In the Asian top 12 of the World Preliminaries that ended in the early morning of the 30th, Beijing time, the Chinese men's football team lost 0:2 to Oman.
There were few chances for the national football team in the whole game, and finally ended the journey of this world preliminaries with a complete defeat.
10 games, 1 win, 3 draws and 6 losses, only 6 points, ranking 5th among the 6 teams in Group B.
This is the answer sheet handed over by the Chinese men's football team in the Asian top 12 stage of the World Preliminaries.
Since the start of the Asian Top 40 in 2019, the national football team's trip to Qatar World Preliminary Tournament lasted nearly 3 years.
From the "second entry into the palace" Lippi resigned in anger, to Li Tie's "fire fighting" leading the team into the top 12, and then to his "dismissal" in the controversy, and then Li Xiaopeng took office, the national football team finally failed to create a miracle... …
Along the way, there are too many ups and downs "story".
Data map: Lippi is in charge of the national football coach, leading the team to prepare for the World Preliminary Top 40.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Chen Jimin
Four years and four years.
It has been 20 years since the last time the national football team entered the World Cup, but Chinese football is still in an infinite "dead loop".
The bad thing is that, with the increasingly serious phenomenon of players being absent, Chinese football may become more struggling in this "dead cycle".
At the pre-match press conference, when a reporter from Oman asked the main reason for the failure of the Chinese team to hit the World Cup, Li Xiaopeng bluntly said: "The strength is not enough."
An embarrassing and helpless reality smashed in front of him.
Data map: Photo by national football coach Li Xiaopeng and Luo Yunfei
Looking at the record of the national football team's top 12 matches, they have lost all two games in the face of Japan, and have one draw and one loss against Saudi Arabia and Australia.
Judging from the record against strong teams, it basically conforms to the strength gap.
But the national football team has one draw and one loss against Oman and one win and one loss against Vietnam, which is obviously an unqualified performance.
The national football team lost 1:3 to Vietnam, completely missing the Qatar World Cup.
Image source: Visual China
An unsatisfactory trip to the World Preliminaries made everyone realize once again how far the national football team is from the first-class level in Asia.
In all fairness, the big discussion and big reflection after losing to Vietnam is not entirely a bad thing.
The key is that after realizing the gap, how can Chinese football get up strong and catch up?
Before starting the next four years, the problem at hand should still be solved.
On the evening of January 27, Beijing time, in the top 12 of the World Preliminaries, the national football team lost to Japan 0:2 away.
Image source: IC photo
"Renewal" meets the local Asian Cup
Facing the new generation of the national football team, what strategy will be adopted in the Asian Cup at home next year?
This is probably a dilemma: to keep the veteran "Zhang Linpeng" in the national team for another year, or to make the Asian Cup the "touchstone" of the new national football team?
Lippi used the former method when he led the team, but the result was only to stop in the quarter-finals.
At the top 40 stage of the world preliminaries, the national football team, which has undergone a new generation, suffered the bitter fruit. After even tying the Philippines and Syria, Lippi chose to resign.
With lessons learned, if we focus on the next World Cup, perhaps the national football team should give more young people opportunities in the Asian Cup.
However, considering that the 2023 Asian Cup will be held locally, the Chinese team as the host should not be too ugly in terms of results.
Therefore, how to grasp the degree and speed of the replacement, and how to get the new national football team together as soon as possible, is a very arduous task for the coaching staff.
In the long run, this will determine the team's fate in the next World Qualifiers.
In this world preliminaries, Zhang Yuning became a new force in the national football team.
Image source: Visual China
How's the league going?
Just as difficult as the "regeneration" of the national team is the Chinese Professional Football League, which is currently in a trough.
However, affected by multiple factors such as investors, the epidemic, and club operations, there are not a few professional football clubs facing an existential crisis in China.
If the league in the new season follows the centralized game system, the club may also suffer losses in terms of revenue.
For the national team, the league is one of the main points of support.
If the club's life is difficult, the national team's results will also be adversely affected.
The Chinese Super League has adopted the centralized game system for two consecutive seasons. The 2020 season champion Jiangsu team was disbanded tragically, and the Guangzhou team has also changed.
Image source: ICphoto
What about youth competitions?
The quality of cultivation at the youth level will directly affect Chinese football ten years later.
It is a pity that due to the epidemic, youth competitions such as the Youth League Super League have been interrupted on a large scale, and the National Youth Team can only seek training opportunities in the China Second League.
The U23 national football team, which has just participated in the Dubai Cup, is the first time to participate in an international competition in more than two years.
According to reports, some U23 football players admitted that the progress in the past four years has been significantly slower than that of players of the same age in the United Arab Emirates and Thailand.
In a few years, when these players become the backbone of the adult national team, what will it look like?
In the Dubai Cup, U23 national football goalkeeper Han Jiaqi came to the fore.
Image source: IC photo
For football with a complex system, if you want to get out of the predicament as a whole, you need the participation of various forces in the society, and you need to have enough patience and public will.
Self-pity cannot save Chinese football.
Only by practicing hard and becoming more courageous can it be possible for Chinese football to gradually get out of the current predicament.
Fortunately, the number of participating teams in the 2026 World Cup will be expanded to 48, and the Asian region will get 8.5 places.
But for the national football team that is currently stuck near the "admission line", if they want to keep their current Asian rankings and win a ticket for the World Cup after the expansion, they still need to start by solving the immediate problems.
(Author Bian Liqun)