TV'00 at Columbus, Ohio, The Semifinalist The veterans from left to right (click picture to see the full size one):
Front: Li Hui, Zhang Jun, Wang Feng, Wang Guoqing, Zhou Lisong, Song Lei, Zhang Liang Rear:Di Yong, Liang Wei, Hu Bo, Chen Chen, Chen Wei, He Biao, Jia Feng, Xing Yukun, Chang Wei, Meng Zhaohui Note: Zhao Wei, Li Wei not in picture
5th Chinese National Soccer tournament (semi-finalist among 12 teams)
Columbus, Ohio, 9/3-4, 2000
The squad: (19) Di Yong, Wang Feng, Chen Wei, Chang Wei, Song Lei, Jia Feng, He Biao, Chen Chen, Hu Bo, Zhang Liang, Zhou Lisong, Wang Guoqing, Liang Wei, Li Wei, Li Hui, Zhao Wei, Meng Zhaohui, Zhang Jun, Xing Yukun
Game Results:
Day 1 (9/3) Group Matches
first match vs. Michigan United 3:2 first half: 1:0 (Song Lei) 2:0 (Xing Yukun) second half: 3:0 (Wang Feng, penalty) 3:1 3:2
second match vs. KeDa 1:1 first half 1:0 (Jia Feng) second half 1:1
Rank #1 in the group (KeDa beat Michigan 1:0)
Day 2 (9/4) Playoff
quarterfinal vs. Cleveland 3:2 first half 1:0 (Chen Wei, penalty) 2:0 (Chen Wei) second half 3:0 (He Biao) 3:1 3:2
semifinal vs. Silicon Valley Tigers 1:3 first half 1:0 (Song Lei) second half 1:1 1:2 1:3
Win 2, Tie 1, Lose 1, Goals scored 8, Goals allowed 8. Tournament scorers: Song Lei (2), Chen Wei (2), Wang Feng, Jia Feng, Xing Yukun, He Biao.
Team Report
By Chen, Wei
Friday, 9/1, two days before the game.
Good news and bad news came together. The good news was Li Hui bid through priceline.com and cut down more than half of our hotel cost. The bad news was we lost two players at the last minute --- Kang Yong, who injured his knee again in a practice game, and Cai Qijiang, whoses wife got sick.
Saturday, 9/2, the arrival day.
19 players arrived in Columbus from all over the place, with Jia Feng setting a new record: flying from England for the tournament. Arrivals are not all that smooth: Delta cancelled flight from Atlanta to Columbus and re-routed Disco and Zhao Wei separately because they figured out it's just too dangerous to put these two on the same plane; Zhou Lisong got his first speeding ticket just because he's trying to catch up with the even faster Wang Guoqing. Anyway, finally we got most of our players arrived by 6pm, and with our beloved B-man Wei Ge's direction, we went to a nearby park to have our warmup session. Right in the middle of the warmup practice, I felt that a young, energetic, and talented TV team was going to emerge in this tournament.
The evening team meeting was very effective as well. We exchanged many ideas and consented on the basic schemes we were going to use, that is, transition through the midfield, ground and middle- distance passes, control the paces, connect three lines, and attack through the wings.
Sunday, 9/3, the group match day.
First Game vs. Michigan United, 3:2
Our first opponent was Michigan United. Though missing some of the key players, Michigan is still a good team with organized defense and good physical strength. Having just lost to KeDa in the first group match 0:1, they were desparate to get back some points. But right from the beginning, we took the control of the game. We executed our plan very well, controlling good pace, passing beautifully in the midfield, and finding empty holes in their defense line.
The first goal came at about 20 minutes, when Disco created a good chance by a straight pass to Song Lei, who ran through the defense line and took the ball right towards their goalie. The goalie took Song Lei down inside the box, but amazingly Song Lei got up right away and sent the ball into the net. No penalty is necessary. 1:0.
Shortly after the first goal, He Biao got the ball at the left wing, faked away a defender and crossed the ball towards the goal. The ball slipped through Michigan goalie's hand and fell right in front of our forward Xing Yukun, who easily headed the ball into the net.
The third goal came in the second half, when I seized a mistake by their defender, intercepted the ball and dribbled into the box and was taken down by another defender. A penalty kick, called right away by the Ref. Wang Feng took the shot and made the third goal.
After 3:0, we slowed down a little and subed more to preserve energy, when Michigan pushed forward to try to get some goal back. They did grabed two chances and turn the board to 3:2, but two late for them to do anything more.
Second Game vs. KeDa Kings 1:1
KeDa is a suprisely good team, with well organized and skilled players in the back and the midfield. At the beginning of the game, KeDa seemed to be controling the midfield, and we are more on the defending side. But they didn't have very effective way to break our defense, other than sending high balls to the top of our box, which were all successfully intercepted by our stopper Zhang Liang and sweeper Wang Feng.
After a while, our attacking force got into action, and started created good chances in their half. In a fast break, Song Lei took the ball from the left side into their box, dribbled through a defender and brought the ball all the way to just a few yards outside the goalpost. Their goalie tried to come up to shut the angle, but Song Lei cleverly passed the ball to Jia Feng, who came in at the right time and toughed the ball into the goal.
In the second half, Zhao Wei dislocated his elbow, and the police and the embulance was called to sent him to ER. Zhaohui voluntarily accompanied Zhao Wei all the time in ER till around the midnight.
The game was interrupted for about 20 minutes, and after it resumed, KeDa seemed to be not that desparate to win back the game to avoid playing NYWW the second day, and kept passing the ball back and forth in their own half. However, they did get a chance by breaking in from the right wing, and a pass is stopped by Disco, but the ref called a handball and a penalty kick! From where I stood, it's clear that it's unintentional, rather I can clearly see that Disco was intentionally taking the arm backward to avoid the ball. But Arguing with ref was futile. KeDa's goalie went all the way across the field to take this precious penalty, but it was stopped by our fast-reacted goalie Zhang Jun!
Still KeDa grabbed another chance, with an arguably offside, they got back a goal. Final score 1:1. Since we have more goals in the group matches, we claimed the first rank in the group.
Other matches in the first day.
Nothing dramatic, except our old rival Wisconsin lost bitterly this time. Lao Ye was probably the only old star left in the team, and they lost 2:4 in their first match against a new team U. of Maryland team. UM team's captain Wang Xueli, who is also a tsinghua graduate and was contacted by Xie Yuan but just too late to be recruited to our team this time, scored all four goals in the game.
Wei Ge's host team OSU played pretty hard against NYWW and Cleveland, but without Cai Shan, they were just a little short to get to the playoff.
After the first day matches, Group A's Hunter and NY United, Group B's Silicon Valley Tigers and U. Maryland, Group C's Tsinghua Veterans and KeDa, and Group D's NYWW and Cleveland advanced to the second day playoff.
Jacuzzi, BBQ, "Jiang1 Qing1 Yu4 Ci4", etc.
The night time programs after the group matches are the typical TVish ones --- Jacuzzi, followed by a long dinner table (this time at Mogolian BBQ) with fun talks over soured bodies. But with all those big "Kan3 Ye2" like Lao Ruo, Yang Gong, Da Runzi and Da Niao missing in TV2000, who could take the lead in Jacuzzi and on the dinner table? Don't Worry. TVs are not short of star in this category either. Chang Wei stepped up and entertained our TV2000 with a series of hilarious, and some X-rated jokes, like "a patient in the hospital", "Xiao Ping and Li Peng's trip to England", and "Jiang Qing Yu Ci", ... Sorry, I can't repeat them here. I was just wondering what it would be like if all you big "Kan3 Xing1" are here. That must be "qun2 xing1 hui4 cui4".
Monday, 9/4, the playoff
Quarterfinal vs. Cleveland
The day started with rain, perhaps hinting something unfortunate on the way. With Zhao Wei injured and Li Wei left early to fly back to Texas, we only have 17 players left for the day, with Jia Feng had a left foot injury too.
Our quarterfinal is against Cleveland, a team without much of characteristic. We carried out the same game plan, and controlled the game right from the start. First Chang Wei used his marvelous dribbling skill to get into their box and was surrounded and taken down by three defenders. I took the penalty and scored the first goal. Then a beautiful pass by disco made me easily get rid of a defender and score the second goal right inside the box. Chang Wei had another beautiful header which hit the crossbar. In the second half, Jia Feng and He Biao carried out a great setup play in a free kick, just as we practiced in saturday's warmup session: He Biao faked the kick and run through the ball, and Jia Feng faked the kick again and passed the ball back to He Biao, who took the shot right away before any defender got close to him, and the ball went in the upper left corner of the goal. Very clean execution!
As seems to be our TV2000 feature, we always gave our opponents some chances when we were ahead. In the last 20 minutes, Cleveland suddenly came back with 2 goals, but we managed to hold on and clinch a semifinal spot the 5th time.
Semifinal, vs. Silicon Valley Tigers
TV2000 got really tired at this point. Even just moving our belongs and bottles of drinks across the field to the semifinal field seems to be an endless journey to us. Chang Wei, not only knew how to tell jokes to relax us, but also gave us a good suggestion of taking some tylenols before the game. So each player taking two pills, putting on a heavy coat of bengay, and we are back onto the field.
SVT, with their questionable behavior in the quarterfinal, advanced to the semifinal. They are tired too, but they had much more players than us. Right from the start, they just sent long balls to our center defense, trying to seek some chances, but our defense line hold up pretty well in the first half. Our midfield and forwards still connected well, and created several chances. In the middle of the first half, I created a free kick about 10 meters outside their box. I took a strong and low shot on the free kick, and the ball passed the side of their human fence and flew right towards the goal. Their goalie positioned himself well, but just couldn't hold the ball fast, the ball bounced back, and Song Lei came up at the right time and picked up the rebound and scored! We are ahead again.
SVT tried hard to attack but couldn't break our goal in the first half. In the second half, they are desparate and just sent long balls from all over the place to our center defense. Meanwhile, our players got really tired and we are short of subs, so we cannot create an effective defense in the midfield to reduce their long passes and to keep pressure on their defense. Finally our defense got just a little loose and they seized two chances and scored. Our offsence tried to come up again and we did created a couple of good chances, but could not cash in. In the urge to come back, we left our defense more open and they scored another goal. So, 1:3, the end of TV2000's journey.
Overall
I feel TV2000 is a very strong and talented team. If we just play one game, i am confident that we can beat any other team in this grand tournament. We have so many young and talented players joining TV this time. They will be the future of our team. Meanwhile, old TVs still contribute tremendously to the team as well. Disco played so well in the midfield. I can't see any reason that he cannot play in 2001, 2002, .... Da Fengzi amazingly played every single minute of the four games on the field without a sub!!! Can you guys believe that? That's certainly another TV record.
Wish all our TVs to keep fit, and keep playing soccer, and see you in the future tournaments.
Oh, forgot an important word from Disco:"No Chrismas baby anymore, please! Go out, do something fun, don't stay at home to give you chance to produce next generations that always come out around the labor day and stop his/her daddy to join TV2xxx." |
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