On the evening of February 22, the Chinese women's football team drew 0-0 with the Irish women's football team in a warm-up match, ending the four warm-up matches of overseas training.
In the four matches, the Chinese women's soccer team achieved a record of two wins, one draw and one loss, in which they failed to win against two European national teams, Sweden and Ireland, losing and drawing respectively.
However, the ability to identify problems and progress from this process is a more important task for the score. After the end of the domestic league, the Chinese women's soccer team will also conduct the next stage of overseas training and warm-up matches to further prepare for the World Cup.
The offense is getting faster and faster, and the tempo of the offense and defense is getting faster and faster
On February 10th, the Chinese women's soccer team finished their training in China and embarked on an overseas training trip in Spain. Four warm-up matches were the highlights of this training.
In those four matches, China first beat Spain's Real Betis 2-1, then lost 1-4 to Sweden's women's soccer team, then beat Spain's Velva women's soccer team 4-0 and drew 0-0 with Ireland's women's soccer team.
In these matches, the Chinese women's soccer team made large-scale personnel rotations. In addition to the players who participated in domestic training, many overseas players who played for overseas were also given the opportunity to play. One of the main purposes of the warm-up matches was to involve more players in the bonding process and to investigate their performance.
In terms of warm-up results, the matches against Sweden and Ireland women's soccer teams, two European national teams, failed to win but undoubtedly had a higher workout value.
Currently, the Swedish women are ranked third in the FIFA world rankings and the Irish women are ranked 23rd. for the Chinese women, they can simulate the opponents of England and Denmark to a certain extent.
As head coach Shui Qingxia said, the team's aim is to find the flaws: "There will be this and that problem in the warm-ups, it doesn't matter, the aim of our warm-ups is to see the problems."
Now that European women's soccer has risen to the top of the international scene, the Chinese women's soccer team has turned into a challenger.
Previously, Sun Wen, a famous Chinese women's football player, had analyzed that the European women's football is now close to manhood, with physical ability dominating, and the level of technical and tactical cooperation has also made great progress.
China's women's soccer team captain Wang Shanshan shared the same view, "Their style of play is more direct, and the speed and rhythm of their offense is getting faster and faster, which is really a challenge for us."
The best way to prepare for the tournament is to play more games against such a strong European team. "We want to simulate the England-Denmark game with these matches to find our problems and see what needs to be improved and what needs to be strengthened."
The choice of 23 is highly competitive
After the four warm-up matches, the Chinese women's soccer team will return home with the harvest. According to the arrangement, the national team players will return to their local teams to participate in the upcoming women's soccer league.
This March, the national team will once again gather to train in Shanghai before traveling to Europe for another training session. The team will reportedly warm up with the Spanish women's soccer team and other teams.
The team is gearing up for practice in order to play several important games this year.
Women's World Cup, Asian Games, Olympic qualification.... A dizzying array of challenges, one after the other, starting with the World Cup.
China's final group stage opponent at the World Cup was decided on Feb. 22, with the Haitian women battling England and Denmark to qualify for the group.
Shui Qingxia said the Haitian women's soccer team has strong individual abilities and needs to be well prepared.
According to the schedule, the Chinese women's soccer team will play Denmark, Haiti and England in order. In Shui Qingxia's opinion, it will be an uphill battle from the first game. The team needs to correct its mentality and adapt to playing against European teams as much as possible during the preparation.
The team's playing roster will be announced gradually over the course of training and warm-ups. "The final selection of 23 men is relatively competitive. For now, there is still some time for players to express themselves more. The opportunity is the same for everyone, it depends on who can grasp it better." Shui Qingxia said.
