The 1-6 loss to England not only caused the Chinese women's soccer team to miss out on the next knockout match, but also gave the clanking roses their first taste of going home in the group stage of the Women's World Cup.
Occasional failures are not scary. What is scary is the general trend behind the failures. Since China's women's soccer team finished second in the 1999 World Cup, our record in the Women's World Cup has been a clear downward trend.In 1999, we were runners-up.In 2003, we were stuck in the top eight.In 2007, we were still stuck in the top eight.In 2011, we failed to advance to the tournament.In 2015, we were still stuck in the top eight.In 2019 , we missed the top eight and were stuck in the top 16. 2023, the group stage went home.
Looking at historical achievements, it is not difficult to see how obvious the trend of declining records in Chinese women's soccer has been. The occasional bad record can be interpreted as a fortuitous factor. But in the face of such an obvious downward trend, it is clearly not a word of chance.
The decline of things is often caused by both internal and external factors. The decline in the women's soccer team's performance has not escaped the combined effect of internal and external factors. Leaving aside those trivial causes, let's go directly to the core causes.
The internal core reason is nothing but the obvious shortage of people playing soccer. A senior women's soccer practitioner said that the current number of registered women's soccer players in China is around 8,000. In sharp contrast to this is the women's football girls face the group stage opponent England, women's football registered as high as 1.8 million.
What does this mean? It means that we can only select 20 or so elites out of 8,000 for the Women's World Cup. On the other hand, England, the group stage opponent, can comfortably select participants from among the 1.8 million women's soccer players. I believe that anyone with a little bit of sports knowledge should know how exaggerated England's advantage in selection is.
To be fair, it's not unusual for a team selected out of 8,000 to beat a team selected out of 1.8 million, and it's absolutely in keeping with the basic laws of sports. It would be out of order to be able to beat extremely richly selected opponents with narrow selections on a frequent basis...
Seeing this, a friend may ask: How did Sun Wen, Irene Liu, make it through the World Cup and into the final?
On this issue, we should talk about the external reasons for the decline of women's soccer performance. Think about the time of Sun Wen and Liu Ailing, not many countries paid attention to women's soccer. That is to say, in that era, we didn't lose out on selection and even had some advantages.
However, as countries all over the world, especially European countries, attach more and more importance to women's soccer teams, people's choice of materials has become wider and wider, and their competitiveness has naturally risen. In contrast, our choice of materials is very narrow and our competitiveness will naturally decline.
The only fortunate thing is that Saudi Arabia, Iran and other West Asian countries are destined to make it difficult for their women's soccer teams to develop due to religious issues. So in Asia, it is difficult for West Asian women's soccer teams to put pressure on Chinese women's soccer teams. In this context, it is significantly less difficult for women's soccer girls to compete for Asian Cup and World Cup qualification than it is for China's men's soccer team.
Now that we've talked about the Chinese men's soccer team, let's keep talking. As we all know, men's soccer is not as good as it used to be. Both in the 1990s and at the beginning of this century, the Chinese men's soccer team was still quite competitive in Asia. They qualified as runners-up in the World Cup and the Asian Cup. As for today's national soccer team, it is already playing drums for 10,000 people.
Interestingly, the main problem with men's soccer not being as good as it used to be is the same as the core reason for women's soccer's declining performance.
From an endogenous perspective, men's soccer has also been plagued by a lack of kickers in recent years. Even if we put aside those boring data, we have to say what we see. The author clearly remembers that in the 1990s, there were still quite a lot of boys playing soccer, and their sweaty bodies could be seen in the streets and alleys. What about today's children? Let's not talk about playing soccer, not many people even watch soccer...
If a friend is interested in this topic, it might be a good idea to investigate the general age of the fans around you. Take the writer for example. I rarely see young fans under the age of 20. The friends who watch soccer are basically 30 years old.
Fewer people watch soccer and fewer people play soccer. It would be aggressive if the national soccer team could do well in such an environment.
Of course, there are external factors that plague the men's soccer team. Namely: competitors have gotten significantly stronger.
Let's talk about East Asia. In the 1990s and early part of this century, there weren't many players studying abroad in either the Japanese or Korean men's soccer teams. At the time, probably the most iconic East Asian player to study abroad was Hidetoshi Nakata, who helped Roma win the Serie A title as a substitute.
Now what? Not many players study in Japan and Korea. Let's start with Japan. One can only build a couple lineups with study abroad players. On the other hand, even at our peak, the national soccer team didn't have that luxurious lineup. As for South Korea, there is Sun Sung, the best scorer in the Premier League, and Kim, a top-class defender who won the Serie A title as a starter, comparable to Yoo Sang Tie from back in the day (there are those who call him Yoo Wannabe Tie), and Hong Myung-bo who is too good to be true. From the perspective of the Chinese men's soccer team, the answer is not readily apparent, is it more difficult to compete with Liu Xiangtie and Hong Myung-bo, or is it more difficult to compete with Son Heung-jin and Kim Min-jae.
Compared to more than 20 years ago, both the Japanese and South Korean men's soccer teams have made huge strides, and it is not an exaggeration to use the term "rebirth" to describe them. This means that it has become significantly more difficult for the Chinese men's soccer team to compete in Asia.
Overall, our soccer soil has not gotten better over the years, if not worse. However, our competitors have gotten significantly stronger. Over time, the women's soccer team's record has declined and is not as good as the men's.
What's even scarier is that the current soil of Chinese soccer shows no signs of improvement. Perhaps, this is not the lowest point for women's and men's soccer. The future record may not be as good as the present.
Only a sigh remains... Only a sigh remains...
