701 Bloodbath in Japan, Superhuman Performance Alarms All Sides

The Chinese team's substitution seemed to remind Japan's head coach. Takeshi Okada then realized that he still had all three of his substitution slots unused.

So after the Chinese team completed their changes, he also used two substitution slots in succession, taking off Daisuke Matsui and Yoshito Okubo and sending on Shunsuke Nakamura and Keiji Tamada.

After the two fresh legs came on, they developed some chemistry with Keisuke Honda and the other frontcourt players.

In the 69th minute, Keiji Tamada received a pass from a teammate on the left outside the box. After a slight adjustment, he unleashed a high-quality right-footed drive.

The ball struck the far post. It was Japan's closest attempt at a goal since the match began.

Three minutes later, Japan came again. Yuichi Komano overlapped down the right and sent in a low cross. Keisuke Honda arrived at the far post, but substitute Zhang Linpeng read the passing lane with remarkable accuracy and slid in early to clear the ball out for a corner.

"Great job, Xiaopeng!"

Vice-captain Li Weifeng took the initiative to pull Zhang Linpeng to his feet, casually ruffling his hair as he praised him.

At the same time, he marveled inwardly at how fierce the young players in the squad were!

Wang Dalei, who had firmly kept Yang Zhi on the bench; Zhang Linpeng, who could practically replace Old Sun already; and up front, there was a forward with elite finishing and ghostlike off-the-ball movement.

They had once worried that after the veteran players retired, the National Football Team would have no one to carry the torch.

Now, though, it seemed there was no need to worry too much.

Li Weifeng was already thirty-two this year. At his age, he definitely would not be able to play in the next World