never got to have their full squad avaliable for a while now! I was just thinking that they've been missing some key players in many recent matches. both Li Tie and Sun Jihai were out for most of the qualifying matches (at least I dont recall last time they played together), and same goes for Du Wei... and there those enigmas such as Zhang Yuning and Qu Bo (like Chinese versions of Ko Jong Su when it comes to wasting their talent) that never made it back to the NT. And Dong Fangzhuo never got to debut for the NT either. If China had all these players avaliable... man, that would have been something... instead of falling in the second round they probably would have made it to the world cup. I was just thinking that because I think out of all upper ranked asian teams, China suffered the most from their losses...
I think almost all teams have injuries, players on slump, etc.. That is why player depth makes the difference between good teams and bad teams. Case in point, Japan split their NT to participate in both Athens Olympics and AC. Despite that, they still won the cup. That is depth and a significant reason why Japan has done well in Asia for the last 15 years. However, having said that, it will be a matter of 5 - 10 years before China will have solid depth to do well in Asia even if they "suffer the most from" injuries, etc.. My 2 cents.
agree 100% with you on the depth thing... I think China was one of the teams that didn't have too much depth on their team, compared to the other big asian football nations. Japan I think has the best depth in their roster as far as I'm concerned (To the point where they really dont use their Euro guys regularly and their 2nd string team won the Asian Cup) and Korea,Iran and Saudi aren't too shabby in their depth, either. I think China just lost much more than other teams by missing their best players. Imagine missing your best defender, your best defensive midfielder, and probably your best overall player on the team all at the same time (Du Wei, Li Tie, and Sun Jihai respectively).
Depth would improve if we had a better league. There is no reason why our team lack quality players after having hundreds turn pro for the past 10 years. Haan is to blame? Not entirely, only a massive failure like this will force some changes to the domestic league. Much like how the Jia-B match fixing scandal rocked the league a few years back. Now I hear the FA say Haan wasnt the right coach for the job, well you can have the best manager in the world but if you dont have the talent or the commitment you will go nowhere! I surely hope China will learn to fight hard for every match and improve. This qualifier showed how weak we truly are! 1-0 against all three teams! It came back to bite us on the butt! What we now need to do is support the asian teams in the WCQ. Unlike many of our counterparts here on BS, true smart fans knows that rooting against teams in your confederation will bring you no advantages. Come WC06 I will be rooting for korea japan iran saudi or whoever afc can send to germany. Because a good showing for the confederation will bring benefits for all in asia!!
Yes! In any WC, I always root for Asian team. This Asian rivalry thing in BS is not very constructive other than giving a few members to insult each other (however fun it is to do so among themselves). Rather than discussing valid points, it becomes juvenile "my dad can beat your dad" type of arguments with personal insults thrown in here and there. Sigh.
China's Nationa Team will never get any love or support from me, strictly because of their fans and their attitude about soccer
FOOL! Don't you know the old formula? South Korea's performance - Japan's performance = success/failure. LOL
I appreciate your loyalty towards the national team, I really do. However, let's not make excuses for ourselves. Look at all of China's matches. They played against Malaysia and Hong Kong twice. Now, the games against Malaysia they have managed 1 goal, is that acceptable? I mean, even with half of our players on the injury list we should still beat Malaysia by more than 2 goals. We played in Hong Kong and managed just 1 goal. No disrespect for Hong Kong or anything, but with China's level of playing and the talents that we have, we should easily win 2-0 at least. Playing in Hong Kong is like a home game. Having said that, China felt desperate and managed to score 7 goals against hong kong but it was too late. My opinion is, it never had to come to this point. They should have scored many goals against hong kong and malaysia. Teams must fight their way into the world cup. Being in the World Cup is a previledge, not a right. The way China played in this tournament, they did not deserve it. It's up to the CFA to turn things around. Better coaching, better internal politics within CFA, creat a better domestic football league by eliminating the corruptions and scandals of CSL is what needs to be focused right now. I am not saying that I do not want to see China in the World Cup. As a patriotic Chinese, I want that more than anything. However, there is honor and dignity. Don't make excuses for the NT, they are already spoiled as it is. I hope this slap on the face is a turn around. Going from qualifying for WC2002 to not even making the final round of qualification for WC2006 will be a wake up call for the CFA.
CCF, all emotions aside, they really just need to learn how to do things better. They need to learn from Japan and America.
I so hope the China MNT does better than last time. I felt so bad for them in 2002 because I think they have a lot of talent but just really failed to live up to it. I saw the U-21 laying a beating on someone in one of the recent Asian tourneys a few weeks ago. Are any of those kids going to get a call up?
What they need is a better system that let the best realize their full potential and the mediocre get waded away. The system they have now is too good-result-oriented and not enough good-player-development-oriented.
I imagine it will take some time before Korea and Japan worry about losing to China but with over a billion people you've gotta have the raw talent somewhere. I guess it just takes time and money to find and cultivate it. Twenty years ago, China's economy didn't even make the top 100 (I'm just guessing) and now I believe that they're the fourth largest, right?
I think the one billiion thing is way over emphasized. India has a billion people too but they dont' have much of a soccer team. Whereas many superpower teams in Europe don't even have 50 million people. Population size has no necessary relation to results. That said, yeah there're talents. But not enough. Unlike Japan who sent a lot of kids to Brazil early and now has an excellent grassroot program, China is still relying on old Soviet style sport specialized schools to produce talents. They need to modernize their development infrastructure by learning from Japan and America. Japan should worrry about France and Korean should worry about Germany. Compete with the best, that's the only way to improve, for the whole Asia. I suck but you suck more is a shiiiitty strategy. As for China, we should be worrying about Brazil.
It depends what you mean by "some time" because China has tied Korea and Japan several times. I remember in Asian Cup 2000 China was winning against Japan at some point. If "some time" means not in the next few years then I definately agree with you. I would say within 10 - 15 years China will start to play extremly close games with Japan and Korea, and I don't mean their second best team, I mean their first team. I can see a win for China somewhere there. But then again that is just my opinion.
I have been following Chinese soccer for a while. To tell you the truth, all of the players on the Chinese NT were good in their U-21 days. As soon as they reach 23-24 and start playing for CSL, they start to stink. This is partially because of the bad management and attitude of the players. They get spoiled and stop improving. So, don't count on the U-21 players to turn into Rooney anytime soon.
I see. It seems like the CSL isn't the best place to play pro soccer. So the lot of the China fan is a life of eternal hope eternally dashed?
I'm eternally hopeful that the CFA will become smart and start shipping players abroad. Get them as far away from the corruption as possible.
Maybe we should start a program here on BigSoccer to accomplish that. The CFA seems to have lost its way.