Chapter 1 The Final Adjustment

The players from both sides finished their warm-ups and returned to their respective locker rooms. The start of the match was getting closer and closer, and there was less and less time left for the two teams to make their final adjustments.

Although this match didn't determine whether they would qualify, it was about the honor of both teams.

Especially for the Chinese team. They had just secured their qualification spot. Wouldn't it be too disappointing if they lost to their arch-rivals, Japan, on their home turf?

This match was practically the Chinese team's qualification celebration. How could they allow Japan to come and cause trouble?

In the Chinese team's locker room, the returning national team players were wiping the sweat from their bodies with towels and changing into dry jerseys. Shin guards were stuffed into socks, and shoelaces were untied and retied. Everyone was carefully checking their gear.

Just like soldiers about to go into battle, checking their weapons.

When Gao Hongbo came in, he didn't rush to speak. Instead, he stood quietly in a corner by the door, watching the players do what they needed to do.

Only when everyone was almost ready did he speak. "Actually, I originally planned to fight for qualification against Japan at home, but plans can't keep up with changes, so now it's not needed." He smiled as he said this.

"This is a good thing. Now you can put down some burdens and enjoy a purer form of football."

He didn't emphasize the significance of the Sino-Japanese football match. He was worried that doing so would make the players nervous and cause them to underperform.

He wasn't worried that doing so would make the Chinese players careless. The contest between China and Japan, no matter the project, the Chinese would not underestimate it, and football was the same. When they were weak before, matches between China and Japan were highly anticipated, let alone now that the Chinese team's strength had improved.

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On the other side, the Italian Alberto Zaccheroni was using a translator to convey his instructions to the Japanese players in the locker room.

"I've read reports in Japan that some people think this is a revenge match. But I think you're too tense. Relax a little. We've already qualified, so just treat this as a warm-up match before the World Cup."

The Italian said it very lightly, with a smile on his face.

He was using his expressions and words to infect the players and get them to relax and not be too nervous.

Although outside, everyone thought this match was very important and crucial, the two team coaches had unanimously chosen to cool down their teams with their final instructions.

In this respect, the two coaches had a consensus: they weren't afraid that their players wouldn't take it seriously enough; they were afraid that they would take it too seriously.

Taking it too seriously would lead to nervousness, and nervousness would prevent them from performing at their normal level, which might lead to losing the game.

Although the two coaches looked calm, neither wanted to lose to the other.

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On the south stands of the Helong Sports Center, a huge tifo had been unfurled. On the massive canvas, a winding road stretched from the lower left corner to the upper right corner. Beside the road were pictures, all related to the Chinese team. If you looked closely, you could see that they were all hand-drawn depictions of the Chinese national team's matches in the Top Ten Tournament.

The end of the road was the iconic landmark of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil—the Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado Mountain.

Below the painting was a sentence: "Brazil, here we come!"

After this tifo appeared in the stands, it attracted the attention of almost everyone. The director of the live broadcast ordered the camera to focus on the tifo. Nowadays, there were very few such huge tifos appearing in domestic matches, and combined with the enthusiasm of the Chinese fans, it was a wonderful scene.

But the enthusiasm of the Changsha fans wasn't limited to this.

When the players from both sides came out, the stadium erupted in cheers.

The Chinese players also noticed the tifo; it was so big that it was impossible not to notice it.

Amid everyone's attention, something at the top of the stands shook, and then, accompanied by cheers, a five-star red flag the same size as the tifo cascaded down from the top like a waterfall, slowly unfurling and covering the tifo.

Supported by the fans, this giant national flag undulated on the south stands like waves, as if it were really being blown by the wind.

Seeing the national flag completely displayed before them, the scene erupted in a thunderous roar of cheers.

Duan Xin, who was commentating on the match live, also said excitedly: "That's amazing! The Changsha fans are using such a creative way to cheer for the Chinese team!"

Then, during the national anthem ceremony, when the players from both sides were standing still, this flag was still "flying" in the stands.

All the fans stood in front of their seats, singing the national anthem loudly, as did the national team players on the field.

After the national anthem was sung, the national flag was slowly lowered.

Afterwards, when the Japanese national anthem was played, there were scattered boos from the stands, but overall, the Chinese fans still gave their opponents ample respect.

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Next, the two sides shook hands. When Zhou Yi and Shinji Kagawa shook hands, they patted each other's arms and shoulders.

Yang Mu'ge said a few more words when he shook hands with Atsuto Uchida—they were both players for Schalke 04 and teammates, and they were usually familiar with each other.

After the handshake, there were procedures such as exchanging team flags and tossing the coin... China won the toss, so Japan got the right to kick off.

The players from both sides stood in their respective positions, and the match was about to begin.

The Helong Sports Center, which had been very noisy before, suddenly became quiet, so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

In this silence, the referee's whistle was particularly clear.

"Ah, the game begins!"

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Taking advantage of the kick-off, the Japanese team maintained possession of the ball on their own side, not rushing to attack.

They were playing away from home, and although they wanted to win, they also had to pay attention to their methods. They couldn't just rush up and attack to win, right? The spirit of Bushido isn't used in this kind of place...

In the tactics that Zaccheroni had arranged for them, the Japanese team first had to slow down the pace of the game and not let the game fall into the rhythm that the Chinese team hoped and wanted. He imagined that the Chinese team would definitely be eager to win at home, so after the start of the game, they would try to speed up the pace of the game, which was in line with their definition of playing at home.

If the Japanese team was confident in their strength and countered the Chinese team, they might fall into the opponent's rhythm.

In that case, it would be equivalent to being led by the nose by the Chinese team.

Zaccheroni certainly wanted to avoid this situation.

So he asked the team to slow down as soon as they came up, using slowness to counter the Chinese team's speed.

If they could lure the Chinese team out and then attack behind them, that would be even better.

The Japanese team's midfield has always been very strong. In this regard, Japan has always had confidence.

They were just dueling with the Chinese team in midfield.

The Chinese team did show a very strong fighting spirit at the beginning of the game. When the Japanese team passed the ball back, they rushed up to put pressure on them.

Logically speaking, at this time, the Japanese team should have launched a defensive counterattack, right?

But the situation wasn't that simple.

Because the Chinese team's frenzied pressing in the frontcourt clearly exceeded the Japanese team's expectations—the Chinese players were like a pack of mad dogs, running tirelessly on the field, and sometimes even two people were tackling one person.

This caught the Japanese team off guard, and they didn't expect the Chinese team's pressing intensity to be so great...

Starting with He Ying, the striker at the very front, everyone was running, running from point A to point B, and then from point B to point C, or back to point A.

Only Zhou Yi was an exception. He didn't run directly towards the Japanese players who had the ball.

Compared to his teammates, he seemed less active.

This was strange. Zhou Yi was never the kind of player whose attitude was very negative. When he was in Dortmund, he was someone who would fight until the last second. Of course, he also had times when he "strolled" on the field in Dortmund, but that was when he had exhausted himself to his physical limits in a match, and he was accumulating energy for the final sprint, not playing passively or slacking off.

But what about now? The game had only just started for more than a minute, and Zhou Yi's physical fitness was far from reaching its limit, right?

Could it be...

Someone's mind flashed with a not-so-good word.

"Primadonna."

This word is definitely not a compliment.

Of course, given Zhou Yi's status in Dortmund and his achievements in Europe this season, there's absolutely no problem in saying that he's the Chinese team's number one star. He also has the qualifications to act like a primadonna.

It's just that if this really happened to Zhou Yi, it would still be very surprising.

Just as everyone was thinking wildly, on the field, Yasuhito Endo, who had been forced into a hurry, quickly passed the ball under his feet in a direction he thought he could pass it to.

A burst of cheers suddenly erupted from the stands of the Helong Sports Center, because the ball was passed to... Zhou Yi's feet!