After crying, facing the camera and being interviewed, Zheng Zhi said, “if the national team needs it, he will be duty-bound.” Image source: visual China
China News Service Dubai, January 26th question: how can Chinese football continue after farewell?
Author Xing Xiaoxiao
ended the Asian Cup journey with a complete defeat of 0:3, and the 26th national football team left one after another. Farewell seems to be the sad footnotes for the national football team to stay in the UAE, with Lippi’s expressionless face, Zheng Zhi’s tears, and the unwilling of many veterans.
When Lippi said without expression at the press conference that he would not continue to coach the Chinese national team, the “Lippi era” of the national football team officially ended.
From the fifth round of the 12th strong match 0:0 smudged Qatar to the Asian Cup quarter-finals 0:3 defeated Iran, Lippi led the national football team to participate in 30 games, he won 11 wins, 8 draws and 11 negative records, with a victory rate of 36.6%, which is only at the middle and lower level among the successive bishops of the national football team.
Although Lippi once said that he was not the savior of Chinese football, improving the national football level is undoubtedly the most urgent expectation of all circles in China for this world champion coach. When Lippi took office, there was a voice saying that he just played the role of “fire fighting” in the top 12 games, and he joined the national team as an “emergency candidate” halfway FIFA World Cup qualification.
It is true that Lipi finally failed to get rid of the “short life” curse of foreign teachers of the national football team and became the 9th foreign coach sent away by the national football team in the past 26 years. Before they came to China, some had been elected as the top ten German coaches, some had coached the Spanish national team, and some had led the team to win FIFA World Cup, but none of them could sit in the national football handsome position for three years……
When the biggest foreign teacher Lippi can’t turn Chinese football into gold, who can replace Lippi?
Dutch Arie Haan, who once led the national football team to win the Asian Cup, once said that even Lippi had to face the same problem as others, that is, winning. In addition, Qi Wusheng, Zhu Guanghu and Gao Hongbo served as local coaches. The tactical style of the national football team changed again and again during the change of 12 coaches. When traditional weak brigades such as Vietnam and Thailand had played their styles in this Asian Cup, when creating history, where is the tactical system of the national football team?
When Zheng Zhi, the 38-year-old national football captain, shed tears on the field and said in tears that this might be the last national team match, it was hard for someone to have too much criticism against the senior general, because this is, after all, the strongest lineup that the Chinese team can come up.
Leading an older national football team with an average age of 29 to fight for the Asian Cup, Lippi has been questioned. In fact, Lippi once wanted to cure the stubborn illness of the aging national football team, such as Deng Hanwen, the U23 player, and Jin jingdao, chi Zhongguo and other players with no national football experience and U23 players such as Liu Yang and Wei Shihao were included in the Asian Cup lineup.
During the Asian Cup, Lippi said bluntly that the veteran who was more experienced and capable was to ensure his achievements. Among the three players who were born in 1995, Liu Xiaoming’s low-level mistake in the defense line led to the second goal being scored by Iran. Liu Yang’s performance could only be said to be moderate, while Wei Shihao had no chance to play, those who can carry the beam are still veterans over 30 years old.
Lippi’s recruitment of many veterans just shows that there are not many available materials for young Chinese players. In the past 15 years, the Chinese youth echelon has never been involved in the top four Asian Games. From 2008 to 2014, the four Asian Youth Games have never been out of the group. In 2016, the Asian Youth Games and even the preliminary matches have not been out. The same group of the Asian Youth Games in that year has not been out of the line.
In contrast to Vietnam, the 2016 Asian youth championship was promoted to the top four. The 2018 Asian Football Association U23 Championship reached the final. The Asian Games entered the top four and won the Southeast Asian Cup. From traditional fish brisket to the top eight Asian Cup, the rise of Vietnamese football has benefited greatly from the youth training boom set up by the Vietnamese Football Association 12 years ago.
Zheng Zhi has decided to say goodbye. The golden generation of players in the 2005 World Youth Championship, such as Ji Junmin, Zhao Xuri, Feng xiaiting and Lin, have also entered the twilight years of their career. For most of the “post-80s” players in the array, the UAE may be the farewell performance of their Asian Cup and even the international career.
Anyway, Lippi and this senior national football team have completed the goal of promoting to the top eight, thus basically determining the seed qualification to ensure the lottery for the top 40 Asian Games in FIFA World Cup qualification this year.
The national football team will conduct training more than a month later, and only two training sessions are left before the start of the FIFA World Cup qualification Asian top 40 competition. How will Chinese football continue after Lippi and the veteran say goodbye? (Finished)