Reborn: I'll Never Fail My Childhood Sweetheart Again-Chapter 320 - 133: Qin Shiqing, Your Childhood Sweetheart Is About to Become Famous! (Part 2)
That was the 2002 World Cup Qualifiers.
In 2001, it was a historic year for Xia Country’s football.
In October of the same year, the men’s national team finally broke through and entered the World Cup.
In that match, the national team faced Ah Man at the Wulihe Stadium in Fengtian.
In the 36th minute of the game, Ah Tie delivered a long pass from midfield into the penalty area, Ah Peng headed it back into the area, and both Ah Chen and Ah Wei rushed for the point.
In the end, Ah Wei fell and scored a goal.
This was the highlight of Ah Wei’s career!
With a one-goal lead, the national team won the match 1:0, securing their advancement two rounds earlier from the top 10 competition!
Forty-four years of waiting, countless cycles of hope and disappointment, the national team fulfilled their dream at Wulihe, broke out of Asia, and entered the World Cup finals!
After the match, when the players and coaches embraced in wild celebration, CCAV flashed the five red words "We have qualified" on the screen.
With today’s broadcasting technology, those words are like a fifty-cent special effect, extremely outdated, no different from the later horse phase changes, yet at that time, it moved countless people to tears.
That night was definitely an unforgettable memory in the lives of domestic fans, perhaps even more deeply engraved than their first love.
Within the blink of an eye, many men have long forgotten the details of the night they first tasted forbidden fruit, it feels like they merely swallowed it whole.
But if you talk to them about how the match between the national team and Ah Man in 2001 was, they could passionately talk with you for hours, without needing to stop for half a minute to catch their breath.
It is said that at the time, many universities, high schools, middle schools, and even primary schools collectively suspended classes and organized students to watch that match.
More absurdly, some teachers required primary school students to write reflections after the match, which made those who didn’t watch football at the time furious, but when they grew up, many boys would be deeply grateful to that teacher for not letting them miss such an epoch-making moment.
Unfortunately, by 2002, the national team returned home in defeat as a "Three Light Brigade."
Many fans, naively and foolishly, thought that qualifying for the World Cup marked the beginning of Xia Country’s football golden age, but it turned out to be just a fleeting moment.
After the short-lived splendor, they waited for over a decade, from youths to fathers, sons becoming fans, yet they never saw a second qualification.
But the national team’s qualification was still half a year away; now it was just the qualifiers.
"Damn it, the national team actually let the Maldives, such a super weak team, score once, all are garbage!"
Zeng Kaiping was extremely agitated and kept swearing.
Future fans would have thought the national team lost.
In fact, that was not the case.
In the just-ended first World Cup group qualifier, the national team beat the Maldives 10:1, securing a solid victory.
However, die-hard fans were not satisfied.
In the first stage group, the national team was in Group 9 with Cambodia, India, and the Maldives.
In this group, only India showed a bit of combat power, Cambodia and the Maldives were truly battle trash, especially the Maldives, whose entire team didn’t even have a single professional player.
In the 1998 World Cup qualifiers, this team had been scored 17 goals by the Iran Team and 12 goals by Jilistan.
Because of this, fans felt that if the national team couldn’t win by a net margin of 10 goals, it would be a failure.
"Alas, forty-three shots in the whole match, only sixteen were on target, more than sixty percent scored by defenders, the midfield and forward line were sleepwalking, if this continues, it’s not very optimistic!"
Hou Yongjin was a polite person, his criticism wasn’t as harsh as the young folks, his data analysis was well-organized, yet he kept shaking his head and sighing.
Cai Wensheng added: "On the contrary, the Maldives, with its only offensive chance in the entire game, managed to pull off a surprise attack, if others reversed the number of shooting attempts, the consequences would be unimaginable!"
If the Maldives had attacked a few more times, conceding one goal would have been fine, but they scored with just one attempt, given they’re an amateur team, it can be said it was a glorious defeat, and it was said that after the goal, the Maldives players celebrated as if they had won the championship, which was where domestic fans’ greatest anger and disappointment lay.
"I told you Mi Lu was no good. Even a dog coaching wouldn’t concede a goal to the Maldives. He should be dismissed early!"
Zeng Kaiping was furious, and even vented his frustration on the head coach.
In 2001, the national team’s head coach was the so-called "miracle coach" Mi Lu, who before coaching the national team had led Mexico, Costa Rica, the Beautiful Country, and Nigeria to the World Cup round of 16.
However, after taking over the national team, his "Happy Football" concept was heavily questioned by the media and fans.
Because everyone felt that players must rely on intensive and closed training to achieve results before major competitions, but Mi Lu’s team seemed like they were playing, too reckless.
Moreover, in the nine World Cup warm-up matches after the Asian Cup, except for a 5:1 win against Siam, the national team had 2 draws and 6 losses, a dismal record.
Coupled with being scored on by the super weak team Maldives in the first qualifier, fans felt that Mi Lu was a charlatan riding on luck.
"Third Brother, what do you think?"
Zeng Kaiping ranted again, seeking Su Zelin’s opinion.
The slacker was also a fan, though not as hardcore as the young folks, he often watched matches, especially grand events like the World Cup, which was naturally something not to be missed.
However, today Su Zelin remained silent, which was quite strange.
In fact, the slacker already knew the result, so he wasn’t as excited as the others, and just now Su Zelin was thinking of something else.
For someone reborn, the World Cup was also an opportunity to make some money.
Unfortunately, the soccer lottery was only born in late October of this year, otherwise, the qualifiers could have been fun.
This thing wasn’t like other lotteries, no matter how you bought off referees or manipulated the game, the scores were visible to all.
