In the first match of the U17 Women's World Cup, China's U17 women's soccer team (hereinafter referred to as the Women's Junior) defeated the previous runner-up, Mexico, by a score of 2-1, to realize the opening red, and at the same time, to avenge the loss of eight years ago in the group stage with 0-4.
Faced with the last champion and runner-up Spain and Mexico in the same group, head coach Wang Anzhi said, "I feel lucky", "to be able to with such a high level of the team in the same group, the value of our training is huge." Despite the strength of their opponents, the Chinese players are undaunted and "have a strong desire to fight."
Replacement participation in the women's junior did not have a direct goal of promotion, Wang Anzhi said that the main purpose is to exercise the team, "to show style, identify gaps, and learn from their opponents." Although the Asian team past results are good, "we also look forward to representing Asia to achieve good results, every team has a vision of the championship, we also hope to go farther."
The match was played at the Patil Stadium in New Mumbai, the same place where the Chinese women's soccer team regained the Asian Cup after 16 years. The women's junior won the opening match of the World Junior Championship with a 2-1 win over Mexico in the 12th match.
At the beginning of the match, the Women's Junior adopted a high press strategy, scrambling fiercely and daring to confront their opponents. The Mexican team is technically excellent, and in this year's Central and North American U17 Women's Soccer Championship, they lost to the United States 1-2 in the final to finish as runners-up, and performed well in the warm-up matches that followed, with a record of 4 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss.
Both sides went back and forth, but there were not many threatening attacks. In the 30th minute, after watching the VAR, the referee thought that the center back Huang Jiaxin had committed a handball in the penalty area and awarded a penalty kick to Mexico, but the penalty kicker hit the crossbar and bounced out, so the girls escaped. Only 2 minutes into the second half, Huang Jiaxin was brought down in the opposing penalty area, the girls were also awarded a penalty kick, captain Qiao Ruiqi took the penalty shot to deceive the opposing goalkeeper.
After scoring the goal, Qiao Ruiqi was so excited that she ran to the sideline and celebrated with her teammates. At the pre-match conference, she said that she tried not to be nervous, although she had participated in fewer international matches. After the match, she said that there was definitely pressure to take penalties, "Maybe India is lucky for us Chinese women's soccer team."
After the loss of the ball, Mexico launched a continuous counterattack, the goalkeeper Liu Chen performed well, repeatedly resolved the danger. In the 90th minute, two substitutes Ge Yu and Yu Xingyue used the opportunity of the ball to play a subtle combination, Yu Xingyue pushed the goal, 2-0, the victory beckoned to the girls.
Supplementary time up to six minutes, not willing to lose Mexico drummed up enough courage to pull back a goal, in addition, they also have a very threatening shot was Liu Chen to solve.
The moment the final whistle blew, the little girls were overwhelmed with excitement, and some of them even shed tears. Indeed, the game was not easy, Wang grain orange, Lu Jiayu, Qiao Ruiqi were replaced until cramps, the penalty kick awarded in the opinion of many experts should not be awarded, if the opponent penalty, perhaps the direction and outcome of the game will be completely different.
It is worth mentioning that this time to participate in the U17 Women's World Cup, China's female junior is a replacement.
This year's U17 Women's World Cup was originally scheduled to be held in 2020, but was postponed to this year due to the epidemic. China's junior girls originally did not qualify for the tournament, and at the 2019 Asian Junior Championships, Chen Wanting led her team to a third-place finish, while the top two qualify for the U17 Women's World Cup, but due to North Korea's withdrawal from the tournament this past March, China's junior girls are representing Asia along with Japan and India (the hosts).
China, which has previously participated in two U17 Women's World Cups in 2012 and 2014 but was eliminated at the group stage, is competing for the third time in the tournament and is in the same group as previous (2018) winners and runners-up, Spain and Mexico, as well as Colombia, which is looking for a breakthrough with a 2-1 win in its opening match.
After losing the U17 Women's World Cup qualification, the Women's Junior team was to be disbanded, but then kept the whole team together and participated in domestic competitions, including the All Championships and the Women's First Division. U18 training squad to form a new Women's Youth.In March 2022, AFC announced that China was replacing North Korea in the U17 Women's World Cup, and Wang Anzhi said he was "very excited to hear that news."
After his retirement, Wang Anzhi has taken root in youth training and has coached in a number of youth training units, including the Beijing Three High Schools and the NPC Supplementary Middle School. As he had not coached a women's soccer unit before, he made a point of seeking advice from Shang Ruihua, Liu Ying, Wang Hong and Wang Jun before taking up his post, including tactical trends to physiological cycles.
Women have three assistant coaches, the first assistant coach Zheng Maomei is a former international footballer, captain, has more than 20 years of women's football coaching experience, in Dalian women's football with Han Duan, Bi Yan, Wang Yan, Wang Yanwen and other international footballers; Zhang Chongguang player era and Wang Anzhi in the Quanxing as teammates, retired from the Central Championship team Sichuan Hengyao skipper; Li Zhigao has been in the Jiangsu women's football team, women's football team, yellow team of the national team, the U19 women's national youth football as a goalkeeper coach. In addition, former Dalian women's soccer coach Li Xizai serves as a consultant.
Due to the epidemic, the women's young in addition to training, almost no international games to play, and participate in the women's A game, because the opponents are older than their own, some even belong to the adult team, so "there is no pressure to lose, think it does not matter." Wang Anzhi said, and this, is what he is worried about, "did not compete with the same age team, simply do not know how their own level."
In two seasons of the Women's League, the women's junior team has made great progress. In 2021, they won 4, drew 1 and lost 5 in 10 matches, ranking 7th; in 2022, they won 6, drew 2 and lost 3 in 11 matches, ranking 3rd. It can be said that they have made a qualitative leap.
However, Wang Anji still hopes to compete with foreign teams of the same age before the start of the U17 World Cup, "so that there is a little bit of a bottom in the heart." In August this year, the 7th training, the women's young went to Europe to train, they first defeated the Spaniards women's U19A team 4-1, and then 1-0 defeated Spain's fourth division team, Badalona Seagulls, however, at the end of September and Sweden U17 women's football warm-up, 1-3 loss.
2-1 defeat Mexico, the female young has taken the first step, the next against Colombia, the female young can not be taken lightly, in the game against Spain, this team only 0-1 loss, if the continuation of the victory, the female young the possibility of advancing is very large, then, they will create Chinese women's football in the U17 Women's World Cup history.
