China 0, Belgium 2

Ah, I knew I shouldn't have watched it but....its like being on a high peak. You know you shouldn't look down but.... So bad. It's not even the fact that they suck. It's the attitude. Did you see that person's face when he missed right in front of the goal in the 8th minute? Not a scrap of apology. Not a hint of "omg, this is so humiliating that I missed something like this in front of everyone". No "I wanna sink into the ground this is so embarassing". Just "oh. My bad". S.O.B.

The country with the most football fans can't beat a third rate Euro team with two of their best players missing. I'm never watching another game again. Ok, I shouldn't say that, I wanna see Ronaldinho play.

Did anyone watch Brazil v NZ? 5-0. Expected I think. No offence, but due to the fact that noone watches the beautiful game in NZ, the standard is amateur at best. There is only one strategy: get the ball forward and hope someone can out run the defence and get the ball in. Actually, the Belgium team had that kind of attacking strategy, but they had better planning and defence. More accurately, they know how to be brutal without violating the rules. Italy and Greece are masters at this. This kind of training NZ team lacks. They are still pretty much play a clean game. Which means Brazil gets a lot of space to maneuver, which basically means that the little flightless birds are screwed.

As for Brazil v China. Well, since China only has this game before they can stop losing face internationally and go back to losing face nationally and amongst the asian and middle eastern football audience, and the fact that no one expects them to be any kind of challenge to Brazil, especially themselves, I expect the first 15 mins to be alright, with some opportunities, but of course, due to the fact that our strikers go out of their way to miss the goal, even if the goal is right if front of them, we cannot possibly get a goal unless one of the Brazilian defence takes pity and decides to do it for us.

You see, this is a place where statistics goes out the window. There are 1.3 billion people in China. There are more men than women. 103:100. That makes approximately 659 million males. out of that 659 million males, there is not a single one that is a playmaker. Like Russia's Arshavin. The rest of the team is unspectacular. But with Arshavin, it's a done deal. World-class. Of course, Spain has any number of play makers so they are really good, but China really only needs one at this point.

I think the system is to blame for this. I mean, how many kids in China are a part of a football team? Apart from the ones in sports academies, maybe 1%? Study is too intense. There is just no culture of team sports. You can tell by the crappy chinese commentary. Because I have listened to the BBC ones, there is a comparison. I mean, those people understand the game. Chinese commentators just talk about random stuff that is unrelated to the game. Like how tall everyone is. They have an obsession with height. But in football, height is not all that crucial. Versus say, basketball or volleyball. At the very least, at the Chinese national team's level, height is the very least of their problems. They should start with the fact that they can't pass to save their life. Then move on to the fact that they actually can't kick the ball into the goal at point blank range.

Sigh. If I ever have kids, they are going to grow up playing football. For the good of the world.