The participating team is not 100% full force… China is dominated by the U-23 team.
The heat of the 2022 East Asian Football Confederation (EAFF) E-1 Championship (East Asian Cup), which decides the strongest player in East Asian football, is waning.
The Korean men’s soccer team, led by coach Paulo Bento, defeated China 3-0 in the men’s first leg match of the East Asian Cup held at Toyota Stadium in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan on the 20th.
However, the stadium reflected on the broadcast screen was silent.
The spectator seats were also empty.
According to the EAFF match record, the number of spectators for the Korea-China match that day was only 200.
Even if it was not the home team, Japan, the number of spectators was extremely small considering that it was a game between national teams.
The first match between Japan and Hong Kong (Japan 6-0 win), held at Kashima Stadium in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan on the 19th, failed at the box office.
4,980 spectators watched the match, and according to Nikkan Sports of Japan, it is the first time that the number of Japanese national team game spectators has fallen below 5,000 since Oman and Qatar 2022 World Cup Asian final qualifiers in September last year, when 4,853 people entered.
Considering that the maximum number of spectators was limited to 5,000 in the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) at the time of the Oman game, the Hong Kong game failed to draw crowds properly.
The women’s tournament, where Korea-China-Japan-Taiwan competes, is no different.
On the 19th, 2,200 people entered the women’s Korea-Japan match (Korea 1-2 lost) at Kashima Stadium, and 100 people entered the China-Taiwan match (China 2-0 win) held at Toyota Stadium on the 19th.
Even after the opening of the men’s and women’s games, the total number of spectators is only 7,480.
On the other hand, 64,922 spectators gathered for the friendly match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and the Japanese J1 League Kawasaki Frontale at the Tokyo National Stadium on the day of the men’s Korea-China match.
Furthermore, PSG’s paid open training, which is conducting a pre-season tour in Japan, attracted 13,370 people, more than the number of spectators for the East Asian Cup.
Even during the training that lasted just over an hour, fans purchased tickets for 4,500 yen (about 43,000 won) for adults and 2,000 yen (about 19,000 won) for elementary, middle and high school students.
In comparison, even if the match was played on a weekday, soccer fans’ interest in the East Asian Cup is significantly lower.
As it is not the match A period set by FIFA, it is difficult for foreign players active in Europe to join the national teams in this tournament.
As a result, Bentuho, who was missing Son Heung-min (Tottenham) and Hwang Ui-jo (Bordeaux), selected 25 K-League players and J-League Kwon Kyung-won (Gamba Osaka).
The Japanese national team also made up a team only with J-League players, and 10 people were newly added to the national team.
While Korea and Japan formed an adult national team without some key players, China focused on players under the age of 23 (U-23).
Aleksandar Yankovic, manager of the China U-23 national team, also took over the baton.
Here, Hong Kong is ranked 145th in the FIFA rankings, which is much lower than Korea (28th), Japan (24th), and China (78th).
Even though all the teams could not play as a ‘complete team’, the difference in power was large, so in the men’s Japan-Hong Kong match, Japan unilaterally dominated the match, and in the Korea-China match, the tension dropped.
Kim Dae-gil, a soccer commentator who watched the match between Korea and China, said, “If it’s like this, I don’t know if the East Asian Cup itself has any meaning.
Each team has to take care to form a national team, but I feel regretful because it doesn’t seem to be properly equipped.”
/yunhap news