China PR National Football Team

The China Peoples Republic Football Team was founded in 1924 and joined FIFA in 1931.

Written in Chinese as 中国国家足球队 Simplified Chinese and中國國家足球隊 in Traditional Chinese and colloquially referred to as “Team China” written as 中国队. In Chinese, the national team is written as国家队 and it means Guózú". The China PR Football Team is governed by the Chinese Football Association (CFA). China Football Association was formed after the Chinese Civil War and later withdrew from FIFA in 1958 to rejoin the World Soccer Governing body in 1979. The China PR Football team does not include Macau and Hong Kong as the two have their own football teams, Macau, China and Hong Kong, China.

Nicknamed “The Great Wall” Wànlǐ Chángchéng (万里长城), the China PR football team is ranked 89^th in the FIFA ranking and its uniform is all white with red strips for home matches and all red with white strips for away games. The head coach is Gao Hongbo and the team’s captain is Du Wei.

The Chinese PR Football team first participated in the 2002 World Cup but failed to score even a goal.

In the History of the Asian Games the China PR national football team first participated in 1974.

The 2006 Asian Games were held in Doha, Qatar from the 1^st to 15^th of December 2006. China PR national football team was in group E together with Iraq, Oman and Malaysia. The Chinese national football team managed to win all their matches by first beating Iraq by one goal to nil, then beating Malaysia by 3 goals to 1 and finally beating Oman by 2 goals to nil. In the quarter finals, the China PR national football team met with Iran and there was no winner in the regular time and extra time was added but still no winner and the two teams had to go for penalties and the first round of penalties still no winners but China PR national football team lost to Iran by 7 penalties to 8.

The XIV Asiad or the 2002 Asian Games were held in Busan, South Korea from September 27 to October 13, 2002. The China national football team was drawn in group C together with Bangladesh, India and Turkmenistan. In their first match against Turkmenistan, the China PR national football team beat Turkmenistan by 4 goals to nil. They won again on their second match against Bangladesh with a 3 nil win and beat India by 2 nil to top their group. However, they lost to their arc rival Japan by one nil on a match played on 8^th of October, 2002.

In the 1998 Asian Games which was held in Bangkok, Thailand from November 30 to December 19, 1998, the China PR national football team was in group B together with Cambodia and Lebanon. On their first match, the China PR National Football team beat Lebanon by 4 goals to one and repeated the same feat with Cambodia. The China PR national football team topped the group and proceeded to the quarter finals where they beat Turkmenistan by 3 goals to nil. The China national football team was beaten by Iran on the semi finals losing the battle for gold, however they managed a bronze in the 1998 Asian Games football after beating Thailand 3 nil in the third and fourth place match played on the 19^th of December 1998.    

The 1994 Asian Games, held in Hiroshima, Japan saw China PR national football team in group A together with Bahrain, Iran, Yemen and Turkmenistan. On their first match with Turkmenistan, China PR national football team drew by 2 goals. However on their second match, the Chinese team beat Yemen with 4 goals to nil and managed to win by beating Bahrain by 3 goals to 2. They sealed their group A win by 1 nil win over Iran. For the first time in Asian Games football history, the Chinese PR football team managed to top the groups table with 10 points followed by Turkmenistan with 6 points. The Chinese winning streak followed them to the quarter finals where they beat Saudi Arabia by 2 goals to nil on October 13^th and two days later in a semi final match the China PR national football team beat Kuwait by two goals to nil and proceeded to the finals of the 1994 Asian Games football.

The final match was held on the 17^th October 1994 between the China PR national football team and the Uzbekistan national football team. By the 1st minute Igor Skhyyrin scored the first goal for Uzbekistan and on the 8th minute Sergey Lebedev scored the second goal and the Chinese team seemed to be loosing until one minute of added time in the first half when Hu Zhijun gave the Chinese the first goal. Come the second half and Azamat Abduraimov gave Uzbekistan the third goal on the 47th minute but 13 minutes later Le Bing gave China PR national football team the second goal. The Chinese fate was sealed on the 81minute when Shukhrat  Maksudov gave Uzbekistan, the fourth and the final goal. China PR national football team won the 1994 Asian Games football Silver.

The 1990 Asian Games was held in Beijing, China from September 23 to October 6, 1990. The China PR national football men’s team was in group A together with South Korea, Singapore and Pakistan. On their opening match against Pakistan, the Chinese team won by 3 nil, in a match played on the 23^rd September, two days later the China PR national football team beat Singapore with 5 goals to 1 but lost to South Korea on the 27^th September by 2 goals to nil. Despite the loss to South Korea, they became second in their group matches and proceeded to quarter finals, where they lost by a goal to Thailand on a match played on the 1^st of October, 1990. However the Chinese PR women’s football team went ahead and won the women football gold of the 1990 Asian Games.

In 1986 Asian Games, the China PR national football team was in Group B, together with South Korea, Bahrain and India. On the 20^th of September, 1986, the Chinese team beat Bahrain by 5 goals to nil, two days later on the 22^nd, they beat India by 2 goals to one but on the 26^th of the same month they lost to South Korea with 4 goal to 2. They became number two on the group table and proceeded to quarter finals where on 1^st October and after extra time added they lost to Kuwait by 4 penalties to 5.

In the 1982 Asian Games the China PR national football team was in group C together with India, Bangladesh and Malaysia. They won their first game against Malaysia by one goal to nil, repeated the same feat of one nil with Bangladesh and drew with India with 2 goals. They were second in group C with a goal difference of two with India; the group winner. Proceeding to the quarter finals, the China PR national football team lost by a solitary goal to North Korea, when on the 58^th minute, Kim Jong-Man of North Korea scored the only goal of the match. This match was played on the 28th of November, 1982 in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, in Delhi, India.

In the 1978 Asian Games, the China PR national football team was in Group A together with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iraq. China PR national football team lost its first match against Iraq with by 2 goals to nil, but recovered when they won their subsequent matches with a 3 nil win over Qatar and a 1 nil win over Saudi Arabia, taking position 2 on the group and going to the semi finals where they were drawn together with South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia. They became second in their group and proceeded to win a bronze medal after beating Iraq by one goal to nil.

The 1974 Asian Games was the first ever the China PR national football team had ever participated since the 1951 when the games first started. In the 1974 Asian Games, they won only one game against India, by 7 goals to one, but later lost to Iraq with a solitary goal and their fate was sealed by North Korea when the China PR national football team was beaten by 2 goals to nil. Below is the goals table of in 1974 Asian Games Football.