Yearender: Chinese soccer breaks hearts, again

 　　BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese soccer fans witnessed another year of fiascos, but this time, they accept it more peacefully as both players and fans feel nothing unusual for they've tasted so many failures in recent years and some of them even sighed that Chinese soccer is "beyond redemption".

　　No wonder the fans are so pessimistic. The Chinese men's national team failed to qualify for the last two FIFA World Cups, and this time things were worse: they almost lost their hopes after the first four games in the third round of the Asian qualifiers and got eliminated after a useless win over Singapore at the penultimate group game.

　　It's not the fault of head coach Jose Antonio Camacho as the Spaniard took over Gao Hongbo just 20 days before the first qualifier against Singapore. Three straight defeats to Jordan and Iraq basically sentenced them to death. Some fans complained that the Chinese Football Association didn't change Gao much earlier, which led to another four years of waiting for nothing.

　　Miroslav Blazevic couldn't change the fate of the Chinese Olympic team. After some hard fighting against an Oman side, the young team failed to get past the test for the 2012 London Olympics and created their worst record in the qualifying round.

　　No one can blame the boss as the hard-working Croatian has tried his best to teach the young boys in less than six months before the Olympic Asian qualifiers. Blazevic overestimated¹ his players'ability in carrying out his tactics, combined with some crucial errors by the referee² in an away match. Although Blazevic didn't want to leave with regrets, he had to bid farewell after some disputes with the CFA.

　　To add some salt to the wound, the Steel Roses suffered a heavier blow. After the first bye to the World Cup last year, the once formidable Chinese women's team didn't make it to the London Olympics, which created another humiliating record.

　　Native coach Li Xiaopeng resigned after the qualifiers, claiming that the team had tried everything. The young women were in tears after the exit, unlike their men's counterparts who already felt numb³ and sad.

　　Chinese soccer must have a thoroughly⁴ technical revolution in the coming years to get rejuvenated⁵, and combined efforts should be made in developing the professional leagues, which had been troubled with match-fixing, gambling⁶ and corruption⁸.

　　The Chinese government has launched a resolute⁹ nationwide action against soccer gambling, match-fixing and corruption, in which former CFA vice¹⁰ presidents Xie Yalong, Nan Yong and Yang Yimin were arrested.

　　The first round of trials of corrupt⁷ soccer officials, referees¹¹ and club managers opened on Dec. 19 in two local courts in northeast China's Liaoning province.

　　The anti-corruption movement has achieved obvious effects in clearing the environment of soccer. To make things better, stricter supervision¹² system should be set up to have better control of the professional leagues and the CFA officials.

　　Amid the woes¹³ and defeats, Chinese soccer also has some positive things. Firstly, the youth training system has been improved. The Chinese Ministry¹⁴ of Education and the General Administration of Sports have made joint¹⁵ efforts in building a nationwide campus-based youth soccer training system, which now includes some 48 cities and 2,600 primary schools and middle schools, with some 470,000 league games to be played by the teens every year. And the CFA also started to send youngsters at the age of 12 to 18 to European and South American countries like Spain, France, Portugal, England and Brazil to get professional training.

　　More than 100 young players have been sent to learn the game overseas in a project named "Future Stars" in the past one and a half years. Some boys even had the luck to be accepted by big clubs like Lyon, Liverpool, Valencia and Porto. Maybe after 5-8 years, some prominent future stars will rise from these boys.

　　Secondly¹⁶, the Chinese Super League (CSL) began to win back fans in the past season. Some real estate tycoons¹⁷ like Xu Jiayin of Guangzhou Evergrande club invested heavily in signing big stars including Dario Leonardo Conca, MVP of the Brazilian top class league, to enhance the attraction of the CSL. And the level of the league was lifted to some extent with those foreign players and famous coaches like Philippe Troussier.

　　For the next season, Shanghai Shenhua even signed in Nicolas Anelka from Chelsea, and the CSL teams may have better performance in the AFC Asian Champions League.

　　The CSL made a best-ever average attendance per game of about 17,600 in the 2011 season. And the Chinese central television station CCTV will begin to live broadcast the CSL games after a three year ban since 2008, when CCTV decided¹⁹ to stop broadcasting the CSL for there were too many "dark elements".

　　Camacho and his assistants will remain to guide the national team under a three-year contract. The former Spanish coach's attack-minded idea has changed the Chinese players a little, and the tempo²⁰ of the team has been lifted to some extent. The Chinese players may learn more new ideas from the Spaniard and change their basic understanding of soccer.

　　Besides, the Chinese youth national team is now under the reign¹⁸ of Dutch boss Jan Riekerink, the former Ajax youth team coach.

　　If the Chinese players can learn quickly from foreign coaches and have more creative thoughts, they can help the Chinese soccer follow the trend of international soccer like what their neighbors Japan and South Korea have done.

1 overestimated   

对（数量）估计过高，对…作过高的评价( overestimate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They overestimated his ability when they promoted him. 他们提拔他的时候高估了他的能力。
• The Ministry of Finance consistently overestimated its budget deficits. 财政部一贯高估预算赤字。

2 referee   

n.裁判员．仲裁人，代表人，鉴定人

参考例句：

• The team was left raging at the referee's decision.队员们对裁判员的裁决感到非常气愤。
• The referee blew a whistle at the end of the game.裁判在比赛结束时吹响了哨子。

3 numb   

adj.麻木的，失去感觉的；v.使麻木

参考例句：

• His fingers were numb with cold.他的手冻得发麻。
• Numb with cold,we urged the weary horses forward.我们冻得发僵，催着疲惫的马继续往前走。

4 thoroughly   

adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地

参考例句：

• The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
• The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。

5 rejuvenated   

更生的

参考例句：

• He was rejuvenated by new hope. 新的希望又使他充满了活力。
• She looked rejuvenated after plastic surgery. 她做完整形手术后显得年轻了。

6 gambling   

n.赌博；投机

参考例句：

• They have won a lot of money through gambling.他们赌博赢了很多钱。
• The men have been gambling away all night.那些人赌了整整一夜。

7 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

8 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

9 resolute   

adj.坚决的，果敢的

参考例句：

• He was resolute in carrying out his plan.他坚决地实行他的计划。
• The Egyptians offered resolute resistance to the aggressors.埃及人对侵略者作出坚决的反抗。

10 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

11 referees   

n.裁判员( referee的名词复数 )；证明人；公断人；（专业性强的文章的）审阅人

参考例句：

• The fiery player has had numerous run-ins with referees. 这位脾气暴躁的队员曾和裁判员发生过无数次争吵。
• If you want to appeal, the Court of Referees will decide. 如果你要上诉，可以由仲裁法庭去判决。 来自辞典例句

12 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

13 woes   

困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉

参考例句：

• Thanks for listening to my woes. 谢谢您听我诉说不幸的遭遇。
• She has cried the blues about its financial woes. 对于经济的困难她叫苦不迭。

14 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

15 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

16 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

17 tycoons   

大君( tycoon的名词复数 )； 将军； 企业巨头； 大亨

参考例句：

• The great tycoons were fierce competitors, single-minded in their pursuit of financial success and power. 企业巨头都是激烈的竞争者，他们一心追求钱财和权势。
• Tycoons and their conglomerates are even raising money again on international markets. 企业大亨们以及他们的企业甚至正再次从国际市场上筹集资金。

18 reign   

n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势

参考例句：

• The reign of Queen Elizabeth lapped over into the seventeenth century.伊丽莎白王朝延至17世纪。
• The reign of Zhu Yuanzhang lasted about 31 years.朱元璋统治了大约三十一年。

19 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

20 tempo   

n.(音乐的)速度；节奏，行进速度

参考例句：

• The boss is unsatisfied with the tardy tempo.老板不满于这种缓慢的进度。
• They waltz to the tempo of the music.他们跟着音乐的节奏跳华尔兹舞。