In this fierce battle, Huang Jianxiang referred to the corner kick error undoubtedly pushed the game to a turning point. Looking back at the first half, the Japanese team skillfully seized the weakness of the national football team in the corner kick defense, two consecutive times through the accurate header attack, instantly widen the gap to two goals. Such a loss of goals not only let the national football team in the score into passive, but also in the psychological heavy pressure. Although Lin Liangming scored a goal in the second half with his indomitable fighting spirit and subtle cooperation, he was unable to turn the tide because he dug too deep.
Similarly, Zhan Jun also sharply criticized the national football team's corner kick defense strategy in this match. He commented: "In the first half, the national football team performed reasonably well in terms of physical confrontation, stealing and formation keeping, which made it difficult for the Japanese team to find scoring opportunities in the offense. Unfortunately, it seems that the Japanese team did not study the corner kick tactics deeply enough; furthermore, the players with obvious height advantage, such as Baihulamu, Zhang Yuning and Jiang Guangtai, had obvious lack of air defense ability, which led to the two conceded goals." Zhan Jun's comments both affirmed the national football team's efforts in the first half and pointed out the team's obvious shortcomings in corner kick defense. Zhan Jun also believes that the national soccer team's attack is strong enough.
Wei Shihao has also said that if the national team could have avoided those two corner kick errors in the first half, they would have had every chance to make a comeback and win this victory.
