You may not be popular among fanatic soccer Chinese fans on your view here but I absolutey agree with most of what you said. Likewise, I am sure there are few Koreans hoping Maldives to humilate Korea by tying them in Seoul. The only heartburn I have with that attitude is, 4 years is a long wait for another shot at WC. Good luck to both China and Korea. Kuwait is not one of my favorite teams.
Elliad I'm not selling you anything so if you don't buy it that's fine with me. Specifics? How about the recent Denmark Sweden draw. Go very far into my childhood there was that hearbreaker when Saudi threw the game intentionally to spite China and lost to New Zealand 5-0. And now Malaysia is only gonna field a second team, a U turn from what its officials said only 2 weeks ago. Makes one wonder. I can't prove anything but that's the beauty of good PR isn't it? Nobody gets hurt and mission accomplished. Elliad you might've been just a tad too hard on Chung. He might not have contributed money to the KFA budget. But I'm sure his money was well spent in a lot of other areas. Frankly I give him a lot of credit for Korea's success in 2002. Or am I missing something here? Feel free.
One can't underestimate what Jung Mong Jun did for Korean soccer. For one thing, he stuck with Hiddink when there was a lot of pressure to get Hiddink out when Korea NT went through extended period of performing poorly. He also did a lot to bring WC02 to Korea when Japan was a sure bet to host it by themselves.
Yes, Jung Mong-joon did contribute a lot for soccer in Korea. He brought in skillful men of his from Hyundai to modernize KFA. Ka Sam-hyun at International Department of KFA comes to my mind. He succeeded in lobbying Hiddink to take over the coaching job on the 3rd try. Hiddink later admitted he was impressed and bought by Ka's professional approach. There are a couple of more people who Jung brought in who are well educated in both Korea and overseas, fluent in two or three languages, and etc. I think I've mentioned in some other thread but I don't think it's wrong to use '02WC success in his political endeavor. He has proven that he can spin, therefore is a better candidate than unproven Noh MH or Lee HC.
Well, seriously you think Sweden and Denmark conspired to a draw? I thought that was a really exciting match, and to believe that to be staged seems rather far fetched - unless you are an Italian, I guess. I don't deny that there were cases of match fixing in the past, but what I found disagreeable was that your claim that it's ok for China to cheat since "everybody is doing it".
The thing that ticked me off the most about Jung was that he switched his support to Lee HC from Noh MH just one day before the election. It's not that I'm a Noh-supporter; I'd be still pissed if he switched to Noh from Lee. He did build a great reputation by successfully hosting the WC2002, but he lost most of that respect during those last days of the election by proving himself as an opportunist and turncloak. About KFA and Korean football, his acheivements are undeniable, but still he could've done much better (and I believe it was within his abilities). There are still many questions about his leadership within the organisation, for example: 1. why did KFA fail to offer Hiddink an extension to his contract; 2. why was an unproven coach like Kim Ho-Gon chosen as the coach for the Olympic team (fortunately the result was fairly acceptable); 3. why did the technical director Professor Im Yong-Soo had to leave the KFA after the WC; 4. And why is Cho Jung-Yeon who sacked Cha Bum-Geun during WC98 still in KFA, even though he said that if Huh Jung-Moo failed he would resign along with him. Anyways, apologies to the Chinese fans for temporarily hijacking this thread
It's disagreeable to me too, especially if you keep using the word "cheat." The way Malaysia is doing it fielding a second team against Kuwait makes China's lack of sophistication off the field look even more devastating. With this new Malaysia development, China is basically done. Well like I said before, lifting the championship trophy in 2010 is our real focus anyway. We're too busy to be bothered with this 2006 little affair. I don't pretend to speak for other Chinese. But I was very impressed by Jung (Chung)'s ability in 2002 and think the CFA should look for someone in the same vein to transform Chinese soccer. A capable open-minded businessman instead of more squareheads.
China was never in such a position against Hong Kong, when goal difference is everything. Now that China's only way out is scoring more goals and all out attack is the name of the game, we'll see what happens. Hopefully not a 1-0 upset by Hong Kong, but it won't surprise me.
Bad news for China: http://footballasia.com/en/comps/worldcup/index.asp?id=37465&sec=0&ssec=0&cid=993&mth=11&yr=2004
Damn! You seen the poll next to it? Which side will advance from Group 4 to the final round of the World Cup 2006 qualifiers? China (28.7%) Kuwait (71.3%)
Wow we Chinese are indeed an optimistic bunch. The way I see it at this point, it should be, China (0.0121%) Kuwait(99.9879%) But I'm clinging to that 0.0121% chance dearly.
Chinese faithfuls, I really appreciate your die heartness. Especially Xfactor and Dreamer. Be realistic please. Will China win? Yes Will Kuwait win? Yes Will China score more than 2 goals? no Wlll China advance to the next round? no It's time for the entire CFA to go back to the drawing board. First fix the problems with their stinkin soccer league. Promote a clean league without corruption and match fixing. Promote better management and better coaching and training methods. It's a learning process that every country has to go through. Japan and Korea went through the learning process and now look at their domination in East Asia. Forget this round fans, our time will come, but not now. Even if we squeak into the next round, it's still hopeless.