The afternoon of July 23, Kunming Stadium.
The first leg of the second round of the World Cup Asian Qualifiers, China versus Laos.
This was China Team's first qualifying match on the road to the 2014 Brazil World Cup. It was an auspicious start, and with late July upon them, Queiroz had still recalled all the national team players despite the weakness of their opponents.
China Team once again deployed a 4-3-3 Formation for this match. Wang Dalei was in goal, with Sun Xiang, Feng Xiaoting, Zheng Zhi, and Zhang Linpeng across the back. Zhou Haibin played as the holding midfielder, with Hao Junmin and Chen Tao alongside him. The front three were Yang Yang, Gao Lin, and Wu Lei.
After joining Dortmund, Chen Tao's position had become far from secure. To fight for more playing time, he had been forced to drop deeper. He now looked more like a central midfielder, because Klopp felt he lacked speed and explosiveness on the wing.
Queiroz clearly felt the same way. Especially after Wu Lei's outstanding performances at Ajax, he decisively adjusted the lineup, pulling Chen Tao back into midfield to partner Hao Junmin and pushing Wu Lei forward to reconstruct the Trident.
Having Zhou Haibin play as a lone holding midfielder also proved Queiroz's determination in this match: he intended to attack with everything they had.
The first shot of the match came from Laos, but it failed to cause any danger.
The away side attacked aggressively from the start, clearly hoping to disrupt China Team's rhythm. But the risk was considerable, especially with such a pronounced gap in strength between the two sides.
In the fourth minute, China Team's high press paid off. After winning the ball, Chen Tao quickly switched play to the right. China Team launched a fast