China's most forgetful audience has wasted decades of youth on them

In the final round of Group A of the group stage of the 2024 Asian Cup, the Chinese men's football team lost 0:1 to the host Qatar and ranked third in the final group.

Not a win, not a goal scored, only a little useless recklessness, not a trace of anger. Frankly speaking, the Chinese men's football team has performed worse in this Asian Cup than in the past 12 editions.

In 2002, the Chinese team participated in the World Cup for the first time, the classic "score a goal, get a point, win a game" three-step words are still in the ear, in the blink of an eye 22 years have passed, in Asia, where the overall level is much lower, this team that once had the power to compete for the championship, but even "scoring a goal" has become an impossible task.

01

Another steady play

Ironically, even if it is played like this, the national football team still has an extremely faint possibility of qualifying:

Palestine must draw with Hong Kong in Group C, while Syria drew 0-0 with India and received at least two yellow cards in Group B.

It's complicated enough, just like everyone's mood when watching the national football team.

Every time the familiar link of counting points, goals and goal difference, winning and losing relationships, scoring discipline points, and calculating the fate of others comes, people who are still watching the game will say:

Hey, okay? Forget it.

Former international player Feng Xiaoting said that every Asian Cup in history

All score at least one goal. But this national football team said,

History is meant to be broken. (Photo/Feng Xiaoting Weibo)

Calculations and calculations like these are like a shot of heartache filled with the helpless pain of the family, just to alleviate the suffering of watching death. And the patients who are admitted to the ICU say, "Oh, the overall level in Asia has improved, but we have not." We're playing so badly and we're going to have to face up to our problems.

In fact, this sports team, which is working every year, is not unattended.

Despite the repeated repetition of the classic crotch pull, the people who love Chinese football are the most forgetful in the world: the match between the national football team and Qatar ended at 1 a.m., and the ratings of the whole game on CCTV5 broke 1%, and the peak moment was even close to 1.2%, not including the fans who watched the game on the online event platform.

It is particularly regrettable that for the Chinese team, the grouping of the Asian Cup could not be more friendly.

Hugging the thighs of the host Qatar, the opponents in the same group cannot be very strong. One is Tajikistan, an inexperienced youth army, and the other is Lebanon, which is weaker than Tajikistan.

And when the Chinese team couldn't find a flaw in Qatar, which was almost all substitutes, and was played by the main force replaced by Qatar, Tajikistan, which had no way out, fought for Lebanon and won the second place in the group and qualified directly.

At the moment of the lore against Lebanon, the Tajiks celebrated wildly. This is the original sincere charm of football, and it is also the passionate spirit that countless people want to see in front of the screen and even fly to Qatar to watch the game.

On the other hand, the Chinese team used its stable performance to make the fans who still care about its fate cut off their vain thoughts, and their hearts were as cold as the night in the south that suddenly cooled down.

02

Chinese fans,

When is it time to wake up?

Before meeting Qatar, the Chinese team did not take Tajikistan and Lebanon, which "look weaker than themselves". Both games were 0:0 draws, and the fans were like a fish in their throats.

The content of these two games is like the score, and it is so bland that it is difficult to comment: when the opponent plays a defensive counterattack, he can't attack the attack, when the opponent is full of loopholes, he can't seize the opportunity, and if it weren't for Yan Junling and the goalpost together, it would be reasonable to lose.

Before the final game, Qatar, the defending champion of the 2019 Asian Cup and who had already won two consecutive victories and qualified ahead of schedule, rotated 9 main players, and even replaced the third goalkeeper halfway, and played with the Chinese team for 65 minutes with an almost full substitute lineup, leaving enough face and room for operation.

In the 67th minute of the game, the substitute captain of Qatar

Haydos scored the world wave with an assist from Afif's corner. (Photo/CFP)

This is already the most tacit and friendly signal within the rules, which was unimaginable in the past. Qatar's move is a mix of favor (keeping the Chinese team means leaving more attention) and absolute contempt (playing China as a full substitute can also guarantee that nothing will go wrong), and the Chinese team has no choice in the face of such obvious handouts. Like many of the pre-match commentators, they want to draw or even win the game, and they want to get a place in the game – the other side is like that, you can't do that, right?

But in competitive sports, dishes are the original sin. A good situation and a good outcome are often not related.

Qatar conceded 65 minutes and conceded a bunch of opportunities, which the Chinese team did not grasp, and then Qatar's core main player Afif and Haydos came off the bench together. More dramatically, Qatar's starting No. 3 goalkeeper was injured and the No. 1 goalkeeper came on as a substitute.

Immediately, Afif's corner was driven into the unguarded box, and Haydos volleyed it into the net.

As a result, the Chinese team has become a strong candidate for the best goal in this Asian Cup, and basically threw away the tickets to the round of 16 sent by Qatar.

The last 30 seconds of the game were heartbreaking moments, and they also encapsulated the plight of Chinese football.

Afif and his teammates skillfully exchanged passes, as easily as training to grab a lap. The Chinese team is still at a loss and trying to scramble, unable to touch the ball.

The gap in the technical and tactical level between Chinese football and higher-level teams is lacking in the ability to reasonably pass the ball, organize skills and defense, and solve problems. The more this is the case, the more unrealistic the expectations and efforts of Chinese football become.

Commentator Zhan Jun adhered to his professionalism and remained rational in the final commentary, saying that the national football team still has time.

The commentator beside him, Feng Xiaoting, the former captain of the national football team who played in the last Asian Cup, has stopped talking. When summarizing after the game, Feng Xiaoting's eyes were red and he muttered that he couldn't accept it.

Two draws and one loss, not a goal scored,

In the group with weak overall strength, it is basically out,

This is the 2024 Chinese men's football team

The first answer sheet for the fans.

How should the next World Cup qualifiers continue? (Photo/CFP)

Feng Xiaoting was criticized by fans for defensive problems in the last Asian Cup. It is somewhat ironic that the failed international players in the last session are facing the failed internationals in this session. Fan Zhiyi, Sun Jihai, and Li Yi have also become famous people on various platforms, they have all been criticized for losing the national football team, and now poor Chinese fans can't ask for or wait for players of this level.

So, will Wu Lei and Wu Xi sit in the studio and sigh helplessly at the next players?

The referee blew the whistle punctually in the 10th minute of long stoppage time. Once again, the game is over.

In the end, behind the "only a very small probability of qualifying" is the "high probability of not succeeding" composed of various problems.

What is worse than the results is the bleak environment, which is the reality of the collapse of the will and skills of football in the context of another round of anti-corruption and anti-crime in Chinese football.

When one dream wakes up, another will begin.

Between half-dreams and half-awakenings, between impassioned slogans and habitual defeats, between watching or not watching football, decades of youth just ran away.

Proofreading: Yang Chao, Operation: Ono, Typesetting: Tan Xin