While China football is still licking their wounds from the
women's Algarve Cup fiasco early March, the world's most popular
game is trying to gain ground in China following some inspiring
performances of their foreign-based players.
China captain Zheng Zhi made headlines across the British media
on Monday after a match-winning display that gives Charlton
Athletic hope of avoiding Premier League relegation.
Zheng, who signed a loan from Shandong Luneng on December 29
until the end of the season, headed Charlton in front against
Newcastle United in his first full start on Sunday.
He followed up by winning a late penalty converted by Jerome
Thomas to give the southeast London club a precious 2-0 victory in
their struggle to beat the drop.
Another Chinese sensation Sun Xiang played both legs of the
European Championships match between Eindhoven PSV and English
giant Arsenal, making him the first Chinese soccer player who has
played at the European elite soccer competition.
Besides, China's Ma Xiaoxu, the AFC's Women's Player of the
Year, secured a contract with the Swedish women's soccer champions
Umea IK.
Umea, who have reportedly agreed a six-month deal with Ma
starting from the new season in April, are one of the top women's
clubs in Europe with five domestic championships and two European
crowns in the past seven years. Their side includes FIFA Women's
World Player of the Year Marta and Swedish talisman Hanna
Ljungberg.
However, Chinese footballers also disappointed the fans in equal
measure recently following the women team's nightmarish run in the
Algarve Cup football tournament, where they lost four straight
matches.
Since finishing second to the United States in the 1999 World
Cup, the Chinese women, known as the "Steel Roses", have failed to
return to such heights in international competitions.
The team was left high and dry into 2007 when the Chinese
Football Association (CFA) failed to appoint the new head coach
since former manager Ma Liangxing left the squad ahead of the Four
Nations tournament, citing a heart problem late January.
The former top team has slipped to the 11th spot on the FIFA
rankings on March 16 after the Algarve Cup.
In men's part, a mass brawl in London between the Chinese
Olympic squad and English first division team Queens Park Rangers
on February 7 cast a shadow over the China Football Association
(CFA)'s efforts to improve the league's image.
Embattled by black whistle and gambling, the CFA has vowed to
keep a clean image of the top football league ahead of the new
season which started early March.
"We must improve the competing level and make efforts to bring
spectators back to the stands," said Ma Chengquan, one of the
officials in charge of organising soccer leagues at the governing
body on February 26 at Xianghe, Hebei province.
The CFA held a two-day meeting at Xianghe, the first of its kind
to bring together referees, club managers and team coaches, to
address the possible problems in the upcoming season.
"Then, there must be a crackdown on gambling and the stadium
security has to be maintained," he added.
A further strive was also made by the association, promising to
donate six million yuan (0.78 million US dollars) to the Chinese
Red Cross Foundation for their Warming China project, which aims to
help out those poverty-stricken cancer patients for free.
"I hope this could help create a positive image for China
soccer, which drew too much criticism in the past few years," said
Li Jinyu, an international from top-flight club Shandong Luneng,
who acts as image ambassador for the project.
(Xinhua News Agency March 23, 2007)