Brazil and Paraguay also went to penalties.
Lin Hao really had no experience in penalty shootouts.
The head coach didn't assign him to the role; his teammates went up one by one, and I was really nervous.
Who invented this thing? It's so exciting!
One wrong move and you lose everything.
Fortunately, Brazil managed a hard-fought 4-3 victory in the end.
They will face Argentina in the semifinals.
The Copa America semi-final between Brazil and Argentina is the most anticipated match of the tournament and the most exciting game for fans.
Regarding the starting lineups for both sides, Alisson remains in goal for Brazil, and the formation has been changed to a balanced 4-2-3-1.
The central defensive pairing remains Thiago Silva and Marquinhos.
The left-back position is changed to Sandro, and the right-back position is changed to Alves.
The two defensive midfielders are Casemiro and Arthur.
Ahead of them, on the left wing is Lin Hao, on the right wing is Jesus, in the middle is Coutinho, and at the very front is Firmino.
The center forward position is a problem even at the club level, let alone at the national team level. There are fewer and fewer good center forwards in the world these days.
Firmino played as a center forward for Liverpool, which was a testament to Klopp's skill.
But in the Brazilian team, the effect wasn't actually that great, but it was still acceptable. You can't compare him to R9.
For Argentina, the goalkeeper is Armani.
The formation is a variation of 433, specifically 41212.
The people were concentrated in the middle of the road.
The central defenders are Otamendi and Pezzella, the left-back is Tagliafico, and the right-back is Foyth.
Paredes is a defensive midfielder.
In front of De Paul and Acuña, and in front of them, Messi!
The two center forwards at the forefront are Aguero and Lautaro.
Both teams' players were already standing in the players' tunnel, and the stadium was packed with fans, all 80,000 of them were present, divided in the middle, half blue and white, half yellow!
Inside the players' tunnel, Lin Hao heard the long-lost provocative voice. To be honest, after not hearing it for so long, it actually sounded a bit like it.
"Sissy, didn't your crybaby come?" Aguero asked.
"Huh?" Lin Hao was taken aback. Was there someone else involved? Then he remembered that he was talking about Neymar!
"One sissy alone won't do!"
"Shut up, if you're not convinced, then let's fight!"
"I heard you've never lost? Is that true?"
Lin Hao nodded. "Scared? Then keep it to yourself and don't say a word!"
"You have a foul mouth! Should I slap you?"
"Let's go!" At the command of both captains, they followed the referee onto the field.
The fans from both sides roared their support.
In fact, Lin Hao had been observing Messi since the beginning, as this was Lin Hao's first time facing off against Messi.
I believe that every footballer wants to surpass the man in front of them; his and Cristiano Ronaldo's Ballon d'Or dominance has been broken.
The reason why fans feel something is missing is that Modric cannot continue to dominate and suppress other players in the future. Modric was just too good last year, but he cannot continue like that.
What fans want to see is a young player who, after breaking Messi and Ronaldo's dominance, stands in the position of dominance, just like Messi and Ronaldo, who, after one of them won the Ballon d'Or, haven't been able to win it for many years.
If no one can accomplish this feat, then after Messi and Ronaldo, whoever wins the Ballon d'Or will feel unworthy, and fans will think of those who were ranked third in the world but were overshadowed by Messi and Ronaldo.
Although Lin Hao didn't explicitly challenge Messi to a duel, he secretly wanted to compete with him.
The match begins.
Brazil kicked off first, while Argentina employed a midfield stranglehold tactic, battling and physically challenging their opponents in midfield.
South American teams are known for their agility, as well as their physicality.
In the first five minutes, Lin Hao didn't touch the ball at all, and neither side was able to get the ball forward in midfield.
Until the sixth minute, Casemiro suddenly stepped forward and made a daring tackle, but this pass, which could hardly be considered a pass, lacked accuracy and ended up in an unoccupied area, where Lin Hao and Foyth were the closest.
And De Paul, who was running back.
The three of them ran towards the ball together. Lin Hao was still fast, but once he got the ball, the problem became how to get rid of him.
Lin Hao truly deserves the name "Samba" and the title of "the last Samba" bestowed upon him by Brazilian fans.
Lin Hao's receiving posture has a large span; his right leg is bent while his left leg receives the ball, making it a posture where he must turn to the right to get past his opponent after receiving the ball.
The left foot should pass the ball to the right foot.
Lin Hao indeed thought that way, and that's what he did; De Paul defended the same way.
However, Lin Hao, in this posture, lifted his toes slightly and flicked the ball over De Paul's foot. His football control was truly amazing. He flicked the ball up, and the arc of the ball passed De Paul's foot, passing it to his right foot. Lin Hao then lowered his shoulder to the right.
Voith also slumped behind him, almost simultaneously, meaning that if Lin Hao turned around now, he wouldn't be able to get through.
But Lin Hao stepped on the ball and did a Marseille turn. Suddenly, he turned around and saw that Foyth and De Paul were behind him.
A huge cheer erupted in the stadium. Lin Hao continued forward with the ball, and his teammates immediately began to make runs forward.
Lin Hao advanced to the edge of the penalty area and took a shot directly.
Inside the penalty area, Otamendi quickly blocked the shot with his body, then immediately lay down and cleared the ball out of bounds.
Brazil took the throw-in, Jesus received the ball and advanced forward, but dribbled a bit too far down the right flank and was dispossessed by Tagliafico, who then played a through ball to Messi.
Messi gets the ball, lowers his shoulder and changes direction to get past Arthur. You can see that Lin Hao and Messi's dribbling is obviously different. Messi's foot speed is unmatched. This move is a very common way to get past opponents, but only he can do it every time. Others have a much lower success rate than him.
In fact, all dribbling skills can be summed up in three words: feints!
Messi's speed is so fast, it's all real, and yet it's also all fake.
How can we defend against that? We can only be clueless.
Lin Hao, on the other hand, would have to put in a lot of effort, using dazzling feints to ensure that you couldn't guess his moves when he got past you.
Of course, regardless of the method, getting past opponents is very fast.
Messi pushes forward, with Casemiro closely following and constantly challenging him. This is the fairness of football; no matter how good you are, you are not invincible.
Casemiro will challenge him. If he continues to dribble past the next defender, he might lose possession. Of course, it's only a possibility. Messi could also get past both the next defender and Casemiro, but that would be much riskier. It's what we often call "dribbling too much."
Messi would not relinquish possession of the ball to someone else in such a high-risk manner unless absolutely necessary.
Messi chose a riskier approach!