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Yu the man China beats Oman, reaches World Cup for first time
Updated: Sunday October 07, 2001 12:51 PM
SHENYANG, China (Reuters) -- China reached the World Cup finals for the first time on Sunday by beating Oman 1-0 in an Asian qualifier, setting off a frenzy of celebration by hundreds of millions of ecstatic soccer fans around the country. A nervous Chinese display and cold drizzle did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of 60,000 fans who packed the stadium in the depressed industrial city of Shenyang, many of them sporting red headbands and painted faces and banging drums. The single goal in the 37th minute by midfielder Yu Genwei, replacing the suspended Qi Hong, was just enough to break a World Cup jinx going all the way back to 1957, when China first entered the premier soccer competition. China have now secured top spot in Asian Zone Group B with two games to spare, which means automatic qualification for the finals in Japan and South Korea next year where they will join country's such as holders France, Argentina, England and Italy. China have won five and drawn one of their six matches and now stand six points ahead of second-placed United Arab Emirates after scoring 10 goals and conceding just one. Captain Fan Zhiyi, who plays in England for first division club Crystal Palace, was so choked by tears in the dressing room he could barely speak. "This dream was a long time coming," said Zhuang Yuhua, 41, who was selling headbands outside the stadium. Zhao Yi, a 22 year-old Shenyang hotel porter, added: "This really means a lot to China -- no less than the Olympics did. A real psychological boost." All-night party Shenyang residents streamed out of their homes after the match and headed for public squares for an all-night party. Beijing residents, still jubilant over the city winning the right to host the 2008 Olympics in July, converged on Tiananmen Square once again. Within minutes of the final whistle the vast plaza was filling up with more than 100,000 people chanting "China has won. China is great." Firecracker explosions filled the air. An hour after the match the crowd had soared to about half-a-million, according to police estimates. Delirious youngsters scampered up lampposts waving Chinese flags, swilling beer and swaying. "I'm so happy. How could I not be? We've waited years for this. China isn't only developing economically. Now we're making a name for ourselves in football as well," said Zhang Jinquan, 23, a recent university graduate. A group of about 50 fans raced across Tiananmen with a huge green flag bearing the Chinese character for "soar." The victory was glorious redemption for China's soccer team which had become a national embarrassment after failing six times to reach the World Cup finals. A soccer-mad nation cringed every time its star players stumbled against lowly opposition. The agony was made more unbearable by the sight of Chinese gymnasts, table tennis players and middle-distance runners sweeping gold in successive Olympic Games. Glorious anticlimax Sunday's dull match was an anticlimax in terms of entertainment, but when Yu clipped the ball home from five meters after a center was nodded back across goal by the joint efforts of two of his team mates China were on their way. Early in the second half, they squandered an opportunity to seal the match against an Omani side that had scored only once while conceding 11 goals in their five Group B qualifiers. Yang Chen skipped past Omani goalkeeper Sulaiman Al Mazroi only to see his weak shot from a narrow angle blocked. China's 57-year-old Croatian coach Bora Milutinovic, a master at shepherding lesser soccer nations to World Cup success, was elated. "From the bottom of my heart I just feel happy for the Chinese people," said the man who has now led a record five countries to the World Cup finals. Asked about China's prospects in the finals, he said: "You need to dream. In soccer you never know what will happen." Chinese soccer authorities chose Shenyang for the match partly because its damp and chilly October climate was ill-suited to the Omanis who are used to playing in dry heat. They were also keen for a morale boost from the northeastern city's famously boisterous fans. Soccer mania is an outlet for the frustrations of a city suffering chronic unemployment. Some 10,000 riot police were dispatched to the stadium in case the fans got out of hand. Squads of riot officers in black body armor jogged slowly around the perimeter of the field at regular intervals during the game. China's ruling soccer body cancelled a song-and-dance extravaganza scheduled immediately after the game at the stadium, including several Hong Kong pop icons, fearing the build-up before the match would distract players. They also thought it was premature to plan a celebration before knowing China would win, according to state media. Authorities were concerned that a premature build-up "could let the cooked duck fly away," said the Guangzhou Daily. Long wait endsThe long wait is over for Chinese soccer. The best players from the most populous nation on earth, humiliated by minnow sides and motley players in six World Cup qualifying campaigns, are finally through to the finals. In a soccer-mad nation, the eternal also-rans had been a source of embarrassment since the 1950s. Now the groans of hundreds of millions of fans have turned to relief-filled whoops of joy. If anything, Sunday's 1-0 win against Oman with a goal from midfielder Yu Genwei that clinched top spot in Asian Zone Group B was sweeter than China's success earlier this year in being awarded the 2008 Olympics. To lose the Games would have been a cruel blow; to miss the World Cup finals once again, unforgivable. "In China there's the mindset that we're a late-developing country," said Wang Lian, 50, a retired professor and a typically jaded Chinese soccer fan. "So this is a huge mental boost." Beyond soccer, the narrow win over tiny Oman has huge ramifications. The team's past bumbling performances seemed to mock even those Chinese who did not follow the game. A national obsession with soccer turned into a national neurosis. Patriotism is a potent force in modern China so the sight of their side crumbling against Iraq in 1993 and Iran four years later in World Cup qualifiers was almost too much to bear. The pain was sharpened by the sight of Chinese gymnasts, table tennis players and runners sweeping gold at successive Olympics. "People's expectations, however high, have been numbed over the years," said Wang. "Soccer's become more of a subject for satire." Sub-par competition Coach Bora Milutinovic's veteran side responded to a do-or-die ultimatum from the Chinese soccer world with a stellar qualifying run. They knocked in a barrage of goals in the first two rounds, displaying consistency sorely lacking in the past. After a series of lopsided games, China were as good as through to next year's finals in Korea and Japan even before the kickoff against Oman. But the victory on Sunday has put them six points clear of second-placed United Arab Emirates, who have just one game left. China have now won five and drawn one of their six matches, scoring 10 goals and conceding only one with two games to play. Still, many fans had their hearts in their mouths until the final whistle. They had bottled up their excitement over China's lucky grouping in the final qualifying round, where they avoided old nemeses Iran and Saudi Arabia as well as the 2002 joint hosts, Japan and South Korea, who qualified automatically. The sub-par competition, many feared, created as much opportunity for China to lose face as to make history. The finals berth could not come at a more symbolically charged time. While the world reels from an economic downturn and the global threat of terrorism, China is enjoying a banner year on the international stage. The World Cup milestone, said the influential newspaper Southern Weekend, went hand in hand with Beijing's victorious 2008 Olympic bid and the country's accession to the World Trade Organization, expected within months. The string of events has given the world an "upbeat outlook toward the course of China's future," said the paper. Dark age Many expect China's new-found soccer supremacy to lead to an eventual bid to stage the World Cup in a market that could one day become the world's largest. "Soccer will only get hotter in China," said Liu Xiaoli, a senior soccer columnist for China Sports News. The dark age of Chinese soccer under the old state-run system was the 1980s, most memorably a 1985 loss to lightweights Hong Kong, then a British colony, that led angry fans to smash cars and start fires. Because of the May 19 Incident, as the loss was called, the team to this day avoid the room number '519' when checking into hotels. China finally began to wean their players off state dependency with the introduction of club soccer in 1994, following the example of Japan a year before. "The reform of soccer has made all the difference," said Liu. While state authorities still cap players' salaries and have the final say on who can be transferred abroad, corporate-sponsored teams have rebuilt Chinese soccer. An extensive youth development program is producing stars of the future. The generation of players leading China into their first World Cup final is the first to be nurtured by the league. "The overall level of play has not taken a great leap forward but it has shown marked improvement," said Liu. Great wall Milutinovic, 57, has borne the brunt of China's World Cup anxieties. He made headlines by vowing to jump off the Great Wall if his team stumbled. Debate has raged over the idiosyncratic Croatian -- China's third foreign coach after Britain Bobby Houghton and German Klaus Schlappner -- since he arrived with a loose training regimen branded "happy soccer" in the state media. Reporters have blasted "Milu," as he is called, for delaying news conferences and "playing games" on the practice field. Instead of celebrating an orgy of goals in qualifying matches, newspapers have carped over the odd goal let in. Publicly aired dissent from former Crystal Palace defender Sun Jihai and internationally coveted forward Hao Haidong landed the two in the coach's dog house -- and almost off his World Cup roster. Milutinovic has also irked China's nationalistic fans with his customary absence from the pitch during the playing of the national anthem. But few doubt the "Bora effect" on Chinese soccer now. "It's psychological more than anything," said Liu. "Milu's experience has tempered the players' impatience." Chinese authorities took a rare hands-off approach as Milutinovic guided his record fifth country to the World Cup finals after Mexico, the United States, Nigeria and Costa Rica. "He has been given all the leeway a coach should have, more than anyone had before," said Liu. As China prepare for their first World Cup finals it is clear that Milutinovic's methods have paid dividends.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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