PLA can only cheer NK

[mDumb]

China may be the world's most populous country and its new sporting powerhouse -- winning the most gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. But its prowess at soccer is lamentable. China is ranked 84th in soccer's world standings, just ahead of Mozambique.

Chinese are huge soccer fans, and hundreds of millions are expected to tune in to the World Cup, with all the matches broadcast live here on free television. Sports bars will be packed. But the Chinese won't have their own team to root for.

To add to the insult, even China's neighbor, hermetic North Korea, has earned a trip to the World Cup this year. "We will cheer for North Korea because they are our neighbors," said Wang Qi, whose company is selling tickets for Chinese fans to travel to South Africa. "They can't even feed themselves, but they work harder than Chinese athletes."

Since China emerged from the Cultural Revolution and ended its international isolation in the late 1970s, its national team has managed only one World Cup appearance, in 2002, and it failed to score a goal in three games. As the men's national team continues to struggle, though, the Chinese women's team, dubbed "The Iron Roses," ranks among the top 10 in the world.

Many Chinese fans find this sorry state of men's soccer particularly painful since China has a reasonable claim to have invented the game (along with gunpowder, printing and, arguably, spaghetti). Images from the Han Dynasty, before 220 B.C., show a game similar to soccer being played with a leather ball filled with hair.

"Chinese might have a reputation to be good in math, but they have trouble explaining why a population of 1.3 billion cannot produce a winning 11-member soccer team," said Xu Guoqi, a history professor at the University of Hong Kong and the author of a book on sports in China called "Olympic Dreams."

 

[genetic_nomad]

with all due respect this is not related to defense and hence-pointless

 

[Sanchez]

China may be the world's most populous country and its new sporting powerhouse -- winning the most gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. But its prowess at soccer is lamentable. China is ranked 84th in soccer's world standings, just ahead of Mozambique.

Chinese are huge soccer fans, and hundreds of millions are expected to tune in to the World Cup, with all the matches broadcast live here on free television. Sports bars will be packed. But the Chinese won't have their own team to root for.

To add to the insult, even China's neighbor, hermetic North Korea, has earned a trip to the World Cup this year. "We will cheer for North Korea because they are our neighbors," said Wang Qi, whose company is selling tickets for Chinese fans to travel to South Africa. "They can't even feed themselves, but they work harder than Chinese athletes."

Since China emerged from the Cultural Revolution and ended its international isolation in the late 1970s, its national team has managed only one World Cup appearance, in 2002, and it failed to score a goal in three games. As the men's national team continues to struggle, though, the Chinese women's team, dubbed "The Iron Roses," ranks among the top 10 in the world.

Many Chinese fans find this sorry state of men's soccer particularly painful since China has a reasonable claim to have invented the game (along with gunpowder, printing and, arguably, spaghetti). Images from the Han Dynasty, before 220 B.C., show a game similar to soccer being played with a leather ball filled with hair.

"Chinese might have a reputation to be good in math, but they have trouble explaining why a population of 1.3 billion cannot produce a winning 11-member soccer team," said Xu Guoqi, a history professor at the University of Hong Kong and the author of a book on sports in China called "Olympic Dreams."

Was Chinese soccer created 200BC? Wow, I thought it was 800AD in Song dynasty.

 

[mDumb]

<with all due respect this is not related to defense and hence-pointless>
Yes, it does, now it's the time for the Jawans to do a surprise attack on the PLA to recover AC.

The PLA moral is LOW (no opportunity to win a World Cup). China spent so much money on its soccer team and it's only ranked 84th?

 

[genetic_nomad]

<with all due respect this is not related to defense and hence-pointless>
Yes, it does, now it's the time for the Jawans to do a surprise attack on the PLA to recover AC.

The PLA moral is LOW (no opportunity to win a World Cup). China spent so much money on its soccer team and it's only ranked 84th?

lol..AksaiChin is pretty low on India's priority list. We remain focused on developing our economy and reducing poverty
thanks but no thanks

 

[SomeGuy]

<with all due respect this is not related to defense and hence-pointless>
Yes, it does, now it's the time for the Jawans to do a surprise attack on the PLA to recover AC.

The PLA moral is LOW (no opportunity to win a World Cup). China spent so much money on its soccer team and it's only ranked 84th?

The domestic game is corrupt, too much match fixing and criminal organisations involved.

Also there isn't much demand - yes the Chinese are crazy about football, but they prefer to watch european teams.

 

[no_name]

Was Chinese soccer created 200BC? Wow, I thought it was 800AD in Song dynasty.

You mean Tang dynasty.
I know they were already playing polo back then, hell even women were playing it too.

 

[cloneman]

The point is,you must shoot some high rank officers who are charging the Chinese Pre League.Otherwise the soccer players can't fully concentrated on football but drugs and girls. I didn't watch or care the news about Chinese soccer team for ten years.They are loosers to this country.

 

[applesauce]

The domestic game is corrupt, too much match fixing and criminal organisations involved.

Also there isn't much demand - yes the Chinese are crazy about football, but they prefer to watch european teams.

correct on the corruption
but chinese dont watch their own team cause the teams sucks and corruption is rampant if the mens team is more like the womens team then they would get far more interest in china.

 

[Black Stone]

I believe their female counterparts are a better side on International Tournaments despite their failed qualifications.

 

[prototype]

i thought they have mastered shaolin soccer

 

[mDumb]

<i thought they have mastered shaolin soccer>
Good point there. They should incorporate or inject some of the shaolin moves into the soccer team.

China's history on soccer:
This sport is very famous all around the world and there are historical evidences that the manner of kicking of a ball have been around for centuries in many different countries. There is much different information on when the sport was really discovered.

According to FIFA, scientific evidence shows that a similar activity of kicking a ball in a precise manner is traced back between the 2nd and 3rd BC in a province of China. This activity is a military exercise called Tsu Chu during the Han Dynasty. The exercise is done by kicking a ball made up of leather and filled with feathers and hair. The objective of their exercise is to aim the ball in a small opening with a small net. This requires excellent skill of accuracy in order to do the exercise.

NOTE: If you watch the movie Red Cliff you will see the game being played.

England captain David Beckham might have cursed his nation's soccer gods when he sailed his penalty kick over the crossbar in this summer's Euro 2004 tournament.

He might also have cursed Swiss referees.

But according to FIFA, the world body in charge of the beautiful game, Beckham should have blamed the Chinese for inventing the game, rather than cursing keen kickers in England in days of yore.
"We have to say thanks to the British associations --especially England -- to have organized the game of association football," said FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

"But you cannot deny the history that in China there is a recollection and evidence they played the game a thousand years ago."

FIFA says its historians have proof that the game -- then called cuju or "kickball" -- originated in China some 2,000 years ago. It was even played for emperors.

Why Chinese soccer teams (men) suck?
Chinese men's soccer failed to qualify for the World Cup finals but is outscoring the rest of the world in one category: corruption. A gambling and game-fixing scandal at the state-run Chinese Super League has ensnared multiple league executives, referees and teams.

A government crackdown that began last year has led to at least 20 arrests and unleashed a torrent of state media accounts detailing the corruption. They include gambling organizations controlling teams and players, the head of the Chinese Football Association helping fix matches and even entire squads of players throwing games to win bets for themselves and the crime syndicates backing them. Millions of dollars could change hands on a single match. A referee once heralded as the "Golden Whistle" for his integrity is one of three refs taken into custody on suspicion of accepting bribes to swing the outcomes of games.

When a referee gave a speech before the season's first game at Beijing's Workers' Stadium on Mar. 27, boos from the fans almost drowned out his remarks, including his promise to be "fair and just." Any Chinese fans who have ever shouted "black whistle" (hei shao) in frustration at poorly officiated games now have an epic scandal to confirm their worst suspicions--not only about the soccer league but also about the government-run system behind it.

"The corrupt authorities neglect their duty, abuse their power, embezzle public wealth, take bribes and manipulate matches," says Lu Shengjun, the head of an amateur soccer association in Anhui Province and an agitator for upending the state-run system.

Europe has had its share of match-fixing scandals, including one that roiled Italy's two biggest leagues in 2006. But the Chinese tales of malfeasance appear more wide-reaching and stretch back more than a decade, suggesting that corruption has embedded itself in the sport with an entrepreneurial zeal, much as corruption penetrates so many other facets of Chinese governance and state-run industries.

That may help answer a nagging question about China: Why is the men's national soccer team so bad? The team has reached only one World Cup final, in 2002, when it scored zero goals in three games. The men scored only one goal in three games in the 2008 Olympics, when they had home-field advantage.