On July 26, at 18:00 sharp, the Chinese women's soccer team will challenge the host Japan women's soccer team in the final round of the East Asian Championship.
In the previous group stage, the Chinese women's soccer team not only defeated the Chinese Taipei women's soccer team, but also drew with the South Korean women's soccer team. Although the championship is not the primary goal, the team is more concerned about whether they can achieve their training objectives under the guidance of their coach.
With the trend of rejuvenation in Chinese women's soccer, the team is gradually showing new vitality.
In the match against the South Korean women's soccer team, the Chinese women's soccer team equalized after falling behind by one goal, to which head coach Shui Qingxia said, "The South Korean team was tactically excellent, and we were a little short of adapting, but we didn't give up when we fell behind, and the young players got a workout."
Several young players were put to the test in the past matches, including starters such as Xiao Yuyi, Wang Frost and Tang Jiali, who only came on as substitutes in the second half, while post-00s players such as Wang Linlin, Zhang Linyan and Wan Jiayao continued to make their debuts, showing the team's intention of practicing.
Despite not being able to beat Korea again, it was not a pity. The result of the China-Japan showdown had little impact on the team as the young players needed to be honed through the international A-level tournaments and their performance satisfied the coaching staff.
In the next two years, the Chinese women's soccer team will face the double test of the World Cup and Olympic qualifiers. To achieve good results in the two tournaments, the team needs to complete the replacement of the old and the new as soon as possible and consolidate its position in Asia.
The 2023 Women's World Cup, which will be held in Australia and New Zealand, will be the first of its kind with 32 teams. The "expansion" of the Chinese women's soccer team means that the competition will be even more intense.
In the past, a group finish equaled advancement to the Top 8, but with this expansion, a group finish will only advance to the Round of 16, and a knockout round will be required to make it to the Top 8 bracket.
As can be seen through the ongoing European Cup and the Central and North American Women's Gold Cup, the world of women's soccer is developing rapidly. The top 4 teams in the Eurocup are strong, the pace of offense and defense tends to be manly, and even the toughness of the physical confrontation has given fans a new understanding of the women's game.
More than 140,000 tickets were sold for this year's Euros, with more than 50,000 tickets sold for the final, demonstrating the growing professionalism and commercial value of the women's game.
In the context of the world's booming women's football, China's women's football team can not rely only on closed-door training to achieve the goal of returning to the ranks of the world's top teams. 2023 Women's World Cup and 2024 Paris Olympic Games qualifiers will be the best platform to measure the gaps and find the positioning of the best platform.
There are only two tickets for the Asian women's soccer team for the 2024 Paris Olympics, with five equally strong teams - China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and the unbanned North Korea - competing fiercely.
China's women's soccer team failed to win the Tokyo Olympics, and won the Asian Cup this year, but came back from a deficit in both the semifinals and the final. In order to break into the top 8 in the World Cup and stand out in the Olympic qualifiers, Chinese women's soccer needs to realize substantial improvement in the technical and tactical level.
For this reason, the Chinese women's soccer team will use the U.S. training after the East Asian Championship to promote young players, polish the lineup, as well as improve the technical and tactical play.
It is worth mentioning that the 19th Asian Games, which was originally scheduled to be held in Hangzhou in September 2022, has been postponed to September 23, 2023 to open. China's women's soccer team in July next year before the World Cup will not have the opportunity for official competitions, so the reserves of the current East Asian Championships will become the World Cup campaign "home base".
