OpinionAre China the England of Asia? Two cash rich soccer leagues that appear to be competing on the same playing field in several respects
From disappointing their national team’s fans to the financial might of their domestic leagues, China and England have more in common than you might realise
The Chinese national team don’t make it easy on themselves. Three goals down to South Korea, the Chinese team began to fight back with goals from Yu Hai and Hao Junmin, the second a fine free kick, before hopes of a dramatic comeback were palmed over the bar by Korean keeper Jung Sung-ryong.
It was an entertaining game and a spirited attempt at dragging a draw from the jaws of defeat. But it was too little, too late. And it confirmed one thing, that China is essentially England when it comes to football. The national teams of both countries are constant sources of frustration, embarrassment, and cruellest of all, hope for their fans.
Both countries lay claim to having invented the game, with Fifa now acknowledging China as the ancestral home of football, and both have had particularly humiliating recent histories. For China it was being held to two draws by Hong Kong, for England it was losing to the only 23 men available to play for Iceland at Euro 2016.
Watch: highlights of South Korea v China in 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifying
Despite regular evidence to the contrary, the sad thing is that both sets of fans think that their team should be good. England went into the Euros thinking it would be their year – as they do before every tournament – while one Chinese sports editor told me that the whole country is at a loss to understand why their national team performs so badly because they expect them to be better than their rivals.