Chinese National Team’s visit to Northern California offers reminders for women’s soccer

Even though it’s been 26 years since she last suited up for them, Yang Zhou can’t help but show up for her national team when it comes calling.

She captained the Chinese women’s soccer team at the 1991 and 1995 World Cups before moving to the Bay Area, where she went to college and eventually settled down. Zhou works as a full-time soccer coach who is dedicated to expanding the game’s reach in the Asian-American community.

“Being captain of those teams is something that stays with you,” Zhou said.

The Chinese National Team’s is touring the United States, which included a game on Saturday against the WPSL’s newly crowned champions, Davis’ California Storm.

The San Mateo resident doesn’t have an official position in her national team’s federation, nor does she need one.

“When they called me looking for places to train (in the U.S.) and to find them games to play, it was totally my honor. I want to do my best to help the team get better,” Zhou said. “I was a part of the program for over 10 years. They’re like my home.”

The defending champions of Asia are preparing for the 2023 World Cup and wanted to test themselves more overseas. That brought them to Davis.

To set up games, Zhou contacted every professional soccer team she knew of in the NWSL, the current top-flight league for women’s soccer in the United States. But they were all in the middle of their season and couldn’t commit to games.

So she turned to an old (soccer) foe turned friend: Brazilian legend Sissi. The two knew of each other at the 1995 World Cup and then finally competed against one another nearly a decade later in the WPSL — Sissi for the Storm and Zhou for the San Francisco Nighthawks.

After reconnecting at some games Zhou organized for “legacy” players over the age of 45, Sissi introduced her to Jamie Levoy, the owner and head coach of the Storm. Together, they worked to schedule a friendly game with her team and looked for hotel and training accommodations that were suitable for the national team.

“It’s not only been a huge opportunity for (the Storm) to be playing a team of this caliber, but it’s huge for the community,” Levoy said. “The youth players get to see an international team here up close and see how they do things at such a high level.”

The benefits and admiration flow both ways.

“Everyone knows that the U.S. women’s team is the best in the world,” Zhou said. “We need to be training and competing against the best as much as possible.”

Forever Linked

When people think of Brandi Chastain’s historic celebration in the 1999 World Cup Final, they often overlook that it was the Chinese who were a few bounces away from winning the title themselves.

Like the United States, the Chinese women’s team emerged from the 90s as global superpowers, and they by and large carried the torch for their federation while the men’s side remained relatively anonymous.

To put it in perspective, the Chinese men have not appeared in a World Cup since 2002. Meanwhile, fans of their national team know that they can see the women at every major tournament.

That dynamic plays out in the U.S., where it is not a stretch to say casual fans might know who Megan Rapinoe or Alex Morgan are rather than their male counterparts.

The two teams understand the dynamic, which is why they play each other more often than any other nation. (China has drawn with the U.S. more than any other team and beaten them the second-most times, only behind Norway.)

“Yeah, I would say that (the U.S.) is China’s greatest rival,” Zhou said. “But everyone else is getting better too. Just look at the European Championships this summer.”

Friends or foes

Twenty-four-year-old Storm defender Mikayla Reed played in Saturday’s friendly against China and said she hopes to see more of these sort of games get made.

“It’s always a positive for young girls here to see more high-level games,” Reed said. Until professional women’s soccer finds its way to Northern California, international games like these might be the closest fans can get.

“The essence in which (the Chinese) play with is something I’ve never seen or played against before. It will definitely stay with me for a long time,” Reed said.

In her 13 seasons of playing soccer, veteran midfielder-turned-left back Katie Hardeman said that she’s never played in front of a crowd like the one that showed up Saturday. The game sold out quickly after it was announced.

To her surprise, there were actually more fans of the Chinese team in the stands.

Before kickoff, the Storm presented their opponents with commemorative key chains to mark their special visit to California. Then, it was game on.

“It was definitely a hard, physical game with lots of fouls,” Hardeman said. “There were probably some words yelled at me in Chinese, but nothing over the line. We’re all competitive athletes and it can get heated.”

The game was tied 1-1 until the Chinese scored four goals in the second half.

Zhou joked the score could have been worse had her old teammate and current national team head coach Shui Qingxia not been using the game to test new players.

Qingxia is a trailblazer in her own right. She became the first ever former national team player to coach the team when she was appointed in 2021.

She reconnected with Zhou during those over-age legacy games with Sissi. The two maintained a relationship that eventually blossomed into her calling her friend in San Mateo for a favor years later.

After making sure the national team was settled in Davis, Zhou would drive all the way back to the Bay Area by herself. There, she runs a soccer camp for Asian-American kids, something she cares deeply about since her children were also born here.

It doesn’t matter to her which national team might benefit from this work.

When she looked out at the Davis crowd and saw a diverse mix of faces watch in wonder as 22 women and two strong female coaches battled, she saw their dreams were all the same.