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Eventine

Junior Member
Registered Member
Japan wasn't always good. But they analysed what worked and what didnt. They spent decades building up local talent. Today is a product of that hard work.

China on the other hand never figured it out. They tried hiring foreigners who were rejects elsewhere and we know that doesn't work but costs a lot. But we can see the vast majority of Chinese players flat out suck. I believe the selection process is completely wrong and needs to replaced entirely. Fun fact, Wu Lei who is the star striker and the only good player imo wouldn't have even gotten in the team coz he wasn't tall enough and had to get a special recommendation. He also played in Spain for a while while most Chinese players never left China.

Team sport infrastructure is a different beast from single sport. It has to be good or you will fail. You can't rely on a single genius to mask it like how even though MMA ain't big in China, Zhang Weili is currently a UFC champ.
China has traditionally struggled in men's team sports. It's really hard to explain, as women's teams are strong, and there isn't enough difference between Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans, for it to be explained via genetics. My leading theory is that it is a legacy problem - the bureaucratic and institutional structure around Chinese men's team sports was built during a time when the whole scene was corrupt and ineffective, and due to the amount of money in it (compared to women's sports), it never got fixed.

The way to correct it is probably a whole sale reform. It needs to be torn down & rebuilt from the ground up, like dinosaur companies (which China also struggles to correct - e.g. Baidu, ZTE, etc. will just never become Huawei no matter how hard you want them to).
 

FairAndUnbiased

Brigadier
Registered Member
I know this belongs in the sports thread but I will post the short version here while the more detailed version is in the sports thread. China played Indonesia in football today and lost 0-1. That means they are out of qualifying for the world cup next year.

Just fugging frustrating to watch. Can solve semiconductor and Ai but completely lost on how to develop a system to have a semi competent football team.
Solution is to use hard power to make football less relevant. Americans made baseball, basketball and American football important with hard power. They literally forced Japanese, Koreans and Taiwanese to play through military occupation.
 

supersnoop

Major
Registered Member
Japan wasn't always good. But they analysed what worked and what didnt. They spent decades building up local talent. Today is a product of that hard work.

China on the other hand never figured it out. They tried hiring foreigners who were rejects elsewhere and we know that doesn't work but costs a lot. But we can see the vast majority of Chinese players flat out suck. I believe the selection process is completely wrong and needs to replaced entirely. Fun fact, Wu Lei who is the star striker and the only good player imo wouldn't have even gotten in the team coz he wasn't tall enough and had to get a special recommendation. He also played in Spain for a while while most Chinese players never left China.

Team sport infrastructure is a different beast from single sport. It has to be good or you will fail. You can't rely on a single genius to mask it like how even though MMA ain't big in China, Zhang Weili is currently a UFC champ.

The men's basketball team is also garbage. Everyone thought that the Yao Ming years were the makings of a new powerhouse, but instead it was just his singular talent (and maybe NBA-overlooked ahead of his time Wang Zhizhi) lifting the team.
 

supersnoop

Major
Registered Member
At this point it probably genetics preventing China from being good at basketball.
I find that hard to believe. When you have issues with multiple team sports, there is clearly a talent evaluation/development problem.

Zack Edey is a 7-5 Chinese-Canadian that just made the NBA all-rookie team (he is half white, but his Chinese mother was a good basketball player in high school and herself is 6-3). The Chinese population in Canada is maybe a bit over 1 million at best. You're telling me that 1 billion people can't make at least one regular NBA player in the last decade and a half?

According to anecdotes, parents in China are afraid of the sport schools for being academically garbage and not preparing children for any life outside the sport.

EDIT:
One more point, taking the US as an example. They hand out athletic scholarships like candy. Even if you don't make it into the professional leagues, you can at least go to a decent school, even a top academic school.
 
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