Wu Guangqiang

    jw368@163.com

    MOST PEOPLE, however pessimistic they may be, would say that many bad things in life come with at least a little bit of good news, and optimistic people particularly believe, as the saying goes, that every cloud has a silver lining. But there may be an exception to that optimism: Chinese soccer. There is only bad news and worse news about our country’s national team.

    Chinese fans are accustomed to endless humiliating losses to foreign teams, but many still found the latest defeat intolerable. On June 15, a visiting Thailand team that chiefly consisted of U23 players slaughtered China’s national team, 5-1, in a friendly match in Hefei, Anhui Province.

    After the match, some 1,000 angry fans blocked the national team’s exit for more than an hour and chanted “resign, resign” to express their resentment of Jose Camacho, the team’s Spanish head coach.

    Fans were not angry about the humiliating score; they had seen much worse. On Sept. 11, 2012, China lost to Brazil 0-8 in a friendly match. At the 2009 Australian Youth Olympic Festival, China lost every single match, against different opponents: 1-7 to Australia, 0-14 to the U.S. and 0-11 to Chile. Though that team was not the national team, no one thought the national team would have performed better. Being beat by strong teams doesn’t hurt Chinese fans that much. Nor do they grieve at losing to weak teams; any team could beat China.

    But it was the combination of being beat by a “weak team” like Thailand and an embarrassing score that shattered fans’ last bit of faith in the prospects for Chinese international soccer.

    Compared with those disappointed fans, I was among the least perturbed, as I determined long ago that soccer did not belong to China, so no matter how hard we tried, the efforts would bear few fruits. I haven’t watched soccer matches involving Chinese teams for years.

    Why, then, am I so hopeless about Chinese soccer? It has nothing to do with fatalism or transcendentalism. My argument is based on my understanding of the weaknesses of Chinese character. Chinese athletes are good at table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, diving and shooting, all chiefly individual sports. When it comes to team events like basketball, volleyball and soccer, there have hardly been any applaudable records. Women’s volleyball and soccer may be exceptional, but that reveals another aspect of the matter that I’ll touch on later.

    We have blamed many things for our constant failures in soccer — poor physiques, a lack of qualified coaches and a shortage of funds, for example — but none of those excuses are tenable now. Chinese players have become taller and stronger; they are as wealthy as their Western counterparts, if not richer; and China can afford the best coaches available. Yet, nothing warranting cheers has happened.

    In China’s loss to Thailand, poor possession, poor teamwork and, most of all, no fighting spirit, resulted in the most humiliating defeat. Where has our teamwork and fighting spirit gone?

    Lin Yutang (1895-1976), a well-known a Chinese writer, translator, linguist and inventor, described an in-depth anatomy of Chinese characteristics in his book, “Chinese Characteristics.” Among many other traits, he mentioned sophistication, utilitarianism and contentment.

    A Chinese saying may illustrate Chinese sophistication: an individual Chinese is a dragon, which is regarded in China as symbolizing bravery and wisdom, but a group of Chinese becomes a plate of loose sand. While working together, every individual is calculating his own gains and losses. When 11 players have 11 ideas in a football match, what will happen?

    Most Chinese do everything with a utilitarian purpose. Brazilians have a passion for soccer in their blood, but most Chinese play it because of desires for money and fame. When parents raise their children to turn the sport into a cash cow, they are doomed to lose.

    Some may rebut my view by citing glorious achievements of the Chinese women’s volleyball and soccer teams. That’s true, and brings us to the other side of the matter. When pressed by external forces, particularly when threatened by fierce enemies, the Chinese “plate of loose sand” will unite and fight bravely, with an invincible spirit of teamwork. China’s women’s volleyball and soccer teams were among the best of the world when the Chinese were struggling to shake off poverty and when the nation was alive with upbeat spirit.

    It will take decades for China to succeed in soccer because we need to breed a new generation of soccer lovers who play the sport out of passion, not just for money or fame.

    (The author is an English tutor and a freelance writer.)