At 6 p.m. Beijing time on January 27, 2022 Qatar
World Cup
A much-anticipated showdown is about to take place at the Saitama 2002 Stadium in the seventh round of the Group B matches of the Asian qualifying round of 12. Our team faced Japan on the road, which was not only the first official match of the national soccer team in 2022, but also the debut of Li Xiaopeng as the head coach of the men's national soccer team. However, the gap in strength made the national football team lost to the Japanese team with a score of 0-2, and Li Xiaopeng's debut suffered a "black door".
Recall the first round of the 12-team match, the then national football boss Li Tie in the face of the Japanese team to take the "iron bucket formation", in the defensive end of the deployment of heavy troops, but ultimately lost 0-1 score. This time, Li Xiaopeng seems to have learned the lessons of Li Tie, will be adjusted to the formation of 4 defenders + double striker, the starting lineup, the veteran Artemisia Artemisia replaces Zhang Xizhe to become the commander of the attack, which indicates that Li Xiaopeng does not intend to be rigid defense. The partnership of Xu Xin and Wu Xi is also regarded as the strongest midfield combination of the current national football team.
However, strength was ultimately the key to deciding the match. Although the national football team has made significant technical and tactical adjustments, it was quite passive in the game. Throughout the first half, the national football team had no chance to attack. After the first 10 minutes of warm-up, the Japanese team quickly discovered the weakness of the national football team in the combination of side and center, and attacked the area where Artemis Junmin and Zheng Zheng were continuously. A mistake by Stanley Wang led to a penalty kick, which was converted by Yuya Osako to break the deadlock. After the goal, the Japanese team got more and more courageous, the first half of the possession rate of more than 70%, while the national football team has no shot and corner kick opportunities.
In the second half, Li Xiaopeng made the first substitutions, with Alan and Wei Shihao replacing Artemisia Junmin and Zhang Yuning. But soon after, the Japanese team took advantage of the mistakes of the defenders of the national football team, Ito Junya header to extend the score to 2-0. Although Li Xiaopeng replaced veteran Zheng Zheng Zheng with Dai Weijun, but overall, Li Xiaopeng's substitutions did not play a significant effect in the face of the powerful Japanese team. Throughout the game, the Japanese team shot as many as 17 times, while the number of shots on goal for the national soccer team was only two, a huge difference. This fully illustrates that, whether it is offense or defense, the national football team and the Japanese team there is an obvious gap.
Last September, the two teams in the first round of the 12 strong match, the national football team's possession rate of only 30%, the number of shots on goal 3 times and no shot on goal, only 1 corner kick. In the end, not only lost the game, but also the scene is extremely passive. Compared with the national football team under the coaching of Li Tie, the national football team under the coaching of Li Xiaopeng did not have too much improvement, the gap between the strength of the two teams is obviously not a few months of practice can make up for.
In fact, Li Xiaopeng was appointed to take over the national football team without much preparation time. On December 3 last year, that is, half a month after completing the sixth round of the 12-team tournament with Australia, the CFA agreed to Li Tie's request to resign as head coach of the national football team, and immediately announced that Li Xiaopeng took over. At the time, the People's Daily commented, "With a record of one win, two draws and three losses in six rounds, Li Tie left his successor with results basically comparable to the level positioning of the national soccer team."
After Li Xiaopeng took office, the first phase of the training list reached 52 people, and the coaching staff is also strong. After nearly ten days of training in Shanghai, the team finalized a 27-man travel list, compared with the last list, seven new international players, they are Zheng Zheng, Deng Hanwen, Liu Yang, Dai Weijun, Tan Long, Fernando, Ji Xiang. Among them, Dai Weijun is the first time to be selected as an international footballer. However, Fernando returned to Brazil after arriving in Holland due to a family matter, confirming his absence from the two rounds of the 12-team tournament. From this game, Li Xiaopeng lacked novelty in his use of personnel, but facing a powerful opponent, Li Xiaopeng, who was at risk, was obviously unable to do anything. The next game against Vietnam is the biggest test for him.
