The Taiwanese women’s national team has been finalized and all twenty-six players are now in Australia as they prepare for the upcoming AFC Womens Cup Finals next month. 

The tournament will be huge for the Mulan as the team continues its steady improvement at the international level. Having failed to qualify for the AFC Finals for well over a decade, Taiwan finally got back for the 2022 edition and made it all the way to the quarter-finals– which was the team’s best finish at the tournament since 1999.

Having now qualified for successive AFC Finals tournaments for the first time since the 2000’s, Taiwan will be hoping to make another deep run this time around. And critically, their chances of making it to the knock-out phases were boosted after they were drawn in the weakest of the three initial tournament groups. 

If– and this is a big if— Taiwan can get back to the quarter-finals this time around, they also give themselves a huge chance of qualifying for the upcoming Womens World Cup in 2027.

Under the slightly complicated AFC rules, the four teams that win their AFC Cup quarter-final games will automatically qualify for the Womens World Cup next year. The four teams who lose in the quarter-finals will then go into their own separate play-off bracket, with the top two teams also qualifying for the World Cup. The bottom two sides from this ‘best of the rest’ mini-group would then be sent on to a further play-off tournament where six unqualified teams from the African, European, Oceanic and American regions compete for the final World Cup three places.

Taiwan’s Finals roster offers no surprises despite the expanded training squad that met up just before Chinese New Year. Indeed, much of the national team has been the same group for the last couple of years since qualifying out of their initial qualifying group for the AFC Finals at the expense of hosts, Indonesia.

Final AFC Cup Roster

GK: Cheng Ssu-yu (Taichung Sakura), Tsai Ming-jung (Sichuan Blue Whale), Wang Yu-ting (Hang Yuan)

DF: Chang Chi-lan, Chen Ying-hui (all from Sichuan Blue Whale); Huang Ke-sin, Lee Wan-chen, Pan Shin-yu, Ting Chia-ying (Kaohsiung Attackers); Pu Hsin-hui, Su Sin-yun, Teng Pei-lin (Hang Yuan)

MF: Hsu Yi-yun, Tseng Yun-ching (AC Taipei);  Chan Pi-han, Liu Yu-chiao, Saki Matsunaga, Wu Kai-qing (Kaohsiung Attackers); Wang Hsiang-huei, Yang Hsiao-chuan (Hualien FC).

FW: Chen Jin-wen, Ting Chi (Kaohsiung Attackers); Chen Yu-chin, He Jia-shuan (Hang Yuan); Li Yi-wen (AC Taipei); Su Yu-hsuan (Zhejiang Hangzhou)

Photo Credit: Australian Broadcast Company