What Scaloni said is true.
After a good start with a three-goal win over Nottingham Forest in an away game, York City's Young Guards were on full fire and advancing rapidly.
On August 9, York City defeated Stevenage 2-0 in the first round of the League Cup and successfully entered the second round.
On August 12, in the second round of the British Championship, York City defeated Bolton Wanderers, also a newly promoted team, 3:1 at home. The latter only entered this season's British Championship through the promotion play-offs.
On August 16, in the third round of the British Championship, York City continued to sit at home and defeated Ipswich Town 3-0.
On August 19, in the fourth round of the British Championship, York City challenged Bristol City away from home and won 1:0.
A four-game winning streak in the English Championship allowed York City to quickly occupy the "high ground" and rank at the top of the English Championship standings.
Subsequently, York City continued to blossom on two fronts.
First, they played 1:1 with Reading in the second round of the League Cup, and finally defeated the opponent through a penalty kick and entered the third round.
Then there was the 4-0 victory over Norwich City in the fifth round of the British Championship, winning five consecutive league victories!
In the standings at this time, although Cardiff City has also won five games and accumulated 15 points, it is followed by Ipswich with 12 points, Leeds United with 11 points, Wolves with 10 points, etc. A strong team, but many experts still believe that the trend of this season's English Championship is likely to be dominated by the newly promoted York City.
This judgment was made, of course, not only because of their unbeatable record, but also because the performance of these young players made people feel the intensity of a Premier League team.
York City's current defense line, no matter how many defenders are used in the formation, the group of young defenders led by Westerman are very stable, making it difficult for opponents to find gaps;
In five English Championship games and two League Cup games, a total of seven games, they only conceded a total of two goals, which fully shows that this defense is getting better and better.
This number of goals conceded was also contributed by Onana. Since the third round of the league, he has often stood in front of York City's goal to guard the goal, and frequently used his accurate long passes to find teammates in front.
Against Norwich, it was his long pass that went beyond half-court that allowed Scamacca to head the ball, and then Leo grabbed the second shot and succeeded.
On offense, the full-backs represented by Alphonso Davis also made considerable contributions.
Nowadays, York City's left wing is a powerful weapon in the offense, because whether it is Leo or Kvara Tsheliya as the left winger, they will often use inward tactics and use their speed and skills to tear apart The opponent's defense also gave up the entire left wing behind him to Alphonso Davis, who inserted in the back row, allowing him to show off his offensive talents.
In addition, the performance of Alphonso Davis's substitute DiMarco was equally wonderful. Although he is not as good as the Canadian Flying Wings in terms of speed and breakthrough, he has his own unique skills, that is, his ability to pass and set the ball.
In addition to defending, DiMarco will also use his precise passing to provide cannonballs for his teammates on the front line.
In the midfield, De Jong, Varela, Tonali, Rice and others all performed brilliantly. Sometimes Scaloni had a happy trouble, not knowing who to start.
This resulted in captain Karlström often sitting on the bench, and he was happy to help out his young teammates at the end of his career.
On the front line, Baker's performance is still stable, and Scamacca, his main substitute, has also improved significantly. Although he only scored two goals, which is not too much, he used his fulcrum role to contribute four assists to the team. .
Of course, there is fierce competition for the winger position. In addition to Leo and Kvaratschlija, Lin Liangming, Amon, and Kulusevski are all capable of fighting. The busy schedule from the beginning also made Huang Zichang There are also opportunities to play, including starting in the League Cup.
In short, York City has two to three players who can compete for the starting position in each position, which also allows Scaloni to arrange the formation he wants to use as he pleases, and there will be no obvious fluctuations in performance. ;
This is a completely different experience from the obvious strength gap between the main lineup and the substitute lineup last season.
Pan Yi's summer window operation has also been unanimously recognized, because really no signing is useless, and his performance in the transfer market is as stable as ever!
Therefore, the media also exclaimed that it seems that York City is really going to soar into the sky and directly enter the Premier League!
Of course, some people are cautiously optimistic about this.
After the fifth round of the British Championship, there will be an international match day, and then it will be an even busier September.
In addition to the English Championship and League Cup, the Europa League group stage is also about to begin, and York City will also officially face the test of third-line combat.
And with the outstanding performance of this group of young players from York City, more and more players have been selected for the national team, such as Alphonso Davis, Fuan Jianyang, Amon, etc., including "old national players" Lin Liangming and Kulusevsky.
Even Huang Zichang and Pan Yi are ready to take him to the national team to experience it.
For these players, they are facing the pressure of fighting on the fourth line.
Fortunately, unlike in League Two and League One, during the international match days, the English Championship, like the Premier League, will enter the off-season - after all, there are so many international players from various countries in the English Championship that there will be no off-season. If so, many clubs would quit.
So at least York City will no longer be missing key players in some key games due to the international break.
At the same time, York City boss Pan Yi will of course once again become the technical advisor of the Dragons during the international match days and go to Guangzhou Tianhe Stadium to participate in the key home game against Uzbekistan!
——
The top 12 Asian qualifiers have entered the final two rounds, and each team has also reached the final sprint stage.
The situation in Group B is relatively clear, that is, Japan, Australia and Saudi Arabia have always occupied the top three. The results of the last two games are nothing more than deciding which two can directly qualify, and which one will fall into the cruel play-offs.
Group A is much more complicated.
For this reason, even Syria, which is ranked fifth, still has hope of qualifying, and Iran, which is ranked first, has not guaranteed a place in the World Cup.
In this round, the penultimate round, there will be a duel between the top four.
In addition to Syria's match against Qatar, Iran, ranked first with 17 points, will challenge South Korea, ranked third with 13 points, in an away game, while Dragon Kingdom, ranked second with 13 points, will face Uzbekistan, ranked fourth with 12 points, at home. .
Obviously, the outcome of these two games will directly change the final outcome of the group.
If Iran can score at least one point against South Korea, the Persian Cavalry will qualify one round early and participate in the World Cup main event again;
But if they lose, the suspense will be kept until the final round, and the Korean team will continue to maintain pressure on the top two.
For the Dragon Country team, the first thing is to ensure that they defeat Uzbekistan and not let their ranking be surpassed by their opponents, and then go out with all their strength in the final round and strive to defeat Qatar again.
In general, even if the initiative to qualify is still in the hands of the Dragon Kingdom team, there can be no mistakes in the next two games!
It is precisely because of the importance of this round of games that the AFC also arranged for these three games to be played at the same time, that is, at 20:00 pm on August 31, BJ time.
By this time, Guangzhou Tianhe Stadium was already filled with red.
This home ground of Changzhou Hengtai in the Chinese Super League is cheering for the entire national team at the moment!
Lippi, the former head coach of Changzhou Hengtai, still made a starting lineup dominated by Hengtai players in this game.
The formation is still 4-3-3, with Zeng Cheng as the goalkeeper, Jiang Zhipeng, Feng Xiaoting, Deng Hanwen and Zhang Linpeng in the defense, Zheng Zhi in the midfield, Hao Junmin and Zhang Xizhe in the front, and the frontcourt trident. Wu Lei, Zhang Yuning and Lin Liangming.
Young players Deng Hanwen and Zhang Xizhe, who performed well in the previous game, continue to start, and captain Zheng Zhi also returns from injury.
This arrangement also shows the determination of the national team, which is to take advantage of the home court to win Uzbekistan in one fell swoop!
We must not leave our fate to the Iranians or Koreans at the critical moment!
After the opening, the Dragon State team immediately took the lead in launching an attack. Led by Jiang Zhipeng, Hao Junmin and Wu Lei on the left, they continued to attack Uzbekistan's position again and again.
Only two minutes into the game, Hao Junmin turned his back to the goal on his left rib. After receiving the ball from Zheng Zhi, he took a step back under the opponent's marking. Without the opponent's midfielder to mark him, he suddenly turned. He turned around and passed the ball through to Wu Lei.
Wu Lei pulled the ball to the outside of the penalty area, and without stopping the ball at his feet, he pushed it with his right foot and sent it to the left wing, to Jiang Zhipeng who was inserted in the back row.
After Jiang Zhipeng received the ball, he walked to the bottom line and then gently passed the ball behind the opponent's right back. Hao Junmin quickly crossed into the penalty area from the left rib, received the ball and passed it back in an inverted triangle to near the penalty spot.
It's a pity that for such a wonderful goal coordination, because Wu Lei was closely guarded by the opponent, Zhang Xizhe did not react immediately, which directly caused the ball to be obtained by the opponent's player and failed to create a threat.
But this attack damaged the morale of the Dragon Kingdom team.
At least this kind of attack shows that the offensive midfield and frontcourt combination arranged today is effective!
Three minutes later, the Dragon Kingdom team made a comeback again.
Jiang Zhipeng was still on the left. After receiving the ball from his teammate, he went all the way to the baseline and passed the ball. After Zhang Yuning blocked the defender with his body, he headed the ball a little and passed it to Wu Lei. The latter pushed the ball with his right foot without thinking. shoot.
There was only a bang as the ball hit the right post and bounced out.
Wu Lei missed an excellent scoring opportunity and fell to the ground with his head in regret.
But such a shot still aroused cheers from all Dragon Kingdom fans in the Tianhe Stadium.
They supported their team with waves of applause and shouts.
The Dragon Kingdom team also became more and more courageous with such encouragement.
In the eighth minute, there was another continuous cooperation from the left side of the Dragon Country team. Wu Lei won a corner kick opportunity for the Dragon Country team. Hao Junmin's penalty kick caused a tremor in the opponent's penalty area.
In the end, Uzbek goalkeeper Nesterov struck decisively and knocked the ball out with both fists. Then Zheng Zhi's long shot from outside the penalty area turned into an anti-aircraft gun.
In the twelfth minute, Jiang Zhipeng dribbled the ball from the left to the front of the penalty area and suddenly took a heavy shot. However, the ball hit the defenders in the penalty area and bounced out of the baseline, winning another corner kick for the Long Guo team. Chance.
Hao Junmin's corner kick accurately found Zhang Yuning, but the latter's header was slightly higher than the crossbar.
Although there was no goal scored yet, the Dragon Country team played such a ferocious offensive after the opening, which also made Uzbekistan head coach Samvir Babayan in the visiting team's coaching bench full of worry.
In fact, for him, he came here to get three points.
If it can defeat the Dragon Kingdom team, Uzbekistan's points can reach 15 points and surpass the Dragon Kingdom team.
And if Iran also defeats South Korea in another game, Uzbekistan can jump to second place in an instant and have the initiative to qualify!
Therefore, Babayan's overall strategy in this game is also focused on offense, and he has planned to suppress the Dragon Kingdom team at the beginning.
Did he ever think that his players were shocked by the attacking momentum of the Dragon Kingdom team as soon as they came up, and they had no chance to backhand.
Is this still the Dragon Kingdom team that they easily defeated 2:0 in the last round?
The personnel didn't seem to have changed much, but the overall mental outlook and technical and tactical level felt like they had gone to a big level, and they didn't look like the same team at all.
In the past ten minutes of their attack, just a left attack evolved into complex and changeable routines. It is not difficult to imagine that under the coaching of Lippi and Pan Yi, the overall strength of this team is indeed There has been a considerable improvement.
No wonder they were able to win consecutively and then go from the bottom of the group to second place in the group!
"It seems like this game is much more difficult than imagined." Babayan thought painfully.
——
"Almost twenty minutes."
In the home team's coaching bench, Pan Yi reminded Lippi softly.
After attacking for so long after the start, Pan Yi was telling Lippi that it was time to stop a little bit, otherwise the players would have been in such a high-intensity siege and it would be difficult to maintain their physical fitness.
Lippi immediately looked up at the scoreboard and saw that it was more than eighteen minutes, which made him shake his head helplessly.
He was really unwilling to fail to score, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Uzbekistan's right wing is a weak spot, so Lippi and Pan Yi formulated an opening attack strategy, hoping to take the lead at home and win the first victory.
Therefore, the Dragon Country team directly pressed forward after the opening, and the team indeed suppressed Uzbekistan on the scene.
Unexpectedly, Uzbekistan's defense was also very tenacious. Under the strong attack of the Dragon Country team, although it was a bit chaotic at the beginning, it still held on to the goal and did not give the Dragon Country team too many shooting opportunities.
In addition, today's luck was a little bit worse. For example, Wu Lei's shot just hit the post, which was really a pity.
If the international players had better grasped the opportunity to score, or had better luck, and scored two or three goals directly at the beginning, they might have sent Uzbekistan home right now.
But there is nothing we can do now, we can only slow down for a while and then make plans!
Looking at Pan Yi standing in front and starting to direct, Lippi nodded slightly.
In fact, it is a bit risky to adopt an offensive strategy at the beginning. After all, Uzbekistan's overall strength is still very strong, and it can be guessed that opponents who also want to score three points will also adopt an offensive style of play.
In other words, if the opening attack fails to gain an advantage, the void in the defense will be relatively large, and loopholes may appear under the opponent's attack.
However, with Pan Yi's insistence, the team finally formulated an offensive strategy. As a result, the opponent was caught off guard after the opening game, and instead Uzbekistan's offense was defeated.
It should be said that although no goals have been scored yet, this start has greatly boosted the morale of the Dragon Country team and made everyone play with more and more confidence.
On the other hand, Uzbekistan's game plan has been disrupted. They will definitely have to adjust for a period of time. It may even be difficult to suppress the Dragon Country team in the entire first half. This also gained enough points for the Dragon Country team. time and space.
Therefore, even if the Dragon Country team slows down the rhythm a little, it will be difficult for Uzbekistan to jump out of the state of being beaten at the beginning.
On the field, Uzbekistan launched a counterattack at this time and quickly passed the ball into the penalty area of the Dragon Country team. However, Feng Xiaoting overpowered the opponent's center Sergeyev to header the ball to clear the ball. However, due to interference from the opponent, The ball didn't land far.
However, just when Akhmedov, who plays for Shanghai SIPG in Uzbekistan's midfield, was about to step in and hit the goal directly, captain Zheng Zhi quickly controlled the second goal.
In the top area of the penalty area, he took the lead and passed the ball over the opponent's midfield. He quickly chased after him and headed the ball to the right wing and handed it to Zhang Linpeng.
Zheng Zhi's outstanding performance made Pan Yi and Lippi on the sidelines unable to help but applaud him.
It is definitely a blessing for the national team to have such a veteran in charge.
"Great job! Tell them to slow down the offensive, stabilize the defense, and allocate physical energy reasonably!" Pan Yi shouted at Zheng Zhi.
Zheng Zhi gave a thumbs up to the sidelines to indicate that he understood, and then slowly conveyed the latest instructions from the coaching staff to the court.
As an experienced veteran, of course he also understands that he needs to adjust the rhythm of the game now. One bite cannot make him fat! ——
After the Dragon Kingdom team slowed down its offensive, the game quickly became much more balanced.
Although Uzbekistan's players have recovered from this and their performance has improved greatly, their offense has been repeatedly blocked and unable to pose a threat to Dragon Kingdom's goal.
On the contrary, the Dragon State team retreated and began to launch a counterattack. Veteran Zheng Zhi not only played a significant role on the defensive end, but also frequently planned threatening offensives on the offensive end.
In the 39th minute, Zheng Zhi stole the ball in the frontcourt and then split the ball. Zhang Linpeng passed from the right. Zhang Yuning and Wu Lei got the chance to score in front of the goal. Unfortunately, the opponent's defense was extremely tight and there was no chance. Can break the door.
Three minutes later, the Dragon Kingdom had the best scoring opportunity of the entire first half.
Jiang Zhipeng passed the ball diagonally from the left to Hao Junmin, who made a precise through ball and sent the ball to the feet of center Zhang Yuning, allowing the latter to form a one-man attack.
Unfortunately, under the interference of the opponent's central defender Ismailov, Zhang Yuning failed to hit the goal well and directly hit the opponent's goalkeeper, missing the best scoring opportunity in the game.
This mistake caused the Long Guo coaching staff and substitute players on the sidelines to hug their heads, but at the same time they were helpless.
The shot just now was a little too hasty. If I adjust it and observe it before shooting, I guess it will be fine.
However, after all, Zhang Yuning is only a 20-year-old young player now, and the requirements for him cannot be too high.
If he is really so awesome, then he is not Zhang Yuning, but Harry Kane!
However, when the referee blew the whistle to end the first half, Zhang Yuning walked off the field with his head lowered.
After all, he missed an excellent scoring opportunity in the first half. For himself, he still blames himself very much.
What a pity!
As the forward of the national team, he knows better than anyone that there may not be a second chance to score like this in this game.
And if that goal is scored, the situation of the entire game will be completely reversed and rewritten, and he will once again become the scoring hero of the national team.
But where in the world can we take the regret medicine?
Scoring or not scoring are all the result of decisions made by the forward within 0.1 seconds, and it is these 0.1 seconds that are often the difference between ordinary forwards and top forwards.
"Don't take it to heart."
Suddenly Pan Yi's voice rang in Zhang Yuning's ears, and then a warm arm was put on his shoulders.
"Everyone will have bad luck. You have to adjust yourself and don't ruin your mentality." Pan Yi continued, "And if you score consecutive goals before, your opponents will definitely pay more attention to and study you than before. This It will definitely be more difficult to score goals again."
Zhang Yuning nodded.
He did feel that the opponent's defensive players were taking more and more care of him and no longer easily gave him space. This was the case last time against Syria, and it is still the case this time.
So what should he do?
Perhaps seeing the change in Zhang Yuning's expression, Pan Yi smiled and patted him on the shoulder: "Don't worry, didn't I tell you? If you can't score, then run more and make more passes for your teammates to break the opponent's defense. It's a mess and sometimes chances to score just appear."
Zhang Yuning looked at Pan Yi gratefully and nodded heavily.
With a famous coach and teacher like Pan Yi by your side, you really don’t have to be afraid of anything!
"However, I still hope that you can be calmer when you get the chance to shoot. That kick just now was really smelly!" Pan Yi laughed.
Zhang Yuning understood that this was Pan Yi making a joke on him, and touched his head embarrassedly: "I will pay attention!"
Pan Yi's laughter attracted the attention of nearby players, and captain Zheng Zhi also ran over and said to Zhang Yuning: "The most important thing now is to pack lightly. There will definitely be a chance in the second half!"
Other forwards like Wu Lei, Gao Lin and others even laughed and said: "At least you haven't been scolded like us for shooting like a jerk!"
Zhang Yuning nodded gratefully towards his teammates.
Now, the pressure caused by missing the single-handed ball has been reduced a lot for him.
And this is also brought about by the unity of this Dragon Country team.
Everyone can make mistakes on the football field. As a team, the most important thing is to be tolerant rather than complaining.
This is also the mentality that Pan Yi has been instilling in his players on weekdays.
As long as unity and harmony are maintained within the locker room, such a team is a true whole that can overcome difficulties and win one victory after another!
