Source: Beijing Youth Daily
According to the scheduled schedule, the Chinese women's soccer team took a break from training in Haikou on June 6 and moved to Qingdao to regroup on the 11th to prepare for the upcoming East Asian Women's Football Championships - the Women's East Asian Final Four - to be held in Japan the following month. It is worth mentioning that on May 25, 54-year-old former national team goalkeeper and former goalkeeping coach Au Chuliang joined the coaching staff of the national team as an official member, working side by side with Cheng Xiaoyu in charge of the training of the women's goalkeepers. Drawing on the model of the men's national team, China's women's soccer team is also focusing on absorbing former international players like Au Chuliang and Ma Xiaoxu to strengthen the coaching team and thus improve the overall training level.
On June 1, the Chinese women's soccer team announced on its official social media platform, "In order to enhance the strength of the women's national team coaching team, former national team goalkeeper and coach Au Chuliang has joined the coaching team of the women's national team that is preparing for the East Asian Cup."
The name of Au Chuliang has long been familiar to Chinese fans. As an outstanding player in the early stage of the domestic professional league and a former international footballer, Au Chuliang has won wide recognition in the industry in terms of both his skills and professionalism. Prior to that, as a lecturer, he had been working at the grassroots level of domestic soccer, and as a representative of the coaches trusted by the Football Association for many years, he had served in national teams at all levels, and his footprints were all over the preparation site of the men's national teams at all levels.
Au Chuliang has assisted Gao Hongbo, Li Tie, Li Xiaopeng and many other famous footballers to coach the national men's soccer team. However, with the national soccer team already confirmed to be out of the Qatar World Cup final round, there are no more major tournaments to prepare for this year. The Chinese Super League (CSL) will also schedule some of its matches during the international match day cycle in June and September. Against this backdrop, the national soccer team is unlikely to schedule any training or matches this year. As a result, the women's national team coaching team finally decided to invite Au Chuliang to join the coaching team after communicating with the CFA.
Au Chuliang's joining the women's national team is also based on some practical considerations. In the current training session in Haikou, for example, there are four goalkeepers participating in the training, while the team is currently equipped with only one goalkeeper coach, Cheng Xiaoyu. From the perspective of ensuring the quality of preparation, the coaching team hopes to continue to supplement the goalkeeper coach. In addition, Au Chuliang's ability, experience and reputation as a coach, both during his playing days and after his retirement, have been highly praised, and his addition will undoubtedly enhance the strength of the women's national team coaching team.
In fact, before inviting Au Chuliang, the women's national team coaching team in Haikou training before the decision to invite the former "Miss Football Asia", the current Beijing women's soccer team assistant coach Ma Xiaoxu to join, responsible for attacking special training. Sources close to the matter said: "Xiao Xu's ability is indisputable. The important thing is that men's and women's soccer have a lot in common in terms of technology. The district director has been leading men's soccer teams at all levels for a long time, especially the national men's soccer team, and has mastered advanced theoretical knowledge and rich practical experience, and his arrival will undoubtedly be a strong support for the women's national team's goalkeeper training session."
It is reported that the women's national team, after absorbing Ma Xiaoxu and Au Chuliang to join the coaching team, will also supplement quality human resources in due course, and even do not rule out the introduction of some of the international quality resources, in order to help the team adapt to the development trend of contemporary international women's soccer.
According to the plan, the Chinese women's soccer team will rest for a few days after finishing the training in Haikou on the 6th of this month, and then all the players will regroup in Qingdao on the 11th of June in order to prepare for the new East Asian Women's Football Championship, which will be held in Japan from the 19th to the 27th of July. The team is expected to leave for Japan around July 16th or 17th.
