Chinese fans angry at women's volleyball team's 'worst defeat in 50 years'

For the first time in over 50 years, the Chinese women's volleyball team was eliminated in the round of 16.

Chinese women's volleyball team causes big disappointment - Photo: FIVB

On the evening of August 31, the Chinese women's volleyball team unexpectedly lost 1-3 to France - who were considered weaker in the round of 16 of the World Championship.

Unlike football, volleyball has a detailed ranking of all participating teams, including eliminated teams. With a loss in the round of 16, China is unlikely to make it into the top eight of the tournament.

The round of 16 is still in progress, but two losing teams have already played better than China: Belgium, who lost 2-3 to Poland, and Serbia, who lost by the same score to the Netherlands. China will likely drop out of the top 10 in the final rankings.

That would be China's worst performance in the World Cup in five decades, with the last time they finished outside the top 10 was in 1974, when they finished 14th.

Since then, China has participated in 12 consecutive World Championships. Their peak period was 1982-1986 when they won 2 consecutive championships, and many tournaments after that always kept a foot in the top 4.

Chinese women's volleyball suffered a serious decline in 2010, finishing only 10th. That year's tournament also used a two-stage group stage format, so China did not fall into such an early elimination situation.

In the next tournament in 2014, tall superstars like Yuan Xinyue, Zhu Ting... emerged, bringing China to the world runner-up position.

In the 2018 tournament, Chinese women's volleyball continued to play steadily and won 3rd place in the tournament.

But then this year, two superstars Yuan Xinyue and Zhu Ting were forced to miss the tournament due to last-minute injuries. As a result, China collapsed.

China's current star players cannot carry the team without Zhu and Yuan - Photo: FIVB

They played badly right from the group stage, when they continuously lost 1 game to opponents with much lower strength like Mexico or Colombia. And in the match against France, China lost completely, despite being ranked 8 places higher than their opponents in the world rankings (ranked 6th compared to 14th).

Many Chinese fans and media expressed outrage at the decline of Chinese women's volleyball.

An article on Sohu commented: "China missed too many attacking situations, made more mistakes, and even served less than their opponents. This was a match that the home team lost."

Meanwhile, Yeeyi newspaper said that the current generation of Chinese players, after losing Yuan and Zhu, has no outstanding players. JFDaily commented: "This is not just a loss, this is the first time the Chinese women's volleyball team has experienced such a cruel defeat."

Most volleyball fans and Chinese media admit that this is a historic defeat for Chinese women's volleyball.

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HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nguoi-ham-mo-trung-quoc-tuc-gian-doi-bong-chuyen-nu-that-bai-nhat-50-nam-2025083120164134.htm