Rogge expects more doping cases, Liu needs surgery
Monday, 10th November 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
A short glance at some of China's biggest current sports stories:Liu Xiang
Doctors that hurdler Liu Xiang visited in the United States agreed with his Chinese doctors in advising surgery for the Achilles tendon injury that kept him out of the Beijing Olympics.
Doping
The International Olympic Committee is still conducting doping tests from the August Olympics, and IOC president Jacques Rogge said he expects at least 15 cases from this year's Olympiad.
Diving
Former Chinese national team diving coach Yu Fen has threatened legal action against diving's administrative body, to secure several million yuan she believes she is owed in bonuses from her tenure with the team, which ended in 1997. Yu coached greats Guo Jingjing and Wu Mingxia.
Soccer/Football
Tickets are on sale for the Chinese women's national soccer team's match against gold medalists the United States at Detroit's Ford Field December 17.
Aquatics
Hong Kong is among the cities bidding to host the 2013 FINA World Championships. The world governing body for aquatic sports including swimming, diving, water polo and synchronized swimming holds a world championship every year. The 2011 championships will take place in Shanghai.
Tags: diving, doping, FINA, football, Guo Jingjing, Liu Xiang, soccer, swimming, track and field, Wu Mingxia, Yu Fen
One world, China's Olympic Dream
Friday, 8th August 2008 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
After years of unprecedented buildup and international scrutiny, the curtain is about to formally go up on the 2008 Beijing Olympics tonight at 8:08, but some football (soccer) matches have already been played in the last two days, including China's first two performances.On Wednesday the Chinese women's team beat Sweden 2:1 and on Thursday night the Chinese men's team broke even 1:1 in their match against New Zealand… so far, so good for an Olympic host country that will view anything short of the top of the medal count as a failure.
In addition to his book and post at Kalamazoo College, Xu is a frequent source and occasional contributor to the Washington Post regarding sports in China - he recently penned an analysis of the path of football in China and why in football terms China is, as he puts it: "the sick man of the world".
China Sports Today spoke with Xu about what this Olympics means to China and how Chinese athletes may perform in this year's games. With the opening of the Olympics only hours away, this is what Xu had to say about this year's games:
China Sports Today: What have been the driving forces behind China's increasing interest - and success - in international athletic competition?
Xu Guoqi:To demonstrate that China can compete against the best not only economically but also physically. To show that China is a rising power which deserves world respect. To win in sports competition has been a national policy and organized sports have been under direct control of the state.
CST: Many noted during the last Olympics that Chinese athletes were showing more emotion than ever before, how emotional do you think these games will be for Chinese athletes?
Xu: More emotional than ever, since they are competing in their own Olympic Games and on their home turf.
Xu: It will serve as double-edged sword and help the athletes to perform better but sometimes also contribute to an unnecessary pressure on athletes which can hurt them. A good example of the late case is the 1985 soccer match between the Hong Kong team [still a British colony at the time] and China's national team. The supposedly much stronger China team was defeated because of the enormous pressure to win.
CST: As a Chinese person living in the United States, what similarities and/or differences do you see between the ways Chinese and Americans view sports?
Xu: Chinese have injected too many political ingredients into sports, as it links the results to national honor and pride. Sports in China have also carried too much of a historical burden and have been especially linked to China's past humiliation.
In the USA, it seems that they nowadays people are less likely to link sports with political burdens or history. They tend to enjoy the sports more and take the results of victory or loss less emotionally.
CST: In your book you discuss the political dynamic of the relationship between China and the Olympics. If the Beijing games go on without any major problems, what benefits - if any - do you think China will reap in terms of its international image and standing?
Xu: It will help the Chinese to get rid of the long-lasting syndrome of can-do spirit mixed with strong sense of inferiority and start to be confident of themselves and of the nation. It will project an image of China which is open, dynamic, and internationalized and it will enhance the international prestige and status of both the nation and the regime.
CST: What event or events will you be watching closest in this year's Olympics?
Xu: Liu Xiang's 110 meters hurdle, soccer matches and the basketball games.
Tags: China sports history, football, soccer, Washington Post, Xu Guoqi
China women's soccer beats Sweden, 2-1
Thursday, 7th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
China's Olympic soccer team poses for a team photo
"The home fans gave us great support," Shang said to Xinhua. "Maybe that is why so many countries would like to host Olympics."
The game's first goal came in the sixth minute when striker Xu Yuan followed up Zhang Na's shot, which had bounced off the left goalpost.
Xu, 23 years old, also assisted on China's other goal, punched in by Han Duan (韩端) in the 71st minute. Sweden's goal came from Lotta Schelin.
China plays its next game against Canada on August 9.
Tags: Beijing Olympics, football, Han Duan, Shang Ruihua, soccer, Tianjin, Xu Yuan
Olympic football kicks off... but who will be watching?
Wednesday, 6th August 2008 ~ Cameron ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
The Olympic countdown has been a long and tedious one but mercifully for football (soccer) fans like ourselves it reaches zero a day earlier – the men's Olympic Football tournament kicks off tomorrow evening. And fans of the ladies game need wait no longer - the action commences tonight in Tianjin.Regardless of the merits of women's football, the focus in China will be on the men and specifically of course, the home team. You can read a great many opinion pieces, blog entries, and all manner of football punditry endlessly dissecting the reasons for China's miserable failure to find 11 players from their massive population good enough to make a respectable mark on the world game. But there is a question one will seldom see asked amongst all this pontificating.
Does Olympic football matter and does anyone really care about it?
The answer in the eyes of this columnist is a resounding no. Olympic football has always been the black sheep of international football competition, with a long and awkward relationship with the governing body of football, FIFA. The tournament itself is basically a glorified youth world cup, with each side able to field three players over the age of 23. Whilst that allows a few super-stars, including Brazil's Ronaldinho, to appear at this year's Olympics, it prevents full national sides from appearing – this is something FIFA does not want to see hence its insistence on the under-23 rule to stop the Olympics overshadowing the premier world football event, the World Cup.
If you ask any football fan, "who won the last world cup?" most would be able to say Italy. If you were to ask who were the gold medalists at football in Sydney 2004, the chances are few would be able to come up with the winner. Frankly, I can't even remember myself and I have been a football aficionado as long as I can remember. Whilst the tournament is a useful pointer towards emerging young talents, there is an increasing tendency amongst the big European clubs to refuse to release their players for any tournament without considerable arm-twisting. With the Olympic football tournament well down the pecking order in terms of footballing prestige, its been no surprise to see several club sides reluctant to release their players for this tourney. Fixture congestion is a hot topic in football these days, and with utterly disgusting money-grabbing schemes like the EPL's game-39 being put forward recently, this all adds more pressure on clubs to avoid the ignominy of their young stars getting injured at the Olympics. In short, the Olympics is the pinnacle for all sports—except football, so why bother?
Tim Vickery, the BBC's South America's football reporter, points out that the Olympics is serious business for the South Americans. It's certainly taken more seriously in that most roasting of football hotbeds. However, Brazil have never won an Olympic gold. How can a team win five world cups but not one Olympic gold? Perhaps it's not so important after all.
For the Chinese, the argument that Olympic football is of little consequence in the grand scheme of world soccer will fall on deaf ears. One can only imagine the entire Chinese football world being torn between diametrically opposed emotions – the burning desire to make a decent account of themselves at their own party, with the cold, paralyzing fear of losing yet more footballing face and making an undignified early exit. Shanghai Shenhua's Li Weifeng, Shandong Luneng's Han Peng and Charlton Athletic's Zheng Zhi are the three over-age players in China's squad who will have hopes of Olympian proportions placed on their shoulders in an effort to get past New Zealand, Belgium and (gasp) Brazil and meet their coaches' goal. With almost casual disregard for his own sanity, Chinese Olympic football coach Yin Tiesheng has stated that he believes a top-four finish should be achievable for his team. Such foolish aims will only serve to compound the team's inevitable failure.
China kick off their campaign against New Zealand in Shenyang tomorrow night.
Tags: football, Olympics, soccer
Chinese star injured as women's soccer ties US 0-0
Wednesday, 30th July 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
China's women's soccer (football) team played the United States to a scoreless draw in a warmup match Wednesday in Qinhuangdao. Ma Xiaoxu (马晓旭), a 20-year-old striker and one of the team's key players, was carried off in the 30th minute with an injury to her left knee. Ma was starting for the first time after being sidelined for almost a year due to a knee injury.China's starting lineup for the match, which should be similar to its Olympic lineup was as follows: Zhang Yanru (张艳茹), Zhou Gaoping (周高萍), Weng Xinzhi (翁新芝), Li Jie (李洁), Liu Huana (刘华娜), Zhang Ying (张颖), Bi Yan (毕妍), Zhang Na (张娜) Pu Wei (浦玮), Ma Xiaoxu and Yuan Xu (徐媛).
Tags: Beijing 2008, football, Ma Xiaoxu, Olympics, soccer, 马晓旭
China beats Australia in soccer friendly
Monday, 21st July 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Changchun—China beat Australia 1-0 in a pre-Olympic friendly on Sunday. Zhao Xuri scored on a pass from Yuan Weiwei in the 80th minute. It was China's first game without former head coach Ratomir Dujkovic, who was reassigned within the organization last week. According to Xinhua, Dujkovic was scouting Belgium, which is in China's Olympic draw, in a match against the Netherlands. Yin Tiesheng is now the team's head coach.Midfielder Zheng Zhi, one of China's best players who two weeks ago was rumored to be injured and missing the Olympics, did play in the match.
Tags: football, Ratomir Dujkovic, soccer, Zheng Zhi
China's Olympic soccer coach replaced
Saturday, 19th July 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Dujkovic, who is Serbian, has not been fired by the association, according to this Xinhua story, but moved to another job. No reason has been given for the change and Dujkovic has not made public comment.
This is the third elite-level coach the CFA has removed from a post in four months; it has now completely overhauled its head coaching lineup for both men's and women's teams. The CFA let national team men's coach Vladimir Petrovic (also Serbian) go last week after a failed World Cup qualifying run. In March, it fired women's coach, Elizabeth Loisel of France, by e-mail after political conflicts with team officials.
Related:
China Fires Men's National Soccer Coach
Au Revoir (Loisel fired)
Tags: Elizabeth Loisel, football, Olympics, Ratomir Dujkovic, soccer, Vladimir Petrovic
Match report: Shanghai Shenhua v Dalian Shide
Monday, 14th July 2008 ~ Cameron ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
For Dalian are a team in decline. With only one league title in the last five years, the north-eastern side were nowhere near the championship last season or the year before. And this season, they currently languish 13th in the 16-team CSL (Chinese Soccer League). Indeed, this fact was not lost on the Shenhua fans, who gleefully taunted the small band of Dalian travelling fans with chants of Dalian dui jiang ji! (Dalian team, get relegated!) and Dalian dui sha bi le ba, Xian Zai hou hui lai bu ji le ba (Dalian team, now realise you are stupid c*nts, but its too late you find this out )
The game itself was worthy of such terrace banter. Dalian got off to a solid start and looked the more promising team in the opening stages. However Shenhua broke the deadlock on 20 minutes when Chen Liang headed in from a corner to send the home fans wild. The celebrations had barely ceased when Jiang Kun added another, scoring an absolute topper of a goal 60 seconds after the restart. The ball was squared to him at pace from the right and he hit a first time shot from about 25 yards out which screamed into the top corner, leaving the Dalian keeper without a chance in hell. Dalian were on the ropes already and they never recovered from these two sucker punches for the rest of the match.
Proceedings remained very entertaining however and an audacious long range overhead kick from Costa Rican striker Erik Scott hit the post and went out. The action was flowing thick and fast by this point with Shenhua uncharacteristically appearing to forget they were two goals ahead.
Following half time, Dalian were beginning to look like they were running out of ideas. Scott again went close, waiting for the ball to come down at the edge of the box before hitting a clean shot but was denied by a great save from the Dalian keeper. Honduran Emil Martinez really should have scored when fellow central American Scott threaded a ball to him into the penalty box, but the goalie pulled of a great close-range save to keep the score at two-nil. However it was no surprise when Shenhua added a third on the 58th minute following a bit of a goalmouth scramble. The ball was played in from a corner and headed onto the bar, and amidst flailing limbs, the ball fell to defender Du Wei at the edge of the six yard box and he knocked it to finish Dalian off.
From then on the game was completely over as a contest and the pace dropped off rather abruptly. The steamy, humid Saturday night had also taken its tool on the spectators and the players as everyone just went through the motions during the closing stages. Dalian grabbed a late and somewhat undeserved consolation goal right at the death, but by then the Shenhua faithful were in great voice: 3-1 against the once-mighty Dalian was quite a result. Check out the match highlights - and don't miss Jiang Kun's fantastic second goal.
Shenhua have now won seven of their eight home games this season and results elsewhere this weekend see them sit third in the table just three points off leaders Shaanxi Barong. A combination of a break for the Olympics and their next games being on the road mean that Shenhua do not play their next home game until September 28.
Photo courtesy of Ryan Pollack
Tags: Dalian Shide, football, hongkou stadium, Shanghai Shenhua, soccer
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