Chapter 174 Change Brought by Zhou Yi

When Zhou Yi came on the pitch, Zhou Jianliang frowned and said, "He only comes on in the seventieth minute, giving him only twenty minutes... That's too little!" He complained about head coach Gao Hongbo.

For those who wanted to see Zhou Yi, twenty minutes of playing time was indeed not enough.

But for Zhou Yi himself, twenty minutes was enough.

This match between the Chinese team and Jordan, although a friendly, was simulated five times by Zhou Yi in the virtual space.

He still had a basic understanding of his opponents.

During the actual match, he watched the game from the sidelines for seventy minutes, and he was also very clear about the state of both sides in this match.

So he was able to get into the game right away.

Less than half a minute after entering the field, Zhou Yi took the initiative to wave for the ball.

The ball was passed to his feet.

Everyone's eyes widened.

After receiving the ball, Zhou Yi turned around on the spot. As soon as he turned around, he pushed the ball to the right and passed it to his midfield teammate Deng Zhuoxiang, who wasn't far away – Deng Zhuoxiang played as an attacking midfielder when Zhou Yi wasn't on the field, but after Zhou Yi came on, he switched to playing on the wing.

And just after Zhou Yi passed the ball, a Jordanian player rushed up. If Zhou Yi had passed the ball any later, he might have been stopped by the opponent along with the ball.

After passing the ball, Zhou Yi dodged past the Jordanian player who was pressing him and continued to run forward.

He didn't run fast, and he didn't seem to be in a hurry to go forward.

And the ball wasn't passed back to him either, Deng Zhuoxiang was taking the ball to the wing. So Zhou Yi didn't need to rush.

As he strolled forward, he didn't attract anyone's attention at all. It was as if he were invisible.

When defenders shifted their gaze to search for targets, they would never pay attention to a player who seemed to be strolling and watching the game.

So, unnoticed, Zhou Yi arrived at an open space.

He didn't continue to run forward. He just stood there, continuing to turn his head back and forth, left and right, observing the situation.

He didn't actively call out to his teammates, because his teammates would see him.

Sure enough, when Deng Zhuoxiang encountered difficulties on the wing, he did think of Zhou Yi.

Protecting the ball, he looked up towards the middle and saw Zhou Yi standing alone in an open space where there were no Jordanian players within seven or eight meters!

In training, Zhou Yi's positioning like this was common, and his Chinese national team teammates had seen it many times.

At first, everyone didn't think much of it, thinking it was just good luck. Besides, isn't choosing open spaces something every player should do?

But when everyone realized that Zhou Yi was almost always like this, always able to appear in an open space that no one else had thought of, the shock in their hearts was unimaginable.

Because even the simplest and most ordinary thing, if you can do it to the peak, it is also very remarkable.

At this time, everyone began to feel that there was indeed some reason why this kid could start in Dortmund.

Although Deng Zhuoxiang saw Zhou Yi, he couldn't pass the ball directly to Zhou Yi.

Because he was currently being marked by a Jordanian player.

In this situation, if Zhou Yi continued to wait in the open space, then it would be difficult for him to receive the ball, because the distance between him and Deng Zhuoxiang was still more than ten meters, and Deng Zhuoxiang was being closely pressed by the opponent, so of course there was a chance of passing accurately, but there was a greater chance of passing inaccurately.

Zhou Yi certainly hoped that he could pass the ball accurately, so he had to shorten the distance between them.

But if he ran up at this time, everyone would know what he was going to do, and he would be out of "stealth" mode. The intention was too obvious, and he would immediately attract the attention of his opponents.

But Zhou Yi had no choice, he could only do it.

He not only ran towards Deng Zhuoxiang, but also actively raised his hand to him, asking for the ball.

This was even more eye-catching.

Sure enough, seeing his action, a Jordanian midfielder immediately followed him.

Deng Zhuoxiang hesitated when he saw this, and Zhou Yi beckoned to him again.

Seeing Zhou Yi's firm attitude, Deng Zhuoxiang finally handed the ball to Zhou Yi.

At the same time, he was also prepared to immediately go up and support Zhou Yi once Zhou Yi was entangled by the opponent.

But after he passed the ball to Zhou Yi, he found that Zhou Yi didn't receive the ball, but passed it out again himself!

This time, however, it wasn't a pass back, but a diagonal through ball!

He directly passed the ball into the gap in the Jordanian defense!

That was an open space!

And the Chinese team's striker Gao Lin happened to be in that open space at this time!

He had just run from the center of the penalty area to this side, preparing to support Deng Zhuoxiang, but Deng Zhuoxiang passed the ball to Zhou Yi, and before he had time to retreat, Zhou Yi's ball came over!

When Gao Lin received the ball, the Chinese fans in the stands let out an excited cheer.

The commentator shouted excitedly: "Beautiful!"

But the Jordanian defenders raised their hands, signaling that Gao Lin was offside when he received the ball.

The linesman did hesitate for a moment, but in the end he didn't raise his flag, not offside!

Gao Lin, who received the ball, swiped it inward and then shot!

But unfortunately, he shot this ball high...

"Oh!" It wasn't Duan Xin who made this sound, but Zhou Jianliang in front of the TV. He held his head in his hands, his son's first assist in the national team, just gone like that!

"Gao Lin shoots! It's high! Oh! What a pity!" Duan Xin also called out regretfully.

"Gao the Airplane!" Zhou Jianliang gritted his teeth and said Gao Lin's nickname.

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Gao Lin, who wasted this opportunity, also seemed very embarrassed. He held his head in his hands, unable to believe that he had actually shot it high. Zhou Yi's pass to him couldn't have been better...

He turned back and made an apologetic gesture to Zhou Yi, and Zhou Yi returned him a "it's okay" gesture, and also gave him a thumbs up.

This thumbs up was naturally not praising him for shooting well, but praising him for standing in a good position.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to pass the ball directly without stopping it – when he was running towards Deng Zhuoxiang, he had already seen Gao Lin there.

When Deng Zhuoxiang passed the ball to him, the Jordanian defense began to press forward, if he had stopped the ball to adjust before passing, Gao Lin would definitely have been offside. Only by passing the ball directly without stopping it could he keep Gao Lin in an onside position.

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The reporters in the stands, seeing Zhou Yi's pass, couldn't help but applaud, and then they also felt sorry for Gao Lin wasting this opportunity.

"Gao Lin, ah, Gao Lin! Zhou Yi's pass was so good!"

"Actually, I think the front line is the position we should strengthen the most!"

"Alas, back then, we had the number one striker in Asia, and we also had various distinctive and technically outstanding strikers, we didn't have to worry about scoring at all. We even ridiculed Japan for having a 'weak attack', but I didn't expect that we would also fall into the state of 'weak attack'!"

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The game continued, and everyone could see that Zhou Yi had become the organizational core of the Chinese team in the midfield, and everyone would pass the ball to him. And Zhou Yi's performance also made people feel that he was not unfamiliar with this team at all. He seemed to have been the organizational core of this team for a long time.

Under his organization and connection, the Chinese team's midfield operation was different from before, and it was smoother.

In fact, Gao Hongbo's Chinese team emphasized passing and control very much, especially in the front midfield, there would be many small-scale passing and cutting cooperation. When they played well, the scene was very good-looking, which also made Chinese fans have hope for this team.

No matter what the results were, at least the scene was good-looking, giving people a pleasant feeling. This was much better than the previous Du Yi and Zhu Guanghu's national teams.

In the first game of Gao Hongbo's national team, a friendly match against Germany, Hao Junmin's goal was created by a series of beautiful passing and cutting cooperation on the wing by the Chinese team.

And Hao Junmin was also favored by German teams because of this goal. It is said that Schalke 04 was very interested in him. Also because he was going to transfer to Germany, Hao Junmin did not participate in this national team training camp.

However, Gao Hongbo's Chinese team's style of play had a problem, that is, it was not stable enough. When the players were in good form, they could play passing and control football that was amazing and comparable to Barcelona. But when they were not in good form, it was a mess.

This was also because the Chinese team's midfield had never had a player who could really organize.

And Zhou Yi's appearance filled this gap.

With a real organizer, this style of play had a foundation. At least when the team encountered difficulties and obstacles in the attack and didn't know how to continue playing, they could now hand the ball to Zhou Yi and let him reorganize the attack.

The game continued, and under Zhou Yi's connection, the Chinese team gradually gained the upper hand on the field, and in the eighty-second minute, Deng Zhuoxiang scored a goal for the Chinese team, changing the score to 3:2.

Although this goal was not directly assisted by Zhou Yi, the attack that caused the goal was initiated by Zhou Yi.

It could be said that it was the change that Zhou Yi brought to the Chinese team after he was on the field.

Duan Xin was also saying: "After Zhou Yi came on the field, the Chinese team's attack was completely different from before, the purpose was clearer, and it was more organized. If everyone has watched the Chinese team's previous two Asian Cup qualifiers against Lebanon, I am afraid that this contrast will be more obvious. Before Deng Zhuoxiang's goal, we had actually passed the ball for a long time and firmly controlled the situation of the game. This goal was as natural as water flowing into a canal."

In the end, relying on Deng Zhuoxiang's goal, the Chinese team defeated their friendly opponent Jordan in Yiwu with a score of 3:2.

What the Chinese team gained in this game was not just a victory, but more importantly, they gained a real organizer, the core of the midfield.

Although this core was only eighteen years old, in the face of his performance, it was enough to make people forget his age.

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ps, tell everyone a good news, there are three updates today!

Because there is an extra update from the Alliance Master!

Also, let me tell you a bad news – from tomorrow, we will have to update only once a day for a while...

From the fifteenth to now, I have been traveling with my family outside. At first, when I was in Xichang, I could still code some words, but after going to Lugu Lake, I didn't write a single word for four consecutive days. This directly led to my manuscripts being quickly exhausted.

After these three chapters are updated today, I will only have three chapters left, which is far below the safe red line of ten chapters, so I can only start the previously set mechanism, temporarily updating once a day, and start updating twice a day after my manuscripts return to ten chapters.

Hope everyone can understand, thank you!

In addition, the Alliance Master's extra update is at twelve noon.