The sensational victory of China's women footballers at the Asian Cup has sparked calls on social media for their win, with commenters contrasting their Hardships and Difficulties from the dismal men's side.
Xiao Yuyi's stoppage-time goal secured an astounding 3-2 comeback win over South Korea in the final, fixing a record 10th Asian title for China.
Fans via social media rushed to balance their stirring triumph with the less successful men's group, who were piled with disdain last week after a limp loss to Vietnam finished their slim hopes of succeeding for the 2022 World Cup.
“Please hand over the prize money to the women's team as per what the men get – equivalent pay for equivalent work!” read one broadly shared post on Twitter-like Weibo.
Another famous post said China's football affiliation “drives the way in inclining toward men over women”.
Women “continue to buckle down, and the cash they get back goes towards the football affiliation's hapless sons,” it added.
In China, women procure 12% not as much as men overall, as indicated by a report last year by online recruitment firm Zhaopin.
Equivalent compensation campaigns for national women's groups have made progress lately, with nations including England, Brazil and Australia making a move to pay the same as men.
But other countries have been delayed to stick to this same pattern, with the US women's group – the best in global rivalry – secured a long-running debate with the country's soccer league over what it calls unfair pay practices.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has said he needs his country to have and even win a World Cup one day, however, the men's team has possibly ever qualified once – in 2002 when they neglected to score a goal or win a point.
China facilitated the women's edition in 1991 and wrapped runners up in the 1999 competition.
Description of the Situation
It was after a gap of 14 years that China featured in an Asian Cup final and after 16 long years of wait, they won the continental title. In 47 years of Asian Cup history, China has been the best country with nine titles yet since the turn of the 2000s, different teams like North Korea, Japan and Australia grew in prominence and China somewhat fell behind.
The 2022 Asian Cup showed that China is ready to get it done and has the nuanced gameplay and heart to get back to the highest point of Asian football. In both their semi-final and final, China showed that never-give-up attitude to get comeback wins. With players like Wang Shuang, Wang Shanshan and Tang Jiali in the team, China was clinical and mostly important showed the never-give-up attitude eventually is The Key to Success that took them to the title.
Next year at the World Cup, there will be something like six Asian countries, including China, and going by the quality of the Asian Cup, everything won't just rely upon Japan and Australia.
Inspiring Performance from the Minnows
The Asian Cup will certainly be associated with motivating exhibitions from countries and in matches when it was not expected. Among the ones that grabbed my attention the most was the Philippines.
As per FIFA rankings refreshed till December 10, 2021, the Philippines are positioned 64th on the planet and are thirteenth in Asia however they punched way over their weight and made the semi-finals of the competition to fit the bill for the World Cup without precedent for their set of experiences.
The Philippines, in their first match of the competition, beat Thailand, which is positioned six spots in front of them. They held Australia at 0-0 till the 51st moment of their match and afterwards overwhelmed Indonesia in their last group game. They drove Chinese Taipei for a very long time during their quarter-finals and afterwards beat them on penalties to make a totally surprising semi-final debut.
What stood apart with regards to them was the assurance they showed all through the competition. The Philippines enjoyed the benefit of physicality against a couple of teams and utilized that very well. They showed smartness at the back and played like a unit to accomplish an outcome beyond what was generally anticipated of them and credited to sheer faith in the team.
In the playoffs, Chinese Taipei likewise outmaneuvered a somewhat higher-positioned Thailand and showed coarseness and battle against AFC No.6 Vietnam. They will get an opportunity to make the World Cup when they play in the between confederation playoffs next year. Thailand, then again, experienced just a nearby 2-1 loss to Australia.
One more gigantic outcome was South Korea's anger with Australia in the quarter-finals. Australia was at legitimate fault for botching many opportunities in the match. However South Korea showed smart strategies to smother the Sam Kerr-drove side. South Korea had their plan arranged and executed flawlessly to get a 1-0 win.
Philippines and Vietnam qualified for their very first appearance in the World Cup and these outcomes highlighted the overall growth of Asian women’s football, which makes for a fascinating future.
