Prominence in Football Community

Chinese fans believe that the game on November 17, 2004 was a great shame for Chinese football.

Hong Kong fans and the media also think this is a great shame for Hong Kong football.

Why?

They believed that this game clearly violated sportsmanship, and the Hong Kong team must have been under pressure from above.

It is impossible for anyone who loves football to accept this arrangement of cooperating with others in match-fixing.

Not to mention that he was still the one who was slaughtered.

In the view of Hong Kong fans, it is obvious that your Chinese team did not live up to expectations. We only won one goal against us and Malaysia in the away game, and lost the away game against Kuwait, which made the last round of the group stage a life-and-death battle.

Instead, we have to pay the price, making us the target of your goal difference.

How innocent is Hong Kong football? !

Why do you want us to suffer the consequences of the mistakes you made?

That game is an unbearable painful memory for every Hong Kong fan. At that time, every Hong Kong fan watching the game in the stands and in front of the TV only felt the word "shame".

In fact, the players of the Hong Kong team also wanted to resist during the game.

Although the striker of the Hong Kong team used offsides again and again to help the Chinese team, the goalkeeper of the Hong Kong team quit. He tried his best to intercept the Chinese team's attack, and he was in a brave state. As a result, the Chinese team did not score until the last moment of the second half, and scored another goal in stoppage time, which brought the score to the 7:0 mark.

This inconsistent performance fully explained the inner torment of the Hong Kong players at that time.

If the Chinese team stepped on the corpse of the Hong Kong team to reach the top ten, I'm afraid that's all.

But it happened that the Chinese team pulled the Hong Kong team as a backstop, causing Hong Kong to suffer such a shame and humiliation, but they themselves have not yet entered the top ten.

This really made Hong Kong fans look down on the Chinese team from the bottom of their hearts.

The Chinese sports community has always had a very good mass base in Hong Kong and a good reputation. Every time the Olympic champions go to Hong Kong after the Olympic Games, they will be warmly welcomed by all walks of life in Hong Kong. The popularity of Olympic champions in Hong Kong is quite high.

But only Chinese football is the object of ridicule and ridicule in Hong Kong, and there is no respect for it-this kind of performance really does not deserve the respect of others.

So Hong Kong fans want revenge, that is, to avenge the seven goals eleven years ago.

The captain of the Hong Kong team and their goalkeeper Ye Honghui announced in an interview before the game that he would do everything possible to stop the Chinese team. He vowed that he would never let the Chinese team score in his hands.

His speech naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of Chinese fans in the mainland.

But it's up to each other, and it's true what they say. You can't ask them to open the door for the Chinese team to score like their predecessors did eleven years ago, right?

In fact, it’s fine if it’s just football grievances. Football grievances should be resolved with football.

But eleven years later, great changes have taken place in Hong Kong today and Hong Kong society at that time.

Some emotions that do not originally belong to football have also been mixed into football, and some people with ulterior motives use the banner of football to vent their negative emotions.

Before the match against the Chinese team at home, certain groups declared that they were going to make trouble at the match site.

Immediately cast a shadow over this World Cup qualifier, and tainted it with a burden that did not belong to itself.

※※※

As the top star of the Chinese team, and even the top star of Asian football, after Gao Zheng arrived in Hong Kong with the team, he naturally received the attention of the Hong Kong media.

The paparazzi of the Hong Kong media is also very famous. The questions they ask are often very tricky, and there are various traps in them, so that the interviewees will fall into their rhythm no matter how they answer.

In addition, in view of the tense atmosphere in the two places, before arriving in Hong Kong, the Chinese national team issued an internal order not to allow any international footballer to accept media interviews without authorization, even if it is a random question.

So even though countless reporters gathered around Gao Zheng and stretched out their microphones to him, wanting to hear his views on the game, Gao Zheng could only remain silent and just smiled at the camera.

Gao Zheng knew it in his heart.

What can be said, what can not be said.

For example, after the away game against Qatar, he complained euphemistically to the media about the Football Association's preparations.

That's no problem, he can stand up even if it's broken.

No matter how unhappy the Football Association is, they can't really do anything to him.

But there are some things related to Hong Kong that really cannot be said.

Having said that, if someone uses him, no one can protect him.

It's not about football.

But in the face of the paparazzi in Hong Kong, does the national team think that this can reduce criticism and disputes?

Innocent!

That night, a Hong Kong TV broadcasted a picture of Gao Zheng and other international players who were silent and hurried in the face of reporters' questioning.

The accompanying commentary is: "The Chinese internationals are under pressure and they are not allowed to speak..."

This leads to the way of "speech XX"... Do you think the Hong Kong media should be ashamed?

The media is a little better, at least only from the perspective of football, but their explanation is also very problematic: "Gao Zheng was silent in the interview with us, obviously worried that he would boast before the game, and he would fight after the game. My own face. Although the Chinese team defeated Bhutan 13:0 in the last game, it is not so easy to break through the gate of the Hong Kong team guarded by Ye Honghui!"

When Gao Zheng saw the Hong Kong media's talk in the hotel room, he laughed.

I can really add drama to myself.

※※※

Before the game, there was a ceremony to play the national anthems of both teams, but because both the Chinese team and the Hong Kong team belong to China, it is only necessary to play the Chinese national anthem once.

But when the players of both sides lined up and the stadium broadcast asked all the fans to stand up and prepare to play the national anthem, there was a burst of boos at the scene.

How this booing came from, everyone knows it well.

Wu Lei who was standing next to Gao Zheng heard the booing, his expression was a little bit wrong, but Gao Zheng still kept smiling, as if he didn't hear the booing at all.

When the national anthem was officially played, the booing subsided, but in the stands where some groups gathered, they held up signs with the words "BOO," an onomatopoeic word for boo , They are expressing their contempt and insult to the national anthem in this way.

Others turned their backs to the court and crossed their hands above their heads.

There are even some extreme fans holding banners with X independence slogans to promote their ideas.

The TV broadcast did not dare to show the home fans a shot in the stands.

People who watched the live TV broadcast may not have noticed too many abnormalities, but other fans and players from both sides at the scene could see it clearly.

This match is no ordinary World Cup qualifier...