A Pyrrhic Victory?
Why Dong Lu is the biggest populist in China
As a great man once said, genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent of perspiration. As far as the former is concerned, China U23 football team's Asian Cup campaign was lucky indeed. Before the final, it dodged South Korea as an opponent and survived five games with a passive 5-3-2 formation, including one game in the quarter-final against Uzbekistan, where the young White Wolves dominated the possession. They also had no problem showing their supporters a lifeless 0-0 draw against Thailand. In the final, they were given no chance by a clinical Japanese team that showed no mercy.
Much of the country showed unity and cheered the team on, having overperformed in terms of results if not in the quality of play. This time, reason appeared to have gotten the better of Chinese football in pointing out that it could not afford the luxury of style while the basics remained unmastered. Yet back home, the combination of conservative tactics and generous results reignited the familiar debate over how youth players should be trained.
At the centre of the storm is an old friend: Dong Lu, the bootstrapping youth-football entrepreneur who appears to enjoy a direct line to Antonio Puche. His post-match commentaries read uncannily like tactical previews, and, for a time, seemed to be vindicated on the pitch.
That silence reflects a deeper anxiety. A more primitive style of football—effective in tournaments—might ride a wave of results and harden into orthodoxy in youth development. In doing so, it would crowd out the more complex skills modern football actually demands, such as spatial awareness and game reading.
It is a worthy debate. It could be well argued that at least in a tournament, it is more important to win and to build young players' confidence. At the same time, the ex-players certainly are feeling the heat from the fact that their more sophisticated methods have yet produced the results. At a press conference at his first training camp, the new head coach of the senior national team and ex-1860 Munich player Shao Jiayi was asked if he would see the amateur but viral inter-city leagues' players. As soon as the words were uttered, the Xinhua journalist who asked giggled at the absurdity of the question. Shao smiled and said he might see them if they could make it to League 1 or League 2.
But Douyin still exploded on the suggestion that their heroes were not up to stretch and being slighted by the bunch who are nothing but failures for the most part of more than twenty years. In that sense, Dong Lu is the biggest populist there is in China. His cause is further helped by the petulance of game’s most compromised voices. If Sun, Wang, and Shao are (in ascending order) still the respectable face of the Chinese football establishment, then the comments by the likes of Dong Fangzhuo, Mao Jianqing, and He Xiaolong in the lines of 'winning a silver medal is not really worth it given how ugly we played' added oil to the fire that those who geniunely wants to help Chinese football from within are already too close to.
Worse still for the Chinese Football Association, this is a battle it cannot win. If Dong Lu prevails, the system is exposed as redundant. If Shao Jiayi does, it merely confirms that the General Administration of Sport was right to overrule the CFA and appoint a Chinese head coach.