On May 17, Shanghai seaport newcomer Zhang Linpeng opened up in front of the media about the national football team's 1-3 loss to Vietnam in last month's tournament.
Referring to that loss, Zhang Linpeng lamented, "Every participant in that game will never forget it, we often bring it up, and for me, it's probably an eternal pain. For me, it had an impact far beyond that oval goal. The match coincided with the first day of the Chinese New Year and we all wanted to give our fans a New Year's gift, so naturally the pressure was on. But the lack of preparation, the two-day flight from Japan to Vietnam, and the fact that Jiang Guangtai's form was in doubt, we took a big hit. Facing Vietnam, who had never lost before, we might have been a little bit gullible inside, and coupled with the lack of preparation, we looked very confused throughout the game.
Regarding the accusations that Wu Xi has suffered on the internet, Zhang Linpeng said, "Wu Xi is a friend we played soccer with since we were young, from the National Youth to the national team. He has always been dedicated on the field, and we are good friends off the field. But these tirades we have long been accustomed to, because love begets hate, mistakes on the field, the coach will criticize us, pointing out our shortcomings, the fans' reproach is also normal."
Zhang Linpeng said bluntly, "I think this session of the Top 12 we really did not perform well, but I think it is not to the bottom of the barrel. First of all, we have to recognize that there is a big gap in strength, and Asian teams are progressing very quickly, while we seem to have been in the same place. There are many reasons for this, but looking at the performance on the pitch, we didn't do enough in terms of desire, pace and sensible handling of the ball. Soccer is a sport of details, and any negligence in any part of the game can lead to goals conceded and failures. We didn't prepare well enough and didn't get a lot of details right, which led to this result."
