After the Chinese men's soccer team was eliminated by South Korea in the Asian Games tournament, the Chinese women's soccer team and Shandong Taishan lost to their Japanese opponents in the Asian Games semifinals and the AFC Champions League group stage, respectively, and Chinese soccer is now facing extremely difficult times.
The national soccer team played warm-up matches in September, first drawing with Malaysia and then losing to Syria, leading to Yankovic facing recriminations and casting a shadow over the team's World Qualification prospects.
At the Asian Games, the men's Asian Games broke the curse of the knockout stage, but lost 0-2 in the last eight games against South Korea, extending a run of five comprehensive losses against the country at the Asian Games.
The National Olympics faced the possibility of not advancing in the U23 Asian Cup qualifiers after defeating India in a 0-0 draw against the UAE. Although they eventually advanced to second place in the group, the team coached by Cheng Yaodong was still criticized.
The U20s are the National Youth, and the National Junior and U17 Asian Cup performances have been equally bad, with the former losing to South Korea in the last eight and the latter losing to this group in three group stage matches.
For the first time in its history, the Chinese women's soccer team stopped at the group stage of the Women's World Cup. At the Asian Games, the Chinese women's soccer team easily won their first three matches, but against the Japanese women's soccer team, which was based on the national youth team, the Chinese women's soccer team fell behind 0-1 in the first half, chased two goals in the second half, but eventually lost the score 3-4.
Shandong Taishan lost to Yokohama Marinos at home in the group stage of the Asian Champions League. Hirata Mizunuma scored the only goal in the crowd. Kressan hit the post twice, which made Shandong Taishan regret the loss. Suffering defeats on both fronts in simultaneous matches, renowned reporter Xiao Blush pointed out, "The skill gap between Chinese and Japanese soccer is clear in tonight's Asian Games women's and AFC men's matches, and it's so uncomfortable to watch!" Race bad?"
Chinese soccer is now in a real bind, with all teams, national, Olympic or club, men's or women's, suffering a total rout in any of the seven major tournaments.
