Head coach Shui Qingxia (L) communicates with assistant coach Ma Xiaoxu during training on Feb. 7, on the eve of the Chinese women's football team's overseas training. Photo courtesy of Visual China
Beijing time on February 14, 19:00, China's women's football team will usher in Spain's Royal Betis women's football team, Spain's first warm-up match opponent. Although the Royal Betis women's football team 3 days ago at home 0:1 defeat Valencia women's soccer team, ranked down to the Spanish Women's Premier League bottom two (a total of 16 teams, the Royal Betis women's soccer team 19 wars, 4 wins, 2 draws and 13 losses), but with the 10th Bilbao women's soccer team, the gap between the team's ability to fight is only 3 points, is not weak.
This is the first warm-up match for the Chinese women's soccer team to forge their World Cup squad. In the next week, the Chinese women's soccer team will be with the world's third Swedish women's soccer team (the Swedish women's soccer team will also organize a short-term training this week, the quality of this warm-up will be held in the early hours of February 17 Beijing time), Spain Velva women's football team (ranked 11th in the league), the Irish women's football team (ranked 23rd in the world, the World Cup with the hosts of the same group of Australia, Canada, Nigeria) Completion of warm-up matches - this short-term training in Spain, only from the number of warm-up matches and the choice of opponents to feel the urgency of the Chinese women's football team before the game, and the physical strength of the digging and enhancement of the Chinese women's football team in the World Cup must have the most basic elements of the fight.
The 2023 Women's World Cup will be held on July 20 this year in Australia and New Zealand in several regions. Now from the opening of nearly half a year, the smoke of battle has begun to diffuse in many corners: China's women's football first phase of overseas training 4 warm-up matches "imaginary enemy" is the most important opponent in the group stage, Denmark, the same group champion team England women's football did not care about. They in November 2023 in the international warm-up game: 0 "crushed" half of the main players to play in the Asian powerhouse Japan women's soccer team, and the Danish women's soccer team at the same time in the warm-up game 2:1 reversal of Switzerland's game, but also for the Chinese women's soccer team to provide the best reference samples.
Compared to the English, French, Dutch and Italian women's soccer teams, the Danish women's soccer team has not yet been upgraded to the "highest version", at least in terms of the speed of the transition between offense and defense, which will not give Chinese fans the harshest impression of "desperation". For the Chinese women's soccer team, if they can interfere with the opposing team's side splitting in the middle, curb the opposing team's side transmission, and compress the opposing team's striker's take-off space inside the penalty area, they can win the confidence and confidence of letting go of the opponent.
This training in Spain is the second phase of the first training session for the Chinese women's soccer team this year. Head coach Shui Qingxia and the coaching staff drew up a 34-player roster - which includes most of the main players who won the Asian Cup at the beginning of last year as well as important substitutes for the rotating players. Therefore, it is not difficult to judge the coaching staff hopes to determine the main framework of the preparation idea through high-quality warm-up matches. But because the U.S. Louisville club is not willing to send Wang Frost to Spain to warm up with the national team, will certainly affect the Chinese women's soccer team's offensive set. The coaching team needs to arrange "Plan B" to observe the implementation effect.
In addition to Wang Frost, many international students on the training list can meet with the team in Spain, which is the most good news for the coaching team to "rest assured": last week, in the national leagues, Li Mengwen, who plays for Ligue 1 Paris, started the whole game, and the team won 3:1 at home against Le Havre; Lena Yang also ushered in the debut of La Liga and was replaced in the 70th minute; Shen Mengyu started consecutively for Celtic in the Scottish Premier League; and Yang Mengyu started consecutively in the Scottish Premier League. Replacement; Shen Mengyu in the Soviet super Celtic team consecutive debut... The problem left for Shui Qingxia is no longer "no one can use", but how to use these overseas players to maintain competitive status to match the local players, so that the Chinese women's football team's combat power to the peak of the World Cup key battle.
There is no doubt that "overseas players" and "overseas training" are the only way for the Chinese women's soccer team to climb up from the trough: even if it is difficult to meet the most obvious expectations in the short term, the Chinese women's soccer team's "overseas strategy" only needs time to prove its effectiveness - "overseas strategy" does not necessarily mean success. Even if it is difficult to meet the most obvious expectations in the short term, the Chinese women's soccer team's "overseas strategy" only needs time to verify its effectiveness - the "overseas strategy" does not necessarily mean success, and the upward mobility of professional soccer has never been cruel, with the elimination rate much higher than that of ordinary industries. However, if we do not actively strengthen the communication and exchange with modern soccer, the Chinese women's soccer team will repeat the 2004 runner-up glory after the Athens Olympics.
"(The form of overseas players) is a very tough test for me. How should I control these players? In the initial training, including Tang Jiali and Wang Frost, they didn't train systematically because they applied for visas and were in bad shape. I was very worried. This is a real problem. Can they really do it in the game?" Shui Qingxia said in an interview with CCTV's Football Night: "But at the moment I don't regret it (encouraging players to play in overseas leagues). Some people may say that if you ask for (trouble), let the players go out, but right now I'm just doing what I think is right and giving a full evaluation of the Chinese women's soccer team.
The exchange of local players to "overseas players" shows the CFA's determination to help women's soccer players study abroad in this cycle (a financial subsidy is not the same as in the past), and the fact that as many as 12 players studied abroad in one year created one of the most touching scenes in the history of Chinese women's soccer. "Going overseas" is just the first step. After the first step, there will be a wide world: no matter the success of the game (stable debut, contract renewal) or failure (substitutions, abandonment), at least China's women's football expressed a strong desire to integrate into the world trend of women's football.
According to the preparation plan of the Chinese women's football team, after completing four warm-up matches, the team will return to China on February 24th to rest until the middle of March to gather again. As the tournament date approaches, the importance of "overseas training" and "overseas players" is becoming more and more prominent.
"We must play more matches against good European teams before the World Cup and test the team's training performance by playing at a high level. After all, we have hardly played any international matches in the past year, so we should see what is still okay and what is still lacking. Warm-up matches will have problems of one kind or another, and that's okay. The purpose of our warm-up matches is to see the problems." Shui Qingxia said:Â "The Chinese women's soccer team reached the round of 16 in the last World Cup. We still need to set higher standards and goals so that the team can have more motivation. Although there is still a big gap between us and the strong European teams, we should move forward with our goals."
Beijing, Feb. 13 (Xinhua)
