National Football League losses are not uncommon for us fans. We used to think we could accept losing to Japan and South Korea, but then we could accept losing to Iraq Qatar, and later we could accept losing to Thailand and Malaysia. Actually we don't want to accept it, but if we don't, what can we do? They don't want to improve but stare at you with big eyes as if the fans are on the wrong side.
I admire fans who can buy tickets for two games in a row for how mentally strong they are. With the first draw and the second loss, the blood pressure went from calm to improved to bursting cylinders. I don't have much hope for the national soccer team, but I can accept the ending because the level of our national soccer team is such that all they can do is "fight".
There is naturally a lot of helplessness in consoling ourselves in this way because other national soccer teams can offer nothing to their fans. We always say that Southeast Asian soccer is progressing really fast. Is it possible that we are regressing while they are progressing, so it seems faster?
There wasn't much difference in the stats between the two sides in the game against Malaysia. We almost went 0-2 down at the start. Fortunately, the first goal was offside. This meant that our national soccer team was slow to get into the game. Although Malaysia had many chances later in the game, their strikers were too poor to capitalize. On the other hand, think about how difficult it is to score goals. How do their strikers score goals?
When I met Syria, after the opening 20 minutes, I thought there was no need to worry about getting into slow form. The defense was also good after the first game. For a while, I thought we might be able to finish the game 1-0 in the second half when the other team was losing stamina.
But one thing I missed was that the National Football League was slower to get in the game in the first half, and also in the second half. A game lasts 90 minutes, 40+ minutes, so expect the offense to be on the field for 45 minutes in the first half. In fact, the offense lasted over 20 minutes. 18 shots on goal in the whole game, not a single goal. I was finally able to kick the ball inside the center goal box and I came right into the arms of the opposing goalkeeper like a return.
Syria chose to attack in the second half, and the pressure on the national defense immediately rose. Let's attack in the half, let's defend in the half. Syria told us that the top 36 opponents in the Asian zone are in the national football preseason. See, the national football team let him attack like crazy and couldn't score, let alone defend.
Finally, we scored a goal in the first leg, which was still due to a free kick. How could the fans have confidence in the national soccer team when we weren't supposed to have a high success rate with free kicks? Zhan Jun said he can't see any hope for the preliminaries outing and he also said he can't help but spit. How can the basic skills of these players be so bad?
I agree with James. If you're talking about talent such as running sense, shooting instincts, and big-picture vision on the field, it may be hard to make a qualitative leap later in life, but a lot of the fundamentals of soccer can be practiced, and these are not done well. What are our players doing and practicing on a regular basis? If you can demonstrate your specialty, you can practice.
Are Japan and Korea more talented than us? Japan and Korea can practice, we have no excuse. As Sun Jihai said before, our goal is not to look at those soccer powerhouses in Europe, but to catch up with Japan and South Korea first is the real goal. However, years later, we find that Japan and Korea have been able to play against the European soccer powerhouses and managed to win against them.
This shows that we have not only failed to catch up with ourselves, but also declined in catching up with Japan and South Korea. Meanwhile, Japan and South Korea have not stopped advancing. We also have to shout the slogan of catching up with Japan and South Korea. Is this not self-deception?
Both Japan and South Korea can line up a starting set of 11 from Europe's top seven leagues. South Korea's Son Heung-Wai can get the Premier League Golden Boot, Japan's trio can nominate the best Premier League nominees in a month, how many juniors can be developed over time in the top five leagues, etc. What do we have? We were applauded when we went to a small unknown European league where we had to play B division or even lower.
This gap is getting wider and wider, and the post-80s and post-90s feel that they see no hope the day they enter the small box. According to media reports, the national soccer team is already a third-rate Asian team and a terminal team. It can be seen that we can only keep up with teams like Malaysia and Thailand and even need to catch up with them. The bottom line of soccer is getting lower and lower and I don't know when it will end.
The only thing that will make us happy is that there is a chance to play a friendly before the round of 36. No matter how bad we play, we can't be worse than this. Even if we lose twice in a row, it won't be worse than a draw and a loss. Our hearts are quiet.
