The reason why the national team chose to train in Kunming is that South Africa, the host of this South African Federation Cup, is also located at a high altitude. Letting the national team go to Kunming to train in advance and adapt to high altitude is also a preparation strategy.

After completing the final closed training camp in Kunming, the national team took a special plane to Johannesburg, the capital of South Africa on the 11th. The first game of the Chinese team, the opening match of the Federation Cup, was scheduled to be held at the Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg at 20 pm on the 14th time.

Alihan's training team recruited 31 people, but in fact only 23 people were able to get air tickets to South Africa. Eight players missed the Confederation Cup trip, and basically all played for young players in China.

When the Chinese team arrived at Johannesburg International Airport, in addition to the organizers of the Federation Cup, there were also enthusiastic South African fans, as well as Chinese and Chinese working in South Africa.

Especially when they saw Yang Yang appearing with a smile on his face, the atmosphere at the scene was extremely warm.

There were more than a hundred fans who picked up the plane shouting his name, and there were also media reporters from all over the world. They all came chasing Yang Yang and were full of expectations for the Federation Cup, the number one player in the world.

After seeing the fanatical fans and media reporters at the scene, the national team's international players once again deeply felt Yang Yang's influence in international football. Even South Africa has so many fans coming to pick him up, which shows his popularity here.

Unfortunately, after a long flight, Yang Yang was in high spirits when he first arrived in South Africa, but his other teammates were very tired, so Yang Yang could not stay on the scene for more time. He could only interact with the fans on the scene and left in a hurry.

But Yang Yang's arrival undoubtedly added a bit of color to the upcoming Federation Cup.

However, although South African fans are very fond of Yang Yang outside the stadium, they will not be polite when they really get on the stadium.

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On the evening of the 14th Beijing time, Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg.

Both sides played more actively in the opening game, and both teams were eager to win the first victory in the group from each other.

The game started with a fast pace, but both sides made more mistakes in passing and receiving the ball.

The South African team significantly strengthened their defense against Yang Yang, and at the same time arranged for the high school defender Butt, who was 1.98 meters tall, to freeze Gao Lin, which made it difficult for the Chinese team to open up the situation in the frontcourt.

Moreover, from the beginning of the game, South Africa team used its excellent physical fitness and abundant physical fitness to launch a series of impacts on the Chinese team, headed by midfielder Pinal who played for Everton, and took turns to put pressure on the Chinese team.

However, although South Africa seems to be taking the initiative, it is difficult to create a threat.

The Chinese team has been unable to regain its rhythm after a bad start.

In the end, the two sides tied with zero to zero in the first half.

...

After the second half of the game, the South African fans in the stands reversed the cheers and cheers when they heard Yang Yang's name before the game, beat the African drum full of local characteristics, stood up and sang the national anthem to encourage fans of their national team.

The fans who were watching the stands behind the South African team's goal were all versatile to interfere with the players on the court, especially Yang Yang. Every time he got the ball, he would think of overwhelming booing at the scene.

The turf at the scene was also very bad and the potholes were uneven. When Yang Yang dribbled the ball and tried to break through, he accidentally stepped on the potholes. Not only did the breakthrough fail, he almost fell down and lost the ball. This immediately made the South African fans in the stands excited and cheered wildly, as if they were eager to see Yang Yang make an embarrassment.

This made Yang Yang feel speechless and kept smiling bitterly.

After the second half, South Africa began to push forward, but unfortunately, the Chinese team today arranged a double midfielder combination of Zhao Junzhe and Zheng Zhi, and Feng Xiaoting and Li Weifeng were in the central defender. Sun Xiang and **peng played on both sides, but they did not leave any chance for South Africa.

South Africa relies more on Pinal's organization and passes, and Yang Yang is also very familiar with this former teammate. He gave many advice to Zheng Zhi and Zhao Junzhe before the game, so Pinal's performance today was not ideal.

Similarly, Pinal must have given many tricks to the South African defenders.

The most threatening attack in South Africa's entire game occurred in the 73rd minute of the second half, when Pinal made a corner kick, and center Fantney, who played for Maccabi in Haifa, Israel, headed the ball from a close distance, but was slightly higher.

Although the attack failed this time, it still made people sweat.

Subsequently, the Chinese team did not adopt conservative tactics, but decisively replaced Zhao Junzhe with Hao Junmin, strengthening the team's midfield creativity, and Zhou Haibin and Hao Junmin jointly created opportunities for the frontcourt.

On the one hand, after the South African team consumed too much physical fitness, they could not support it, and their running and speed declined. On the other hand, the Chinese team's sudden force forced the South African team to turn from attack to defense.

In the 84th minute, Hao Junmin and Zhou Haibin cooperated in the middle and passed by Zhou Haibin over the top to the right.

After Chen Tao inserted at high speed, he forcibly broke through South Africa's left back one-on-one on the right side of the penalty area, and went down to the bottom line and made a front pass to the front point.

Gao Lin finally grabbed the first landing point. He headed the ball away from the goal and pushed the ball towards the back point.

Yang Yang quickly inserted it, and headed the ball from a close distance without anyone defending, pushing the ball into the South African team's goal.

One to zero!

When the referee's effective whistle sounded, the entire Ellis Park Stadium was in an uproar.

South African fans at the scene were also stunned for a while, and then there was warm applause.

The Chinese fans who came to the scene specifically shouted Yang Yang's name loudly, and many of them were waving the five-star red flag.

The score has been maintained until the end of the game.

The Chinese team finally narrowly defeated South Africa by 1-0 with Yang Yang's goal in the 84th minute.

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The first battle was won and it was passed back to the country, so the public opinion was naturally boiling again.

But three days later, when the Chinese team faced Spain, although the Chinese team adopted the game strategy of three midfielders and strictly guarding the game, Yang Yang was left alone in the frontcourt to counterattack, and the rest of the players retreated.

But even so, it was still unable to compete with the powerful Spanish team in the end.

In the 55th minute, Capdvilla made a cross from the left, and the Chinese team's defense was omitted. Villa ran out of the gap. Without anyone defending, he headed the ball in front of the small penalty area.

Yang Yang performed very tenaciously throughout the game. He almost assisted Chen Tao in the first half. After Villa scored in the second half, Yang Yang planned a counterattack twice in a row. One of them directly shot a long shot from 30 meters away, which was saved by Casillas and hit the post and missed the goal.

Spain also made continuous attacks, but it still couldn't break through the Chinese team's goal again.

In the end, the Chinese team lost the second game of the Federation Cup by zero to one.

Yang Yang is also very familiar with Spanish players, especially Xavi Alonso and Avelloa, both teammates from Liverpool's period, and he is still satisfied with the result of the game.

Although he lost, Spain's strength was there. The Chinese team was able to concede only one goal and defend the score in the whole game. More importantly, even in the final stage of the game, the Chinese team had not given up.

Overall, the team's performance is still satisfactory.

Losing to Spain was also expected by the Chinese team, and the key was to play against New Zealand in the last game.

...

With the Chinese team winning and losing, South Africa defeated New Zealand 2-0, which was also a win and a loss.

Spain wants to strive for the first place in the group, and its overall strength is far superior to South Africa. It should not let go of the third group stage, but it may not be possible to seek a draw. Therefore, the Chinese team can only win the right to advance in the last game by defeating New Zealand.

New Zealand lost to Spain in the first match by zero to five, and lost to South Africa in the second match by zero to two, and was basically eliminated.

The final battle was more about dignity.

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Ellis Park Stadium on February 21.

This time, fans in the stands chose to support New Zealand.

The reason is very simple. China's two games against New Zealand and Spain against South Africa are played at the same time. If China loses to New Zealand, South Africa will have a chance to advance.

Therefore, whenever New Zealand launches an attack, there are always thunderous cheers coming from the scene.

New Zealand also showed extremely high fighting spirit in this game. In the first half of the hour, it even had an advantage in the scene and suppressed the Chinese team.

But when the game reached the 25th minute, the Chinese team planned an attack. After Yang Yang got the ball in the frontcourt, he suddenly cut in from the left rib, throwing away the defensive player, forming a three-on-two situation in the middle, and assisting Gao Lin to score a goal.

The score also remained until the end of the first half.

In the other game, it was still a zero-to-zero draw, and South Africa also performed extremely tenaciously.

But after the second half of the game, Spain quickly got a penalty kick, and Villa personally scored a shot.

The news reached Ellis Park Stadium, which immediately stopped the fans on the scene.

I don’t know if it was influenced by the fans in the stands. Just one minute later, Yang Yang seized an opportunity and cut in from the left again, broke into the penalty area, scored a low shot, and won another goal for the Chinese team.

By this moment, the game has basically been decided.

Then Spain won another goal in the 70th minute, while the Chinese team scored a direct free kick in the 81st minute, which pierced New Zealand's goal again.

In the end, the Chinese team defeated New Zealand three-to-zero with Yang Yang's second goal and Gao Lin's goal.

As South Africa lost to Spain 0-2 on the other side, the Chinese team finally raised their heads from the group as the second in the group and advanced to the semi-finals of the Federation Cup.
Chapter completed!