The Paper reporter Song Chengliang
At the Hangzhou Asian Games, the U24 Asian Games men's football team became one of the pioneers of the Chinese delegation.
On the evening of the 19th, in a contest dubbed the "Earth Derby", the national football Asian Games team defeated the Indian team 5-1, which made the group stage start and laid a good foundation for advancing to the knockout round.
According to the schedule, at 19:30 on September 21, the national football Asian Games team will face the second opponent of the group stage, Myanmar.
Reach the final and challenge for the championship
At the end of August, after the end of the Chinese Super League and FA Cup, the national football Asian Games team began training at the Zhejiang Club training base.
During this period, the team also recruited several players from the 2001 age group that had just finished the Olympic preliminary round, and Coach Gyurjevic made a difficult choice of "27 to 5" on the roster, and finally selected the 22-man roster for this Asian Games.
'We have carefully selected 22 players and are looking forward to the game.' In his last training session before moving to the Asian Games Village, Djurjevic said, "The team has been preparing for the Asian Games for six months, we are not preparing for one game, but for all the games, I hope the players will deal with the game with enough tacit understanding, and I look forward to their performance." ”
Head coach Jurjevic (first from left).
Previously, Gyurjevic had expressed the hope that the team could play all seven games - which means that the Asian Games team needs to reach the semifinals, so that whether it is the final final or the three or four place finals, it will eventually play all seven.
Compared with the head coach, over-age player Tan Long is even more clear when talking about his goals, "As a big brother, I want to play the role of an old player, help young players play well and help them grow better." ”
The 35-year-old Yatai striker said bluntly, "My goal is to reach the final and hit the championship. ”
From the grouping point of view, the national football Asian Games team signing luck is not bad, successively against India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, except for India has a certain strength, the other two teams are not strong.
But in the first round of the knockout round, the team may face one of three teams: Saudi Arabia, Iran or Vietnam, and then, depending on the schedule, the quarter-final opponent is likely to be South Korea.
You know, in the men's football competition of the recent Asian Games, the strongest fighting spirit is the South Korean team - because the Asian Games champion can be exempted from military service, five years ago in Jakarta Son Heung-min led the team to win the championship, and this time the South Korean team led by Lee Gang-jin also aims to win gold.
Veteran Tan Long (right) competes for the top spot in the game.
There are thrilling victories
From the perspective of the starting lineup for this match, Gyurjevic chose a 4-4-1-1 formation dominated by Shanghai Shenhua players.
Goalkeepers Han Jiaqi, Jiang Shenglong and Zhu Chenjie partner in central defense, Wang Zhenao and Liu Yang play full-back, Gao Tianyi and Wang Haijian play at the back, Xu Haoyang and Tao Qianglong are separated on the wings, and Dai Weijun plays shadow striker behind single striker Tan Long.
The 11 players include 5 Shenhua players, and 3 over-age players are also all starters.
Captain Zhu Chenjie missed a penalty.
At the beginning of the game, the Asian Games team did have the advantage, frequently using crosses and wing breakthroughs to create chances - although Zhu Chenjie missed a penalty, the Asian Games team maintained a 1-0 lead for most of the time.
But just before the end of the first half, India's No. 10 Pravin showed excellent individual ability, and scored from a small angle after eating Liu Yang raw on the wing to help India equalise.
Fortunately, in the second half, Dai Weijun's long-range shot helped the Asian Games team to overcome, helped the team stabilize the situation, and also let the teammates completely relax, and finally the Asian Games team won a big victory.
High Providence celebrates the goal.
The helplessness of the Indian team
Compared with the careful preparation of the national football Asian Games team, the Indian team's Asian Games trip was somewhat rushed.
According to the Times of India, the Indian team spent 10 hours connecting flights at Singapore's Changi Airport and had to spend the night inside the airport until Monday before landing in Hangzhou.
By the time of the game, they didn't even have time for a real training session and didn't get enough rest.
"We need to be smarter. After such a long journey, should we devote all our remaining energy to the first game? Or save your better form for the next two games and try to qualify? Head coach Stimacci was a little helpless in an interview with Indian media.
Dai Weijun (left) defends Indian players.
In addition, due to the ongoing league, some Indian clubs are not willing to release people, so the Indian team cannot put together the most ideal team to participate in this competition.
In this case, the Indian team does not have much room for personnel selection in the central defender position, and neither the two main players Garott and Donghri can play.
However, judging from the game, the Indian team still relied on speed and counterattack to create some trouble for the national football Asian Games team...
Senior Editor of this issue Zhou Yuhua