the chinese national football team lost 1-2 to a 10-man saudi team. the chinese national football team should seriously consider changing the coach.
2024-09-15
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a dream start, a nightmare ending - this was the script written by the chinese men's football team in their home game against saudi arabia in the second round of the world cup qualifiers.
despite scoring in the 14th minute and gaining a numerical advantage in the 19th minute, the chinese men's football team still lost the game, ultimately being reversed by their opponents 1 to 2. when the final whistle blew, the 48,628 fans who flooded into the barracuda bay football stadium could not hide their disappointment. when coach ivankovic led the players around the field to thank them, "sounds of dismissal" were heard sporadically.
this was an unacceptable defeat. compared to the result, the process of the game was as frustrating as the 7-0 loss to japan. coach ivankovic made an unforgivable mistake in command, and the on-the-spot dispatch was completely incomprehensible. rather than saying that the saudi team, which was one man short, tried its best to reverse the game, it was more like the chinese national team, which had taken the lead early, hesitated and ruined the three points that were almost in its hands. the cowardly process was in stark contrast to the giant poster that covered the three-story stands and read "fight for the country" before the game.
jiang shenglong made a dream start for the chinese team
"i am very grateful to the fans for their support throughout the game. this is indeed a very regrettable loss. the players fought hard, but the team failed to defend those two set pieces." after the game, when ivankovic was asked by reporters whether he would resign, he said, "this question should not be asked of me. our goal of striving to be in the top four of the group and enter the next stage has not changed. there are still eight games left, we are still working hard, and i have confidence in the future of this team."
just 14 minutes into the match, jiang shenglong received a corner kick from fernando and headed the ball high, causing the opponent to score an own goal. then, the opponent's midfielder mohammed cano deliberately kicked jiang shenglong in the abdomen after falling to the ground, and was directly sent off by the referee. with an unexpectedly good start, the chinese national team's advantage ended there. the chinese national team had a possession rate of only 31% in the first half, and it was completely impossible to tell that the saudi team had to play with one less player for most of the time.
the reason is that the chinese team lacks an organizer who can hold the ball in the midfield, and the tactics are not designed accordingly. the running of the players without the ball lacks support, and the players with the ball are limited in their ability and cannot get rid of the opponent's pressure, which ultimately makes it difficult to play the numerical advantage and effective attack. the saudi team, which was one man short, frequently launched threatening attacks after losing the ball and equalized the score through a corner kick in the 39th minute.
if the first goal conceded required the players to take more responsibility, then the 90th-minute goal was the responsibility of ivankovic. during the halftime break, he replaced jiang guangtai, who was injured in the groin, with wang shangyuan. the physically exhausted saudi team gradually retreated to their own half, and the chinese national team's ball possession time increased significantly. however, ivankovic seemed to cherish the substitution quota, and only replaced wu lei with zhang yuning in the 70th minute, and did not make any substitutions since then.
it was not until the 84th minute, when zhu chenjie and xie wenneng both fell to the ground with cramps, that he hurriedly prepared to make substitutions. just two minutes after huang zhengyu replaced xie wenneng, the saudi team scored again with a corner kick in the 90th minute. at this time, ivankovic replaced alan and lin liangming, but these two substitutions had lost their meaning, and the time left for the chinese team was insufficient.
ivankovic had his own reasons for the substitutions, "the team is running well" and "both flanks are still powerful" were his explanations. but fernando, xie wenneng, baihelamu and others had already run out of energy, and ivankovic neither made good use of the manpower on the bench nor sent a clear signal to the players on the field. in contrast, saudi arabia coach mancini's substitution of three players in the 81st minute to reverse the situation was even more ironic.
to be fair, the chinese national football team's consecutive losses in the first two rounds of the 18th round were expected, but the process of these two games was unacceptable to every chinese fan. wang dalei's self-blame of "still feeling ashamed" yesterday and li lei's promise before the game that "everyone will see a brand new national football team" are still fresh in our minds, but the national football team has once again dealt a heavy blow to the fans and itself. whether ivankovic should be dismissed will undoubtedly become another difficult problem facing the chinese football association.
(this newspaper’s dalian special report on september 10)
author: chen haixiang
text: reporter chen haixiang photo: visual china editor: wu yulun responsible editor: shen lei
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