The national selection team showed an indomitable fighting spirit and played to a 0-0 draw with Japan.
Former national soccer team captain Fan Zhiyi was quick to give his opinion on the following three factors that he believes were key to the national soccer team's victory.
First of all, the players were united as never before, stood in clear positions and were able to form good echoes between the various lines of defense.
Secondly, we managed to put our opponents under tremendous pressure when they launched their offense.
Furthermore, the high pressing tactics we implemented forced the Japanese team to make frequent mistakes, creating many good opportunities for us.
This game made us realize that even the strong Japanese national football team can be intimidated by the press. The mistakes they made in the chaos, such as misplaced passes and own goal, proved that Chinese soccer is not a failure, the key lies in whether we have the will to fight.
Fan also praised six players in particular, especially Zhu Chenjie. It was not easy for him to quickly adjust his mindset even after the unfortunate oolong goal in the last match. In addition to Zhu Chenjie, Fan also highlighted Jiang Guangtai, Fang Hao, Wu Shaocong, Han Jiaqi and Tan Long.
Interestingly, when mentioning Fang Hao and Wu Shaocong, Fan failed to even name them in full.
This is both because this group of players have relatively little experience in the game and people are relatively unfamiliar with them, and on the other hand, it also reflects the fact that the downturn of the national football team has already made people pay much less attention to soccer than they used to, and even within the soccer circle, the attention has significantly decreased.
Although the draw against a strong team is regrettable, the development of the national football team is still a long and arduous road.
