In the early morning of October 28, Beijing, the group feast of the 2022 Women's Asian Cup in India kicked off at the AFC building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. China's women's soccer team, the dark horse of the Asian tournament, was placed in Group A by Lady Fate, alongside the Indian hosts, Chinese Taipei and the Iranian women's soccer team. Fortunately, they managed to bypass the previous tournament's winners and runners-up - Japan Women's Football Team and Australia Women's Football Team - as if they had drawn an unexpected lucky charm.
In this draw, our women's soccer team entered the tournament as the second seed, and theoretically had a two-thirds chance to meet the last champion Japan Women's Soccer Team or the runner-up Australia Women's Soccer Team; however, destiny pushed them to the India Women's Soccer Team. The Indian women's soccer team, after five consecutive years of not making it to the final round of the Asian Cup, are finally making their debut. They are currently ranked 57th in the FIFA rankings, while their best ever record is two runner-up finishes in 1979 and 1983.
Tellingly, the last time the Indian women's soccer team stepped into the final round was the same as our women's soccer team, which was in 2003, when our women's soccer team swept the Indian women's soccer team in the group stage with a score of 12-0. Bai Jie and Sun Wen scored five goals each, while Liu Ying and Zhao Lihong added one each. In fact, in the past meetings between the two sides, China's women's soccer team scored a total of 28 goals, while their opponents received nothing.
The other opponent of our women's soccer team, our Taipei women's soccer team, is one of the only teams with a history of winning this tournament, but their glory is now a thing of the past. Their FIFA ranking is 40th. This time, they returned as the top team in Group A of the qualifiers, ending their embarrassing record of missing the final round for three consecutive years. However, their last trip to the Asian Cup was not a good one, as they were grouped with Japan, Australia and South Korea in 2008, and ended up at the bottom of the table after losing all three matches and netting 17 goals. With China's women's soccer team's 17 encounters, they did not have a win, scored zero goals, conceded as many as 53 times, conceding an average of 3 goals.
The Iranian women's soccer team is the only "newcomer" among the 12 teams participating in the Asian Cup final round for the first time. Their FIFA ranking is only 72nd. With the Iranian men's soccer team in Asia, the strong contrast, Iranian women's soccer team can only be "participation" mentality to face the game. For our women's soccer team, facing the Iranian women's soccer team is a brand new encounter, as the two sides have no previous record of meeting. Fortunately, the match with the Iranian women's soccer team is scheduled for the second round of the group stage, they still have the opportunity to see the true face of the opponent through the performance of the first match against the Indian women's soccer team.
Overall, our women's soccer team does not have a big challenge in the group stage of this Asian Cup, and have a good chance to finish at the top of the group. If all goes well, then in the quarterfinals, they will face the third-placed team from Group B/C. Although it is still difficult to determine the opponent in the first round of the knockout stage, it is likely to be a Southeast Asian team, which means that our women's soccer team can almost "guarantee" to enter the quarterfinals, so as to obtain a ticket to the final round of the 2023 World Cup. As for this year's Asian Cup, the real test for our women's soccer team, which has yet to decide on a manager, may begin with the semifinals.
