（http://sports.sina.com.cn/china/afccl/2018-04-19/doc-ifzihnep7593268.shtml）

Yesterday the last round of AFC Champion League (Asian version of UEFA Championship) group matches of East Asian Zone ended, which generated all the teams entering the knockout stage of AFC. There are three Chinese teams: Guangzhou Evergrande, Tianjin Quanjian and Shanghai SIPG; Three Korean teams: Chonbuk Hyundai, Suwon Samsung and Ulsan Hyunda. By contrast, only one Japanese team made it through the group matches: Kashima Antlers.

  In Asia, Japan is one of the countries with the best soccer level. Japanese players are excellent and many of them play in European top leagues. Japanese Champion League’s teams used to be very competitive in AFC, too. Last year, Japanese team Urawa Red Diamonds won the cup. But this year, the situation changed. Let’s take one of the most famous Japanese team, Parkinson ‘s Apollo as an example. In the group matches, the weakest team in its group, Kichee FC from Hongkong, defeated Apollo by 1:0. And Tianjin Quanjian, a Chinese team entering AFC for the first time, beat Apollo to the ground by 3:2. In all the six group matches, Apollo lost 4 of them, and only get 4 points. Another Japanese team, Kawasaki Frontale, is even more miserable. As the champion of Japanese League in 2017, they didn’t win a single game in group matches, getting 3 points.

  Chinese soccer is known as weak and ugly for years. And decades ago, no Chinese team had satisfying performance in AFC. But in recent years, China soccer fans are proud of the performance of CSL teams. Tianjin Quanjian receives many compliments. At first, many people thought TQ was unlucky because it was in a group with AFC’s old faces: Chonbuk Hyundai from Korea and Parkinson ‘s Apollo from Japan. Especially, Chonbuk Hyundai is well known as one of the best teams in Asia. In the third round, CH defeated TQ by 6:3. TQ fans were astonished and became pessimistic. But later, in the fourth round, TQ took its revenge by giving CH a 4:2. TQ became the second team in Asia which could score 4 goals in the game against CH. The other two Chinese teams, Guangzhou Evergrande and Shanghai SIPG, both achieved the first place of their groups. These two teams have been competitive in Asia for years, and fans have enough reason to expect a champion from them.

  The reason why China rose and Japan fell, is simple: money. Chinese businessmen became extremely enthusiastic about investing soccer teams these years, after the success of Guangzhou Evergrande. So, more and more world-famous players transferred to China, such as Brazilian famous players Pato, Hulk and Oscar. On contrary, Japanese team cannot get much money. They don’t have a crazy investment. Also, most of excellent players in Japan transferred to Europe. So, the Japanese teams are becoming less and less vital. Some angry Japanese soccer fans hope that their teams should be funded. Otherwise, these poor teams will lose more and more fans.

 At last, I wish all Chinese teams a wonderful AFC trip.

http://slide.sports.sina.com.cn/g_pl/slide_2_730_179445.html#p=11

  I believe that many soccer fans were very excited about one of the UEFA quarter final games on April 4^th: Liverpool VS Manchester City. The other game, Barcelona VS Roma was not that intriguing because of the fact that Barcelona was apparently the better team, who “reasonably” defeated Roma by 4:1. That afternoon I paid 19 dollars to get access to the UEFA games online, which I would never do in China (we have free online live games). But it turned out that the money was worthy.

  The reason why the game between Liverpool and Manchester City was worth watching is not only that they are two of the top team in England or the world. Speaking of UEFA championship, Liverpool is a legendary team. They have won 5 cups, and they specially have the honor to print this record on their shirts. On the contrary, Manchester City doesn’t have a glorious history. But, it is definitely a new-rising power. The owner of the team is very wealthy, so they can afford to hire one of the top coaches in the world: Guardiola, who gained his fame in Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Guardiola has done a good job this season, getting Manchester City very close to the Premier League Championship. Also, the coach of Liverpool, Klopp, is known as a competitive rival against Guardiola all the time. In Germany, Klopp’s Dortmund was not at disadvantage when playing with Guardiola’s Bayern Munich. And the result of this game, 3:0, has proved that Klopp really knows how to cope with Guardiola’s scheme.

   I watched the whole game. And the style of these two teams were so obvious. On one side, Manchester City controlled the ball in the most of time. On the other, Liverpool focused on defending and fighting back when they had chance. Manchester City’s control of the ball made them seem like being at advantage, but they lacked the ability to really get into the penalty box and gave the one last strike. Usually, De Braun controlled the ball, and passed it to Sane or Kyle Walker on the side. Then the side players attempted to penetrate Liverpool’s defense and they failed to do so, starting again and again. Liverpool’s scheme was more efficient. Their attackers——Salah, Mané and Philmino all had wonderful speed and the sense of opportunity. The three goals of Liverpool happened so fast and unexpectedly. The defenders of Manchester City didn’t manage to stop the “fast and furious” players of Liverpool.

  After that game, Guardiola really need to think about how to improve the defense of his team. Only 3 days after that game, Manchester City was defeated by Manchester United by 2:3, which means that they had two games losing 6 balls. Also, the attackers of Manchester city should be more creative and passionate so that they will not repeat the same boring way of attacking.

  This is the worst time for Manchester City in this season. No matter in UEFA or Premier League. Furthermore, if Guardiola really wants to make Manchester City a world-top team, he should create new record in UEFA games. Good luck to him.

  For this passion blog I should have talked about soccer. Indeed, in the past few weeks, there were many wonderful games in Europe (such as the game between Real Madrid and PSG), and in my home country something about soccer is also worth considering. But somehow, I decided not to talk about soccer this time, for I have had a wonderful experience this weekend.

  As a freshman majoring in Earth Sciences, I have always been looking for a chance to get closer to scientific study and career. Then my advisor told me about NEGSA (Northeastern Geological Society Annual Conference, Vermont), which is an academic meeting. Then I signed up for it without hesitation. And this conference didn’t let me down.

  What have I learned from NEGSA? Actually, it is hard for me to understand all the talks about different kinds of research. I tried my best to focus and comprehend, but it was good enough for me to get 50% of these knowledges. In spite of that, I think it worthwhile. First, I at least felt what an academic report should be like. Second, I learned about some of the research method. For example, one of the things that impressed me was that a lecturer installed big cones to bottles in order to gather sediments more efficiently. What’s more, the techniques of taking sediment cores and evaluating geohazards are really interesting. What should Earth Science be like? What does it mean to be a scientist? Before coming to the conference, I only had vague answers to this question. Now I know that science it really a hard thing, but it is really cool. You have to deal with millions of data and analyze them. To get the data, you also need creative methods. After one talk, I came to the lecturer and had a conversation with him. The lecturer, Dr. Zhao, is also a Chinese. He was surprised that I came here as a freshman. Zhao told me about his educational background, and what he planned to do in the future. As he said, a foreigner as him is hard to get a job at US government, so he is considering going back to China. But he reminded me that I was still young and I had the time to find my real path. What a meaningful conversation!

  I also had a lunch with geological experts working for government agents such as USGS to talk about careers. They shared their stories of how they worked and how they found their jobs. Although it was a bit too early for me to consider my career, I found it helpful to know about this. Job is an unavoidable topic, and sometimes the reality can be cruel. As one of the experts said, his job was not what he wanted when he graduated. But he learned to accept and he is happy now.

  This trip provides me a great opportunity to get closer with Americans. We Chinese international students tend to stick with Chinese guys, for we often feel uncomfortable in an all-American situation. But this time I’m not just the only male, but also the only Chinese in this group. I talk with them, eat with them and even sleep……with them these days. What is it like to be an American? Well, I may know a little bit now.

  I appreciate EMS and AWG to provide me with this opportunity. It really benefits me a lot.

(http://sports.163.com/18/0221/09/DB5JCI3R00058781.html)

 Who is Paulinho? There are many Brazilians named Paulinho, but the one I’m going to talk about in this blog is José·Paulo·Bezerra·Maciel·Júnior, who is now a player at FC Barcelona.

  To Chinese soccer fans, Paulinho is a big star now, but not in the past. Although he had an unhappy experience in Tottenham Hotspur, where he was transferred to Guangzhou Ever Grande. At the time when he transferred, fans of Tottenham Hotspur even celebrated, because they finally let such a “bad player” go away. Likewise, fans of Guangzhou Evergrande cast doubt on his ability. However, in the 1/4 final game of AFC Cup, Guangzhou Evergrande VS Kashiwa Reysol FC, Paulinho gained his fame by a marvelous freekick. 30 m from the goal, he kicked out the ball like a canon, and the ball made a weird curve in the air——all players thought it was going to fly out of base lines——, dropping into the goal finally. The goalkeeper did nothing but stood still, even didn’t move a little bit.

  After that game, Paulinho got more and more attention. In 2015’s AFC cup, he helped Guangzhou Evergrande won the championship, which qualified this team to enter FIFA Club World Cup. At Club World Cup, he performed even better. On Dec 13^th, Guangzhou Evergrande confronted Club de Futbol América, one of the greatest teams in northern America. It was Paulinho’s goal at the 89^th min that helped Guangzhou Evergrande defeated Futbol América by 2:1. Then came his tipping point in his life, the 1/2 final of Club World Cup, Guangzhou Evergrande VS FC Barcelona. Although Guangzhou was apparently much weaker than Barcelona, Paulinho was considered as the only Guangzhou player who displayed the same level as Barca players. After the end of the game, Messi had a brief conversation with him and said, “You did a good job. Do you wanna come to Barcelona?” Then, in 2017, Paulinho transferred to FC Barcelona at a price of 4 million Euros., which set a new record in Chinese soccer history, for this is the first time that a European top-level team had got a player from Chinese soccer league. Since then, Paulinho has been considered as a legend by Chinese soccer fans. Speaking of him, they usually say proudly: he comes from CSL!

But on the other hand, Barcelona fans’ view on Paulinho is different. Although in some games, Paulinho created good chances and even scored game-killing goals, his shortage is very apparent: he doesn’t have good skills of traditional Barcelona players. He always loses ball from his foot. After the UEFA Championship game yesterday, Chelsea VS Barcelona, Spanish soccer media criticized Paulinho as “nightmare performance” Facing world-level team, Paulinho’s shortage has always been “amplified”, which is so deadly for Barcelona.

Paulinho is still a good player. However, if he wants to

(from https://baike.baidu.com/pic/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E8%B6%B3%E7%90%83%E5%8D%8F%E4%BC%9A/2703217/0/d009b3de9c82d1585b0c662d870a19d8bd3e429b?fr=lemma&ct=single#aid=0&pic=d009b3de9c82d1585b0c662d870a19d8bd3e429b)

(Please note that all the term “football” in this article refers to “soccer”)

Chinese Football Association Super League (CSL) is the soccer league with the highest level in mainland China. Although it only has a history of 14 years, CSL is rapidly developing and gaining international reputation. By 2017, according to the ranking of IFFHS (International Federation of Football History and Statistics), CSL is the 36^th soccer league in the world and the 3^rd in Asia.

One of the reasons why CSL thrives a lot within years, is that more and more Chinese companies invests it by purchasing teams, copyright and players. The most famous team in CSL, Guangzhou Evergrande FC, used to be Guangzhou FC, which was just an ordinary team in China. However, after being purchased by Evergrande Group, whose owner is one of the wealthiest Chinese merchants, Guangzhou Evergrande has achieved 7 CSL Championships, 3 Chinese Football Association Super Super Cup Championships and 2 Champions of AFC Champions League in 7 years. As for the copyright, in 2017, China Sports Media Group got the copyright of CSL through biding, at the price of 8 billion RMB (roughly 1.33 billion dollars). In addition, many world-famous soccer players choose to transfer to Chinese teams. For instance, Drogba transferred to Shanghai Shenhua FC in 2012; Robinho and Paulinho played for Guangzhou Evergrande FC; Texeira and Ramirez are now playing for Jiangsu FC. To some degree, it seems that CSL is a new rival against MLS: The excellent players who should have chosen MLS, are now considering CSL.

However, something unexpected happened. In 2016, CFA (Chinese Football Association) enforced a new policy called “U23 Policy”, which said that the starting lists of all CSL teams should include at least one player aging no more than 23 years old. To cope with this policy, some teams just let U23 players play for the first a few minutes and substituted them, which was very funny. Then, in 2017, CFA enacted another policy, which triggered a larger debate. The policy regulated that, since 2018, all the player transaction involving more than 4.5 million RMB, will be levied a heavy tax called “Transaction Moderation Fee”. Which means that teams will be more and more reluctant to pay a lot of money to buy famous, extraordinary players from Europe. It’s said that, Obame Yang, who played for Dortmund, should have been transferred to Guangzhou Evergrande FC months ago, but his transaction was broken due to the “Transaction Moderation Fee”.

Many soccer fans in China criticized that CFA’s regulations are making CSL more and more “unprofessional”. People are expecting more and more superstars playing in China, but now this dream has been destroyed. Without international soccer stars, how can a league gain population? This is indeed a serious problem.

On the other hand, some others argued that the regulations are necessary. They help to provide Chinese native players a platform to practice and display their ability, which may benefit the performance of Chinese National Soccer Team in the future.

So how should CFA regulate CSL? It is still under hot debate now. In my opinion, if it really proves to be helpful for Chinese National Team, these kinds of regulations are necessary, though a little ridiculous.

(https://image.baidu.com/search/detail?ct=503316480&z=0&ipn=d&word=%E5%88%A9%E7%89%A9%E6%B5%A6&step_word=&hs=0&pn=5&spn=0&di=47076818050&pi=0&rn=1&tn=baiduimagedetail&is=0%2C0&istype=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&in=&cl=2&lm=-1&st=undefined&cs=1962893780%2C844602068&os=1052385005%2C2109097291&simid=0%2C0&adpicid=0&lpn=0&ln=1974&fr=&fmq=1516752950842_R&fm=&ic=undefined&s=undefined&se=&sme=&tab=0&width=undefined&height=undefined&face=undefined&ist=&jit=&cg=&bdtype=13&oriquery=&objurl=http%3A%2F%2Fimgsrc.baidu.com%2Fimgad%2Fpic%2Fitem%2F6a600c338744ebf8298c5c04d2f9d72a6059a70f.jpg&fromurl=ippr_z2C%24qAzdH3FAzdH3Frwtxtg_z%26e3Bv54AzdH3Fri5p5v5ry6t2ipAzdH3F89dlnc8an&gsm=0&rpstart=0&rpnum=0)

  Liverpool is one of the teams that attract most of my attention. It is famous for its spirit of never giving up in games, and it never loses faith when competing with any top team in the world. But many people criticize that, Liverpool is famous for its “instability”, which means that it can win any team in the world, and likewise, it can lose any team, too. The recent two matches Liverpool in Premier League proves this saying again.

( http://sports.qq.com/a/20180123/005135.htm?pacclick=%2Fpac%2Fopenapi)

  In the 23rd round of Premier League, Liverpool confronted with Manchester City in Anfield stadium. Before that Match, Manchester City, the 1^st of Premier League, had never lost a single game in the whole season. Moreover, in the 4^th round this season, Manchester City defeated Liverpool by 5:0. As a result, almost all people thought that it would be hard for Liverpool to get points from Manchester City. However, no one anticipated that Liverpool would offer Manchester City the first loss of their season.

  At the 9^th minute of the match, Chamberlen seized the ball from Manchester City, rushed to the front of penalty box, and scored a ball. Later, Mané, Philmino and Salah’s goals changed the score to 4:1. Although Manchester City made a hard attempt to get back their advantage, Liverpool won the game by 4:3. Liverpool defeated Manchester City, and no other team in Premier League had done this so far, in this season.

  After the victory, Liverpool was praised by the soccer fans around the world, for its restless attack and passionate pass. It seemed that Liverpool was on top of the world. But don’t forget that, Liverpool is an “unstable” team.

  In the 24^th round of Premier League, Liverpool competed with Swansea, the team which ranked last in the whole League. This time, no one believed that Liverpool wouldn’t gain points from Swansea. Well, that thing just happened. It was almost a miracle. Liverpool had no method to penetrate the defense of Swansea, and was beaten by 0:1.

  After this game, people can’t help asking, which one is the real Liverpool? The team which defeated the top team in League, or the team that lost all the advantages in front of the weakest team in League? In my opinion, both are real Liverpool. These two games reflected the real problem of Liverpool.

  It is beyond doubt that, Liverpool’s attacking players are outstanding. Mané, Philmino and Salah’s speed and collaboration made it hard for any team to resist their attack. Despite that, Liverpool is far from a perfect team. The problem is that, Liverpool’s midfield and backfield players lack creativity. When facing the teams, where almost all the players gather in the backfield, Liverpool has no way to create a good way to pass the ball into the penalty box. That’s why Swansea didn’t let Liverpool score even a single ball. What’s more, the goalkeeper, Carius, was not skilled enough. Many times, he just couldn’t keep the ball safely in his hands.

  Thus, the unbalance between attack and defense, is the main reason why Liverpool often gives us surprise. If Liverpool wants to be a world-class team, it should buy more great backfield players.

Speaking of La Liga, most people will come up with two teams: Barcelona and Real Madrid. These two teams are not only the symbol of La Liga, but also stand for the top-class soccer in the world. Needless to say, every game between them is historical, worth watching. Soccer fans call it the National Derby, which means the game between the best two teams in a country (Spain).

The National Derby has a long history in Spain. Real Madrid usually symbolizes the central government of Spain, while Barcelona embodies Catalonian. Catalonian has always had a strong desire to become an independent country, which makes it conflict with Spain government.  Sometimes, sport games serve as the substitution of the wars between two power. That’s why National Derby is so meaningful.

(http://www.lesports.com/news/151402733015362.html)

The last national Derby took place on Dec 23rd, 2017. At that time I was in hospital after a surgery on my leg. But I watched it using my laptop, which got rid of my pain for a while. (It sounds ambiguous that my leg was broken due to the soccer, but I still utilized it as a way to kill my pain.) Personally I’m in favor of Barcelona, for many of my good friends are Barca fans. Before the game, people anticipated a lot about it. Will C. Ronaldo, who just won the Golden Ball, destroy the Barcelona in Nou Camp Stadium? Will Messi  play as the king of  Nou Camp?

(http://sports.sina.com.cn/g/laliga/2017-12-23/doc-ifypxrpp3584903.shtml)

(http://sports.sina.com.cn/g/laliga/2017-12-23/doc-ifypxrpp3584903.shtml)

At the beginning of the game, the white colored team was in a dominant position. The created many opportunities in the box of Barcelona. It seemed that C. Ronaldo deserved the Golden Ball Award, who performed actively in the front. However, Real Madrid’s series of attacks didn’t get any outcome. It was funny that C. Ronaldo even once missed the ball from his feet, which was a rather low-level mistake. Barcelona could barely threaten the goal of Real Madrid. It was noticeable that the only great chances  of Barca in the first half was created by Paulinho , a midfield player transferred from Chinese Soccer Super League.

In the second half, the situation changed significantly.  At the 54th minute, Rakitic crossed the midfield fast and passed to Roberto, who then assisted Suarez to score the goal. At the 64th minute, Carvajal used his hand to stopped the ball, which led to a red card and a penalty. Messi then changed the score to 2:0. At the 93rd minute, Vidal completely killed the game, making the final score 3:0.

It is quite surprising that in the second half, Barcelona had such an overwhelming advantage. The first reason is that, Barca was more durable than Real Madrid. Real Madrid didn’t act as actively as the first half in the second half, so they lost the dominant state. The second reason, in my opinion, is the performance of players. C. Ronaldo almost disappeared after the first 20 minutes of the game, while Messi, Paulinho kept running to the box until the last minute.

After this game, Real Madrid has less chance to achieve the La Liga Championship.  It is time for Zidane to reconsider his strategy. Real Madrid need to make a change, or they will lose more.

This is my last passion blog of this semester. In this blog, I will look into something about soccer of my home country, China.

It is ionic that, the fact is, China invented soccer. You may not believe it, I doubt it to some extent to. However, it is recorded that the original form of soccer, “Cu Ju (蹴鞠)” was created in Han Dynasty (202BC-220). At that time, it was a fashion to kick solid balls made of cloth or grass in the field. But the rule was quite different, it was like playing volleyball by feet, interesting, right? However, when it came to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), people’s interest in Cu Ju faded (I don’t know why). Unluckily, at the same time, somehow, the British invented modern soccer, the soccer today. With the invasion of westerner, Cu Ju disappeared in modern China, only preserved in the historical documents. So, the homeland of “modern soccer” is Britain, but the homeland of “soccer” is China. It sounds absurd, I know.

(from baidu.com)

Nowadays, soccer is a very popular sport in China. I have mentioned people’s passion for World Cup in my blog previously. China has its own soccer league, CSL (The Super Soccer League of China). In my opinion, CSL is the best soccer league I have ever seen apart from Premier League, La Lega, German Bundesliga, Serie A and French Side. My favorite CSL team is Guangzhou FC (广州恒大足球俱乐部). In my opinion, it is one of the best soccer team not only in China, but in Asia as well. Up to now, Guangzhou FC has achieved 6 CSL champions, and 2 AFC Champions (Asian Champion League). Guangzhou is near to my home city, Shenzhen (it only takes hours to go to Guangzhou from Shenzhen). So, I often go to the home court of Guangzhou FC to watch the games. That’s so good. Guangzhou FC has some wonderful players, such as Paulinho. On August this year, Paulinho transferred to FC Barcelona, and the transfer fee was up to 4 million Euro. It was the first time that world-class soccer team has bought players from CSL.

(from http://www.paixin.com/photocopyright/151229786)

Compared with CSL, Chinese National Soccer Team was not so attractive. Normally, speaking of the national team, we Chinese just sigh. Chinese team has only entered World Cup once (2002), and didn’t gain even one victory. What a shame! It is so strange that, now that we are so crazy about soccer, and we have so many people, why can’t we build a good national team? In my opinion, the problem is that, we do poor in the soccer youth education. Chinese parents are usually more willing to encourage their kids to be engineers, officers rather than soccer players, that is the point. What’s more, in CSL, teams rely so much on foreign players. Only one Chinese player was in the top 10 scorers list this season, who is Lei Wu, the only good forward in Chinese national team.

At the end, I can say nothing but to wish that Chinese soccer can become better in the future.

( The photo of the grade 10 soccer team of my high school, I’m the  player with the number 26 in the picture.)

World Cup is the most popular sport event in the world, even more popular than Olympics. The 32 best national teams in the world get together, offering audience a big soccer feast.  In this blog I will recount my world cup watching experience, and some other things about it.

I hadn’t begun to notice this event until the 2014 Brazil world cup. At that time, I have just finished my senior high school entrance exam, and had a long holiday. So I could spend long time watching it. Because of the time difference, we Chinese could only stay up late to enjoy the feast.  Many of my friends just spent all night watching it– a game at 2 am, then a game at 4am, then a 6 am game……It seemed that we were all so crazy about soccer.

The game impressed me a lot was, of course, the final game, Germany VS Argentine. Believe it or not, permitted by my mom, I just went to a hotel bar with my friends and my cousin, ordered three big baskets of beer, and watched the game at late night. That sounds so crazy, a 14-year-old child going to a bar to watch soccer game? But that’s legal in China, I’m pretty much sure.  Personally I was in favor of Argentine. Although I thought Germany was a little better than Argentine. German just defeated Argentine by 7-1 in half final, which was an incredible victory. But I thought Germany was so cruel to Brazil. It didn’t need to win that much. So I had some emotion against Germany. What’s more, this is Messi’s closest time to World Cup. I wanted to see Messi fulfill his dream.

The game was intense and long. In the normal time, both Germany and Argentine didn’t score. Then the game went on to the extra time game. I was about to fall asleep because I drank so much and It was so late. Suddenly, the whole bar almost exploded—–Philipp Lahm scored! It was so surprising because he was a full back, not an attacker. But he made it, and the Germany got the cup.

Although I was a little disappointed, I have to admit that this is the craziest experience I have ever had. This is soccer, this is World Cup.

In the history, China national team only entered World Cup once. It was Japan-Korean World Cup in 2002. It is such a shame. A country of 1.3 billion people can’t find 11 good soccer players! I was only 4 years old at that time, so I didn’t remember that. However, my Dad said the whole country was crazy. Even schools stopped to have class, getting students to go back home watching the games. That is the charm of soccer.

The 2018 Russia World Cup is now coming. I’m looking forward to joining the next soccer feast.

Forward is really a great position in soccer. Forwards can make the game wonderful, change the result or even create history. There are many world-famous forwards, it is such a pleasure to watch them playing. For me, playing as a forward is interesting, too.

It is such a brave attempt for me to learn to play as a forward. As we know, good forwards like C.Ronaldo and Messi should be very skilled. However, I was not skilled at all. I didn’t know how to deal with the tackle of defenders. In order to play well, I have to learn.

  The first skill I learned from soccer masters was chopping, which is to shift the ball’s direction by using feet kicking its side. Later it’s proved that chopping was really a simple but useful skill. I can clearly remember that, in a game of students VS teachers, where I played as a forward, my teammates asked me to try attacking alone for they were all in the back field. I stood with the ball, with 5 defenders in front of me. I had to get through them. So I decided to chop. Surprisingly, I got through all 5 defenders by chopping, just like what Messi did. Then I scored a goal. That was amazing, I couldn’t even believe in myself. I also tried to be an ‘invisible forward’. Sometimes I hid in back field behind many other teammates. When they approached the opposite penalty box, I ran quickly to their goal and scored. It was relatively easy, for the defenders didn’t pay attention to me when I appeared. What impressed me most was Ibrahimović’s fake shot. After seeing it, I tried it too. I remembered that once upon a time when I faced a goalkeeper closely alone, I gave a fake shot. He was fooled and fell down. Then I scored easily.

  Forwards’ biggest mission is scoring. Sometimes, forwards did it in an incredible way. They just managed to score, when people all thought it was completely not an opportunity. In the final game of 2016-2017 UEFA Champions League, Mandzukic in Juventus managed to score by a bicycle kick. At that time, He was standing with his back to the goal, with a few defenders surrounding him. However, he just got the ball, jumped upside down and scored the goal. It was like a magic show. However, I think the most famous bicycle kick was from Ibrahimović. In the game of England VS Sweden, he just made a bicycle kick outside the penalty box! No wonder He is called “God”. As for the two top forwards in the world, C. Ronaldo and Messi, I don’t have to introduce them so much. They have countless beautiful goals.

Click here to see Mandzukic’s goal

Click here to see Ibrahimovic’s goal

  My series passion blog about soccer is over, but my passion for soccer isn’t. Soccer really inspired and entertained me a lot. I hope that in the future I will have the opportunity to step onto the soccer field again.