March 17, 6-0, 6-0, 8-0, China's U20 women's soccer team from the U20 women's Asian Cup qualifying tournament in the first phase of success. In order to prepare for the second stage of the qualifiers in June this year, the Chinese U20 women's soccer team will have its third training session in 2023.U20 women's soccer team captain Wang Siqian and team member Lu Jiayu talked about their dreams in an interview with Oriental Sports Daily.
Wang Siqian: The national captain means to take responsibility
Siqian Wang remembers that she enjoyed playing soccer in the first grade. The decision was more or less influenced by her older sister, Linlin Wang. Wang Linlin is four years older than Wang Siqian. Now she is an international player for the Chinese women's soccer team.
When the U20 women's soccer coaching staff handed the captain's armband to Wang Siqian, she felt trust and responsibility. "Unlike local captains, national team captains have greater responsibilities and higher spiritual requirements. As a result, I talk more during matches, remind my teammates from time to time what to do, and learn to encourage my teammates when the situation can't be opened." Wang Siqian said, "I think my mentality has changed a lot and I play more maturely."
"This time the opponent was not that strong so we didn't get much practice on the defensive end." Talking about the U20 Asia Cup, Wang Siqian has her dreams, "There are still a lot of matches left and I really want to sprint, get the quota for the U20 Asia Cup, get a better ranking in the Asia Cup and then you can go to a higher stage at the world level."
Lu Jiayu: The dream is to see a bigger world
Lu Jiayu's back-to-back goals helped China's U20 women's soccer team break out of their group at the tournament in February. In the U20 Asian Cup qualifiers, Lu Jiayu contributed a goal and an assist in the first leg and another goal in the second leg.
"I think my performance was normal because we had to win all three matches to finish first in the group before advancing and the opponents were not that strong." Speaking about their own performance, Lu Jiyu believes it was a credit to the team." We made thorough preparations in the early stages and analyzed our opponents carefully during our preparations, so we always took the initiative in attacking and playing in the opponent's half of the field during the matches. We scored a lot of goals because our passing and cutting partnerships went very well and our ability to take chances in front of goal was good."
At last year's U17 Women's World Cup, the Chinese women's soccer team was stuck in a group of death and failed to break through. Lu Jiayu also felt the gap with the world's top athletes of her age during the group stage finals against Colombia and Spain." At that time, we were more focused on learning, and many of our opponents played for very good clubs in Europe. Through the matches, we also felt and learned the level of skill they showed in high-intensity confrontation." Perhaps this has given Lu Jiayu something to look forward to studying abroad." On the one hand, we will prepare positively to successfully reach the U20 Asian Cup finals and perform well. Personally, I hope I will have the opportunity to go abroad in the future and see what it's like at a higher level of the league."
