The Chinese Super League is still in the cold winter, insisting that the new national football coach and team still need to run in
This year Chinese football has been desperately “carrying”
Tomorrow or accident, which one will come first? When the Chinese football in 2021 started with the withdrawal of the new Chinese Super League champion Jiangsu team from professional football, every practitioner in this industry was more or less anxious about the future, and this uneasy mood permeated the past. In the past year, many clubs were in deep financial crisis and could not survive. The extraordinary coaching experience of the men’s and women’s national teams also exacerbated their anxiety. The Chinese football, stripped of its gold dollar coat, has restored its bare face as if it has taken off heavy makeup.
Worrying environment
“Till the end of the season” has become the psychology of most clubs
When most of the world‘s non-cross-year professional leagues have ended the 2021 season, the Chinese Super League is still persisting in the cold winter. Affected by the epidemic and the national team’s Qatar World Cup preliminaries, this season’s Chinese Super League was dismantled and had to finish the game on a rare occasion.
However, what is colder than the cold winter is the current Chinese professional football, especially the ecological environment of the Super League. Compared with the same stage of last season, the suspense of this season’s Super League title competition has been cracked early as Shandong Taishan stands out. In this regard, the outside world can be understood as the Shandong Taishan team’s card strength and bench thickness are the best in the league. But behind Tarzan’s strength is their solid economic foundation. When only 3 of the 16 clubs do not owe wages, you will find that such a league is actually very unhealthy. Compared with the various competitions that have prevailed in previous years, “carrying it until the end of the season” has become the common psychology of most Chinese Super League clubs. Therefore, in the second stage of the Super League championship group, in addition to Taishan Yiqi Juechen, most of the teams, including the eight-time champion Guangzhou team, are hobbled. After the departure of super foreign aids and naturalized nationals, many clubs have turned the league stage into a training ground for newcomers. This does not seem to match the competitive nature of the professional league, but it is a helpless and passive move.
A year ago, after the Jiangsu Football Club withdrew from professional football due to the economic crisis of its parent company, the practitioners expressed their cherishment for the league and the entire industry. But the embarrassment that occurred in the Jiangsu team warned them: even if you cherish the present, no one knows the future and accidents of Chinese football, which one will come first. In other words, even if the clubs stick to the end of the season under the influence of professional conscience, where is the future of Chinese professional football? Will the long-awaited share reform turn the clubs into peace? In fact, there is no clear answer in everyone’s mind.
Between
“Reaching into the World Cup finals” has always been difficult to achieve
There is no doubt that the main reason for the “sacrifice” of the Chinese Super League in 2021 is to cooperate with the national football team to prepare for the World Cup preliminaries. Although the “Chinese team’s entry into the World Cup finals” has always remained in the illusion of industry insiders, this obsession at least gives practitioners a reason to persevere and convince them that “sacrificing” the league is also the right choice. The breakthrough in the top 40 of the National Football Team just intensified their illusions of higher but unrealistic impact on the target, so the strongest national football team in history plus the five-year long-term contract of the then coach Li Tie came into being.
But top-level guarantees and ambitions cannot influence the law of football. The record of 1 win, 2 draws and 3 losses in the first 6 rounds of the top 12 national football matches did not exceed the scope of football rules, or such results are just another true portrayal of Chinese football’s hard work to return. After the Chinese team drew with the Australian team in Sharjah, UAE, the failure to let out happened early in 2021. However, every member of the team has been tacitly aware of “theory survives and the facts are out”. They only hope that this team can finish the top 12 matches in a normal and stable atmosphere.
The problem keeps going
The technical level is not high, the coach has problems with emotional management
Regrettably, when the Chinese team was at a normal level on the technical level, coach Li Tie had a problem with emotional management, which turned the attention of public opinion from the weakness of the team to the display of its personality. After the China-Australia game, the 32-minute speech was so unpleasant. Unfortunately, while venting his emotions, Li Tie also completely stood on the opposite side of the mainstream of public opinion, so that some media and fans took the trouble to “fire” at him.
Li Tie’s controversial remarks also drew criticism from relevant parties. Li Tie, who calmed down, regretted his uncool behavior, but had to take responsibility. Judging from the way the new coach Li Xiaopeng took office and the results of the sports management department’s intervention in the management of the national football, the price Li Tie paid for personal improper words and deeds far exceeded his imagination or can bear.
Objectively speaking, changes in the management model cannot change the fact that the national football skills are inferior to others. After a toss, the new coaches and management teams still need time to get acquainted with the new working environment, and they also need to experience a new cycle of running-in between them and the players. It is as unrealistic as expecting the team to make a significant difference in a short period of time. The Chinese team, like all aspects of Chinese football, has remained chaotic in the past year. After the Chinese women’s football team created the “2-7 tragedy” in the Tokyo Olympics, Jia Xiuquan’s dismissal was the same as that of the protagonist Zhang Haitao of the “0-8 tragedy” in the Athens Olympics 17 years ago. The only difference is the way the coach succeeded. But no matter whether Shui Qingxia takes over the embarrassment of the Chinese Football Association’s coach selection process, her appointment is just another “correction” move for the national team’s team building work. The repeated cycles of trial and error and error correction may be the most reasonable explanation of the trajectory of Chinese football.
Text/Reporter Xiao Geng Coordinating/Du Rui
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