Who's hot, who's not in China Sports (Week 9)

China can turn early WC exit into a good thing

Chinese national footballers exerted no effort at all entering the final round of Asia's World Cup qualification on Wednesday – they've had nothing to lose.

After dropping three of the first four qualifiers, the Chinese team had virtually bid farewell to the 2014 Brazil World Cup, which made their next two wins, 4-0 over Singapore on Nov 15 and 3-1 over Jordan on Wednesday, ironically as bitter as it was jubilant for the Jordanian team.

It was Jordan who dealt China the first blow. They beat China 2-1 at home on Sept 6 and powered to a four-game winning streak that ensured a spot in the second stage of the qualification. Iraq, who downed China twice, both with a 1-0 score, is the other team that qualified.

Disappointment from the fans was well reflected in attendance. No more than 6,000 people came to the 50,000-seat Guangzhou University Town Stadium to watch the game. That's arguably the record low for attendance at a national football match. And many of them were Jordanians who drowned out the Chinese fans.

It's another four years for Chinese football, meaning they have to start from scratch all over again, as some of the squad's best players, such as Zheng Zhi and Li Weifeng, will probably have retired from the game by 2015.

But it's not always a bad thing to start over. The country's football crackdown on corruption is approaching the end, with former football officials, players and referees given their penalties one by one. And the Chinese Football League is experiencing a healthy marketing process, which leaves the fans with hope for the future.

As for Jose Antonio Camacho, who assumed the job of head coach of the national team, he remains optimistic, too.

"The young players gave me some surprises today. I think this team will be a very nice one after two or three years," the Spaniard said.