Xinhua News Agency, Muscat, March 29 title: Towards renewal, Chinese football must have the courage and confidence to continue to move forward
Xinhua News Agency reporter Xiao Shiyao
On the same day, the Chinese men's football team and the U23 men's football team have ushered in the competition. On this day, Chinese football ended a journey and embarked on a new long journey.
On the 29th, the Chinese men's football team lost 0:2 to Oman, ending all the matches in the World Preliminary Round of 12. Another impact on the World Cup failure, the historical mission of the older generation of players, but also to the end; U23 men's football "Dubai Cup" lost 0:3 to the United Arab Emirates team, won the fourth place in the event. Young players are just starting out and entering the public eye.
In a highly symbolic way, Chinese football is moving towards renewal and opening the next four years.
The picture above is of the Chinese team players leaving after the 10th round of the 10th round of the 2022 Qatar World Cup Asian Qualifier Round of 12, and the picture below is the Chinese U23 men's football team after the "Dubai Cup" International Football Invitational Tournament.
Regarding the successes and failures of the past four years, Chinese football needs to reflect calmly, objectively and calmly. Some difficulties have nothing to do with football, such as the loss of home and the lack of games due to the epidemic, the financial crisis caused by multiple factors affected by the parent company of the club; but more problems are caused by Chinese football itself: the constant change of head coaches, the turmoil in the league affects the preparation, the general lack of salary shakes the player base, the long-term neglect of youth training leads to the aging of the squad, and the naturalization policy is unsustainable...
In the final analysis, the problem of Chinese football is nothing more than the word "toss". Problems are always a headache, a foot pain, and then press the gourd to float the scoop. On the fundamental and directional issues related to the development of football, they often lack concentration and cannot overcome difficulties. It has been seven years since the introduction of the "Overall Plan for the Reform and Development of Chinese Football", but many key issues in football reform have still not been solved, and the football ecology at the social and cultural levels has still not been greatly improved.
The loss itself is not terrible, what is really terrible is that the loss does not bring the vigilance and improvement it deserves. We are always reflecting, but we continue to fall into the vicious circle of "losing- tossing and losing again". Therefore, we must reflect more to clarify the current situation, find the crux of the problem, and make up our minds to clarify the direction for future development.
Whether it is rooted in youth training or league-based, it is a cliché. From the national team level alone, rejuvenation is the law of football, and the national football team, which has been "green and yellow" for many years, personnel replacement is imperative. Half a year later, the U23 national football team will participate in the Hangzhou Asian Games. And the local Asian Cup a year later, and the World Cup qualifiers two years later, also rely heavily on these young people.
Our young people have fallen a lot behind. Due to the epidemic, the U23 national football team has not participated in any international competitions for more than two years, and the players have many deficiencies in technical and tactical capabilities. As soon as he came out to participate in the game, some players sighed: "I feel that the opponent has improved faster than us in the past two years." ”
A hundred practices are not as good as a game, and high-level play is crucial for young players. The "Dubai Cup" three games down, although the growth is not directly reflected in the results, but the progress of the young players is visible to the naked eye.
The development of world football is changing rapidly, and Chinese football must not be built behind closed doors. If it were not for the national football team to participate in the top 12 competition, the U23 players may not have the opportunity to go abroad to compete. On the basis of doing a good job in epidemic prevention, we must create conditions for young players to "go out" as much as possible and strive to regain the two years lost.
Of course, looking at Chinese football can not only see the shadows and not see the sun. Although this U23 national football team is still far from taking shape, they have a united and full of fighting spirit in the "Dubai Cup", fighting from the first minute to the last minute in each game, bringing a fresh breeze to Chinese football and winning the praise of most people. In the end, fans want to see that as a member of the national team, no matter what the ability, first of all, we must correct our attitude and go all out to run and fight.
The U23 national football team released a short documentary after each match, which is a good attempt. A lot of inherent impressions stem from not understanding, the team actively seeks to communicate with the fans, let everyone see the efforts of the players, help to create a good team image, let more people understand, and then support Chinese football.
At present, Chinese football has indeed fallen into a trough. The performance of competitive sports is an important yardstick, and when the national team is not doing well, it is inevitable to be criticized. All football practitioners must have the determination to be right and wrong, to ruin their reputation, to learn to coexist with criticism, and to win back respect with little by little progress.
Failure is not the end, Chinese football must continue to move forward with courage and confidence.