In the last match of the men's soccer group stage of the Asian Games, the Chinese team drew 0-0 with Bangladesh, a very disappointing result. Some media even believed that the result of the draw with Bangladesh made the national team lose face. Even though the group exit was already confirmed, the national football team still should have had a better performance with a better score against such an opponent. Surprisingly, however, some Chinese players said after the match that Bangladesh is not a weak team, and to some extent Bangladesh is stronger than Myanmar and India.
Sportsweek reported the news. Perhaps considering the enormous public pressure that such comments would bring to the players who said them, the reporter did not reveal who was the one who said them. The media reported that some Chinese players watched the video after the game said that they felt that the other side was very empty, but the game does not think so, the opponent played very targeted, edge cooperation speed is very fast, played less than 10 minutes a few rounds on the court, feel that the situation is not much.
First of all, from an objective point of view, Bangladesh is not as weak as people think. In people's regular impression, South Asian soccer and Southeast Asian soccer is not only the weakest region in Asia, but also the worst region in the world. Bangladesh lost their first two matches 0-1 against India and Myanmar. Bangladesh had previously performed well in the Asian Youth Championship qualifiers. Many of the players in this team are also players who participated in the Asian Games. They also made it to the top 16 in the last Asian Games. From this perspective, Bangladesh may not be as bad as people think.
But if we look at what Chinese fans expect from Chinese soccer, it is clearly anachronistic to say these things. For a long time, this kind of soccer in Southeast and South Asian countries is not worth mentioning at all, or is simply not necessary or worthwhile. We should be aiming for Asian soccer powerhouses like Japan, South Korea and Iran and Saudi Arabia. Now, however, we are under immense pressure when we play Vietnam and other teams. Now we even consider teams like Myanmar and Bangladesh to be formidable opponents, which makes people despair.
It is worth noting that when the national soccer team played against Bangladesh, there were several Japanese and Korean players present who were doing very well in the Euroleague. Shinobu Mitaka came on as a substitute in the English Premier League match and managed to score a beautiful goal. Kubo Kenyoung scored a goal just 87 seconds into the La Liga match. And Son scored two goals against Arsenal. Our players, however, are still talking about how Bangladesh is not a fish out of water, so it's embarrassing to see such a comparison.
