On the 15th, Beijing time, FIFA released the latest men's national football world rankings. The Chinese team dropped 9 places from the previous period, ranking 88th. The poor record in the Asian Cup is the main reason for the decline in the national football rankings.
The last time FIFA released the world rankings was at the end of last year, when China ranked 79th and 11th in Asia. In the past scoring cycle, the main task of the Chinese team was to prepare for and participate in the Qatar Asian Cup. But whether it is a warm-up match or a main match, the performance of the national football team is not ideal.
Among all the teams participating in the Asian Cup, the national football team assembled earlier and had a longer training camp, but the final result was a big disappointment. In the group stage, the national football team drew with Tajikistan and Lebanon, which are far lower than themselves in the world rankings, without dominating the situation. After losing 0:1 in the final round to the host Qatar team, which started with a rotating lineup, the national football team did not score a goal in three games and was declared out.
In this Asian Cup, the national football team finally ranked 18th out of 24 participating teams, setting a new record for the worst Asian Cup in team history, so the decline in the world ranking is also expected. In Asia, the national football team was overtaken by Jordan and Bahrain and dropped to 13th place.
Jordan, who reached the final of the Asian Cup for the first time, are the biggest dark horses of this tournament, and they have earned enough points to enter the top 10 in Asia. Although the final 1:3 defeat to the Qatar team missed the championship, the South Korean team won one win and one draw in the two games, which is enough to show that the Jordanian team reached the final not by luck alone.
The Bahrain team also successfully qualified for the group in this Asian Cup, losing 1:3 to the favorite Japan team in the 1 4 finals.
Since FIFA established the ranking system, the lowest ranking in the history of the national football team was 109th in March 2013, and the team's head coach at the time was Spanish coach Camacho.
The Chinese team was ranked 96th in the world in March 2016 and rose to 81st in April 2016. Since then, the national football team has been ranked 86th in the world until this update. In other words, the current 88th place of the national football team is the worst ranking of the team in the past nearly 8 years.
Just earlier this month, FIFA announced the schedule for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. This is the first World Cup with 48 teams participating, and the number of Asian places has also increased to 85 seats. However, judging from the performance of this Asian Cup and the current situation of ranking 13th in Asia, it is difficult for the national football team to impact the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Next month, the national football team will play Singapore home and away in the world preliminaries. If they want to make it to the round of 18, they will have to go all out to win both games.
Can the national football team in the trough complete this task?