Chapter 868: Progress Comes from Reflection; A $500 Million Annual Salary

Korean Air Magazine—Qatar World Cup Quarterfinals: China, Asia's sole survivor, faces traditional powerhouse the Netherlands.

Manchester Evening News front-page headline—The Real Winner? This World Cup's quarterfinals feature a total of 10 Manchester United players, including: TY, Rashford, Dembélé, De Jong, De Ligt, Varane, and others.

The Manchester Evening News report was purely superfluous.

Everyone says Manchester United is currently the greatest club; naturally, in a top-tier tournament like the World Cup, Manchester United would have the most players. Whether it's Real Madrid, Barcelona, Mancheng, or Liwupu, they all must be set aside!

Furthermore, the Netherlands squad also includes two Manchester United players, namely De Jong and De Ligt, and both are absolute mainstays.

The Round of 16 was a clash between big brothers and little brothers.

Now the quarterfinals have turned into a clash between big brothers and even smaller brothers.

The knockout stage grouping rules for the Qatar World Cup were truly nauseating, deliberately forcing the Manchester United brothers to draw swords against each other.

Click-click!

Having concluded all matches of this World Cup, the Japanese national team players and head coach Hajime Moriyasu bid farewell to the fans at the airport.

Although they failed to advance to the top eight, Japanese fans were quite satisfied with their team's performance, so there were no obvious boos at the scene.

"Keep it up! In the next World Cup, we'll reach the quarterfinals too!"

"Moriyasu-san, keep it up!"

"Minamino-san!"

Click-click!

Hajime Moriyasu bowed to the cameras.

"Moriyasu-san, your team successfully reached the knockout stage in this World Cup; for any Asian team, that is a commendable achievement..."

"Hmm... indeed not bad, but I believe this has not yet reached our goal."

A tone of reluctance colored Hajime Moriyasu's voice: "China advanced to the quarterfinals; we also hoped to do the same as them, but we failed to accomplish it."

"Compared to Tang Sang and his teammates, we still have many shortcomings. This World Cup made us deeply aware of these mistakes; over the coming years, we will engage in profound reflection and correct our errors."

Hajime Moriyasu nodded to the reporters: "The future Japanese team will become stronger, and our goal will not change; we aim to win the World Cup championship in 2030."

The reporter also brought up the Asian Cup next June, a question that was extremely uncomfortable to answer.

As things stand, the Chinese team can be described as terrifyingly strong within Asia; with the 2023 Asian Cup even being hosted on China's home turf, what could Hajime Moriyasu possibly say?

"There remains a relatively large gap between us and China; half a year of reflection time might be insufficient, but we will do our utmost; we will challenge the Chinese team at next year's Asian Cup."

"Even though they are a World Cup quarterfinalist team?"

"Yes, even though they are a World Cup quarterfinalist team."

Hajime Moriyasu led the Japanese national team players in bowing 90 degrees to the fans who had come to see them off, and here he planted a flag: Japan will advance at least to the final in the Asian Cup starting in June 2023, and if possible, they will issue another challenge to the Chinese team.

Nikkan Sports interviews Moriyasu-san: A significant gap still exists between Japanese national football and China; cultivating a player like Tang Sang is extremely difficult, and even China cannot replicate such a feat twice; the team will engage in profound reflection, and the June Asian Cup will be an opportunity for revenge.

【So arrogant? On China's home ground, they still want to mess with the national team?】

【Stop criticizing; Moriyasu seems determined after all; Japanese football hasn't made zero progress these past few years.】

【Japanese football is just so-so; if you want to watch high-level competition, you have to look at our national team; Tang Tang Qiuwang ran 16km in 2 hours—that is true high-level football!】

【Frustrating; why did the quarterfinal opponent have to be the damn Netherlands? It would be better to play Portugal or Switzerland; wouldn't it be nice to bully my brother Luo a bit?】

【Play Portugal? Do you really think Portugal is weak? None of these quarterfinal opponents are easy to play; just accept whoever we meet; what other choice is there?】

"Come on, come on!"

"Damn, pass it to me!"

After colliding with Zhang Zhang Xizhe, Tang Ye gained possession of the ball.

He found an opening amidst twists, turns, and dodges.

Smack!

He passed the ball forward to Ai Ai Kesen.

A direct shot!

Goal!

"Wow!"

Clap-clap-clap-clap!

Applause rang out on the training ground, while Feng Feng Xiaoting spread his hands toward Wang Wang Dalei on the ground: "Wang Dalei, your reaction was too slow!"

Wang Wang Dalei shook his head and climbed up from the ground: "I feel like my form is a bit off..."

"Damn, don't say that."

Zhang Zhang Yuning called out to stop the two: "Let's not talk about that now; if your form really goes bad later, wouldn't that be disastrous?"

"Sigh."

Wang Wang Dalei was helpless as well.

His form in the knockout stage was clearly not as outstanding as it had been during the group stage.

But having already reached this stage, the team could not suddenly replace him with Yan Yan Junling as the starting goalkeeper.

As long as Wang Wang Dalei's form did not deteriorate significantly, he would remain the starter for however many matches remained.

Top-tier teams basically never change their starting goalkeeper, let alone a super-top-tier team like the national team, which is a World Cup quarterfinalist.

"Beep!"

"Gather up!"

The translator was urging, while Escrivá clapped his hands nearby: "Hurry up, hurry up (in Chinese)."

Having stayed with the national team for so long, Escrivá had learned quite a bit of Chinese; for instance, vocabulary like "Wo Cao" and "Ni Ma" rolled off his tongue effortlessly, because such things were extremely popular on the Chinese team's training ground.

"Keep it up, Wang Dalei; just perform normally."

Marti comforted Wang Wang Dalei, who was taking off his gloves, while Escrivá began his speech.

"From the group stage onwards, the Netherlands has always played with three defenders; I feel there's a high probability they'll use a three-defender formation against us too—hmm, about 95%. They probably don't have any other good formations available; their tactics are rather monotonous."

"However... hmm, actually, our tactics are quite monotonous too."

While speaking, Escrivá touched his hair.

"But you need to pull yourselves together; strictly speaking, not 'pull yourselves together'—I feel you actually need to be a bit more tense right now."

Escrivá looked at the players before him: "I know reaching the quarter-finals is a great achievement, but what I mean is, since we've finally made it to the quarter-finals, no matter what, we must still perform at our very best."

"I hope you go into the match with the mindset of wanting to win, even though in the end we will most likely lose."

"..."

"That's about it; everyone, get some good rest."

"Beep!"

As Escrivá walked away, the Chinese national team players, who had previously been emotionally charged, calmed down considerably.

Escrivá was right; although they had already exceeded their mission, they still needed to ramp up the pressure.

In competitive sports, you can't play without pressure; one could say there wouldn't be even a sliver of a chance.

"But how do we find pressure..."

Zhang Zhang Yuning shook his head: "I can't think of any reason why I should be feeling great pressure right now."

"That's indeed the case..."

Wang Wang Shenchao expressed support for this, while Tang Ye and Wei Wei Shihao were doing something or other off to the side.

"Tang Ye."

"Tang Ye!"

"Hmm? Oh, oh."

Tang Ye turned his head; Feng Feng Xiaoting was looking at him.

"My brother Hao says he feels he can't exert strength in his thighs; earlier in the bus, Chao-ge 【Wang Wang Shenchao】 told me he felt the same way."

"Then, well, I feel a bit of that too."

Feng Feng Xiaoting sighed: "A 120-minute match, all of it high-intensity; how can one recover from that?"

"This World Cup is being held in winter; the schedule is much tighter than in previous tournaments," Wu Lei added.

"But we can't react to that either; this is our first time reaching the quarter-finals."

"Haha, that's true too."

The players felt helpless.

With such high-intensity matches and less than a week between each game, it was indeed very uncomfortable.