Social media outrage after 0-2 loss to South Korea
Chinese fans bemoaned China’s 2-0 loss to South Korea in the men’s soccer quarterfinals of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games, saying the “curse of Korean phobia (gonghan) cannot be broken,” Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported today.
According to the report, Chinese soccer fans took to social media to lament the “disgrace of the National Day” after their national team lost to South Korea without scoring a single goal in a match played in Anbang on the afternoon of the first day of the national holiday.
Many Chinese fans cited “fear of Korea” or “Korean phobia” and pointed out that this feeling has haunted the Chinese national team for decades.
One netizen on Chinese social media Weibo wrote: “From ‘Will we break the fear of South Korea this time’ in the past to ‘It’s okay to lose by two goals’ now. How long will the national soccer team continue its downward spiral?” wrote one netizen.
“Let’s not talk about the national soccer team’s National Day embarrassment,” another netizen wrote, “we have no hope of winning.”
He added: “Winning the Asian Games exempts you from military service. There is no need to talk about how hard the Korean team works and how much they want to win,” he wrote, adding, “From the staff to the level of investment, we are several steps behind.”
Hong Kong’s 1-0 win over Iran on the same day, which set up a semifinal against Japan, also fueled criticism of the Chinese team.
One netizen wrote on Sina Weibo (formerly Twitter), “Even Hong Kong, a small country, has produced good soccer players, but China, a country of 1.4 billion people, has not. It’s shameful.”
Another wrote on Weibo, “The Hong Kong team obviously had a more difficult match. However, Hong Kong beat Iran to reach the quarterfinals.” “The Chinese team was scared to death during the whole game,” wrote another.
“Now the Chinese team can’t guarantee victory against any country in Asia,” another wrote in a self-help tone. “They keep saying they’re afraid of South Korea, but China just can’t play soccer,” another commented.
A netizen who traveled to the stadium for the first time to see the game in person wrote on Weibo, “Watching the game on the field, I saw the real gap between the Korean and Japanese soccer teams, and I can see why Lee Kang-in plays for Paris Saint-Germain (PSG),” he said.
“I don’t know when China will have players of this caliber,” he continued, “I’ve always thought I’d see it in my lifetime, but today I feel like it’s hopeless.”바카라
Meanwhile, the Asian Games men’s soccer team, led by Huang Sunhong, will face Uzbekistan in the semifinals on Thursday at 9 p.m. at the Huanglong Sports Center Stadium in Hangzhou, China.