunately, the remaining ten national football players on the field did not let Zheng Zhi's efforts be wasted, and they showed a 120% competitive style in the subsequent game time, and finally completed the reversal in the next city.
In the 83rd minute of the game, substitute Arthur Junmin and Wu Lei played a continuous collision with the wall to complete the bottom cross, Qatar defender No. 18 Ali had a mistake in breaking the barrier, and Wu Lei, who was astute to seize the opportunity of the second penalty, easily exploded the upper corner of the goal near the penalty spot. In the end, the Chinese men's football team conceded a goal on the road with Xiao Zhi and Wu Lei's successive achievements to reverse the game 2:1 and won the final victory of the 2018 World Cup Asian Qualifiers in Russia.
Unfortunately, although the national football team has done its best in the final round of battle, the god of destiny is not on our side. Uzbekistan, the direct rivals of the national football team, and Syria drew with South Korea and Iran respectively, and finally Syria won the third place with Uzbekistan on goal difference, and won the opportunity to compete with Australia, the third place in Group B, for the intercontinental play-off qualification.
After the game, fans realized that this might be the last trip of Zheng Zhi's career to impact the World Cup, and even the reporters interviewed after the game lamented the meritorious veteran. What is slightly surprising is that Zheng Zhi did not show too much regret, and his whole body revealed a strong sense of self-blame.
The former Asian footballer told reporters: "Responsibility or regret, the fact is that my national team career for more than ten years has not helped the team qualify for the World Cup." The fans really don't have to demand much from the national team, and they don't want us to play beautifully or win several against our opponents. More just hope that the national team will show the fighting spirit of not accepting defeat. ”
Time flies, years change. Although Zheng Zhi has not officially announced his retirement, everyone knows that the veteran has inevitably embarked on the road of transformation. Whether at Guangzhou Evergrande Club or the Chinese national team, Zheng Zhi's role today is more inclined to coaching. It is foreseeable that Zheng Zhi will charge less and less on behalf of the team, and in the future, he will show more and more as a military master who is strategic.
Riding the wind and waves will sometimes hang directly on the clouds and sails to the sea. I hope that the lonely back like Zheng Zhi will no longer appear, and I hope that the future of Chinese football will no longer be silent.