a humiliating 7-0 loss to World Cup rivals Japan
Uuuh. Maybe China considers Japan a rival, but Japan wouldn't consider China at all. If an actual world-class team like Japan has a rival, it would be Korea. Both teams obviously well above China in rankings.
You could consider Australia a rival, but honestly the two countries and the fans love each other too much.
Similar with the UK and Germany. The UK considers Germany their big rival. Germany considers the UK... a team.
The UK doesn't compete in international football, the constituent countries of it do. Although of them, only England is even occasionally able to challenge Germany
Sorry, you're right. I meant England. vs. Germany.
"Gee, UK, why do you get so many teams?"
I honestly can't think of a way to rephrase "we invented international football" to fit the "no skins" original, so this acknowledgement of the reference will have to do instead
I wonder if there's ever been a push to combine like they do in rugby... every 4th world cup they do a UK team.
I suppose there's the Olympic team? Although that doesn't include the republic of Ireland, and Northern Irish people can choose which one to compete for
I think part of the issue is that there's far less parity between the countries in football compared to rugby. All four teams are always at or near the top level in rugby, whereas only England is typically good at football, so a Lions equivalent would basically just be the England team again
Robertson may have been able crack the squad, Decland Rice has played for both so there is certainly some players that make the team.
Japan are not world-class. They're a solid team, but despite being ranked in the top 20 they're probably still considered weaker than many of the teams below them.
With that said, I always have a soft spot for countries that push players that play domestic football outside of Europe and in their own country. I've been on a Japan kick since Yu Hirakawa joined Bristol City on loan.
Aus is world class for soccer?
No. But they are at a decent level. And they are around the same level as Japan and South Korea. And all three of them are significantly above China in the sport.
Yeah. Japan's usually going to be number 1 in Asia, but we all go for whoever of those three teams is still in and usually two of them are in the WC. China's just insignificant. I think even NZ is higher than them and they're a low-population nation obsessed with rugby.
git gud
can't. they're maiden-less.
git gud
Clearly a skill issue here...
Men's USA team fans: "first time?"
Huh, i'm surprised there's one sport that china suck so much they get outright humiliated on qualifier, considering they won so much gold on Olympic
Well, when your country lists every case of illegal doping as "food contamination" and the Olympics commit smiles and nods, it gets easier to get gold medals.
china is not good at a lot of stuff. they won so many golds in the olympics because they absolutely dominate a few categories like table tennis, diving, and shooting. they also have many sub events, not like a team sport that only nets one medal.
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