China completes stunning comeback to win AFC Women’s Asian Cup

Click here for a special Olympics edition of the China Sports Column.

The China women’s national soccer team came from two goals down to defeat South Korea 3-2 in Mumbia, India on Sunday to win the AFC Women’s Asian Cup. It was China’s ninth AFC Women’s Asian Cup title, but its first since 2006.

China started the game with a number of chances but found itself on its heels after Korea’s Choe Yu-ri opened the scoring in the 27th minute. Korea kept attacking, and would have netted another off a free kick two minutes later if not for a full-extension save by Zhū Yù 朱钰.

As the half was winding down, Yáo Língwēi 姚凌薇 committed a handball in the box, and after Ji So-yun converted the penalty, China went into halftime looking shellshocked, down 2-0.

The score remained the same until only 25 minutes remained. And then, hope. Korea’s Lee Young-ju was penalized for a handball in the box, essentially finding herself in the way of a ball that had little chance of achieving anything of note. Táng Jiālì 唐佳丽 stepped up and converted the penalty kick, sneaking a low ball off the goalkeeper’s hand.

With that 68th minute spark, the Chinese side began to move the ball quicker and attack with more verve. Just four minutes later, Zhāng Línyàn 张琳艳 headed in a Tang cross for the equalizer.

🇨🇳 Zhang Linyan’s game-changing header 💥

#WACFinal | #WAC2022 | #CHNvKOR | #OurGoalForAll pic.twitter.com/GnSJAkYhRD

— #AsianCup2023 (@afcasiancup) February 6, 2022

With the game past the 90th minute and looking like it might be destined for extra time, China’s goalkeeper Zhu Yu one-upped herself from earlier with a save that denied South Korea a certain winner.

Soon after, Xiào Yùyí 肖裕仪 tucked home a last-gasp goal in the 93rd minute.

It was quite a feat for China to even reach the finals, as it had to twice overcome a deficit against two-time defending champion Japan in the semifinals (including scoring a 119th-minute goal to tie it up in extra time). China eventually won in a penalty shootout. “For the whole team and for women’s football in China it’s a new start because we hadn’t qualified for the finals for many years,” head coach Shuǐ Qìngxiá 水庆霞 said afterwards.

Shui, who was part of China’s golden generation and on the team that won the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 16 years ago, received a flurry of praise after her team’s dramatic win on Sunday. The rest of the Steel Roses were the toast of Chinese social media as well, with the team expected to receive bonuses from firms such as Alipay and the dairy company Mengniu.

Many fans also contrasted the women’s victory with the futility of the men’s national team. Last Tuesday, the men lost 3-1 to Vietnam to officially end its World Cup qualification campaign. “The national team’s defeat to Vietnam quickly [became] the top trending hashtag on China’s Twitter-like social media platform Weibo, racking up more than 1.28 million mentions within two hours of the game ending,” SCMP reports. “Many netizens criticised the ’embarrassing’ and ‘humiliating’ result.”

“Please pay bonuses to the women’s soccer team at double the rate of the men’s team!” soccer commentator Huang Jianxiang posted on his Weibo account.

More comments via SCMP:

“Congratulations to the Chinese women’s football team for winning the championship,” one Weibo user wrote. “At this festive moment, I would like to say something: please expel the men’s football junk from Chinese football, thank you!”

Another user likened the men’s team to a “son who has taken up all his wealth but achieved nothing”, and the women’s team a “daughter who has been wronged but is very hopeful”.

Chinese football in the past week: China men's defeated by Japan 2:0 and Vietnam 3:1 in WCQ. China women's achieved consecutive 2 epic comebacks over Japan and South Korea to win the AFC women's Asian Cup. Chinese netizens use a meme to epitomize the contrast. pic.twitter.com/xajoLJjQUb

— China Sports Vision 2050 (@CSV2050) February 6, 2022

The China-South Korea game highlights are here, and below you can watch the final eight minutes of the match in its entirety:

~

Peng Shuai gives another public interview

The French newspaper L’Equipe caught up with tennis player Péng Shuài 彭帅 ​​at a hotel in Beijing and asked her about her allegations last November against former vice premier Zhāng Gāolì 张高丽. The full story is behind a paywall, but Reuters has this excerpt:

“In the text we could see in Europe, you accused someone of sexual assault. What did you really write? We don’t understand,” asked the paper.

“Sexual assault? I never said anyone had sexually assaulted me in any way,” said Peng, without elaborating.

BBC correspondent Stephen McDonell points out that the paper could have asked more specific questions, but it appears that L’Equipe had its hands tied. “The format of the interview appeared to allow for no sustained follow-ups, with questions submitted in advance and a Chinese Olympic committee official sitting in on the discussion, translating Peng’s comments from Chinese,” reports the Associated Press.

Sports news site L’Equipe, who interviewed Shuai, said it had to submit questions in advance and that a Chinese Olympic committee official sat in on the discussion and translated her comments from Chinese.https://t.co/hjbsISS4FC

— The Associated Press (@AP) February 7, 2022

Peng previously made public comments to the Singaporean paper Liánhé Zǎobào 联合早报 in December to the same effect, calling the situation a “misunderstanding.”

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach, who inserted himself in this controversy relatively early on, also weighed in. Reuters again:

Asked about the interview by Reuters on Monday, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said it was up to Peng to communicate her situation.

“We said what we had to say, the communication is up to her, it is her life, it is her story and this is why the communication is up to her,” said Bach, who had dinner with Peng in Beijing on Saturday.

~

Other Stories:

Chinese men’s national soccer team loses to Vietnam; are paradoxical policies to blame? (China Digital Times)

Village sports programs try to get all people in China exercising—with mixed results (The World of Chinese)

The China Sports Column runs every week on The China Project. During the Olympics, stay up to date with our Beijing 2022 coverage here.