In today's East Asian Cup thriller, the Chinese men's soccer team beat Hong Kong, China by a slim 1-0 margin with a key goal from Tan Long, injecting a shot in the arm for our soccer team. After three matches, the Chinese team won 1, drew 1 and lost 1, with the number of goals scored and conceded equal, such a result may help them lock the third place throne, but it also tied our worst ranking in the history of the East Asian Cup. This East Asian Cup, the national soccer team sent a young lineup of mainly U23 players. In this 24-player list, more than half are players under U23, most of whom were born in 1999, with an average age of only 22.5 years old. Of this young squad, 20 have not played in an A-League match. Although the Japanese and South Korean teams have not recruited elite players who play in Europe, their overall strength is still ahead of the Chinese team. In the first match, China recorded its biggest loss at the East Asian Cup with a 0-3 defeat against South Korea. In the whole game, our team's possession rate was only 19%, while the opponent was as high as 81%. The number of shots on goal, our team only 1 time, while the South Korean team as many as 23 times. In addition, the South Korean team won nine corner kicks, our team has no corner kick opportunities. However, in the second match against the Japanese national team, the Chinese team drew 0-0 with their opponents by virtue of their tenacious defense and the brilliant performance of goalkeeper Han Jiaqi, and gained their first points in this year's East Asian Cup. In the third match against Hong Kong, if the Chinese team can win, not only can they get the first win, but also hope to win the third place. If they are unfortunate to lose, our team will be ranked at the bottom of the East Asian Cup for the first time. Looking back at the meeting between the two sides in the 2019 East Asian Cup in South Korea, our team easily won 2-0 with goals from Ji Xiang and Zhang Xizhe. Finally, China defeated Hong Kong, China 1-0 to collect their first win in this year's East Asian Cup thanks to Tan Long's 67th minute goal. After three battles, the Chinese team with a win, a draw and a loss of four points, the number of goals created the worst record of China's participation in the East Asian Cup, the previous record of three goals in 2003, 2015 and 2019. Recalling the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, the slogan of the Chinese team was to score 1 goal and get 1 point to win 1 game. Unexpectedly, 20 years later, this slogan is still circulating in our team, only changed from the World Cup to the East Asia Cup.
