the plot was totally unexpected! saudi arabia defeated the chinese national team with two headers
2024-09-11
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last night, the second round of group c of the 2026 world cup asian qualifiers was held at the dalian soya bay football stadium. despite being one goal ahead and having one more player, the chinese national football team was eventually defeated 1:2 by the saudi team. with two defeats in all, they continued to rank at the bottom of the table, and the prospect of competing for a place in the play-offs suddenly became much bleaker.
the game is over, and the chinese national football team is leaving the field. photo by geng hui, a reporter from hebei daily
fan
more than 48,600 fans came to dalian soyuwan football stadium yesterday. however, the chinese national football team did not return everyone's enthusiasm with a victory as promised.
the souyuwan football stadium is only one subway stop away from dalian railway station, 25 kilometers closer than the jinzhou stadium back then. at about 15:00 yesterday, the line 5 subway leading here was packed with fans wearing red jerseys. an old local resident muttered: "why are there so many people on the subway today?"
exit c of the souyuwan south subway station, and across the road is the souyuwan football stadium. as it was not yet time to enter the stadium, fans gathered in groups of three or five in the square outside, shouting "go chinese football team" and "china will win". one of the fans, a couple from shandong, took a special annual leave and took the bohai ferry to dalian. "although we lost so badly in the last round, they are our own children after all. we can't abandon them no matter how bad they are. we just treat it as a vacation." a hebei fan was a little disappointed. "i have watched football for half my life, but now i am a little afraid to watch it. if we lose again today, i don't know how i will face it."
at 19:10, the chinese national football team entered the field for warm-up, which attracted cheers from the whole audience. it was hard to tell that this was the team that suffered a 0:7 defeat five days ago. from the opening whistle, the fans cheered and cheered, but the chinese national football team was still reversed by saudi arabia with two headers, which was once the chinese national football team's best offensive method.
after the game, in order to divert fans, the nearby barracuda bay south subway station was temporarily closed, and many fans had to walk to the barracuda bay subway station 2 kilometers away under the rain. a 6-year-old fan asked his parents in tears, "how could the chinese team lose?" and "how far do we have to walk to the subway station?" his father replied, "seeing the light means seeing hope." his face was covered with water droplets, and it was hard to tell whether it was sweat, rain, or tears.
turning point
if it weren't for li lei's strange clearance in the 38th minute that gave the saudi team a corner kick, the chinese national team could have had a "perfect" half, at least for itself, and would not have ended in failure.
the chinese national football team had a fantastic start. within 20 minutes, the saudi team gave away an own goal and a red card. however, the chinese national football team failed to seize the opportunity to expand their advantage. instead, the saudi team, which was one man short, was more active. in particular, no. 10 dawasari made many personal breakthroughs to attack the chinese national football team's defense, which also laid the groundwork for the subsequent plot.
players from both teams competed fiercely for the header in front of the goal. photo by geng hui, a reporter from hebei daily
in the 38th minute, saudi arabia made a non-threatening cross, but li lei kicked the ball out of the baseline in a weird posture when there was no one around. saudi arabia used this corner kick to equalize the score, which became the turning point of the game. in the second half, although the chinese national football team made personnel adjustments, the overall situation did not improve significantly. instead, they were defeated by saudi arabia in almost the same way before the end of the game. head coach ivankovic said that the players had worked hard enough and played some content, but the result of the defeat was regrettable; and the corner kick tactic was saudi arabia's traditional way of scoring, while the chinese national football team had loopholes in defense.
in the history of world cup qualifiers, the chinese national football team has met saudi arabia four times before. in the 1981 world cup qualifiers, fans remembered the legend of double defeat of saudi arabia and the 0:5 defeat to new zealand, which made them hate the team to the core; in the 1989 world cup qualifiers, they witnessed mai chao's double goal and the bravery of goalkeeper fu yubin; in the 1997 world cup qualifiers, zhang enhua's header in the snow became an eternal classic, and of course there was the "draw and win" that made people want to cry; in the last world cup qualifiers, they left a 30-minute counterattack frenzy and grabbed 1 point in a neutral venue.
this time, in addition to regret, there is also disappointment. in response to the fans' shouting of "ivan should be fired", ivankovic simply said "this question should not be asked to me", but no matter the team's record or the content of the game, there is really no reason to stay. it can be said that "time is running out" for ivankovic.
future
it is no longer meaningful to summarize the reasons for the failure of the chinese national football team.
when the team's own strength and skills are inferior to others, and when failure has become a habit, the negative effects of this subtle influence are, to some extent, even worse than the 0:7 loss in the last round. the most obvious manifestation on the field is that the players are afraid of taking responsibility. when they get the ball, they don't think about how to deal with it calmly, but rush to kick it out. that's why there are frequent mistakes in the pass, the disjointed organization, and the weak defense full of loopholes.
many people were prepared for this result. when the chinese national football team entered the round of 18, many fans said that this was the chinese national football team's own "world cup". they would be able to show their level and compete with the full-strength japanese, saudi and australian teams to see the real gap. as for whether they could qualify for the play-offs or even advance directly, it was completely "up to fate".
after this defeat, although there are still 4/5 of the schedule, and although the initiative is still in the hands of the national football team in theory, after watching the performance of the national football team in the first two rounds, how many people believe that they can perform an impossible miracle? therefore, in the remaining 8 games, it is better to hold the mentality of "losing is normal, winning makes a lot of money" and accompany this national football team to the end. when there is no expectation, there will be no disappointment.
it is worth noting that on the same day that the chinese national football team lost, the general administration of sports and the ministry of public security also held a press conference in dalian to crack down on fake gambling and black-market football leagues. 44 football practitioners involved in the case were sentenced by the court in accordance with the law, and 34 were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment or above. this seems to explain why chinese football has been "unable to be helped" and also gives people who care about chinese football a glimmer of hope. (reporter xuguang of zonglan news reported from dalian)
