Preview of China's FIFA Women's World Cup 2019 draw

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The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) released the latest world rankings for women's national soccer teams on Friday: China with in total 1,871 points remained 15th. Since this was the last ranking update in 2018, it will decide China's prospects in the FIFA Women's World Cup 2019 draw on Saturday.

The 24 qualified teams for the 2019 World Cup in France were separated into four pots. China is in Pot 3 with S. Korea, Italy, New Zealand, Scotland and Thailand. According to FIFA's rules, no team from the same confederation or pot will be put into the same group. UEFA is an exception since there are nine countries that have qualified from Europe.

The Chinese women's national soccer team before the tournament final at the 2018 Asian Games /VCG Photo

This means that China will not meet Australia who are almost confirmed to be a seeded-team and Japan which belong to Pot 2. However, the bad news is the other five teams from Pot 1 – U.S., Germany, France, England and Canada – have all won previous games against China.

In the group stage, the top two teams from the groups plus the four best performing third place teams will qualify for the knockout stage. Considering that China will not stand much chance against the Pot 1 team and is unlikely to lose to a Pot 4 team, the key to making it out of the group will rest on the result against the Pot 2 team.

The Dutch women's national soccer team before the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualifier and they maybe the strongest team in Pot 2. /VCG Photo

Of the six teams in Pot 2, Japan can be excluded and that leaves five teams – Netherlands, Sweden, Brazil, Spain and Norway – of which four come from Europe and they all have higher rankings than China. Therefore, the realistic plan for China should be trying to focus on goal difference in the game against the Pot 4 team and putting all their effort into the game with the Pot 2 team.

The 2019 event will be the eighth FIFA Women's World Cup and the seventh for China. In all of the previous attempts, China made it out of the groups and into the knockout rounds.