Positional warfare is not what the Chinese team is good at.
Since Lu Wenbin joined the national football team, the Chinese team's tactics have always been defensive counterattack, whether playing as a striker or attacking midfielder.
If Lu Wenbin continues to play as attacking midfielder, it might be better.
But now facing Uruguay, a strong South American team, Lu Wenbin must stick to the defensive midfielder position to prevent Uruguay's defensive counterattacks.
The Chinese team must first stabilize their defense before they can talk about attacking or winning.
Without Lu Wenbin in the frontcourt, China's offensive efficiency would be even lower.
In the 8th minute, Lu Wenbin made a long pass to find Hao Junmin on the wing, but Hao Junmin stopped the ball too far and the ball was intercepted by the defender.
However, Uruguay's counterattack failed. They were pressed by Lu Wenbin and Wang Yongpo in the midfield, resulting in a pass error and losing the ball.
In the 15th minute, Lu Wenbin launched an attack and passed the ball to Zheng Zhi in the open space.
If Zheng Zhi had a better vision, he should be able to see Yu Hai in the open space, and Yu Hai could cut inside and shoot after receiving the ball.
But Zheng Zhi did not see Yu Hai's open space and passed the ball back to Lu Wenbin. Yu Hai's offside efforts on the wing were in vain and he wasted an attacking opportunity.
This is the limitation brought about by different vision. Although Zheng Zhi is a good player, he is still far from Lu Wenbin.
During the Chinese team's attack, Uruguay occasionally counterattacked.
But Lu Wenbin always held the backcourt, and Uruguay was unable to form an attack in the middle. Although there were two shots, neither of them hit the goal frame.
Half an hour passed and the two sides were still tied. The Chinese team failed to seize the offensive opportunities organized by Lu Wenbin, and Uruguay's counterattack also disappeared under Lu Wenbin's organized defense. The two sides were evenly matched.
But no one acted rashly.
Uruguay is naturally not afraid of a draw. In the case of a draw, their chances of qualifying are the greatest, unless Nigeria beats Spain by a large margin.
Therefore, Uruguay is in no hurry.
The Chinese team, especially Lu Wenbin, did not dare to act rashly.
Lu Wenbin was afraid that if he moved forward, Uruguay would launch a quick and fierce attack like Nigeria and break down the Chinese team's defense line.
As a South American team, Uruguay's attack may be sharper and more deadly than Nigeria's. It's just that Lu Wenbin is stuck in the defensive midfielder position, which has led to Uruguay's failure to score.
If Lu Wenbin had moved to the attacking midfielder position earlier, Uruguay might have scored a goal before he could.
Therefore, Lu Wenbin could only continue to defend in the backcourt and slowly organize the offense.
Before the end of the first half, the Chinese team finally got a chance.
In the 38th minute, Lu Wenbin controlled the ball near the center circle, supporting the Uruguayan striker Lodeiro behind him with his hands while observing the situation in the frontcourt.
Although Uruguay was defending and counterattacking, and other players in the midfield might not have anyone coming forward to defend, as long as Lu Wenbin got the ball, even if the midfielder and defender were far away, the forward would come up to interfere, making it impossible for Lu Wenbin to organize an attack comfortably.
However, Lu Wenbin's ball control skills were too good, and it was impossible for Lodeiro to snatch the ball by himself. Suarez, the No. 9 striker who played for Liverpool in the Premier League, had already run over and was ready to work with Lodeiro to steal the ball.
Lu Wenbin naturally would not wait for Suarez to get into position.
Although both of them are forwards and their intercepting skills are not very good, their fight may cause Lu Wenbin to lose the ball.
Even if he doesn't lose the ball, it may affect the quality of his passes.
Anyway, Lu Wenbin has already seen the gap and the running positions of his teammates, so he can launch an attack.
Lu Wenbin kept his eyes on Hao Junmin who was advancing on the right side, causing the Uruguayan defense to move a little towards Hao Junmin.
Then, before Suarez came up, Lu Wenbin passed the ball with a long pass.
The Uruguayans thought that Lu Wenbin was going to pass the ball to Hao Junmin, and Lu Wenbin's eyes were indeed looking at Hao Junmin.
As a result, the ball flew straight to the left bottom line: Lu Wenbin used a Ronaldinho-style pass.
This caught all the players on the Uruguayan defense off guard.
Seeing the ball flying to the left, everyone turned their heads and saw that Yu Hai had already run there without knowing when.
Now there was no one on the left side of Uruguay's defense. Yu Hai calmly took Lu Wenbin's long pass, then cut inside with the ball and headed towards the penalty area.
The horrified Uruguayan left-back Scotti quickly turned around and rushed over to block Yu Hai.
Wu Lei rushed towards the goal at full speed from outside the penalty area, preparing to grab the ball in front of the goal, causing the Uruguayan defense to retreat collectively, trying to intercept the ball passed to Wu Lei by Yu Hai.
Before Scottie got close, Yu Hai broke into the large penalty area and passed the ball outside the small penalty area line.
Scottie jumped up to plug the hole, but hit nothing: the ball didn't fly.
While Wu Lei led the two central defenders into the penalty area, Zheng Zhi behind him was left unguarded.
Yu Hai did not make a high cross for Wu Lei to compete for a header, but instead made a low inverted triangle pass to the penalty spot.
Zheng Zhi rushed up from behind and shot the ball directly into the lower right corner of the goal without stopping.
Wu Lei's central defender Aguirregaray turned around and fell to the ground to tackle, but failed to touch the ball.
Goalkeeper Silva dived but couldn't touch the ball.
The ball passed through Silva's fingertips and went into the goal along the right post. China beat Uruguay 1-0.
The Chinese commentator in the commentary booth yelled:
“The ball went in…”
"Zheng Zhi, Zheng Zhi, Zheng Zhi scored a goal!"
"33-year-old Zheng Zhi scored a goal in the Confederations Cup!"
"Lu Wenbin made a feint to the east and attacked in the west. Yu Hai easily received the ball on the wing and cut inside. Then he made an inverted triangle pass to Zheng Zhi, who shot the ball without stopping!"
"Most of the credit for this goal goes to Lu Wenbin. His long pass completely fooled Uruguay's defense!"
"Lu Wenbin's vision and passing skills are better than Xavi of Barcelona!"
In the stands and in front of the TV, countless Chinese fans burst into warm applause and cheered and screamed.
This is the first time that the Chinese team has been in the leading position in the Confederations Cup.
Zheng Zhi is the oldest player on the Chinese team. If it weren't for his rich experience and physical fitness, he would definitely not have been selected given the current age structure of the Chinese team.
The key point is that head coach Gao Hongbo doesn't like him either.
It was only because of Lu Wenbin's suggestion that he was able to continue to be selected for the national team and participate in the Confederations Cup with the team.
Although there are many negative stories about Zheng Zhi among Chinese fans, Lu Wenbin still believes that Zheng Zhi should be one of the top players in China.
Even though he is a little older, Zheng Zhi is very self-disciplined and has always maintained good physical fitness. The Chinese team also needs his experience.
Now, Lu Wenbin's advice has paid off.
Under the circumstances where he had to defend the backcourt to prevent the opponent from counterattacking, Zheng Zhi finally scored a goal that put China ahead of Uruguay.
The Chinese team was immediately in a more advantageous position than Uruguay.