China News Service, Beijing, March 30 (Liu Xingchen) "Keep your love, keep your anger", after the national football team did not "decently" lose to the Oman team, thus ending the Qatar World Cup Asian qualifier top 12, a fan stayed. Down this sentence.
Image source: Screenshot of Weibo comment.
In the post-match accusations, such an expression has been considered mild.
More people are just venting their inner anger, and this buried anger has been suppressed for a long time.
But who can remember that 20 years ago, how many people were in the blood of the national football team because of their love, and the voice of shouting from the chest was so deafening.
From 2002 to 2022, the time is like a dream, but this dream is very real and cruel.
Now, if we want to wake up from our dreams, we must also wake up.
On October 7, 2001, as the referee blew the final whistle, the Chinese men's football team held the tickets for the World Cup finals in their hands for the first time.
As soon as the camera turned, the national football audience in front of the TV waved the Chinese flag and cheered endlessly. That night, many people who love Chinese football were so excited that they stayed up all night.
Image source: CCTV video screenshot.
At the Wulihe Stadium in Shenyang, which witnessed history, the national football players threw the coach Milu high.
The score on the big screen was fixed at 1:0, and in this game recorded in the history of Chinese football, the national football team also happened to be the Oman team.
On the players' clothes, there is a sentence like "Chinese football has never felt so good."
Sun Jihai, Ma Mingyu, Li Tie, Zhao Junzhe, Su Maozhen, Li Xiaopeng, Li Weifeng... How many old fans, even if they can't often pay attention to national football games now, they can still count these familiar names when they talk about those years.
These players, known as the "golden generation".
"The Chinese football team is concerned by hundreds of millions of people. It has been followed by generations, and the blue silk has turned white." On the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in 2002, the scenes praising the national football team were repeatedly applauded.
Data map: The Chinese team played against the world powerhouse Brazil at the Seogwipo World Cup Stadium in South Korea.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Mao Jianjun
In the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, the national football team fell in the group stage.
He failed to score in three games and ended his first World Cup trip with 9 goals and 0 points.
But at that time, almost everyone believed that after experiencing "everything is difficult at the beginning", the national football team will portray a dream about football in the love and cheers of the fans.
All this seems to be just the beginning.
However, in today's view, the scene 20 years ago is the peak of a fleeting moment.
Data map: National football players.
The dream soon began to turn cruel, too fast to be caught off guard.
In the following 10 years, Chinese football has encountered an inescapable trough.
In the 2006 German World Cup Asian qualifying group stage, as long as the draw with Kuwait could advance to the next stage, the national football team ended in defeat and was eliminated due to the disadvantage of goal difference; 2010 South Africa World Cup Asian qualifying match 20 In a strong match, the national football team was eliminated one round ahead of schedule...
During that time, due to repeated setbacks in the international arena, the confidence of the national football players was gradually wiped out.
Among the fans, there are more voices of doubts and accusations. They don't know when this team, which once made hundreds of millions of Chinese people proud, will get back on track.
In the 2015 Asian Cup group stage, the Chinese men's football team defeated Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and North Korea successively, ending the embarrassing record of 18 years without victory in Saudi Arabia, 14 years without victory in Uzbekistan in official competitions, and 10 consecutive years of losing to North Korea in competitions.
At that time, this national football team, with an average age of 24.4 years, was eye-catching.
But now it seems that this beauty is still fleeting.
Data map: Milou.
After that, the national football team's performance in the World Cup qualifiers was still lackluster.
With coaching changes, players changing, and naturalized players joining in, Chinese football is always looking for changes and ways to win back the hearts of fans.
However, the Qatar World Cup qualifiers once again let fans experience the feeling of riding a roller coaster.
The top 40 games brought hope, the top 12 games were sluggish, and the loss to Vietnam on the first day of the new year completely ignited the anger of the fans.
In the early morning of the 30th, Beijing time, the national football team, which had few chances in the whole game, lost 0:2 to Oman, ending the journey of the world preliminaries.
The Chinese men's football team once again missed the World Cup.
From winning the World Cup ahead of Oman in 2002, now facing the same opponent, he has no power to fight back.
The picture of people emptying alleys because of the national football team has not appeared in these years.
In the early morning of March 25th, Beijing time, in the top 12 in the Asian region of the World Preliminaries, after falling behind by a goal, with Zhu Chenjie's penalty kick, the national football team drew 1:1 with the Saudi team.
The picture shows that after the goal, the national football players gathered around and pointed to the sky.
Image source: Visual China
Many people want to know, what happened to Chinese football?
For 20 years, our opponents have continued to improve their strength, but we seem to be stuck in place.
If described in one word, "quick success" may be somewhat reasonable.
After constantly experiencing the endless cycle of "failure-reflection-failure", the fans have turned from the passion of the year to the frustration of today.
In the competitive sports arena, the improvement of strength cannot be achieved overnight.
Failure is not the end of the world, and how to get due alert from it is the source of progress.
In the early morning of March 25th, Beijing time, in the top 12 in the Asian region of the World Preliminaries, after falling behind by a goal, with Zhu Chenjie's penalty kick, the national football team drew 1:1 with the Saudi team.
The picture shows the moment when Zhu Chenjie scored a penalty kick.
Image source: Visual China
Before the national football match against Oman, in the U23 men's "Dubai Cup" match, the Chinese U23 men's football team lost 0:3 to the United Arab Emirates and won the fourth place.
Although they missed the podium, the young players' spirit of fighting spirit on the field brought a breath of fresh air to Chinese football.
Due to the epidemic, the U23 men's football team has not been able to participate in international competitions for a long time.
High-level competition is crucial for the growth of young players. After all, in the future, Chinese football needs to rely on these young people.
Image source: Official blog of the Chinese football team.
Judging from the game, the team's progress in recent years has been significantly slower than that of players of the same age in the United Arab Emirates and Thailand.
How can we catch up in the next time and burst the bubble of today's "nightmare", Chinese football can no longer work behind closed doors.
Perhaps how to ensure the growth of these young people is an important issue that relevant departments should consider.
Indeed, the performance of competitive sports is a measure of success or failure. When the national team's performance is not good, it is inevitable to be criticized.
However, contrary to the rules, trying to improve the record by changing coaches in a short period of time is also a "dead end".
Chinese football is in a predicament for the time being. Starting the next four-year journey, they need to regain their self-confidence, and this motivation comes from changes in youth training, preparation system and mental outlook, and more from the understanding of all walks of life.
At least for now, Chinese football is also lucky, because there are still a large number of fans waiting in front of the screen late at night.
For Chinese football, after a sigh, we also need to calm down.
(over)