<3–2 comeback! 90,000 witnesses see the China national football team win at the Bird's Nest>
<China national football team win back-to-back AFC Asian Cups, Tang Ye claims MVP again>
<Indisputably Asia's strongest? Over the past five years, the China national football team has achieved the best results of any Asian side in all A-level competitions>
News of the China national football team's victory quickly dominated trending searches across major platforms, with TikTok once again being the liveliest.
TikTok had one defining feature: it was exceptionally good at following current events. The moment something explosive happened, it immediately drew countless reposts and fan edits.
Simply put, there were a huge number of "bandwagon trolls."
Though they normally never watched matches or followed news about the China national football team, once they saw China win the AFC Asian Cup, they had to come out and say something. Things like, "I knew it all along. The China national football team was bound to bounce back after hitting rock bottom," or, "Just as expected. China is awesome." Some even posted on Moments, attaching a photo of Tang Ye holding the trophy toward the stands, with the caption: The GOAT in my heart.
These bandwagon fans might not understand football, but they gave the China national football team plenty of "free publicity." That counted as a contribution too.
"China!"
"Awesome!"
"China!"
"Awesome!"
[CCTV5]
"He Wei, how are you feeling right now?"
Huang Jianxiang looked at He Wei beside him. The latter seemed deeply moved.
"...We had fantasized about it countless times, fantasized about Chinese football achieving that so-called 'bounce back from rock bottom.' But all we encountered were setbacks and ridicule. That also caused Chinese football to lose many fans and supporters during its poor run of results."
"Of course, I know that there is