amaotonovel Chapter 187 A Medium Lottery
Chapter 187 A Medium Lottery
Chapter 187 A Medium Pick
This exciting draw ceremony was also broadcast live in China. There is no time difference between Malaysia and China, so the live broadcast at 8 o'clock in the evening happened to be the prime time, and the ratings of this live broadcast were second only to the World Cup.
And when the lottery results came out, most people in the Chinese football circle thought it was a lottery, that is, it was neither a lottery nor a lottery.
In Chinese minds, the top sign is to avoid Japan and Australia at the same time, and the bottom sign is to be assigned to the same group as Japan and Australia. The current situation is to avoid Japan but meet Australia.
After the lottery ceremony, the Chinese were thinking about the qualifying situation in their minds. In this group, Lebanon must send a boy to play soy sauce, while Australia should be recommended to advance and occupy a spot. Therefore, the remaining spot will be fiercely contested by China, South Korea, and Uzbekistan.
Among these three teams, it is generally believed that judging from the current strength, the final qualifying places will be competed between China and South Korea.
This is a form that both excites and worries the Chinese. Although Guangzhou Tianbao, led by Stan, has already defeated the South Korean champion in the AFC Champions League, at the national team level, the Chinese team still bears the burden of Korean fear.
But at the same time, the excitement is that if Stan succeeds, then Chinese football will wash away the shame of more than 40 years in one fell swoop, and hold its head high in front of the Koreans.
Thousands of Chinese people seemed to be back in high school that night, doing math problems of permutation and combination, lining up the five teams in Group B in their hearts, and finally calculating the possibility of the Chinese team qualifying.
Some people even used the story of Tian Ji’s horse racing to suggest that the Chinese team should voluntarily give up in the game against Australia and keep going to South Korea with all their strength. Of course, as soon as this point of view appeared, some people immediately jumped out and strongly opposed it, saying that this non-resistance strategy is shameless and should not be done by the Chinese.
In short, in this vast country with a long history, there will never be a lack of topics and debates, but one thing is for sure. Everyone is very excited. After 10 years, the Chinese can watch the top 10 games again.
*****
Speaking of the top 10 games, I have to talk about my memories. I remember the 94 U.S. World Cup qualifiers for the top 10 games. At that time, I was young and my father watched the games. But because it was early in the morning, there were not many TV programs at that time. In order to let fans have something to watch before the game, the TV station would play the 86 version of "Journey to the West" before the game. I would watch "Journey to the West" and occasionally watch football. That is my earliest memory of the top 10 games.
But I was young and ignorant at that time. I don’t know. In fact, most of the memories of the Top 10 match for the Chinese are bitter, such as the black 3 minutes against Qatar, and the loss against South Korea. In short, the Chinese did not have any outstanding results in the Top 10 match.
And the reason why the Chinese are looking forward to this time is because of Stan. With Stan, we feel that everything is possible. The Chinese expect Stan to be as Chinese as Hiddink is to Koreans, to create a miracle.
We now look at Korean football as very good, because South Korea is the team that has participated in the World Cup the most times in Asia (Koreans participated in the World Cup for the first time in 1954), but the first time the Koreans won the World Cup was in the World Cup held in 2002. They won the first game against Poland.
The reason why the Koreans achieved a historic breakthrough is because they have a magical coach-Hiddink.
So will the Chinese team with Stan bring any surprises to Chinese fans?Everyone is looking forward to it.
*****
After the lottery ceremony, the AFC arranged a reception, but Stan, Li Qiao, and Li Weifeng only showed up for 5 minutes, drank a glass of champagne each, and then left the reception. Stan didn’t like the officials of the AFC very much, and felt that dealing with them was boring.
When Stan and others appeared in the lobby of the Marriott Hotel, the reporters surrounded him. Stan put his hands into his suit pants, ready to accept the "attack" of the reporters with long guns and short cannons.
Seeing the journalists scrambling for the first place, Stein said: "Chinese journalists are given priority."
"Hi, I'm a Chinese reporter from Malaysia and I can speak Chinese. Does this count?"
Stan smiled and said, "Okay."
"Excuse me, Coach Stan, are you satisfied with the result of the lottery?"
"Sorry, I don't know what the standard of satisfaction is. If the Chinese fans are satisfied, I am satisfied."
Finally a Chinese reporter squeezed his way to the front. He asked Stein, "Which opponent in the group is the most difficult to deal with?"
Stan thought for a moment and said, "Lebanon".
Everyone laughed, even the security guards who kept order were amused by Stan.
But at this time Stan looked serious, and the Chinese reporter asked why.
"Because the other 3 teams are easy for me to study, they have a lot of international competition records for me to study, but Lebanon? I don't even know where this country is on the map, so I think Lebanon is very mysterious, maybe they are difficult to deal with."
After listening to Stan's answer, many people were brainwashed by Stan, and they nodded involuntarily, but after thinking about it, they felt that Stan was fooling themselves. This is Stan's wisdom.
"Next question," Stan said.
But as soon as the words were finished, the reporters at the scene began to scramble forward again. Stan made a gesture to signal everyone to be quiet.
Then he pointed to a white reporter and said: "We give Western friends a chance to ask questions."
The reporter who got the chance said: "Hi coach, I am from an Australian TV station."
"Oh, our opponent," Stan said.
The reporter smiled and continued: "Which place do you think Australia will eventually rank in the group?"
As soon as they heard the question, everyone understood that the level of this reporter was much higher than that of the first two "little white reporters". The questions from the first two reporters were all one-shot deals, that is, problems that could be settled with one sentence.
But this Australian reporter’s question requires Stan to think about it carefully. Don’t underestimate the question, but it’s hard to answer. If Stan says Australia ranks first, then he is destroying his prestige. If he says Australia cannot qualify, then it is a bit nonsense.
Stan was thinking about how to answer so that he could not lose his prestige, but also behave very gracefully.
"Do you know how many World Cup places there are in Asia?"Stan asked.
When you hear Stan's question, you don't know what it means. It has nothing to do with the Australian reporter's question just now, right?
"Four to five," the Australian reporter replied to Stan.
"Wrong, four," Stan said.
This time the pot exploded, "Stan, you can't insult our IQ nakedly, everyone on the earth knows that there are 4 places in Asia", everyone thought to themselves.
"Hehe, coach, did you remember wrongly?" the Australian reporter reminded Stan in an embarrassed whisper.
"No, think about it, everyone. FIFA gives Asia [-] more places, but they have to compete with South America. Isn't that equal to giving South America free?"
If you think about it carefully, it is indeed true, but who is to say that the level of Asian football is not good enough?
Stan continued: "Do you know how we in Asia can really earn back the [-] spots"?
The reporters at the scene looked at each other, but no one came up with any good solution.
Stein said: "That is to let Australia play the play-offs, represent Asia to compete with South America, and earn this spot back, so that Asia will have 5 teams to participate in the World Cup."
Stan's words amused everyone, including the Australian reporter who asked the question. On the one hand, Stan's words praised Australia, thinking that Australia can represent Asia, and on the other hand, he did not destroy his prestige.
Stan's words were full of wisdom, which made everyone feel that the Chinese team led by him must be the most difficult opponent in this top 10 match. After laughing, the Australian reporter wrote in his notebook - "China team, our worst enemy".
*****
Shortly after the draw, the AFC announced the complete schedule. The competition began on June 2012, 6 and lasted for one year. The final round ended on June 3, 2013, and finally the team to Brazil was produced.
After the Chinese team’s schedule came out, everyone generally felt that it was very good. The Chinese team’s first away game was against Lebanon, the second game was against Uzbekistan, the third game was against South Korea, and the fourth game was against Australia.
Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages. All the assumptions are based on the premise that the Chinese team won the first two games and scored 6 points. If the Chinese team did not score 6 points in the first two games and they were strong teams in the last two games, the originally favorable form will become a disadvantage.
Stan is very clear about this situation. This is like the AFC Champions League. In fact, the match against Buriram is the most difficult. Sometimes a weak team just looks weak, and you may be bitten if you are not careful.
Stan is gearing up, he really hopes that the Top 10 will start tomorrow, but unfortunately there are still 3 months, and in these 3 months, Stan has to do two things - first, arrange a warm-up match, just like Milu did in the past, the so-called "flying training", and second, try to find good Chinese overseas seedlings as much as possible, and then persuade them to come back to play for China.
On March 3th, Stan returned to China. He declined all interviews, invitations, business cooperation, and personal endorsements. From now on, all his work will only be arranged around the Top 10 competition, because Stan must fulfill his rhetoric—go to Brazil.
Some people questioned why Li Qiao was not allowed to go directly to Europe. This is what I thought. Chinese football is not good, but Chinese players suddenly dominate Europe. Is this possible? ?To achieve Li Qiao, Chinese football must first achieve a little success. In addition, in fact, who doesn’t want the national football team to be strong? I think the national football team has been around for almost 20 years.
(End of this chapter)