The AFC has just announced the detailed system and schedule for the Asian qualifiers for the Paris Olympics women's soccer team, and the Chinese women's soccer team, which holds the Asian Cup crown, will not need to qualify and will jump directly into the fierce second stage of the competition.
However, to finish as the group leader or to reach the third round as the second with the brightest results is challenging but not impossible for the Chinese women's soccer team.
As the king of Asian soccer, the Chinese women's soccer team will also encounter an unprecedented test in the qualifying round.
According to the AFC disclosure, the Olympic qualifying tournament is divided into three stages, North Korea, Japan, Australia, China and South Korea and other top five will be directly promoted to the second stage. The sixth Asian team and below will have to go through the first phase of the selection process. The seven teams that emerge from the first phase will join the five teams that were not selected in the first phase to compete in the second phase of the tournament. 12 teams will be divided into three groups, and the AFC will group the teams according to the latest world rankings, with the top three teams seeded.
Currently, the Chinese women's soccer team is ranked fourth in the AFC rankings. If they want to be among the seeded teams, they need to shine in the Women's World Cup on July 8 to accumulate enough points; otherwise, they will face fierce competition from three seeded teams, including North Korea, Japan and Australia, and it will be even more difficult for them to get out of the group.
Even if they become the seeded team for China, they may still encounter strong opponents such as South Korea.
If they fail to top the group stage, the Chinese women's soccer team will also have to strive to be the best second-placed team in the three groups in order to get a ticket to the third stage.
Therefore, for the Chinese women's football team, no matter what position they are in, it is a pragmatic and wise choice to go all out and try to maximize the number of goals scored in each game.
The second stage of the group stage will be a conference system, with each group being ranked through a single round-robin tournament, which is scheduled to run from October 23rd to 31st.
The top four teams advancing from the second stage will compete in the third stage the following February, with opponents determined by a draw and two rounds of home and away matches to determine the winners of the two tickets to the Paris Olympics.
In Asia, North Korea, Japan, Australia, China and South Korea are undoubtedly the most prominent strength of the team, but only two tickets, the Chinese women's soccer team to stand out, must fight in each round of the game, to meet the brutal test of one after another.
