Chapter 1 The Quarterfinals Approach

Regardless of how everyone views this match, the quarterfinal between China and South Korea is gradually approaching.

This time, Asia occupies three of the eight quarterfinal slots, making it the continent with the most teams in the quarterfinals. This performance has surprised many and demonstrates the rising level of Asian football.

August 4th can be called "Asia Day" in the Olympic men's football tournament, as all three Asian teams that reached the quarterfinals will appear on the pitch on this day.

The first team to appear will be the Japanese Olympic team, facing the Egyptian Olympic team. The match between South Korea and China will begin after this game.

The Japanese Olympic team made a splash at the Olympics by defeating one of the favorites to win the championship, the Spanish Olympic team.

In this quarterfinal match, they played easily against Egypt, a team that was not very strong. They took the lead after only fourteen minutes. Near the end of the match, they scored two more goals, easily eliminating the Egyptian Olympic team with a score of 3-0 and advancing to the semi-finals.

This is the second time in their Olympic history that they have reached the semi-finals—the last time they reached the semi-finals was at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. That time, they reached the semi-finals and eventually won a bronze medal, achieving the first medal for an Asian team in the Olympic football competition.

It seems that the Japanese team is really going to fulfill their promise to win an Olympic gold medal.

As long as they can defeat the winner between Great Britain and Mexico in the semi-finals.

After this game, the match between China and South Korea is about to begin.

The South Korean media and fans are highly concerned about this match, not only because of the long-standing rivalry between Chinese and South Korean football, but also because of a grander goal.

Since South Korean football appeared in the Olympic finals, their best result has been the quarterfinals. Watching the Japanese team, which they have always competed with, enter the semi-finals, they naturally hope that they can also reach the semi-finals.

Sixty-four years ago, also at the London Olympics, the South Korean team participated in the Olympics for the first time and reached the quarterfinals. Since then, for sixty-four years, they have never been able to surpass their best result from that year.

Although they are facing the Chinese team with Zhou Yi this time, the South Korean media still hopes that the South Korean team can defeat the Chinese team, reach the semi-finals, and create history.

As for the Chinese team, they have already created history, and every step they take now is creating new history.

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When Zhou Yi and his teammates appeared on the field, he found that there were significantly more spectators in the stands than during the group stage. On the one hand, it was because this was a quarterfinal match, a knockout round. On the other hand... this match was very important to both China and South Korea, so many Chinese and South Korean fans came to watch.

The Five-Starred Red Flag and the South Korean Taegeukgi were being waved and fluttering in the stands by their respective fans.

Looking around, the stands were a sea of red—because both the Chinese and South Korean teams' jerseys are red. However, in this match, the Chinese team drew the home team designation, so they could not only use the home team's locker room, but also had to wear the home team's jersey.

It's just that the Chinese team's home jersey is not red, but white...

Therefore, even though the Chinese fans are wearing traditional red clothes to cheer for the Chinese team, the visual effect is as if the entire stadium is full of South Korean supporters...

Although the Chinese team's red and the South Korean team's red are not exactly the same—the Chinese red is a very pure red, while the South Korean red is somewhat pink—this difference is not obvious enough.

In fact, many Chinese fans have complained about this—China's traditional color is red, and red also has the meaning of joy and pleasing in the eyes of the Chinese people, while white will always be associated with death and funerals for the Chinese, which is not very auspicious. But the Chinese national team has always insisted on using white as their home jersey color and red for away games. No one knows whether it is the Football Association that has a problem with their brains, or Adidas that did not understand China's national conditions when making this design decision...

Moreover, there are many bad memories in the history of Chinese football that involve white jerseys, so now everyone feels that it is unlucky for the Chinese team to wear white jerseys, and they feel uneasy.

Now that the game has not started yet, everyone has seen the unlucky white again, and many people are cursing the Football Association and the jersey sponsor.

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The captains of both sides quickly completed all the pre-match rituals, the players took their positions, and the match was about to begin.

The referee for this match, Roldán, blew his whistle, and the match started on time.

Following the whistle, a huge cheer erupted from the stands.

After the match started, the Chinese team surprisingly did not choose the defensive counterattack tactic they had been using before.

Instead, they actively controlled the ball.

Zhou Yi is the core of the Chinese team. He kept running in the match, appearing not far from every teammate with the ball, providing support, regardless of whether his teammates would pass the ball to him. In other words, if the other Chinese players did not pass the ball to Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi would be running in vain.

But this did not affect Zhou Yi continuing to do so.

As a core hub, this is what he must do.

Of course, he also had another purpose in doing so, which was to increase the difficulty of the defenders' defense. He kept running, his position was uncertain, and he could always create gaps in the opponent's defense.

Targeting Zhou Yi's playing characteristics, the South Korean team sent someone to defend Zhou Yi in this match. And this person is their captain, Ki Sung-yueng, the midfielder core who plays for Celtic in Scotland. He is an all-around midfielder and has performed well for Celtic.

At the same time, Ki Sung-yueng was also selected by the British media as one of the top ten most anticipated stars in this Olympic Games.

In this South Korean team, in terms of midfield ability, probably only Ki Sung-yueng can be compared with Zhou Yi. No one else is qualified to compare.

No matter where Zhou Yi ran, Ki Sung-yueng followed him, whether it was in the middle or on the wing.

The Koreans' super physical fitness and tenacious will are very suitable for doing this kind of thing.

This made Zhou Yi feel a bit like when Yang Muge defended him.

It must be said that Ki Sung-yueng is indeed an outstanding player.

If Zhou Yi were replaced by another Chinese player, he might really be helpless against him.

But unfortunately, Ki Sung-yueng's opponent is Zhou Yi, the man who led Dortmund to win two league titles and reach the Champions League semi-finals.

Under Ki Sung-yueng's marking, Zhou Yi still managed the Chinese team's midfield in an orderly manner. He rarely let the ball stay at his feet for more than three seconds, and it almost never happened that he would stop the ball and then observe the situation.

No matter how the ball was passed to him, after it was stopped by him, it could be passed out immediately, accurately finding other Chinese players.

So Ki Sung-yueng was really just running after Zhou Yi, but he could not have any impact on Zhou Yi's passing.

The South Korean commentator was still constantly praising Ki Sung-yueng's "inseparable" defense against Zhou Yi, believing that Ki Sung-yueng was performing well. But Ki Sung-yueng himself knew very well that the effect was really not as good as he thought...

Although Zhou Yi has not yet sent out any threatening passes, Ki Sung-yueng does not think that it is his credit. It may just be that Zhou Yi does not think it is necessary to send out threatening balls. The match has started for ten minutes, and the Chinese team only had one shot, but this does not mean that the Chinese team is at a disadvantage. In fact, their possession rate is higher than that of the South Korean team. Zhou Yi and his teammates are mostly passing the ball horizontally or back.

In the eyes of ordinary fans, these seemingly meaningless passes, but in the eyes of Ki Sung-yueng, the midfield brain of the South Korean Olympic team, these seemingly ordinary passes seem like spiders weaving a web, one thread to the east and one thread to the west, seemingly messy and incomprehensible, but in the end they may weave a large net that the prey cannot escape.

In the fifteenth minute, Zhou Yi suddenly stopped passing the ball. When the ball rolled towards him, he let it leak directly behind him, and then suddenly turned around!

Ki Sung-yueng was caught off guard and was actually thrown behind by Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi must not be allowed to break through like this!

This was Ki Sung-yueng's thought when he was squeezed behind by Zhou Yi. He reached out and pulled Zhou Yi's jersey, pulling him to the ground. The referee's whistle sounded, foul!

At the same time, the Chinese team was given a free kick 31 meters away from the goal.

After the referee called Ki Sung-yueng's foul, he did not show a yellow card, not even a verbal warning. Zhou Yi did not protest the referee's failure to show a card, but got up from the ground himself.

Everything was very ordinary, but Ki Sung-yueng's chest was rising and falling a little violently, as if he had just finished a 100-meter sprint. But in fact, Ki Sung-yueng's physical fitness class would definitely not be so bad. He was panting heavily just because he was a little afraid.

Zhou Yi's sudden turn was unannounced. If he hadn't held on with this foul, what would be the consequences of letting him break through forward? Ki Sung-yueng, who plays in Europe, knows very well.

While Ki Sung-yueng was having afterthoughts, the South Korean commentator was excitedly saying: "Ki Sung-yueng! His reaction is really敏锐 (minrui, sharp), he timely stopped Zhou Yi's breakthrough! He once again扼杀 (esha, stifled) the Chinese team's attacking intention!"

However, next, this South Korean commentator exclaimed—He Ying, who came out of the La Masia youth training camp, took the Chinese team's free kick and kicked the ball towards the goal. The ball bypassed the wall and flew towards the goal. It was blocked by the South Korean Olympic team's goalkeeper Jung Sung-ryong in front of the goal line.

Almost scored!

"How dangerous!" the South Korean commentator exclaimed.

"Oh! Too bad!" On the commentary stand, He Ping held his head in his hands.

The Chinese fans in front of the TV also held their heads in their hands and shouted "Damn it."

He Ying also seemed very regretful, but Zhou Yi gave him a thumbs up, indicating that he had kicked the ball beautifully.

"It's okay, we still have plenty of opportunities!"

He shouted in Chinese. If he had said it in English, the South Korean players who studied abroad would probably roll their eyes madly—it's as if all the opportunities in this match belong to you!

But Ki Sung-yueng might really have such concerns...