The night of December 5, Beijing time, the footballing fate of Japan and South Korea will be revealed, as they are about to be among the eight finalists of the World Cup. Spanish newspaper El Mundo not only commented on the performance of the two Asian teams, but also pinpointed the plight of Chinese soccer in East Asia: Japan and South Korea will compete for a place in the last 16 of the tournament on Monday, while China, as the soccer giant of East Asia, can only silently watch from home.
Just the night before, Japan advanced to the top of their group after beating Spain. Their near neighbors, South Korea, on the other hand, managed to advance after shutting out Portugal in injury time. This caught Portugal off guard, while Australia advanced in a thrilling fashion after losing their opening match to France, thanks to excellent back-to-back performances against Tunisia and Denmark.
Six AFC teams competed in this year's World Cup in Qatar, and three of them managed to reach the round of 16. Although Australia lost to Argentina in the round of 16, it was the first time since the inaugural World Cup that all AFC teams advanced to the knockout stages.
"What does this mean for Asia?" That was the assessment of Australia coach Graham Arnold, whose side had unexpectedly knocked out Denmark in the semifinals of the last Euro and held on against Argentina. Arnold was an assistant to Hiddink, who guided the so-called Golden Generation of Australia through their group at the 2006 World Cup before being eliminated by Italy in the round of 16.
However, Japan will undoubtedly make the biggest impact, as they will challenge Croatia in Monday's match and are expected to reach the last eight of the World Cup for the first time. "We have reached the world level" - Japan coach Mori Boichi said after the win over Spain. The victory came despite Japan's possession rate being just 26 percent against Germany and dropping to 18 percent against Spain.
Japanese media recently emphasized that Japan has become the third team in World Cup history to win two different matches in the same World Cup. Previously, only Brazil in 1938 and Germany in 1970 had done so.
South Korea are also worth keeping an eye on, as they are led by Portuguese coach Paulo Bento and share similar characteristics to Japan: strong physicality and quick counterattacks. Both countries have a large number of players who have grown up in European leagues, especially major leagues such as Germany and England.
Japan has 451 overseas players while South Korea boasts 330. South Korea reached the semifinals of the 2002 World Cup in controversial fashion, and this time around their player Hwang Hee-chan has shown his mettle in the English league as South Korea take on Brazil on Monday.
As these players have honed their skills on the larger soccer stage, their opponents no longer take them lightly. However, China, the largest country in East Asia, has failed to make it to another World Cup since 2002. In their only World Cup experience, China grained the group stage, losing all three matches.
There seems to be a problem with China's soccer formula. Despite the billions of dollars China has invested in building soccer schools and bringing in world-class coaches over the past decade, China's men's soccer team is ranked only 79th by FIFA, behind Honduras and second only to Georgia.
In 2016, the Chinese Super League attempted to revitalize the domestic league. At the time, some of China's biggest companies began buying up soccer clubs and paying tens of millions of dollars to attract big-name players such as Paulinho, Hulk, Carrasco, Teixeira, and Hamsik. However, behind these huge investments was a debt bubble, which eventually burst. Now, some teams can't even pay their players' salaries, and the Chinese men's soccer team has failed to explode.
