Grudge match

U.S.-China rivalry extends beyond soccer pitch

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Posted: Thursday July 08, 1999 07:27 PM

The Chinese, supporting their World Cup team with a commemorative envelope, hope to punish the United States by beating them in Saturday's final. AP

BEIJING (AP) -- Sure, sports and politics shouldn't mix. But there's too much bad blood between China and the United States for their clash in the Women's World Cup final to be just about scoring goals.

For some Chinese, a drubbing of the U.S. women in Saturday's eagerly-anticipated match would help avenge the May 7 accidental bombing of China's embassy in Yugoslavia.

"I really hope they lose face," said Wang Zhanjun, a Beijing factory worker who runs a fan club for a men's soccer team. "Economically, militarily, we can't punish America, so we have to use soccer."

Grudges aside, Chinese sports fans long starved of success in men's international soccer are looking forward to finally seeing China make good.

To enthusiasts' huge disappointment, the Chinese men's team has never even qualified for a World Cup -- let alone been in a position to win one. So the success of the women has seemed almost heaven-sent.

Liu Ailing and Sun Wen -- China's top women's players -- are on their way to becoming household names. One official newspaper refers to the team as "China's roses."

Even Wu Yi, China's most senior female politician and a tough trade negotiator, has gotten swept up in the excitement. Wu, a Cabinet member, reportedly interrupted a speech to provide her audience with game updates during China's 5-0 semifinal defeat of Norway on Sunday.

A similar battering of America could go a long way to restoring China's national pride.

In the atmosphere of suspicion clouding China-U.S. relations after the embassy bombing, conspiracy theories are spilling over into the sporting arena. There seems little chance that Saturday's final can match the "ping-pong diplomacy" China and the United States used 28 years ago to help bridge the gulf between them.

Government-run media have raised doubts about the evenhandedness of the referees for the championship game, saying officials in previous clashes between the two teams clearly favored the United States.

They've also suggested that U.S. organizers of the World Cup sought to trip up the Chinese women by deliberately making them trek back and forth across America and its four time zones in the competition's earlier rounds.

The Beijing Morning Post calculated that, including their trip to and from China, the team will have flown 25,793 miles, or once around the planet, compared with just 4,763 miles for the Americans.

Organizers planned it like that "because the Chinese team is the American team's biggest obstacle to taking the championship," the newspaper suggested.

It remains to be seen whether China's success in America will translate into greater funding and popularity for their long-overlooked sport back home.

Wang, the fan club leader, is already planning to organize his group of drum-beating, whistle-blowing soccer enthusiasts into attending women's games in Beijing.

"I've always been a real macho, not caring about the women, but I'll pay attention now," he said.

The national team's Swiss marketing company, International Sports and Leisure, hopes World Cup fame will attract sponsors.

A 67-year-old grandmother, Zhu Ying, was so inspired by the team's performance that she phoned the Beijing Morning Post to announce her plans to enroll her 10-year-old granddaughter in a sports school to play soccer. She also urged Beijing's more than 10 million residents to donate one yuan each (about 12 cents) to fund women's soccer.

"Chinese women's soccer is a hundred times stronger than the men, but their rewards are too little," she said.

The women's success already is putting pressure on China's men to buck up and is raising questions about whether they deserve the largesse lavished on them since professional leagues were set up five years ago.

"Compared to male soccer players, the women players' incomes are pitifully small, but they repeatedly make it to the World Cup," Wu Yi, the Cabinet member, was quoted by the state-run Xinhua News Agency as saying. "Male players should learn from their spirit."

"If the women are world champions, the men will have to crawl into a hole. They'll lose so much face," added Li Feng, a soccer fan who works in advertising. "It will really give the men a push."

 

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