Chinese football has gone through 70 years of hardships and 30 national team coaches. So far, Milu is the only magical coach who led the Chinese men's football team to the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup for the first time, Milu led the Chinese men's football team into the World Cup, the Chinese people rejoiced, thinking that it was the starting point, who knew that it was the peak. Milu's coaching career is full of magic, today we all come together to recall the exciting historical moments of that year, let us walk into 2001 together, to find that passionate, unforgettable good memories, feel and look back on Milu's legendary coaching career. How far is the World Cup road for Chinese football?
Milu's coaching career
Born on September 7, 1944 in Basta, the former Yugoslavia, Bora Milutinovic is a Mexican citizen. He played for Partisan Belgrade in Yugoslavia; Monaco and Nice in France; Winterthur in Switzerland; was selected for the Yugoslav national team and retired in 1977.
From 1983 to 1986, he was the head coach of the Mexican national team, and at the 1986 World Cup, Milu led Mexico to the quarterfinals for the first time in history.
In October 1989, he became the head coach of the Costa Rican national team, leading this weak team of amateur players to reach the World Cup finals for the first time, and in June 1990, at the World Cup in Italy, Milu led Costa Rica to defeat strong teams such as Sweden and Scotland, miraculously reaching the round of 16.
In 1994, at the World Cup in the United States, Milu led the United States to reach the round of 16 for the first time.
In June 1998, at the World Cup in France, Milu led Nigeria to the round of 16.
In 2000, he coached the Chinese men's national football team, and on October 7, 2001, he led the Chinese team to qualify from the top ten of the World Cup Asian Qualifiers to reach the final round of the World Cup in South Korea and Japan, fulfilling the dream of Chinese football to rush into the World Cup; in July 2002, Milu led the Chinese team to lose three games in the group stage of the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, did not score a goal, and then left the Chinese team.
Milu is the only head coach in history to lead the national teams of different countries to the Round of 16 of the World Cup for four consecutive terms.
The national football team chooses the coach
At the end of 1999, more than a year before the Time of the World Cup Qualifiers, the Chinese Football Association Coach Selection Team started the selection of coaches, and after inspecting Foggitz, Santracci, Milu and others in Europe, after repeated deliberations, Milu was finally finalized as the head coach of the national team. The Chinese Football Association and Milu signed a progressive stage contract, several stages are: one is to reach the top 4 of the 2000 Asian Cup; the second is to reach the top ten of the Asian region in the World Cup qualifiers; the third is to reach the final round of the World Cup; and the fourth is to lead the team to the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.
In addition to the salary requirements made by Milu to the Chinese Football Association, the most important requirement was to give it great autonomy, and the Chinese Football Association should not interfere too much in his selection, training, competition and other work. 米卢上任后，米卢独特的“快乐足球”“态度决定一切”等新的足球理念及训练方式让国人耳目一新；经过米卢及球员的不懈努力，米卢率领中国队在2000年亚洲杯上杀入四强，取得了较好的战绩，比赛过程精彩纷呈，较出色的完成了亚洲杯任务。
In fact, Milu's platoon is not special, most of the international players he chooses are players who play well in the league, and the formation used in the game is the regular 442, but Milu accurately grasps the crux of Chinese football. Previous national football teams have repeatedly lost in the last critical moment of the impact of the World Cup, a variety of "draw that is, out", "black 3 minutes" and other phenomena emerge in an endless stream, in fact, these bad records and the strength of the players have little to do with each other, mainly psychological problems. 从亚洲杯到世界杯，中国队甚至在与巴西队的比赛中，国足的比赛无论胜负，无论是占据优势还是处于劣势，从来没有出现过球队崩盘的情况，比赛都能够按照赛前设定的技战术打法正常发挥出自身水平，可以这样说，米卢的成功就在于彻底解决了国足的心理顽疾。
2000 Asian Cup (4th place in China)
In the 2000 Asian Cup, the Chinese team led by Milu won the fourth place. In the qualifiers, the Chinese team was in the 9th group with the Philippines, Guam and Vietnam; the Chinese team scored 29 goals with 3 wins and did not concede 1 goal to accumulate 9 points, and qualified as the first team in the group stage. The scores of the match were 8:0 against the Philippines, 19-0 against Guam and 2-0 against Vietnam. In the final stage of the Asian Cup, China was divided into Group B with South Korea, Kuwait and Indonesia. The Chinese team qualified from the group with a 2-2 draw with South Korea, a 4-0 win over Indonesia and a 0-0 draw with Kuwait. In the knockout rounds, China first defeated Qatar 3-1, and then lost to Japan and South Korea 2-3 and 0-1. In the final 2000 Asian Cup, the Chinese team ranked fourth.
2001 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers (Fifa World Cup)
Chinese football has been hovering outside the door of the World Cup, and the Chinese men's national football team has been rushing towards the World Cup and fulfilling the Dream of the World Cup, but the Chinese team has repeatedly lost battles. With the arrival of Milu, all that changed.
At the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, there were 3.5 places in Asia. Since South Korea and Japan were the host countries of the 2002 World Cup, accounting for 1 Asian place and one host place, the world preliminary round was extremely tight, and only 2.5 places could be generated in the end. The Asia World Preliminary Tournament is divided into three stages: the group stage of the first stage (40 participating teams), the second stage of the Top 10 (10 participating teams) and the play-off stage of the third stage.
In the group stage of the 2001 World Cup Asian Qualifiers, the Chinese team defeated Indonesia 5:1 at home and 2:0 away, and won all the victories to advance to the Top 10 of the World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
In 2001, the Chinese men's football team participated in the Top 10 Asian Championships under the leadership of Milu, and achieved a record of six wins, one draw and one loss in a total of 8 matches in Group B, and advanced to the World Cup two rounds in advance. 总计8场比赛当中，双杀阿联酋和阿曼，主场战胜卡塔尔和乌兹别克斯坦，客场战平卡塔尔，客场在替补出场情况下负于乌兹别克。
十强赛的8场比赛，2001年8月25日，第一场中国队3-0大胜阿联酋；8月31日，第二场中国队2-0击败阿曼；9月7日，第三场中国队1:1战平卡塔尔队；9月15日，第四场中国队2:0战胜乌兹别克队；9月27日，第五场中国队1:0战胜阿联酋队；10月7日，第六场中国队1:0击败阿曼队，于根伟在沈阳五里河体育场打入的 历史性的这1球，让中国队提前两轮晋级世界杯。 10月13日，第七场中国队3:0击垮卡塔尔队；10月19日，第八场中国队0:1小负乌兹别克队（第八场中国队以替补出场）。
The sixth game was the most exciting, at 21:22 on October 7, 2001, when the referee from Singapore, Madin, blew the final whistle, Shenyang Wulihe Stadium became a sea of joy, fans across the country, and cities across the country were enthusiastically celebrating the Chinese team's historic entry into the World Cup that night! On that beautiful night, the Chinese national team defeated Oman 1-0 in match 6 of the World Cup Asian Qualifier Round of Ten, qualifying for the World Cup two rounds ahead of schedule.
October 7, 2001 Historic Moment Top 10 Competition Shenyang Wulihe Stadium Yu Genwei scored a golden ball to win Oman The Chinese team entered the World Cup two rounds in advance
Milu leaves the national football team (three defeats in the World Cup)
在2002年韩日世界杯上，中国男足参加3场小组赛，中国队虽拼尽全力，终究落败，比赛成绩分别是：第一场：中国对阵哥斯达黎加，比分0：2；第二场：中国对阵土耳其，比分0：3；第三场：中国对阵巴西，比分0：4；中国队0得分0进球，最后在32强中仅高于被德国队8比0痛宰的沙特队，列31位。
Although the results of the World Cup finals are not ideal, after all, it is the first time that the national football team officially participates in the World Cup, and the opponent of the group stage is Brazil, brazil team won the championship of this World Cup with an impressive record of 7 wins, Turkey won the third place, it should be said that the World Cup results of the national football team are acceptable range. For the results of the Chinese team in the World Cup, the media and fans are still relatively rational, on the strength of the Chinese team at that time, can enter the World Cup, Milu has been very successful, so the reason why Milu failed to renew his contract is not the poor results in the World Cup.
Comprehensive analysis, Milu coached the Chinese team for 2 and a half years, from the coaching results is completely competent, due to many reasons, both sides did not choose to renew the contract.
In 2021, the Chinese men's football team once again reached the impact stage of the World Cup final twelve. The 2022 World Cup will be held in Qatar, and this World Cup will be the last World Cup of the Round of 32, and the next 2026 World Cup of the United States, Canada and Mexico (USA, Canada, Mexico) will be expanded to 48 teams for the first time. This time the round of twelve is the 12th time that the Chinese men's football team has impacted the World Cup, and the national football team that has repeatedly lost battles is full of hopes to impact the 2022 Qatar World Cup. Since the start of the tournament on September 3, after four rounds of fighting, the national football team has won one win and three losses and only accumulated 3 points, ranking fifth in Group B, the hope of qualifying is very slim, and the history is always surprisingly similar. On November 11, the round of the 12th round will open the curtain of the fifth round of the final battle, where is the hope of the Chinese team to qualify? The World Cup of men's football, the World Cup of repeated battles, and the "monument to the dead" that have been repeatedly defeated. How far is the road to the World Cup, and where will the Chinese team go? The fans are looking forward to the Chinese team to create the "Milu miracle" again. How far is the road to the Chinese Men's World Cup?
十二强赛征途迷茫，中国男足能走多远？ 11月11日揭晓最终迷底。 世界杯之路究竟还有多远？
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October 25, 2021 Liu Haijin