In the Asian Games, the Chinese men's soccer team had a breakthrough in the knockout rounds, but ultimately failed to escape the siege of South Korea. At the same time, China's women's soccer team in the Asian Games semifinals and Shandong Taishan team were defeated to the Japanese enemy, the situation of Chinese soccer is becoming more and more serious.
Entering September, the national football team's performance in warm-up matches was not ideal, first a draw with Malaysia, followed by a defeat to Syria, which not only put Yankovic under pressure, but also made the national football team's prospects for the World Cup qualifiers cast a shadow.
The men's team broke its past spell on the Asian Games stage, but continued its losing streak against South Korea by losing 0-2 in the last eight matchup against the country.
The national Olympic team faced a crisis of exiting the U23 Asian Cup qualifiers after beating India in a draw with the United Arab Emirates. Despite eventually advancing to the second place in the group, the team coached by Cheng Yaodong is still suffering from external doubts.
The U20 National Youth, National Junior, and U17 had similarly unsatisfactory performances at the Asian Cup, with the National Youth losing to South Korea in the last eight and the National Junior losing back-to-back group stage matches.
The Chinese women's soccer team stopped at the group stage for the first time in the Women's World Cup. In the Asian Games, they had easily won their first three matches, but against a youth-oriented Japanese team, they fell behind 0-1 in the first half and then lost 3-4 in the second half, despite chasing down two goals in a row.
In the group stage of the Asian Champions League, Shandong Taishan was defeated by Yokohama Marinos at home, with Hirata Mizunuma scoring the only goal of the match. Cressan hit the goalpost twice, such a loss made Shandong Taishan deeply regrettable. Well-known reporter Xiao Blush said after the game, "Tonight's Asian Games women's soccer and Asian Championship men's soccer matches, the technical gap between Chinese and Japanese soccer is obvious, it's a real heartbreaker to watch!"
At present, Chinese soccer is in an unprecedented predicament, whether it is the national team, the National Olympic team or the club teams, whether it is men's or women's soccer, are experiencing setbacks across the board.
