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commentator li changxu

early in the morning, i saw the news that "general fan" was going to jump into the huangpu river.

the only thing that could make "general fan" jump into the river is football. on the evening of september 5th, beijing time, the chinese national football team officially started the journey of the world cup asian qualifiers. in the first round, they challenged the top asian team japan away and set a record of "seven shames" with a score of 0-7.

(photo source: football news official weibo)

technical statistics show that the chinese team had only one shot in the whole game, and the ball possession rate barely exceeded 20%. this game also created several unbearable records for the chinese men's football team, such as the biggest score loss to japan, the most goals conceded in a single world cup qualifier, the biggest score loss in a world cup qualifier, etc.

everyone expected a loss, but they didn't expect it to be such a big loss. "a loss of less than 3 goals is considered a win, and a loss of 3 goals is considered a draw" is a relatively unanimous view among chinese fans, but they didn't expect the loss to be 7 goals.

blame it on head coach ivankovic's incompetence or the chinese national team's lack of atmosphere in away games, but one indisputable fact cannot be denied, that is, the gap between the chinese and japanese teams is getting bigger and bigger.

(photo source: visual china)

26 years ago, in the semi-finals of the dynas cup, the chinese national football team was able to win 2-0, but in the 26 years since then, the chinese national football team has not won 14 games against japan in all competitions, with a total record of 8 losses and 6 draws in 14 games. in the previous matches against the chinese national football team, the japanese team mostly played the second team lineup and only won by 1 or 2 goals, but in this world cup qualifier, the same group also includes traditional strong teams such as australia and saudi arabia. in order to gain more goal difference advantages, the japanese team obviously did not "feel weak".

the 7-goal difference may just be an indication of the growing gap between the chinese and japanese teams. after defeating spain and germany in the world cup, the japanese team has risen to 18th in the world and ranked first in asia, while the chinese national team has dropped to 87th. japan's goal is to win the world cup, while the chinese team's goal is only to reach the top 18.

the huge gap in the number of players who studied abroad can also illustrate the gap in the strength of football between china and japan. as far as this game is concerned, the total value of the japanese team reached 289.98 million yuan, more than 20 times that of the chinese national football team. three years ago, after losing to the japanese men's football team, wu lei, who was about to return to the spaniard team, 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." three years later, there is no player who studied abroad in the chinese national football team's roster. before this game, a sad joke circulated on social media: the japanese team has 21 players who studied abroad, while the chinese team has no. 21 liu yang.

(photo source: visual china)

when comparing the development trajectories of chinese and japanese football, the new chinese football association chairman song kai said that we had been ahead of japan for 80 years, but lost in the last 30 years. these 30 years are exactly the 30 years when chinese and japanese footballs successively underwent professional reforms. however, these 30 years of professional reforms have created a world of difference.

over the past 30 years, japanese football has always attracted a large number of young people to join the football field, forming a good connection with campus football. a group of young talents have emerged from the local area and have continuously entered european clubs for further studies, forming the current situation of leading asia. compared with the overall smooth progress of the professionalization reform of japanese football, in the past 30 years, the development of chinese football has been difficult to be compatible with professionalization, the competitive level has regressed, the operation has not been able to generate profits, and opportunities and talents have been continuously wasted, forming a vicious cycle, so that it has fallen to the point of "being inferior to others" today.

the "seven humiliations" have allowed us to see the real gap, and at the same time have warned us to accept this gap calmly, find out the reasons for the gap, sort out the entire football training system including the football management system, youth training system, and football education system, and come up with feasible plans for change and strengthening, in order to lay a solid foundation for the future of chinese football.