Chapter 265 Salvaging Face (Part 2)

Twelve minutes into the second half.

Li Yongle, the commander of the Chinese team, was still performing poorly. He hadn't found the feeling or rhythm of a commander at all, and as a result, the Chinese team's midfield was a complete mess.

Yang Pan's super long-range lob shot was a manifestation of his personal technique and had nothing to do with how the Chinese team was performing.

Judging from the first ten minutes, Qiu Suhui's insistence on making Li Yongle the core of the Chinese team's midfield was a failure. Even the commentators thought that Qiu Suhui should substitute Li Yongle.

In the center, Li Yongle didn't dare to defend with all his might, fearing that he would lose offensive opportunities. He didn't dare to attack with all his might either, fearing that if he rushed too far forward, he wouldn't be able to get back in time to defend against a quick counterattack. Being stuck like that was really uncomfortable.

He was completely different from when he was in the national youth team and Inter Milan. Because they didn't train together enough, he didn't understand the technical characteristics of some of his teammates in the national team.

Qiu Suhui obviously saw this too, so he replaced Shao Jiayi with Zhao Pengyu. On the one hand, Shao Jiayi's performance in the second half was not satisfactory, and on the other hand, it was to have more teammates that Li Yongle was familiar with on the field.

The effect wasn't apparent after Zhao Pengyu came on, and Li Yongle was still lost in the midfield.

Some Chinese students were already dissatisfied with him: "Who is that idiot? He's sleepwalking in the midfield! Why doesn't the coach substitute him? Aren't there unlimited substitutions in this kind of friendly match?"

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Qiu Suhui had no choice but to walk to the sidelines to remind Li Yongle. If the midfield was out of control in this kind of match, they would definitely lose, and they would lose badly. Zhang Jun and Yang Pan's individual abilities were not enough to determine the outcome of the match against Spain.

"Li Yongle!" Qiu Suhui cupped his hands around his mouth, forming a loudspeaker shape. "Run! Run! You can't do anything just standing there! You have no problem with your stamina, why aren't you running? Think about your national youth team, how you played football in college!"

It must be said that almost every head coach, eight out of ten, has a particularly loud voice. Otherwise, how could they convey tactical arrangements to the players on the field in such a noisy environment?

Of course, there are also coaches who like to whistle, such as the Greek team's coach, the German Otto Rehhagel.

Qiu Suhui's voice was hoarse because he had been shouting like this for a long time. But the effect was good. Li Yongle heard his roar and turned to look at the coaching bench.

"Run! Run! Back and forth, left and right, run if you need to!" Qiu Suhui gestured in circles with his hands.

Run? Li Yongle thought, wouldn't running around mess up the positions of the others?

"Just start running first! You won't even notice many opportunities if you don't run!" Qiu Suhui waved his hand, as if he knew what Li Yongle was worried about.

Li Yongle finally nodded to show that he understood. Qiu Suhui then turned around, asked Hu Li for a bottle of water, and took a few big gulps. Shouting so much in a huge stadium like the Bernabéu made his throat a little sore. But it was worth it, Li Yongle finally started running.

He knew what Li Yongle was worried about, but that wasn't a problem at all. When he started running, he would discover a whole new world, and he would love the feeling. As for players who would clash, he would make adjustments. After all, Li Yongle was the core. Like the solar system, Li Yongle was the sun, and the other players were like the nine planets revolving around him.

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Li Yi, following the head coach's arrangement during the halftime break, passed the ball to Li Yongle again. If he was going to be the core, then he had to get the ball often, because that meant responsibility. Those who got the ball and wanted to pass it out as soon as possible could not become the team's midfield core.

Think about Dunga in the French World Cup, who passed the ball more than ninety times in one match, with as many as eighty successful passes, a veritable Brazilian midfield core.

Judging from the first ten minutes of the second half, Li Yi was not satisfied with Li Yongle's performance. He still had to pass the ball to Li Yongle, only because of Qiu Suhui's regulations. Now, the Football Association was Qiu Suhui's biggest backer, and there was no benefit in going against him.

Li Yi's dissatisfaction with Li Yongle largely stemmed from Li Yongle's blindness in handling the ball. Many times, he simply didn't know what to do with the ball at his feet. This led to many of the Chinese team's attacks failing from the start, and then the whole team was forced to immediately switch to defense.

Li Yi could see that Zheng Jun, as the captain, had a lot of resentment towards Li Yongle's poor performance, but Qiu Suhui had already said what he needed to say, and he couldn't vent his anger on the field.

If this kid doesn't prove himself, he's afraid he won't have a good time in the future. Li Yi was very curious as to why his pass to Yang Pan in the first half was so beautiful that even the head coach specifically praised him.

Which one was the real him, the first half or the second half?

When Li Yongle received the ball, Alberda thought that he would make another mistake, so he wasn't too vigilant towards him, and just paid attention to Ke Lu on the side. In his opinion, there were only three troublesome guys on the Chinese team: Yang Pan, who played for AC Milan, An Ke, the main goalkeeper for Dortmund, and Ke Lu Li, the Chelsea midfielder who had become famous recently.

Zhang Jun? He's still struggling in the second division. The coach said he's good, but I can't see it.

Li Yongle? He's said to play for Inter Milan, but he rarely plays. Looking at his performance in the last ten minutes, he's not that good either.

Ke Lu retreated to support, and Li Yongle honestly passed the ball back to him. It looked like a very ordinary pass, something that anyone who plays soccer would do.

Xavi kept a close eye on Ke Lu, and Ke Lu couldn't turn around, so he had to pass the ball back to Li Yongle again.

At this time, Alberda pressed up, after all, it was a bit unreasonable to let the other team's players freely get the ball near the center line. He tried to force Li Yongle to turn back, and Li Yongle did as he wished, and had to turn around and retreat with the ball under pressure.

And as long as he retreated, Joaquin on the wing had already returned to defend. With the two of them in front and behind, they would definitely be able to intercept this kid's ball!

But just as Li Yongle turned around, he suddenly made a long diagonal pass from right to left!

The TV camera moved with the football, and only then did they realize that the left side of Spain, the right side of China, had been vacant at some point. Only one left back, Raúl Bravo, was watching the football in the air and retreating, preparing to receive the ball.

At this moment, a white shadow like lightning suddenly inserted from the right side of the Chinese team.

"It's Yang Pan! He's too fast!"

That's right, it was Yang Pan. He sprinted forward at high speed when Li Yongle passed the ball. The timing of the pass and the run were very good. There was no situation where the ball arrived but the person didn't, nor would the person arrive and then have to wait for the ball.

For a speed-type player, there was nothing more comfortable than this kind of ball.

Raúl Bravo obviously noticed the threat coming from behind. He turned around and chased after the ball, hoping to clear it out earlier. But as soon as he turned around, Yang Pan headed the incoming ball forward!

Ball arrives, person arrives!

Then Yang Pan accelerated! Accelerated! Sprinted! And sprinted again!

Bravo planned to push Yang Pan out of bounds with his hand, but he only pushed into a gust of wind, and almost fell out himself.

After Yang Pan shook off Bravo with his speed, he caught up with the ball, and then used his right foot to knock the football towards the inner penalty area, and then he followed with an inward cut.

His speed was amazing! Even if the field was slippery, it couldn't affect him in the slightest.

This was Yang Pan's true strength!

Casillas attacked. Were the two sides going to be one-on-one?

Yang Pan obviously didn't plan to go one-on-one with Casillas. He knew that the Spanish goalkeeper was good at saving one-on-one situations. He didn't have the confidence to break through the opponent.

"The goalkeeper is attacking! But Yang Pan is shooting directly!"

Yang Pan took a furious shot from the corner of the penalty area! He used a lot of force in this shot. The yellow football shot towards the goal like a bolt of lightning. Casillas tried his best to save it, but he didn't touch the football!

The football finally brushed against the post and flew out, then hit the advertising board hard. The sound was clearly audible even at the very top of the fourth tier of stands. The Spanish fans were startled by the loud noise.

"It didn't go in! What a pity! This is the best chance for the Chinese team so far in the second half! Yang Pan's breakthrough was beautiful, but the biggest contributor to this opportunity was still Li Yongle, who turned around and sent a forty-meter long pass in the face of two players sandwiching him. The football accurately reached Yang Pan like a laser-guided cruise missile. Yang Pan only needed to knock the ball forward and then use his speed advantage! Beautiful! Really beautiful! Such a great overall view and passing ability is really terrifying!"

The commentator praised Li Yongle endlessly. Looking at his excitement now, who would have known that five minutes ago he was still saying that Li Yongle should be substituted?

Qiu Suhui walked to the sidelines again and applauded the field. His applause must not have been heard by Li Yongle in this environment, he just wanted to express his attitude in this way: You did a good job, just keep going.

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"Great! Yang Pan's breakthrough! Raúl Bravo, that waste, is no match for him at all!" Li Yan raised his hands and shouted exaggeratedly in English.

He was doing this on purpose for those Spanish reporters to see. He knew that some of them must understand English.

Since you looked down on us before the match, then I will look down on your left back now.

"Bravo is too weak! How could Aragonés think of letting him start!? Even if Juanfran is injured, there are people who are a hundred times better than him to use! Look down on the Chinese team's right-wing attack? You'll regret it sooner or later!" He was still shouting, ignoring the dissatisfied gazes of his Spanish colleagues.

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This ball allowed Li Yongle to start finding his feeling. He gradually increased his running in the midfield, and his passing became more natural.

Li Yi, who was responsible for solving his worries, realized that this Li Yongle was now starting to be worthy of his number.

Many people like the number 10, because this number symbolizes the core, power, and honor. But they often don't have the strength to match it, because this number also represents a significant responsibility.

When Qiu Suhui decided to give the number 10 of the Chinese national team to Li Yongle, many people objected. Their reason was very simple: Although Li Yongle was a member of Inter Milan's first team, he was still a newcomer in the national team. The number 10 should be given to a respected veteran in the national team.

Qiu Suhui didn't take these dissenting voices seriously at all, and insisted on giving the number 10 to Li Yongle. His reason was also very simple: the number 10 is not a patent of the old players, but should be a symbol of strength. Whoever has that strength, he will let them wear it. Now Li Yongle's ability is fully qualified to wear this number 10 jersey.

Now it seems that Qiu Suhui's insistence has been rewarded.

When the situation was unclear and needed to be stabilized, Li Yongle would shift horizontally or pass back. But once he found a loophole in Spain's defense, his long pass would land like a precision-guided missile in the place where it should appear.

This made the Spanish defense very headache.

This headache lasted for ten minutes. In these ten minutes, Li Yongle's performance was even better than Xavi's. And Xavi was also substituted off the field by the Spanish coach Aragonés in the twenty-first minute of the second half. Li Yongle's opponent was changed to Valerón.

"Look, Li Yongle has come alive. As long as he runs, he will see another world." Qiu Suhui said to Hu Li with some satisfaction. Although the Chinese team was 0:2 behind, he didn't seem to be worried about the score. What he cared about most was how much progress the main players could make in this match.

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Zhang Jun was still looking for opportunities, looking for opportunities to make Puyol make a mistake.

Yang Pan was on the wing, he could use his speed to hard eat Bravo. But he was in the center, and relying on speed alone, his success rate was not high. He needed more support from the midfield. Li Yongle was now performing actively, but he was not a direct organizer of the offense after all. Ke Lu, on the other hand, had fallen silent, rarely seeing him use seemingly casual movements to dribble past people, and his passes were also quite satisfactory, without making any mistakes, but also without creating any opportunities.

Zhang Jun had watched videos of Ke Lu playing, and he knew how abnormal Ke Lu was now. Taking advantage of the ball going out of bounds and Spain making another substitution, Zhang Jun grabbed Ke Lu: "Aren't you afraid of something?"

"Afraid of what?" Ke Lu looked at Zhang Jun.

"For example... uh, afraid that because your movements are too fancy, people will think you're showing off and provoke some people's dissatisfaction..."

Hearing Zhang Jun say this, Ke Lu laughed: "I was originally showing off, what am I afraid of some people?"

"Then why were you so dull just now?"

"That's because I'm not comfortable with this venue." Ke Lu stepped on the grass under his feet. "The rain just stopped, and the slippery field will affect my movements."

"Oh, so that's how it is! I thought... hehe!" Zhang Jun smiled embarrassedly.

Ke Lu touched him: "Hey, your opponent is down." He let Zhang Jun look at the sidelines.

The fourth official had just put down the display board, he adjusted it, and then raised it again. It showed that number 5 Puyol was going to be substituted!

"No way!" Zhang Jun couldn't help but exclaimed, "I haven't gotten a goal on him yet! How can it be like this?"

Aragonés couldn't understand Chinese, and even if he could, he wouldn't satisfy Zhang Jun's wishes. Since it was a friendly match and there were no substitution restrictions, then he had to make as many substitutions as possible to let more players get on the field and find their feeling.

Ke Lu touched Zhang Jun again: "Don't shout, if you don't score as soon as possible, you won't have any chance in this match." He pointed to the Chinese team's warm-up area near the sideline. Wu Shangshan was doing warm-up preparations.

Zhang Jun was stunned, and then honestly ran back to his position, waiting for Wang Hui to throw the ball out of bounds.

Puyol was substituted, and Ramos, whom Zhang Jun had never heard of, was substituted in. He didn't know how strong he was. But he was definitely not as good as Puyol. In Zhang Jun's impression, Spain did not produce many center backs. Over the years, there were only three good center backs, the earliest Nadal, then Hierro, and now Puyol.

Puyol is down, doesn't that mean he has more chances? Wouldn't that mean he could score a goal? This is a good thing, so what is he dissatisfied with?

Spain substituted three players in one go. Reyes replaced Vicente, Ramos replaced Puyol, and Mista replaced Torres.

Before the new players had time to adapt to the match, the Chinese team launched a fierce attack.

After Ke Lu got the ball, he still didn't make any fancy moves. It seemed that he didn't plan to show off his streetball skills in this match. Zhang Jun suddenly felt a little disappointed.

Ke Lu passed the ball to Li Yongle, and Li Yongle immediately passed the ball to Zhang Jun, who was running diagonally to the right. At the same time, Yang Pan ran diagonally, moving closer to the center.

Ramos replaced Puyol, so naturally he also had to take over Puyol's task – marking Zhang Jun. He followed Zhang Jun and moved to the left.

Ball arrives, person arrives.

But Zhang Jun did not take the opportunity to knock the ball to the right wing, but jumped up, stepped on the ball with his right foot, fixed the football there, and jumped directly over it himself!

Ramos did not expect Zhang Jun to do this. He turned around to intercept the ball, but forgot that the grass was still slippery, and immediately fell to the ground.

At this moment, Yang Pan, who had just inserted, happened to appear in front of the ball. This was like a twenty-five-meter direct free kick, and there was no wall.

Yang Pan's high-speed insertion just now could be counted as a long-distance run-up. He swung his thick right leg, and then hit the football hard with the outside of his foot!

The football first flew to the left of the goal, and then turned in the middle, turning to the inside, and went straight into the upper corner of the far end of the goal!

"Yang Pan long shot——!!"

After Casillas had seen Yang Pan's powerful long shot, he knew that this Chinese team's number 7 was somewhat like his teammate Roberto Carlos at Real Madrid. So he didn't dare to neglect it. The moment Yang Pan shot, he jumped back and reached out his right hand to push the football... He pushed it!

Casillas could feel the football spin on his fingertips, then leave his fingers and continue to fly towards the goal!

Casillas's gaze was still tracking the football. He wanted to see, would this ball go in, or not?

The football hit the crossbar... and bounced out!

"What a pity!!"

"What good luck!!"

Two commentators from different countries exclaimed at the same time.

Yang Pan then waved his hand hard, regretting that the ball didn't go in.

Watching the football hit the crossbar, Zhang Jun raised his head and sighed very unwillingly. The rain had already stopped, and it was no longer raining, but there was still not a star in the night sky.

The ball he made for Yang Pan had not been practiced in training, it was completely a flash of inspiration at the time.

This heart-to-heart tacit understanding made him feel like he was back in high school. Even the matches were carefree. Liang Ke let them play on the field and play as they pleased, so there were so many wonderful combinations. It could be said that Zhang Jun regretted more than Yang Pan that this ball didn't go in.

Li Yongle ran to take a corner kick. Both center backs came up. Zhang Jun retreated to the outside, not going to the crowded place to get entangled with them. He just tilted his head and stood on the arc of the penalty area, watching the chaos inside.

The corner kick was taken, and the area in front of the goal was even more chaotic.

In the chaos, someone headed the ball out, right where Zhang Jun was. The Spanish players were only concerned with the area in front of the goal, but forgot about Zhang Jun outside the penalty area.

Seeing that this ball was suitable for a direct volley, Zhang Jun turned his body to face the goal, then used his left foot as support, and swung his right leg, planning to half-volley.

But at this moment, he slipped under his feet and lost his balance!

Zhang Jun reacted quickly. Since he slipped and could no longer stand, then he might as well just volley. He used force in his waist and abdomen, swung his right leg over, and his left leg swung back, like an airplane propeller, bringing his whole person up.

Ball arrives, foot arrives! Volley! Shot!!

There were many people in the penalty area. At the moment of the shot, Zhang Jun didn't even want to hit it anywhere. It would have been great if he could hit the football at that time.

But the football passed through the crowd in front of the Spanish team's goal as if by magic. Helguera stretched his head to head it, but didn't touch it. Salgado kicked to block it, but it was too late.

The football drew an arc, made a turn in the penalty area, and flew towards the right side of the goal, while Casillas was standing on the left side, four meters away from the football! He was powerless. Blocked by the crowd in front of him, he didn't even move, and the football hit the post and then bounced into the goal.

The ball went in!

The Chinese team scored!!

At the moment the football hit the net, all the fans in China who stayed up all night to watch and the people on the Chinese team's bench at the Bernabéu had only one action: they raised their arms and jumped up, then shouted wantonly!

It was also a goal, but this ball was much more exciting than those two Spanish goals. A volley from the edge of the penalty area, the football drew an arc, bypassing all the defenders, bypassing all obstacles, and went straight into the dead corner!

Whether it was strength or luck, this ball went in, and it went in beautifully!

Zhang Jun, who scored the goal, lay on the ground and saw the football go into the net, then jumped up and ran to the sideline.

Li Yongle wanted to come up and hug him, but he waved his hand: "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Li Yongle! Can I celebrate this goal myself? I want to let those Spanish reporters see! See the consequences of them looking down on us!"

Yang Pan wanted to pounce on him from behind, but when he heard Zhang Jun say this, he also retreated to the side knowingly. Before the match, they all knew how the Spanish media looked down on the Chinese team. At that time, Xiang Tao and others were furious, in his own words, "ghost fire rising." But Zhang Jun didn't say a word. Yang Pan knew that Zhang Jun was not indifferent, but was holding back, holding back to slap the Spanish media in the face on the field with practical actions.

Even if the next day's newspapers said that Spain defeated China at home, no one could ignore this volley.

Finally running to the sidelines, Zhang Jun waved his fist vigorously at the press box above the stands, and then shouted: "Did you see it! Didn't you say we were here to visit the Bernabéu?! Now you continue to laugh!! Your Saint Casillas didn't save it, none of your defenders touched it, didn't you say easy victory?! One day, we will defeat you! Make you all shut up!!"