So long, Ivanković
The Croat leaves a decidedly mixed legacy as China eliminated from World Cup qualifying, again. And Wang Yudong gets into trouble with his celebration for the second time.
It is not often a player gets scrutinised for their goal celebration twice in three months. Paul Gascogine, maybe. Eric Cantona, in his day. However, both received such treatment fairly deep into their careers ('mature' might never be an accurate epithet for the former). Wang Yudong though, is in the same hot water after scoring the late winning goal against Bahrain in a game of no significance. The 19-year-old striker celebrated his first international goal by taking off his jersey and running to the crowd.
No sooner had the game wrapped up than a shitstorm formed on the internet, with many fans criticising the exicitement being over the top. Of course, that kind of reaction says less about the state which Chinese football finds itself in than the media landscape (stale state media and click-baiting content creators) and economic malaise (hence the desperate farming for views). One of the ironies was that, in one of these shameless videos, the commentator had to censor Hao Haidong's face so that his video would be successfully uploaded, while declaring that the youngest and most energetic member of the national team is a symbol of the country's failure in the most popular sport.
In contrast, saner media outlets, quite a few of them state-affliated, pointed out the bold usage of young, previously untested, players is a positive legacy Ivanković left behind now his tenure as China manager has come to an end. The shame is that such boldness seems to have only been applied to attacking players while it is amply arguable that defenders and midfielders would benefit more from early accumulation of experience. Plus, at any rate, nobody would have thought the team would have had a chance at direct qualification. If anything, Wang Dalei, the captain and starting goalkeeper, was directly responsible for the 0-7 calamity against Japan at the start of the fourth round which dragged calculations for the whole set of 10 games down. Though to be fair he guarded well against Bahrain and Indonesia, and he wasn't the worst player (Wei Shihao, I am looking at you) that played.
Many things could be said about Ivanković. In a way, his tenure reminds me of the South Korean side under Jürgen Klinsmann: he never seems to have tuned in; the selection of players both for the squad and on matchday is always filled with question marks; the touchline reaction seems a tad laggy; the fans never loved him.
Perhaps it is all a bit too harsh. For starters Ivanković is not nearly as expensive as the Golden Bomber. There is no apparent or leaked row between the key players. And everybody assumed he was just a transition figure before Zheng Zhi or Shao Jiayi takes over, as the former now has on an interim basis. These days, few things unite the country in such a manner. The general secretary of the party certainly doesn't.
So what do we all make of this mild-mannered Croat? One can certainly say he is not a disappointment as some of the Douyin talking heads would have you believe. But there have been few surprises to the upside, either. It is tempting to say he was the right man at the appropriate time for the reasonable prices. But as Chinese football, like the rest of the nation, tries to exploit the last remains of the great fusion of Soviet mass production and capitalist animal spirits and professionalism, it is no country for the old man from the world of yesterday.