In an interview with the media on May 17, Shanghai seaport newcomer Zhang Linpeng recalled the bitter 1-3 defeat of the national football team against Vietnam.
Referring to that loss, Zhang Linpeng was overwhelmed with emotion: "That contest will never be forgotten by everyone involved. We often mention it, and for me, it was almost a psychological barrier in my career. It affected me much more than the goal. That match against Vietnam fell on the first day of the Lunar New Year and the pressure was naturally on us as we all wanted to give our fans a festive gift. However, we were ill-prepared, with only two days to travel from Japan to Vietnam, during which time Jiang Guangtai's status was in doubt, which had an impact on our preparation. The contempt for Vietnam, coupled with the lack of preparation, made us sleepwalk through the whole match."
Regarding the cyber violence suffered by Wu Xi on social media, Zhang Linpeng said, "Wu Xi is a teammate we grew up with, from national youth to the national team. He is dedicated on the field and we are good friends off the field, he is very responsible. These abuses we have long been accustomed to, only deep love will produce hatred. Poor performance on the field, the coach will criticize us and point out the shortcomings, the fans' reproach is also normal."
Talking about the performance of the national football team in this year's Top 12, Zhang Linpeng said bluntly, "In this year's Top 12, our play is really not satisfactory. As for whether the bottom has fallen out, I don't think so. First of all, we must recognize the gap in strength. Asian teams are improving rapidly, while we seem to be standing still. There are many reasons for this, but on the pitch, we have problems with desire, pace, and handling the ball sensibly. Soccer is a detail-oriented sport, and one slip-up can lead to lost goals and losses. We didn't prepare well enough and mishandled a lot of details, which led to this result."
