Once upon a time, the Chinese men's soccer team became the embodiment of "unreliability" in the hearts of fans, and all walks of life made fun of the national team. But today, the situation has changed dramatically. It's not that the Chinese men's soccer team has made a qualitative leap, but that other major ball sports have also experienced a significant level of slippage. China's women's soccer team and China's men's basketball team, which used to be so popular on the international stage, are now gradually disappointing people, and even despairing. The future of China's large ball sports program is facing an unprecedented crisis.
The national soccer team has consistently underperformed in recent years, and the women's soccer team, once the object of ridicule for the national team, is now beginning to make fans despair. At the Asian Games, China's women's soccer team went down 3-4 to Japan's second-string lineup, but this was not a fortuitous defeat, but a continuation of the 2023 failure. At the World Cup, the Chinese women's soccer team defeated Denmark and failed to advance in the group stage with a 1-6 defeat to England. A similar predicament was seen with the men's basketball team. In the men's basketball semifinals of the Asian Games, China lost 76-77 to the Philippines' second team. A month ago at the Men's Basketball World Cup, China's men's basketball team had a similarly dismal record, winning only one of its five games and missing out on a ticket to the Paris Olympics.
China's women's soccer team and China's men's basketball team were once the absolute top teams in Asia, while China's men's soccer team has never been able to dominate in Asia. Through this comparison, we can more clearly see the downward trend of women's soccer and men's basketball teams. In addition, even in the big ball tournaments that the Chinese people are proud of, the performance of the Chinese women's volleyball team is beginning to disappoint. After three consecutive losses, this team missed the Olympics. At one time, the Chinese women's volleyball team was the strongest in the world, but now it is questionable whether it will make it to the Olympics.
Accordingly, the lesser-known Chinese women's basketball team and the Chinese men's volleyball team have performed well, with the men's volleyball team winning second place in the Asian Games, and the women's basketball team winning second place in the World Cup, the Asian Cup, and will be competing with Japan for the Asian gold medal.
We did collect a lot of gold medals at the Asian Games and even the Olympics, but viewers obviously care more about the results of the big sports. Unfortunately, China is becoming increasingly unsatisfactory in this regard.
Among these three ball sports, soccer and basketball are the two most concerned by fans. However, at present, except for the Chinese women's basketball team, the other three national brands have lost their competitiveness in Asia. The Chinese men's basketball team is ranked 11th in Asia and keeps losing to the Philippines, and the Chinese women's soccer team struggles to gain the upper hand against Japan. What makes fans even more dissatisfied is that China's men's basketball team has also begun to look to the national soccer team, with tickets for the Olympics hard to come by and a string of defeats in Asia.
In some individual sports, with greater investment, our country has been able to achieve significant results. However, in the three major sports, despite huge investments, no significant results have been seen. In order to achieve a breakthrough, China may need to learn from Japan's great success in soccer and basketball.
