In Qatar's World Cup Asian Zone 12, the Chinese team did not make a surprise in the debut stage. Beijing time in the early morning of the 3rd, the Chinese team with a score of 0-3 defeated Australia, failed to realize the "weak to win strong" wish. A three-goal defeat, two yellow cards and few chances on goal completely shattered the team's goal for the tournament. Nonetheless, the journey of the 12-team tournament has only just begun, and the loss of the first game has given the Chinese team and the FA working group watching the game a deeper understanding of the nature of the game, its difficulty, and the team's positioning.
On the eve of the game, the Chinese team enjoyed afternoon tea time in the resident hotel, until boarding the bus to the stadium, the whole team still maintains a more optimistic mentality. They've been looking forward to the Final 12 for a long time. Like head coach Li Tie, the internationals were eager to get points against Australia in the first round, and even to win the opening match. However, they were greeted with a harsh reality.
Compared with the match against Syria in the final round of the 40-team tournament, the Chinese team's formation for this match has not changed much. On the basis of the 442 formation, Li Tie adjusted Zhang Linpeng, who was originally a center back, to the right back position to fill the vacancy left by Tang Miao, who was absent due to injury, while the center back position was filled by veteran Yu Dabao, who has switched to playing center back in recent years.
Looking at Zhang Linpeng's origins as a right back, Yu Dabao's relatively rich experience in international matches and his consistent performance in the league, this adjustment seems reasonable. However, there is a significant gap between the Chinese Super League and the mainstream European professional leagues in terms of the intensity and speed of the game, as well as the individual abilities of the players involved. This gap was fully realized in the direct dialogue between the Chinese and Australian teams. The Australian team, which is dominated by European players, was obviously more composed in grasping the rhythm of the game, and gradually took control of the game after withstanding China's 15-minute pressurized attack in the first half. According to the statistics, Australia's ball possession reached 61% in this game, 20 percentage points more than China, and the ratio of shots on goal was 23 to 7, so it is not surprising that the threatening attacking data is far ahead of China.
Under the opponents' continuous high-pressure pressing, the Chinese defense soon had a hole. In the 23rd minute, Australia's captain Mabile overpowered national soccer team's center back Jiang Guangtai to grab a shot on goal. Yu Dabao's reaction speed as a center back during the breakout was obviously slow, and he was also responsible for the loss of the ball. As a result of the constant pressure on the Chinese inland, Australia scored their second goal two minutes later on a counter-attack by Boyle. The seemingly easy penetration of the Aussies' offense actually reflected a huge difference in the two teams' ability to adapt to the pace of the game. If it wasn't for goalkeeper Yan Junling's heroics, China could have crumbled in the first half.
In the face of the team was forced to the situation, Li Tie in the half after the end of the lineup was adjusted. Yu Dabao and Zhang Xunzhe, who were not performing well, were replaced by Wang Gang and Artemisia Junmin respectively, and then Jin Jingdao, Wei Shihao and Zhang Yuning came on in the second half one after another. But the huge strength gap, so that the Chinese team is difficult to reverse the situation of passive battering. The Chinese team to the scene watching the game of FIFA President Infantino left the most impressive perhaps only Wang Shenchao, Yin Hongbo respectively received a yellow card.
Mitchell Duke scored Australia's third goal in the 69th minute to seal the win. At this moment, the Chinese team was unable to return to the game, and the game thus entered the garbage time. "I didn't play well today, when I looked up, I felt that I was full of opposing players," said one of the international players after the match, which was a graphic illustration of the Chinese team's passivity in the match.
A complete defeat also let the majority of Chinese fans in front of the television set to stay up late to watch the game depressed, but a comprehensive view of the world soccer world and the current situation of China's national football team, the result is actually not beyond the normal territory of the soccer world.
Truth be told, the world's best security conditions created by the CFA for the Chinese team did not improve the team's hard power in a short period of time. Prior to joining the Top 12, the Chinese team played only four official world matches under Li Tie's command, of which only the 40-team finale against Syria was considered a high-quality match. Compared to Australia and Japan, who have many players playing in the mainstream European leagues, China only has one overseas player, Wu Lei. In other words, the distance between Chinese soccer and the world's advanced soccer is getting bigger and bigger.
Taking China and Australia as an example, the last time the two teams had a conversation on the world stage was more than six years ago in the Asian Cup Quarterfinals. The Chinese team's knowledge of their opponents relies more on statistics. Therefore, until the experience of the real battle, the Chinese team on their own ability level of backwardness has a clearer perception.
For China, the 3-goal loss came too soon, but in time. After all, the 12-team tournament has only just begun, and the Chinese team has only lost the first of 10 matches, so this result is not devastating for the Chinese team. From another point of view, by the first game "wake up" the Chinese team won the possibility of correcting mistakes. A bad loss is like pouring cold water on every member of the team, making them throw away all unrealistic fantasies and return to rationality.
Five days later, the Chinese team will face the top seed of the group, who unexpectedly lost to Japan in the first round, in the same venue. For the national soccer team, the difficulty of the second round of matches is even greater than that of the first round. Therefore, the CFA and the coaching staff of the national soccer team are actually quite prepared for various outcomes, including consecutive losses. For the Chinese team, it is more practical to prevent the collapse of the psychological defense.
After the first round of defeat, the national football team back to the resident hotel has been the local time on September 3 in the early morning. A national footballer said to the Beiqing-Beijing headline reporter: "This may be the first time many players to participate in the 12-stage tournament, but for me it may be the last time, everyone extraordinarily cherish the opportunity to play such a game, the 1st game has been passed, we then have to train hard, we do not want to let themselves regret."
