World Cup qualifiers.. China’s men’s soccer team lost 2-0 to Oman in the third round of FIFA World Cup qualifiers on March 29. The match ended in another humiliating defeat for Chinese soccer fans.
While a draw against Saudi Arabia on March 24 gave Chinese fans hope of qualifying for the World Cup, the team failed to score a single goal against Oman, despite a commanding possession advantage.
The defeat was the team’s final in a string of poor performances throughout the qualifiers. The Chinese team finished fifth in its group, two points ahead of last-place Vietnam, with just six points and six losses.
Chinese fans quickly expressed their dissatisfaction on microblogging platform Weibo, with a related hashtag accumulating more than 290 million views as of publication.
FT | 🇴🇲 Oman 2-0 China 🇨🇳
A win on the final day of matches sees Oman finish the campaign on a high, while China slip to their 6⃣th defeat.#AsianQualifiers | #OMAvCHN pic.twitter.com/JmxVZbYBF5
— #AsianCup2023 (@afcasiancup) March 29, 2022
One complaint, which has over 7,000 likes, reads, “When will the male soccer team finally be dissolved?!!”
Meanwhile, another comment with over 10,000 likes reads, “Harsh public opinion is not the cause of poor performances — it is the result.”
China’s men’s soccer team came under fire earlier this month after former captain Feng Xiaoting posted a 2,000-word tirade on Weibo. The tirade was in response to comedian Gong Hanlin’s public criticism of China’s soccer players for their exorbitant salaries and lacklustre performance.
Feng argued in his post, which has over 100,000 likes, that fans should focus their attention on the entire operation, including coaches and managers.
To call China’s soccer players inept would be an exaggeration: less than a month ago, the national women’s team earned national pride by defeating South Korea and winning the AFC Women’s Asian Cup.
Their historic victory sparked debates about gender pay disparities and female professional athletes’ general lack of recognition in comparison to their male counterparts.
Numerous netizens made reference to this victory while mocking the men’s team, and ill will has flared up again following Tuesday’s defeat. Numerous Weibo users have even urged domestic media outlets to drop the term ‘national team’ in favour of’male team.’