The heavens opened and drenched the already miserable Chinese national team supporters as they trudged home from the Workers Stadium in central Beijing, having watched the country?s best footballers outclassed by the Netherlands.
The scoreline was only 2-0, but it could have been 10-0. Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben and the other orange-clad superstars seemed to go easy on them.
Inside the stadium, there were more orange shirts than red shirts. The Chinese fans sitting in front of us, who were from Beijing, were huge Holland fans. They sang both national anthems with equal fluency and they cheered for the Dutch throughout.
The Chinese love their soccer, but the game in the world?s most populous nation has suffered a series of own goals over the past few years, devastated by rampant bribery and match-fixing, as corrupt referees known as ?black whistles? exact a heavy toll on the Beautiful Game.
But most painful of all are the appalling on-field performances of the national team. China slumped to its lowest Fifa world ranking of 109 in March of this year, and is currently ranked 95th.
China started brightly against the Dutch, but the atmosphere soon became muted. The downpour as we went home was emblematic of the crisis of Chinese soccer that has now become acute. People barely mention it; they just roll their eyes.
Even before the Dutch game, sensitivity was high after a 2-1 defeat by the Uzbekistan national team. The Chinese team had been forced to tweet the message ?sorry? after that debacle.
A week or so later the crisis escalated with the 5-1 demolition of the national team in a friendly by what was basically the Thailand reserves.
Riot
After the match in Hefei, a big group of fans snapped and blocked the team bus from leaving while chanting furiously about the coach, the team, injustice and various parts of a cow?s anatomy. A riot followed, injuring at least 100 people.
The demolition of the Chinese national side prompted one of the better jokes on Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of the banned Twitter.
A Chinese soccer fan meets a Thai fan.
China: We have 5,000 years of history!
Thailand: Your team was hammered 5-1.
China: We have an area of 9.6 million sq km!
Thailand: Your team was hammered 5-1.
China: One in every five people in the world is Chinese!
Thailand: Your team was hammered 5-1.
China: Can?t we talk about something other than football?
Thailand: You are humiliated by local government officials every day.
China: . . .
Thailand: You eat poisoned food every day.
China: . . .
Thailand: You suck in toxic air.
China: . . .
Thailand: Even if you work all your life, you can?t afford a house.
China: Let?s keep talking about football, okay?
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