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manqiangrexue

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Is something going on with Chinese soccer? I have no idea because being a soccer fan is probably the most depressing thing a Chinese person can be... and also because I legitimately hate the prospect of watching 2 hours of people running back and forth on a field with a 0 vs 0 scoreboard only to see the audience exploding at a 3 vs 2 score after you came back from a 3 minute bathroom break... but in my memory, I seem to recall there being quite a few Chinese soccer victories recently against countries that normall teabag us. So is this some streak of luck or has China overhauled the soccer corruption and went CCP directive mode on building a next gen championship-worthy (or at least competitive) soccer team? Does anyone follow and know?
 
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j17wang

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Is something going on with Chinese soccer? I have no idea because being a soccer fan is probably the most depressing thing a Chinese person can be... and also because I legitimately hate the prospect of watching 2 hours of people running back and forth on a field with a 0 vs 0 scoreboard only to see the audience exploding at a 3 vs 2 score after you came back from a 3 minute bathroom break... but in my memory, I seem to recall there being quite a few Chinese soccer victories recently against countries that normall teabag us. So is this some streak of luck or has China overhauled the soccer corruption and went CCP directive mode on building a next gen championship-worthy (or at least competitive) soccer team? Does anyone follow and know?
I still dont believe this. Maybe best to put it in this thread.


;)
 

gk1713

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Is something going on with Chinese soccer? I have no idea because being a soccer fan is probably the most depressing thing a Chinese person can be... and also because I legitimately hate the prospect of watching 2 hours of people running back and forth on a field with a 0 vs 0 scoreboard only to see the audience exploding at a 3 vs 2 score after you came back from a 3 minute bathroom break... but in my memory, I seem to recall there being quite a few Chinese soccer victories recently against countries that normall teabag us. So is this some streak of luck or has China overhauled the soccer corruption and went CCP directive mode on building a next gen championship-worthy (or at least competitive) soccer team? Does anyone follow and know?
This is essentially the generation of kids recruited by Chinese clubs during the country’s big-money football era finally coming of age — it’s just that those real‑estate sponsors didn’t survive long enough to see this day.
 

DriedDragonfruit

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Yes, contrary to the men's team that had and still has 恐韩症 or Korean-fear-syndrome, the youth teams from around u23 onwards are pretty dominant against the South Koreans. Partly because they fumbled their youth program and partly because China's gotten a lot better. The u17 and u16s are also much better than the u23s. In fact, the South Koreans fumbled so bad that their u17s onwards are developing 恐中症. The Japanese didn't fumble their youth program though and are still quite dominant in Asia.
 

Shaolian

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But I think I need to temper expectations a bit, especially basing on the performance of youth teams. Youth football (soccer) seems to be some kind of a handicap leveler against the more established, especially European teams. I always recall seeing Korean, Asian or other African teams doing well in youth tournaments, but then fizzle out when the real senior tournaments come around. Seems like when they reach adult age, there is still no replacement for the kind of well establish footballing industrial complex that the elite nations has.
 

Shaolian

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As a gauge of how Asian stack up against the established teams, the Japanese national team's performance could be interesting for this coming World Cup. I don't really follow football closely nowadays, but I watched some YouTube videos that reminded me of actually quite a few of Japanese professional footballers do play in the European leagues nowadays. They aren't like the previous decadeds where European teams hire some token Asians just to boost merchandise sales, but these Japanese players are actually playing regular first team football, and quite a few of their teams feature in European competitions as well.

So, maybe this could be... interesting? We'll see.
 

DriedDragonfruit

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As an update, China's U17 team made it to the U17 AFC Asian Cup Finals, just like the U23 team did earlier this year, for the first time in 22 years. Facing Japan in the finals as well.
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I don't really follow football closely nowadays, but I watched some YouTube videos that reminded me of actually quite a few of Japanese professional footballers do play in the European leagues nowadays.
Personally, I think Japan needs someone of Son Heungmin's caliber to be competitive in the WC (i.e. make it to the semis), even then, they'd still be a dark horse if they do make it to the semi finals. After all, almost all competitive European/South American teams have more than one player that's Son's caliber.
 
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