How did China enter the 2002 World Cup?

At that time, China should be the fifth in Asia, but China, the top three, couldn't beat it. If we look at the historical record of confrontation, we will find that China is not too afraid of Saudi Arabia, an old Asian power. In 2002, Japan and South Korea were the hosts and automatically advanced. In the top 10, Saudi Arabia and Iran are grouped together, and China successfully avoided it. Since then, there is no suspense.

I still remember the day when the top ten competitions were drawn. At noon, the sports news commentator said: "The lottery results of Japanese team and China team in the top ten Asian World Cup in 2002 were announced, and the team won." Ha ha.

If Iran or Saudi Arabia were in a group with China at that time, it would probably be the second in the China group, playing play-offs with teams in Central and North America and the Caribbean, and the prospects would be worrying.