How in the world can a team voluntarily forego promotion to a higher stage? It would not be surprising if we put it in the context of our soccer environment.
As we all know, professional soccer in China has long been a money-losing business. Once upgraded, it is necessary to invest more if it wants to maintain its dignity in the fierce top league, which may not be a happy thing for the management, especially in the current situation.
The economic base determines the superstructure, and similar "non-war crime" situations are common in the third-tier professional leagues. It is common for teams to run out of money halfway through the season, and to be relegated to the status of a fishbowl, and to muddle through. This has led to an embarrassing situation. Sometimes it is even difficult to determine whether the result of a game is due to strength or external factors.
Of course, it's probably a case of to each his own, and as long as the fans can accept it (and so what if they don't), there's nothing wrong with that.
Suffered a stock transfer storm of the Zhejiang team's state has turned sharply.
Back to the "brakes" phenomenon.
After four rounds of the 18-team tournament, the national football team exposed the same weakness in every game: the start was OK, the more you play, the worse it gets - a total of 8 goals conceded in the first half and the final stage of the second half, especially in the last three games, the end of halftime, conceded 5 goals, which directly determines the outcome of the game.
Of course, we can put the blame on the coach's incompetence and poor on-field adjustments, but objectively speaking, is the problem really limited to that? The deeper problem may lie in the players' ability to adapt to the intensity of the game and the lack of talent pool.
During the eleven days, the Super League three have suffered defeats, even the domestic invincible Shanghai team also suffered "three consecutive strikes", obviously not adapted to the rhythm of high-level competition in Asia. This is still in Japan and South Korea elite have to study, the value of foreign aid is less than the background of the Chinese Super League.
Three consecutive defeats in the Chinese Super League AFC Champions League
In 2023, the average run of the Chinese Super League team is 106.5 kilometers, while the J League is 113.6 kilometers, 7% higher than the Chinese Super League, which is equivalent to the effect of each team in the J League in every game nearly one more person, and that's not even counting the more detailed data of high-intensity running, sprinting running and so on. The fact that others are technically outstanding and have good daily rhythms reflects the huge gap with our national team.
Of course, the running stats are not the whole story, but rather a microcosm of many of the problems with the level of competition. Unless all the talents are born through overseas leagues, the only way to cultivate talents is to do well in the domestic professional league, and there is no shortcut. This is exactly the principle of "league-based", and one of the original reasons why the "Hongshankou Conference" decided to go professional.
Similarly, the above-mentioned phenomenon of "modesty" with Chinese characteristics is also the tip of the iceberg of "unprofessional professional league". A professional team playing 30 "high-intensity" matches a year is not much, and the level of investment will be discounted for various reasons - salary arrears, clubs do not want to be promoted, the weather is too hot, the schedule is too dense, individual matches, "harmony is most important", and the strength gap is too large. "Harmony is the most important" will not be able to fight, the strength gap is too big to fight. The national football team played more than one person does not prevail is no accident.
How many games can a player play a year to get out of these predicaments? Even as a fan who loves the home team dearly, it's sometimes hard not to repeat the classic quote from instructor Gong Xiaobin: "Isn't it painful to watch you play (kick) the ball?"
Don't get me wrong, this is not an accusation of professionalism on the part of the players. According to Gilbert's Behavioral Engineering model, the father of performance improvement, environmental factors are always an easier and more fundamental focus for performance improvement than personal factors - technology control before people control.
Considering that the wages of Chinese players have returned to a reasonable or even too low level after the bursting of the gold dollar bubble, the key lies in whether the league provides a suitable environment for them, without questioning their desire to improve their "performance".
In fact, the answer to the above question is not complicated:
-Playing in the Premier League if it's financially lucrative, is there anyone else who won't rush?
--Make up for unpaid wages, will players still be passive?
--With dividends tied to the standings and graded, will the mid-tier "salty" group still suck?
--- Always compressing the schedule to less than 8 months, with a doubleheader week in three volts, who doesn't have a hard time with the players, the fans, and the box office?
-Elite teams don't play outside the league and international players don't get the workout, how about looking at how much the J-League subsidizes the outside teams?
All of these should have been considered by the administrators a long time ago. Not only do they not conflict with the main goal of "serving the national team", but they are the right way to fundamentally improve the national team's level of competitiveness, but they are not being taken seriously - ignoring the role of the league's cornerstone, ignoring the expansion of the fan base, ignoring commercial development. Ignore the legitimate demands and basic rights of the clubs, ignore the rules and regulations, then reality will be punished in the harshest way. It's easy to change coaches, it's hard to fix the underlying problems.
A big bet on youth training? But ultimately the vast majority of young players are still going to enter the sea of professional leagues and just repeat the countless injury stories of the past.
Not to mention that the current youth training base is far from stable. While the adult national team lost in Australia, the U21s also suffered defeat in Russia. Only the U19's performance against Saudi Arabia left the national brand with a shred of face, but even if these kids do well at the U20 Asian Cup on home soil early next year, can we just sit back and relax?
One more story. We played Australia twice in the qualifying and final stages of the 2023 U17 Asian Cup and lost both times. However, there was a back and forth on the field and the opposition was not out of reach. A new star was born in both sides' lineups at the time - one named Ilan Kunda and the other Wang Yudong. The former is 9 months older than the latter. Ilan Kunda and Wang Yudong
Now Ilan Kunda AFL 60 games, 2467 minutes, this summer worth 3 million euros transfer to join Bayern, and on behalf of the adult national team debut against the national football team; Wang Yudong is still in the Super League first-team edge of the struggle, so far, the Super League only 10 games 274 minutes, from the national team is even more remote from the selection of the national team.
Match, match, still match, "clay method of steel" is useless, only high-intensity matches can be refined into real gold, adult players are also the same, the echelon players are also the same.
The core of the problem has never been "clubs unify their thinking and do their best to protect the national team". On the contrary, the governing body should do its best to ensure the quantity and quality of the professional league and all levels of the ladder, so as to cultivate a higher level of players, without emphasizing the "style of construction". Coaches can also ensure the lower limit of players, not to mention the driving effect of the league's prosperity on the entire sports industry.
The willpower of the Trojans and 24% possession wins won't be the norm. Maybe our players aren't that much worse than those who look like that in Europe's second and third tier leagues. Assuming, of course, that we can understand those four words - league.
