On July 17, 2011, Lu Wenbin returned to China and arrived in Kunming, Yunnan, to join the national team.
The national media and fans are looking forward to Lu Wenbin leading the Chinese team to break through the World Cup qualifiers and enter the World Cup finals with great enthusiasm.
In the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, because South Korea and Japan were the hosts and directly entered the finals, the Chinese team had two fewer opponents in the qualifiers.
Moreover, the Chinese team was very lucky in the draw for the top ten, as they were drawn into a relatively weaker group. In the end, they made it out of Asia for the first time in history and advanced to the World Cup finals.
China's entry into the World Cup became one of the three major news events of the year, along with the successful bid for the Olympic Games and joining the WTO.
However, when the World Cup really arrived, the Chinese team became a complete tragedy, being shamefully eliminated with three losses in three games, 0 points, 0 goals, and 9 goals conceded.
If Saudi Arabia had not been at the bottom of the list, the Chinese team would have been the worst performing team in that World Cup.
Even if you are not the last one, few people would be proud of it.
They relied heavily on luck to make it to the World Cup qualifiers, but were shamefully eliminated in the finals without even scoring a goal.
Almost all Chinese media and fans regard that World Cup as a disgrace.
Therefore, countless fans are looking forward to the day when the Chinese team can truly enter the World Cup and achieve a historic breakthrough in the World Cup finals.
The appearance of Lu Wenbin gave the fans such hope.
During the 2008 Olympics and the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, Lu Wenbin was still young and had just made his debut, and the Football Association did not give Lu Wenbin this opportunity.
Now, the Football Association has collapsed and reorganized under the interference of national leaders, and the work of the new Football Association team is said to have received attention from the Politburo leaders.
Therefore, the current Football Association no longer dares to do anything weird, and all its work is based on the healthy development of Chinese football.
Lu Wenbin, the FIFA Ballon d'Or winner and the world's top star, is naturally the target of protection by the Football Association and even higher-level leaders.
Lu Wenbin and the national team he leads must not be interfered with in any way. Even if advertisers want the national team to attend commercial activities, they need Lu Wenbin's consent.
If Lu Wenbin feels that commercial activities interfere with the national team's preparations and disagrees, no matter how much money advertisers pay, it will be useless.
All signs indicate that Lu Wenbin will lead the Chinese team out of Asia and into the Brazil World Cup finals.
After arriving in Kunming, at the press conference held by the national team, Lu Wenbin also publicly stated that he had absolute confidence in leading the Chinese team out of Asia and into the World Cup finals, and asked fans across the country for support.
Domestic media also reported in great detail that Lu Wenbin had returned to China to prepare for the World Cup qualifiers:
"Lu Wenbin ended Real Madrid's global training ahead of schedule and returned to China to prepare for the World Cup qualifiers!"
"The Chinese team will soon launch an attack on the qualification for the Brazil World Cup under the leadership of Lu Wenbin!"
"Lu Wenbin said: The Chinese team will definitely be able to break out of Asia and enter the World Cup finals!"
"July 23, Kunming Tuodong Stadium, China's first World Cup qualifier, see you there!"
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The Chinese team's journey in the Brazil World Cup qualifiers began in the second stage. Their opponent is the Laos team that advanced in the first stage. They will play at home first and then away.
Although everyone knows that there is 100% no suspense about China's victory over Laos.
But because this is the Chinese team's first match in the Brazil World Cup qualifiers, it has a different significance. In addition, there is a local superstar like Lu Wenbin, so it naturally attracted a lot of attention. More than 100,000 fans rushed to Kunming from all over the country.
Including the local fans in Kunming, the Tuodong Stadium, which can only accommodate more than 40,000 fans, would not be able to accommodate them at all.
Fortunately, the city government had anticipated this and installed a number of large LCD screens in the square outside the stadium and in various parks, leisure squares, and commercial squares in the city to broadcast the first match of the nationally anticipated Brazil World Cup qualifiers live to meet the viewing needs of fans in the city.
Not only in Kunming, but also in Guiyang, Chengdu, Chongqing, Changsha, Nanjing, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, etc., countless LCD screens have been urgently erected in various municipal squares and parks across the country for fans from all over the country to watch the live broadcast of the World Cup qualifiers.
If Lu Wenbin really leads the Chinese team into the World Cup finals, these LCD screens can be used until the 2014 Brazil World Cup finals.
Watching a football match, especially a national team match, requires tens of thousands of people to watch together, cheer together, cheer together, applaud for goals, and curse together for goals lost. Only then can there be an atmosphere and passion.
Even if many people have TVs and computers at home, they would rather go to the square and watch the live broadcast on the big screen with others.
From the government to the players, media and fans, all of China is ready to make another bid for the World Cup.
On the day of the match, Saturday, after lunch, countless people gathered at Tuodong Stadium from all streets of Kunming City.
Even if you don't have a ticket, you might as well try your luck at the scene and see if you can buy a scalped ticket to watch the game.
Even if you can't buy it, it's also good to watch the game outside the stadium with tens of thousands of fans and feel the atmosphere of the national team scoring goals up close.
Before the game started, when the national anthem was played, not only did the 40,000 fans in the stadium sing along with the players, but tens of thousands of fans in the square outside the stadium also sang along loudly.
The passionate singing of "March of the Volunteers" echoed over the Tuodong Stadium.
After the entrance ceremony, the two sides shook hands, took photos, and tossed sides, and the Chinese team won the right to kick off.
At 15:00 on July 23, 2011, with the referee's whistle, the first leg of the second round of the 2014 Brazil World Cup Asian qualifiers between China and Laos officially began amid the cheers of more than 100,000 Chinese fans inside and outside the stadium and hundreds of millions of fans across the country.
After the Asian Cup in Qatar, Gao Hongbo, under the advice of Lu Wenbin, learned from Mourinho and transformed the 541 formation into 4231, making the defense more layered and three-dimensional, rather than simply piling up defenders in the backcourt for defense.
The 4231 formation starts defending from the midfield, which can give the back line more time to prepare and also give the front players time to return to defense.
The four-line formation is also the general trend of modern football, so Gao Hongbo readily accepted Lu Wenbin's suggestion.
Through warm-up training and testing after the Asian Cup and before the World Cup qualifiers, the players have gradually adapted to this formation.
As for Lu Wenbin, he never had any problems with adaptability.
Didn’t you see that he just joined Real Madrid and performed a hat-trick in the first half of his Real Madrid debut against Los Angeles Galaxy
For Lu Wenbin, who can play on the wing or in the middle, can break through, shoot and pass, there is room for him to perform in any position in the frontcourt.