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embarking on the journey to obtain scriptures is more important than reaching lingshan

on september 5, the chinese national football team, which had no charter flights and all members traveled in economy class, once again set out on the road to the world cup. in the first away game against the japanese men's football team, they lost 0-7 and failed to get any points or goals. this game was also the biggest score difference between the chinese men's football team and the japanese men's football team in history.

in the past matches against the chinese national team, the japanese men's football team would usually "stop at that point" after taking a 1-2 goal lead. however, this time, since china and japan were in the same group in the world cup qualifiers as traditional powerhouses australia and saudi arabia, the japanese team did not "show mercy" in order to gain an advantage by scoring more goals.

the result of this defeat was fully predictable by chinese fans before the game. the chinese national football team itself has limited strength. if it had not been for the advantage in the record against thailand in the previous stage of the game, it would not even have had the opportunity to compete with the japanese men's football team.

in the eyes of many football fans, the chinese national football team, which is in the "death group", has no chance of qualifying for the world cup in the united states, canada and mexico. but after losing again and again, there are still some gains.

a group photo of the chinese national football team before the match against japan. photo by liu zhankun

the japanese team routinely "punched" and the chinese national football team "fell down"

before the china-japan match, the japanese team was the more cautious side.

although japan won all the games on the way to the round of 18, japan men's football coach moriyasu hajime still said before the game that the players who played overseas in the japanese team returned late and the whole team only had three days to practice together, so everything needs to be done with caution and not be careless.

japanese media believe that in the last world cup qualifiers, the chinese men's football team used jiang guangtai as the core to form a defensive lineup, and the japanese team's offensive efficiency was not ideal. in this world cup qualifier, jiang guangtai will be more mature, and the chinese men's football naturalized players alan and fernando may test the defense of the japanese men's football team.

although the japanese side made a relatively "polite" statement, the chinese national football team also stated before the game that they would "carry on to the end" with united defense. the chinese national football team coach ivankovic led oman to defeat japan in the last world cup qualifiers, which can give some "psychological hints", but the huge gap in strength makes people dare not believe that the good thing of "upset" will happen to the chinese national football team.

"losing by less than 3 goals is considered a win, and losing by more than 3 goals is considered a draw" is a relatively unanimous view among chinese fans.

former international fan zhiyi said before the game: "i don't know how to encourage the chinese team given the control the japanese team has over the game. when it comes to counterattacks, where are our strengths? we want to press forward, but where are our advantages? i can't say."

throughout the game, it was indeed a "luxury" for the chinese national football team to score points and goals against the japanese team. japan didn't even sweat much, and the attack was just based on conventional punches, but the chinese national football team had already "fallen down".

15 minutes into the match, the chinese team lost the ball first, leaving the goal almost defenseless, allowing the japanese team to score with a header. in the first half stoppage time, the japanese team calmly headed the ball in. in the second half, the japanese team scored twice in the chinese team's penalty area.

throughout the game, the ball was almost always at the feet of the japanese team from beginning to end, and the chinese team only entered the japanese team's penalty area once in the first half... when jiang guangtai touched the ball into his own goal and the score became 5-0, the chinese national team seemed to have accepted it all, until the score became 6-0, and then 7-0.

after this game, the chinese men's football team has a record of 15 games, 9 losses and 6 draws against their opponents in the 26 years since they defeated japan 2-0 in 1998, without a single win.

chinese national football team goalkeeper wang dalei slumped on the ground. photo by liu zhankun

where is the next wu lei?

comparing the chinese and japanese men's football teams, according to statistics from germany's transfermarkt, the total value of the chinese men's football team, with an average age of 28.9, is 11.025 million euros, while the total value of the japanese men's football team, with an average age of 26.8, is as high as 276 million euros.

the total value of the 27 players in the chinese men's football team is less than that of one japanese european player, takefusa kubo. the transfer value proves that the strength of japanese players is highly recognized on the international stage, while chinese athletes lack international competitiveness.

many football industry insiders and fans believe that the japanese team may be able to achieve this in the near future, with all the starting players of the national team coming from the top five european leagues. however, the chinese men's football team has not yet found the next "wu lei" who has the ability to play abroad.

"that year, li huitang led the chinese team to a 5-0 victory over the japanese team at the far eastern games. in 1987, (the chinese team) defeated japan 2-0 until they lost to the opponent in 1992. we were ahead of japan for 80 years, but lost in the past 30 years." after taking office as the new chairman of the chinese football association, song kai publicly compared the development trajectories of chinese and japanese football.

"we are not dumber than japan and south korea. whatever they can do, we should be able to do as well. but we must first solve the problem of cognition, figure out where exactly we are inferior to japan and south korea, in which direction we should work hard, and then move forward step by step," said song kai.

the 30 years that song kai mentioned are exactly the 30 years when chinese and japanese footballs successively started professionalization reforms. japan was only two years ahead of china, but the development of footballs in the two countries is worlds apart.

professional football is a product of the industrial age. its operation in the market has a scope far beyond the scope of sports and needs to be integrated with all aspects of society. for 30 years, japan's "industrial system" of football has always attracted a large number of "football players" to join the football field, which is well connected with campus football. batches of young talents have started from the local area and have continuously entered european clubs for further studies, forming a situation that is leading asia today.

compared with the overall smooth progress of japan's professional football reform, chinese football has been "incompatible" with professional football in the past 30 years. the competitive level has regressed, the operation has been unable to generate profits, and opportunities and talents have been constantly wasted, forming a vicious cycle.

after losing to the japanese men's football team three years ago, wu lei, who was preparing to return to espanyol to participate in the la liga, once lamented: "at the airport, almost the entire japanese national team was preparing to return to their respective clubs in europe, and i was the only one on our side."

at the press conference before the china-japan match, wu lei once again put forward a beautiful vision: "the japanese team has many players playing in european leagues. i hope that chinese players can do the same in the future."

the chinese national football team competes with the japanese team for a header. photo by liu zhankun

has chinese football begun to learn from japan?

"embarking on the journey to obtain buddhist scriptures is more important than arriving at mount lingshan." this golden sentence from the recently popular game "black myth: wukong" also applies to chinese football.

in the past, chinese football has learned a lot from many football-developed countries, whether it is hiring foreign coaches or learning management experience. however, due to unclear learning direction and lack of style and route design, it has been unable to develop. as a result, chinese football has not been able to find a clear style and has made no substantial progress.

at the beginning of this year, the chinese football association quietly appointed two japanese coaches, kenichi uemura and toshi ukijima, as head coaches of the chinese u16 and u15 national men's football teams respectively. this was considered a pragmatic move by the chinese football association to plan youth training with an eye to the future.

kenichi uemura and toshi ukijima both had experience as professional football players in japan, and after retiring, they have been working in the field of youth football for many years. since taking office, the two have also made public statements to the media.

both coaches pointed out that the problem of chinese football lies in football on the surface, but not in football at its root.

kenichi uemura believes that parents, teachers, coaches and other adults do too many things for children, and chinese youth training coaches interfere too much with children during training. "many chinese players are accustomed to waiting for instructions from the coach on the court. they will not make judgments based on the situation of the game, but just wait."

ukijima toshio shared his observations during the training camp of the chinese u15 selection team: "i noticed that some players often looked towards the coaching bench when they succeeded in dribbling past the opponent or made a mistake. they might have been thinking: what will the coach think of me (making a mistake and losing the ball)?"

seeing the players' reactions like this, ukijima toshio could basically judge what kind of environment these players grew up in.

the two coaches share a common view: football is about educating people. ukijima toshi believes: "the most important mission of a youth training coach is to educate people, that is, to teach players how to be human beings through football. during the youth training stage, the coach should give players the opportunity to fail. if the players are deprived of the opportunity to fail, they will become 'robots' that mechanically execute orders."

kenichi uemura also believes that: "everything requires children to experience, think for themselves, make decisions, act for themselves, and accept the results, whether success or failure. letting children experience some things and sum up their experience is very important for their growth. the importance of coaches lies only in creating such an environment."

but in fact, chinese football has long been constrained by "qualifying football", "performance football" and "utilitarian football". chinese players have played football in an environment lacking creativity and being timid since their youth. in the national football matches, a large number of "safety balls" are passed for fear of mistakes, which is a kind of "projection". it may not be easy to change.

however, as the chinese national football team lost by a large margin, could the suggestions and advice given by the japanese coach really not bring any inspiration?

references:

1. "chinese football youth training in the eyes of foreign coaches - research on national football development key cities projects part 3" xinhua news agency

2. "some differences between chinese and japanese football - an interview with ukijima minoru, head coach of the chinese u15 men's football team" xinhua news agency

author: ye zhufeng

editor: hu kefei

operations editor: xiao ran