Women's soccer journey to the Tokyo Olympics: complexity and challenge at the same time
Cheng Shan reports
On April 5, China's women's soccer team embarked on a decisive trip to the main round of the Tokyo Olympics against South Korea's women's soccer team. Originally scheduled to be played in early 2020, the two matches were postponed five times for reasons, and were finally scheduled to be played on April 8 at 15:00 and April 13 at 16:00 in South Korea and China, respectively.
Although historical records show that our women's soccer team has the advantage, in the context of the epidemic, the psychological and mental aspects of this two-legged match will determine whether the two sides win or lose.
The Korean Football Association (KFA) insisted on inviting our women's soccer team to their home stadium despite the risk of the epidemic, showing their desire for an Olympic ticket. However, failing to locate the match in a third party that is more impartial to both sides, while also giving the KFA ample time to recall all overseas players, and facing a major test of the epidemic in South Korea, the hard power of our women's soccer team can no longer be considered as an advantage against such a backdrop.
According to the released game plan, the country's women's soccer team will first travel to Goyang to face South Korea on April 8, and then the two sides will play the second round of the tournament in Suzhou on April 13, five days later. Such a schedule runs counter to the country's current quarantine policy for entry prevention. But this is not the most worrying, this trip can not be ignored is the whole of China's women's soccer team in South Korea's epidemic prevention and control of security issues.
According to Yonhap News, on April 3, a total of 543 new confirmed cases (514 community infections and 29 cases imported from abroad) and 4 deaths were reported across South Korea, adding more than 500 new cases for five consecutive days. The cumulative number of cases in South Korea has exceeded 100,000, with 1,744 deaths. The new coronavirus is spreading not only in Seoul, the most densely populated city, but also in Gyeonggi Province near Seoul. The women's soccer team traveled to the away game in Goyang City, which is located in the west-central part of Gyeonggi Province in South Korea, just a 30-minute drive from Seoul.
According to the plan, our women's soccer team chartered a plane to go, first receive epidemic prevention inspection, stay in the epidemic prevention hotel, after confirming that the nucleic acid test is not positive, transferred to the hotel where the women's soccer team stayed during the game in South Korea.
The women's soccer team has maintained a high standard of prevention and control measures during domestic training, cutting off contact with the outside world and conducting regular nucleic acid tests. Together with the epidemic prevention and control in China has done very well, it can be said that China's women's soccer team will almost not bring any epidemic prevention and control risks to South Korea. But about China's women's soccer team, to the away field, many details will have to listen to the opponent arrangements.
It is reported, China and South Korea women's football first match, South Korea will partially open the stadium, and does not take the form of an empty stadium, for the country's audience to cheer, on our team to put pressure. Due to the epidemic situation in South Korea is still not optimistic, China and South Korea women's soccer team, including members of the coaching staff, in the locker room, the bench, must wear compliant masks, only in the game can be removed from the mask.
It can be said that the seriousness of the epidemic prevention situation, even more than the game.
Much of the reason why the match has been delayed until now has to do with the fact that the KFA only recently applied for immunity so that it could bring back its three best players from Europe. A number of injuries to the Korean women's soccer team and the inability of Brighton's Lee Kim Min, Chelsea's Ji Siu Ran and Tottenham Hotspur's Cho Cho Jong Hyun to return, coupled with the KFA's unwillingness to give up their home field advantage, have caused the match to be postponed again and again.
In this Korean team's roster, Lee Kim Min, Ji Xiaoran & Cho Cho Cho Hyun are all listed. The problem is that the Premier League women's soccer team had already infected more than 4% of people with the new crown at the end of last year, and it is not a small risk for the three South Korean returnees to be hastily quarantined before practicing with the national team. It is important to know that South Korea's isolation period requirement is only seven days, and of the 29 imported cases it confirmed on April 3, 10 were diagnosed in quarantine at the time of entry, and 19 were diagnosed during the isolation period.
It can be said that the Korean women's soccer team is also taking great risks in preparation and competition, and this danger will inevitably involve our women's soccer team. However, the Korean women's soccer team's danger is their voluntary choice and acceptance, while our women's soccer team has to accept the risk, but more or less helpless.
Of course, the three Korean returnees will face strict testing if they come to play in our country. Our current entry policy implements a "double negative test" standard, which means that not only can they not be positive for nucleic acid, but also positive for antibodies, because theoretically, there is a possibility that a positive antibody can return to the positive side. If any of the three Korean women's soccer returnees are really antibody-positive, it would be difficult for them to enter the country.
It can be said that the fight for this Olympic ticket is now more than just a competition between the two teams on the field, China's women's soccer team needs to accept the double pressure. In the epidemic gripped South Korea at the moment, nothing is more important than all can return to health. China's women's soccer team also made full preparations for this trip, until the night before the trip, the whole team only know the final list. Local Chinese enterprises in Korea also did a lot of homework for our women's football team to help prepare for the game, such as helping the women's football team to purchase safe milk, fruits, and some food suitable for women's football team to eat, although the organizer has food and accommodation organization, but in order to better guarantee food safety, our women's football team will also make some preparations.
