National football team, let Zhang Linpeng go!
"I thought about it for a long time after the game and I felt it was time to end my national team career!"
"Why do you have such an idea? I feel as if your emotions are a little ......."
"I don't think even Singapore can beat it...... It's also a shame for me personally!"
This is a conversation between the national football team and reporters when the national football team captain Zhang Linpeng faced the media after the national football team's draw with Singapore.
In terms of performance in a single game, Zhang Linpeng's remarks can be said to be a coward's performance.
In the second half, the national football team was equalized by Singapore, and the two goals conceded were both made by Zhang Linpeng's mistakes. As the captain of the national football team, choosing to quit when the team is in trouble is undoubtedly irresponsible.
Therefore, when the withdrawal incident began to ferment, Zhang Linpeng received a message from his mentor Xu Genbao, "There is still hope for qualifying, at this moment, what Chinese football needs is not to be discouraged." "You are the captain, and now is the time to lead the whole team to fight and fight to complete the mission in a difficult environment. ”
Gen Bao's words, although they seem to be serious persuasion, can also be seen between the lines of the negation of impulsive actions.
This is not the first time that Zhang Linpeng has been scolded on the hot search because of a mistake.
At the end of 2019, in the top 40 of the World Preliminaries, the Chinese men's football team played Syria away, and at the most critical moment of the game, Zhang Linpeng scored an own goal. It was a cross from Syria, the route of the ball was not tricky, Zhang Linpeng in the defensive area almost instinctively stretched out his foot to block, and the ball was refracted into the net.
This block gave Syria three points, and this block made Lippi resign in anger.
Many years later, when the World Preliminaries came again, Zhang Linpeng would still think of that night, the moment when he stretched his feet, and the blank brain after scoring an own goal.
However, he said that if he had to do it again, he would still stretch his feet because that was his duty. Later, in an exchange with big brother Feng Xiaoting, Zhang Linpeng once again mentioned this oolong mistake. Feng Xiaoting originally wanted to excuse Zhang Xiaoting, saying that he thought that the ball was not Zhang Linpeng's pot. But Zhang Linpeng really put the pot on himself again.
"It's already a technical problem to put out the action of clearing the siege......"
However, after the precipitation of time, Zhang Linpeng seems to have seen a little: "It is impossible not to make mistakes on the court, those top defenders in the world." Then again, who can deliberately make mistakes when playing on behalf of the motherland? But if there is a mistake, the responsibility must be shouldered. ”
As a result, less than half a year after saying this, the captain of the national football team chose to withdraw after the team was humiliated by the away team.
However, aside from the performance of a game, from the perspective of a football player, I support Zhang Linpeng's decision to quit the national team, for a simple reason:
"Age. ”
Zhang Linpeng, who was born in 1989, has entered the 35-year-old mark in the 2024 season. For football players, this age is already the vicissitudes of life after crossing the hills, and when it comes to enjoying football, honor and money are already yesterday's hustle and bustle.
Moreover, looking at the world, the post-95s have taken the lead in football, and the vast majority of the "post-80s", more precisely, the "post-85s" players, have increasingly become a choice rather than an inevitability, a symbol rather than a leader, because this is the law of football, because metabolism is the law of sports.
Therefore, when Zhang Linpeng, who was born after 89, was still an indispensable member of the national football team, and with the captain's armband, he stepped on the national football team again, what I saw was not the majesty of perseverance, but the sadness of having no successor.
For Zhang Linpeng, you can complain about his current low-level mistakes and his slow reactions, but what you can't deny is his attitude as a professional player and his career achievements.
From Chongming Island to the banks of the Pearl River, from winning the AFC Champions League twice to winning the Chinese Super League eight times, he has experienced the best era of Chinese football, and he is also one of the best players in China in the past ten years, otherwise he would not have received olive branches from Inter, Chelsea, and even Real Madrid in a row.
But as time went by, he went through the worst era of Chinese football, from the best in China to the worst in China.
In an interview with CCTV, Zhang Linpeng once revealed that during the Sino-Thai war, his leg was so painful that he couldn't hold on, "but in the end, I still wanted to give every minute for the national team." ”
Such persistence, in exchange, is another mistake and another abuse.
Anyone can be out of balance.
Therefore, when Zhang Linpeng said to the camera on the night of the game and quit, it is estimated that he himself is an unprecedented relief.
But this relief was only two days away, and under the persuasion of the national football team and Ivan, Zhang Linpeng apologized and promised not to quit.
It's not that you won't let him go, it's ......
What a nobody!
Looking at Chinese football, if you can find someone with higher ability than the peak Zhang Linpeng, why should Ivan keep it like this?
But this kind of retention seems to be an early warning of a greater storm of public opinion.
For the current national football team, the position of captain is even more magical than that of the president of South Korea. Feng Xiaoting, who left after the Asian Cup mistake, Wu Xi, who was reprimanded as a sea cucumber brother because he recorded a video for the sponsor, and now Zhang Linpeng is also repeating the same mistakes.
Those who follow Chinese football know that from Feng Xiaoting to Wu Xi to Zhang Linpeng, even though the results of the national football team have gradually fallen during their careers, it cannot be denied that their ability has been the ceiling of Chinese players. In the end, he ended up in disgrace, which has to be said to be a kind of sadness.
Therefore, instead of ushering in the next insult amid the abuse, it is not a shame for the national football team to let Zhang Linpeng go now.