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Lift your breath! With a goal and assist from substitute Mutalifu in the second half, China's 2003 U20 youth team defeated Saudi Arabia 2-0 in the second round of the fourth group of the 41st U20 Asian Cup in Uzbekistan. The victory of this match not only allowed the Chinese national youth team to pull itself back on track and ignite hopes of advancing to the group, but more importantly, it allowed Chinese football, which is currently in a state of suffocation, to breathe a little.
Losing to Japan inspires fighting spirit
Frankly speaking, after losing 2-1 to Japan in the first game, I believe that more people no longer have hope for the national youth team, especially the defending champion Saudi Arabia in the second round. The Saudi youth team won back-to-back Arab regional youth championships in 2021 and 2022, and won 1-0 against China in a qualifying tournament last September. What's more, Saudi football has been the "bitter master" of Chinese football over the years, and in the 2018 Asian Youth Championship, the Saudi team stepped on the Chinese team and finally ascended to the championship. Chinese fans remember that the last time China beat Saudi Arabia was at the 2015 Asian Cup. Therefore, the reporter only cautiously hoped to reap a draw before the match, so that the national youth team could retain the last glimmer of hope for group promotion, and avoid the same as previous national youth teams, and the group stage could be returned home in advance after two rounds.
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However, the young men of the National Youth Team did not believe in evil and fought a victory alive! The second goal is the best illustration of this. When substitute Mutalif helped the national youth team lead 1-0, in the 72nd minute, the Saudi team organized an attack in midfield and passed the ball forward, but Mutalifu pressed on the one-on-one scramble with the Saudi players, and it was sighing that Mutalif did not close his foot when he grabbed, but took the lead to pick the ball to Eiffeldin in front. When Eiffelding dribbled the ball forward, Mutalif did not stop after grabbing the pass, but continued to accelerate forward, even faster than Xu Bin, who was also in front in the middle. Then, Eiffelding saw the opportunity to pass the ball to Mutalif, who then crossed to allow Xu Bin to push the empty goal and change the score to 2-0!
This counter-attack is extremely crisp, resolute and beautiful, imagine that if Mutalip had not continued to desperately forward after picking the ball to Eiffelding, perhaps Eiffelding could also pass the ball to Xu Bin in the middle, but Xu Bin is unlikely to have such a great opportunity. This proves from one side how hard the young men are in the game. Of course, footage like Mutaliff's can be seen throughout the game, especially on the defensive end. It was precisely the national youth players who were able to "play with their lives" throughout the game and finally spelled out such a victory, so the head coach Antonio said bluntly after the game: "The victory in this game is the best reward for the team and all the players." ”
Not only this game, but also in the previous match against Japan, the national youth players were also "three soldiers", hoping to fight their opponents, and the intention of the executive coach was also quite resolute. But unfortunately, the opponent scored two goals in a row in 4 minutes through a suspicion of offside and a handball, which made the national youth team feel a lot unhappy, and they held their breath hoping to play back in the second round. Therefore, the value and significance of this victory over the Saudi team is even greater, because the young men used their actions to illustrate: the first game against Japan should not be lost, the loss is not that they do not work hard, or there are problems in the pre-match tactical deployment and in-game tactical execution, it is really because of uncontrollable factors that cause the team to lose. It can even be said that the loss to the Japanese team has further stimulated these young men, allowing them to really become more and more courageous, and at the same time regain their destiny in their own hands!
The result of the victory is the most important
In this game, the national youth team adopted a different strategy and deployment from the previous game against Japan, abandoning possession, resolutely not playing passing, but adopting a big-foot forward combat method, and the players are resolutely forward after holding the ball in the game, rarely passing back or crossing. Therefore, in the whole game, the national youth team's possession rate was only 23.9%, the whole game passed 184 times, and the success rate of passing was only 47.3%, while the Saudi team's data in this regard were 76.1% and 566 times, respectively, and the pass success rate reached 82.2%. Moreover, in terms of the number of shots on goal, the Saudi team also has 16 shots, which is twice that of the Chinese national youth team (8).
Compared with the previous game of the Chinese team and the Japanese team, it seems to be similar, the Japanese team has 77.4% possession, 579 passes, and a pass success rate of 84.3%, while the Chinese national youth team only 22.6%, 162 times and 45.7% pass success rate, in terms of shooting, Japan is far ahead of the Chinese national youth team 25-4.
It must be admitted that even if the Chinese national youth team won the Saudi team last night, it does not mean that the Chinese players are better skilled than their opponents and their ability is above the opponents, otherwise the national youth team would not have lost 1-0 in the qualifying group stage last September. However, in terms of a single game, especially this kind of continental competition, the result is everything, it has nothing to do with utilitarian or not, competitive football is a hero of victory or defeat.
Diluted months of obscurity
At the post-match press conference for the Sino-Saudi Arabia match, head coach Antonio said something meaningful, "For Chinese football, a victory like today's is needed." Although Antonio did not explain further, I believe Chinese fans will feel the same way at this time.
Over the past period, the large-scale anti-corruption action of Chinese football has made Chinese football people have an unprecedented sense of depression, on the one hand, they applaud such a strong anti-corruption action of Chinese football and the arrest of a group of corrupt elements, but on the other hand, they are deeply worried about how Chinese football should go next. Moreover, during this time, there was almost no comforting news in Chinese football. In such an environment and background, the victory of the Chinese national youth team with an intercontinental competition finally allowed Chinese footballers to breathe, and also made fans more or less happy, diluting some of these obscure and unhappy things.
This is actually the case at any time, what can really boost Chinese football can only be victory in foreign wars, and only continuous victory in foreign wars can make fans happy and let more people return to Chinese football. And if Chinese football had been able to win in foreign battles like last night in the past, it might not have come to this point at all.
Of course, winning the Saudi Arabia team can't say much after all, because for the current national youth team, it is only the first step to get back on track in the group stage of this U20 Asian Cup, and there is a more critical and important third group game. Only by winning Kyrgyzstan can the national youth team complete the first step, which is to qualify from the group. Moreover, there are higher goals waiting for the young men in the back. At that time, it will not be too late to really be happy and raise your eyebrows!
Author: Ma Dexing (from Tashkent, Uzbekistan)
This article was originally published in the Sports Plus app
The image comes from the Internet
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