Just a few days away, the quadrennial soccer event, the Qatar World Cup, is about to open in grand style. Unfortunately, our men's soccer team continues to go downhill. This is the fifth consecutive time that our men's soccer team has missed the World Cup finals!
Looking back at our men's soccer team's World Cup qualifying history, it's easy to see that, with the exception of the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, our men's soccer team has failed to leave a footprint during any of the previous World Cups. And the shortlist has been overshadowed by the hosts Japan and South Korea. They were not required to participate in the qualifying rounds, leaving us without two of our strongest rivals on the road to qualification.
We failed to even make it to the final stage of the WABA in the following editions.
Despite unfavorable foreign competition, the CSL has flourished in recent years. Led by high-level foreign aid and foreign coaches, the gold-dollar champions Guangzhou have won the Asian title twice and have pushed the CSL to the sixth league in the world!
However, with the fall of the golden dollar era, the drawbacks of over-reliance on foreign aid have gradually emerged. Guangzhou, as the eight champion, has seen foreign aid, foreign coaches and well-known domestic players leave due to the financial problems of its parent company. Faced with a strong number of foreign aiders, the actual gap gradually widened, leaving only a full Chinese class consisting of soccer school students and a few slightly famous top-salaried players from the team. The consecutive losing streak put the eight champions in a relegation crisis!
Not only Guangzhou team, many clubs in China have many problems due to poor management. The emergence of bubbles and the departure of high-level foreign aid and foreign coaches have directly reduced the competitiveness of Chinese Super League teams. Domestic players, with the loss of competition from foreign aiders, have been defeated by strong all-Chinese teams when facing Chinese Super League or even low-level teams.
Not only Guangzhou, but other veteran teams in the Chinese Super League are also in trouble after losing their foreign aid.
This year's FA Cup is a microcosm of that. Veteran Chinese Super League giants such as Guoan, Shenzhen and Changchun lost their first matches to low-level teams. Surprisingly, Guoan was beaten by Kyokawa Wenhui in the amateur league. Shenzhen and Changchun also lost to low level teams.
Perhaps they met on a narrow road. The opponents did better when it came to preparing for the difficulties. Of course, Guoan only sent the club's reserve echelon, the main force did not participate. But even so, the professional echelon of the top league lost to the amateur team.
Through the result of this wonderful game, we can feel the current situation of Chinese soccer: incompetence, ineptitude, powerlessness and uselessness.
The fact is that the older guys who watched this game knew it was a ladder. The fact is that many of the Guoan players who played in the game were not young. You're like Cao Yongjing who scored the goal, and Jin Taiyan who regretted conceding the penalty. These are the old faces of China. But against such an amateur opponent, he was tied at the end of the game and forced into a penalty shootout. As Kim Tae-Yeon failed to score, Guoan's reserve player set a shameful record for their club!
As you know, Beijing Guoan is an old Chinese Super League club that won the top professional league! No foreigners, no starters, you can't even play against amateur teams. You shouldn't!
Of course, not only Beijing Guoan, but also several other teams this year faced the same problem as him: when the parent company's money is in trouble and the strength of the staff is lost, there are similar problems in the matches against weaker teams.
Through all of this, one can only say that Chinese soccer has come to the crossroads of choice again! Perhaps it really is time to push back and start over.
With the lessons learned yesterday, I believe that the way forward, Chinese soccer will be able to rise to the occasion and embark on a bright path.
