That was the result this week of an Asian Football Confederation third-round qualifying match for the 2018 World Cup.

Mahmoud Al Mawas scored in the 54th minute to give Syria the one-goal victory before 37,000 at Shaanxi Province Stadium in China.

The match is unlikely to have a bearing on which four or five Asian teams advance to the tournament in Russia in 2018.

But given that Syria — shattered, war-torn Syria — could defeat anyone in soccer at this moment in history is news.

As is the shock that China, with its 1.4 billion people and the world’s second-biggest economy, could lose at home to a team ranked 114th in the world.

This really should not have happened. But then we take into account the apparent hunger and drive of the Syria side and the ongoing fecklessness of China’s national team …

One of the great mysteries in world soccer is how China can continue to be so weak, year after year, especially when soccer is the most-played game in the country and the world.

After the 1-0 defeat, China’s now-retired leading scorer was highly critical of the sad state of affairs, which finds China already in a near-hopeless situation in the competition to get to Russia 2018.

On social media, Hao Haidong said: “You could see that Syria were better than us in terms of football intelligence and the ability to read the game.

“We didn’t have any tactical system, either in the game or in our entire football system. How can a player like Ren Hang, who hasn’t played for months, be in the squad? The management of this team is a joke.

“Hope and disappointment are two things that can be manipulated. Why are we disappointed with this result? We haven’t qualified for the last three World Cups, not even for the final round of qualification. Criticizing the team on this one game is not enough, there are deeper reasons this is happening.”

China’s players, who ought to be improving as their national league continues to recruit top foreigners, seem afraid of big moments, and appear unlikely to qualify for a second World Cup, after reaching the 2002 finals.

In three matches in the final round of Russia qualifying, China gave up an own goal and lost away to South Korea 3-2 (China has one victory over Korea ever); managed a creditable 0-0 draw with Iran, the top-ranked team in Asia, but then lost at home to Syria.

China is buried in fifth place in a six-team group with one point, six behind Iran and South Korea, five behind Uzbekistan and three behind Syria.

The top two teams in each of Asia’s two six-team pools advance to Russia, and the third-place teams have a chance to play their way in.

Syria’s team is in much better position, after its victory in China. It seems that a stated goal “to put a smile on Syrian faces” is being achieved.

Forward Omar Kharbin, who plays for the UAE side Al Dhafra, in June told fifa.com: “We want to bring some pleasure to our compatriots, despite their current circumstances. That’s what motivates us to play for the national team, even with all the obstacles.

“We always think about our supporters and hope we can qualify so we can bring a little joy to them, after all the hurt they’ve experienced.”

Syria also has to deal with not being able to play home matches in their country. Their first two will be played at a neutral site, in Malaysia, 4,700 miles from their country’s capital, Damascus.

Syria has never played in the World Cup, and it seems strange that its current national team seems more competitive than ever before, ahead of the outbreak of civil war, in 2012.

Equally strange is China’s inability to figure out how to leverage an improving league and a huge population into soccer competence.