（http://sports.sina.com.cn/china/afccl/2018-04-19/doc-ifzihnep7593268.shtml）
Yesterday the last round of AFC Champion League (Asian version of UEFA Championship) group matches of East Asian Zone ended, which generated all the teams entering the knockout stage of AFC. There are three Chinese teams: Guangzhou Evergrande, Tianjin Quanjian and Shanghai SIPG; Three Korean teams: Chonbuk Hyundai, Suwon Samsung and Ulsan Hyunda. By contrast, only one Japanese team made it through the group matches: Kashima Antlers.
In Asia, Japan is one of the countries with the best soccer level. Japanese players are excellent and many of them play in European top leagues. Japanese Champion League’s teams used to be very competitive in AFC, too. Last year, Japanese team Urawa Red Diamonds won the cup. But this year, the situation changed. Let’s take one of the most famous Japanese team, Parkinson ‘s Apollo as an example. In the group matches, the weakest team in its group, Kichee FC from Hongkong, defeated Apollo by 1:0. And Tianjin Quanjian, a Chinese team entering AFC for the first time, beat Apollo to the ground by 3:2. In all the six group matches, Apollo lost 4 of them, and only get 4 points. Another Japanese team, Kawasaki Frontale, is even more miserable. As the champion of Japanese League in 2017, they didn’t win a single game in group matches, getting 3 points.
Chinese soccer is known as weak and ugly for years. And decades ago, no Chinese team had satisfying performance in AFC. But in recent years, China soccer fans are proud of the performance of CSL teams. Tianjin Quanjian receives many compliments. At first, many people thought TQ was unlucky because it was in a group with AFC’s old faces: Chonbuk Hyundai from Korea and Parkinson ‘s Apollo from Japan. Especially, Chonbuk Hyundai is well known as one of the best teams in Asia. In the third round, CH defeated TQ by 6:3. TQ fans were astonished and became pessimistic. But later, in the fourth round, TQ took its revenge by giving CH a 4:2. TQ became the second team in Asia which could score 4 goals in the game against CH. The other two Chinese teams, Guangzhou Evergrande and Shanghai SIPG, both achieved the first place of their groups. These two teams have been competitive in Asia for years, and fans have enough reason to expect a champion from them.
The reason why China rose and Japan fell, is simple: money. Chinese businessmen became extremely enthusiastic about investing soccer teams these years, after the success of Guangzhou Evergrande. So, more and more world-famous players transferred to China, such as Brazilian famous players Pato, Hulk and Oscar. On contrary, Japanese team cannot get much money. They don’t have a crazy investment. Also, most of excellent players in Japan transferred to Europe. So, the Japanese teams are becoming less and less vital. Some angry Japanese soccer fans hope that their teams should be funded. Otherwise, these poor teams will lose more and more fans.
At last, I wish all Chinese teams a wonderful AFC trip.