Defeated by England in the group stage of the World Cup, the Chinese women's soccer team not only lost the chance to advance to the next round, but also felt the bitterness of returning for the first time in the journey of the resounding roses.
Failure is not scary; what is scary is the trend that failure reveals. Since winning second place in the 1999 World Cup, China's women's soccer team has continued to decline in the World Cup, creating a stark trend.In 1999, we were runners-up; in 2003, we stopped in the last eight; in 2007, the same last eight; in 2011, we failed to even qualify for the tournament; in 2015, the last eight once again; in 2019, we fell to the last sixteen; and in 2023, we exited in the group stages.The Chinese women's soccer team is now in the second place in the World Cup, and has been in the second place in the World Cup.
Looking back at history, the downward trajectory of China's women's soccer team is obvious. Occasional bad results may be attributed to chance, but such a clear downward trend is clearly not a coincidence.
The decline of things is often a combination of internal and external factors. The decline in women's soccer performance is no exception. Putting aside the minor details, let's explore the core reasons: the internal reasons are mainly due to the insufficient number of players. According to senior sources, there are only about 8,000 registered players in our women's soccer team, while England has as many as 1.8 million registered women's soccer players.
This means that we can only select 20 or so players from a pool of 8,000 for the World Cup, whereas England can handpick from a pool of 1.8 million. Anyone with the slightest knowledge of sport can see how England have a clear advantage in selection.
It is normal in the laws of sports for our teams to play against opponents with a narrow selection. It would be anomalous if we could beat our opponents frequently under such unfavorable conditions...
Some may ask: How did Sun Wen and Liu Ailing make it to the final in the World Cup? This relates to the external reasons for the decline in women's soccer performance. In that era, not many countries paid attention to women's soccer, and we were not at a disadvantage in terms of selection, and even had an advantage.
However, as more and more countries, especially European countries, have begun to attach importance to women's soccer, the scope of selection has been widened and the competitiveness has naturally increased. In contrast, our selection is narrow and our competitiveness naturally declines. Fortunately, due to religious issues, women's soccer in West Asian countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran is difficult to develop, making the competitive pressure on Asian women's soccer relatively small.
When it comes to the Chinese men's soccer team, the situation is equally grim. In the 1990s and the beginning of this century, the Chinese men's soccer team had notable competitiveness in Asia, and even won the runner-up of the World Cup and the Asian Cup. However, today's national soccer team is already in a precarious situation.
The main reason why men's soccer is not as good as it used to be is the same as the core reason why women's soccer is declining: the internal reason is the same: not enough players.In the 1990s, boys playing soccer were everywhere, but nowadays, fewer and fewer young people are watching soccer, not to mention playing...
Survey the age of the fans around you and you'll find that it's rare to see young fans under the age of 20, and most of your friends who watch the game are over the age of 30.
There are fewer people watching soccer and fewer people playing soccer. In such an environment, it is not easy for the national soccer team to achieve good results.
Of course, external factors are also plaguing the men's soccer team. Rivals have become stronger.
In the 1990s and the beginning of this century, not many players from East Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea studied abroad, with representative players such as Hidetoshi Nakata helping Roma win the Serie A title. And now, the number of players studying abroad in Japan and South Korea has plummeted.
Both Japan and South Korea's men's soccer teams have made huge strides compared to more than 20 years ago, meaning that it has become significantly more difficult for Chinese men's soccer teams to compete in Asia.
Overall, our soccer soil has not improved and has even worsened. Strengthened rivalries have caused both women's and men's soccer to decline, and there is no sign of improvement in sight. Perhaps this is not the nadir for women's and men's soccer, and future results could be worse.
A sigh, a sigh...
