Chapter 1 The Final Warm-up

The friendly match against Macedonia was held in Guangzhou on December 23rd. This was the Chinese national team's last game in 2010, after which they would announce the final twenty-three-man roster for the Qatar Asian Cup.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Zhou Yi would definitely be on the list, unless he suffered a serious injury in the warm-up match against Macedonia…

But the probability of that happening was too low to even mention.

Most of the national team roster was unsurprising. Players who were frequently selected for Gao Hongbo's team and had performed well should all be on the list.

Only some fringe players were hoping to use this last friendly to seize the opportunity to show themselves and impress Gao Hongbo, hoping to catch the last train to the national team.

As the opponent in the friendly, Macedonia's star player was naturally Inter Milan striker Pandev.

He and Zhou Yi had just faced each other in the Champions League group stage, and Zhou Yi was probably the only Chinese national team player whose name Pandev could even pronounce.

At the pre-match press conference, Pandev said that Zhou Yi had left a very deep impression on him: "Although it is a friendly match, we will still go all out, after all, the Chinese team has Zhou Yi."

This remark almost caused a collective climax among Chinese reporters and fans—to be praised like this by a treble-winning striker, everyone felt that Zhou Yi was already a top European player.

Macedonia's performance in this game certainly didn't seem perfunctory. People like Ma De, a well-known reporter for *Sports Weekly* who followed the national team, would always question the low gold content of Gao Hongbo's coaching achievements, because most of the games he led the team in were friendlies.

Not only were the levels of the friendly opponents uneven, but they also didn't put in much effort.

But in today's friendly, Macedonia was very energetic.

As a result, although the Chinese team was playing at home, they were unable to break the deadlock for a long time.

In a FIFA ranking released in July of this year, the Macedonian national team was ranked sixty-first, which was not a high ranking, but for the Chinese team, it was also a very strong opponent.

It wasn't until the eighty-first minute that Zhou Yi was tripped by a Macedonian player in the penalty area, winning a penalty for the Chinese team, and the game took a turn for the better.

Deng Zhuoxiang converted the penalty, which was a quasi-winning goal against Macedonia.

Although the process was a bit difficult, the Chinese team finally ended all their matches in 2010 with a victory. Their results this year were refreshing—eleven wins, four draws, and three losses throughout the year, a very outstanding performance.

Of course, everyone was clear that the Asian Cup in half a month was the most important thing. If the Asian Cup didn't go well, then all the wonderful performances this year would be quickly forgotten, and the highest world ranking of seventy-fifth would be worthless. The joy that those victories brought to everyone would also not be able to offset the fans' anger and disappointment at the failure of the Asian Cup.

No matter how many times one said high-sounding words like "sportsmanship," "participation is the key," "success or failure is not the only measure," and "the process is more important than the result," it couldn't change the fact that football is a utilitarian sport that only looks at results.

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One day after the match, the Chinese team announced their twenty-three-man roster and submitted it to the AFC for registration.

Unsurprisingly, Zhou Yi was on the list.

Hao Junmin, as the second overseas player, although he basically didn't play in Schalke 04, was still selected for the national team roster. Not being able to play in Schalke 04, but for the Chinese team, he was still a very capable player.

The other selections were basically not too surprising. Players who had performed well in the past year and were in good form recently were all selected.

After announcing the final twenty-three-man roster, the players who were not selected left the training camp, and they could start their rest period after the end of the league.

The remaining twenty-three people will continue to train in Guangzhou for a period of time, and will not leave for Qatar until December 30th.

This is the youngest national team in the history of Chinese football to participate in a world-class competition.

From this point of view alone, one can know that Gao Hongbo's statement about using the Asian Cup to train the team was not a joke…

And the Chinese Football Association had also expressed its support for Gao Hongbo when things were in an uproar, saying that the Football Association had not arranged any specific tasks or goals for Gao Hongbo and the Chinese team in the Asian Cup. As long as they played well, the main focus was on learning and training the team to prepare for the World Cup Asian qualifiers in May.

In this way, this youngest national team in history left China and flew to Qatar with expectations and controversy.

What impact this team can have on Chinese football, whether it is positive or negative, is really hard to say now.

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After the whole team arrived in Qatar, they played two more friendly matches to further refine the team's lineup.

Although Zhou Yi played as a defensive midfielder in Dortmund, Gao Hongbo still put him in the attacking midfielder position in the national team.

Because Zhou Yi still needs to be closer to the goal to be more threatening. Moreover, in Dortmund, Zhou Yi plays as a defensive midfielder, and Kagawa Shinji is the attacking midfielder, which can completely guarantee the offensive firepower. The Chinese team does not have such good personnel arrangements in this regard.

By pushing Zhou Yi to the attacking midfielder position, he has the opportunity to create more shooting opportunities while also having the opportunity to shoot himself and personally threaten the opponent's goal.

This is Gao Hongbo's plan.

And Zhou Yi himself had no objection to playing as an attacking midfielder in the national team. Anyway, he doesn't play as a fixed defensive midfielder in Dortmund. He often runs forward and participates in the attack. At this time, there is no difference between him and an attacking midfielder.

In fact, it is not uncommon for a player to play in different positions in the club and the national team.

For example, Park Ji-sung played as a midfielder on the wing, a role player, at Manchester United, but in the South Korean national team, he sits in the middle and is a core player.

The two friendly matches were not broadcast on television, so domestic fans who wanted to know the information about these two friendly matches could only get it through the written reports of domestic media.

The domestic media is actually more concerned about other players in the national team, not Zhou Yi.

Because there is nothing to say about Zhou Yi's performance, it can be summarized in one sentence—"Zhou Yi's performance in the attacking midfielder position is stable."

Zhou Yi's level is certainly not a problem, but can the other national team players cooperate seamlessly with him?

This is what everyone is concerned about.

Judging from these two friendly matches, the national team players actually performed quite well. After all, Zhou Yi has been selected for the national team for a year now. Although he has not participated in the national team training camp for a long time, he is not unfamiliar with this team. From the first day he came to this team, he has shown his special abilities.

Although the Chinese team only won by a penalty in the last minute in the match against Macedonia, and the performance was not very satisfactory. However, these two friendly matches after arriving in Qatar have restored some confidence to the Chinese reporters who watched the game on the spot—if they play like this, they should have a chance to qualify from the group.

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Amidst some anticipation and anxiety, the Asian Cup kicked off.

At 0:15 am Beijing time on January 8th, the host Qatar made its debut first. This was the opening match of this Asian Cup.

However, the host's first appearance was not very satisfactory—they lost 0:2 to Uzbekistan, the second-tier team in their group, at home.

This was not good news for the Chinese team, because it meant that if Qatar wanted to qualify from the group as the host, they had to defeat the Chinese team in the second match.

And this was in their home field, and the people of West Asia are particularly good at playing tricks outside the game, which can't help but make people wonder...

In response, Gao Hongbo said at the pre-match press conference the next day that he didn't care what the opponent did. What the Chinese team should do now is not to get used to others, but to play their own game well.

Because in one hour, the Chinese team will make its debut in this Asian Cup, and their opponent is Kuwait, the weakest team in the group.

Kuwait is not a very strong team, and the Chinese team with Zhou Yi has also improved its strength. When the two teams meet, China will soon take the upper hand.

Under Zhou Yi's scheduling and command, the Chinese team firmly controlled the situation on the field.

The commentator mentioned Zhou Yi again and again, praising Zhou Yi's performance.

Zhou Jianliang, who was in front of the TV, shook his head. Li Cuiyun asked after seeing this, "Are you very proud?"

Zhou Jianliang coughed and said sternly, "How can I be? Isn't this his normal performance?"

Although they controlled the situation in the first half, they did not score.

The Chinese team's first goal came in the fiftieth minute. The goal was scored by full-back Zhang Linpeng, and the ball was passed by Zhou Yi.

At that time, Zhou Yi took the ball in the middle on the left side, and the Chinese team continued to launch attacks on the left side, looking for opportunities, so Kuwait's defensive focus also shifted to this side to prevent the Chinese team's attack. Zhou Yi was also looking to the left, as if he really wanted to pass the ball over there.

But after attracting Kuwait's defensive attention to the left, he suddenly passed the ball to the right with one foot.

Zhang Linpeng, who cut inside at high speed from the right back, received the ball and shot from outside the penalty box. The ball drew an arc, bypassed the Kuwaiti goalkeeper, and flew into the goal!

"1:0!! Zhang Linpeng! A beautiful long shot! This is the Chinese team's first goal in this Asian Cup! From Zhou Yi's assist!"

After scoring the goal, Zhang Linpeng ran to Zhou Yi, who assisted him, and directly picked Zhou Yi up. Other teammates swarmed up to celebrate the goal together.

As everyone mentioned in the pre-match interviews, the internal atmosphere of this national team is really excellent. There is no factionalism or infighting that was criticized in the past. Everyone is the same, regardless of seniority or age. This is what Gao Hongbo has been pursuing.

In the Chinese Jianghu society, the national team is also a small Jianghu. Where there is Jianghu, there are unclear and inexplicable troubles.

And these troubles are not conducive to the team's pursuit of good results. Therefore, not long after Gao Hongbo took office, he resolutely excluded veterans such as Zheng Zhi and Li Weifeng, who had made great contributions.

This naturally caused dissatisfaction among many people. But Gao Hongbo insisted on doing so.

If his coaching results are good, there will be fewer and fewer people who oppose him. On the contrary, if the coaching results are poor, then everything he does is a reason for his dismissal.

Gao Hongbo is actually under great pressure.