On February 19th, 2022, the first qualifying match in the history of the Magnolia League, MARS Taoyuan Warriors, as the challenger, defeated Taoyuan International 1-0 in a cold and humid environment with a single goal scored by Yang Xiaojuan, and got the qualification for the next Magnolia League season. The result was a bit surprising, as MARS Taoyuan Warriors was not established for a long time compared to Taoyuan International, not to mention the fact that the women's soccer team prepared for the qualification tournament in less than two months. Though Taoyuan International was not in good shape in the league last season, the strength of the team should still be higher than Taoyuan Warriors because of the presence of international goalkeeper Chu Fong-yee and foreign supporters, but Taoyuan Warriors got the crucial victory even though they were not expected to be in a good position.
The team's leader, Lee Kwok Shui, whom everyone calls Huan Pa, said of his success in breaking into the Magnolia League: "Back in the beginning, I thought it was very silly, so silly that I thought it was very simple.
If you don't face the soccer environment just because it's not good, then there will never be any hope The soccer environment in Taiwan is not good, the mainstream sports have long been basketball, baseball, in recent years, people love fitness, jogging, and with Dai Ziyin's performance in badminton, badminton has also become a sport that many people are engaged in nowadays. Soccer, on the other hand, is a field that may not be available in all major schools, or there may be a goal, but the relevant units are worried that people playing on the field may be hit by the ball, and therefore do not open the soccer field for use.
For a sport that is usually not recognized and only gets a buzz once every four years at the World Cup, the announcement of the Taoyuan Warriors to set up a women's soccer team to challenge the Magnolia League was a bit sudden, and one wonders about the reasons behind it. Huan Dad said: Taiwan's soccer environment is not good, but in fact sports, art, music and other programs in Taiwan are not good, but if you just because the environment is not good, such a single reason is not to face, then there will never be hope. (MARS U6 won the 2019 Little World Cup. (Photo source: courtesy of the team)
Taoyuan Warriors was founded in 2018, and at that time it was still mainly a kindergarten soccer team, and in 2019 it even won the Allianz Little World Cup, and the name of the team at that time was MARS. The connotation behind the name is that there were only six people in the team at the time of the founding of the team, so it was named with the concept of unbeatable warriors, which is used all the way up to the present time. Huan said that he started analyzing the soccer environment a year and a half or two years ago as to why he wanted to take the leap from kindergarten soccer to women's soccer, and then to challenge the Mulan League.
There are eight Grade A teams in the men's soccer team, and the number of players is large enough and complete. Mulan, on the other hand, only has 6 teams, and most of the teams work with schools. Of the 6 teams, only Taoyuan International has relatively unstable players, so I think there is a better chance to start with women's soccer. In addition, the HKFA also wants to make the league more exciting, and with the qualifying program, we started to prepare for it about half a year ago, hoping to change the way Taiwan feels about the soccer environment. I hope to change the way Taiwan feels about soccer," said Huan.
Back to the very beginning of the establishment, I think it was very silly, so silly that I thought it was very simple.
The coach of MARS Taoyuan Battle Spirit is Chen Ching-Xuan, the former assistant coach of Hang-Yuan. He said that the coach of MARS Song-Wen graduated from Fu Jen Catholic University, and we all went to Fu Jen Catholic University, so we got on the same page. Recalling his decision to play in the Mulan League, Mr. Huan laughed and said that it was not very difficult, but more difficult than he had imagined.
Coach Chen added that because of the small size of the girls' group, it would not have been possible if we had not found the players from SINGO and FUU, and if we had not had these college and high school students to join us, we would have had to rely on people who are out of the community and have families to come back to the game.
The population of girls playing soccer is relatively small, and most of the good players have a team, so most of the players would not be willing to give up their team to play in the qualifying tournament, which is a very unpredictable game. However, Huan's father did not want to give up, so he went to the Internet to find a player, such as ZhuoWei Wu, who saw the announcement and volunteered to join the team. In addition, he also visited Coach Xie of SINGO, hoping that SINGO's players could play in the MARS Taoyuan Warriors.
Huan Dad said: Looking back now, we still did it, but back to the beginning of the establishment, I think it is silly, silly to think it is very simple, if it is the earliest batch of players at that time, it should be a very bad defeat. Semi-retired players have families and jobs, and although they have the skills, it's relatively impossible for them to train every day and face this kind of intensity, and it's very difficult to get their fitness back in two months. However, after we have done that, I believe that next year there will be a second team, a third team, and everyone will realize that this is a road that can be taken, because with this start, women's soccer will have a chance to become more prosperous, and this will be a starting point.
(New Taipei Hangyuan and MARS Taoyuan Warriors. (Photo source: courtesy of the team)
The soccer environment should not be filled with enemies, but with competition.
From the inception of MARS Taoyuan Warriors to the final qualifying round victory to enter the Mulan League, the support of players from SINGUO has been of great help, and the only goal scored in the qualifying round was by SINGUO High School's Yang Xiaojuan.
Huan's father mentioned that he had been trying to convince Coach Xie of Sengo for a long time: At first, Coach Xie was reluctant to do so because he had lost faith in the soccer world, but I told him that it would be a shame if your players, who have played three years each in high school and junior high school and have a good understanding of each other, couldn't continue to play after they graduated. In the end, it took me hours to convince him to send his best starters here for training. (MARS Taoyuan God of War Yang Xiaojuan. (Photo source: courtesy of the team)
When talking about Sengo, Huan also shared a little story. When he went to Sengo to watch the players practicing, he felt that the training was very solid. In the playground with no shelter, facing the constant rain and wind, a group of people concentrated on practicing their footwork on the flat ground. Huan's father laughed and said, "I thought, if a group of girls live in school and practice every day, they must be very good at soccer. Sure enough, the first time they came to play against us, we lost, and the opposing team was a high school student, and there were even some junior high school students who played against us.
Huan also provided a lot of help, including assistant coach Chen Qingxuan to MARS Taoyuan Warriors as a coach, in addition to providing venues for MARS Taoyuan Warriors, Huan mentioned that the soccer circle is often divided into different groups, but he believes that it should be a competitive relationship, competition coupled with cooperation.
I am not a soccer person, we are all friends, and a soccer environment should not be filled with only enemies, but I value respect and courtesy. Huan Dad said this to me firmly. (MARS Taoyuan Warriors group photo after training. (Source: courtesy of the team)
The question is whether it's worth it.
Does it have any commemorative value?
With corporate backing, MARS hopes to move in the direction of semi-professionalization, and if it achieves results, it will be able to become professionalized, and part of professionalization is to move towards industrialization. MARS currently has four full-time players, and pays them a full 12-month salary, plus the team broadcasts its own qualifying matches for the Magnolia League, and produces merchandise around the team before it even breaks into the Magnolia League. In addition, the team is also very avant-garde in releasing players' NFTs, so it can be said that the team has its own set of business model.
In a soccer environment like Taiwan's, it's not easy to recoup the costs of doing team merchandise, and many teams don't touch this area because the benefits aren't great after all. Huan Dad thinks it's important to know if it's worth it, and if it has any commemorative value.
Our principle is not to look at the result, but whether we can afford to do it. For example, in the case of live broadcasting, the HKFA said that it was not a league match, but a qualifying match without a budget, so we decided to pay for it ourselves and the HKFA agreed. We don't know whether we will win or lose this match, but the point of consideration is not who will win or lose, nor is it about the benefits or whether anyone will watch it, but whether it is worth doing and whether it has any commemorative value. Maybe we will lose, but this is the first qualifying match in nine years that has value and is worth commemorating.
Finally, Mr. Huan mentioned that every move made by a team may not be visible now, but there is a purpose behind it, just like a jigsaw puzzle, the result can only be seen after every piece is put together. Maybe the NFT will end up being a bubble, but it could become a huge thing. It doesn't matter if the cups are bought or not, we will only know when we have done it. By the time we finally see the results, others will not be able to keep up.
This result is a bit surprising, MARS Taoyuan Warriors was not established for a long time compared to Taoyuan International, not to mention that the women's soccer team prepared for the qualifying tournament in less than two months before and after the qualifying tournament. Although Taoyuan International was not in good shape in the league last season, but with the national goalkeeper Zhu Fangyi and foreign aiders in the team, their strengths should still be higher than that of Taoyuan Warriors, but Taoyuan Warriors got a key win even though they were not expected to win the tournament.
The team's leader, Lee Kwok Shui, whom everyone calls Huan Pa, said of his success in breaking into the Magnolia League: "Back in the beginning, I thought it was very silly, so silly that I thought it was very simple.
If you don't face the soccer environment just because it's not good, then there will never be any hope The soccer environment in Taiwan is not good, the mainstream sports have long been basketball, baseball, in recent years, people love fitness, jogging, and with Dai Ziyin's performance in badminton, badminton has also become a sport that many people are engaged in nowadays. Soccer, on the other hand, is a field that may not be available in all major schools, or there may be a goal, but the relevant units are worried that people playing on the field may be hit by the ball, and therefore do not open the soccer field for use.
For a sport that is usually not recognized and only gets a buzz once every four years at the World Cup, the announcement of the Taoyuan Warriors to set up a women's soccer team to challenge the Magnolia League was a bit sudden, and one wonders about the reasons behind it. Huan Dad said: Taiwan's soccer environment is not good, but in fact sports, art, music and other programs in Taiwan are not good, but if you just because the environment is not good, such a single reason is not to face, then there will never be hope. (MARS U6 won the 2019 Little World Cup. (Photo source: courtesy of the team)
Taoyuan Warriors was founded in 2018, and at that time it was still mainly a kindergarten soccer team, and in 2019 it even won the Allianz Little World Cup, and the name of the team at that time was MARS. The connotation behind the name is that there were only six people in the team at the time of the founding of the team, so it was named with the concept of unbeatable warriors, which is used all the way up to the present time. Huan said that he started analyzing the soccer environment a year and a half or two years ago as to why he wanted to take the leap from kindergarten soccer to women's soccer, and then to challenge the Mulan League.
There are eight Grade A teams in the men's soccer team, and the number of players is large enough and complete. Mulan, on the other hand, only has 6 teams, and most of the teams work with schools. Of the 6 teams, only Taoyuan International has relatively unstable players, so I think there is a better chance to start with women's soccer. In addition, the HKFA also wants to make the league more exciting, and with the qualifying program, we started to prepare for it about half a year ago, hoping to change the way Taiwan feels about the soccer environment. I hope to change the way Taiwan feels about soccer," said Huan.
Back to the very beginning of the establishment, I think it was very silly, so silly that I thought it was very simple.
The coach of MARS Taoyuan Battle Spirit is Chen Ching-Xuan, the former assistant coach of Hang-Yuan. He said that the coach of MARS Song-Wen graduated from Fu Jen Catholic University, and we all went to Fu Jen Catholic University, so we got on the same page. Recalling his decision to play in the Mulan League, Mr. Huan laughed and said that it was not very difficult, but more difficult than he had imagined.
Coach Chen added that because of the small size of the girls' group, it would not have been possible if we had not found the players from SINGO and FUU, and if we had not had these college and high school students to join us, we would have had to rely on people who are out of the community and have families to come back to the game.
The population of girls playing soccer is relatively small, and most of the good players have a team, so most of the players would not be willing to give up their team to play in the qualifying tournament, which is a very unpredictable game. However, Huan's father did not want to give up, so he went to the Internet to find a player, such as ZhuoWei Wu, who saw the announcement and volunteered to join the team. In addition, he also visited Coach Xie of SINGO, hoping that SINGO's players could play in the MARS Taoyuan Warriors.
Huan Dad said: Looking back now, we still did it, but back to the beginning of the establishment, I think it is silly, silly to think it is very simple, if it is the earliest batch of players at that time, it should be a very bad defeat. Semi-retired players have families and jobs, and although they have the skills, it's relatively impossible for them to train every day and face this kind of intensity, and it's very difficult to get their fitness back in two months. However, after we have done that, I believe that next year there will be a second team, a third team, and everyone will realize that this is a road that can be taken, because with this start, women's soccer will have a chance to become more prosperous, and this will be a starting point.
The soccer environment should not be filled with enemies, but with competition.
From the inception of MARS Taoyuan Warriors to the final qualifying round victory to enter the Mulan League, the support of players from SINGUO has been of great help, and the only goal scored in the qualifying round was by SINGUO High School's Yang Xiaojuan.
Huan's father mentioned that he had been trying to convince Coach Xie of Sengo for a long time: At first, Coach Xie was reluctant to do so because he had lost faith in the soccer world, but I told him that it would be a shame if your players, who have played three years each in high school and junior high school and have a good understanding of each other, couldn't continue to play after they graduated. In the end, it took a few hours to convince him to send his best starters here for training. (
When talking about Sengo, Huan also shared a little story. When he went to Sengo to watch the players practicing, he felt that the training was very solid. In the playground with no shelter, facing the constant rain and wind, a group of people concentrated on practicing their footwork on the flat ground. Huan's father laughed and said, "I thought, if a group of girls live in school and practice every day, they must be very good at soccer. Sure enough, the first time they came to play against us, we lost, and the opposing team was a high school student, and there were even some junior high school students who played against us.
Huan also provided a lot of help, including assistant coach Chen Qingxuan to MARS Taoyuan Warriors as a coach, in addition to providing venues for MARS Taoyuan Warriors, Huan mentioned that the soccer circle is often divided into different groups, but he believes that it should be a competitive relationship, competition coupled with cooperation.
I am not a soccer person, we are all friends, and a soccer environment should not be filled with only enemies, but I value respect and courtesy. Huan Dad said this to me firmly.
The question is whether it's worth it.
Does it have any commemorative value?
With corporate backing, MARS hopes to move in the direction of semi-professionalization, and if it achieves results, it will be able to become professionalized, and part of professionalization is to move towards industrialization. MARS currently has four full-time players, and pays them a full 12-month salary, plus the team broadcasts its own qualifying matches for the Magnolia League, and produces merchandise around the team before it even breaks into the Magnolia League. In addition, the team is also very avant-garde in releasing players' NFTs, so it can be said that the team has its own set of business model.
In a soccer environment like Taiwan's, it's not easy to recoup the costs of doing team merchandise, and many teams don't touch this area because the benefits aren't great after all. Huan Dad thinks it's important to know if it's worth it, and if it has any commemorative value.
Our principle is not to look at the result, but whether we can afford to do it. For example, in the case of live broadcasting, the HKFA said that it was not a league match, but a qualifying match without a budget, so we decided to pay for it ourselves and the HKFA agreed. We don't know whether we will win or lose this match, but the point of consideration is not who will win or lose, nor is it about the benefits or whether anyone will watch it, but whether it is worth doing and whether it has any commemorative value. Maybe we will lose, but this is the first qualifying match in nine years that has value and is worth commemorating.
Finally, Mr. Huan mentioned that every move made by a team may not be visible now, but there is a purpose behind it, just like a jigsaw puzzle, the result can only be seen after every piece is put together. Maybe the NFT will end up being a bubble, but it could become a huge thing. It doesn't matter if the cups are bought or not, we will only know when we have done it. By the time we finally see the results, others will not be able to keep up.
