●-≺Team Comparison≻-●
The Chinese men's soccer team faced Bangladesh in the just-concluded men's soccer group stage of the Asian Games. Before this match, Bangladesh was a famously weak team. The national soccer team thought they could win easily and sent a substitute lineup. However, a cold streak broke out in this Asian Games.
Who knew that instead of cutting down a large number of points, the men's soccer team would be overwhelmed by the Bengals, scrapping their way to a 0-0 score, exposing many problems and woefully outclassing the Bengals.
Without realizing it, the Chinese men's football team has participated in 11 Asian Games, and this year it has participated in 12 Asian Games. Although they have participated in many competitions, the Chinese men's soccer team has never won the championship, and the highest record still stays at the second place in 1994.
This year's Asian Games were held in Hangzhou, China. The Chinese men's soccer team appeared in the opening game of the Asian Games. With the advantage of playing locally, the men's soccer team made a good start, winning two consecutive matches to take the lead in points.
Spectators were expecting the men's soccer team to make it out of the group stage and even point to the Hangzhou Asian Games title, and were immediately poured with cold water by the men's soccer team.
The biggest cold streak of the Asian Games so far erupted in the men's soccer match against Bangladesh.
Prior to this game, the Bengals record was horrendous. They had lost two games in a row, hadn't even scored a goal, and had even worse points. No one thought they could win against China, or even draw.
Due to their poor performance in this Asian Games, the Bengals have also been teased by the fans as a fishbowl team.
A fishbowl team in soccer is a team that does not train hard enough and has a weak finishing. Generally speaking, a fishbowl team refers to a weak team from a small country. Of course, some strong teams are jokingly called fishbowl teams by fans because of their declining strength.
Bangladesh can be called a fishbowl team by Chinese fans. In fact, the strength is visible, but it is such a team that no one is looking forward to that gave a blow to the Chinese men's soccer team.
●-≺Thrill Race≻-●
Before the start of the match, the Chinese men's soccer team didn't take Bangladesh seriously at all and didn't even field a starting lineup, allowing the substitutes to come on the field for a workout, ready to increase the players' match experience while Bangladesh collects points.
But the national football team never expected the Bengals to play so tenaciously.
During the game, Tan Long and Dai Weijun watched the game from the bench off the field, with Fang Hao, Li Yongjia and Sun Qinhan replacing them in the shock lineup. Sometimes a few of them opened a big web like poisonous spiders and slowly nibbled away at the Bengals, and sometimes they stormed in like pointed guns, trying to break through the Bengals' lifeblood.
The Bengal team is like a taut bow. Facing the Chinese men's soccer team's pressing, the Bengal team not only didn't mess up the position, but also launched a tight defensive formation.
When China opened the ball line and attacked steadily, the Bengals formed a bucket formation. When China took a big step forward, the Bengals gathered their superior strength to strictly defend and never gave China a chance to score.
With the passage of time, the Chinese men's soccer team began to lose stamina and gradually could not form a strong offense.
Naturally, the Chinese team sent out substitutes after all, and with a limited offense, it's no surprise that they couldn't break through to the Bengals.
However, the Bengals did not take the Chinese men's soccer team lightly because of their personnel adjustments. Instead, they capitalized on the Chinese men's soccer team's mistakes and counterattacked the men's soccer team fiercely.
After gaining possession of the ball, Bangladesh steadily entered the Chinese men's inside through many passes. China tried to stop them, but with little success. The Bangladeshi players seized the opportunity to shoot at the goal.
Luckily the shot was some distance away from the goal and the Chinese keeper parried it away, but this situation played out several times and the Chinese men looked very embarrassed.
Under such unfavorable circumstances, the Chinese men's soccer team barely supported the game for 20 minutes. In the end, due to the long-term defensive deficiencies, there was a huge hole in the frontal defensive formation and two Bangladeshi players crossed the defenders hand in hand.
The national football team was suddenly thrown into disarray and made a hasty retreat. In order to hold the last line of defense, the Bangladeshi ball handler had no choice but to stop after receiving a pass, adjust his posture and shoot decisively.
The shot was from a great angle and the Chinese goalkeeper held the ball firmly in his arms without the need to sprint to solve the crisis.
However, the National Football Team's decline on the pitch did not stop there. Just a minute later, a Bengal player once again capitalized on a flaw in the national soccer team's play by boldly bursting through the right side of numerous national soccer teams.
After reaching the right distance, the player took a risk to shoot from a sandwich of three Chinese soccer players. Fortunately, the attack was relatively rushed and the Chinese had the numerical advantage, which allowed Bangladesh to shoot from a very poor angle and not enter the Chinese goal.
Seems to be scared by Bangladesh's attack. Everyone in the Chinese men's soccer team was nervous and began to focus on defense. This strategy paid off. Bangladesh had not completed an effective attack for more than 20 minutes in a row.
Similarly, the Chinese men's soccer team was unable to get the ball inside the Bengals' defense.
After 20 minutes, the Chinese men found a chance to attack the Bangladeshi hinterland with consecutive passes before Wang Haijian stormed into the Manga team's goal with the ball.
Unfortunately, by this time, the Bengals players had completed their huddle and Wang Haijian was close to the box and had to shoot from a very awkward angle.
The goal was punched out by the Bengal goalie. From then on, there was no more offense for both teams. Until the end of the first half, the score between the two teams was still 0-0. For the Chinese men's soccer team who wanted to score, it was a failure.
Bangladesh is very happy. Before this, no matter which country's team they played against, Bangladesh lost. I expected to lose to China by a big margin today as well.
Who ever wanted to play the Chinese men's soccer team 0-0 and even dominate at one point greatly exceeded the Bengals' expectations.
●-≺Team situation≻-●
In this game, China's stats were not good. Against a weak team like Bangladesh, China's control of the soccer ball was only a little bit better than Bangladesh. Out of four attacks, only one was expected to score.
Bangladesh was also half-hearted compared to China, with only one of their five possessions expected to result in a score. However, Bangladesh stopped the losing streak, which is good news for them.
This also fully exposed one of the shortcomings of the Chinese team: the gap between the starters and the substitutes is huge. Once the starters are out of shape or injured, the substitutes can't help the team achieve enough offensive intensity. Needless to say, this is a worrying hidden danger.
Although the Chinese team didn't score in Bengal, relying on their previous scoring advantage, the Chinese men's soccer team is likely to win the first place. Let's cheer them on and hope they can break the team's all-time record and leave the gold medal at the doorstep of Hangzhou.
