An early Saudi Arabia own goal and an extra-man advantage from the 19th minute — even in the wildest fantasies of Chinese fans, they couldn't have asked for a better, and luckier, start to a soccer match.

But, they say it's the hope that kills you.

Such good fortune was not enough to dig China's men's national team out of the mire of a string of recent disappointments, as it squandered a 1-0 lead at home, eventually losing 2-1 to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

To open its campaign in the third stage of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup with two defeats in a row — one of which being a humiliating 7-0 rout by Japan last week — Team China is left propping up the table as the only team without a point in Group C.

Powerhouses Japan, Australia and the Saudis are expected to vie for the two direct tickets on offer to the United States, Canada and Mexico in little under two years' time, while China has to battle against Indonesia and Bahrain for a fourth-place finish — and pray it can squeeze into the next phase to keep its slim qualifying hopes alive.

So far, so bad.

Results against the group favorites notwithstanding (despite the Japan thrashing awkwardly outdoing China's previous worst result ever and being the most lopsided defeat to its East Asian neighbor in history), it was the inferior quality in almost every aspect of Team China's game that is most worrisome.

That was exacerbated by head coach Branko Ivankovic's apparent late response to dynamic changes during the match, and tactics that proved incompatible with the abilities of the current roster, that has left the world No 87 and Asia's 13th-ranked side underperforming helplessly on the field.

More frustratingly, the squad's lack of fight, even compared to underdog peers Bahrain and Indonesia, has left former players, media and arguably the world's most tolerant group of fans, justifiably fuming.

As he led the team after the match to acknowledge the support of over 48,000 spectators at the Suoyuwan Stadium in Dalian, Liaoning province, Ivankovic, who took over the team in March from Serbian caretaker Aleksandar Jankovic, waved to angry chants of "Xia Ke! Xia Ke! (dismissed!)" from the crowd.

The 70-year-old Croatian, however, dodged over a question at the post-match news conference asking whether he would consider resigning.

"This question was not supposed to be answered by me, even though we lost by a big margin in the last match, followed by another defeat today," he said through an interpreter.

"We have three extremely strong opponents in our group. Our goal is to try to finish fourth and advance into the next stage," said Ivankovic, who led the Oman national team to a shock 1-0 win over Japan in a qualifier for the 2022 World Cup three years ago.

"We are pushing ahead toward this target. We had eight matches to play and we've performed better tonight than in the last match.

"We made some adjustments after the big loss in the last match, and our players fought hard.

"I think our performance during the process was not bad, even though the result didn't come our way."

The process, it seems to any fans with an ounce of common sense, might be the problem.

Roared on by the boisterous home crowd, Team China got off to a flying, and fortunate, start in the 14th minute, when a header from defensive midfielder Jiang Shenglong, meeting a corner from China's Brazilian-born striker Fei Nanduo, forced Saudi defender Ali Lajami to turn the ball into his own net.

Five minutes later, Saudi midfielder Mohamed Kanno was sent off for a foul on Jiang, giving the host a numerical advantage that it never managed to fully exploit.

Saudi defender Hassan Kadesh scored with a bullet header at the near post from a corner in the 39th minute to bring the 10-man Saudi team level.

There was a brief moment of hope in the 56th minute when China's Wang Shangyuan found the net, but a VAR review soon deflated the fans' buoyant mood, disallowing the goal for offside.

Then, again, in the 90th, Kadesh hammered home another headera carbon copy of his first goal — to clinch a dramatic comeback win.

Ivankovic's three late substitutes, two of which were made after Kadesh's second, came too late to provide Team China the required impetus in a second half where early subs should have been made, according to some former-players commentating on the game, to keep the host fresh and press the physically worn-out Saudis.

"To be honest, I don't think the current coach is an appropriate choice for Team China. He is no help whatsoever for this squad," former Chinese international Sun Jihai said of Ivankovic in a video post on his social media account.

"As a former national team player, I don't think any player would intentionally play sloppy when representing his country.

"For sure, I believe they gave their all, but the harsh results should have woken us all up to the fact that we are lagging far behind the top teams, even in Asia," said Sun, a former Manchester City player who was a formidable member of China's 2002 World Cup roster.

"We'd better give up any fantasies of a quick turnaround, or instant improvements under whoever is coaching the national team.

"I hope the boys just approach the future qualifiers as a valuable learning experience, regardless of the results.

"For the sport's future, I hope we all can just forget about the results at the elite level, and just focus more on, and invest more in, youth training, as well as developing the level of our leagues with a long-term program," said Sun, who, in recent years, has been overseeing a youth training program in his native Liaoning province, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Yunnan province.

In the next qualifying window, Team China will be on the road to face Australia on Oct 10, before returning home to host Indonesia in Qingdao, Shandong province, five days later.

sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn