The Jiangsu women's soccer team, which once won the league's Triple Crown of Glory, last season took second place in the Women's Super League, and this year has made a brilliant comeback by winning the Asian Cup with six of Jiangsu's most famous players on the team. However, with three members of the national team moving to Wuhan, the team is facing sponsorship difficulties, and is unable to renew its foreign aid contracts, forcing the lineup to be dominated by younger players.
New coach Chen Wanting admitted that she felt pressure at the beginning of taking over the team: "As a newly promoted coach, I do feel very passive, especially the goalkeeper position, but since I chose this coaching road, I must bravely face all kinds of challenges."
In the first match of the National Championship, Chen Wanting was "dazzled" and "anxious" on the coaching table because she "couldn't understand the players' kicking style". At that time, she had just joined the team for three days.
"The early stages of the tournament were poor and my tactics differed considerably from the previous head coach, Jeslyn, but we gradually improved as the tournament progressed, despite the time constraints, and we can only continue to improve through the tournament. The team has improved significantly."
For Wanting Chen, the key to the team's progress has been the extensive introduction of video analytics.
"There is nothing wrong with the skill level of many players in the country, but the game reading skills need to be improved. How to put the technique into play in the game? Video analysis allows them to find out their deficiencies more intuitively."
Wanting Chen coached the U16 women's national junior soccer team.
Wanting Chen has always been committed to a teaching philosophy that utilizes scientific tools.
Twelve years ago, she graduated with a degree in Geography and 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, and the game of soccer now requires scientific guidance on how to recover, prevent injuries, how to schedule training, whether it's at the desired intensity, and even whether an individual is slacking off, and the data can tell you all about it."
After the National Championship, the new season of Jiangsu women's soccer is still not favored. After the first seven rounds of the Women's Super League, Jiangsu women's soccer team ranked second with a record of six wins and one loss, and there were more and more praises about Chen Wanting on the internet.
Chen Wanting said that the key to the team's victory lies in "morale", which reminds us of what Milu said when he led China's women's soccer team into the World Cup, "Morale decides everything".
Chan Yuen Ting said, "I am proud of this morale, the players' morale is very high in training and matches, even though the tactical setups and requirements are not yet fully up to the mark, they are trying their best to execute them, the whole team is energetic and united, and the atmosphere is very cordial."
Chan Yuen Ting also kept her head up: "Our team is not a strong one, but morale is high. In fact, many of the matches were extremely tough, and a few were narrowly won by a score of 1:0. In terms of strength, we are not a strong team, so we will face more challenges in the coming days, and our opponents will play more targeted defense against us."
In fact, the Women's Super League eight to ten rounds, Chen Wanting has encountered challenges. The eighth round and Shaanxi drew, the tenth round of small victory, the opponent strength is not strong, but the ninth round to 0:6 defeat in Wuhan. Chen Wanting bluntly said that she was responsible for the defeat and wanted to change the formation, but there were problems in the game.
"In fact, after playing Shanghai, several main players were tired and needed to be rotated. Therefore, a rotation was made in the match against Shaanxi, hoping to face the strongest opponent with the strongest lineup in the next round against Wuhan. However, the game was passive very early and our team is still young and lacks the ability to cope with this situation."
However, making mistakes isn't scary to Wanting Chen. "The period when I grew the fastest was the period when I failed the most. I think players nowadays need to be given more space, they won't grow without making mistakes, and we need to 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, and if you don't discipline yourself, you're going to have to work harder or even be eliminated. Of course, we do take some small measures, such as the players going on vacation for three weeks, getting on the scales before they leave, and fining those who come back with a weight gain of more than three pounds, a hundred bucks a pound, and buying them 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, they would also cook something for her to eat, and they would also 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."
