Reporter Cai Houxuan / full report
▲Chen Ruijie broke the net in the 72nd minute of the second half, helping Taiwan win the international competition which hasn’t been seen for more than 3 years. (Photo/supplied by the Football Association)
The FIFA World Cup in Qatar is in full swing and Taiwan is also in full swing in world football. Taiwan’s men’s soccer team, ranked 157th in the world, returned to international competition after more than a year. On the evening of the 14th, the Taiwan team played a friendly match as a guest in Thailand. In the end, the Taiwan team relied on Chen Ruijie scored the winning goal in the 72nd minute of the second half and defeated his opponent 1-0 at the end. in his first win in more than three years and finally ended his 10-game losing streak in international competition.
The last time the Taiwan men’s soccer team played was the 2023 Asian Cup qualifying play-off in October last year. After losing to Indonesia 0:3 at that time, there was no match for more than a year. international friendlies in Thailand were played in China. The league players are the main players, and in the past, Taiwan has played against Thailand 4 times in international matches and the Taiwan team has lost all of them. The last time Taiwan won a match was in a friendly against Hong Kong in 2019, when Taiwan won 2: 0. But then suffered a 10-game losing streak.
The Taiwan men’s soccer team had only 25% possession in this battle, and only 7 shots in the game were away from Thailand’s 25 shots. In the first half, relying on goalkeeper Pan Wenjie’s impeccable defense many times, the battle with Thailand was tied 0: 0. In the 72nd minute, Chen Ruijie kicked and broke the net near the penalty area, helping the Taiwan team score an important point, and finally defeated the opponent 1 : 0, accepting the long lost victory.
