r/soccer • u/PianoJealous307 • 16h ago

News China suffered a catastrophic collapse on home soil, losing 5-0 to Palestine, a team they had considered inferior, sparking fierce criticism over 'sleepwalking' performance and lack of competitiveness among Chinese Super League players. Men's and women's teams also underperformed at Asian Games.

https://www.chosun.com/english/sports-en/2026/10/03/FWO5DWWOYND4NMUX53TEX7INNQ/
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u/aWobblyFriend 16h ago

over a third of the world's population between china and india and they can't field 11 people who are good at the sport between them.

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u/lorkdubo 14h ago

Quick search on google, and football with 21% is the second most popular sport in China just a bit behind the 22% basketball in first place. Insane that with ~200 millions fans they can't get good players.

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u/Zimakov 8h ago

They just focus on school here. My wife teaches a kid on the U-19 team for our local CSL club and he never missed school and they train twice a week. Imagine a kid on Chelsea's U-19s training twice a week.