On August 6, this World Cup team competition started on time at 8:30 am local time.
Due to the time difference, it is now 9:30 pm in China. This time is more friendly to viewers and anchors than local fans in Houston, because this is the time for everyone to relax before going to bed after a day of work and study.
Of course, it would be better if it could be an hour or two earlier.
Qin Huachang opened his live broadcast room on time.
Although one of the contestants this time was his disciple Lin Li, and although the doctor told him not to stay up late, his son Qin Zhenyu still relaxed after a fierce ideological struggle.
This is also because the team competition is really not prone to accidents.
There is a possibility that one player will have an accident, but there is absolutely no possibility that all five players will have an accident.
What's more, looking at the major associations around the world, there is really no one who can fight rationally.
In fact, the biggest sniper attack China Table Tennis has ever encountered in the history came from Germany many years ago. At that time, Bayer had good physical strength, experienced and was at the peak of his career. Wolf and Sissifield behind him were also young and energetic. With their strong physical fitness and extraordinary talent, they could often unexpectedly play the following games.
In those years, German Table Tennis Association was really proud, and it was precisely because Rohlskov was so prosperous in those years that he had the intention of trying to compete with the Huaping coach. After many years of cynicism, envy, jealousy and hatred, he could never really surpass him.
As for now, although it is said that supernovas are emerging in large numbers and a great era has begun, if you take a closer look, you will find that the overall combat power of the entire Europe has increased, but when it comes to a specific country, the thickness of the bench has actually decreased.
At this time, Qin Huachang was very confident, not only because there were no accidents in the team competition, but also because he had recently relaxed his mind and thought that he had already reached a transcendental state where everything was no longer in his mind.
Wang Chao entered the stadium with the team, showed his face, accepted the warm cheers from the audience, and then returned to the bench to watch the game.
He really had nothing to do today. The three main players, Luo Jiu, Xiao Fei, and Lin Li, were all in high spirits. Even the substitute Bai Feng had perfect jet lag yesterday and slept for ten hours.
Speaking of which, Wang Chao has a slightly harder time practicing on his own.
But it is only a little hard work. After all, Lilith is not interested in winning cards. What she enjoys more is playing with Wang Chao. Moreover, Lilith herself was recalled by the the Beautiful Country Table Tennis Association yesterday afternoon. As a strong player in the North American representative team, she also wants to participate in World Cup.
Later, other teams also appeared one after another.
The World Cup team competition is not a free registration system, but a qualified invitation system. Simply put, International Table Tennis Federation selects the twelve most representative and strongest teams based on the comprehensive world rankings of major table tennis associations and sends out invitations one by one.
And this so-called most representative selection standard comes largely from the results of the latest cup competitions on each continent.
So for the men's team, those who have qualified are:
Asian champion Chinese team.
European champions Germany.
South America champion Brazilian team.
North American champion team the Beautiful Country.
Oceania champions Australia.
African champion Nigeria.
In addition, the remaining six teams were selected by the International Table Tennis Federation official comprehensive evaluation and recognized by the table tennis associations of various countries, namely the Sakura Country team, the Kimchi Country team, the Taiwan Province team, the England team, the Swedish team, and the Austrian team.
It's a pity for the Minato team. Although they are eligible to participate independently, the leading brother Weng Chunting's performance in the competition in the past year is really bad, and in the end he still lost the election with an extremely subtle disadvantage.
Of the six teams behind, three are from Asia and three are from Europe. This also represents the current geographical pattern of table tennis, which is actually a typical Eurasian confrontation.
But if you want to refine it to the national level, there is no doubt that the whole world is against China.
The situation on the women's team is actually similar. If the men's team of an association is strong, most of the women's teams will not be far behind. After all, the foundation is there.
But there are subtle differences. For example, the Kimchi Country women's team did not qualify for World Cup, and was replaced by the Singapore women's team.
Then there is the grouping ceremony, which adopts the rule of first setting seeds and then drawing lots. The twelve teams are divided into four groups, with three teams in each group. They first play a single round-robin within the group to determine the top two in each group to form the top eight. Then the second round of drawing is conducted, and the knockout mode of the upper and lower half continues until the end.
The men's and women's teams of the Chinese Table Tennis Team are naturally the first seeds. They will not be grouped with the strong teams in the group stage. In the end, after some tossing, the teams of Nigeria and Austria were placed in the same group as the men's team of the Chinese Table Tennis Team, while the women's team of the Chinese Table Tennis Team were placed in the same group as the the Beautiful Country team and the Australian team.
And then?
Then the fight officially begins.
The rules of the team competition are actually very similar to the domestic Super League. There are also 5 large fields, each with 5 games and 3 wins. Each team has three players, who compete in the order determined before the game.
But there are some differences. For example, this team competition is different from previous ones in that there is no doubles event.
Strictly speaking, this change was actually caused by the inclusion of mixed doubles in the Olympics this year. Because mixed doubles entered Olympic Games, its attention and influence instantly exceeded Men's Doubles and Women's Doubles. In this case, not only the mixed doubles event was forced to be added to the Open, but the other two events of the three major competitions were also affected. For example, World Cup was directly changed to five singles games.
Another difference is that in the fourth and fifth games of Super League, you can compete with each other, change the order, and predict each other, while in every game of World Cup, the order of appearance is fixed.
Before the start of the game, the referee will directly draw the home team and the away team. Assume that the three singles players of the home team are ABC and the three players of the away team are XYZ. Then the specific match order is:
A vs. X
B vs. Y
C vs. Z
A vs. Y
B vs. X
This is common sense. It doesn't need to be elaborated on. Anyone who knows it will understand it. If you don't understand it, it doesn't seem to matter. Because Wang Chao has no chance to appear, the author does not intend to write it down in detail. You just need to know that it's over when you do it. It's over when you win. It's over when you get zero seals. Well, it's that simple.
As the most popular dominant team in the table tennis world, the opening match undoubtedly belongs to Huaping, and their opponent is the Nigerian team from Africa.
African table tennis has always been unpopular. It belongs to a desert within a desert. In the past many years, the strongest country in Africa has been Egypt. However, do you still remember African top player Arul?
This black guy, alone, with a racket, a towel, and a bottle of water, traveled all over the world, booked his own air tickets, booked his own hotel, and arranged his own training plan. He had no teammates, no coaches, and no fans to follow him. He gradually made his mark under such simple conditions, and this year's Open was in full swing., twice in a row eliminated the German No. 4 figure Qiu Shang, who has a promising future, and once reached the top eight of the Open Men's Singles individual. With such a resounding result, he finally got a World Cup ticket for his motherland.
It is the Nigerian team's honor to qualify for the competition, but it is the Nigerian team's misfortune to be placed in a group with China Table Tennis Team.
The whole game lasted only one hour. In the end, Huaping won three games in a row and defeated the Nigerian team. The score of the three games was 3:0. In other words, Luo Jiu, Xiao Fei, and Lin Li played a total of 9 games in one hour. Taking into account the intermission, game change and timeout, the average game time was only 5 minutes.
Yes, it is so cruel.
This was a bloody massacre.
The attitude of the Nigerian team is very clear. They are here to experience World Cup, and they do not expect to create miracles. Therefore, they did not have any tricks in the lineup for this game, and they arranged completely according to their strength.
As for Huaping, team competitions have always been based on strength, and the formation is royal. However, Huaping's lineups are not based on strength. The reason is that the relative strengths of the main players are ambiguous and difficult to determine, so they are arranged according to world rankings.
In short, Arul faced off against Luo Jiu, and was beaten to death by Taiwan's legendary double-sided loop ball attack system with no blind spots, which is said to be the best in the world. He has a lot of natural power, but he can't keep up with Luo Jiu at all. The speed of is also difficult to adapt to the changes of Luo Jiu. Often, just after resolving a strong topspin forehand attack, a backhand shot is only fast and does not turn. Just getting used to the backhand shot, another forehand attack has a strong spin.
After the game, Arul was sweating profusely.
But he is actually the most tenacious, because his two opponents did not resist at all, and they did not look like they had a fighting spirit. When Xiao Fei and Lin Li launched their attacks, the opponents did not move very much, and they simply assumed that they could not catch them.
But Wang Chao naturally doesn't look at the surface when watching football.
If the ball looks good, look at the ball. If the ball doesn't look good, look at the man.
The score of this game is very interesting. Luo Jiu beat Arul, with a score of 11:3, a score of 11:2, and a score of 11:1. The first game was a crushing one, and the second game was. Arul's energy was shattered, and in the third game Arul actually had a broken mentality, with a bald head in front of him, but Luo Jiu deliberately made a suicide ball in the end, which saved the black guy's face.
This shows that Luo Jiu's mentality is quite peaceful and he is not angry. Faced with this vegetable abuse game, he just wants to win quickly and does not want to bully others, let alone humiliate them.
After that, Xiao Fei played more easily, but the score was slightly higher than Luo Jiu, 11:2 in one game, 11:3 in one game, and 11:4 in one game. The black guy on the opposite side obviously had no fighting spirit, but he actually scored more points in each game.
This is naturally not because Xiao Fei is not good, but because he has started to practice Buddhism again. In such a must-win situation, he did not want to play too rigorously, but played with tricks, and ended up missing a few balls.
Until the last game Lin Li came on stage.
Lin Li is one of the five main players in the national team. He is generally regarded as introverted and kind-hearted, but this time he was particularly fierce. He beat his opponent 11:1 directly in the first game, and then scored 11:0 in the next two games. He showed no mercy at all. Even though the black guy on the opposite side didn't want to win, he beat him ugly. It was just because of his dark skin that he couldn't see the redness in his face.
Wang Chao could see the murderous intention of Lin Li.
There is no doubt that German Open was blocked by me, which deeply stimulated this kind person.
At this time, Lin Li was like a sharp sword, always wanting to jump out and kill people. The person he really wanted to take revenge on was naturally Wang Chao. However, he had no chance now, so he could only release his murderous intention on the little brother in Nigeria first, so as not to choke himself.
"Lin Li is like this, what about Bai Feng?" Wang Chao is very curious about this, because it is obvious that Bai Feng's character is more unruly and domineering. Even Lin Li wants revenge, so Bai Feng must have a stronger fighting spirit.
Facing the quadrennial Olympic Games, no one will give up easily, because athletes' careers really don't have many four years.
At this time, Wang Chao suddenly felt his shoulder being tapped. When he turned around, he saw that it was Tang Yuanyuan who had taken advantage of the break after the game to sneak over from the women's team.
Tang Yuanyuan is not one of the five members of the women's team. She is essentially a spectator and is relatively free. This is the first time she has met Wang Chao since they were separated at the airport on the 4th. And she sneaked over at this moment, so naturally she has business.
"What's going on over there?" The gymnasium was too noisy, so Tang Yuanyuan leaned into Wang Chao's ear to speak.
Wang Chao said, "Everything is normal."
"Old Cai mentioned my record to you, right?" Tang Yuanyuan was very proud and raised an eyebrow at Wang Chao: "Let me tell you, I have been struggling a lot these days. He, no matter how he beat me, he said it was wrong. He asked me to cooperate, but I deliberately refused to cooperate. He asked me to discuss it, and no matter what he said, I said he was wrong. If he wanted to be reasonable, I said you taught me, and then he stopped talking."
Wang Chao has a strange expression.
He could completely imagine the complicated mood of the Kazik player.
I thought I was looking for a thigh, but instead I was looking for a mother.
In fact, Tang Yuanyuan has a simple mind, and many of her little tricks that she thinks are hidden can be clearly seen by others. Kazik must have noticed Tang Yuanyuan's uncooperativeness a long time ago, and can also guess why Tang Yuanyuan is not worthy. Okay, in this case, the 19-year-old boy was able to calmly reason with Tang Yuanyuan day by day, and did not continue to complain to Old Cai, nor did he expose Tang Yuanyuan in person. This actually proves that his character is still good.
In fact, Wang Chao later inquired specifically and found out that it was not Kazik who complained that night on the 4th, but Kazik's personal trainer.
But Wang Chao didn't want to persuade Tang Yuanyuan to change his attitude, because he was actually quite warm in his heart.
What Tang Yuanyuan did was indeed unethical for player the Beautiful Country, but for Wang Chao, it was equivalent to a very clear statement.
In the final analysis, it was because she agreed with her partner Wang Chao and was dissatisfied with being demolished that she kept throwing temper tantrums and acted a bit like a child, but her intentions were not fake. The fact that she secretly consulted with herself twice, and once secretly came to express her merits, showed that her recognition and trust in herself was even higher than that of her teacher Ge Miao.
As a partner, Wang Chao is very grateful.
So he felt a little embarrassed, because he had really been practicing hard with Lilith these two days, but for some reason, the effect was average.
"Tell me, what's going on over there?" Tang Yuanyuan bumped him with his shoulder.
Wang Chao sighed, "Let me tell you, that Lilith, she is very sincere, and she is indeed my biggest fan... I can't deliberately cause damage, so I can only practice with her."
He was afraid that a few simple sentences would not be convincing, so he simply recounted all the interactions with Lilith on the first day in a hurry to enhance his persuasiveness.
He thought it was enough to present objective facts, but in the end, Tang Yuanyuan stared at Wang Chao for a long time, and said in disbelief, "Didn't I specifically warn you? In the end, you were still corrupted by sugar-coated bullets?"
Wang Chao shook his head. "Didn't I explain it before? This is not a sugar-coated bullet..."
Tang Yuanyuan refused to reason with him. He snorted and cursed, "Hang yourself with a hook. You are not allowed to change for a hundred years. The one who deceives people is a puppy, and you are a puppy."
She turned around and slipped away quickly.
Wang Chao stretched out his hand to grab it, but it was empty. He shouted, "Come back..."
But Tang Yuanyuan, who had always been obedient, was disobedient this time and ran away without looking back, and was soon lost in the crowd in the stadium.
Wang Chao was stunned and took his hand back. At this moment, he actually felt a little lost.
In his previous life, he was still single when he was over forty years old. After time travel, he had not had much contact with girls at all. He regarded Tang Yuanyuan more as a buddy. However, at this time, he suddenly realized that Tang Yuanyuan was still a girl. She was not as easy to coax as her brothers. She would still lose her temper and become petty.
Girls don't seem to be as reasonable as boys, they are more emotional.
Wang Chao had a vague premonition that if he didn't do something, something big might happen.
He sat there for a long time, and it wasn't until the next game officially started that he woke up from his introspective state.
He is a ruthless and ruthless person in the professional field. He will frame him when he needs to be framed, defeat him when he needs to be defeated, fight when he needs to, and lie when he needs to. He never has any psychological burden, because he knows that in the field of competition, winning is the supreme truth, and he can use any means to win. For example, Qin Huachang, you can say that he is a bad person, but you can never deny that he is a top strong man.
But in life, Wang Chao has always wanted to cover everything, and always thought that he could do it.
But now he finally realizes that life is no different from table tennis, and sometimes there is no way to have both.
His expression gradually became firmer.
Thanks to "big's big" for the tip.