http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/where-are-chinas-soccer-stars/ Four so-called experts give their opinion on why China isn't in the WC despite interest in watching it and the large pool of people to pick 11. While I'm no China expert, the reasons aren't convincing. What's even funnier are the comments from readers. Sometimes (yes) I read deeper analysis here in our own BS site. I'd like to hear from some of you.
Just saw Simons addition, its a joke, surprising from someone so smart. I play in ClubFootball and its a great group, but a lot of the kids who take part in their programs are expats or overseas Chinese. Other than Simons, nobody else on the "panel" has any direct involvement with soccer and we're not even sure if they are even fans or watch the team. Xu Guoqi and Brownwell both offer excellent explanations that I've offered here a number of times, Chinese education over all else doesn't give anyone other than the elite players at 7-11 year olds and put them in sports academies.
I agree, both of them made some good points. The education system over here prohibits students from taking part in any extra curricular activities, let alone organized soccer. If a child doesn't attend one of the sports institutes they have no chance of developing their athletic abilities on their own
We've seen a glut of articles in the past month, asking the tired old 1.3 billion people cant find 11 decent players question, blah blah. But none of offered much insight. One thing i would take objection to above are the comments about Rowan SImmons. He is someone who knows the system inside out, I read his book its a standout effort not only about football but about China itself. I bet he said a lot more interesting stuff, only the journo writing the piece didn't include it. I'm going to put my money where my mouth is and write such a piece myself instead of criticising others further.
I've already done it: http://www.modernleifeng.com/?p=425 A lot of the points I bring up have been made elsewhere by others, but I've been consistent with what I've said on here for the past 3-5 years every time this discussion has come up (and its come up multiple times). RE the NY Times: These articles were written by the individual authors, I have a lot of respect for Simons and he knows the game in China pretty well, especially for an outsider, but he's wrong. Nobody will play in "community based clubs", clubfootball itself is heavily expat kids. The biggest issue I have with all these discussions isn't explaining why China isn't in the World Cup, that's fairly easy, its answering the question what can China do about it. The education system won't change, nor will the usage of sports schools. What needs to change is the CFA having a longterm plan, 8 coaches in 10 years is far too many, no good can come of that kind of constant upheaval. Gao is a step in the right direction, but there needs to be a plan beyond Gao. Plus, bureaucrats lacking any soccer knowledge (ie Wei Di) should step aside and let people that know soccer, people like Gao, put together plans for the future.
Q: Where are China's soccer stars? A: At home studying in fear of getting disowned by their parents if they fail to become doctors.
that was a good read. i would give it a B+.... kidding. an A if there were statistics included to make it more solid, heh. and i agree with some of your points esp. the 3rd point. i was talking with my brother when the wc started on why china does well in sports like diving, gymnastics and weightlifting etc... but not football. well china as u said excel in these sports where repetitions and the "practice makes perfect" thingy are major factors. but football is a much less predictable sports with too many variables. alot of things have to go right to make it happen. from funding to coaching to scouting to management to long term planning to culture...all that play more crucial roles than those other sports even with all those taken care of, you cannot ensure on field success. with 11 players on the field, a misplaced pass, a gk error, an out of form striker, a bad ref and things go haywire. as if to prove my point, this wc pretty much reinforced the unpredictability of football. before the wc started, who would have seriously thought the French with the best team on paper in group A to have imploded sensationally, or the English to have turned out so meekly, or Uruguay to be in the last 4. they have a population of 3.5 million FFS! that's smaller than Singapore! if someone had said a month ago the lone south american team in the last four would be the last placed qualifier and not the big 2.... i would certainly be skeptical. but i guess thats the beauty of this game. ps Brownwell offered well thought out reasoning on the disparity between men and women sports. it is just that much more competitive.
Agreed, except the fact that the NoKos qualified for the WC finals sort of throws the bolded argument out the window.
well.... there are exceptions to the rule and taking into account the unpredictability of football, not so out of the realm of possibility. they obviously have done it before and had a great run in 1966. and i think, many have underestimated the amount of backing the NK football team has. these are not the poor peasants kind deprived of support and funding, they are considered the elite class along with the military and party officials in that very strange country. as with the other elites, kim feeds them well still, we should wait to see if NK consistently field a strong team with good results before admitting the theory fails then again the odds of winning the lottery here are humongous but still every week people do strike it rich.
This is a good point...Plus, you have to give them credit for coming up with a plan and sticking to it. In all of Asian qualifying, they were one of the teams that gave up the least amount of goals, but at the same time, they were also one of the teams that scored the least amount of goals. They were amazingly disciplined (no surprise considering its North Korea) and stuck to an incredible defensive plan and even with this, they barely scraped through.
But they were also lucky to be drawn in favorable groups (ie with an underachieving Iran team, and a South Korea team playing "diplomatic football" and basically doing all they could to help them qualify).
If the Chinese team does not qualify for Brazil 2014, will the CFA coaches be forced to work in construction a la the DPRK's coaches post South Africa WC?
China cannot rely on the numbers game By John Duerden [espn] http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=816923&sec=global&cc=3436
Re: China cannot rely on the numbers game By John Duerden [espn] It's a good article. John Duerden has a pretty good handle on Chinese football.
Re: China cannot rely on the numbers game By John Duerden [espn] Or.....hes just stating the obvious. I mean the points are valid, but nothing we haven't talked about already countless times here. Some of Duerden's other articles are pretty retarded; makes himself out to be a huge Korean NT bootlicker.
