Author: Levy Lost

Finishing: Ye Liang

"Oriental Historical Review" = "color: rgb(0, 176, 240); ">ohistory

Editor's note: In the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, the football team of the Republic of China led by Li Huitang was shortlisted as the No. 1 in Asia. Due to the government's financial difficulties at that time (only 170,000 yuan of the 220,000 yuan applied for from the national government), the football team took a French cruise more than two months in advance, played all the way to raise funds, and played 27 games in 6 Asian countries including Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and India, winning 24 games and drawing 3 games, earning more than 200,000 Hong Kong dollars, half of which was used by the government as funds for other sports teams to go to the Olympic Games.

On March 26, the Olympic delegation set sail from China Merchants Terminal in Shanghai on an Italian cruise ship and arrived in Berlin via Venice. It wasn't until the eve of the Games that the team and the Olympic delegation (141 people in total) arrived in Berlin.

In the first single-elimination preliminary match on the afternoon of August 6, the first half was a 0-0 draw, but the Chinese team conceded two goals in the second half and lost 0:2 to the United Kingdom. Lee Wai Tong's performance was favored by professional clubs in England, but once he became a professional player, he was disqualified from participating in the Olympic football tournament, so Lee Wai Tong politely declined.

The following article, published in Football World 1937, No. 3, pp. 115-118, provides a detailed account of the game at that time, and contains Li Huitang's own account.

First, the detailed description of the war situation

For the football match of the World Games, only the semi-finals and finals will be held at the conference venue. The venue for the Sino-British football match is called the Commson Spartolatz, which is far from the stadium. However, more than 10,000 people went to watch the game, more than any spectator in the preliminary round. Dai Jitao, a representative of the Chinese Government, and Cheng Tianfang, ambassador to Germany, were both honored guests at the special table, and students from various European countries, together with 5 to 600 students studying in Germany, also organized cheerleading teams to cheer them on. Of course, there were many British expatriates watching the war. The Japanese players also set out to watch from the sidelines. At 5:20 p.m., Chinese and British players lined up in two rows, and the captains of the two teams walked into the stadium with the balls. Ten minutes later, the referee summoned the captains of the two teams and chose the direction, and Li Huitang won the first prize and was designated to sit north and south. With a siren, the two sides set up the following lines:

[Team England] (Editor's note: 235 formation):

Hill

Holmes, Fulton

Gadina, Joe, Petit

Crawford, Kyle, Tauz (c), Ettersden, Finn

[Chinese Team] (Editor's note: 235 formation)

Bao Jiaping

Li Tiansheng, Tan Jiangbai

Xu Yahui, Huang Meishun, Chen Zhenhe

Cao Guicheng, Feng Jingxiang, Li Huitang (captain), Sun Jinshun, Ye Beihua

The British team started the attack. Ye Beihua stepped forward to intercept it and passed it to Li Huitang. Li led his division forward, two escapes and three passes, but the pawn was blocked by the British central guard, handed over to the forward, and pressed forward. Tan Jiangbai calmly rescued the driver and turned the danger into a disaster. The British attacked again, Kyle raised his foot to shoot, Bao Jiaping received it right, and after kicking it out, it was intercepted by Joey. Xu Yahui was in a hurry to grab the ball, violated military regulations, and was punished for a free kick at 40 yards. The British offensive was very strong, circling two or three, and then going deep into the ground, Crawford shot with all his might, and Tan Jiangbai had a bronze head, and the audience applauded. Since then, our army has twice advanced from the right flank, but has returned in vain. On the other hand, the enemy army is also very troubled to attack us. At the sixth minute, Tan Jiangbai was fouled and a free kick was awarded from 30 yards. Tao Zi raised his feet and shot fiercely, flying high out of bounds. After 12 minutes of scuffle, Li Huitang supervised the counterattack and fought with Yu Ye Beihua. Ye rushed along the edge and was about to cross when Holmes was stalking and forced a corner. Ye kicked the main kick in the left corner, the angle was very good, Holmes jumped up and pushed out, Xu Yahui raised his foot to sweep, slightly out of bounds. The enemy reoffended, Li Tiansheng rescued him, and grabbed it for Hall, passed to Tao Zi, Tao shot violently, the ball was like an arrow, fortunately slightly out of bounds, and the opportunity was dangerous! At seventeen minutes, Feng Jingxiang played with a spear and passed two levels; Ye Beihua waited in front of the goal, and shot immediately after receiving the ball, but it was shot by the goalkeeper. Twenty minutes later, there was another turmoil in the forbidden land of our army, and Li Tiansheng Chen Zhenhe rescued him twice, but he still did not escape; Eisden lifted his foot and shot straight into the top left corner, Bao Jiaping jumped up, and the ball crossed the crosspost to tide over the difficulty. Finnish took a corner, but still couldn't get it. Our forward line was unwilling to give in, and at the 25th minute, Li Zhongjun led the soldiers three times to advance into the enemy's formation, but it was heavily defended and could not go deep. Cao Guicheng once shot at goal, but was caught by the enemy goalkeeper. Since then, the two sides have been in chaos, and there is no way out. In the 32nd minute, the enemy committed a handball on the halfway line, and Li Huitang kicked it out and was intercepted. In the 34th minute, Ye Beihua scored the ball and rushed to the bottom corner, and a cross, Feng Jingxiang missed the opportunity head-on. Twenty-five minutes later, the enemy took advantage of the weakness of our defense, such as flying in, Bao Jiaping alone guarded the empty goal, the situation was critical, Ventsden was eager to win, but was slightly out of bounds, the goal was not lost, luckily. In the 37th minute, Huang Meishun got the ball and passed far away, Li Huitang took advantage of the momentum to advance, but the ball was intercepted by Joe and kicked out, which hit Huitang's abdomen moderately, and he was seriously injured, stopped for half a minute, and fortunately recovered. Since then, you have come and gone, and each has achieved nothing. At the end of the first half, everyone was empty-handed.

Lemon eaten, the whole army fights again. Our team reversed the previous posture and changed to attack, and the central defender line came out to help. The momentum is very strong. At four minutes, Cao Guicheng won the ball and passed it to Sun Jinshun. Sun Pan passed through two rooms and passed back to Cao Guicheng. At this time, the enemy army was weak in air defense, and he could do whatever he wanted, but Cao Guicheng was one step late, and all his hopes were in vain. The opportunity was lost, the enemy cavalry was rampant, the momentum was menacing, the wave was pressing, the copper head iron gate, resisting, and the steel gate also repeatedly showed its skills, and it was not plotted. However, if a wise man thinks a thousand times, he will make a mistake. Eleven minutes later, the enemy returned, Tao Zi stole through the difficulty, and at ten yards, swept the door angrily, although the steel door had three heads and six arms, it was difficult to recover the storm! Although our army conceded a goal, its momentum did not weaken slightly, and the forward line tried to cheer up, and the righteous commander pointed out, but it should be missed by a fraction of a centimeter, and it should be a thousand miles wrong. Fifteen minutes later, Jin Shun unfortunately fouled the enemy goal, and although he broke the net, he could only win the fans to sigh in unison. Cao Guicheng rebelled on the border and fired his bow and arrows, but he still flew high and missed the vital point. Two minutes later, the enemy cavalry was like a hungry tiger pounced on a sheep, overwhelming the mountains and seas, Li Tan could not save it, Ettes waved his iron legs in front of the door, and the steel door slammed into the ground to save. Since then, although our army has repeatedly plotted to counterattack, the enemy has been fortified and cleared, and it is not easy to talk about it! Mingjin withdrew his troops, and my team was eliminated from 2 to 2.

Attached is the slogan of our cheerleaders

One

The leader shouted, "Republic of China!"

They all shouted, "Long live! Banzai! Hooray!"

Two

The leader shouted, "One! Two! Three!"

They all shouted, "Ah! Hoo! Hoo! Chinese! Chinese! China!"

Three

Together, they shouted, "Si! Touch! Clap! Chinese! Chinese! China!"

Four

The leader shouted: "Chinese football is good!"

"Good! Good! Okay!"

Five

The leader shouted, "Get up!"

They all shouted, "Good! Good!"

Six

The leader shouted, "Woo! One hum!"

They all shouted, "Good, good! Ok, good, good! Chinese! Chinese! Good, good!"

Seven

Together, "One-one-one, one-two-three, one-two-three-four-five-six-seven!"

Attached: The self-statement of Li Huitang, captain of my country's world football team

In this game, although our team lost, its performance was satisfactory, leaving an excellent impression and winning excellent criticism from the public opinion circles; And in terms of sportsmanship, there is also a good performance. But as far as I can tell, we didn't have the full strength we did that day. The southern tour of the Chinese War, the Indian War, the Yangon War, and the Battle of Xingzhou are also wonderful in comparison. Is this probably due to the long pause and the overthinking mentioned above? After the battle, Shen Siliang told me that he was not very happy with the left side of the striker and missed more than one good opportunity. According to the observation of our Director Rong and Huang Management, they all thought that if Ji Liang was used to guard the goal, both goals might be saved. I also sympathize with the words of these three seers. Because Jinshun and Beihua are gradually feeling obese and sluggish; Jiaping guarded the door, although more experienced and agile and witty, but because of the relationship of the body, the rescue was dangerous, but not as brave as Ji Liang, the two losses that day, were very close to the door, if the defender had the courage, he should come out to hold the ball and rescue. In the aftermath, many people said that if we switch to the following formations, the outcome may be uncertain.

Huang Jiliang

Li Tiansheng, Tan Jiangbai

Xu Yahui, Huang Meishun, Chen Zhenhe

Cao Guicheng, Feng Jingxiang, Li Huitang (captain), Ye Beihua, Zheng Jiliang

Although this kind of argument is not completely insightful, speculation after the fact is unreliable. Do you know that the above lineup to deal with the enemy, not more miserable, not more useless? My only big regret was that England were repeatedly conquered by Poland, who had a mediocre fourth place in the championship, due to goalkeeping mistakes in the second week. In this way, our insignificance is more and more evident in the comparison! In fact, to be honest, in addition to the physique, strength and running are not able to catch up in all aspects, how can we give more to others!

"Learn and then know the insufficiency, and then know the inadequacy and then be able to self-reflect." I only hope that this defeat will teach us a good lesson and give us a chance to self-reflex.

Outside of the battle situation, I am afraid that there is no one in the world who knows more about the content of the two teams in detail than me. From my conversations with the team leader, coach and captain of the British team, as well as the exhaustive pursuit of the past and after, I have obtained a little information that no one else can get. I will now make a table for the comrades to study and the fans to compare:

Great Britain China

The number of people in the team is twenty-two twenty-two

It belongs to several meetings, eight or six

The average age is 2425

The average weight is 166 148

The average height is five feet ten and five feet eight

The average experience is six or seven years

Pre-game training: 27 matches in 10 days

Coach English Famous Lodge None

The first half of the 〇〇

The end of the game is 20

Injured person 〇〇

Four members of the British team are Green-Park from Scotland; Nine of the players are members of the prestigious Amateur teams (Casuals and Corinthians) in England, while the rest are selected from amateur international teams in Ireland and Wales.