Yangtze River Daily Wuhan client, October 7 (reporter Ma Wanyong) Tomorrow at 1 a.m. Beijing time, the Chinese men's football team will usher in the 2022 Qatar World Cup qualifiers in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, the most critical competition in the Asian region, against the Vietnamese team, which has also lost two consecutive games before. Judging from the current situation, the national football team wants to retain the hope of qualifying from the group, this battle can not be lost to the opponent in any case, and from a more positive point of view, it must win the Vietnamese team.
Once "Out of the Line Day" Now "Life and Death War"
On October 7, 20 years ago, the Chinese national team, led by head coach Milu, hosted Oman in the 2002 Japan-South Korea World Cup Qualifiers in the Asian Top 10. With Yu Genwei's goal, the Chinese team defeated the opponent 1:0 at the Wulihe Stadium in Shenyang, qualifying two rounds ahead of the line with a record of 5 wins and 1 draw, and that was the first time Chinese football reached the final round of the World Cup. Of course, it is also the only time so far.
20 years later, Li Tie, a former national football player, has sat in the position of head coach of the national team. He took over the coaching whip from his predecessor Lippi and led the national football team to the 2022 Qatar World Cup Qualifiers in the Asian Zone Round of 12, but in the first two rounds of the round of 12, the Chinese team lost 0:3 to Australia in the first game and lost 0:1 to Japan in the second game, and is currently at the bottom of the group.
In this round of 12, the Chinese team and Australia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Vietnam are in Group B, and the top two in the group will qualify for the final round of the World Cup in Qatar. Judging from the current group rankings, Australia and Saudi Arabia are at the top of the list with 2 wins, Japan and Oman are in the middle of the 1 win and 1 loss, and China and Vietnam are two consecutive losing teams, at the end. Of course, Vietnam scored a goal against Saudi Arabia and temporarily ranked above China.
From the above situation, it is not difficult to see that the competition in the top 12 is quite fierce, and for the Chinese team and the Vietnamese team, the collision in the third round of the group stage will be a real "life and death battle". A draw does not mean much to the two teams, only by dividing the winners and losses, the team that gets 3 points can be said to retain a glimmer of hope of qualifying, and the team that loses can basically be said to have lost the possibility of qualifying.
In fact, the "life and death battle" is not alarmist, remember the last Time Russian World Preliminary Tournament, the Chinese team played in the top 12 under the leadership of Gao Hongbo, the first draw with Iran, the second loss to South Korea, the situation is better than today, but after the third round of home loss to Syria, the morale of the whole team was shocked, followed by the away defeat to Uzbekistan, 4 games, 1 draw and 3 losses only accumulated 1 point. Although Lippi took office and led the Chinese team to a record of 3 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss in the next 6 matches, he only finished fifth in the group and did not have the opportunity to appear.
The current situation is also critical, the current Chinese team after two group games 0 points, 0 goals, and if this battle can not win the Vietnam team, and then 5 days later (October 12) will be away to the Saudi team, this situation is very similar to the last Chinese team. Therefore, the only opportunity to break the crisis is to win the Vietnamese team and go to challenge the Saudi team away with 3 points in hand to kill a bloody road.
Kill the bleeding circuit The first way to control the mentality
The national football team and the Vietnamese team have played each other 9 times in official matches in history, and China has won all of them, scoring 27 goals and conceding 6 goals. The most recent encounter was in a friendly match 9 years ago, when the national football team won 3-0, Gao Lin scored two goals and Feng Renliang scored. Judging from the history of past confrontations, although the Vietnamese team has made obvious progress, it is still not an inability to climb the mountain for the Chinese team, and the most important thing for Li Tie and the international footballers is to control their mentality. After all, whether it is an all-out attack in the first battle against Australia or a comprehensive defense in the second battle against Japan, it has not been able to give the outside world a bright feeling, so what kind of targeted tactics should the national football team have in this battle against Vietnam?
Since departing from Shanghai on August 25 to prepare for the Top 12, the national football team has been stationed in West Asia for more than a month. Li Tie also admitted the hardships of preparing for the game: "In the past month, the Chinese team has not been easy, the intensity and volume of this time is very large, and the players live a two-point and one-line life every day, hotels, training grounds. In addition to eating, they all live their lives in small rooms. Their happiest time of day is on the training ground. ”
For the Vietnamese team, the national football team members are actually not very familiar. Wu Xinghan, who has played against Vietnamese teams, said in an interview: "When playing for the club in the AFC Champions League, they have played twice at home and away. I think the characteristics of Vietnamese players are 'small, fast and smart'. Playing against such an opponent, we still have to adjust our state and complete the technical and tactical requirements of the head coach in the game. "The high school forward will be the choice that Li Tie may consider. Guo Tianyu, a young high school striker in the team, revealed that he lost more than ten pounds during the training camp, and this high school striker who was in good shape in the Chinese Super League was likely to be the type that the Vietnamese team feared.
Li Tie revealed at the pre-match press conference that at present, in addition to injuries, the desire to fight in the team is very strong, and everyone has made the best preparation for this game. "It's been a tough time, and I believe it will be better than when I played against Japan and Australia."
As a two-game losing team, Vietnam coach Park Hengxu believes that the pressure on the Chinese team will be greater, "In comparison, the pressure on the Chinese coach Li Tie and their players is greater, because their ranking is higher than ours." The Vietnamese team will play its own tactics to counter the deployment of the Chinese team. ”
Wu Lei returns to bluntly speaking in good shape
According to the latest FIFA rankings, the Chinese team ranks 75th and Asia 9th, while Vietnam's international ranking is 95th and Asia's only 15th. However, the Vietnamese team that has faced the Chinese team many times is a new football force that has risen in Asia in recent years, and it has long been no longer the role of "fish belly". It is not an easy task for the current national football team to win Vietnam.
The good thing for the national football team is that the forward general Wu Lei has returned to the team in time. On October 3, local time, Wu Lei participated in the La Liga match with Real Madrid with espanyol, and came on as a substitute for nearly 30 minutes in the game. After the game, he went to the airport overnight, embarked on a journey to the United Arab Emirates, and flew to Dubai on the morning of the 4th local time, and participated in the team training in the evening of the 4th. Before the training began, coach Li Tie also took the lead in applauding, and the whole team welcomed Wu Lei back to the team. It is understood that from the beginning of the preparation activity to the group confrontation training in the back, Wu Lei has been practicing with his teammates. As things stand, he has little suspense in locking in a starting position.
The Chinese team has experienced nearly a month of closed training in Sharjah, but in Wu Lei's view, the absence of joint training will not have any impact on him: "The team has been very difficult for more than a month, and such a long time in the closed state will indeed have a big impact on the psychology of the players, and relatively speaking, I may be better in mentality." As for the technical and tactical and physical aspects, I have been following the team to La Liga, so the rhythm is still very good. ”
Wu Lei also said that although he had just arrived at the team, the coaching staff had already communicated with him in detail about the situation of the Vietnamese team. "We analysed the opponents, most importantly for their different formations and styles of play, and how they should react. Each of us should know very well how our opponents play and what we should do. Wu Lei confidently said: "The goal of all of us is to win this game, and everyone is very confident that they will win the game!" ”
Of course, judging from the training situation, Li Lei and Zhu Chenjie have been absent for a long time, the two are most likely absent, and Wang Dalei also has some injuries and may not be on the big list. In addition, Yin Hongbo, Wei Shihao and others also have some injuries, and whether they can catch up with the game depends on Li Tie's choice.
【Editor: Zhou Fei】