Chapter 73: No goal scored, ranked last, Koreans broke through After the game, the fans at the scene fell into a frenzy. The Chinese national football team players also rushed out from the bench and into the field to celebrate wildly with their teammates on the field. Although it is just a small East Asian Cup, a small mosquito is still meat. Moreover, this championship has great significance for the Chinese team which is in a trough. In this East Asian Cup, the Chinese team won the championship by defeating strong teams such as Japan and South Korea head-on, and won three games in a row. It is really of great value! It is precisely because of this that the fans’ reaction is so big and intense. The news of the Chinese national football team winning the East Asian Cup was immediately transmitted back to China through various channels and quickly spread across the country! There were already a lot of fans watching the live broadcast of this game, and the continuous coverage by major media outlets directly pushed public opinion to a climax. That evening, the news of the Chinese national football team winning the championship was reported on the news broadcast and received more than a minute of coverage. This kind of treatment is extremely rare for the Chinese national football team. In 2005, the influence of the News Broadcast was unimaginable.
In a situation where there are generally not many channels to watch, every evening at 7 o'clock, as long as you turn on the TV, almost every household will see the news broadcast. Through the news broadcast, people all over the country, whether they watched the game or not, knew that the Chinese team won the championship. Originally, the people across the country did not have a very good impression of the Chinese national football team, but with this championship, the image of the national football team in the hearts of the people has shown signs of a slight turnaround. It’s a pity that the Chinese national football team failed to make it to the World Cup. Otherwise, as long as they could win a game or even score a goal in the World Cup, the national football team’s past image and reputation might be completely reversed. More importantly, with this championship and the outstanding performance of the young players of the national youth team, especially Lin Feng, Chen Tao and others in the East Asian Cup, more and more fans are beginning to look forward to the future of this national team. "Lin Feng is only 17 years old this year, and he will only be 22 years old by the next World Cup. As long as he doesn't suffer a serious injury, he will definitely become more mature and stronger by then. By then, the Chinese national football team's frontcourt will be upgraded to a new level. I'm excited just thinking about it!" "That's not all. This national football team also has rising stars such as Chen Tao, Hao Junmin, Gao Lin, Feng Xiaoting and Zhao Xuri. Once they have fully established themselves in the European leagues and received long-term training in high-level leagues, their strength will surely surpass that of the current group of international players. Five years from now, when they have fully grown up, I can’t imagine how strong the Chinese team will be! ” Because of the existence of Lin Feng and the 85 Super Platinum Generation, fans are full of hope when talking about the future. I hope that this thing cannot be seen or touched, but it really exists, and it can really change the mental outlook of a group of people. Originally, everyone felt that the future of the lifeless Chinese national football team was bleak and there was no hope at all, so they gradually lost interest, and the number of people watching and playing football gradually decreased. The image of the Chinese national football team in the hearts of the entire nation has plummeted, and the public opinion environment has also taken a sharp turn for the worse. Influenced by this, the players of the Chinese national football team lost their spirit, their sense of honor, and even their moral bottom line. Not only did their performance on the field get worse and worse, but many people were even involved in the shady business of match-fixing and gambling, and ended up in jail. Chinese football has thus fallen into a vicious circle, sliding step by step into the abyss. There is no worst, only worse. But now, with the emergence of Lin Feng and the 85 Super Platinum Generation, the process of the Chinese national football team sliding into the abyss has been put on the brakes. But just stepping on the brakes is not enough. We also need to adjust the direction of Chinese football and get it back on track. But this is not something that can be done by a single player. It requires efforts from the Football Association and even the General Administration of Sports.
…… After the Chinese national football team's match ended, the next match to start was between the Japanese team and the host South Korean team. Although the Korean fans who came to the scene cheered for their team very hard, the Korean team still failed to stop the offensive of the Japanese team. In the 77th minute of the second half, Honda Keisuke, who played for the Japanese team for the first time, scored his first goal for the national team and helped the Japanese team beat the host and win the first victory of the East Asian Cup. This goal made many people remember Honda Keisuke's name. After two consecutive defeats, the Japanese finally opened up, but the Koreans were in trouble. The South Korean team, which was highly expected by Korean fans before the game, had a very dismal record in this East Asian Cup, with only one draw and two losses. They first lost to the Chinese team, then were tied by their brothers in the north, and in the last round lost to their arch-rivals Japan, ranking last among the four teams. What's even more embarrassing is that they haven't scored a single goal in three games, which makes people wonder whether the Korean team's forwards are still good enough. The disastrous defeat in the East Asian Cup made Korean fans extremely angry. Head coach Bonfrere was the first to have bad luck. He didn't even have the chance to resign voluntarily and was fired by the Korean Football Association as a scapegoat. But simply firing the head coach cannot calm the fans' anger. Tens of thousands of Korean fans took to the streets to protest and petition, demanding that the leaders of the Korean Football Association resign collectively and apologize. In the eyes of Koreans, the disastrous defeat in this East Asian Cup was all due to these insects. How can we play football well with this bunch of insects? Losing to the Japanese team would be fine, but losing to the Chinese team is simply a huge shame! Koreans have always had a high opinion of themselves and look down on China, and even more so on Chinese football. As a result, the stage they had worked so hard to build for their team to win the championship was snatched away by the Chinese, who also gave them such a humiliating defeat. Although more than a week has passed, the game in which the South Korean team lost 0:3 to the eight-man Chinese team is still very popular in South Korea. Although the Korean players who participated in that game have apologized collectively, they still cannot be forgiven by Korean fans. Many players even received death threats from radical fans, who believed they should die as a token of atonement. It has to be said that in terms of radicalism, Koreans are indeed ahead of other East Asian countries, with hunger strikes, seppuku, and chopping off their own fingers... Not only do they threaten others, but when they go crazy they even threaten themselves. Chinese fans were delighted to see the Koreans’ defense break. "I never thought that Koreans would have this day. They really deserve it!" "When they laughed at and belittled us in the past, they never thought this day would come, right?" "I heard from a friend who studied in South Korea that the Koreans refused to admit that they lost to the Chinese national team because they still had many players who studied abroad and did not return to participate in the competition. Therefore, this Korean team is not the strongest Korean team!" "Haha, believe it or not, even if the players who studied abroad come back, the Koreans will find other excuses!" "That's right, the Koreans just can't stand losing, they are just being stubborn. If they are not convinced, they can compete with the Chinese national team again in the next Asian Cup and World Cup qualifiers!" The next Asian Cup will be held in 2007. Due to its points and world ranking, the Chinese team can only be placed in the second or even third tier of teams, and it is very likely that they will meet the first tier South Korea team in the group stage. Even if they don't meet in the group stage, there is a high probability that the two teams will meet in the knockout stage.
At that time, the South Korean team will definitely send all its main players to play, and players studying abroad will also participate. This makes Chinese fans very excited. If the South Korean team loses to the Chinese team in the Asian Cup, what will they say? When it comes to the world ranking of the Chinese national football team, many players are curious and looking forward to it: In the latest world rankings to be announced by FIFA next week, how much will the ranking of the Chinese national football team, which just won three games in the East Asian Cup and scored a lot of points, improve? (End of this chapter)