The night was low, and on the night of February 22, the Chinese women's soccer team and the Irish women's soccer team shook hands with a 0-0 score in the last minute of the overseas training session, ending the four consecutive warm-up matches.
In these four rounds of competition, the Chinese women's soccer team ended with two wins, one draw and one loss. Facing Sweden and Ireland, the two European powerhouses, despite delivering draws and losses, the team's spirit of hard work in the game deserves to be praised.
However, it is more crucial to find the shortcomings and growth from this training than the score itself. After the dust settles from the domestic league, the Chinese women's soccer team will embark on a new journey and continue to train overseas to build up their strength for the World Cup.
Offense is lightning fast, defense is fast.
Tracing back to February 10th, the Chinese women's football team ended its domestic training and crossed the ocean, arriving in Spain to start overseas training. On this trip, four warm-up matches became an important part of the test results.
In these four matches, China first defeated Real Betis of Spain 2-1, only to lose to the Swedish women's soccer team 1-4, followed by a 4-0 victory over the Spanish Velva women's soccer team, and finally a 0-0 draw with the Irish women's soccer team.
In the process, the Chinese women's soccer team has made large-scale personnel adjustments, domestic training players and overseas players have appeared on the field, one of the purposes of the warm-up matches is to allow more players to get exercise and test their strength.
In terms of warm-up results, despite failing to beat the Swedish and Irish women's soccer teams, these two matches certainly had a high workout value.
Sweden's women's soccer team is ranked No. 3 in the FIFA world and Ireland's women's soccer team is ranked No. 23. By playing against these two European powerhouses, the Chinese women's soccer team was able to simulate to a certain extent the playing styles of their opponents such as England and Denmark.
Head coach Shui Qingxia has said that the team's goal is to identify problems: "It is inevitable that there will be such and such problems in the warm-up matches, but that is exactly the purpose of our warm-up matches, to identify problems."
Now, the rise of European women's soccer in the international arena has put the Chinese women's soccer team in the role of challenger.
Sun Wen, a famous Chinese women's football player, has pointed out that European women's football is gradually developing towards manhood, and has made great progress in physical ability, technical level and tactical cooperation.
Captain Wang Shanshan also said that the opponents' attacking rhythm is getting faster and faster, which is undoubtedly a challenge for the Chinese women's soccer team.
To meet this challenge, the Chinese women's soccer team plans to simulate England and Denmark's matches through more confrontations with European powerhouses to find deficiencies and improve their strength.
The choice of 23 is highly competitive
With four warm-up matches completed, the Chinese women's soccer team will return home with the harvest. According to the plan, the national team players will return to their respective clubs to participate in the upcoming women's soccer league.
In March, the national team will once again gather in Shanghai for training, and then head to Europe again for training. It is reported that the team will warm up with the Spanish women's soccer team and other teams.
The Chinese women's soccer team is actively preparing for the upcoming important matches. With the Women's World Cup, Asian Games and Olympic Qualification coming up one after the other, the Chinese women's soccer team's top priority is to cope with the World Cup.
On February 22, China's final group match opponent in the World Cup was determined to be the Haitian women's football team, which will compete with England and Denmark for the qualification of the group.
Shui Qingxia said that the Haitian women's soccer team has outstanding individual ability and the team needs to be well prepared.
According to the schedule, the Chinese women's soccer team will face Denmark, Haiti and England in turn. Shui Qingxia believes that from the first game, the team needs to adjust its mentality and adapt to playing against European teams as soon as possible.
The team's playing roster will be revealed gradually over the course of training and warm-ups. The 23 people finally selected will face fierce competition. Shui Qingxia said the opportunity is fair for everyone, and the key lies in who can grasp it better.
