Known as the "magical manager", Milu is the most successful manager in the history of national football, and there is no one, because it is he who led the national football team into the World Cup. This is also the only time in the history of the national football team to qualify for the World Cup finals, and it is also an early promotion. Unfortunately, after Milu left office, his coaching experience and even the value of Chinese football were underestimated or even degraded by too many people. For Milu's situation, media person Li Xuan said: Milu is seriously underestimated by Chinese football because Chinese football looks down on foreign teachers and satirizes Dong Lu in his words.
Let's take a look back at the 2001 Top Ten. Since the 2002 World Cup was hosted by Japan and South Korea, the national football team lost 2 opponents in the top 10. However, Japan and South Korea also occupy 2 valuable qualifying places in Asia, that is to say, in addition to Japan and South Korea, there are only 2.5 qualifying places left in Asia.
In the top ten matches, the Chinese team was divided into Group B, and the opponents in the same group were the United Arab Emirates, China, Uzbekistan, Oman and Qatar, of which the United Arab Emirates was the seed team of this group. The other two traditional asian teams, Saudi Arabia and Iran, were divided into Group A. Judging from the pattern of Asian football at that time, the Chinese team undoubtedly drew a lottery.
In the first match of the top ten matches, the national football team hit the Uae 3-0 at home and won the opening. Subsequently, the national football team became invincible under the leadership of Milu, with a 2-0 away win over Oman, a 1-1 draw against Qatar, a 2-0 home win over Uzbekistan, and a 1-0 away to the United Arab Emirates. After 1-0 at home to Oman, the national football team advanced to the Final Round of the World Cup two rounds earlier.
At the end of the round of 12, the national enough to win 6, draw 1 draw and 1 loss, accumulated 19 points, ahead of the second place as many as 8 points. Unfortunately, the national football team performed poorly in the World Cup, losing all three games, which also ended the myth that Milu led 5 teams in a row to advance to the round of 16. Perhaps it is also the poor results of the World Cup, as well as various off-field storms, Milu was subsequently excluded by Chinese football and had no choice but to leave.
Before leaving office, Milu had given 4 major advices to Chinese football: 1, if Chinese football wants to improve, if it wants to take off, it must first do a good job in domestic leagues, only high-quality leagues can allow players to be trained; 2, we must send more players to play abroad; 3, we must hire coaches suitable for Chinese football, not foreign teachers such as Hiddink; 4, Young Players in China should learn to support and cooperate with the work of coaches. Now, 20 years after Milu left the national football coach, we have found that Milu's 4 points of advice are actually the truth, but it is a pity that the advice is against the ear. At that time, no one in the top level of Chinese football listened to it.
At the World Cup draw in Qatar 20 years later, the 78-year-old Milu participated in the lottery ceremony as a guest. Chinese football star Zhu Yuanbao lamented that Milu's experience (allowing An Qi to adapt to the game ball in advance) is a huge asset for Chinese football. Media person Li Xuan also had the same feeling, saying: "Milu's experience and value are seriously underestimated by the Chinese football community, and then again, who does Chinese football look up to!" ”
Li Xuan's words are self-evident, the reason why Chinese football has not only not made any progress in the past twenty years, but has made great strides, which has a very big relationship with the fact that people in the football circle are too closed and proud. And this is the biggest sadness of Chinese football.