The Chinese newspaper reacted with surprise when the home team failed

Football China is in a dark period in recent times. In addition to the disappointing performance of the national team, the salary debt of domestic clubs is also a painful problem.

Yesterday, China U23 continued to disappoint when it lost to U23 UAE in the opening match of the friendly tournament in Dubai. It should be added that China sent the strongest U23 team to attend the tournament to prepare for ASIAD 2023 taking place at home next year.

However, the Chinese press had a very unexpected reaction after this defeat. They don’t criticize as badly as when the national team loses the game. Instead, Sina newspaper praised the U23 team.

This newspaper wrote: “The Chinese U23 team with players born in 1999 lost to the UAE in the opening match of the friendly tournament in Dubai. Unfortunately, the home team’s goal of winning was not achieved.

However, the performance of young Chinese players is worthy of praise. The spirit of the whole team in the 90 minutes was very good. They showed bold things. This has partially filled the limitations of the quality of the players.

After all, it should not be too strict with the Chinese U23 team when this is just a test tournament. Therefore, we should only look at the positive side. The pressing style of the Chinese U23 team in this match is quite good and limits a lot of the opponent’s strength.

It is a fact that the Chinese U23 team has not participated in international tournaments in the past 28 months. They are also not used to such intense pressing in China. The quality of the Chinese league has declined over the past two or three years, leading to a lack of rhythm for the teams.

This was most clearly seen when the Chinese team performed very badly in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Young Chinese players need to adapt after a long time without experiencing the top matches. It all takes a process. At this point, they need words of encouragement rather than criticism.

It must be affirmed that the results of the matches in the friendly tournament in Dubai are not so important. It is a good thing that young Chinese players show good spirit. They all give their best every time they play on the field.

Losing 0-1 to UAE U23 is not what we want, but that does not mean that the efforts of young Chinese players can be denied.

However, at the bottom of the comment section, Chinese fans still have harsh words criticizing the home team. Here are a few typical comments:

“In short, Chinese football does not know how to win. Never give up hope. After all, young players are also victims of the asynchronous development of Chinese football.”

“Being pressed and failing is natural.”

“The players played poorly, without speed, without skill”.

“The players get huge bonuses but the results are the same.”

“There is no hope at all! Don’t expect football to develop in China”.

“Do young players want to lose again in the future? Vietnam team like the senior players?”.

“Look at Japan. They just need the U21 team to beat Croatia.”

In the next match, China U23 will face Thailand U23 on March 29. Like China U23, Thailand U23 also lost 0-1 against U23 Qatar in the opening match of the Dubai Cup.