A four-goal thriller! First in the group! One round ahead of schedule!
Those were the heavy tweets from major media outlets after the National Football Team's 4:0 win over Myanmar in the Asian Games. The words revealed excitement, euphoria and pride.
However, this expression of emotion was more like a long suppressed catharsis. Not surprisingly, it's been a long time since Chinese soccer has scored a victory of this magnitude, let alone the scenario of finishing first in the group and getting out of the tournament early. While this is only an Asian Games team, all of the national soccer teams, starting with the young U17s, and all of the national teams from the U18s to the adult national team, but anyone who competes in an intercontinental tournament essentially loses. For a big win and a group finish is even more of a luxury.
And this Asian Games, the national soccer team first beat India 5.:1 and then Myanmar by 4 goals. I can't remember a time when I haven't encountered such overwhelming dominance. So when this result came to us, we were ecstatic and naturally wanted to let it all out, even if it was just a low-gold Asian Games.
But when we calm down and be still.
Thinking about the big win again might make a difference.
Throughout the first half, the national football team Asian Games played very easily, completely suppressed the Myanmar team on both offense and defense, almost becoming a half-court offensive drill for the national football team. The Myanmar team was just tired of defending and could not organize an effective counterattack at all. Moreover, even if all the energy is focused on defense, it is still crushed by the National Football Team Asian Games, and the fact that they conceded 3 consecutive goals in 6 minutes is the best proof.
The outstanding performance of the national football team in the Asian Games stems from the two wings and the middle of the road breakthrough. The left and right sides were constantly creating threats, and one or two points in the middle penalty area were our own players who could completely overwhelm the opposition. But the question goes back to the roots. Who dominates the team's main attack, or where does it start?
In fact, there were only two people, one was left back Liu Yang and the other was high center forward Tan Long. Tan Long utilized his experience and height to completely suppress the opponent's staring defense. Even if he was double-teamed, there was nothing he could do in front of Tan Long's absolute height and unresolvable confrontation. In addition, Tan Long's suppression in the penalty area created many attacking opportunities for his teammates.
Liu Yang's role is much more obvious. Because there was basically no pressure on the defensive end, Liu Yang put most of his energy into offense. The left side of the road he was guarding crushed almost the entire side defense of the Myanmar team. Whether it was working with his teammates, one-on-one, or one-on-two confrontations, Liu Yang did not lag behind. While getting rid of opponents' entanglements, he can also deliver accurate passes. In the four goals of the national soccer team, Liu Yang directly assisted twice, indirectly involved, contributed absolutely to the great victory of the national soccer team in the Asian Games.
With a 4-goal lead in the first half, Myanmar really didn't have the ability to create a threat, so head coach Djurdjevic switched to Liu Yang just after the start of the second half to conserve his strength. It was a normal consideration, but I didn't expect it to be an embarrassment for the national Asian Games team.
Throughout the second half, the National Football Asian Games team still took the initiative and created a few good scoring chances, but never broke through the opponent's door again, which can explain the problem very well.
After Liu Yang came off the field, the sharpest left side of the offense was directly dead. No one has a tacit understanding with Tao Qianglong, and Tao Qianglong's offensive threat is greatly affected. If the sides are not strong, they can only find opportunities from the middle. But Dai Weijun sent out a few key balls, and the strikers and centers on both sides, couldn't understand the intention well, and always felt half a beat slower.
There was no Liu Yang breakthrough and then Tan Long came to an end. The National Asian Games team seemed to be a different team. Even though the field was dominant, the score did not change. If you analyze the results, the second half was actually the same for the national football team and Myanmar.
All teams participating in the Asian Games are under 23 years of age and are allowed to recruit three overage players. However, our national soccer team was full of overage players after beating India and Myanmar in the first round. Those so-called good U23 age group players did not perform well at all, an embarrassing and hard to hide fact underneath the big wins.
The soccer team didn't have the absolute power to beat Thailand and lost to Vietnam, so who's next? Myanmar?
Although we have now scored four goals, if we except these overage players, do our national U23s really have the strength to beat our opponents? After all, the future of the national team is in the hands of these younger players. If we can't beat Myanmar now, what can we expect to do in the future?
So don't let one or two big wins blind us, it's important to see the essence behind the problem.
