There is a belief called football

Chapter 335 Asian Cup

2015年对于亚洲足球来说最重要的赛事就是年初的亚洲杯了，本届亚洲杯将在澳大利亚举行，时间是1月9日-1月31日。

The previous Asian football was really not good, but it has changed in the past 10 years. The reason is one word-"money".

Football is a sport that burns money. Asia used to be relatively poor, and it was impossible for it to become the backyard of European football like Africa, so the level is not good.

But in the past 10 years, Asian football has developed rapidly, which can be seen from the worth of Asian players.

In the past, the value of Asian players would not exceed 1000 million US dollars, but now for high-level Asian players, this may only be a starting price.

Therefore, the "Australian Asian Cup" is not only a festival of Asian football, but also attracts the attention of the whole world. Many big names in the football circle, including senior officials of FIFA, will participate in the final awards ceremony.

The broadcast fee of this cup is also the most expensive so far, and Australia's investment in the Asian Cup has also set a record for this event.

*****
The preparations for the Chinese team started very early, and the training camp began in early December. Stan asked that all players except overseas players must gather at the Xianghe base on December 12.

Apart from winning the championship, Stan’s goal this time is to prepare for the 2018 World Cup, so the 23 players selected by Stan are all young people. Of course, except for one goalkeeper Yang Zhi, the goalkeeper position is quite special. In this position, 30 years old is still young, and many goalkeepers can play until they are 40 years old.

The 23-man roster is:

Goalkeepers - Qi Rate, Yang Zhi, Wang Dalei.

Defense line - Chen Fei, Zhou Dun, Wei Xiao, Qi Bing, Shi Ke, Zhang Linpeng, Zhang Chengdong, Chen Zhechao
Midfielders - Zhang Xizhe, Hao Junmin, Liao Lisheng, Yu Hanchao, Sun Ke, Lin Zhijian, Liu Binbin, Wang Kong.

Forwards - Li Qiao, Yu Dabao, Gao Lin, Ding Mu.

Among the 23 players, Shi Ke, Chen Zhechao, Liao Lisheng, Yu Hanchao, Liu Binbin, and Wang Kong did not participate in last year's World Cup in Brazil.

The veterans of the team have already faded out of the national team. Li Weifeng is the leader of the national team this time. He can be regarded as an assistant coach of Stan.

Li Qiao, Wei Xiao, and Lin Zhijian in the team will not participate in the training camp. They can fly directly to Australia to join the team before January 1th.

Among them, the situation of Wei Xiao is the most special, because there is no winter break in the Premier League, and Tottenham do not want to let him go back to participate in the Asian Cup.

But Stan insisted on asking "Wei Xiao" to come back, but he didn't have to participate in the training camp, and he would let Wei Xiao go back to China as soon as the competition ended.

Tottenham coach "Pochettino" said that he needed to think about it, but he told Stan a day later that Wei Xiao was injured and could not go back.

"Bullshit," Stan thought.

Stan said he could send a team doctor, but Pochettino said it was unnecessary, and Tottenham's medical conditions were very good.

Because the Asian Cup is a FIFA A-level event, Tottenham cannot force players to stay. In the end, Stan strongly stated that if Wei Xiao does not come back before January 1, everyone will see the International Court of Arbitration for Sport.

"Pochettino" had no choice but to agree to Stan's request.

On January 1th, 8 members of the Chinese team gathered in Sydney. Everyone went to take a photo in front of the Sydney Opera House. Stan was very creative. Now it is popular to take selfies with selfie sticks. It is outdated to take family portraits like graduation photos when you stand up.

At Stan's suggestion, everyone gathered together, and the captain "Zhou Dun" held up a selfie stick, and everyone surrounded the captain to take a group selfie.

Now the captain of the Chinese team is Zhou Dun, and there are two vice-captains. The first vice-captain is Wei Xiao, and the second vice-captain is Li Qiao.

Stan looked at the children in the photo and nodded slightly. This is the new start of the Chinese team, not only for the 2015 Asian Cup, but also for the World Cup in Russia three years later.

*****
The 16 teams in this Asian Cup have all sent their strongest lineups. Japan, South Korea, China, and Australia have all recalled all overseas players.

According to the odds offered by the gaming company before the match, the highest odds are the "Palestine" team, which is 1 to 500, that is, you bet 1 yuan to buy "Palestine" to win the championship. If it really happens, you can get 500 million.

赔率最低是中国队，是1赔1。2，其次是澳大利亚，是1赔1。5，日本是1赔2。

Under normal circumstances, the odds offered by bookmakers are more reliable than the analysis of experts in football magazines, but there are also times when surprises occur, such as when Iraq won the Asian Cup in 2007.

In any case, there is no doubt that the Chinese team ranks among the top three favorites to win the championship. There is no pressure on these Stans at all. He didn't even participate in the group stage draw, but sent "Pekovic" to Kuala Lumpur.

Stan felt that if the goal was to win the championship, it would be the same to be in a group with any team. The meaning of the championship was to defeat all opponents.

In the Brazil World Cup qualifiers, the Chinese team had "enemies" with many teams. This time in the Asian Cup, many people expressed that they wanted to give the Chinese team some color. Of course, the loudest shout was the South Korean team.

The host "Australian team" is also gearing up, saying that if the Chinese team wants to take the Asian Cup, unless it is stepping on the corpse of the Australian team.

The Japanese team was very low-key before the game, mainly because their head coach "Aguirre" had a scandal before the game. The Spanish prosecutors suspected that he played match-fixing when he was coaching in Spain, so the Japanese team was very passive. Maybe their head coach was taken away during the Asian Cup.

Stan was very low-key when he was interviewed before the game. He said that Australia was the first favorite to win the championship, but when the reporter further asked "why", Stan smiled crookedly, "I'm humble, you don't know", Stan thought to himself.

It has been a long time since everyone has experienced Stan's "arrogance", and this time Stan did not satisfy everyone. As a result, an Australian reporter asked: "Coach Stan, when will you be able to return to your flamboyant look"?
"Sorry, I'm married now, my wife asked me to be humble",
Stan's words amused the reporters and gave everyone a little sweetness. Of course, Stan has an answer to this question in his heart, that is, all his "arrogance" will be reserved for the World Cup in Russia, which he cannot say now.

*****
In this cup, in order to promote Asian football, the AFC organized an "Asian Idol" event ingeniously. I don't know if it was inspired by the influence of the "American Idol" program.

But many people like this activity very much. Football is a team sport, but the development of football also needs individual idols. For example, England's Beckham is a very successful example.

After the preliminary voting by Asian football journalists, the Asian Cup Organizing Committee announced four candidates - Japan's "Honda Keisuke", South Korea's "Sun Xingmin", Australia's "Cahill", and China's "Li Qiao".

You can go to the official website of the AFC to vote for the people you support, and the final result will be produced on the final day.

*****
On the day of the opening ceremony, representatives of the Chinese team were invited to participate in the opening ceremony, and Stan took three captains to go.

The opening ceremony was held in "Melbourne", the weather was good, the opening ceremony of the football match was different from the Olympic Games, because the opening match was immediately after the opening ceremony of the football match, so in order to protect the lawn, the cultural and artistic performances would be compressed in a relatively short period of time, even for the World Cup.

The climax of the performance was the theme song by a female singer known as "Shakira Australia". Stan looked at it and shook his head, "This girl is far worse than Shakira".

Zhou Dun also agrees with Stan. Shakira has sung for the World Cup three times in a row since 2006, and the level is much higher.

The nearly 20-minute cultural performance was confusing, at least Stan was dissatisfied, maybe because Stan didn't like this "post-modern" feeling.

After the theatrical performance, the staff began to clean up the scene, and soon the opening game of this Asian Cup will begin, with the host "Australia" playing against "Kuwait".

Australia is regarded as a major competitor of the Chinese team. Stan took out his notebook and prepared to record at any time.

If you look up the comparison of the strengths of the two sides on the Internet, you may think that such a match is not interesting at all, just like a college student beating a primary school student.

But unexpectedly, it was "Kuwait" who scored first. When Kuwait scored, Li Qiao, Zhou Dun, Wei Xiao, and Stan exchanged glances, "Now we have a good show."

But then the Australian team did not make people laugh, they quickly equalized the score, and scored 3 goals in the subsequent game, with a total score of 4 to 1 victory over Kuwait.

Except for one conceded goal, the combat effectiveness of the Kangaroos is admirable. The most important thing in a game is not only the score, but also the content. Several goals in Australia have different patterns.

If a team has only one move in its arsenal, then it won't go far. Australia's strength is not only reflected in the goal, but also in the way it is scored.

At the end of the game, Zhou Dun glanced to the right. He saw that Stan was writing and drawing in his notebook, and a sheet of paper was already full.

"What do you remember, coach?"
"Why do you want to secretly learn coaching techniques?"
Zhou Dun chuckled, "I really want to be a coach in the future."

Stan handed the notebook to Zhou Dun, and Zhou Dun flipped through it. There were some numbers and symbols that he couldn't understand, so he casually flipped through it, and Zhou Dun returned the notebook to Stan.

"Each coach has his own set of recording language. To be honest, I didn't even tell Pekovic to him, but if you are interested in the future, I will tell you slowly."

Zhou Dun laughed and nodded.

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(End of this chapter)