in order to build a team that can compete against the best teams of europe, s america, and africa, change has to ocurr from youth level all the way into the domestic professional league... which is why i wrote before that building a good football team is like planting a fruit bearing tree... it takes a long time and constant nurturing.
it can get expensive too if there isnt a lot of public interest. it costs money to have a grass field and if people dont want to pay for it, government has to pay for it...
but the most important factor is whether or not the country loves football. in the case of China, that is certainly the case, so i wrote before that it is simply a question of time before they play at world level.
sometimes it is frustrating for me to have to read some people write, "asians are just not strong enough for this game, blah blah blah". all untrue. people just say this, because they just dont believe in themselves. in terms of physique, there is no particular reason why the chinese or south asians couldnt play at the level of japan or s korea. the difference is in terms of technique and organiztion etc. technique has to be taught early. tactics, teamplay, organization, you need good manager.
in terms of history, hidetoshi nakata, cha bum geun, park ji sung, and nagatomo, lee young pyo, and kagawa have all shown asian players can play at world level. and i havent even mentioned the iranians or the Saudis who could if their sheiks would let them.
in the case of China we have sun jihai. only chinese player that ive really seen is li wei feng. i thought he was ok, but there seem to be some drama for him back in his home country.
anyway, you just need eleven guys for this game...
