On July 13, China's women's national football team is preparing for the upcoming East Asian Cup to be staged in Japan at the end of this month, the team in Qingdao launched a closed training for more than a month. Recently, China's women's soccer head coach Shui Qingxia accepted an exclusive interview with reporters, and she revealed: "This East Asian Cup is not to win the championship as the primary goal, but to focus on the World Cup for next year's selection of talent and the formation of grinding."
Recently, Qingdao has been under rain for days, which has created a challenge for the team's preparation. Shui Qingxia said in the interview, "Although Qingdao had continuous rain, the team still insisted on training at Guoxin Stadium. As a professional player, we have to adapt to training and playing under all kinds of weather conditions, and we can't give up training just because it's raining outside."
Talking about the tactical arrangements and objectives of this East Asia Cup, Shui Qingxia emphasized: "To achieve excellent results in the competition, we must strengthen our defense, while creating opportunities through tacit cooperation among players on the offensive side. The key is that the team has accumulated confidence through the training period in Qingdao. This East Asian Cup is not about results, but about selecting players for the World Cup and practicing formations. There are a lot of young players in this selection list, and we hope that they can play at the level of their usual training. It is not necessary to set performance targets for every game. The older players should maintain good form, the younger players should increase their confidence, and we hope that the older, middle-aged and younger players can all play at their best level in their respective age groups."
