Recently, Japan's famous coach Hisashi Kurosaki joined the Chinese Super League's Wuhan Sanzhen, whose interview with Japanese media YAHOO provided an in-depth analysis of the current situation of Chinese soccer. He confessed that even if the World Cup quota is expanded to 8.5, the difficulty for Chinese soccer to break out of Asia is still huge. What's more, Hisashi Kurosaki witnessed a large number of fans in China who are obsessed with Japanese soccer but scornful of Chinese men's soccer, a phenomenon that puzzled him deeply.
"China's battle with South Korea for the top spot in the group stage doesn't look promising this time around, with Thailand's rise in recent years not to be underestimated. I don't expect China to beat them easily. Perhaps China's World Cup dreams have long been dashed. I just hope they will give their best." Hisashi Kurosaki put it this way.
Hisashi Kurosaki further noted, "Many Chinese companies have become sponsors of the World Cup. Despite the fact that the Chinese men's soccer team is rarely seen on the World Cup stage, the growing influence of Chinese companies in the World Cup is something to be envied. Some may believe that Chinese companies are supporting the World Cup to profit from future World Cup advancement paths. In any case, with the expansion of the World Cup quota, it is more and more likely that the Chinese team's aspiration to advance will be realized."
Talking about the current state of the Chinese men's soccer team, Hisashi Kurosaki lamented, "From time to time in China, you can see Japanese fans' faces overflowing with joy when they see the Japanese team win against South American or European powerhouses. However, they look indifferent to the performance of the Chinese team. In my opinion, many fans of Chinese soccer are extremely utilitarian. Once the situation is unfavorable, they choose to give up, which is very different from Japanese fans. They try to find a way to turn around a bad situation. I think that once the Chinese team is challenged in the qualifiers, they will soon be demoralized and even lose their fighting spirit."
