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originally produced by phoenix.com's "phoenix grandstand"

author | feng zhen

in the 1997 top ten tournament, the chinese national football team unfortunately failed to advance to france. at that time, the cutting-edge current affairs and lifestyle magazine "new weekly" published a special edition titled "china does not play football", which expressed despair. however, at that time, the chinese national football team was still second-rate in asia and was not far from the world cup. 27 years later, when gong xiaoyue, the editor of "china does not play football", was asked by phoenix.com how he viewed the current abyss of chinese football, his answer was somewhat unexpected.

gong xiaoyue said: no matter what, chinese football is one of the relatively transparent, open and professional industries, so i would say, thank you for still playing.

indeed, the chinese national football team always loses games in the most disgusting way, and it is difficult for ordinary fans to understand what gong xiaoyue said 27 years later. of course, the feeling last night was terrible. the 1-2 loss to saudi arabia was as frustrating as the 0-7 defeat by the japanese team a few days ago.

in 1997, the chinese national football team was still considered second-rate in asia.

the chinese national team had great luck, which was rare in history: in the 14th minute, saudi arabia scored an own goal to help the chinese national team take the lead. but that was not enough. in the 18th minute, saudi arabia received a red card. with the chinese national team leading by one goal at home, they were able to play 11 against 10 for the next 80 minutes (including extra time).

happiness came so suddenly, but chinese football is so unlucky. luck rarely favors the chinese football team, but it can go wrong.

falling behind by one goal and with one man less, the saudi team started to play seriously. one statistic says a lot: saudi arabia had 58% of the ball throughout the game, and 62% in the first half. how crude must the chinese national football team be to be so embarrassed.

the chinese team actually didn't have many tricks. it was difficult to launch a counterattack, and positional warfare was a mess. making full use of set pieces was the only way to create threats.

but the problem is that they are better at set pieces, which require very little technical skills. saudi arabia responded with two goals from corner kicks. the 1.79-meter-tall central defender kadish scored twice to complete the reversal.

the chinese national football team can’t even beat the opponent in set pieces, it can be said that it is completely useless.the chinese national football team is now left with only drama. over the past few decades, the same lore has been repeated over and over again, and this sense of fate itself is full of dramatic tension.

after the first two rounds of the top 18, the chinese national football team had 0 points. the chinese national football team's competitors, bahrain and indonesia, had already scored 3 points and 2 points respectively. it was meaningless to count the points at this time. in fact, losing to two world cup-level teams in a row was a normal result. it was just that the process was too unbearable.

the chinese national football team almost got 3 points

pessimistic emotions are inevitable when there are pessimistic results.there is a common voice now: "disband the chinese men's football team and stop wasting taxpayers' money."

since this argument is very mainstream, we should analyze whether the logic in it is correct.

it is normal for the chinese men's football team to be laughed at, ridiculed, mocked, humiliated, despised and disgusted. humans always get some superficial pleasure by despising losers. the problem is how to deal with this serious proposition after laughing at it.

some people say that since the chinese men's football team has such poor results and cannot "win glory for the country", it should be disbanded. this perspective of simply understanding sports results as the face of the country seems to be stuck in the 1980s. it is somewhat unbelievable that after opening our eyes to the world for 40 years and seeing nothing but 0-7, it is somewhat unbelievable.

but on second thought, people probably wouldn't say that about other sports that have poor performance. the chinese men's volleyball team is bad, and some people say they waste taxpayers' money? chinese track and field is bad, and some people say they waste taxpayers' money? chinese rugby is bad, and no one cares. the value of football to chinese society is different from diving and weightlifting. people who dislike it seem to be expressing their care in another way.

ivan was criticized

some people say: the bottom line of chinese football is very low, but there are many industries with lower bottom lines than it.

to say so is to some extent an excuse for chinese football.but it must also be said that chinese football is not an independent entity separated from chinese society.if chinese society is a big tree, chinese football is a kind of fruit on the tree. there are other fruits on this tree, some good and some bad, but they are all fruits.chinese football has always had its logic over the past few decades, but the most important logic is not in the fruit but in the tree.

it is easier to saw off the badly grown fruit than to cure it. it is easier to be an ostrich than a lion.

there is a reason why football can transcend all ideologies and become the world's number one sport and one of the world's mainstream cultures. this team sport with close combat, fierce confrontation and complex tactics can maximize the display of your national character, team consciousness, collective culture, individual space, physical fitness and brain wisdom at the sports level.you can't just disband and stop playing because chinese football is not good, showing weakness, looseness, rigidity and clumsiness, and say we can just play table tennis and diving. no, we have to face it bravely.

from this perspective,china's football is not a waste of taxpayers' money, but a true representation of some social problems in a way. if these problems can be taken seriously and improved, it will not only benefit football, but also more important "fruits" than football.

losing is an emotional wound. football is a social incision.

“thank goodness they’re still playing.”