Every festive season must add to the blockage. The Chinese men's football team has never been ambiguous in this matter, and it can be said that it has done quite well. From losing 1:3 to East Asian fish belly Vietnam on the first day of the Lunar New Year in 2022 to losing to Hong Kong 0:2 on the first day of the New Year in 2024, the lower limit of the Chinese men's football team's loss is obviously getting lower and lower.
Looking back on this game, the Chinese men's football team actually didn't start badly, Tan Long broke the deadlock on the field for the national football team in just 9 minutes, leading 1:0 early. However, just when everyone thought that the national football team might give fans across the country a festive New Year's gift, the style of painting on the field suddenly changed. Hong Kong player Pan Peixuan, who came on as a substitute in the second half, scored a brace, and from the 54th minute to the 59th minute, he penetrated the goal of the Chinese men's football team twice in a row in just 5 minutes, teaching our national football players a good lesson.
In the end, the national football team lost to Hong Kong 0:2, a shameful record was born, and the undefeated golden body of the national football team that had not lost to the Hong Kong team for 38 years was broken. Veteran Chinese fans know that the last time the national football team lost to the Hong Kong team was back in 1985, when there was no Internet. You must know that even in that era of information blockage, the national football team's loss to the Hong Kong team caused a huge sensation, causing the outside world to be full of mourning and complaints. Nowadays, with the highly developed Internet information, the national football team lost to the Hong Kong team again, and the negative impact can be imagined. There is no doubt that last night's 1:2 humiliating battle will continue to be mentioned painfully in the years to come, and it will become a stain that will never be washed away in the history of the national football team.
This 1:2 game, although it was just a warm-up game in the ordinary sense, exposed two major shortcomings of the national football team. First of all, the defense at the back is not an ordinary weakness. Playing Oman, which is sharp in attack, the national football team conceded two goals, we can say that the national football team is too tired in training, and the national football team has problems with the physical fitness of the defenders, which leads to some mistakes in defense. However, in the face of the Hong Kong team, which has a very average attack in the front, we actually conceded two goals in a row, which is not something that can be covered up by a sentence of "physical fitness".
In the final analysis, the overall defensive ability is not good, not enough to withstand the frontcourt offensive of the Hong Kong team. Some people may move out of the national football team to justify the national football team by playing two fewer players, but let's imagine that if the Japanese and South Korean men's football teams play two fewer players against our national football team, will they be so weak in defense that they will concede two goals in five minutes? Obviously not. Therefore, the defensive ability of our national football team is not good.
The second shortcoming of the national football team exposed by this game is the unstable mentality, especially the serious lack of self-control in unfavorable situations. In the face of an Asian weak team like the Hong Kong team, it is obvious that there is a big problem with the mentality of our national football team, otherwise, it would not have been possible to send off three people in a row in the second half (including two players and one staff member). According to the report sent from the front, the reason why the national football team has received 3 red cards in a row is mainly because after losing the ball, the mentality collapsed, and there were huge fluctuations in emotions, which made it difficult to control itself, resulting in malicious fouls on the field. To put it bluntly, I can't afford to lose. Receiving three red cards in a warm-up match is very rare in the history of world football. If the mentality of the national football team to get emotional as soon as they lose a goal is not improved, the result may be even more unimaginable in the Asian Cup.
After watching this game, do you still have expectations for the national football team in this Asian Cup?