Time for Team China to reassess its goals

Woeful campaign raises questions about the sport's future direction

Scoreless, winless and almost hopeless.

Team China's disappointing Asian Cup campaign has further burnished Chinese soccer's unwanted image as a perpetual underachiever, while the country's soccer revival project struggles on all fronts.

Forget about the World Cup dreams. Forget about the short-lived, cash-propelled continental club titles. It's time to wake up to the harsh, yet undeniable, reality－Chinese men's soccer simply doesn't have what it takes to even be competitive in Asia. Exposed by its frustrating group-stage performances at the Asian Cup in Qatar, again, the team was left with only a theoretical chance to stay in the tournament.