1136 The Best Souvenir

China's final group game was played on January 16, with four days to go before the January 21 game.

After continuous combat, Gao Hongbo did not arrange all these four days into training.

The day after the match against Uzbekistan, Gao Hongbo gave the players a full day off to rest and rest, if they wanted to go shopping. They have not been to Doha, Qatar since they left China on December 29 last year......

Gao Hongbo didn't want to make the players too nervous, so he set aside a precious day to decompress the players, they could go shopping and buy some travel souvenirs for their families and themselves.

This day of holiday is the happiest for the national football players, and it is also a reward for their hard training and competition.

Many players slept in the morning and didn't get out of bed until after 9 or 10 o'clock.

Of course, Gao Hongbo didn't get up so late, the players could rest, but he couldn't rest as the head coach of the team.

He got up at 7:40 a.m. and showed up at the hotel's cafeteria at 8:20.

The four teams in Group A all live in the same hotel, so they used to see players from the other three teams in the cafeteria. Especially during the rush hour, players from the four teams can be seen sitting together in their respective teams' jerseys.

But today, Gao Hongbo saw far fewer people in the restaurant.

The hotel lobby can be busy at this time, as players from two teams should be checking out.

The Uzbek players were also out of bed at this time, as they finished their group stage and reached the quarter-finals, and they also needed to rest.

There is even less of a Chinese player.

But when Gao Hongbo finished selecting a round of food and sat back in his seat with a plate, he was surprised to find a person walking in from the door of the restaurant.

It's glory.

Dressed in a short-sleeved T-shirt and shorts, with a towel around his neck, his hair stood up one by one as if he had just washed his hair, and the T-shirt on his upper body was half wet from the neck down and stuck to his body, highlighting the contours of his muscles.

Seeing Rongguang's appearance, Gao Hongbo knew what Rongguang was doing.

"Glory!" He raised his hand and beckoned.

Rongguang saw Gao Hongbo waving to him, so he walked straight over: "Gao Zhi, good morning." ”

"You're going to the gym again?"

Glory nodded.

"It's a holiday today, why don't you go out for a walk?"

"There's nothing to visit...... Rong Guang turned his head to look outside the glass curtain wall of the restaurant, blue sky and white clouds, palm trees and yellow streets.

The scenery in the Middle East is the same, he has played in Abu Dhabi before, and at that time he was accompanied by Mansour all the time, and he played very tall, horse racing and yachting. The street scenes of Doha and Abu Dhabi are similar, and I don't like the glory of shopping or anything else.

"Don't want to buy some souvenirs? Take a trip to Doha and bring some souvenirs back to your family,......" Gao Hongbo said with a smile.

Glory shrugged and pouted, "The souvenir just needs a championship trophy." ”

Gao Hongbo's smile froze on his face, he didn't expect Rongguang to make such an answer.

The championship trophy as a souvenir is probably something that only people like Glory can think of.

But...... When you think about it, it's pretty cool!

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When the team resumed training the next day, Gao Hongbo borrowed Glory's words to motivate the players.

“…… How was your harvest yesterday in the store in Doha? I'm sure a lot of people have gained a lot, right? ”

The players laughed.

Yesterday they bought and bought in a shop in Doha, which also attracted a lot of media filming and reporting. After a stellar performance in the group stage, the players of the Chinese team have become the stars of the media pursuit.

They will also attract a lot of attention when they go to the street to buy.

While they were shopping, many reporters followed them with cameras and video cameras.

The news of their purchase in Doha appeared on the domestic website for the first time.

However, Chinese fans have given understanding to the large-scale procurement behavior of these players, and they are not as long as they see the news related to the national football team as before, regardless of 3721, they will rush in and scold them first. National football players will be scolded for whatever they do.

And the players of the Chinese team were also relaxed because of their consecutive wins and good performances, and they bought a lot of them when shopping to treat themselves.

"But now that everyone is back to training, the next games will only be harder and harder. We shouldn't just settle for the knockout rounds. You must know that breaking into the knockout stage should have been a traditional ...... of Chinese football"

Gao Hongbo is not lying, before the 2007 Asian Cup, the Chinese team ranked third in the overall record ranking of the Asian Cup, which is a result in the absence of the previous five Asian Cups, which can be said to be a very good result.

Since the 1976 Asian Cup in Iran, the Chinese team has participated in the Asian Cup for the first time. As of the end of the 2004 Asian Cup, the Chinese team has participated in a total of eight Asian Cups, and in these eight Asian Cups, the Chinese team has reached the semi-finals six times, including two runners-up.

They lost to Saudi Arabia at the 1984 Asian Cup in Singapore and Japan in the final of the 2004 Asian Cup on home soil.

Before the 2007 Asian Cup, the Chinese team's record in the Asian Cup was 15 wins, 11 draws and 15 losses in 41 games.

However, this excellent watch was put to an end at the 2007 Asian Cup. The Chinese team led by Zhu Guanghu failed to even qualify for the group stage...... This is the first time in 27 years that the Chinese team has played.

Because the group stage did not qualify, the Chinese team's ranking in the overall list of the historical record of the Asian Cup has also dropped sharply from third to fifth.

They were second only to Iran and South Korea, but now they are being surpassed by Saudi Arabia and Japan.

Japan is ranked ahead of the Chinese team because of goal difference......

Before the Asian Cup in Qatar, the Chinese team's overall record in the Asian Cup was 16 wins, 12 draws and 16 losses in 44 games, scoring 72 goals, conceding 50 goals, and scoring 12 goals.

Before the 2007 Asian Cup, the Chinese team reached the knockout round for 27 consecutive years.

Therefore, the 2007 Asian Cup was a turning point for Chinese football, the beginning of a decline.

Fortunately, this time the Chinese team had glory and stopped this downward trend.

Counting the results of the three group games of this Asian Cup, the Chinese team has won 19 games, drawn 12 and lost 16 in 47 games, scoring 83 goals and conceding 52 goals.

If the statistics are closed in the group stage, the Chinese team has surpassed Japan with two wins and one draw in the group stage of this Asian Cup and Saudi Arabia with three games in the overall record ranking of the Asian Cup, and has returned to the third place in history.

“…… I hope that when you finally leave Doha, Qatar, you will be able to take a trophy with you as a souvenir! ”

The players looked at their head coach Gao Hongbo with some surprise.

They have been in contact with Gao Hongbo for more than a year, and they already know Gao Hongbo very well, knowing that Gao Zhi is usually a low-key person, and his personality is never arrogant......

They found that a lot of things have changed since Glory came to the team, and there are some people who are also changing.

Gao Zhi is one of them, and the Chinese team is no longer a rat crossing the street, and everyone shouts and beats is also one of them......

When Rongguang heard Gao Hongbo speak, he glanced at Gao Hongbo and found that he was nodding and smiling at him.

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At 4:15 p.m. local time on January 21, Qatar, the whistle for the first match of the quarterfinals of this Asian Cup sounded at the Khalifa Stadium.

The match between the Chinese team and the Jordan team, which has attracted countless attention, began.

Jordan is not a strong team all the time, and its all-time record in the Asian Cup is also ranked 19th, having only played one Asian Cup before this Asian Cup, four games, one win and three draws, scoring three goals and conceding one.

But that's the table of the past, and Jordan's table in this Asian Cup is very good.

They drew 1:1 with Japan in the first round in the group stage, exposing the first upset of this Asian Cup. In the next second game, they defeated the West Asian giants Saudi Arabia, who won the Asian Cup three times in the final of the Asian Cup, 1-0, and exposed the second upset. In the third group stage, facing Syria who was aiming to qualify, although Syria scored a goal first, but hesitated Syria scored an own goal by itself, and the Jordan team played a wonderful goal from the goalkeeper to the striker, and won 2:1, only losing to Japan on goal difference and ranking second in the group stage.

The best player in this team is their goalkeeper Shafi. In three group games, whether it was against Japan's lavish attacking line-up or Syria's unity, Safi's world-class saves have saved the team time and time again, and the goalkeeper, who is already playing in the Asian Cup for the second time, has also helped Jordan hold the record of never losing in 120 minutes since participating in the Asian Cup.

They reached the quarter-finals of the 2004 Asian Cup in China in their first Asian Cup, where Jordan drew 1-1 with Japan after 120 minutes of play and were eliminated in a penalty shoot-out. After the first two players missed penalties, the Japanese team was 0:2 behind Jordan in the penalty shootout, which is equivalent to standing on the precipice of being eliminated. At this time, Japan actually asked for the goal to be replaced, and it was unbelievable that the referee agreed to change the goal. The move affected the mentality of Jordan's players who were playing in the Asian Cup for the first time, and they eventually lost to Japan on penalties......

However, Shafi's performance in that penalty shoot-out was still very good.

He saved Yuji Nakazawa's penalty in the penalty shoot-out.

Now he'll face a more luxurious and terrifying glory in this match than Japan's luxurious attack lineup combined!

Will he be able to continue his magic and help Jordan reach the semi-finals in its historic run?