On March 25th, the authoritative body of international soccer, FIFA, unveiled the new global ranking of women's national soccer teams. Our women's soccer team, by virtue of the brilliant results achieved in the Four-Nation Invitational Tournament and the Olympic Qualifying Tournament, jumped five places in the rankings, and the points even surged by 74 points, which marks the best ranking of our women's soccer team in the past six years.
FIFA updates the rankings of the men's national teams on a monthly basis, however, the women's rankings are only updated four times a year as women's soccer is not as intensive as men's soccer. It is worth mentioning that this release of the women's soccer rankings is also the first update since 2016. Under the leadership of Coach Bruno, our women's soccer team has participated in eight international A-level matches in the past scoring cycle, achieving an unbeaten record of five wins and three draws.
Specifically, in January's Shenzhen Four-Nation Invitational Tournament, China's women's soccer team played to a 0-0 draw with Mexico but swept through Vietnam with a lopsided 8-0 score and beat South Korea in a 2-0 match to finish with two wins and a draw, relying on goal difference to win the tournament. And in the recent Rio Olympics qualifiers, the country's women's soccer team finally advanced to the Olympic stage after eight years with a 2-0 win over Vietnam, a 1-1 draw with North Korea, a 2-1 win over Japan, a 1-0 win over South Korea and a 1-1 draw with Australia.
Thanks to the outstanding performance in these two events, the points of our women's soccer team soared to 1,918 points, a huge increase of 74 points compared to the previous period, and the ranking also rose by five places to reach the 12th place. This is the highest ranking of our women's soccer team in the past six years, and the last time it was ranked higher than 12th was in May 2010, when our women's soccer team was ranked 10th.
In the AFC's list, China's women's soccer team remains firmly at No. 4, with Australia overtaking Japan, while North Korea tops the list, with Japan and North Korea at No. 2 and No. 3. In the overall global rankings, the United States, Germany and France are in the top three. Among the 12 participating teams in the Rio Olympics, China's women's soccer team is ranked only slightly above New Zealand, Colombia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
