Chapter 734: Aiming for Three Consecutive Wins in the Asian Qualifiers?

The Sun's front-page headline: Ronaldo and ty have successively arrived to report for national team duty, preparing for the World Cup qualifiers.

Jinri Toutiao: On October 7, the Chinese national football team hosts Saudi Arabia at home; can Team China secure a third consecutive victory in the Asian qualifiers?

Xinhua News Agency, October 5, reporters Liang Xiaosheng and Chang Yun: Tang Ye has currently arrived at the hotel where the team is staying and is expected to join the squad for the pitch inspection and warm-up on October 6.

Recently, most news from Europe consists of reports about players leaving their clubs.

Under normal circumstances, most spots for the World Cup finals are already determined by October.

However, this year's situation is slightly different because the Qatar World Cup kicks off in November, which is winter (since summer in Qatar is too hot).

Fans can simply understand it as the 2022 World Cup being postponed by half a year due to weather reasons, so the qualifiers naturally also suffer a half-year delay.

It is now October 2021, and there is still more than one full year until the World Cup finals begin.

Everything has only just begun!

【CCTV-5】

"Hey, we always say that the away match against the Japanese team is the top priority for Team China this year, and we must defeat Japan."

"But actually, hehe, I think saying that is a bit inappropriate."

It was Zhang Lu again, proving that the CCTV commentator was analyzing the situation of Group B in the third round of qualifiers for the fans in front of a blackboard, with the focus naturally being on Team China's qualification chances.

"Currently, Team China ranks first in Group B, but in reality, our points are the same as Japan's; we just have a few more goal differences. Moreover, looking at the performance in the past two matches, the Japanese team's overall display has been better than ours."

Based on some data, Zhang Lu also voiced his opinion.

"Actually, um... compared to the fourth-round match against Japan, I feel that today's home match against Saudi Arabia is even more important for Team China."

"Because, as we say, beating Saudi Arabia definitely offers better cost-performance than beating Japan. I very much disagree with what the host just said; saving strength during the Saudi match to save all energy for the Japan match—I don't think that approach is appropriate considering the actual situation."

Zhang Lu shook his head and pointed his pen at several teams on the blackboard: "Saving strength against Saudi Arabia has a very clear objective: to win both matches. But the depth of Team China's bench can only be described as average; we cannot switch back and forth among a host of top-tier players like England or France do. That is something we simply cannot achieve."

"Winning both matches would of course be great, but what if we end up losing both matches by doing so?"

"Team China is currently first in Group B, so if we lose both matches, what rank will we be?"

Analyzing his words, Zhang Lu clearly belongs to the conservative faction.

Compared to the greedy CCTV audience, the experienced Zhang Lu believes that securing one victory is what Team China needs to accomplish most right now.

If we defeat Saudi Arabia, then even if we lose to Japan in the fourth round, Team China will still have a record of three wins in four matches, basically eliminating any worry about qualification.

However, if we lose both matches, Team China's record will become two wins in four matches.

Then there would be no need to compare with Japan; by that time, we wouldn't even know if our ranking could surpass Saudi Arabia's!

Repost: Pudong Stadium Spectator Guide—How to Encounter Tang Ye?

Chinese fans with nothing better to do discussed how to encounter Tang Ye and listed several possible spawn locations for him.

First, guess a favorable location, then prepare a Master Ball.

The next step is capture!

However, regrettably, ever since entering the hotel, Tang Ye has rarely come out; the only time he was spotted by fans was during the pitch inspection training the day before the match.

On October 6, the Chinese national team players took a bus to Pudong Stadium.

Although it was not match day, the stadium's attendance reached an exaggerated 70%.

"May I ask why you came to watch the warm-up match? Is it to see Tang Ye?"

A reporter interviewed fans on site.

"Um, yes, haha!"

The interviewed fans were two males around twenty years old; judging by their attire, they appeared to be university students.

"So for today and tomorrow, will you both be in Shanghai for the next two days?"

"Oh, no!"

Realizing the misunderstanding, one of the young men waved his hands repeatedly: "We don't have tickets for tomorrow's match; those tickets are too expensive. We couldn't grab them on Damai initially, so there was no chance afterward."

The two fans clarified their status as students.

The cheapest tickets for the China versus Saudi Arabia match were 480 yuan, but obtaining a ticket at that price was basically impossible.

When the ticket sales time arrived, if you clicked in and found none available, there would be no further opportunities afterward.

Of course, you could go to second-hand platforms, where tickets in the 480-yuan price range were selling for over 2,470.

Describing this as 'exaggerated' is actually somewhat conservative; it is completely incomprehensible why the price would soar to such an extent.

"So you failed to grab tickets for tomorrow and are only watching today's pitch inspection?"

"Um, yes, but tomorrow we will watch from outside the stadium. Just to soak up the atmosphere, haha!"

The fans greeted the viewers in the live broadcast room.

The reporter slowly walked down from the second-tier stands: "Based on what we see now, combined with the experience from the previous match against Vietnam, many of the current stadiums within China can no longer meet the demands of the fans."

The development of football stadiums within China lags behind the development of the Chinese national team, leading to the current situation where tickets priced at 480 yuan are selling for as high as 2,500.

Good news: Construction on the ten stadiums for the 2023 Asian Cup has entered its final stages.

Bad news: Even when new, larger stadiums are put into use, the prices for tickets to national team matches may still remain at high levels.

This is a very buggy aspect of Chinese football.

China has a large population, and the interwoven high-speed rail network makes transportation exceptionally convenient.

The rapid development of the Chinese national team since 2017 has led to a swift expansion in the number of fans; assuming the number of football fans within China expands fourfold, that would bring tens of millions of new fans.

Convenient transportation plus a huge population base; these two factors combined have led to the current state of football stadiums in China—there is simply no room to fit everyone.

This is also one of the reasons (though not a major contributing factor) why China previously failed in its bid to host the 2026 World Cup; FIFA worried that if China hosted the World Cup, ticket price premiums would exceed 800%, subsequently triggering massive dissatisfaction among fans.

So, is there a solution to this problem?

Switching to the adjacent channel, Xinhua News Agency interviewed Chen Chen Xuyuan, the then-chairman of the Chinese Football Association.

The response received was: There is no way.

This issue is determined by China's current overall situation.

Take concerts, for instance; for relatively popular singers, it's effortless for base tickets priced at 480 to be scalped to over a thousand.

Currently, the situation of the men's national football team is like the Pro Max version of a trending singer.

"Hmm... based on the current situation, the ticket premium for next year's early home match against the Japanese team will be even more severe, so the Football Association plans to officially begin implementing reforms to the match-viewing mechanism in November, with the aim of cracking down on scalpers."

Chen Chen Xuyuan said as much.

Escrivá interview: Temporarily not considering the situation with the Japanese team; the phased goal is to achieve three consecutive victories. China's chances of winning are greater than Saudi Arabia's.

Time quickly arrived at the day of the match.

"Tang Ye!"

"Tang Ye!"

"Damn, make way, make way! King Tang Tang Qiuwang, look here, look here!"

"Wow!!!"

Actually, ggbond should bear the brunt of the blame for this ticket premium issue, but the detestable ggbond is still eating, showing not a shred of intention to reflect!

"Go for it, Tang Ye!"

"Three consecutive wins! Three consecutive wins!"

Holding beef jerky in his right hand and a signature pen in his left, Tang Ye wrote autographs with great fluency.

After injuring his right hand previously, he switched to signing with his left hand, which felt very unnatural at first.

Now that the bandages on his right hand have been removed, he simply cannot break the habit of signing with his left hand.

Anyway, it's all the same; as long as he can write his name, it doesn't matter whether it's with his left hand or his right.

"Tang Ye, who are you voting for in this year's Ballon d'Or?"

Not knowing which fan had asked the question, Tang Ye stood still and pondered.

"Write your name down for me, and I'll vote for you, okay?"

"Haha!"

"Tang Ye, does Ten Hag have an issue with Saint Escrivá? Could you help Saint Escrivá educate Ten Hag!?"

Leading the Chinese men's football team to two consecutive victories in the Asian qualifiers, Escrivá has now gained many supporters in China.

"That question of yours, that question of yours I cannot answer."

Tang Ye waved his hand.

"Then who do you think is right, Saint Teng or Saint Escrivá?"

"Hey, don't ask questions like that!!"

Smiling, Tang Ye pushed the fans away, then created some distance: "Don't drag me into this; their conflict has nothing to do with me."

"Aren't they arguing because of you?"

"ggbond, why won't you admit your mistake!"

"Boo!!!"

"..."

"Tang Ye! Tang Ye! Tang Ye!"