Recently, the fierce competition of the U19 Women's Basketball World Cup knockout tournament has attracted widespread attention. However, for the Asian basketball team, this time the event was full of challenges and losses.
In the 16-8 match, four Asian teams played, but only Japan managed to advance to the quarter-finals, and the other three teams were eliminated. The performance of Asian teams was indeed disappointing, especially China and Australia, which were traditional powerhouses, but lost frequently in this tournament and missed the quarter-finals.
Asian basketball has always been seen as a relatively weak sport, especially in men's basketball, and Asian teams have difficulty competing with football teams in Europe and the United States. Even if Australia and New Zealand join the Asian group, only Australia is eligible to compete with European and American countries. But as far as women's basketball is concerned, there are also many high-level teams in Asia, such as China, Japan, Australia, etc., which are all teams that have achieved excellent results in the world.
But in this year's U19 Women's Basketball World Cup, the performance of the Asian football team is regrettable. In the group stage, China has lost the group stage three times in a row, and in the final round, China also lost to Egypt by 32 points. In the group stage, China once again lost to arch-rival Japan, thus being eliminated by 17 points.
The same was true for Australia, who lost just 2-1 in the group stage and then to Mali in Africa in the knockout round. The same fate suffered from Taiwan, China, which was defeated by Spain in the knockout stages after three consecutive defeats in the group stage.
In contrast, the only Asian team to succeed is Japan. They beat Lithuania, Italy and Brazil in the group stage to advance to the knockout rounds with three consecutive wins. In the knockout round, the Japanese team once again showed great strength, easily defeating the Chinese team and successfully advancing to the quarterfinals. So far, Japan has won four consecutive games and is still undefeated.
Such results have also caused many fans to question: finally know that Chinese basketball is also going downhill, it turns out that the echelons at all levels are getting worse and worse, is there no choice or training can not keep up, or the coach is not good? What have you done in all these years of professionalization? Not to mention, salaries are increasing rapidly!
The results of this U19 Women's Basketball World Cup have sparked people's thinking about the strength of Asian basketball. Although Asian teams have been relatively weak in men's basketball, Asian teams have always shown extraordinary strength in women's basketball. China was runner-up in last year's World Cup, Japan was runner-up at the Olympics the year before last, and Australia was also runner-up at the Olympics.
However, in this U19 Women's Basketball World Cup, the loss of Asian teams cannot help but feel regretful. Maybe it's a temporary slump, maybe it's an improvement in the strength of the opponents, but Asian teams still need to continue to work hard and improve their strength in order to achieve better results on the international stage.