The Jiangsu women's soccer team has had a glorious past, winning all the league titles, finishing second in the Women's Super League last season by a single seat, and shining again in this year's Asian Cup, winning the championship. However, the team has six players from Jiangsu, three of whom are international players who have moved to Wuhan, and with a shortage of sponsors, the team is unable to renew its foreign aid contracts and has to rely on its young players to hold up the fort.
Faced with the pressure of taking over the team, Chen Wanting confessed, "When I first came here, I did feel a little apprehensive, especially for the goalkeeper position, but since I chose the path of coaching, I have to face all kinds of challenges."
In the first game of the National Championship, Chen Wanting was "confused" and "anxious" on the sidelines because she "couldn't understand the way the players were playing". At the time, she had been with the team for only three days.
"Early on in the tournament, we didn't perform well, and my tactical philosophy was very different from that of my former coach, Jeslyn, but we gradually found our groove as the tournament progressed. Despite the time constraints, we had to adjust through the tournament and the overall improvement of the team remains remarkable."
The key to progress, according to Wanting Chen, is the extensive use of video analytics.
"Many players in the country have impeccable technical ability, but their game reading skills are yet to be improved. How can they put their technical ability into play in the game? Video analysis can let them find their problems more intuitively."
Wanting Chen coached the U16 women's national junior soccer team.
Chen Wanting insists on using science in her coaching.
Twelve years ago, graduating with a degree in Geography, she went to work as a data analyst for the Hong Kong Flying Forces because of her passion for soccer. "Data analysis was still relatively new at that time, and she learned a lot of things that coaches wouldn't normally learn." In 2013, she went on to earn a Master of Science degree in Sports Medicine and Health Sciences from the Faculty of Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
"All of this has helped me a lot, the game of soccer now needs to be about science, including how to recover, how to prevent injuries, how training should be structured, whether it's at the intensity I want it to be, and even whether individuals are slacking off, and the data is all there at a glance."
After the National Championship, the new season of Jiangsu Women's Football Team was not favored. However, at the end of the first seven rounds of the Women's Super League, Jiangsu Women's Soccer ranked second with six wins and one loss, and there were more and more praises about Chen Wanting on the internet.
According to Chen Wanting, the team's victory came from "morale". This reminds us of what Milu said when he led the Chinese team to the World Cup, "Morale is everything".
Chan Yuen Ting said, "I am proud of this morale, the players are in a very good mood in training and matches, although the tactical arrangements and requirements are not yet fully in place, they all try their best to execute them, the whole team is energetic and united, and the atmosphere is very cordial."
However, Chan Yuen Ting also kept her head up: "Our team is not a strong team, but morale is high. In fact, many of the matches were very tough, with several narrow 1:0 victories. In terms of strength, we are not a strong team, so we may face greater risks at the back and our opponents will adopt more targeted tactics against us."
As a matter of fact, Chen Wanting had already encountered challenges in the eighth to tenth rounds of the Women's Super League. She drew with her opponents in the eighth round and won a small victory in the tenth round, and her opponents were not strong, but she lost 0:6 to Wuhan in the ninth round. Chen Wanting said that she was responsible for the defeat and wanted to adjust the lineup, but there were problems in the game.
"In fact, after the game in Shanghai, several main players were tired and needed to be rotated. Therefore, the rotation was done in the match against Shaanxi, also hoping that the strongest lineup would be able to deal with the strongest team in the next round against Wuhan. However, the game collapsed very early and our team is still relatively young and lacks the ability to cope with this situation."
However, in Chan Yuen Ting's opinion, making mistakes is not scary. "When I was growing up, the times when I failed were the times when I improved the most. I think players nowadays need to be given more space, they won't grow without making mistakes, what we need to do is minimize the chances of making mistakes."
It is with this principle in mind that Chen Wanting will not even "confiscate" the cell phones of her teammates.
"I think the key is self-discipline, if you're not disciplined, you're going to work harder or even get eliminated. Of course, we have little ways of doing that, like now the players are on vacation for three weeks, they all get on the scales before they leave, and those who come back with a weight gain of more than three pounds have to be fined, a hundred bucks a pound, and they are bought something to drink."
To the team members, 33-year-old Chen Wanting is more like a big sister; they would advise her to eat less instant noodles, cook her something to eat, correct her not-so-standard Mandarin or talk about girly topics.
And for Chen Wanting, it's a whole new beginning.
"I certainly hope to coach the Chinese women's soccer team one day, but my biggest dream is to be able to take the team to the World Cup."
