On July 21st, our soccer team lost 0-3 to South Korea in the first round of the East Asian Cup. Given that the core members of this team are U23 players, the Korean media "STAR NEWS" made a pointed comment on this, accusing our soccer team of "self-abandonment", which reflected a lack of respect for our soccer tournament.
The Korean media pointed out that our team had only 23 shots on goal and had only 23% of the ball possession, while the Koreans had 77% of the ball, and eventually won by a score of 3-0. Rather than being a reflection of the FIFA-certified international A-level tournament, this result exposes the inadequacy of our soccer level and the lack of respect for the East Asian Cup tournament.
The Korean media reviewed the match in detail, noting that the 3-0 scoreline meant that the Koreans were on their way to achieving their goal of a fourth consecutive East Asian Cup title. However, the game was far from "intense" - Korea had 80% of the ball, while our team was stuck in passive defense.
The Korean media further analyzed the reason, pointing out that our team actually sent the U23 national team to the tournament. In other words, the Korean national team went head-to-head with our U23 national team in the East Asian Cup, an international A-level tournament. Our team's head coach Jankovic is also the head coach of the U23 national team, and only two of the 24 participating players are overage, while the remaining 20 have never participated in an international A-level tournament.
The Korean media also mentioned that although our media said that this is to prepare for the Hangzhou Asian Games and the formation of the U23 selection team, but compared with Japan and South Korea due to the inability to draw the travelers to Europe and had to send their own league players, our team still has a significant gap. In addition, the South Korean media also pointed out that our U23 selection team's deficiencies in training and the rough style of play in the game.
The Korean media emphasized that this is not the first time that our country's soccer has "given up on itself". In this season's AFC Champions League, apart from Shanghai Harbour and Changchun Yatai, both Shandong Taishan and Guangzhou failed to win a single match. Shandong Taishan scored one point and two goals against the Lion City Mariners, while Guangzhou failed to win any of their six matches.
After this, the head of the AFC responsible for the operation of the AFC Champions League openly criticized our soccer in an interview. The AFC official believed that Chinese Super League teams sending reserve and echelon players to participate in the AFC Champions League for two consecutive years was disrespectful to their opponents and the tournament, and that sending substitute lineups to participate in the tournament also lowered the overall standard and quality of the AFC Champions League. Now, a similar scenario has resurfaced in the East Asian Cup.
