Title: Women's soccer bids sorry farewell to Tokyo with highlights and challenges
Canberra, July 27 - The country's women's soccer team has said goodbye to the Tokyo Olympics due to a lack of systems while having shown highlights.
Although China's women's soccer team was able to play a wonderful offense that suppressed the opponents when facing Holland and Brazil, the lack of system and tactical literacy in the middle and back of the field prevented the whole team from playing at their best. Losing the tacit understanding and three lines of compactness during the Olympic preliminaries, China's women's soccer team failed to fully demonstrate its strength on the Olympic stage, which is the biggest regret of the team's farewell to Tokyo.
Thinking back to the team's efforts for the Olympic berth, from the twists and turns of the Olympic preliminaries, to the difficulties of isolation after arriving in Australia, to the cohesion and technical and tactical level shown in the group stage, as well as the fervor and morale in the play-offs, and the 13,000-meter-plus run per person in the training session, one is well aware of the regrets and heartache that the girls and the team are feeling tonight, and this dedication and struggle is admirable.
In the match against the Netherlands, our women's soccer team had a good start, with the partnership of Wang Frost and Wang Shanshan performing well, Xiao Yuyi's tandem and support in the midfield and Lin Yuping's support in the backline, all of which had created threats to the opponents. However, when the advantage failed to be converted into goals, the problems of our women's soccer team were gradually exposed, and the lack of a co-defensive protection system in the midfield and backfield led to the team being scored 17 goals at one point in the Olympics.
Nevertheless, this does not represent the real strength of our women's soccer team and the team's efforts. Before the Olympics, the team encountered a lot of difficulties, the captain Wu Haiyan was absent due to injury, and other main players failed to participate, the coaching team had to regrind the system of the center and back field. When facing the traditional strong team Brazil, China's women's soccer team could only show highlights in local moments, the whole game lacked coherence, and finally did not get out of the group.
Looking back at the 2015 International Cup in Canada, our women's soccer team defeated the higher ranked Netherlands 1:0 in the group stage. In that match, our team suppressed the opponent with 60% possession and 27:8 shots on goal, and eventually reached the last eight. However, after two cycles, the Dutch women's soccer team has continued to progress in the professional league, and its overall strength has surpassed that of our women's soccer team.
Losing is not scary, the key is to see the direction of chasing. China's women's soccer still needs to follow its own plan and do its own thing. In this process, the CFF should continue to play the role of radiation of football associations at all levels, build a perfect soccer network, let more girls fall in love with soccer, lay a solid foundation, improve the level of the Women's Super League, provide a reliable selection platform for the national team, seek a balance between the development of the league and the national team's training, and encourage high-level international footballers to practice in high-level leagues.
In this way, China's women's soccer team, with its glorious history, can walk more solidly and smoothly on the road of chasing dreams and write a wonderful chapter of the new generation of "roses". (End)
