Chinanews.com, Beijing, January 23 (Reporter Bian Liqun) With 10 minutes of injury time, the nearly 40-minute game time after the national football team lost the goal was fleeting in an extremely numbing way.
There are no miracles. After the cold final whistle, in the life-and-death match of the Asian Cup group stage that ended in the early morning of the 23rd, the national football team lost 0:1 to the host Qatar team, which played with a rotating lineup.
On the other field, Tajikistan defeated Lebanon 2-1 in the same group, and they celebrated as the second in the group.
In the three group games, the national football team won two draws and one loss, only accumulated 2 points, and did not score a goal. The most embarrassing part is that this team still has a theoretical hope of qualifying, so all they can do is wait, although the chances are slim.
The national football team lost 0:1 to the Qatar team that played on the bench Image source: Visual China
The most embarrassing situation
Chinese football, which finally calculates math problems, may not need to be counted again this time. After all the calculations, what was added in the end was the humiliation of the weakest national football team in history. The whole team is "waiting to die" in the most embarrassing way.
In fact, looking back on this game, the national football team once played well. Coach Jankovic adjusted the team's frontcourt personnel, and Wei Shihao, who had just returned from injury, quickly started the game to replace Wu Lei, who had not performed well before.
Wei Shihao started the battle Image source: Visual China
Throughout the first half, facing the Qatar team that played as a substitute, the national football team played what it should have. Judging from the data alone, the national football team shot 8 times in the half, twice as many as the opponent. Among them, Wei Shihao occupied 3 excellent scoring opportunities, but unfortunately he missed the first two games due to injury, and he lacked a little sense in front of goal.
In the second half, when the Qatar team replaced the main players in the offensive end, Afif and Haydos, the game smelled of something wrong. It was the tactical corner kick sent by the former that allowed Haydos to complete a wonderful world wave outside the penalty line.
The national football team, which has fallen into extreme passivity, no longer has too many effective back-ups, and watches the game time pass by minute by minute.
In the other match in the same group, Tajikistan drew 1-1 with Lebanon. If it ends with this score, the national football team can declare the bottom of the group out.
But then the Tajikistan team reversed the game 2:1, which made the national football team fall into an embarrassing state of "waiting for death".
The national football team's group standings
"The weakest national football team in history"
Coupled with the previous 0:0 draw with Tajikistan and Lebanon, the national football team only accumulated 2 points in the group stage of the Asian Cup in three games, and even failed to score a goal.
This is the first time that the national football team has scored zero goals in the group stage since participating in the Asian Cup, and it is likely to be the first time in the team's history that they have not scored in the entire Asian Cup.
Judging from the process of the game, the result of such a helpless result is not that the players do not fight, but that the strength is like this.
The national football team lost 0:1 to Qatar match data Image source: Asian Cup
What's even more cruel is that it is foreseeable from the aspects of youth training that in the next 5 or 10 years, the strength of the national football team may continue to decline, and the so-called "worst national football team in history" is actually far from bottoming out.
All kinds of helplessness are superimposed, so that although the national football team is so embarrassed, it is difficult to find a suitable dumping point even to accuse them. Looking around, coach Jankovic has become the biggest emotional outlet for fans.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Jankovic said of his team's zero goals: "It's not about the quality of the players, we missed some chances. In three games we created chances in all sorts of ways and some goals were taken away. Hopefully in the future we will continue to create chances and we will score in a moment. ”
Data map: National football coach Jankovic Image source: Chinese football team
Changing the commander cannot cure the root cause
Today, Jankovic is on the cusp. With such a dismal record in the Asian Cup, the head coach is naturally responsible. It is reported that Jankovic's contract comes with a clause that the team will only renew until the team reaches the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup. Therefore, regarding the choice of the helmsman of the national football team, it seems that it has reached a fork in the road.
After the Asian Cup, the national football team will play two World Preliminary Matches against Singapore in March. To qualify for the round of 18, teams must win two in a row.
If the head coach is replaced, there will not be enough polishing time after the new coach takes over, and these two games cannot be lost. Therefore, even if the Chinese Football Association decides to change the coach, it is more likely to be selected from the current Chinese Super League coaches, such as Zhejiang team coach Qiao Di, Chengdu Rongcheng coach Xu Zhengyuan and others.
However, it needs to be recognized that the change of coach is unlikely to bring a qualitative leap to the results of the national football team.
At this stage, the only thing the national football coach can do is to find a way to play the team's limited 50-point strength stably, and strive to play to 60 points in the key games of the world preliminaries.
The national football team in the game Image source: Visual China
In the Russian World Cup qualifiers, the national football team with 1985 players as the team taken over by the famous coach Lippi halfway was still unable to enter the World Cup even if it was close to the limit of its performance.
Now the strength of this young national football team has declined significantly, and through this Asian Cup, we can intuitively feel that Asian football is in the process of collective progress. Under the advantages of the other, even if Lippi leads this national football team to fight again, I am afraid it will not help.
As for his future, Jankovic said: "There are only coaches in the world who have already left their classes and coaches who are waiting to be released, and being a coach has to accept this fate. You can't be a coach if you're afraid of losing your job, so all I can do is do my best to make the team play better. (ENDS)