news

wu peng, reporter of chao news client

after the victory of "there are friends all over the world" and "tianya 7:0", someone in the circle of friends posted an old article with the vertical title: the current situation of chinese football training is worrying; the subtitle: hedonism, fear of hardship and fatigue, and materialism are gradually infiltrating the body of the football world.

image source: internet

because of its age, the font is blurred and the paper has yellowed. it is a xinhua news agency article on the sports page of a newspaper. when i look up, it is monday, january 31, 1994. the story takes place on the eve of the professionalization reform of chinese football, and 30 years have passed.

let’s take a look at the author, xu jiren, who was a senior sports reporter for xinhua news agency and a well-known figure in the industry.

this article by reporter xu is a report on the national football training work conference in 1994. the theme of that conference was to reflect on and criticize the current situation of chinese football training at that time.

the key problem of chinese football at that time was that the training was declining, the physical fitness was declining, the top players were not top-notch, and the competition level was not high. the key to the problem was that the ideas of hedonism, fear of hardship and fatigue, and even the idea of ​​materialism gradually permeated the body of the football world.

one

ivankovicphoto provided by visual china

in the second match of the world cup qualifiers, the chinese men's football team was outnumbered and defeated by the saudi team in front of nearly 50,000 spectators in dalian. i don't know what criticism and reflection the author xu jiren made. i forgot to mention that he is now the vice chairman of the chinese football association in charge of the chinese men's football team.

as a person of the same age who has witnessed the entire 30-year professionalization process of chinese football, my feeling is that the white-haired palace maids are still there, sitting and talking about emperor xuanzong.

on the night when dalian lost, the emotions of the fans were distorted by the media and self-media that understood and did not understand football. they all cursed the head coach and urged ivankovic to pack up and leave.

the accusation that everyone made against ivan was that the team lost to japan by seven goals last week because the players were cowardly and couldn't even kick people; this time, although they had the advantage in physical strength and numbers, they delayed making substitutions and were knocked out by two corner kicks from the opponents. it was all because of his incompetence.

looking at this 70-year-old croatian man standing alone in the autumn rainy night, he looked a little desolate and old, and i couldn't help but feel sad for him. he was a famous coach who had led the iranian national team and the oman national team, and led shandong luneng to win the chinese super league championship 14 years ago. in the blink of an eye, he became a deadbeat who used our liquidated damages as his pension.

it is very likely that everyone has thought too much and in the wrong way, and even forgotten the traditional virtues of the chinese nation of respecting the elderly and loving the young.

the chinese national football team lost 0-7 to japan. image courtesy of visual china

if changing the coach could change the fate of the chinese men's football team, there would be no need to wait for the expansion of the world cup asian quota. the chinese men's football team would have entered the world cup several times.

from 2002 to now, we have had 14 head coaches in 6 world cups, the longest of which lasted no more than 3 years. we have hired foreign coaches from spain, italy, the netherlands, france, serbia, croatia, and tried all kinds of styles and levels. the milestones of the world cup qualifiers are the same: the opening match, the life-or-death match, the honor match, the next stop, the train station (or beijing west station).

the reason why people are particularly angry about ivan, the oldest player, is probably because the 12-team finals have been changed to the 18-team finals, with a total of 10 games, and the finals should not be reached so quickly. but at the current pace, the home game against indonesia on the 15th of next month will be a life-and-death battle. if we can't win, we will be at the finals.

in fact, if it really comes to this, the sky will not fall. after losing to paraguay, the brazilian team, which is worth 962 million us dollars, lost 4 of the last 5 games and ranked fifth in the south american region.

after two rounds of the asian qualifiers, anyone who knows a little about football can see that the data and rankings are not deceiving. we and our neighbor kyrgyzstan are the weakest. unless a miracle happens, we will not be able to get the 8.5 places in asia. the time and opportunity are not right yet.

there is no bodhi tree, nor is there a mirror. there is nothing, so how can dust gather? most of the troubles for this men's football team were caused by the goalkeeper sonny of the singapore team who runs a snack bar. he was eager to do good deeds and took the national football team in the icu to the ktv, which gave many fans and media unrealistic fantasies.

in terms of strength, we are both in a class of our own among the top 18 teams. one of them scored more goals, and the other conceded more goals. the japanese team starts with 5 goals against everyone. we have no confidence in anyone. it is because we are not as good as them in skills, not because of our bloodiness.

two

the chinese national football team lost to saudi arabia 1-2. photo courtesy of visual china

fast forward 30 years, none of the old problems reported by xu jiren have been solved, and a lot of new problems have emerged. the chinese men's football team's world ranking has dropped from over 50 to over 80, and is now 13th in asia. it is indeed regrettable.

when i watched the chinese men's football matches, i felt the heroic spirit of xin qiji, who in his prime years led thousands of men under banners and crossed the yangtze river on horseback. now i feel the sadness of jiang jie, and now i listen to the rain under the monk's hut, with white hair on my temples. joys and sorrows are always merciless, and i let the raindrops fall on my steps until dawn.

some people expressed their deep sorrow and indignation, saying that they couldn't understand it. they really couldn't understand it. it was easy for us to win gold medals in the olympics, but it was so difficult to play football. how could we not pick out 11 people who could play football out of 1.4 billion people?

i would like to share that team, competitive, professional sports such as football and basketball require physical fitness and hard work, but they also require teamwork and creative work with imagination. if you understand this, the confusion about chinese football will be clear, although the problem will not be solved easily.

football and many other team sports require physical and mental labor. olympic sports and professional sports are worlds apart, and there are very few countries that can fly together. manchester city star sun jihai said that football cannot be opportunistic or overtaken, so he chose the youth training route, unlike fan zhiyi who chose the internet celebrity route.

there is a very bad phenomenon: now when the chinese national football team loses a game, everyone blames the coach. the famous coaches are here to cheat money, such as lippi. the less famous ones are here to deceive, such as jankovic and ivankovic. every foreign coach has fallen here.

there is a very good phenomenon that after losing a game, few people scold the players, no matter if it is butter hands, a big leak, or even an own goal. this is the most significant progress of chinese football in the past 20 years.

another improvement is that there are coaches everywhere. scolari, who led brazil to win the 2002 world cup in korea and japan, lamented that brazil has 160 million national team coaches, and the real national team coaches are like sitting on the crater of a volcano every day.

china now has more than 1 billion internet users, and hundreds of millions of them feel that they are better at both macro-strategy and micro-anatomy of chinese football than the football association, and are better at deploying troops and directing the national team than the head coach, and that everyone has the final say.

playing football is a job. players are ordinary workers like you and me. they used to be glamorous and well-paid, but now they are like phoenixes with fading feathers, with poor image, income lower than that of third-tier internet celebrities, and they are often owed wages. the reason they didn't win was because of their ability and talent, not their attitude and moral character.

the stands are packed with fans. photo by reporter ying luyang

if the current chinese professional players had chosen other industries, they would have every reason to believe that they would have had a better future. the son of the first generation of professional players, zhang weihua, played tennis and became the best male tennis player in chinese history - zhang zhizhen; shang yi's son is now the most promising rising star in chinese men's tennis - shang juncheng. families with sports genes like these have given up football. there are only 5,000 registered professional players in china. what else do you want for chinese football?

another good sign is that 48,628 spectators came to support the dalian home game, and the box office was no less than 15 million. the chinese men's football team is already third-rate in asia, but there is still such a hot market, which means that the fans are still excited and are only disappointed but not desperate about the national football team. if one day the organizers of the national football team need to go to schools, government agencies, enterprises and institutions to mobilize people to act as the atmosphere group, it will be a disaster and a complete loss of hope.

the internet has memory. chinese fans feel pain but do not bear grudges. they have a high pain point and a low laugh point. a trivial victory will evoke a sense of satisfaction like a tsunami.

losing two, three, or even seven or eight games in a row will not be the end of the world for this chinese national football team. cctv has historically stopped broadcasting the games, and the chinese national football team has bid farewell to the free era. this means much more to chinese football and chinese fans than the national football team losing.

chinese football is valuable. now they are like unlucky losers, serving as emotional value. one day when they hit bottom and bounce back and hold their heads high, they will have commercial and spiritual value. this day will come sooner or later, without waiting until the end of time.

"please indicate the source when reprinting"