After 38 years, the national football team of Hong Kong, China, lost again, what to do in the Asian Cup
Chao News client reporter Zhao Lei Ying Luyang
"Excuse me, what sports make people worry?", "Football!", "What sports make people more worried?", "Chinese football!", Song Dandan's sketch on the 2008 Spring Festival Gala is still relevant today.
Originally, New Year's Eve was a very festive event, and the new year meant a new beginning, bringing joy and expectation to people. But just as people are welcoming the arrival of New Year's Day in 2024, the national football team still lives up to expectations and once again adds to everyone's success.
I still remember that on the first day of the Lunar New Year in 2022, the national football team lost to Vietnam 1-3 in the world preliminaries, unlocking the fastest record for the Lunar New Year. This is the first day of 2024, and the national football team will make persistent efforts to unlock the fastest record for the solar calendar year: in a closed warm-up match, the national football team was 1-2 reversed by the Hong Kong, China team with 2 goals in 8 minutes, and was shown 3 red cards in the whole game. It was a good opportunity to get off to a good start, but the process and results were shocking.
The curtain of the Asian Cup will officially kick off on January 12. The national team lost to Hong Kong, China again after 38 years, which makes people worry about the upcoming Intercontinental Cup. Chinese men's football team, what to do with the Asian Cup?
The national football team played a closed warm-up match with the Hong Kong team, and the Chinese team Wei Shihao was in the game.
In the group stage of the Asian Cup, all of them are stronger than Hong Kong, China
On the same day that the Chinese men's football team lost 1-2 to Hong Kong, China in the warm-up match, Chinese football legend Fan Zhiyi staged a wonderful performance of 1 minute and 15 seconds in the TV series "Flowers". This made many people sigh that General Fan's "reprimand" after losing 1-5 to the Thai team in the national football team in 2013 is still in their ears.
10 years have passed, the Chinese team is behind closed doors, self-contained, utilitarian-driven quick tactics "naturalization Dafa" now seems to be hundreds of millions of smashed, but there are no ripples in this slightly dull pool.
In the past 10 years, the Chinese men's football team, armed to the teeth, has repeatedly refreshed the cognition and lower limit of the Chinese people. General Fan has gone to the TV series to perform and reprimand others, and no professionals have come forward to tell the truth about Chinese football.
You know, the Hong Kong team is currently ranked 150th in the FIFA rankings. The three group opponents of the Chinese team in the Asian Cup are 58 in Qatar, 106 in Tajikistan and 107 in Lebanon. In this way, don't expect too much of our ability to play in the expanded World Cup final, even in the group stage of the Asian Cup, we may have to tremble.
On February 7, 2013, the national football team lost 1-2 to Saudi Arabia away to Saudi Arabia three days before Chinese New Year's Eve, opening the "first defeat of the new year" in the 21st century; on January 25, 2019, the national football team faced the opponent Iran in the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup, Feng Xiaoting, Shi Ke, and Liu Yiming, each of whom made a fancy mistake, allowing the Persian iron horse to "dance the waltz" Advance to the semi-finals, on February 1, 2022, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, the national football team lost 1-3 to Vietnam in the world preliminaries, completely missing the World Cup.
How many people still remember that this Asian Cup was supposed to be held in China? If the national team can't even reach the level of the regional team, I'm afraid that many Chinese people will secretly rejoice: Fortunately, the national football team is not the host.
Looking at it now, General Fan's view that "the Thai team lost to Vietnam and then lost to Myanmar" is obviously still conservative, if you don't learn from the pain and make changes, where is the lower limit of the national football team's loss, it will become a question for all viewers.
Hong Kong, China's striker Poon Pei-hin, who scored a brace against the national football team, also scored the only goal of the game in the quarterfinals against Iran at the Hangzhou Asian Games. Photo credit: Hong Kong FA
The Hong Kong team is no longer Wuxia Amon, and it was very eye-catching in the Asian Games
"Our players really want to win against their opponents, but when they get on the pitch, they may realise that this Hong Kong team is not the team they used to be in the past. And the strength of our team is not at all enough to control the game, and there is such a result. After the game, a team insider of the national football team commented after the game.
In the last 8 meetings with Hong Kong, China, the national football team has 6 wins and 2 losses to occupy the absolute initiative, and the last meeting was in the 2022 East Asian Cup 2 years ago, when the national football team defeated Hong Kong, China 1-0 to save the last face of the national football team in the East Asian Cup, and Tan Long scored the only goal of the national team in the current East Asian Cup. At that time, in the game, in addition to the possession rate and the national football team, the Hong Kong team of China had the upper hand in many statistics such as the number of shots, attacks and dangerous attacks.
In fact, the rising rise of the Hong Kong team in China was first seen as early as last year's Asian Games in Hangzhou. In the face of the national football team this time, it was in the quarterfinals of the football event of the Hangzhou Asian Games on October 1 last year that he won against the Iranian men's football team and helped the Hong Kong team advance to the semi-finals of the Asian Games for the first time - Pan Peixuan.
Born on 3 October 2000, Poon Pui Hin is a striker in the Hong Kong men's football team and currently plays for Kitchee, a Hong Kong Premier League team. On September 11, before the Asian Games last year, Poon Pui Hin came on as a backup in the friendly match between Hong Kong, China and Brunei, scoring his first goal and scoring twice in the international competition, helping the Hong Kong team win 10-0 against their opponents.
In the Asian Cup, Hong Kong, China will face the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Palestine, and hopefully the young men from Hong Kong, China will bring us more surprises at that time. After all, as early as the Asian Games, when they broke into the semi-finals, some netizens joked that "in the future, the Hong Kong, China team will replace the Chinese team".
Japan 5-0 Thailand in a friendly match in Tokyo, Japan on January 1, 2024. Image source: Visual China
If there is no comparison, there is no harm, and the gap with Japan is constantly widening
Unlike the dark start of the national football team, the Japanese men's football team won the 2024 opening game with a 5-0 victory in a friendly match against Thailand on the same day, and a number of World Cup players did not play, and also sent a number of newcomers to make their national team debuts.
At present, the Japanese men's football team has won 9 consecutive victories in all competitions, setting a record for the longest winning streak in team history. Among these opponents won by Japan are the German team, which is known as the "German tank", the European powerhouse Turkey, and Peru and Canada from the Americas.
In recent years, the performance of the Japanese team in the international arena has constantly refreshed people's perception of Asian teams, and it is difficult to find opponents in Asia. Looking back at the record of the national football team against the Japanese team, the last time the Chinese team defeated the opponent was in 1998, when the strength of the two sides was basically on the same level. Two years later, in the Asian Cup, Milu, who coached China for the first time, led the golden generation of the national football team to compete fiercely with Japan again, although the national football team lost 2-3, but at least the two sides could break their wrists on the field.
Now, more than 20 years later, Japan has firmly established itself as the first brother in Asia, and has been able to challenge the national team that occupies the first echelon of world football for many years. Their hard work in the construction of domestic leagues, investment in youth training, and popularization of football has made Japanese football continue to bear fruit. However, Chinese football does not seem to have a clear idea of how to develop, so how can we look forward to the future?
has said so much about the blockages added by the national football team, but in fact, the national football team has not surprised us. Towards the end, let's talk about the "courage of the year".
The most exciting moment was the East Asian semi-finals during the Spring Festival in 2010, when the national football team won two wins and one draw, and won the runner-up of the competition. The most noteworthy thing is that in that competition, the national team defeated the South Korean team with a score of 3-0, ending the embarrassing record of 32 years of winless against the South Korean team in the international A-level competition. Deng Zhuoxiang's thousand-mile solo ride, and Qu Bo's goal after hitting the wall, have also become an eternal classic in the history of the national football team.
As the saying goes, you earn your own face. Domestic literary and artistic workers are not just going to fall into the ground, who doesn't want to talk about their proud achievements. We all hope that in this Asian Cup, there will be fewer stalks and jokes about the national football team, and the road to promotion can go further.
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