Chapter 38 Disappointment

After the second half started, Wilshere discovered that he couldn't find number sixteen from the Chinese team on the field.

He was surprised, and then he saw that number sixteen on the bench.

Wilshere thought about what he had seen at the end of the first half, number sixteen being helped off the field by his teammates.

Could he be injured?

What a pity…

Wilshere sighed inwardly.

He had wanted to compete with this number sixteen properly in the second half.

※※※

Kiester was also disappointed. He hadn't expected that the first game he'd come to watch Zhou Yi play in would only be for half the match.

He liked Zhou Yi's performance in the first half. Zhou Yi's performance shattered his inherent impression of Chinese football.

Just when he wanted to continue observing Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi was substituted off the field.

Why was he subbed off?

Kiester could guess more or less—Zhou Yi's stamina was the problem.

This meant that Kiester had to rewrite his evaluation of Zhou Yi.

If Zhou Yi's stamina was no good, then even if he had the best talent, it would be useless.

Modern football is built on the foundation of running. Whether it is a midfielder, a defender, or a forward, a lot of running is required.

Without running, the game cannot be won.

In football matches in the 1960s, the average running distance per player was just over 6,000 meters, while nowadays it is commonplace for midfielders to run over 10,000 meters each.

In the 1960s, sprints accounted for just over ten percent of a player’s total running distance per game, while today, players sprint an average of around 2,500 meters, and fifty percent of technical moves are performed at high speed against opponents.

Modern football has taken its demands on players' stamina to a higher peak.

If the stamina is not up to par, then it is almost impossible to be competent in top football.

He can see the opportunity, but he can't run to where the opportunity is, then everything he and the team have done before is useless, a waste.

Kiester did not see the last game between the Chinese team and the Dortmund youth team, but Klopp said that he watched the entire game from the sidelines, so this could also mean that Zhou Yi's stamina was not so bad in that game. Why was his stamina so much worse in this game?

It should be that two consecutive high-intensity games had squeezed out the last bit of strength in his body.

Stamina that couldn't withstand consecutive battles was really worrying...

Kiester recorded the evaluation of Zhou Yi's worrying stamina in the notepad in his head.

Everything he saw and analyzed would be fed back to Klopp to help Klopp make the right choice.

Liam Brady was also a little disappointed. He wanted to observe this number sixteen more.

However, based solely on his performance in the first half, Brady had already become interested in Zhou Yi.

※※※

Without Zhou Yi, the Chinese team's control in the midfield declined sharply. Liang Qiqi, who replaced Zhou Yi, was simply unable to do the job.

Because he was so eager to perform better than Zhou Yi, whenever the ball came to Liang Qiqi's feet, he would always try more dribbling and breakthroughs, showing off his fancy footwork.

But his little bit of fancy footwork might still be considered relatively outstanding in this Chinese team, but in front of Arsenal youth team players, it was no different from showing off in front of experts.

His feints had no deceptive ability, and after he got the ball, the Chinese team's attack basically came to an end.

He couldn't connect the front and back lines, nor could he send a deadly pass to He Ying, and he couldn't control the rhythm of the game.

The Chinese team's performance suddenly returned to the state before the game against Dortmund.

The Arsenal youth team players, who had been scolded bloody by the coach in the locker room, were all holding back their anger. Seeing that the Chinese team's performance was suddenly far inferior to the first half, they didn't have time to consider why, as long as it was beneficial to them scoring goals.

Only eight minutes into the second half, the Arsenal youth team scored a goal. The scorer was Sunu, and the person who assisted Sunu was Wilshere.

This goal was like a flood that burst through a dam.

Next, goals came one after another.

Soon, the Arsenal youth team took a 4-0 lead.

On the other hand, after Zhou Yi was replaced, the Chinese team had returned to a state of disunity.

Liang Qiqi frequently lost the ball in midfield. In these four goals, two of them were because his passing errors were intercepted by the opponent, leading to counterattacks and goals.

"Sigh..." Xu Yang sighed. "We chose Liang Qiqi in the first place because his technique was very good, who knew he would perform so poorly..."

"His good technique means his technique is good in training when there is no opposition," Hao Dong said. "And frankly speaking, he hasn't even secured a starting position in his own club's youth team, there must be a reason..."

"It's really maddening to compare people to each other. Comparing Zhou Yi and Liang Qiqi, you can see who is more powerful."

Hao Dong stopped talking.

What he was most worried about now was Zhou Yi's stamina problem.

If Zhou Yi's stamina allowed him to play the full game in every match, he definitely wouldn't be able to last a few matches.

How to sustainably use Zhou Yi's abilities, this was a difficult problem facing Hao Dong.

※※※

Zhou Yi sat off the field. He witnessed the tremendous changes in the team after he left the field, and saw Liang Qiqi being dispossessed time and time again on the field, getting beaten so badly that he couldn't find his bearings.

This seemed to indicate that the Chinese team with him and without him were two completely different teams, which proved that he had become an indispensable core of this team.

But this did not make him happy at all.

At this time, Liang Qiqi was getting the ball in the backcourt. He did not pass the ball out quickly, but planned to turn around and break through by force.

But just as he was breaking through, the ball under his feet was intercepted by Francis Coquelin, who suddenly rushed forward. Then Coquelin passed the ball to Wilshere. Wilshere pretended to pass the ball, but dribbled himself, breaking through Yang Muge who was preparing to intercept the pass. Facing Guo Nu's flying tackle, he nimbly jumped over it and dribbled into the penalty area.

Then a shot with the instep of his foot, the ball drew an arc, bypassing goalkeeper Sun Pan's ten fingers, and flew into the goal.

5:0!

Arsenal didn't score a single goal in the first half, but they turned on full power in the second half and scored five goals in thirty minutes!

This can simply be called a "slaughter".

Seeing Liang Qiqi lose the ball and cause the team to concede a goal, Zhou Yi, who was sitting on the bench, put a towel over his head and hid his face in the shadow of the towel. It wasn't that he couldn't bear to watch Liang Qiqi's clumsy performance, nor was it that he couldn't bear to see the team's failure.

The team had lost even worse than this time, and he could still smile and comfort Sun Pan after the game, "Failure is the mother of success."

This time, it wasn't because he was frustrated by conceding five goals, nor was it because he was angry about losing the game.

He was unwilling.

It wasn't because he was unwilling to lose the game either.

But he was unwilling about himself.

If my stamina was better… better… better!

How could it come to this?

At this time, Zhou Yi recalled the countless "morning runs" that he had started on a whim in the past, but ended without result after only a few days.

If he had persisted from the beginning, he wouldn't be so不堪, right?

He also thought of Coach Hao Dong's training plan for him on the first day he joined the team.

Those two weeks were like hell for him, but now Zhou Yi wished he could return to hell and stay there for another two months.

He clenched his fists.

※※※

Wilshere did not celebrate after scoring a goal. For him, such a goal was not worth celebrating, and such a victory was not worth celebrating too much.

The Chinese team had completely lost their fighting spirit. Defeating such a muddy opponent was not fulfilling at all.

Wilshere wanted to compete with number sixteen.

He turned his attention to the Chinese team's coaching bench. He saw that number sixteen had a towel over his head and did not look up at the field.

After scoring this goal, Wilshere was substituted off. With the score like this, there was no reason to keep the main players on the field.

Wilshere, Coquelin, and Sunu were all substituted off one after another.

And before the end of the game, Arsenal scored two more goals, 0:7, the Chinese team suffered another crushing defeat.

After losing 3:5 to the Dortmund youth team, giving people hope, they were beaten back to their original form.

When the game ended, Liang Qiqi stood on the field dumbfounded. He couldn't believe that after he came on the field, the team conceded seven goals, and four of them were directly related to him.

Wasn't it agreed that after I came on the field, I would turn the tide and lead the team to defeat Arsenal?

Why is it different from the script I wrote!

Director! Director! They're not following the script!

The frustrated teammates walked past him, heading off the field, but no one was willing to look at him.

Even Zhang Tao, who always sat at the same table with Liang Qiqi for meals, walked past Liang Qiqi with his head down, treating him as air.

Everyone knew why this game was lost so badly, and whose fault it was.

Zhou Yi used one game to establish his prestige and status among his teammates, while Liang Qiqi only used forty-five minutes to destroy his previous status in the team.

In this respect, he was even stronger than Zhou Yi...

※※※

Zhou Yi stood up from the bench, threw off the towel on his head, walked onto the field, and greeted his friends.

No one was happy about losing the game, which could be seen from the expressions on everyone's faces. He planned to comfort his friends.

After the game, his emotions had been adjusted, but his teammates had obviously just begun to taste the pain of the crushing defeat.

But in fact, such an expression had not appeared on this team for a long time, only in the first game, when they lost 0:12 to Barcelona. After that, everyone didn't seem to take failure seriously.

It wasn't because they had lost too many times, but because they had lost without any ability to resist. If you weren't happy with failure, you had to accept the result. Naturally, you wouldn't show unwillingness and unhappiness about failure.

But this time was different. After they narrowly lost 3:5 to Dortmund in the last game, many people had rekindled a little flame of hope in their hearts.

They didn't expect to defeat the Arsenal youth team in this game, but at least they had to be like the last game against the Dortmund youth team, they had to score goals, and they had to be able to compete with them on the field.

Apart from not scoring a goal, the other goal had been achieved in the first half.

Everyone was no longer in a state of listlessly muddling through the game.

However, Zhou Yi was substituted off due to insufficient stamina, and Liang Qiqi was replaced, and the situation took a sharp turn for the worse.

At first, everyone didn't think the situation could be so bad after Liang Qiqi came on.

Now they felt that this Liang Qiqi was really a… scourge!

He was far worse than Zhou Yi! He played so fancy footwork in training, what a cow's tail, what a Marseille turn, what a Cruyff turn… none of them worked in the game! What's the use of that!

※※※

Zhou Yi had only walked halfway when a person appeared in front of him and stopped him.

Zhou Yi looked at the other person in surprise.

It was Jack Wilshere.