The Chinese men's soccer team is about to start the second round of the World Qualification Tournament with South Korea on Tuesday night. Yesterday, the "Taiji Tigers" appeared at the stadium, and their appearance at the airport caused a lot of waves.
Thanks to their dazzling performance in Europe, South Korean stars such as Son and Kim Min Jae are quite popular in China. In the face of the upcoming match, the national football fans calm mentality, "peace and prosperity" has become a common voice, if you can get all three points is lucky. This mentality stems from the obvious gap in strength between the two sides. South Korean coach Seo Jung-won, who led Chengdu Rongcheng to a double victory over Chinese Super League (CSL) champions Shanghai Seaport this season and is undefeated in both home and away matches against Shanghai Shenhua, pointed out that the key to the problem lies in the overseas experience of the players.
Despite being the underdogs in historical encounters, the Chinese men's soccer team had given South Korea a headache. Xu Zhengyuan recalled the heated battle with South Korea in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic qualifiers, "At that time, the Chinese team was the top team in Asia, ranked at the top, and was a difficult opponent to deal with." He said the Chinese team coached by Xu Genbao, Fan Zhiyi, Peng Weiguo, Hu Zhijun and other famous players, tactics and practical, distinctive style, fighting strength. But unfortunately, in the final round of the Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the Chinese team as long as the draw will be able to get out of the line, but in South Korea's "black nine minutes" in the loss, missed the trip to Barcelona. Xu Zhengyuan also scored in that game.
Today, the gap between China and South Korea is becoming more and more obvious, Xu Zhengyuan deeply regret. He believes that the problem of the national soccer team is that it has not yet found a suitable development path. "Since the 2002 World Cup, we studied and came to the conclusion that in order to make progress in soccer, we have to learn from advanced soccer countries, and the most direct way is to let young players go abroad." Under this guiding philosophy, young players such as Son were able to train in Germany as exchange students, Lee Gang-in joined Spain's Valencia youth camp at the age of 10, and there are also young talents who have made a splash in the K-League.
Xu Zhengyuan said that during his time coaching in China, he witnessed many talented young players, but most of them could not work out in the top league. Chinese players have unlimited potential, and they can go to Europe to play soccer if their coaches discover them and train them rigorously. Becoming the main players in Europe, if they can return to the national team to improve their strength, the national team will surely make great progress. This is the view of Chengdu Rongcheng's manager.
Choi Kang-hee, a veteran coach who has participated in world qualifiers both as a player and a coach, has led a team composed almost entirely of players of Chinese descent to bring Shenhua into the Chinese Super League title contending group. He said Chinese players have the ability to excel in the game, but they rely too much on foreign aid and seek too much comfort, which is not good for soccer development. In fact, foreign coaches who have coached in the Chinese Super League over the past few years have made similar suggestions, but to little effect, and the national team's strength and performance have been declining amid the turmoil.
In the past, the China-South Korea men's soccer match not only sparked a national debate, but fans also expected the national team to break the fear of South Korea and win the match. However, with the improvement of hardware conditions, the level of the national team and the fans' requirements for the game have also changed, and now the goal is to minimize losing, and a draw is regarded as a victory. The hardship and helplessness hidden behind the shift in the mentality of the national team players and fans, and the deeper problems reflected in this situation, may be more thought-provoking than the results of Tuesday night's World Cup qualifiers.
