The Jiangsu women's soccer team, with its glorious history, won the second place in the Women's Super League last season and the Asian Cup this year, with six Jiangsu players in the team. However, with the departure of three international players to Wuhan, the team is facing sponsorship difficulties, and is unable to renew the contracts of their foreign players, so they can only rely on their young players.
The new coach Chen Wanting confessed that at the beginning of the takeover of the heart apprehensive: "The new official three fires, in the face of such a situation, really feel the pressure, especially the goalkeeper position, but since the choice of the road of coaching, we must face the challenge."
In the first game of the National Championship, Chen Wanting was so anxious on the sidelines that she almost went "crazy" because she "couldn't understand the way the players were playing". At that time, she had just been reunited with the team for three days.
"With a poor record in the early stages of the tournament, my tactics were quite different from the previous coach, but gradually found their way as the tournament progressed. With time running out, we had to make adjustments as we played and the team's improvement was evident."
In Chen Wanting's opinion, the key to the team's progress is the extensive use of video analysis. Having coached the U16 women's national junior soccer team, she knows that domestic players have no problem with technique, but their ability to read the game needs to be improved. "How to play the technique in the game? Video analysis allows them to find out their shortcomings more intuitively."
Chan Yuen-ting's coaching philosophy has always adhered to scientific means. After graduating from university, she went to work as a data analyst for the Hong Kong Flying Forces because of her passion for soccer, "Data analysis was still relatively new at that time, and I learned a lot of things that coaches in general wouldn't learn".In 2013, she went on to earn a Master of Science degree in Sports Medicine and Health Sciences from the Faculty of Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
"These have helped me a lot, now that soccer is all about science - recovery, injury prevention, training scheduling, intensity control, and even whether an individual is slacking or not - the data is clear at a glance."
After the National Championship, despite the fact that many people are not optimistic about the Jiangsu women's soccer team in the new season, after the first seven rounds of the Women's Super League, with six wins and one loss, ranked second, the network about Chen Wanting's praise is getting more and more.
According to Chen Wanting, the key to the team's victory is "emotion", reminiscent of Milo's words when he led China to the World Cup, "Emotion decides everything".
"I'm particularly proud of the mood, the players were in a great mood in training and in the game, and although the tactics and execution of the demands left something to be desired, they all did their best, and the whole team was energized, united, and the atmosphere was very congenial."
However, Chan Yuen Ting also kept her head up: "We are not a strong team, but the mood is good. In fact, many of the matches were very tough and a few were close 1:0 wins. We are limited, and the later games are very risky, and our opponents will play targeted defense against us."
As a matter of fact, Chen Wanting has already encountered challenges in the eighth to tenth rounds of the Women's Super League. After a draw in the eighth round and a small victory in the tenth round, the opponents were not very strong, but in the ninth round, they suffered a 0:6 defeat in Wuhan. Chen Wanting admitted that she was responsible for the defeat and wanted to adjust the formation, but there were problems in the game.
"Actually, after playing Shanghai, several main players were tired and needed to be rotated. So we rotated against Shaanxi, hoping to use the strongest lineup against Wuhan. But the game collapsed at the beginning, our team is young and lacks the ability to cope."
However, in Chen Wanting's opinion, making mistakes is not scary. "The period when I grew the fastest was the period when I failed the most. I think players nowadays need more space, they won't grow without making mistakes, what we have to do is to reduce the chances of making mistakes."
It is with this principle in mind that Chen Wanting will not even "confiscate" the cell phones of her teammates.
"I think the key is self-discipline, and if you don't, you'll work harder or even get eliminated. Of course we have little ways of doing that, like going on vacation for three weeks, getting on the scales before we leave, and fining anyone who comes back with a weight gain of more than three pounds, a hundred bucks a pound, and buying us drinks."
To the team members, 33-year-old Chen Wanting is more like a big sister; they would advise her to eat less instant noodles, cook her something to eat, correct her not-so-standard Mandarin or talk about girly topics.
And for Chen Wanting, this is another fresh start. "I certainly hope to coach the Chinese women's soccer team one day, but my biggest dream is to be able to go to the World Cup."
